Wow… I have to say writing this article makes me severely nostalgic. When I saw Megazone 23 Part II in the listing for potential entries to the Thirty Years Later section, it made me realize just how long I’ve been an anime fan. I saw a version of this video a couple years after the initial release which I’ll elaborate on a bit later. As you’ve no doubt noticed, here, this article is about a sequel movie. So I’ll give folks reading who may be unfamiliar with Part 1 a crash course on things.
About a couple years prior to this release, under the auspices of studios AIC, Artland and Tatsunoko, character designer Toshihiro Hirano (many years before his successful works Fight! Iczer-1 and Magic Knights Rayearth) got together with director Noboru Ishiguro and character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto (who had recently pooled together their talents on Superdimension Fortress Macross) and mecha designer Shinji Aramaki (of Bubble Gum Crisis and Genesis Climber Mospeda fame) to work on a single film in the OAV, or direct-to-video, format. This format was starting to become popular with animators since the release of Mamoru Ohii’s 1983 series Dallos in that it gave creators a way to work (hopefully profitable) ideas into actuality without worrying about factors such as toy sales or censors’ ratings. Even though Dallos proved to be a financial failure, it did pave the way for newer ideas to be tried in this evolving industry.
The 80s were at the height of the “real robot” or war mecha phenomenon where robots were used as transports or for warfare like Gundam and Votoms, as opposed to the heroics of super robots such as Voltron or Mazinger Z. Equally popular was the use of idol singers to sell music related to the story. Then again, music was often popular when used in anime but for the purpose of this story, it was very integral to Megazone 23’s initial success.
The first OAV focused on teenager Shogo Yahagi, who was enjoying a carefree life riding motorcycles, listening to 80s pop music sung by the captivating Eve Tokimatsuri, and pursuing an aspiring actress he’d just met named Yui. Through some crazy events, Shogo winds up with a transforming motorcycle called the Garland. Government forces led by the merciless and ambitious B.D. pursue Shogo to retrieve it (and enact a coup d’état the process). Shogo learns about the true nature of his world from both B.D. and Eve (who turns out to be a living computer program) in that 500 years have actually passed since the 1980s and the remnants of humanity were placed aboard huge spacecraft called Megazones. (The name in this case is a reference to Tokyo having 23 municipalities that make up its core and are referred to as Zone Two-Three.) B.D.’s goal is to get the people ready for an approaching enemy force while dispensing with the peaceful aspects of Eve’s program.
Megazone 23 Part II takes up six months after the first video. Shogo is now a heavily hunted fugitive (wanted for the murder of a friend from Part 1) who has fallen in with a teenage motorcycle gang called Trash. Their leader Lightning has become a mentor and best friend to Shogo, along with some colorful crew members. Yui has also joined the gang as Shogo finally called on her after disappearing, and she begins to change somewhat while hanging with the gang’s female members. B.D. has assigned his right hand man Lt. Shiratori the task of hunting Shogo, as he himself works on breaking Eve and fighting the alien enemy known as the Dezalg.
This enemy is never actually seen but apparently has better technical advancements including a metal pod with tentacles to tear apart human mecha and the pilots inside. (The pods look somewhat similar to the mechanized sentinel units from The Matrix trilogy… Much like other elements of the Megazone story, but that’s just a coincidence, really.) Throughout all this, Eve herself is transmitting intermittent messages in various places saying she needs to meet with Shogo as soon as possible, even with the government listening in. Shogo realizes the importance of Eve’s message and so Lightning and Trash agree to help out with the meeting.
For this video, director Ishiguro was replaced by Iichiro Itano, who was animation director on the first film. In this respect there was some continuity. Aramaki was retained for his mech designs of the Garland and introduced some new yet similar ones here. Also, Mikimoto’s initial design for Eve was retained as was the character’s original singer Kumi Miyasato who contributed two songs in the style of the Eve character, “Please Tell Me The Secret” (the surname of this movie) and “Lonely Sunset.”
Hirano however was replaced with character designer Yasuomi Umetsu of Kite and Mezzo Forte. Umetsu was named both chief animation director and character designer. The overall looks of the characters were drastically changed from Hirano’s generally more exaggerated, cartoonish style and replaced with features more defined and less rounded for a realistic shape. The biggest change was made for the three principal characters since everyone else wasn’t present in the previous video. Shogo and Yui were made to still look like normal teenagers but nothing like their previous incarnations. The most radical change was to B.D. who’d been turned into a blue-haired Dolph Lundgren clone who apparently doesn’t feel punches.
Also there’s a lot more shading throughout this sequel. Mecha and backgrounds all leaned toward a heightened realism not present in the first Megazone. Cityscapes looked right out of the streets of Tokyo based on real buildings. Radios, VCRs and pinball machines were highly detailed as were many other items. There was also an interesting predilection to showing cans of Heineken as the premiere beer, with folks turning down Budweiser to get some (though Bud’s represented here too.) Combined with the intensity of the screenplay by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama (SPT Layzner, Round Vernian Vifam), the film as a whole feels a bit darker in tone than its predecessor. There’s a notably violent space battle that illustrates this point greatly.
That’s not to say there isn’t some brightness and fun here as well. As we get to know the Trash gang, it’s fun to see the various punk-rock styled people Shogo and Yui hang with now. It’s clear they’re accepted as family from the get-go as they’re taught the ins-and-outs of motorcycle life. One of the characters is a heavy-set woman named Dump and said to be modeled after female wrestler Dump Maxima who was rather popular at the time. Another named Cyndi may be modeled after red-haired rocker Cindy Lauper.
