Guyver

[Just Crouton]

This was a series I used to watch when I was little. My first exposure was the 2 live-action movies that SyFy ran back-to-back a lot during the mid-90's. I later watched the 3rd episode of the anime, followed by the 9th.

 

The first film loosely adapts the first arc of the manga, but using it's own cast, sort of like how Power Rangers replaces the Sentai cast and tells it's own story, though here, all footage is original. Sho Fukumachi is now Sean Barker, who is an arguably better character. The movie is made to be humorous compared to the darker manga. The sequel is darker, and very loosely adapts the Mt. Murakami arc, this version way better than any other version of it. Also, the fight scenes and music are amazing.

 

At a comic show, I found out a manga existed, and bought the Armageddon graphic novel, which covered the later part of the Mt. Murakami arc, ending on a cliffhanger (the manga was discontinued in America after this graphic novel.) Though, reading the recent issues, it looks like the series went down the crapper, and is moving at a slower pace than a shonen manga (if I remember, the issues have been reduced to 5 pages in length.)

 

The first anime was amazing when I was younger. Manga Entertainment's dub theme/end theme were awesome, and it was bloody as heck. There's also another dub made before Manga Entertainment that retains the Japanese theme/end themes, uses a different filter for Guyver's voice, and has less profanity (Manga Entertainment loved to insert a lot more profanities in the dub than the Japanese versions.)

 

The first anime made a lot of changes from the manga, some of which made the anime the better choice. A group of recurring villains are introduced in the first arc instead of Mt. Murakami, first appearing in an original episode where they attack the school (arguably one of the best episodes in the series,) and a certain tragic event early on is more intense and brutal than other versions.

 

I wasn't a fan of the 2005 series. There were some filler episodes early on, the aforementioned tragic event is really weak here, and the show overall felt sluggish for a 26 episode series.

 

There's also the OVA made in the 80's that was a loose adaption of the first arc and was pretty solid.

 

Anybody like this series?