kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. And welcome to 2018! Yay!

So, to start the year off, we'll be looking at one of my guilty pleasures that...well, it's not really that much of a guilty pleasure. I really do enjoy this anime and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It is...Zatch Bell.

Ok, if you want to call it by its Japanese name, it's translated (roughly) to Golden Gash Bell. Its Japanese name is 金色のガッシュ (Konjiki no Gash Bell). Why is it Gash and have the dubbing company change it to Zatch? Well...your guess is as good as mine. I guess given the English meaning of the word Gash (look it up), they figured they'd make up the names as they went.

The anime was based off of a manga written by Makoto Raiku, the manga writer and artist who would later write the manga, Animal Land, in 2009. I haven't read all of the Zatch Bell manga, but it's one of the series I've almost finished. It's actually pretty good.

Anyway, Zatch Bell started out as one of Makoto Raiku's ideas. Originally, it was going to be about a middle school student who found a toy and fought evil with a noble knight. However, upon talking to his agent about this idea, Makoto decided to go with a cuter character. Thus, Zatch Bell was born.

Let's talk story.

Every 1000 years, one hundred Mamodo children (ok, that term is debatable when you look at some of the Mamodo) are sent to the human world to compete for a spot to become King of the Mamodo world. Each Mamodo has their own spell book, but they need a human partner to read the spells that are used to fight.

If a Mamodo's book is burned, the Mamodo goes back to the Mamodo world and loses any and all chance at becoming King (I hate that they use the term "King" when a pretty good amount of the characters we meet on screen are female. A little sexist, don't you think?). Additionally, a Mamodo cannot burn their own book. The last Mamodo standing without their book burnt becomes the Mamodo King.

Our story follows Kiyo (not a far translation from the Japanese version, where he's called Kiyomaro) Takamine, a 14-year old boy in junior high school who is a genius and pretty anti-social. His father finds Zatch, unconscious in the woods and with no memory of who he is. Kiyo's father sends Zatch to Kiyo in the hopes that Zatch will help Kiyo learn some social skills.

Kiyo learns about the Mamodo world when he reads from the spell book, which causes Zatch to fire lightning from his mouth. Throughout the first part of the series, the two learn about the different types of Mamodo and about Mamodo battles.

I don't want to give too much away, so I'll jump right to the good stuff. The rating.

Rating: 10/10

Why: Well, we'd first have to address character development. The characters are developed wonderfully, and you can really connect with most of them (except for the villains). The main characters, Zatch and Kiyo, go through a lot of changes as they fight battle after battle, and eventually form an incredible bond.

The real turning point for Zatch and Kiyo's characters, in my opinion, occurs in the eighth episode of the series. In this episode, there is a cute little Mamodo named Kolulu. She meets her human partner, Lori, and the two become like sisters. However, not everything is as it seems when Kolulu's book starts glowing and Lori reads the first spell from it, unknowingly unleashing Kolulu's merciless and bloodthirsty alter ego. She grows in size and gains metallic claws.

Upon a battle against Zatch and Kiyo, where Kolulu had transformed to avoid being run over by a truck (long story), Kolulu used her willpower to get herself to change back into her cute, innocent self.

Upon waking up and seeing what she did, Kolulu revealed she never wanted to fight the battle, but she was forced to and given another personality that forced her to fight. She asked Zatch to burn her book and send her back to the Mamodo world, so that what happened to her would never happen again. As her book burns and she fades away, she says, "if the King of our world was a benevolent King, maybe we wouldn't have to come here and fight in the first place." Zatch learns that benevolent means kind, and vows to become a kindhearted King, a goal he has throughout the rest of the series.

That episode made me cry. It still does sometimes.

The characters are great, and you can really connect with them (like I said above). You can relate to them, both the humans and the Mamodos. I honestly think that this series has the best character development.

My personal favorite Mamodo and human partner...it's hard to say without giving too much of the story away and because there are a few I really like. I guess if I had to pick a top five (not including Kolulu and Lori because they were only in one episode), they would be (in no particular order):

1. Megumi (human)/Tia (Mamodo)
2. Li-en (human)/Wonrei (Mamodo)
3. Dr. Riddles (human)/Kido (Mamodo)
4. Sherry (human)/Brago (Mamodo)
5. Tie between Uri (human)/Penny (Mamodo) and Alvin (human)/Byonko (Alvin)

The music is pretty good (although I'll never understand the ideas of some of the insert songs). I think the Japanese openings and endings are better than the English opening and ending, but both the Japanese openings/endings and the English opening/ending are pretty good.

Well, that's my review! Have a happy and healthy new year! ~k