Some Thoughts on Robotech: The Movies.

Original animation commissioned for Robotech: The Movie.

Robotech's 1985 run linked three distinct series into a single, multi-generational narrative. The episodes were sanitized for after-school viewers and for U. S. sensibilities and were Americanized in general. Still, it was the highest-profile early effort to present anime to Western audiences without directly dumbing down the themes.

As a young viewer at the time, I was spellbound. Most previous imported "Japanimation" titles were ones that had clearly been aimed at children in the first place, and they were further dumbed down for western audiences. Robotech strove to retain as much of that complexity as it could get away with. To young me, it felt as if I was watching an "adult" show that just happened to be in animated form.

I discovered the show when the second episode, Countdown aired. However, even the first episode was not Robotech's first broadcast...

Rick Hunter engages Zentraedi who are monitoring
(but not understanding) a human beauty pageant.

A BIZARRE PROLOGUE: CODENAME - ROBOTECH:

Execs had concerns about young American audiences being able to follow a complicated, ongoing narrative. Signs of this lack of confidence in their viewers permeate the series, from narration that occasionally feels all but omnipresent to such restating of plot points that I think Netflix used it as a template for its original films.

The single strangest attempt at handholding, however, is the "movie" that opened the series: Codename - Robotech.

A compilation film that covers roughly the first third of "The Macross Saga," Codename - Robotech was intended to make it easier for new viewers to follow the series. I'm honestly not sure how. The actual series opens with carefully paced introductions of both the characters and story elements. The movie clarifies that muddle of painstaking setup by instead offering... a context-free space battle in which characters we've never met rattle off Technobabble, with not a single explanation coming until a good ten minutes in.

The entire movie is a bit of an outlier. Unlike the other films, this was an introduction to the series rather than an attempt to continue it. Still, its very existence demonstrated Harmony Gold's lack of trust in its viewers to follow along; and its presentation, which prioritizes plot mechanics over characterization, foreshadowed Robotech's storytelling focus in contrast to the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which did the exact opposite.

Robotech: The Movie - Mark Landry and his girlfriend, Becky,
ride into an adventure that's been mostly forgotten. Thankfully.

"THAT'S A CANNON MOVIE!" ROBOTECH - THE MOVIE:

The success of Robotech's 85-episode run was enough to justify making a movie to bridge the gap between seasons. Unfortunately, the distribution deal was with Cannon Films under its most infamous owners: Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who became notorious for slashing budgets and meddling in productions, invariably to the detriment of the films they released.

With no time to create an original animated movie before the new season, Carl Macek fell back on what had worked for the series: adapting an anime, in this case popular original video animation Megazone 23. Macek reportedly delivered a passably faithful version... only to be told that there were "too many girls and not enough robots and guns," and that this was "not a Cannon movie."

This led to Macek tossing in roughly half an hour of footage from Southern Cross, necessitating deep cuts to Megazone. The result is a mess. Though I could pick out one or two episodes that I think are even worse, I'd label Robotech: The Movie as the series' creative low point. It was barely distributed, and it's largely forgotten today.

There are two silver linings, however. If not for Robotech: The Movie, I'm not sure I'd have ever actually watched Megazone 23, a highly influential work that's well worth watching for any science fiction fan. Beyond which, at least it pleased Menahem Golan, who boasted of the result: "Now that's a Cannon movie!"

The wedding of Rick and Lisa in Robotech: The Sentinels.

THE SEASON THAT WASN'T - THE SENTINELS:

After the first season's success, Carl Macek and Harmony Gold decided to pursue original animation for Season Two. Then the dollar/yen exchange rate shifted, making outsourced animation significantly more expensive. If this had happened a few months later, I suspect the season might have survived. With only three episodes complete, however, Harmony Gold decided that the expense was too much and canceled the project.

The Sentinels compiles the animation that was done into a movie. Fortunately, there is an arc: Rick Hunter balances his upcoming wedding to Lisa Hayes against preparations for the SDF-3's new mission, with the film ending after the wedding and just as the ship leaves Earth. This makes it feel less incomplete than it might have, even if it's evident that the most interesting part of the story is yet to be told.

