Eat-Man is a fascinating 90s anime that bewilders from the very start, doing whatsoever it pleases and never apologizing for it, which is an admirable thing, even if the end product is a pretty eclectic title that won't be everyone's cup of tea. Beginning with the story, I must be immediately clear that there isn't one. Eat-Man is an entirely episodic compilation of vignettes, these self-contained sci-fi short stories that sometimes touch on certain themes, but most of the time happen just because the dudes putting this together thought it'd be cool. Even though a good coherent story is always a good thing, Eat-Man stillmanages to make this a fun ride from start to finish, even if you are left wondering why or how certain things work every now and then. Regardless, you can always count on the protagonist Bolt to eat some metal and kick some ass, and at the end of the day, that is exactly what this anime should be delivering to you. Interestingly, it's based on a manga, but this anime has essentially nothing to do with it. It just took the concept of Bolt and some other stylistic elements and made the rest up as it pleased. They did make a later adaptation that's more faithful to the manga, but from my understanding this one has a lot more character and creative spirit.

The art is the strongest aspect of the anime, for pretty simple, straightforward reasons. It embodies that 90s warmth and detail that makes that decade of anime so loved, complete with fascinating visual worldbuilding, solid character designs, and some really strong examples of good animation. Having said this, the animation is sometimes lacking, but not in any places that necessarily matter. It is just a solid visual experience, and a fair bit more consistent than the story, and for that alone it is the central pillar of this show.

The sound is good, with a fun synth-based soundtrack, voice work that meets all the standards of quality for the time, and sounds of life that give the world a sense of gravity and impact, especially during action sequences.

The characters are interesting, though none of these single-serving secondary characters recur at all, leaving the inimitable Bolt Crank standing alone as the mysterious, sometimes oafish, and consistently badass main character that makes this show what it is. Throughout, he really does feel like he's driving the story. He sometimes completely transforms a situation he's in, and sometimes he's pretty much just an observer, but whatever the case, it almost feels like the world exists just for him to explore and get lost in. Overall, Eat-Man is a weird anime. I enjoyed my time with it, but you have to like the story format if you're going to get anything out of it. That last part's pretty much up to you to decide, but as for my part, I'd definitely recommend it, even just on the grounds that it's a thoroughly unique, maverick title in a time period and genre that has the tendency to get kind of same-y by way of sheer volume alone.