The Iczer series is a group of three OVA series directed by Toshiki Hirano note : Fight! Iczer-One (3 episodes, 1985-7), Adventure! Iczer-3 (6 episodes, 1992 — The US DVD release was retitled Iczer Reborn) , and Iczer Girl Iczelion (2 episodes, 1995). There are also the manga Golden Warrior Iczer-One and Legend of Iczers, and the Dangaioh vs Iczer-One audio drama. Fight! Iczer-One and Iczer-3 appear in Super Robot Wars L for the Nintendo DS.
The original manga was a full on Hentai in the Lemon People Manga, with (ironically, given how dark hentai is known for often being) a lighthearted feel, and lots of sex. The pornographic elements were removed and the story was made much Darker and Edgier for the anime OVA release.
In the first series, Fight! Iczer-One, when the Earth is invaded by the otherworldly android, Big Gold, and her/its fleet of mysterious female aliens called the Cthulhu (or Cthuwulf, in some translations), the being called Iczer-1 arrives to fight them. To do this, she must find a synchronisation partner among the humans. The partner, Nagisa Kano, is someone who has been particularly traumatised by the events of the invasion, and Iczer-One must persuade her to aid against the alien menace.
In the second series, Iczer-3, Iczer-One has been hunting down the spawn of Big Gold. When she is wounded in battle against the most powerful of these, Neos Gold, Neos launches an invasion of Earth, and Iczer-One is forced to send her younger sister, Iczer-3, to stop her, alongside a descendant of Nagisa Kano.
In Iczelion, Chaos and his sister Cross, two more of Big Gold's spawn, invade. This time, Iczels, androids with the ability to synchronise with humans, are sent to help defend the Earth, and one of the recipients is another version of Nagisa.
Blending elements of Tokusatsu, Horror, and Yuri, Fight! Iczer-One is a dark, mature story that was quite popular at the time of release. It retains a small but dedicated fanbase in both Japan and the west, and is, for a surprising number of older anime fans, one of the first anime series they had seen. The sequels are Lighter and Softer, concentrating more on action, although the horror elements from the original don't entirely disappear.
Tropes:
- Action Girlfriend: Iczer-1 is a Yuri version of this.
- Anyone Can Die: No, being a main character in this series does not give you Plot Armor. Just ask Nagisa. Though she got better.
- Art Evolution: The design of the mecha differ between the first episode, and the later episodes of the original OVA. Due to swapping out the original designer with animator Masami Obari.
- Bolivian Army Ending: A positive one in Iczelion.
- Bleached Underpants: It should be no surprise to anyone that this series originally began as a hentai manga (which won't be linked here for obvious reasons), much like several other series Hirano directed, though the underpants aren't quite as bleached as other examples due to this being an OVA.
- The Cameo: Look for a blink and you'll miss it appearance from Kamille and Fa as well as Tetsuo in a crowd scene in the first episode of the Iczer-1 OVA.
- Captain Ersatz: Nova in the second season of Magic Knight Rayearth is clearly based on Iczer-2, which Hirano even admits.
- Cat Girl: The original Lemon People manga version of Iczer-1 had cat ears. For the anime, they were changed to the elf-like ears that are more familiar to most viewers.
- Chest Burster: A good part of the horror in Iczer-1.
- Colorful Theme Naming: The Cthulhu.
- Combat Tentacles: One of the Cthulhus' primary weapons. They are sometimes confused for a more adult tentacle trope.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Played straight as a razor for everybody on Earth but Nagisa, who are a Redshirt Army at the absolute best. Even on the Lighter and Softer continuations, the Cthulhu and Neo Gold have a preference for making their abominations as hair-raising as possible.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Iczer-3 gets a brutal beatdown courtesy of her older sister Iczer-2. Even a Theme Music Power-Up doesn't help her.
- Crossover: With Dangaioh in a Drama CD
- Cute Bruiser: Iczer-3.
- Damsel in Distress: Nagisa, a lot of the time.
- Dark Action Girl: Iczer-2.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Iczer-2 in Iczer-3.
- Dual Wielding: Iczer-3 and Atros use dual Laser Blades.
- Evil Redhead: Iczer-2.
- For the Evulz: Chaos and Cross in Iczelion destroy planets for pleasure.
- Four Is Death: Neo Gold's Four Masters of Heaven.
- Gorn: While not quite as gruesome as some other examples, the first OVA contains some rather graphic sequences featuring human characters being torn apart from the inside by the Cthulhu. Particular mention must go to Nagisa's semi-hallucination during class in episode one, where she sees one of the Cthulhu inside a gaping wound in the back of her classmate's head.
- Hero Killer: Iczer-2. She was a terrifying opponent even for Iczer-1 in the first series, and in the second, she shows she has not undergone Villain Decay.
- Identical Granddaughter: Nagisa Kasumi/Nagisa Kai
- Idol Singer: Kiiro in Iczelion
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: For a Naïve Everygirl, Nagisa from Iczer One shows a lot of leg, and fills up her mini-dress really, really well. Concept art and some very sexy
◊ promotional materials make it clear just how much the obvious T&A angle is played up here. - Laser Blade: All the Iczers wield these. In Iczelion, Kawaii has Beam Boomerangs.
- Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Iczer-2 and Atros.
- Lighter and Softer: Iczer-3 and Iczelion, in comparison to Iczer-One.
- Make My Monster Grow: After getting her ass kicked by Iczer-3, Insect turns into a giant insect (natch).
- Mama Bear: In retrospect, stomping on Sayoko with your mecha doesn't seem like such a good idea, does it, Iczer-2?
- Moral Myopia: The Cthulhu are very prone to this. Sepia's grief over Cobalt's death is sad, but Sepia forgets that her beloved was mass-murdering Earthlings. Possibly justified by the fact that the Cthulhu simply don't think killing humans is evil, just as we humans don't think killing cockroaches is evil.
- No Ending: While all of the anime and Drama CD works had proper conclusions, the prequel manga Golden Warrior Iczer One, and the alternate universe manga Legend of the Iczers, never had proper conclusions and both ended on a cliffhanger. Hilariously enough, Hirano himself hung a lampshade on this in Legend of the Iczers.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Iczer-3 is the second OVA.
- Red Shirt: The Fuji ships in Iczer-One are essentially red shirt battleships, although the Queen Fuji from Iczer-3 manages to last until the end.
- Reset Button: At the end of the first OVA series, one returns Earth to its pre-invasion state, with Nagisa's parents (and Sayoko's mom) still alive.
- Shout-Out: The First Fuji ship in Iczer-1 has design similarities (exaggerated) from the Gotengo from the film Atragon.
- Super Robot: Iczer Robo, Iczer Sigma, Delos Theta. Fight! Iczer-1 is notable for being one of the first works to feature mecha with organic components.
- World of Action Girls
- Wrestler in All of Us: Iczer-3 is voiced by retired pro wrestler Cutey Suzuki (at least
in the OVA version). In Iczelion, Nagisa wants to be a pro wrestler, and uses wrestling moves in battle. They aren't terribly effective until the end. - You Have Failed Me: Neo Gold has a seemingly pathological fondness for this trope. In fact, her fortress probably wouldn't have been so easily stormed if she hadn't killed off half her own minions.
- Yuri Genre: A darker take.
