Gather round the campfire, folks. It’s time to tell a tale of delinquents and motorcycles… and some cyberpunk stuff.
On Friday, studio AIC announced that they will host a crowdfunding campaign for their upcoming Megazone 23 anime project. A campaign will open on Campfire, a Japanese crowdfunding platform, to fund a five-minute promotional video for Megazone 23 XI (“Megazone 23 Sai”).
The campaign aims to raise 10 million yen ($92,155.49 USD) by June 30. AIC estimates that the project will be completed by May 2018. The project’s crew hopes that the promo will help in getting a full TV anime project being greenlit.
As of press time, two team members were officially unveiled. Akio Watanabe (Monogatari series, Le Fruit de la Grisaia) will design leading lady Sakura, while Masahiko Omino (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders) will design the rest of the characters.
Megazone 23 XI will take place on a new space colony ship fleet Megazone 11. Each of the master ships in Megazone 11’s fleet were designed to replicate a different Earth city, Tokyo being the notable example. A smaller satellite ship also makes its home within the fleet, with its insides simulating a small Japanese city from roughly year 2020.
It’s in Megazone 11’s satellite ship that we meet Sakura. Sakura is a typical second-year middle school student, who leads a secret second life as a singer. She performs in a duo with an online friend, named Eve. Outside the safety of the satellite, a resistance movement explodes on a master ship. They seek to wrest independence from the fleet by gaining control of control system Tiamat. Sadly, Tiamat’s key was lost in a battle nearly eighty years prior.
All isn’t lost, though. Rumors of the key’s resurfacing have sent both the government and the resistance into a frenzy, as they search tirelessly for it.
Which leads us to the present.
Sakura made the jump from her happy, quiet city to the Tokyo ship so she could meet Eve. While there, a terrorist attack erupts at the train station. Sakura finds herself on the run, seeking safety, with Eve guiding her. Whether it’s by fate or by plan, Sakura finds herself in the presence of the a transforming motorcycle mecha called the Garland XI.
Before you ask, yes, Eve tells Sakura to pilot.
Other confirmed characters include:
- Ange Noir Idol Group: King, Rook, Knight, Queen, and Bishop – five special forces members who moonlight as special forces agents.
- BD (“Brad”): A resistance fighter who warns the world of impending doom.
- Karukaya: A robot, given to Sakura by Eve. Karukaya can be used to access Tiamat, which controls the Megazone 11 fleet.
- Marigold: A member of music group Miifu, and a fifth-graderr.
- Momiji: A member of the music group Miifu, and a second-year high school student.
- Nazuna: A member of the resistance. She’s a first year college student, who also works as leader of music group Miifu.
- Shawa: A time traveler from the year 2850. She’s a key to the plot, and a new incarnation of Eve.
Megazone 23 XI was first revealed in February through a series of posters platered across Akihabara. The project is the third special “Anime Reboot Project”, which is being produced to celebrate AIC’s 35th anniversary.
Megazone 23 is a four-episode OVA series, which first hit Japanese retailers in March 1985. The title saw four directors across the project: Noboru Ishiguro (The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Space Battleship Yamato), Ichiro Itano (Gantz, Angel Cop), Kenichi Yatagai (Bubblegum Crisis, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki), and Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Madox-01).
Megazone 23 is the first financially successful OVA to be released in Japan (and the 13th overall).
Source: Anime News Network