I wouldn't label what exists as particularly good. Characters are bland, and the animators seem a lot more interested in the "B" plot, focused on the Invid invasion of the planet Rick's crew will soon visit, than in any of the scenes featuring the returning cast. Still, there are elements here that might have become interesting; and just having the casts of the three "generations" interacting with each other helps to unify the overall series.

Even so, based on what was produced, I'm not left with a sense that anything special was lost.

Young pilot Marcus Rush angrily confronts Scott Bernard in The Shadow Chronicles.

AN ATTEMPTED CONTINUATION - THE SHADOW CHRONICLES:

Almost two decades after The Sentinels, and almost certainly in part because of Robotech's healthy home video sales, Harmony Gold produced a continuation: The Shadow Chronicles.

The Shadow Chronicles is almost the flip side of The Sentinels. The earlier film focused mainly on the characters from "The Macross Saga," with smaller roles for a few "Masters" characters and a couple of nods to "The New Generation." In contrast, this film gives leading roles to Scott and Ariel from "New Generation," solid supporting roles to Louis from "The Masters" and to some crew members introduced in The Sentinels; and represents "The Macross Saga" only through a brief appearance by Rick Hunter.

I liked it better than The Sentinels. Unfortunately, it repeats one of the earlier movie's problems, in that it ends just as the story seems to be taking off. A sequel, Shadow Rising, was intended. Despite posting decent sales figures, though, Harmony Gold never managed to move forward with it. They've also never officially canceled it, leaving it in what seems likely to be a permanent state of limbo.

Love Live Alive: Lancer reunites with his friends.

A MINOR EPILOGUE - LOVE LIVE ALIVE:

To date, Robotech's final gasp is Love Live Alive.

I don't know whether or not this will be Robotech's final bow, as one more project keeps struggling out every decade or so. Still, there's an odd symmetry to it ending here. For most of the series' life, Robotech was made up of episodes of '80s anime series dubbed and edited to fit Carl Macek's multi-generational continuity. Love Live Alive carries on that tradition, adapting a music OVA that tied into Genesis Climber Mospeada; and as a compilation film, it provides a sort of mirror to the series' very first release, Codename - Robotech.

Genesis Climber Mospeada: Love Live Alive was a celebration of music. It had little dialogue, instead being almost all music, and it used its clips not to retell Mospeada's story but to punctuate emotions. Robotech reduces the concert to a single scene, with the rest being a bog-standard clip show. Judged on that basis, it isn't bad, and the frame scenes provide a bit of closure for the character of Lancer, but I wish Harmony Gold had retained the structure of the more memorable original version.

I didn't hate watching the Robotech re-edit. Unlike the Japanese original, however, Robotech: Love Live Alive did little to particular justify its own existence.

Lancer pauses in the ruins of a battlefield in Love Live Alive.

OVERALL:

I don't find the Robotech movies to be objectionable. At a minimum, they all manage to be passably entertaining. Even the awful Robotech: The Movie is bad in ways that are sometimes funny... and it's the main reason that I ended up watching the excellent Megazone 23.

But a bit like the Robotech version of Love Live Alive, the movies don't really justify their own existence. They don't make the series larger; The Shadow Chronicles, in particular, muddies the continuity, which just about held together through the 85 televised episodes.

Other opinions are always available. For me, however, the movies add up to nothing more than a handful of curiosity pieces. A viewer who stops watching after the television finale, Symphony of Light, honestly won't miss much if they chose to skip these - though at least they're not a painful experience to watch.

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Codename: Robotech.

Zentraedi warships close in on the SDF-1 as the film opens.

Original Air Date: Mar. 1, 1985. Running Time: 74 minutes. Written by: Carl Macek. Directed by: Robert V. Barron.


THE PLOT:

As the converted alien battle fortress SDF-1 rests in the ocean, having returned to Earth after two years away, Capt. Gloval prepares a report on the events that led to this moment. He recounts how the alien ship crash landed on Earth. The discovery of the existence of aliens possessing vastly superior technology led to a focused worldwide effort to reconstruct the battle fortress for human use.

