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| Fossils of war. A Zentradi skeleton lies with its treasure - a singing Minmay doll. |
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Lonely Song
Original Air Date - Macross: May 9, 1983.
Written by: Sukehiro Tomita. Directed by: Noboru Ishiguro, Ryô Yasumura.
Robotech: The Robotech Masters
Original Air Date - Robotech: Apr. 11, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Supervising Director: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - MACROSS:
Minmay feels restless. She's the biggest star on what's left of the Earth, but she is unhappy and confesses to Kaifun that she no longer knows why she sings. After an argument with him, she decides to spend the night with her aunt and uncle at their restaurant, but her trip brings her little peace.
The Zentradi are also growing restless. Bred for war, more and more of them find they cannot adjust to their new lives. A minor incident occurs when two Zentradi walk away from their factory jobs and start trouble downtown. Hikaru tries to defuse the situation - but with no way to offer the aliens what they demand, what chance is there for a lasting peace?
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
The Zentraedi are growing restless. Bred for war, many of them simply cannot adjust to their new lives. An incident occurs when two Zentraedi walk away from their factory jobs and start trouble downtown. Rick tries to defuse the situation - but with no way to offer the aliens what they demand, what chance is there for a lasting peace?
Meanwhile, after an argument with Kyle, Minmei decides to visit her aunt and uncle. She spends the night in her old room at their restaurant, but the trip brings her little peace.
And unbeknownst to all of them, the Robotech Masters have detected the effects of the battle against Lord Dolza. Recognizing the energy signature as belonging to Zor's battle fortress - the site of their lost protoculture factory - the Masters decide they must come to Earth...
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| Minmay is unhappy in her new life. |
CHARACTERS:
It turns out that Hikaru is not completely clueless after all. When he runs into Misa, he lets her know that he added the photos she gave him to his album. He shares with Misa his worries about the growing Zentradi unrest. Hikaru very much wants to keep the peace, I think at least in part to prove Exsedol wrong in his conclusion that humans and Zentradi both enjoy fighting.
Minmay's visit to the restaurant seems to be an attempt to recapture the life she had on the Macross two years earlier. Like any attempt to relive an idealized version of days past, it is utterly doomed to failure. She witnesses Hikaru's standoff with the Zentradi, and she hears the lone Zentradi holdout calling after the others, invoking her as one of the reasons they came to Earth in the first place.
It's hard to say what she takes away from this. She returns to her life as a star, resolving that she will sing better than before. However, she also insists that she is now singing only for herself. This indicates that she's still trying to run away from who she's become, an effort every bit as doomed as hiding in the restaurant was.
Advantage: None.
NARRATION:
The Macross episode is bookended by a haunting visual, In the middle of the desert sits the skeleton of a Zentradi warrior, leaning back against his ship, holding in his hand the thing that convinced him to pursue a different life: a singing Minmay doll. Macross lets this play out with nothing but the sound of the wind, until the doll is dropped and begins to sing.
Naturally, Robotech has to stick narration over all of this, which greatly diminishes the impact.
Advantage: Macross.
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| The Robotech Masters decide to come to Earth. If this seems like it's from a different show... Well, that's because it is. |
CUTS AND ALTERATIONS:
The Robotech Masters: Robotech's critics have often dubbed it "the Frankenstein series." It mostly hasn't lived down to that pejorative, at least not within "The Macross Saga." However, this episode - for the first time (not counting opening titles) - actually does a bit of Frankenstein-ing, splicing in footage from Super Dimenison Cavalry Southern Cross to create a new scene, one that attempts to prepare viewers for the upcoming transition to "The Masters Saga."
I am sympathetic to the showrunners' dilemma. As of this episode, Robotech was a week and a half away from a massive shift in story, cast, and tone, and creating a connection between the old story and the new would help to keep viewers from switching off. But the scene is dull, the Masters droning on for a couple minutes to give a plot recap and bicker about Zor's fortress and protoculture. Also, the visual style is noticeably different from the surrounding episode. It looks like what it is: Footage dropped in from an entirely different series!
Lots of Little Cuts: Since the Robotech episode opens with the above scene, a lot of small cuts are made to the rest of the episode. Long scenes between Minmay and Kaifun, in particular, are cut to the bone, leaving this entire strand underdeveloped for Robotech's Minmei and Kyle. No individual cut is that substantial on its own... but when you line them all up, they throw the episode's tone and pacing badly off balance.
Hikaru Is Much More Sympathetic to the Zentradi than Rick: Hikaru seems determined to protect the Zentradi. He admits that he can't grant their request to return to the main fleet, but he seems genuine in wanting to hear them out. Robotech's Rick is much colder. At one point, he even berates the Zentraedi for how they're repaying humanity's generosity in taking them in. Yes, Rick, very generous of you; that lopsided battle with Lord Dolza's fleet definitely left you plenty of room to be picky about your allies, didn't it? After that crack, I'm sympathetic to the angry aliens!
Advantage: Macross.
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
Both episodes use their scores to good effect. Even the Robotech Minmei song that closes the episode works reasonably well, its downbeat tone a good match for the context.
Advantage: None.
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| Hikaru negotiates with two angry Zentradi. It doesn't go well. |
OVERALL ADVANTAGE: MACROSS:
One version opens on a haunting bit of visual poetry; the other opens on old men spouting Technobabble. I understand why Robotech used Southern Cross footage to stitch that scene together. I even understand why this episode was chosen, given that it's fairly light on story.
But understanding why these choices were made doesn't change that the Robotech version of this episode is harmed by that scene. The bookends of the Zentradi skeleton are disrupted, throwing off the structure of the episode. In addition, the cuts that make room for this new scene make a hash of the pacing.
OTHER MUSINGS:
I'm going to talk about the bookend just a little more, because the Macross version makes such good use of it. The image is simple yet meaningful: the decaying skeleton in the desert clutching a tiny doll - the symbol of the new and different life he wanted but never actually got... and the life that's failing to satisfy many of the Zentradi who survived to experience it. The episode moves from there to Minmay, botching a performance because, even though she's also survived to experience the life that she always wanted, she has become dissatisfied as well. Each image, character, and strand reflects the others, thematically unifying the episode from the start.
Where there's discontent, there is also going to be someone looking to benefit from it. That's where Kamujin (Khyron) comes in. With the Zentradi castaways at their most vulnerable, he offers the safety of familiarity, of belonging, and of the conflict that they've been conditioned to crave. He even promises to restore any miniaturized Zentradi to their full, giant size.
The war is over, and our heroes won. But two years later, with humanity's survival still in a fragile state, they seem to already be losing the peace...
All of this is effectively conveyed by Macross. But while all of this remains present in the Robotech episode, the added (unrelated) layer of the Masters throws it off balance, making the Americanized version of this episode into a choppy mess.
Overall Rating - Macross: 7/10.
Overall Rating - Robotech: 4/10.
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