Audience reviews
18 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Unemployed-Sama
Full disclosure, I recently binged Zeiram 1 and 2 and became kind of obsessed with them, so that definitely colored my review of this OVA. For a prequel, it never really justifies itself, partly because you know that Zeiram is coming back for the movies, but also just in not really providing that much character work, fan-service, or even world building. Its' biggest mistake is just being incredibly ok, being tropey or generic is totally fine and can still be a lot of stylish fun, but in this case idk I just really struggled to stay interested. Always quality, had some fun action and glimpses of Iria's origin/sci-fi world building, some great fights, animation, and environments, but I think has aged to be pretty middle-of-the road, especially compared to the movies.
Art: Even with all my…
Read at the sourceErr_rr
I should preface this by saying that I watched the dub of this OVA, as I was unable to find the subtitled version.
The OVA scratches a particular 90's anime itch, it does this fairly well. However the show is incredibly average. Though it has some truly inspired visuals, it's never cohesive enough to really sell the world. There is this awkward mix of high and low tech that feels awkward in some places, though most of the weapons are cool. The show never really pushes it's art style forward.
The plot is pretty thin, but it serves it's purpose of motivating the characters and adding some drama. However the pacing is quite rough. Each episode feels the same and it feels as if nothing is ever accomplished.
Iria: Zeiram The Animation is not bad by any means, it is intensely competent, but…
Read at the source50Fiftillididee
✒ 🌠Beaded Redhead Directs Her Spacecraft, Baster & Temper °7.5° °VG° 💯%🔍 minor spoilers only
This 1994 animation has a retro sound and look - anime's structure, sound, and feel changed very little in the entirety of century-20. Iria is a prequel to the live-action film Zeiram. Just 6 short episodes, it's worth watching this b@d@$-in-the-making for even the casual anime fan.
Iria is wrapping up her bounty hunter apprenticeship. She's out on a mission with her brother, Gren, when things go horribly wrong. Gren and his partners went after their target, Zeiram, who was surprisingly impervious to their weaponry. Now Gren is missing and presumed dead, though Iria is determined to find him. Gren's partners, Fujikuro and Bob will help her, though a grumbling Fujikuro sometimes claims that h…
Read at the sourceSgtSalamander
Iria: Zeiram the Animation is a bizarre case indeed. On the face of it it seems as though this is just another 90s sci-fi action OVA, and in many ways it is, but upon closer inspection it manages to set itself apart in a variety of interesting and bizarre ways. For example, this anime is actually a prequel to the live action film Zeiram from 1991. When considering this weird production trajectory, backed up by an utterly unique art style and fun campy premise, it's clear that this anime is more than just a throwaway OVA. Beginning with the story, it's fairly straightforward, and heavily reminiscent of the Alien franchise. Two so-called 'hunters' and an apprentice are sent up to a ship in crisis to evacuate the crew and retrieve the cargo, only to find a horrible, seemingly invincible human…
Read at the sourceDisapeared_Ghost
Iria Zeiram is an anime prequel to the movie of the same name. It focuses on rookie bounty hunter Iria who works with her brother Gren who is a more experienced professional bounty hunter. Together, they hunt down and capture criminals for money. After Gren was killed, Iria finds herself working on her own taking on various different bounty hunting jobs. She can be very naïve and reckless and her actions cause a lot of harm. Iria skills as a bounty hunter improves as the story progresses.
Episodes are told through an overarching narrative where it connects to a much bigger plot in the later episodes. The plot is also very inconsistent in its storytelling as well as Iria can be on the governments bad side on one episode but in the next they would team up together like nothing much has h…
Read at the sourcegakinotsukai
I'll be honest from the get go, this anime is not a 10, it's not a 9, it's probably around a mid 8.5 from a fair objective standpoint. However, I'm inflating my review after looking at some of the other reviews. Mainly because there is an unfortunate portion of modern anime viewers that see old school animation, and that's all she wrote folks, that's all it takes to make it average... Except Iria Zeiram is a badass anime, with beautiful hand crafted art, and a strong female lead that isn't drenched with fan service, characters like this are why I fell in love with anime all those years ago.
Anywho, I'll (try to) keep the rest of my review fairly short. The art for me is the standout, along with some really refreshing character design/writing. The art is classic late 80s to 90s hand drawn…
Read at the sourcebarsoapguy219
Iria: Zeiram the Animation is decent sci-fi. You get bounty hunters, an Asian (Thai) space tech motif, an evil invincible alien, annoying kids, good action, and decent plotting.
Story 6/10
The story is pretty good overall. Per the title, it focuses on Iria and her trials as a budding bounty hunter. It starts off with a small mission to have us get to know her and the universe. Bounty hunters are called on for special missions outside the scope of the authorities, have rules and regulations and honor code, and are in competition with one another occasionally. Then we get into the meat of the story with the Zeiram creature, corporate conspiracy, and wacky kids.
The story is told mostly straightforward with minor flashbacks to fill in the brother-sister relationship. The main story with I…
Read at the sourceG-man25
English:
Review: Iria: Zeiram The Animation
I already knew about the existence of the Iría eggs, as well as that the Iría eggs act as prequels for 2 live action movies that had been released before (more specifically in the years 1991-1992 the films and the eggs in 94) .
Despite that detail, I will only focus on talking about the eggs of Iría and leaving my opinion on the matter about the work in question.
Well, something that I must highlight about the work is its technical apparatus, both the animation, direction, setting and music in general is exceptional, this whole section is fantastic.
The music is catchy, pleasant and beautiful to listen to, it makes the viewer feel involved in the work and want to continue seeing more of it. Each piece of music that is available is quite suit…
Read at the sourceO_T_T
Certainly interesting, and didn't even go too far wrong, but still kind of missed the mark.
Now, I did enjoy Iria: Zeiram. I wasn't uninvested, and I haven't forgotten the events so far. In fact, if anything is to be taken from this review; be it that it's no doubt worth a try. But that said, it didn't quite click with me.
Being seriously strong with characters and their world, and with a pretty decent standard of narrative, Iria: Zeiram, while not exceptional, stands as a fair show. If given another chance to go around, it could easily exceed itself.
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The story is admittedly simple, not boasting any revolutionary concepts, but is easily followed and flows without issue. Being half-cour length works pretty well, as it keeps each episode unique and doesn't spawn any unnecessary char…
Read at the sourceKing_Ether
The world is on lockdown and you can’t leave the house so, what better way to spend that time than watching anime! I decided to switch things up and go back and watch older anime so that I could find any hidden gems. While browsing through the app RetroCrush, the first anime that caught my eye was an Original Video Animation (OVA) called Iria: Zeriam The Animation (1994) which was made to be a prequel for the live-action movie Zeriam (1991). The show is a short watch as it’s only six episodes but, is it worth your time to watch during this quarantine?
The narrative is a simple premise of a bounty hunter chasing a supposedly “indestructible” monster. It’s nice that the show had a simple premise because of the limited run time which made sure that every episode had impact and purpose. The w…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Iria: Zeiram the animation is a six episode OVA from Ashi Productions and Bandai Visual. If you've been following my reviews for a while you may recall Ashi as the ones behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Superman Legend. The OVA is actually set up as a prequel to a live action film from '91 called Zeiram. To be completely honest, I haven't seen the film in question and I'm not going to know how well it follows it. Basically, I'll be judging the OVA entirely as its own thing, is what I'm saying.
Story:
We open with our heroine using her Shine Aqua Illusion to bring in a baddie. Or she just beats him up. Unfortunately for her, a different bounty hunter shows up to steal the bounty away. We cut to later where she's conversing with her older brother about the situation while he prepares t…
Read at the sourceBowlingJD
Coming from a somewhat unknown studio, Ashi Productions, and an unknown director, Tetsuro Amino, there was much to speculate how decent this could be. An action story about a rookie bounty hunter named Iria, comes into a battle conflict against an unstoppable killing lifeform called a Zeiram.
