FIGHT: ICZER-1 (1985)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*


ICZER-1 (the name very loosely translates as "Warrior-One") remains one of the most popular OVAs of the 1980s anime boom, both in Japan and in America. Yet the ICZER franchise remains an odd outlier, one which was not exploited by numerous follow-ups as with, say, GUNDAM and DRAGONBALL. According to the best online history I've found, the site AALTOMIES, the core concept began as a two-episode manga in the tradition of the subgenre *yuri,* or "girl-on-girl" porn. Artist Rei Aran created two of the main characters, Iczer and Nagisa, who utilize a giant robot, Iczer Robo, to battle invading aliens, but Aran did not continue the concept to any great extent. The three-part OVA, directed by Toshihiro Hirano, built upon Aran's designs, excised explicit sexuality and emphasized lots and lots of "body horror" graphics, including implied but not literal "tentacle sex." But perhaps even more integral to ICZER's success as a video production was that Hirano countered all the dripping, oozing horror with a noble, super-powerful heroine, roughly the equivalent of having the monsters of H.P. Lovecraft taken out by one of Robert E. Howard's musclebound stalwarts.


Hirano's ICZER so emphasizes non-stop kinetic action that the storyline is barely comprehensible on a logical level. Not until the third of the three "acts" does the viewer get even a partial history of the invading aliens, the "Cutowolf" (Japanese for "Cthulhu"), and how Iczer-1, an android, escaped the control of the aliens and decided to prevent them from conquering the planet Earth. In the first act, one only knows that the Cutowolf are making a series of random-seeming attacks on Earth, none of which seem ideal for either subduing or exterminating the native population. The aliens have three basic methods of attack. One is to unleash "Vedims," amorphous beasts that can infest Earth-people and turn them into disgusting monsters (only once does Hirano show one of the creatures directly taking over an Earthman, jumping on the unfortunate fellow after the manner of the "face-hugger" from 1979's ALIEN.) The second attack-method is to use "Voids," heavily-armed cyborgs, which appear to be more amorphous beasties, wearing heavy armor and wielding super-weapons. Lastly, the Cutowolf have skyscraper-sized mecha-warriors, which would seem to be the most efficacious weapon, given that every time they're used, the titanic robots wipe the floor with any Earth-forces that oppose them. The mecha-warriors have to be driven by at least one sentient pilot, though it's implied (never explained) that the power of the robots can be enhanced by having a sort of "co-pilot," if said co-pilot can "synchronize'  with the pilot.

Apparently when Iczer-1 escaped the control of the beings who made her, she took one of these mecha-warriors, Iczer-Robo, with her. Iczer is a formidable warrior who can take out numerous Voids and Vedims with both her super-strength and her energy-powers, which can be fired either from her hands or through an energy-sword. (The sword is surely indebted to the STAR WARS lightsaber, though it's never clear how the thing works, since Iczer wears no scabbard and the sword just pops up whenever she happens to need it). However, Iczer knows that she needs an advantage to battle  the Cutowolf's own giant warriors, so she seeks a teenaged Earth-girl, Nagisa Kano. Again, there's no explanation as to how Iczer senses that Nagisa has the psychic abilities needed, nor does Hirano waste any time explaining how the Cutowolf also locate Nagisa. Some Vedims transform Nagisa's family into monsters, and Iczer is forced to slay them all. Having failed to kill Nagisa, the Cutowolf unleash upon Japan a giant robot, Delos Theta, piloted by a hot-chick pilot, Cobalt (seen earlier in the anime's  only explicit yuri-scene, enjoying an afterglow with another hot chick, Sepia).

To say the least, the traumatized Nagisa doesn't want to take part in a battle of giant robots, particularly since Iczer, like her director, doesn't supply much detail about how this whole "synchonization" thing works. Iczer forces the issue, she herself takes the pilot position in the head of Iczer-Robo, and a tractor-beam from the big robot's both sucks Nagisa into the chest-region, somehow strips off all of her clothes, and hooks her into the system. Under its pilot's control, Iczer-Robo has a titanic fight with Delos Theta, but the good robot almost loses because Nagisa can't get with the program. Then Iczer-One reminds the schoolgirl that the Cutowolf killed her parents, at which point Nagisa flies into a rage and destroys both the bad mecha and its pilot.

