Roboculture

Greetings, dear readers. It is I, everyone's FAVORITE self-important, teeth-gnashing Robotard Master. You will take whatever it is I say seriously, because you know in your heart of hearts that "new and improved" Robotech isn't all that it's cracked up to be.


In lieu of anything new or compelling to rant upon, I have decided to bring up what I believe to be the saddest thread on Robotech.com.

No, it is not a thread about how great a job the Creative Director has done over the past decade with the Robotech franchise, nor is it about sleeping with Lisa Hayes. It is the sentiments of one fan. Just one, honest fan, wondering what the hell has happened to the much-vaunted Shadows franchise. He does not know...

His name is Cyclone5, and this is what he said:

"If I cast my mind back to mid-2004 I remember first hearing about the Shadow Chronicles. I remember the gradual flow of information and pictures that leaked their way onto the internet in the subsequent months and years. I remember the excitement I felt every time I saw a new shred of info that told me or showed me something new about the upcoming movie. Then, in Feb 2006 the film was finished. I waited. I waited some more.

Finally in Feb 2007, the Movie was actually released on DVD. I pre-ordered my copy and watched it. The fruit of my patience was finally here, in my DVD player. I watched it, I enjoyed it, I had a few minor problems with it, but on the whole it was a solid return to the Robotech Universe and left me with one thought in my head: “MORE”!


Shadow Chronicles was a great feature length pilot, but of course many of the characters and story points can only achieve the greatness they deserve if the series continues (either as a syndicated series or a series of direct to DVD OAVS). At the time these were the two options Harmony Gold told us fans were real possibilities. But then everything stopped.

Considering production on Shadow Chronicles was completed some time before Feb 2006, that means a solid 2 YEARS of nothing. No Character designs. No screen caps, no nothing. So far the ONLY thing we have been given in 2 years is a title.


What is most frustrating is that all the design and preproduction work is already done. Characters are already designed, CGI models have been made, backgrounds and locations created, voice actors cast etc. Yet when you ask what stage Shadow Rising is at, we are told “pre-production”, and that’s for the last 2 YEARS!!!

It sounds like “preproduction” is Harmony Goldss way of saying: “we are doing nothing”. If they’d really had their heads screwed on we’d have had the follow up release a year ago. To put Harmony Golds release schedule (or lack of) into context, here is the schedule of another series of animated OAV movies that are released direct to DVD in the US:


That’s a new direct to DVD movie every 6 months (roughly), with each movie containing a short preview of the next release. Yet in the same time frame Harmony Gold give us one movie and not a scrap of detail about its sequel. I really hope that Harmony Gold have been working away on Shadow rising with Tatsunoko and DR Movie. I really hope that the wall of silence is just so they can blow us all out of the water with some Shadow rising trailers at the summer conventions, in preparation for the full release of the movie in the fall. If not, then what in God's name have they been doing all this time?"

My thoughts:

Now I can only guess what you're thinking. His argument is flawed because he said Robotech: Shadow Chronicles was solid. JUST KIDDING!

Maybe it was... unfair of him to compare the struggling Robotech franchise's appalling lack of content to powerhouse brands like Marvel or DC (or to a more relatable sense, Starwars). However, the point that Cyclone5 managed to bring up is one that many fans have asked themselves many times before:



Indeed. Yet why has Harmony Gold chosen to remain silent with what could be the most important Robotech project? Of course the logical hypothesis would be that they really are waiting for the 2008 Summer conventions to come around, and then they'd start showing real teasers, and not bullshit unused animation from Robotech: Shadow Chronicles.


Of course Harmony Gold, being what they are, is also doing this because of a little public relations disaster that occured with the first film. Yes, I'm referring to the Darkwater incident. The time when they "exploited" a fan to bring in as Tommy Yune once said on the member's-only Officer's Forum "FREE ADVERTISING". Such unprofessionalism can only breed more unprofessionalism.

We need only remember the fiasco the company faced when the Shadow Chronicles was delayed for a year due to problems with distribution. They nonchalantly told fans that they had locked the film for distribution, only to find out they didn't. Then they began several months of information blackouts with pissed the hell out of fans. They kept flip-flopping like a dead fish.

When the deal was finally locked with Funimation, Harmony Gold decided to screen the movie across the country. Sounds like a great plan for some guerilla marketing right? Wrong. The film was screened, and Harmony Gold did not see a CENT in profit. Most of the cost incurred during screenings were used to pay off theatre expenses.


