M E G A Z O N E 2 3
Heh-heh, This is the last time I'm gonna change this review, but I
apologise for the last review of MZ23. When I reviewed it, I'd only actually seen the
first half hour of the movie, and I was new to anime and at the time I was looking for
more of an OAV than a movie. All of the other reviews are of animes which I've seen the
whole of, I'm sorry about what happened to this one before, this was one of the reviews
that was uploaded the day the site was started. Recently, I've been able to get my hands
on a copy (I gave mine to a friend because I didn't think I'd like it) so I could see the
rest after reading another review, so here is my proper MZ23 review of the whole video.
Okay, at first, it seemed that this anime was going to be all about
computer hacking and stuff (Which is bad) because the first half hour seems to have
nothing but hacking and virtual reality. But this is just the start. Once this film gets
going it is absolutely amazing! Such a brilliant movie! Although slow
moving at first, once this got going it was one of the best sci-fi animes I'd ever seen!
The dubbing is actually okay, better than I remembered it, it's pretty
believable, but it does have it's flaws. Eiji's actor just doesn't seem to be able to yell
properly and when Ryo and Eiji make out it sounds more like Eiji's digging into his
lunch.("Mmmm!") It seems to have it's flaws, but it's actually pretty good for
Manga Video (forgive me for what I said about the dub before, I was mistaken and I hadn't
seen it in ages, and when I saw the first half hour I was new to anime.) and no-one seems
to have a really annoying loud voice like they do in a lot of dubbed animes.
The music from Megazone 23, although a little dated, is simply wonderful.
As soon as I'd seen the whole movie I ordered the soundtrack CD. One of Eve's songs,
Tagedy of an Idol, although it's not the best song in the film it can be downloaded from
the MP3s page. Once I've got the soundtrack, I'll rip the best MP3s from it and put them
up.
The animation is okay, it's a little bad at times but it's very good for
it's age. The artwork is quite colourful for it's time, the shading is pretty good, and
there are some excellent lighting effects.
The storyline is one of the most original I've seen in a long time. It is
the year 2331 and 100 years ago the earth had been practically destroyed by man so huge
space-stations called Megazones were launched off the earth with all the people in them.
Inside here they were put into a Virtual Reality to make them believe they were still on
earth. However, Shogo, the 7G operator, eventually managed to land the last remaining
Megazone, number 23, back on earth. Now, Megazone 23 has become a huge city known as Eden,
the last city on earth. In the center of the city there is a system controlled by bishop
Won Dai which puts people into a kind of hypnotism to stop them from leaving Eden until
Earth is restored. Eiji Takanaka, a master hacker and citisen of Eden, has joined a
network called the XI, where he must fight off the other networks who are trying to get
in. Eiji and his friends love videogames and are constantly playing on a VR arcade
machine, which gives Eiji his defence skills. Everyone in Eden loves to listen to the
music of Eve, a beautiful teenage pop Idol, who sadly seems to be just a virtual image.
Eventually, it starts to become less obvious to Eiji who actually are the bad guys, and
Eiji realises there's more to Eve than he thought, and in the end the fate of mankind is
in Eiji's hands.
The best part of this movie is definitely the climax. It's really the sort
of on the edge of your seat thing, and it takes quite a while to calm back down
afterwards. The end is great too. It's happy and a little sad. One character sort of has
to "go".(That's the best way I can put it without spoiling the movie.)
Overall, Megazone 23 is an incredible anime movie and it has to be one of
my favourites, althgoug (for some very wierd reason) it isn't too well known, it's simply
wonderful.
Rating out of 5: *****
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