[.ca] Megazone 23: Volume 1 + artbox + mouse pad

From Amazon.com:
Originally released in 1985, Megazone 23 (a.k.a. The Robotech Movie) was one of the earliest anime features. Daredevil biker Shogo Yahagi is always getting into scrapes and asking his friends to bail him out. He's drawn into a deadly governmental cover-up when he borrows the Garland, a top-secret motorcycle that turns into a battle robot. Pursued by B.D., the evil mastermind of the conspiracy, Shogo learns that the Earth was destroyed 500 years ago: humanity has actually been living in an enormous spaceship, Megazone 23, run by the supercomputer Bahamoud. The characters behave improbably, at best. In the midst of these life-and-death intrigues, Shogo finds the time to begin a romance with Yui and to appear with her in an amateur film. He waits until B.D. is about crack a vital computer code to go to bed with Yui--and talk about the developing crisis. Megazone 23 was the first installment of a three-part series, and it ends on a real cliffhanger. The artists were clearly learning their craft when they made the film: the motorcycle chases lack the skillful cutting and dramatic camera angles that would characterize later features. Unrated, but cartoon violence and sex are unsuitable for children. --Charles Solomon

Megazone 23: Back With A Vengeance...!!!:
Well, I just bought, and watched, my copy of this CLASSIC "Japanamation" (which, for those to young to remember the 80's, is what we use to call "Anime" back in the 80's) OVA (which stands for, Original Video Animation, which meant anything that was animated to go straight to video, and not for play on Japanese TV, as most anime was made for, and you thought that you weren't gonna learn anything, by reading this review... lol) MEGAZONE 23, and am QUITE relieved that the new English dub for this new release, isn't ANYWHERE as BAD, as the past reviewers have said that it was. Sure, most fans of this title, have grown up with the older Streamline Pictures, English dub, which is a nice dub, except for the fact that the three main girls in the story, all sound like sophisticated ladies, and NOT the young adults that they are actually suppose to be, where as in this new version, the dubbing team has opted for voices that closer mirror the attitudes of the young ladies, which is also nice (my suggestion is that you try and acquire BOTH versions of this anime, so that you can decide for yourself as to which dub you prefer). Another plus, is the audio commentary (which you should definitely listen to AFTER watching the show if you are new to this title, as there be spoilers afoot, me lads :) which, although, tends to spend more then half of it's time, with the three speakers reminiscing about their old Laser Disc anime collections, does get into some pretty funny good natured kidding about the show itself (i.e. how room items seem to change from scene to scene) and some interesting anecdotal tidbits about the show as well. The story is shear 80's, sci-fi-mecha-transformation-actioner, and if you like Macross (or Robotech, as it is widely known here) then you'll LOVE this, as it's BIGGER and BADDER, with a nice story. One thing to take into consideration when watching this though, is he fact that this is part 1 of a 3 part story (actually, really only a 2 part story, as the next part, part 2, really ends the story, where as part 3 is more of an add on to try and cash in on the Akira phenomenon, and, although it has it's merit, is pretty much a different story) and so, doesn't have a proper ending, as such, leaving the door WAY open for part 2. So, keep this in mind, as ALL questions WILL be nicely answered, in part 2. All in all, a nice job was done on this title, and is definitely worth the mula (and for the novice animer out there, this is a title NOT to be missed, trust me ;)

