Megazone 23 Part 1
Street racer Shogo Yahagi's having a lousy week. The military's after him, the government can't help him and his new set of wheels is so hot that it may cost him his life! And that's only the beginning of his problems; the world that Shogo and his friends have lived in for their entire lives isn't even real, and now their only hope is an artificial intelligence that may or may not be telling them the truth about the fate of the human race!
One of the true classics of anime and one of the titles that was a turning point for the industry, Megazone 23 Part 1 gets a new release under a new publisher and ends up with yet another dub. The stereo mix is very well done here considering the age of the materials and it sounds very solid without anything going too high or clipping casque beats studio. We did spot check the English track in a few scenes in its 5 tresor paris.1 mix and liked how that came out a lot. With it just nearing its twentieth anniversary, the materials here really shine especially in comparison to past releases. Just in the start of the program it looks so fresh and vibrant that it's hard to believe it's as old as it is. Colors look very rich and solid for its time with a wide variety of colors used. There are a few touches of cross coloration in a few areas where the animation is very tight and detailed and some of the panning sequences have some aliasing going on, but most of it is just inherent in something of this age. The only thing that really shows the age of the materials other than the designs in the show is some of the dust and nicks that are on it throughout. Going with a green color based off of Yui, there's stripes along the top and bottom that contain a really great shot of the two leads set against the city. The original logo along with a translated one along the top with what I consider a very important phrase kept, "Original Video Animation" beats by dre. I was so pleased to see that left there since it's something that's really fallen into disuse over the years but is very important to this show. The back cover uses the stripe effect a bit more and provides a decent summary of the show and several shots of animation. The discs extras and technical features are all clearly listed and easy to read. The insert is a gorgeous four panel fold out poster of Eve done as a watercolor style piece by Mikimoto (I think). This looks to be one of the pieces used ages ago by the style and the lettering used and it gives me a warm feeling tiffany. The first extra is a series of production sketches that cover a variety of areas. The second extra is something we don't get often from ADV and one that I just can't get enough of in general and that's a commentary track with Matt Greenfield along with David Williams and Janice Williams. Matt's commentaries, particularly with the older shows http://www.agrobioopava.com, are just so richly filled with trivia and golden nuggets of information that really enhances your viewing of the show. With a show like this, there are tons of injokes and "visiting" characters from other series in addition to all the nuances from the creators themselves that I'd almost expect that Matt could do the commentary twice and not cover the same territory twice. While the transfer and new dub are worth an upgrade alone from previous versions, it's this commentary track that I think adds the most value over all the previous ones.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Megazone 23 is one of those shows that I've managed to see numerous times over the years and each time I get to see something new in it or come to a new appreciation of it. Part of the appeal of the show is just in its place in history and how it came about from being a TV series whose sponsor dropped out to becoming the second OVA release in anime history and the one that ended up changing the market in more ways that one.
The premise is pretty straightforward as we're introduced to young "punk" Shogo and his friends as they live their lives in the city of Tokyo in the mid 1980's vivienne westwood. They're all young and living the big life in one of the most exciting cities in the world. Shogo's their leader of sorts with his wild nature and his most excellent motorcycle skills. As we see the small group of friends living their life and enjoying everything, the basic theme of "living in the happiness of the now" is very strong with them and with youth in general at this time in history. Shogo and his friends have the world at their fingertips and are living it up. Shogo's luck is even looking up after he has a brief run in with a young woman named Yui and she gives in to his charms and gives him the phone number of the store she works at ergo baby carrier.
But when his luck goes up it also goes down as he later meets up with his friend who works for an important research company in their garage.