Roboculture

Hey there fans! It's me again! The self-important fan who thinks Harmony Gold isn't all that!


Whenever I blog about good ol' Robotech, I sometimes forget to explain that I reference. Sorry about that! So I've compiled a small little things that I've talked about over the past couple of months. Here goes (and tell me if I missed something!):

A forgettable series of Robotech comics was produced by Wildstorm from 2001 to 2005:



A comic series that dealt with Roy Fokker. It portrayed him as a clueless dork - the complete opposite of his character in the original series. Don't be fooled by the art. A worthless tribute.

A shallow story about Max Sterling and Ben Dixon signing up for the Robotech Defense Force. Accompanied by the limp retelling of the Macross movie "Little White Dragon". This was released to accompany the videogame Robotech: Battlecry.



A visually appealing comic does not make a good story, and Robotech: Invasion is right up there with the rest of em'. A comic that features the stories of the cross-dressing Yellow Dancer and the noble Karl Riber, fiancee of Lisa Hayes. These two glorified fan fiction pieces should have been left in the drawing board. Released alongside the terrible Robotech: Invasion videogame for the first X-Box and PS2.



Designed to continue the ill-fated Robotech: Sentinels comic series from the early 90's, this visually stunning piece of turd is what sent Robotech comics to the garbage chute. A muddled continuity and ham-handed storytelling helped to make this the worst comic series in the Wildstorm Robotech line.

This was the only available sales data for the Robotech comics at the time of this writing:

ROBOTECH (WildStorm)
10/2003: Robotech: Love & War #6 (of 6) -- 16,608

10/2005: Robotech: Prelude to Shadow Chronicles #1 (of 5) -- 11,735

10/2005: Robotech: Prelude to Shadow Chronicles #2 (of 5) -- 10,811 (-7.9%)

11/2005: Robotech: Prelude to Shadow Chronicles #3 (of 5) -- 9,837 (-9.0%) 2 years : -40.8%

Many fans have speculated the reason for the significant drop in sales and while there have been many (such as Tommy Yune's insistence in release VARIANT COVERS for comics like Love & War and Invasion), but here is some of the things I've heard:



This nostalgia fad actually began in 2000, with the release of Dreamwave's highly successful Transformers comic line. Harmony Gold, not wanting to miss the bandwagon, decided to bring back Robotech with its own line of comics.


Steve Yun, who worked for Harmony Gold at the time, began scouting for potential comic book publishers. It was here that he found out that Tommy Yune, a mildly successful comic artist, was working for Wildstorm. A little recommendation here... and voila, Tommy Yune is officially hired as the Creative Director of the Robotech franchise!


Tommy Yune recently participated in an interview with a Robotech fan on the Chinese Robotech webpage, RTUCN.com, and made a shocking revelation:

Tommy Yune: "We are definitely working on developing new stories for comics. We understand that there are many fans who would love to see us revisit the Macross Saga or expand on the Shadow Chronicles, so it will be a challenging decision of which one to pursue first."

My thoughts:
Well folks, be ready for another visually stunning and ultimately shallow "Tommy Yune comic". The interview itself though is actually pretty good, and reveals a lot about Mr. Yune's thought process with what little work he's does over the years. Go ahead and read it, and judge it for yourself:



In November 2007, a fan posted a story draft about the sequel Robotech: Shadow Rising on a blog.

The draft, from what I've read (before it was ordered to be deleted), dealt withthe ongoing war against the evil Haydonites. The finale was set on the Robotech Masters homeworld, Tirol, and centered around a clone named Rem and his attempts to rebuild the Protoculture Matrix/Factory in order to restore humanity's Protoculture production.

The Haydonites managed to send out a giant asteroid whose purpose was to neutralize the human forces on Tirol, and it was only through the android Janice's singing, and the Invid defector Ariel's sacrifice that saved the day.



It was cheesy, and frankly up to par with what was seen in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. The major issue here is that Tommy Yune never denied the validity of the draft, leading some to believe in its authenticity (despite being utter crap).

Naturally, several other vocal fans declared the entire leak as completely fabricated, citing it as another fanboy's attempt at slurring Tommy and Steve Yun's name. The issue was never fully resolved.


Fast forward to 2008, and uh... Well... Can you tell the difference? Aside from the garish Red Robotech logo?


Yes, looking at this site now, it is about as outdated as Robotech's animation. What's worse is that the Infopedia and all those other "goodies" are horribly outdated as well. The dilemma that they're facing now is that they can't update these sections. Why?

Because there is money to be made in Robotech's canon and continuity! The Role-Playing Game fulfills the purpose of having real story fluff that, if posted on Robotech.com, would be kind of... a conflict of interest. Which leads me to believe that Robotech.com and its "infopedia" is complete crap. If they won't update the already outdated Infopedia and timeline of its inconsistencies, then they might as well delete the damn thing.

The funny thing is that they give excuses like they lack funding, or Robotech.com is a commercial site, or the coding for Robotech.com is ancient and too complicated or Harmony Gold is a very small company, but I think that is complete bullshit. I've seen small-time design companies, never heard of franchises with far more update and visually pleasing websites than this tacky online store posing as a fansite/forum.



A member and Southern Californian fan by the name of Jason was booted out of Robotech.com for being a little too opinionated. And what's wrong with opinions? A lot of them concerned how Tommy Yune and his cronies often feed fans lies and bullshit during Anime conventions. Other times, his opinions concern the well-being of some fans who get mistreated or chewed out by other moderators, and even by Steve Yun himself.

He was finally booted out, with the statement by Steve Yun that he should cool off. Several months later, not a word was heard by Steve Yun.

Now get this: His wife, also a long time member of Robotech.com WAS BANNED because her account was under the suspicion of being used by Jason. Jason denied using his wife's account, and so what if his wife had the same opinions? What a loser...

Steve Yun: Paranoid and Completely Unprofessional?

Another fan who was previously banned from Robotech.com because he had strong opinions about Tommy Yune's stiff artwork. He spoke and apologized to Steve Yun during a real life get-together, and was promised by Steve that he would be reinstated. The fan and Steve had a friendly exchange, and Steve advised him to not be so mean in his comments because peoples feelings get hurt. Fair enough.

Was the fan in question ever reinstated? Nope. He was completely ignored by Steve Yun. He emailed him several times but never got a response. I spoke to him during an after show in the online Talkcast Space Station Liberty, and he already let it go. If Steve wants to be an ass, then let him be.

Conclusion:

So anyway guys and gals, hope this helps clear some things up. Good day to you all!

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.

Commentary:
This is the final post to end the Robotech April Bitch Fest 2008, designed to take a sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, sometimes sarcastic look at the Robotech establishment. Some of you may or may not agree with what I say, and to me that is completely understandable.


I was listening to an episode of Chris Meadow's Space Station Liberty, the official Harmony Gold podcast, and some of the episodes of that show bored me to tears, despite guest appearances by none other than Harmony Gold Creative Director Tommy Yune.

It’s really a shame because Chris Meadows was ‘great’, back when he was interviewing Robotech personalities left and right. Most of the later episodes have devolved into routine “press releases” of Harmony Gold merchandise.


Some of Space Station Liberty’s (SSL) episodes are filled with so much dead air (in other words, moments of uncomfortable silence) that it’ll make you cringe in your seat. These instances really damage Mr. Meadows’ credibility as a credible host. Come on Chris, try to at least inject some content on your show. Make an effort to find people and topics!

Dead air or no dead air, listening to these pimp-my-merchandise SSL sessions never yield anything new or exciting. Tommy’s still pretty evasive with just about everything thrown at him, repeating what most fans knew from the press released from the official site. It’s even sadder that when Tommy Yune realizes there’s nothing good worth talking about, he’d bring up the Live Action Movie that most people know he’s not even supposed to talk about in public! What can I say? This is the ONLY project that fans get excited about these days.


Why pray tell, did I bring this show and this particular episode up?

Y’see, a man named Philip came on the show - one of the few casual fans that got into the franchise fairly recently. While I try to respect people's opinions as much as possible, I found this person going a tad too far in his adoration of Tommy Yune's efforts.


While its understandable how how some folks don’t fanboy rantings seriously, when the guy started praising Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles as the franchise's equivalent to Starwars: The Empire Strikes Back, I think we’re going to have a bit of a problem. Funny that even Tommy Yune was taken aback by this ridiculous notion!

Continue listening to the show and prepare to hear ol’ Philip lavish praise upon praise to Tommy Yune and his work. I really don’t mean to slam this guy’s opinion but come on… I’m aware that the film has some good points, but my point is that to have these types of "Yes" fans surround Tommy just won’t do the franchise any good. And before you confine this spiel as a form of "Fan Entitlement”, do not forget that fans are consumers, and yet as fans of this form of entertainment, don’t we deserve better? Is that too much to ask??

The rationalization would naturally be that you can’t please everybody – but I think this excuses has been evoked far too many times for every Robotech release. One might wonder whether the franchise is worth anything anymore... I mean, if they aren’t going to be bothered making an affordable product that everyone could enjoy, why bother?


