Iria: Zeiram the Animation (イ・リ・ア ゼイラム ジ アニメーション), stylized as I・Я・I・A ZЁIЯAM THE ANIMATION, is a six-episode original video animation (OVA) anime series produced by Ashi Productions and directed by Tetsurō Amino. The series serves as a prequel to the original live-action film Zeiram, taking place several years earlier when the female bounty hunter protagonist Iria is still a rookie and detailing the events surrounding her first encounter with the unstoppable Zeiram. This does somewhat contradict the films, which imply that Iria's first encounter with Zeiram was in the first film.

Anime OVA

Plot

The story begins with Iria as an apprentice to her older brother, Gren, a veteran bounty hunter, and his partner Bob, who work for Ghomvak Security along with a somewhat loutish hunter named Fujikuro. During a rescue mission to a hijacked spaceship called the Karma, they discover that the hijacker is actually a seemingly indestructible alien called Zeiram that broke out of the cargo hold during transit and began to massacre the crew. Bob is critically wounded by Zeiram while evacuating the survivors, and Gren is lost while attempting to kill Zeiram by destroying the Karma. Returning to Myce, Iria finds herself targeted by assassins working for Tedan Tippedai, the corporation that owned the Karma, and discovers a covered-up plot to control Zeiram in order to use it as a weapon. Iria escapes with the help of Fujikuro and reunites with Bob, who never recovered from his injuries but had his mind downloaded into a computer program. Together they continue to investigate rumours that Zeiram has appeared on Myce, and try to find out what happened to Gren, who also seems to have survived the Karma's destruction....

Characters

Credits

Media

U.S. DVD release U.S. Blu-ray release Original soundtrack Opening theme Ending Theme

Anime reception

Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies called the anime an "excellent piece of science fiction", praising the character design. She stated that "the worlds feel truly futuristic and alien, the action sequences are convincing, the music is great, and a slowly emerging conspiracy plot is the icing on the cake."

Video game

IRIA was adapted into a video game for the Super Famicom called Hyper Iria Hyper Iria (ハイパーイリア) is a 1995 Japan-only video game for the Super Famicom. It is an action game based on Iria: Zeiram the Animation, although it does not seem to follow the storyline of the OVA very closely. The game is set in a futuristic science-fiction setting and stars a bounty hunter named Iria who takes various jobs and goes on adventures. Stages are divided between action stages and shooting stages. There are five stages in total and stages can be chosen in any order. Iria can choose many weapons in the game, including a bazooka. Some levels are objective-based. Clearing stages means earning money which can be used to power up your weapons. The game was developed by TamTam based on the 1994 original video animation Iria: Zeiram the Animation. Hyper Iria was released on October 13, 1995, for the Super Famicom, and was published by Banpresto. The game was released exclusively in Japan. In 2016, a fan translation of the game into English was released. Upon release, four reviewers for Famitsu gave it a score of 21 out of 40. French gaming magazine Consoles+ gave the game a score of 84/100. In a retrospective review, Nintendo Life gave the game a score of 7/10. Iria also appears as the main character in ZeiramZone for the PlayStation.

Explanatory notes

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