M.D. Geist

M.D. Geist (装鬼兵M.D.ガイスト) 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.[1]

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.

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 Murphy,[2] 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. [3]

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 Chain Saw Massacre, and felt that the new technology afforded by video could produce something similar in Japanese animation.[4]

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.[5] 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”.[6] Another draft of the story focused on the intensely demanding conditions of the powered suit being crossed with the uncontrollable nature of the MDS.[7][8] 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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]

type	ova
title	Most Dangerous Soldier
director	Hayato Ikeda
writer	Riku Sanjo
music	Yōichi Takahashi
studio	Production Wave Zero-G Room (Director's Cut scenes)
released	May 21, 1986 March 1, 1996 (Director's Cut)
runtime	40 minutes 50 minutes (Director's Cut)

Synopsis

M.D. Geist I

M.D. Geist II: Death Force

M.D. Geist: Ground Zero

Production notes

Release

Adaptations

Reception

External links

References