18 December 2021 - News: AnimEigo Retail Version of Megazone 23 Blu-Ray Solicited for Pre-Order
The previously announced retail blu-ray disc of Megazone 23 have been solicited for a 10 May 2022 release and is available for pre-order on the Right Stuf website as well as AnimEigo's own website. The disc retails for US$39.99. While Right Stuf ship all over the world, as per their license agreement for Megazone 23, AnimEigo can only ship to residents of the US, Canada, the UK and all of Europe with the exception of Italy. However, AnimEigo is also selling an "Upgrade Kit" for an additional US$29.99, which comprises of the chipboard box and production artbook from the Kickstarter sets. The retail version of the blu-ray should fit in the box quite nicely. Note that new retail blu-ray does not have the 10 minute documentary, and will be released on one disc, not two. All other on disc extras from the original Kickstarter release are included on the new disc.

1 December 2021 - News: AnimEigo and Media OCD to Release Retail Version of Megazone 23 Blu-Ray Set
Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo and Justin Sevakis of blu-ray authoring house Media OCD have announced a retail set of the Megazone 23 blu-ray released by AnimEigo earlier this year as part of a Kickstarter. The set will contain all of the material on the original release except for the documentary, and will be released on one disc, not two. The original set went out of print not too long after it's original release and was was only available to purchase for residents of the US, Canada, the UK and all of Europe with the exception of Italy. No release date or artwork has been announced yet.

24 April 2021 - News: AIC Rights and Toei Advertising to Co-Produce New Works, Megazone 23 XI Pilot Released, AnimEigo Blu-Ray Sets Released, Four Spirits Image Album Reissued, Plus Updates
In the last year or so there has been a bit of news regarding the "Megazone 23" franchise; the biggest one is the recent deal between AIC Rights and Toei Advertising announced on 16 April to transfer partial copyrights of most of their properties including "Zeorymer", "Dangaioh", "Bubblegum Crisis", "Gall Force" and "Tenchi Muyo!" in order to develop new content. Of note however was the prominent mention of "Megazone 23" and four brand new pieces of artwork as seen in the press release. This comes almost a year after the long awaited physical release of the "Megazone 23 XI" pilot film in June 2020. Despite the truncated length of the pilot film (from the announced 10 minutes to the eventually completed 5 minutes), this news gives me hope that either that project or the never completed "Megazone 23 SIN" pilot film will be given the green light to be made into TV series or even theatrical releases.

As I have previously stated, the "Megazone 23 XI" pilot film as well as other promised bonus material like the CD soundtrack and Sakura figure finally shipped out to backers in June 2020, though unless you knew where to look to find this information you'd be blissfully unaware. A three minute version of pilot film was originally released in March 2019 as a download after backers complained they hadn't received it after it was shown at AnimeJapan 2019. Both versions received a lukewarm reaction from fans, with poor animation being the main gripe. The 2019 version contains a battle sequence with the Strike Garland (also made as a figure for backers) which was cut from the final DVD version. Despite the lukewarm reaction, little of the backers rewards, including the DVD, have made it into the secondhand market. Therefore it is pretty much impossible to find a copy of the completed film. As previously mentioned, the "Megazone 23 SIN" pilot film is still missing in action more than four years on from it's original announcement.

