The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor

The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor (強殖装甲ガイバー, Kyōshoku Sōkō Gaibā) is a 12 part anime OVA loosely based on Yoshiki Takaya's manga, Bio Booster Armor Guyver. It was released in Japan from 1989 to 1992. It is the second animated adaptation, following the 1986 OVA Guyver: Out of Control.

Plot

Divided into two series, this OVA series tells a condensed version of the first five volumes.

Differences between manga and OVA

Though the series follows the manga much more closely than the original OVA, Guyver: Out of Control, there are still some significant differences between the manga and this OVA series. The main characters were included and the general feeling of manga plot are still there. The series of events that happen are where the major differences occur, as well as character appearances. An example was the appearance of Vamore; in the OVA he appeared immediately after Guyver I had defeated Gregole, in contrast to the manga where he appeared during the first kidnapping of Tetsuro. The Hyper Zoanoid Team 5 were also introduced much earlier than in the manga. In fact, an entire sequence of the team attacking Sho's school was added in as well as a battle between the two Guyvers and the team in the Chronos headquarters.

US Release

VHS cover of Guyver - Volume 1

The OVA series was first released in the United States by U.S. Renditions in 1992. L.A. Hero, which released the first OVA, Guyver: Out of Control, provided the translation. It was released on 6 VHS tapes dubbed in English. All tapes had two episodes per tape with the first part of the series on the first three tapes and the second part on the last three tapes.

After U.S. Renditions rights expired, the series was later picked up by Manga Entertainment and released one episode per VHS. They later condensed the series onto two DVDs with each series on a separate DVD. The DVDs featured both English and Japanese audio tracks.

Although much of the original audio tracks for the English dubbing were kept from the U.S. Rendition version, there were some minor edits to the videos. The opening intro was slightly edited and gray boxes with English credits were placed over the original credits that were in Japanese, though unedited introductions were included in the special features. Some of the voices were re-dubbed. The final episode was also edited, mainly the nudity was removed. However, an unedited version of this episode was included in the special features, with Japanese audio only (the episode was available uncut with English audio for the US Renditions releases previously).

Cast

Theme songs

• Opening Theme - "Bio Booster Armor Guyver" - Shinichi Ishihara (Episodes 1-12)
• Ending Theme 1 -"Guidepost -Alien's Messiah" (道標 -異形の天使-) - Shinichi Ishihara (Episodes 1-6)
• Ending Theme 2 - "Guyver!! Another Me" (GUYVER!!～もう一人の俺～) - Katsumi Yamaura (Episodes 07-12)

Episode list

Volume 1

• Data 1: Genesis of the Guyver
• Data 2: Battle of the Guyver
• Data 3: Mysterious Shadow
• Data 4: Attack of the Hyper Zoanoid - Team 5
• Data 5: Death of the Guyver
• Data 6: Terminal Battle - The Fall of Chronos Japan

Volume 2

• Data 7: The Battle Begins
• Data 8: The Last Unit
• Data 9: Transformation Tragedy
• Data 10: Haunted Village
• Data 11: The Beastmaster
• Data 12: Reactivation (plus unedited Japanese Data 12)

External links

• Guyver (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia