Megazone 23 is a strange thing to review. Although the three installments’ stories make up a cohesive whole, they were produced under wildly varying circumstances with different directors and staff, so each has a different style and tone. I could do a full write-up of each one on its own and never repeat myself due to the level of variety on display in this collection. Yet, it is up to me to write a single review of AnimEigo‘s exhaustive release, and I will do my best.
I had the privilege of watching it knowing almost nothing except that the first two parts are beloved and the third is… not. If you are in that position and reading this review, stop right there. Close the tab and buy the disc, borrow it from a friend, check it out from the library… Whatever it takes, find a way to watch it and let the story unfold before you. I went from knowing nothing beyond that it was beloved to barely being able to stop thinking about it. It’s hugely influential for all the right reasons.
If you must know more about what you’re getting into, in the 1980s in Tokyo, an experimental motorcycle, the Garland, falls into the hands of biker punk Shogo Yahagi. Before he knows it, government goons are nipping at his heels, willing to stop at nothing to get back this vehicle and its ability to transform into a robot. Through this, he learns that his world is a sham, that humanity left Earth behind 500 years ago, and that the Tokyo he knows is on a spaceship controlled by an AI called Bahamut. The military is working to disable the AI so they can take control, but when the virtual idol Eve contacts Shogo through the Garland, asking him to help her to stop the military from starting a pointless war, he doesn’t know who to believe.
The first part, directed by Noboru Ishiguro of Macross fame, was originally conceived as a TV series. When their toy sponsor pulled out, they cobbled together the footage they had and released it as the second-ever OVA in 1985. In just eighty minutes, Shogo goes through a full narrative arc as he learns the truth of the world, faces uncertainty, and becomes disillusioned in a short space of time. The story reveals itself gradually, pulling back the layers of the conspiracy and embracing the ambiguity as Shogo struggles to figure out who to trust without pushing for easy answers: does he trust BD, the military man he meets underneath the city who tells him that Bahamut is the enemy? Or Eve, who swears that Bahamut’s purpose is to protect what’s left of humanity? Although much of the exposition comes via dialogue and characters explaining things, the characters inhabit a world and build relationships that feel natural and real. Shogo’s relationship with Yui, an aspiring actress, and her two roommates is the heart of the story and gives it much necessary warmth.
The second part, directed by Ichirō Itano of Angel Cop and Violence Jack fame, was created as an OVA from start to finish, and it shows. Itano is known for his edgy, hyperviolent storytelling style, and Megazone 23 Part II is no exception. The story is dark throughout, featuring graphic sex and gory violence. It picks up six months after the end of the first part, with Shogo hiding out underground to avoid the military’s notice as a member of the biker gang Trash. BD is seeking a way to penetrate the deepest layers of Bahamut as they wage open war against the Dezalg, another spaceship that left Earth around the same time as Megazone.
The better installment is largely a matter of taste, but I can safely say I much prefer the first’s softer, more character-focused tone. The character writing feels rather off here – Shogo is disillusioned and angsty, which isn’t surprising considering what he’s been through. Yui, however, has been transformed into much more of a girl-next-door type. Her hair is brown instead of green, and she acts like a typical girlfriend character in a male-focused narrative, whereas before, she had much more texture. It’s strange to see her rough edges filed off when she’s surrounded by secondary characters who are nothing but rough edges. The members of Trash, meanwhile, are much more engaging, even if their characterization feels shallow.
It’s all kind of… ugly. That’s not to say it’s poorly animated! The ugliness is likely an intentional choice because it’s an uglier story told in an ugly way. The character designs are much more realistically proportioned than the first installment’s rounder, more classically ’80s style; Shogo looks significantly different, but Yui and BD are nigh-unrecognizable. Itano is best known as a mechanical and action director, and that’s clearly where the effort went. The machinery, from Trash’s motorcycles to the Dezalg’s more advanced weaponry and spaceships, is hand-animated in the kind of glorious detail that you just don’t get anymore. The character animation, on the other hand, is full of errors. Characters shift and slide in the frame, teleport in and out, and move their mouths with no sound coming out. Even the more fluidly-animated cuts often have a wobbly quality to them, like AI-generated videos where the figures shuffle about aimlessly instead of moving with some kind of purpose.
Part III, on the other hand, is almost universally reviled. Released in two parts in 1989, it somehow manages to tell a less coherent story than the previous two installments did individually, despite having 20 extra minutes. It takes place several hundred years later, focusing on Eiji, a teenager living in Eden, Earth’s only city, who gets recruited to the military because he’s really good at video games. Humans haven’t been allowed to leave Eden since it was founded, and the government’s decisions are controlled by an AI known as the System. Hackers that try to subvert the System are considered terrorists, but Eiji’s beliefs are shaken when the virtual pop idol Eve reaches out to him about the truth behind the System’s dominance.
This installment is directed by Kenichi Yatagai and Shinji Aramaki, the latter of whom is best known today as one of the strongest proponents of fully 3D CGI anime but is not particularly well-regarded for his storytelling skills. The story meanders along for 100 minutes, under-explaining elements that would become essential to the climax while including plot threads that go nowhere. Plot twists come out of the ether with absolutely zero foreshadowing. Much of the climax has to do with two ISPs battling for… some reason. Meanwhile, why is Ryo there? Other than being the obligatory girlfriend, she doesn’t actually do anything other than get her tits out once or twice in ways that do nothing to advance the story. The animation is no less inconsistent, varying from little more than sketches with flat coloring to fluid with rich colors and lush shading.
This brings us to why MediaOCD put out a new release after AnimEigo‘s Omega Edition: the Manga UK dub. It’s rife with UK actors doing their best American accents, ranging from convincing to bad John F. Kennedy impressions. Overall, the cast does quite well, considering the terrible material they’re working with, but the climax… oh, the climax. It’s two terrible actors doing terrible accents at each other. If I had any emotional investment I might have been upset, but considering the crappy story up to that point, I was happy to spend the last few minutes cackling and saying, “Oh noooooooo.” Seriously, there were tears in my eyes. It takes it from a bad movie to a true disasterpiece, making everything up to that point worthwhile.
Part III is not alone in its terrible dub. AnimEigo has assembled a true “kitchen sink” release, and that includes a number of different dubs in the series’ long and storied history. There is, of course, the Japanese language track; if you select “English” in the main menu, you’ll get the ADV dub, which is overall decent if you can stomach hearing Vic Mignogna. At least it was made back when he actually acted, rather than doing the same voice for every character he was cast as.
Go into the extras menu, and you’ll find each part has another dub. The true treasure is, of course, the UK dub of Part III, but the International Version of Part II is fascinating in its own right. It cuts in footage from Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and some original animation made for when Megazone 23 was converted into Robotech: The Movie. Shogo is renamed to Johnny Winters in this version, and Yui is now Sue. Despite having almost the exact same animation, Johnny comes across very differently from Shogo; he’s much more brash and confident, whereas Shogo was more introspective as he struggled to cope with his world being turned out from under him. The characters are also much meaner to Dump, seemingly unable to speak to her without making fun of her weight, and the sex scene was cut down considerably.
There are a number of other extras in addition to the alternate dubs. The liner notes by Gilles Poitras are interesting, but the format is unwieldy, with references marked by timestamps that likely won’t be very useful to the average viewer. There are also two art galleries, and the one focused on line art includes translated notes from the production staff, which are full of interesting insights and trivia on the thought processes behind character and mechanical designs. There are two commentary tracks on the first episode: one by the mechanical designers Gaku Miyao and Hiroki Satō and one by ADVs dub producers. While dub commentary tracks on modern anime releases tend to be useless, inane prattling by actors just trying to fill the time, the ADV commentators were clearly longtime fans who knew a lot of history, even if I did disagree with some of how they interpreted the story and characters.
The whole thing looks gorgeous, as AnimEigo and MediaOCD releases usually do. Even from the FBI warning, which deliberately copies the look of old VHS tapes down to the distortion and fuzz distinct to the medium. The remastered animation is something of a double-edged sword in this case. It is stunning in the moments, and it looks good, but it makes the errors and poorly-animated cuts all the more obvious. The audio mixing varies from version to version. While it mostly sounded good, particularly Eve’s songs, the international cut of Part II was noticeably imbalanced with the sound effects much louder than the dialogue. I found myself scrambling to turn the volume up and down several times throughout the movie.
Megazone 23 is the kind of title that deserves a place on every serious fan’s shelf. Its influence on the industry cannot be overstated, setting the tone for the OVA boom of the ’80s and ’90s and pushing the envelope of what the medium could do. But it’s not a worthy purchase just for its historical importance; it’s a truly enjoyable story that holds up well to modern standards and still feels relevant, possibly even more so with its focus on AI and militarism. With all the versions and extras included, there’s little doubt this is the definitive release. The letter grades at the bottom may look low because I have to factor in Part III, but trust me, it’s worth it.
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