Ranked #2020

Iria: Zeiram The Animation

First of all: Iria- Zeiram the Animation fits the sci-fi and adventure genres. If you are interested in watching this title, get prepared to watch some nice fighting scenes!

Story: Iria is a bounty hunter, and follows her brother´s footsteps.
She goes along with Gren (her brother) to a mission...and since that she won´t get satisfied until she destroys Zeiram...an alien lifeform created to kill and destroy.
The plot is fantastic! 10/10

Art: Even though the artwork isn´t recent, I think it is wonderful...the colors well chosen, the graphics well made and lets admit: Iria is a gorgeous bounty hunter!
10/10

Sound: The background music is very good! It is old and has some 80´s/90´s catch, and the OP is real good! At first you think it is a bit strange...^^ 9/10

Character: The characters are well developed, but the main thing of the story is Iria...she is a bold and strong woman, that won´t relax until she finishes her duty...She shows herself a bit fragile in some moments, but when it comes do Zeiram she will try by all means to destroy what is tecnically "undestroyable".
9/10

Enjoyment: As a fan of adventure, sci-fi and great fights, Iria- Zeiram the Animation is excting, and at least 99% enjoyable! A true classic! 9/10

Overall: 9/10...if you like sci-fi genre, this is a classic and a must see! So sad there isn´t more of it!! read more

"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 at times, 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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