Robotech - Should I watch it?

[AllisterH]

Ramblings.

I consider myself an old-school anime fan, in that I was a denizen of both the FFML and rec.arts.anime(.misc) BEFORE the current generation. Those that came into anime due to DBZ/Sailor Moon and the latter shows.

My Sailor Moon though was Robotech. I saw all of the 1st season (with the classic Rick-Minmei-Lisa love triangle) and all of the 3rd season (my favourite with the Freedom fighters). Only saw the 2nd season intermittently though because it was constantly moved its timeslot.

From Robotech, this led to me picking up my first anime magazine, namely Protoculture addicts when it was the ONLY source for anime in publication. It also led me to my 2nd RPG system, namely Palladium. It was through Robotech that I went looking for anime at my local Blockbuster (back when they used to keep Bubblegum Crisis right next to Bugs Bunny)

So as you can see, Robotech is the lynchpin of my anime experience but I haven't watch it in over 15 years now. SPACE (the Canadian sci-fi station) is going to run the entire series weekdays but like anything else from my youth, I'll be disappointed.

Do I really want to besmirch the lofty position in my memory that Robotech exists as?

[Laughing Mask]

if you like robots, space, war, & the future then go for it.

[jesse_custer]

Even if you were to rewatch the series and perhaps become privy to its shortcomings I don't understand why this revelation should compromise any great memories you have as a child watching the show.

[Quilt]

I know exactly what you're talking about AllisterH. When I was a kid my very first really awe-inspiring introduction to anime was the first Robotech series when I saw them for rent at a video-store in the children's section. It was around 1989 and it was spread out between something like 7 VHS tapes. It took nearly 6 months for me to get through them all, because it was very tough to get my parents to rent them.

Everything about it amazed me. There could be a cartoon which had an ongoing plot from episode to episode. The characters actually developed. There were big battles and an epic overlying story. It had so much more than the standard north american cartoons, plus it wasn't as childish and preachy as Astro Boy or as inane as "Sabre Rider and the Star Sherrifs" (did anyone else watch that craptastic show? It was awesome!)

I haven't seen the original Robotech series in a good 17 years, but I've always thought about buying the DVD set (The Protoculture Collection) for nostalgia sake. Like you though, I'm a little afraid that I'll watch it again and be completely disappointed. And the price on that Protoculture Collection isn't a small number for me with school and all.

[Quilt]

Even if you were to rewatch the series and perhaps become privy to its shortcomings I don't understand why this revelation should compromise any great memories you have as a child watching the show.

Yeah, there's something to that. I think for me, the problem isn't necessarily that those memories would be ruined, because nothing will be changed about them, it's more that those memories will suddenly be given a big fat asterisk beside them saying, "You enjoyed it when you were a kid, but now it's sh*t." I'm not really sure how much sense that makes, but when I remenisce about Robotech to friends, I want to keep that glazed look in my eyes and stupid smile when I talk about it.

I want to say, "It was SO awesome!"

I don't want to say, "It was SO awesome, but I watched it recently and it actually kind of sucks."

Am I thinking about all this too much?

[jesse_custer]

Or you could always take that revelation as evidence of growth as a person with a refined and well-informed take on art. Because if you ever currently enjoy everything you did as a child there might be a serious problem incubating. And now I join you as an analyst without a stopping point.

[swinebread]

Better yet rent a copy of The Shadow Chronicles. It a Robotech movie that just came out last year, it's new but continues the saga right where the 3rd series left off.

http://www.theshadowchronicles.com/

[AllisterH]

I know exactly what you're talking about AllisterH. When I was a kid my very first really awe-inspiring introduction to anime was the first Robotech series when I saw them for rent at a video-store in the children's section. It was around 1989 and it was spread out between something like 7 VHS tapes. It took nearly 6 months for me to get through them all, because it was very tough to get my parents to rent them.

Everything about it amazed me. There could be a cartoon which had an ongoing plot from episode to episode. The characters actually developed. There were big battles and an epic overlying story. It had so much more than the standard north american cartoons, plus it wasn't as childish and preachy as Astro Boy or as inane as "Sabre Rider and the Star Sherrifs" (did anyone else watch that craptastic show? It was awesome!)

I haven't seen the original Robotech series in a good 17 years, but I've always thought about buying the DVD set (The Protoculture Collection) for nostalgia sake. Like you though, I'm a little afraid that I'll watch it again and be completely disappointed. And the price on that Protoculture Collection isn't a small number for me with school and all.

Exactly.

Preach it out loud. This is 100% my reaction to first viewing Robotech.

Another poster mentioned that "as an adult" I should realize my shows from my youth sucked, but that doesn't have to be true. I mean, take for example if you were a small kid and you gre up watching the Timmverse? a.k.a Batman et al. A kid who saw those in the 90s could pick up the entire DVD set and watch it in 2010 and still be impressed.

I'm worried that Robotech will be more along the lines of those crappy 80s cartoon we had instead.

[ChrisIII]

You might want to try the Japanese version of robotech, Macross. It actually has spawned it's own sequels independent of "Robotech"-although you can do without Macross II and 7 (Although seven does feature Max and Miriya from the original show) "Macross Plus" is one of those 'must-see' animes. There's also the movie "Do you remember love?" which is a condensed retelling of the series but with better animation (Which still looks impressive today). It's available in the US mostly in a horrible dub called "Clash of the bionoids" though :(


Also, I've heard the restoration of the original Macross DVDs is much better than the Robotech DVDs. Two companies have released Macross, Animego and ADV films.