After a few delays, the AnimEigo blu-ray sets of the "Megazone 23" OVAs were finally shipped to backers from late March 2021. Frustratingly few of the extras from the original 2015 Japanese blu-ray box set were ported over. The final product has the English dubs from the 2004 ADV Films release for all three parts as well as the 1995 Streamline Pictures dub for the first OVA, and the 1987 Harmony Gold English dub of "Megazone 23 Part II" with the 10 minute ending of "Robotech the movie" as a separate feature as per the Japanese blu-ray box release. Interestingly unlike the Japanese releases, the "Robotech the movie" footage does not come with "burnt in" Japanese subtitles. Other extras included the commentary track from the 2004 ADV Films release of the first OVA (with Matt Greenfield, director of the English dub and two other ADV staff, David Williams and Janice Williams) and a newly commissioned second commentary track for the first OVA with Gaku Miyao (sub mecha designer and key animator) and Hiroki Sato (animator), a new 10 minute "Secret History" documentary on the OVA produced by AnimEigo, setting material and colour artwork galleries and an assortment of "Megazone 23" trailers which frustratingly play subtitled within the menu itself. I do not for the life of me understand why these trailers aren't separate extras. They are also subtitled and of course the subtitles are "burnt in". The physical extras include a foldout poster of the Haruhiko Mikimoto "Eve" art used on the Japanese blu-ray box set and the list if all the backers on the reverse over a promotional artwork piece from 1985, a small sheet of stickers and a 22 page liner notes booklet with bonus colour manga by Gaku Miyao which features background characters based upon photos of backers who funded higher tiers. The premium set version also includes a chipboard box using the same Haruhiko Mikimoto "Eve" art used on the Japanese blu-ray box set and a second booklet 172 pages in length featuring messages from Haruhiko Mikimoto, Gaku Miyao, Shinji Aramaki and Hiroki Sato, as well as colour artwork and extensive setting materials from all three parts of the franchise. The new transfers look stunning and I loved the clean video on the "Robotech the movie" footage, but I am really bummed out by the lack of extras from the Japanese box set. You can still buy copies of the sets from the AnimEigo website, but as per the Kickstarter, they only ship to the US, Canada, the UK and all of Europe with the exception of Italy.

Finally, in June 2020, the "Megazone 23 - Four Spirits" image album, originally released in May 1985, was re-released by Tower Records Japan's in-house imprint, Tower to The People, on CD. The CD can only be bought in Tower Record stores or on their website. The release is limited, but as you can see it is still in stock.

I have managed to update various sections of the website with the above information as well correcting some typos, a few broken links, some factual errors and adding a few new pieces to existing sections here and there. I'm still planning to complete a section of the site had been planning to do since I started this website, but it is a large and intensely detailed body of work I have to plough through in order to get it finished. Also after watching the AnimEigo set, I really want to update all of the old low resolution screenshots with new high definition screenshots from the blu-ray.

22 March 2020 - Updates
At this point in time, I should be in Japan enjoying the cherry blossoms, but alas, I am stuck at home due to the current worldwide pandemic. I've been trying to fill in time at home so I have finished up a couple of sections I have been working on for a while. First up is Megazone 23: Video to Theatrical Version Changes, which as it sounds compares the small animation fixes and changes between the original 1985 video release of "Megazone 23" and it's subsequent theatrical and home video releases. Second is a section I had wanted to create a since I began the site some 12 years ago but hadn't got around to; Cameos and In-jokes, which as it sounds lists all the weird and wonderful references to other anime, manga and films that appear in "Megazone 23". I have also corrected and updated most of the other pages on the site, mostly for factual errors and typos.

14 February 2020 - Updates
Added a brand new section; Megazone 23 English Language Video Releases, which as it sounds contains a list of every single release in English of all parts of the franchise and I also finally got around to updating the Megazone 23 Figures section to include a couple of recent releases. I've also had a crack at updating and correcting various sections of the website.

2 November 2019 - News: AnimEigo's Megazone 23 Blu-ray KIckstarter Distribution Expanded to Canada, UK and Most of Europe
Another up date to AnimEigo's Kickstarter for their "Megazone 23" blu-ray box set on 28 October 2019; they have managed to expand distribution of the set to backers in Canada, the United Kingdom and all of Europe except Italy. Permission for expansion beyond these territories is unlikely to be granted in the future. Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo also stated that with the expansion of territories he can sell the set, he's pretty sure he'll be able to hit the US$200,000 funding point, which means the set will include an 8 page "Megazone 23" manga created and illustrated by Gaku Miyao and new artwork from Haruhiko Mikamito. Additional backers would only be able to fund the project from the AnimEigo website of course as the Kickstarter funding period officially closed back in September.

