Anime Review: Guyver the Bio-Boosted Armor

Note: This review refers to the 2005 remake of the anime, not the original OVA.

GENRE: Superhero/Sci-fi




CREATOR/STUDIO: Yoshiyuki Takaya/OLM



DISTRIBUTOR: FUNimation



SUGGESTED AGE: 17+



MY RATING: 5/10



NO. OF EPISODES: 26



SUMMARY: Sho Fukumachi is a high school student who happens upon a biologically sentient armor that allows him to become the Guyver. The Guyver is actually an experiment conducted by the enigmatic company called Chronos, who is dispatching monsters called Zoanoids to further world domination. This causes him to become a target and he must now defend his family and friends from the Zoanoids.



REVIEW: This series actually seemed promising at first.I'm somewhat familiar with the tokatsu/sentai programs, having occasionally looked at Power Rangers in its various forms (the most recent one I watched was Power Rangers SPD) .This is a tribute to the tokatsu genre, so I thought why not check it out.



Sho is a great hero.He cares a great deal for his family. Like a certain friendly neighborhood webslinger, he sees the responsibility his new powers have given him.I like the theme of this newfound responsibility a lot.



Tetsuro is Sho's lifelong friend.He's a typical geek, but his knowledge of sci-fi conventions comes in handy.Mizuki, his younger sister, plays the romantic interest/distressed damsel trope for Sho.



My main problem with the program is that about halfway through, I could see where it was heading.The manga it's based on isn't finished, and to make matters worse, the creator's health isn't so good.The anime is incomplete as a result. (This is the third title I've seen from OLM that hasn't been resolved) I couldn't enjoy it as a result.



Let me put it this way, folks.I rarely, if ever, read manga. So when an anime tacks on an original ending, I don't mind.Unfinished anime don't encourage me to read the accompanying manga to find out what's happened.All it does is waste my time.



SUB/DUB: I thought it was pretty good in dubbed form.



MUSIC/SCORE: The opening theme was pretty good, but I didn't much care for the closing theme.



VIOLENCE: (7/10) The Guyver unit can obliterate its enemies in quite gruesome fashion.



LANGUAGE: (2/10)



SEXUALITY: (0/10)



NUDITY: (1/10)-Except for the fact that Sho is naked when the Guyver unit releases its hold on him, there's nothing to worry about.



RELIGION: (0/10)



RELATED MEDIA: This is based on the manga Guyver the Bio-Boosted Armor, which is published in America by Viz.There was an OVA back in the 90 s, as well as a live-action "adaptation" (note the quotes) that starred Mark Hammil. Yes, that Mark Hammil.
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