Hades Project Zeorymer was a run-of-the-mill 80s OVA that faded from whatever prominence it had pretty quickly. With its tough dudes, attractively voluptuous ladies, and giant robots, it was indicative of the sex and violence often associated with titles of the period such as MD Geist and Baoh. That’s why I was surprised to learn that Zeorymer originally actually began in the (in)famous bishoujo/lolicon magazine Lemon People.

To be fair, from what I know of Lemon People, it was unlike a modern adult (18+) manga magazine in that it covered a variety of genres and tried to include plot beyond who’s having sex with who how many times (though don’t be mistaken in thinking it didn’t include that material at all). The Zeorymer manga appears to have been along that vein, utilizing a lolicon aesthetic (which was itself not quite the same as it is today) for its female character designs while having an overall sf/fantasy narrative. It’s not that uncommon in general for character designs to change when adapted from one form to another, but it’s funny to think about the fact that these two characters…

…used to look like this:

I’m no expert on Zeorymer or Lemon People, so I can’t make any definitive statements, but I think that the change might say something about where the 80s OVA market was at the time, what the people making anime at the time thought would fly better among consumers, and where the limits were in that regard. Along that line of thought, I wonder if this is speaks towards a difference between a hardcore anime fan and a hardcore manga fan of the period, because it’s not just the girls who were drawn differently but characters of both genders.

In any case, enjoy how overpowered Zeorymer is in the Super Robot Wars games.