Trivia / MD Geist

• Adored by the Distributor: Odds are that if it wasn't for just how much John O'Donnell apparently loved this anime, it wouldn't be as remembered as it was today. Not only did O'Donnell fund a director's cut (which not only restored deleted footage and added new scenes, but it also corrected some animation errors)^note it's not clear if he personally funded it or if the company did at his behest, but he even funded the sequel and made Geist the "spokesmecha" for the company's U.S Manga Corps branch. While the OVA did sell well, it was likely only because of how much CPM pushed it.
• Approval of God: Koichi Ohata is known for his appreciation of fan works relating to Geist. Such as when Ohata himself saw a customised Revoltech figure of Geist made by a fan in 2009.
• Blooper: Two pretty noticeable ones in the English dub during the final battle:
  • Due to a flub, when Hans is shot in the back he cries out for Sakamoto instead of when the latter was earlier crushed by a Brain Palace drone like in the original Japanese.
  • In the elevator when Krutz and Geist go down to the main Brain Palace computer, Krutz blames Geist for the death of his men, telling him "No...you killed them all!". The English dub for some reason attributes this line to Geist, making it seem like another bone he has to pick with Krutz.
• International Coproduction: Averted with the original release, but played straight with both the Director's Cut and Death Force, funded by Central Park media and animated by Zero-G Room for both.
• The Other Darrin: Pretty much everyone in the first OVA got redubbed for the Director's Cut no matter how minor the role. Some notable examples:
  • Perhaps due to unavailability or him being more expensive by then, Geist was redubbed for the Director's Cut of the first OVA from Norio Wakamoto to Kazuhiro Nakata. Nakata would then reprise the role for Death Force.
  • Vaiya was voiced by Fumi Hirano in the original 1986 version of the OVA. For the Director's Cut she was redubbed by Rica Matsumoto. Death Force has her recast a third time, now voiced by Rika Fukami.
  • Krutz in the 1986 version is voiced by Akio Nojima. For the Director's Cut Unshō Ishizuka took over the role.
• Troubled Production: Koichi Ohata was 23 and very inexperienced when he worked on the first OVA. He refused to make compromises to his vision and mecha designs, with him apparently key framing a lot of the OVA's sequences himself, because he was scared of it going off-model.
  • As an example, when he was showing his animation staff the drawing of Geist in his armour, the reaction from the animators was "take out some of those lines!"
  • As a result of Ohata's micromanaging the animators got frustrated to the point where it's rumored they were planning to mutiny.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Sokihei M.D. Geist: Complete Collection Record booklet revealed a few details on the original draft for the OVA:
    • Geist's name was originally Patrick and he was more of a typical hot-blooded mecha protagonist.
    • MD didn't stand for Most Dangerous, but rather Mad Dog.
    • The first draft of the story took place entirely on a prison spaceship, were Patrick despite his imprisonment would have been seen as the Only Sane Man due to the crew and guards basically going insane due to being in space for so long.
    • The main obstacle in the story was the ship's computer, which kills the entirety of the crew after seeing it as being "inoperable" due to their said earlier mental stress.
    • Vaiya's earlier incarnation was a female soldier who wouldn't have shown any romantic interest in the lead.
    • The general plot after that was mostly the same as the final film, including a Krutz analog that would have attempted to kill Patrick while destroying the computer. Later drafts would expand to include a planet that the ship presumably reached at the end.
  • Geist's power armor was originally designed to be able to merge with another bigger mecha but to keep the number of mechs (and budget) low it was left on it's own.
  • The 2002 DVD put out by Central Park Media has storyboards as extras which show scenes that weren't animated, such as the final battle being in a full hall of Final Strikers.
• Working Title: Death Force. Which became the name of the offensive program in the first and the subtitle of the second.