(Note: This review is based on M.D. Geist Director's Cut. M.D. Geist Director's Cut is not actually a director's cut version of the film. It's actually a digitally remastered version of the original 1986 OAV with new scenes added, altered sound effects, and poorly animated scenes fixed.)
>>Pros: Pretty good animation; decent '80s Japanese rock soundtrack; good action scenes and character designs
>>Cons: Unbelievably bad dubbing; lame plot; very little character development
>>Plot summary:(WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!) In a distance future where mankind has reached the age of terraforming planets, one particular planet known as Jerra has been devastated by a civil war between the the Jerran resistance(the "regular army") and the Nexrum Army, an army organization that opposes Earth government over all the terraformed planets. At one time, the regular army was getting their a**es handed to them in battle so much that they ended up making genetically engineered supersoliders known as the Most Dangerous Soliders(MDSs) to fight back against the Nexrum army's attacks. One of the MDSs, Geist, was TOO good in the art of war. The second and most dangerous MDS, Geist was considered too unstable to be put in society, thus bringing his imprisonment on an orbital sattelite to never be seen again. Somehow, the orbital sattelite ended up crashing back to Jerra, setting Geist loose on the planet once again. Geist becomes the leader of a mercenary biker gang, and then joins a unit of the regular army to stop a doomsday program called the Death Force. The Death Force is an army of millions of robotic war machines that will kill humans indiscriminately, and they got less than 12 hours to stop the program. Col. Crutes, the leader of the regular army platoon, sets Geist up to be killed by a gigantic robotic sentry at the Death Force's base, but the colonel's plan to eliminate him has failed. Geist ends up defeating the robot sentry, kills the colonel in retaliation for him being the one that made the decision of putting him in an orbital sattelite, and reactivates the Death Force program after Colonel Crutes deactivated it to wreak havoc on the planet. The end!(END SPOILER)
>>Review: M.D. Geist is a cult classic among anime fans, despite how horrible it is, and I'm one of those fans. Geist's sole purpose in this film is to kill, and he does it with great gusto. In the film, you're lead to believe that Geist is the hero, but in reality, he's the film's truest villain. There's virtually no character development in this film. Any other character that even starts to show some character development is killed off on the spot. The English dubbing in this anime is painfully bad. The original Japanese voice acting wasn't anything special, but is light-years ahead of the American voice acting. The animation and character designs, albeit dated, are pretty good, and I love the '80s Japanese rock soundtrack in this film. M.D. Geist would have been better if the producers explored the M.D. Geist universe a hell of a lot more, but unfortunately, it seemed liked the producers didn't know where to go with this anime title. And Geist's mullet rules! Anyone who has seen this anime might notice that Geist bears a strong resemblance to Billy Idol. Hell, the mercenary biker gang boss that Geist kills looks like Stevie Wonder on steroids! In the end, M.D. Geist is a brainless anime OAV that is best enjoyed on a Saturday afternoon if there's nothing on TV and you have nothing to do.
>>My last 2 cents: If you think M.D. Geist is bad, then you should check out its sequel, M.D. Geist 2: Death Force. It's far worse than its predecessor.
>>My rating: 3 out of 10
>>Pros: Pretty good animation; decent '80s Japanese rock soundtrack; good action scenes and character designs
>>Cons: Unbelievably bad dubbing; lame plot; very little character development
>>Plot summary:(WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!) In a distance future where mankind has reached the age of terraforming planets, one particular planet known as Jerra has been devastated by a civil war between the the Jerran resistance(the "regular army") and the Nexrum Army, an army organization that opposes Earth government over all the terraformed planets. At one time, the regular army was getting their a**es handed to them in battle so much that they ended up making genetically engineered supersoliders known as the Most Dangerous Soliders(MDSs) to fight back against the Nexrum army's attacks. One of the MDSs, Geist, was TOO good in the art of war. The second and most dangerous MDS, Geist was considered too unstable to be put in society, thus bringing his imprisonment on an orbital sattelite to never be seen again. Somehow, the orbital sattelite ended up crashing back to Jerra, setting Geist loose on the planet once again. Geist becomes the leader of a mercenary biker gang, and then joins a unit of the regular army to stop a doomsday program called the Death Force. The Death Force is an army of millions of robotic war machines that will kill humans indiscriminately, and they got less than 12 hours to stop the program. Col. Crutes, the leader of the regular army platoon, sets Geist up to be killed by a gigantic robotic sentry at the Death Force's base, but the colonel's plan to eliminate him has failed. Geist ends up defeating the robot sentry, kills the colonel in retaliation for him being the one that made the decision of putting him in an orbital sattelite, and reactivates the Death Force program after Colonel Crutes deactivated it to wreak havoc on the planet. The end!(END SPOILER)
>>Review: M.D. Geist is a cult classic among anime fans, despite how horrible it is, and I'm one of those fans. Geist's sole purpose in this film is to kill, and he does it with great gusto. In the film, you're lead to believe that Geist is the hero, but in reality, he's the film's truest villain. There's virtually no character development in this film. Any other character that even starts to show some character development is killed off on the spot. The English dubbing in this anime is painfully bad. The original Japanese voice acting wasn't anything special, but is light-years ahead of the American voice acting. The animation and character designs, albeit dated, are pretty good, and I love the '80s Japanese rock soundtrack in this film. M.D. Geist would have been better if the producers explored the M.D. Geist universe a hell of a lot more, but unfortunately, it seemed liked the producers didn't know where to go with this anime title. And Geist's mullet rules! Anyone who has seen this anime might notice that Geist bears a strong resemblance to Billy Idol. Hell, the mercenary biker gang boss that Geist kills looks like Stevie Wonder on steroids! In the end, M.D. Geist is a brainless anime OAV that is best enjoyed on a Saturday afternoon if there's nothing on TV and you have nothing to do.
>>My last 2 cents: If you think M.D. Geist is bad, then you should check out its sequel, M.D. Geist 2: Death Force. It's far worse than its predecessor.
>>My rating: 3 out of 10