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 "Demon-Garbed Soldier M.D. Geist") is an anime and comic book series about a post-apocalyptic world.

Geist (the main character) is MD-02, a Most Dangerous Soldier, genetically engineered to function as a killing machine, but every one of the MDS units went homicidally insane. As a result, Geist was placed in suspended animation in a stasis pod orbiting the planet Jerra until it crashed several years later, awakening him and bringing him into another war on the planet.

Synopsis

M.D. Geist I: Most Dangerous Soldier

The Regular Army of the planet Jerra has been locked in a bloody civil war with the rebellious Nexrum Army, who believe that Earth should not be involved in governing its extraterrestrial colonies. In response, the Jerran Army developed the Most Dangerous Soldiers, which turned out to work too well; the MDS units attacked everyone, including their allies. One such soldier, MD-02 "Geist", was ordered placed in suspended animation aboard a stasis satellite and launched into Jerra's orbit.

After several years, Geist awakens after the stasis satellite crashes on Jerra. 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 slices off the leader's arms before impaling his combat knife through his skull. Vaiya, a female bandit, is attracted to Geist's strength, but other than her knowledge of both armies' activities, Geist shows no desire for her. The bandits spot a Jerran mobile fortress being attacked by Nexrum forces and find it as an opportunity to save the fortress for a price. Geist and the bandits form an uneasy alliance with the Jerran forces led by Colonel Krutes (Geist's former superior) before participating in a mission to stop the Jerran doomsday device "Death Force" from activating. Death Force's countdown commenced shortly after the president of a Jerran country was assassinated. Its purpose is to annihilate all life forms on Jerra without discrimination.

Like a black knight, Geist equips himself with the acquired powered suit (which eventually becomes his trademark), and goes into the Brain Palace with Krutes' commandos and his bandit team in tow. All but Geist and Krutes are killed during the invasion. Upon reaching Brain Palace, Geist faces an advanced combat robot activated by Krutes, realizing that the colonel set him up. While Geist battles the robot, Krutes reaches the control center to deactivate the Death Force. He succeeds, but discovers that the robot he activated has failed to kill Geist. Krutes laughs heavily before Geist crushes his skull with his hands. When Vaiya arrives at the control center, she sees Geist set off Death Force, unleashing an army of machines that consume living matter to replicate, condemning all life on Jerra to death.

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 another MDS unit, MD-01, who has a technology that hides his mobile fortress 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 Jerran army plan to lure the Death Force machines into an abandoned city and detonate the lethal "Jignitz 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 Jignitz 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 kills Krauser in hand-to-hand combat while the Death Force machines consume most of the refugees. Krauser is caught in an explosion and Geist's empty helmet is later shown.

M.D. Geist: Ground Zero

This comic takes place before the events of the first OVA. At a board of Regular Army officials, Lt. Leigh Wong attempts to persuade them to use Geist in battle; he is a genetically-engineered soldier bred to specialize 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 Col. Stanton, reject Geist, viewing him as lifeless, who in turn is unaffected and assigns himself to the reserves as ordered by Stanton, much to Wong's displeasure.

Later, Stanton briefs his men on the mission they will be undertaking, in which they are to investigate and if necessary, destroy a Nexrum collective at a temple within a jungle. Wong interrupts the briefing to make mention of the Nexrum's cyborg units, to the interest of the men who have never heard of them before; her interruption is in hopes that Stanton will make use of Geist, who is the only soldier with experience against cyborgs. Suddenly, a private rushes in to tell both of them to come outside. Sgt. Robard, a soldier with whom Geist has gotten into a fight, lies twitching on the floor with both arms severed, Wong quite sinisterly sees it as proof of Geist's efficiency.

The next morning, Stanton and his men are preparing to begin their mission, only to be halted when Wong and Geist suddenly show up. Once again, Stanton refuses to accept Geist, especially after what happened yesterday, keeping him as a reserve without armor. In the jungle, Geist takes effortless care of their encounters, eventually they reach the temple to discover a Nexrum ship armed with a large cannon. Geist and the soldiers quickly occupy the base, taking the enemy forces prisoner. Wong and Stanton investigate the ship, when suddenly the soldiers are ambushed by cyborgs piloting Nexrum machines. 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 Nexrum to fire the ship's cannon at their own city, which is loaded with nuclear weapons, and it's been ordered by Earth. With no way to stop the ship, Stanton and Geist take off to destroy the engines, but before they go any further, Stanton makes it clear that Geist is to tell no one of Earth's involvement with this plan, even if Geist outlives him, he must not mention it. The two of them battle with a machine that is guarding the engines, by the end of it Stanton is fatally wounded, and his armor covered in oil leaking from the enemy machine. With his view on Geist finally re-evaluated, Stanton delivers one final order, to don his armor and take out the ship's cannon. Geist successfully does so, tangling briefly with the same machine after he discovers its connections are still active, and prepares to hijack the jet section of it. Geist escapes just in time as a defense unit destroys the reactor circuit controls in the cockpit, destroying part of the ship's thrusters, causing it to dive into the temple. Wong cries out as she sees Geist fly past, unable to save her.

The temple goes up in an enormous explosion, and a Regular Army patrol discovers Geist waiting to be picked up. Before a jury, Geist does not speak of what happened in the mission, remembering Stanton's orders. For this, Col. Krutes comes to the conclusion, based on evidence, that Geist is in some way responsible for the deaths of Regular Army personnel and for failure of the mission. Krutes expresses his wish to execute Geist, but because of President Ryan's input, he is instead to be imprisoned in stasis.

Production notes

During pre-production, M.D. Geist was not conceived as being on video. At the initial draft stage, the working title was “Death Force” and the protagonist’s name was Patrick. The story involved an unstable soldier imprisoned on a spaceship drifting through space, who 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 Sanjo, 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 I: Most Dangerous Soldier (Director's Cut) and M.D. Geist II: Death Force, CPM Manga released a comic book adaptation written and drawn by Tim Eldred with Ohata as guest artist. This comic was preceded by Ground Zero, and served as a more refined version of the original 1986 OVA, in which several details were explained better to make up for some of the plot holes present in the original version. Nexrum is also known as "Negstrom" in the comics, and Krutes' name goes by the original Japanese romanization of "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