A definitive re-write

Is there really much else that can be said about M.D. Geist? It's an inglorious title of the direct-to-video animation market of 1980s Japan that has been regularly dug back up to play havoc on the anime community much like the titular character himself; he is less so on life support as he is a poltergeist, causing anime fans everywhere to groan with the racket he makes while a minority loyally support him. He's more than likely to keep coming back; in a way, if you love anime, you will hate M.D. Geist. If you hate anime, you may hate M.D. Geist, or you may love it! Though to be frank, generalisations are of poor taste. Japan's home video market for animation (Original Video Animation, OVAs) carries slightly more positive connotations than "direct-to-video" ever will in the west; the restrictions of TV serial anime were not to be found in the OVA market, which opened up far more doors for various creative forces, giving anyone the chance to do what they wanted without fear of censorship and with a strong target audience willing to buy, buy, buy. There was a bit less focus on the long-term money-making possibilties of a product and more of a focus on the overall creation process. OVAs allowed everyone on the production side to make a bit more money, even if the overall output in the long run was not entirely good. Regardless, pop stars and voice actors would keep themselves circulatory, while designers of any sort would give themselves more curriculum vitae ammunition.

M.D. Geist itself is a 40-minute outing by then-rookie Koichi Ohata, a mechanical designer first and a storyteller second, concerning the reawakening of a super-soldier on the war-torn planet Jerra. The proceeding events in Geist's misadventures on a planet much unlike the earth in Fist of the North Star feature commonplace mistreatings of the English language (frankly standard for anime) and acts of violence against the entire human form. The 'story' that was ultimately decided upon for the feature is really a springboard for Ohata to show off his drawings, animation is ropey throughout and fragmentary plot-expanding dialogue is ultimately bombastic and adds to the incoherence. Ohata, a man whose voice is unfortunately not often heard on the topic of his creations, said in the commentary of the thankfully fruitful US DVD that the original version of M.D. Geist is pretty damn poor, but hey, he was young and at the end of the day him and writer Riku Sanjo are still in the business, Hironobu Kageyama launched his singing career through appearing on the soundtrack to M.D. Geist and Norio Wakamoto walked away with a bit more money in his back pocket from voicing a character with not many lines. M.D. Geist's poor qualities stem from Ohata's youthful arrogance back then; his relatively low-budgeted animation team were often at odds with him over his mercilessly complex designs, which he refused to tone down because this project was his baby.

Geist is a product of a time long gone by in Japanese animation, and this is one reason why his popularity persists; if anything, Ohata created Geist to be antithetical, and antithetical he was. Appearing on a different end of the anime format spectrum for one, Geist was a protagonist designed to go against the grain of teenage heroes in shows coming out in the success of Mobile Suit Gundam, he was designed as being someone who took total glee in battle and the whole production has a somewhat nihilistic touch in that nothing nice EVER happens. However, we follow from Geist's side with his theme songs and background guitar solos highlighting his destruction. With this in mind, the overall unpolished quality of the production can be factored in as well. Being a representation of all of the above, the character and the title are now only more of an antithesis in today's anime industry, in which new fans have sprung up to defend Geist as someone and something fairly atypical of anime. Granted, there are still many naysayers, in which case, how has M.D. Geist's widely-known negative reception come to be? Aside from everything about it pissing off the highest elite of anime snobs from the 1990s, CPM's saturated promotion of the title is essentially what did people in. President John O'Donnell became infatuated with the title and it led to him licensing the character as his company's mascot for their U.S. Manga Corps division, meaning that every tape, Laserdisc and DVD under them greeted their viewers with a stiffly-animated CGI Geist The constant ballyhooing certainly garnered the title its interest as something new and exciting, but as time went on the propaganda became tedious, with great emphasis placed on how Geist was somehow a particularly artistic and deadly serious title, in reality it was a cartoon about a lot of people dying because the director thought his country had too many fictional lead heroes.

Without John O'Donnell though, the title would just be a relic dug up only by animation enthusiasts and regarded with a "hey, look at this" attitude. O'Donnell's love may have been for better or for worse, but through his actions he was able to publish a prequel comic to the original OVA and even gathered the money to fund a director's cut of the original and a sequel. The funds were raised from a customised Harley Davidson being bought off Marvel in their promotion of their Ghost Rider franchise and being used in motor shows to promote M.D. Geist and CPM; with "Geist" meaning 'ghost' in German, it was an amusing tactic. The director's cut touches up on several animation errors seen in the original (while rather frustratingly, inserting diabolical digital zooms that blur the image), adds several new short sequences and features an entirely new audio track. This cut doesn't so much add to the story (it slightly expands the opening sequence primarily, and in a flashback of stills draws a parallel to the prior prequel comic) as it does increase the gore quota. The sequel on the other hand, being made ten years after the original for one, is seemingly made with an entirely different mindset and focuses less on Geist, offering a fairly more serious and sombre story (that works to an extent), its biggest flaw however is that the animation in it is intensely limited. Regardless, despite what CPM had launched Geist into, their (or at least O'Donnell's) efforts have to be thanked for boosting the title's longevity.

Perhaps Geist is just unfortunate for being stuck in the harshly critical anime community, never entirely getting the dues he deserves. While the overall title is something very flawed it's not something I would regard with venom because of its bad qualities, nor would I really call it so "so bad it's good". However way you watch it though, all three animated incarnations of the character are entertaining, or at the very least feature some fantastic artwork and have incredibly good soundtracks, something which is oddly overlooked in many reviews of this anime. This writer would also like to stress that viewers perhaps try watching the director's cut and the sequel in the Japanese audio if possible; both of these audio tracks feature incredibly good VA work that has been sadly overlooked in favour of the 'entertaining' (to me, it's unbearably atrocious) English dub. Yeah, it makes it so bad it's good bla bla but the original production should be entertaining enough, so try enjoying it with the Japanese audio track. Ohata has been lucky getting the recognition he has gotten as a mechanical designer who began his career by working on some fairly unknown shows, and it's a damn shame he no longer seems to release things fully overseen by him. His fanbase is small, but dedicated; the fact that Ohata himself has seen a customised Revoltech figure of Geist is testament to this.

On that note, I have to come own the original title's soundtrack on vinyl, have framed the poster that came with it, I also own the OVA in book form, the Japanese complete works book, the UK and US DVDs, the sequel's soundtrack on CD, an autographed copy of the US graphic novel and the jewel in the obsessive crown would be two sketches of Geist himself signed by Ohata, with one of them sent to me by him. Writing my umpteenth take on the production is only further indication of my infatuation with this anomaly of an anime. If I had the option to fund Ohata for a full-fledged reboot of M.D. Geist though with the right money, you can beat your intestines I would.

Some trivia about M.D. Geist...
Those guys have names!
Believe it or not, the bikers have names. Aside from Mash, there is Golem, who Geist promptly kills, Gista who promptly dies on his motorcycle, and Beast, who possibly dies after hurtling off his bike when Geist jumps aboard a mech (he returns momentarily in the Director's Cut). Their names are all in the credits, but only Golem is referred to by name in the US comic, the rest are only named in production materials.

She also has a name!
And it's not "Vaiya", it's "Paiya". It's seems that for all this time, CPM mistakenly used the name Vaiya without correcting it. To be fair though, it's an easy mistake to make; the katakana characters for ba (what can be interchanged as 'va') and pa look similar but are not identical. A simple oversight is all, it's just that it persisted for so long.

At the same time, she doesn't have a name...
Just like the bikers, Paiya is never actually referred to by name in the original Japanese audio. If you listen closely, she is referred to as "nesan", which means "big sister". CPM tried to do the good thing by helping create familiarity by inserting her name anyway, but the truth is the only way you would be able to tell she was called Paiya is through the credits! On a similar note...

All the names of the 'big players' are from the horror genre
Geist is from poltergeist, Paiya is from vampire, Golem is from (what else?) golem, Crutes is the Japanese pronunication of the Spanish word cruz, which means cross, as in holy cross. The associations are obvious, but only Geist and Crutes actually have meaning, Paiya and Golem are mostly named that way for aesthetic value.

That also has a name
The robot Geist fights at the end is called the Final Striker, and manages to be referenced that in the concept art book and in the sequel. Interestingly, the CPM comic calls it the "Final Terminator".

Confusing credits
Ohata was never initially billed as the director M.D. Geist in 1986, that billing went to Hayato Ikeda, someone who seemed to help out with some of the production. His name was used as it was feared a first-time director (who was really a mechanical designer) would look bad. Hayato Ikedia makes a cameo in M.D. Geist, he is the President Ryan character, who is dead.


Further reading...

• Defending the Indefensible: In Defense of the Previously Undefended M.D. Geist
• The Truth About M.D. Geist

-James

M.D. Geist II

The M.D. Geist Overview article, which launched this site, was effectively a work-in-progress as it was one of the first things written here, I didn’t really entirely imagine how things for this would run. While I think it’s still a valid article, I felt some things in it could have been evaluated upon, such as the actual core OVAs; I have already written about the 1986 original, so I think it’s time go in depth about the sequel that technically shouldn’t exist, Death Force. As we all know, the original title was achingly characteristic of the 80s OVA scene, from Geist’s mullet to the amazing soundtrack, it was cheesy, a bit poorly made but fun with a few genuine hints of awesomeness, and was well-liked when shown to the right people. As a massive M.D. Geist fan though, I will say the title’s status as a genuinely good classic was forcibly raised and held high for many years, which is what earned it so much animosity from others. CPM head John O’Donnel’s love for the title got him a Redux of the anime, in which it went from being laughable and awesome due to age, to being halfway between something you could take seriously and something you could laugh at (if you were watching the dubbed version, then all chance you had of taking it seriously was gone from the outset). This director’s cut did away with the gloriously exaggerated 80s sound effects that were like an additional layer of the OVA’s incredible soundtrack and replaced them with more hard-hitting realistic ones, beneficial no doubt, and made the story just a bit more cohesive. Personally, all I would have wanted was the 1986 version without the animation errors.

If a sequel for M.D. Geist did not come out in the 80s, what chance did it have of coming out in the 90s? A sequel to an OVA that ends with a man effectively dooming all living things on the planet he’s on sounds haphazard at best, it’s something you can’t really do. Regardless, ten years on, a sequel was produced to John O’Donnel’s undoubted happiness with a perfectly concocted plot that could be tied easily to the original; the only thing was the massive gap between both OVAs, in which many things had changed since then. M.D. Geist’s strength was in the fact it was a ludicrous 80s title, and none of those elements really carry over; there’s no mullets, no Mad Max-inspired biker gangs, and no lambently good guitar work. What is in Death Force, is an attempt to create something serious, that is restricted by budgetary constraints, a limited runtime woefully typical of OVAs, as well as perhaps even a shaky history, and to lengthen this list out, one of the worst dubbing jobs ever.

Death Force is not so much about Geist this time, who is living in his own world wiping up the same Death Force robots he released on the soil of Jerra, as it is about Krauser, another super soldier of the same category as Geist. Instead of being a mindless killer, he has a god complex, and is shown ferrying survivors to his mobile fortress while giving faux-religious speeches of the “steel demons” outside. Like any religious fanatic, he’s a bit ignorant about certain things, for him it’s Geist, who he refuses to believe is out of his satellite prison, and trouble stirs when Geist gets involved. Krauser and Geist’s creator, Dr. Breston, is essentially Dr. Frankenstein, with his two creations being the polar opposites of each other and their existence ultimately lead to his and their own destructions. Other characters include Eagle, a cyborg created by Breston who functions as his Igor, Vaiya is also around, but doesn’t do much of anything, other than suffer from a repressed fear of Geist and share a small romance with Krauser (in one scene she’s naked while he’s shown buttoning up his uniform).

There is a scope to this sequel that is never touched upon, so the plot never really makes any advances, even the original at least went forward and onward, this one just seems to sit around until something happens. There is a great chance for Krauser to give his people the god delusion, but it only really happens in the background, we never see into his regime or the propaganda he could feed the people of a world that is ready to give up. Such a decision would have given Geist more purpose in this, rather than have him be an aimless villain, as if he takes on someone who is controlling his subjects and dividing them between believers and non-believers, then he would have technically been something of a hero come the end of the feature (after all the blood spatter). At worst, expository dialogue appears at every turn and Geist’s signature armour (the one thing that really connects this to the original) seemingly comes out of nowhere at the end, but I guess Eagle built it in preparation for him. The ending is also a confusing mess, in which I can only guess it’s meant to be Krauser faltering between reality and his own delusions about whether he’s winning or not.    

Adding to this OVA’s serious approach is its soundtrack, which is a major departure from the outrageously cheesy (yet fantastic) soundtrack of the original, and has gone for something a bit less contemporary and a bit more evocative. It’s an excellent soundtrack and fits the OVA well, but falls on its face just a bit because of the title’s sloppy execution. Animation often takes a backseat to money-saving still shots and pans that really hurt the overall production, it doesn’t entirely make the thing feel static, but it does make it feel very slow and stiff. It’s far from being the worst animated product to come out of Japan (especially for standard domestic anime) and it’s saved just about by the pleasing artwork; commendable background details abound, along with decent character designs and excellent mechanical designs (as to be expected of Ohata). Visually, it’s a hell of a lot better than the first Power DoLLS OVA, but could really do with looking like the sequel. Besides, it could be a lot worse...

For all its faults, the OVA is watchable when watched in Japanese, solely because the English dub is painfully unbearable; terrible voice actors read from a disjointedly translated script that makes for an awkward listening experience, it’s not even funny to hear as well, everything about the dub brings the title’s average state down to an even bigger level of mediocrity. At best, there’s a decent amount of creative gore to be had, with squishy parts getting chopped up beneath machinery, but that’s all really. Death Force tends to have even less fans than the original M.D. Geist and is a good reason why the character as a whole is so loathed, but if you’re like me, you just have to enjoy the fact the naysayers of Geist got a second helping upon the world. For something that was never really supposed to get a sequel, the concept is good enough to work; it’s just that it’s held down by other problems. There’s plenty of other average-ranking anime I’d watch this over, people who will enjoy this know who they are.

Just make sure to watch it subtitled.

• Animation: 2.5/5
• Music: 4/5
• Infamy: 5/5  

-James, 19 March 2010 (original date)

Review source: US DVD

Screenshot source: US DVD

Title information

• Production company: Zero-G Room
• Year of release: 1996

Alternative titles:

• 装鬼兵MDガイスト2 デスフォース, "Sokihei M.D. Gaisuto 2 desufousu" <Soldier-garbed demon/Demon in soldier's skin: M.D. Geist 2 Death Force> (Japan)

Makyou Gaiden Le Deus

As we've seen through such titles as Baoh, M.D. Geist, The Humanoid and others, the Original Video Animation was a sub genre of anime that usually worked to promote a manga or to act as a vehicle for artists and vocalists alike, very often they were no more than one-offs that had enough budget to make for a decently-animated 40 minutes or more, which typically jeopardized story in many cases. OVAs were a bit like mini-movies in that regard, and were much more digestible than full-fledged anime series, they were good for the video crowd. Cybernetics Guardian left me wanting more, while The Humanoid simply embellished the fact some OVAs could have done with being much longer, let's see which of these the 1987 release Makyou Gaiden Le Deus/魔境外伝レ・ディウス falls into.

Opening to an abstract depiction of water ripples and a neon outline of a tree, we learn that we're looking into the Eye of Zalem, an ancient lens that has fallen into the hands of treasure hunter Riot and his two twin female companions, Spica and Seneca. This lens is needed for a treasure called Rido, that lies in Zalem, however, there's another Eye of Zalem, that someone in Zigoa is holding on to. Cue what must be the most simplistic title sequence ever, which is nothing but the Eye of Zalem spinning on its axis, at least the shading on it is utterly gorgeous, and it's set to a catchy song. Riot meets his target, a girl called Yuta la Caradeen, the granddaughter of a man called Randall, who he got the first Eye from. However, they are hounded by a group of demons known as the Demsters, who previously murdered Randall, and are the foot soldiers of Kaiser, a heavyset brute who wants to use the powers of the Rido treasure for evil (obviously). During a break at the beach, Riot tells Yuta that Rido is the treasure left behind by the Quall civilization, and it has the power to rejuvenate life. Riot is only searching for it so it doesn't fall into the hands of Kaiser and his Demsters, plus, he wants to use its powers to bring his sister out of suspended animation.

The next morning though as they arrive at the ruins of Zalem, they are ambushed by the Demsters and their giant robots, who successfully kidnap Yuta and steal the two Eyes of Zalem. With Yuta in the grasp of Kaiser, Riot makes it his mission to rescue her and to stop Kaiser from abusing the power of Rido as he gains access to it. However, he's too late, and Kaiser's damage is too much to be undone as the underground realm of the Zalem collapses in on itself, Spica and Seneca call for Riot's giant robot, Le Deus, to combat the last of the Demsters in their own giant robots.

Directed by Hiroshi Negishi (the same animation director who worked on Roots Search of all things) and penned by Hideki Sonoda, Le Deus is a decent little piece that is very characteristic of late 80s Japanese fantasy, but with a myriad of problems. Like with many OVAs, Le Deus suffers from a case of having too much in too little time; the world the title takes place in feels more deserving of a bigger exploration and the sci-fi elements feel tacked on to give this thing more advertising power, as the giant robots have only been added in to give this thing some fanservice for the mech crowd, the titular Le Deus robot not appearing until the final ten minutes, making it feel very useless. Additionally, this same robot appears to be docked inside of some kind of giant alien whale, without so much as a few words on why. Worst of all though is how the subplot with Riot's sister is completely painted over after it's mentioned, and Kaiser's unknown boss essentially has no reason for appearing at all. I'm all up for Riot's magical bandage though, which he can even turn into a sword. Characters themselves are derivative with Riot being the fiery and cocky young adventurer and Kaiser being bad for the sake of being bad (at least he's not Governor Proud of The Humanoid, who took the archetype to stupefying levels of badness), but that's not to say they're unlikable, though much like the sci-fi element, the Demsters are near-pointless additions, with the three most important ones not even being named.

Voice acting is all well and good with the casting containing among its ranks Norio Wakamoto as Kaiser because he was in just about EVERYTHING in the 80s, and Kazuki Yao as Riot who has quite a list to his name, as does Yuko Mizutani as Yuta (she was the Japanese dub voice for Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Like with just about every OVA, Le Deus feels more like a pilot that is a giant compressing of every idea that was meant to go into a longer series, it's not bad at all and it's frankly nice to watch with its brightly-coloured, decent artwork and animation, music is not outstanding but it does contain three good J-Pop songs. It has to be said though the cover is a bit of a lie, showing a naked Yuta, when there's no real in-your-face nudity at all. It should be noted that this title was only released in the UK in 1995 and was called "Ladius", same thing phonetically really. Recommended for lovers of 80s anime, there's far worse that's been done with OVAs.   

• Animation: 3/5   
• Artwork: 4/5
• 80s shading: 5/5

-James, 04 March 2010 (original date)

Review source: Japanese Laserdisc

Screenshot source: Japanese Laserdisc

Power DoLLS

Power DoLLS: Detachment of Limited Line Service (パワードール) is a Japan-only series of turn-based tactics videogames released for PCs, the last sequel was released in 2004 while the first game came out in 1994, given how it's already enjoyed ten years of sequels, it can be assumed that the series is now dead. As with lots of videogames in the 90s, there were anime spin-offs made to promote them in the form of OVAs, usually the best of these OVAs were only just good, while the rest were typically bad. As I've never played a Power DoLLS game in my life, I can't really judge this two-episode OVA in similar contexts as I would with its games, as I have no familiarity with the characters, story or representation. With that out the way, let's see if there's anything good we can say about this.

As our text prologue states, in 2535 AD the Earth Government has been declared war upon by the colony world Omni because of their oppressive immigration regime. Omni converted their Power Loader work labour machines into combat units for use in the war, these adapted weapons would be picked up in 2540 AD by the elite all-female task force, DoLLS (in case you didn't notice earlier, it stands for "Detachment of Limited Line Service). This 27-minute episode primarily follows one of the DoLLS, Commander Yao Pei Lui, who rescues two kids from enemy territory because of her bleeding heart ways, despite the by-the-book ideals of her ally Phan. While this OVA by no means reaches any deep cinematic level, it pays a fair bit of attention to the opposite attitudes of these two characters, and we learn that Yao's empathy for the war orphans stems from how she grew up in an orphanage herself before going straight into the military.

After being behind enemy lines, Yao and the DoLLS are given their next mission; the recapture of Bukaju City from Earth Forces, which are using it to manufacture weapons. However, Phan's tactic does not involve going near the city, instead her plan is to explode a nearby dam to cut off all power to the city. However, in the path of the dam and its river is the evacuated Chateau Village, where Yao grew up. The DoLLS are ordered to launch their operation at midnight and drop into an enemy area to clean up and secure the dam, before going into the hot zone, Yao recalls back to how her father died in the construction of the dam after promising it'd keep them both safe. Phan teases her over how her kindess is likely to get her killed in combat, what a nice friend.

As they touch down in a small town, Yao's Power Loader crashes and loses mobility, but insists they continue the operation while she makes a break for it, leaving a present for the encroaching enemy forces. As the rest of the DoLLS go to detonate the dam, Yao finds her old to reminisce on the good times. Thinking she's an awful daughter, Yao decides to stay in the cabin to let the flood from the dam take her away. Her commander however, saw this mission as a good opportunity for Yao to put her personal problems aside, and knows where she is, instead of being at the rendezvous point. Just as the dam explodes, the DoLLS pick Yao up from her father's cabin and head back home.

This first episode actually isn't too bad, for what its worth with its short run time and limited cast, it squeezes in some decent characterization; Phan is not as cold as she first comes off and shows some real concern and warmth to Yao, and the commander (Captain Hardy) isn't a bad character herself. We don't see much of the other characters, they were probably just stuck in to please fans of the games with cameos essentially, but Yao is a decent focus character. However, the artwork falters a bit at times but isn't ugly, though the animation is fairly average and slightly awful at times. The music is nothing special either, but the dub is actually quite good, featuring dialogue that's better than the original Japanese script as well as including a few slightly funny moments (I like how the Power Loader's computer says "goodbye" just before it self-destructs, I also like the surreal nod to Arnold Schwarzenegger, which I'm not sure as to whether it makes this thing feel a bit more reality-grounded or whether it takes it out of its own world). For an anime with an all-female cast, I like how it doesn't go down the pathetic route of forcing fanservice down your throat; a bit of a disappointment for those into that, but it certainly helps the overall quality of this thing. 

The mecha and character designs aren't bad but probably aren't best depicted here and probably look better with the games' artwork, this is not a must-see. If you do watch it, make sure to watch it dubbed, it will make it more enjoyable.

• Art: 3/5
• Mechanical design: 3/5
• Action: 2/5

I would make the ratings for this one humorous, but there's not much to say...

-James, 26 January 2010 (original date)

Review source: US DVD
Screenshot source: US DVD

Southern Cross

Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross is one of those shows which seems to dwell in the greyest areas of anime limbo; The devout fans of the show are few and far between and its legacy as part of Carl Macek's legendary Robotech has given the show somewhat of a bad reputation. When I was an impressionable youth at the age of thirteen, Robotech for me was like a breath of fresh air in amongst my quickly dying interest in current television which still persists to this day. This could also explain why my taste in media is not very diverse. Admittedly, the Macross portion of the show was my personal favourite and I subsequently went on to adore its Japanese counterpart as well as the movie Do You Remember Love? which currently stands as one of my favourite animated films Japanese or not.

Despite the universal admiration of Macross, there was little if any fanfare for the middle portion of Robotech created from Southern Cross. In fact even in Japan, the show was a flop and only through Carl Macek's intervention the show had potential to be somewhat profitable. The history of Southern Cross is fragmented and sadly little information on the show has been published in and outside Japan, however I will do my best to explain its origins.

Southern Cross was released in 1984 and was the third instalment in the 'Super Dimensional' trilogy of TV shows (which are all unrelated apart from staff similarities), preceded by Macross and Orguss. It was the least successful of the three with low ratings making the show last a fraction of its original and much longer intended length at only 23 episodes. It was later adapted and edited as part of Robotech in 1985 as 'The Masters Saga' bridging the gap between the newly edited Macross and Mospeada story arcs. The unfortunate failure of this show remains somewhat of a mystery as their is next to no information on why it failed. Its a crying shame too, as I believe Southern Cross to possibly be the most misunderstood mecha show that was released in the 1980s.

The show takes place in the year 2120, mankind has colonized new planets in order to escape from an apocalyptic war that waged during the end of the 21st century. Leaving the Sol solar system, mankind now resides on two worlds known as Liberte and Gloire the latter planet being the setting for the show. Our main protagonists are individuals in the vast Glorian army of the Southern Cross as they face their first great adversary. An alien race known as the Zor prepare for a full scale invasion of Gloire in order to take back the planet of their birthplace which they themselves polluted originally. The main objective of the Zor as well as reclaiming the planet is obtaining a plant which is the race's power source known as the Protozor; despite being technologically advanced they are slowly dying both in a physical and psychological sense.

One of the things that right off the bat seperates Southern Cross from its contemporaries is that the most predominant protagonists in the show are strong willed military women. Firstly we have Jeanne Francaix a brash and reckless liutenant with a distinctive blonde afro. Throughout the series she grows and matures in character from a likeable if very abrasive girl into a capable and very much mature commander of her squad, the 15th Tactical Armoured Corps.

Secondly we have our resident tough chick with black mullet, Marie Angel once a former biker gang leader now ace fighter pilot. Right from the start of the show she rivals Jeanne in terms of power constantly teasing her ability to command. The most spirited of the three female protagonists, Marie never has quarrels in dealing with airborne alien foes nevermind her notoriety as a 'man-eater' (or Cosmo Amazon if you go by the show).
Thirdly we have duty-bound law enforcer Lana Isavia, another young woman but a high ranking officer in the Gloire Military Police. Defined very much as a no-nonsense spook, she regularly oversees much of the 15th squadron's activities particularly Jeanne and the two have a friendly relationship evern if their ideals however tend to clash on various occasions. Seeing as how distinctive hairstyles are the norm with these women, Lana sports gigantic, waist length blue hair (sometimes green on certain artwork) and a similarly dark uniform with red cape to boot.

The rest of the characters are mainly made up of the rest of Jeanne's budding squadron and tend to fit in with various mecha character archetypes. Firstly we have the youngest cadet Bowie Emerson who would have preferred to be a musician than forced into the military by his calculative father Rolf, one of the chief officers of the Southern Cross. Secondly we have our resident techie Louis Ducasse who comes complete with giant goggles. Charles De Etouard is the groups ladies man and Andrjz Slawski is the experienced, muscular giant of the group often being bewildered by Jeanne's actions.

Behind the scenes of the war with Rolf is the stubborn supreme commander of the Southern Cross, Claude Leon a man who would never risk giving up Gloire and wishes to annihilate the Zor at all costs. Later on in the show we are also introduced to a soldier hypnotized by the Zor and used for their own ends as a spy named Seifriet. He begins his role in the show as the main commander of the Zor mecha known as the Bioroids, interestingly enough his Bioroid colour is red similar to Char Aznable's Zaku in the original Mobile Suit Gundam which might have inspired the mecha designers. After failing numerous times in dealing with the Southern Cross, Seifriet is sent down to regain his former memories and infiltrate the planet unwillingly extracting data for the Zor commanders. After forming a close relationship with Jeanne, he eventually seeks revenge against the Zor for their experiments and endangering the Glorian populace. Along with Jeanne, Seifriet is undoubtedly the most developed character of the series and could be considered the show's tragic hero. Even though his purple glam rock hair will never be taken seriously.

In terms of the protagonist character development, Southern Cross is admittedly a little mixed in this regard. Jeanne, Marie and Lana are mostly well developed throughout the show playing off one another well. Each of them were for the time unique in that they were military women in control rather than on the sidelines catering to the male characters. In particular these characters grow in personality so that by the end they have become different people by the end of the conflict. Although Jeanne gets the spotlight more here than her rivals. The other characters while mostly on the side are interesting in how they react to Jeanne's actions even if some of the characters aren't very three dimensional. For example, Bowie as the youngest cadet over time seeks counsel with Jeanne in a relationship similar to that of two siblings. However along with the relationship between Jeanne and Seifriet, Rolf and Claude also form a rift in ideals. Rolf on one hand is a tired military general who wants to end the war without resorting to brute force and wishes to learn more about the Zor. On the other hand Claude believes that the protection of Gloire means the utter destruction of the Zor.

The Zor themselves also have a few main characters at their side, however I thought I would explain as to what makes them alien. In terms of design they are your standard humanoid aliens characterised by pale skin and odd coloured hairstyles; a common feature in most space opera anime. Their main distinction from the humans however is that each Zor has two clones of themselves and thus they act as a trinity; each Zor has a role within the trinity that if broken would cause a psychological collapse. These attributes are: decision, action and information. Firstly we have the Zor commanders who resemble elderly monks, they are unemotional and draconian ceasing to care about anything other than their races survival. The commanders also have various assistants that are mainly scientists once again striking odd designs and many of them are androgynous adding to the alien aesthetic. In fact as observed by the human characters, the Zor architecture is very much akin to a blend of alien cybernetics and ancient Rome right down to the various coliseums and civilian robes. Going back to the characters, the last main Zor character is a young, green-haired female named Musica who naturally has two identical sisters named Musiere and Muselle. As the name obviously implies, Musica is a musician for the Zor who at one point meets Bowie and falls madly in love with him creating an all important relationship between the Zor and the humans.

The overall design in Southern Cross is pretty unique as well as inspired and innovative. The mecha designs were created by a first-time studio called Ammonite who before only worked on television commercials; some of their concepts are interesting if pretty flawed in parts. For example, the Spartas hovertank is probably the best one of the bunch, transforming from a tank, to a gun emplacement and finally a robot form. The Spartas in general is like a futuristic chariot, bulky but by the same token articulate and powerful. However the lack of a cockpit for pilots has always puzzled me. Same can't be really said for the first few Space Corps fighters, the first type is just your average space fighter with no transformation and the other jet is the Logan which can only be described as a flying boat. It has a guardian mode but it looks incredibly goofy, later in the series it is replaced by the far better if also rather implausible space helicopter vehicle the Auroran. There are other mecha sprinkled throughout the armies of the Southern Cross such as reconnaissance mecha like the Salamander and GMP units which look similar to designs from Votoms and Gundam.

The Zor have less variants in mecha but their main mecha the Bioroids have various forms. Aesthetically as stated before they look not too dissimilar to biomechanical Zakus complete with bulging robo muscles and cockpits with breathing apparatus. They even come with a hoverboard for transport adding to their arsenal. As the show goes on especially towards the end, the Bioroids change models increasing their power and enhancing their pilots. Unlike human vehicles, bioroids are powered through their pilots transmitting their thoughts through the mecha's nervous system. The Zor also have pretty much one kind of ship, an enormous vessel which is like a mile long metal slab that is almost impenetrable as well as a magenta coloured bioroid carrier.

However arguably the best part of Southern Cross's design is the incredibly nifty and badass personal armours for the soldiers (also referred to as Arming Doublets). The army of the Southern Cross is split into several divisions from the Armoured Tank Corps, Space fighter pilots, Police officers and even marine troopers however many of the divisions outside of the main characters are rarely seen but can be found in a lot of related artwork. The armour comes across as a form of futuristic samurai uniform right down to the feudal looking headcrests and helmets on some of the outfits. Originally Southern Cross was supposed to be more of a space opera based in a futuristic version of feudal Japan so you can see where the inspirations for the personal armour came from, many of Southern Cross's more elaborate designs that were abandoned would be featured subsequently in Robotech art books based around the aborted series Robotech II: The Sentinels. As well as that some of Ammonite's work on Southern Cross and ideas for The Sentinels were also used in the Zillion anime series.

The character designs by Hiroyuki Kitazume (Gundam: Char's Counterattack) and Tomonori Kogawa (Ideon, Dunbine) once again are strange but well drawn and are memorable because of how odd some of them are. This can include Jeanne's puffy blonde afro, Marie's scruffy mullet and Lana's elegant blue wave of hair. Characters are decently proportioned so that like most good character designs kee p their shapes semi-realistic without being too lifelike nor too cartoony. No crazy post-2000 watermelon breasts here. The animation for an early 80's mecha show is mostly consistent in quality and in some parts looks rather smooth; out of the three shows that helped to create Robotech, Southern Cross was probably the best looking.
Now in terms of plot, Southern Cross is relatively slow moving; in fact this appears to be one of the main reasons why a lot of mecha fans have distanced themselves from the show. However I believe the slow pace actually helps the story rather than hinders it; this allows more room for the rather large cast of characters to be likable enough that you care for them. In fact one of the main reasons why I enjoyed Southern Cross was because of how likable the characters were and that there was far more emphasis on the planning behind the war rather than sacrifice the details for more action and fan service.

That does not mean that Southern Cross lacks action (there are several shower scenes in the early episodes aswell), as there is a decent amount and the last few episodes in particular have several large scale space fights. In terms of plotting and characters, Southern Cross actually bears many similarities to Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor in terms of laid-back but interesting characters as well as a ponderous yet intriguing story. 
Another reason why I found Southern Cross interesting was that while the show starts off with several comedic touches, the overall narrative becomes rather dark and dare I say bleak. Many of the battles in the show have massive body counts and as the story progresses, it is obvious that our protagonists are fighting a losing war against a dying yet technologically superior race.

However the main flaw of Southern Cross is quite simply it's length, particularly the ending. Now this is due to the show having low ratings to begin with and unfortunately leading to an early end. Because of this, certain plot points along characters are only expressed and explained in minor detail or analysed to quickly. Examples of this include the orgins of the Zor and Lana's relationship later on with a pilot named Brown. The ending which I admit felt rushed at points was not necessarily bad, more bittersweet than anything else. It was the kind of ending that while in some ways was satisfying, it's bleak atmosphere made me want to learn more about the fates of the characters (which in my eyes, is one of the signs of a good drama).

As stated before, Southern Cross was edited heavily in terms of plot in order to fit as the Masters Saga in the Robotech chronology. Apart from the standard name and sound changes, the overall plot was changed drastically to fit in resulting in numerous plot holes and quite frankly odd ideas. For example the character of Seifriet instead of a kidnapped human spy, is now a clone of the creator of Protoculture (see the Macross Saga part of Robotech) and Robotechnology known as Zor. The Zor are mainly referred in the Robotech chronology as both the Robotech Masters and Tirolians and come from a different planet altogether as Gloire in Robotech is considered to be Earth.

Many of these plot points clash with Southern Cross's animation which makes the narrative feel jumbled and confused. (While considered non-canon, the Robotech novels iron out a lot of the animation deficiencies). However a lot of the sombre atmosphere and well established charactes are still present in the Robotech version. The Southern Cross portion of Robotech in its animated form is a good transitional chapter however it does not hold up especially well on it's own. Even after that though, Southern Cross was used again by Carl Macek in 1986 when Cannon Films requested he would splice footage of the show with Megazone 23 Part 1 to create the rare and often hated Robotech: The Movie. But that's another story.

Little merchandise came out of the show in Japan apart from one artbook and a few model kits that are now growing fairly scarce; the Robotech toy line by Matchbox though did manage to have a small selection of the mecha including the Spartas and Bioroids. There has been no sequels or related OVAs produced after the original show. Only small continuations of the Robotech story with Southern Cross characters can be found, specifically some of the comics including the Invid War and Antarctic Press published series.

Even with all its flaws, Southern Cross is a show that I personally have a huge soft spot for. If I had the chance to finish one show that was canceled, it would be this one. The plot to me is one of the better and more engrossing examples in the medium; as well as that the characters and themes that run through were rather unconventional for the time and still hold up surprisingly well for me. At times for me the show even felt ahead of its time in its design and narrative execution. Like Macross, I even felt the romantic elements worked well with in the narrative too. Put simply it may not be a masterpiece, but to me is a misunderstood relic that begs to be rediscovered. I am not afraid to say it, I adore Southern Cross.

• Characters with funky hair: 4/5
• Transforming hovertanks: Badass
• Chances of otakus giving it another chance: Sadly not likely 

-Oli, 03 January 2010 (original date)

Review source: US DVD
Screenshout source: US DVD

M.D. Geist (original)

You might be wondering why I have chosen to write a separate M.D. Geist review, when already I have written an article that talks quite thoroughly about the entire series. I didn't really review anything, and for a while I've wanted to. If you really want information on this title, go check out my other article, as this is going to be a straight-up review of the untouched 1986 version, warts and all.

Our story begins with a text crawl stating that the "Christian Era" (AKA Anno Domini) has come to a close,  additionally, humans have taken over many planets, but political unrest is still alive, especially on the planet Jerra. It's comforting to know such thought has been weaved into this story already, but let's stop for a moment and skip ahead; M.D. Geist is a 40-minute one-off OVA in which setting and scope has had to be compressed to allow some of the more exploitative elements run freely. Given that, the thin plot is almost entirely acceptable, but let's move on.

The title opens to a bombed-out road literally strewn with skeletons, much like in The Terminator. An aircraft patrols overhead, later revealed to be part of the Nexrum forces, its crew are a bit nervous about the next battle. Suddenly though, a grappling hook attaches itself to the hull of the aircraft, and the pilots find they have an unexpected visitor hanging on. It is of course, Geist, who hurls himself up to the cockpit (funny thing is they make mention about the area being haunted with ghosts, and all of a sudden a man with the German word for ghost as his name pops up to say 'boo' with a rocket launcher). Yes, Geist, grinning, fires a rocket into the cockpit, decapitating one of the pilots (actually his face is probably just being consumed by the blast, but isn't it funny to think of a rocket taking someone's head off?) as it shoots through the ship, blowing up a load of passengers and then he starts blazing bullets into the falling wreckage! Did he really have three guns in one or is it just bad continuity? The reality is something most people miss, and it's that Geist had the rocket launcher on his back all along, it's just seen too briefly, the machinegun also had a grappling hook attachment. The ship starts blowing up and descends while Geist falls freely through the air, the ship eventually becoming engulfed in fire as it crashes. Walking out of the flames is of course, Geist, but with a bullet wound in his head. Either he's just that invincible or he used some sort of make-up. What has to be noted here is the close-up of him is quite obviously just an animator sliding a cel of him up and down until his expression changes, oh dear.

As Geist grins at the camera, synth music and some guitar begins to kick in, as a fairly stiffly-written English display reveals that Geist is a super soldier as created in a genetics experiment, and even though the whole purpose was that he was meant to have extraordinary fighting ability and to be the most dangerous, he was just more hardcore than all the other soldiers and had to be imprisoned in an orbital satellite. This opening is written better than most Engrish eccentricities in anime, but still comes off as a little silly. For whatever reason (probably because of Jerra's undoubtedly eroded atmosphere), Geist's satellite is falling to the surface after the many years he's been away, all the while the awesome Hironobu Kageyama song "Merciless Soldier" plays in the background, its lyrics summing up Geist fairly well. What an entrance this guy has gotten so far; first blowing the shit out of a plane in the most insane way possible, and then by us being shown to his naked ass.

Cutting from that is a biker gang cruelly chasing down an armoured soldier and firing chained spikes through him, before their leader, a huge, nameless Barry White-lookalike hurls a spear through his throat. By the leader's side is his honey Vaiya, but we'll see differently in a minute. The gang want the dead soldier's armour, but stepping out of the blue to claim ownership like any predatory beast, is Geist, who has probably already killed someone to get his clothes. The big boss of the gang offers to let him in or let Geist beat him in a fight. In a single move, Geist slices off both of the guy's hands before shoving the knife into his opponent's skull, he even has enough energy left him to spit out a shocked "you bastard!" before falling down (I actually really like the small details here, such as how the boss [who is actually called Golem according to the comics] is so stiffened with shock that his upper body doesn't move as he falls on his knees, I genuinely mean that too).
Geist helps himself to the armour, only to catch the attention of Vaiya, who offers him a place to stay; yes, she has no time to mourn for the loss of a companion and instead kicks him in the head, she's all about electing the new tough bastard as leader. Geist is swayed by how she has contacts with both sides of the army (the other side being the Regular Army, that Geist was part of), but it's probably obvious that his leadership of the gang is the last thing he gives a damn for. Later at night, the rest of the gang don't like the guy at all, for Vaiya it's different, as she tries to bed him. Interestingly enough, it's quite evident that Vaiya does not see attachment through feelings and more through physical strength, so with Geist's sheer invulnerability, she can't resist herself. This is seen throughout, and in particular a bit more in the Director's Cut, I actually do consider it a good character point and that it reflects Jerra's current social standards among the hoodlums who have no restrictions and just need to stay alive. Despite her attempts to arouse him, Geist has gotten what he's needed out of her, and promptly hurls her off the bed.

Moving onward, Geist is now clean-shaven with freshly cut hair, but looking badass as usual. A massive Regular Army landtank is under fire from Nexrum mechs and Vaiya's plan is to help out either side in hopes of them receiving some money, so it looks like there is at least still a surviving economy on Jerra. Vaiya thinks Geist should go side with the Nexrum's new machinery, but he thinks they can get more out of helping the weaker party, and opts to aid the Regular Army tank. Heading the tank is Col. Krutes who is trying to fight off the enemy machines that are clinging to his ship and ripping it apart. Geist zooms past on his motorbike and shoots down a few of the Nexrum mechs, and just as he passes Krutes' turret, the old colonel seems to recognise Geist immediately, particularly by spotting his dog tag. After knocking a female biker off her bike for no reason, Geist pretty much abuses all the other gangmembers to see to it that the Nexrum machines are destroyed, be it with spears being thrust their cockpits or by breaking in and stabbing the pilots with knives that have grenades attached to them. It's crazy, gory and the music is awesome.

