冥王計画ゼオライマー / Hades Project Zeorymer

Excellent animation but...

Background

I'm quite sure most of our readers have found out about our love for Animé with lots of robots in. Today's review has been a sketch for a long time, because we wanted to avoid putting similar Animé analyses together since the "one after another" effect could lead into misunderstanding that Japanese animation either runs short in varied storytelling or is purely a derivative product for mass consumption. Both cases are wrong, of course. If there's one thing that makes Manga and Animé great, is that seasoned fans can detect the many nuances they can get from following a certain genre. Newcomers, on the other hand can easily feel lost and disturbed by the apparent lack of originality some of these works carry.

Hades Project Zeorymer, known in Japan as 冥王計画（プロジェクト）ゼオライマー  is a manga by Yoshiki Takaya, written under the pen name Chimi Moriwo, and published in the adult manga magazine Lemon People from October 1983 to November 1984. A three-part finale was serialized in Monthly Comic Ryū in 2007. A four episode OVA adaptation by AIC and Artmic tones down the explicit sexual content and deviates entirely from the manga storyline and setting, and yet that's this week's Animé in review.

Friends and foes.

These ladies need no men for protection.

The four episode OVA was produced by Youmex & Toshiba EMI through Artmic and AIC studios. Directed by the legendary Toshiki Hirano (Megazone 23, Fight! Iczer 1, Dangaio & Urusei Yatsura are a few of his works), the mecha designs were in charge of Yoshiki Takaya himself. each 25 minute episode aired from Nov 26, 1988 to Feb 21, 1990. Rated  R+ - (Mild Nudity) this little 80's story is a hit & miss among Animé fans. To some, HPZ is a "proto-Evangelion" and after carefully rewatching the OVA (on pristine Blu Ray. Last time was on bootleg VHS many years ago) and to other fans this is only a heartless cash grab. 

The official international release came in the year 2000 in the good old VHS tape format in two volumes. The DVD update came one year later, and it was also divided into two separate volumes. The import Blu ray edition was released in 2008, and you can track a copy for about US$75. Today's review, as above mentioned, is based upon the Blu Ray release.

An extended cast for such a short OVA series.

Looking good.

Review

The 80's OVA decade is a strange animal. At its height, it was responsible for titles like Megazone 23 and Aim For the Top! Gunbuster that pushed the limits of anime. Yet this "edginess" (admit it, everyone thought any animation coming from Japan was either edgy or gritty even if it wasn't) acts as an unpredictable two-edged sword that is the cause of such travesties as M.D. Geist and Angel Cop. Overdoing anything is a recipe for disaster, but without it, the style of anime wouldn’t have been as unique as it was. Case and point, Zeorymer, which doesn’t test its boundaries, and just ends up insipid on all sides. 

This 1988 OVA came out in the span of about a year and a half, and it stars a kid named Masato who's kidnapped by G men and told that his family life was a lie and he is an artificial human groomed to pilot the mecha Zeorymer. He doesn't take it too well at first, but soon accepts his fate to fight against Hau Dragon, an organization bent on world domination using their mecha known as "Hakkeshu", and seeking revenge on Zeorymer for being the mech stolen from them by a traitor. The Hakkeshu are a legion of fighters in Tekkoryu's employ that plan to use their own machines to take Zeorymer down. With the help of the beautiful Miku (nothing to do with Hatzune Miku) , his co-pilot, Masato must stop the approaching menace. It may be an impossible task, though, since there's a mystery lurking in Masato's DNA which may make him even more dangerous to the safety of the world than all the Hakkeshu combined.

 

Masato doing his job.

The Zeorymer, a cool mecha.

HPZ offers some of the best animation OVAs in 1988 had to offer. It's an absolutely beautiful series with great character designs and a nice use of light and darkness. The animation looks more like a film than a made-for-video series in some sections, which enhances the mood considerably. If you dig big robots fighting and want everything to look as cool as possible, Zeorymer is probably your ticket.

