ROBOBLOG III Archives

Follow Me To The New Digs.

2011-04-06T00:58:00.000-05:00

I think it's safe to say I've officially closed up digs at this location. I didn't even remember my Blogger login when I tried to get in to post this notice.

BUT!

That doesn't mean I'm not out there talking about Robotech again. It just means that I'm not doing it HERE anymore. I've pulled up roots from Blogger to Wordpress, and I'm just doing all of my blogging at one spot; it's not just a Robotech blog, though at the moment I'm in one of my serious Robotech phases again, so that IS what you'll be seeing a lot of over the coming months. I'm doing the video blogging thing on YouTube again, and I'm marching my way through a scaled-down version of what I'd been doing here when I was so rudely interrupted by real life, a marathon viewing and write-up of the entire animated Robotech saga (except for The Untold Story, because SOME WOUNDS NEVER HEAL).

You can continue to follow my Robotech-related rambling at:

sdf5x.wordpress.com

Hope to see you all over there!

Captain JLS, signing off ...

Interruption of service announcement redux.

2010-10-07T02:25:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to think the interruption in the blogging may be permanent -- another unfinished Robotech-related project on my part, like the various comic synopsis/blogging projects I've been playing with for the past decade-plus. Here's the situation as it stands.

Three days after I got back from RT 25: THE CELEBRATION, I lost my fifth manager in not quite two years. The district manager tapped me to serve as interim manager until he can find a replacement, although it seems what he really wants is for me to step up and say I'll take the job on a permanent basis. I'd rather not do that, but I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude on it -- I'm waiting to see what my first paycheck as interim manager looks like, and what my workload is like once the nearest hiring manager sends me some additional staff. Right now our store is terribly understaffed, and even on my days off I find I'm stopping by and calling in to make sure things are proceeding apace. I come home exhausted, and have no energy to spend three or four hours analyzing a Robotech episode or comic book or whatever. At most, when I come home I throw in a DVD and lean back and try to relax -- and then feel guilty about it, because in the back of my head I'm thinking, "I should be writing a blog post, or drawing something, or doing SOMETHING constructive."

Unfortunately for all of you who were following my latest laughable attempt to maintain daily blogging activities, that "something constructive" won't be the Roboblog for the foreseeable future. This isn't a big dramatic "I'M LEAVING ROBOTECH FOREVER" shutdown like last time; this is totally about me and my own energy level and my work schedule, not about negative energy floating around in the community and associating Robotech with a fractured fandom or whatever the heck was going on in my head last year. I'm reserving the right to come back to the blog later if and when I step back from my current position, or find another job elsewhere, or get myself fired -- basically anything that lands me a great heaping pile of free time to return to gazing deeply into the depths of the Robotech TV series and its twenty tons of printed spin-off material.

I still will need a creative outlet, something that allows me to express myself in a positive way that makes me feel like I'm not just a zombie-like retail monkey, and I do have an idea what that might be. If and when something comes of this idea, I'll let you all know. It's not SCWONKEY DOG this time -- no, that's on hold just like the blog, because that requires even MORE energy and effort than the blog; that requires me to dig into the depths of my being and tear out bits of my soul, silly as that may sound, especially given that on the surface it just looks like a twisted psuedo-mature Saturday morning space opera action cartoon. But at its core, SCWONKEY is a project of self-examination; what I need to do right now is something a little lighter. If this does go forward, it's going to be another webcomic project. A friend of mine's been bugging me to collaborate on something with him for months now, and I'm thinking I might go ahead and do it. I'm shooting off that e-mail sometime in the morning.

So, until I've got time to come back here and start hammering out the Robotech thoughts again, this is Captain JLS, signing off.

See you on the next go-around.

DAY FORTY-THREE: Reflections, Part 4

2010-09-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

The one part of my personal ROBOTECH journey I failed to mention thus far -- besides this blog itself, and its byproducts like my YouTube channel -- is EMISSARIES, the fanzine I inherited from my dear pal and ex-roommate Evan. I contributed histories of the ROBOTECH comics and ROBOTECH THE MOVIE (riddled with inaccuracies I'd picked up over the years from forum discussions and on-line articles), an ongoing column discussing the state of the franchise at various points, and ultimately when I was given run of the 'zine itself, I tried to offer a broad view of the franchise, keeping tabs on what creators who were associated with ROBOTECH were doing, talking up stuff going on with MACROSS and MOSPEADA in Japan, and the like. I promised subscribers four issues but only got three out the door, which in my mind remains a blight on my record. The problem is, as I'm sure you guys can tell, I'm a perfectionist, and getting the 'zine put together was a terribly intense effort on my part. On top of that, I know Evan always had trouble getting his subscriber base to offer their own material for it, but I didn't even have a wide base of friends to beg material out of. It always came down to the usual suspects, and their lives got increasingly busy as the months and years rolled on.

Indeed, if all goes according to plan, my life should be getting increasingly busy as the year rolls on, which is how I'm planning on segueing into how the blog's going to roll for the rest of the 365-day project ...

A piece of art I drew of Roy Fokker that appeared on the last page of my first issue of

EMISSARIES: A ROBOTECH FANZINE VOL. 2, signed by Dan Woren at the bar one

night during AnimeExpo 2006. Yes, I was having a drink with Roy Fokker. Don't ask me

how that happened, I'm still not sure.

Right now I still have to finish my write-up of "The Robotech Masters," the second episode of the reconstruction era of The Macross Saga. Once I get settled back into some sort of normalcy, probably around Wednesday, I'll be trying to crank out a couple of posts a day to play catch-up. In order to spread out the episodes to keep things sane, I'll be continuing to sprinkle in bits of artwork I've got around the apartment -- not like the signed stuff I've been posting these four days I've been out of town, but cool commissions and pieces of original artwork, animation cels, that sort of thing. The unique pieces from my collection, basically. There are only eighty-five episodes of ROBOTECH, and I've got 365 days to fill; even spreading out SENTINELS and SHADOW CHRONICLES to three days apiece, that's still only ninety-one. (I wish I still had copies of the terrible Matchbox figure set "Robotech Wars" episodes, those would be good for a laugh. I could summarize those without any commentary whatsoever, and they'd STILL be entertaining reads!) Naturally, then, you'll be seeing more comics, and I think if I have the time and extend the backlog out long enough to give me time to reread them, I'll even throw a few of the novels up here. After all, I just replaced my water damaged copies of THE ZENTRAEDI REBELLION and the three ROBOTECH MASTERS novels -- I really need to break these new copies in.

If you have any suggestions for subjects for future installments, to sprinkle in among the TV series episodes or for when the TV episodes are up, leave 'em here. It'll give me something to do while I'm sitting at the computer with a glazed-over expression on Tuesday night -- or, if one of the airports has free wifi, it'll give me something to do today while I enjoy my epic-length layovers.

Thanks for indulging me these past few days. I hope I didn't come off as TOO self-centered ... ^_-

DAY FORTY-TWO: Reflections, Part 3

2010-09-19T06:00:00.003-05:00

If you visit ROBOTECH.COM's episode guide, you'll notice there are some entries that are monumentally epic-length, entries that go on, and on, and on, and you just wonder why in the hell someone would write an episode summary that takes longer to read than the episode takes to watch. Well, that would be because someone back in the first half of the decade past thought all those little details were important. That someone was a damn fool college student named ... well, it was me. They wouldn't be so bad if not for that skinny column layout the site has going on. I did a lot of odd jobs for Harmony Gold early on in ROBOTECH.COM's life -- I did a fistful of those overlong episode summaries, I did a bunch of screen grabs of characters on the phone so they could use them to promote their customer service line for the ROBOTECH.COM store, I eventually did a lot of work on the bibliography when they rolled that out, and, in one of the dumbest moves I've ever made, I spent three days straight watching and rewatching ROBOTECH THE MOVIE: THE UNTOLD STORY so that I could transcribe the whole damn movie, because for some reason they didn't have a script for it anywhere in the office.

I haven't been able to watch ROBOTECH THE MOVIE since then. I don't think it's any great loss. I used to think it wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. After that long, torturous, sleep-deprived experience, I take that position back. It's really, really bad, and I never want to see it ever again.

Page from THIS IS ANIMATION 3: THE SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS

signed by series director Noboru Ishiguro. I totally cut in line in a major way to get this autograph

on the last day of AnimeExpo 2006. I have no regrets about it.

The big stuff I've gotten to do, of course, was the work on THE ART OF ROBOTECH: THE SHADOW CHRONICLES book, the chronological notes in the back of the three-in-one ROBOTECH MASTERS and NEW GENERATION novels, and I guess the article that appeared in PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS #94. The work on the SHADOW CHRONICLES artbook was an interesting collaborative effort; I spent a lot of that process basically going, "I think that turn of phrase mischaracterizes these events from the TV series, it went more like such-and-such-a-thing." The only passage I can name off the top of my head that I absolutely know I wrote is the short write-up of the Sentinels themselves. The one thing I know was omitted from that paragraph was the term "the Local Group," a term Daley, Luceno, Mason, Ulm, and the Waltrips all used to throw around throughout their SENTINELS work. Otherwise, that's all mine. Most of the rest of my contributions were turns of phrase and games of bad continuity whack-a-mole; if you're thumbing through the book sometimes and you think to yourself, "That sounds like something out of the Roboblog," then you probably just read five or six words out of there that are mine. They're all over the place in there.

Those little continuity notes in the back of the second & third generation ROBOTECH three-in-ones were originally going to be a wholesale rewrite of those novels. It's funny, I'd doom-and-gloomed about the possibility some months prior, and then the question was popped to me, "Say, how would you like to revise the novels to mesh with modern continuity?" I thought about it for a second and then went, "Well, if anyone's gonna do it, I'd rather it be me." So I accepted. I spent at least two weeks going from my job at the local elementary schools straight to a coffee shop a few blocks from my house, sitting down with my copies of the mid-1990s ROBOTECH MASTERS three-in-one volume and THE INVID INVASION, METAMORPHOSIS, and SYMPHONY OF LIGHT and stacks of index cards. I then went through the books and found everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING -- that didn't jibe with modern established ROBOTECH continuity. I'm talking stuff ranging from the bizarre misrepresentations of Logans throughout the MASTERS novels to bits like Dr. Zand killing Dr. Miles Cochrane, since Cochrane is alive and well in PRELUDE TO THE SHADOW CHRONICLES. I jotted every last little thing down, and e-mailed all the work, annotated with page numbers, back to Harmony Gold. I think I was most of the way through INVID INVASION when I got an almost panic-stricken voicemail from Tommy Yune on my cell phone, telling me to stop, that there was no room in the budget to make new plates for the new editions of the books, so they would have to go with the books as they were, and all that work would have to be boiled down to maybe a page or two in the back.

So I did that, and my name's still in the back of the books, but for two weeks I honestly thought I'd go down in history as the third "part" of Jack McKinney. That would have been cool.

Now that I think about it, the article wasn't the next major thing I did; the next major thing I did was get the ball rolling on getting THE SHADOW CHRONICLES to St. Louis. THE SHADOW CHRONICLES was making the film festival circuit, and I was frustrated that it was bouncing around the edges of the country but not hitting the midwest. I asked Kevin McKeever if there was anything that could be done about this, and he said to get a hold of some film festivals and request it. So I spent a couple of days doing research and finding film festivals that were going on for the remainder of 2006 across the midwest. I contacted five or six festivals, and St. Louis was the big one that bit. I put them in touch with Kevin, and the rest is history -- and is memorialized on the DVD case, on top of that. Take it out, look on the back, and there it is: "Official Selection, St. Louis Film Festival."

The PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS article was the first bit of ROBOTECH-related material I really took on after getting fed up with fandom politics at AnimeExpo 2007. I wasn't in a happy place and I think that colored my communications with the PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS staff, but on the other hand, it was a case where I wanted to see something done right, so I offered to do it myself. I just reread that piece a few nights ago, and despite the formatting errors and a couple of writing flubs, I'm proud of it. I think it offers a nice primer on how ROBOTECH began, where it had been, and where Harmony Gold was hoping it would go circa 2007.

The last ROBOTECH works my name appeared in were the SHADOW CHRONICLES RPG book and the new ROBOTECH MASTERS RPG book. My only contribution to the SHADOW CHRONICLES book were a few notes I typed out after skimming most of the manuscript while I was home sick from work, while the MASTERS book I read a draft of in its entirety at the Applebee's here in Wausau over five or six cups of coffee and scrawled all kinds of notes in the margins. I have no idea if my thoughts influenced anything that was done in that book, but I don't even really care -- it's a nice little book, and my name's in it, so that's cool.

These experiences have been some of the most bizarre of my life; I'm not an intensely clever guy, I'm not an engineer or mathematician, or a crazy-brilliant artist, or a published sci-fi author. I'm just a guy who likes ROBOTECH a lot -- probably too much. I've spent my entire life living somewhere in the midwest, working low-paying hourly jobs to get by. And yet, somehow I've made a few marks on this B-level 80's animation franchise I love. I've made myself into a bit player in its twenty-five year history. How about that, ladies and gentlemen? How about that ...

TOMORROW: I'm spending the whole day in airports. It's gonna suck. I'm glad I brought a few books with me. Oh, and I'm telling you what the blogging schedule's gonna be for the foreseeable future.

DAY FORTY-ONE: Reflections, Part 2

2010-09-18T06:00:00.230-05:00

I was clearing out my suitcase for the trip on Thursday night, and I came across the program for my pal Ian's wedding. I flew halfway across the country for that particular trip, too, about seven years and a month ago. How, you might ask, does that relate to the subject at hand?

Well, if not for ROBOTECH, and specifically the old Robotech Message Board, I wouldn't know Ian. Sometime in 1997, I think, he posted up that he was looking to sell off some ROBOTECH comics, and I, looking to acquire a lot more ROBOTECH comics, bit. We then started e-mailing back and forth every day. Today, even though we don't talk as often as we used to, I'd still consider him one of my three closest friends in all the world -- and even beyond that, all three of those people I wouldn't know if not for this obsession, this fixation -- I'd almost call it this PROBLEM. I wouldn't live in Wisconsin if not for ROBOTECH; it was because I wanted to move somewhere, ANYWHERE else that I moved up here to be roommates with my pal Evan, who I met through ROBOTECH fandom on-line around '99 or 2000. You could say every person I've met here, every coworker, every person I now call a friend here is a consequence of my ROBOTECH fandom.

My life is weird.

The late, great Carl Macek's autograph from the inside front cover of the

copy of THE ART OF ROBOTECH: THE SHADOW CHRONICLES that

I keep on my bookshelf. I keep hoping he's right.

From the moment I returned to ROBOTECH in the early 1990s, I've had a voracious appetite for more ROBOTECH. As quickly as allowances and begging would allow, I got all the novels, and had most of them read by the end of the eighth grade. I got episodes of the TV series on video tape and LaserDisc when I could find them, or when my parents would order them, but never amassed the full series until the DVD release in 2001; thankfully, I managed up to episode 60 courtesy of the Cartoon Network run in 1998, but that was still several years of relying on the novelizations and synopses for my ROBOTECH knowledge.

And that's what it was all about -- a thirst for knowledge. A thirst for understanding. A desire to see how this complex universe, crafted almost haphazardly from three once separate anime programs, actually worked. I dearly love the characters, most of the mains and a lot of the more offbeat or bold members of the supporting cast, and the mecha were both an obvious draw from the get-go and still keep me interested and entertained in toy and video game form, but it's the depth of the universe, and the depths still untapped that keep me fixated on ROBOTECH. It's why I became Mr. Robotech Comics; because that's where creators were really putting the toys through their paces. That's where the possibilities were truly being tapped. Sure, the execution was often lacking, and especially in the waning days of Academy the art was crap, but there were kernels of good ideas being popped out on a monthly basis for years. The RPG books also offered a lot of ideas that a lot of people seemed to dismiss as silly, but about which I say, bring 'em on. That's the only place you can go to find the motorcycle that transforms into the chariot for the Expeditionary Force pegasus mecha. Give me the Expeditionary Force pegasus and its chariot that splits off and transforms into a motorcycle! It's ridiculous, but I don't care. A little bit of madness is good every once in a while. You toss out the offbeat and the occasionally ridiculous and you turn into -- well, you turn into a modern ROBOTECH comic, all sober, straightforward, mechanical and obvious. Competent, crafted with care, but bereft of life. Thank goodness, really, for the Waltrips and their absurd Edwards-Invid hybrid monster. Over the top, a little silly, but horrifically realized and a real kick in the pants.

Even today, as I write these write-ups of the TV series episodes, you'll notice all these rhetorical questions, questioning the occasionally inexplicable and trying to sort out why things happened the way they did, why lines don't make sense, and what the intention was with certain parts of the mythology that were never quite fleshed out in a way that makes sense based on the information given -- that's just me continuing, all these years later, to search for that level of understanding. I want to know how this works, if it works -- and if it doesn't, how I could hit it repeatedly to MAKE it work.

It's funny, unlike other properties I enjoy, I can't bring myself to throw any part of ROBOTECH out. It's like I was saying about the pegasus above, or any of the much-derided elements of Sentinels -- Karbarrans, cowled villain T.R. Edwards, Breetai's stupid hat, Rick Hunter learning psychic powers, busty Amazons, any of that stuff -- I couldn't bear to see it all tossed into the dustbin of history, because a voice in the back of my head keeps shouting, "It could work! Here, just hit it like this, spin it like that, smooth that out, provide some clear motivation here, and it's all good!" We long-time ROBOTECH fans all carry in our own heads our own ideal version of the series; we've all read so many different takes, read different parts at different times, prioritize different versions of the series -- and, in my case, I even spent a few years fanficcing away with friends, spinning out our own half-silly, half-serious generation of godawful author avatars and characters imported from other fanfics flying around in an SDF design I cooked up for a series proposal for Antarctic Press, fighting a splinter sect of Zentraedi in the 2040's. Some of those characters are still running around in the ROBOTECH in my head, fighting the good fight, turning traitor, and discovering that what works in MACROSS 7 as regards the power of song doesn't necessarily work in the ROBOTECH universe ...

Maybe that take on things, that the core of every idea can be useful and that the ROBOTECH universe has room for everything that's been tossed into it, in one form or another, is naive, stupid, wrongheaded, and may even be why the chronology is in a minor state of disrepair at the moment -- because it's still taking all this SENTINELS stuff into account when none of it's been properly grounded or established. But don't even bother trying to convince me of it. I've spent too many years digging these things out of back issue bins, buying them up from used bookstores, tracking down copies of production materials on eBay, and connecting dots from interviews and revision errors to make sense of the glorious jumbled mess. Back to my pal Ian, I remember hanging out with him in a toy store in Japan, and I found a toy that I've long desired but just never gotten around to buying, this toy from a Takara toy line and animation series called WEBDIVER. It's a dragon-headed galleon, a sailing ship, that transforms into a dragon man with a big crazy sword and a shield made out of the bottom part of the ship. Bear in mind, he's a fellow TRANSFORMERS fan, too. I showed this thing to him, and he looked at me like I'd dropped a sack of dog crap on his shoe. He just flat-out told me it looked stupid. When I'm standing here defending random fifteen year-old comic books, sifting through them, finding the salvageable parts, dreaming up ways to spin them in with stuff I've been reasoning out from my latest viewing of the TV series, I wonder if people are staring at this blog with the same sort of bafflement tinged with sadness? Disgust? Or maybe just curiosity -- "Why would someone still be beating his head against a wall trying to make something of a badly drawn licensed comic that nobody else seems to care about anymore?"

It's like I said, it's an obsession. I just can't help it anymore. What is it we always say? "It just gets in your blood or something, I don't know ..."

Tomorrow: Oh the places I've been, the things I've done.

DAY FORTY: Reflections, Part 1

2010-09-17T06:00:00.278-05:00

If you're up at six a.m. reading this as it posts, then in a little over three hours I'm going to be getting on an airplane here in Northcentral Wisconsin in order to attend RT 25: THE CELEBRATION out in Van Nuys, California. That's the big fancy dinner ceremony thing going on this weekend where we'll all be raising a glass to the folks who helped create the ROBOTECH television series a quarter century ago. I've had to spend a few paychecks to get all my ducks in a row to go, including buying a new suit, since my old sport jacket makes me look like a ten year old wearing his dad's clothes. But I promised someone I'd be there for sure, and a promise is a promise, and on top of that I'd regret it for the rest of my life if I DIDN'T go. Bonus points: I get out of Wisconsin for the better part of four days. With the exception of a brief sojourn to Minneapolis-St. Paul to try and push some SCWONKEY DOG comics on an unsuspecting public almost a year ago, it'll be the first time I've left the state since I moved here in the summer of '08.

Consequently, I'm not going to be sitting in front of my computer for hours on end, staying up until the wee a.m. hours attacking the nasty backlog of posts I let build up over the course of the month of August and the first half of September. However, I thought I'd memorialize this occasion with a four-part series posts discussing what ROBOTECH means to me, my memories of the series -- y'know, bits and pieces of my personal ROBOTECH journey.

A page from the ROBOTECH STYLE GUIDE, the licensing guide

Harmony Gold issued to companies making ROBOTECH products

in the 1980s, signed to me by Tony "Rick Hunter" Oliver at the

Harmony Gold ROBOTECH booth at AnimeExpo 2005.

When I visited one of the handful of AnimeExpo conventions that Harmony Gold had a somewhat major presence at -- 2006, if I remember right, the year they were promoting THE SHADOW CHRONICLES without yet having a distributor -- I remember my fellow fans from across the country tossing back and forth the names of the stations they watched ROBOTECH on back in '85 or '86. Irritatingly for me, I couldn't play along; I don't remember what station I watched it on. I'm a few-to-a-handful of years younger than most of my fan-contemporaries, fellow folks who watched ROBOTECH in its initial syndicated run. I remember the time it aired, six in the morning, and in fact I vividly remember the first time I'd even heard of it. My mom was flipping through the Saturday listings in the TV Guide, looking for shows I might be interested in. She'd circle them -- or maybe highlight them, I forget. I remember sitting on the floor of the trailer we lived in at the time, and she was sitting on the couch, flipping through the pages, and she handed it down to me to look at, and there it was: ROBOTECH. 6:00 a.m. Sure, I could get up for that. That sounded cool.

And it was. I have very few concrete memories of watching the show; ingrained in my memory for the next several years were the opening filmstrip, the cool-for-the-time video effects over the opening sequence, the iconic pose of the VF-1J against the SDF-1 bridge, the question in my mind of "Where's Rick?" when the episodes with the blonde chick with the big hair started running, the transforming motorcycles, and the climactic scene from "Reflex Point" where Marlene/Ariel looks down at her arm and sees the green blood dripping from it. Did I ever ask for any ROBOTECH toys? I know I looked at them, specifically -- as I mentioned in the write-up for "Force of Arms" -- while trying to hunt down a Minmei, which as we all know now was never produced for whatever reason. What I did wind up with, at the age of six, was a copy of the first of the Jack McKinney novels, GENESIS, which I read and understood maybe the first chapter or so of -- the prologue, with all the business between Zor and Dolza during the seeding mission -- and then kept reading without really processing for several weeks thereafter. Since I was six years old and not really "getting" the show to begin with, since it was on too early and I think I was missing episodes anyway, I clearly recall picturing Zor as a half-remembered Breetai. (The faceplate clearly made a strong impression even back then.)

The following year, even though I had a hard time with the first one and never got the rest of the original series, my mom got me the first of the SENTINELS novels, THE DEVIL'S HAND. I remember spending a lot of time staring at that cover, thinking it was awfully weird, and reading and rereading the back cover copy. My clearest memory of actually reading that book, though, comes from maybe eight to ten years later -- specifically, reading about T.R. Edwards managing to seize the Invid Brain while I'm sitting in the back of my dad's car on a family trip up to see my Grandma Anita up in the vast green sea of nothing that is northern Kansas.

Hazy recollections were all I had for a few years. But those hazy recollections festered in my mind. I remembered that ROBOTECH looked different from most everything else I'd seen at that time; the colors were different, the art style was different, the art seemed to have a lot more care and attention lavished on it. I always came back to that oft repeated shot of the VF-1J; you compare that shot, seen over and over again, to anything from any of the other cartoons I'd have been watching in 1985 or 1986, and you'll see why that stood out as amazing to me.

Jump ahead to 1992. My folks take my sister and I on a shopping trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We visit the mall there, which has in it the first Suncoast Motion Picture Co. store I'd ever seen. By the end of the decade a much closer Suncoast store would be a weekly mainstay in my life, but at that point it was something new and shocking, a place with the best selection of VHS tapes I'd ever seen -- stuff you'd only see in catalogs, stuff in foreign languages, stuff that looked like it was produced in someone's basement. And, of course, tapes upon tapes of ROBOTECH -- namely, the six FHE "100 minute edit" Macross Saga tapes and, if I'm remembering this right, all of the Palladium Books Southern Cross and New Generation tapes.

I was agog. I was stunned. There it was, the whole lot of it. Knowing full well we might never be back this way again, I asked for all of it. Or maybe three tapes? Two? C'mon, two? No? But you'll get me one, right? Okay, one. Hmm. Well, let's start at the start. Six episodes? 100 minutes? That math sounds wrong, but it's still the most bang for my buck. So I walked out of there with this.

Before I put this tape in, I was certainly fascinated. After I sat through the whole thing, finally making sense of some of these half-memories and impressions, I was officially obsessed -- and as I'm sure you can tell, it hasn't let up but for a few months at a time for the past eighteen years.

Tomorrow: Madness takes root.

DAY THIRTY-NINE: Robotech Invaders illustration by John Waltrip

2010-08-08T06:00:00.003-05:00

Posted September 14, 2010

Commissioned by Emissaries: A Robotech Fanzine founder/former publisher Evan Cass for a series of articles presenting the completed scripts for Jason & John Waltrip's unfinished ROBOTECH INVADERS mini-series. Originally published in Emissaries: A Robotech Fanzine Vol. 1 #7, Summer 2003.

DAY THIRTY-EIGHT: Return to Macross #22 - Storming the Gates (1995)

2010-08-07T06:00:00.001-05:00

Written September 14, 2010

By Bill Spangler (writer) & Wes Abbott (artist)

(10) Yep, we're taking a few steps back today to root around in the back issue bins and turn back the clock in the ROBOTECH chronology as well -- back to the days before the Zentraedi invasion, when Robotechnology was all shiny and new to the people of Earth, and Roy Fokker was running around Macross Island shoving his nose into places where it didn't belong and occasionally punching terrorists in the face. As I said some time ago, I'm setting aside a few slots on the calendar to talk about "War of the Believers," Wes Abbott's four-issue swan song on RETURN TO MACROSS, which Academy Comics later collected in a skinny little hundred-some-odd-page graphic novel.

(9) This first installment opens with Nina Lang, lead singer of of Absolute Zero and the sister of Dr. Emil Lang, doing an anti-Robotechnology commercial for the Faithful, the religious group that believes the SDF-1 was placed on Earth as a new Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She's been rattled by the fortress ever since the incident where the mentally unstable RDF would-be instructor Shane Gleason had a nasty flashback in the middle of the night and stole a Destroid to try and "escape" his "captors." Gloval remarked back in the first issue that the stress of living around the battle fortress had driven some people off the deep end, but Gleason's experiences during the Global Civil War had pushed him WAY over and endangered the lives of everyone on the island. The Faithful discovered her misgivings and, given that Robotechnology's chief expert, he of the mysterious all-black eyes, is her brother, gave her a platform to offer those misgivings up to the world.

That, I think, is a shrewd little bit of plotting. Spangler worked this out nicely; he added a singer to the cast, important for anything with "Macross" in the title, and at the same time added the character as a relative to an existing character in a way that made good sense for the plot.

Dr. Lang's response to the situation is to offer to debate his sister on the topic live on MBS -- a debate he would, of course, win hands down, being the world's foremost expert on Robotechnology. Good for his job and the advancement of science, bad for his relationship with his sister.

(8) Enter our villains, chief among them future Southern Cross Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard. Spangler wrote a few stories with Leonard as one of the "villains" -- THE MALCONTENT UPRISINGS, CYBERPIRATES, and MECHANGEL among them. His appearance here tracks from points Luceno made in THE ZENTRAEDI REBELLION (itself based on Spangler's MALCONTENT UPRISINGS), and even before that the characterization he and Brian Daley offered up in the three novels based on the Robotech Masters episodes of ROBOTECH -- Leonard as anti-alien religious zealot. Here he's presented as a former member of the Faithful pushing his own extremist agenda, associating with thugs and mercenaries to further his cause. I always feel bad enjoying this, MALCONTENTS and its novel counterpart, and the Masters novels because I truly dislike their take on Leonard, but there's more than enough good in all these stories that I can't hate them -- and I especially find it difficult to blame the writers since I found the root of that all the way back in ROBOTECH ART 1 (again, the very first line in his bio in what was touted at the time as "The Official Guide to the Robotech Universe:" "Supreme Commander Leonard is a pathetic bigot.").

Anyway, Leonard's plan in this first installment of "War of the Believers" is to disrupt the testing of the latest Destroid model, the Spartan (today referred to by its original MACROSS name, the Phalanx). In order to succeed, he enlists the help of one Reynaldo DaSilva, a scruffy thug in a wife beater who becomes a more major villain during the final stretch of RETURN TO MACROSS, when it was drawn by the then-not-ready-for-prime-time Dusty Griffin. More on all that later, if I wind up especially hard up for material sometime next year.

(7) Despite the fact that the test of the Spartan was supposed to be top secret, Leonard's cohorts manage to assemble a crowd of around a hundred and fifty people to protest the event. It's guarded by armored GMP officers, which despite how well drawn they are always look a little odd mixed up with Macross characters and settings.

It looks a little funny seeing Anatole Leonard, clad in his nice suit, personally setting the bomb that will cause the explosion that distracts the GMP and disrupts the test. Doesn't he have any trusted lackeys? Or wait, I think that sort of becomes a plot point in the next couple of issues.

(6) When the explosion goes off and his right hand girl Jessie leads the crowd onto the testing field, one of the characters who runs onto the field is obviously FATAL FURY/KING OF FIGHTERS's Terry Bogard, complete with ball cap, ponytail, and sleeveless jacket with "NEO GEO" written on the back. He even says, as he's running onto the field, "Come on, come on!" which is what Terry says at the start of each match in most of the KOF games.

(5) While the GMP prepares to gas the protestors, Roy notices DaSilva taking snapshots of the Destroid. Again, seeds for later storylines; also, today it wouldn't be anywhere near as obvious, given digital photography, cameras in every cell phone, or even in cases like this more discrete methods of shooting pictures for folks with the right connections, as DaSilva would have. Roy, being Roy, shoves past the GMP officers to take DaSilva down, but while he gets a good uppercut in, his efforts are undercut by the GMP's blanket gassing of the area.

(4) The issue ends with Roy expressing his doubts that this is the Faithful and a mysterious figure halfway across the world deciding it's time to return to Macross Island. That mysterious figure turns out to be the long-absent Charles Conrad Wilbur, the founder of the Faithful who couldn't bring himself to destroy Roy's VF-1J prototype back in issue #4 using that bomb supplied by T.R. Edwards and planted by mechanic Rob Leeds -- in one of Spangler's less successful, more eye-rolling relationship ties, the brother of future SDF-1 bridge tech Vanessa Leeds. Wilbur is planning on returning to the island to denounce the violent protests. This, as you can imagine, won't end well for him.

(3) As you can see, it's a very brief opening story; it's paced with big, wide open panels that would actually translate well to manga size. Some of the emptier panels would probably look better at the smaller size, to boot. There's one panel in particular that just has a couple of GMP armors with no background that looks especially unfinished and empty. Interesting that, because the next issue has a lot more action and detail, and Abbott uses a lot of screentones there as well. I get the feeling he probably paced production to give more attention to the busier story.

(2) Emptiness of panels and brevity of story aside, it's another lovely issue from Abbott. As the Destroid walks out, it looks appropriately massive. I love the way Nina, as she's standing on the shoreline of Macross Island in the commercial, has the wind blowing her hair in her face; it's a really nice touch. His characters are always so full of character; when DaSilva comes into Leonard's apartment, he leaps over the back of the couch to get on it, and Jessie shies away and steps out for a smoke. So many nice little touches.

And seriously, the guy can draw a mean GMP combat armor. It might look out of place, but regardless it looks really, really great.

(1) I know I've got a problem when it comes to ROBOTECH; it's that too often I see the good idea at the core of something and sort of shrug when the execution is off. For crying out loud, I played ROBOTECH: INVASION all the way through twice, maybe three times. (And I used to make fun of people who still bought SPAWN games ...) But I'm pretty sure I'm not totally high on this one; while it's not as good as the issues yet to come, this is some pretty solid action-adventure comics work, if a bit slight, and "War of the Believers" gets better from here on out. I got to the end of this, started flipping forward (I was reading the trade paperback, which resides at present on my ROBOTECH bookshelf -- much easier to get to than my ROBOTECH comic book boxes), and then sighed because Wes Abbott isn't drawing any comics these days -- at least, not that I know of, not since the end of the second DOGBY book back in 2008.

So, more Spangler & Abbott in a few. Next up, just a little art commission that recently found its way into my hands courtesy of my now-ex-roommate and former Emissaries editor/publisher, then back to the TV series write-ups for the first on-screen appearance of the Robotech Masters!

DAY THIRTY-SEVEN: Reconstruction Blues

2010-08-06T06:00:00.198-05:00

Written September 14, 2010

(10) Two years later ...

I always remember this one as "the one where Rick gets excited about a field of sunflowers, then watches as Lynn Kyle drinks a lot and emotionally abuses Minmei."

(9) Yep, there are the sunflowers. Now, where's the purple-suited monster?

Something interesting that started in "The Messenger," Breetai brought up the dwindling supply of Protoculture. Now this idea continues to be seeded in the subsequent episodes, like right here in Rick's internal monologue. Amidst talk of mother nature beginning to forgive humanity for the part they played in the Earth's near destruction and flashbacks to running in a field of flowers just like this after Roy Fokker's old biplane, Rick considers that with the destruction of so many Zentraedi ships, humanity may have also destroyed most of the remaining Protoculture in the universe, and consequently accelerated or caused the fall of the Robotech Masters, whom until now only Exedore, and maybe (though I don't think so) Dolza has mentioned, and who we will meet for the first time in the next episode.

(8) In the shadow of the SDF-1, New Macross City has risen, and in the suburbs of that city, Lisa is tidying up Rick's home while he's on patrol. Beside Roy Fokker's old flight helmet, she finds a photo album filled with pictures of Minmei, and we get to enjoy every moment of Lisa's bitter, disgusted internal monologue. It really doesn't reflect well on her; she remarks on it herself, nobody asked her to come in and tidy up Rick's place, and here she goes, thumbing through Rick's stuff and fantasizing about throttling Little Miss Singing Star to within an inch of her life.

I love how Lisa's remark of "How can any girl compete with this kind of glamor?" is juxtaposed with a picture of Minmei sticking her tongue out.

With two years gone by it sounds like Melanie MacQueen tried to make Lisa sound older, but succeeded in making her sound TOO old. It makes her catty remarks about Minmei sound like a sad middle-aged woman trying to compete with a teenage pop star, when Lisa's only, what, twenty-seven, maybe twenty-eight at this point?

(7) Rick's in another one of his reflective moods, trying to remind himself why he's doing what he's doing -- the same place he was at back in "Battle Hymn" when he strengthened his resolve by standing next to a garish, oversaturated poster and thinking of Minmei. Only this time he thinks back to something Roy Fokker told him, that he's flying now for the sake of his home and his loved ones. Remembering that turns out to be just enough to give Rick a kick in the pants and get him back in the air. Rick spends an awful lot of time on reflection, wondering where his life is going, what he's doing with it. I think he needs a hobby.

Once in the air, he catches the end of "The Man In My Life" on the radio and discovers that Minmei's "People Helping People" tour has brought her, and Kyle, and Kyle's terrible purple suit to Granite City. After Kyle shuts up with his anti-military propagandizing, Minmei goes into "The Right Move," only heard this once and for which only the few lyrics we hear here were ever recorded.

As Rick flies towards Granite City, Minmei's moved on to "It's You," the last complete Reba West-sung Minmei song we hadn't heard until now. He runs to the concert, which seems a little ramshackle, like something out of a county fair, and catches the tail end of that song. He also almost catches a giant Zentraedi's hand on his head; them's the perils of having forty-foot guys just wandering around as part of society, I guess (and I almost forgot, one of Rick's green-trimmed wingmen actually quoted the more correct forty-foot figure in this episode).

(6) Things that have changed in two years: Max and Miriya had a baby, little Dana Sterling, who will grow up to be a more interesting character than either of them -- or, at the very least, a more fun character to watch. Lisa's watching them pass by, continuing to mope about how Rick's still hung up on Minmei after all these years. Two guys walk up with a boom box blasting out "My Time To Be A Star," and Lisa decides to up and leave, trying to escape from Minmei. Then we reach the halfway point of the episode, and whose voice tells us that ROBOTECH will be right back? Why, it's Minmei! THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

(5) We look in on Minmei's life these days and see it's in pretty terrible shape, though she's doing an okay job holding her own against her boozy, unappreciative jerk of a cousin and manager. I guess living in the shadow of a military-run government has taken its toll on the former peace movement activist and turned him toward the drink and made him even more hardline in his loathing of our valiant Robotech Defenders, to the point of nonsense and paranoia. Yes, certainly, if there was no military, the Zentraedi wouldn't have come and nearly annihilated the Earth. That makes a whole lot of sense, Kyle. I wonder -- Rick was hiding behind some rubble, watching the drama unfold as Minmei told Kyle to quit with the drinking and stop knocking the soldiers, and nearly told him to hit the road. If he'd stepped in, would it have made things worse? I think it probably would have; it would have given him a target for his anti-military hate, and he could have gotten more out of hand than just kicking glass bottles around.

On the other hand, it makes Rick look like an ineffectual idiot to just stand in the shadows while this drunken kung-fu twit goes on a tear at the girl he claims to love. Earlier in the episode he described good ol' Roy Fokker as "a real hero;" by leaving Minmei and Kyle behind to continue to bicker, and Kyle to continue to drink, he proves that in at least one way he completely failed to follow in his big brother's footsteps.

(4) Then again, it's not like Rick just ran off to avoid dropping in on one of his oldest friends and her piece of work of a cousin/manager -- he received word that Zentraedi mecha were attacking New Portland with a handful of Battlepods and powered armors. Switching from the all-out space combat of the war to the civil defense actions of the reconstruction era, it's a shock to see just how much damage a few of what used to be cannon fodder enemy troops can do to a defenseless city. Visibility is low due to the hard rain, but when Rick's wingmen get close enough, they find the city ablaze.

(3) Rick's men are taking a bit of a beating from the Zentraedi, and while Rick is en route, he takes a bit of a tongue lashing from Lisa for not staying with them, which does seem a bit irresponsible of him. Then again, because we've been listening to Lisa's jealous internal whining all episode long, she doesn't come off particularly well either. One gets the impression from the bridge girls' chatter that this has been going on for some time -- Lisa in the "isn't this a relationship?" Rick Hunter role, and Rick as oblivious Minmei, being hung up on and not entirely sure why.

(2) When Rick tears apart two of the three Battlepods, why doesn't anyone move to detain the pilots, or pursue that third one that seems to be escaping to a highway tunnel? The immediate danger is over, but shouldn't the guilty parties be locked up so they don't pull something like this again? Or are Rick's wingmen going to do just that off-camera, between the fight and the next scene back at the SDF-1? It sure doesn't LOOK like anyone's making any effort to stop them ...

Handing Rick an envelope full of photos "to remember me by" is kind of a weird passive-aggressive move on Lisa's part, isn't it? But then, that seems consistent with the rest of her behavior this episode, and by all appearances consistent with her behavior for some time before. We see them smiling, flying towards the rising sun at the end of "Force of Arms" and we assume they finally got together; we see what they're up to two years later, and they seem anything BUT together. Rick keeps wondering what he's doing wrong, and Lisa keeps biting his head off basically for not being her boyfriend yet. Certainly not as dysfunctional as Minmei and Kyle, but at least those two seem to each know where the other stands.

(1) How recently did order start to return from the chaos? How bad were things immediately after the fighting stopped? I'm curious, because Rick, Lisa, and Gloval all act like this is the first time in a while that violence has sprung up among the Zentraedi, that this is the first time the war-like aliens have returned to their "old ways." But I'd think it had to have been a bit like the Wild West for a while out there, lawless and violent. I say this because of what Gloval proposes here -- in the wake of one incident of renewed violence, Gloval suggests clamping down on the freedoms of the Zentraedi, issuing them jobs where they can be monitored by the military establishment. I wonder if they've been letting them just go freely because they felt the need to show trust, or because they just let things go due to the fact that the RDF had to focus on getting other parts of society rolling again.

It's a tricky thing, clamping down on the freedoms of forty-foot-tall men. I can see why you would do it, but you run a terrible risk of angering and radicalizing law-abiding new citizens who left their old ways BECAUSE of the freedoms our society offered. And doing such a thing to a whole people because of the actions of what appeared to be three dissidents -- why, that would be playing right into the hands of rabble rousers and anarchists. Can we name any rabble rousers or anarchists in the ROBOTECH cast for whom this will be catnip? I think we can ...

"Be with us next time for 'The Robotech Masters,' the newest chapter in the amazing story of ROBOTECH."

DAY THIRTY-SIX: Force of Arms

2010-08-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

Written September 14, 2010

(10) When people write about their favorite episodes of ROBOTECH, or the best-animated episodes of ROBOTECH, "Force of Arms" frequently comes up. This has never made any sense to me. Sure, there's a lot of amazing animation on display, and there are some really great and memorable moments, but a couple of things have always disappointed me about this episode. For one thing, it's not as even a "good animation episode" as, say, the first two. Certainly the MACROSS production staff was still bright eyed and bushy tailed when they did the first two episodes, while by now they've been ground down by deadlines, overwork, depression from the truly ugly episodes the Koreans have been cranking out, and the yo-yo of the episode count that forced them to speed on to this finale and then scramble to figure out what they're going to do for the next nine episodes. Even with this in mind, it's a little sad seeing stock footage in the middle of all the fantastic, mind-blowing new work they put into this.

The other thing is, it's just one long fight scene, capped off with a brilliant daring rescue. Thing is, if I'm gonna sit down and watch a final battle, I'd usually go with "To The Stars;" the emotional beats are better and more satisfying, and the sight of the SDF-1 rising out of the lake gets me all teary-eyed every time. Nothing in "Force of Arms" really hits me that way. Certainly this is just my opinion, but I have a little bit of trouble finding what beyond "stuff blows up good" brought so many people to theirs.

(9) The entire episode is full of iconic shots. I probably could have snapped at least five before this one, but you've certainly seen them all over and over again; when we were all kids putting together our little ROBOTECH shrines at Geocities, Fortunecity, Xoom, and the rest way back in the mid-1990s, this was the episode we screengrabbed the hell out of for our image galleries.

So Rick finally breaks down, walks right up to Minmei -- with Kyle standing right beside her, to boot -- and tells her he loves her. Ain't that a kick in the pants, Mister "oh yeah, I was just waiting for the right time to pop her the question?" And as Rick races for the flight deck to prepare for battle, Minmei naturally runs right after him, leaving Kyle standing around like the idiot he is.

During the gorgeous scenes of Destroids preparing for battle I believe I heard the Destroid Tomahawk referred to by its proper name for the first time in the entire series.

The sight of Exedore's mouth bobbing up and down as he walks next to Gloval is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. There's some brilliant animation here -- the aforementioned sequence of Destroids preparing for battle -- and then there's stuff that shows just how worn down the staff was getting.

(8) Rick comes out and says what's been obvious since "Homecoming," that he and Minmei really have drifted into wholly different worlds and a real relationship just wouldn't work now. But, being the idiot he is, he takes things a step too far, offering the quip, "It's a pity so much time was wasted between us." It's very reminiscent of the argument he and Minmei had back in "Transformation," with the key similarity being that he says something so nasty right before a major catastrophe -- in this case, the near-destruction of planet Earth.

Amidst all the amazing depictions of hell coming to Earth, footage is reused from the very first episode of yellow jumpsuited RDF personnel getting blown up, as well as a somehow filtered and modified version of the shot of buildings toppling from the very first episode, followed by the shot of the crashing SDF-1 hitting Macross Island.

Footage reuse I don't mind: Minmei reminiscing about taking Rick around Yokohama, now that Yokohama has been wiped from the surface of the Earth. I suppose "To Be In Love" plays over it because, as it was the song Minmei sang for Rick below decks in the SDF-1, it will always be "their" song. We break right from the song in mid-note to Minmei sobbing. Just like that day below decks in the SDF-1, Minmei sobs that it's all over, but Rick -- a much more confident, much more assured Rick -- once again tells her to cheer up, that this isn't the end, and that she has something very important she has to do:

She has to sing for everyone.

(7) The plan: Minmei goes live on every radio frequency, singing her song for all the Zentraedi who have as of yet had no contact with Earth culture. It will breed chaos and confusion in the ranks of Dolza's Zentraedi forces, and will make them easier pickings for the joint forces of the SDF-1 and Breetai's fleet. It will also serve as a psychological benefit for their own forces, human and Zentraedi alike.

There's a really sweet moment where Rico, Konda, and Bron lend Minmei their support, telling her they know just how it is waiting to go into battle. It's the first time they've actually been able to speak with their idol, and she honestly and openly thanks them for their support.

Okay, so we're looking at a seafoam and white dress with seafoam dots on the skirt and puffy yellow translucent sleeves. Even in the early 1980's, was that ever really fashionable? As a bonus, this was the dress Matchbox's action figure of Minmei was going to wear, but as we all know Matchbox never produced it. (I have a very strong memory of myself, with my parents, combing the figure racks of the Kay Bee toy store in Joplin, MO looking for it; there was a college-age guy right next to me doing the same.) Harmony Gold eventually did when they did their run of figures in the very early 1990's, and the results speak for themselves.

This is the first performance of "We Will Win," and I want to say it's the only time Minmei's version of the song goes out for the whole series. I guess I'll find out in the coming days, eh?

(6) Speaking of psychological attacks, seeing Minmei and Kyle kiss (again) sure does SOMETHING to Rick. Oh, and that first attack his Super Veritech does, the missile volley followed by going to Guardian? A fair chunk of that was from "Showdown," the first time the Super Veritech was deployed. However, given how some of that footage was sped up, it's not like they did a lot less work due to using that particular stock footage ...

Seeing the purple Nousjadeul-Ger Powered Armors (and I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've seen those particular mecha in the show), I'm surprised that wasn't one of the color schemes Matchbox, Harmony Gold, or Playmates used for the toy of that mecha. Perhaps Toynami might have done it, but unfortunately Playmates stored the old Matchbox molds improperly following their last use fifteen years ago and we'll never see those toys again. Shame, that; all those 7" figures held up pretty well.

Funny, I'm watching Max and Miriya do the back-to-back missile barrage thing and all I can think is how Rook and Rand will later do the same thing way, way later in "Hired Gun."

Rick takes out an entire Zentraedi battleship all on his lonesome, verbally pats himself on the back, then in typical fashion falls prey to a missile barrage that he manages to just barely block with his Super Veritech's arm guard missile launchers.

(5) The problem with the death of Admiral Hayes is that while he does tell Lisa she was right all along, his urgent insistence that she has to get herself out of there doesn't jibe at all with his almost tranquil, satisfied expression. To be fair to him, the Grand Cannon did work; it wiped out a whole swath of Zentraedi battleships, and the fact that it was proven to be operational after the initial Zentraedi bombardment helped energize the fighting spirit aboard the SDF-1. Certainly it didn't work to the extent that Admiral Hayes had hoped, but again, in all fairness, who'd have thought that the enemy they'd face would have such a massive war machine? Who could have imagined the scope of their foe from the stars? And more importantly, how in the hell do you prepare to face something like that?

One thing that's a little unfair about ROBOTECH is that the folks we like, the folks who are presented to us as "in the right" are the ones who are always talking about negotiations, making peace and not war. However, the enemies they face are so determined in their quest for conquest or destruction that there's no hope of negotiating with them. You can't reason with Dolza. You can't make peace with the Robotech Masters. In the end, all you can do is fight with all your strength and resolve, and pray your robots, lasers, and missiles are bigger and badder than theirs. The problem, though, is that because the people we like are always wrongheadedly talking about opening talks with enemies you can't talk your way around, the show winds up demonizing those who would make war -- pity poor Admiral Hayes, and worse, Supreme Commander Anatole Westphal (per Luceno's THE ZENTRAEDI REBELLION) Leonard.

(4) As he coasts through the Earth's atmosphere after suffering from that missile barrage, Rick thinks back to earlier that day, and we see that he finally, after twenty-three episodes, got that kiss he was denied back in "The Long Wait." Seeing that, it's pretty obvious that loose ends are being tied up, and the MACROSS staff wasn't exactly planning for the nine episode aftermath storyline. Sure, we're a ways away from truly resolving the love triangle, but if you look at other shows by the main MACROSS creative staff -- primarily shows directed and/or created by Shoji Kawamori -- it's not like resolving the love triangle was probably at the top of their agenda.

Consider that not one minute after we see Rick and Minmei professing their love for one another, Rick finds himself rushing headlong into the ruins of Alaska Base to rescue Lisa. Also consider, of course, that when he professed his love for Minmei, he was certain that Lisa was dead, along with everyone else on planet Earth.

You saw what I said about Khyron's claim that he's fleeing for "anywhere in the universe but here" back in "The Messenger," right? Well, here he is, watching Minmei -- who apparently has had a change of wardrobe to what would be a more flattering dress if it weren't so damned orange -- and muttering to himself, "Pretty thing." He decides in all the confusion of battle to go hunt down Breetai, but since we don't see any more of Khyron for the rest of the episode and we see Breetai again in "Viva Miriya" (and later in THE SENTINELS), obviously he fails, as he always does.

We briefly see that Destroid that was kitbashed into not-quite-an-Orguss shortly thereafter; that same footage, flipped horizontally, appears again in "To The Stars."

(3) From the Department of Obvious Callbacks: Lisa, sitting in Rick's lap, wearing his flight helmet. Hmm, where have we seen that before?

I actually own an animation cel from the black & white sequence where Lisa runs into Rick's arms. I still remember the day the owner of the anime store back in my old hometown said to me, "Yeah, I just got in this MACROSS cel, it's really weird. It's all black and white," and my eyes widened and I told him, "I KNOW WHERE THAT'S FROM, BRING IT DOWN!" and I snapped it up, either right then and there, or I told him to put it on hold so I could go grab the money to get it, I forget which. Funny thing is, I'm certain I first saw that sequence in SENTINELS; it wasn't until a few more years after I got the SENTINELS movie on VHS that I finally got the FHE tape with "Force of Arms" and "Reconstruction Blues."

Now remember every time you watch Rick and Lisa cheerfully escape in this sequence, as "We Will Win" plays triumphantly in the background, that in one of those exploding corridors he's flying down, there's a wounded T.R. Edwards clutching Doctor Lang's dead sister Janice, reaching out, cursing that yellow and black-trimmed VF-1S and its pilot for not saving him.

(2) It's sad, I almost forgot that they still have to win the war here. I guess I figured, oh, Rick saved Lisa, the important work's done.

On the one hand, boo-hiss on the reuse of the Daedalus attack footage from "Blitzkrieg." (Though honestly, with all the character and emotional callbacks to other episodes, I'm starting to think the footage reuse is more than just a way to avoid creating new animation; almost that it's SUPPOSED to remind you of the earlier episodes while you watch this one, to deliver a stronger emotional payload.) On the other hand, nice job matching the color and movement going from that shot to Minmei on stage, with the background behind her moving in much the same way.

"What are they doing, they'll destroy us both!" That's what you think, Dolza. Remember that barrier reaction you were so impressed by? What do you think will happen if that barrier system absorbs the impact from an explosion of THIS magnitude?

(1) Rick Hunter has a penchant for saying terrible things. I think by now Lisa has decided that's part of his charm. When Lisa suggests that maybe they're the only survivors, he figures that wouldn't be so bad, because at least each of them wouldn't be alone; she actually laughs at that. I have a very strong feeling Rick didn't have a lot of friends growing up -- throughout the series, the idea of being alone, possibly forever, with one close friend comes up and doesn't seem to bother him much. The fact that the other person is a very pretty girl probably doesn't hurt, of course ...

But no, they're not the only survivors of the Robotech War; the SDF-1, its crew, and most of our friends in Macross City have managed to survive, though the ship looks to be in astoundingly rough shape. It sinks waist-deep into a crater, from which it will not rise again until this generation's end.

And now, with the war over, it's time to rebuild.

"Don't miss 'Reconstruction Blues,' the next dramatic chapter in the saga of ROBOTECH."

DAY THIRTY-FIVE: The Messenger

2010-08-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

Written September 14, 2010

(10) Another typical blunder by the narrator opens the penultimate episode of the pre-reconstruction era Macross Saga; he states that it was Breetai's plan to attack the SDF-1 to disrupt the wedding, while it was clearly a plan hatched by Dolza. As I noted yesterday, Breetai didn't even want to attack the SDF-1, though he did because he is a good and loyal Zentraedi.

Setting aside the unreliable narration, as is typical of these end-of-the-road-to-Armageddon Macross Saga episodes, it hits the ground running, opening with everyone on alert as a Zentraedi ship approaches the SDF-1. I can't help but notice Sammie back at her typical post as opposed to filling Lisa's chair; I guess she only takes the hot seat during combat.

(9) In stark contrast to yesterday's episode, this one is brilliantly-drawn. Lots of great character moments; Kim sticking out her tongue above is just one of the earliest examples. Moreover, there's a nice directorial touch in the opening; the split-screen effects used for the first thirty seconds or so, overlaying a member of the bridge crew in close-up overtop the SDF-1 as they report on enemy activity, create a sense of tension and urgency, ala the TV series 24 two decades hence.

One more reason to love Breetai: after his flagship destroys Khyron's meddling squadron of Fighter Pods, Khyron radios him demanding to know if he's gone mad. Breetai says, simply and coldly, "Your ships were interfering with a diplomatic mission, so I disposed of them." Once again, Breetai shows us how to take care of business. Are you taking notes, Azonia?

Rick, standing in for the audience again: when one of his wingmen remarks how weird it is escorting an enemy Battlepod, Rick thinks to himself, "And it's getting weirder all the time. Oh, brother."

(8) The emissary from the Zentraedi is, of course, Exedore; of those serving in Breetai's fleet, he's the most knowledgeable and linguistically gifted, and on top of that he isn't combat-necessary. Mark this down, too; last episode, "Wedding Bells," was the last time Exedore would ever be a full-sized Zentraedi in any version of ROBOTECH continuity. (In MACROSS continuity, of course, he would not only be returned to full size but further genetically modified to resemble his green, lumpy big-headed counterpart from the movie Do You Remember Love and would serve as Max's advisor in MACROSS 7 just as he did Breetai during the original TV series.)

Great exchange here:

EXEDORE: I am called Exedore among my people, Minister of Affairs.

COL. MAISTROFF: It sounds rather ... important.

EXEDORE: Not really.

Humility, or a simple statement of fact? You decide!

(7) One of the more memorable scenes in this episode is when the convoy ferrying Exedore to his meeting with Gloval and the other brass passes by a billboard of a barely-clad female and Exedore asks Maistroff to explain that to him. Maistroff doesn't even try, so Exedore nods sagely and decides it must be a military secret. "Yes," Maistroff says, clearing his throat, "a military secret, of course." It's a scene you wouldn't find in any other animated series of the 1980s, and one that points, once again, to ROBOTECH's relative maturity compared to other shows of its vintage. Of course, I think it got away with this moment because it was so brief and subtle; really, it plays out no differently than if a child pointed to a similar billboard and got a similar dismissive answer, like, "I'll tell you when you're older."

On the one hand, I assume they're probably serving Exedore something like orange juice. However, given that the server offers him another so quickly after he totally downs the first one, I can't help but think, say, maybe that's alcohol and the RDF is trying to get Exedore drunk. Yeah, probably not, but it's an amusing thought ...

Love Edie Mirman's embarrassed delivery when Exedore tells Miriya he saw the wedding. "Um, you probably wondered why we did it ..."

Also great is Exedore's creepy, creepy grin when Rico, Konda, and Bron notice him. They completely freak out, and he has to assure them he has no intention of harming them before they can breathe easy again. While presumably they fear him for his status within the fleet, it is funny to think of anyone being physically intimidated by Exedore. Does he possess some power we know nothing about? Could he go all Yoda in STAR WARS: EPISODE II on them if he so desired? Again, probably not ...

(6) Gloval and Exedore obviously have differing ideas as to who all should be present for the first diplomatic meeting of the two races: while Gloval calls in the Zentraedi defectors and the two remaining members of the crew who were held hostage aboard Breetai's flagship, Exedore requests the presence of, guess who, Kyle (whom he still think harbors amazing powers) and Minmei (who, well, really DOES seem to harbor some sort of amazing power). Maistroff quickly figures out that Exedore is referring to the wire-fu and CG effects trickery of "Small White Dragon," but I find it amazing that nobody present makes the leap from "female at the core of a psychological assult" to "Minmei," especially given that Rico, Konda, and Bron already told our heroes that one of the key reasons they defected was Minmei's song. I expect the writers keep our heroes in the dark simply so we can be serenaded by Exedore's take on one of Minmei's standards. (Somewhere around here I have an MP3 of Japanese-language Exedore's complete rendition of "My Boyfriend Is A Pilot," though I seem to have misplaced it ...)

The best part about it is how long it's allowed to go on while all assembled stare at Exedore in slack-jawed shock, amazement, and presumably a bit of horror. Gloval really says all that needs to be said: "I don't believe this ..."

When Kyle grumbles that he's tired of being pushed around by the military, all I can think is, "If there were a pull-string Lynn Kyle doll, I'm pretty sure that's what it would say." And when Minmei asks what she's doing here, he overplays it by a fair margin, shouting that she shouldn't expect any answers out of them. Bless Captain Gloval for shouting back, "Enough of this nonsense!" Someone should really have been shouting that at Kyle since day one ... or at least day two.

(5) Admit it, Admiral Hayes, you're just saying you doubt the negotiations will result in a full fledged cease fire because you're just jonesing to blow some stuff up with that Grand Cannon of yours, aren't you?

Exedore is intelligent and humble enough to realize when he's wrong, and it doesn't take much to convince him he's wrong about Kyle's powers and the terrifying power that was unleashed on those poor folks in Ontario, but he remains undeterred as regards the power of Minmei's song. He explains that long, long ago the Zentraedi encountered another open society like that of humanity and it nearly destroyed them; Dolza will not allow this to happen again. Exedore reveals that his mission was one of observation, and once his report is filed, Dolza will likely order the main fleet to launch an all-out assault on the Earth, "after he recovers the Protoculture Factory." As with so much of what is shoehorned in as part of the ROBOTECH story, that detail is left sitting there, and Gloval remarks, "The main fleet, eh?"

(4) And yet, Breetai clearly doesn't know the whole score, because when Azonia tells him the main fleet is on its way he's surprised. On the other hand, he obviously knows more about the big picture than Azonia does, because by the sound of it if the main fleet is on its way, Dolza has decided the matter is too urgent to bother with seizing the Protoculture Factory; he's skipping right to the final solution, the annihilation of humanity. The problem with this is that according to Breetai, without the additional Protoculture supply that would come from seizing the Protoculture Factory, the Zentraedi race is doomed. I suppose Dolza assumes that death from energy starvation is preferable to the wholesale transformation of the Zentraedi people -- death before "dishonor," perhaps?

(3) Four million, eight hundred thousand battleships: a number like that has an effect on people. Well, not really much of one on Kyle, he just continues on with the same defeatist anti-military nonsense he's been spewing the whole while. Max gets all cheesy and romantic, holding Miriya's hand and calling her "my darling." Rick looks over at them and gets depressed and mopey, again. That is the interesting thing about Max and Miriya's "fairy tale" romance: it serves as a contrast to Rick's hopeless romantic situation and makes him even more frustrated with his lot in life for a few episodes. He's just lucky that the pre-reconstruction MACROSS storyline got compressed the way it did; from the looks of things, if he had to put up with listening to Max and Miriya any longer without the distraction of planetary armageddon, he'd hang himself.

While Exedore assures his new friends that they'll surely succeed because the SDF-1's proven indestructible so far, back on Earth Admiral Hayes tells Lisa that the ship will surely be destroyed, as they're planning on ordering it to act as a decoy so they can use the Grand Cannon to destroy the incoming enemy fleet. Lisa, naturally, wants to stand with those she's fought beside for so long in this final battle, but the Admiral won't allow it, because ... well, because he's her dad. It's selfish, but it makes sense.

(2) Breetai checks in with Azonia and Khyron to see where they stand. Azonia, realizing that she is now Dolza's enemy due to "contamination" from Earth culture, decides to stand and fight alongside Breetai. Breetai nods and wishes her well in battle. Contestant #2, though, scratches his head, won't look Breetai in the eye, and remarks that he will not fight if he cannot win. "As I expected, Khyron. I wasn't depending on you anyway."

