Megazone 23 is a story created by Noboru Ishiguro that follows the premise that the entire world is actually part of a government conspiracy to manipulate reality.
Our story begins in Tokyo during the 1980's where a young man named Shogo Yahagi while joyriding on his bike tries to evade a bike patrol officer and almost runs into a young girl named Yui Takanaka.
After some playful banter Shogo convinces the young girl to give her a ride to work and a budding romance begins.
Shogo
Yui
As Yui goes about her day we see Shogo out having a good time amongst his friends, establishing a carefree lifestyle, with just a hint of youth rebellion.
The scene is a typical look at Tokyo during the 1980's establishing the economic boom and influence that Japan had experiened during that time period.
When strolling about town we are introduced to Eve Tokimasuri, a popular idol singer with a reclusive personality, who later becomes essential to the plot.
(This is a bit of an awkward introduction to the character... maybe I'll polish this up with something later before the article goes to print... or not...)
Eve
Later in the evening, our protagonist has a meeting with his friend Shinji, who shows him an experimental prototype motorcycle of unknown design.
Shinji
When Shogo asks about the vehicle Shinji replies that he "borrowed it" from his company. Apparently he was chosen to be it's test driver and he has reservations about being the program it was designed for.
Da-da-dum!!!
B.D.
As he explains his situation several armed men appear and ask Shinji to come with them.
The two create a distraction, and Shogo escapes with the mystery bike, unfortunately Shinji loses his life in the process.
From this point he is dragged into a conspiracy as he is pursued by government forces led by military leader BD, and he learns more and faces the facts that challenges the reality of the world around him.
Shogo realises that the Garland prototype is a transformable mecha and that Bahamuto is a super computer that runs the program, Eve.
He learns that his world is a giant space ship harbouring refugees from the planet Earth and that society is controlled into believing that they are living in the 1980's.
Hey! She's talkin' bout the bike!!!
Megazone is important in anime history for being the one of the features that introduced the OVA (Original Video Animation).Not the first mind you, that honour goes to Moon Station Dallos, but it was the first best selling production for it's time.
Character designers Toshino Hirano and Haruhiko Mikimoto brought their talents to the sci fi production.
Check out this extensive and excellent video by Mercury Falcon.