Let's talk about the mechs, because I actually quite like Yoshiki Takaya's designs. The Hakkeshu look very alien in appearance due to their lack of an obvious human base in design. They don't have two eyes or visors reflecting helmets, and instead their "eyes" are expressed by glowing orbs that are simply stuck in square compartments. They're very blocky and not aerodynamic with sharp or inconsistent shapes jutting out. They kind of look like relics or statues of mythical gods with how they defy any facial characterization. Omzack doesn't even have limbs, just being some sort of floating aquatic-like machine with several tails flowing behind it. Zeorymer itself is a massively overpowered machine which can still be cool if pulled off well, but what makes its strength kind of dull is the fact it doesn't really escalate. It feels as though it's about demonstrating the same level of power in every fight all the way to the end, and it's simply always enough to destroy the enemy machines in one blow while never being an any serious danger. The fights aren't very dynamic nor do they have complex choreography due to their slow pace, but they're entertaining enough due to the plot and character development that continues to unfold as they play out. Zeorymer also doesn't have particularly great animation, but when it does decide to show off some action it looks fluid. What's most commendable is just the excellent illustration. I love the shading here, and there are several great stills that are incredibly detailed with scene compositions that are focused and easy to follow, so this does feel like a production worthy of an OVA and it has solid direction. The imagery is great, but there isn't a lot of complex motion to marvel at. The soundtrack is decent, with the brassy "Awake! Zeorymer" and the angsty, cathartic ending theme "Crimson Loneliness" being the highlights.

Peeping Tom mecha.

Make love, not war!

Unfortunately, there's not much to recommend beyond the animation. Although Zeorymer promises hidden secrets and layered characters, it's all an excuse for a "robot of the week" show with tedious plotting and asinine characters. We already know the plot from the narrator who spoils things not five minutes in. However, we could still have moved on from there. Instead, we get the worst cliché in the book: the "send out one man after another to defeat the monolith" style of enemy. Now I know that not every criminal has read Sun Tzu's Art Of War or Napoleon's diaries, but you'd think these folks would start to learn. When faced with a deadly protagonist, send in all your folks at once and take him down definitively! That would make sense, but not in anime land. Zeorymer would have been no match for the whole of the Hakkeshu all at once, but it's never a situation faced. How annoying.

What's more unsettling is how the show breaks up internal logic for its character storylines. For example, Masato finds himself changing into an altogether nasty fellow when he gets angry, sort of like The Hulk but with a sarcastic disposition instead of muscles and lime green acne. Now that could make sense in a way; after all, he was programmed to be a fighter pilot who would someday take on the world. But instead (and skip this next part if you dislike spoilers)...he realizes that he is becoming his creator. And somehow, he literally has to fight turning into this horrific sadistic scientist. It's too much to bear--how would this guy's whole memory wind up implanted? The show doesn't explain, only using it to create pathos.

Nude babes!

Nude fighting!

I never thought I would chastise an ‘80s OVA for having too little carnage or porn. The animation is good enough that it wouldn’t come off as disgusting. Besides, as movies like Fist of the North Star have shown, the extra mile can go a long way when there is little else to play on. Granted Zeorymer could have always gone the preferred route and play to the ideas it leaves on the table. The series brings up some pretty interesting concepts having to do with abuse, exploitation, and even predestined servitude. Personally, I don’t really care for how they went about it. But that aside, the real issue is that it deals with these issues with very little follow-through. Let’s face it, that premise isn’t so creative that it can stand on its own, so the OVA really needed something beyond the same one note it had for every character to be meaningful.

I wish I could have recommended this title on action. I’m sorry I cannot. The animation quality and artwork are not bad at all, as stated above. However, there is no point to good looking animation if nothing is done with it. The fights mostly involve the robots slowly charging up some kind or energy blast while the other dodges it with no visible sense of urgency. And it was all done with no real choreography and no semblance of tension. Even something as incoherent and mind-numbing as M.D. Geist had movement in it.

No pubes! momma!

Wired fanservice.

Zeorymer in general just sort of ends unsatisfyingly. This OVA is full of a lot of great concepts that it doesn't have the breadth to pull off, so it ends up being emotionally limp due to weak set-ups that don't provide enough relationship detail or nuance to do its ideas justice, even though it has respectable ambition. The ideas that are still there such as the dark tone and psychological themes make it a decent enough watch for its run time even though they're minor, but it never ends up outdoing itself. I can safely recommend this to hardcore mecha fans or 80s/90s OVA junkies because it does enough to distinguish itself, but most people will probably think there just isn't enough here to leave a lasting impression. Zeorymer isn't a heavily flawed series, it just needed to actually be big rather than just think big. 