Totally 'Zoned Out:
A few anime fans may recognize some parts of 'MegaZone 23 Part 1' from the rarely-seen 'Robotech The Movie: The Untold Story'. Portions from MZ23 and 'Southern Cross' were cobbled together into a presentation that attempted to bridge the first two generations of 'Robotech' together. The resulting production was rightfully seen as a pathetic travesty by both Robotech nuts and otaku in general. Unfortunately, this was how I first "saw" this fairly entertaining and historic bit of 80s anime. Luckily, a friend let me borrow his MZ23 platter, and I found it to be a pretty good show, with plenty of the standard 80s anime staples: vehicles transforming into robots (in this case, a super-size motor bike), several moments of speed-line-laden high-velocity action, & a bit of gratuitous violence & female naughty bits (the good stuff!). Interestingly enough, 'Robotech: The Movie' producer Carl Macek also produced & directed the first English-dub rendition of 'MegaZone 23' (ADV did an all-new dub in their release). Was it his way of saving face in the wake of the whole butchery debacle? Hmm... The show's premise is reminiscent of 'The Matrix'. Our hero Shogo, a rice-burner-ridin' speed demon Mickey-D's till jockey, gets caught up in an unbelievable conspiracy-slash-cover-up-type-thingy, and discovers that the world he lives in isn't what it seems. With the help of a special top-secret convertible motor bike, a J-pop singer who also isn't what she appears to be, and his hot teal-haired aerobics-dancing girlfriend, he does what he can to fend off the clandestine forces who attempt to silence him forever. The ending is similar to that of 'The Empire Strikes Back'-- it leaves you hangin'! But then, what didja expect from a DVD labeled 'Part 1'? Speaking of 'Empire', there's one scene near the beginning where the protagonists are watching a movie, and the scene they're viewing looks just like the part where Han kisses Leia right before he's turned into a carbonite popsicle. Proof positive that 'Star Wars' really is a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon! This disc includes both the original Japanese language track and a new English dub. Personally, I found the new dub even sillier than both the original AND Robotech movie dubs! Whenever I hear the English dialogue on this, I imagine one of the assistants slipping prozac-laced meth into the voice actors' bottled water before the recording sessions! Eh, it's not like real anime geeks actually watched the dub version, anyway... unless they're not into reading that is. On the upside, I found the subtitled translations of various Japanese-language signs and the lyrics to EVE's (the aforementioned J-pop star) tunes kinda neat... Also thrown in for kicks is a feature-length commentary track, which is chock-full of statements and anecdotes by ADV production bigwigs Matt Greenfield, and David & Janice Williams. Well, actually Janice barely speaks up at all as the other two guys really start geekin' out. They cover the early days of collecting Japanese anime videos, and how expensive and time-consuming it was. They also hem and haw about the evolution of this feature from a TV series to one of the first direct-to-video anime presentations (called "OVAs"-- Original Video Animation-- by the fans) to hit the Japanese rental store shelves. Which led to them talking about how MZ23's success led to an explosion in the OVA market in the land of the rising sun. Also touched on and pointed out are the various plot holes, continuity errors, and other flubs that pop up throughout the show, as well as cameos by such notable anime legends as Lupin III and Max Genus (Max Sterling) of Macross (Robotech) fame. But to me the most amusing part is their discussion about how they wanted to write a fair amount of 80s lingo ("rad", "tubular", et.al.) into the English dub script so that it "sounded" right for the time it first came out (around 1985). Weird thing is, I recall hearing the uttering of "my bad!" at one point in the show, which is a term that I associate more with the late 90s than the mid 80s... As for bonuses: included with the ADV 'Series Box' edition DVD is a fold-out poster liner sheet that features EVE on the front, and info regarding the various characters, vehicles, and the evolution of the MegaZone saga on the back. Also thrown in is a mini mouse pad. Thing is, I don't recall the artwork on the mouse pad appearing anywhere in the movie itself; it looks more like it came from 'Ghost in the Shell'. Then there's the 'series box' itself, which is wide enough to hold all three volumes of this series... as soon as the other two volumes street that is. Which I can hardly wait to take a look at, seein' as how I've never watched 'em before... The only real problem I have with this set is the new cover art for the slipcase box and the DVD case. Why didn't they use the original artwork from the series or its initial promotional materials to decorate the packaging with? You know, something that looks like it came from the time that MZ23 was produced? Eh, it's probably their subliminal ploy to appeal to the latest generation of otaku. You know-- the super-geekin', socially inept teenager who couldn't get a date for the weekend--AGAIN (BTW I feel your pain, guys). But what about us old-schoolers, huh? What... about... us??? 'Late