The kicker was that they screened the film all the way until the end of the HOLIDAY season. The time when buying power is at an all-time high. The Shadow Chronicles DVD was first released on February 2007, and you can only imagine, despite what is said on press-statements, that it did not receive as high a sale as it could have.

I'm assuming now that this is why the film keeps seeing rereleases. There is no new animation in the horizon, and they obviously feel they haven't sucked Shadow Chronicles dry yet. Naturally the Blu-ray, which is coming out September 2008, might contain the Shadow Rising trailer, which you could naturally watch online anyway without having to pay USD$30.00.


Shadow Rising. The only thing a handful of fans know is that it really had a rocky start in development. And what's worse is they faced a LEAK. Apparently, a leaked story draft managed to get posted online which disclosed one of the most horrible fan-fiction to date. I myself read it, and I must admit, while the story draft itself sucked donkey balls, it intrigued me because it involved a prologue with Dana Sterling, the reconstruction of the Protoculture Factory/Matrix on the Robotech Masters' homeworld, and Ariel sacrificing herself.

Fans spat on it, but the most disturbing thing was that Tommy himself never denied the validity of the script. Could it have been a fan fiction written by Steve Yun, or perhaps a loyal fan close to Tommy and Co.? And what is even scarier is that this was posted online sometime November 2007. That is more than a year since the release of Shadow Chronicles!

It's frightening to think just how much problems Harmony Gold is facing with Shadow Rising. The complete, and utter media blackout isn't helping, as Cyclone pointed out. Harmony Gold's crack marketer Kevin McKeever has since tried to turn people's attention away from this "mess" by letting attendees focus on Robotech's past, present, and future.



And despite its flaws in story and whatever, the amazing-looking Macross: Frontier is already setting the bar pretty high on mecha action shows. So many other anime series like Batman: Gotham Knight, and Starwars: Clonewars are coming to really lure people away from this 20-year old animated series.


I recall a statement that was made by a Harmony Gold rep. He said that with Robotech, you don't need to update often. You only need to make one announcement, and they will come.

To some extent, this worked with Robotech: Shadow Chronicles. But people are savvier now, and there are tons more distractions nowadays. In the end, who would care about a series that is only able to produce a lousy animated movie every three years, without anything compelling in-between to inspire confidence from the fans?

Commentary:
Yes people, I never really did quit Robotech. Even though I said I would around... three times?

Cool! If you think that's wrong, then you also probably noticed I contradict myself at times! Ah, the wonders of the internet.

My last post, “The Magic of Robotech” has earned several accolades, such as ‘Close-minded Post of the Year’. So as a follow-up to that award-winning post, I decided to elaborate a teensy more on what made the original Robotech series ‘click’ with audiences. Go on... read it!


I recently discussed how the original Robotech series’ greatness was due to its anime roots. The three Japanese series that composed Robotech were all solid shows that shared similar themes of love, 80’s music and war. What clinched the deal for fans was the Macek Factor (an editing technique that went above and beyond straight English dubbing) that resulted in the series having a stronger and far more compelling narrative than was ever originally imagined.

The point of contention was when I insinuated that most Robotech works and spin-offs couldn’t deliver the same satisfaction or “magic” as the original Robotech experience.


For the record, the merchandise from the 90’s weren’t bad. Not all of them anyway. However, a lot of these productions went off into weird tangents that seemed at odds with the series. (RT II: Sentinels went off to be a really trippy version of Star Trek, Bill Spangler tried to inject cyberpunk elements to his comics, the novel introduced questionable romantic affiliations, etc.)

By the year 2000, an effort was made by the license holder to steer the franchise back into its so-called ‘Japanese/anime roots’ in order to bring back the “magic” back to the series. However, was the missing factor of past story-based merchandise simply a failure of style and cohesive direction, or does it go much deeper than that?
In 2000, tighter creative control was imposed by Harmony Gold to present the ‘one true canon’ to rule them all.


The new creative team had the talent, they had the resources (marketing pushes were made to tie-in with console game’s release dates) and most importantly, they had the will to make Robotech great again. So like young, foolhardy soldiers, they marched… right into a minefield. In terms of story-based merchandise, the past decade has yielded a scant set of comic books, two console games (both of which I can’t comment as I haven’t played them) and an animated feature.


So what went wrong with this brave new vision (as far as content, if you want me to be specific)?? Why is it that despite tying in much closer to the look and feel of the series, these products appeared even more trivial? Why do they seem like poor imitations of the real thing??

