Eat-Man '98

Amazon.com

With his mane of white hair and outsized green coat, Bolt Crank, the hero of this action series, looks a bit like a Kabuki lion dancer. The product of a biotech experiment, he eats metal objects of all sizes, which he can reproduce in his right hand when he needs them.

Although the dubbed episodes describe him as an explorer, Bolt is the world's greatest mercenary. He roams a world much like Earth in the not-too-distant future, going from assignment to dubious assignment. In "Bye Bye Aimie," Bolt clashes with a voluptuous police detective investigating the murders of several prominent scientists. He fights demons and sees the rightful heir restored to the throne of a threatened empire in the four-part "Ambrosian Days." In "The Farcical Dream," Bolt finds himself caught in a violent struggle between a rival mercenary and female assassin, a battle orchestrated by an evil, self-serving politician.

There's plenty of action in Eat-Man, but no character development. Bolt offers the same response to challenges, threats, pleas, screams, and tears: he chomps another screw and/or walks moodily away. The writers make him so taciturn, he's uninteresting; the women are either obnoxious or whiny, so it's hard to get excited about what happens to any of these characters.

Rated 13 and up for violence, brief nudity, drinking. --Charles Solomon

Description

Bolt Crank is a mercenary, but he's no ordinary man. He's gifted with the ability to eat metal objects. Later, he can produce these items from his right hand, as the need arises. Bolt is the strong silent type--he doesn't say much and prefers to let his actions speak for themselves. And in the course of this series, Bolt will serve as protector to many people. He will hunt down a murderer who is brutally killing scientists, protect an entire country, and destroy a demon. And that's just the first disc!

Customer Reviews:

Vague.......2005-05-04

Eat-Man 98 is a vaguely interesting series. The show is made of short story arcs, ranging from mildly entertaining to downright ridiculous or boring. The animation is average and the music selection is nothing special. The only thing that kept me interested was Bolt Crank's character who remains a mystery till the end. His motivations were unclear which I found more intriguing than irritating. Bolt Crank could be a much more interesting character if the anime had better storylines and direction. Not recommended but worth a peek if you enjoy the strong silent characters.

Some of the worst anime I've ever seen.......2002-11-26

As a long-time anime fan, I get tired of seeing poor shows being highly rated in Amazon customer reviews. I sometimes wonder if anime fans are reluctant to admit that real stinkers exist in this genre too. I'm not trying to be overly harsh here, but I recommend that people avoid this show. While the price may be attractive, you might wind up wishing that someone could reimburse you for the time spent watching it.

Eat-Man 98 is so implausible (yes, even for anime) that it's unintentionally funny, it has extremely flat characters, and very little plot. Its attempts to be sentimental failed miserably and left a bad taste in my mouth. The animation quality seemed average, but certainly nothing to brag about. While the show tries very hard to use typical anime stereotypes (troubled hero, evil scientists, etc...) in a new and interesting way, it fails to be accessible at all or strike a chord with the viewer.

EAT-MAN '98.......2002-05-11

I've seen both EAT-MAN '97 and '98. '97 being my personal favorite. Anyway...The Eat-Man series is a very nice anime about a Mercenary (kills for money, Bolt Crank) who eats everything from a 9mm Pistol to an Out-of-this-world-huge-BEAM-gun... and after digesting it he makes it appear out of his right hand (this is the way he goes potty). Anyway, I like the series, its all kinda nice if you would like to see what the world would be like in a future or whatever.

No Cowboy Bebop or NG Eva, but not bad........2002-05-02

To be honest, I didn't expect much when I bought this DVD set. I'd heard all the bad reviews, all the bad ratings. Why did I buy it, then? I have no idea.

But I was pleasantly surprised. This show is hardly as bad as people portray it to be. The animation is fluid, and I didn't notice hardly any re-used cels. The colors are vividly beautiful. The character designs are nice.

The music is nothing to jump up and down over. It's not bad, not too good. While watching the show, I listened to only a few seconds before skipping over the opening and ending themes, but I tend to do that with all my anime shows, unless the themes really catch my attention.

The characters were actually a lot more interesting than critics declared. Bolt Crank IS an extremely taciturn character, but the times when he cracks out a sullenly cold one-liner were well-done. And I don't know if I've been watching too much anime, but I couldn't stop cracking up at the parts where an armed person threatens Bolt, and Bolt calmly eats the weapon right out of the person's hands, in front of shocked bystanders who are like, "What the--?" The side characters were also interesting, especially the characters from the four-parter.

Plots were somewhat predictable, but if you're coming into this series looking for something astoundingly original--that is, besides the "eating metal and producing it out of your hand" stuff--then you're looking in the wrong place. Eatman 98 is not philosophical and thought-provoking high entertainment, but it IS entertaining. And for the price it's going at, this is a steal.

Bolt is Boring.......2001-08-24

I bought Eat-Man '98 for ($) and I thought it was a good buy for that amount of money. You get 5 hours of episodes and there are some good ones mixed in there. My big compliant is that Bolt Crank is supposed to be the strong silent type, but to me that just means he is really boring. The action scenes were good, but you always want Bolt to show some emotion and he never does. It is a alright set, but not the best by any means.

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