he two-volume, four-episode Zaion series begins in the middle of the action, as a team of boxy, remote-controlled CGI robots take on a pack of monsters, then fall back to let the NOA squad, a quicker, more limber team of battle-suited soldiers, handle mop-up. Among the ground soldiers is Yuuji Tamiya, described as an ace fighter and the team's best soldier, but seen mostly as an embittered, frustrated young veteran who fights because he has to, but is looking for a way out besides what he seems to see as his inevitable death.
The Zaion series leaves many details unexplored, but it skims across a few pertinent details—the NOA soldiers are nanotech-enhanced warriors whose bloodstreams are filled with microscopic "nano machines." In times of stress, those robots flock to the skin, extrude through the sweat glands, and expand to form armor. The process sounds incredibly painful and damaging, and when seen in a whirlwind microscopic-view CGI sequence, it looks painful as well, but apparently it isn't, and it gives its subjects the benefit of super strength, speed and endurance. Still, as the apparently extraterrestrial Meteor Virus 34 spreads, turning its victims into ravening, spiky, bestial psychotics, the NOA group is repeatedly drawn into combat, and more and more of them are going down in each fight. The underfunded shadow organization managing Yuuji's team, researching the virus and covering up its existence is running out of options, as the virus has spread to 17 countries, and the budget for more soldiers isn't available.
In fact, the group is pinning much of its future hopes on Ai, an emotionally withdrawn 16-year-old girl with mysterious and phenomenal powers. When placed in a "power amplifier," The Organization's secret weapon manifests a gigantic woman made out of light, which eradicates the virus. But Ai lacks the personal strength or conviction to use her powers consistently. At least, until she meets Yuuji, who gives her a reason for living.
Extras can't hide the hollow feeling
The Zaion story includes some nifty touches, such as the cavalier, superior attitudes of the remote-controlled robots' pilots, who treat combat as a video game—after all, their lives aren't on the line. The research professor in charge of Ai's battle deployment is similarly superior and dismissive; he alternates between calling Ai "Princess" and treating her like a well-trained hamster. Meanwhile, his assistant treats Ai like a daughter, and clearly sympathizes with her emotional struggles. Zaion is full of little bits of character business like this. Unfortunately, these touches don't extend to the principals, who are noticeably lacking in personality.
And unfortunately, Zaion is more about them than about anything else. None of the series' plot threads is ever resolved, and it's never made clear what Ai is, or where she or her powers came from. The series feels woefully incomplete, as it turns all practical plot points and all the supporting characters into little more than a fancy frame for a romance between two bland, generic characters who seem incapable of feeling anything as complex or powerful as love. But in interviews on these discs, director Seiji Mizushima and screenwriter Natsuko Takahashi make it clear that the bond between Yuuji and Ai is what the series is really about. So it's hard to understand why they're the most uninteresting characters in the whole show. Their situation is sad, but the way they profess their eternal devotion after a couple of brief, near-wordless meetings just seems shallow and contrived.
As if to make up for the series' brevity and the hollow feeling its incomplete story leaves behind, ADV has packed these DVDs with extras, most notably video interviews with the production crew and gorgeous color booklets explaining the series' backstory, filling in the many blanks about the characters, the machines, the organizations, the M34 virus and its subsequent mutations, Ai's light-form and much more. The books also include color art and even more interviews, all of which makes the series a lot more concrete and interesting. It's a pity they couldn't do the same for Yuuji and Ai.
Zaion's look is fairly generic as well; Studio Gonzo throws in some neat visual touches, but it's done far better and more distinctive work than this. Nothing stands out as particularly bad, though the remote-controlled robots (MOBs) look a little too obviously CGI-rendered. Still, the only visually exceptional thing about the series is ADV's striking DVD packaging.
— Tasha
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