Pundits blamed waning nostalgia, some pointed to sagging sales in the comic industry, execs blamed failure of creative control, while others blamed the stars for failing to align right. I try to look past these what these so-called “experts” have stated, and look directly at what the “new and improved” Robotech stories had to offer… and thereby lacked – having a good story.

It’s tragic when good intentions backfire. In Harmony Gold’s quest to stay truer to its roots, it merely retained the superficial aspects of it. DESPITE WHAT IS OTHERWISE SAID. Read on.

The “magic” my dear reader(s), is not having the ability to show two hundred mecha on screen. Nor is it hiring artists like the great Amano to make your comic covers (These are just marketing gimmicks).  No! Robotech’s greatness and most enduring success were because it told a compelling plot that over time, revealed an amazing amount of depth. Subtle nuances in situation and character development were what helped propel the original series well above its contemporaries.



Since the revamp in Y2K, Harmony Gold gave fans the idea that staying “true” to the original series meant creating stories that were never incongruous to the main animated series story arc. This approach was taken to the extreme when nearly every comic storyline (the only visible avenue of Harmony Gold’s storytelling prowess) tediously recounted worn out storylines that nobody cared about.

Wildstorm took over publishing Robotech comics. Despite having the opportunity to take Roy Fokker, Lynn Kyle (his character starred in Little White Dragon comic story), Max Sterling, Karl Riber (fiancé of Lisa Hayes) and Lancer (cross dressing freedom fighter) into exciting new directions, the Wildstorm comics merely proved that they were all just boring, homogenized goody-goodies.



Even though the movie tie-in comic Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles had a pretty high suck factor, there was one bright spot. T.R. Edwards, once a one-dimensional villain in the original Sentinels B&W comics, was reintroduced as having some semblance of ‘depth’ (giving motive behind his madness). But like everything in this franchise, Edwards proved to be another wasted opportunity, eventually transforming literally into a giant monster that spouted rubbish like “The Hunter is now the Hunted!” (a reference to his arch nemesis, Rick Hunter). So much for being subtle…

This self-imposed creative boundary stifled nearly every opportunity for great storytelling. A trend that sadly continues to this day with franchise’s first feature-animated film in twenty years - Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, where the first twenty minutes is set within the events and locations of an actual episode of the series!




Re-watching the original Robotech with an open mind reveals a rich and rewarding universe. Rewatching Shadow Chronicles only reaffirms one’s belief that the CG is outdated, protoculture makes female have larger racks, and that Mark Hamill dies after ten seconds of screen time. Now  is depth.

Reread the Wildstorm comics (2000-2006), and you’ll learn that all your favorite characters are as soulless automatons going through the motions of "surmounting the odds". Whoa. This is your grand vision?

Accessibility has always been the series’ greatest challenge. And yet from this perspective, there is almost no creativity in telling a compelling (or even competent) story whatsoever. If every story is just going to piggyback on an existing arc in the name of being “truer to its anime roots”, why should anyone bother?

Is the direction of relying merely on spiffy imagery from comics and anime feature films enough to bring new blood into the fold? The answer is yes. But how long will they stay?

Bottomline:
A superficial franchise begets superficial fans. The jury is still out for the sequel Robotech: Shadow Rising. Can Tommy deliver us beyond his usual brand of "storytelling magic"?

Commentary:
This article discusses the ingredients that made Robotech the animated series work well for its time. I postulate some reasons why subsequent works and spin-offs (past and present) have failed to measure up to the brilliance of the original. I understand that it's may not be an article a lot of people would agree with, as nobody can really say what Robotech is or isn't.


What is Robotech? No, I’m not asking for the standard Wikipedia definition. I’m asking you, the handful that dares tread these grounds, to answer what made the original series great. You may have heard it all before, but here is my take on that subject.

Because a lot of people know that Robotech, despite its Japanese origins, was written “to fit an American audience” (whatever that means). I was quite shocked when I watched the entire original Japanese Macross animated series and saw how close it was to its its Robotech counterpart.


The only things that made Macross Saga Robotech was the name changes, Roy’s behavior, and a couple of badly spliced footage from another anime series, Super Dimensinal Cavalry: Southern Cross. Even Robotech's "Second Generation", the one that followed Robotech’s Macross saga, despite becoming chop-suey in the hands of the American editors, pretty much retained the same template as the original series. Third generation, New Generation, was worse.

