Fight! Iczer-One

Description

The biological combat android Iczer-1 travels to Earth. Her mission is to defend the planet from Cthuwolf invaders, but in order to power her battlesuit she needs to unite with a partner in body and mind. Nagisa is a human girl who has lost her parents to the Cthuwolf. Nagisa's psychic power can give Iczer-1 the strength to fight, and her love can give Iczer-1 what she needs to win. Directed by Toshihiro Hirano, director of Magic Knights Rayearth, Vampire Princess Miyu, and Macross: Do you Remember Love Mecha Designes by the legendary Masami Obari, of Battle Arena Toshinden and Fatal Fury fame.

Customer Reviews:

FIGHT! Iczer One!.......2007-05-22

Classic anime that's still enterataining to watch.If, your into old japanese cartoons this one is still a must.

The Story Behind Iczer One.......2006-03-14

Iczer One was one of the very first anime I became aware of. In my early teen years I even bought a copy of it on laserdisk, even though there was no English track--just the original Japanese.

Watching it much later in English I came to love the mood and story of this underrated film. Ultimately Fight! Iczer One is about a self-fulfilling prophecy coming true. An all-female alien race known as the Cthuwulf search the stars in a sleeper ship made from the wreckage of their home world. Their matriarch, Violet sits at the command couch looking out at space. In that moment she thinks "...my children shall die out here in space, and never find a true home". Unbeknowst to her, her ship has passed into the influence of a massive machine built to grant the wishes of its users. Suddenly a strange creature appears, Big Gold, a golden child in a crystal orb with glowing red eyes. It tells Violet that her wish is granted, and she hopes this means her people will be given a new home.

The entity joins itself to the Cthuwulf ship, bonding its essence with everything in it. Violet becomes Sir Violet, now draped in ominous black robes, with the glowing red eyes and masculine voice of Big Gold, while the child manifestation of the machine gains a feminine aspect, growing long golden hair and a more girlish appearance. Likewise the vediim, creatures that have long lived alongside the Cthuwulf, have become horrible parasitic creatures, made wretched by the influence of Big Gold. Now bioweapons, the vidiim implant hosts with eggs laid by large green tipped ovipositor tentacles, from which the alien takes over the host body until the time is right and it rips its way horribly through the host's flesh.

Big Gold indeed takes the Cthuwulf to a new home world, Earth. The vidiim descend to decimate the populace, but in fulfillment of Violet's wish, her children are destined to die before they can inherit it. In the style of a Shakespearian tragedy the Cthuwulf reduce Earth to ashes, but then are stopped by another manifestation of the Machine, a Yin to the Yang of Big Gold--a golden haired warrior woman named Iczer-1. Unstoppable, she singlehandedly carries out the wish as Big Gold's opposite. As Big Gold joined with Violet as a synchronization partner, she seeks out a human girl named Nagisa Kanao--but the girl does not want to fight, and will not synchronize with Iczer-1.

Amidst giant mecha battles and huge scale lightsaber melees on the streets of post-apocalyptic Tokyo, the fate set in motion by Violet's wish counts down like a timer until Iczer-1 is brought into the presence of Big Gold and the truth of their co-joined purpose is finally revealed. A wonderful story.

The downsides? Well the music, for one is awful poppy electronic stuff. The "Iczer-2 theme" has a nice jazzy riff to it, but other than that it's just bad. Likewise the battle pacing is a bit cheesy. The monsters seem paralyzed in "menace the heroine" mode forever without actually -doing- anything, as if waiting for Iczer-1 to show up and kill them. Likewise the power scale is so ludicrous and Iczer-1 seems so unkillable for most of the show, that the Dragonball-esquire fighting makes it hard to really feel any tension. The English dubbing is likewise terrible, killing a lot of the emotion that drips from the voices in the Japanese and making some of the best scenes play a bit cheesy.

On the other hand, the mood of the story is unrelenting and awesomely bleak. The story is wonderful, though it takes watching the show a several times before everything makes sense. The characters are deep and their losses are heart-wrenching. On the whole a really great story.

Classic OVA series from Toshihiro Hirano.......2005-11-14

Great characters and kinetic action sequences make up for a ludicrous story in the classic OVA series Fight! Iczer-One. A race of alien lesbians has come to conquer Earth, and all that stand in their way are the elfin warrior Iczer-One and her schoolgirl partner, Nagisa. Iczer-One's evil sister, Iczer-Two, steals all of the scenes she's in.

Great classic anime from the "old fan" days.......2005-05-11

First of all this was the first true anime OVA I ever watched. I love this OVA series. It was the first all Japanese/no subtitles video my friend and I had imported. I remember reading ANIMAG for the translation while we watched. New fans may not appreciate Iczer-1 due to its 20 year old age, but at the time of conception, it was a take on Japanese live action done anime style. There are some "in jokes" like Camille Bidan and Fa Yuiry from Z Gundam and Tetsuo from Akira watching the landing of Delos Theta in the city. The horror side is gives you tough gory moments. Yes the girls are cute! And, yes Nagisa is annoying at times. But that is what makes it good. The sound track from Michiaki Watanabe fits in perfectly. Yes its 80's sounding, but it WAS the 80's ;)
If you have seen Iczer-3 and hated it, give Iczer-1 a chance. As Toshihiro Hirano said it in an interview : "...As far as I'm concerned, the story ends at the end of the video ...Even if we drew the designs and art seriously, there's no way there could be a legitimate sequel in the world of Iczer.

Iczer-1 wonderful life!.......2005-04-23

FIGHT !! Iczer-1 had it's humble beginnings as a soft core chapter in the manga Lemon People. The saga of a lone android that defends Earth against her own people , the Cthulu, a all female race desperate to find a new homeworld , and trying to protect her selected partner, Nagisa Kano, a bewildered earth gal who is a little freaked out by the death of her parents at the hands of some nasty monsters sent to kill her.
If you like Vampire Princess Miyu or Dangaio the original 3 OVAs, then this is where director character designer Toshiro Hirano began on his own, it is a must for any fan of his work or the work of mechanical designer, Masami Ohbari. If you have the DVD of Iczer Reborn also from Media Blasters, and want to know the back story of Iczer-3 , then this is that story. the transfer is very nice and they even include the lighthearted making of Iczer documentary "Daydreamer" which shows the studio process and interviews the director and the main crew. The english dub dialogue is a very good translation, however some of the acting might have been carried off better, and can be forgiven for the purpose of getting the translation right.I really recommend the subtitle version over the english dub on this one, the actresses were very good in Japanese, Iczer-1 has a great vocal quality in her voice I find alluring. All in all a great addition to my DVD collection, one of my favorite all time animes finally on DVD in one neat package.

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