Megazone 23 Question: Hardcore Fans, Fall In!

[Liottel]

Ok folks... You know how Trekkies can talk for ages about the specific pros and cons of plasma conduits? Well, I'm gonna take a drive down that sort of alley now.

In Megazon 23 Part II, the FX-101 takes off along with squadrons of Tivar IV fighters, and four FV-11 escort ships. In the big battle, the Tivar IV's fire their missiles and retreat, no match for the Dezalg. Then, the escort ships engage, firing anti-air missiles. These are shot down by the Dezalg, who proceed to move in and annihilate the 00 Harguns and smash in the escort ships bridges. Facing defeat, the captain of the FX-101 battleship orders the elite unit led by Captain Woodsman into action. Woodsmans Wild Sow and two 00 Harguns launch from a hangar bay and engage - eventually the Dezalg kill everyone on the FX Fleet.

Now... Something they don't really go into - when you see Woodsmans units launching, where are they launching from? It's not the FX-101, theyre comming out of some ventral hangar bay on one of the escort ships. Or at least, that's what I gathered.

It's too bad the lineart nor the images in the OVA show where this hangar bay is located on these ships!! It'd be cool to someday have a kit of the ship, with little Hargun figures to put in the bay. It's a neat looking ship. Reminiscent of the Oberth destroyer.

What do you think?

I'll attach a collage of pics of the FV-11 escort ship.

Oh, on a different note... Now that Yamato has made a Garland, do you think they'll make some other Megazone mecha?? I'll attach a collage of Megazone mecha I made. Did you know the 00 Hargun has the option of mounting two big 2-Missile packs, one on each shoulder, aswell as carrying a huge 14 missile box on its back? The lineart doesn't show that. With the missile packs, the 00 Hargun would make one -awesome- Yamato figure. (the Part 1 'Space Hargun would too, with it's shield and huge gatling gun! Love its colors too!)

Enjoy! Post

http://s1.simpload.com/040844387be37a057.jpeg

http://s1.simpload.com/040844387c2b29747.jpg

~Liottel.

[danth]

The first OAV was pretty, but the characters and story fell flat. Love the character & mecha designs though.

[Ginrai]

I was always under the impression that they were launching from the Megazone 23 itself as a last resort since the fleet was being decimated by the Diezalg.

P.S. I love the characers and story in Megazone 23. I think it's so cool that Shogo is our mecha piloting hero when he's a punk who works at McDonald's. How awesome is that? He works at McDonald's. And Yui was an amazing character for 80's anime. Strong, indepedent, sexually self-assured, and NOT a dasmel in distress? At no point does she need to be rescued. She decided to sleep with the sleazy producer and Shogo took it upon himself to stop her. And of course, Shogo's response is total overkill: he smashes a building his giant robot. I love that.

Would Minmay do any of this? Heeeellll no. The other characters are largely throw away, I agree, but that's what happens when you chop back a full TV series to an OAV. I still love Shogo and Yui. They're just so different from the standard mecha show leads, especially 80's mecha shows. Practically every one has the kind whiney newbie pilot who manages to be really good, girls are usually either the frigid angry bitch type who the hero wins over despite initial friction, or totally useless wimp girl who everyone is in love with and needs rescuing (Misa and Minmay respectively.) And the whole Philip K. Dick-ish "the whole world is fake!" thing rules. BD doesn't get too much development, but I think he's cool anyway.

It is kinda weird that part 2 has a totally different supporting cast, but hey, it works for me. I love Megazone, and Ishiguro Noboru's direction (part 1) is second to none.

Macross, Megazone, Orguss, he rules.

I would love more Megazone 23 mecha, but I doubt it'll happen. Call me a pessimist, but... I expect it will be like Escaflowne. So sad. Maybe we'll get a recolor/slight retool for the Proto-Garland, but that's probably the best we can hope for. I'd absolutely love the GR-002, though, or especially the Wild Sau or Zahme Sau. Anyhoo, I'm a huge Megazone fan, and I'm working on revamping my Megazone 23 site to incorporate all kinds of scans. I have something like 10 Megazone books now, so there's a lot to go through!

Edited April 9, 2006 by Ginrai

[Black Valkyrie]

Didn`t they say there MZ23 remake ?

[Ginrai]

Yeah, AIC announced it and there's been absolutely no word since then. Well, hopefully it will happen eventually.

[bandit29]

I tried to like Megazone 23. After all the years I heard how good it was....ugh I thought it was awful. I did like the character and mech designs though. Oh well.

[Liottel]

Ginrai! Have you ever found lineart of the 00 Hargun with his missile packs & rifle?

I mean, the VF-1J isn't a flaming knockout until you plop his huge missile batterys onto him. The VF-11 is just a pretty cool fighter, until you give it that immense missile system. The Redshoulder Custom is just a regular ol' Scopedog, except it's got heaps of ordnance plopped onto it. A mech almost triples in coolness the more guns & missiles are slapped to it. For that reason, the 00 Hargun really might be my favorite Megazone mech. But the lineart for it makes it look so boring! I'd love better pics.

Oh, and I got the impression the FX Fleet was well away from Meegazone 23 by the time the battle took place. So I still think they were launching from the ventral bay of one of the escort ships. Its the only thing I could come up with.

~Liottel.

[Ginrai]

I definitely think that Yamato will milk the MZ23 for all it's worth especially the different colored variants of the Hargun/Garland. Escaflowne was a flop product from its first release because of Yamato's half-hearted attempt.

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That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. Another thing with the Hargun is that it requires a truck full of extra parts to attach to transform. Seriously, it's like that in the anime. I'll buy whatever they sell, though.

[Ginrai]

Ginrai! Have you ever found lineart of the 00 Hargun with his missile packs & rifle?

Sure, some up on my website: http://www.masterforce.org/bahamut/armoredgarland.jpg (never mind the name, I had no idea what it was until I learned kana, that's the Zero Zero with its extra equipment).

Oh, and I got the impression the FX Fleet was well away from Meegazone 23 by the time the battle took place. So I still think they were launching from the ventral bay of one of the escort ships. Its the only thing I could come up with.

389303[/snapback]

Dunno, I'll have to watch it again. The FX-101 is pretty boned by then, so I doubt they were coming from there.

[Liottel]

Ginrai, you are awesome :D

00 Hargun with missile packs is downright badass!

Say, do you know if they're supposed to be redoing Megazone 23, or creating an all new story? I mean... B.D. and a good number of people from Megazone 23 escaped the final destruction, as did Shogo and his gang. And... Maybe it's just conjecture here... But the Dezalg were vastly more advanced - couldnt they have simply built a ship and escaped ADAM too?? So, for all we know, the 3 forces, BD, Shogo, and Dezalg are stil ready to do battle!! Could be interesting.

~Liottel

[Dante74]

Does anyone know if this M23 available as a Region 2 dvd with English or better yet, Dutch subs?

I'd really like to see it but I can't find a version that my dvd player will play.

[Liottel]

I have a really beautifully boxed 2 DVD HK bootleg by Animation Video. Subs are pretty bad, and the screen quality isn't as good as the ADV release, but it works. If your interested, you should check out Ebay. Either that, or just download a Region Free program. I installed one, and now I can watch any region DVD on my computer without switching or anything. Really neat stuff.

~Liottel.

[Ginrai]

Say, do you know if they're supposed to be redoing Megazone 23, or creating an all new story? I mean... B.D. and a good number of people from Megazone 23 escaped the final destruction, as did Shogo and his gang. And... Maybe it's just conjecture here... But the Dezalg were vastly more advanced - couldnt they have simply built a ship and escaped ADAM too?? So, for all we know, the 3 forces, BD, Shogo, and Dezalg are stil ready to do battle!! Could be interesting.

389376[/snapback]

Dunno if it's supposed to be a sequel or a Bubblegum Crisis 2040 style redo. No info. They just said they were making a new Megazone 23 and that Mikimoto would work on characters, which I assume means, as usual, Eve only.

I realllllly doubt the Diezalg escaped, considering we see their ship totally nuked. Furthermore, what happened to BD? He and his posse just left in some Zahme/Wild Saus, right? Where were they going? If they went to earth, there's no sign of it in Megazone 23 III. Who knows. More importantly, though, there's a bunch of other Megazone ships out there in space, and that's probably a better place to look for a new source of enemies.

[Ginrai]

Does anyone know if this M23 available as a Region 2 dvd with English or better yet, Dutch subs?

I'd really like to see it but I can't find a version that my dvd player will play.

