Anime Reviews:


Megazone 23 III

(1990)


Right, what we have here is a two-parter from Japanese TV, spliced together to make one feature-length tape. The two episodes were originally titled The Awakening of Eye and The Day of Liberation and formed the final installment of one huge three-part story arc. Still with me? Okay.

In a far-future Earth, scarred by environmental damage, a huge techno-metropolis called Eden is sealed away from the fragile ecosphere. Run by semi-religious maniacs, hackers try to wrestle open their grip on the city's brainwashed inhabitants. One of these hackers, Eiji, discovers that the people's lives in Eden are not all they seem to be and their place in the universe is very different to that in which they believe.

The unimpressive animation is not important, the characters and how they interact with the complex plot are the key factors here. It is, therefore, a shame that Manga didn't see fit to release Megazone 23 I + II beforehand. Without them, all that's left is a tiny part of tantalizingly HUGE story arc. What remains is interesting enough and the integration of the two episodes is done reasonably well, but it's like eating a small dessert without having had the starter or main course in a meal, as the lengthy, backstory-laden introduction only underlines. Not bad, but ultimately, in the way Manga have released it in the UK, a rather pointless exercise.

Rob Dyer

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