by Dave Kosowsky

I've always been impressed with the quality of Iria: Zeiram the Animation. Her transition to DVD does her definite justice. The impressive animation quality shines through on this DVD, with beautiful sharp images and smooth transitions. No recognizable errors in the transfer to DVD, although I did notice a slight color error with Iria's brother's hair, but this is probably due to my crappy DVD player. ^_^; Iria offers a standard of both sub and dub or even raw Japanese. The subs are in white with a black outline, unlike the now typical yellow with black outline. Unfortunately this makes the subtitles are occasionally difficult to read. The menu is purely secondary, with no flashy eye-candy and I am content with Central Media U.S. Manga Corps concentrating on a quality transfer to DVD, they didn't disappoint. Iria and her brother go on a mission to rescue some people when they encounter a legendary creature known as Zeiram. Zeiram is an invincible and invulnerable foe with phenomenal powers. After Zeiram takes Iria's brother, Iria begins her strange obsession with the beast. Tracking it and doing everything she can to defeat it on the hopes of saving her brother. Iria teams up with a cute androgynous sidekick who quickly becomes tied into Iria's personal quest to defeat Zeiram. During their quest they expose a complex and chilling conspiracy around Zeiram and the Tedan Tippedai Corporation's plot to use the relentless beast as a weapon.

Zeiram in itself is of a marvelous design, with his hat-like-head and a demonic worm creature living in the center, Zeiram doesn't let down in the monster department. Not only does he look damn cool, but the sound effects that accompany him resemble a haunting monks chant that sends tingles up the spine, making him a frightfully successful and worthy foe, something to name an anime after.

Iria: Zeiram the Animation's most adhering quality is the world that is painted. With fantastically creative technology and a fully recognizable social system, Iria's universe shows us a not unfamiliar world. A complex government system is presented to us with an intricate connection to the Tedan Tippedai Corporation. The technology of Iria's world is consistent and one can see the similarities in design for different aspects of this advanced civilization throughout the entire series. Borrowing the Hunter theme, previously dominated by Battle Angel, Iria throttles us with high-speed action and her dazzling agility. And lets not forget all those wonderfully cool Hunter toys Iria uses to defeat a series of angry demon mutants!

Iria is definitely a satisfying anime. With the cost of the DVD around half the price of the full VHS collection, the price is one more reason to add this to your collection. And Iria's fold out cardboard case looks great on the shelf. I would consider this DVD to be a staple of anyone's anime DVD collection, and one of the best actions Animes I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. GO IRIA!