389384[/snapback]

Yeah, just get DVD Region+CSS Free or buy a region free DVD player and get the US release.

[Liottel]

I thought that Eve implied that the Megazone 23 and the Dezalg ship were the last remaining remnants of earth ? I don't think there are any more Megazones out there.

And, the Megazone forces did have many auxiliary ships, you see quite a few of them in various scenes in Part II. When B.D. orders all remaining units to start sending people to the spaceport to board ships and try to escape, to give up Megazone Two Three, and then later on you see B.D.s forces escaping in their Zahme-Sau and Willde-Saus, I think its apparent that at least a small fraction of Megazone 23 humans managed to escape in ships. They DID have ships other than the FX fleet!

And... You know... Part III doesn't exist. It's like Macross II. It's fine, but it does not fit the continuity whatsoever. I heard that this "New Megazone" was going to use the characters from Part 1 & 2, but maybe creating a new story with them - thus completely destroying the notion that Part III is in the same continuety.

And it shouldn't be in the same continuity in my oppinion!! I thought Part III was absolutely terrible.

~Liottel.

[Ginrai]

Okay, couple of things. First of all, there are DEFINITELY way more Megazone ships out there. The Megazone backstory in the Megazone 23 B-Club Special makes this very clear.

Second, it's NOT Part III, it's Megazone 23 III (which is read as the third), which is a two OAV sequel series. And like many 90's revivals of 80's anime, veers off course strangely. It's like Macross II, Orguss 02, and the 90's Babel II OAV. It's not a bad story, it just uh, doesn't connect properly with the series it's meant to be a sequel with.

The problems with III are mostly that it seems like a different OAV that had Megazone grafted on it, and the budget problems meant shitty animation in spots. You can definitely tell whenever it was Itano animating it though. That Hargun/EX-Garland fight with the knives is hot, as isthe Original Garland fight at the end. Itano is awesome. I like the cyberpunk thing, and the new mecha designs are cool. Weird as hell that it has shojo character designs though. I'm still kind of confused by that.

[Yoshi]

MZ23 fan going out of lurking... !

The best way to do a new Megazone anime would be IMHO to do a prequel. There is a lot of potential in the background story and chronology given in the MZ23 artbook. The war between the Earth Federation and the Mars colonists that eventually became the Dezalgs, the making of the MZ project (involving the original Tokimatsuri Eve), the battles of the EF fleet of the Dezalg fleet (with appareance of the Original Garland). That would make a great story... And you still have MZ ships, Eve, Dezalgs and Garland, so the franchise still has recognizable and marketable elements

...Or if they don't want to a prequel, they can go with the story of another MZ ship. EF Fleet and Dezalg Fleet were each comprised of several MZ ships (like Ginrai said), so there is a lot of room for new stories.. . It would be so much better to go this way than to just take the story pattern of the first two parts. That was the biggest flaw of MZ23 III and Macross II... They just took the basic story pattern of the originals and redid them with slightly different characters and design.

Just my two cents...

Edited April 10, 2006 by Yoshi

[JELEINEN]

Furthermore, what happened to BD? He and his posse just left in some Zahme/Wild Saus, right? Where were they going? If they went to earth, there's no sign of it in Megazone 23 III. Who knows. More importantly, though, there's a bunch of other Megazone ships out there in space, and that's probably a better place to look for a new source of enemies.

389487[/snapback]

The theory that BD sruvives is very unpopular around here.

I'm not sure I really want to see another MZ. Anime has a really bad track record when it comes to re-visiting older shows. The prequal or other Megazone focused series would be the best route, IMO, if we mush have another one.

[Dante74]

I have a really beautifully boxed 2 DVD HK bootleg by Animation Video. Subs are pretty bad, and the screen quality isn't as good as the ADV release, but it works. If your interested, you should check out Ebay. Either that, or just download a Region Free program. I installed one, and now I can watch any region DVD on my computer without switching or anything. Really neat stuff.

~Liottel.

389388[/snapback]

Thanks.

I'm allready in the process of getting of a box set.

[Ginrai]

The best way to do a new Megazone anime would be IMHO to do a prequel.

389723[/snapback]

I realllllly don't want to see a prequel, considering how many prequels we've seen that badly mangle things by retconning all kinds of dumb poo in. (Hi Star Wars, how've you been?) I don't trust AIC not to screw things up royally.

