Iczer Reborn 3/10

This is the sequel to Fight! Iczer-One. In that review I explained that successful sales of an OAV rely on one or more of the following gimmicks.
1) Naked girls
2) Big explosions
3) Horrible graphic deaths
4) Hot lesbian action

Fight! Iczer-One had all four, Iczer Reborn only has big explosions which is the least appealing of the four gimmicks. What happened?

Dating back to 1991-1992 these are 6 half-hour episodes of old-school OAV technical goodness. The animation and backgrounds are very similar to Fight! Iczer-One which means they are very good though it seems the character designs got a little young looking. The music is OK and I liked the 80's style pop end credit themes but why the same black backgrounds for the end credits I so hated in the original series? I don't care to sit through a long-ass song for 2:30 if I don't have something to look at. I didn't mind the VA's since they were mostly the same from Fight! Iczer-One but I really didn't care for Iczer-3's VA, frankly it sucked. She sounded like some amateur or something.

Things start off many years after the events of Fight! Iczer-One and earth is under attack again. Iczer-1 has been injured battling the evil Neos Gold and is standing up in a tank of liquid with a bunch of tubes connected to her, getting healing as only standing up in a tank of liquid with a bunch of tubes connected can provide. Neos Gold has arrived on Earth again with a bunch of new female minions and started trashing up the joint in an effort to draw out Iczer-1 so they can battle once more. This part is the best of the series as her troops slash and hack through the Earth soldiers with blades, claws, and a complete disregard for modern weaponry.

The main character is Kasumi Nagisa, the granddaughter of the main character from the first series. She and 4 others are the sole survivors at the moon base and are in desperate straights but Iczer-3 arrives to save the day. Since Iczer-1 is currently enjoying the worst hospital care in the galaxy her little sister is sent to Earth in her stead. They escape the moon and get to the Earth on the new ship the Miss Fuji and plan their next move.

After the first battle against Neos Gold's minions Iczer-3 gets the power dealy that allows her to summon the Iczer Robo stolen so no more giant robot until the end of the series. Neos Gold uses the power dealy to create a copy of Iczer-3 named Atros who becomes her rival and doesn't get along with the remaining 3 minions. The show now starts to suck as each of the next 3 episodes involve the next minion showing up to defeat Iczer-3, them losing, then being obliterated by Neos Gold so she doesn't have to pay them severance. The 5th episode has Iczer-3 fighting Atros and bringing her over to the good side, then Iczer-2 shows up from the previous series and beats Iczer-3 like a rug. Things are getting REALLY boring at this point so in the last episode Izcer-1 finally makes an appearance, beats Iczer-2 again then they all team up and kill Neos Gold.

The last series was MUCH more adult oriented and interesting with a high level of violence and nudity. This series is more like a short, crappy version of Sailor Moon with each villain getting their turn at Iczer-3, getting killed, then the final battle. It looks great but it's not really recommended except if you want to see the whole Iczer series.