Megazone 23

***Megazone 23*** (メガゾーン23 *Megazōn Tsū Surī*) is a three-part original video animation created by AIC and written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama. The series debuted in 1985.

## Megazone 23

###  Year

1985

***Megazone 23 - Part I*** (メガゾーン23 *Megazōn Tsū Surī*) is the first part of the *Megazone 23* series, and was directed by Noboru Ishiguro. It was originally released in Japan on March 9, 1985.

### Dubbing History

#### *Robotech: The Movie*

The film was first adapted as *Robotech: The Movie* by Carl Macek and Harmony Gold after Macek failed to negotiate the rights to adapt *Macross: Do You Remember Love?* as the subject for the film. The storyline of *Megazone 23* was altered as a sidestory to the second season of *Robotech*, splicing footage from its source anime *Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross*. Macek's choice of *Megazone 23* mostly stemmed from it sharing similar character designs as *Macross*, due to them sharing character designers.

According to interviews with Macek, the project had originally been intended to be more of a straight dub of *Megazone 23* with dialogue and music changes to reflect the *Robotech* universe. As originally conceived, it would have been set during the events of the First Robotech War (while the SDF-1 was in the process of flying back to Earth from Pluto) with the protagonist Mark Landry, a relative of Rick Hunter, finding out about the government's coverup of the SDF-1's fate, and Landry fighting to make the information known.

However, distributor Cannon Films felt there were "too many girls and not enough robots and guns," and did not like *Megazone*'s downer ending, either. Thus, Macek rewrote the story to take place shortly before the Second Robotech War, cut segments of *Southern Cross* footage into it, and commissioned animation studio The Idol Company to animate a new ending (which was later included on the laserdisc of *Megazone 23, Part II*). The new version involved the Robotech Masters kidnapping and replicating veteran officer B.D. Andrews to steal the memory core of the SDF-1. This new version of the film, however, left some glaring inconsistencies with the original series. In addition, this new story required bits of the Southern Cross series to be spliced in to the original *Megazone 23* material. *Megazone 23* was filmed on 35mm film while *Southern Cross* was on 16mm ... the visual inconsistency was very noticeable on the big screen.

The movie disappeared from the United States after a failed test-run in Texas that lasted only a few weeks. One cause for its poor performance was believed to be because Cannon saw *Robotech: the Movie* as a "kids' film". And when the demographics came back about a month after the test run, they saw that most of the audience was adults. This posed a problem, as Cannon had purchased advertising time only during child oriented programming. It was at this time that Cannon decided to pull the film until it could be properly retooled yet again. Unfortunately, before any further work could be done on the film, the bottom dropped out of Cannon Films and *Robotech: the Movie* only saw wide release in foreign (non-American) markets.

#### Streamline / ADV Dubs

Later, Carl Macek would return to *Megazone 23* under Streamline Pictures, giving the film a straight dub. The Streamline dub featured many of the same voice actors utilized in *Robotech: The Movie* and the International dub of *Part II*. Only 3 voice actors retained the same roles from *Robotech: the Movie* (Edie Mirman as Tomomi, Gregory Snegoff as B.D. and Daniel Woren as Shinji) and 2 from *Part II* (Barbara Goodson as Yui and Michael Forest as Eigen).

Streamline's dub of *Part I* was released on VHS on July 25, 1995. Macek and Streamline intended on doing Parts 2 and 3 as well, but Orion Pictures' corporate problems resulted in all Streamline releases being halted. There's a rumor that a Streamline dub for Part 2 was produced and screened at a convention, but this has yet to be proven.

Like many items in Streamline's catalogue, the *Megazone* series was picked up by ADV Films, which dubbed the entire trilogy to completion with a consistent cast. *Part I* was released on DVD on June 1, 2004. The series has since gone out of print with ADV's collapse in 2009.

### Cast

#### Additional Voices

**Robotech: The Movie**

* Etienne Bannuett
* Bill Capizzi
* Frank Catalano
* Ardwight Chamberlain
* Cam Clarke
* Tony Clay
* Richard Epcar
* Greg Finley
* Milton James
* Steve Kramer
* Doug Lee
* Kerrigan Mahan
* Dave Mallow
* Edward Mannix
* Michael McConnohie
* Mike Reynolds
* John J. Smith
* Gregory Snegoff
* Barry Stigler
* Clifton Wells
* Bruce Winant
* Tom Wyner

**Streamline Dub**

* Richard Cansino
* Russel Case
* Michael Forest
* Rebecca Forstadt
* Eleni Kelakos
* Jason Klassi
* Steve Kramer
* Joyce Kurtz
* Carl Macek
* Julie Maddalena
* Tricia O'Neil
* David Povall
* Simon Prescott
* Gregory Snegoff
* Michael Sorich
* Doug Stone
* David Traylor
* Jeff Winkless
* Tom Wyner

**ADV Dub**

* Robert Anderson
* Greg Ayres
* Bob Biggerstaff
* Victor Carsrud
* Kevin Charles
* Matt Culpepper
* Jason Douglas
* James Faulkner
* Tiffany Grant
* Matt Greenfield
* Mike Kleinhenz
* Stuart Krohn
* Paul Locklear
* Dan Mackey
* Mike MacRae
* Kelly Manison
* George Manley
* Rob Mungle
* Sean O’Neel
* Paul Sidello
* Dean Turner
* Mike Vance

### Notes

* The characters name changes in *Robotech: The Movie* were as follows
	+ Shogo Yahagi - Mark Landry
	+ Yui Takanaka - Becky Michaels
	+ Mai Yumekano - Stacy Embry
	+ Tomomi Murashita - Kelly Stevens
	+ Shinji Nakagawa - Todd Harris
	+ B.D. - B.D. Andrews
	+ Eigen Yumekanou - Professor Daryl Embrey
	+ CoCo - Pop
* In the *Robotech: The Movie* dub, B.D. with sunglasses and without sunglasses are treated as two different characters.

