Growing up, I watched countless anime on Toonami, but none resonated with me like Zach Bell! he did. The series may not have had the polish of some other Toonami anime, something I especially noticed on a rewatch, but something about the story and characters always made it feel like it had a lot more life than its contemporaries, especially once I started reading the manga.
Zach Bell! remains my favorite Toonami anime, which makes the way things turned out so unfortunate. Despite becoming a Toonami mainstay in the mid-2000s, the series was plagued by one unfortunate circumstance after another completely out of its control, especially in America and at the end of it all, Zach Bell!The anime quickly lost whatever popularity it had, and the franchise fell into relative obscurity soon after.. As someone who loved the anime and loved the manga even more, this was difficult to watch and remains disappointing almost 20 years after the fact.
What does Zatch Bell do? Such a tragic anime franchise
The tragedy of Zatch Bell! Explained
There are few anime franchises that I find more tragic than Zach Bell!and for good reason. To begin with, despite being a success in Japan, Zach Bell! was unceremoniously canceled after three seasons, which not only left the final arc unadapted, but forced the penultimate arc Faudo to change its story midway to a much inferior version of the manga's. This is nothing new for anime, but with Zach Bell!specifically, the incredible quality of Zach Bell!The final two arcs make it especially bad that the anime ended without giving them a proper adaptation..
The anime's cancellation was even worse for American fans like me. Not only did the anime abruptly stop airing on Toonami during season 2 to air exclusively in Canada, but when Viz Media's parent company Shogakukan lost the rights to Zach Bell! After series creator Makoto Raiku took legal action over missing illustrations, the Season 3 dub was canceled after just four episodes. The manga also never ended in English because of the same process, so English fans of Zach Bell! There is no legal way to end the seriesmaking it even harder for people to experience such a landmark series.
Zatch Bell's manga! Shows Why Anime's Failure Is A Tragedy
Why Zatch Bell! Manga is so good
Zach Bell!The cancellation of still haunts me almost 20 years later, and a large part of that is due to how good the manga is. The cancellation of the anime meant that the Faudo arc had to be cut short, so it never adapted things like the biggest fights, the incredible character work for the supporting cast, and Kiyo's emotional death and rebirth that led to a huge power boost. for him and Zatch. Zach Bell!The cancellation of Faudo meant that the best moments of the Faudo arc were never properly adapted for animationand this becomes more regrettable every time I reread the manga.
The biggest victims of the massacre in the Faudo arc, of course, are its main villains, Zeno and Dufort. In the manga, Zeno and Dufort were great villains with a healthy balance of sadism and tragedy and were the subject of incredible character development, but since the anime was cancelled, there was no time for that, and they were reduced to a large number. – watch villains with much less convincing motivations. Zach Bell!The anime's cancellation meant that the anime was unable to properly adapt two of the manga's best villainsand its poor writing was a big part of the anime's lackluster ending.
Naturally, the anime never managed to adapt the manga's final arc, and that's probably the biggest shame of all. Not only was the fight with Clear Note packed with great action and artistry, but the final arc did a great job of wrapping up each character arc in a satisfying way, especially when it came to Zatch and Kiyo's arc. Zach Bell! is a rare example of a manga that ended its story perfectlyand the fact that the anime never managed to cover it is probably the biggest reason why its cancellation is so tragic.
Why the current success of Zatch Bell! Give me hope for your future
Zach Bell! It's an anime that deserves a return
Zach Bell! It's been out of print and out of print in America for decades, but the manga's current success makes me hopeful for its future. The recent relaunch of the manga by Kraken Comics, in addition to the recent sequel series, Zach Bell! 2has been a huge success all over the world, with Zach Bell! 2 selling over 900,000 copies worldwide at the time of writing. The most recent success of Zach Bell! manga could lead a new English publisher to license it for re-releaseand while this is purely hypothetical, it would still be great to see.
There is also a chance the anime will return. Birgdin Board Corp., Makoto Raiku's publisher, has made room to be licensed by a new studio, which means Zach Bell!The anime could be rebooted by a new anime studio and gain a foothold in modern anime culture through streaming and a hopefully more consistent adaptation. As someone who has had Zach Bell! as one of your favorites since childhood, it would be great to see, and each new milestone the manga reaches gives me more hope that it will become a reality.
Zach Bell! It's an anime that deserves to be on everyone's watch list.
I will never stop loving Zatch Bell!
There's a lot I can say about Zach Bell!But at the end of the day, the most important thing is why I love it so much. As simple as Zach Bell!The story is that the genuine sincerity of his writing does a lot to make it work, especially when combined with the cast's great characterization and comedy. Add the creativity of the fights and how good they look when the anime puts everything into action, and Zach Bell!his usual writing gave him a level of charm unlike any other Shonen anime.
There are many anime that do things better than Zach Bell!whether in writing or visually, but Zach Bell!the execution of classic anime tropes remains some of the best in the entire mediumand no matter how much time passes, you will always have a special place in my heart. If Zach Bell! Had it been given the chance to finish its story, I know it would have become the great series it deserved to be, and I hope there's still a chance for that to happen in the future.
Sources: CBR, @MangaMoguraRe at X, @BirgdinBoard enabled X.