I was really, really against Bubblegum Crisis 2040 at first, but I have to admit it was an okay show. The thing is it just was quite different than the original Bubblegum Crisis and not as good. Still kind of enjoyable, despite the weird organic monster boomers and totally uninspired character designs. I'd kind of prefer a new Megazone 23 that doesn't have to directly connect with the old one. That way there would be no chance of them trying to shoe-in retarded new things into the old stories and mess them up.

Failing that, I'm good with just telling the story of another Megazone ship. Maybe the New York one mentioned in the mz23 B-Club Special. But let's not do the Diezalg thing over again. Either new aliens, or just internal human threats would be cool. If you have to do the whole conspiracy to hide that we're on a spaceship thing again, do it quickly and get it over soon, IMO. We've already seen that story.

[Ginrai]

The theory that BD sruvives is very unpopular around here.

389757[/snapback]

If Artland/Artmic wanted him to die, they would have made it clear he was dead in loving detail. Come on, all those hentacle spearings, Shinji and Tomomi's horrible deaths... they were hardcore into that. When someone dies in Megezone, they die in the messiest way possible. No way would they have passed up showing BD's internal organs erupting or something.

The question is, "What the hell did he do when he took off?" Maybe there's something that wasn't totally destroyed in the FX fleet and they just flew their *Saus onto it and took off.

Hmm, there's an idea. BD hooks up with another Megazone and establishes his own BDocracy in a world where no one knows they're on a spaceship but him. Hmm, maybe BD and friends could even violate the Bahamut on that ship and could literally alter the world to their whims. That's a fun idea.

"Welcome to BD Land!"

Edited April 12, 2006 by Ginrai

[JELEINEN]

The theory that BD sruvives is very unpopular around here.

389757[/snapback]

If Artland/Artmic wanted him to die, they would have made it clear he was dead in loving detail. Come on, all those hentacle spearings, Shinji and Tomomi's horrible deaths... they were hardcore into that. When someone dies in Megezone, they die in the messiest way possible. No way would they have passed up showing BD's internal organs erupting or something.

The question is, "What the hell did he do when he took off?" Maybe there's something that wasn't totally destroyed in the FX fleet and they just flew their *Saus onto it and took off.

Hmm, there's an idea. BD hooks up with another Megazone and establishes his own BDocracy in a world where no one knows they're on a spaceship but him. Hmm, maybe BD and friends could even violate the Bahamut on that ship and could literally alter the world to their whims. That's a fun idea.

"Welcome to BD Land!"

390402[/snapback]

Don't get me wrong; I fully believe he survives. Last time I brought the idea up on these boards, I pretty much got shouted down. The other thing I've always wondered was how much of the Megazone's population survived. There's a throw away line about evacuating and we don't see bodies in the final scenes of destruction. In my imagination, BD is out there leading a rag-tag fleet fleeing the Diezalg tyrrany.

[Ginrai]

Don't get me wrong; I fully believe he survives.  Last time I brought the idea up on these boards, I pretty much got shouted down.  The other thing I've always wondered was how much of the Megazone's population survived.  There's a throw away line about evacuating and we don't see bodies in the final scenes of destruction.  In my imagination, BD is out there leading a rag-tag fleet fleeing the Diezalg tyrrany.

390479[/snapback]

I think they probably took what small ships they could get together and left. BD was serious about saving his people and had matured from his small-minded power grab. He really did turn into an actual leader and really was trying to protect everyone from the Diezalg, and he did try to evacuate the survivors of the Diezalg incursion. ADAM would still destroy them if they got close to earth, so I'm guess they went somewhere else. Based on the backstory in the B-Club Special, I'm thinking really the only place they could go would be Mars.

I don't think there's any Diezalg tyranny though, since I think ADAM killed them all.

Edited April 13, 2006 by Ginrai

[Yoshi]

[based on the backstory in the B-Club Special, I'm thinking really the only place they could go would be Mars

The backstory of the B-Club Special says Mars (home of the Dezalgs) has been totally destroyed during the Earth Federation/Dezalg war. The Earth Federation created and used a weapon that made the planet collapse on itself and totally disappear within a couple of years, if I remember correctly.

Since ADAM is the Moon, the closest place BD and his followers could have went is the Asteroid Belt. Maybe there is some Earth Federation base still left there, with food and supplies left 500 years ago...