I got more and more depressed and bored as the series progressed, knowing that it was only going to get worse. And it did. By the time the tragic conclusion happens, I was ready to find out what was on TV. Hades Project Zeorymer has gorgeous artwork, nice explosions, a few naked people, and little else of any interest. If you're among its intended audience, you now know.

Sunny fanservice.

Here's a Blu ray clip (featuring the "Awake!" main theme song) , proving HD is the best that's happened to Animé:

The Manga Corps preview:

The ending featuring "Crimson Loneliness" sang by Yukio Yamagata:

破邪大星弾劾凰 [ダンガイオー] / Great Planet Evil-Destroyer Dangaio / Hyper Combat Unit Dangaio

A 3 episode lesson on how to design Animé.

Just so that we have a variety of OVAs in our humble blog, we'll move on from "so bad it's good" to "so good it should have had more episodes".

Hyper Combat Unit Dangaio (破邪大星ダンガイオー Haja Taisei Dangaiō) is an anime OVA series produced and animated by AIC and Artmic and released in Japan in 1987. The remaining episodes were released in 1988 & 1989  respectively. Dangaioh featured character designs by creator Toshiki Hirano, mechanical designs by Shoji Kawamori, and animation direction by Masami Ōbari. Moreover, much of the production crew from Fight! Iczer-1 worked on this series as well, on top of this, Mayumi Sho voices the protagonists of both series.

Disclaimer: Today's review is based upon the latest officially available edition from the OVA, that is, the Blu-Ray released in Japan in 2016, which contains the original three episodes in Japanese language only, without the wrong subtitles from the first VHS edition by U.S Renditions, released in 1990 with only the first episode. After the demise of U.S. Renditions in the mid-1990s, Manga Entertainment re-released Dangaioh in 1996 as Dangaioh: Hyper Combat Unit, which was an English-dubbed compilation of episodes 2-3. For reasons unknown, episode 1 was omitted from this release. This incomplete version was re-released on DVD in 2003 and you can find it for around $60 dollars in used markets. However, my humble recommendation is that you look for the 2016 Blu Ray Japanese import edition, because it's simply the best in quality.

Beautiful heroic ladies.

Beautiful heroic mecha!

If you Google Dangaio, the first thing you'll notice is that is misspelled "Dangioh". The second thing you'll notice is that most of the available reviews are based on the 1990 VHS tape, with poor subtitles that clearly spoil the experience, for even the mos enthusiast fans. Third, most of the reviews state that the series lacks heavily in the plot department, which again, has to do with either early import versions, or poor fan subs. Now, if you're like me, watching the official Japanese edition, things change drastically in terms of experience, so don't be fooled into thinking this little 80's gem is nothing but a piece of shit, because it isn't.

The story is pretty straight forward: 4 cybernetically enhanced random people with psychic powers wake up in the middle of a war, knowing nothing but the fact they want to get out of there as soon as they can. Little do they know, they were specially trained to pilot the Dangaio, the ultimate space robot. 

Character wise, internet people have complained they're underdeveloped, and that we never learn anything from their lives. Wrong! fucking wrong! maybe paying attention and learning to read will improve the experience. Mia Alice, the leader of the team has psychic powers that could easily scare away the X-Men's Phoenix, yet she hates violence, and doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Pai Thunder, is her opposite, a very strong woman with fighting skills that would make a great match for She-Hulk. Lambda Nom, the youngest and weakest member of the team. She hardly remembers how to summon her kinetic energy powers. And last but not least, the only man in the gang, Rol Kuran, gifted with kinetic super speed. Altogether, they fly the coolest airplanes that can form the Dangaio super robot. As every episode goes by, they meet different people from their past, so they do have moments where they remember where they come from or what they used to do or work for in the past. Doctor Tarsan, is the scientist behind the group, and while he works for the bad guys, he always finds a way to let his children be free and use the Dangaio for dealing with evil doers (his own bosses). 

Fuck you!

Teamwork.

