Guyver holds a very special place in this Otaku's heart, along with Battle Angel Alita this was the first anime I saw, it was love at first sight and I quickly piled my way through the entire series. And with the US release of Manga Entertainments 'Bio Booster Armour Collection' I decided to reacquaint myself with this classic tale of teenage angst and transmuting monsters.

The series centres around lovelorn high school student Sho Fukamachi, an average teen who's life is turned upside down when he accidentally activates a stolen Guyver unit, a kind of alien bio-mecha, it fuses with his body increasing his strength a hundred-fold. The only problem is the diabolical Cronos organization wants their unit back and with an army of mutating monsters at their beck and call, they set about terrorizing Sho, his friends and family.

Guyver is perhaps the closest thing Japan has to Spiderman, like Peter Parker, Sho's abilities are both a blessing and a curse. His 'gift' grants him the power to protect the people he loves yet it is the cause of his and their suffering. Sho's abhorrence and horror at what he has become and the grim realisation that he is powerless to defend his companions without transforming into Guyver makes for compulsive viewing. It's this inner struggle that differentiates The Guyver from its peers and has made it for me at least such an enduring and engrossing phenomenon.

When he isn't battling his inner demons Guyver has to contend with Cronos' never ending supply of Zoanoids, a good scrap is never far away and over the course of 12 episodes Guyver gets to dice some of the most memorable monsters this side of a Go Nagai feature. The duel between Guyver Units 1 and 2 is especially memorable as Sho learns the intricacies of his bio-booster armour by battling another Guyver; it's a slick ploy that negates the need for clunky explanations whilst delivering some frenetic fun and cleverly executed action.

Clever narrative devices aside the storytelling isn't always as sharp and in spite of some bold revelations from episode 4 onwards Guyver has its fair share of script problems that really hurt it later on. This is most evident episode 7 onwards; the 'Cronos kidnap Sho's loved ones' plot is trotted out relentlessly and the lack of any real revelations means the pulpy, frantic fun of the first half is all but forsaken in favour of some misplaced melodramatics. Nonetheless there is still plenty of viscera splattered mayhem for action junkies to sink their teeth into and those with fond memories of this show will still find plenty to admire.

Animation quality is variable; some episodes take a noticeable hit in the visual department and look down right terrible. When it counts though (especially in Eps. 1-6) the artwork is fantastic and exemplary character design really tie the visuals together. Thanks to a remarkable re-mastering job courtesy of Manga Ent. this has to be the best presentation of the Guyver currently available and in terms of picture and sound quality, it's light years ahead of the VCD copies I currently own.

In Summary

A blood soaked and refreshing riff on the mecha genre that starts off strong but loses it's way in the end, despite this The Guyver still remains a fascinating foray into the darker side of the mecha genre and on the strength of the first six episodes is a more than worthy purchase.

(Individual ratings: Episodes 1-6, 8 out of 10 - Episodes 7-12, 5 out of 10)