The Zentraedi reached Earth just as the SDF-1 finally became operational. Thanks to the Veritech fighters created from the alien "Robotech," the humans were able to hold the aliens off long enough for the battle fortress to take off. However, a desperate space fold resulted in not only the ship, but also the entirety of Macross City, being transported into deep space.

Gloval recounts how the ship began its return voyage. It would be a long journey - with the Zentraedi chasing them every step of the way!

Rick, Ben, and Lisa are taken prisoner by the Zentraedi!

CHARACTERS:

Codename: Robotech is a heavily abridged version of the first thirteen episodes of the series. As such, the characters are reduced to their most obvious traits. Capt. Gloval and Lt. Commander Lisa Hayes come across most strongly, not least because Gloval is the one preparing the report and a number of scenes are ones showing them on duty on the bridge of the SDF-1. Even with them, we see Lisa as a stern military commander, but we don't see her emotional side at all.

Rick, who is the hero of the series, almost comes across as a supporting character. Since most of the plot-establishing scenes in the early episodes were focused on either the bridge crew or the Zentraedi, many of his scenes are heavily condensed or removed entirely. He comes to the fore in the second half, and we get glimpses of his infatuation with Minmei and his early sniping with Lisa, but there's little indication of him being a character of any depth.

In short, the film fulfills its function of introducing the major characters, but they are only shown in the broadest of strokes.

The heroes engage in a fistfight with
the giant Zentraedi commander, Breetai.

INCIDENTAL MUSIC:

Codename: Robotech makes a couple of misjudgments with regard to music, the biggest of these being the repetition of the same couple of tracks. I hope you like the main theme and the show's primary "battle score," because you are going to hear them a lot.

As I've noted in my episodic reviews, I don't think the Robotech theme works very well as incidental music. It's a superb '80s television theme, setting a tone that suits both this adaptation of Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the American audience that was Robotech's target. However, it's extremely bombastic, drawing attention to itself rather than supporting dramatic scenes. Magnify that issue exponentially here, where the theme is recycled seemingly once per Act, to a point that's somewhere between annoying and comical.


BACKGROUND:

Codename: Robotech was broadcast on March 1, 1985, the Friday before the first episode, Boobytrap, aired. The goal was to introduce the ongoing story and its complex mythology to an American after-school audience that would be made of kids not used to following complex ongoing narratives. The hope was to create a picture of the larger story to prepare them for watching it in single installments.

I think it's better viewed after the series. The first set of episodes are quite well-scripted overall and make a much better introduction to the narrative than this movie does. Still, on its own terms, Codename: Robotech is a decent abridgement of the "Macross Saga's" first Act.

Once it gets past a badly misjudged opening, at least...

Khyron disobeys orders while sneering.
So at least the film captures all of his nuances...

A MISJUDGED OPENING:

The goal may have been to clarify the series, but the 10-minute, context-free opening action sequence seems ready-made to confuse the heck out of series newcomers. Who are these people? Why are they so confident that the attacking aliens won't destroy the ship? What's this "pinpoint barrier" that they keep screaming about? Since nothing has been introduced, none of this means anything - It's just activity.

Not helping is some truly awful editing continuity. The sequence was pieced together from bits of multiple action scenes, and it shows. The SDF-1 transforms into robot mode to fight the Zentraedi. Then it's a ship again for a couple shots. Then it's a robot. Then it's a ship again. Macross offered plenty of action scenes with the ship in both modes, so it should have been possible to put this together with more consistency.

Once that sequence is done and the SDF-1 lands on Earth, things settle down, and then the film actually becomes enjoyable.

Rick battles the Zentraedi as the Miss Macross contest airs.

OTHER MUSINGS:

At its core, Codename: Robotech is basically a feature-length version of the clipshow, Gloval's Report, with the captain detailing the ship's long journey for his superiors. I wasn't a fan of that episode. Within the context of the ongoing series, I was basically watching a rerun of episodes I had just viewed, with the minimal new material adding almost nothing.

