Megazone 23 is awesome! And in Cantonese???

[ComicKaze]

So I was in one of those Asian DVD shops and checked out the $1 anime section and I find Megazone 23 there! The DVD also randomly and hilariously includes some Studio Ghilbi movie and Jin Roh as well but all I care about is Megazone 23. I've heard about this for so many years (since I was a kid from rumors of it being Robotech the Movie) and loved the Garland design but I had no idea what it was all about until last night. I mean, the story isn't that great, it's a good generic 80s mecha sci-fi set in a futuristic city but the animation...

Wow, the animation is out of this world, this is every damn thing I like about animation and what I really am sad you never see in anime these days, it's like another generation of artists completely. You never see shading and coloring and energy like this in modern animation anymore, even looking at it, I could tell it was ARTMIC which is one of my favorite studios - which actually comes from another childhood memory of watching the Captain Power Animated videotapes that came with the toys which are also by ARTMIC.

Anyway, the really funny part about this is that the audio on the DVD I bought randomly turned out to be cantonese! I've always enjoyed anime in cantonese moreso than japanese for some reason, I think it's because I'm just sick of hearing Japanese in anime, it's all starting to sound the same. Back in highschool a friend took a trip to asia and brought back a bunch of Initial D VCDs and they turned out to be cantonese as well so he didn't want them and gave them to me. I really wish it was easier to find anime in cantonese, the only other things I've seen are Doreamon and GTO in cantonese, though I'm certain there's an enourmous amount that has to be out there, just impossible to find. I'm going to have to buy the official ADV Megazone discs now and try to re-author them so I can get english, japanese, and cantonese language tracks all on one disc.

But yeah, if you haven't seen Megazone 23, go check it out, it was originally going to be a sequel series to Mospeada but was completely changed after they lost financial backing. Great 80s animation at it's best with little touches you just never see anymore (flashing lights, shining metal, hand-drawn computer graphics haha)... and personally, I think it'a superior anime to Akira since they share some common things.