Robotech/Macross saga

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Anyone ever seen any of the Macross animes? They're pretty sweet. I saw Macross Frontier at anime club this past semester, then I found the Robotech book series at the library, which then lead me to the Robotech anime which I rented from Hastings.

I was a big fan of the series when they first aired in the US, all three versions: Macross, Southern Cross, and New Generation. I think I even had some of the toys from New Generation. I think it was the first time I'd seen cartoons with more of an "adult" orientation (war, relationships, people dying, etc.). I haven't seen any of the subsequent movies or read any of the books, though.

It was one of my first animes, and Macross Plus is one of my all-time favorite OAVs.

LOVED Macross Saga and the rest of the series. I even liked all the spinoff movies Macross, Macross Plus, and so on. And I REALLY loved all the cheesy music! That was the best part.

I'm a musician, of course, so there is that immediate appeal for me: Love and Music and the power both have to change the world/universe. I think beyond Romantic Period (19th Century) music, nothing really captures the depth and intensity of the raw emotion of the human soul like 80's pop, rock, and metal. Robotech and Macross music embody a lot of those sensitive themes juxtaposed against the back drop of the urgency of war.

If it were possible, I'd like to be the keyboard player/programmer in Lin Minmei's (spelling?) band or even for Sharon Apple. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I need to download the OSTs and start learning the music!! !

Ok let me put this out for you.
Macross is a wonderful anime.

Robotech is a hack butchering of three anime series into one morning cartoon series that ran in the US. It is horrible compared to the original and you should avoid it.

With that being said, these hacked edited anime series and films are what introduced many people, including myself, to anime in the 1980s. But after seeing the original, unbutchered version, I pretty much can only watch the original series. Macross, the original series is very dated though. The thing is the whole mech thing really does not appeal to me much. It is only mildly tolerable to me, not something I would watch these days by choice.

I've been watching Macross off Hulu and I've been enjoying it. Would like to see the movie version at some point too.

http://www.anilinkz.com/category/robotech/

They also have all the movies and other Macross anime available there. Enjoy.

Note: use firefox with noscript enabled to prevent malware..site is usually trustworthy but it IS just a metaserver that links to different websites.

I've been watching the entire Robotech series on youtube, here there are:


http://www.youtube.com/show?p=6VWyXFZ6a ... er=show_av


http://www.youtube.com/show/robotechmasters


http://www.youtube.com/show/robotechnewgeneration


Although now looking back past nostalgia, robotech is full of plotholes an writing fumbles too vast too list. I still love it though, but I must admit, SDF-1 Macross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA are way better than robotech ( except SDC Southern Cross, that sucks regardless of being the original or the macekre).


I'm one of those people that watched Robotech for the battles and not the romance. The Variable Fighters are still badass, and the Battlepods were truly alien and bizarre. When Supreme Commander Dolza committed genocide against the human race, it was the first time I ever truly hated and feared a bad guy on a tv show. And the massive defeat that the vastly outnumbered and out gunned humans(and their few Zentraedi allies) delivered to the Zentraedi main fleet was amazing and inspirational.

The Masters saga sucked, with bad characterization and plot turns that made no sense. However, the one good thing about the Masters were the Masters themselves. They were trully intimidating and ominous antagonists that were the perfect "evil invading aliens": strange and enigmatic, with advanced technology far beyond humanity, wielding powerful weaponry in the form of the telepathically controlled bioroids, and the humans have no idea why they are attacking.

The New Generation saga is completely different from the two previous sagas, but in a good way. The writing,battles, and mech designs are on par with the Macross Saga, but it manages to be original. Rather than being invaded, its the humans who are invading,pretty unique.

To me Robotech is an amazing achievement despite its flaws - considering that even if you look at only the first series, they hacked up and recut material into a story that only vaguely resembled the original, and for the most part pulled it off. Rewatching the whole thing as an adult, however, sort of got annoying because the 2nd and 3rd series (robotech masters / new generation) were based on entirely different material and any tie ins to the first series, it became obvious to me, were forced in by the Harmony Gold folks who rewrote it into Robotech and were nothing more than narrative, rather than any footage to really tie them together.

But man I loved the toys when I was a kid - neighbor had a large SDF-1, a Cyclone (complete with rider figure) and an Alpha Fighter. The best I could muster for myself was the Transformer's version of the VF-1 but it was still pretty sweet.