Megazone 23:
Part 2
ADV
85 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
07/13/2004
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Megazone 23:
ADV
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During my formative college years I would always run into these two girls. Because I don't have time to describe them in full I'll refer to them as such: The clownfish and the anemone. The clownfish was small, spritely, colorful and interesting. The anemone was large and overbearing, unfun and uncouth. If you're familiar with their namesakes, and I'm sure you are, then I think you understand what my little story entails. The clownfish was the bait. Men would be drawn to the inherent charm and cuteness of the clownfish, only to find themselves trapped in the musky, nicotine stained jowls of the anemone, bemoaning their fate and hubris. I'm sure that's a story at least a few of you are familiar with. Now, because of this film, it has happened to me twice in my life. Megazone 23: Part 1 was a rocking funfest of 80s hair, 80s music and 80s robots. Our unkempt hero, Shogo, spent the plurality of the film being pursued by the BD, the government agent voiced by the salacious Gregory Snegoff. The climactic moment in the film revolved around Shogo's discovery that the world he lived in was not a world at all. |
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It was in SPACE. How awesome is that? There are not too many anime franchises that I am a fan of, but Megazone 23 was something that I spent many nights wishing I could garner just one more glimpse at this wonderful world of the 80s youth and the robot bikes that they've come to love as if they were their very own children. For the longest time only the first third of these shows was available to the English speaking, white skinned public and I've been hankering for some robot action since that fateful day four years ago. |
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These many years down the road ADV saw fit to release the entire trilogy of these OVAs to the American public. I couldn't have been happier. In fact, Megazone 23 now occupies the coveted position of being one of the few DVDs I've bought at a retail outlet instead of online at a greatly reduced price. You'll find me here, nearly three months after I bought it, finally getting around to watching the darn thing. I'm so glad I wasted five extra dollars on this DVD so I wouldn't have to wait for it to come in the mail. Shogo, our central character, is no longer that spiky haired youth we might remember him as. Now he's straightened his hair out and has forgotten completely about the loss of his many friends at the hands of the super secret conspiracy beneath the city. His time now is spent primarily harassing the cops with his company of glam rockers like a bootleg version of the gang from Akira, which would follow a few years later. This is all thanks to Yasuomi Umetsu, as Jerry noticed, applying his piss poor character design abilities years before he would unleash his scourge upon the world. |
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The gang, containing members like a fat chick named Dump (Christ M. Auten, who I want to bang) and a 'I'm so gay it hurts' Lightning (Jason Douglas, who is more man than me) have adventures and generally fantasize about the computer program/idol singer that has become meteorically less important to the plot since last we saw her. In fact , for all their talking about saving her, The Trash (Shogo's gang) doesn't really seem concerned with anything but getting drunk and committing vaguely lesbian acts in the shower. In light of this evidence I'm convinced that the first movie in this trilogy was either a fluke or an outright trap in order to get you to watch its lesser parts. There doesn't seem much hope for the third installment, which ostensibly seems to involve Shogo and his ragtag band attempting to repopulate the Earth. How this will be accomplished with a primarily gay/lesbian group is beyond me, but I can't believe there's another deposit of pathetic this trilogy hasn't mined. Like the cast of Megazone 23 I have hope for a better tomorrow, but today's still pretty crappy. |