Shogo Yahagi is out having fun with his biker friends when he is shown a brand new motorbike he's never seen before. Unfortunately for him it turns out to be classified weapon and a secret organisation was willing put in a great deal of effort to retrieve it from him. As he delves deeper into the background of the bike "Garland" he soon learns the truth behind the city he lives in and confides in the aspiring star Yui Takanaka who he met not long ago.

From the creators of the classic Macross, this four part sci-fi movie series "Megazone 23 (pronounced two three)" each an hour long or longer. Watched this because I saw some hype about classics and it has an HD remaster now so no blurry visuals on modern big screens.

Just like Macross it features your transforming robot mecha that can switch between aircraft or robot mode, romance and a singer idol. It actually feels different from the classic show and more like Gundam where a cheeky young man obtains an overpowered weapon, goes about wrecking havoc, doing what he pleases and getting what he wants. As for the plot there's quite a few similarities to 13 Sentinels game which makes me think this was partly influenced it.

The aesthetics look great for the 1980s. It's kind of like those late night Anime OVAs they used to show on TV well after midnight so full of gore and other explicit sensual scenes that leave little to the imagination. While I did grow up with the 1980/90s shows I don't think I could quite get used to the big watery eyes the ladies have in this show...

The first part's pacing is great. Only thing that felt out of place was the hotel scene where Shogo spends his woohooing time confiding with the secrets he discovered.

Third part of the series is broken up into two parts and takes place a couple of hundred years later, which kind of feels abrupt like some discontinuity early on as you wonder where all the characters are. This is when the sci-fi really kicks in however and you're treated to some great looking sci-fi architecture design. There's quite a few action scenes that remind me of Evangelion too like the descent to Central Dogma. In the second half the conflict heats up with some great chase scenes and character development despite the much bigger cast but also increased gore.

Quite enjoyed the movie series overall. If you enjoyed 13 Sentinels or cyberpunk sci-fi then you'll probably enjoy this.