Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 100 Side A - Megazone 23
Hosts: Betty, Dylan, Jeremy, Star
This is the first part of our 100th episode. Okay, it's more like 123 if you count the STs and specials. It's also our second anniversary! Okay, I actually pushed it back almost two months.
This is about teenagers vandalizing soda machines, reckless driving, the '80s, motorcycles that turn into robots, and weirdo first person naked pink girl sex scenes.
Click [HERE] to flashdance.
We apologize for the cell phone interference throughout. Our intern has been flogged.
You may also be interested in our Robotech The Movie: The Untold Story podcast.
P.S. If you don't recognize the song immediately after all the clips from the show, that's because it was supposed to be the theme song for the Megazone 23 TV that was canned in favor of this movie.
More after the cut.
Streamline Pictures/Orion VHS release.
Streamline Pictures/Image DVD release.
ADV DVD release.
As usual, this movie has its own set of unflattering American covers. The Streamline/Orion/Image releases have one dub while the ADV release has its own dub. You could also could count Robotech The Movie as another dub.
The best way to hit on a girl is to try to run her over with your bike.
The '80s were a different time, when girls loved Geordi LaForge and wore tampon necklaces.
If you're not careful your faces will get stuck like that!
I told you it was the '80s! Japan loved Streets of Fire!
They loved David Bowie, too!
And what did Japanese teenagers love? Vandalizing Coke machines!
That robot is trying to cop a feel.
You know what's a great motorcycle design? One where your motorcycle's massive saddlebags scrape the ground whenever you take a turn.
I love sweaty 80's dancing girls. Too bad you can't see her enormous leg warmers in this shot.
I love a movie where they painstakingly draw saliva.
Coitus robotus interruptus.
Is that Don Johnson? No, it's just Shogo.
B.D.is having a talk with Shogo. B.D. stands for Bad Dude. I am not joking.
Hey look, product placement for another Japanese cartoon! (Dagger of Kamui was also from the '80s.)
Eve is airing out her armpits.
I would make a crack about how banging your head on a tree is no way to get a girl to sleep with you, but it actually works.
"I feel pretty! Call me Mrs. Claus!"
Nothing hotter than a sex scene in a magic pink dimension with sweaty girls and invisible guys while the entire plot of the movie is explained to you in voice over.
Oh yeah, this movie has robots in it too. I had nearly forgotten.
And gigantic computers! Because the bigger a computer is, the more powerful it is, right?
Megazone 23, the movie that dares to draw every damn side street of Tokyo in excruciating detail.
| Posted 1 June, 2009 - 05:04 by Destroy All Pod... |
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Comments
27 comments posted...is what I thought at first. And then I completely forgot that it was a Robotech show. How easily my brain tries to shut off all recollection to Robotech: The Movie and its anti-gravity chamber that looks suspiciously like he blackness of space. "The FUUUUUTURE IS NOW!"
Unfortunately, I've never actually seen Megazone 23 in its unbutchered form. How sad is that? I haven't even seen the Streamline dub.
Wait, so you've seen Robotech The Movie but not Megazone 23? Cleanse thyself! Go see Megazone 23!
You'd be surprised how many out there may've done the same too. These people need to be cleansed!
Hahaha... It's not a disease. It's just a byproduct of being introduced to anime in the 90s. Thank you, Carl Macek.
That doesn't make any sense. Robotech The Movie came out in the '80s and barely came out at that. It was test marketed in Texas and never got a wide release and was only released on video in places in Europe and South America.
Megazone 23 on the other hand was pretty widely available in America through Streamline and then later ADV.
I said it was a byproduct of being introduced to anime in the 90s. THE FACT THAT I HAD NOT SEEN MEGAZONE 23 PROPERLY. I didn't say that I had seen Robotech The Movie in the 90s. I wasn't even talking about that. Read the person I was replying to. Jeez.
Truth be told, I never saw Megazone 23 on cassette back then. Ever. It wasn't like today where, even if the local stores aren't carrying it, you can get it online. My video store didn't have it. It simply wasn't available to me, and I didn't even know it existed. I never thought to get it, and I had never seen any version of it until recently, when I saw Robotech: The Abortion.
I'm way too analytical? Have you heard the podcast?
Well, okay. You got me there. ;)
By the way... Looking forward to the second half of this.
Sad. I saw the Streamline dub long before ADV came out with theirs. I don't really care much for ADV's dub but found the commentary track pretty amusing.
I saw the dub only Streamline/Orion VHS to start with. It's a terrible dub, but it's terrible in the hilarious way that gives you good things to sample at the end of a podcast. ADV's dub is technically more competent, but pretty bland. I do like the constant '80s language they shove into it, but that's about it. I also thought it was weird that they would spend all that time on '80s lingo and then have someone say "my bad", which is definitely '90s slang, but whatever.
