Absolutely Lovely, Pint-Sized X-men
I wasn’t expecting to find a show that actually out X-mens the X-men.
Zettai Karen Children (inexplicably renamed Psychic Squad in the west for whatever reason) is a story about a trio of espers who serve an organization named BABEL, designed to take down any special esper crimes and keep the peace. It’s a typical setup, right down to naming said organization Babel. There’s a post on that somewhere, how espers in particular seemed to be linked to Biblical imagery. Spriggan for example was tied up with Noah’s Ark. But that’s a tangent.
What’s unusual about Zettai Karen Children is that apart from the nutty comedy moments it really upholds the spirit of the original X-men, way before it devolved into endless murk and drama. Not to say it’s a clone, but it treats the themes of the comic seriously and surprisingly well. Let me explain.
In the Japan of the future, espers are more or less mutants. They are popping up in society in increasing numbers, and have the potential to do some serious damage. There’s about seven levels to them, with any level above four being a serious threat to the people around them. They aren’t secret, and society is working on dealing with them. By using limiters and with BABEL keeping the peace, society is more or less functional. You do have people opposed, like The Normal People, a standard human anti-esper terrorist organization, and the series hints at a “brotherhood of evil espers” analogue led by the silver-haired Hyoba opposing BABEL. Though he seems to have more Hellfire-club intentions to one of the titular trio.
What it gets right (once you look past the jokes) is the science fiction aspect of mutants.
Unlike Marvel, the Japan of the future has managed to make a more or less successful way of coexistence. Weak espers can lead normal lives, so long as they keep their limiters on in public. The rarer, more powerful espers work with BABEL to keep the peace. BABEL is kind of like a more militarized version of the Westchester Academy, and even has a Cerebro-like early warning system made up of rotating shifts of precogs working in parallel. The three espers (named The Children) are Japan’s only level 7 ranked espers, and they get called in when the situation is bad. They have a professor-X/cyclops style mentor in Minamoto, and a Magneto in Hyobu. And while there’s a lot of corny humor and dirty-old-man stuff, the actual esper concept seriously evokes mutants, and hard.
I’m only twenty episodes in, and we already have hints of Kaoru as Dark Phoenix. We have an episode about human/esper prejudice, and the friendship (and maybe romance) between a human and an esper. This is done without the needless grimdark and cast changes of the modern X-men, and the series is not afraid to get serious when it wants to. Like the X-men, the villains aren’t faceless numbers, but real people on differing sides of the question whether or not espers and humans can co-exist.
At times, it even surpasses the X-men. One thing you notice about Professor X and Magneto is that too often the writers treat them as ideas instead of people. But Minamoto truly loves the children (and in one adorable scene, mother hens a young enemy esper,) and Hyobu manages to evoke Magneto’s gamesmanship yet adds honor and even a sense of caring. The original emotional impact of the X-men has faded over time and endless deaths, resurrections, retcons, and stories, but somehow Zettai Karen Children manages to bring back the wonder of the idea of humans and superhumans living together.
The only downside is that there’s a loli aspect to the series. It’s not intense, but it’s there. The jokes tend to center around Kaoru’s “dirty old man” act, and the humor doesn’t always strike the right notes. When it works, it’s drop dead funny, but it doesn’t always work. But when it gets things right, you have a serious, sweet, funny little series that evokes the classic feel of Marvel’s X-men in a way I’ve not seen any other anime or show do.
