Guyver: Out of Control

I have been a fan of the "Guyver" series for over 10 years. I only fairly recently found out that this movie existed and it took me quite some time to track down a copy. The beginning of the movie pretty much follows the story line of the original manga, but after the G-Unit bonds with Sho the story line changes somewhat. For instance: Guyver II in this variation of the story is a female Chronos operative (the scene where the unit bond with her is essentially a rape scene, but lets be clear, this is not hentai!).

The animation is generally pretty stylish and slick (considering its a 1986 release! And its certainly more impressive than the poor animation quality of episode 7 onward of the 1989 12 part adaption), but suffers at times when certain scenes are re-used time and again. The story line goes nowhere and degenerates into a big fight between guyver I and II (guyver III appears later, but no explanation is given as to his identity and he disappears pretty quickly). Its almost as if they writers read Yoshiki Takaya's manga up until the Sho discovers the guyver and then they thought: "Bugger this, this is boring, lets just have a big fight scene!" If you are a guyver committed fan, this is a must to complete your collection, but be under no illusions: Underneath this anime's flash facade there is a giant void!