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| Hikaru/Rick Hunter prepares for battle. |
SOME THOUGHTS ON ROBOTECH - THE MACROSS SAGA:
There are those who see Robotech as an abomination - a "Frankenstein show" that disrespects its source material. Some Robotech detractors try to ignore its importance to bringing anime to the west with (much of) its original complexity intact. Others acknowledge this, but don't think it makes up for the results. I won't even get into the legal issues that Harmony Gold and Robotech created for its parent franchise outside Japan, except to say that these issues probably haven't helped the American series' reputation in the eyes of anime fans.
All of that said, I come not to bury Robotech but to praise it. At least, for the most part...
COMPLEX MATERIAL, MORE OR LESS INTACT:
I was there for mid-'80s US television. I remember what television was at the time. In previous "Japanimation" titles, material seen as too adult or inappropriate for young viewers was either altered or removed, and that easily could have been done here.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross was a series whose content challenged the confines of mid-1980s American after school cartoons. It included: a complex ongoing story; an interracial romance; major character deaths; a running theme about the power of popular culture to affect change; and the realization that a victory in war does not mean things won't get messy in peacetime. All of this remains reasonably intact in Robotech.
Inevitably, there is some watering down. Standards and practices for the US were different than for Japan, so a lot of sexual innuendo was trimmed back along with a few "peekaboo" nudity shots. Some of the detail supporting the themes is sanded away, such as observations about the Zentradi's lack of maintenance of their own vessels.
Still, in an era in which interracial romance would be the topic of a "very special episode" of a prime-time show, Roy and Claudia's relationship only loses a bit of a carnal edge while remaining otherwise strongly present - and with the interracial element never once commented on by the characters. Major character deaths remain (no one goes "to space hospital" and sort of stays there), and the major themes are entirely recognizable.
I was impressed at the time, and I remain impressed at how much it stands out from most of its '80s counterparts.
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| Rick preens about his skill in the first episode... only to spend the next three shows repeatedly screwing up. |
CHARACTERS WHO ARE NOT PERFECT, AND A HERO WHO IS NOT "THE BEST:"
Robotech tends to put plot above characterization, the exact reverse of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Even so, and even in its Americanized form, the heroes are three-dimensional people who sometimes behave in ways that are petty, stupid, or selfish. This was not standard for even most "grown-up shows" of the time.
There's an important thing to note about Rick Hunter, our hero. He is introduced as a hot-shot pilot, intruding on an air show with renegade stunts. We're coded to expect him to be the perfect ace. But when he gets behind the controls of the completely unfamiliar Veritech... He has no idea what he's doing, he is in over his head, and he quickly crashes. Then he spends the next two episodes repeatedly crashing. Only after he joins the military and actually learns how to fly the complicated military vehicle is he able to do so effectively.
Even then, Rick's true gift ends up being as a leader. Max, one of his subordinates, is explicitly shown to be a better pilot. Roy, his mentor, is probably also more skilled. In an era in which the hero was pretty much always "the best," Rick... is not. He thinks fast. He has a strong survival instinct. Once he's in a leadership position, he gives good orders. But in the cockpit, there are pilots who are superior, something you didn't often see in television or movies of the era.
Again, this is all as it was in Super Dimension Fortress Macross - but I'm impressed, and given the era also a litte surprised, that the dialogue wasn't adjusted to downplay Rick's early incompetence.
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| Rick and Minmei are trapped in a sealed-off section of the ship. Unlike in Macross, they never stop talking. |
FLAWS:
I'm not going to pretend there aren't issues. Robotech has a consistent issue with dialogue. The first episode sees Claudia whining to Lisa that she is "not (her) mother." The young women making up the SDF-1's bridge crew seem to be constantly wailing. A fight scene between Rick, Ben, and Zentraedi commander Bree'tai is practically narrated, with the humans telling each other what is happening on screen through the entire sequence. Dialogue generally feels dumbed-down and juvenile - not always, but often enough to be a consistent issue.
Robotech also seems terrified of silence, with many moments that were held to good effect in Macross now slathered over with voice over or off-screen dialogue. This is particularly visible in the fourth episode, The Long Night, which sees Rick and Minmei trapped in a sealed off section of the SDF-1. In Macross's counterpart episode, Lynn Minmay, there are stretches in which they explore without dialogue. In Robotech, they natter non-stop. Some of the dialogue is actually pretty decent... but they just won't shut up, not even for an instant. It's an issue throughout the series, but it's particularly evident there.