GOOFBALL VIDEO:
Well, as lamebrained mishmashes of conflicted, cluttered, and uninnovative anime go, I guess Megazone 23 takes the cake, and the pan it sits on, and the oven it was baked in. Just barely lying under the surface, this story of superficiality and illusion, is an analogy to itself. Well, let's start at the beginning. Shogo Yahagi is an 18 year old McDonald's employee who, as is standard, rides a motorcycle and is a juvenile delinquent in disguise. One of his friends invites him to see a very futuristic looking bike that he says was "borrowed" from the company he works for. Right then, some x-files looking agents show up with guns demanding the bike back. In the confusion, Shogo's friend (or just acquaintance?) is killed and Shogo takes off on the bike, soon learning that it can transform into a battle-primed mecha (which he seems to pilot expertly with no training). He soon goes on to use it for his own purposes, like spying on a girl he's interested in, and killing innocent people as he drives down the street with no regard for pedestrians. By coencidental circumstances (by that I mean stopping in a tunnel), Shogo learns that the world he lives in is an artificial world inside a spaceship controlled by a super computer, which is being approached by a UFO, and is currently under danger of being taken over by military subversives. I thought America was the only one that suffered from the 80's: bad music, bad hair, bad clothes. Yet here we are in Megazone with all the sorry disco-like music and bufont hair. Especially in Flashdance like sequences where a girl dances in spandex and legwarmers. The plot of this story never added up. I mean, for 500 years, this whole population has been living in a spaceship without noticing, and then this guy just takes a wrong turn in a tunnel and finds out the secret. I mean where was all the food coming from? Where were the dead buried? Didn't anyone, like in the Truman Show, come to the end of the city and run into a wall? None of the characters in this series has a clue. This is only Part 1 so I would think more explanation would be given in the second volume, which by the way, I won't buy. Another goofy sidestory is that Shogo and his girlfriends are making an independent film on the side which has the same story as the dvd. Wow, a mirror within a mirror....of lameness. The only redeeming ideas here were used later on in Dark City and the Matrix films and Akira. Watch any of those films instead of wasting time and money on this dvd. Features a commentary and production sketches. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, in a scene of Megazone, the mecha are told to use their light sabers, which yes, are exactly like those of Star Wars, even with the "wowwww, woowww" sound effects. Also, Shogo's bike sounds suspiciously like the Millenium Falcon as it runs. Awful.

Classic Anime:
Megazone 23 is not on the level as say Akira, but it's just an '80's classic...in my opinion as good as early Gundam flicks. It is a prime example of that genre.

Better off with old dub, out with the new!:
I was so looking forward to this. The whole series, one dubbing job, done by one of the better anime houses, remastered video, extras, etc., yadda-yadda-yadda. I am so glad my local video store bought a copy first so I could preview it. In a word, it sucks. Not the movie, mind you - Megazone 23 Part 1 is one of the all time great anime OAVs for a multitude of reasons and you can still get the excellent Streamline dub from a variety of sources. I'm talking about ADV's new dubbing job. It sucks. It stinks. It reeks. It takes bad dubs of classic anime to an all-new low. It sounds like a bad fandub recorded inside a junior high school bathroom back at an 80s retro convention. Yeah, I know all that gnarly tubular "authentic 80s" dialogue was supposed to add to the atmosphere of the show, but it just doesn't work, guys! You had too much fun doing the dub to do a good job, and it shows. And for all that supposedly careful auditioning, some of the voice actors you chose sound just plain awful! I'd rather watch it in the original Japanese without subtitles than put up with any more of Yui's screetching blather in the new dub (and yes, I've seen the original in the original Japanese, so shut up otaku)! And the "new" voice of B.D.?! Don't get me started! ADV were rushed and they admitted as such in the commentary - and it shows, folks. It shows. To borrow a popular 80s catchphrase, it makes me wanna hurl. Okay, enough of that. There are actually three good things - small but notable - I have to say about the Megazone 23 Part 1 re-release. One, ADV did a helluva job of cleaning up the video. Only the two Hong Kong DVD import releases come close to the visual quality of this video. Two, after you hold your nose to the audio of the redub, switch over to the commentary track and educate yourself in the lore of two-and-a-half otaku (no, the lady doesn't talk all that much) who really know their anime and really know their stuff about Megazone 23. I wish their enthusiasm could have carried over into a better dubbing job. Three, there is the slight (yet to some notable) advantage of having all three installments of the Megazone 23 trilogy all dubbed with the same cast. Again, minor points but noteworthy ones. Me? I'm not buying it for any of those. In fact, I'm not buying it, period. Not wasting my money on this one. If you had gone ahead and put in the extra 10 minutes of Megazone 23 Part 1 that were created for the Robotech movie as a little bonus extra and dubbed those too, then maybe. As it stands, it goes back on the shelf and my money goes back in my pocket. I'm sticking with the Streamline dub of Part 1 and will hope ADV does a helluva better job with Part 2. Yeah, I get tired of hearing the same voices over and over again in Streamline dubs, and the dialogue's not always 100% accurate, but at least those people could act. I wish I could say the same for ADV's Megazone 23 Part 1 cast. This dubbing job is almost as bad as a CHE/Peregrine release from the 1990s. Yeah, I see the smiles. You remember those. Does "Revenge of the Ninja Warrior" and "Vengeance of the Space Pirate" ring a bell? Okay, maybe not that bad ... but it's in the ballpark, nonetheless. Out of the zone, ADV. Take it back and try again.