English dub done by Harmony Gold, and directed by Carl Macek. This release was intended to be used as a teaching tool to help Japanese students learn English. The Japanese subtitles are hard subbed/burned into the video.
Prior to the main feature is a 12 minute "Special Film", which consists of opening and alternate ending animation for PART I which Harmony Gold commissioned from Idol Co. for use in their 1986 release, Robotech The Movie. The audio for the special film is mostly instrumental, with an English language narration by Carl Macek during part of it that recaps the essential plot points from Megazone 23 PART I. The narrated portion has burned in Japanese subtitles.
The Japanese title for this release literally translates to "Megazone 23 PART II Overseas Edition", and it was intended to be released both in Japan as an educational film, and outside of Japan in English speaking territories as an entertainment film. As a result, Shogo & Yui's names were changed to "Johnny Winters" and "Suzie Sue” to appeal to Western audiences. Most of the rest of the characters already had Western sounding names, and the handful of minor characters with Japanese names are left with their names unchanged. The change in names is also reflected in the Japanese subtitles, which reportedly did cause confusion with Japanese viewers who were already familiar with the series.
While only released on Laserdisc in Japan, this English dub was released on VHS in the UK and parts of Europe, minus the special film intro and Japanese subtitles.
Manufactured and Distributed by Polydor K.K., Japan |