Zeoraima

Publisher
Manga Entertainment
Director
Toshiki Hirano
Production
AIC
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Running time
120 mins
Year
1988

Zeoraima VHS

By John Huxley
23rd May 04

Zeoraima. It's all about one teenager, his giant mech and an evil organisation trying to conquer the world, for no good reason at all. We all know how this one goes, don't we? Boy beats up evil organisation's puny robots, kills leader, wins pretty girl. The end. Only...that isn't quite how Zeoraima works.

Macato was an ordinary teenager until he was abducted, thrown in a cell and forced to pilot a giant robot. They tell him it's because he is the only one who can pilot the Zeoraima, along with a girl called Miku. Macato soon discovers that the Zeoraima is one of the eight Hakkeshu, a giant robot force designed and built by the evil Steel Dragon society (for taking over the world...I guess). Only, the Zeoraima has been stolen and modified to be used by the two young teenagers (not the Steel Dragon's leader, as planned). And that's not all. Macato's parents tell him he was adopted for a fee, and that he really belongs to the people who abducted him, who stole his embryo along with the Zeoraima. Having lost his identity in discovering that his past was a lie and he's been genetically engineered for a single purpose, he has no choice but to pilot. Deeper into the story there are plot twists aplenty, but I won't spoil them.

What my plot summary doesn't tell you is that Zeoraima focuses it's attention as much on the Steel Dragon society as Macato and friends, if not more so. This is all for a very good reason, but in doing so it does sacrifice character development for the sake of the plot, giving less screen time to major players. However, had it told the story from only one perspective then perhaps it would have been less successful as a whole. We will never find out, but what I do know is that Zeoraima feels flat and lifeless. From the very beginning it all seems so...empty. Macato isn't a very likable chap (not helped out by the awful dub), and neither are the people around him. Miku is the only who seems vaguely likeable, but she has so little screen time her impact is minimal. The whole atmosphere seems to be very downbeat and gloomy, nobody ever seems happy and I can't recall a single moment of comic relief. A little joke every now and again can help punctuate such a series anime, you know?

Having got all that off my chest, there is lots about Zeoraima to like. The animation and artwork is very late eighties, with the mech designs all angular and spiked, and Miku bares more than a little resemblance to a certain character from Bubblegum Crisis. But it does look nice, even if it is a little dated. You can always tell when a lot of work has gone into design, and in Zeoraima the effort shows. The fights are fun to watch (if you can ignore Macato's constant whining), although the Zeoraima itself seems to finish off every bout with the same finishing move, which set in a little bit of deja vu (and also made me wonder why Macato and Miku didn't just use that move to start with).

The plot is most definitely Zeoraima's highlight. When I sat down to watch this, I was all ready to turn my brain off in anticipation for some mindless robot-bashing fun. What I actually got was the complete opposite; a downbeat tale about a teenager who's life is about to get turned upside down, with barely a moments breather between the many plot revelations. But for all that is good about Zeoraima, I can't get past the fact that it should have, and could have, been so much better. The plot is there, but they left the characters out. Maybe I'm not getting the full picture, it is always possible that Manga entertainment made some nasty cuts (wouldn't be the first time), or the dub doesn't really do the original cast justice. But that is just speculation, and I can only comment on what I have seen. Decent, but it lets itself down.

-- John Huxley 23rd May 04

Zeoraima Images