Zetman (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. First published as a 49-page one-shot in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump's 1994 Autumn Special, the full-fledged series was published in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from October 2002 to July 2014, with its chapters collected in 20 volumes. A 13-episode anime television series adaptation by TMS Entertainment was broadcast in Japan from April to June 2012. In North America, the anime series was licensed for English language release by Viz Media.

Plot

The story starts off with a face-off between two rival superheroes, ZET and Alphas, and then traces their origins – Jin Kanzaki, a young man with the ability to transform into a superhuman being known as ZET, and Kouga Amagi, a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses technology to fight as Alphas. The fates of these two men and those around them intertwine as they fight to protect mankind and destroy monstrous abominations known as Players, who ironically are the creations of the Amagi Corporation, the company founded by Kouga's grandfather, Mitsugai Amagi.

Characters

Amagi Corporation

EVOL

Other characters

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura, Zetman was first published as a 49-page one-shot story in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump's 1994 Autumn Special. The chapter was collected, alongside three other one-shots by Katsura, in a single volume titled Zetman, released on July 4, 1995. It later started publication as a full-fledged series in the manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on October 31, 2002, and finished on July 24, 2014 (announced as the ending of "Act 1"). Shueisha collected its chapters in 20 volumes, released from November 19, 2003, to October 17, 2014.

Anime

Zetman was adapted into an anime television series directed by Osamu Nabeshima, with screenplay by Atsuhiro Tomioka, and character design by Hirotoshi Takaya. Gabriele Roberto supervised the music. It was broadcast for 13 episodes on Yomiuri TV, Tokyo MX and BS11 from April 3 to June 26, 2012. The anime was available on streaming on Hulu and Viz Media's streaming service. The series started streaming on RetroCrush on November 12, 2021.

Episodes

Reception

By October 2011, the manga had sold 3.5 million copies. Sébastien Kimbergt of Animeland noted that the author's previous tales were about "teens' trifles", in contrast to Zetman's "brutal adventures with a profound darkness", and that they preferred Zetman to the author's other works. Animeland noted that Zetman was serialised over a period of many years, which Animeland says gave "the advantage of time to refine the script". Mickaël Géreaume from Planet BD felt that the first volume was inspired by the author's great love of Batman, finding it surprising considering the author's other works were romantic comedies.