Anime has a certain superpower in its ability to tackle any genre and story imaginable, no matter how niche or controversial, and so it should come as no surprise that exaggerated superhero series are par for the course. Given how popular traditional action anime are, caped crusaders have had no trouble carving out their own slice of the medium.
Anime has demonstrated some strong judgment regarding knowing when to take advantage of superhero excitement or respond to the genre’s fatigue. And, apart from the big names like My Hero Academia and One-Punch Man, there have also been some fascinating superhero anime that have fallen into obscurity and don’t have the same mainstream recognition, but still deserve attention.
Heroman Is Stan Lee’s Inventive Take On Next Gen Anime Superheroes
There are a handful of anime that adapt some of Stan Lee’s most beloved Marvel Comics characters, but Heroman is a unique endeavor in the sense that it’s an original superhero/mecha hybrid anime actually created by Stan Lee himself. Heroman looks at Joey, an underdog outcast who is down on his luck, but suddenly experiences a miraculous turn of fate.
Joey can’t afford the popular new Heybo robot toy that’s sweeping the nation, but he picks up a broken down and abandoned model. When Joey’s Heybo is struck by lightning, it transforms into a giant robot who helps Joey wage war against the evil alien Skrugg and comes out of his shell in the process. It’s a story that plays to not only Stan Lee’s strengths, but also Bones’.
Heroman is a beautifully animated series that perfectly taps into that Saturday Morning Cartoon energy that has become increasingly nostalgic. Joey’s dynamic with Heroman is endlessly charming, and there’s a rewarding degree of variety in the enemies that they face. Heroman is 26 episodes, and its adventures never feel repetitive, despite adhering to a certain formula.
Birdy The Mighty: Decode Puts An Ordinary Boy In A Superpowered Space Cop’s Body
Birdy the Mighty is a glorious mix of action, science fiction, and comedy that involves an inventive spin on superheroes and buddy cop crime stories. Birdy Cephron Altera is an intergalactic police officer who handles any alien interlopers who wind up on Earth. During one of Birdy’s missions, she accidentally kills a high school student, Tsutomu, but manages to save his life by integrating him into her state-of-the-art body.
Tsutomu and Birdy now share a consciousness until the recreation of Tsutomu’s physical body is complete. Together, Birdy and Tsutomu take down alien criminals and learn about each other — and themselves — through this unconventional union.
The four-episode Birdy the Mighty OVA from the ’90s established a solid foundation for this superpowered series, but Birdy the Mighty: Decode from the 2000s is the stronger adaptation that benefits from having two seasons to tell a sophisticated coming-of-age story, and showcase incredible action.
The second season, in particular, really hits new emotional heights as it pushes its characters further and takes big swings with its storytelling. It’s also worth pointing out that Birdy the Mighty: Decode‘s destructive action sequences were a direct inspiration for some of Jay Oliva’s storyboards for Man of Steel‘s fight sequences.
Super Crooks Tells A Hyperbolized Heist Story Where Supervillains Get A Shot At Redemption
It’s easy to forget that Super Crooks exists because it’s part of Netflix’s woefully-misguided attempt at an interconnected comic universe — Millarworld — that was over before it really even started. The universe’s flagship program, Jupiter’s Legacy, completely failed to meet expectations.
However, its anime spin-off, Super Crooks, is one of the best superhero and crime caper anime to come along in the past decade. Super Crooks doesn’t require any pre-existing knowledge from Jupiter’s Legacy and fully stands on its own.
The 13-episode series follows Johnny Bolt, a disgraced would-be hero who assembles the ultimate team of superpowered criminals who have been dismissed and disrespected by society. The fact that all this is being carried out by D-List villains who want to get out of the game brings other strong superpowered anti-hero stories like Suicide Squad and The Thunderbolts to mind.
Super Crooks is also rather impressive for how it’s geared to a more adult audience, but without any of its sex and violence ever coming across as gratuitous. There are wonderfully weird powers and setpieces that are featured throughout the season, and the rich moral questions that Super Crooks asks about the nature of heroes and villains make the anime just as satisfying as a character study.
Zetman Is A Dark Look At Dueling Superhero Agendas
Zetman was created by Masakazu Katsura, who is no stranger to the superhero genre, having created Wing-Man and worked as a character designer on Tiger & Bunny. Katsura’s Zetman is a wonderful send-up of the tokusatsu and sentai action series, albeit with a more seinen-coded maturity.
Zetman also feels influenced by many of Go Nagai’s works, in particular Devilman. Zetman looks at two rival superheroes — ZET and Alphas — who work together to save the world from terrifying bio-experiment monstrosities known as Players. The anime is only 13 episodes, and it’s a relatively overlooked title from the 2010s, superhero or otherwise.
There’s a rich relationship that’s conveyed between ZET and Alphas human alter egos, Jin and Kouga. Their contrasting approaches to both power and justice create fascinating friction once Zetman enters its climax. TMS Entertainment also does some really impressive work when it comes to this dark, dour take on the superhero genre.
Zetman features corrupt characters who are at the end of their ropes, and the anime’s visual language and color palette reflects this hopelessness. The monstrous Players don’t just look like generic creatures, and they’re disturbing obstacles that reflect visceral body horror.
To this point, the Players attack with utter rage and carnage, which leads to exaggerated action sequences that hit harder than standard superhero showdowns. Zetman is a breath of fresh air that should appeal to older superhero fans, and it’s short enough to binge in a weekend.
Concrete Revolutio Is A Bold Blend Of Styles That Puts Superpowers Up Against Bureaucracy
Concrete Revolutio is the best anime that nobody knows about, and it’s a real shame that it only has 24 episodes instead of a handful of seasons. Studio Bones’ Concrete Revolutio is set in an alternate version of 1960s Japan, where the government’s Superhuman Bureau regulates and protects superhumans, while it simultaneously works to contain alien and kaiju threats and keeps them a secret from the public.
Concrete Revolutio examines the pitfalls of over-regulation, and how attempts to defend justice can turn heroes into public enemies. Concrete Revolutio has a lot to say about the nature of superheroes, examining their relationship with the public through a non-linear timeline that highlights the emotional extremes of these characters.
It’s a structure that’s quite powerful, especially when Concrete Revolutio‘s most optimistic heroes are reduced to bitter vigilantes in the future. There’s a lot going on in Concrete Revolutio, as it also pays service to retro magical girl tropes. All these disparate elements somehow come together to make a challenging, post-modern superhero anime.