As a standalone film, the frame works much better. Thanks to having a couple of years' separation from my viewing of Macross, the action has sufficiently faded in my mind that I can enjoy re-watching the story in this form. Also, the feature-length running time provides breathing room for the flashback narrative. A number of small character interactions that Gloval's Report lacked time to include have been put back into Codename: Robotech, giving viewers a chance to form some level of attachment to the main characters.

Wisely, the editors have focused on just a few incidents from the first 13 episodes. Included are: the opening three-parter; the modular transformation and Lisa's Daedalus Attack, which are edited to be part of a single fight rather than two separate ones; the Miss Macross contest and Rick Hunter's encounter with the three Zentraedi spies; and the three-parter in which Rick, Lisa, and Ben are captured, with Max going to their rescue.

The biggest chunk of running time goes to the initial episodes. The heroes' capture and escape forms the movie's climax, and thus also gets a fair amount of screentime. Other incidents are represented by a couple of scenes each, and between Gloval's narration and (mostly) good editing choices, each bit that's included develops the characters or introduces a piece of information about the overall conflict. Given the restrictions of the running time, it's reasonably well done.

Inevitably, there are a few seams. There are minor continuity issues, such as Gloval reassuring Lisa that the ship's engines will work because they were build on Earth - a reassurance that feels odd, since a previous scene in which the SDF-1's original alien-built engines pulled free of the ship was removed. Khyron and Azonia receive a fair amount of focus in the in media res opener; Khyron is then barely featured in the rest of the movie, and Azonia is never seen again. Most glaringly, the scene in which Rick, Lisa, and Ben are brought before Lord Dolza has been cut for time, with Gloval narrating what happened and the regulars commenting on it.

Most of this could have been reduced or eliminated had the film simply opened with the ship on Earth and Gloval preparing his report. That would have allowed another ten minutes to include at least some of these scenes, notably the one with Dolza.

Capt. Gloval takes in the sunrise for the first time in two years.

OVERALL:

It's a shame about that misjudged opening, because Codename: Robotech is otherwise a decent presentation of Robotech's first 13 episodes. There's enough retained to introduce, or at least tease, many of the series' major themes and character dynamics, from the way Earth's popular culture confuses the Zentraedi to the character interactions among Rick, Lisa, and Minmei.

It's limited by being an abridgement - but it's pretty good for what it is, and it's much better than I expected it to be.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

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Some Thoughts on Robotech: The New Generation.

The series' regulars, as seen in the titles of Genesis Climber
Mospeada (Robotech flips this image for reasons unknown).

The third Robotech arc, "The New Generation," tends to land in the middle of fan rankings: better than "The Masters," not as good as "The Macross Saga." Personally, I think... that's actually about right. It takes just shy of a third of the series for it to find itself. Once it does, however, it improves immediately and keeps on improving until the end.

Closely adapted from source series, Genesis Climber Mospeada, this was the series that was least changed for Robotech. Because of this, I'm going to refer to Mospeada and its character names as the default, save for when I am specifically mentioning the Robotech version.


A WEAK FIRST ACT:

Mospeada doesn't get off to the best start. The first three episodes do their job of establishing the premise and introducing the core ensemble. Once that's done, the series delivers a steady diet of standalones that could mostly be shown in any order.

The goal of this phase of the series is clearly to build up the characters. Stig meets his childhood hero; Jim goes in search of the father of a dead war buddy; Houquet returns to her childhood home. All three of the aforementioned episodes - and two of the three series-establishing ones - boast the '80s stock plot that I've dubbed "The Evil Town Episode," with the regulars visiting isolated towns that are either under the control of a malicious figure or that hide dark secrets.

It's a stock plot for a reason. It's a reliable way to build tension, and some of these episodes are good ones. The problem is the repetition. Even The A-Team and Knight Rider didn't repeat this setup five times in nine episodes! By the time it was Jim's turn to be shunned in an insular little town, I started wondering if the group shouldn't just forget about the Inbit and declare war on their true enemy: small towns.

Around the series' one-third mark, I started to wonder why this repetitive series was considered to be better than Southern Cross. For all of its faults, the adventures of Jeanne and her squad at least had energy, a quality that seemed sorely lacking here.

Then, in Episode 10, the series found itself in a big way...

The mysterious Aisha (Marlene in Robotech)
joins the group just in time for an Inbit attack.

ENTER MARLENE - AND SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT:

Requiem of the Battlefield, the series' tenth episode, brings Mospeada to life. More prosaically titled Enter Marlene in Robotech, it is by any name the first "great" episode of this arc. It's expertly paced, and it manages to work in terms of story, characterization, and theme.

The episode sees Stig fall into a depression after he discovers the force of soldiers he meant to join has been wiped out. Jim and Yellow leave him to sulk and go to work cannibalizing the battlefield, upgrading the group's abilities with several new mechs, which helps to make the group's later victories more plausible. Most notably, Houquet and Ray discover Aisha in the nearby town wiped out by the Inbit. This amnesiac girl reminds Stig of his late fiancée, Marlene, who was killed by the Inbit... so Robotech, which has always tended to be more on the nose than its origin series, renames her as Marlene to make sure no viewer can miss the connection.

Aisha's introduction creates new dynamics among the group: Houquet and Yellow are protective of her, she becomes a friend to Mint, and the mutual attraction between her and Stig helps to humanize the previously stoic soldier. There's also a bit of added tension; we know right away that she's an Inbit in human form, but the group doesn't know this and neither does she.

Episode 11 goes right back to the "Evil Town" format, as the group seeks passage through a mountain range that is home to an Inbit fortress. Even here, though, there seems to be a sense of direction and energy that wasn't there before. Instead of the episode-specific conflict existing in isolation, it's actually followed up in Episode 12, in which the characters must find a way past the fortress to continue their journey. This begins creating the sense of the episodes building toward something, which thankfully continues from this point on.

It helps that this marks the point at which the series stops relying on small towns with secrets. There are still plenty of trope-filled plots, but Episode 11 stands as the series' final "Evil Town" episode (though Robotech arguably reformats Episode 21, Hired Gun, into one).

The introduction of Aisha helps to humanize Stig.

CHARACTERS:

Mospeada initially has a problem with its lead. Stig is a mostly stoic protagonist, and he's particularly closed off in the early episodes. The writers seem to struggle with making such a person, who is inclined to neither chat nor joke, as the lead. As a result, early scripts show preference to the more outgoing Ray, with him taking either the lead or primary supporting role in most of the early episodes.

There are two episodes in which I specifically felt that Ray was favored at the expense of other characters. Ray takes the primary supporting role in the Jim-centric Fallen Hero's Ragtime, which revolves around the fate of a fellow soldier's father. I felt this role should have instead gone to Yellow; not only was he underused at that point in the series, as a former soldier, he might have had a more interesting reaction than Ray.

A handful of episodes later, Sandstorm Playback sees an unconscious Ray have an episode-long dream that is influenced by Aisha. Given that Aisha was already being paired with Stig at this point, I felt this should have been a Stig-centric installment. This might have strengthened the bond between Stig and Aisha, while the dream adventure might have pushed Stig to start confronting both his anger and his hostility toward civilians, both of which are shown in the episode's opening scene. But no - Ray's easier to write for, so the episode goes to Ray.

Thankfully, this tendency evens out in later episodes. Stig thaws as he bonds with Aisha, and I suspect the writers had fewer problems writing for this less reserved version of the character. At this point, he actually emerges as the lead, rather than just being identified as such. The full ensemble is generally better balanced after this. Jim gets good character moments in The Ballad of Breaking Up and Trap Reggae; Yellow, underused in the series' first half, receives increasing focus in his interactions with humanoid Inbit Sorji; and even comedy sidekick Mint gets a handful of decent moments.

Arpeggio of Murder: The only Mospeada episode
that was significantly rewritten for Robotech.

THE LEAST CHANGED ROBOTECH SERIES:

Here's where I'd usually talk about the ways in which Robotech changed the characters... except this time, the American show really didn't much change them.

"The Macross Saga" sanitized Roy and performed all-out character assassination on Minmei; "The Masters" eliminated the already weak character arc that Southern Cross had created for Jeanne, in which she went from treating the war like a game to realizing that there were real consequences worth taking seriously... by pretty much presenting Dana Sterling as taking the conflict seriously from the very start. Even more aggravating was the way "The Masters" reduced Jeanne's well-written second-in-command, Andrzej, into generic meathead Angelo.

"The New Generation" maintains the characters as originally presented. Robotech moderately tones down Mint's obsession with matrimony, and Scott has more of a tendency to make '80s action movie quips than Stig, but the characters are basically the same in the American series as in the Japanese original.

This applies on a story level, as well. Genesis Climber Mospeada is easily the least changed of the three series, with most of its alterations being a question of matching the general Robotech continuity. The only individual episode that was substantially rewritten was Hired Gun, likely because Mospeada's Arpeggio of Murder tried to make sympathetic a guest character who was murdering dozens of men for entirely selfish reasons. Hired Gun rewrites this as revenge - which, while not admirable, at least makes his victims culpable for their own fates. Outside of this one episode, the remaining chapters are close matches in content, if not always in quality.

Lt. Commander Jonathan betrays his men...
but he feels really bad about it.

A LITTLE TOO MUCH SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL:

The case of Arpeggio of Murder/Hired Gun does draw attention to one of Mospeada's more bizarre tendencies. This is a series that, in three separate episodes, asks us to sympathize with characters who are guilty of terrible things: Jonathan's Elegy's Lt. Commander Jonathan, Lullaby of Distant Hope's Dogarbo; and Arpeggio of Murder's Rainy Boy.

Jonathan's Elegy is the least objectionable example, because Lt. Commander Jonathan actually has an argument for his actions. Giving the most dangerous soldiers to the Inbit allowed the rest of the population of the town to survive - and any doubt that his deal protected the town is dispelled by the fate for the town that the episode's closing shots heavily imply. Even so, Jonathan remains a man who sold out soldiers who trusted him, and yet the regulars end up memorializing him with a respect that's denied to any of his victims.

Arpeggio of Murder is worse - so much so that it became the one episode that Robotech significantly changed. In the original, Rainy Boy murders soldiers because the Inbit have promised to make his body whole if he manages to eliminate 100 of his fellow troops. What happened to Rainy is horrific, and his desire to be whole again is understandable - but his mass murder of innocents nullifies any chance of me sympathizing with him. Robotech changes his motives to vengeance, with his victims being the comrades who abandoned him. This makes it less repellent when he's framed as a tragic figure. Even so, I found it laughable when the regulars labeled him as a "hero." He's still a murderer in this version - He just has a better motive.

The most egregious example comes in an otherwise very good episode, Lullaby of Distant Hope. This episode's town is located at the base of a mountain that's home to an Inbit base. Little surprise, then, that people and families want to get past the mountain to settle someplace safer, a desire that wealthy and unscrupulous Dogarbo preys upon. He takes people's life savings in exchange for maps of a safe route. The maps are fake, and he's actually sending his victims straight into the hands of the Inbit.

At least Lt. Commander Jonathan and Rainy end up paying for their crimes, losing their lives while saving the series' heroes. Dogarbo also saves the series' heroes, at the cost of... some nifty unmanned fighters that he uses to fool the Inbit into thinking they killed their targets. The loss of those fighters is his only punishment. His crimes are not exposed, and he continues to subsist on the giant hoard of cash he's fleeced from desperate people that he sent off to die. He even gets to marry the woman he loves. I can't be alone in thinking: What the ****?

A single example could be put down to spotty writing. Three times indicates that the series thinks these monsters in human form deserve forgiveness, even heroes' burials, even as their victims remain unheralded. I was able to overlook it to enjoy the series itself - but it's fair to say that I was not on board with this aspect.

The Inbit attack civilians in New York Bebop.

OVERALL:

Though I thought it had a weak start, I ended up enjoying Genesis Climber Mospeada. I liked the characters (for the most part; I never really warmed to Mint), and I think the show found a good balance of character material and action as it went along.

Unsurprisingly, I found myself generally preferring Mospeada over its Robotech version. The characterization seemed just a little bit sharper, the music was usually better integrated with the action, and I almost always prefer an unnarrated drama to a narrated one. Still, the viewing experience in total was largely the same between the two series.