Khyron: YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!

Funny how the one-note characters get even more one-note in the face of the threat of annihilation; if Khyron were a pull-string toy, that's what HE would say.

When Grel asks Khyron where they're headed, his response is, "Anyplace else in the universe but here." Despite this, you'll notice he is lurking about during the final battle next episode.

While there's a big complicated chart behind him when we return to Exedore and our heroes aboard the SDF-1, Exedore explains that their best chance for victory lies with a very simple strategy: destroy the leader. Wipe out Dolza's flagship, and the rest of the fleet will fall into disarray. As usual, Exedore proves to be right ...

(1) At Exedore's request, Minmei sings for all gathered, choosing "To Be In Love" for whatever reason. The song fades out as space surrounding the Earth is blanketed in a sea of green. With the exception of the narrator, Exedore gets the last word in:

"Well, I'm afraid this is it."

"Be watching for 'Force Of Arms,' the next action-packed episode of ROBOTECH!"

DAY THIRTY-FOUR: Wedding Bells

2010-08-03T06:00:00.001-05:00

Written September 13, 2010

(10) I've spent so long staring at the forest that is the ROBOTECH universe that I've missed a whole lot of trees. I think I've caught a lot of them on this viewing, including the forehead-slappingly obvious point that right before an episode entitled "Wedding Bells," Kyle does his half-assed psuedo-proposal to Minmei in front of all those TV cameras. (That stretch there where he silently stares at her is so ripe for interpretation. My favorite take? The one where Mister Media Manipulator Chessmaster is staring at Minmei thinking, "Check.") It'd be a great fake-out ... except that the next episode preview pretty much tells you that Max is marrying Miriya.

Which, mind you, I'd known forever when I first watched this episode -- I'd already read the novels, though I'm not sure if I'd seen the comic adaptation as well at this point. It's about a fifty-fifty shot; I'd accumulated a lot of ROBOTECH comics before I had the opportunity -- via VHS, LaserDisc, or Cartoon Network -- to watch all the TV episodes of The Macross Saga. Whatever the case may be, from whatever all I'd read I knew this was a big deal story, a turning-point, especially for a character I'd grown to love -- Max, of course; even when I was a middle school brat, I didn't get what all the fuss about Miriya was all about. So I was really looking forward to seeing the TV episode, actually watching play out what I'd imagined moving in my head.

You can imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be one of the most laughable bad animation episodes of the whole lot.

(9) Right as the episode title comes up, the narrator makes a little laugh that's really, really creepy. Go ahead, run it back and play it a few times. Done that? Good. Now it's going to haunt you in your nightmares.

Speaking of the stuff of nightmares, remember what I was saying about what a nice character design Miriya has last time? Yeah, under the pen and ink of the fine folks at Anime Friend, or whatever other Korean animation sweatshop churned this one out, not so nice. As she hides out, waiting for the time to strike, her eyes are wide and her pupils are tiny, giving her a terrifying, mad look. Also, these guys don't do lips, so she just looks wrong.

Miriya runs at Max with a knife, and Max takes the time to go, "Hey, glad you could make it!" before realizing SHE IS COMING AT HIM WITH A KNIFE.

When she introduces herself to Max, she clearly says: "I am Quadrano leader Miriya Parina." Breaking this down: "Quadrano" is, as I'm sure most of you've figured out by now, an early romanization of the name of her powered armor suit, the Queadluun-Rau. The way the term's thrown around in ROBOTECH, it's been taken to be the name of the group she led -- the lighter green version of the Nousjadeul-Ger Powered Armor toy from Matchbox was (incorrectly) labeled "Zentraedi Powered Armor - Quadrono Battalion," and Robotech.com has her down as the "leader of the Quadrano Squadron." Which is fine, what's done is done. "Miriya" is a perfectly acceptable way of romanizing her first name from Japanese; I like the "y" in there, personally. As for that last name, "Fallyna" is the character's last name in MACROSS, and the shortest distance between that and what we have here is sloppy handwriting or a bad typewriter turning what was transliterated as "Farina" (an acceptable match) into "Parina." Perhaps the same thing happened when James Luceno or Brian Daley was taking notes for the novelization while watching the TV series and didn't jot down the bar on that "a," turning it into an "o." However that happened, it resulted in a decade's worth of ROBOTECH novels, comics, and other source materials calling her "Miriya Parino." (I think the Comico adaptations gave it as Parina, but quite often they did their own thing, or held fast to the TV series while sprinkling in non-contradictory stuff from the novels.)

Regardless, she very clearly says "Miriya Parina," which is why ever since I've gone with that.

(8) Oh, look at it -- it looks like one of those one dollar Korean knockoff robot cartoon DVDs I and my friends picked up at Wal-Mart a few years back, the ones that ripped off Inferno's design from TRANSFORMERS and stole music from XABUNGLE. When Max trips over a rock, a little comic strip "ow" star comes off his leg. That wouldn't happen in a non-cheap-Korean-studio episode of ROBOTECH.

It's a shame, because there are some great lines in here: I love the uneasy way Cam Clarke gives the line, "Well, there goes our first ... date." And later, Miriya: "You may be a great man, but what is a man compared to a Zentraedi!" But there are other times where it seems the actors are playing down to the crappy animation, that the lame animation is leaving them uninspired and causing them to give terribly awkward or equally lame line readings.

Could the knife duel have been cool under steadier hands? I'm not sure. It comes off as really dumb, but if Max gave a few quick flicks of the wrist with the same tricky skills he uses piloting a Veritech, resulting in the same dramatic shot of the knife flying from Miriya's hands, I suppose that could have worked.

And then we get the cheesy weirdness. Miriya, having lost a THIRD time to Max, asks him to end her life, and Max's reason for not killing her is ... "You're so -- so beautiful." I can deal with flying Dana in her nightgown in the ROBOTECH opening sequence. But the power of love -- or, I'd wager more likely here, lust -- causing them to fly around and fall in love? Oh dear. I suppose if it had been painted up all fancy with airbrush effects, or a series of really nice paintings fading into one another, that might have worked. But it just looks like Miriya starts flying around the park like Peter Pan, and Max follows behind as her Wendy. Or vice versa, whichever way works for you.

(7) This is actually a pretty cool shot.

So let me get this straight. Max defeats Miriya the second time at the arcade. This is the first time he's actually met her, but he has seen her around, and every time he sees her he's all like, "Wow, she's hot." He asks her to meet him in the park. That night at the park, she comes at him with a knife, reveals that she's a Zentraedi warrior, reveals she's the one he fought one-on-one in the battle where Roy Fokker was killed, they have a really stupid knife fight, and he beats her a third time. Miriya asks him to kill her and end her shame, but he's all like, "You're too pretty to die," he spares her life, and, like magic, they fall in love, kiss, and he asks her to marry him. He then, of course, has to explain the concept to her. She, being a silly alien, doesn't fully grasp the concept, but says yes anyway.

Seriously, Robotech Masters does the human-alien love story thing so much better. But then, it seeds the relationship in early.

When Rick, who is not TOTALLY stupid, hears that Max is planning on getting married, he spits out his coffee and tells him that is "the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." And this is coming from a man who was nearly crushed to death by a tuna fish in space, so you KNOW this is just off-the-wall bonkers. When Max tells Rick that Miriya is a Zentraedi, well good grief, Rick nearly turns red in the face, hearing that Max has decided not only to marry a girl he's just met and knows nothing about, but an alien at that. It's a good thing Max didn't mention that she tried to kill him, too, or Rick probably would have jumped across the table and started slapping him. When Rick tells him to at least slow down and think about it, Max starts hitting the table with his hand, insisting that he's in love, and that there's no problem love can't overcome.

So Rick just starts laughing like a nut, calls Max a silly idealist, and points at him very sternly. Max starts acting like he's talking to his dad. "I will marry this girl, with or without your approval!" Rick's like, "Okay, so you're attracted to this girl. How often does that happen to a guy?" And then, almost conspiratorially, Max says to him, "I keep trying to tell you, she's not just any girl."

His voice drops almost down to a whisper.

"She's SPECIAL."

Then Miriya walks up in a pink dress that doesn't look half as good on her as that brown jumpsuit did, but it does the trick anyway; Rick is utterly flabbergasted and changes his mind about the whole thing, calling all that stuff he told Max earlier "silly nonsense." Rick knows the score. "In fact," he says, folding his arms smugly, "in order to guarantee you have a great wedding day, I plan to be there to help you kiss the bride."

Cut from the final edit of the show is the moment right after that, where Max punches Rick in the face and then starts kicking him repeatedly while he's down.

(Now THAT'S the Rick Hunter that would have made that crack to Lynn Kyle about what's great about the military back in "Homecoming," that one line that was in the novelization.)

(6) Exedore always has the answers to these hard questions, and I keep wondering where DOES he do his research? Is he carefully studying the MBS broadcasts out of the SDF-1 now during his downtime? Does he have an itty bitty set of encyclopedias that Rico, Konda, and Bron brought back? How does he know what marriage is when all the other Zentraedi do not? I get that he's the archivist, I just want to know what archives he's been consulting.

As you can see, we cut straight from Rick's wisecrack to the ceremony itself; this episode is going just as full speed ahead as Max and Miriya's relationship. When we cut away from Breetai and Exedore, it's right to the cutting of the cake, and then to Captain Gloval making a speech -- one that starts with a reminder that Miriya, being the greatest ace the Zentraedi has ever known, killed a very large number of their fellow citizens and soldiers. You thought that conversation that Rick and Max had was weird? I remember the first time I saw Gloval start this speech, I started squirming in my seat. It was like when I watched "Boobytrap" for the first time and Gloval started laughing: "Oh god, the man has lost it." Once again, Rick stands in for we the viewers; his jaw drops, his eyes grow wide, and he's like, "Oh no. The wedding is ruined."

(5) See, it looks like he's gone off the deep end, doesn't it?

But no, he quickly turns around and says they have to learn to forgive the Zentraedi for all that they've done -- not blindly, or ignorantly, but because they understand that until now the Zentraedi have known no other way of life. As he speaks out for a day when the war will end and human and Zentraedi will live together in peace, Admiral Hayes flips off his TV. He can't listen to any more of this peace talk, it'll ruin his war hard-on. Wait, Lisa's in the room with him, I really shouldn't say that ... or think about it.

Anyway, Admiral Hayes can't listen to another second of that. Notice that Admiral Hayes is smoking a cigarette. Recall that Senator Russo smoked cigars, as did Colonel Maistroff. So I guess that puts cigarettes in the middle of the "who can you trust" smoking continuum, with a fine pipe on the far "trustworthy" end, and cigars on the "oh, hell no" end.

(4) Minmei comes on and sings "The Man In My Life." Breetai hears it and states, profoundly, "This woman has a voice that can make a man feel sorrow." He is then immediately given orders to destroy the SDF-1; there are to be no survivors. He is willing to do this thing, but he doesn't like it. He is, as always, a good, loyal soldier.

Some of the guys under his command, ehh, not so much. Even with all the soldiers who deserted during Exedore's brilliant little operation a few episodes ago, there are still many within Breetai's fleet who don't want to fight against the SDF-1 -- probably even more now, since they are now aware that they will be attacking a ship inhabited by many of their forner comrades. While we observe Zentraedi across the fleet losing the will to fight against the Micronians, guys clutching little Minmei dolls and refusing to report to battle stations, one guy we see just appears unwilling to get out of bed, which amuses me.

The stock footage they use of Rick flying Skull One into battle is from "Bursting Point," and consequently shows him without his space visor on.

(3) Always liked this shot of Gloval. You may remember it from the Toonami ROBOTECH opening sequence.

Max's wingman in the green jumpsuit told him to stay behind, but Max has enough pull now that he can insist on going into battle with his comrades, unlike that one time with him, Rick, and Ben after they returned from Breetai's flagship. Miriya, likewise, insists on going along, so the two of them hop into that blue VF-1D they flew in the ceremony and join the battle.

HOWEVER ... Miriya tells Max not to shoot to kill; rather, she points out a safe spot to hit, which I guess disables the Zentraedi Battlepods without killing the pilot. When Rick discovers what's happening, he joins in as well. This is juxtaposed against the sight of the SDF-1 taking serious damage. I guess if the Battlepods are, in fact, disabled this isn't a problem, but it seems to me if this is the path to peace, then that's a path you're going to ride in a coffin. They would have, too, except that so many Zentraedi from aboard Breetai's flagship refused to fight that he threw up his arms and issued a recall order.

"Look at him run like a trall, with his tail between his ears!" This, apparently, is a thing Zentraedi say.

(2) Not even ROBOTECH is safe from the obvious turning-one's-life-upside-down gags related to having an alien in the house trying to do domestic things. Entire TV shows have been created worldwide based around this concept; thankfully, this is only one of a couple of times we see this card played in The Macross Saga.

Rick listens to Max's domestic ... err ... bliss and muses upon his own romantic entanglements. And thankfully, for all of us, he thinks of Lisa.

(1) He almost admits to himself that he loves her (PROGRESS!), but he's too tired to think about it too hard -- I guess from listening to the misadventures in the Sterling quarters next door -- so he just dozes off.

I'm not a fan of generically happy Max & Miriya. It's ridiculous, like something out of a fairy tale, and juxtaposed against Rick, Lisa, Minmei, and Kyle, it seems too neat, too easy, too ... unrealistic. I may want to slap Lisa upside the head for staring at Kyle with that glazed-over expression, but that's a thing that happens in real life. People do, in fact, obsess over other people who won't even give them the time of day. Sparks fade. People you hate wind up becoming people you like, and then people you love. But in real life, you don't just suddenly marry a super-hot alien warrior who tried to kill you with a knife. Even Lancer and Sera's relationship comes off as more real than this, because actual time is spent building the relationship part, hackneyed though it may be.

You know what I DO like? Separated-and-squabbling MACROSS 7 Max and Miria. For one thing, the minute Miriya is defeated here, she suddenly becomes a generic "oh, please teach me the ways of your world" alien girl. Okay, she does get Max to stop killing her people, but that itself is a complete 180 from the ruthless, arrogant, ego-driven warrior she was before. In MACROSS 7, she's her own person with a political career all her own, she's got her ruthlessness back, but she also has a warmth about her that comes from having a family, and having citizens who depend on her. The neat thing is, over the course of the series, Max and Miria get closer again -- they actually, over time, rebuild that relationship. Over forty-some episodes of MACROSS 7, we get that development that their relationship originally never had. Again, it's something real, it's something relatable, it's something that feels like a thing that actually happens to real people. I can take all the lasers and robots and aliens you can throw at me, but if the people aren't acting like people, there's nothing there to emotionally get attached to.

(Don't get me started about SENTINELS Miriya. I only hope they were PLANNING on getting Edie Mirman back if they actually had gotten the entire series produced. I wouldn't have been able to stand sixty-five episodes of that vocal characterization of Miriya.)

"Be sure to stay tuned for 'The Messenger,' the next thrilling chapter in the amazing story of ROBOTECH!"

DAY THIRTY-THREE: Showdown

2010-08-02T06:00:00.505-05:00

Written September 12, 2010

(10) I would like to blame the interruption in writing this year-long look at the ROBOTECH universe on the fact that I wanted to put off watching this episode as long as possible because this is just a lousy stretch of The Macross Saga, but that's not true; the lousy stretch of The Macross Saga ended in the previous episode, with Rick more or less giving up on Minmei (again) for the time being (though he does backslide again, just a bit, at the end of the episode), and Lisa outgrowing her mind-boggling infatuation with Kyle -- which peaked last episode with her ludicrous "OMG IS KYLE OKAY, RICK, TELL ME NOW!" demands over the radio -- and finding a true, honest hope for peace to latch onto in the form of the Zentraedi defectors.

(9) This is the episode that introduces the Super armor for the Veritech Fighter, though the way it's drawn here -- stylized and awesome-looking -- and the way Gloval talks about it both seemed to lead ROBOTECH RPG author and publisher Kevin Siembieda to believe it's an entirely different fighter, slightly taller with better base performance than the regular VF-1. That wasn't the original MACROSS series crew's intention; this was just a mid-series upgrade to the main robot of the sort that robot shows have been doing since the very beginning; go all the way back to 1972 and look at Mazinger-Z getting the Jet Scrander attachment midway through his self-titled anime series, or just a few years before MACROSS, in 1979, the way the original Gundam Mobile Suit wound up with the goofy G-Fighter box that could turn it into a fighter of sorts. The new edition of the RPG swings this back around to the way it actually is.

The other silly thing worth talking about as regards the Super Veritech is how in August of 1998 Antarctic Press, whose figurehead Ben Dunn had talked up the fact that Antarctic would "do ROBOTECH right," and would carefully build new storylines and so on, published the first issues of two 2-issue mini-series that offered dueling takes on the development of the Super Veritech armor, both set in entirely different timeframes during The Macross Saga. (Gregory Lane's COVERT OPS took its lead from Dunn's own MEGASTORM and was set during the trek back to Earth, while Lee Duhig's WINGS OF GIBRALTAR was set at some unspecified point between the end of "Paradise Lost" and this episode.) Antarctic editorial clearly just didn't care and let their freelancers do whatever they wanted, even if it made editorial look lazy and stupid. Twelve years on (oh lord, it's really been that long?), I still roll my eyes at that one.

(One more amusing note regarding the pre-"Showdown" use of the Super Veritech: Rick specifically says to Lisa in this episode that "most of [these weapons] weren't battle tested at all before this fight." Uh huh. Sure, that's the sort of thing nobody was going to find a reference for back in 1998, but it is funny looking back on it now in 2010 and seeing the TV series lay down a trump card that reads, "You're BOTH wrong.")

(8) The departure of Lisa from the SDF-1 makes me glad that the apocalyptic finale is only three episodes away; she'll be back with all her friends and coworkers in no time at all. After all these years, doesn't she know her own father? Doesn't she know she's not going to get anywhere with him, and consequently nowhere with his commanders and colleagues? I guess she's riding an optimistic high in the wake of so many of "the enemy" defecting to the SDF-1.

Of all the people who are actually going to know Lisa is returning to Earth, Rick is the last one Lisa tells. Sometimes when you're watching ROBOTECH you have to ignore what characters say -- sometimes what they say is sheer gobbledygook -- and just look at what they do; those are the beats that ring truer. And in this case, this decision tells me that Lisa not only cares deeply for Rick, maybe even loves him, but also knows he feels the same. After all, why do you wait 'til the last minute to tell someone you're leaving unless you're afraid they're going to try and stop you?

(She proves to be right; catch how Rick is all calm one moment, then it hits him what's going on and he starts SCREAMING into the phone.)

(7) Notice that Max has been promoted to team leader and, from this episode forward, has his blue VF-1J -- you know, the one they exclusively made all the toys of up until about five years ago or so, unless they were doing Do You Remember Love toys, in which case you could get both the white -1A with blue trim and the white -1S with blue trim. Yes, I actually have my little Yamato action figure of the TV series -1A and it's STILL a sore spot with me.

From the moment the alarm klaxons start wailing, you know it's Khyron who's launching the attack. Who else would jump on an opportunity like this, without warning, from the midst of a period of relative calm? Khyron may be an annoying gnat, but dramatically he's incredibly useful. Need a random enemy attack? Hey, look, here comes Khyron again!

It's cute, when the new Super Veritech is ordered up and Sammie asks who they're going to get to pilot it, Gloval immediately asks for Rick by name, the same way that Fokker was always his go-to guy before his passing. Yes, Rick's the main character and the leader of the Skull Squadron now, so it's not like it's a sudden shock, but with that line it feels like the torch has finally fully been passed. Rick is now truly The Guy, y'know?

Poor Max, the finest flying ace of his generation, finally gets a mission of his own and winds up being overshadowed by superior technology; Rick arrives in the Super Veritech and ends the battle decisively with a couple of missile volleys. I assume, though, he was probably going through the same issues Rick was back when he got his first command: learning on the fly how to bounce between watching his own back and taking care of the men under his command. While he and his men are overwhelmed by the numbers Khyron brings to bear, you can see for yourself Max hasn't missed a beat when it comes to handling a Veritech Fighter; he gets a few dazzling sequences of zipping his Battloid about in space, tearing Battlepods apart. All of the mecha art and animation in this episode is pretty phenomenal, and considering it's both the debut of new equipment and home to one of the truly iconic battles of the entire Macross Saga, it's a good thing it is!

