[DreamSword]

Episode-5: Major Crisis! The Arrival of My Scary Older Sister, Iczer-2!!

This episode drops quite the bomb on us.

Turns out that the Nagisa we've been following this whole time isn't actually the Nagisa from Iczer-1, but rather her granddaughter.

And while I can kinda get why they decided to go this route, this twist really doesn't work for a multitude of reasons. Like, I'm not even trying to say that a grandchild looking almost exactly like their grandparent is bull, because I'm an example of that.

Heck, I'm not even saying that I doubt that Iczer-Robo could house Nagisa's' memories of the past timeline. It's more that Iczer-3's' Nagisa is remembering stuff that her grandmother wasn't even around for. Like, in this episode alone she sees the scene where Iczer-2 got cut down, when Past Nagisa was dead by that point.

It also raises the question of where the heck Iczer-1 Nagisa even is and what she's doing. Did she die? Who did she get together with after the events of the first OVA? Is Iczer-3 Nagisa's' friend the granddaughter of Past Nagisa's' friend who got possessed? If Iczer-Robo is still the alter ego of Iczer-1, doesn't that mean it's showing Nagisa Iczer-1's' memories instead? Why am I so caught up in all of this when this is supposed to just be simple fun!? GAAAHH!!

But you see none of that matters because Iczer-2 is friggen awesome and she carries this entire episode. I'm serious, she is 100% the highlight here. Sure there's the plot with Golem, but that ultimately goes nowhere despite a hint that even Goldem is getting sick of Neos Gold. Meanwhile, Iczer-2? Still every bit the badass she was in Iczer-1, and it's also shown that her character development from the first OVA wasn't just thrown out; With her playing secret mentor to Iczer-3 and pondering Iczer-1's' outlook on life. This even mirrors the arc that Atros is going through, which is presented well throughout the episode's' run as well.

So yeah, this episode isn't anything close to perfect, but they nailed it where it counted, and for that, I give it a pass. Very fun to watch if nothing else.