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| Kamujin Kravshera, "the ally killer," joins the Zentradi fleet... |
Original Air Date - Macross: Nov. 21, 1982.
Written by: Ken'ichi Matsuzaki. Directed by: Noboru Ishiguro, Ryô Yasumura.
Original Air Date - Robotech: Mar. 12, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Directed by: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - MACROSS:
The Macross has spent the last three days under constant Zentradi attack. This is all part of a trap being laid by Zentradi commander Britai and his archivist, Exsedol. Britai intends to lure the battle fortress to the abandoned human Mars base. While the beleaguered humans resupply, the aliens will engage gravity mines to ground the ship, allowing them to seize it fully intact.
Britai has called in reinforcements, a division under the command of Kamujin Kravshera. Exsedol is appalled. Though a brilliant commander, Kamujin has been labeled "the ally killer" for his willingness to not only sacrifice his old men, but even directly fire upon them. Britai believes he can keep Kamujin in check, threatening to revoke the younger man's command if he gets out of line.
As the Macross arrives on Mars, Misa Hayase recalls her own fiancé, who was declared dead when disaster hit the base. She requests permission to search for survivors - and she arrives just as the Zentradi trap is sprung...
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
The SDF-1 has spent the last three days under constant Zentraedi attack. This is all part of a trap being laid by Zentraedi Lord Breetai and his archivist, Exedore. They intend to lure the battle fortress to the abandoned human Mars base. While the beleaguered humans resupply, the aliens will engage gravity mines to ground the ship, allowing them to seize it fully intact.
Breetai has called in reinforcements, a division under the command of Khyron. Exedore is appalled. Though a brilliant commander, Khyron has been labeled "the backstabber" for tactics that have won battles at the expense of his own men.
As the SDF-1 arrives on Mars, Lisa Hayes recalls her own fiancé, who was declared dead when disaster hit the base. She requests permission to search for survivors - and she arrives just as the Zentraedi trap is sprung...
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| Misa and her fiancé, Riber, in happier times. |
CHARACTERS:
Britai and Exsedol may be the heroes' adversaries, but they don't come across as villains. With the series' central situation established, this episode brings in a genuine baddie. Kamujin/Khyron is introduced with his forces unfolding too close to the fleet, deliberately damaging Zentradi ships as part of a bet. His recklessness and disregard for authority make him a parallel character to Hikaru, minus any sense of moral compass.
The episode's focal character is Misa. We learn more about her background, with her long-ago engagement to the sensitive Riber, who transferred to Mars during the Unification Wars to avoid combat. It's suggested that she enlisted in the military in hopes of eventually joining him on Mars. The young Misa has a softer demeanor, indicating that his death was at least part of what led to her becoming more closed off.
Advantage: None.
CUTS AND ALTERATIONS:
Kamujin's Background Is More Violent Than Khyron's: When Exsedol protests the addition of Kamujin, the argument between hiim and Britai makes clear that Kamujin has been moved away from combat assignments as a result of his past behavior. Robotech's Khyron is made out to be more careless with his men than actively murderous.
Minmay's Reaction to Learning That Victory Announcements Aren't True: In both versions, Hikaru and Minmay listen to a shipwide announcement of victories against the Zentradi. This is a lie, and Hikaru tells her so. In both versions, she gives similar replies, saying that the command staff are clearly trying to keep up morale. But in Robotech, the scene is significantly shortened to very bad effect. Macross's Minmay digests his words, thinks about them, and then gives her input with a thoughtful look on her face. Robotech's Minmei delivers her line almost instantly, over an animation of her grinning and grabbing Rick's arm. Then she instantly switches topics, making her look like an airhead.
Capt. Global Orders the Collection of Supplies: After the Macross lands on Mars, Capt. Global sends trucks and mechs out to collect badly-needed supplies. Robotech snips this scene (gotta have time to sell those toys!), while the narrator lets us know they're collecting supplies on the way to the next scene.
Kamujin/Khyron Fire on an Impatient Soldier, with Very Different Results: Both versions of the episode see Kamujin/Khyron firing on an impatient Zentradi who refuses to wait for the signal to attack. In the Macross episode, this is followed by a close-up of the obviously dead pilot; Robotech not only removes the grisly shot, it goes the full A-Team and dubs in dialogue to makes it clear that Khyron (somehow) didn't actually harm the man.