(6) Pity poor Sammie. Max's wingman complains that she had him doing loop-de-loops around the control tower last time she was subbing for Lisa, Gloval tries to make sure everything's alright and the poor frazzled girl jumps down his throat, and then ultimately she is revealed to have failed to deliver Rick's copy of the new coordinate codes to him in a timely fashion, since -- as she says -- he wasn't supposed to be working today, so when she gives him the coordinates to join the battle, he has no idea what she's talking about.

But then, what did Sammie expect when she took this job? There's a reason they normally have Lisa in that chair. It's because it takes someone like Lisa to do the job effectively. Once again, thankfully Lisa's absence from the SDF-1 is going to be short-lived. On the other hand, if I remember right, Sammie does get much better at this job between now and "Force of Arms."

Probably my favorite scene in the entire episode is Rick and Lisa's conversation, ending with Rick flashing the morse code message telling her how much he'll miss her and to come home soon with his running lights. Apparently this is one of someone else's favorite scenes as well, because there's a very cute nod to it in the final issue of PRELUDE TO THE SHADOW CHRONICLES (one of my two favorite scenes in that series, too -- yeah, go ahead, call me an idiot, I LIKED Edwards turning into the big pseudo-Invid monster). It continues their little dance around one another, which would be a lot sweeter if it didn't involve all these relapses into "Oh, Minmei!" on the one side, and staring off into space dreamily at a man who's never said a kind word to you just because he looks kind of like your dead fiancee if you squint at him a little on the other.

(In case you haven't noticed, while she's nicer about it than this outside observer, Claudia's obviously been thinking the same thing for several episodes, and continues to speak her mind about the matter to both parties throughout the rest of the series.)

(5) The big thing everyone remembers this episode for, of course, is the video game duel between Max and Miriya. It's the big focal point of the second half of the episode -- which honestly feels like a whole other episode. This episode really feels like "just the facts" digest versions of two episodes glued together in the middle -- which, given how poorly served everyone who isn't Rick or Lisa has been since "A New Dawn" and how quickly the status quo from "Battle Cry" flipped to the status quo of "Paradise Lost," and the way Azonia comes off like a vestigial tail or an appendix of a character, it seems entirely possible. You can see that they're trying, but there's a lot of stuff that just isn't very well built up during the second half of pre-Reconstruction MACROSS.

It's also probably why, on this viewing, I've come to just roll my eyes at the whole Max and Miriya story. I know, I'm tipping one of the sacred cows of MACROSS, but the whole thing is just badly developed. The storyline has a great concept, Miriya has a great character design (but then, it's Haruhiko Mikimoto -- the man doesn't DO bad character designs), Edie Mirman's performance is pitch-perfect for the character -- and she even manages to make the alien assumptions not sound dumb, which is no mean feat. Unfortunately, due to the time crunch, Miriya winds up being a one-note character who bounces from one note to, in the next episode, another, and while Max assures us he's "been seeing her everywhere," this is only the second time we've seen him lay eyes on her. (Then again, like I said, anyone who isn't Rick or Lisa's been poorly served, so he could have passed her on the street every day for the last week and we wouldn't know.) And, well ... my next complaint, I'm saving for the next episode, because that's when it's going to apply, but you can probably guess it.

The Minmei with the gong thing is actually how the Famicom (NES) MACROSS side-scrolling shooter game starts -- I assume based off of this, since the game came along the year after this aired.

I love all the weird-looking guys hanging out at the arcade. During one pan, you'll notice there's a giant wrestler guy just flexing in the background. The sad-sack arcade owner with the crazy glasses and the mohawk is also great.

What do you think Rick is thinking when he sees the pilot jump out of the cockpit in the red and white pilot's uniform and get a big hug and a smooch from what is obviously Minmei? C'mon, for a split-second there he's gotta be thinking, "I wonder if I could sue ..."

(4) While Miriya has her problems as a character, you can't help but like Max, if not love him. He's one of the coolest geeks of the 1980's, with those big glasses, the cool shoulder-length blue hair (which seems a little shaggier this episode), and the crazy battle skills; he's polite, usually humble, but after a big win like this he can get a little awkwardly loudmouthed about his own abilities. But you catch his demeanor, and it's not like he's trying to be a jerk about it, he's just stating the facts. It really was no sweat for him.

And then he turns around and asks out the girl he inadvertently insulted on a date. Should he be surprised when she tries to bolt, and says to him, "Oh, whatever you want, just let me go," before storming off? I love how the pilot hovering over his shoulder makes the same remark we're all thinking here at home, "I hope she plans to show up," like it's a long shot. Which, in real life, it would be -- if not for the fact that, after two humiliations, now she intends to just ambush and stab the bastard.

(3) While Max is trying to get Rick's mind off of Lisa -- with Rick insisting his mind ISN'T on Lisa, though we all know Max is right -- and meeting the love of his life, Lisa arrives on Earth. Her father is singing a far different tune than when they last met; he's the one breaking decorum and enthusiastically shouting, "My little girl's come back to me!" while Lisa soberly salutes and officially reports in. When she presents the report, he leads her on, offering to present the proposal for negotiations -- but he's got his own twist, his own spin. It's a little sad seeing how the two are warming back to one another all the way up to the point where Admiral Hayes brings his daughter into the maw of the Grand Cannon, where he explains that before entering into negotiations, they're going to fire this baby up and blow a significant number of them all to hell.

The shame is, the Admiral is right. Lisa and the crew of the SDF-1 are certainly being naive. All of us across the globe have the same genetic makeup, and heaven knows we've shown a distinct inability to get along without killing one another. He also earns points for the argument about not knowing what factors in the Zentraedi's history led them to the point they're at. On the other hand, history will prove her out regarding the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the Grand Cannon ...

The scene between the two of them inside the Grand Cannon is a pretty darned perfect moment, from the Admiral's almost sinister grin when he describes their plan, to Lisa's two-frame quake of anger, all the way to the final moment, where Admiral Hayes tells her there's nothing more to discuss, and Melanie MacQueen nails that last, softly-spoken line, "Yes, I can see that."

(2) Oh hell, we have to put up with another scene of Kyle and Minmei being vapid and surrounded by gossip-mongers? Shame is, the SDF-1 turns out to be a perfect microcosm of the real 2010 in at least one regard -- there's wars going on outside, but all the civilian populous seems to care about is the love lives of dim little pop stars. (Though to be fair, Minmei comes off as a hair smarter than our real-life pop stars.) I like to think the only reason Rick's still watching this nonsense is because it's the only thing on, like when you're up at two in the morning and you have a choice between Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, and TMZ. (Pity poor Rick -- he's getting name-checked on the TV, and it's so that Minmei can almost nastily say, "Oh, he was just a friend.")

Meanwhile, the Zentraedi are watching it because, well, they're Zentraedi -- watching Minmei is just what they do.

So Kyle says he's been thinking of proposing to Minmei -- who wants to bet HE'S the one who fed the reporters the rumor that the two of them are getting married? -- and Rick gets all mopey about how he thought, once upon a time, that he and Minmei had something, and in wanders Max, asking for Rick's advice about whether or not he should wear this tie to go meet Miriya. Yeah, Max. Ask Rick for dating advice. THAT'S a good idea.

(1) Having escaped from Max and his clothing coordination issues, Rick finds a nice bench to sit down at and watch the stars go by. Claudia finds him, and since she doesn't have Lisa to slap some common sense into anymore, she decides to slap some into Rick. Remember what I said earlier? Yeah, she hits him with a little bit of that. Although between playing coy about his remark that she's talking about Lisa and hitting the "those people are around, so close you might miss them" angle so hard, it almost sounds like she wants Rick for herself, which might explain his baffled expression at the end.

Well, that was more or less painless. Shame I probably won't be able to say the same for the next episode. There's bad animation episodes, and then there's LEGENDARILY bad animation episodes.

"Be sure to be watching next time for the action-packed story 'Wedding Bells,' the latest chapter in the amazing story of ROBOTECH!"

DAY THIRTY-TWO: Return to Macross #13 - High Strangeness (1994)

2010-08-01T06:00:00.529-05:00

By Bill Spangler (Writer) & Wes Abbott (Artist)

(10) A few years ago, I interviewed Bruce "Invid War: Aftermath" Lewis about his days working at Eternity Comics, the folks who published ROBOTECH comics in the early 1990s. My strongest recollection of that interview is an anecdote he offered about the guy who ran Eternity's parent company, Malibu Graphics, strutting around the office, looking over pages in progress -- specifically, looking at one of Lewis's ROBOTECH pages -- and going, "We're still publishing this crap?" by which he meant Japanese-influenced anime/manga-style comics. Well, after approximately April 1994, they no longer were. Malibu Graphics was already helping to publish the Image line of books, and now was reorganizing to get their cut of the new superhero universe game with the Ultraverse. With Malibu's Eternity imprint shuttered, the ROBOTECH license moved to a small independent publisher that originally went by the name Acid Rain Press; under that name, they had been publishers of sexy vampire comics. Starting in September 1994, they rebranded themselves Academy Comics, a name more befitting a publisher whose primary -- almost sole -- output was ROBOTECH comics.

Yeah, think about that one for a moment. From September 1994 through December 1996 there was a small press publisher whose ENTIRE REASON FOR BEING was publishing ROBOTECH comic books. Even more amazing, for about the first year or so they were sharp, nice looking, well-made books; save Bruce Lewis's final issue of AFTERMATH, most of the work up to about September 1995 was quite good from a craft perspective, even if some -- especially today -- might quibble with the stories. As the months wore on from there, though, only the Waltrips' SENTINELS comics and their related spin-offs held the line; their other top talent (Wes Abbott, Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons, Sean Bishop) spread to the four winds and they were left with lesser talent, or in at least one case talent that wouldn't fully blossom for years to come.

(9) But today we're talking about one of the first issues to come out of Academy Comics Ltd. of South Bend, Indiana -- one of the four issues they put out at launch. In that first month, with the exception of their ROBOTECH #0 issue -- an introduction to the current line, cleverly written by Bill Spangler as an epilogue of sorts for John Carpenter, the Expeditionary Force officer who commanded the ship that returned to Earth in the Robotech Masters episode "Outsiders" who Spangler put through his paces in his earlier INVID WAR at Eternity -- the books they published were basically the "next issue" of the titles that went silent when the Eternity imprint shut its doors. ROBOTECH II: THE SENTINELS just trudged right along with business as usual, having left its original writers behind a few issues into BOOK III; Jason & John Waltrip just kept on doing their thing month-in and month-out. INVID WAR: AFTERMATH now had a totally new creative team with their own agenda, but boy, that was a pretty book; Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons can draw the hell out of anything she puts her mind to, even if the issues of AFTERMATH leading up to the launch of the new title centering on the characters she and husband Rikki Simons introduced in their three-issue run read like the worst kind of fanfic. And in the middle was RETURN TO MACROSS, picking up where it left off at Eternity except without the "Zentraedi quest for the SDF-1" stories and blessed with a new artist who would stick around more-or-less consistently through issue #26, one Wes Abbott.

(8) Today, Wes Abbott's better known as a comic book letterer, having done lettering work for the last decade-plus for Image, Marvel, and DC Comics -- lately, mostly for DC's WildStorm imprint, oddly enough the folks who currently hold the license to publish ROBOTECH comics. Midway through the last decade, though, he did throw his hat into the ring of TokyoPop's "Rising Stars of Manga" competition and consequently got to flex his artistic muscles again on two books he wrote and drew, DOGBY WALKS ALONE (2006) and DOGBY WALKS TALL (2008), two volumes of a somewhat absurd revenge/wandering loner adventure story centering on a silent big-headed costumed character of the sort you see at theme parks like Disneyland.

His RETURN TO MACROSS work is a little more raw, obviously the work of a younger and less experienced hand operating on stricter deadlines, but it's obvious from his first issue that with the right vehicle for his talents Abbott could go far. There's a couple false moves here and there, but his character style is slick, emotive, and distinctive, the guy can draw the hell out of a Veritech, and he ratchets up the tension nicely with expressions and effects borrowed from the manga playbook.

(7) The story for this first Academy Comics issue of RETURN TO MACROSS is pretty straightforward. Roy Fokker arrives at Armor-1 with his Vertiech to put it through its paces in the vacuum of space. Doctor Lang is on-board the space platform to monitor the test results personally. No sooner has Fokker arrived, though, when a report comes in from Moon Base ALuCE of an unidentified object coming from outside the solar system putting out some kind of weird signal. Lang worries that it might be from the aliens that created the SDF-1, and Roy volunteers his Veritech for the job of going out and taking a closer look at the object. Oddly, Armor-1's chief researcher Dr. Sunderlin gets all edgy and nervous about Roy going after it. He's been a jerk all along -- he couldn't be some kind of mole for an anti-unificationist faction, could he?

(6) While en route to the original mark, Roy spots another, closer bogey coming in. He identifies it as a Pegasus-class long range shuttle, a spacecraft that was pretty common during the Global Civil War. It tries to shoot him down, but the far more maneuverable and versatile Veritech avoids its missile barrage and takes it out.

While Roy's taking care of the shuttle, Sunderlin shows his true colors, threatens to toast Dr. Lang with a taser, and explains that the object returning to the solar system is actually full of bio-warfare agents cooked up by the Neo-Tsarists during the Global Civil War, launched into space right before they lost to the Internationalists and discovered by Sunderlin's Exclusionist allies. (Leave Spangler to his own devices and he starts spinning out these factions like crazy; you need only look at his big long list of Malcontent groups in THE MALCONTENT UPRISINGS and the names dropped in INVID WAR for further proof of that.)

(5) Roy snags the capsule, but then radios back to Armor-1 that it's pock-marked with meteor holes and there's something green oozing out of it. Suddenly his transmission breaks up. Lang suggests that years of being exposed to deep space radiation might have mutated those bio-agents into something that can survive in the vacuum of space. Sunderlin thinks this is nonsense, but nonetheless when one of Armor-1's bridge techs insists she can't get Fokker back on the line, Sunderlin starts to freak out and flees the bridge. Armor-1 commanding officer Captain Mayhew quickly gets to a control panel and releases gas into the elevator to knock him out, and Roy reveals that was just a bluff -- the capsule is intact. Lang gives the go-ahead to destroy it, and Roy does so, another crisis averted.

(4) Funny, it's not a far cry from the crisis in FROM THE STARS; in fact, rereading this little done-in-one adventure, one in a series of continuing crises, I find myself making the comparison that RETURN TO MACROSS feels like the syndicated TV version of FROM THE STARS's slick big-budget feature film. In fact, the stable supporting cast of characters in RETURN TO MACROSS and the way they become a close-knit group is somewhat reminiscent of modern day CBS procedurals like the CSI franchise shows or NCIS -- or, I guess, similar to the main Macross Saga cast in the Reconstruction era, which I guess makes a kind of sense, given that they're sort of building a new world here as well, albeit one that will never reach the heights they're reaching for. Robotechnology will certainly change the world, but for the better? Well, I'll get back to you if Tommy & Co. ever finish their SHADOW CHRONICLES cycle, and we'll see where planet Earth and humanity stand when they're done ...

(3) In the Eternity run we saw Spangler seed in the Global Military Police early on, even complete with their gladiatorial-style Masters-era armors as early as the Knight of Knives affair running through #5-8. No reason not to stir those contents in vigorously, I suppose. This time he decides that Moon Base ALuCE should be in service in the pre-Macross Saga era, which I suppose makes sense given that we've got Mars Base Sara out there -- why have a presence on Mars before the moon, eh? I have a soft spot for decisions like this, instances where authors tie the disparate parts of the ROBOTECH saga together a little tighter, make the whole more cohesive even if clearly the places and organizations in question are, err, "off-camera" afterwards until we reach their original first appearance, so long as it's something like this that broadens the universe rather than the unfortunate tendency authors of licensed works have to make everyone somehow distantly related or old friends or what-have-you.

(2) There's something about this issue that seems deliberately small-scale and introductory; it really does have the feel of a soft reboot of the series, a statement of the sort of story you'll be seeing in these pages month-in and month-out, a bit of action and adventure in the years prior to the Zentraedi's arrival. When I was a teenager, I used to sweat the details -- everything needed to "fit," everything needed to make sense. T's needed to be crossed, I's needed to be dotted. You still see me sweat these kinds of details in the TV episode breakdowns, but I realize I'm looking at this stuff with a quarter-century of hindsight, proper translations of the Japanese material available to review courtesy of the internet and commercially available DVDs, half-remembered bits of the McKinney novels and Comico comic adaptations clogging my brains -- and to be honest, I'm sort of making my final statement on this stuff. I'm not saying, "How dare this twenty-five year old English dub of an even older Japanese cartoon not make sense!" And likewise, I used to take offense to the fact that RETURN TO MACROSS featured Battloids stomping around Macross Island a good four and five years before "Boobytrap." Today? Heck, I wouldn't mind it if Bill Spangler or Robert Gibson or whoever might be writing it today managed to stretch those four, five, whatever years of time out to a hundred -- heck, let's go whole hog, let's say TWO hundred issues. If they were as well written and drawn as this, I'd read 'em if they were still being published today. If they were interesting stories and the characters were consistent with the folks we know from the TV series, well, to hell with the finer points of continuity. Let's have some fun and blow some crap up with big robots.

(1) The series moves from this minor episode to a tie-in to Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth's run on INVID WAR: AFTERMATH, where an operative for the Isle of the IHE hacks into Dr. Lang's files and gets his brain fried for his trouble. That same issue introduces a new major character, Dr. Lang's sister Nina Lang, a rock singer for the band Absolute Zero. Eleven years later, the Waltrips and Tommy Yune would introduce another sister for Dr. Lang bearing a more familiar name, who would be retroactively killed off at Alaska Base. More on her a few days from now.

Issue fifteen starts things really rolling by introducing Shane Gleason, a former wingman of Fokker's aboard the Kenosha. Unbeknownst to Fokker, Gleason's been having bad flashbacks to a period when he was tortured by the Exclusionists. He winds up hallucinating that he's still being held prisoner, steals a Destroid, kills some people while making his "escape," and is ultimately stopped -- and killed himself -- by Civil Defense forces. This enables the new, charismatic leader of the Faithful, Geoff Davies, to get a foothold in Macross City politics -- and turn Nina Lang to his side, to do some anti-Robotech commercials for the group. Meanwhile, Anatole Leonard's militant splinter cell of the Faithful seeks a less peaceful means of ending the Robotech project, like firing missiles at Roy's Veritech in-flight, in hopes of downing it in the middle of the city.

Spangler obviously realized that the Faithful is the most interesting "foe" he set up in the early issues of the series, and Anatole Leonard's association with them -- set up by James Luceno in THE ZENTRAEDI REBELLION -- was ripe for the picking given the woeful mischaracterization that was going on with that guy since day one. (Given that the official licensing guide called him "a pathetic bigot," Harmony Gold basically gave the authors of the licensed works carte blanche to do it, too.) These threads would culminate in a four-issue arc entitled "War of the Believers," which Academy would ultimately release in trade paperback. Those four issues are going to be the subject of the next handful of "comic book weekend" posts for two reasons: first, as I said, I really do like the Spangler/Abbott run on RETURN TO MACROSS, and this is the best of that work; and second, otherwise at this point I'd be shining a light on material that's contemporary with The Macross Saga, and most of that ranges from mediocre to awful. (Does anyone want to be reminded that WINGS OF GIBRALTAR exists? Anyone?)

But next up, it's back to the TV series:

"Stay tuned for 'Showdown,' the next chapter in the continuing drama of ROBOTECH!"

DAY THIRTY-ONE: Return to Macross #1 - Shadow of Zor (1993)

2010-07-31T06:00:00.774-05:00

By Bill Spangler (Writer) & Mujib Rahiman (Artist)

(10) I remember the first time I read this comic book. It was during one of the usual weekend shopping expeditions to Joplin, MO, that my family did; they used to be weekly when I was in grade school, but the frequency of them had dropped to maybe once or twice a month by the time I was in high school. I was often cajoling my folks into swinging us by the Book Barn, a used books/comic books/trading cards/records/toys shop, which is where I got most of my ROBOTECH back issues from the Comico, Eternity, and Academy days; I'm not sure if I'd started the ROBOTECH comic site yet in those days, but at that point I was already building my continuity database for my own obsessive purposes. I sort of remember finding this one in the back issue bin, in one of the long boxes under the table -- the ROBOTECH stuff was never on the table, it was always under, in the more "undesirable" indy/manga/kids' books long boxes. But moreover, I remember reading it over, and over, and over again during the car ride across town to the mall, and then a few more times on the forty-five minute ride home.

