M.D. Geist

M.D. Geist
DVD cover
装鬼兵M.D.ガイスト (Sōkihei M.D. Geist)
Genre	Adventure, Mecha
Original video animation
Most Dangerous Soldier
Directed by	Hayato Ikeda
Written by	Riku Sanjo
Music by	Yōichi Takahashi
Studio	Production Wave Zero-G Room (Director's Cut scenes)
Licensed by	NA: US Manga Corps (1992–2009) ADV Films (2009) UK: Kiseki Films
Released	May 21, 1986 March 1, 1996 (Director's Cut)
Runtime	40 minutes 50 minutes (Director's Cut)
Original video animation
Death Force
Directed by	Koichi Ohata
Written by	Riku Sanjō
Music by	Yoshiaki Ohuchi
Studio	Zero-G Room
Licensed by	NA: U.S. Manga Corps AEsir Holdings
Released	March 1, 1996
Runtime	45 minutes

M.D. Geist (Japanese: 装鬼兵M.D.ガイスト, Hepburn: Sōkihei M.D. Gaisuto, literally "Armoured Demon Soldier M.D. Geist") is an anime and comic book series about a post-apocalyptic world.

Geist (the main character) is colloquially referred to as Most Dangerous Soldier, genetically engineered to outperform other soldiers during a long war on a planet known as Jerra. He was placed in suspended animation in a stasis pod orbiting the planet as a result of his extremely overwhelming method of fighting until it crashed several years later, awakening him and returning him to the war on the planet.

Synopsis

M.D. Geist I

The human race has expanded its civilisation to multiple star systems and has colonised many planets. On a planet known as Jerra, the rebellious Negsrom Army is locked in a war with the Jerra Regular Army. Geist, the commander of the Jerra special forces, is genetically-engineered by means of a new scientific process termed ‘Bioclone theory’. He was so extraordinarily ferocious in battle that he was ordered placed in suspended animation aboard a stasis satellite and launched into Jerra’s orbit.

After several years, the satellite crashes on Jerra and Geist awakens. In a desolated city, Geist discovers a group of bandits, whose leader kills a stray soldier wearing a powered suit. Geist confronts the bandit leader over acquiring the dead soldier's suit. In a fight to the death over the suit, Geist kills the leader. Paia, a female bandit who was the mistress of the former leader, is attracted to Geist’s strength, but other than her knowledge of both armies' activities, Geist shows no desire for her. Geist, as the new leader of the bandits, spots a Regular Army land battleship, the Noah Guards, under attack by Negsrom forces and finds an opportunity to save the battleship for a price. Geist, with Paia, forms an uneasy alliance with the crew of the Noah Guards, led by Colonel Crutes, before participating in a mission to stop the Regular Army doomsday device “Death Force” from activation. Death Force's countdown commenced shortly after a high-ranking official figure in the Regular Army was assassinated. Its purpose is to annihilate all life forms on Jerra without discrimination.

Geist equips himself with the acquired powered suit which he has customised and modified to reflect his fighting ability, and takes part in an assault on the Brain Palace, where the computer that is responsible for the Death Force is housed. All but Geist and Crutes are killed during the invasion. Upon reaching their target destination, Geist faces an advanced security robot activated by Crutes, who reveals that he intends to kill Geist as well. While Geist battles the robot, Crutes manages to deactivate the Death Force. However, he discovers that the robot has failed to kill Geist, and is in turn killed. When Paia arrives at the control room, she is frightened to learn that Geist has continued to activate the Death Force.

M.D. Geist II: Death Force

Less than a year after Geist activated the Death Force, which decimated most of Jerra's population, he has kept himself busy by dismantling the Death Force machines one by one. The remnants of the human population have fled to a remote haven run by a warlord named Krauser. Krauser is a soldier of the same genetic engineering as Geist, and is the precursor to Geist, except that he must undergo regular restoration processes as a result of his Bioclone cells not functioning in the same way those that belong to Geist do. Krauser uses a camouflage technology that hides his mobile fortress and his soldiers from the Death Force. When he encounters Geist, an initial fight takes place, where Krauser 'defeats' Geist, throwing him from a bridge of the fortress. Some time after, Krauser and the amalgamated Regular Army and Negsrom Army forces plan to lure the Death Force machines into an artificial city and detonate the lethal "Jignix Bomb" to exterminate them.