Mind you, I'm not saying that the entirety of Robotech and its production was a straight dub. I'm just saying that at least, story wise, it seems that the Japanese deserve a helluva lot more praise than most people give them credit for. This of course, begs the question:


Since time immemorial (did I use that right?), people have had very different ideas about what Robotech was and wasn’t.

Things weren’t so bad in the late 1980’s though, as Carl Macek, the man who gave birth to the concept of Robotech, at least knew what he was doing when brainstorming for the follow-up series to the original Robotech series. This project was known as The Sentinels, and the first thing he did was to hire the Japanese. This collaboration was truly unprecedented, and for a time, things were good.


Things hit the fan when Mr. Macek found out that the Japanese were taking the series in a very different direction than was originally intended. The Japanese animators were making stuff that used more of the new characters, whereas Macek wanted the focus to still be on the Robotech’s established cast of characters.


In retrospect, Robotech: The Sentinels was best viewed as something akin to a Robotech’s Greatest Hits album more than anything else. It took the greatest stuff from the original series three sagas, and crammed it in one movie. Maybe Macek should have listened to the Japanese on this one…


The Sentinels project left a black eye in the franchise. The series continued however, in the form of black and white comic books. So the 90’s, basically saw the franchise center around this medium more than anything else. This era gave birth to the concept of slapping American storytelling into Robotech. No Japanese influence whatsoever, aside from American artists doing some rather odd quasi-anime style visuals for their work.


The franchise ended up with some solid series in the end, such as Invid War and Return to Macross, but these stories don’t hold a candle to the original series. Some comickers tried to interject personal political views, others tried to make the earthbound Zentraedi alien race into Middle Eastern terrorists (it's so much more powerful to have the Zentraedi blow themselves up trying to kill General Leonard). In the end, there was always something off about all these comics, and it’s not just how they screwed up with series canon and continuity to suit their needs.


The novels however, were pretty solid. Many of these books had the authors really try to explain the most archaic elements of the series with a whole lot of questionable fantasy-science. New story elements were thrown in the mix as well, with various characters sleeping with each other, and other weird stuff I don’t wish to remember. It's Robotech, but...



Seriously though, I would’ve doubted Robotech’s success had it began as a science fiction novel series. It would probably be one of those forgotten science fiction novel series, like William Shatner’s Tekwar. Take the time to sift through all those romance novels in some used bookstore, and you might find some!

The role-playing game was even crazier. However, like the novels and the comics, it was solid for what it was. It’s got its fanbase. I can’t say much about this though, as I haven’t played an actual game. However the biggest complaint I’ve heard is how combat in the game never truly felt like the Robotech animated series.


Gameplay aside, I was appalled at the style of the artwork in some of these RPG books. Robotech’s anime designs just didn’t translate well to gritty, Battletech style realism. I understand the limited knowledge people had with the style, but come on...

So really, Robotech thus far, hasn’t had a single product that was able to touch the original series magic. The Japanese, for all their quirks, brought something to the table that none of the American (and even Korean-American) storytellers haven’t been able to achieve.

Robotech to me, at least in essence, isn’t about cramming as many real, pseudo and fantastical science in the mix. Nor is it about jamming Saturday orning plot threads with faux-anime style visuals. It wasn’t just one big sappy love story with transforming robots either!


Like the original Starwars trilogy, the "magic" was just there. What we had, ladies and gentlemen, was a show which had an essentially Japanese science fiction storyline, possessed the brilliant character dynamics that anime is generally known for, sprinkled with some of that grounded American sensibility and wit. This is what ‘made’ Robotech the animated epic it was in the minds of most people.


When Robotech finally nails that dynamic right (especially in this age where companies have managed to work out to some degree, a successful Japanese-American collaboration project) I think the franchise might have a chance to return back to form. People of all ages can finally look forward to a Robotech animated project.

P.S.

Personally, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles doesn’t really… count. On the surface, it had all the ‘right’ elements, but the brilliance just wasn’t there. (Same with every other product made since 2000)


It may look like Robotech, smell like it, sound like it, but it failed to deliver something Robotech had - a satisfying story. Something the Japanese brought in their individual series, and something Carl Macek added when tying it to one epic saga.

You may console yourself that this was the first movie, but so was Starwars: A New Hope. Nothing in this first film movie made me want to care about what happens in the next chapter. They could all die from that big busted android Janice's singing for all I care.

It's only hook is that its the only Robotech animated feature, so as expected from a mindless consumer, I might as well buy/download and watch it. So as far as I’m concerned R:TSC was an experiment, nothing more.