I liked it a lot. Still do, in fact.

Part of it is that Bill Spangler is incapable of writing a dull ROBOTECH comic. He makes the caption boxes sing, he's got the character voices down, and his plotting is second to none. Even when he's making me tear my hair out with continuity gaffes, or simply doing a story I find utterly wrongheaded (I'm looking at you, MECHANGEL) there's a sense of dramatic logic behind every move he makes and the end result is always well put together, when his artists aren't letting him down.

In this case, his artist was far from letting him down; to this day I adore Mujib Rahiman's artwork, and it's a shame he didn't stick around through the entirety of issue two -- Tim Eldred took over after a handful of pages, and while I usually enjoy Eldred's work, it was better when he was adding a layer of gritty realism to the Third Robotech War; even when you're throwing them into a tense military action thriller setup, these are still brightly colored, iconic characters and they need an artist who makes them pop. Rahiman does that. I've said before that Breetai and Roy Fokker are two of my absolute favorite Macross Saga characters, and he draws both of those characters to perfection. He's also one of those artists who takes the Japanese style of the original animation -- complete with such anime and manga conventions as super deformed characters and speed lines, the whole nine yards -- and gives his own spin to the art, doesn't let a certain conception of what constitutes anime or manga-style art work straightjacket his art style. The result is something interesting, cool, and unique.

(9) Spangler's big idea behind RETURN TO MACROSS was to split time between Breetai's search for the SDF-1 and Roy Fokker, Gloval, and the rest on Macross Island's adventures dealing with the new wonders of Robotechnology, terrorist threats, politics, and life in Macross City. Unfortunately, the way the original TV series set things up makes this difficult to deal with dramatically. Breetai only really has Exedore to play off of, and those two get along like two peas in a pod. Meanwhile, you've got Roy as a test pilot trying out a classified top secret fighter jet that turns into a robot, but you can't have the robot out and about because, obviously based on the people's reactions in "Countdown," nobody's seen any of the giant robots as of 2009.

The solution? Throw off the straightjacket of continuity and go to town. You know who'd be fun to play off of Breetai? Khyron. That would be a ton of fun. Never mind that the two obviously haven't met before "Bye Bye Mars"; Breetai knows he gets results, but hasn't heard of his reputation for chaos and collateral damage. Veritechs are classified top secret? Whatever. Readers expect to see robots and planes that turn INTO robots, so deploy 'em as necessary. It makes the continuity a mess, and while I'm sure there are ways Spangler could have tiptoed through that minefield, when you're writing a setting based on The Macross Saga, there are certain toys you want to play with, and likewise toys that your readers probably want to see you play with. For a lot of fans, Khyron is a guy they want to see more of, and naturally they want to see Veritechs and Destroids stomping about as well.

(8) The first issue starts with the scene the Comico Graphic Novel opened with and LEGEND OF ZOR ended on, Zor's ill fated final seeding mission. Spangler's take plays a lot more like the version of events Daley & Luceno chronicled in the first novel, GENESIS, and is mostly written from Breetai's perspective, given that he's the character we'll be following in this half of the series month-in and month-out. He loses his eye in far more dramatic fashion here, and Rahiman makes that moment awesome and painful in equal measure.

This take on Breetai has always bugged me, using him as a mere infantryman guarding Zor when the SDF-1 is lost. Again, it's a matter of shrinking the universe, narrowing future story potential and possibilities, making everyone important related -- and also making the quest for the SDF-1 his first command mission, having him lose his eye so soon before that mission, and so on and so forth. It's one thing to say that the events we saw on TV were the most important events in the characters' lives; it's another thing to say that almost nothing happened to them before it. Despite this distaste for the idea, which originated in the novel GENESIS, I believe it is at least well-handled here; Spangler and Rahiman make the material work, even if I think the ideas behind it are utterly wrongheaded.

Rahiman draws Zor in a Bioroid pilot's uniform, like Zor Prime wears, rather than the fancy caped outfit Neil Vokes drew in the Comico Graphic Novel. Come to think of it, I wonder if Vokes designed that outfit or if someone internally at Harmony Gold or Tatsunoko did; it's the same design we saw, more or less consistently, in LEGEND OF ZOR and all of Zor's appearances by the Waltrips' hands in SENTINELS and the WORLDS OF ROBOTECH books -- yes, I'm pondering the look Rahiman DOESN'T give Zor here.

Also, the SDF-1 is drawn identical to its appearance after being rebuilt by mankind, not as the pseudo-Zentraedi ship -- identical to the SDF-3 -- it's depicted as in the Waltrips' LEGEND OF ZOR or the Comico Graphic Novel. Considering that would go hand-in-hand with Zor's uniform design, that's not too shocking, though it really doesn't jibe with Exedore's remark in "Boobytrap" that "it appears to have been completely remodeled."

(7) It's a little weird that Spangler calls the Zentraedi and Invid "ancient" enemies when the Waltrips' comics suggested that as of this encounter the Invid and Zentraedi -- or at least the Invid and THESE Zentraedi -- had never fought before. As I said when I was looking at LEGEND OF ZOR, that was a tidy solution to the problem of the size of the Zentraedi fleet versus the scale of the Invid's forces -- or at least, it would be if the Waltrips hadn't had the Masters realize immediately that their new foes were coming from Optera. But Spangler is working from the Daley & Luceno playbook -- which itself is extrapolated from Macek's playbook -- which posits that the Invid have been a thorn in the Zentraedi's sides for a while. It makes me wonder if Spangler even looked at what his fellow ROBOTECH creators were doing at Eternity, or just assumed that they were hewing to what the novels did, more or less, as he was doing.

On the flip-side of that, watching Breetai and his men go hand-to-hand and toe-to-toe with the Invid Scouts is really cool and awesome-looking. It makes me wish that more of the pre-Macross Saga Zentraedi stories were just Breetai's forces taking on Invid on various worlds rather than the psuedo-STAR TREK alien encounters and Breetai vs. Khyron mind games that Spangler served up for the rest of the original Eternity RETURN TO MACROSS run. (His later WARRIORS miniseries through Academy Comics, with Byron Peneranda, would be more along these lines, albeit with a sort of kaiju/tokusatsu bent.)

(6) After we see the SDF-1 crash, we jump ahead to Roy Fokker's arrival on Macross Island -- not his first arrival there, which was depicted in the Comico Graphic Novel and Daley & Luceno's GENESIS (and was later retconned away in Yune, Faerber, and Vo's FROM THE STARS (2002-2003)), but his arrival five years after the SDF-1's crash, as he joins the Robotech project as a Veritech test pilot.

When he arrives, he's greeted by Captain Gloval, with whom he has some history in this version of events -- prior to the post-Robotech.com reboot, Gloval had captained the Kenosha, the aircraft carrier Fokker served aboard as a Western Alliance or Internationalist (depending on which source you read) fighter pilot. While the two barely interacted in the TV series, the way those limited interactions played and the way Gloval always leaned on Roy and the Skull Squadron to save the SDF-1 during the more desperate fights in the first half of the Macross Saga always, to me, suggested some kind of history between the two men, though that history could just as easily have been built during the years serving together on Macross Island leading up to the space fortress's launch in 2009.

One of the more interesting contrasts between RETURN TO MACROSS and the more TV-series hewing FROM THE STARS is the level of secrecy surrounding the SDF-1, Macross Island, and the Robotech project at large. When Roy arrives via chartered flight on Macross Island, he's already familiar with the project to some extent; Gloval tells him that there's constant video coverage of the Robotech project, and we are later shown that MBS is already up and running as a cable outlet providing 24/7 TV coverage of what's happening on the island. On the other hand, Yune, Faerber, and Vo's series, written and drawn about ten years later, gives us a Roy Fokker completely unaware that anything's happening on the island -- he's utterly shocked when he sees the island, the ship, and the city around it from his fighter canopy -- a public that's been told that the SDF-1 is a ship derived from the alien artifact's technology and NOT the original ship reconstructed, and a Veritech prototype with tape over the transformation controls so its pilot can't see them, so classified are the fighter's secrets. Within an issue's time RETURN TO MACROSS's Fokker will have the Veritech completely explained to him; two more issues later, he'll be piloting a Battloid to save some people trapped in a burning building, right in view of the general public. So much for "classified top secret," the words Fokker specifically uses to Rick in "Countdown."

(5) One thing I think RETURN TO MACROSS really gets across, despite all the terrorist threats, despite the fact that all our heroes are members of the military, despite misguided folks like the Faithful and outright scummy folks like T.R. Edwards and Anatole Leonard (per Spangler, Daley, and -- most of all -- Luceno) getting in their way -- despite all this, there is a feeling and sense of optimism and wonder that permeates the series. These characters are living in an age of change and opportunity, similar to, say, the dot-com boom of the late 1990s here in the real world; something that makes the world smaller, something that brings people together, and something that everybody wants a piece of. Only in this case there's the additional knowledge that we're not alone in the universe that operates as a rallying point, something that carries with it the feeling that human history has really begun a new chapter, a chapter that really anyone could be a major player in if they're smart, clever, or lucky enough. Fokker says it himself: "The technology inside the Visitor is going to change the entire world! Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?" ("The Visitor" is sort of the "ASS-1" ["Alien Star Ship One"], the thing people called the SDF-1 before it was the SDF-1, of the Daley & Luceno-driven version of the ROBOTECH universe -- albeit not as unintentionally funny as its MACROSS counterpart.)

That feeling of looking forward to a better world and standing on the stage of history continues through the first story arc -- the first four issues -- and resumes when the series becomes a little more freeform and freewheeling, less Zentraedi and Edwards-centric, at Academy Comics.

(4) Conrad Wilbur and the Faithful, a group who believe the SDF-1 was sent from the heavens by God as a test for humanity -- the new forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil -- are the "bad guy" for the Macross Island side of the first four-issue story arc. Wilbur's wife was killed during the shockwaves that resulted from the arrival of the SDF-1. He came to Macross Island as a doctor, but soon formed the Faithful and began holding his rallies, gathering a larger and larger following as fear and stress began to take their toll on the people working in and around the space fortress. They represent the flip-side of the optimism represented by our heroes. Fear of the future, fear of the unknown -- these are honest feelings. But once you wrap them up in beliefs people have carried with them since birth, beliefs they carry in their hearts, then they become dangerous. And when the ringleader is himself a true believer, well -- then you get the endgame of this arc in issue #4, where he stands with his finger on a trigger that could kill Roy Fokker and destroy the last remaining Veritech Fighter prototype.

I could have sworn that the Faithful were an invention of Daley and/or Luceno, something seeded in GENESIS, but according to my research this evening they're first mentioned in the novels in Luceno's THE ZENTRAEDI REBELLION, which first appeared in bookstores in March 1994. Of course, book publishing being what it is, and that book being the SIZE it is, the idea still could have originated with Luceno -- unless I've forgotten a reference in an earlier Spangler-written ROBOTECH comic. In any case, religion versus science is always an interesting conflict to play with, especially when you've got someone like Gloval assuring Roy (and the reader) that these aren't stupid or evil people -- they're just scared. And when you're scared, you do stupid things, like listen to opportunistic backstabbers like T.R. Edwards ...

(3) During a rally, someone pelts Dr. Wilbur with a big rock that knocks him unconscious and Roy gets the blame. I have to wonder, if we took a look around, would we see T.R. Edwards standing just off-stage with a bag full of rocks?

The big problem I have with the first three four-issue arcs of RETURN TO MACROSS is that they're more like six two-issue arcs. They don't have room for fuller exploration, room to breathe. Worse, while Spangler's usually pretty good with the Zentraedi, unfortunately the Zentraedi material in issues two through twelve is some of the weakest Zentraedi stuff he's ever done -- I think I get where he was going with the final four issues, having Breetai bottled up in Khyron's cyberspace simulation in contrast to Roy being bottled up in the Lemurian submarine courtesy of T.R. Edwards, but the end result is still just the typical and familiar "trapped in a computerized fantasy world" story that just happens to star Breetai and Khyron. In short, I think he wound up constrained by his own format, and when he tossed that yoke aside when the ROBOTECH license moved over to Academy, the book got a lot better.

(2) This is one of Spangler's more interesting conceits -- that the Global Military Police is already a functioning organization. It's one I have no problem with, since it's not like there's anything that outright says otherwise. Okay, the fact that they're stomping about with gas gun-wielding Destroid Defenders is a bit of a stretch, but we do see Destroids used for civil defense in the Reconstruction era, so it's only a short stretch. Yeah, you'd think a Destroid would be terrible for crowd control, given how slow and lumbering they are and how likely it would be that one would accidentally step on the crowd, but I suppose that's what the gas is for, and "off-camera" there's a small team of GMP officers in body armor with fancy nightsticks to work their way through the crowd, right?

Roy's reaction to all this, of course, is frustration with a bit of anger. Like he says, things were supposed to be different here. And as I said above, the whole arc is about that faith and optimism being restored, not only in Fokker, but in Dr. Conrad Wilbur as well. It's easily the best of the three arcs that Eternity published, though I do have a soft spot for the mystery of the "Knight of Knives" killer in the second Macross Island arc, with its clever little red herrings and the mysterious alien figure that escapes from the SDF-1. This, however, is founded on such a strong thematic core, and as a bonus it's got Rahiman on the first issue and about half of the second, and the rest of the four-issue arc is penciled by the ever-reliable Tim "Man, do I love me some VOTOMS" Eldred, whose clean, solid work suffers only by comparison to Rahiman's eye-popping, highly stylized art on the first one-and-a-half issues. (Well, and also by comparison to his own work on INVID WAR, which was brilliantly inked first by Fred Perry, who used some lovely ink washes for shading, and then by Anthony Carpenter, who did some nifty textured hatching effects for shading.)

(1) If I seem like I'm being a little dismissive of the Eternity Comics incarnation of RETURN TO MACROSS, perhaps I am. When I read this first issue, I figured it would just go from here to full on "adventures on Macross Island" stories, and the next several issues I came across were all Academy Comics issues, stuff from the brilliant Spangler/Abbott run and a stint from the final run, where Spangler was alternating with Robert W. Gibson on writing and a very young, raw, just-out-of-high school Dusty Griffin was on art. And guess what? That was all Fokker, Gloval, Claudia, Dr. Lang, and the rest on Macross Island. Also, no sign of T.R. Edwards, who in RETURN TO MACROSS has a terrible Errol Flynn ZORRO mustache. Past this fantastic first issue, I just see those next eleven issues as building blocks towards the thirteen issues that follow that. I freely admit that perception could be the result of a bias caused by the wacky out-of-order way I read the series, but I think it's more likely that the more focused Spangler/Abbott run (and the Robert Gibson/Sean Bishop issues that briefly interrupt it) really is just that much of an improvement over the twelve-issue Eternity Comics run.

NEXT TIME: Well, what else? We're jumping over those eleven building blocks and taking a quick look at RETURN TO MACROSS #13, "High Strangeness," the first issue published by the short-lived Academy Comics, Ltd., and the first issue to feature the fantastic and under-appreciated cartooning of one Wes Abbott. Be forewarned, I will be talking about the start of one of my favorite ROBOTECH comic runs ever, so there may be excessive amounts of hyperbole. Brace yourself.

DAY THIRTY: Reckless

2010-07-30T06:00:00.018-05:00

(10) I've never really thought about it, what exactly does the episode title refer to? Whose behavior here is it saying is reckless? Rick angrily rushes headlong into combat after he spots Minmei and Kyle, but that's not exactly the focus of the episode; the Zentraedi spies' behavior in coming forward, admitting who they are and why they're here, that could be perceived as reckless. Or is this a reference to Lisa's decision to leave the ship and try to talk some sense into her father? Maybe it's all of the above, everyone taking sometimes foolish chances towards their own ends. Oh well, at least it's not as nonsensical as "Battle Cry" and "Battle Hymn." I suppose if they had to replace any other MACROSS episode titles we would have wound up with "Battle Time" and "Battle Front," eh?

(9) The Zentraedi are a genetically-engineered warrior race that has traveled far and wide across the stars destroying planets, ending civilizations, and conquering worlds for their glory and for the empire of the Robotech Masters. So how come we're now seeing so many dumpy, dopey, wishy-washy Zentraedi? The Battlepod pilot Khyron pursues and calls his "little friend" looks like a sad puppy dog. Was the genetic engineer asleep at the wheel when he was sequencing the DNA strands for some of these guys? I suppose it's easier to be sympathetic to a puppy-eyed funny little Zentraedi guy than another tall, masculine, grunting soldier of the sort we saw throughout the "Blind Game" through "The Big Escape" trilogy.

The spies made sure the stakes were clear in the last episode, and Khyron proves them right as, upon hearing that the Battlepod pilots are searching for Minmei solely to meet her in person and hear her sing, he begins to lay waste to them instead of laying further waste to Macross City. He's not the only name character who turns out to be a serious threat to Zentraedi life, though; Rick, searching for Minmei, does an expert job blasting Battlepods apart, in a display as impressive as Max's moves in the previous episode.

(8) Rick, from his Battloid, doesn't have the best view of Minmei and Kyle's kiss; he can't see the shock in her eyes, can't quite notice her trying to get away. He protests that this is worse than the movie, but I wonder, how much has he been in her life as of late? The last time we saw them interact was when he hung up on her in "Bursting Point." They kept missing each other's calls in "A New Dawn," then he made sure that both he and Lisa avoided Minmei and Kyle at that episode's end. His suddenly getting hung up on her as someone to fight for in the last episode didn't make any sense, and at this point his fixation on her seems almost as delusional as Lisa's thing for Kyle.

Speaking of which: "Tell me, has something happened to Kyle?!" And then as Rick signs off, Lisa flips switches and bangs on her monitor screen, demanding Rick tell her about Kyle. This is getting unhealthy.

With Rick turning away, finally beginning to accept how far apart he and Minmei have drifted since his captivity aboard the Zentraedi battlecruiser and her rise to stardom, Minmei finally shoves Kyle away. Kyle's completely clueless; did he think their on-screen romance and increasing closeness since his return had actually blossomed into something it's not? We don't see enough of these two to know how this has developed, just the rumors and the way they've carried themselves in public, which very well could just have been for the promotion of the movie.

"My job now is to defend the SDF-1 and nothing else." So then, was the whole "fighting to protect Minmei" thing from the previous episode just set up so he could make a one-eighty in THIS episode? The thing to always remember about Rick's military career is that he was more or less shoved into it by Roy, who was getting tired of him shuffling his feet with his head down over newly distant Minmei and his wrecked plane, and Minmei, who I guess was trying to find Rick a place to belong aboard-ship that could use his particular skill set. And it was Minmei who made that last little push that got him to enlist. "Fighting for Minmei's sake" seems like a throwback to that, and ultimately discarding that mentality is a sign that he's made one more step towards being an adult.

(7) For the first time in the series, the Minmei doll serves as a symbol of the destruction and havoc the war has wreaked on the culture the Zentraedi deserters have come to enjoy, obsess over, and ultimately adopt as their own.

Exedore reports to Breetai that Khyron has informed him of the desertion in the ranks. He does say something interesting: "This must be the tremendous force the Robotech Masters have been speaking of. Then, the legends must be true." A direct reference to "Transformation," and the first time Exedore has said that it is the Masters who passed this "legend" down to him. Propaganda, as SENTINELS suggests? Or is it a warning that something very much like this actually happened a long, long time ago? I'd say the former, though I'm not sure how much of that is actually logical or just my long-term exposure to and fondness for SENTINELS talking, with its talk of false memories and history crafted by the Masters to keep the Zentraedi in lockstep. Again, I'm stuck on parallels; the Zentraedi themselves are a genetically-engineered construct race, so why wouldn't the lore of their people be a construct itself? The thing is, I'm torn right now between the idea that it's solely about keeping the Zentraedi from fighting back against the Robotech Masters, "Micronians" themselves, and the idea that the Masters know that a free and open society like that of the humans will be a temptation -- a fruit of the Tree of Knowledge situation -- and should be avoided at all costs. My only problem with THAT is that I find it difficult to believe that the Zentraedi, if they do have the long and illustrious military history the narrator insisted they do -- "bred for thousands of generations for the sole purpose of military conquest" -- haven't encountered a race with this kind of culture before. And if they have, and it hasn't resulted in a situation like this, then why now? Is it something about Minmei?