Again, Geist's programming overrides any shred of humanity he may have, and he leads the Death Force off to Krauser's fortress, leaving Krauser's commandos to be destroyed in the Jignix Bomb's detonation. Although most of the Death Force is consumed in the explosion as well, a large number of the machines fall upon Krauser's fortress while Geist confronts Krauser himself. Geist fights Krauser in hand-to-hand combat while the Death Force machines consume most of the refugees. Krauser is ultimately killed and Geist's empty helmet is the last image shown.

M.D. Geist: Ground Zero

Ground Zero is a comic book published by CPM Comics as an original prequel. It was ultimately written ten years after the first OVA, and also serves to reference the character Krauser who would be appearing in Death Force. It does not incorporate elements from any original M.D. Geist treatment and its text is based on CPM’s domestic English translation of the OVA.

At a board of Regular Army officials, Lieutenant Leigh Wong attempts to convince them to use Geist in battle; he is a genetically-engineered soldier bred to specialise in strategy and versatility, designed to perform as a solitary fighter, rather than within a group. Wong also mentions how Geist strictly follows feasible commands. She is dispatched to a base along with Geist, who has been instructed to work with the squad already stationed at the base, much to her frustration. The squad, led by Colonel Stanton, reject Geist, viewing him as a machine, who in turn is unaffected and assigns himself to the reserves as ordered by Stanton, much to Wong's displeasure. An incident on the base occurs in which Geist maims a sergeant, as the sergeant unknowingly ordered, and Wong views this as confirmation of Geist’s efficiency.

When en route to their mission, Stanton makes clear he refuses to accept Geist, especially after what happened the day before, keeping him as a reserve soldier. In the jungle, Geist and Stanton’s soldiers find their target, which includes a stationed ship. They quickly occupy the base, and Wong and Stanton investigate the ship. However, the squad is ambushed by enemy forces. Geist is the only one to survive, having jumped onto the ship once it has begun to take off. On board, Wong discovers a plan for the enemy forces to fire the ship's cannon at their own city, which is loaded with a nuclear armament, as has been ordered by Earth. With no way to stop the ship, Stanton and Geist leave to destroy the engines, but before they proceed, Stanton orders Geist to tell no one of Earth's involvement with this plan, even if Geist outlives him. The two of them engage with an enemy piloted machine that is guarding the engines, in which Stanton is fatally wounded. Breathing his last breath, he finally accepts Geist. Geist successfully defeats the enemy and uses part of its machinery to escape the ship which is falling from flight due to the damage its sustained. Wong is trapped on the ship as Geist takes off.

After the ship crashes and its nuclear armament is destroyed with it, a Regular Army patrol discovers Geist waiting to be picked up. Before a jury, Geist does not speak of what happened in the mission, echoing Stanton’s order. Colonel Crutes delivers a verdict that Geist is in some way responsible for the deaths of Regular Army personnel. Geist is therefore imprisoned in stasis and launched into the outer atmosphere of Jerra.

Production notes

During pre-production, Sōkihei M.D. Geist was not conceived as being on video. At the initial draft stage, the working title was “Death Force” and the story involved an unstable soldier, named Patrick, who was imprisoned on a spaceship drifting through space, and is then rescued by allies in powered suits. A mission then commences to stop the computer aboard the ship, which has enacted a program to kill the remaining survivors.

Koichi Ohata developed the project to give himself creative freedom as a mechanical designer. Ohata’s inspiration for designing the armoured suits came from a conversation with staff from Nippon Sunrise Inc., regarding the functionality of a giant robot and a suit of armour in relation to a human character, prior to production. The project was granted as a video when Ohata’s concept of the armoured suit was noticed by the president of the production company. Ohata was highly-influenced by international films such as Mad Max, The Terminator and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and felt that the new technology afforded by video could produce something similar in Japanese animation.