Changes to the original (sometimes pointless ones) result in inconsistencies. This starts right away, with the narration on the first episode establishing a different backstory for Robotech than for Macross. When the alien ship crashed on Earth, Macross tells us that the governments of the world immediately went to war for control over it. In addition to finding that fairly likely, it also makes sense of why relatively young characters (Roy, Claudia, Misa) were all affected by previous conflicts.
In Robotech, the crash landing caused the world to stop warring with itself to prepare for a potential outside threat. Fine, that works too... except that, since ten years pass between the crash and the events of the series, it makes a hash of these characters in their early to mid-twenties being veterans. Lisa's fiancée left Earth to avoid a war that ended ten years ago. So... Lisa was engaged at 14? And if Roy shot down 100 planes in peacetime, he wouldn't be a hero - He'd be a serial killer with a very peculiar MO.
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| Pop star Minmei reunites with Rick. In Robotech, she's become a spoiled brat in the interim. |
THE SABOTAGE OF LYNN MINMEI:
Even in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Lynn Minmay is self-absorbed to a degree that I found annoying. Still, self-absorption was her only real sin, and that's hardly uncommon among teen girls even when they aren't abruptly elevated to "pop idol" status.
Macross's Minmay grows as she goes through her own series arc. By the series' end, she realizes that she and Hikaru have grown independently in different directions, and she decides to go off to find new, more authentic songs to sing. She's not exactly my favorite character, but she unmistakably matures.
Robotech's Minmei actually regresses. She showed more common sense than Rick during The Long Night, voicing hesitance about eating all their rations, only to transform in the second half of the series into a spoiled brat. Nor is this an accident of translation - It's done on purpose. Moments of thoughtfulness from Macross are removed, and a scene in which she deals with her fans is rewritten to be scornful.
Any question that this is a deliberate choice evaporates with the episode Private Time. In the Japanese original, Kaifun has drummed up a concert without her knowledge, specifically to keep her from spending time with Hikaru. In Robotech, this is changed so that it's an interview that she was already aware of, making her into... well, a brat throwing a temper tantrum.
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| Misa, Hikaru, and company receive promotions. The ADV dub keeps the Robotech ranks rather than sticking to the original. |
MACROSS'S ADV DUB:
I chose to watch Super Dimension Fortress Macross using the subtitled Japanese version. It should be noted that an Engish dub was released by ADV. I'm going to admit to having some issues with the dub. It retains certain changes made for Robotech, notably the shuffling of the characters' ranks after their promotions. Yes, the Robotech ranks make more sense (the characters effectively are promoted two full grades fairly early in Macross)... but if the point is to make a faithful dub, then surely it goes against that point to "fix the mistakes."
I also have problems with some of the voice acting. Vic Mignona, whatever his other issues, is a generally decent voice actor - but his Hikaru sounds like a cartoon chipmunk. Having Mari Iijima reprise Minmay sounded like a good idea on paper, and it helps to make the transitions between dialogue and songs more seamless... but her voice aged in the two decades between the original series and the dub, and she simply doesn't convince as a teenager.
Oh, and what can you say to a dub that persistenty mispronounces the show's own title? Seriousy, refer to the opening song for each episode and you can hear that it's "Mac-ross," as in "Mac-intosh," not "Muh-cross," as in "Mud-lurker."
It should be noted that my opinion is just that - an opinion - and the dub has its fans. For me, this is one anime where I'll happily stick with the sub.
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| The heroes prepare to fight for the survival of their homeworld. |
TWO GOOD SERIES - THOUGH ONE IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER:
I don't think there's any real question that Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a better show than Robotech's Macross Saga. Though it has its own faults (the epilogue arc feels vaguely half-finished in both versions), it is internally consistent, and its characters and themes have more dimension than the Americanized version does. Macross's "protoculture" feeds the theme about the power of popular culture, while Robotech reinvents "protoculture" as a simple plot device.
Still, this point must be emphasized: Macross being better doesn't make Robotech bad!
On this rewatch, even as I mentally noted the American show's flaws, I was legitimately impressed by its ambition. For its era, timeslot, and target audience, Robotech is considerably above-average, and I think it remains well worth watching in its own right. I was also surprised to find that it's far more faithful to the Japanese original than I'd been led to believe. Things are watered down and simplified, and some emphasis has been shifted to make it more plot-focused and less character-focused; but there's no point at which I felt that a given Robotech episode was unrecognizable from the original.
If you're going to watch just one version, make it Macross. But Robotech's Macross Saga has its own virtues, and I'm personally glad to have spent time watching both variations.
Next: The Masters
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