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| The Zentraedi mistake a martial arts fantasy for a legitimate human military demonstration. |
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Micro Cosmos
Original Air Date - Macross: Mar. 13, 1983.
Written by: Hiroshi Ônogi. Directed by: Noboru Ishiguro, Tatsuya Kasahara.
Robotech: A New Dawn
Original Air Date - Robotech: Apr. 1, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Supervising Director: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - MACROSS:
It's the premiere of Minmay's movie! Shao Pai Long is a martial arts fantasy starring Minmay and her cousin, Kaifun. Hikaru comes to the movie wanting to support Minmay - but a love scene sees him fleeing the theater, where he stumbles into Capt. Misa Hayase. When an attack on the Macross results in an unplanned modular transformation, Hikaru and Misa are trapped in a corner of the ship, leading them to share some of their personal secrets and worries.
Meanwhile, the Zentradi intercept a transmission of the film's premiere. With "entertainment" a foreign concept, they mistake the impossible feats in the movie for a legitimate demonstration of human military might...
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
It's the premiere of Minmei's movie! Small White Dragon is a martial arts fantasy starring Minmay and her cousin, Kyle. Rick comes to the movie wanting to support Minmei - but a love scene sees him fleeing the theater, where he stumbles into Lt. Commander Lisa Hayes. When an attack on the ship results in an unplanned modular transformation, Rick and Lisa are trapped in a corner of the ship, leading them to share some of their personal secrets and worries.
Meanwhile, the Zentraedi intercept a transmission of the film's premiere. With "entertainment" a foreign concept, they mistake the impossible feats in the movie for a legitimate demonstration of human military might...
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| Cut off from everyone else, Hikaru and Misa have an actual, meaningful conversation. |
CHARACTERS:
In Macross, it's made clear that Minmay genuinely misses Hikaru. She is also growing weary of the nonstop attention that comes with stardom, musing after one unpleasant encounter that perhaps she should hire a bodyguard. Oddly, this makes her a lot more relatable than her Robotech counterpart, who remains as obliviously chirpy as ever.
This is a strong episode for Hikaru and Misa, who spend the second half with no company except each other. It's in these scenes where Macross really outshines Robotech, with character dialogue that feels more layered and more natural. In Macross, I found their interactions charming and funny. In Robotech, the dialogue feels more surface-skimming and artificial; the Rick/Lisa scenes remain the heart of the episode, but they just aren't as enjoyable as in the original version.
Advantage: Macross.
NARRATION:
Even with the handful of trims, most of the episode's scene transitions are perfectly self-explanatory... but the Robotech narrator barges into them anyway, helpfully telling us what we are watching while we are watching it. This is mostly just the usual mild annoyance, but at one point it actively hurts the episode: After Lisa admits that Sami is in her usual post, the episode cuts to Sami's struggles on the bridge. This is an amusing transition in Macross; in Robotech, the humor is killed by the narrator talking over it.
Advantage: Macross.
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| Minmay's agent pesters her the night before the premiere, in a scene that's much better in Macross than in Robotech. |
CUTS AND ALTERATIONS:
Minmay's Exhaustion: Macross's opening scenes establish that Minmay's schedule is wearing on her, along with the need to be pleasant even to despicable people. Her manager doesn't help, "jokingly" saying that he can't wait for the movie to come out so that he can schedule even more events for her. Later on, the manager bullies her for going out without an escort, forcefully taking her back to her hotel. All of these scenes are heavily trimmed in Robotech, with the dialogue simplified and the manager more friendly - which has the effect of making her less sympathetic.
The Premiere: In Macross, Minmay teases the director at the premiere for "scolding" her regularly during production. Then she starts singing the movie's theme song for the audience, and it's a fairly catchy tune. Robotech replaces the teasing with some bland dialogue about how Minmei hopes the audience likes her work. Then she sings... say it with me now... This Is My Time to Be a Star. And no matter how entertainment-starved the population of the ship is, they must be as sick of that song by now as I am.
"Culture" is Fun: The three spies watch the intercepted broadcast with their shipmates, bragging about knowing Minmay (which they don't) as the other crew members react with envy. In Macross, the spies comment on "culture" several times, which reinforces the running theme about the power of popular culture. Hikaru and Misa also comment on "the protoculture" that the aliens fear, clearly tying together the idea that what the aliens refer to as "protoculture" really is just civilian culture in general. All of this is removed or at least de-emphasized in Robotech, and the episode is the poorer for it.
Breetai Gets Pasted into the Second Half: In Macross, the second half of the episode stays mostly with Hikaru and Misa. Robotech inexplicably re-edits this so that Breetai and Exedore appear in a handful of shots in the second half. They don't actually do anything; one of these instances is literally just a cutaway to them standing there. It's as if the Robotech editors feared that there was too much talking and that the kids needed more aliens to stay interested.
Advantage: Macross.
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| Love at first sight: Max is instantly taken by Milia. |
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
Macross applies its music with restraint. Robotech forces "tense" music onto a pure dialogue scene with Rick and Lisa. This not only feels entirely out of place, but also kills what had been a reasonably good moment of character humor.
Advantage: Macross.
OVERALL ADVANTAGE: MACROSS:
The Macross episode is wonderfully observant in its characterizations. Minmay is more sympathetic than she's been in a long time, while Hikaru and Misa's interactions are charming and even funny. The Robotech episode flattens out all of this. The Rick/Lisa interactions still have some charm, but most of the humor is smothered by on-the-nose dialogue and poor music choices. Meanwhile, Robotech's ongoing crusade to destroy the character of Minmei continues, with dialogue changes wiping away her entirely sympathetic feelings of being exhausted and trapped by her new life.
OTHER MUSINGS:
This is a case in which every single change made for the Robotech episode diminishes the story and its characters. The Hikaru/Misa strand does some heavy lifting in moving their relationship forward; but while their scenes are the best parts of both versions of the episode, their interactions feels much more natural in Macross.
This is still far from the worst Robotech episode... but that's only because the original version is rather good, and there is a limit to the damage that can be done with clunky dialogue and ill-advised changes. In terms of the difference in quality between the original and the Americanized versions, however, I think this might be the installment that's suffered the most damage thus far.
Overall Rating - Macross: 7/10.
Overall Rating - Robotech: 5/10.
Previous Episode: Paradise Lost
Next Episode: Love Concert/Battle Hymn
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