And if it is, well -- good lord, that takes us to the conclusion of THE END OF THE CIRCLE, doesn't it? Look at Dana, a half-Zentraedi, and her reaction to Zor, which the show seems to kind of take as a kind of race-memory thing (mixed up, of course, with the fact that he is an attractive fellow, in a wispy elf boy sort of way). Now look at the Zentraedi here and their reaction to Minmei, who would be ... ohh, man. That makes entirely too much sense. I need to stop this train of thought right now. It's getting scary.

(6) Every time a Zentraedi mentions Protoculture from "First Contact" through now, all the humans in the area are obligated to repeat the word as though they've never heard it before and act terribly confused. Especially Rick, who has to have heard it at least a dozen times since then and still is the first person to go, "Protoculture? Huh?" The weird thing is, while it seems like the scene is going to go in the direction of explaining Protoculture somewhat, it's clearly a case of the scene originally mentioning Protoculture and the ROBOTECH writers working the ROBOTECH definition of the term around it; Rick's remark about, "Well, that's not enough reason," proves to be, more or less, false as the focus of the remainder of the discussion is how, yes, the Zentraedi have come to live among the humans pretty much because it's a happier way of life and Minmei's is here to sing for them every day.

Colonel Maistroff and his fellow ranking officer (played by Michael "Rolf Emerson" McConnohie) basically spend the whole meeting playing the "OMG ALIENS" card. They're acted and scripted as straw men, on par with the assemblage of officers who were present at Rick, Lisa, Ben, and Max's debriefing in "Blue Wind." It would be nice if this was an honest debate, but instead it turns into our reasonable heroes, who worked this all out months ago and are being proven right, against a pair of unreasonable, sinister-looking authority figure xenophobes. Lisa's reaction to the news that the Zentraedi are all but genetically identical to human beings pretty much sums up the way our heroes are handled: "I expected something like this, but to be told I'm right is still unbelievable!" Maistroff and his cohort are right to be suspicious of the Zentraedi: they entered the ship as part of an invasion force that has all but utterly destroyed Macross City. They're unarmed, but the Zentraedi are still wired for combat. Rick and Gloval are both right in saying that if their intentions are true, this could be the first step towards peace that they need -- a need the people of Macross City wouldn't argue with, given what's happened to their city -- but the other possibility, that this is a trap of some sort, is treated as the ravings of a belligerent scratchy-voiced jerk.

(5) Nitpick: Max and Lena claim Kyle was out looking for Minmei, but he was standing in the wings during the whole concert -- and it's Minmei, everyone would know if she was in concert.

(4) If Lisa's fixation on Kyle was supposed to be setting her up to lead her where she's going through the end of this episode, it did a terribly clumsy job of it. The first time Kyle spoke out on TV against the war and the military, she nodded along in lockstep with Claudia that he was just advocating surrender. It was only in the last episode that she started to fixate on him and his message again, with no real trigger to it. The hope for peace that exists now is one that was just dropped in our heroes' laps from the Zentraedi spies arrival. What would Lisa have done with these increasing doubts about the military way if that hadn't happened? Would she have left the military and tried to start something with a man who barely knows she exists? In her conversation with Rick in the Chinese restaurant she makes it abundantly clear that she knows there's nothing there, just a hopeless fascination with the man.

Interesting that she's trying to encourage Rick to go back after Minmei if, as she claimed in "Farewell Big Brother," she's in love with him and he seems to be happy to spend time with her. They're still blind to each other's growing feelings, aren't they, even after they urged one another to stick around in "A New Dawn." It would be cute if it wasn't so irritating.

(3) Sammie takes Lisa's post again until she arrives, hinting at changes to come. She's still freaking out about it, but at least nobody's telling her that every word she's uttering doesn't make a lick of sense.

Rick and Lisa's banter before and after the battle is probably the strongest indicator of how far their relationship has come since "Blitzkrieg" or even "Blind Game." His playful cry of "GO HOME!" to the enemy always makes me smile.

The battle sequence here is interesting because it's a great example of just how uneven this entire episode is. There's some really solid drawing and animation throughout, and then not twenty seconds later you'll see something that would be at home in the first half of "Space Fold," especially some of the weaker Veritech animation. At the same time, there's one sequence of a Veritech taking out a couple of Battlepods with a missile launch where the frames per second hit theatrical animation speeds. That sequence doesn't even look to belong in the series, let alone this episode.

(2) Lisa comes to Gloval with her plan to try and shore up support for his decision to grant the defectors asylum, heading off Maistroff and his supporters by going down to headquarters in Alaska in person. She isn't stupid, though; she realizes she's going to have to have something big to turn her father around. I'm surprised she thinks the genetic similarity of mankind to the Zentraedi is enough to go on; didn't mankind just get through with a period where they were killing one another over whether or not all mankind could live together in peace? Gloval's brief speech to himself and his bridge crew towards the end of "Boobytrap" suggested it had ended with a perfect peace, but I'd think the scars would still be fresh enough that proving that Zentraedi are just people too wouldn't be enough to flat out end the war over.

(1) Rick is finally far enough over Minmei that he's thinking of asking Lisa to dinner tomorrow night, only Lisa is heading back to Earth, perhaps never to return, tomorrow afternoon. If there's one strong through-line to this episode, it's that Rick Hunter's timing sucks.

And I think I've decided what the title refers to: Gloval's decision to grant the Zentraedi asylum. That is easily the most reckless decision of all. At the same time, though, you can't make history without breaking a few eggs. Thankfully for Gloval, those broken eggs ultimately result in a pretty decent omelette, albeit one cooked over the burning wasteland of planet Earth ...

Okay, that metaphor turned out kind of weird. Point is, Gloval's damned lucky it all turns out okay in the end.

"Stay tuned for 'Showdown,' the next chapter in the continuing drama of ROBOTECH!"

DAY TWENTY-NINE: Battle Hymn

2010-07-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

(10) In keeping with my shaky recall of this particular handful of episodes, I always remember "Battle Hymn" being the one where Rick strengthens his resolve by standing next to a terrible poster of Minmei and telling himself he's fighting for her sake, despite having basically concluded that his relationship with Minmei is little more than wishful thinking on his part after seeing her on the silver screen locking lips with her cartoon defeatist, pacifist anti-military cousin. It's why I asked at the end of the last episode whether or not Rick and Lisa's relationship really has made the leap forward it appears to have made; sure, they're starting to look close at the end of "A New Dawn," but there seems to be some backpedaling in "Battle Hymn."

(9) Dolza stands up and takes notice during footage of the devastation caused by the barrier overload back in "Bursting Point" -- but he's already AWARE of the events of "Bursting Point," that's why Azonia's command was supplanted by Breetai's, according to the meeting Dolza had with Breetai back in "Paradise Lost." Then again, perhaps this is the first time he's seen the footage with his own eyes. Seeing is believing, after all, right? The juxtaposition of the footage from "Small White Dragon" and the barrier overload was probably Exedore's idea, since he floated the idea of the two being somehow related while he and Breetai were watching the movie in our last episode.

Dolza SHOULD be standing up and taking notice of the fact that Rico, Konda, and Bron are making a mess of things aboard Breetai's flagship, with that handful of guys they've been showing the singing doll to telling ANOTHER handful of guys about it, and then them telling more, and now it's gotten so big that Grel knows about it and is telling Khyron that everyone's going completely bananas and considering jumping ship to the SDF-1 -- which, Khyron being Khyron, just strengthens his resolve to ultimately destroy the SDF-1.

It turns out that's the direction Dolza's taking as well, because while in the short term Dolza wants Breetai to capture some Micronians again for study, as they do seem to possess the secrets of Protoculture based on his observations, but in the long term the plan is to destroy them all, as prolonged contact with a race that has such knowledge of Protoculture will "have a bad effect upon our soldiers." That bad effect is taking place right under Breetai and Exedore's noses.

How this relates to the ROBOTECH definition of Protoculture, well, let me give it a shot: this is another fail-safe by the Robotech Masters designed to keep the Zentraedi from becoming too autonomous, while at the same time preventing the secrets of Protoculture from falling into anyone's hands but the Masters'.

(8) The Zentraedi rebels, led by Rico, Konda, and Bron, decide they want to have all those nice things they've never had before. With full knowledge that they'll face execution if they're caught, they decide to sneak on-board during the next attack. But first they have to become Micronians. This exchange cracks me up:

Squinty-eyed Zentraedi: "Bron, do you know how to work the conversion machine well enough?"

Bron: "No."

Squinty-eyed Zentraedi: "Maybe I can."

It doesn't look funny when you write it out like that, but it's the extreme close-up we get of the squinty-eyed Zentraedi along with his weird delivery that does it. It's like, "MaybeIcan."

Karita, the blonde Zentraedi above, has this whole worrywart thing going on to the point that if you listen carefully you can almost hear his knees knocking together. Bron even dangles a Minmei poster and the Minmei doll under his nose, but he's too worried about getting caught. Maybe he'll be convinced by the time we get back from the SDF-1.

(7) Oh, here we go! We heard "To Be In Love" earlier via the Minmei doll, and now as Rick starts having his mid-life crisis already -- "What am I doing with my life?" -- it starts playing over the P.A. system and he comes across a badly painted oversaturated poster of the same image the Zentraedi were passing around earlier. He has a flashback to "The Long Wait," and suddenly he's all like, "That's right! Minmei! I'm fighting to protect her! I can't think negative thoughts! I've got to think positively for Minmei!" It's not enough to be fighting to protect the people of Macross City, the girl you think you might REALLY love, and your coworkers aboard the SDF-1? No, it's all about that girl, all about those two weeks almost two years ago. He sees Minmei, he hears "To Be In Love," and he winds up back there again, all the progress lost, circling around back to the starting point. You poor fool.

(6) Meanwhile, Minmei is actually in concert and singing the same song. While the bridge girl trio relaxes and listens to the concert, the song causes Claudia to fall into a flashback to being with Roy. She's carrying loaves of bread; they must be in France. Loaves of bread are usually visual shorthand for France.

And then you've got Lisa thinking about stupid, stupid Kyle and going, "What he says makes more sense every day." No, it doesn't. Sure, unbeknownst to Lisa you've got Zentraedi who are looking to reject their way of life, making peace a possibility, but you're still going to have plenty who, like Khyron, will never reject this way of life. Kyle's vision is of a world without a military, but in a world where there are Zentraedi still ready and eager to fight, there will always be a need for a military. Karl Riber didn't like fighting, but he was a member of the military; he didn't have the same hard-line approach. Her infatuation with Kyle is solely because she sees Karl in him, but would he be spouting the same nonsense garbage? Does she honestly believe that? I get that she's still harboring this bizarre fixation; Kyle's gotten himself mixed up in her feelings for her dead lover. I just don't get Lisa really buying into what he's selling.

(5) Exedore's plan in this episode is brilliant, using the SDF-1's tactics against the ship and its crew. It also plays right into the hands of the defectors, giving them easy access to their goal. Goad them into using a Daedalus attack and, before the Destroids can launch their volley, wipe them out and storm the ship via the Daedalus arm. It's a plan even Khyron can love, since it allows him to wreak mayhem on the ship. It's only right that this one be so brilliant, since it's the last major operation Exedore will set into motion before Breetai's fleet switches sides. The one thing I don't get is that Exedore says they can then capture some Micronians and seize "the Protoculture generator." I suppose he's referring to the Protoculture Factory. This is the first time that somebody besides the narrator has mentioned it, and Exedore doesn't even use the same term. I assume Exedore believes the Micronians know where it is, and the Zentraedi will be able to get them to disclose this information, at gunpoint if necessary.

(4) The animation of the Veritech pilots racing to their fighters is from as far back as "Transformation"; Rick in particular is from "Bursting Point." Lisa tells Rick to be careful, the sole hint of their time together last episode, and Rick dismisses it and thinks of Minmei.

NOSE LASERS! NOSE LASERS! ARGH!

It's interesting that as the battle rages, Kyle tells everyone to stay calm, butts in seats, because the Minmei concert is going to go on. Earlier in the episode he seemed angry and frustrated that all eyes were on Minmei -- "AND THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT!" -- while the war raged on. But placed in this context, you have to wonder if the translators mixed up the tone of Kyle's realization, if instead of frustration he realized that if only for a while as they were listening to Minmei's song they were experiencing the peace he sought, that the war wasn't going on. Or maybe Kyle's just a two-faced jerk. I could go either way on that one.

And she goes into "My Time To Be A Star," which is at least appropriate to the moment this time.

(3) The entire Daedalus sequence from "Blitzkrieg" is used as Gloval plays right into Exedore's hands. Only once it breaks through, for some reason a small team of Defenders is deployed and marches into the Zentraedi ship only to be brought down by the Battlepods hiding throughout the section in Breetai's ship the Daedalus stopped at. Where are the Tomahawks and Monsters? If those Destroids had been the ones deployed, the missile and cannon barrage would have surely taken out those Battlepods. Is the SDF-1 just running short of Destroids and pilots? Maybe I was right; maybe they CAN'T get anyone into a Destroid anymore ...

What I can't believe is that the Daedalus was recalled before the ship started to blister and explode. Also, aren't they in radio contact with the Destroids? Shouldn't they have noticed that they'd been destroyed? Maybe that's why they recalled the Daedalus -- only, too late, because now they've got a pod infestation.

Sequences from "Countdown" and "Bye Bye Mars" are reused, changed to nighttime cityscape backgrounds, as the Zentraedi invade Macross City again for the first time.

(2) Rick's Minmei fixation continues as he asks if the concert hall has been hit when Lisa orders him back to the ship. All he can think about is Minmei, while all Lisa can think about is Kyle, his hair wisping in the wind. It's really pathetic. If Claudia knew what was going on here and wasn't busy with her duties, I'm sure she's slap both of them.

SDF-1 control fails to close the entry hatch behind Rick and Max fast enough and let Khyron and another team of Battlepods on-board. Slipshod work, folks!

Minmei's had a wardrobe change amidst the fighting, and as she sings "To Be In Love" again, two Battlepods take notice and I think the intention is that it's the Zentraedi soldiers singing "My Time To Be A Star" badly along with -- well, the wrong song, but it's the thought that counts, isn't it?

I love how, when another Battlepod shoots one of the stagelights down, hitting Kyle in the back of the neck, the two Battlepods that were watching the concert turn and stare down the attackers. Shame it didn't do any permanent damage to Kyle. To try and distract him from the pain, Minmei makes some funny faces, which are in fact kind of funny.

(1) Even in a bad animation episode like this one, Max manages to look really awesome in battle, doing all kinds of leaps and rolls with his Battloid to avoid enemy fire and tear them apart. Rick does the same with Skull One, but it's not nearly as impressive. For one thing, the subpar Korean studio handling this one has a really hard time with the VF-1S head, which doesn't help matters at all. For another, the first thing Rick does when he gets his Battloid in there is try and knock 'em down with his arms and shoulders like he's a football player or something, while Max is all about finesse.

In the end of the episode, Rick runs at the screen and goes, "Minmei!" which, hey, he's been doing that all episode. At the end of the comic adaptation, however, Lisa radios Rick and tells him what happened at the concert hall. He charges ahead, saying, "That does it! I'm going after them! And if those Zentraedi have a god, they'd better hope he'll have mercy on them ..."

"... because I won't!"

I dunno, maybe it's a bit much, but I like it. (The illustration of Skull One by Mike Leeke & Mike Chen that accompanies it is leaps and bounds above any single frame of Skull One in this episode, which also helps.) Early in the next issue of the comic some of the defectors gather around and let out a sigh of relief that they avoided the crazy screaming Battloid. I'm not sure whether they were talking about right around now, or a little bit later, when Rick sees something that's REALLY worth screaming about ...

"Be sure to be with us for 'Reckless,' the next thrilling episode in the epic saga of ROBOTECH!"

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: A New Dawn

2010-07-28T06:00:00.441-05:00

(10) Did I ever own this one on videotape, or did I first watch this during the Toonami run on Cartoon Network? I don't remember. I know I had "Force of Arms" and "Reconstruction Blues," and "Season's Greetings" and "To The Stars." The first twenty episodes I had uncut on five LaserDiscs, but for whatever reason getting those last four LaserDiscs of The Macross Saga -- that never happened. Well, it didn't happen until years later when a completist streak struck me, even after getting all the DVDs, and I snagged all but one off of eBay. They're probably still sitting at my old house back in Kansas, on the shelf next to where the big TV used to sit before someone broke in and stole it (and given the size and weight of the TV we're talking about here, I'm not sure whether to curse them and hope they suffer from lower back pain for the rest of their natural lives or give them mad props for being able to haul that sucker out of there).

My point being, we're entering territory where I'm actually more familiar with the stories from the novelizations and comics than from the TV series itself. Of the remainder of The Macross Saga, I think this might be the episode I've watched the least; it's the premiere of Minmei and Kyle's movie, but most of it is relationship drama with Rick and Lisa while they're boxed in following a full ship transformation.

That title frame reflects another view of Macross City showing it to be a lot bigger and more urban than it usually appears, along the lines of the busy neon city Rico, Konda, and Bron were witness to in "Blue Wind." Remember Rick running through deserted streets in "Sweet Sixteen?" Here we at least see some traffic in the evening hours -- late enough for Minmei's manager to be a little laid back and tipsy. "Celebrating enough for both of us" indeed.

(9) Speaking of people who are tipsy, good lord, catty old Jan Morris is adjusting poorly to Minmei's rising star. Never noticed that line about offering to read her beefy male companion's palm; seems like that's the launching point for the way Daley & Luceno spun her post-Miss Macross contest career as a new age guru for the post-Robotech War generation.

See, this is what I'm talking about when I say I've read the comics and novels much more than I've seen the show; while the guy who answers the phone at the barracks is reading a generic "Maga Zine" (with the front cover on the right), I'm used to the comic adaptation, where he's depicted reading a slightly genericized ZETA GUNDAM manga.

Minmei comes off rather well in the opening of this episode, trying to get Rick a good seat at the movie, dealing with a sloshed Jan Morris, and then realizing that Rick's probably not gonna get her message about the seat: "Oh brother, I hope Rick gets the word. That boy didn't sound too bright. I wonder what kind of people they're taking in the military these days." Between that and her rallying speech to the people of Macross City, in two episodes' time she's a far cry from the ditz she was depicted as in the final moments of "Bursting Point."

(8) Miriya makes her first appearance aboard the ship, completely misinterpreting the round-the-block line for "Small White Dragon" as a gathering to honor the soldier who shot her down. Her ego truly knows no bounds.

Speaking of the title, while "Little White Dragon," the name given for the movie in the novels and then picked up by the comics of the 1980s and 90s, rolls off the tongue better, "Small White Dragon" sounds more like a title you'd see on the video case of a kung-fu flick back in the 80s, don't you think?

You know, the chatty folks in the audience whispering gossip about how close Minmei and Kyle are getting are only fueled by how close the two of them appear as they make their way into the premiere -- and, of course, the kiss in the movie. This is the point in the series where Rick's complaints about Minmei and Kyle getting too close really start to look like a sharp observation on his part. Like I said, Minmei in Kyle's hand in "Phantasm" is looking more and more like a reality every day.

This is the first time I've found one of the singing sequences cringe-worthy, because it's the one where Minmei explicitly says A) it's a new song, and B) it's the theme to the film. And what do they play? "My Time To Be A Star." The song that originally played here in MACROSS, for those of you in the back who haven't watched the original in any of the half-dozen or so ways it's been released outside of Japan, is "Shao Pai Loon," which also plays in an infinite loop in the MACROSS Famicom (NES) game and is the song Minmay is singing when the Zentraedi attack at the beginning of DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE. This, right here, is where the Minmei songs become a joke in ROBOTECH. They're not that great to begin with, and this is where it becomes, "This is my new song!" and it's bloody freakin' "My Time To Be A Star" again.

At this point there are only two complete songs left unheard: "It's You" (the one George Sullivan later covers in "Stardust") and "We Will Win" (which is also covered later in the series, by Yellow Dancer); the song "The Right Move" appears briefly in one of the early Reconstruction era episodes, I think "Reconstruction Blues" itself, but doesn't exist in full; all we hear is all there is. There is also a Minmei version of "The Way To Love," which we hear Lancer cover later on in the series, but it's never used in the TV series; the Minmei version actually can be heard in THE SENTINELS when Jack Baker is at his computer doing testing and his invitation to Rick & Lisa's wedding arrives, way low in the background.

(7) Those Zentraedi look like a bunch of kids sneaking around watching porn in their parents' basement, don't they? The only reason that occurred to me: the sweat. It'd look less weird and shameful and sneaky without the sweat.

