Megazone 23, Part II

Six months later, the military of Megazone 23 is nearing defeat by the brutal and invincible Dezlag.  On the run for crimes they didn’t commit, Shogo Yahagi and Yui Takanaka take refuge with an outlaw biker gang called Trash.  However, when Eve desperately tries to reach out to him, Shogo must find the courage to stand up to those who would keep humanity under their thumbs and find a way to save what’s left of the human race before the Dezlag destroy Megazone 23 once and for all.

Well this is a little embarrassing.  I totally forgot to post this on its scheduled date of Last Friday.  So to make up for that little whoopsie, you’re getting both second and third chapters of Megazone 23 today.  Apologies for the hiccup, it’s been a little crazy lately (also feel like this rarely happens so I shouldn’t kick myself as much as I am atm.  Anyway, onto Megazone 23, Part 2.)

Watching only the first couple of minutes of Megazon 23, Part II, I began to wonder how much of this story and production was planned out in advance.  The animation is radically different, so’s the tone and the middle chapter of this trilogy dials up the violence and sex so much that it might as well be an entirely different feature altogether compared to Part I.  That is to say, not of this makes Part II any better or more comprehensible.  And while I was kind of “meh” towards Part 1, I did recognize it’s potential.  None of that is here to be found in Part II, in fact Part III will have to work hard to make anything in this OVA feature work.
 
You can imagine a lot of things changing in six months but the degree of changes in Megazone 23, Part II are staggering.  Gone are the Macross inspired character designs in favor of the more extreme (and in some cases buffer) Fist of the North Star style Road Warriors.  The word of the day to describe the changes in aesthetic and tone is “Extreme”.  Cool delinquents on bikes prowl the streets, getting into fights with the authorities before going back to their secret hideout to smoke, get drunk, learn how to ride bikes and have copious amounts of sex.  It’s very different from the feel of the first part.  There’s barely any focus on the present day city secretly housed in a spaceship centuries in the future.  No time for mystery here.  It’s all about kicking back with brewskies before riding into the streets for mega bloody mayhem…why?
 
My issues with Part 1’s characters and execution aside, there was a lot of promise with the premise and lots of ways it could be expanded and explored.  Maybe Shogo begins rallying people around the truth.  Maybe civil outrest breaks out as the populace learns about their space setting and how badly the Dezlag are beating them?  All of that mystery and potential nuance are all gone.  Megazone 23, Part II is a hardcore action romp from start to finish, with the story thrown right into the street like a beer can after being chugged in transit.  Even Shogo and Yui are hollow shells of their aloof but happy go lucky selves.  Ok, learning the truth of Megazone 23 has changed them but they barely have any character or emotional responses for that matter.  Shogo and Yui both have blank expressions on their faces more than half the time.  As for Shogo and Eve, the OVA implies an actual working relationship is pivotal to the plot but we’ve hardly seen these two interact at all in these first two parts.  Having a crucial scene between them doesn’t feel earned and only raises more questions than answers, answers that could have been given rather than seeing wires rip poor soldiers to pieces in horrifically grotesque fashion.
 
Yeah, Megazone 23, Part II doubles down on the violence and while what we got in Part I was extreme, it was tame by comparison to Part II.  An opening fight scene in space turns into a horror film in the worst possible way just to show how dangerous the Dezlag are…and they are…what exactly?  Ok we know they can brutally slaughter humans but aren’t they supposed to be human too?  Ignoring that entirely dropped subplot, I think saying that the characters having a very Fist of the North Star design goes hand in hand with the violence.  Lots of exploding heads, amputated limbs, the extreme 80s/early 90s stuff that would get anyone curious into Anime.  We also get a full on sex scene that might as well be from a Hentai.  And like the action, this moves the plot nowhere. 
 
The only minimal praise I can give Part II is for all the radical redesigns, the Mecha still look cool as heck.  The Garland and its fellow giant robot brethren all got sweet updates with better animation and sleeker body work.  Eve vocal talents also continue to be a strong asset to the Megazone saga.  Her final two songs of the feature are particularly well done and I think we even get to hear her main theme from Part 1 with her original design too.  It’s nowhere near enough to make this a worthwhile continuation but you’ve gotta take what you can get.  And I get the feeling that as long as it looked good, it was acceptable, story be damned.
 
Megazone 23, Part II needed to do a lot to make good on the promises of Part I while fixing its flaws.  It does none of that (besides better looking mechs and good music).  The story is relegated to the back seat in favor of constantly over the top action, lounging about and goofing off, and a finale that doesn’t feel the least bit earned or warranted.  Everything that made the first part enjoyable is gone, replaced by biker centric action that Akira would do far better a couple of years later.  Part I wasn’t a flawless masterpiece but it had a decent set up.  Part II is the opposite: louder, bigger, rowdier, sexier, bloodier…and not in any way shape or form better.  Good luck Part III.
 
3/10
 
Yeesh, this finale really needs to blow me away or this trilogy as a whole is going to feel like a giant waste of time. Actually, how can there be a Part III given what happens in Part II?  Well, brace yourselves cause we’re going in hot as we wrap up the Megazone 23 Trilogy with Megazone 23, Part III, which is ready right now over at the Gundam Anime Corner.