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| A planned offensive goes disastrously awry. |
Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross: Makeup
Original Air Date: Apr. 22, 1984. Writer: Jinzô Toriumi. Director: Tsukasa Sunaga.
Robotech: Southern Cross
Original Air Date: Apr. 25, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Supervising Director: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - SOUTHERN CROSS
The alien ship, which Intelligence is able to determine belong to a race known as the Zor, continues to hang in the sky over Gloire. The military decides to draw the aliens out with an attack, while Jeanne and her 15th squadron are ordered to take up positions guarding the city.
The attack goes awry, with the Zor forces easily outmaneuvering the humans. When the aliens launch a counteroffensive on the human Space Center, Jeanne and her troops join the fray - in direct violation of their orders!
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
The Earth declares war on the Robotech Masters, and the military prepares an offensive against the huge ship that remains in orbit. Dana Sterling and her 15th squadron are ordered to take up positions guarding the city.
The attack goes awry, with the enemy forces easily outmaneuvering the humans. When the aliens launch a counteroffensive against the Earth base, Dana and her troops join the fray - in direct violation of orders!
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| Andrzej tries to stop Jeanne from violating orders. Again. |
CHARACTERS:
This makes two out of two Southern Cross episodes in which Jeanne has violated orders, only to be rewarded for it. In Prisoner, she breaks out of the brig, physically assaulting multiple superior officers along the way. In this episode, she leaves her post... which, had the Zor shifted targets to attack the city, would have been a disastrous decision. Worse, Southern Cross seems to thus far believe that we should find her behavior endearing.
As was true of the previous episode, Robotech tries to correct for this. False Start was re-edited so that Dana's promotion to squad leader came after a battle in which she actually was following orders; and though she violates orders in this episode, it ends up being more a case of anticipating them; Robotech takes pains to show that her squad was about to be called up anyway.
Advantage: Robotech.
NARRATION:
Shifts in the story to tie this into the larger Robotech narrative make some narration a necessity. Unlike the last episode, though, this installment goes overboard. The Robotech narrator doesn't just recap events and slip in exposition to tie this to Macross; at one point, he actually tells us what we're about to see before the scene in which we see it!
As before (and as I suspect will be the default), the only Southern Cross narration is limited to a brief recap and "next time" teaser.
Advantage: Southern Cross
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| Marie mocks Jeanne for reading a fashion magazine, in a scene that was cut from Robotech. |
CUTS AND ALTERATION:
Post-Meeting Conversation between Jeanne and Marie Is Cut: After the briefing, Marie and Jeanne have a conversation in the hall... but only in Southern Cross, as the scene was cut from Robotech. It's a brief character exchange: Jeanne drops a women's magazine, which inspires mockery from Marie about both that and Jeanne's desire for promotion. The helps to establish the rivalry between the two while also foreshadowing Jeanne's promotion to lieutenant.
Marie's Assignment Is Shuffled Between Scenes: In Southern Cross, Marie is never assigned to the attack on the Zor. In Robotech, she is explicitly meant to be part of the attack on the Robotech Masters... which, since she isn't part of the attack, requires the narrator to tell us that the orders got changed at the last minute. I'm not sure why that alteration was made at all; once it was obvious that they had to patch it for the episode to make sense, wouldn't it have been easier to have just rewritten the earlier scene?
Cleaner Editing of the Battle: In both versions, the aliens attack the base, prompting Marie and her squad launch. The editing of the battle in Southern Cross is rather confusing. Given the many shots of fighters being destroyed on the ground in Southern Cross, I could not for the life of me figure out how Marie's group even managed to get airborne. Robotech cleans this up, removing several of the shots of destruction and inserting dialogue that clarifies that the attackers are still approaching Marie's position. This helps to make the sequence far more coherent.
More Fanservice Nudity: Jeanne takes another shower, complete with butt and breast shots. Then, when Lana reveals her promotion, she's so shocked that she drops her towel and swoons naked at Lana's feet. Robotech shortens the shower nudity and removes the last bit of the scene entirely.
Dana Makes a Few Jokes During the Ceremony: The episode ends with the promotion ceremony. Southern Cross just has Jeanne arrive in her hovertank, switch it to robot mode, and then form the illusion of rabbit ears. Robotech takes that a step further, with Dana making several rabbit-related puns to close out the episode... which is entirely in-character and makes the scene feel a bit more complete.
Advantage: Robotech.
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
I think this is going to be a norm throughout the "Masters" episodes: The Robotech incidentals are just plain better during action pieces or tense moments. As a result, the combat bits play better in the American series.
Advantage: Robotech
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| Jeanne's promotion ceremony. Apparently, she should have turned left at Albuquerque. |
OVERALL ADVANTAGE - ROBOTECH:
What was true of Macross proves even truer here: Robotech's incidental music gives a hefty lift to action-heavy installments. Even discounting the music difference, Robotech improves several problems with the heroine. Dana still tilts toward being irresponsible, but she isn't as insanely negligent as Southern Cross's Jeanne comes across. Add in a few editing fixes that make the battle scene play out more coherently, and this is one case in which the Americanized version noticeably improves on the original.
OTHER MUSINGS:
Two episodes in, I can already tell that Southern Cross does not have the same level of writing as Macross did. The characters are fairly shallow, and there doesn't seem to be the same thematic strength. Which isn't to say that Southern Cross is bad. If anything, I find a lot of the animation to be more fluid than in the previous series. Both episodes have benefited from a fast pace, and the scripts effectively skip between light comedy and action. It's a more superficial series, but thus far it's enjoyable enough on its own merits.
The most interesting element is that the humans are the aggressors so far. Not so much in Robotech: There, it's been made clear that the Masters have come to take control of the protoculture factory, meaning they have initiated this situation, and Dana's Story showed them starting the initial battle. But in Southern Cross, both engagements were clearly started by the humans, with the Zor merely responding. That can't be an accident, and I look forward to seeing where this thread goes.
Overall Rating - Southern Cross: 6/10.
Overall Rating - Robotech: 7/10.
Previous Episode: Prisoner/False Start
Next Episode: Star Angel/Volunteers
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