Roboculture

Commentary:
The following thesis is based on various blog posts and forum posts gathered over the years, so in other words, some of the stuff I say might be disputable. The solution to the problem I present may be a little naïve, but I think it is Harmony Gold’s best chance at winning more loyalty from its fans.

For the longest time, fans all over the world (except Japan, of course) believed that the original 1985 Robotech series was due mainly to the efforts of one man – Carl Macek. Similar revelations were made, when people realized it was the unsung efforts of Harmony Gold’s once-excellent writing staff that really helped pull the entire series together.

However you may think of Robotech today, the fact remains that it was still all due to one man’s vision, backed by an excellent, dedicated staff that helped propel the series from becoming mindless kiddy fare.

So it’s now 2008, twenty-three years since that initial success. Unfortunately, Robotech pretty much shrank to a very niche property. Despite efforts to revive the franchise since 2001, Robotech still remains in obscurity today. (That is… until the Live Action Robotech movie of course)

Behind the facade

The Robotech brand, once and forever synonymous to its creator, Carl Macek is now associated with another name – Tommy Yune.


Yes, boys and girls, the Robotech franchise is yet again being run almost literally by a single person. One tiny difference - whereas many of Carl Macek’s more… outrageous ideas were kept fairly grounded thanks to his writing staff, Tommy doesn’t seem to answer to anyone… save for himself. The 2007 removal of fan-turned-Harmony Gold-employee, Tom Bateman, who many felt was the voice of reason for Harmony Gold, has left some fans skeptical as to the future of the franchise.

The one-man show

Tommy is more than a spokesperson. As the ‘Creative Director’ he is in charge of everything – and this job has forced him to be a Jack-of-all-trades, master at none.

Tommy, the creative director, has drawn nearly every single character and mecha concept art, and promotional art for every Robotech product since 2001 – from the comic covers, model box covers, posters, video games, DVD art, and role-playing game(s). Would it hurt to outsource more stuff to other talented anime artists? (More on this in a future topic)


Some fans have unfairly referred to Robotech as ‘Yune-tech’, but can you hardly blame them. Tommy is without a doubt a very talented artist, but I’m sort of afraid that the series could suffer from a kind of staleness



During the 1990’s, Robotech license holders gave dozens of artists the opportunity to expand on the visual aspect of the franchise. What you think of these derivative works or their history is irrelevant – my point is that artists were given the opportunity to showcase their unique views on Robotech


The advent of Wacom tablets, Corel Painter and Photoshop has disseminated digital art to the masses – Harmony Gold should tap into this massive pool of talent for future merchandise and not rely on just ONE guy

Aside from artistic duties, Tommy is also responsible in overseeing all Robotech products and events, from artbooks, comics, videogames, convention appearances, and the like. Let’s not forget Tommy’s various commitments with the Robotech animated projects, which include everything from script revision, continuity research, storyboarding, concept designing, etc. To fully realize the extent of Tommy’s influence on this new Robotech, one only need hear the audio commentary of the special edition Robotech: Shadow Chronicles DVD, where he’s the only dude talking!

Seriously, Tommy spreading himself too thin.

Checks and balances

If not Tommy and a small cadre of Harmony Gold employees, who else oversees quality control for many of its products? Believe it or not, but it’s the fans themselves! Such a practice is unheard of in most franchises. What happens is that these ‘contributors’ are ‘loyal’ fans that spare whatever free time they have to double check whatever the Creative Director sends them.

While I’m glad for the people who contribute to this task (naturally, saying no would just be rude), I have to question why professionals aren’t doing the work? Since when did a franchise rely on fans for quality assurance? Am I missing something here?


Take for example the first release of the Robotech role-playing game in ten years – it was said that several fans were ‘consulted’ to double check the book for errors. A ‘prominent’ figure of the Robotech fandom was given the opportunity to recheck the book, but later admitted that he sorta… just browsed the manuscript sent to him.

How can a quality product come out from a process like this?? These fans are good people, but Harmony Gold shouldn’t expect them to go above and beyond without some kind of adequate monetary or material compensation beyond the mere mention of their names.

Fallout!

One fan that took a stand against this folly was Darkwater – a fan who single-handedly marketed the original The Shadow Chronicles movie with his very own website back in 2004 to 2005. Many have claimed that it was because of DW that they learned the existence of a new Robotech. Darkwater was so dedicated that he not only sought to contact the cast of film for impromptu interviews, but also created fan trailers for the film!


Darkwater halted his efforts when Harmony Gold actually contacted him to thank him for his efforts. While this would routinely leave a typical fan making cartwheels and gasping for air, Darkwater felt he was being used.

You had to ask yourself, was Harmony Gold marketing so poor that it had to rely on a FANSITE, to create buzz for their first official animation in twenty years? DW shut his site down, and Harmony Gold was left in the dust.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who does what in a franchise – the question remains whether the end product will be any good, and so far they’ve all been disappointing.

When I reviewed the artbook, I reviewed it for what it was – an art book – and I gave my impression – it looked and felt cheap. The film Shadow Chronicles also felt cheap. The RPG book, I’m sure once I have it, looks half-baked and not up to par with what’s currently on the market. It’s a naïve to think fans will fully devote themselves in outsourced work meant for professionals without adequate compensation!

Solution

Here’s my unsolicited advice: Any you knew it was coming - Hire people from the fanbase! If that’s not possible, why not pay contributors handsomely for their efforts or offer them some kind of profit sharing? Case in point, Tom Bateman, along with his brother, single-handedly organized the first Robotech-only convention in ten years! This was back in 1995, and thanks to Tom’s efforts, Harmony Gold officially hired him.


This momentary act of goodwill eventually helped revive the fandom for a while with Tom fellow becoming the link of fans to Harmony Gold. Never underestimate the passion of a fan that gets paid for his efforts.

*Tom Bateman was eventually fired in 2007. Why? Speculate.