Robotech

Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Year
1983

Robotech (Remastered): Macross Saga - Volume 1

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
8th Sep 06

There is a lot of controversy surrounding Robotech, three separate anime series (Macross, Southern Cross and Modespa) were taken, their storylines edited so that they could all be made into one 86 episodes series in three sagas.

Robotech created a generation of anime fans, yet many today look back at it as a badly butchered series without trying to judge it on its own merits. There’re a lot of articles on the net about Robotech and the three series that it was comprised of, and which versions are better and why etc. I’m not going to argue tit for tat or complain that a certain scene/s from the original are missing, cut or rearranged I’m going to just simply judge the series on it’s own merits.

The beginning of Robotech: The Macross Saga sees the Earth involved in a massive global war shortly before the turn of the century. It seems for certain mankind is destined to destroy itself, however ever when a large space battleship crash lands on Macross Island mankind finds it is not alone in the universe is suddenly unified. Inside the ruined battleship the secrets of Robotechnology are found, this technology centuries ahead of Earth’s own is investigated an combined with Earth technology, and mankind begin to rebuild the ruined battleship.

Skipping forward ten years the battleship on Macross Island is rebuilt, renamed the SDF-1 and prepared for launch. On the day of the launch however the Zentradi a race of alien warriors arrive keen to collect the fallen battleship. Battle ensures and the SDF-1 in a desperate act to escape attempts a space-fold. Rather than ending up the dark side of the moon as planned the SDF-1 is transported near Pluto, along with Macross Island some of the surrounding ocean and several thousand civilians. Getting the civilians on board the huge space battleship it begins its long journey home, all the while dogged by the Zentradi forces.

Scenes cut out of the original broadcast version have been added or extended (although essentially you’ve still got an edited version of Macross), yet only those who’ve seen previous versions are really going to know what’s been added or changed. The story mainly focuses on Rick Hunter, a fighter pilot, there is a good supporting cast of characters. There may seem like many of them are rather stereotypical, but many of these character roles set the guidelines for others to come (although a few were quite stereotypical even in the 1980s). The animation hasn’t aged for the better, and Robotech is essentially stood up even by more modern low-budgeted series. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the English dub didn’t suffer from the same problem. The dubbing isn’t quite in sync with the mouth movements (something that is almost unheard of today), the dialogue isn’t great and is often delivered flatly without enough emotion for the situation on screen. Additionally it’s quite common for the characters to have voice actors that make them seem like they belong in a completely different age group (Lisa Hayes for example).

Despite a number of problems the first volume of Robotech: Macross Saga is still worth watching. The story for the Macross Saga is almost completely the same as the original*. The DVD offers twelve episodes on two discs (which is pretty good considering I paid almost double for the first twelve episodes of the original Macross). If you’re not keen on dubbed or edited anime then you’ll want to give Robotech a miss anyway.

*The Macross Saga is in all likelihood the least edited series in terms of storyline, elements from the original Macross like the Zentradi, and Proto-Culture feature heavily in the other sagas, although Robotechnology and the Robotech Masters were additions to connect the series together.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English Audio.

Release information: Publisher: Manga Entertainment Released: September 26th 2005 Classification: 12 Running Time: 300mins

Notes: It's a shame considering Robotech following, and the fact the series has been around for a while that no extras had been added to the DVD.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 8th Sep 06

Robotech Images