Most of the plot-action in the remainder of the OVA is much the same, as the heroes keep pursuing random-seeming strategies to counter the villains, and vice versa. The Cutowolf's best move is to design a "sister" to their nemesis, naming the new android "Iczer-2." Iczer-2 kicks Iczer-1's butt in their initial fight, and then rather improbably spares the heroine, challenging Iczer-1 and Nagisa to grab their giant robot and engage in another mecha-battle. This sets up the main action that opens the video's third act, as Iczer-2, together with the bereaved Cutowolf girl Sepia, co-ordinate to animate a mecha named Iczer-Sigma. However, by this time Iczer-1 and Nagisa have become a polished team, and Iczer-2 is forced to teleport away while both Iczer-Sigma and Sepia are destroyed. However, Iczer-2, exhibiting her first burst of sibling rivalry, decides to steal her sister's co-pilot. The heroine invades the Cutowolf fortress in an effort to rescue Nagisa. The Earth-girl, however, is temporarily turned against Iczer-1 by the evil sister, and then does yet another turnabout, sacrificing herself for Iczer-1 so that the heroine, though bereaved, is still able to tap into their former bond and destroy the whole Cutowolf fortress. But just to give the feature a happy ending-- probably owing something to the conclusion of the 1978 SUPERMAN-- Iczer-1, during her battle with the Big Bad, taps into a sort of "wish-granting" machine. This makes it possible for Iczer-1 to erase all the evils that have befallen Earth, so that Nagisa once more has her family and her ordinary life, though she no longer remembers having fought evil at the side of the android.

Now, I've stated that I consider the mythicity of this OVA to be "good," despite the fact that the plot wanders all over the place. The thing that makes FIGHT: ICZER-1 a strong, psychologically-oriented mythciity is its rewriting of the formerly explicit sexuality of the original manga into a scenario of a love that will never be reciprocated.

In the original manga, Iczer-1 is a cat-alien who initiates a relationship with an Earth-girl. Since the manga is largely unavailable, I can't speak to how explicit it was. However, director Toshihiro Hirano continually undercuts the possibility of an Iczer-Nagisa relationship. Nagisa is the eternal innocent, with no suggestion of her having interest in any sort of sex. Her second encounter with the Vedims is a Lovecraftian version of "girl-on-girl" violation, as Nagisa is attacked by transformed versions of her classmates. Iczer-1 rescues Nagisa, but it eventually comes out that, for no stated reason, Iczer cherishes a not-entirely-secret love for the same girl she needs for the synchronization-process. Like most plot-events in the story, Iczer's besotted condition gets no explanation at all, and Nagisa certainly does not reciprocate. At one point she even yells at the heroine because she thinks that Iczer is pronouncing her name in too familiar a manner. After being exposed to many perils, Nagisa more or less accepts that she has to accept Iczer as a battle-partner, and the usually passive girl even toughens up a little in Act 2, using Cutowolf technology to dispel several Vedims. When Iczer-2 temporarily brainwashes Nagisa into fighting her former mentor, for the heroine it's the equivalent of a sexual betrayal, even though the two of them have never had sex. (Iczer-2, however, does torment Nagisa was some briefly-suggested "tentacle sex" from a handy Vedim, so maybe Nagisa isn't entirely virginal at that point.) Still, Iczer's love, however frustrated in a literal sense, is validated when Nagisa regains her normal personality and forces Iczer to shoot her-- which of course is the prelude to the heroine's defeat of her evil sister, as well.

I mentioned that the conclusion of FIGHT: ICZER-1 was probably borrowed from the 1978 SUPERMAN, but not only in respect to plot mechanics. The arc of the first two SUPERMAN films, however distorted from director Donner's original intentions, is one of heroic isolation from the world of ordinary life, which the hero protects but cannot be part of. FIGHT: ICZER-1 stands as yet another variation on this theme, and because the ending of FIGHT is circular in nature, that may be an underlying reason as to why the popular anime never managed to develop a serial form of the franchise in any meaningful manner.