Nostalgic Anime Retrospective No. 9: "Megazone 23," which depicts the "best of times" 30 years ago, can't be called a mere nostalgia!

In this "Nostalgic Anime Retrospective," Keisuke Hirota, a middle-aged writer, talks about such and such an era of Japanese anime in a casual manner. Let's look back on the era in which these works were created and enjoy the present and future together, both for the new generation and the old generation. In Tokyo in 1985, freelancer Shogo Yahagi meets Garland, a giant motorcycle he has never seen before. Garland, which transforms into a humanoid robot, was actually built with technology 500 years in the future, and what Shogo thought was Tokyo in 1985 was merely a fictional city recreated in an urban spaceship....... Against the military, which is covering up this fact, Shogo decides to use Garland as his only weapon. Against the military's cover-up of this fact, Shogo rises to his feet with only Garland as his only weapon.

Megazone 23" includes "PART II" and "III," and is sometimes treated as a "trilogy. Directed by Ichiro Itano, who dominated the world with "Itano Circus," "PART II" is an astonishing concept in which "the stories are connected, but the pictures are completely different," and it has a revolutionary value in "sequels," which are often created in an easy manner. It gave a revolutionary value to the "sequels" that are often easily made. Perhaps because ...... was so revolutionary and risky, there were no works that followed it. Rather, "III," with its story set far in the future and positioned more like a spin-off, is probably a safer choice for a "sequel. However, it would probably not be interesting if it were made in a safe manner. The question is, "Is this really the right thing to do? The more dangerous "MegaZone 23" is, the more it is like "MegaZone 23. There is an idol whom the main character longs to be with, three beautiful girls close to the main character, a bed scene, a carefully recreated 80s Tokyo town, bullet fights between variable robots, a space fighter, and ...... such a hobby-driven, inconsistent, and uninteresting story. ディテールを散りばめながら、本当に1本の作品として終われるのか？　I think the unmarked "Megazone 23" (I dare not call it PART I), which made me feel on edge while watching it, was the most extreme.

Tokyo, which was in the midst of a bubble economy (a term that did not exist in 1985), was a fictional city controlled by computers, and even the popular idol Tokimatsuri Eve was nothing more than an imaginary image created by computer graphics. ...... How will Shogo, deprived of his identity, make amends for this irrational world?　There is no such thing as a reckoning. Shogo is beaten up by the military with his garland and abandoned in the uninhabited Shibuya district. It is the worst morning of the year, yet the sun rises beautifully. The morning light soaks into each and every scar on his body. Shogo walks out on the streets of Shibuya with his feet on the ground. Total defeat. Everyone has had mornings like this. A morning of no relief, no comfort, nothing but pain and mud. I was able to feel this last scene as if it were my own when I was over 30 years old, in the late 90's, when the economy was in the doldrums. When looking back on the 1985 film "Megazone 23," one is struck by its prophetic line: "This is the best time of our lives. A scarred Shogo ...... walks alone through the empty streets of Shibuya. The closing theme, "Loneliness and Sleeplessness," which plays as if to encourage him, is powerful to the point of cruelty.

However, to put a finer point on it, there are two versions of this last scene. In the first VHS release, the camera just moves away from Shogo's back as he walks away alone, but in the theatrically released version, his back is covered by the smiling face of his girlfriend Yui (this is the version included in the DVD-box that I own). This makes for a happy ending that says, "Shogo seems to have lost everything, but he has a lover waiting for him," which is too hopeful. I feel that it is "youth" that cannot be saved so easily. It is "young" because it does not collapse easily, no matter how much it loses. And isn't life to make up for the loss of defeat by walking on and on?

I may have preached like an old man at ......, but the last scene of "Mega Zone 23," in which the main character ends up being beaten up, was that poignant. Later in life, I came across a movie called "Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku" (released in 2007). The morning light piercing the two girls is reminiscent of the final scene of "Mega Zone 23. Mega Zone 23" was also an anime that vividly depicted the cruelty and sentimentality of the city.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)