Iria: Zeiram The Animation

I'll be honest from the get go, this anime is not a 10, it's not a 9, it's probably around a mid 8.5 from a fair objective standpoint. However, I'm inflating my review after looking at some of the other reviews. Mainly because there is an unfortunate portion of modern anime viewers that see old school animation, and that's all she wrote folks, that's all it takes to make it average... Except Iria Zeiram is a badass anime, with beautiful hand crafted art, and a strong female lead that isn't drenched with fan service, characters like this are why I fell in love with animeall those years ago. Anywho, I'll (try to) keep the rest of my review fairly short. The art for me is the standout, along with some really refreshing character design/writing. The art is classic late 80s to 90s hand drawn goodness, if you're in a nostalgic scifi mood look no further, especially if you've seen the usual recommendations. Character design is awesome, modern anime is a little uh, sexist? I hesitate to use the word, but really it's refreshing to see an anime without fan service, while still being mature make no mistake. Weird how you can make a strong sexy female character without their boobs flopping about, go figure. Having listed the strengths, the weaknesses are undoubtedly the story and sound. Story is really nothing to salivate over. Depending on your exposure level to anime/manga/books/cinema, then a fair rating would fall somewhere between an 8 to 6. If you're experienced, it's a 6, otherwise it could range up to an 8 if you aren't familiar (bored) with common anime tropes. Sound is to me the weakest part, it's by no means bad but there's nary a banger to me found here IMO, but lovers of 80s sound design might really dig this. Overall this one really took me by surprise, the MAL reviews made me hesitate. Reviews be damned though, this is a keeper anime, and when you've been around the anime block as long as me that's rare. Granted some of this might have to do with my disillusionment for modern anime, it's getting old seeing awesome stories/characters ruined by horndogs beating the fan service cash cow like there's no tomorrow.

Another anime classic that I caught on the Sci-Fi channel about 10 years ago. (C'mon, Sci-Fi, start showing anime again!) Iria: Zeiram the Animation is a 6 episode mini-series that actually be likened to a 3-hour action flick. Iria shines becuase of the world and chracters that are created. The characters themselves are well-done are show a good amount of depth and personality for a mini-series. Escpecially the titular character, Iria. Iria is a tough-as-nails bounty hunter who is just starting out, but her character is still that of a young woman. Strong but feminine. Iria is a great role-model for young women, and agood example of a strong woman. The character designs for this show are excellent. Done by the famous Masakazu Katsura (Video Girl Ai), each character is detailed and has a unique look. The visuals of the world itself are equally as amazing. The world has an oriental look but mixed with futuristic technology. The designs for the weapons are inventive too. Some of the weapons these bounty hunters use make me want to be one! I'd reccommend Iria for the visuals alone. But the story itself is worth a watch. A classic tale of revenge and justice. The English dubbing is really good for this one, and the DVD quality gets my thumbs up as well. Rent disc 3 if you want cast interviews and some insight into this world. I reccommend checking Iria out. It's a cut above most of the garbage anime that's flooding the US nowadays.

"Iria: Zeiram the Animation" is a pretty good action oriented OVA spanning across 6 half hour episodes. It tells the story of a young bounty hunter Iria's hunting of Zeiram, the most dangerous life form in the galaxy. The weird opening theme, which sounds like some Sharon Apple song from "Macross Plus", feels out of place and put me off the anime initially. And not being the fastest anime off the block despite its short length, it took "Iria" a couple of episodes to catch my interest, but to its credit it gains more and more momentum as it goes on. The action, though slightly sluggish attimes, is overall solid enough to provide a good foundation for the enjoyment of "Iria: Zeiram the Animation", with the appropriately climatic climax being especially good. It's backed up by a pretty good story (albeit one that doesn't explain everything) and some really likeable characters. The roles of the mischievous kids are played out perfectly, as is that rogue Fujikuro, providing comedy entertainment that often had me grinning widely. The animation may not look that great by today's standards, but there are some fantastic character designs. The heroine Iria herself has quite a unique look, while Zeiram reminds me of Yoshimitsu from the Tekken video games. On the downside, I think the anime suffers from small inconsistencies in its characterisation and plot. To name a couple of examples, part of the personality of Iria is hard to pin down since she seem to be inconsistently portrayed from one episode to the next, and I could have sworn the Zeiram's weak point that is revealed towards the end had already been peppered with bullets with little or not no effect in an earlier episode. Even though this OVA does look and sound a bit old, it's still succeeds in providing an entertaining 3 hours. Worth checking out if you come across it.

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