"The Macross Saga" remains the strongest of the three Robotech arcs, simply because Superdimension Fortress Macross is a better show than the other two source series. Still, Mospeada is an enjoyable mix of '80s action tropes with some decent character writing, and it gets better as it goes. Of the three series, Macross is the only one that I'm likely to revisit, but I'm glad to have taken the time to watch them.


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Some Thoughts on Robotech: The Masters.

Ending credits shot from Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross.

"The Masters Saga," adapted from Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, is widely seen as the weakest of Robotech's three chapters. I have yet to watch "The New Generation," so I'll withthold judgment for now. I will say that, while both "The Masters" and Southern Cross represent a clear step down from Macross, I still generally enjoyed both versions.


SOUTHERN CROSS: DOOMED FROM THE START:

Even cursory research into the background of Southern Cross shows that it was plagued with problems. Envisioned as a 52-episode series, it had exactly one stroke of luck: Gaining the "Super Dimension" title, which allowed the creators to position it as a successor to successful series, Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Super Dimension Century Orguss.

It ended up running a mere 23 episodes (with Robotech adding a 24th via clip show Dana's Story). Its first major blow came before it even began airing, when toy sponsor Popy rescinded its planned sponsorship. This meant that unlike other mech series, there was no accompanying toy line - and without that supplemental income, the ratings did not justify the show taking up a full year's airtime.

The series was cancelled with enough notice for the writers to create an ending - but the ending is more than a little abrupt, and the sudden rushed pacing of the final episodes stands in stark contrast to the rest of the series.

The series has a certain "action movie" energy to it.

AN ENERGETIC TALE THAT DOESN'T OVERSTAY ITS WELCOME:

There are advantages to the shortened episode count. While I enjoyed Southern Cross on its own terms, I don't think it could have sustained 52 episodes.

The characters are mostly shallow, more "types" than complex personalities. Only Jeanne, Andrzej, and Seifriet gain any real depth as the series moves on. As for the rest? Louis is "tech guy"; Charles is "the lady's man"; Bowie and Musica are the "earnest young lovers"; and so on. None of them are unlikable and none of them fail as characters within the confines of their types - but there really aren't a lot of layers. For a brisk 23 episodes, they're good enough company. Had the show managed its initially planned run, I suspect I'd have grown rather weary of them by Episode 30, never mind Episode 50.

Because the show only runs for 23 episodes, it never has a chance to wear out its welcome. It's fairly light in tone for the most part, with a brisk energy. Because it does end (albeit with a few dangling loose ends), there's none of the frustration that comes with an incomplete story. It's not the epic that Macross was, seeming more like the equivalent of a fun little action movie... but there is absolutely a place for fun action movies, so I don't feel inclined to complain about that.

The flowers in the ruins serve a very different purpose in Robotech.

SOUTHERN CROSS VS. ROBOTECH - "THE MASTERS":

Southern Cross saw a lot more changes for its Robotech version than Macross did. Because it's the middle piece of the series, the Robotech writers use elements of it as setup for the final Invid arc, with the Invid mentioned early and often throughout.

The most significant change is to the nature of the flowers in the ruins. In Southern Cross, the flowers are the Zor's source of energy. Robotech alters this, renaming the plant as "The Invid Flower of Life," a malevolent harbinger of an even worse alien invasion to come. Now the flowers are an infestation. The Masters don't want the plant, but rather the protoculture it is parasitically feeding on.

I think this works to the story's benefit, adding an extra layer of futility to this war. The Masters need the protoculture factory within the ruins of the SDF-1 - but that factory is already infested, with it entirely possible that its protoculture is unusable. Meanwhile, the humans are fighting and dying to fend off an invasion, not realizing that an even worse invasion is imminent. I think this adds something extra that was missing in Southern Cross.

Robotech also greatly improves the ending. Southern Cross's finale is rushed and unsatisfying. The story is concluded, but with a lot of loose ends. Robotech has the advantage of not actually ending here. What was a finale is transformed into groundwork for "The New Generation," with the final actions of this war directly leading to the next. This makes the loose ends less noticeable, because the full story is no longer intended to be resolved here.

