Megazone 23 - the OAV anime series of the years 1985, 1986 and 1989
Megazone 23 (メ ガ ゾ ー ン 23, Megazōn Tsū Surī) is a Japanese animated film series (OAV) on the cyberpunk genre divided into four parts created by Noboru Ishiguro, written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama and Emu Arii and directed by Ishiguro, Ichiro Itano, Kenichi Yatagai and Shinji Aramaki. The series debuted in 1985. It was originally titled Omega Zone 23 (オ メ ガ ゾ ー ン 23, Omega Zōn Tsū Surī) but the title was changed shortly before its launch.
The story tells the story of Shougo Yahagi, a delinquent motorcyclist whose possession of a government motorcycle prototype leads him to discover the truth about the city. Released on the VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc and VHD formats, the first part was a huge commercial success in Japan following its release in 1985. The film's concept of a simulated reality made comparisons with later films including Dark City (1998) , The Matrix (1999) and Existenz (1999). It also inspired the video game 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (2019)
History
The story of Megazone 23 is set in the distant future of the human race, after various environmental problems made the Earth uninhabitable at the beginning of the 24th century, forcing humanity to depart on several huge colonial ships, the Megazone. The story itself follows the population of Megazone Two Three, based in 1985 Tokyo, Japan, where the population has forgotten their status as space travelers.
Part I and II
The first two parts occur some 500 years after humanity left Earth, as the government attempts to hack the civic computer, Bahamut, for their city in order to use the city's benevolent artificial intelligence, known as EVE. , to influence people to help them in a near-endless war against the Dezalg, advanced humans of a rival Megazona.
Launched into this is Shogo Yahagi, after he was given ownership of a weird experimental bike by an old friend of his. Throughout history, he discovers how fake his world is and eventually comes into contact with the EVE Program, which enlists him to help humanity in any way possible. However, unfortunately, before it can do anything significant, the city government focuses on destroying the Dezalg and decides to eliminate Shogo and EVE, who have fled to cyberspace. Eventually, Eve manages to rescue Shogo and her friends, sending them into the core of Bahamut's system on Earth while the battleships are destroyed by an automated lunar defense system called ADAM, ending the conflict, at the cost of an unspecified number of people on both ships.
Part III
The third part takes place several centuries later, with a hacker named Eiji Takanaka, who is tracked down by a rebel group working against the teachings of a mysterious spiritual leader known as Bishop Won Dai. Sion, a high-ranking member of the rebel group, working under the umbrella of Orange Amusements, begins to explore Eiji, while also investigating a strange program called Project Heaven that the E = X Bureau, the elite staff of Won Dai, he's getting ready. Sion manages to take on Eiji as Orange attempts to stop whatever Project Heaven is and, badly injured, orders Eiji to go to the lowest point of the city, finding the real age-old Eve Tokimatsuri, who has been left in suspended animation, destined to being awakened by Shogo Yahagi. He takes it to Bahamut, encountering the AI version of Eve from the previous two parts, while Sion manages to stop Orange from making the same mistake several centuries ago, using it to convey the master plan of E = X. Eventually, Eiji and Eve confront Won Dai, and he is killed, Eve heads to the ADAM moon base to shut it down and destroy it, while also eliminating the town's computer, finally starting the final part of the plan put in place about a millennium earlier. , as Eiji sets out to meet his girlfriend Ryo to start his life over.
Production
Megazone 23 was conceived as a 12-episode television series airing on Fuji TV, but was changed to a direct-to-video project after sponsors withdrew their support midway through production. According to Noboru Ishiguro, the end result was a "collection film" of previously produced episodes. Megazone was not conceived as a multi-part story. As such, the original version of “Part I” lacks the subtitle that has been added to subsequent re-editions.
The original mecha designs for the OVA series were created by Shinji Aramaki, while the character designs were done by Toshihiro Hirano and Haruhiko Mikimoto, who would provide Eve Tokimatsuri character designer for all three parts. For "Part II", Yasuomi Umetsu was the character designer, and for "Part III", Hiroyuki Kitazume took over.
The original title was "Omega City 23", then "Vanity City" and "Omega Zone 23", but branding problems forced the producers to change the title. The number "23" was originally a reference to Tokyo's 23 municipal districts. In the retroactive continuity established by Part III, the number refers to the 23rd artificial ship-city, with Megazona 1 referred to as the “Big Apple”. However, the title is pronounced "Megazone Two Three" as they refer to several reference books and anime magazines published during the release of the series, the Japanese Wikipedia entry, [6] and even within the series itself in " Day of Liberation ".
A 2017 announcement on the Japanese crowdfunding platform Campfire indicated that AIC is working on a remake and a new project of the series. Shortly thereafter, AIC announced that the project would be a remake of the series titled Megazone 23 SIN, and that a sequel titled Megazone XI with character designer Masahiko Komino would also be in production. At AnimeJapan 2019, AIC announced that only parts I and II of the original Megazone series would be redone in the reboot series.
Technical data
OVA
Title: Megazone 23
Gender science fiction, mecha
Author Noboru Ishiguro, Shinji Aramaki
Regia Noboru Ishiguro
Film script Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
character design Haruhiko Mikimoto, Toshihiro Hirano, Toshitaka Hirano
Music Hiroaki Serizawa, Shirou Sagisu
STUDIO Anime International Company, Tatsunoko
1 edition 9 March 1985
Duration 81 minutes
Italian network Man-ga (premiere)
1st Italian edition 4 June 2011
OVA
Title Megazone 23 part II
Author Noboru Ishiguro, Shinji Aramaki
Regia Ichiro Itano
Film script Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
character design Yasuomi Umetsu
Music Hiroaki Serizawa, Shirou Sagisu
STUDIO Anime International Company, Tatsunoko
1 edition 30 May 1986
Duration 80 minutes
Italian network Man-ga (premiere)
1st Italian edition June 4, 2011 - June 5, 2011
OVA
Title Megazone 23 part III
Author Noboru Ishiguro, Shinji Aramaki
Regia Kenichi Yatagai, Shinji Aramaki
Film script Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
character design Hiroyuki Kitazume
Music Keishi Urata, Shirou Sagisu
STUDIO Anime International Company, Artmic
1 edition 28 September 1989 - 22 December 1989
Episodes 2 (complete)
Duration 51 minutes
Italian network Man-ga (premiere)
1st Italian edition 5 June 2011
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/
