Tatakae!! Iczer-1

(SPOLIERS)

This is an interesting Sci-Fi. Not really like a lot of the Mecha Genre I have seen before. While most like this might fight aliens, this wasn't half bad. Now of course it was very cheesy. But that is more of it's age talking.

Nice visuals for an 80's Anime. Yes they are very 80's. But it's some of the more nicer ones, as opposed to the sloppy hand drawn, looking Anime out there.

Music quality, again speaks for it's age. Heavy Synthesizer use, took away from what could be a good quality score.

Dubbing Quality, hard to say. Now I'm trying to be fair on it basing ... on it's age. If this we're made say 2 years ago, I would find it rather mediocre, or flat out bad. But it's okay. Yeah some rather dry expressions, but nice. Wendee Lee gives a great performance as always.

It has a nice tone. Dark sleek, depressing, post-apocalyptic world. You really feel sad when the Aliens Take over Nagisa's Parents. And when Iczer must kill Nagisa.

But there is a lot of fan service. Plenty of nudity, and some sexuality. What's up with that? I don't know. But oh well.

So overall, cheesy, but in a good way. Flawed, but worthy.

One of the most difficult things involving Anime is what to show someone who hasn't seen one before. Many suggestions come to mind, but most of those are probably dozens upon dozens of episodes long and most people don't have that kind of time and the shows themselves are usually genre specific. So, what can you show someone that more or less covers all the bases of Anime but is short enough to watch in one sitting? I submit "Fight!! Iczer-1"

Based off the manga "Golden Warrior Iczer-One" and brought to us by the studio AIC, known perhaps best for "Tenchi Muyou", this 3 act OVA ... has so many staples and tropes of Japanese Anime both of it's own 1980s origins and even the modern pieces of today, that it serves as a wonderful orientation for what to expect from the most popular animation in the world today. Even for those initiated already it's an enjoyable little title with some unique twists and turns and a retro charm.

The plot can be best boiled down to this: an alien being known as Iczer One has come to Earth and chosen a human girl named Nagisa to be her partner to fight an evil force known as Big Gold and the alien forces soon to arrive to take over the planet. It seems Nagisa is the key to powering Iczer One's counterpart Iczer Robo, a giant robot, with enough energy to successfully vanquish the foes they face. This leads to some wonderful action sequences involving mechs, monsters, hand-to-hand combat, laser sword combat, and some very unsuccessful assists from the Japanese military as they attempt to fight the invaders. If you've seen any Godzilla movie, you know how well that turns out.

The whole experience feels like a dozen episodes boiled down into 3. Meaning there is very little time for character development but it also doesn't dilly dally. Things move quickly and pretty well considering how many questions one probably has with so much going on. I'm not someone who needs to know why everything is happening and everyone's motivations, so I was more than keen to enjoy the show. Beyond featuring things similar to mechs, magical girls, and ecchi fan service, there are some genuinely creepy moments with monsters and lots of gore making it a mature experience and certainly not something for the kids and definitely NSFW.

Even though it's from the mid-1980s, the art itself isn't too bad. It's definitely got that VHS feel to it, but it holds up well and features a very brass-heavy soundtrack of uplifting heroic fight music that is indicative of the genre and the time. I was somewhat reminded of "Doctor Who" at times with the situation of an alien showing up to Earth and a poor innocent girl being snatched up into the chaos and adventure that is saving the world, but I think even The Doctor is more gentle than Iczer One in some cases. You definitely feel for Nagisa at times, though I can't help but think they did a better job giving depth to the bad guys than the heroes. The first two featured, Cobalt amd Sepia, are lovers and when the first one falls, the other is quite devastated and you feel sympathy for her. Something Anime is often good at, giving us villains with understandable motivations.

While "Fight!! Iczer-1" is a good bit of fun, it doesn't deliver anything ground breaking for the time or even since then. Having only seen the English dub, the voice acting leaves A LOT to be desired. Weak performances all around. Very Fox Kids quality. And just as your starting to enjoy yourself, the whole thing ends. Yet with an odd feeling of having had enough. That more would have been too much. I was happy that it ended sooner rather than later. This could have been a wonderful backdoor pilot for a longer series, but it works well as what it is. A modestly entertaining R-rated Anime. Quintessentially 80s with lots of gore, nudity, and mindless action but with enough care to the characters that it salvages itself from being mindless.

I recommend this to anyone interested in starting Japanese Anime but also for anyone just in the mood for an old-school bit of fun. A solid 6/10. Check it out. Cheers!

Up until I watched Iczer 1, I thought the cliche of "tentacle rape" was a fabrication, or the realm solely of Urotsukidoji.

It really isn't. Iczer 1 has phallic tendrils in abundance, and its all-female cast getting drenched with a variety of organic fluids, tied up, and threatened with penetration. To be honest this is actually really creepy.

The plot is pretty much non-existent, with enemies invading and being fought by first human soldiers and then by the heroes with their mystical robot that involves naked girls covered in electrodes. It's got the bizarre pacing of something like Zeorymer, and a real focus on extreme gore and ... sexuality. The fights are not exactly dynamic or interesting, with the main robot having a limited range of attacks which often aren't that flashy or exciting. The on-foot stuff tends towards predictable sequences of people (mostly families) exploding messily into tentacled monsters who then shamble around and menace the female cast.

What it does have going for it is reasonable art. The style is classic 80s OVA, and handled well. However, the mech designs are nothing new if you've seen Zeorymer, Detonator Orgun or any similar OVAs, and the characters aren't massively interestingly designed either. Shiny black outfits predominate, and 80s hair styles.

The soundtrack isn't exceptional (not compared to something awesome like MD Geist's use of Merciless Soldier), either.

All told, Iczer 1 is worth watching only if you really like ecchi, bondage and guro interspersed with mecha action. Not one of Obari's finest hours, especially when compared to something hilarious and fun like Gravion or SRW The Inspectors.