cathrine90 - 2015-03-14 01:38:04

*Please note this is my first time actually writing a review. Also bare in mind I'm reviewing the prequel OVA to my favourite game of all time: Zone of the Enders. Bias may be included and I've probably made a few mistakes.*

Zone of the Enders 2167: Idolo is a prequel OVA to the 2001 PS2 game Zone of the Enders. Idolo attempts to fill in some of blanks left by the first game's story and overall doesn't do a terrible job of it. However it only just earns it's 7/10 so sit back and let me explain why.

- Story -

Considering it's 58 minute run time the story is surprisingly robust. It's not fantastic or particularly complicated but it works just fine. I wont be giving a summery of the story in this review so lets get right to the good parts: Idolo does a decent job at explaining some of Viola's motivations in the first game, offers a small insight into the creation of the Orbital Frames featured in all of the Z.O.E games and does a good job of showing the discrimination the Martians received from the Earthlings. One tiny, tiny issue is the ending. I shan't spoil too much but basically Radium goes insane and has a hallucination that he's getting married to his girlfriend, which Idolo seemed cause. The characters chalk it up to "Metatron" which is the rare material used in the construction of the Orbital Frames however it's also implied that Idolo might have done it to protect Radium from the horror of what had just happened to him. Is Metatron actually a living material and Why did Idolo make Radium hallucinate, if at all? F*ck if I know and you'll never find out seeing as Zone of the Enders 3 was cancelled. 

- Animation -

There are two words perfect for describing the animation in Idolo. Those two words are: "Kinda shit". The artwork is passable at best but the actual character movements and action scenes really don't look very good. The Idolo's energy attacks all just look like generic white beams of light and motions are quite jerky. So it isn't much to look at but hey, animation isn't everything.

- Music and Sound -

The music is pretty forgettable with the exception of the ending credits song called "Kiss Me Sunlights" (also used as the main theme for the first game) which is actually a pretty good song and fits the tone of the series quite well. Overall, not much to talk about or listen to in the music department.

- Characters -

Idolo's main strength lies in its characters. I counted about  seven characters, although five of them get 0 development and barely even have names. The exceptions are of course the two main characters: Viola and Radium. It seems that the main focus of the show is just on these characters which is totally fine; it just would have been nice to see more of the other characters. Seeing as the people born on Mars have much weaker bodies Radium gets a bit power crazy when he gets a giant awesome looking mech and seeing his descent into madness is very interesting. Viola also gets some development albeit not that much. Viola basically loves Radium and is shocked by his sudden change in personality but she doesn't go much further than that. Even if Radium and Viola are interesting enough I can't just ignore the rest of the paper thin cast.

- Final Verdict -

When it comes down to it, Idolo doesn't do much else other than fill in the blanks left by the first game. So would I recommend it? Yes - but only just. It's entertaining enough and Radium is a reasonably interesting character but if you've never played the games there isn't much for you.