In some way, I guess I liked the previous dub as it didn't try to say "this is the 80's" as ADV used, but I would give them props for trying to be authentic. I usually felt the intentions of the film was that it was meant to be present-day Tokyo anyway despite it's dated appearance. People who first saw it 20 years ago probably thought that way too obviously. In some way, it's like watching "Back to the Future" and picking out those moments in Marty's 1985 you might still remember in your heart. I was 7/8 years old in '85, so I can understand in that sense what things were like, unlike some who might dislike the 80's based on the trends and fads associated with it.
Good review of one of the best OVA's. I didn't know BD stood for BAD DUDE, and I even have a MZ23 art book.
Also, since you touched on Toshihiro Hirano, you NEED to review Iczer-1, my favorite OVA.
I think Star and Betty were intrigued by the high concept of "lesbians in space", so perhaps we will tackle that.
It's much less interesting than they're probably imagining.
In the sense of "not much lesbian action"?
Congrads on your 100th episode!
Leonardo Flores
CollectionDX Staff Writer-West Coast Bureau
Thanks!
I love the insanity of Megazone. A perfect review. And the Yamato toy gives me a chubby every time I touch it.
Hey, instead of flogging your intern you should just turn your phones off during recording. :)
Hi Star!
xo
Glad you enjoyed the podcast! The reason the intern got a flogging is that she is the one who had the cell on while we were recording. She was apparently txting the whole time and I didn't realize it, or I would have yelled at her to stop!
Grrrrrrrrrr.... Interns....
I think even despite its size, Bahamut will crash if it tries to play Crysis.
-------------------------
Rob
The Gundam Model Guy
If Bahamut crashes, does that mean the world de-1980s until it reboots?
Didn't know what B.D. stood for until I heard this podcast, so I learned something new today!
Thinking of the produce placement in the film, I'm also reminded of "Cream Lemon" and other stuff getting stuck on a computer monitor panel elsewhere in the film as well (not to mention a truck with the logo of the releases of this OVA, Victor).
Speaking of Victor, I have the original VHS edition of Megazone 23 that was released in Japan for 13,800 yen. The cover isn't anything to write home about though. Mostly a shot of Yui's head with Shogo seen standing by it to the right, though his skin is painted the same color as Yui's hair. Perhaps it was more a stylistic comment they made of the guy in the film this way, much in the similar manner of the dating segment that some of you have complained about as being cheap, when in fact, it's probably one of those artsy things they tried for an OVA at a time when they were just starting up. I didn't find the dating segment that bad myself, but the sex scene is pretty bizarre to the right people!
That ending shot of Shibuya or such Jeremy mentioned was also seen on my VHS copy, but for whatever reason, it was originally rendered a lot poorer in it's original incarnation, but redone shortly later. I enclosed a screengrab from my tape for comparisons.
http://img525.imageshack.us/i/pdvd010qj8.png/
http://img517.imageshack.us/i/pdvd011vy5.png/
Someone in another forum mentioned that to me as well. I guess in subsequent releases they fixed this, but it's neat finding a rare gem of a gaffe on my tape!
Hmm, that's interesting. If you REALLY care, there's a couple of one or two second out of doors shots in the ADV DVD release that are not in the Streamline/Orion VHS, Streamline/Image DVD, or my old VHS fansub. I will have to get out my old VHS fansub and compare the ending shots of Tokyo... perhaps my VHS fansub comes from the original Victor VHS.
There's also two versions of the sex scene in part II. One version (the version on my VHS fansub) is shorter than the version on the ADV DVD of part II.
I would really love a nice big scan of the original Victor VHS if you could supply it, Chris! Thanks for the comment!
It could've. Another noticeable bit is when Shogo walks out into the background as the camera starts to zoom out, there's a dissolved shot of Yui's face that is seen for a moment before it goes away, this isn't present on the VHS edition as well, so I would assume those bits were improvements/redo's they did sometime later after the tape was released.
Hmm, I thought I read that someplace too. I also have a tape of the original English dub made in the 80's as well, not sure what sex scene was used in there if they had used it (the one with "Johnny Winters" and "Suzy Sue").
I could do better than that. I also have a copy of Megazone 23 Part II on VHS as well with a pretty nifty cover as well. Both tapes also have folded inserts which mostly gives out detailed info on the characters and mechs seen in both films.
Well, my fansub definitely has the shorter sex scene than on the ADV DVD. Yeah, please, hook me up! Send me an email at feedback at destroyallpodcastsdx dot com?