In terms of releases, Megazone 23 Part 2 has had a rather storied history in both Japan and the United States. It was released on VHS and Beta tape formats, as well as laserdisc (a format where heavy discs similar to records played movies rather nicely for the time) and given the full promotion of film comics, art books, toys and soundtracks. There was one curious aspect in that the eventual love scene between Shogo and Yui was shortened on all LD releases but shown to have more footage in the film comics.
However an even more curious fate happened to both films when they were licensed by Harmony Gold with Carl Macek who had brought Robotech to American TV in 1985. A couple years afterward, with Robotech having found apparent success in syndication, there were advertisements for a Robotech: The Movie, appearing most notably in Robotech comic adaptations by Comico. This movie is more commonly referred to now as The Untold Story, and used footage from Megazone 23 Part 1 and excerpts from Superdimension Cavalry Southern Cross (know to Americans as the Robotech Masters segment of the TV series.) To make this work, more footage in the style of Megazone 23 was commissioned for a new ending to the film (as Megazone 23 originally had an open ending in Japan.) However, the movie had a test market screening in Dallas, distributed by Cannon Films, and did not do well (partially because Megazone 23 and Southern Cross had visibly different aspect ratios.) So the project was shelved.
At about the same time, Part II was to be used as a special project for English dubbing. Tommy Yune of Harmony Gold recently spoke a little about what the late Mr. Macek had planned. “This was a project Carl Macek had arranged in some capacity while at Streamline Pictures after Harmony Gold. They had picked up the home video distribution rights to Megazone 1+2, and Carl consistently drew from a familiar pool of voice actors for his projects. I vaguely recall him mentioning the international release had been intended as an English-learning exercise for the overseas market.” So this version of Megazone 23 Part II was released on laserdisc overseas and it included a couple things: Japanese subtitles to indeed help teach English to Japanese students, and an opening segment showing the commissioned footage for the Robotech movie conclusion, during which a narrator tells the events of the first Megazone OAV before a musical montage concludes things and Part II starts up.
This dub (now known as The International Dub) is actually pretty well-acted with a vocal cast that was generally recognizable from the Robotech TV series. The dialogue was generally faithful to the original story even if not entirely accurate. Some characters’ names were changed though. Shogo became Johnny Winters (portrayed by an appropriately teen-sounding Kerry Mahan). Yui was now known as Suzy Sue, voiced competently by Barbara Goodson, and Lt. Shiratori became Armstrong, hoping to fend off the attacks of The Gorig. B.D.’s powerful presence was commanded by Michael McConnohie while Muriel Fargo infused Eve with an innocent yet haunting and wise quality best suited to an Oracle-like figure.
During the 80s, the Internet didn’t exist so people often copied Japanese animation from VHS tape to VHS tape, often sourced by someone having a laserdisc to copy from since it was the most clear. This was before many companies were present to distribute anime on a grand scale in the U.S. and so these tapes would make their way to sci-fi conventions or anime cubs where more tapes were traded and copied. This is how I wound up seeing Megazone 23 Part 2 myself at a St. Louis anime convention called ArchCon in 1988, one of the first times I got to see anime outside of Robotech being broadcast. At the same time, there were a couple publications speaking about the Megazone franchise as a whole such as Anime-Zine and Animag, but this International dub didn’t get distributed on any grand scale in the U.S.
In 1989, a third Megazone OAV was released in two parts, in Japan only. During the 90s there was very little done with the franchise outside of Streamline Pictures releasing the first Megazone video with a straight translation on VHS and later on DVD as this was the newest emerging home video format and most dominant. Streamline themselves went out of business in this decade and the franchise license lapsed. In 2004, ADV Films turned up with the license and released all three parts onto DVD individually with brand new English dub tracks to keep the vocal quality congruent. The first OAV included a commentary track by producers Matt Greenfield, David Williams and Janice Williams who spoke extensively about the making of the first and second films as well as 80s anime fandom. All three entries looked better than ever before to this point and Part II even had its love scene restored fully (likely a holdover from the R2 DVD Japanese release.) ADV’s dub had some high quality talent taking over such as Vic Mignona portraying Shogo, Allison Keith as Yui and Monica Rial performing as Eve, among other talents. While this group did a good job overall, it was unfortunate the International dub was not also brought over in this release.
ADV Films closed its doors in 2009 and so there have been no further American plans made for any of the OAVs. In Japan, there was a game made for the Sony Playstation 3 entitled Megazone 23: Blue Garland. The International Dub of Part II was included as an extra on this game, but strangely almost all of the violence and sex scenes were removed. In November 2015, a Blu-ray set of all Megazone 23 OAVs was released in Japan with many extras included, among them the fully restored International Dub of Part II. Unfortunately, none of the other dubs or subtitles are part of this set.
In the years following Part II’s initial release, its creators went on to have successful careers. Umetsu went from character designer to direct the powerful short Presence as part of the anthology anime Robot Carnival. Subsequently he did the remake OVA’s of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman as well as the (disturbingly) controversial short Kite, Gallilei Donna and Wizard Barristers. Aramaki moved on from mech designing to eventually become a feature director on CG films such as Appleseed Ex Machina and Space Pirate Captain Harlock. He attended Dragon Con 2016 to talk about his extensive career in both regards as well as his fondness for motorcycles.
In conclusion, I have to say Megazone 23 Part II was an epitome of what sci-fi storytelling could achieve via incredible art skills in the animation medium, as well as a testament to the rebellious spirit of 80s pop culture in both Japan and America. It’s a video I enjoy pointing to when talking about the best works of that decade. Here’s hoping that someday there’s a new distributor for the franchise as a whole through which the U.S. might see these videos on Blu-ray someday.