Iria: Zeiram the animation
Yamato Series - OAV
This is the animated transposition of a Japanese film "Zeiram" (note that the r of Zeiram is written backwards).
Here I give you some useful advice if you have already seen at least one or a part of the various DVDs of Iria (also this name with the inverted "r"). Please never watch, and I repeat never, the film, because only a few stomachs resist. The only positive note of the film I have found is the observation, that in addition to being a great author (one of my favorites; he is also the character designer of the series) the legendary Masazu Katsura rediscovers himself in a new role, that is the actor, undoubtedly the best actor in this film.
Masazu Katsura is the character designer.
But now let's talk about something uhmm ... phenomenal! that is the animated series in which everything is wonderful. Actually I am a bit biased, because when I see the drawing of M. Katsura I go into mystical ecstasy.
I will also mention some of his works to make those (I hope!) few ignorants who do not know him understand what big author we are talking about.
His biggest hit released in Italy is Video Girl AI, followed by Shadow Lady and others less famous, but no less beautiful like DNA2 and Present from Lemon.
Iria is also the name of the protagonist. In fact the original title of the series is "Zeiram The animation", and Yamato did right by changing it to keep the distance from that obscene video I refuse to call film; but Yamato did wrong, indeed very badly, to publish the film as well.
Let's now turn to the story: Iria is the sister and assistant of Glenn, a space detective.
The first OAV begins with Iria intent on catching a criminal, but when she captures him she is kidnapped by Fushikuro, another space detective who is half friend and half rival of Glenn.
Bob, a sort of boss of the two, assigns a job to the two. They are rivals very often, but for the hardest and most profitable missions, Bob usually chooses Glenn to accompany him.
One of these missions is actually the engine of the story. Bob and Glenn have to go to the spaceship Karma to save the crew and the load, but at the beginning they find resistance from no one knows who. Only thanks to Iria's intervention the two manage to reach the teleportation room. Since they cannot leave it there at the mercy of the enemies, they decide to take her with them on a mission.
Once on the spaceship Karma they realize that the load to be brought back to Mice (their planet) is nothing normal, but it is actually the Zeiram that freed itself and killed most of the crew. While Iria and Bob save all the survivors, Glenn collides with the Zeiram, being considered immortal for its invulnerability to all weapons, as well as very ruthless. In fact, the Zeiram is a creature conceived by the human mind as a weapon, but it has a single flaw: it is uncontrollable, so wherever it is it brings death and destruction.
In the clash with the monster, Glenn finds himself in trouble and Bob runs to help him, but is seriously injured, so Iria put him on the last lifeboat with a vice president of the capital of Mice, who drops a pendant, which Iria collects.
Glenn, realizing the real strength of the Zeiram, decides to sacrifice himself to kill him, so with a lie he makes Iria leave the Karma and then makes the spaceship explode. Iria from the blowback of the explosion faints and wakes up in Taowajan, where she discovers that the Zeiram has also survived and is carrying out a massacre among the poor people. The authorities do not intervene, because it is in their interest that that neighborhood be destroyed.
Instead Iria, who has met some children there, feels sorry for it, so with a Batman cable she hooks the Zeiram and drags it to the seat of power of that planet, where first she lets it destroy a little, then with the help of a strange voice manages to throw the Zeiram into a transporter room and the monster disappears.
After a long journey Iria manages to return to her home on Mice, where she thinks she will find some peace of mind, but upon her arrival, Fushikuro is waiting for her, who has been given the task of protecting her, a task that he accepted only for the high reward. In fact, there is no welcoming committee waiting for Iria, but the usual enemies who tried to prevent her from leaving, which then turns out to be the robot policemen of Mice, who rather than enforce justice, faithfully serve those who have in hand. the power.
The fight is resolved only after Iria destroys a dozen tanks, several robots, climbs a building of almost 100 floors (but even if this scene looks more like some super hero adventure, you should see how it is made).
Everything ends when Iria reaches the vice president whose life she had saved: in fact, she discovers that he had sent all those soldiers, because she possessed her pendant. She gives it back to him, but without the chip that was inside. He doesn't notice and everything falls into place.
In the meantime Bob has been transformed into a computer, which Iria steals from the palace of power and quietly returns to her house. One thing remains unclear: everything that happened on Karma and Taowjan is nowhere recorded and the Karma survivors have their names and past changed (they used Pomì.ndPelo before). Who doesn't want to let people know that the Zeiram is still alive? (I'm not going to tell you and in the end I'll also explain why).
When Iria comes back to her house, no one bothers her more than she does, indeed, a few days later they call her to the government building (the half-destroyed one a few lines above) to give her the long-awaited promotion to investigator. In the typical Japanese way, now Iria has become the strongest of all in a few weeks (how strange? this happens only in Japan!)
As first mission Iria has to go and rescue Dr. Toka, the last survivor of the Zeiram Study Group, who was kidnapped by a gang of criminals. The most interesting thing is this story is that before Iria a special group of ten people was sent to rescue the Dr., and all of them were found dead !
Our happy heroine goes to catch the kidnappers, but when she arrives she finds herself a bit bewildered. In fact she is in front of all the bad guys and the special group, with a slight common problem: they are all dead.
Iria immediately finds Dr. (S) Toka (...) in the company of Komimasa and Kei, two boys who helped her fight against Zeiram on Taowajan. Immediately Dr. Toka with his Zeiram-Radar (reminds me a lot of the Dragon-Radar) identifies three Zeirams in the area, but when Iria fights with the first one realizes that these are only half-slabs, in fact with a couple of strokes they die.
The only problem is that the last one is more resistant than the others and has the Glenn's face, so Iria can't hit him: only thanks to Bob's big efforts, in the battle the guy dies and everyone goes home for a while sad.
With the story I stop here, as I told you before I will not reveal anything more than what you cannot already see to not ruin this sublime vision. The only thing is that I have trodden a little more on the fundamental arguments, leaving out some things that seem important at the beginning, but in truth they are not.
