The Matrix vs. Megazone 23
No work is ever created in a vacuum, and everything is constantly being influenced by everything else. Every time I watch Silence of the Lambs, I marvel at how blatantly the X-Files draws its core inspiration from the film, right down to the geeky Lone Gunman characters who help out on the case, and I'm sure the creator of CSI: Las Vegas got his idea for that series while watching Manhunter, the 1986 film that introduced Hannibal Lecter (the 2002 film Red Dragon is a remake of Manhunter). The world of Japanese animation is not immune from taking inspiration from other sources either, for example the many cues Fist of the North Star takes from The Road Warrior, or my pet theory that the "magical girl" genre of anime rose in response to the popularity of My Wife is a Witch, aka Bewitched, which was popular in Japan during that era. If you've seen the film The Matrix, you know how Hollywood has been influenced more than a little by the world of anime. While a lot of the inspiration for the movie obviously comes from Shirow Masamune's hard-hitting Ghost in the Shell sci-fi series, a larger part of the story is a tribute to Megazone 23 (pronounced "two-three"), one of the breakthrough anime concepts of the 80s. In the series, the population of Tokyo thinks its the end of the 20th Century, but in reality it's 500 years in the future and everyone is living inside a space ship. Many elements of the Megazone series are borrowed for the Matrix, including the hacker-as-semi-messianic main character idea.
MZ23 the first was one of the great Haruhiko Mikimoto creations. He could snare fans with any illustration on a record album, a model box, you name it...
Part II has radically altered designs, although I didn't dislike it as much as I used to. This was the best anime sex scene of its era, though, You know you're an old-school anime nerd when you can say honestly that a girl has broken up with you over differing opinions on Megazone 23 character designs.
Part III is a new generation, several hundred years into the future. A lot of the Hacker Neo stuff comes from this one.
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:19 PM
4 Comments:
Sorry to focus on sex so much. ^_^ Megazone was probably the first anime with an advanced enough story that it was perfect normal that the characters would have sex at some point. The first volume was, incidentally, the first OAV released, i.e. the first anime made to be sold on video to fans, and not broadcast. Which sounds cool, although it got that way because the original plan to make a longer series had to be scrapped due to the sponsor bailing on the project ^_^
Can anyone else name anime from the 80s or 70s that had sex in it? Cream Lemon doesn't count since that's its primary function. ^_^ I mean dramatic sex that advances the story in some new way.
10:47 PM
wow, peter! I gotta tell you: you are hard-core otaku (I mean that in a good way. I know the word over there has negative connatations.) The oldest title I have is kekko kamen, and that's more silly than sexy.
2:05 AM
Ah, Go Nagai was the best. Yes, it's fun that we can all be openly a little nerdy in this modern age, that you don't need to hide all vestiges of your Star War figure collection (I have at least 500) before inviting a girl over to your apartment, or whatever. Good times, good times.
9:41 AM
Glorious Blog! Love the store too! Will have to get something.. ^^
I am going to Japan in 2 weeks & posted some quotes of yours on my blog :D http://espcomics.com
1:52 AM
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