Krutes invites Geist and Vaiya on board to thank them, but refuses to give them any money, which is only a blow to Vaiya as Geist couldn't care less. Krutes actually doesn't want Geist helping them as he tells his men about the MDSes, a.k.a., the Most Dangerous Soldiers, and that they were just too much to handle. Regardless, the men see Geist as a massive boon to them and Krutes has no choice but to bring him on to the mission. In a fairly strange sequence, Krutes explains that the men must invade a complex they apparently built to shut down a doomsday programme that has initiated thanks to the assassination of a president on Jerra; with this, I can only assume the complex (unforgettably known as the Brain Palace, sorta like a mangled translation of "headquarters" to me) went into total lockdown mode and wanted to ensure that no one could stop it. The doomsday weapon is Final Program D: DEATH FORCE.

In all honesty, as much as I love M.D. Geist, it feels like it falls apart a little at this point, but then again it's just trying to be an entertaining 40-minute OVA, my problem is that even for its own standards, things start slipping apart and continuity goes to shreds. Geist seems to have fully customized and gained new parts for the armour he took off the dead soldier so it looks nothing like it did previously (and looks like one of the coolest suits of armour ever), and the battle at Brain Palace is just an excuse to make quick use of his weapons, as his polearm promptly disappears after one use and he only ever uses the grenade launcher on his rifle, sticking mainly to his rocket launcher. Then again, it's most likely things were just cramped in the running time so they had to be used, that, and all those weapons like the polearm may have caused a problem for Geist. I can't fully complain though, it's an entertaining sequence with kick-ass music and Geist in his armour is so cool, it's just a shame he never got to do more with some of his weapons.

Krutes' men all die in the battle, and in a bizarre exchange between him and Geist (it's perhaps the subtitles), Krutes claims that "they're all dead! Again!", is the "again" meant to allude to something from the past? Anyway, Krutes reveals that he set up Geist up and pits him against an unstoppable robot while he goes off to be the hero, it's an interesting fight scene as the robot goes through three phases like the Final Boss of a game, and all of its forms are nicely designed. Geist defeats the last form of ripping off the power cables to his suit's engine and burying them into the robot's circuits, causing it to explode. Krutes shuts off the countdown in time, and is the big hero, he is even greeted by the smouldering, trembling robot he used against against Geist, only for it to fall over and reveal... Geist! Suspenseful this title is not. Geist crushes Krutes' face and is embraced by Vaiya, but as most people might already know thanks to the Internet, he re-activates the countdown, just to see the world burn. I have to admit, this ending is handled a little nicely, it's fun hearing the alarm sound as Geist's eyes twitch scarily when the announcement is made that the Death Force robots are being released.

Okay, I've discussed most of what I liked about the entire M.D. Geist series in my other article, so I'll just talk about the flaws with this one; the biggest of its problems is that it's obviously a woefully low-budget production, with very little revision to certain areas of animation. Some pieces are even recycled more than once. It also doesn't help that this was director Koichi Ohata's first ever feature, who was only 23 at the time and was a mechanical designer, not a director. This original episode was released with director credit being paid to Hayato Ikeda, who was apparently brought in just to assist Ohata, and that the company behind it didn't want to look bad. To me, Ikeda may as well have been a pseudonym, as he had done no work previously and he has never worked after, so it can only be assumed that he was just someone with a smidge more directorial knowledge than Ohata. There's actually a fair amount of background detail in some scenes and the animation is not too bad, though it does get ugly at a few parts.

For the record, I don't view anime any different from how I view other entertainment mediums, so I have no subconscious need to rate this one lowly just because the rest of anime is "high art", it really isn't at all. 
Amidst his fledgling ability and lack of refinement, Ohata's apparent aim at the time was to create the antithesis of typical anime, and it would appear that he's succeeded; Geist is stoic and designed to kill, thrown into the role of protagonist while being incapable of caring for anyone, therefore rejecting the token damsel and dooming the world. Vaiya is a jackal and Krutes is just barely holding together a failing platoon at the end of the world. No one is sweet and innocent; Geist kills because he was made to, Vaiya exploits and Krutes is part of the reason why Jerra is in such a mess. It's egotistical to the character and Geist's antithetical behaviour of typical heroes is celebrated; when the ending kicks in, the Kageyama song "Violence of the Flame" pretty much glorifies his beligerant style, contrasting to what should be dark. Vomited back into a nuked-out world where biker gangs kill remorselessly against a backdrop of two dying forces just killing each other for domination's sake, with only what the military programmed him to do inside his head, is there any reason for Geist to try and save it? Compared to everyone else, he's just vying to keep himself occupied. He's not so much evil, he's just killing whatever gets in his way, and with no military instituion holding him back, he may as well just make more battle for himself until he has completely ran his course. If you scratch the surface a little of its limited characters, you can find a lot.

If you love 80s OVAs, you've probably already seen this and made your opinion, but if you do like these dystopian stories set in the desert that share similarities to many exploitation movies of the 80s, of if you just want a 40-minute actioneer, check this out, it's miles above the standard of modern 'cute girl' anime today, trashy as it is.

M.D. Geist - An overview

I am probably the biggest M.D. Geist fan in the world.

I own a Japanese poster that was packaged with its original soundtrack release on vinyl, the US release of the sequel's soundtrack, an autographed version of the graphic novel by artist Tim Eldred, the US and UK DVD releases, a Japanese book that "comic-fies" screens from the OVA, the original Japanese making-of book, and a drawing of Geist signed by its creator, Koichi Ohata himself. Now I am writing an article on it.

I am probably very much obsessed, and my love for the series is probably second only to John O'Donnell, the man who made M.D. Geist known (I am still convinced he is the only owner of the unreleased Geist resign statue). To those entirely new to the name "M.D. Geist", it has been long considered the worst anime ever, but let me explain that.

To the uninitiated, Sokihei M.D. Geist/装鬼兵M.D.ガ イスト ("Soldier-Garbed Demon") was a prominent title in the OVA boom in both Japan and America, the latter more so than the former. When it was being introduced to the west, “Japanimation” kicked the doors down upon entry and shoved animated nudity and violence in your face, to a lot of people it was fairly new stuff. For better or for worse though, Akira set the standard for anime to westeners, meaning that most titles following in its wake fell very, very short, M.D. Geist being one of many in an eager catalogue by now-defunct Central Park Media.
M.D. Geist was originally released in Japan in 1986, other than perhaps kicking off Hironobu Kageyama's singing career, it wasn't too special, being the directorial debut of Koichi Ohata, it was essentially just a vehicle for him to show off his mechanical designs with a story sewn in (as it was with almost every OVA). Even though I am a big Geist fan, I will admit that this original version is very poorly made; the animation lacks revision in some areas and some of the sound effects feel off (a metal pole falls to the ground and makes a sound like a pencil), and the music (while KICK-ASS) just about misses the mark with some faulty cue timings. To release it five years on in the west, which had already seen Akira by this point, was a bit of a recipe for disaster, regardless, M.D. Geist sold as CPM's flagship title. The reception was polarized however, with the negative slowly outweighing the positive as time went on, yet M.D. Geist was one of the most popular-selling videos in the US.
Many of the arguments against Geist nitpicked the animation, the lack of characterization and the wafer-thin story that was made up of trimmings of what felt like a bigger plot. For the most part, they have a reason to be angry, but they took it to the heights of anime elitism, which is overly a bit annoying and anally retentive. M.D. Geist's conistency for being the worst-reviewed anime seems to stem from how heavily the title was promoted, as many far worse 80s OVAs were released but never got the same amount of attention at all. It probably didn't help that Geist's presence was a bit force-fed, appearing as CPM's mascot everywhere.

