Iria: Zeriam The Animation CPM 162 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles Released: 08/26/1998 Reviewed: 08/

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I figured that since I'd already spent a good amount of time writing about realistic space action this week that I might as well go all the way and write something about the most unrealistic stuff I could find. It's sort of like the yin and yang of space travel, only without a lot of the weird metaphors and stuff. We strive to present you with only the best in themed review weeks here at fan-service.org. Iria and I have our fair share of fond memories. Some years ago, during the beginnings of my anime fandom, I would sit down in front of the Sci-Fi channel on Saturday mornings and watch whatever it presented for me to watch. Oh, those were the days! Demon City Shinjuku and 8th Man After filled the cable channels, flowing like milk and honey from the land of Canaan. All free and irresponsibly censored, it was something of a golden age for me. When I could barely scrape $4 together for a cheesesteak, much less $30 for an anime tape, I found Sci-Fi an oasis of fun where. In this place, for two hours a week, I could let my imagination run rampant with mediocre cartoons from the mysterious East.

Iria has a fairly unstable pedigree, spawned from the mind of Keita Amemiya (director of the positively delicious Mechanical Violator Hakaider), just a few years after the release of the live action movie Zeiram. I recall the film in question being just about as piss-poor a movie can be when it's about bounty hunters and spaceships. I'm not positive if the original movie having such a bizarre Middle-Eastern/Outer Space fusion aesthetic, but it has been some time since I laid eyes on it. You never know, but if it didn't... that's about the one thing it had going for it. Since I remember basically jack about Zeiram, I'm going to assume that Iria is a prequel. My conclusion is primarily based on the fact that nobody seems to know who Zeiram (the evil alien) is and Bob is a large black man instead of a little robot voice trapped inside Iria's armpiece. In a rather crushing first episode Iria is forced to sacrifice both her brother and (the large and black) Bob as she escapes from a bounty gone awry. What should've been a routine rescue mission was complicated by a rather surly monster that more closely resembles a nomadic desert warrior-cum-robot than he does an intergalactic alien menace.

That's Zeiram. Apparently he's a [quote] bad-assed space creature [unquote] and he starts to dig on Iria something fierce. He follows her throughout the galaxy, blowing up his fair share of minuet-towered buildings and bamboo war tanks along the way. My guess is that he shares my intense confusion of the show's "out there" design aesthetic and his desire to blow things up is second only to his desire to bang one out with Iria. I would postulate that it's the short hair and her 'devil may care' attitude, both of which are very attractive qualities in a lady... but I suppose it's also possible that he wants to absorb her using a variety of slimy tentacles. Normally when I want to get a girl's attention I just act loud around her and beat my chest, but hey, whatever works dude. It is through Zeiram's base physical desires that Iria comes upon her ingenious plan to kill the relentless beast. During a scene of absorption -- one so graphic that I'm sure has a strong internet fetish following -- Iria has the brilliant epiphany that hundreds of soldiers and bounty hunters across the vast eternity of space couldn't figure out. The bizarre face/tentacle on Zeiram's forehead, the very same tentacle that it uses to attack like ten times in every freaking episode, is its weakspot!! Armed with this knowledge it's a rather simple affair for Iria to slay the beast and call it a day

Having such a painfully obvious weakness on your villain makes for a bit of a lackluster of an ending, but the show is manageable enough up to that point so I'm willing to call it a draw. I'm just saying that if I designed a crazy space alien I'd probably put the weakspot somewhere other than its face. I'd certainly avoid sticking on it on the appendage most likely to be used in an all-out attack. There are other minor nit-picks along the way, like the question of why the show really needs an annoying little boy sidekick that eventually, and for no discernible reason, is revealed to be a little girl sidekick. It's fortunate that fight scenes and high-wire grappling hook action crop up enough to distract the viewer from such burning questions. I couldn't in good faith say that Iria was a great show. As far as unstoppable space monsters go, Zeiram's kind of weak, but one rotten potato (alien) isn't going to ruin the whole stew. The show's old enough that my nostalgia centers start firing and that's basically all she wrote. This show is from a simpler time, as evidenced by a strange lack of butt or boob shots. Like I was saying over on the Planetes side, there's relatively few good space dramas left out there and we should take what we can get. I can deal with a few pony-tailed robots if the end result is short haired tuff-girls kicking alien ass.