Short manga story by Masakazu Katsura, creator of Video Girl Ai, Wingman and I''s. Collected together with other stories in the Zetman paperback, published by Jump Comics. The manga was first published in 1994, but it seems that starting next week, the short story will be continued or expanded upon in the weekly Young Jump magazine, marking Studio K2R's return to the manga szene after almost 3 years absence.
The story revolves around a boy named Kurono Jin, who is embittered by his mother's death, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver when he was twelve. This lead to his design of a evolutionary computer game about a spirit of justice, the Zetman, which evolves progressively during it's fights. But one day, the fiction becomes a reality when a bug endows Jin with the powers of this creation. And so he sets out on a quest of justice, aided by a part of his program, Ais-chan, who allows him to change into Zetman, and also to level up. And, being a Katsura manga, there also has to be at least one beautiful girl: Shirai Sachiko, the only person Kurono has opened his heart to. She is a sweet girl, but she questions his version of justice...
The drawings are very beautiful, and the scenario captures the reader from the start. Of course, any child can see the parallels to the Batman of DC Comics, which can be easily explained by thefact of Katsura claiming to be the japanese Batman fan #1. This, of course is in contention, as Kia Asamiya also claims that title, and already has the manga version of Batman under his belt. But Katsura's work is also full of references, hommages and parodies to Gotham City's biggest crimefighter. And Zetman is the best of them all.
I am so looking forward to this new story. Finally, something new from Katsura, and then it's Zetman. Perfect!