| Caption: | Promotional image for Zettai Shōnen |
| Ja Kanji: | 絶対少年 |
| Ja Romaji: | Zettai Shōnen |
| Type: | tv series |
| Director: | Tomomi Mochizuki |
| Music: | Masumi Itō |
| Studio: | Ajia-do Animation Works, Bandai Visual |
| Network: | NHK |
| First: | May 21, 2005 |
| Last: | November 19, 2005 |
| Episodes: | 26 |
| Type: | light novel |
| Author: | Tatsuya Hamazaki |
| Illustrator: | Sunaho Tobe |
| Publisher: | MediaWorks |
| Demographic: | Male |
| Imprint: | Dengeki Bunko |
| First: | August 10, 2005 |
| Last: | December 10, 2005 |
| Volumes: | 2 |
is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series, produced by Ajia-do Animation Works and Bandai Visual, which first aired on NHK between and Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and written by Kazunori Itō, the series featured character designs by Sunaho Tobe, who also illustrated the series' light novel adaptation,[1] which was serialized in Dengeki Bunko between August 10 and December 10, 2005.
The first twelve episodes of the series focus on the daily life of Ayumu Aizawa as he visits his father, a veterinarian, in a small town in the countryside. Ayumu has spent his visit thus far aimlessly biking across the valley, but a chance meeting with a girl named Miku sends him searching for a long-lost friend of his, Wakkun. Upon finding Wakkun, he discovers that the boy has not aged since he and Ayumu played as children. Wakkun is also wearing clothes very similar to the raincoat and galoshes that Ayumu wore habitually as a child. Wakkun introduces Ayumu to his two friends, Dosshiru (Doss) and Shisshin (Sense), mysterious flying objects that alternate between a mechanical form and a sphere of yellow light.
A local reporter, Akira Sukawara is attracted by reports of kappa and other mysterious events. She follows the animals, notably a cat one of the local boys saw fighting a kappa, to the yellow lights, and grills a reluctant Ayumu for information. Unable to remember the summer he spent in Tana as a child, Ayumu, with the help of Miku and several other people from Tana, tries to understand what happened when he was a child, and the mysterious connection between him, Wakkun, Dosshiru, and Shisshin.
A few years later, Kisa Tanigawa, a depressed high school student, skips routine class. Wandering around the city in the evening, she stumbles upon another mysterious mechanical object. Naming it "Bun-chan", after the sound it makes, she takes it home and treats it as a pet. When Kisa tries building a fish out of old scraps of metal, the top fin of the fish does not stay, so Bun-chan (Ping) helps glue it on. Meanwhile, Sukawara reappears, now trying to prove the existence of the mysterious objects that appeared at the Cat Dance in Tana one-and-a-half year ago, which she terms "material fairies", and hears about Bun-chan. Upon witnessing a meeting between Kisa and Ayumu, she calls Bun-chan not a material fairy, but a "material evil", as its outward appearance does not resemble those of the material fairies spotted in Tana. However, the material fairies and the material evils seem to be at war with each other. When the three meet, Dosshiru and Shisshin start chasing Bun-chan and soon destroy it, leaving Kisa very upset that Bun-chan is gone. After a while, the connection of Kisa's fish metal fin starts glowing. As the fish turns into a sprite form of Bun-chan, Kisa decides to name it Po-chan.
The city's population becomes aware of the situation as pictures of the material devils and spheres of blue light, circulate among cell-phone users, accompanied by rumors that they bring good luck. Murals appear urging people to think and trust themselves. Eventually, a giant spiral resembling the metal construction of the material devils appears in the sky, and the police evacuate a section of the city. Some of the same phenomena are present in Tana, such as the failure of electronic devices.