Iczer

Lesbians, robots, and Body Horror.

The Iczer series is a group of three OVA series directed by Toshihiro Hirano: 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.

In the first series, Fight! Iczer-One, when the Earth is invaded by the 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, the being that controlled the Cthulhu. 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 descendent of Nagisa Kano.

In Iczelion, Chaos and 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 used in Iczer include:

• 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.
• Bolivian Army Ending: A positive one in Iczelion
• Captain Ersatz: Nova in the second season of Magic Knight Rayearth is clearly based on Iczer-2.
• 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.
• 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 their more adult counterparts.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Big Gold, while on the outside female, was voiced by male seiyuu Kaneto Shiozawa
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: When Iczer-1 and Nagisa synchronize.
  • Iczer-2 gets one in Iczer-3. After she utterly curbstomps Iczer-3, Golem bombards the area and says that that makes the victory hers. Iczer-2 confronts Golem, who says that Neos only needs her, and fires a shot. Iczer-2's response? She tells Golem that she's a loser, dodges the shot, and neatly bisects her.
• 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.
• Cute Bruiser: Iczer-3
• Dark Action Girl: Iczer-2
• Defeat Means Friendship: Iczer-2 in Iczer-3
• Damsel in Distress: Nagisa, a lot of the time.
• Dual-Wielding: Iczer-3 and Atros use dual Laser Blades.
• Evil Redhead: Iczer-2
• Five-Bad Band: In Iczer-3
  • Big Bad: Neos Gold
  • The Dragon: Golem
  • The Brute: Insect
  • Evil Genius: Fiber
  • Dark Chick: Bigro
  • Sixth Ranger: Atros and Iczer-2. Both make Heel Face Turns.
• For the Evulz: Chaos and Cross in Iczelion destroy planets for pleasure.
• Four Is Death: Neo Gold's Four Masters of Heaven. Guess what happens to them. Go on, guess.
• 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
• Laser Blade: All the Iczers wield these. In Iczelion, Kawaii has Beam Boomerangs.
• Laser Guided Tykebomb: Iczer-2 and Atros
• Lighter and Softer: Iczer-3 and Iczelion, in comparison to Iczer-One.
• Lostalgia: Made in 1985, the Iczer story is unlikely to ever be continued, despite being a fan favourite at the time, and enjoying some renewed popularity from its debut in Super Robot Wars L.
  • The several prequel and spinoff manga also count, none of which were ever concluded.
• 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 a Tear Jerker for sure, 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.
• Narm: The dub of Iczer-1. It's an early 90s dub, so what do you expect?
• Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Iczer-3 is the second OVA.
• One-Gender Race: The Cthulhu
• Ordinary High School Student: Nagisa
• Powered Armor: The Iczels in Iczelion transform into this.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Cthulhu and Iczers.
• 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.
• Shout-Out: The First Fuji ship in Iczer-1 has design similarities (exagerated) 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.
• Super Robot Wars: Iczer 1 and 3 have debuted in Super Robot Wars L.
• Tear Jerker: At the climax of Iczer-One, where Nagisa, mind controlled into attacking Iczer-One, pleads Iczer-One to kill her and save the Earth.
  • Atros' death.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Iczer-3 is voiced by pro wrestler Cutey Suzuki. 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 literally half her own minions.
• Yuri