[DreamSword]

Episode-4: Yikes! There's Two of Me!? Enter, Atros - The Ultimate Rival!!

This episode 75% high energy action.

Taking up the entire first half is the battle between Iczer-3 and Atros, and it makes for a fairly entertaining watch.

The best part comes at the end though, where the two are arguing over their outlooks on life, and Nagisa comes in to tip the scales. She manages to see the good in Atros despite everything, which throws Atros through a loop.

The second half has to do the final one of Neos' generals: Golem, as well as Neos' plan to bring to life one last warrior for the heroes to face. And dropping all pretense here it is so obviously Iczer-2, especially since she's in the opening. I absolutely adore that this OVA establishes that Iczer-2's' theme song plays in-universe, haha.

While the character development does feel a tad rushed, I get it, considering we only have a couple episodes left to go. Plus, if nothing else, seeing the bond between Nagisa and Iczer-3 grow closer was nice, and the few bits with the crew of the Queen Fuji were serviceable in showing how they play off eachother given their current situation.

Everything ends with Iczer-3 on the ropes, and Atros having seconds thoughts not only due to Nagisa's' words, but also how Neos Gold is so obviously lying about everything that's going on. What's gonna happen next, I wonder?

[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.

[DreamSword]

Episode-6: Cool! Wild! Outta Sight! The Final Battle of the Iczers!!

That type is certainly worthy of the hype.

The only downside really is that Atros has to die for no good reason. Other than that, this was a fun way to end things off.

There's the final bout between Iczer-1 and Iczer-2, which results in the return of subspace and Iczer-2 getting a new outlook on life, there's the return of Iczer Robo(even if it doesn't amount to much), and of course, there's the payoff of all three Iczers coming together to take down Neos Gold.

It's all very explosive, very fast paced, and most importantly, very fun to see all play out. And really, with how turn-your-brain-off alot of Iczer-3 can be, it's about all I could ask for.

Like, sure, I could do a play-by-play of the exact steps that happen in the episode, but really, it all very much speaks for itself and is very much meant to be a ride from start to finish. Not to say there isn't any substance; Afterall, the character arcs of Atros and the Iczers are all very much fully realized, but there really isn't much I could add or highlight that the episode itself doesn't already do a solid enough job doing.

Final thoughts post concerning the franchise as a whole should come tomorrow. And all one of you reading this might be asking "But wait, DreamSword, what about Iczer Gal Iczelion?" To which my response would be "What ABOUT Iczelion?" Let's just forget that ever happened.

[DreamSword]

FINAL THOUGHTS ON ICZER

The Iczer franchise is certainly a unique beast of a franchise, even by the standards of today.

What started off a simple H-Manga in Iczer-1 ended up being transformed into a movie that crosses over so many different genres while all falling under the message of how love and emotions bring people together and can get us through our darkest of hours.

The closest I can think of to compare Iczer to is stuff like Tekkaman and Detonator Orgun, but even then they really don't hit that same mark. Especially not in terms of graphic content.

Iczer-1 is very much made for adults. With brutal fights, plenty of gore, and various body and cosmic horror tropes at play that are very much not kid friendly. But yet, the very blatant Toku elements thrown into it all makes me think that it was made specifically for adults who grew up with Toku and wanted more adult themes out of it. So, in a sense, Iczer-1 was basically GARO before GARO was even a thing.

...Which makes it so interesting and kinda funny to me that its direct sequel, Iczer-3, very much swings in the opposite direction and is very much made with kids in mind.

Yeah, it very much has a smaller budget. Yeah, the horror, Yuri, and gory content is very much downplayed. And yeah, its focuses almost entirely on humanoid action with the mecha stuff very much an afterthought.

But ya know what? It's still fun in its own regard, and that's all I'm ever asking for.

I would be no means say that Iczer-3 is any sort of bad when compared to its predecessor, but a very different flavor. But I will acknowledge that that sort of thing makes for a really tough sell when making a direct sequel, ya know? It kinda reminds me of how R-Rated movies used to get cartoon adaptations back during the 80s.

Sure, Iczer-1 is far more "sophisticated" in its content and focuses alot more on character development, but there's something to be said about Iczer-3 knowing exactly what it wanted to do and just gunning for it, simplistic or not.

Do I personally think that Iczer-1 is the better of the two? Sure. But again, Iczer-3 was still an overall enjoyable experience for me, and it never felt like a waste of time or a complete betrayal to what came before it. It was clear to me that the people behind Iczer-3 had seen the original, and were trying their best to fit in various aspects that older fans would recognize and appreciate such as subspace and the character development of Iczer-2.

Heck, it doesn't stop there for the franchise either. Did you know that there's actually an audio drama where Iczer-1 crosses over with Dangaioh? Odd choice for a crossover to be sure, but should that audio drama ever actually get translated, I'm definitely interested in it!

(And no, I will not be covering Dangaioh in this thread, as it is unfortunately not even remotely Toke-like despite having a shout out to Space Sheriff Gavan.)

I guess the best way for me to sum this all up is that the Iczer franchise is definitely a unique experience, I'd recommend anyone even remotely interested in it to try it out.

In the end, I give Fight! Iczer-1! a 4/6 and Adventure! Iczer-3! a 3/6. Very solid stuff all around.