Eat-Man '98
With his mane of white hair and outsized green coat, Bolt Crank, the  hero of this action series, looks a bit like a Kabuki lion dancer. The product of a biotech experiment, he eats metal objects of all sizes, which he can reproduce in his right hand when he needs them.Although the dubbed episodes describe him as an explorer, Bolt is the world's greatest mercenary. He roams a world much like Earth in the not-too-distant future, going from assignment to dubious assignment. In "Bye Bye Aimie," Bolt clashes with a voluptuous police detective investigating the murders of several prominent scientists. He fights demons and sees the rightful heir restored to the throne of a threatened empire in the four-part "Ambrosian Days." In "The Farcical Dream," Bolt finds himself caught in a violent struggle between a rival mercenary and female assassin, a battle orchestrated by an evil, self-serving politician.There's plenty of action inEat-Man, but no character development. Bolt offers the same response to challenges, threats, pleas, screams, and tears: he chomps another screw and/or walks moodily away. The writers make him so taciturn, he's uninteresting; the women are either obnoxious or whiny, so it's hard to get excited about what happens to any of these characters.Rated 13 and up for violence, brief nudity, drinking.--Charles Solomon