Robotech's Bridge Crew Gets Very Emotional During Battle: When the battle starts, the members of Macross's bridge crew do their jobs properly as they report the status of the battle to the captain; their voices are urgent, but they are far from panicked. In Robotech, they're practically wailing about being doomed, with the captain trying to soothe them as he comes up with a plan. This is... um, not a change for the better.
Advantage: Macross.
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| Misa finds Riber's room. |
NARRATION:
Macross returns to its standard practice of light narration to open the episode, with the rest of the action being allowed to play out uninterrupted. As for Robotech. Well...
(Insert Picard face-palm here.)
The narrator just won't shut up!
The audience apparently cannot be trusted to comprehend that a dissolve from Lisa's face to an obviously much younger Lisa, complete with different color scheme surrounding her, is a flashback. So the narration tells us that it's a flashback, and then fills in the full relationship between Lisa and Riber before either of them begins speaking.
Later, the narrator has to inform us that Capt. Gloval has dispatched vehicles to collect supplies. This is covering a snipped Macross scene, so I'd normally say fair enough... except that it's already been established that they're here to resupply, so this wasn't really a gap needing plugged!
Worst of all is the ending. The Macross episode ends with Hikaru, having rescued Misa from the base, watching her in the hangar in silence as the show fades to black. This is effective, a wordless moment that allows the audience to interpret the characters' emotions for themselves.
...Except not in Robotech. The narrator blathers all over the scene, telling us exactly how Rick Hunter is feeling. He even intimates that Rick is starting to become interested in Lisa Hayes, something that, at this point in the story, feels extremely unlikely. At most, he's now seeing her as human, but nothing about this particular mission that would change his negative view of her. If anything, her behavior during the rescue should have him adding "hysterical idiot" to her list of her faults.
What's really happening here is that the narrator is rushing toward later story results. In effect, not only are viewers not trusted to interpret scenes for themselves... the story itself isn't trusted to unfold at its own pace!
At the risk of ranting (too late), I'll cut it here, simply adding that more than any episode up to this point, Bye-Bye Mars is really smothered by its narration.
Advantage: Macross. By about ten miles.
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
I'm torn here. The action/suspense scenes are, as usual, better served by Robotech's music than by Macross's. However, with this episode, Macross lands its first truly effective use of its incidental score.
At the climax, as Hikaru forcefully tears Misa away from the Mars base, a mournful score plays. This is sustained right up to the final fade-out, with no dialogue and minimal sound effects interrupting, making for a haunting close.
The music in the Robotech counterpart to this scene is fine. At least the producers don't repeat the previous episode's mistake of cuing up a track that doesn't fit the content. Still, even before Mr. Narrator intrudes, the music just isn't as effective as the original version.
Advantage: Macross.
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| Hikaru and Misa look out at Mars as they fly away from it. |
OVERALL ADVANTAGE: MACROSS:
Bye-Bye Mars is a very good Macross episode. It provides backstory for Misa, introduces an effective new villain, and even finds time for all of the various members of the ensemble. It moves along at a nice clip, and it ends on an effective nonverbal moment.
Bye-Bye Mars is a frustrating Robotech episode. The same revelations happen, and the same story is told. It even still works for the most part. If only the narrator would stop stepping on every emotional moment! More than anything else, the narrator makes the Robotech version noticeably worse than the original.
OTHER MUSINGS:
This episode marks the point at which Robotech's altered backstory has created a total mess. Macross's Unification Wars create a cohesive history that works for all the characters. In Robotech, the first episode explicitly told us that Earth stopped its wars roughly ten years earlier. But the Unification Wars are a big part of this episode; avoiding combat motivated Riber to transfer to Mars, and the war is behind the base's current state.
It's all consistent in Macross. Robotech, however, keeps stumbling over the bizarre situation of a world that's been at peace for a decade and yet somehow is stuffed to the brim with twentyish characters who are either war veterans (Roy) or whose lives were upended by war (Lisa). I doubt many viewers noticed at the time; the young me certainly did not. But re-watching as an adult, the inconsistency is glaring - and frustrating because there was no actual reason for the first episode to have even made that change!
Probably the best thing for me to do going forward is to just pretend the backstory is the same for both series. If Robotech is going to forget that it made that (very large) change, then I might as well do the same...
Overall Rating - Macross: 8/10.
Overall Rating - Robotech: 6/10.
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