COLONY DROP - Latest comments on 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

Helen [Visitor] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

Helen [Visitor] — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:18:14 +0000

@ahvb: My homegirls and I will be compelled to kill anyone laying an unloving finger on our beloved Cyber City Oedo 808 ...

@Steve H: That ending reminds me of quite a few manga from the 70s, most created by artists who had been kids of teens during the war and Occupation. I don't know if I'm right but it always seemed to me that maybe that's how they actually saw, or imagined, their fathers and older brothers coming home. The mushroom cloud is the big showy image of horror from that era, but there must be a thousand smaller images of horror embedded in popular culture that those of us lucky enough not to have been there can't pick up. I know there are images that were resonant for my parents and older cousins that I never 'got' because I was born too long after the war for them to go visceral on me. Maybe you've picked up on one of Japan's visceral after-images.

ROKKU [Visitor] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

ROKKU [Visitor] — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:06:18 +0000

Who cared about the bike?! Look at Yui and Eve great character designs! hahaha

Rick Kowal [Visitor] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

Rick Kowal [Visitor] — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:54:28 +0000

One of my favorite OAV of all time. I saw this very early into my fandom, and it has remained in my memories ever since. I think the first OST I purchased was some SM records bootleg of the MZ23 vocal collection.
I definitely agree about the awkwardness of the sex scene, however, I did feel it still worked. I mean, I guess its part of the whole "sharing it all" with another.
I am wondering if the TV series they announced a couple of years back died or what. I actually hope in some ways it has, because I don't think they could recapture the magic of the original. So 80's and so magical.

ahvb [Visitor] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

ahvb [Visitor] — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:28:47 +0000

so when are you righteous typists getting around to cyber city huh

Steve Harrison [Visitor] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

Steve Harrison [Visitor] — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:46:14 +0000

Yay, I'm not alone with the Streets of Fire tip!

The ending of MZ23 always felt odd to me. I've chalked it up to there's something basically Japanese going on, something tied to deep pop cultural visuals. That image of Shogo staggering along holding on to a staff, broken and battered but still moving on- step by painful, blood dripping on the ground step, I KNOW I've seen that look before, that image. And I think the bit where he casts off the staff and strides along down the empty streets of 'Tokyo' MEANS something in a cultural statement. But I'm not sure I'm able to 'read' it the way that a native born Japanese, someone of young adult age at the peak of the Showa Era, would read it. I *THINK* there's a subversive message in that.

Somewhat like the ending to Blazing Saddles, where riding off into the sunset ends in getting off the horses and getting into seperate limos.

Helen [Visitor] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

Helen [Visitor] — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:14:24 +0000

Your quote from Streets of Fire will probably pass by many readers, but it was an important influence on quite a few anime, and Japanese movies, of the mid-to-late 80s. It's a great movie, and probably Willem Dafoe's finest scenery-chewing role, including the Green Goblin gig. I always thought that 'tonight is what it means to be young' was a bleak acknowledgement of realpolitik, not a shout of challenge, but however you read it, it fits MZ23 like a glove. Nice to see you say a prayer in the darkness for the magic to come...

Sean [Member] in response to: 1985 Punk Cartoons That Totally Don't Put Up With Your Shit And Do Whatever They Want, OK: Megazone 23

Sean [Member] — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:22:20 +0000

As Megazone 23 is like some bizarre fusion of Bubblegum Crisis and Macross, I've always felt like I should like it a lot more than I actually do. Despite doing a lot right, and probably being one of the more coherent OVAs of that era, something about it has never really clicked with me. It's none the less an interesting film and if the stories of it being started as a TV series are true, there's probably some interesting production stories behind it. Not to mention the entire debacle of it being turned into the Robotech Movie and all that that entailed.