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Invader Zim was an 2001 animated television series created by comic book writer/artist Jhonen Vasquez and aired on Nickelodeon. Its sophisticated, anime-influenced animation, quirky humour, and a dark, cynical style combined to give it a small but devoted cult following, particularly among relatively older viewers outside of the normal Nickelodeon viewer base. Disappointed that its relatively poor ratings did not justify high production costs, Nickelodeon initially cancelled the show. Production was reinstated after intense pressure from fans, and then cancelled, resumed and cancelled once more. In all, one and a half seasons of Invader Zim were made (the second being incomplete). It was first transmitted in March 2001. It currently airs only on Nickelodeon's digital cable-only channel, Nicktoons TV. Invader Zim DVD compilations have been released by Media Blasters after much request by fans.
Zim is a member of the mighty Irken race, a species of aliens whose social hierarchy is based on height. The Irken head of state is The Almighty Tallest (during the course of the show leadership of the Irken state is shared by two beings, The Almighty Tallest, who are exactly the same height). Zim was banished to the planet Foodcourtia to fry things for the remainder of his life for destroying a sizeable portion of an Irken city with a giant robot. The robot was part of Operation Impending Doom I, a major galactic conquest venture by the Irkens. Zim was overeager and activated his robot before leaving his home planet.
Upon hearing of Operation Impending Doom II, Zim "quits" being banished and races to the Great Assigning where Irken Elite soldiers are chosen to become Invaders whose mission it is to blend in with the indigenous life forms of their assigned planet and collect intelligence. Zim pleads with the Tallest to assign him a planet, and in a desperate act to get ZIM out of their hair (used figuratively—Irkens have no visible hair), assign him to a Mystery Planet (or alternatively a random point in space), which turns out to be Earth.
The show features the exploits of Zim trying to conquer the Earth while his arch-nemesis Dib tries to stop him.
Even though this show had a large cult following, it was cancelled in 2003 for similar reasons to the cancellation of The Angry Beavers in 2000, controversy.
A short, green alien from the planet Irk. He is trying to conquer the Earth, and is generally unsuccesful. He has a penchant for being over-dramatic, and uses ridiculously excessive and elaborate plans to conquer the planet when he obviously has the resources to do so much more efficiently. ZIM's usual disguise consists of some contact lenses and a wig, leaving his green skin clearly visible. He's been known to wear other costumes as well, including an old man disguise and a bear suit. He also owns a high-tech back pack which contains his life support systems and brain. Should it be removed he would die in about half an hour. An episode was meant to be made showing this, and would have been the last episode aired, but Nickelodeon didn't allow this, just in case they wanted to bring the series back.
A psychotic, stupid robot slave belonging to Zim. He is easily influenced and impossible to fully control. He is a modified SIR (Standard Information Retrieval) unit, although not even he is aware of what the "G" in GIR stands for. Occasionally he reverts to behaviour expected of a normal SIR unit (during which time his eyes change color to red), but this is normally short-lived. He is incapable of focusing his attention on important things for long periods of time and often speaks with no relevant coherent thought in mind. He is often the reason Zim fails in his attempts. His normal disguise is a green dog suit. He is infatuated with Earth culture and is a very popular character.
GIR is essentially a hedonist, whose main interests in life are sleeping, dancing, watching TV (in particular, the Angry Monkey show) and eating. He cooks on occasion (goodies like mashed potatoes, or waffles with soap), but usually only for himself as Zim finds human food to be disgusting and will probably not eat it. He appears to eat for the sheer pleasure of doing so as he is a robot and likely does not need food. GIR gets along well with others and his best friend is a pig who is seen on occasion visiting GIR at Zim's house.
In several episodes, you will find GIR singing his "doom song". This is merely a song in which he repeats the word doom over and over again, in various tunes. Zim seems really to hate it when GIR does this, yet it is quite an enjoyable part of the show.