Oh, and I don't think there is any Dezalg tyranny as well. The MZ23 and this one Dezalg Zone are apparently the only two that followed their programmation of making a U-Turn and going back to Earth after not founding a suitable planet for 250 years. That means all the Earth Federation Megazones and all the others Dezalg Megazone out there have been destroyed, or that the people living onboard have completely hacked their respective Bahamut and overcome the programmation, or more optimistically have found and colonized planets.

So I wonder where BD could go. I do agree the anime (and the dialogue is Super Robot War's MZ23 chapters) left open the possibility that BD's squadron as well as some escape ships have survived, but where would they go from there ?

Even if they repair some of the FX Fleet and make it to the Asteroid Belt, what would they do ? They don't have the capability to build a Megazone-like ship suited for interstellar travel, Earth is still defend by ADAM, and all the others MZ fleets are 500 years away ? Maybe BD and the survivor established a colony, or a "BDocracy" in the Asteroid Belt or in a moon of Jupiter.

Your thoughts gentlemen ?

[Ginrai]

The backstory of the B-Club Special says Mars (home of the Dezalgs) has been totally destroyed during the Earth Federation/Dezalg war. The Earth Federation created and used a weapon that made the planet collapse on itself and totally disappear within a couple of years, if I remember correctly.

Okay. I'm going to reread that when I get home. I thought the civilization on Mars was destroyed, not the entire PLANET. I know whole planets are getting blown up left and right in GALL FORCE, another Artmic deal, so mayyyybe.

Since ADAM is the Moon, the closest place BD and his followers could have went is the Asteroid Belt. Maybe there is some Earth Federation base still left there, with food and supplies left 500 years ago...

It's less like ADAM is on the moon and more like ADAM -is- the moon. I recall pictures of the looking like an apple core with ADAM the core, but I'll have to see if I can figure out which book it's in and scan it.

Oh, and I don't think there is any Dezalg tyranny as well. The MZ23 and this one Dezalg Zone are apparently the only two that followed their programmation of making a U-Turn and going back to Earth after not founding a suitable planet for 250 years. That means all the Earth Federation Megazones and all the others Dezalg Megazone out there have been destroyed, or that the people living onboard have completely hacked their respective Bahamut and overcome the programmation, or more optimistically have found and colonized planets.

I'd vote for colony worlds. Gives you the most room for the story to move forward. Since the Diezalg were humans on a Megazone that merged with/got raped by/whatever aliens, it's possible other Megazones encountered aliens and also had a lot cross-species love, too. Having a hacked Bahamut Megazone where the people are totally in control of it is in an interesting idea too.

So I wonder where BD could go. I do agree the anime (and the dialogue is Super Robot War's MZ23 chapters) left open the possibility that BD's squadron as well as some escape ships have survived, but where would they go from there ?

Even if they repair some of the FX Fleet and make it to the Asteroid Belt, what would they do ? They don't have the capability to build a Megazone-like ship suited for interstellar travel, Earth is still defend by ADAM, and all the others MZ fleets are 500 years away ? Maybe BD and the survivor established a colony, or a "BDocracy" in the Asteroid Belt or in a moon of Jupiter.

Your thoughts gentlemen ?

390891[/snapback]

Do you have a translated version of the SRW GBA game that mz23 is in? I was just trying to play that thing raw and having trouble following any story. The asteroid belt is REALLY far away without superluminal drives of some kind. Assuming something FX survived AND it was superluminal (why would it be?) they might get there, but I don't know that there would be anything around... Maybe it's more realistic that there was a space station near earth or near Mars.

If Mars was destroyed, that would drastically alter Earth's orbit and fart up all the gravity, plus probably pelt the planet with debris. Extinction event level debris.

I like the idea of a BDocracy in a little space station somewhere, hanging out, trying to live relatively normal lives, eventually being found by another returning Megazone or a hacked Megazone or something...

[Liottel]

Waaaait a minute.

The Dezalg are human/alien mixbreeds???

Oh... And one thing I never get...

Many years ago in the storyline the Megazone 23 encountered the Dezalg ship and they blasted eachother a lot, leaving whole sections of the Megazone 23 ship destroyed, and for some reason their paths cross more then once? I never really got it... Why are the Megazone 23 and the Dezalg intersecting eachothers courses every hundred years or so??