Case in point, while the Blu-Ray version of Shadow Chronicles isn’t a bad idea. But to attach 20 minutes of so-called “Never-Before-Seen Special Features”, including outtakes and “new” deleted scenes, and slap a hefty $40 price tag seems almost insulting, especially to those that may have purchased the previous “Special Edition” DVD.

Another example of this weirdness was seen on the Palladium Books forums, the publisher of the Robotech Role Playing Game. Someone was asking whether the recent Role-playing book was worth buying, and you know the response he got?


Now either we’re lucky that Robotech fans are getting younger, or we’ve crossed the line where the fandom is so desperate for new stuff that its “members” will buy pieces of cow dung with the Robotech name attached to it without asking questions. That’s never a good sign.

Final thoughts:
I believe that most fans are well past the point of ‘We should be thankful to Tommy Yune that he’s keeping Robotech alive argument’. As a Robotech fan, expecting something better is NOT a bad thing! Make your thoughts known. Go!!

Commentary:
SARCASM MODE ENABLED


Alas. After weeks of exposure on the land of milk and honey (otherwise known as Robotech.com) SPACE, a popular Canadian sci-fi channel, has decided to discontinue airing Robotech! According to “sources”, the cult favorite was yanked due to abysmal ratings. The blame allegedly falls on the show being placed on a bad timeslot, but truth be told, Robotech’s just not appealing enough to today’s audience anymore. Sort of breaks your heart, doesn’t it?


Robotech’s slot has since been replaced by Relic Hunter series. The one starring Tia Carrera. Canadians have got good taste! (As an aside, Tia’s part Filipina)


Robotech.com has since quietly deleted (yes, I did five minutes of research here...) the news item regarding the reports of airing on SPACE, and replaced it with an announcement of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles on Blu-ray! And that’s another thing I want to tackle for this post. A High-Definition Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles disc. A complete digital transfer, with an additional twenty minutes more of Tommy Yune and his silly deleted scenes.

Seriously.


Did this film deserve a third re-release? And what's the hook now? So you can hear more of Tommy Yune rambling how amazing his movie and Robotech is?


There are a few reasons why Funimation could’ve green-lighted this. A re-release such this as also serves as a ‘countdown’ timer to Shadow Rising. Number one is to serve as a promotional tool for the sequel, Shadow Rising. Whereas the first re-released Special Edition’s biggest selling point was the “deleted scenes” (trust me, Tommy Yune, and just about every convention attendee can attest to how overly hyped these were), this Blu-ray edition might make a Shadow Rising teaser its must-have feature. Either that, or they go for the goddamn the blooper reel.

Number two: to fulfill Shadow Chronicles’ original purpose, which was to bring in new fans. Problem is, Shadow Chronicles carries too much baggage from the original series for any newcomer! C’mon guys and gals, its story takes place DURING an actual episode of the series for crying out. Still, might as well put a “new” product like this out before coming out with the Blu-ray version of the entire Robotech Saga. The Blu-ray edition costs USD 40.00. The standard DVD Special Edition costs USD 35.00. The first costs about USD 20.00. If this keeps up…


Number Three: To comply with the Harmony Gold motto of not giving a rat’s arse about the fans and their poor little wallets. Just how many versions of Robotech were put out in the standard DVD format? Last time I heard it was three. A lot of folks cursed under their breath about these repackaged versions with “never before seen features”, and thankfully, Harmony Gold continues this annoying trend.


And finally, Number Four: To allow Robotech some form of presence in upcoming comic or anime conventions. With the franchise’s popularity taking a dip over the past few years due to an onslaught of other modern distractions, the Blu-ray might, JUST MIGHT Robotech booths a little more traffic. Nobody wants a repeat of the "overly hyped" Robotech cellphone game. Shucks.

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.

2006, Year of the Shadow

It's been a while since Robotech's first animation in twenty years's been released on DVD, and time hasn't been too kind with it. The original release of the Robotech: Shadow Chronicles may have brought in a handful of new fans, but that's about the only good thing that has spawned from this cultural oddity. The alleged lackluster sales of the Robotech: Shadow Chronicles Special Edition DVD is a testament on how consumers aren't willing to buy the same film twice, especially if that film's story isn't particularly great or visuals that appealing.




What's unfortunate is how the film's story and characters seem to predict expectations for the sequel in 2009. YOu know what experts about sequels say - "More of the same and then some!" - Trust me, with Tommy in the directing helm, that might be a problem. Anyway, In the intervening years since TSC's release, there's been a few interesting things that have popped up about the film's production and promotional run that you may or may not have heard of. Part lampoon, part factual. Read all about it!

Back in 2004, the film was originally known as "Shadow Force", before fans complained it sounded like a Power Ranger knock-off.



The Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles comic-book series was released late 2005 to accompany the Shadow Chronicles DVD release. The DVD ended up being delayed for more than a year due to complications in distribution! Sadly, like most comic/movie-tie ins, the plot was so contrived and confusing, and the climax so unsatisfying that some speculated the downfall of the franchise . Some reviews stated that readers needed a cum laude degree in Robotechnology to just about understand anything regarding the plot. Despite these major hangups, its declining/lackluster sales was blamed exclusively due to the fact that "...comic books are dead!"

The budget for the film's CG was so low some of the pre-visualization was the final render in the film! (Kidding!)


Every female character on the film sports D-cups, which, according to Tommy Yune, was due to horny Korean animators. As Korean, and Creative Director, you'd think he'd have a say in this blatant fan service while watching the pencil test screenings.

In the name of Revisionism?

Scott Bernard, the hero from the original series, marks his return in TSC - sporting a new haircut. What's odd is how the promotional posters didn't bother to reflect the new look of Scott in the film, instead going for his design in the original series supposedly for nostalgia.

Promotional Putz

TSC's promotional run began by showing the film on local cinemas. The catch - Harmony Gold didn't see a cent in profit when they screened the film! Well, you know what Marketing 101 taught you right? Word of mouth is the best!

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, the only marketing the film had was from a fan named Darkwater.



Commander Darly Taylor, played by Mark Hamill, was top billed during promotion runs of TSC. His character had a total of ten seconds of screen time before he was violently killed by the aliens.


Commander Darly Taylor, played by Mark Hamill, says "break off and attack" on the film's trailer, which is a throwback to Mark Hamill's previous role in the Wing Commander PC 'CD-ROM' game series. Fans hailed this reference, but the damn line was cut in the final cut. Huh?

The film won best animated science fiction award - since it was the only entry!

Do You Remember Big West?

Despite strict legalities barring the Robotech franchise from using/copying the Japanese designs from Macross: Do You Remember Love?, the "Garfish" cruiser seen in TSC is basically a rip from the ships seen in that Japanese film.

TSC maintained so much of the dynamics of the original Macross series that some people thought it was going to be a straight up rip. Marcus Rush, the young hot-headed hotshot of the film is the film's classic Rick Hunter template, Alex Romero was original supposed to be the fat comic relief like Ben Dixon was in the original series, Maia Sterling is the hardnosed love interest who later mellows down and begins to love Marcus, similar to Lisa Hayes.

Are you kidding?


Alex Romero, one of the few likeable characters and comic reliefs in TSC, is killed for the sake of cheap drama.


Due to legalities with Japanese copyright holders of the Macross series, the term 'Zentraedi' was barred from use in any Robotech merchandise or animation (spoken and written). Maia Sterling, daughter of the 'Zentraedi' warrior named Miriya Parino and full-blooded human Max Sterling, casually states that she is "half-alien". Stupid works in mysterious ways.

Despite the film possessing an obvious animation error where one of the protagonists switches outfits in the same scene, some fans hailed it as a throwback to the original series' many animation glitches!


A fan bonked a pie at Tommy Yune, Creative Director of Harmony Gold. Everybody shunned this henious act - with some die-hard supporters even crying ASSAULT/BATTERY CHARGES of all things. Some even suggested the pie contained SALMONELLA. The question remains, years after this incident:


Conclusion

Hope this brings you all up to speed as to the magic of this new age of Robotech we live in. Harmony Gold has (unfortunately) wisened up after all the bad press between the fans, and has since kept mum about everything regarding the sequel, 'Shadow Rising'.

Those lucky enough to have seen Tommy's laptop and his cool 3D models, script outlines and what not in these Robotech conventions and barbeques had better watch out. Yeah, Harmony Gold, get your story right this time! Do that, and we'll have something to talk about.

I was born 1985, so I didn’t know what the hell Robotech was back then. I suppose a few others share this experience of being a ‘late-bloomer’ type of fan. We are the fans that discovered the classic series much later, like sometime during the 1990’s.

The 90’s

Those fortunate to have seen the show on its original 1985 run have already experienced the so-called “rabid fan phase” during the mid to late 1990’s. These were the days when the internet and even the fans themselves were experiencing the so-called “growing pains” (many were still students with lots of free time on their hands)



A fan “boom” took place, where sites of varying quality began popping up left and right. Robotech discussion groups opened up from all corners of the world. These places became the hubs of various heated discussion of varying degrees regarding canon and what not took place. People wrote their own Robotech fiction. People made ten page thesis on the more arbitrary elements of the series. People created their own role-playing-game stats since the official game stats were fundamentally flawed.

Second Millenium / Chance

Seeing that the Robotech license was their only moneymaker, Harmony Gold determined they could be making money off this rabble. So they decided to get their act together, and establish www.robotech.com. From then on, the impossible happened – Robotech online fan activity actually began to decline!


Fastforward It’s now 2008, nearly a decade after the so-called “Great Leap Forward”. How is the Robotech fandom faring? Many of the fans who partook in the 90’s boom have burned themselves out. Many have moved on to more worthwhile interests and hobbies. Those that remained lurk at the forums every now and then, and that’s… about it. These are actually the dangerous lot, since you never know when they will strike with an opinion or two.

Some of the 90's straggler fans, not content in staying in the sidelines, have begun utilizing the latest in internet technology to express their fanboy nostalgia.

Late bloomer fans, who are now at the “rabid fan” age, will most likely be bummed at how stagnant the online fandom has become. Despite belonging to the internet/me/entitlement/Youtube/Facebook generation, the significant drop in interest for the Robotech franchise has created a vacuum in the desire for fan content.

In any case, what creative outlets on the net have the few and proud Robotech fans utilized?

Websites

Don’t expect too much from Robotech websites. The advancements of Flash and other web applications don’t seem to have translated to Robotech very well. Many classic Robotech websites such as the Robotech Reference Guide and Robotech Research page are extremely outdated in terms of design.




Many have not been updated for years, content-wise as well. The official Robotech page’s design itself hasn’t been updated in eight years. It’s most significant advancement is when the banner changed color. A recent Robotech fansite has been established, RobotechX, but time will tell if this site will go anywhere. A sad, yet common site from most Robotech fansites.

Blogs

Nearly everyone connected to the net has some kind of web blog about the most niche of topics. Over the years, a handful of Robotech fans have used blogs in a number of interesting ways – from the informative, to the informal.


Some have used their blogs for comics, some for art, some for lampooning. Many Robotech bloggers however have opted to detail every Robotech news out there. These blogs were heavily updated sometime between ’04 and ’06 and have only recently suffered a significant decline.

Podcasts

Thanks to revolutionary stuff like Skype and Talkshoe, fans are now able talk about Robotech, to other fans around the world in little recorded shows. This is probably the most consistent Robotech-related thing on the net at the moment, delivering weekly content (of varying quality). Thanks to Skype, you can now hear raving Robotech fanboys. Isn't technology great?


Forums

If you are looking to discuss Robotech, there are only two Robotech forums on the net that fans converge to – the official Robotech forum, and the Palladium Robotech forum.





Fan forums, such as the Disciples of Zor boards, RobotechX forum, and United Earth Group boards, have floated around the net for some time now, but the activity they generate is so low they’re barely worthwhile to many casual Robotech fans. The only other fanmade forum that has a decent amount of activity is Macrossworld, but be prepared for a fight. I hear they don’t like Robotech there. It is really a shame, but those are the strokes.

Fan art/fiction Galleries

Robotech fans looking for great looking fan art or fiction are a little out of luck. Only a handful of artists exclusively draw Robotech these days.




The best place to find art is on the deviantART website, or perhaps the official Robotech website’s fan art gallery. Be prepared for some amount of disappointment here.

As for Robotech fan fiction, a lot of the good stuff is scattered all over the net. The 1990’s saw a number of fans writing their own Robotech stories, with some continuing up to this day. I shall have to write an entire feature for this!


The best place to read about fiction is either on www.Robotecha.com or the official Robotech fiction gallery. Another good un' can be found on http://happypenguins.deviantart.com/ with fiction and art. These two dedicated souls are the kind of people I was expecting to find more in the Robotech community, but have since been bummed. That’s really about it actually.

It’s sad. One would think the release of ‘Robotech; The Shadow Chronicles’ and its upcoming sequel would’ve increased internet buzz and activity amongst the casual and hardcore fans of the franchise, but no such thing has happened. Many Robotech fans can only ride the wave of nostalgia for so long before they on to better things.

Fan projects

Huh? They still make these? Well, if they do, you folks will be the first to know. Or not. We'll see.

Conclusion

So that's it. Any way you look at it, Robotech the franchise itself may be 'alive' (or in life support), but the fandom is sure as hell 'kaput'. I really would hate myself if I left it at that. 2008 feels like the beginning of something, but what that thing is has yet to be seen.

I admire the few that stand defiant against this wave of pessimism, and I say, more power to you! If this is something you enjoy, then go for it! You will find your audience if you look hard enough.