Classical Zoids:Chaotic Century

Title:Classical Zoids:Chaotic Century
Zoids
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , ,
Notables: R1 License - Pioneer (Defunct)
This is a Story told of a boy name Van. One day he chase by bandits and he come across a ruins in which he found an organoid he named Zeek and a girl named Fiona who has a connection with Zeek. Fiona has no memerories of her past and in order to gain her memory, she needs find the "Zoids Eve". With the help of Van and Zeek they Journey the planet trying to find "Zoids Eve". Also they come across a yound man named Irvine and his friend Moobay whom also help them crossing the Planet. Their antagonist are "The Imperial Army" and "The Republic" who are in constant war with each other, interferes with their quest and cause great mess to our hero!


[TV series, 1999-2000, 67 episodes, 22 min]

see also: Zoids Shin Seiki/Zero (2001 TV series), Zoids Fusors (2004 TV series), Shin Seiki Zoids Genesis
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 6 7 6 6 6 Ggultra2764 [series:432#1552]
Do note that my thoughts in this review focus more on the first half to Chaotic Century that I had rewatched recently and do not include anything coming from the second half of the series, Guardian Force. With that said, onto the review:

Nostalgia can be quite the strange little thing at times. Sometimes, it can make you think of times that you believe were better than they are now. Other times, you may have rose-coloured glasses on how you believed certain things were when you were younger. The latter was the case for me when I seen Zoids: Chaotic Century ten years ago on Toonami. Just starting out my fandom in anime, I thought of it to be a decent mecha adventure series focused on the exploits of Van, Fiona and their pals on Planet Zi as they become entangled in war between two rival kingdoms and deal with the threat of a powerful legendary Zoid towards later in the series. It is still recognized to this day by older anime fans as the most memorable part of the Zoids franchise as it actually had an ongoing storyline and was seen as not so bland and merchandise-driven as other parts of the franchise like New Century Zero and Fuzors.

Coming back to it ten years later with more experience, exposure and some jadedness in viewing anime, I can't necessarily say Chaotic Century's aged too well with what I've been exposed to in the past decade. The series carries a blend of the typical cliches you could find within mecha and shounen action anime. Many characters within the series carry some sort of archetype typical of both approaches such as Van your typical young, energetic, adventurous, dense and naive male lead; Irvine the aloof and troublemaking partner with a heart of gold; Raven the psychotic and merciless renegade with his eyes set on the lead; and a nice number of antagonists who are cruel, merciless and desiring power for no particular reason other than the fact they are evil. There are some interesting characters that stuck out for me not being so bland like the mercenary pair of Rosso and Viola plus Major Schubaltz, but they're mostly supporting characters to the otherwise mostly bland lead characters. I don't even want to think of the number of times I felt the urge to whack Van atop the head for his "fight first, ask questions later" mentality he exhibited at many points throughout Zoids that you would expect of enough plucky leads from shounen action anime titles.

The major elements of the plot to Chaotic Century involve discovering the origins of Fiona's character and the ongoing tensions between the Guylos Empire and Helic Republic. The former does get a reasonable amount of build up as hints are dropped throughout much of the series regarding Fiona's origins and her possible connection to the mentioned powerful Zoid. The mentioned war, on the other hand, is a bit hollow with its plot thanks to the limited amount of fleshing out there was on both kingdoms and the reasons surrounding the war as it felt mostly like a backdrop for any reason for Van and his group to face their adventures and put up with Prozen's later manipulations. I'm all for seeing an anime focused on a fictional war. But if the series isn't even gonna bother properly exploring both sides and their reasons for engagement like the Gundam franchise and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, then I'm not gonna be as invested into it.

Visually, Chaotic Century's animation is on the standard side for a late 90s to early 2000s TV anime with its scenery and character designs, with the CG animated Zoids sticking out like a sore thumb compared to the hand-drawn character designs. There are a number of occasions where the series resorts to animation shortcuts with its battles such as reused frames and speed stripes. Still, some of the concepts for the Zoids when used in battle were quite unique such as how the Geno Saurer can make itself into a charged particle gun and the use of the E-Shields from Shield Ligers as a sort of battering ram.

