Feb 9, 2025
The original Zatch Bell was a big hit in the 2000s, and it's not hard to see why. Characters gaining new powers through personal growth rather than being trained or coming up with it on the fly is a lot more exciting, and acts as a tangible mark that they're different than they used to be. And aside from Ponygon, every character's growth was very visible. You didn't need the new spell to realize they're better, but they helped. Another valuable point was Kiyo's intelligence. He viewed fights as a puzzle, which provided a refreshing alternative to the other things you saw on Toonami at
...
the time.
Now, why am I telling you this? After all, you certainly already know this. Simple: it's because Zatch Bell 2 isn't really all that good, compared to the original.
It does start off interestingly enough, admittedly. The demon world is in ruins, and many of the demons are dead, including Zatch. A trio of youngsters are tasked with finding Kiyo to help stop them. While this part is disliked, I personally enjoyed it quite a lot. The original series moved at a lightning bolt pace for quite some time, and it took a while for it to slow down and give breathing room where it was needed. However, the series does "properly" kick off with Zatch's revival (you saw the cover, you know this is happening), and from there...things fell downhill.
The biggest problem is that while we're *told* the new foes are major threats, they don't *feel* like it. In being shown exclusively the aftermath, we're shown they can be strong, sure. But in the fights themselves, none of them exude any form of danger. They aren't like Brago or Zeno taking down a powerful opponent with one use of their weakest spell (the former happening in chapter nine, for reference). They aren't even like Robnos, who was more powerful but was beaten through clever thinking. They exist to be beaten, with other reasons coming later. This gets worse as things go on, as aside from one very clever use of Poruk, the fights are mostly battles of strength (of heart and otherwise), not wit. A consequence of this is that the threat of losing and changing their goal to be finding way to escape is absent - after all, they would need to not outmatch their opponent in every way for that to be a possibility.
Another issue is that most of the manga is just playing catch-up with old cast members. First is Kanchome and Italian Superstar, Parco Folgore. Then Tia and Megumi. Then Brago and Sherry. Then Doctor Riddles and...well, Kido doesn't make an appearance. And while the plot does seem to move forward after Doctor Riddles' catch-up moment, the fact that it happened 25 chapters into a monthly series is enough for me to call it quits. The original was exciting from the first volume, and kicked off proper while its chapter count was still single digits. It had plenty of time to be more than "a mediocre sequel to the original," and I don't trust that it'll ever be more than that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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