Anime V - April 1986: Megazone 23 Part II - Preview Article

The following article is a magazine preview of Megazone 23 Part II published in Anime V of April 1986, featuring the predictions of the editor's and some insights from Noboru Ishiguro. 

Panorama Feature

Mystery upon mystery in the Megazone

Highlights & big ending expectations!!

Just like in Part I, we take a close look at the mysterious elements of this OVA that cloak the whole story with a thick veil. 

With less than a month approaching until release, it’s quite hard to get a handle on the whole picture of “Megazone”. However, it can be just as restless for buyers if the release date isn’t known. Therefore, from gathering together the bits of information, we can assemble our expectations of the highlights and the conclusion in this special feature. We’ll be taking a look at it from different angles, and including comments from general supervisor Noboru Ishiguro. 

First of all, a review of Part I. As this instalment continues from Part I, in terms of the human relationships, it looks as if the focus will be on how the relationships centred around Shōgo will come to an end! Shōgo and Yui’s love, B.D.’s confrontation, and then there’s Eve. In Part I, the shocking reveal of Eve’s computer-generated true identity is still fresh in our minds, but this time there will be even more surprising developments. On the story side, let’s take a guess about the fate of “Megazone” in its pivotal role in the battle with the outsider enemy, the Dezalg. 

(Inset Caption) Shōgo runs to protect the city he lives in and the people he loves!

(Inset Caption) The battle for Bahamut grows more violent.

(Inset Caption) B.D., who has reached the apex of his ambitions. Will his next goal be total control of the enemy Dezalg?

(Inset Caption) Also, keep an eye out for the new character, Lightning! Part II is fully made macho. 

(Inset Caption) We’re also wondering where the love between Shōgo and Yui will be headed.

(Inset Caption) The Trash members, Cyndi (top) is modelled after Cyndi Lauper. Below her, and rotund as a balloon, is Guts.

Warning: Prototype Garland

Do you remember the ending of Part I? Inside of Bahamut, the Garland machine that Shōgo rides is destroyed by B.D. Even though the destroyed Garland was abandoned, in Part II it will have an important role to play. It holds the key to returning Bahamut to its original condition (or executing another new program), after Bahamut’s war prevention program was shut down. The earth that was once the birthplace of humanity had been reduced to ruins from the war between humans. In order to not repeat the same mistake, Bahamut had come to protect “the Megazone” for a long time. Under the military’s control, Bahamut was used to carry out their campaign, but there is a hidden section not even the military’s personnel knows about. When Garland reaches it, it’s safe to assume all will be resolved. In the finale, Shōgo and the Trash gang will break into Bahamut, but to keep them out, the army will be preparing for a climactic battle. This showdown will be a big highlight of the story. 

Character Map

Eve Tokimatsuri

Even though she has a physical body, she is a complete mystery. What are her reasons for contacting Shōgo!?

Yui Takanaka

A girl who is troubled by a mismatched love, at the halfway point of the story she cuts her hair.

Glam

A guy who is kind of smug who tries to be cool.

Lightning

The head of Trash. Loved among his gang, he and Shōgo challenge B.D.’s ambitions together.

Members of the Trash gang

Punk fashionistas. Making an animation with these costumes takes a high amount of effort from the art staff.

Shōgo Yahagi

Shōgo’s target is B.D., he isn’t one to throw himself into the battle with the Dezalg. Is he even more insensitive to a woman’s heart than in Part 1!?

B.D.

A man who has come to the top of political power. However, he personally takes on the Dezalg as a man of militarism. 

Lieutenant Shiratori

As B.D.’s subordinate, he monitors and prevents the actions of Shōgo and his friends. 

But Eve, will she appear for real!?

