Things continue to get very interesting.
So the Megazone reboot seems to still be a thing, but some other company claims it owns the rights, because around 2022 a 'disgruntled employee' sold them under the table to others who now claim AIC RIGHTS stole it from them. Apparently said company used to own the company, in the bad old days when studio ownership was being tossed around like a hot potato until they just became AIC RIGHTS and shut down in-house production? Maybe? I'm not sure?
Apparently the likely culprit was booted out around the same time Masahiro Inoue became the face of the company (I THINK Tooru Miura still owns AIC Rights as a whole - it makes sense he's doing a Megazone reboot, I suppose, because that was what made the OVA boom what it was, it was what put him and other AIC cofounders on the map, it's a symbolic rebirth thing) and is a former Gainax board member from before some sort of 2019 sexual assault scandal. No surprise the kinda person who was managing Gainax in its twilight years did something this scummy.
It looks like AIC Rights slapped down a lawsuit and the other guys folded fast, though. More concerning is the note that Toei Agency being in joint copyright with AIC was mysteriously removed from the latter's website in 2023 -- this is bad because AIC needs that sweet sweet Toei cash if they want to make something good.
Side note - do you elder statesman of Otakudom still like the original MZ23? I get it was a big deal back in the day, I get it was historically important, but the first part is this awkward compilation movie beast which lacks forward momentum in scenes where it really needs it and Part 2 isn't much better despite being made as a singular-focus project.
So the Megazone reboot seems to still be a thing, but some other company claims it owns the rights, because around 2022 a 'disgruntled employee' sold them under the table to others who now claim AIC RIGHTS stole it from them. Apparently said company used to own the company, in the bad old days when studio ownership was being tossed around like a hot potato until they just became AIC RIGHTS and shut down in-house production? Maybe? I'm not sure?
Apparently the likely culprit was booted out around the same time Masahiro Inoue became the face of the company (I THINK Tooru Miura still owns AIC Rights as a whole - it makes sense he's doing a Megazone reboot, I suppose, because that was what made the OVA boom what it was, it was what put him and other AIC cofounders on the map, it's a symbolic rebirth thing) and is a former Gainax board member from before some sort of 2019 sexual assault scandal. No surprise the kinda person who was managing Gainax in its twilight years did something this scummy.
It looks like AIC Rights slapped down a lawsuit and the other guys folded fast, though. More concerning is the note that Toei Agency being in joint copyright with AIC was mysteriously removed from the latter's website in 2023 -- this is bad because AIC needs that sweet sweet Toei cash if they want to make something good.
Side note - do you elder statesman of Otakudom still like the original MZ23? I get it was a big deal back in the day, I get it was historically important, but the first part is this awkward compilation movie beast which lacks forward momentum in scenes where it really needs it and Part 2 isn't much better despite being made as a singular-focus project.