Does every ship have an Eve?

---Liottel.

[Yoshi]

Waaaait a minute.

The Dezalg are human/alien mixbreeds???

Yeap. Basically, everything started with an old-fashioned independence war. In the MZ23 universe, mankind has colonized Mars. At some point, Mars colonists asked for independence from the Earth Federation. They also genetically modified themselves in order to adapt to living conditions on Mars. Then Earth inhabitants started to call Mars colonists "Dezalgs", and war broke between Earth and Mars.

So Dezalgs are genetically-altered Mars colonists.

The war ended with Earth's victory and complete annihilation of the planet Mars. The impeding activation of the ADAM System would forced the remnants of the Dezalgs to flee Solar System. So they stole half a dozen (don't remember the exact count since I sold the artbook) Megazone ships and when ADAM got activated, the Dezalg Megazone ships went out of the Solar System alongside the Earth Federation Megazone ships.

At some point, the Dezalg Megazone ship(s) encoutered an alien civilization.

We can guess the Dezalg further altered their humanity by assimilating or being assimilated by aliens, but at this point it is just wild guesses. Japanese source material doesn't more on the Dezalg.

Many years ago in the storyline the Megazone 23 encountered the Dezalg ship and they blasted eachother a lot, leaving whole sections of the Megazone 23 ship destroyed, and for some reason their paths cross more then once? I never really got it... Why are the Megazone 23 and the Dezalg intersecting eachothers courses every hundred years or so??

After the activation of ADAM, the Earth Megazone fleet and the Dezalg Megazone fleet fled the Solar System. A battle occured between the two fleets near Uranus, IIRC. Some Megazone ships were lost on both sides. Megazone 23 was badly damaged, the "Osaka half" of the ship (the ghost city you see in the first and second part) was deserted and only the "Tokyo half" kept functioning.

Both EF Megazones and Dezalgs were programmed to go for a 250 years trip in the stars in search of an inhabitable planet, and then to go back to Earth in case they didn't find anything, and settle back to Earth should they be pass ADAM's test.

Megazone 23 and the Dezalg Megazone fought in the vicinity of Uranus, and then went in outer space for 250 years. At the end of the 250 years trip, both ships hadn't find a suitable planet, thus both ships tarted their 250 years trip back to Earth. At the end of their 500 years round trip, their paths crossed once more as both ships got closer and closer to Earth. The anime picks up there.

Nothing is said of the others Megazones. Maybe they found suitable world and started space colonies, maybe they went out of their course, or maybe they went back to Solar System only to be destroyed by the ADAM system.

Does every ship have an Eve?

Yeap. The EVE program is a key part of the whole Megazone Project. The only way back to Earth is successful communication between each ship's EVE program and the ADAM system.

In the anime, the Dezalg Megazone is completed destroyed because for one reason or another, their EVE program is no longer active. Similarly, the Megazone 23 is mostly destroyed because EVE has been "weakened" by being hacked by BD's military, and thus no longer have the "strength" to fully accomplish her mission.

Damn, the backstory of the Megazone universe is great, but the actual story development in the anime is pretty lacking when it comes to the introduction of the backstory. Part I was righfully mysterious, but Part II should have given more hints at the backstory instead of centering its plot on "Youth fight the Order OMG !". I could have done with less action scenes of punks riding bikes and drinking beers, and more backstory, maybe through scenes of BD talking with his staff or whatever. Part II is still my favorite, because of the character design, the mecha design and the music and the atmosphere...

Edited April 23, 2006 by Yoshi

[Yoshi]

It's less like ADAM is on the moon and more like ADAM -is- the moon. I recall pictures of the looking like an apple core with ADAM the core, but I'll have to see if I can figure out which book it's in and scan it.

Yeap, I stand corrected. I'm not a native English speaker and I didn't re-read what I wrote.

Do you have a translated version of the SRW GBA game that mz23 is in?.

Sorry, I don't know of any translated version of SRW D. I'm playing it in japanese, a language I'm fluent in.

The asteroid belt is REALLY far away without superluminal drives of some kind. Assuming something FX survived AND it was superluminal (why would it be?) they might get there, but I don't know that there would be anything around... Maybe it's more realistic that there was a space station near earth or near Mars. If Mars was destroyed, that would drastically alter Earth's orbit and fart up all the gravity, plus probably pelt the planet with debris. Extinction event level debris.

