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RetroCrush Adds Megazone 23 Anime in May
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Digital Media Rights' RetroCrush streaming service announced on Tuesday that it will add the Megazone 23 anime in May.
Megazone 23 began with a 1985 motorcycle robot anime that popularized the original video animation (OVA) market. The late anime director Noboru Ishiguro (Space Battleship Yamato, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes) collaborated with his Macross and Orguss character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto (Gunbuster, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), mechanical designer Shinji Aramaki (Genesis Climber Mospeada, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed films' director), and other veterans of robot mecha anime. There have since been two sequel OVA projects in 1986 and 1989.
AnimEigo launched a Kickstarter campaign for Megazone 23 Omega Edition, a Blu-ray Disc release of all three parts of the anime, in August 2019. The campaign reached its US$100,000 goal a day after launch. The Omega Edition Blu-ray Disc shipped in March 2021.
AIC announced in April 2021 that it has concluded an agreement to transfer partial ownership of copyrights of the Megazone 23 franchise to Toei Agency, with the two companies now sharing joint ownership.
AIC and Toei Agency are both working on the Megazone 23 reboot project. The project includes both Megazone 23 SIN — remaking both the Megazone 23 and Megazone 23 Part II original video anime — and the planned brand-new Megazone 23 XI sequel.
AIC launched crowdfunding campaigns in 2017 for promotional videos for the two reboot projects, and both campaigns met their goal.
