Zatch Bell! - Reviews

I seriously LOVE this show. I don't know if it is because it reminds me of my childhood, but I do. It's cheesy and full of heart and a ton of the characters are so funny and loveable. 

HOWWWEVERRRRR!!! AFTER AROUND EPISODE 100 IT GOT WEIRD. I got used to the Dubbed version and then I had to switch to subbed bc the later episodes don't come dubbed, not sure which episode exactly. Also, I just feel like the episodes past episode 80 or so were not as good as the ones before. To top it off, I couldn't really find any past that point in great quality either.

To be honest, I technically have not watched this full show just because I could not find any episodes in decent quality past episode 100 or so. So basically, I went my whole childhood not knowing how it actually ends bc Cartoon Network didn't play all of them, and when I re-watched it on my own a couple of years ago I got annoyed with the quality and trying to find them so I told my self I would just take a break from it and try again later.

Long story short, I never did end up going back to it, and the last 50ish episodes are to this day unwatched.\

That being said, even without watching all of it I would still recommend it. THIS SHOW HAS STUCK WITH ME FOR 10 YEARS!!!!  I find myself thinking about it randomly and just feeling so nostalgic. It's a cool concept, give it a shot! Is it the greatest thing on the planet? No. Does the animation have its hiccups towards the end? Yes. But it is still so good! If you are a kid at heart then I think you should give it a chance! 

UPDATE:

I realized a couple of days ago that I probably would never watch those last 50 episodes, so I bit the bullet and just googled how it ended bc I have gone literally 10 years without knowing who the hell ends up being king and how all final shit went down lol. Also, I STILL RECCOMEND THIS AND I AM NOW 24!!

Can't go wrong with this one, lads: comedy, righteous beat-downs, yellowtail. This series has it all. Also, best anime movie of all time, Attack of the MechaVulcan. 100/10

Ignore that one 9/10 rating I gave one of the options - so it's an early 2000s anime. Does that mean it's not worthy of a perfect score? NO. Does it mean I should give it a free pass and literally give it a flawless score for nostalgia reasons alone? ALSO NO.

Go watch it. Tell your 12 grandchildren to watch it. Watch the 4Kids dub first, shriek in horror for +100 episodes until you get to the juicy good real show for a measly 40 episodes before being finally forced to switch entirely to the manga, wherein you have to flip back into the prior arc in order to make any sense of anything that is going on before utter perfect-ending awaits you in the form of a real, satisfying ending to this epic show.

I actually haven't finished Zatch Bell and I haven't watched it in a long time, but I used to watch Zatch Bell on TV sometimes and I always thought Zatch was really funny and an interesting character.... Yeah.

THIS IS A TEMPORARY VERSION! NEEDS MORE WORKOUT!

Introduction

Konjiki no Gash Bell!! is the anime version of the succesfull manga Konjiki no Gash!! Where the story is told about the 100 demon 'childeren' who have a chance to become the new king of the demon world by fighting each other. They have been sent to the earth to find the right human partner to battle with. The main task is to burn the book of the opponent demon, so they return to the demon world and are out for the competition. The books are for the spells that the demon can make. Only 1 human, the one who fits the most with his partner, can read the spells. More spells are becoming active when the demon and/or the human grow in in spirit or power.

We watch the story mainly from Kyomaro and his demon Gash. Kyomaro usually was a smart person but never cared about his surroundings. After Gash came in the story, he was starting to change in a more social person. Because the mind of Gash has been brainwashed, he doesn't know anything about the competition of the 100 demons, nor why he is carrying a book. In the first episodes they figured it out rapidly. Later in the story they are forming alliances with other demons and 'book keepers' (humans by the demons) with the same purpose as the kind of king they want to be to defeat the ones who have bad plans for the demon world.

Story

The idea isn't bad. The fight element of every good shonen-manga or -anime is present. The idea of books is rather new for this kind of series and the role they take. The story itself is sometimes a bit shaky, but overall a good story with very funny moments. Another positive thing is that there is another storyline. At a moment you get the story of Cherry, another book keeper. In the beginning is it unclear what her role is in the series, but later comes the real story up.

The story in the anime has a lot of fillers. Some are very amusing and nice to watch, but some are just annoying and you wished you never watched them. The annoying ones are almost the ones with a side story that don't fit at all in the whole of the series. They have a lot of 'escape route' factor that ruins the whole story. Another annnoying thing is the end of the anime. The story isn't finished and has a turn around with the original story. I know they couldn't do it another way, because the writer of the manga had broken his arm, but this end is just bad. 

The last thing on the negative side is the typical Pokémon blueprint: Fight each other with the same moves while they learning new ones. 

Animation

The animation of Gash Bell is well done. Very sharp details on the front. The moves of the demons and even the humans were very clear. The backgrounds however were a little bit too simple at some times. If you started noticing the background, you can notice the same backgrounds coming back at some points. But on the other side, most of the time it seemed very good. Realistic is else, but that is more the part of the writers follies. For example: When they are in London, the houses and streets are more looking like Amsterdam. 

Sound

The sounds used in the series are very good. They made the moments complete with what was in the picture at the moments. The music is a little bit wannabe real instrument, thus that it has to be a orchestra, but the synthesizer sound is leaking through it. But overall: The sounds are very nice. The tracks itself are a story apart. The intro/outro themes are very catchy for what it is all about (exept the last 2 ending themes, they were even too childish for shonen, luckily i've got some hairs left:P). The soundtracks are ok for the background, but the most aren't usefull at all to listen to as real music/ But there are still some great juwels between them.

Characters

 The characters are very comic-style. Not a lot of deepness, but a bit simple. Sure it can be funny, but very complicated souls? No... 

Overall

Nice to watch, bit funny too and surely on a to watch list! I recommend to read the manga after the series, because the main story is completely different from tehe anime ending. This because the writer broke his hand when the anime was running close. so a well earned 7.3 for this one!

the stroy is good but this show had to have the worst ending I've ever seen in an anime mainly because the compnay that made  the anime didnt want to go on a hiatus to wait for the writer of the mangas hand to heal after he broke it so they took matters in to there own hands and it did not end well