5 October 2019 - News: AnimEigo's Megazone 23 Blu-ray KIckstarter Fully Funded and to Be Expanded to Outside USA, Plus Updates
AnimEigo's Kickstarter for the "Megazone 23" blu-ray box set closed on 17 September with 1,451 backers pledging a grand total of US$154,031. Even better news for fans outside the US with Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo stating he has almost finished negotiations for distribution rights for outside the USA. Non-US fans will soon be able to order AnimEigo's set directly from their website if they hadn't already pledged on Kickstarter. US fans can also pre-order the set directly from the AnimEigo website if they didn't back it on Kickstarter. Money raised from pre-orders on the website will go towards stretch goals not reached on the Kickstarter website. Robert has also stated that he will be flying to Japan mid month to finalise the license deal to distribute the box set outside the US and to record the the Japanese commentary with Gaku Miyao and Hiroki Sato. In other news, I am updating and tweaking bits of the website as I go, but so far no new sections or major changes.

11 August 2019 - News: AnimEigo's Megazone 23 Blu-ray KIckstarter to Go Live on 17 August, Plus Updates
Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo has stated that their Megazone 23 Blu-ray box Kickstarter will go live at 5pm Eastern USA Time on Saturday 17 August 2019. Unfortunately he stated that at this stage he doesn't know if he can sell the sets outside the USA. I have also updated and corrected a number of pages on the site and have created a Staff Profiles page for the "Megazone 23" section, which for some reason I didn't complete when this site went live some 12 years ago. I have sort of updated the Megazone 23 Figures section, but have just released another Garland figure has recently gone up for pre-order and will have to include that some time down the track.

30 June 2019 - News: New Megazone 23 Reboot Projects, AnimEigo to Release Megazone 23 on Blu-ray, Apologies and Updates
I know I haven't updated this website for nearly four years, but there really isn't much going on with the "Robotech" or "Megazone 23" franchises, until recently. The big one is of course AIC announcing two reboots of "Megazone 23"; "Megazone 23 SIN" and "Megazone 23 XI" ("XI" pronounced as "Sai"). However both are pilot film projects and are not guaranteed to go into production. Worse still is both pilot films were funded via Japanese crowd funding website Campfire, over two years ago, and backers of these projects still haven't got their backer rewards outside a few transformable Garland figures, a variant of which had been previously released a year or so before. I have written up what is known so far about the projects at the bottom of the "Megazone 23 Sequels" section of this website. While I hope both projects are given the green light to be made into TV series or even theatrical releases, the constant delays have me feeling pessimistic.

The other big news is that AnimEigo will be releasing the "Megazone 23" OVAs (yes, all three parts) on blu-ray. This box set will be based on the now out of print "Megazone 23 Blu-ray Archive Box -30th Anniversary Edition-" which was released back in 2015 and the AnimEigo version will essentially include everything on that set. As per recent AnimEigo releases, this one will be crowd funded via Kickstarter. The set will include the original Japanese 2.0 and the ADV Films English 5.1 audio tracks, "Megazone 23 Part II" International Edition English dub, an assortment of "Megazone 23" trailers, the original ADV Films English commentary featuring Matt Greenfield, David Williams and Janice Williams, and an expanded production artbook containing around 100 pages, almost 40 more than the one on the Japanese box set. Additional content if certain stretch goals are reached would include Japanese commentary featuring Gaku Miyao and Hiroki Sato, new artwork from Haruhiko Mikamito, an 8 page "Megazone 23" manga created and illustrated by Gaku Miyao, music videos from Kumi Miyasato and the Streamline Pictures English dub of "Megazone 23 Part I" as well as the Manga Entertainment UK English dub of "Megazone 23 Part III". The Kickstarter is expected to go live sometime in August. The draft of the project can be found here.

Finally I have updated several sections of the website, notably the previously mentioned "Sequels" section as well as the Robotech the movie Promotional Material section. Several other section have had minor tweaks, mostly in relation fixing factual errors or updating information. I still have a ton of pages to update, especially the figures section as several Garland figures have been released in the last two years. So please excuse the spelling and grammatical errors as well as broken links and missing images as I wade through fixing and updating everything. Though this website has been around for over 12 years now, it frustrates me that easily dispelled myths and nonsense about "Robotech the movie" are still repeated as fact. I really have no idea if people still visit this site, but I will keep it online as long as possible and endeavour to keep it updated as often as possible.

21 September 2015 - News: New Robotech Soundtrack Compilation Omits Most Robotech the Movie Songs
A heads up to those wanting to purchase the new "Robotech 30th Anniversary Soundtrack" album; it omits nearly all of the songs from "Robotech the movie". The soundtrack includes the never before issued on CD "Robotech - Main Title (Long Version)" (named "Robotech Theme (enhanced version)" on the new album), the previously released "Only A Fool" by Gigi Agrama and "Shinin' On Top Of A Star" by Randall Rumage, which hasn't previously been issued on CD, but is mastered from a vinyl copy of the 1987 "Robotech the movie" soundtrack as neither the original master or a safety copy exists. The other five songs from the movie that were previously issued on the last two Robotech CD soundtracks in 1996 and 2006 aren't on the new album; "In My Heart" by Three Dog Night, "Underground" by Joanne Harris & Michael Bradley, and the three Joanne Harris songs; "Saved By Science", "Call On Me" and "The Future Is Now". This is utterly baffling as the second CD which has the vocal tracks from the franchise only contains 45 minutes worth of material, with more than enough space for the five "Robotech the movie" tracks (CDs can hold up 80 minutes worth of music, and the other two CDs in the set do contain close to 80 minutes material each). Annoyingly if you do want the omitted tracks on CD, it is pretty much impossible to find the 1996 and 2006 soundtracks for less than $100 each on the second-hand market. It's utterly disappointing and baffling that Harmony Gold chose to omit these songs from the album. On the upside the album does contain most of the previously unreleased original score for "Robotech the movie", though labels it as unused "Robotech II: The Sentinels" tracks. I suspect the soundtracks for both projects were created at the same time.

14 August 2015 - News: Megazone 23 Blu-ray Box Set Promo Video + Robotech Soundtrack Compilation Updates
A new video for the forthcoming "Megazone 23" BD box set has gone up on Youtube. It has a very nice split screen comparison between the 2003 DVD and the new BD transfer. Steve Yun form Harmony Gold has sent out an email to those who pre-ordered the forthcoming "Robotech 30th Anniversary Soundtrack" album. He states that the set will have 116 tracks and over 200 minutes of music, but will be a three disc set instead of four. Replication is due to commence next week and copies should start shipping out in the last week of August.

19 July 2015 - Updates
Added a brand new section; Robotech the movie Image Gallery, which contains images from the Opening Titles Animation, Deleted Cuts and Alternate Titles (mostly from the ending animation created specifically for "Robotech the movie") and Internal Reference and Promotional Material which contains a lot of new material I found on eBay that Carl Macek's wife, Svea had been selling over the last couple of years. I still want to create a gallery full of shots for the closing animation, but it's taking quite a while to finish. I'm maybe half way through doing that. It's been a long time in the works (years), but I just can't seem to find the time to complete it. Another big project I've always wanted to complete is a comparison between "Robotech the movie" and "Megazone 23" which I did initially start on a few years back. It'll be the the next project after I finish the gallery. In my last update I said I was going to talk about Harmony Gold, but have now decided it isn't worth the aggravation. They're a silly little company still wasting their time on woefully out of date merchandise based on a franchise 30 years old.

7 July 2015 - News: Megazone 23 Blu-ray Box Set + Another Robotech Soundtrack Compilation
I know I haven't updated this site in nearly two years. I did abandon it for a little while, but in the last couple of months have started on a couple of new sections. It's time consuming, but I'm getting there. I did want to make some comments about Harmony Gold and the stuff I've been working on, but I'll save that for a latter date sometime in the future. In the meantime I thought I should update everyone on a couple of new items announced over the weekend that will be coming out in the next few months.

The first one is the "Megazone 23 Blu-ray Archive Box -30th Anniversary Edition-" which comes out on 27 November 2015 in Japan. I was hoping this would have come out a lot sooner (years ago!), and am a bit surprised it's taken this long for the OVAs to be released on Blu-ray. As you'd expect the preliminary information doesn't show any English subtitles or dubs on the box, save for the old infamous Harmony Gold Part II dub. The four disc box will include all three parts of "Megazone 23", with all parts being a new 4K telecine scan from the original negatives, the previously mentioned mid 1980's Harmony Gold English dub of "Megazone 23 Part II" with Japanese subtitles and the 10 minute ending of "Robotech the movie", the footage from the "Special Memory" VHD releases, pilot film, theatrical and promotional trailers, promotional footage from 2003 for the DVD releases, a 64 page booklet and a special box with new artwork from Haruhiko Mikimoto. Unsurprisingly it's a bit pricey at ¥26,800. Not many sites have the box listed yet, but it can be currently pre-ordered from Amazon in Japan. A rather unspectacular website has also been created to promote the box set.

The other item is Harmony Gold's four disc "Robotech 30th Anniversary Soundtrack" album. Not much info has been given out other than it will have 115 tracks, about 45 unreleased tracks, half of the material is remastered from newly discovered 24 track tapes, and the physical album with have liner notes. It's a given that the album will include all the tracks from "Robotech the movie" that appeared on the now very out of print CD set from 2006. This four disc set will set you back $19.99 and is due to ship sometime in August. Currently the only place you can get a physical copy is the Robotech.com store. Digital downloads can be bought from iTunes, Google Play and Amazon Music, also sometime in August I'm assuming.

23 August 2013 - News: Yet Another Robotech Box Set
Harmony Gold and A&E Entertainment have decided to fleece fans again with a new box set, "Robotech: The Complete Set" only two years after releasing "Robotech: The Complete Series". This new 20 disc set contains the previously the two disc set "Robotech: 2-Movie Collection", which contains "Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles" and "Robotech: Love Live Alive" (originally released in July 2013) and a third disc with more extras including an English subbed version of "Genesis Climber Mospeada: Love Live Alive" (the original Japanese OVA used as a basis for "Robotech: Love Live Alive"). This set contains the same "Robotech the movie" extras previously found on the "Robotech: The Complete Series" box set. It's a bit of a kick in the teeth for people who wanted "Genesis Climber Mospeada: Love Live Alive" as the set will retail for a hefty $99.98. The set is due to ship on 5 November 2013.

8 July 2013 - Updates
Added two new sections; My Personal Take On The Film and The Sentinels Connection. In the last few weeks I've also cleaned up all of the other sections. I need to revise a couple of other parts and I also want to add a couple more sections sometime in the next few months.

17 June 2013 - Updates
Added a new section for "Megazone 23" part II and III soundtracks plus cleaned up the "Megazone 23" section to make a bit more presentable. Also corrected and added info to a number of sections. I'm finding more info about this film as I research it further. There seems to be a lot more written about the film in the last two to three years then there was when I first started this site.

10 June 2013 - Updates
Some more minor updates to Production History and the Merchandise sections. Also revamping of Megazone 23 Soundtracks, Book Releases and the Figures sections. Revamping and updating of the site continues.

25 May 2013 - Updates
After a very long period of inactivity (nearly four years), I received an email form musician Randall Rumage in regards to his song on the French and Argentinean releases of the "Robotech the movie" vinyl sound track. I initially ignored the email as I wasn't interested in the site anymore, but after going though the site after a month or so I my interest in the film was rekindled and so was my desire to update the site. I eventually began to rework many of the sections. Some were woefully out of date or inaccurate. So far I have updated Staff Profiles, Production History and Merchandise sections.

February 2009
Decided to change the focus of the site to "Robotech the movie". Uploaded "The Memory Matrix - A Robotech the movie website" to it's current server.

January 2007
Uploaded "Operator 7G - A Megazone 23 Website", a website dedicated to all aspects of the anime "Megazone 23" including a section on "Robotech the movie".