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".