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4.0 out of 5 stars
Rainbow Robots from Outer Space!, July 25, 2002
High school student Nagisa Kono has been having strange dreams, of late. Faceless nightmare figures haunt and pursue her. Soon, the nightmares manifest in her waking life - first by hallucination, and then in reality. Finally, her parents transform into something monstrous and attack her - and not just them, but other people on the block, as well. What is going on?
As Nagisa's neighborhood begins turning into a Lovecraftian battle zone, a guardian angel appears to Nagisa to inform her of her special destiny. The angel's name is Iczer One, and she is a warrior robot specifically designed and engineered to connect with Nagisa and repel the invasion of the Cthuwulf, a predatory alien race with designs on Earth. Earth's planetary defense forces are fully aware of the problem and dealing with it as best they can - but if Nagisa does not assist Iczer One, they will shortly be overwhelmed.
This is one of the best - and most accessible - of the early style Japanime titles. It suffers from the usual drawbacks of the genre, namely from an overkill of more sci-fi story elements than can easily be comprehended in a short period of time and a music score consisting for the most part of bad '70s disco.
However, its assets easily outweigh its shortcomings. The first installation does little more than lay out the exposition and set up the rousing battles to come, but it does so with great style. The coloring is exceptionally vivid, the artwork clean. The story is gripping, and interestingly developed. As is usual in this genre, the spaceships and monsters get a lot of airtime, and are pretty memorable - the latter looking like varied oversized hybrid insects. The alien spaceships include a giant flying pyramid and a hollow moon.
The characters are what make this piece work, almost all of whom are female and gorgeous, and virtually the entire alien lot of which are designated solely by names of a single color: Cobalt, Sepia, Sir Violet and Big Gold, etc. There is the usual suggestion of homoeroticism, but that element and a single brief semi-nude shower scene are both sufficiently tame and subtle that they are safely viewable by any pre-teenager - the violence is actually more graphic than the mild sex, with the monsters emerging parasitically from inside human host bodies, tearing them apart in the process.
This video does not stand well by itself, failing to come to a conclusion and requiring its second half for true satisfaction. But it is a good first half, and succeeds in doing what it sets out to do - which is to convince you to buy Part 2, and watch the rest of the story.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An anime classic!, August 25, 1999
Realistically, the alien invasion comes and goes too quickly... BUT the action, the story, and the characters are so involving that you don't think about that. Instead, you are drawn into a dark, surreal world of monsters, power, loyalty and emotion. Excellent representative of anime at its best!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great ending to a great anime, April 16, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Iczer-One 2 [VHS] (VHS Tape)
If you were lucky enough to pick up the first two volumes, then you must get this. I also must say that the mech designs I felt had vastly improved over the previous two acts and although the battles may be short, they are spectacular. A must see anime classic.
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