[DreamSword]

Data 1: Genesis of the Guyver

Sho Fukamachi is your normal everyday kid. But unfortunately for him, he one day stumbles upon a mysterious metal object which soon bonds to him. This "Guyver" unit is what ends up pulling Sho into fight against Chronos; A mysterious group that can create monsters known as Zoanoids bent on world domination. Can Sho defeat -- wait, this all sounds familiar.

Yeah, so, despite the original Guyver movie leaving itself open for a sequel, what instead followed was a six episode OVA that reboots and expands upon the story. And given it was dubbed, I assume this was alot of people's' first exposure to the Guyver franchise as a whole.

And lemme tell ya, the dub is the type of bad you just don't get anymore nowadays. It's a big reason as to why, despite this being my first foray into this franchise, this episode had me feeling rather nostalgic while watching it.

As for the contents of the episode itself, it's essentially just the opening act of the original movie, even following almost all of the same beats. Sure, some scenes are expanded upon, but not by a whole lot. The biggest differences being that the first attack now takes place in the woods(which makes more sense than out in the open road of the city), Sho is now paling around with his friend Tetsuro rather than his girlfriend Mizuki, and the second Zoanoid is now the leader of the grunt unit, rather than being the police chief.

Playing comparisons was a rather interesting thought exercise, as it's made clear that the people behind this did at the very least watch the original movie and considered ways on how to make it all flow a little better, and it makes me very curious as to why exactly they're going to take a one hour movie and stretch its story across six episodes. I could think of a few(we never got to learn who Guyver III was in the movie), but I'm just gonna wait and see.

The biggest downside to all of this is Sho's' new design. I do not like his new haircut at all. Given that Mizuki looks practically the same as she did in the original movie, it's a shame that they didn't go for a similar route with Sho. But it's an overall minor complaint.

It's a solid start, all things considered. And I look forward to seeing what they do from here.