Megazone 23- (No, its not pronounced twenty-three. Two Three. Why? Because fuck you.)
. The ending though is kinda compelling in that it has
which seems to have been popular with gangster films back then. Shogo trying to kill BD not out of any sense of ideology, rather just because he was mad, was a fairly human reaction and I liked that a lot. I thought in some ways it was an uplifting ending despite
. Welp.
. The conclusion between BD and Shogo also felt underwhelming largely because the first OVA hit on many of the same points and
. I did like a couple of things in the back half though. The conversation between Shogo and Eve was cool with the changing backgrounds and thus was redolent of episode 25/26 in Neon Genesis Evangelion. The scene really gave off a scifi vibe and was visually distinctive. Seeing
. The ending itself harkens back to Orphans of the Skys ending with Shogo and crew
. It was a very conclusive ending to Shogos story, or so I thought.
. Not to mention Won Dais plans themselves are just so off-the-rails and the film doesnt justify any of that nonsense. That just ended up leaving a really bad taste in my mouth. Then theres also the Eiji/Eva romance(I guess?) angle which felt weird as Part A had built up the Eiji/Ryo romance, despite Ryo being boring as dirt. It culminates in
. Thank you Star Driver for me knowing that concept. He ends up going back to Ryos arms at the end of the film.
So with the recent release of the blu-rays, I decided to watch this as it seems to be fairly well-regarded and well-regarded mecha shows are about as rare as a main character getting laid in a harem. Megazone 23 is a four part OVA that was initially released in the mid 1980s, culminating with the final OVA being released in 1989. Almost everything surrounding the production of the show is interesting to say the least, even the overseas releases with multiple dub versions. This part is a bit fuzzy due to conflicting sources but Megazone23 seems to have been animated primarily by Artland with help by Tatsunoko, although ANN has Tatsunoko as the primary studio. This was supposed to have been Artmic's, a design studio, and Artlands first self-produced animation and been co-produced by Gakken, who used to make Mospeada toys. Artland started from humble beginnings, from three desks, and this was going to be their first major television series. In fact, a lot of the violence and nudity was to hook viewers back then. Heres an interview with Ishiguro where he briefly talks about the production. After Part 1 came out, Artmic had to sell Megazone23 off, losing creative control although a lot of the staff stayed on. The first two segments are an hour and twenty minutes, making them essentially full-fledged movies, with the final two segments being part of a final third chapter and each are roughly 50 minutes long. Each Part varies wildly in direction, tone, and art/character design.
Noboru Ishiguro initially came up with a series of ideas for a television series, the first one being Omega City 23. The most information I could find in regards to the early prototypes was here. In short, Omega City 23 revolved around the idea of people living in an artificial world that they themselves didnt know was fake. A lot of the elements in Robert Heinleins novella, Orphans of the Sky, were found in the prototypes, to the point of accidental plagiarism, and are still very much found in all of the segments such as the generational starships and a nonsecular culture being based on history/technology. Another major influencing source is a film called Streets of Fire, directed by Walter Hill of The Warriors fame, which was released in 1984. Streets of Fire bombed in the US and was bashed critically, however it found a following in Japan. A main character in the film sings this line, Theres nothing wrong with going nowhere, baby. But we should be going nowhere fast. Its so much better going nowhere fast. I think that encapsulates the mindsets behind a number of animators of the time. Many of these themes in Streets of Fire can be found in Part 1 & 2.
Omega Zone 23 was supposed to go on the air but the primary sponsor pulled out. Oops. The problem now was that the studio had a bunch of finished footage and didnt know how they were going to release it. At the time OVAs werent popular as there had been a few releases, most of it hentai. There was also Dallos, directed by Oshii, but that was generally it. So the staff rolled the dice and compiled everything they had into one big film, although they had to make a number of cuts that you can detect in the subplot area. They had to cram roughly 12 episodes worth of story into this one film and things such as the lack of a conclusive ending are a result of the condensing process. This was supposed to have been a one-and-done sort of deal, despite the open ending, in order to minimize the monetary loss. As it turns out, Megazone 23 ended up being super popular. It was the first major OVA success and led to the famous 80s OVA boom, with a large number of new franchises being released in OVA format. Megazone 23 made OVAs mainstream for a while.
