The final episode of Heroman gave me a great sense of satisfaction. FINALLY we have a series where things were properly wrapped up, and more or less ended as they should. No ZOMG UNDEAD MAGIC JUICE kind of crap to ruin things (Hakuouki S1, I am looking at you.) There were no surprises, since as series go Heroman is about as generic shonen as anime gets, but overall, I found it rather enjoyable. Would I recommend Heroman to everyone and anyone though? Probably not. In fact, a part of me is rather surprised that I stuck the whole series out, despite the fact that Heroman really had a lot of good things going for it. Bones, as usual, did a great job with the animation. Some of the character designs and bold color choices really reminded me of Eureka Seven at times, which was a nice plus. Also, the American setting was obviously carefully researched and meticulously rendered, but the depiction never felt awkward – check out the 2nd Heroman ED on YouTube as proof – which I found rather impressive. (As a side note, seems like Washington, D.C. is becoming increasingly popular as an anime destination? )

But in a way, I wonder if Bones’ success at depicting an all-American cast and setting was part of this series’ downfall. As much as I appreciated all the aforementioned points, as an American viewer, the setting is almost *too* familiar that the “exoticism” is just not there. Which is interesting because I spent about half my childhood in Asia, and grew up with Doraemon, Rurouni Kenshin, and Detective Conan the way American kids grew up with Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I don’t consciously seek out anime for the “foreign” thrill. But at the same time, there’s no denying that a big part of what makes anime so appealing to me is how it opens a window into Japanese culture and society. Obviously, this isn’t the main issue with Heroman – the main problem is that at the end of the day, Heroman is just generic shonen fare – another boy who tries to save the world against hordes of invading (cockroach) aliens, and goes about it in the most unsurprising way possible with his cohort of faithful sidekicks. Still, I wonder if this series seemed MORE predictable because of its American setting, with all of its western (and Japanese) cliches in full view, than it would have if the story had been set in a non-American setting?

Anyways, final verdict – Heroman is a predictable but fun watch. I really wanted a light shonen show that would take my mind off things without requiring too much brain power, and Heroman delivered on all those counts. There were many things that Heroman did well – animation, character designs, etc. – but many good parts don’t always add up to an awesome sum. Studio Bones can be reliably expected to deliver a show of certain quality, but unfortunately, Heroman is not one of Bones’ best, despite (or perhaps because of) Stan Lee’s involvement.