With a plot straight to the point, live and get rid of the Zeiram, this anime knows what it is. Spanning as a 6 episode OVA series, each episode is different, yet a continuation on each other. Time continues between each episode until Iria must have another life and death battle between her and the Zeiram.
Even though the anime is on the short side, luckily, all the characters involved are fairly interesting and the viewer slowly sees Iria become more mature with each episode. There is plenty of act…
Read at the sourceSara_Isayama
Iria: Zeiram is a rare Gem of an anime. It features some things found in almost no other anime. The world design in particular is very unique. The houses, props, vehicles, and general setting are very unique to this anime, and you don't see anything like that in most other anime. The closest similarities I can think of would be Outlaw Star or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. It definitely stands out in terms of prop and world design.
Story wise, Iria is a unique and classic sci-fi anime. It takes place in a universe where there are many established planets that people live on that each have their own existing culture and customs. Iria is a bounty hunter apprentice, that is searching for answers surrounding the disappearance of her elder brother and mentor. Along the way a creature tha…
Read at the sourcejyagan0
Another anime classic that I caught on the Sci-Fi channel about 10 years ago. (C'mon, Sci-Fi, start showing anime again!) Iria: Zeiram the Animation is a 6 episode mini-series that actually be likened to a 3-hour action flick. Iria shines becuase of the world and chracters that are created. The characters themselves are well-done are show a good amount of depth and personality for a mini-series. Escpecially the titular character, Iria. Iria is a tough-as-nails bounty hunter who is just starting out, but her character is still that of a young woman. Strong but feminine. Iria is a great role-model for young women, and a good example of a strong woman. The character designs for this show are excellent. Done by the famous Masakazu Katsura (Video Girl Ai), each character is detailed and has a u…
Read at the sourcekekekeKaj
"Iria: Zeiram the Animation" is a pretty good action oriented OVA spanning across 6 half hour episodes. It tells the story of a young bounty hunter Iria's hunting of Zeiram, the most dangerous life form in the galaxy.
The weird opening theme, which sounds like some Sharon Apple song from "Macross Plus", feels out of place and put me off the anime initially. And not being the fastest anime off the block despite its short length, it took "Iria" a couple of episodes to catch my interest, but to its credit it gains more and more momentum as it goes on.
The action, though slightly sluggish at times, is overall solid enough to provide a good foundation for the enjoyment of "Iria: Zeiram the Animation", with the appropriately climatic climax being especially good. It's backed up by a pretty goo…
Read at the sourceQrowCosplay
This has to be one of my fav to this day. ITs got a great story line about a young female bounter hunter trying to make it in a man's world and follow in her brothers footsteps til the unthinkable happens and she's all alone. Now she has to Zeiram the alien who she thinks killed her brother.
Read at the sourcePatty_chan
First of all: Iria- Zeiram the Animation fits the sci-fi and adventure genres. If you are interested in watching this title, get prepared to watch some nice fighting scenes!
Story: Iria is a bounty hunter, and follows her brother´s footsteps.
She goes along with Gren (her brother) to a mission...and since that she won´t get satisfied until she destroys Zeiram...an alien lifeform created to kill and destroy.
The plot is fantastic! 10/10
Art: Even though the artwork isn´t recent, I think it is wonderful...the colors well chosen, the graphics well made and lets admit: Iria is a gorgeous bounty hunter!
10/10
Sound: The background music is very good! It is old and has some 80´s/90´s catch, and the OP is real good! At first you think it is a bit strange...^^ 9/10…
Read at the sourceevilelect
This is amoung the best, classic goodness. Great sci fi story great charecters especialy the zeiram and good animation for its time. I give it a 9 and would have given it a 10 if it werent for the bad english dub over.
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