Story: 2
MD Geist starts out with a fairly cool Mad Max turned cyberpunk vibe, as mecha and soldiers in powered armor slaughter each other with various machine guns, lazers, and cybernetic appendages. Our hero, Geist, is then seen wandering around the desert beating up random buff dudes clad in lots of spikes and leather, and before long finds himself the leader of a biker gang. It's all down hill from there.
After jumping into some random fight and beating up a bunch of mini mecha with spears and knives (srsly!), Geist decides to play soldier and joins the army. There's some random briefing about a doomsday device and suddenly Geist and four or five other soldiers are attacking a heavily-guarded fortress swarming with mecha. Yeah, you guessed it, Geist kicks a bunch of ass, fights a main boss, and after a totally random plot twist the show's over.
The story is tired and generic, but unfortunately that is the least of its worries. The main issue here is that it doesn't make any freaking sense. What's up with the random doomsday device, and why is the government of earth entrusting its future to four or five mooks and some random biker who just joined the army for the lulz? No wonder they're getting their asses kicked. Of course, you could argue that a show like MD Geist doesn't need a decent story, but there are other ultraviolent shows (Ninja Scroll, Guyver, Hellsing Ultimate), that not only make sense but have a badass story as well, so that's no excuse.
Art / animation: 7
MD Geist is an old series, but it looks pretty good. It has its fair share of still shots but that is typical of low-budget anime. The art itself looks quite good, fortunately. The mecha and powered armor designs are cool, and the landscapes have an appropriately gritty, desolate feel, especially the urban environments. The character designs show a suitable 80s attitude and the fights are animated decently.
Sound: 8
The characters in MD Geist are supposed to be cardboard cutouts of badassery and the seiyuu do an acceptable job. No Oscar material here, obviously, but nothing to complain about, either. The various machine sounds, explosions, and dakka dakka all sound great, and the velveetalicious 80s rock soundtrack fits the mood to a T. Again, it's nothing mind-blowing but it works.
Characters: 4
Nothing to see here, folks. MD Geist's characters are all wallpaper, including the hero. They are completely lifeless and completely uninteresting, except when they are kicking ass.
Geist is supposed to be a complete psycho hell-bent on destruction, but until the ending he just comes off as an ambitious guy with hardcore ninja skills. Geist is more or less rational and in control of his emotions for most of the OVA, as shown by his resistance to Vaiya's seduction and his manner of carrying himself during the encounter with the soldiers. For that reason the ending comes off as pretty contrived and stupid, even though it sounds cool on paper.
Vaiya, the 80's T & A, is also pretty dull. She's basically a manipulative bitch who tries to use Geist and fails. You won't care, trust me. The soldiers are just there to get their asses kicked and move the sorry excuse for a story forward. Nothing to like, nothing to hate either, really.
Enjoyment: 4
In theory, MD Geist is all about kicking ass and turning futuristic soldiers into piles of gibs. And to a certain extent, yes, it delivers. There are some cool moments, such as the scene when Geist jumps off his bike and impales a mobile suit pilot through the cockpit with a fucking spear. That's right, a fucking spear
Too bad the fights make up only about 35% of screen time, because the rest of the show is a black hole of stupidity and emptiness which will surely eat away at your brain cells. Furthermore, the end boss battle is not that great. Geist's creators possibly put slightly more thought into this battle than they did into the preceding scenes, but by then I was enraged by the nonsense story, and I sure as hell expected more than a WWF match with robot armor to make it worthwhile. There's just too much filler (or "story," as some would have it) in between the fighting, which makes Geist frustrating as hell to watch.
So in practice you are watching a 45 minute OVA for about 15 minutes of decent fighting. That is half an hour of time spent watching boring characters and a completely useless plot develop. You could spend that time flying a kite, saving starving ethernopians, inventing time travel, or for god's sake at least watching something that doesn't suck.
Overall: 4
MD Geist isn't the worst anime I've ever seen, it's just pointless. The story is godawful, the characters are dull, and even the battles and violence are fairly unimpressive. Avoid unless you're really bored or have a fetish for violent 80s anime.
