Betterman throws you into a world where the rules don't stay consistent, where character motivations shift like the virus that's eating humanity, where you're never sure if you're watching hard sci-fi or fever dream. The action sequences are genuinely inventive, the atmosphere is genuinely bleak, and the mystery of what Betterman actually is never fully resolves in a way that makes clean sense. That's either the show's greatest strength or its fatal flaw, depending on whether you're watching to understand or to feel what it's like when everything breaks apart at once.
A deadly virus called Algernon is attacking humanity. Standing against it is Akamatsu Industries, a covert organization disguised as a heavy machinery factory in Tokyo, which fights Algernon with neural-enhanced robots called NeuroNoids. High school student Keita Aono is drawn in after following his childhood friend Hinoki Sai, newly transferred to his class, into Bottom World, an abandoned underground amusement park whose attractions have come to life and turned violent. There he finds Hinoki piloting a strange robot on behalf of Akamatsu Industries, which works under contract for the secretive international group Mode Warp. The two cannot escape until a shape-changing mutant known only as Betterman joins the fight. Afterward Keita signs on with Akamatsu Industries against Algernon. The series mixes mecha action and horror with mystery and moments of comedy.