Even in Part II, the relationships centred around Shōgo will not change. The romantic love between Shōgo and Yui, will be running side-by-side with the military’s battle against the Dezalg, which B.D. is at the heart of. After losing his fight with B.D., Shōgo realises he cannot fight such an enormous power alone, so he joins up with the members of the biker gang, Trash, with whom he has friends in. At that point, in space, young men were led to battlefields one after another by the army’s extolment of war, and lost their lives without ever knowing the truth. Total control is seized in a coup d’état by the hands of B.D, but out cities will be taken back from those hands. With a common goal, Shōgo, Yui and Trash move out. These are the events at the beginning of Part II, but it’s at this point an incredible character appears. That is Eve. What the, where the hell is the CG Eve!?, you might think.

As a matter of fact, this Eve has a reality, and there are some big predictions as to what her real identity is made on page 15, so check out there. Another thing to watch out for is the showdown with B.D. Mr. Ishiguro made some remarks regarding this and the possibility of it ending with the death of B.D., “Part II will be the conclusion of the battle between these two characters, we’ll see B.D.’s ambitions meet a surprising end”.

More action scenes than before

This time there’s going to be many scenes that will be unmissable for mecha fans. 

“This constituted the story of Part I of “Megazone”. In Part II, the battle with the Dezalg will be the base of the story. By the end I think what we’ll show is the facade of both worlds, the “Megazone” of Shōgo and his friends’ world and the Dezalg. There’ll be twice as many action scenes as Part I, a sci-fi spectacle”, Mr. Ishiguro says. Not only might we see all-new mecha, both friend and foe, including the mass-produced Garland, but also the true form of the Dezalg. Shōgo will have an active part with the Prototype Garland, but what we might not see is him take on the Dezalg himself. Speaking of mecha, there’s one more thing we want you to look out for, and it’s the bikes. The modded bikes that the Trash gang ride will be a sight to see. The detail on them is superb, and you can look forward to big gang riding scenes. 

(Inset Caption) The Trash biker gang are attacked.

(Inset Caption) The mecha is now illustrated with even more detail than before.

(Inset Caption) The launch of the Road Runner machines by B.D.

(Inset Caption) The Dezalg invasion force.

What are our solid predictions of the main characters?! 

If there is no one else to ask, you can only guess yourself! So on that note, we made some bold predictions. We’ll either be luckily divined, or not luckily divined. What are your own predictions!?

Shōgo & Yui

We’re hoping for a happy ending to their love, but…♡

First of all, there is the outcome of Shōgo and Yui’s love, but their relationship is still as rocky as ever since the previous episode. They both struggle at expressing their feelings, but it will be interesting to see if their love will ripen. Many people would like to see a happy ending for them. The death scene of Tomomi in the previous episode was particularly grisly for seeing a girl get killed. At the very least, we want to see these two fulfil their love. Also, the sex scene which was a hot topic of Part I is not expected to involve the backstory of Eve this time, but what do you think?

Eve

The theory of probing into Bahamut is also interesting

Regarding Eve, before we can predict her fate, we must first guess what her real identity is. For the moment, the most likely scenario is she is a person from one of Bahamut’s sections, who was the model for her CG form. While this hypothesis holds up, there isn’t sufficient evidence for it. So in any event, as we can’t prove this, we’ve decided to come up with an even bolder theory that she could be a probe into Bahamut, whether she be mechanical (or otherwise). It could be a little much to guess. However, even though Eve is CG, the supercomputer that has created her personality could also do something like create a human through genetic manipulation. 

B.D.

A man who lived his ambitions dies in outer space!?

As for the fate of B.D., we infer from the words of Mr. Ishiguro that “his ambitions take form in an unexpected shape”. Losing his challenge to Shōgo is too surprising to accept. We’ve narrowed it down to the following two points. The first scenario, is his death being caused by the betrayal of an ally. The next scenario, is that we expect he will die in battle against the Dezalg. While the internal state of the army isn’t well-understood when those who have seized power die from treachery, when that happens, the line of death increases. As the man who has everything under his control in “Megazone”, his final moments are dying in battle to protect that world. As B.D. was always a military man, wouldn’t it be the most suitable death for someone whose existence was in combat? As he says to Shōgo, “I’m not one to die at the hands of teenagers!”, with such boisterousness, he almost comes off as the big villain…