Plot wise, our four heroes have to either escape or face the Bunkers led by Yoldo and his minions (they all seem to have been designed as homage to 70's/early 80's super robot villains). Out of all of them Gil Berg (who looks exactly like Roy Fokker) is the one that stands out, and has a hidden agenda towards Mia Alice. Unfortunately, with only three episodes, I really felt had they made more episodes, the overall rating of this greatly underrated OVA would have been very different. To put it in simpler terms, we all want to cum, so when we're about to, it's not nice to be left there hopeless.  

A new 13-episode series named Great Dangaioh ran from April 5, 2001 through July 5, 2001 on TV Asahi in Japan. The series was created and directed by Hirano, and produced by AIC. Hirano's wife, Narumi Kakinouchi, was the animation director. Originally perceived as a completely different story, the series was revealed halfway as the sequel to the OVA series.

The series was licensed in North America by Viz Media, featuring an English dub produced in the Philippines by Telesuccess Productions.

Music wise, I'd say the soundtrack is a clear "throwback" to the 1970's super robot Animé shows, therefore, it could be again misunderstood by younger audiences who'd prefer to stick to 80's synth wave, basically because this is an OVA from that decade. Homage is a good thing kids. "Cross Fight" by Mitsuko Horie & Ichiro Mizuki is the opening theme for the first two episodes, while  "Cheap Thrills" by Hidemi Nakai, is the more updated rock theme opening the last episode. "Kokoro no Honesty (Honesty of the Heart)" and "Who's Gonna Win" are the ending themes by Mitsuko Horie and Hidemi Nakai respectively. The official soundtrack was released on CD in 2007.

The original 1990 U.S. Renditions VHS tape.

The fantabulous Blu Ray set!

The animation style and mecha design is perhaps one of the best I've seen in my 36 years of life. You can tell the show has Shoji Kawamori all over! Even some of the designs are hints at what he'd do in future Macross sequels. The color palette is also brilliant! You can see the 80's vividly alive and well in this OVA. Moreover, the HD remaster is easily a top 5 of all the classic Animé that have received the same treatment in the last 10 years. Strangely enough, the third episode is not as pristine as the first two. Probably, producers lost the original reels, or they were damaged at some point so they had to work with what was left. Anyway, the art made for this OVA could easily be a 101 lesson on how to design classic Animé characters/Mecha, and no, I'm not biased, just honest. 

Hyper Combat Unit Dangaio is an 80's homage/update of the original super robot Animé genre from the 60's & 70's where you used to have a team of young members that had unique skills that allowed them to control a fantastic giant robot. Usually, the bad guys had demonic looks and would be hidden far away in a super secret planet/fortress. On each episode the heroes would face a "villain of the week" type of enemy until the series would reach its climax and get into the real final battle. Since Dangaio is only three episodes, we don't really get the luxury of seeing our heroes face the big bad guy. Instead, we're given an unexpected revenge that leaves an open ending, suggesting there could be more episodes in the future. Obviously, none of this happened, and the 2001 remake series is only 50% a sequel that also failed to have an ending since it was cut short from 26 to only 12 episodes due to poor ratings.

The most powerful robot in the universe!

Mia Alice may look weak but...

Overall, don't let other people ruin the experience of witnessing forgotten history. Dangaio is the second OVA ever to be brought to the USA by the late U.S. Renditions (the other being Gunbuster). The artistic work by Shoji Kawamori is reason alone for you to get the fantastic Blu-Ray release of this underrated , and clearly not seen by many online reviewers, super robot homage adventure. Moreover, here you have a story with a lot of pros: Great voice acting (the original Japanese actors, that is), awesome movie-like quality character designs, great animation, giant robots, and the overall look of the whole story makes me think this is an A+ OVA series in my book. 

The cons? there are no cons! save for you not running to find a copy of it!

The opening for the first two OVAs, with the highly criticized by "overnight experts" dated theme:



Same opening but in stunning HD as taken from the Blu-Ray release:



"Kokoro No Heart" the song used in the opening for the third OVA (I didn't find the opening, sorry): 



The ending:



A fan made AMV to push you into craving for some Dangaio:



Manga Entertainment's Dangaio trailer:



The Dangaio action figure set: