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REVIEW: Megazone 23 - The Complete Trilogy Anime Blu-ray Review




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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1881
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:04 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who had issues with Part 3. I wondered if there was something I was missing. Glad to know it's just bad.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4632
Location: New York
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:13 pm Reply with quote
Megazone 23 is kind of like what Francis Ford Coppola said The Godfather was, two films and an epilogue. I don’t even mind the dramatic artistic shifts between chapters with Part 1 being a more conventional style akin to Macross and then Part II taking up a style that seemed more inspired by the staff’s work on Thundercats and Silverhawks (which might explain their cameos in those pinball machines). But Part 3 gets away from the core concept of the story and suffers for it.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2696
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 1:16 pm Reply with quote
Just a couple of corrections I feel should be addressed:
Quote:
as the second-ever OVA in 1985


Megazone 23 wasn't the second-ever OVA, by any means. In fact, it was (at least) the fifth or sixth OVA ever made, though it was the first truly successful one, as Dallos was only a minor success at the time. In between Dallos & Megazone there were at least four other OVAs released, namely Radio City Fantasy: Machikado no Märchen & Birth in 1984 (Birth technically debuted in select theaters first, but is categorized as an OVA), as well as Greed & Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko earlier in 1985, the last of which came out mere days before Megazone 23 Part I's original release.

I try not to toot my own horn like this, but anyone curious about those post-Dallos, but pre-Megazone OVA can read my overview of them from a few years ago.

Quote:
the International Version of Part II...cuts in footage from Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and some original animation made for when Megazone 23 was converted into Robotech: The Movie.


Uh, no it doesn't. Part II International simply starts by showing the original footage made for Robotech the Movie's alternate ending as Part I is recapped, but otherwise Part II International is literally just Part II, only in English & with altered names. The bonus Robotech footage plays no factor in the plot & was seemingly only included for the hell of it for Japanese Megazone fans to look at without any context. There's also no Southern Cross footage to be seen, whatsoever, since that wasn't made by AIC at all.

Beyond those, though, I more or less agree with the review as a whole, outside of calling Part III one of the "worst anime ever". If it simply wasn't related to Megazone 23 in any way it'd simply be a run-of-the-mill sci-fi OVA from an era where there were tons of those & would have been promptly forgotten, but I've seen way worse anime than Megazone 23 Part III. It's just worse overall because it's a terrible follow-up to Megazone 23 Part II.
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 660
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:
Just a couple of corrections I feel should be addressed:
Quote:
as the second-ever OVA in 1985


Megazone 23 wasn't the second-ever OVA, by any means. In fact, it was (at least) the fifth or sixth OVA ever made, though it was the first truly successful one, as Dallos was only a minor success at the time. In between Dallos & Megazone there were at least four other OVAs released, namely Radio City Fantasy: Machikado no Märchen & Birth in 1984 (Birth technically debuted in select theaters first, but is categorized as an OVA), as well as Greed & Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko earlier in 1985, the last of which came out mere days before Megazone 23 Part I's original release.

I try not to toot my own horn like this, but anyone curious about those post-Dallos, but pre-Megazone OVA can read my overview of them from a few years ago.


I took Matt Greenfield in the commentary track at his word on that one. *shakes fist at Matt Greenfield*
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LuckyAstei



Joined: 21 Jun 2003
Posts: 228
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 2:09 pm Reply with quote
I'm assuming this has all the extra's that were in the Kickstarter Bluray but with better Video and Audio Quality? Mostly asking as I was one of the backers of the original Kickstarter and I don't want to sell that bluray if at all possible.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2696
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 2:32 pm Reply with quote
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
I took Matt Greenfield in the commentary track at his word on that one. *shakes fist at Matt Greenfield*


Fair enough, and I wouldn't be surprised if Greenfiled was told that by someone over at AIC who either just wanted to make Megazone sound even more special, or simply forgot that those other OVAs even existed (I mean, to be fair, only Birth & Leda of those four have gone on to achieve real notoriety since their releases).

Greenfield also thought that the Spectral Force OVA his company released in 2003 were just video game cutscenes, which it wasn't... but he accidentally was correct about that when it came to a later Spectral Force OVA in 2005, which may or may not have existed yet when he made that comment.
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1685
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 2:49 pm Reply with quote
LuckyAstei wrote:
I'm assuming this has all the extra's that were in the Kickstarter Bluray but with better Video and Audio Quality? Mostly asking as I was one of the backers of the original Kickstarter and I don't want to sell that bluray if at all possible.

Audio/video is only a very slight nudge in quality most people won't notice. The new extras include the UK dub for part 3, and various UK/US promos. If you want to upgrade, there's a 50% off coupon code if you take a picture of your old set on the MediaOCD store page. It's good through the end of the year.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4830
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 4:47 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad these titles are getting new mass-market releases, but it is a bit frustrating as a backer of a few of the Kickstarters to see them have various improvements and additional content over what I already have. Feels like I keep getting burned by buying releases too early, only to see improvements added later on. And don't get me wrong, I think it's great that Justin is offering the discount for current release owners, but even then that involves some effort, and with the constant barrage of holiday sales I'm not sure that I'll have the spare cash to buy second copies of things I already owned by the end of the year (and does the world really need more copies of Riding Bean out there? Laughing ). Maybe for Bubblegum Crisis at least, since I only have the single-disc version of that, so there's an obvious improvement.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5524
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
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.
That's a good point. Not all of his early work at ADV was good, but there was certainly more effort put in them, than his post FMA career.
Quote:
Part III is one of the worst anime I've ever seen
is it really that bad? I assume, being a reviewer, that you have seen a lot of Anime.
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Bamble



Joined: 30 Aug 2011
Posts: 131
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 6:00 pm Reply with quote
LuckyAstei wrote:
I'm assuming this has all the extra's that were in the Kickstarter Bluray but with better Video and Audio Quality? Mostly asking as I was one of the backers of the original Kickstarter and I don't want to sell that bluray if at all possible.


This was on the Kickstarter set, but wasn't included on the new release.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3850
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 10:41 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
Audio/video is only a very slight nudge in quality most people won't notice. The new extras include the UK dub for part 3, and various UK/US promos. If you want to upgrade, there's a 50% off coupon code if you take a picture of your old set on the MediaOCD store page. It's good through the end of the year.


Oh, those coupons expire at the end of the year? Good to know...
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RupanSansei



Joined: 20 Sep 2024
Posts: 148
PostPosted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 12:13 am Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:

I try not to toot my own horn like this, but anyone curious about those post-Dallos, but pre-Megazone OVA can read my overview of them from a few years ago.


never thought I'd run into you on the forums. I'd like to say thank you very much for the blog posts you unintentionally helped me in middle school as we had to write about the history of propaganda during WW2 & discovered your post about the Zakka Films DVD & used it as reference as it was one of the only places in English at the time documenting anime being used as propaganda & explaining the film in depth (for its time). I have since graduated a few years ago but i still enjoy checking out your blog every now & then for the occasional post you make.

P.S.To the mods I am very sorry if this qualifies as derailing this post I honestly didn't mean to as I'm just in shock that i managed to encounter 1 of the people i look up to the most when it comes to anime & its history
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Multi-Facets



Joined: 15 Oct 2019
Posts: 261
PostPosted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 12:40 am Reply with quote
Gonna go to bed cackling over "disasterpiece." I really need to remember that!
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