Riku Sanjō, then new at the time as a screenwriter, developed the story through multiple consultation meetings with Ohata, in which there was an emphasis on visual motifs and scene direction. While the initial script was written to the length of 45-minutes, Hayato Ikeda encouraged Sanjo to write as much as possible in order for him and Ohata to express their ideas fully. Up to 200 pages of manuscript were written during the planning stage, and it was agreed between Ohata, Ikeda and unit director Hiroshi Negishi to focus on the action scenes, so numerous plot points were cut. A later working title during production was “Sokihei Billion Buster”, with some differences in the story, such as the biker gang’s name being “Metal Cetus”. Another draft of the story focused on the intensely demanding conditions of the powered suit being crossed with the uncontrollable nature of the MDS. Ikeda confessed to being new to mecha, as well as being new to OVA as a format, and performed as a mediator on the overall production, with the majority of creative decisions being handled by Ohata. Ikeda’s credits as a director of TV anime made him more appealing for marketing. Ohata’s directing, as a result of his inexperience as a 23-year old, proved difficult for the animators. According to animation director Kenichi Onuki, the character designs and mechanical designs both contained a high number of lines and were a source of contention for the animators. Ohata took on key animation as well as storyboarding duties, Onuki was also involved in the line clean-up process. Ohata was responsible for the core mechanical designs, but other staff such as Yasuhiro Moriki were involved in the finalising process. The final fight scenes were envisioned to take place in a brightly-lit environment with detailed backgrounds, but due to constraints, simpler decisions had to be made. Art director Yoshinori Takao recalled having difficulty deciding upon the lighting, with the added complexity of the character movement and therefore worked to clearly define their situational relationship. Ohata admitted that the background was set too dark and that the intended design would have been too demanding on his staff. Other storyboarded sequences, such as a fight between Geist and Colonel Crutes, were ultimately cut.

Release

M.D. Geist was originally released in Japan by Nippon Columbia and re-released under the Denon label. In 1988, a trailer of the OVA under the title Thunder Warrior was produced by Gaga Communications along with a string of other anime titles the company was hoping to sell to the North American market. M.D. Geist was released in North America by Central Park Media in 1992; two years prior, the company used Geist as the logo for their mainstream anime label U.S. Manga Corps. Curiosity by fans over U.S. Manga Corps' logo boosted domestic sales of the OVA and prompted Central Park Media to collaborate with co-creator Koichi Ohata in producing a sequel. In 1996, Central Park Media released M.D. Geist - Director's Cut, featuring roughly five minutes of additional footage - including a new introduction and epilogue that paved the way for the sequel. Months later, CPM released M.D. Geist II: Death Force. In addition, the company commissioned Ohata and American artist Tim Eldred to illustrate the comic book adaptation.

In the United States, the Sci Fi Channel premiered M.D. Geist I and II during their Ani-Monday block at midnight E.S.T. September 29 and October 6, 2008, respectively. Following the closure of Central Park Media, M.D. Geist was re-licensed by ADV Films and was re-released on DVD in July 2009. It is currently available for digital download on iTunes by Manga Entertainment, along with Now and Then, Here and There.

Adaptations

To coincide with the release of M.D. Geist (Director's Cut) and M.D. Geist II: Death Force, CPM Comics released a comic book adaptation written and drawn by Tim Eldred with Ohata providing cover art for the three-issue adaptation of the OVA. This comic was based on CPM's English translation original 1986 OVA, which followed several misattributions of dialogue in CPM's release. The naming conventions follow CPM's translation, in which the character Paia is known as "Vaiya", Negsrom is rendered as both "Nexrum" and "Negstrom", and Colonel Crutes is rendered as "Kurtz".

Reception

Darius Washington from Otaku USA magazine defined the original version of M.D. Geist as "an entertaining action vid with okay production values, unique elements and a psychotically fun twist". The owner of Central Park Media, John O'Donnell, jokingly named it "the best bad anime ever made".

External links

• MD Geist at IMDb
• MD Geist (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia