Ask John: Why Is Megazone 23 Considered a Classic?

Question:
What makes Megazone 23 regarded as such a cornerstone in anime? Is it because it’s considered the first OVA? Why did Mikimoto Haruhiko perform character designs only for the Eve Tokamatsu character?

Answer:
Megazone 23 is actually not the first OAV ever created or released. That honor goes to the Mamoru Oshii directed Dallos Haikai Shirei released in December 1983. Dallos was quickly followed by productions including Area 88, Leda: Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, Lolita (the first hentai OAV series), and, on March 9, 1985, Megazone 23. Rather than being simply the first OAV, Megazone 23 was the first OAV to earn massive commercial success, making the Japanese anime industry realize that there was a future for animation made specifically for direct to home video sale.

Megazone 23 capitalized on the success of the 1982 Macross television series and 1984 Macross motion picture by keeping the same production staff, and similar themes including an idol singer, a city inside a spaceship, and transforming robots. I honestly don’t know why Haruhiko Mikimoto provided only the character design of Eve Tokimatsuri throughout all three Megazone 23 films. Toshihiro Hirano served as character designer on the original Megazone 23 before gaining wider fame with his own Iczer-One OAV series. Yasuomi Umetsu did character design for part two before moving on to greater fame with productions like Kite and Mezzo Forte, and Hiroyuki Kitazume, known for his character designs for Gundam ZZ, provided the bulk of the character design for Megazone 23 Part 3.

What works in favor of Megazone 23 is the fact that even now, more than 15 years later, Megazone 23 is still one of the best stories ever told in sci-fi anime. Megazone 23 featured some outstanding music, high budget animation for its time, and a compelling, dramatic story told with interesting characters. Especially when the film was new, Megazone 23 was revolutionary and significant largely because it was so different from the majority of anime produced at the time. Following in the footsteps of Macross, Megazone 23 was one of the very few sci-fi/action anime productions of the early 1980s that focused on a mature, intelligent and philosophical story instead of consisting entirely of highly stylized and exciting but brainless and non-sensical action (as way typical of anime at the time). Megazone 23 struck a chord with viewers because it was one of the first anime of the “golden age” that proved the emotional and philosophical power of anime to affect a viewer. Looking back at the film now, its flaws are easily identifiable, but compared to its contemporaries, Megazone 23 was a minor masterpiece.

Contemporary with Megazone 23 there were OAVs including Bavi-Stock, Birth, Good Morning Althea, Armored Legend Legaicam, Orguss, Battle Royal High School and Cosmic Fantasy that were entertaining but didn’t strive to do anything more than entertain. Megazone 23 was one of the first dark, tragic and dramatic sci-fi OAVs. And its success doubtlessly led to the revolution in the OAV format that included more mature and tragic and dramatic series such as Iczer-One, Bubblegum Crisis, Gall Force, Cosmo Police Justy, and Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia.