A typical episode in this (not just this volume but the entire Betterman) series runs something like this. Some of the main characters talk in order to fill in the gaps from previous episodes. Why couldn't this stuff be shown on screen? Either it's too boring or the writers and animators were too lazy to show us.
This is followed by some of the main characters getting into trouble. When it looks like the end for them, one of three things will happen just in the nick of time: one of them will suddenly remember an amazing dowsing ability they somehow forgot they had, someone will show up in a mecha, a betterman will show up. Either way they're rescued. Why didn't they just call this series Deus ex Machina?
The series has too many characters, main or otherwise. Some come and go in a single episode, only to be mentioned during a later episode's expository. Unless you're keeping a scorecard, you're never going to remember who they're talking about.
There are more than one betterman. What's their motivation? Don't know. How do they always know to show up at just the right moment? No clue.
Worst episode: Dream. Note to writers: The dream sequence is the lamest dramatic cliche, used only by lazy hacks totally lacking in originality and creativity. It can't even begin to work unless I care about the characters, and this series has given me no reason to do so. This episode uses it multiple times, and by this point I'm totally numb to any trouble the characters may be in. Look, they're really in trouble this time! Oh thank God it was only a dream! I was really worried for a minute.
When voice actor Matthew Erickson's Keita tells Hinoki he'll always be by her side, I can't help but hear Erickson's Jinto from Crest/Banner of the Stars saying the same thing to Lafiel.
When I hear Sakura's moanful premonitions I think of Mr. Spock mindmelding with the Horta. "Pain! Agony!" Not anime, but what are you gonna do?
Finally I have to wonder, is Betterman really "better"? Sure he can turn into a grotesque monster by eating the seeds of a flower that grows out of the face of dead people. Yum yum. But does that really make him better?
