Megazone 23 is a 3-part OVA (each episode being over an hour) made in 1985-89. I’ve seen it included in cyberpunk anime lists as being a classic 80s cyberpunk, along with Cyber City Oedo 808. But I don’t see it. I guess it’s somewhat cyberpunk, but nothing compared to Cyber City Oedo 808.

It starts out with some punk kid living in 1980s Tokyo. He gets his hands on a weird motorcycle that the government wants back for some reason. And then he learns the motorcycle can transform into a mech suit. So this is very clearly a mecha anime. By the end of the first episode, the kid learns that what he thought was 1980s Tokyo is actually a space station, called Megazone 23. So that’s neat. Still not entirely cyberpunk in my opinion.

In episode 2, the punk kid is trying to spend more time with his biker gang but gets drawn into the escalating war with a neighboring space station. So more mecha battles. Oh, and there is an AI which runs this space station and talks to the main character occasionally. So there’s a punk with a mech suit, is that enough to be cyberpunk? There’s an AI that runs the city, now is it cyberpunk? I’m not sure. It’s very clearly an 80s mecha anime but I’m not sure how cyberpunk I’d consider it.

Then there’s episode 3, which takes place 500 years after episodes 1 and 2. Now the main character is a hacker who spends a lot of time in cyberspace. Now things are getting cyberpunk. And I can’t find this episode streaming anywhere!

You can watch an english dub of Part 1 and Part 2 on Amazon Prime. Or you can watch subtitled versions of Part 1 and Part 2 on youtube. But I can’t find Part 3 streaming anywhere!

Also, a random fact I learned from the wiki page: Robotech: The Movie was made in 1986 by splicing footage from Part 1 of Megazone 23 with the anime series Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. That’s how much more “mecha” this is than “cyberpunk”.

I should clarify I’m not calling this anime “bad”, I’m simply judging it by how “cyberpunk” it is. If you like 80s scifi anime, this is a great example. But as cyberpunk? I’m not sure.

  • HammerjackOPMEnglish
    2•1 month ago

    According to the wikipedia page:

    Megazone 23 was conceived as a 12-episode television series set to air on Fuji TV, but it was changed to a direct-to-video project after the sponsors withdrew their support mid-production. According to Noboru Ishiguro, the end result was a “compilation movie” of already produced episodes.

    That might explain why so many plot threads are randomly dropped and ignored.