Masamune

At this point, Takaya should come out and tell the fans if he's done, rather than leave the series on permanent hiatus. If he's keeping the door open for a return, he should also make it known. George R.R. Martin gives status updates now and again, even if no one expects him to realistically finish the books. Instead, Guyver fans have been left in limbo. Takaya is the wrong side of 60, and we saw with Kentaro Miura that anything can happen, but at least Miura was still working on Berserk when he passed away. I have to wonder if Kadokawa won't officially end the manga, as they still need the IP to hawk figurines and merchandise.

As a side note, although the animation quality dipped in the second half of the OVA series, it saved the best till last. OVA 12 had my favourite art style probably in the entire series. It's a pity that we never got to see more of that animation. Although the OVA continuity had steered too far from the manga that I don't know how they would've continued the plot. If Aptom had survived, they would've had to completely rewrite his attack on Chronos, as Team Five were already dead in that timeline. Not that I think there was any intention to carry on the OVAs anyway.

I had no idea that these existed. Great find! Sorry that I'm the first one to respond, but this place is a ghost town since the series went on permanent hiatus. My first reaction was "Wait... There's a way to watch OVAs 7 & 8 with worse animation!?" 🤣 I agree with you there's some touches that OVA 7 does better than final. I wouldn't necessarily say that first version is better animated, I think it's less ambitious, using close-ups and still frames to cover up the lack of budget. The sequence of the Zoanoids chasing Sho through the water in the final version looked bad, but it was more dynamic than a bunch of static Zoanoids waiting for the Mega Smasher. As for OVA 8, the best thing I can say is that it doesn't have the glaring continuity errors of the final version! Thank you for sharing these!

Nope, Agito was watching the fight and remarked that Sho's death was part of his preparations: Just because Agito's plan worked in service of the narrative, doesn't mean that it makes sense internally. You've got a potential ally in Sho/Guyver I, who you have now aided and abetted in the death of, and gifted the control metal to your sworn enemies. If the plan was just for Sho to infiltrate Chronos Japan, I'm sure there were less riskier gambits than this.

Cronos did nothing wrong.

Thank you for that. I must have missed it Nonetheless, Agito's "plan" makes little tactical sense without the benefit of hindsight.

Still a better written ending than Attack on Titan.

Just necroing this thread, as I was re-watching the series today. When Sho is killed by Enzyme-1, Agito says "All the pieces are in place" which suggests that he *planned* for Sho to get killed. Agito didn't know for certain that the Control Medal regenerates the host. There was nothing to base this theory on. If the plan was to pull off an inside job with Guyver I's help, I'm sure there were less extreme methods than allowing his only pawn to get killed and handing a control medal to the sworn enemy. Also, someone mentioned before that Enzyme 1s were about to enter mass-production. Does someone have a source for this? I don't recall this in the manga.

I think it leaves a bad taste that they're still merchandising the franchise when the series is in limbo. Almost feels like they won't officially cancel it for that exact reason.

Be careful what you wish for. Most things turn to garbage once they become mainstream.

Agito performing the ultimate self-sacrifice and taking down Guyot seems like a fitting end for him.

I know I'm talking into the aether here, but on second thoughts listening to Zerbebuth's VA I did catch a faint similarity to Derzurb & Onuma's VA, so you're probably right and it was Dan Lorge who voiced them.

I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree. I've recorded a comparison between Zerbebuth in OVA3 and Aptom (played by Gary Dubin) in OVA12: https://vocaroo.com/1hSWcGXMPzF7 Sounds exactly like the same guy to me.

But as far I know, Bob Sessions voiced Genzo from start to finish in the Manga UK dub. It was just weird to me they changed Zxtole's VA for one episode. Gary Dubin voiced Zerbebuth in the Manga UK dub. You can definitely hear him: https://youtu.be/TEWiZFIj93k?t=1036

There's one thing I never got about the Manga UK dub... In OVA 4, Zxtole is voiced by Stuart Milligan, instead of Gary Michaels who voices Zxtole in OVAS 4-6 in the US Renditions. But in OVAs 5-6, the Manga UK dub uses Gary Michaels again. I preferred Milligan, as Gary Michaels was overused in the OVAs (Lisker, Zerbebuth, Zxtole AND Aptom...).