Roboculture

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.