Review: Zettai Shonen (TV)

Running time: 25 minutes
Number of episodes: 26
Vintage: 2005-05-21 to 2005-11-19
Age rating: ???
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction, Slice of Life
Animation Production: Asia-Do
Production: Bandai Visual, GENCO, Zettai Shonen Project

Source: Anime News Network

Slice of life can be a very interesting genre when it’s presented well and wrapped around a scenario that augments the best traits of the genre. Some may agree that it’s easily described as storytelling fragments inspired by every day life that form the lives of the characters in any given story. These typical encounters allow for some reasonable balance between fiction and what could be a plausible event in the day of any typical person under certain circumstances. This ties in with Zettai Shonen which heavily bases much of its emphasis and focus on delivering an engrossing slice of life style that steps beyond the bounds in many directions. As a result it ends up portraying a striking blend of supernatural mystery and unexplainable things with the routine events of the lives of regular people.

The story in Zettai Shonen starts off with Aizawa Ayumu, a son of a divorced couple that is offered a mountain bike so that he can stay with his father who lives in a rural town called Tana. Ayumu takes the offer and expects to make use of the bike until he’s satisfied. There must be some differences that have pushed his parents apart but Ayumu doesn’t seem to be phased by it. Ayumu also isn’t entirely new to the town since he used to live there many years ago. As could almost be guessed, Ayumu somehow doesn’t remember key details of his stay in the town that soon become the gateway to a very rich mystery. This is where most of the mystery of the town and the elements within it start to revolve around the story in Zettai Shonen.

The town is not quite all that eventful except for the peculiar yet reasonable actions of its inhabitants. The kids in the town have their own agendas and reasons to skirmish around and because of the small size of the town they usually end up bumping into each other regardless of their intent. Some characters are just strange while others seem to know a lot more than they should about the weird things in the town. Included in the mix are characters from outside of the town adding a bit of complexity to the overall mindset of the individuals involved in the story.

The story carries on until there is a small build up that concludes the arc in the rural town where Ayumu stays for the summer. The second half of the story transfers the setting to the city and new characters and a new viewpoint is presented. It’s not quite entirely different from the experience of the first arc, but it does have its own mood and personalities because of the immediate change of characters and a new mystery.

The mystery that unfolds as the story goes by isn’t exactly Earth-shatteringly complex, but it is deep enough that the deeper you go in the layers of its obscurity you will begin to understand things in sync with the other characters as the story unveils. Zettai Shonen’s mystery is much less about the mystery and it’s eventual solution -or lack thereof- but the passive discovery process it entails. The unknown powers at be do not seem dangerous to any of the characters, so there really isn’t any kind of fear or urgency to retaliate at the mere existence of the creatures.

Putting it simply, the show is a mostly a flat line experience with minor buildups towards some of the darker parts of the story revealing some much needed details. I’d compare it to a very slow bass-line only song that throws in the strings only when it needs to and keeps the frequencies low as possible. This makes it a passive experience with a mood that will either interest you or push you away. The strength of the show lies in keeping that balance and plowing through the slice of life and how the things happening in the places where these characters live adversely affect the regular lives of everyone involved.