Rating: Summary: Good Idea , Poorly Executed Review: I had very high hopes for this anime, but was sorely dissapointed. The idea and design of Iria and Zeram was great. I had watched the live action version and had expected more from the anime version. The pace was too slow and the soundtrack died in spots essential to making it more exciting. The story itself was very shallow. With plot and pace being so lack luster, it becomes easy to overlook the outstanding job of animation. Artwork is the only reason why I rate this better than a 1. This is , if you watch it objectively, an example of anime failure.
Rating: Summary: Well Executed, though... Review: Iria: Zeiram the Animation is an interesting series, to say the least. First, you must note that the series is only six episodes long, whereas many other popular animation series are 26 (Neon Genesis Evangelion) to 93 (Rurouni Kenshin). The problem lies in this. The character development in Iria is weak. Very weak. I didn't find myself able to connect with the characters at important parts of the plot. Iria presents herself nicely, though. She's got a bombshell hairstyle, and looks spectacular in her cloak. Her personality is an interesting one, although you must watch it to really understand it. Development of other characters: Forget it, there is none. The animation is superb, the plot I'd give maybe three stars out of five. What Iria fights is interesting. Quite original, actually. However, there are many things wrong. Iria is caught in massive crossfire where the screen is flooded with gunfire. More than once, she escapes unscathed. Impossible. Despite it's shortcomings, I find myself easily able to look past them. Iria herself is an amazing character with amazing hair and manages to kick the stuffing out of just about everything. (She's got that beauty mark under her left eye. I love it.) Pick it up, you might like it. It's the entire series, also, so it's a one-time deal for those of you who like having the complete sets of everything.
Rating: Summary: Iria:Zeiram the Animation Pros and Cons Review: Iria:Zeiram the Animation is in my opinion one of the greatest Import DVDs I've ever bought. I first saw it on the sci-fi channel a while back, and I figured that it would be worth it to buy the DVD when I got a chance. It has an epic storyline and interesting characters. Zeiram is a rather interesting bad guy, mainly because you learn something new about him every episode, and Iria is the perfect heroine for this picture. However, there are still some problems. First off, the picture quality is not what you'd expect from a DVD. It's comparable to that of VHS at best, regardless of what DVD player you use. Also, the ending is kinda predictable if you pay attention to what is going on, and the music starts to get cheesy after a while. However, these are minor problems in the long run. If you're looking for a good 3 hours of beautiful animation that rarely gets boring, this is perfect for you, not to mention that this is the only way to get all six episodes in one.
Rating: Summary: My favorite anime of all time! Review: This anime title is the best of it's kind. It has a nicely developed plot, a incredible monster, spellbinding animation, and the greatest anime heroine ever: Iria! She is a strong female character yet she isn't mean spirited. There is a shortage of strong female characters who don't have a mean streak. Iria is on the top of the heap. She is also extremely HOT man! The only other anime to rival my love for this movie is Sol Bianca, which has the same exact amount of charm. Buy Iria immediately if you love anime.
Rating: Summary: Very good value for money Review: When I buy DVDs I'am always worried about the transfer quality, but I need'nt of worried - this is a top quality DVD product and it clocks just under three hours to boot! The story is not one of the best but the character development is done well and is well worth watching. Basically because of the VFM and quality Iria:zeiram is well worth getting.