### Video Releases

***Robotech: The Movie***

***Megazone 23 Part I***

 ADV Films | 2004
 2007\*

\*Complete Collection

### External Links

* *Megazone 23* (anime) at the Anime News Network
* *Megazone 23* at the Internet Movie Database

## Megazone 23

###  Year

1986

***Megazone 23 - Part II*** (メガゾーン23 PART II *Megazōn Tsū Surī*) is the second part of the *Megazone 23* series, and was directed by Ichiro Itano. It was originally released in Japan on May 30, 1986.

### Dubbing History

An English dub of *Part II* was provided by Harmony Gold in 1987 for International markets as a "teaching tool" to assist Japanese speakers learn English, and was included with the Japanese laserdisc release. It was directed by Tom Wyner and utilized some of the same cast members used for the *Robotech: The Movie* dub of *Part I* (Kerrigan Mahan as Shogo and Diane Michelle as Eve). Certain casting choices would later be retained for Streamline's dub of *Part I* (Barbara Goodson as Yui and Michael Forest as Eigen). This dub was edited so scenes of graphic violence and sex were cut out, and the opening scene splices in footage from the "retooled" ending of *Robotech: The Movie* as well.

*Part II* was later picked up and redubbed by ADV Films, using their same cast from *Part I* and was first released on DVD on July 13, 2004.

### Cast

#### Additional Voices

**International Dub**

* Arlene Banas
* Bill Capizzi
* Christopher Carroll
* Richard Epcar
* Eddie Frierson
* Ben Gibson
* Milton James
* Steve Kramer
* Ted Lehmann
* Susie London
* Kerrigan Mahan
* Jeff Winkless
* Tom Wyner

**ADV Dub**

* Robert Anderson
* Greg Ayres
* Christopher Ayres
* Bob Biggerstaff
* David Born
* Victor Carsrud
* Kevin Charles
* Mandy Clark
* James Faulkner
* Joe Grisaffi
* Tad Hathaway
* Jovan Jackson
* Mike Kleinhenz
* Natalie Lane
* Mark X. Laskowski
* Paul Locklear
* Mike MacRae
* Kelly Manison
* Rob Mungle
* Andy Nelson
* Nancy Novotny
* Sean O'Neel
* Chris Patton
* Ted Pfister
* Kim Prause
* Phil Ross
* Brooke Sinclair
* Romi Snyder
* John Swasey
* Gene Tognacci

### Notes

* The characters name changes in the International Dub were as follows
	+ Shogo Yahagi - Johnny Winters
	+ Yui Takanaka - Sue
	+ Lieutenant Shiratori - Lieutenant Richard Armstrong
	+ Eigen Yumekano - Richland
* Yui's rename in the International dub creates a continuity error, as the name that appears on her bike helmet remains unchanged.

### External Links

* *Megazone 23 Part II* (anime) at the Anime News Network
* *Megazone 23 Part II* at the Internet Movie Database

## Megazone 23 - Part III

###  Year

1989

***Megazone 23 - Part III*** (メガゾーン23 PART III *Megazōn Tsū Surī*) is the third part of the *Megazone 23* series, and was directed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenichi Yatagai. It was originally released in Japan from September 28, 1989 to December 22, 1989.

Rather than being a movie OVA like the other two parts, it was released as a two-episode installment.

### Dubbing History

The film was first dubbed by Manga Entertainment and released in the United Kingdom on VHS on June 5, 1995. As *Part I* and *II* were never released in the UK, *Part III* was retitled just to *Megazone 23*. It would later air on the British Sci-Fi Channel.

*Part III* was later picked up and redubbed by ADV Films and first released to DVD on August 24, 2004.

### Cast

#### Additional Voices

**Manga UK Dub**

* Julia Brahms
* Robert Glenister
* Annemarie Lawless
* Laurel Lefkow
* Alan Marriott
* Adam Matalon
* Stuart Milligan
* William Roberts
* Peter Woodward

**ADV Dub**

* Robert Anderson
* Kevin Brown
* Victor Carsrud
* Dwight Clark
* Kevin Corn
* John Dukes Dunivin
* James Faulkner
* Tiffany Grant
* Matt Greenfield
* Mike MacRae
* George Manley
* Michelle Maulsby
* Maureen McCullough
* Nancy Novotny
* Brooke Sinclair
* Gene Tognacci
* Anita Vasquez
* Scott White

### External Links

* *Megazone 23 Part III* (anime) at the Anime News Network
* *Megazone 23 Part III* at the Internet Movie Database

## See Also

* Super Dimension Fortress Macross
* Robotech