Iczelion

Original Title: 戦-少女 イクセリオン
Romanized: Ikusa-Shoujo Ikuserion
Literal: War-Girl Iczelion

Plot Synopsis

A bad man and his equally bad sister are busy taking a big bunch of evil monsters around the universe blowing up happy planets at will. The only thing standing in their way are the Iczel, suits of bio-armor that merge with other beings to become powerful warriors. They haven't managed to stop the onslaught yet, but when Earth becomes the next target, human hosts may be just what they need to turn the tables. Only one problem--one of the Iczels has chosen Nagisa, a high school girl lacking the confidence to be an intergalactic defender. Will she work out her feelings in time to save the planet?

Quick Review

Rating: 1 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-11-26

Iczelion is color-coded battlesuit girl anime spiffed up with nice animation but stripped of anything even resembling backstory or plot. Between the juvenile storyline, silly antics of the chibified Iczers walking around when they're not attached to girls, and a string of vapid 30-second character introductions you'd think 8-year-olds were the target audience, but there's enough bloody violence and fanservice by way of transformation sequences and short skirts that even that demographic probably shouldn't be watching it.

The only audience left is split between late night hecklers who'll find it so vacuous that there's plenty to mock and folks with a short attention span and an inordinately strong desire to see cute girls blowing up giant, ugly monsters.

US DVD Review

No US-release DVD exists as of this writing.

Content Guide

Not terribly objectionable, but bits of nudity and some bloody violence add up to probably at least a 13-up, 16-up if you're strict.

Violence: 3 - Not particularly graphic, but a few people do die, and there is blood.

Nudity: 2 - A few close-up transformation flashes.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Zip.

Language: 1 - Nothing worth mentioning.

Notes and Trivia

The first part of the original Japanese title would ordinarily be read "Ikusa-Shoujo", but the English text in the background of the box indicates that it's probably intended to be read "Ikusa-Girl," meaning "War-girl" or something similar. Iczelion, which is supposed to be pronounced "ick-sel-i-on," is a play on that same word "ikusa" as was the original Iczer ("ik-ser") series that precedes this one.

And on that note, there is a collection of sci-fi series that can be considered related to Iczelion. The two animated incarnations are Iczer-1 and Iczer-3, and there's also a short series of manga titled "Doll" (not translated to my knowledge). I have no knowledge of the other animated incarnations, but the manga is at the very least better than this.

Availability

Was originally available in the US from ADV on a single subtitled or dubbed volume, both now out of print.

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