There are a few differences, of course-there's no attempts to make the story cross-over with Southern Cross and Mosepedea (The other Robotechs) Protoculture is actually an ancient civilization and not a fuel source.....Veritechs are called Valkyries etc. and there are various other changes that robotech made.Character names are of course more Japanese.


As for memories, Macross/Robotech's animation is somewhat dated, but stuff like character and mecha designs still hold up.

[Sanagi]

Watch it, and if it sucks, watch Macross Plus and overwrite your childhood memories with it.

[jesse_custer]

I also fully endorse "Macross Plus" if you haven't seen it. Just stay away from "Macross II: The Movie." Not good.

[Neal R]

If you want a slightly cheaper way to go about getting the entire saga. It was published as a series of novels. 6 books for the Macross portion of the saga. 3 books each for the second and third parts of the series. Then there was a series of books that attempted to expand and then ulitmately finish the story.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, from what people have told me, is another way to expand the story that doesn't follow the novels.

This series was also my gateway to this wonderful hobby but I only had access to the Macross Saga. Those books filled in the rest of the details. I'm having a ball going through the original Macross (ADVs re release).

[Quilt]

Oh yeah. Macross Plus was super cool. There's actually a scene in there which fits almost perfectly with The Wanton Song by Led Zeppelin. Maybe one day I can bother to figure out how to use video editing software to show it on YouTube.

[SAMAS]

Having last seen Robotech a little more recently in my life, I can safely say that even with it's flaws, Robotech is nowhere near bad enough to ruin your memories of it. Unlike, say, Silverhawks.

[Hiromi]

You might want to try the Japanese version of robotech, Macross. It actually has spawned it's own sequels independent of "Robotech"-although you can do without Macross II and 7 (Although seven does feature Max and Miriya from the original show) "Macross Plus" is one of those 'must-see' animes. There's also the movie "Do you remember love?" which is a condensed retelling of the series but with better animation (Which still looks impressive today). It's available in the US mostly in a horrible dub called "Clash of the bionoids" though :(


Also, I've heard the restoration of the original Macross DVDs is much better than the Robotech DVDs. Two companies have released Macross, Animego and ADV films.


There are a few differences, of course-there's no attempts to make the story cross-over with Southern Cross and Mosepedea (The other Robotechs) Protoculture is actually an ancient civilization and not a fuel source.....Veritechs are called Valkyries etc. and there are various other changes that robotech made.Character names are of course more Japanese.


.

A good deal wrong with this post, or perhaps just the way the post is presented/worded, not sure. Macross came first, Robotech took Macross animation and tacked a different story on it, Robotech then took the animation from the entirely independent series Southern Cross and Mosepedea to make sequel seasons for it.

See http://members.aol.com/BruceG6069/RoboTech_faq/Robotech_S5.html#5.2.2

the only really important difference however is that the Macross Minmay VA did NOT inspire violence against your audio system like the Robotech VA does.

edit: For the life of me I still cant tell if its the post thats wrong or just the way its worded, the way I'm reading it has you saying Robotech came first, so if I'm wrong I apologize.

[Inkthinker]

The new series Macross Frontier is also pretty sweet. The first episode follows a somewhat similar plot to the first episode of the original Macross, in that the hero is an amateur stunt flyer who meets a cute girl under unexpected circumstances, and then when the enemy lands in the city and starts blasting away, he happens to be in a position to take control of a Veritech in order to rescue that same girl from the enemy.

Oh, and there's a music idol. But there's always a music idol in Macross, I think it's part of the formula.

Other than that, it's completely new, but it's gorgeous. Worth checking out if you can, it's just begun airing in Japan.

[Libaax]

I saw first part of Robotech in VHS years ago and im recently watching Macross. Macross is very superior. Robotech is only edited short version and rewritten alittle for americans.


Only thing better in Robotech is the anime music is newer and sounds better than one in the early 80's.

[ChrisIII]

I actually meant to say Macross came first...sorry about that :)

[Shameless Fanboy]

For me, when Robotech first came out in '85, it was unlike anything that had been on U.S. television at the time. It was really the first animated series that dealt with serious issues like death (and genocide), the ugliness of war, as well as interracial (or in this case, interspecies) relationships. Add to that, it was an epic storyline that crossed three generations with a really large cast of characters. Many shows have come and gone and since then and have done the same thing and have even gone further with the themes Robotech explored, but it's place in anime history is more that it really introduced many Americans into anime and sort of launched the U.S. anime market, which until then was a totally underground thing unheard of outside college campuses.

I do believe that Robotech and Macross are two separate entities that stand on their own as they were written mostly for separate audiences, but comparisons are unavoidable.

While the animation in Robotech is still fairly fluid, the character designs--like most shows from the late 70s'/early '80s--are horribly dated today. Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (and its upcoming sequel) really moves the series forward from where it left off and updates its look for today's audiences...

[Kid Kyoto]

I just saw Shadow Chronicles and was pretty disapointed, I can't figure out who the audience for it is. It seems that unless you watched the original series, read the novels and somehow after 20 years still care you would be completely lost.

I fit into that category and I just didn't care.

I would vote for the orginal Japanese of Macross myself.

[ChrisIII]

The character designs are dated, but Haruhiko Mikimoto has done some other good work. He's done some stuff for Gundam (0080 and some of the manga) as well as the Gainax series Gunbuster, and of course some of the other Macross stuff.

[ChrisIII]

Speaking of Macross, anybody see the pilot for the new series yet?