Eat-Man 98'

### Writers

Hiroshi Nomoto (eps. 1-2, 9-10), Sakura Nonomiya (eps. 3-7), Atsuhiro Tomioka (eps. 8, 11-12)

### Producer

Studio DEEN

**Eat-Man 98'** (イートマン `98 Itoman 98') Is a Sequel to the original Eat-Man 97', but, unlike its predecessor, Eat-Man 98' follows the event of the manga. it was produced by ***Studio DEEN*** again, but It was directed by Toshifumi Kawase, and written by Hiroshi Nomoto (eps. 1-2, 9-10), Sakura Nonomiya (eps. 3-7), Atsuhiro Tomioka (eps. 8, 11-12).

Bandai Entertainment released the second series *Eat Man '98* on DVD in 2005 but only the first two episodes got dubbed into English. Discotek Media released both series on DVD with Japanese audio and English subtitles, the first series was released on December 6, 2016 and *Eat Man '98* on January 31, 2017.

## Plot

this retake of Eat-Man shifts the saga of Bolt Crank closer to that of the original story penned by Akihito Yoshitomi. In it, the world is one of contrasting extremes, of high technology but low lifestyles, all mixed with fairy tale-like super science. Bolt returns as the best explorer in the world, a mercenary who, while only accepting jobs he finds moral, always gets the job done... even if he sometimes takes them to ironic extremes in order to do the right thing! Possessed of his own strange power, Bolt can eat anything and then later recreate it, which he uses to help him solve the problems his explorer lifestyle often puts him up against. See the fable that was originally envisioned in these twelve episodes!

## Creation

Although the manga series was a success, the 12-episode The original ***Eat-Man*** released by Studio Deen was highly criticized by fans of the manga because of the great differences between the manga and the anime. Almost all fantasy elements were removed from the anime, leaving a futuristic world. Bolt Crank's personality was very different from the manga. This Bolt showed more feelings, hated his explorer life, and desired to be a normal person. The magic crystal that appeared in the opening, the glass monoliths, the ever-floating ship known as "LAVION", and the afterlife dream in the 11th episode was never explained, creating a very bizarre and abstract atmosphere. Most of the episodes ended with unanswered questions. An Anime News Network review called the series very quirky and interesting and praised Yuki Kajiura's music. Due to the fans' dissatisfaction, a new season was released as ***Eat-man '98*** one year after, where most of the episodes were directly based on stories from the manga.

## Characters

### **Bolt Crank**

Bolt Crank (ボルト・クランク, *Boruto Kuranku*) (voiced by Masashi Ebara), is the best "explorer" in the world. In the manga, "Explorers" are a kind of mercenary. Although mercenaries in the manga do any job, even assassinations, the explorers were employees with principles.

### **Other characters**

The adventures in *Eat-Man* are usually unrelated, it's an episodic character. Each episodes of the series introduces a different character, they usually don't come back.

**Aimie**: An old detective friend of Bolt. She's immortal due to experiments conducted on her as a child by a laboratory (which Bolt "worked at") that was trying to create superhumans. She investigated a series of murdered scientists, which turned out to be her quest for revenge against those who "created" her.