Still though, I can't say Zoids: Chaotic Century was the show that I remembered it to be from a decade earlier thanks to my exposure to the common cliches it makes use of and having a nice number of hollow elements to its storyline. It does beat out the mentioned New Century Zero and Fuzors in that it doesn't feel as merchandise-driven with its series run and having an actual plot that it follows. But nostalgia for anime I seen years ago can only carry a series so far for me if it doesn't have anything that sticks out with it too strongly.

Last updated Sunday, December 09 2012. Created Sunday, December 09 2012.
Buy 8 9 7 6 8 Lordcloudstrife [series:432#2553]
This one doesn't get any perfect 10's but it is the one I prefer. For one reason only, it has a story line. The other one has better action sure but that one is just tournaments. Its kind of boring after a while. Also the characters are pretty cool. At times because of her lost memory Fiona can be kind of funny. Another cool part of the series was when Van gets a new Zoid. He starts with a Shield Liger and later gets the awesome Blade Liger. Another reason why I liked the TV show was because of the awesome models. I collected them for sure. I even spray painted some to make it match the different Zoids. Overall this is a great anime.

Last updated Friday, April 20 2007. Created Friday, April 20 2007.
Watch 8 8 7 6 5 4 .hack//Phil [series:432#656]
Animation: Good
Plot: non-existant
Entertaining: for awhile
Best Anime: not even close
This is proof that good animation doesn't make a good anime. You need a plot!
Was it entertaining for a bit? Yes.
Could I watch the whole series? Maybe if I didn't have better things to do.
Is Zoids worth your time? It was only worth a couple weeks of mine.

Last updated Saturday, April 26 2003. Created Saturday, April 26 2003.
Buy 8 7 7 5 6 6 AntitrustSpider [series:432#542]
It was entertaining to watch but not that great of a show. The story line was monotonous. The stupid enemies would come and attack and lose. The Blitz team would win and blah blah blah. But atleast it was something to watch and the animation was pretty well done. The ending did rather suck and the continuation didn't appear to flow.

Last updated Sunday, February 16 2003. Created Sunday, February 16 2003.
Rent 8 7 7 7 8 Anonymous #526 [series:432#526]
ok the show is good,but it does drag on a bit other wise it a story with a good plot and you might not get it at first it will at tie in at the end. plus the story does not rush along so you can catch up.

Last updated Tuesday, February 04 2003. Created Tuesday, February 04 2003.
Watch 8 6 9 7 5 Ðå kïÐ [series:432#464]
Very nice anime would spend money on it tho it come on cartoonnetwork like 5AM in the morning and i think it starts to come on 3 or 4PM watch it its an ok anime if u want to buy one like this look out for the other zoids.

Last updated Monday, December 23 2002. Created Monday, December 23 2002.
Watch 7 7 7 6 7 7 Blackdragon15 [series:432#345]
I really like the show but it just doesn't have much of plot. All they ever do is fight, fight and the character are really ego-maniacs and cares about money and zoids. The Backdraft give the Anime some depth but they are annoying as Team Rocket of Pokemon.
I want to give this Anime some credit though. The zoid mech and the really cute action figurine dolls are extemely cute and they are successful in some ways.
Another note is that I wasted my time and energy into writen fanfics based on the series so I will give more credit to the show than it deserves.
Another series based on the zoids is zoid Zoids Choatic Century, telling the sotyr of the Hero Ban and it has more episodes than Zoids slash zero(The one with Bit Cloud as the here) into because it has a more depth story line.
Overrall it's interesting and worth seeing because me, being an Anime fan, it's fun to watch! ^_^

Last updated Thursday, July 11 2002. Created Thursday, July 11 2002.
Watch 6 7 7 6 7 6 Cenit [series:432#45]
It was a good idea but it miss plot.
The anime tolds the stoy of Bit Cloud, a junk dealer that founds by chance a Zoid called Liger Zero. It owner, the Blitz team don't have any use for it because the Zoid doesn't let anyone to pilot it, that is till Bit arrives. From the on is battle after battle, some of them even boring.
The plot becomes a little more interesting when the Backdraft Gruop starts having interest on the Liger Zero. Could the Liger Zero be one of the legendary Ultimate X, zoids with learning capabilities and almost infinite potential?

Last updated Friday, May 31 2002. Created Friday, May 31 2002.

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