John O'Donnell was the head of CPM, and his love for the title is probably what made and broke it at the same time. If it wasn't for his US release, Geist would have remained an obscurity, possibly appearing as something cool to only those digging deep enough for rare, internationally-unreleased OVAs. O'Donnell pretty much raised it to appear as if it was more than a 40-minute showcasing of violence made for the home format market; in 1995, he got the funds together to produce a tidied-up version of the original title, as well as produce a sequel. A prequel comic was created with illustrations by Tim Eldred, expanding the world of M.D. Geist just a tiny bit, along with a comic adaptation of the original OVA, that served to refine the story a bit more. They're mostly overlooked, and are fun reads with decent artwork, nothing outstanding in either areas though. The revised edition of the original, known as the Director's Cut internationally and as the Perfect Edition in Japan, contained a new prologue and epilogue, tweaked animation, as well as some entirely new minor scenes, as well as more realistic sound effects and some improved music cues. The results are technically-speaking much, much better than anything in the 1986 version, and it looks like Geist may have gotten away with a better reception.

Perhaps if O'Donnell did not commission a dub of it, because no matter his love for the title, it wasn't enough to make this dub good. Really at this point he should have just avoided making Geist seem like high art.

The Japanese re-dub that was actually done for this edition was actually terrific, with its new voice actors putting in a lot more effort for their roles, while the only good thing to really come out of the US dub was Jason Beck's awesomely deep voice. The dub uses the same script as the translated Japanese one, and therefore sounds extremely awkward. They were better off doing a whole re-write, just as long as they were getting the same message across. It also doesn't help that many of the lines are mismatched and none of the voice actors were actually conversing with the dialogue, so it just feels uneven. That said, the dub is terrible, Manga Entertainment should have really turned out something for it.

The dub only got worse however, in the sequel; M.D. Geist II: Death Force. Along with some bad casting, it uses the same directly-translated script, so all the dialogue just sounds strange coming out of an English-speaking character's mouth; there's too much emphasis on the demonization of Geist that it all sounds like old-fashioned Japanese talk, along with how the odd utterance-structure only adds to this. Whereas the original is stupidly fun, the sequel's dub is actually painful to listen to.

Death Force itself is a completely different can of worms than the original, it is usually regarded as worse, because it is mixed between Ohata's grindhouse stylings and some total pretension brought on CPM's marketing. Death Force actually has a good concept, but suffers because of its run time; it feels as if the story it is trying to tell is too big for forty-five minutes. There's a lot of characterization and plot development to be had here, but none of it really gets off the ground, and the end of it feels very rushed. At the least, Death Force visually looks brilliant throughout, with fine backgrounds along with character and mechanical designs that bring the series into a new world, and in still shots, it looks really damn good. The biggest problem with Death Force is that it was funded on scraps, and the animation really suffers from it, to the point it's almost non-existant.

Why do I like M.D. Geist so much though? I went into watching the first one expecting the very worst, but never got it, and even though I still found it to be quite poor, many of its elements were so cool. Because it was largely victim to many anime critics and there was so little over information on it, I chose to research it as much as possible. Primarily, I liked it because of the imagery it's steeped with; looking at certain promotional artwork is like looking at heavy metal album covers, Geist is an armoured bringer of death, armed with brutal weaponry and ready to send anything to hell. I wouldn't call M.D. Geist so bad it's good, because the bad elements I actually dislike, but I like it because it's so ridiculous, so atypical of anime and because its title character is so damn cool.

Furthermore, I absolutely love all the designs in this entire series, be them character or mechanical, all look good. It has to be mentioned too how the first OVA's mechanical designs appear to be a mix of different themes in a sci-fi setting; Geist's customized armour is reiminscent of a knight's suit, with a look that fully embodies Geist's barbaric nature as someone who wears the armour exclusively to celebrate battle. The Nexrum battle mechs are also worth mentioning, for how functional they appear, almost like massively heavy versions of the Scopedogs from VOTOMS. Leaving industrial territory are the likes of the robots guarding the Brain Palace, being very streamlined and looking a bit more alien in comparison to previous designs, and being overly bird-like, and the final guardian robot's three forms all look radically different, going from ornate and imperial-like to appearing alien and finally appearing skeletal, with some unique features in each form. It has to be said too that both OVAs have brilliant music; the original is fueled by blood-pumping rock that is so damn good to hear, and features two fantastic songs by Hironobu Kageyama, the mysterious-sounding and mellow "Merciless Soldier" and the crazy, hot-blooded "Violence of the Flame", a song that perfectly glamorises Geist's battlefield habitat. Death Force on the other hand feels welcomingly new, with certain tracks feeling more animalistic and its songs contributed by Yoshiaki Ohuchi fit excellently with the mood and imagery of the OVA.

M.D. Geist is far from perfect though, but it's still far from being the worst anime ever, and it does make me wish Koichi Ohata and Riku Sanjo spent a lot more time when they originally working on it to produce something much more memorable; with enough refinement, both OVAs could have probably been very good stories. Recently though, the character has seen a slight popularity resurgence, notably with him being used as a counter against the likes of K-ON and moé anime. As pretentious as CPM's promotion for the title was, it's still cool that it was the first anime to have motorbike shows advertising, along with being the first anime in the US to have phone cards produced for it. It is awesome that they also released one of the best DVDs ever because of it, but they really could have laid off of making Ohata seem like a genius auteur, realistically he was just a good artist with a penchant for making things spray blood exotically.

That said, CPM's DVD is easily the most complete source of M.D. Geist, packaged with an overwhelming amount of special features, and containing an incredibly entertaining and insightful commentary by Ohata and Sanjo themselves. ADV's DVD re-release toned down the pretension given to it by its former US distributor (their blurb is a hoot) but unfortunately, it's a very barebones release, so just get yourself the old CPM disc. It's funny that ADV picked it up anyway, as if the character has become too prominent to be allowed death yet, and now Manga Entertainment seem to hold the rights to it (even if all they've done is just host both OVAs on YouTube in their awful dubbed forms).

M.D. Geist is a charmingly memorable piece of OVA trash, but its prominence has really been a double-edged sword.

-James, 08 August 2009 (original date)