Jeanne gets a reminder that war is deadly serious. Her
character arc is all but completely flattened out in Robotech.

CHARACTERS:

When I reviewed "The Macross Saga" and its parent series, I found the most striking difference the altered focus. Super Dimension Fortress Macross focused on its characters and themes, while Robotech was was intent on plot. Themes and characters were simplified for "The Macross Saga," something that was extremely noticeable viewing the two versions side-by-side.

Southern Cross is a much simpler series, so most of its characters transition smoothly to Robotech. Marie, Nova, Bowie, Louis, and Sean are all but identical to their Southern Cross counterparts. Only two characters really suffer in the translation: Jeanne and Andrzej, both of whom are flattened from characters into mere "types" when they are transformed into Dana Sterling and Angelo.

Early episodes paint Jeanne as almost entirely irresponsible, and I'll admit that she aggravated me at the start. She was vain and frivolous, refusing to treat any situation seriously even after the start of the war. The first two episodes saw her repeatedly disobeying orders, only to be rewarded for it. Robotech dials this down. The first episode (not counting Dana's Story) is re-edited so that Dana is only arrested once, rather than Jeanne's twice, and so that she is following orders at the end rather than literally hijacking equipment to join the battle.

This makes Dana initially less irritating, but it also all but removes the main character's arc. Jeanne gets confronted with the seriousness of the situation in Episode Three. While her frivolous side never goes away, from that point she takes the war and the welfare of her people seriously... which is pretty much the starting point for Robotech's Dana Sterling. As a result, Dana becomes a static heroine, not particularly changing across the series, which also makes her seem more passive than Southern Cross's Jeanne.

But that's nothing compared to the series' treatment of her second-in-command! Southern Cross's Andrzej clashes with Jeanne early on, with it obvious that he finds her ill-suited to command. They share a quiet moment in Prelude, just before the squad's most dangerous early mission, after which she gains his respect. He remains willing to tell her when he disagrees with her, and he even pulls her up short when her emotions override her judgment. Still, from that point on, Andrzej is an ally.

Robotech's Angelo... Well, as I've said in several reviews, Angelo is an idiot. Andrzej's issues with Jeanne in Southern Cross are rooted in legitimate concerns about her command style, particularly her cavalier attitude toward orders. Angelo is a sneering sexist who seems to try to actively sabotage Dana on more than one occasion. Andrzej has a thoughtful side, recognizing Seifriet's inner torment and quietly criticizing Jeanne when anger leads to her going too far in tearing into him. Angelo is thoughtless, dismissively saying that the squad would be better off without Zor; if anything, he probably thinks Dana doesn't get angry enough!

The result is that one of Southern Cross's best characters is reduced to this series' answer to MASH's Frank Burns - a character who exists to be reliably wrong in every situation.

The Zor/The Robotech Masters plot against the humans.

OVERALL:

Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross is a weaker series than Super Dimension Fortress Macross was. Many supporting characters are two dimensional, and the regulars enjoy impenetrable plot armor. Only a few regular characters die across the entire series, and all but one of those deaths happen in the final episode! Outside of that, everyone who dies is either a one-shot guest character or a glorified redshirt.

Even so, I found much to enjoy. Its tone is mostly light, which helps it to remain energetic. The writing is shallower than Macross, but the art and animation quality is a lot more consistent. And yes, the fact that it only lasts for 23 episodes means that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Because it's a simpler series to start with, the Robotech version doesn't lose very much. Dana and Angelo are weaker, flatter characters than Jeanne and Andrzej, and the Robotech music cues interfere with the flow of some episodes. Still, the energetic tone remains intact, and certain plot elements created for Robotech make parts of the story more interesting. Critically, the ending works a lot better in Robotech, where it's used to pave the way for the next series, than it does in Southern Cross.

It's a flawed work in either version, and I'm not sure that Southern Cross would have been particularly improved had it gotten its originally intended 52 episodes. That said, if this really is as bad as Robotech gets, then that bodes well for the final arc.


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Some Thoughts on Robotech: The Macross Saga.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


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