For those who don’t have a high enough powerlevel to recognize the title, Heroman is a collaboration between animation studio BONES and comic fame Stan Lee. A 90 second streaming promotional video has been uploaded to the anime’s official website. I think most of my readers for this blog know that I’m a BONES fag. I think I’ve blogged most, if not all, of their anime since I joined Kita ze Inbou a year ago (starting with Xam’d: Lost Memories). So with that in mind, of course I’m going to check Heroman out. After seeing the promo, the series has definitely caught my eye with the exceptional animation quality. Yeah, I probably say that about most of BONES’ anime but I don’t think anybody can doubt me in that regard. This looks fucking great. The character designs are very stylish which I find as another trademark of the studio and I can’t help but be attracted by all the eyecandy.

With that said, I do have my worries. Let’s start with what you’re probably wondering: What’s with the promo music? Yeah, I have no idea. I was expecting awesome jrock, but I got a song that sounds like something out of a cheap Saturday morning cartoon. So what does this mean? Is this anime being targeted for the kiddies? I can’t say for sure at this point, but there are a few signs pointing to it such as the blatant patriotism and simplistic premise: “Set in America. A young boy named Joey living in the West Coast comes across a toy robot. The toy robot turns into the giant robot of justice – Hero Man! Joey controls Hero Man and fights against other giant forces of evil!” I can handle moeshit sometimes but I feel like my brain will rot (or rot faster anyway) if I’m watching something on Nickelodean or Cartoon Network nowadays. So if it ends up being oriented for a much more younger audience, I probably won’t stick around for much. Though with that in mind, Heroman could be something that will appeal to all ages and maybe that’s what Stan has in mind as well which is why he went to a big shot animation studio like BONES. Or maybe he just wanted to have a really pretty Saturday morning cartoon.

Another worry I have is that this is a BONES anime. Yeah, I know I was just fapping over them a minute ago. The thing is that their recent track record has been faltering. They start off cool and interesting but leave me screaming BONESSSS by the end of it (Xam’d, Ryuusei no Gemini). So when it comes to original stories, I do tend to get a little worried. But Stan is the man with the plan here and I don’t think he’s come up with something half-baked. While Heroman does have me preoccupied with the reasons I explained in my tl;dr post, it also does have the potential to be something big. With that said I’m looking forward to seeing it come April 1st.