Ask John: Is M.D. Geist Really the Worst Anime Ever?
Question:
MD Geist is an anime film that has a lot of people divided. Some people think it’s pretty awesome while others insist that it’s a total crapfest. What’s your personal opinion about the movie? And why do you think the fans are so divided?
Answer:
Having not watched the 1986 Sokihei M.D. Geist OVA in more than ten years, I rewatched it to refresh my recollection for this discussion. Specifically, I watched the original 1986 edit, not the 1996, extended “director’s cut” that inserts five minutes of new animation. The OVA is well known among American otaku because of its reputation as one of the very worst anime ever. In reality, it’s actually not really that bad. While not good, there are certainly many anime that are worse. M.D. Geist’s reputation has as much to do with surrounding circumstances as with the anime itself.
The story of a bioenginered super soldier eager to get back into action has a number of technical weaknesses. There are evident animation flaws and a few shots seem to be missing. The climactic battle is frequently incomprehensible due to choppy editing and choreography. The narrative is full of holes. The motorcycle gang Geist leads literally vanishes from the story without explanation half way through the narrative. No explanation is provided for the activity or fate of the other “Most Dangerous” soldiers besides Geist. How Geist escaped from his imprisonment is never explained. Why the “Death Force” doomsday countdown launched when the president died is never explained. However, considered in context, M.D. Geist is quite representative of its era – the “golden era.”
Golden age anime are often typified by the inclusion of gratuitous nudity, gore, highly detailed artwork, and stories that prioritized impression over internal logic. M.D. Geist adheres to every one of those characteristics. M.D. Geist is partially criticized for being little more than gratuitous exploition, but in fact even many of the most highly regarded anime of its time also included unnecessary nudity and gore, such as Megazone 23 parts 1 and 2, and the Macross movie. If M.D. Geist hadn’t been thrust into the spotlight by its American distribution, it would probably be just as obscure now as numerous other similar and comparable contemporary sci-fi action OVAs like Hell Target, Ladius, Dragon’s Heaven, Hagane no Oni, Ohayo Althea, and Legaciam. Actually, even with it’s numerous flaws and weaknesses, the M.D. Geist OVA is still technically equal or better than several other anime distributed in America at the same time, including Crystal Triangle, Dog Soldier, Roots Search, Lily C.A.T., Harmegedon, and Mad Bull 34. The difference is relative profile.
Central Park Media, the original American distributor for the OVA, made the M.D. Geist character the logo for its prominent U.S. Manga Corps label. CPM sponsored the production of the 1996 Director’s Cut, the 1996 M.D. Geist 2: Death Force OVA, and an American comic book adaptation. In effect, CPM unwisely placed M.D. Geist on an elevated pedastal, inviting justified criticism. Even though contemporary American releases like Dog Soldier and Roots Search, and Japanese releases like Riki-Oh 2 are much worse, they were smaller, easily overlooked targets while M.D. Geist was the masthead of America’s foremost anime distributor at the time.
Time has been ironically kind to M.D. Geist. It’s reviled reputation has somewhat diminished into obscurity and nostalgia. American fans now appreciate its theme song performed by fan favorite vocalist Hironobu Kageyama. And in the contemporary anime era of timid, indecisive harem anime protagonists and conflicted high school boys, a cult of fans have grown fond of Geist’s macho, aggressive, masculine persona. The M.D. Geist OVA isn’t the best example of golden era anime, but it does serve as a reminder of an era when hand drawn anime was characterized by exceptionally detailed mechanical designs, intricately drawn explosions and collateral damage, and the attitude that anime didn’t have to make sense as long as it was exciting and visually dynamic. It may sound cliché to say that M.D. Geist isn’t anywhere near the worst anime ever; it’s not even among the very worst anime ever released in America. But it’s also true. M.D. Geist is certainly not good, and there are many contemporary anime that are worse. But M.D. Geist invited, and was made to invite criticism like no other contemporary title.
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I wouldn’t say the anime’s bad, but the sequel’s worse. For me, the weakest one I’ve seen has got to be Bio-Hunter.
On top of those already mentioned I would have to say some of the fighting game based anime released in the U.S. have been simply atrocious. Some examples include Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, Tekken and for some, Voltage Fighter Gowkaiser. Kind of weird that 3 of those are SNK titles.
Ok. M.D. Geist was bad and John is completely right. I have seen worse now and then, yet I still have a fondness for the….piece as it was one of the first anime titles I saw where I honestly felt like I was too young to watch it (12 at the time).
Now, Art of Fighting was not a bad game (The Original that is). Like any fighting series, it has had its ups and downs, but AoF has been one of the best SNK fighters period as a collection. Tekken was a game first and the anime is based on it. And Tekken’s plot didn’t get stupid until Tekken 4.
Worst anime I have ever seen may be Eiken.
True, many of the SNK anime adaptations, among other video game adaptations, are pretty bad. But they didn’t surface until the 90s, five years or more after M.D. Geist. So I didn’t mention them because I wasn’t trying to just cite bad anime; I wanted to put M.D. Geist into context of mid 80s anime.
Oh, Eiken may have minimal story and it may be very exploitative, but just it’s good character design and animation quality alone prevent it from being an especially bad anime. It may not be tasteful or appealing, but its production values are too good for it to be objectively considered “bad anime.”
Perhaps one of the worst anime on a technical and artistic level that I can think of is Spectral Force. It must have been done in some otaku’s apartment, there’s no other explaination for it.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the director, Koichi Ohata, as being a possible reason why MD Geist isn’t very good. Two of his other works, Genocyber and Cybernetics Guardian, aren’t that great either and have a lot of the same ridiculous story, violence and gore as MD Geist.
After watching Platonic Heart, I would put it up there with Tekken and other video game anime for worst ever
I agree with “lily cat” but personally I like “mad bull 34” and “md geist” they’re fun and exploitive.
Genocyber is great (at least the first episode is), but Cyguard sure is a piece of crap. It’s way worse than MD Geist. But the sequel of MD Geist is waaay worse than both. It’s probably one of the worst animes I have ever seen.
Crystal Triangle is so incredibly idiotic it’s great. Dog Soldier is good for a couple of laughs too. So is Mad Bull 34. The first episode anyway.
Harmageddon really doesn’t belong in that list IMO. That movie had quite a budget and it likes to brag about it (of course it doesn’t have much else to brag about…).
Otherwise I totally agree with you, John. I only saw MD Geist recently because of it’s “worser than worst” reputation and I was pretty disappointed. The story is messy and the animation has it’s shortcomings, but it’s hardly terribly bad.
If anyone really wants a taste of ultra terrible 80’s OVAs however, try your hands on some borderline hentai like Dokudami-sou, Mandaraya no Ryouta or the pit-of-pits, David no Hoshi. All titles mentioned before will suddenly look like high art. 😉