The plot revolves around a teenager named Shogo who lives in what appears to be the 1980s and he accidentally stumbles into a large-scale military conspiracy. The military, run by a man named BD which is literally short for Bad Guy, is trying to break the overseeing computers encryption. Shogo is ultimately conflicted as to what he should do with this new information and the direction of his life. Does he take the red pill or the blue pill? A good chunk of the film is about what life is like in Megazone 23 and Shogo flirting with a girl named Yui. Its pure 80s from the fluffy hair to the clothing, such as Yuis dancer outfit with leg warmers and headbands. When Shogo stumbles onto the supercomputer called Bahamut, the film takes a somewhat darker tone.
The film just reminds me so much of Macross, due to the generational starships and the virtual pop-idols. Of course some of the elements that were later used in Macross are used here first but this also takes a number of cues from OG Macross. It's like a dark version of Macross. The character designers for Megazone 23 Part 1 was Toshihiro Hirano and Haruhiko Mikimoto, to a much lesser extent. While Mikimoto didnt design any of the characters besides Eve, Hirano was clearly trying to match Mikimotos work on Macross. The result was fairly successful in that I thought Mikimoto did all the designs. The characters all have that dopey sleepy-eyed look to them that I associate with Mikimoto's earlier work. A number of themes brought up in Macross are also addressed here such as using music for propaganda. It even has sleazy producers trying to sleep with the talent! Kaifun would be proud. The pacing is reminiscent of Macross due to the heavy focus on Yui and Shogos everyday life. As a result, parts come off as boring and plodding at certain points. In regards to the larger plot elements, much of the impact has been lost due to time and derivative works. Whether due to Megazone 23 sharing similar sources as other scifi works or other works taking from Megazone 23 directly, it doesnt bring anything new to the table that I havent already seen better executed elsewhere. Im sure for teenagers back in the 80s, some of this was probably mind-blowingly unique but in a world where the Matrix exists, its not the only game out there now. Then theres the political angle which didnt feel particularly fleshed out and so the military coup aspect comes off as half-baked. Also a lot of the background information justifying the military trying override to Bahamut, is only found in supplemental material and not the OVA itself.
On the audio-visual side, a number of great animators worked on the film from Hideaki Anno to Ichiro Itano. That said, the animation quality is sort of inconsistent in that parts will be really well animated and others poorly. It does have a lot of great mechanical shots and the settings can look really nice. Kumi Miyasato was the singer for Eve and was seemingly very popular in the 80s. She did a total of three songs for Part 1. Tell me that this opening doesnt sound 80s to the max. I think my favorite is Lullaby of the Wind. The OST in general was done by Shiro Sagisu but its not his best work and really only the insert songs are somewhat memorable.
In regards to the general execution, there are a few points I want to bring up. The first is that this has probably one of the most awkward sex scenes I have ever seen in any medium for a number of reasons. So Shogo is having a mini meltdown due to the influx of new information regarding his world and so point-blank asks Yui to sleep with him. Theres zero candlelight or romancing in the scene but just him in a shop asking for her to have sex with him. Then during the sex scene, it has a blatant exposition dump. People bring up the term sexposition in regards to Game of Thrones but this is on a whole different level. Its awkwardly timed too considering the audience just heard most of the information and could have been easily skipped over. Also the camera takes this weird first person viewpoint and just lingers on her body with this pink coloring over everything. Of course its not as exploitative as the scene in the second OVA but Ill get to that later. Another scene I had qualm with was
Tomomis death. Theres essentially zero warning and seems like an overreaction on BDs part. They dont try to warn her or steal all her films but instead just blast her in the face and thats that
Shogo going in a rage and losing to BD
Shogo losing, is due to him standing upright and I was thinking it was going to lead to a more enlightened Shogo in Part 2
After the release of the first film there apparently was a lawsuit regarding the profits. I tried finding more detail as to who swindled who but thats lost in the void somewhere. Anyway Ishiguro asked Ichiro Itano, who worked on the first OVA, to direct the second film and Itano agreed with the condition that he be given the freedom to do whatever he wants. This was Itanos first directing and gig. Heres an interview with Itano where he briefly discusses it:
Ishiguro put his complete faith behind Itano and Itano ended up with a vastly different product compared to the original. Instead of Hiranos Macross-like style, he ended up using Umetsus character designs that were much more in line with the 80s. The designs are more realistic and dont remotely resemble the design work in Part 1. Ill be upfront right now, Part 2 is mostly garbage on almost every conceivable level. I understand Part 2 sold better than Part 1 and I have zero clue why other than this resonated with edgy teenagers everywhere. It took the few elements I liked about Part 1 and flushed it down the toilet so Itano could fit in more gore and tits. It is representative of everything bad about the hyper-violent 80s anime OVAs.http://www.japanator.com/animazement-12-ichiro-itano-talks-about-past-future-25492.phtml said:
Its not just the character designs or art design that is bad. In Part 1, much of the focus was on Shogo and Yuis lives in a normal setting and similarly the film does that as well but inside that of a biker gang, appropriately called the Trash Gang. The film tries to flesh out all these gang characters but none of them are remotely interesting. Instead of building upon the events in the first film, there is a half-year time skip that seemingly sets back Shogos character development as well as Shogo and Yuis relationship. Theres also this weird sex scene again between Shogo and Yui that somehow feels even less attached to the plot and is instead just a way to show off anime tits. I couldnt even get turned on because of how bad the new designs are and that Yuis hair is not green anymore. Another element that comes to the forefront is the alien invasion. While it serves as the plot device driving the actions of the military, most of it just ends up coming off as gore porn due to how overly excessive many of the scenes are. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see a metal cable go through someones face or their eyeballs popped out of their sockets? Well if youre curious, I gotta a show to recommend you.Part 1 | Part 2
I mean just look at the difference in the above designs. What the fuck, two dont even have the same hair color.
From an animation standpoint, the second episode might be better, although more inconsistent. Its hard to tell due to how bad the new art and character designs are. I guess the death scenes were well animated. On the VA/music side, they switched out Shogos VA for someone new, which is ultra-rare. Kumi Miyasato at least reprised her role as Eve and we got some new songs out of it. Both Lonely Sunset and Please Tell Me The Secret are pretty good.
This is not even remotely close to the most gruesome screenshot I have from this film.
The back half of this is more serious in that the gang is on the run from the military but ultimately
most of them end up dying. I guess this was supposed to be emotional but due to the raw number of deaths, it came off as flat. Why do I have dying and deaths in quotation marks? Because somehow they all survived. How? I have no clue. Its really lazy shit. Not to mention the gang all gets to the evacuation pod despite being injured while thousands if not millions of uninjured people all end up getting obliterated
BD just flies off to have some off-screen death in the middle of space
the Megazone 23 disintegrate while Please Tell Me the Secret was playing in the background, was undoubtedly a memorable moment
colonizing Earth
All of that said, I do think Part 2 brings up some interesting themes. I watched Part 2 about a week ago and in the meantime, I ended up watching Streets of Fire. Streets of Fire is about a pop idol being kidnapped by a biker gang and her ex-boyfriend comes back into town to rescue her. While Part 1 has the direct visual references, such as Shogo and Yui going to see Streets of Fire in the movies, I think Part 2 is much closer thematically to the movie. Im not talking about things like the biker gangs or pop idols, although both are obviously present, but rather subjects such as growing up and what kind of an adult you want to be. The main character in Streets of Fire, Tom Cody, is a man-child like Shogo in that theyre both grown up but do what they want with little care of the consequences or responsibility. Much of the film is about Tom trying to be smart and be like Billy, a character who represents the adult world. However in the final third of the film, Tom essentially gives up at being a proper adult and confronts the bad guy not because its the right thing but rather out of a sense of pride. Tom embraces his rebellious and hot-blooded nature just as Shogo does. Shogo has a big speech with Eve near the end of Part 2 where he rejects the military and declares adults to be selfish, hypocritical, and egotistical. In both works there is a clear spurning of society and that is viewed as a good thing. Theres also a few more minor things such as Shogo not returning to Eve is similar to Tom leaving Ellen to join the military. Both main characters have a loner element to their personality and realize that their girlfriend is walking a different path. I just want to make it clear though that while the above is an interesting avenue to explore, the execution on Itanos part leaves a lot to be desired. I cant even say Itano aimed too high but rather hes just not a good director.
Part 3 was produced three years later by Kenichi Yatagai (Part A) and Eiji Aramaki (Part B). They apparently wanted the work to be stand-alone so almost none of the old cast returns and there is at least a 500 year gap. It covers a teenager named Eiji living in Eden, the last(first?) city on Earth. Eiji is a gamer who is very good at this arcade VR game called Hard On. Yes, I know. It turns out that being a pro gamer in this world lands you a plush job at E-X who run Eden. E-X is both a corporation and church. While at E-X, he starts digging around into cyber attacks done by a competitor corporation called Orange. This leads to him being tangled in-between two warring corporation. While the art style is much closer to the first entry, theres less of a focus on the slice of life elements and instead prioritize the grand scheme such as the power plays between different parties and later Bishop Won Dais plan.
I liked a number of the concepts and themes presented here, more so than the previous entries. Unlike previous entries, theres a bigger focus on religion. In this case, the people living in Eden essentially worship this computer that oversees their lives. Unlike prior where the people didnt know about Bahamut running their lives, here they welcome it. I couldnt find anything to support this but I feel like this segment had an influence on Xenogears. Im sure its just common sources for both works but this really reminded me of Xenogears. Regardless, its an intriguing concept that many scifi works dont delve into. The idea that a corporation can be both a corporation and church at the same time is fascinating. In addition theres the VR game stuff that seems especially resonant now but the Part doesnt delve too much into that.
I have never seen this before, like ever. Even the most bootleg TV shows usually have all in-betweens. There are scenes where there are literally no in-betweens resulting in this unintentional stop motion animation. Its just so weird as there are parts before and after these scenes that are regularly animated. It doesnt just happen a couple of times either but maybe five or six times. Part 3A is the worst animated segment of all the Parts, not only due to the stop motion animation scenes but also no real stand out moments. Part 3B is definitely better in that there werent any of the above issues and the final fight had some good cuts due to Obari. Both Parts still arent as well animated as their predecessors but at least the character designs dont look as bad as Part 2. Eves VA also doesnt make a return for unknown reasons. Saki Takaokas work isnt as good as Miyasatos but its not bad I guess.
I wanted to mention the ending for a couple of reasons. The first is that the dialogue just went to shit. The other is making
ouch the edge
Won Dai to be Shogo. This didnt make any sense and the film doesnt do any work to justify it. It just ends up detracting from Shogos ending in Part 2 and seems like unnecessary fanservice to tie all the Parts together. They dont explain how Shogo got connected to the system and if youre going to undercut a previous like that, please try to warrant it on some level to the audience
Eiji and Eva kissing through the glass
The work as a whole is definitely a product of its time. Part 1 in particular has numerous references to 80s products such as Streets of Fire and Dagger of Kamui. Part 2 encompassed the hyper violent OVAs that plagued 80s. Then theres Part 3 which was probably influenced by Akira to some degree. From every aspect, the films are just 80s to their core. For Part 2 that ends up being truly indubitably bad but it makes for an interesting viewing experience for the other Parts. All of the Parts unquestionably have issues though and its not even similar issues for each Part. The closest anime movie series I can think of where each segment is just radically different from the previous one is Patlabor. Of course this is nowhere near as good as the Patlabor films but it is fascinating from a viewing standpoint. For people interested in watching Megazone 23, I highly recommend watching Streets of Fire beforehand. Viewing Streets of Fire isnt necessary but it gives a layer of understanding as to what Itano was striving towards with Part 2, even if his execution was astounding lackluster. Hell, I think it captures the feelings of not only the characters but the staff for all the parts.
Yes, this goodbye note makes perfect sense.
After all, tonight is what it means to be young.