Rating: Summary: Gut-wrenching. Review: "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" is a thriller/horror/sci-fi. It concerns Iria, who must slay the evil Zeriam. The two terrifying conflicts this anime provides are A) a fantastic enemy, and B) waiting for this worthless piece of garbage to end. Plauged by poor writing, unbelievible fight sequences, and more, Zeriam is better left alone. Its stars Iria, the younger sibling of her big brother, Gren. Iria admires Gren greatly. She follows him around, assisting him in his bounty hunting job. The anime starts with Iria saving three girls from a criminal. Before she nabs the criminal, however, a rival of Iria's flys down and grabs him, claiming the bounty for himself. Iria travels back to her brother, and he tells her that he has to board and investigate the "Karma", a ship that has been hijacked by an unknown assailant. Gren must hurry, however, becuase he must rescue the few survivors before the authorities arrive. But when Gren, Iria, and Grens companion, Bob arrive at the ship, they find more than they bargained for: a indistructible demon-like beast called Zeiram that is hellbent on killing Bob, Gren and Iria. I"ll start with the good stuff first, The animation and art quality. The art quality is great.Many of the mecha and set designs have a decidedly turn-of-the-century Chinese/Japanese design and feel, and it looks very interesting. Character designs are above average. Uniquely drawn, Iria looks perfect as the gun-happy heroine of the series. However, her personalitie seems completly lifted from a Masamune Shirow work. Her friend Kei looks very sterotypical, with his sling-shot and spikey hair. Frame-rates are exceptional, and do not hinder the detail of the drawings. Zeriam himself had a frightening design. Big and tall, Zeriam has a black blob where his head should be. The blob has a face on it that looks like a pale mask, and the face can strech out at his foes. Now the bad. The story is uninspired and boring, and many of the key plot elements seem to have been completely lifted from "Alien". In addition, viewers are forced to withstand chessy plot cliche's. It seemed as if the boundries and rules set in the universe of "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" where constantly forgotten, and gave "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" a unbelevable feeling. For example, Zeriam survives a explosion the size of a atom bomb and hundereds of bullets, yet a rising kick or a rock from a sling-shot stop him in his tracks. Even the characters behaved in unnatural ways. For example, Iria idolizes her brother, yet he dies, and she carelessly takes a nap. Completely emotionless. Being a horror title, one can expect some violence. In the first episode, Bob is getting torn apart by Zeriam while Iria is having a calm conversation with someone else. Unfortunatly, "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" tends to have unnesscary scenes in which tons of children are shot down by Zeriam. All in all, "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" is overrated story that is deprived of good storytelling, characterazation, and lack of realism. It's not even fun to watch. If you are looking for a good cyberpunk with a good story, "Battle Angel" or "Ghost in a Shell" would be good choices. Or if you want a anime high in entertainment value, try "Plastic Little". "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" is unpleasant.
Rating: Summary: Iria... GREAT story... Incredible action Review: Anime while at times is incredible is also at times one of the boringest things I have ever sceen. I personally love anime for the detail in the shows but at times they put me to sleep. I got my Iria DVD in the mail and figured I would pop it in and watch an episode now and another one later ( there are 6 episodes on the DVD about 3hrs of footage ). Since there was about 3hrs on the DVD I figured there was NO way I could sit through all of it during one sitting... MAN WAS I WRONG! From the begining to the end I was hooked. This show is none stop action and entertainment. Man, I paused this DVD everytime I had to leave the room, I didn't want to miss a second of it. I loved every hour of it and plan to watch it again soon. GREAT SHOW... BUY IT!
Rating: Summary: Not really complete... Review: The final evaluation of this DVD is that the story is not "finished", just like a first draft. With a bit more work and less ustilization of "jumps into back episodes" to reuse the animations and make some extra time, it would be much better.
Rating: Summary: VERY, VERY BIG GUN! Review: I remember seeing this on Sci Fi several years ago. It was so great, I actually stayed up until 6 AM to watch it all. And the rest of the series was just a masterpiece. Who else would have guessed Kei was a girl? I love this anime and its very, very big guns. I definetly reccomend it to you.
Rating: Summary: Great anime but a lousy DVD Review: This is a great anime series. It's a creative story; artfully told. It's much better than the live action movie (Zeiram) that inspired it. Unfortunately, the DVD is a real waste of money. Image Entertainment opted for very heavy compression on this single layer disc and, in doing so, created a title with serious problems: motion artifacts, heavy pixelization, chroma noise, decompression artifacts, ghosting and a fairly unimpressive mix on the soundtrack. The problems are many, frequent and extremely distracting. The end product looks like a QuickTime movie. The flaws in this DVD nearly ruin the enjoyment of this otherwise excellent anime. I've seen both and a VHS tape of this title blows the DVD out of the water. This title should have been released on a dual layer DVD.
|