I do agree with you on this one. My bet is the writers didn't really care about the distance within Solar System or "realistic stuff". Same thing with the destruction of Mars. Since you have the B-Club MZ23 Special, you know even the backstory is not that detailed. IIRC, the sentence about Mars' destruction is something like "Earth Federation make a super-ultimate-weapon-of-death that would make Mars completely collapse within a year. Mars is destroyed, Earth wins yeah !"

I like the idea of a BDocracy in a little space station somewhere, hanging out, trying to live relatively normal lives, eventually being found by another returning Megazone or a hacked Megazone or something...

Yeah, that's pretty nice. I would like to see something about that, anime, manga or game.

[Liottel]

Speaking of Gall Force.. I was really let down by that series..

I thought Eternal Story, Destruction, and Stardust War were only 'ok'. I mean, I think I enjoyed that little GARAGA ova more. In all honesty I thought the entire plot was really screwy. I thought it was fairly enjoyable to watch.. But it didn't really move me at all.

But, I thought that Rhea Gall Force, and Earth Chapter was really cool. It was so apocalyptic and great.

I haven't seen New Era, or Revolution. Is that any good?

Man, speaking of weird little OVAs... Anyone here seen BIG WARS? I thought it was really enjoyable in the same style as Venus Wars and stuff like that. The Salamander OVA (Based on the GRADIUS series by Konami) was really cool. The Dragons Heaven OVA was actually really enjoyable, if super short. I love Genocyber. I Wish You Were Here, was actually super cool - if way too short. ARIEL is one of the screwiest anime i've ever seen - but it was really cool.

There are just so many handfulls of really enjoyable, really short, little OVAs out there. And most people don't watch them because theyre just one tiny story smashed into 30 or 45 minutes. I thought the Big Wars landships were absolutely awesome. The fight scenes in that movie were incredible.

Area 88 is super cool. I love how dark and depressing it is deep down. The remake is total waste, and no one should ever see it.

Ahhh, memories.

---Liottel.

P.S. Hey Yoshi, wished you live near me man. You could watch Dougram with me and actually tell me what the heck is going on with all the politics and stuff. Dougram is one show you just CANT watch raw, not understanding that much Japanese, and still expect to even have a clue about whats going on...

[Ginrai]

I feel kind of the opposite. I really liked Eternal Story, thought Destruction and Stardust War were okay but not as good as Eternal Story, and I just didn't like Rhea or Earth Chapter's uninspired Terminator ripoff thing.

I also thought Ariel was just forgettable crap. The Salamander OAV is not based on Gradius, it's based on (shock) Salamander, which is known as Lifeforce in the US. Related, but different game. I'd love to see it though, but I've never found it.

Edited April 23, 2006 by Ginrai

[Liottel]

Salamander basically is Gradius. And the Salamander OVA actually has two or three storys in it (I forget), and at least one of them is definitely the original Gradius story. Right down to shooting the scary head monster thing in the end. (Or was that Gradius II?)

You can find HK's of it pretty easily. Definitely cool.

---

[Ginrai]

Nu uh, Salamander has different power up mechanics and blah blah blah. It's not the same game.

Anyway, the end boss of Gradius is a brain. Gradius 2 has a head with no skin and an exposed brain. Gradius 3 has a big friggin' head with a giant partially exposed brain. Gradius Galaxies has a brain in a pot of soup. Gradius Gaiden has a swirly veiny marble thing. Gradius 5 has, uh, a brain... thing...

The Gradius formula! http://shootthecore.moonpod.com/Gradiusformula.html

So... where do I get the HK? I've never seen it in Chinatown and I don't see it on eBay.

[Liottel]

No No Ginrai

What I mean is, the Salamander OVA is sort of a combination of the storylines of Gradius and Salamander.

In one of the Salamander OVAs, one of the "end boss" things the main characters have to fight is the giant freaky head thing. In the first OVA the main boss is a giant angry dragon that lives in a magma pit - I believe that's from Salamander right?

I have the soundtrack to the OVA. The end themesong is pretty cool. Theres also fairly un-interesting orchestral remixes of some Gradius tunes in it - further proving that the OVA is indeed based on both Salamander and Gradius.

---Liottel.

[gerwalk25]

Someone built a Garland with Legos seen here.