Name(s): Fight!! Iczer-1 / Tatakae!! Iczer-1 / Iczer-One / Fight! Iczer-One /  戦え!! イクサー1
Format: Original video animation [OVA] (3 episodes)
Release Date(s): October 19, 1985 – March 4, 1987
Studio(s): AIC

Whatever. So whatever. Just boring enough by the end to get a 4 instead of a 5, so congrats to it, I guess. It sucks that one of the few female-led mecha anime is so utterly bland and lacking in substance. Dabs of horror and body horror elements, and an odd but unique slight lesbian cast isn’t enough to elevate this to anything interesting. By and large this is your standard alien invasion and defense tale, a plot-focused anime without the detail to make it anything more than literal.

Iczer-1 is an android who comes to Earth to defend it from her own people, the Cthulhu, who want Earth as their own home and take over by using monsters that kill and transform humans into alien creatures. She enlists the help of a young human girl, Nagisa, and together they team up to clobber the aliens in their giant robot. Character motivations are never adequately explored or explained, with one example being that Iczer-1 herself admits she doesn’t know why she’s fighting for Earth. So all right, let’s just leave it at that.

There’s never enough to make you connect to anything that’s happening, because it’s all so basic. The fights are incredibly simple, lacking in both strategy and action. Robots stand mostly in the same position and fire lasers until the larger one wins. For an OVA, this isn’t particularly good looking or well-animated. There’s nothing particularly anything about this OVA. There’s basic concepts here that are decent but used in no way that deserves applause over acknowledgment. What a waste. Don’t bother.