The novels stated that Breetai's feed of "Small White Dragon" -- oh right, they'd say "Little White Dragon," wouldn't they? -- is coming from a camera on Miriya's person, like he's watching a first-day pirated shakycam copy off the internet. Today there's a hundred and one ludicrous ways it could be explained away using hacking and digital projection and wifi signals or whatnot. What I do like about the Miriya idea, though, is that it makes her mission on-board seem more like a proper sanctioned spy mission than the ridiculous half-cocked ego-stroking vendetta it really is.

Heh, Breetai gets the full widescreen theatrical experience, but the spies and their friends have to be content with the pan & scan on their little TV screen. The spies get an opportunity to build some whoppers about being close personal friends with Minmei, while Breetai and Exedore assume what they're watching is an old battle record that soldiers are required to watch, like a history class -- until Kyle cracks out the crazy energy-fu, causing Breetai and Exedore to flip out and decide there's no way they can defeat the Micronians if they can fire death rays from their hands.

For the five of you who don't know, by the way, "Small White Dragon" was fleshed out for a backup strip that ran in the otherwise pointless LOVE & WAR mini-series by WildStorm/DC, written by Ken Siu-Chong (Udon's STREET FIGHTER comics) and Tommy Yune and drawn by Jo Chen (Dark Horse Comics' BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER cover artist) where the giant Kyle fells with his chi blast and jump kicks is explicitly made a Zentraedi who crash landed his vessel at the turn of the previous century. Most readers seemed to find it even more pointless then the main story ("Dana's Story: The Director's Cut"), but I found it a neat little diversion; by issue #4, I was flipping to the back first, since I knew all the story I was going to see in the front. LOVE & WAR is being reprinted in trade paperback in December, so if you do see a copy then, I'd at least give it a flip-thru for that. There's some cute bits in it.

(6) It's interesting seeing the reaction the other Zentraedi have to the sight of Minmei and Kyle kissing. Is it diminished by seeing it on a screen rather than in person, or has everything Rico, Konda, and Bron shown them and explained to them opened their minds to the point that their first glimpse of a kiss isn't quite as jarring as it was for the spies, Breetai, and Exedore?

(5) Remember kids: in today's anime world, Rick wouldn't have just tripped and accidentally grabbed Lisa's rear end, he would have tripped and fallen into her grossly oversized breasts. Then she would have slapped him instead of just rolling her eyes and giving him a snide talking to. Scratch that, that's not just today's anime world, that's pretty much any anime of the last ten years ... ugh.

Air raid sirens go off, a full-ship transformation is ordered, Breetai is busy pondering the amazing powers he believes the Micronians possess and NOT ordering an attack on the battle fortress, and when we cut to an exterior shot of the ship it's still in cruiser mode and NOT being attacked by Zentraedi. Rick is as puzzled as I am, and Lisa actually explains this: the transformation is initiated from her post, which is currently being occupied by Sammie. I always wondered how Sammie, the youngest person on the bridge, wound up taking the First Officer's post, but until recently I didn't know in the original MACROSS animation it's Claudia who's the ship's First Officer. That actually makes a lot more sense given this episode, and on top of that it makes Rick and Lisa a clearer mirror of Roy and Claudia. But given how close Gloval and Lisa are, how much trust he places in her, and how strongly the overachiever card is played at various points (like the last time Rick and Lisa were stuck alone together) I can see how ROBOTECH wound up turning things around.

(4) Oh, so THIS is the episode that animation cel of Rick I've had for forever is from. See, I TOLD you I hadn't watched this episode enough. (Not the image above; rather, it's from the sequence where Rick explains why they shouldn't overpraise Max lest he get too cocky, which could get him killed)

Lisa's astonishment at how Rick's sounding like a genuine squadron leader just goes to show how much these characters are ruled by their first impressions. She even likes Rick at this point -- hell, is secretly (to everyone but Claudia) harboring a crush on him -- and she's still surprised by the fact that he's actually growing up.

Rick makes the obvious comparison to the time they were trapped in the enemy ship, and then he narrates through the flashback, describing exactly what we're watching on the screen. Sometimes the airtime-filling dialog and narration are handled in a way that you don't notice it, like Gloval in the previous episode having an internal monologue about the orders given him, and then sometimes it's painfully obtrusive. This would be one of the latter times.

The Protoculture see-saw dips towards the Japanese MACROSS definition when Lisa remarks that one camp of the Zentraedi believe that humanity is "derived from something called Protoculture, which scares them." She mentions this after Rick asks why the enemy just doesn't go ahead and destroy them, which doesn't make any sense for him to ask -- he and Lisa have talked this over before, specifically DURING that time they were caught in the enemy ship, and he heard her thoughts on it during their debriefing once they returned home in "Blue Wind." But then, she does mention to him that he may have heard some of this before.

(3) I may have mentioned this before, but all the crazy contraptions that wander the city streets are one of my favorite parts of the MACROSS world setting. Despite the fact that we've moved on beyond this world technologically, what with our netbooks, cell phones, iPods, and wifi, ROBOTECH's wandering cola machines and photo "booths" that hide in the bushes until they're requested still make this feel like "the future" to me, even if it remains so terribly steeped in the 1980s.

(2) When Rick starts needling Lisa about being interested in the movie only for Kyle, since there's no OTHER reason she'd have been going, she asks him, "Aren't YOU supposed to be in love with Minmei? Well, aren't you?" Which I think is a very funny way to put it; it's almost like she's saying to him, "You're Rick Hunter, by DEFINITION you're supposed to be with Minmei." It seems to hit him like a physical blow, and it also hits him that they both wound up leaving the theater for the same reason.

Lisa actually spells out that to her eyes Kyle looks eerily like Karl Riber which, as I said back during "Battle Cry," I can sort of see in the face. As she tells Rick this, she starts crying and ... is it significant that the only time she said one word to Kyle she tried to offer him a handkerchief and he refused, and now that she's sobbing over him-slash-Karl, Rick offers HER a handkerchief and she accepts? No? It's just me? Okay then. You get to watching something with this level of scrutiny day-in and day-out and you just start seeing patterns everywhere, small and large.

The pattern I think IS significant is that right before the crisis ends and the ship reconfigures to cruiser mode Rick and Lisa get a look in their eyes like they're just about to lean in for a kiss -- not quite as close as Rick and Minmei when THEY were trapped somewhere on-board the SDF-1, but their animosity has pretty much all melted away in the past -- what, maybe an hour, maybe two? It's taken them this long, but they've both realized that there's something there between the two of them, something that makes a lot more sense than fantasies about Kyle and what could have been with Minmei.

It's really odd that for all the talk of a battle outside, you never see any Veritechs or Battlepods -- the few times you see outside the bridge's outside windows they're painted over in blue -- and Breetai spends the entire episode fixated on the movie. Presumably Khyron's attacked again, with his usual rate of success. I'd suggest the whole thing was a training exercise, but I spot-checked the original MACROSS episode and unless that was revealed at the end -- notice Claudia does mention something about such-and-such rate of efficiency or something, which would suggest a training exercise -- it didn't seem to be the case.

(1) Lisa gives Minmei and Kyle the benefit of the doubt about their closeness -- she says it's not unusual for cousins to show affection for each other, they probably grew up together, and so on. Rick's not so sure: "They almost seem TOO close." I think when Rick tells Lisa not to look he's projecting; he probably wishes someone was there to tell HIM not to look. Sure, Lisa has the painful memories of Karl Riber running through her mind when she sees Kyle, but Rick -- well, one mention of Minmei's name from Lisa's lips all but shut him down.

Does the narrator overplay what Rick and Lisa have going on? Rick does make a quip about maybe wanting to buy her dinner later, and they did both play the "oh, I must be going" card before the other said, "Hey, not so fast. They won't miss you for another X minutes." It feels like a significant step forward, but if I remember the next episode right, Rick goes ahead and takes two steps back, doesn't he?

Well, I guess I'll see in a bit here.

"Be with us for 'Battle Hymn," the next thrilling chapter in the saga of ROBOTECH."

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Paradise Lost

2010-07-27T06:00:00.574-05:00

(10) Funny, Milton's PARADISE LOST concerns Satan being cast out of heaven, while the SDF-1 is cast out TO the heavens. At least, I think that's kind of funny. Your milage may vary.

Another episode low on action and heavy on building things up for the episodes ahead, as the Zentraedi undergo a changing of the guard, the spies deliver their report, and the SDF-1 is exiled from Earth. It's also another clunker in the animation and art department. The SDF-1 looks lumpy and misshapen throughout, and the supply boxes that are delivered in preparation for the exile look like, I don't know, giant sugar cubes or something. The apparition of Ben Dixon that Rick sees about five minutes in is too short and dumpy and, married to the weird audio effect and Richard Epcar's squeaky line delivery, is absolutely terrifying. There's a lot of other abnormalities in the animation which I'll get to later, stuff that brings to mind the remarks of COWBOY BEBOP screenwriter Dai Sato's recent remarks about the problems that plague modern anime that have their roots right here -- yes, he name-checked MACROSS in particular as the beginning of a particular damning production trend. (If you're interested, the article is here.)

(9) The reason Dolza gives for turning command of the mission regarding the SDF-1 back over to Breetai is Azonia's inexperience with the Micronians, especially in the wake of the barrier overload, which to the Zentraedi's eyes looks like a new weapon deployed with obvious disregard for their home planet's surface and populous. He fails to bring up the fact that the last attack was explicitly unauthorized. I assume he doesn't want to admit the error he made in turning command over to Azonia. Breetai agrees to take resume the mission just so long as he gets command of the Imperial-class Fleet -- a million-plus ships, which Breetai is starting to think may not be enough. This is the level of fear and respect he has for his foes.

More worthless narration over dead air as Breetai returns to his ship; Breetai and Exedore actually repeat everything the narrator says moments later.

(8) Just as Captain Gloval's matchbook (usually, though not in this episode) makes cigarette lighter noises, Rick Hunter's computer makes typewriter noises. Then again, that's probably the only typing sound they had in the sound effects library in 1985.

What is this room, anyway? Is this Rick's office? No, that looks like an awkward bunk over his work area; his third second quarters and third living space in about a year and half, more like it.

Today Cam Clarke is using the higher-pitched Max voice, which is weird, because he's talking about how his first command is probably coming up in the wake of his rapid promotions. He sounds like he's, I don't know, fourteen. Which got me thinking about Rick's very quick leaps in rank and status, but given the closed-off nature of the talent pool in the SDF-1 and the rate at which it loses pilots, it's little wonder that young men with the skills Rick and Max possess are rising to leadership positions this quickly. (And along the same lines, given the casualty rates, it's a wonder they can get a person into a Destroid anymore. Seriously. Not that you see any Destroids today, but y'know, it just gives me the thought ...)

(7) "My Time To Be A Star" count: four. Yes, just four. And hey, it's kind of surprising that in a cartoon aired in 1985 -- and originally produced for a Japanese audience in 1982 -- the Zentraedi spies' boom box has a CD player in it. Not only did the MACROSS creators project that the public would take to CDs, but that they'd still be around almost thirty years later -- which turned out to be the case.

(And then we get to SOUTHERN CROSS and they're using LPs again.)

I was going to quibble with the sight of Konda doing repairs to the Battlepod, but I suppose the Zentraedi probably have some minor technical abilities, at least enough to do field repairs on their infantry craft. That level of technical knowledge wouldn't be dangerous, and would make them far more effective in battle. The bigger question is, where did they GET that Battlepod? (Most likely: it's the same one Rick, Lisa, Ben, and Max stole to escape the Zentraedi ship and get back to the SDF-1.) And later in the episode, when it ejects its legs and flies through the sky -- is that a standard function? And if not, how did they get it to do that? THAT level of mechanical ingenuity -- the release mechanism, adding an entirely new propulsion system small enough to fit in as little space as a Battlepod shell provides and strong enough to push the little egg-shaped capsule through the atmosphere -- wouldn't make any sense for a Zentraedi to have, even an intelligence operative like Konda or Rico.

Watching Rico, Konda, and Bron count off the things they're going to miss about human culture is depressing, even knowing that they're A) going to fill that Battlepod with as many knick-knacks as they can, above and beyond what they're going to share with their commanders, and B) going to find a way to sneak BACK on-board in, what, three episodes' time? Singing, dancing, movies, TV, all these things that pass the time and shape our lives beyond work, sleeping, and eating -- and even food, the art of making something that tastes good, or at least tastes like SOMETHING, they're going to miss that as well. I think this is the longest time we've spent with the Zentraedi spies since they first made their way on-board in "Blue Wind," and it's the first time since then that their culture shock has been played for more than laughs. The shock is over, and they've clearly figured out that as Zentraedi they've been cut a raw deal. Right now they're probably thinking they might be able to get over it and get back to their duties. You know how you go on vacation sometimes, and you get back to your daily routine, and that vacation sort of seems like it was all just a dream because it was so different from your day-to-day life? The spies right now must be hoping it's going to be just like that. The problem is that life aboard the SDF-1 is so radically and fundamentally different (and so much more enjoyable), and their time there has been so very long -- three and a half months at least -- that it sticks with them.

(6) The ranking officer who delivers Gloval's orders is drawn as a very long haired man (look, his bust isn't any bigger than the soldiers with the closer-to-military-regulation haircuts accompanying him), but is given a sort of British accented female voice. Those orders end with, "If these orders are not followed to the letter, we may be forced to --" and Gloval stops reading there. Given that the ship is back over the water and everyone on-board is officially dead, I think we can all guess what the rest of that message says. Let me reiterate: all that talk about how the SDF-1 is a symbol for the strength of the United Earth Government that Claudia said in "Bursting Point"? Hogwash. The only people who know it's still out there are the military themselves (and the folks who saw it in attack configuration in "Bursting Point," put two and two together, AND discounted whatever military-fed propaganda was put out soon after), and if push came to shove, the UEG would sink that ship in sixty seconds flat. Mind you, if the Zentraedi couldn't do it, I'm not sure the rest of the military forces under United Earth Defense Command could, but they'd sure as hell try. I was about to say it might be tough getting the crew of the SDF-1 to fight back against their own people, but they'd be fighting to defend the people of Macross City. Theirs would be a righteous cause.

But Gloval really isn't the type; he won't let things come to that. He's a good soldier, he has his orders, and they have to go. He gives Claudia a quick call on the bridge and tells her to order the crew to prepare for an immediate takeoff following his announcement.

Sammie suggests that maybe Lisa should try and contact her father to turn things around; Claudia appears behind her to nip that idea in the bud. Given how high up Admiral Hayes is, he very well could have been the one to pull that trigger. It wouldn't surprise me, though I'd think he'd have tried to get Lisa off the ship beforehand.

(5) Hang on, the sudden gravitational disturbance of all those Zentraedi ships is the signal the spies were waiting for? They were supposed to be returning under Azonia's care, not that of Breetai's newly acquired million-strong fleet. They might have sent a recall signal, but I don't think the gravitational shift would have shown up on a measly Regult's sensors -- again, it's not built for that sort of thing. Maybe the recon variant, but not a standard combat pod. I was going to say the SDF-1 would have noticed first but ... well, yeah, the SDF-1 radar control center DOES notice, right after the commercial break. How could they not? Breetai's bringing all the ships he's been assigned with him in a show of force, and placing them all behind the Earth's moon. That's going to catch any long-range sensors' attention.

Sammie: "Wait, maybe they've come in peace this time."

(The entire rest of the bridge crew, including Gloval, looks at Sammie like she's nuts.)

Sammie: "Right, probably not."

Remember what I just said about headquarters being perfectly okay with destroying the SDF-1 if Gloval doesn't comply with their orders? Well, Gloval pretty much tells the bridge crew that when they inform him that headquarters hasn't made a peep about the Zentraedi fold operation. "We are considered expendable."

(4) You have to love the 21st century. The narrator uses the word "regeneration" for the transformation of the Zentraedi spies back to full size. Exedore says they should be "hearing from the cloning chamber." I go, "You know what? I'm gonna see if that line Lisa said about all the Zentraedi being clones was a translation error, if she actually did say something about cloning and it just got bungled somehow back in '85." And you know what's on Hulu right now? The ADV Films MACROSS dub. And sure enough, in the worse-acted, worse-cast, more wooden ADV Films MACROSS dub, Misa does indeed say the word "clones," but after it's established that she and Hikaru plainly see that the big guy is the same as the little guy, they're the SAME guy, and what appears to be happening is, in fact, a kind of cloning. The translation was probably referring to the small tanks as compared to the big tanks, and when it was turned into something actual English-speaking humans would say that fit into the allotted time the meaning got lost. That seemed to happen in a lot of the scripts around that time; by this point in the series that's less of a problem. The only trouble that seems to occur at this stage of the series is when they try to smooth over bits where nobody's talking with extra narration, like the bit about gravitational forces being a signal for the spies earlier.

Azonia calls Breetai up presumably to offer her report. Yeah, like she would have anything to report besides "Khyron's a dick."

Azonia: "You've assembled quite a fleet to deal with one small Robotech ship, Breetai."

Breetai: (laughs) "You've noticed. That ship has caused quite a bit of trouble. Even you were beaten and humiliated."

The point Breetai and Dolza ignore is that Azonia herself never did anything, with the exception of the time she let the SDF-1 return to Earth by blockading Khyron's ship and the one time she sent Miriya out to try and drag Khyron back kicking and screaming, where Miriya then turned around and ignored orders and Khyron only returned home after setting into motion another attack -- which ended with the suicide ship exploding without causing any significant damage to the SDF-1. Azonia's humiliation wasn't at the SDF-1's hands, it was at Khyron's.

(3) Breetai ponders a refrigerator while Exedore considers a piano.

The Zentraedi spies report to Breetai has more the feel of a school project than a military intelligence report. Each spy even stands when he's speaking, and they take turns every handful of lines. Breetai listens until he can listen no longer; wrapping his brain around human culture proves difficult, though Exedore's interest is piqued enough that he considers taking his own trip, foreshadowing events six episodes hence.

Boy, how can the Zentraedi even taste the candy Rico gives them? How can he even handle it? A piece of steak, a whole turkey, maybe even a can of cola I could see. Candy, though, would be smaller than a pin's head (to scale). But the, the scale is completely off throughout the spies' interaction with their artifacts swiped from the SDF-1. The Minmei doll in particular should be about the size of a Nerds candy, or the snapped-off point of a pencil, in a human hand, but appears to be the size of a human being compared to a Zentraedi (revisit the sight of Lisa in Dolza's grasp in "First Contact") -- hell, it's almost the size of the refrigerator Breetai was examining. Likewise, I'd think they would all need to be listening very, very close to the doll in order to hear it, unless that thing has a tremendous speaker.

Working my way up to this scene this time, I'm actually surprised that the spies don't seem as obsessed with Minmei as they are keen on the culture at large; the Minmei obsession is something that's born aboard-ship, among the Zentraedi soldiers they show all their neat stuff to, because to them that little singing doll in the Chinese dress is the neatest thing of all. Oh, and the song it knows is "To Be In Love," so that brings the count on that song to six.

(2) I don't think the comedy camera directions were entirely appropriate for the buildup to Gloval's big speech to the citizens of Macross City telling them that their government has abandoned them to die in space and will kill them if they don't leave.

I was about to ask what Rick was doing just hanging out in his plane, but I suppose that's what a squadron leader does when all Veritechs are on yellow alert. It still seems a bit odd, since he's the only Veritech pilot you see chilling in his cockpit.

In the short right after we see Gloval over Rick's shoulder a person actually vanishes in mid-sequence. These terrible sub-contracted Korean studios are getting worse.

"I don't understand anything that has to do with politics, I'm just like you, Average Joe Macross Citizen! And I say if they're kicking us out, whatever, we have everything we need right here in Macross City! Let's stand together and be proud citizens of Macross City and the SDF-1!" That's more or less what Minmei's speech, picking up where Gloval left off when he broke down in tears, boils down to. It's impressive, going from the point where Minmei starts to turn the Zentraedi around right into the moment where Minmei truly becomes the SDF-1's beacon of hope. Their military leader, broken by his failure to sway his superiors, gives way to the charismatic young woman who's already captured the city's heart. God, after a speech like that she should've gone into politics; she could very well have taken Mayor Luan's job then and there. Heaven knows the average person loves a politician who claims to know nothing about politics ...

What is with the weird way Minmei walks in place there? ("Well, Jonathan, obviously the animation studio doing this episode sucks, THAT'S why she's walking in place." Alternatively, "Well she's using up the meager bit of the animation budget that was reserved for that woman who just disappeared in mid-shot.") And why in the heck are we going into a performance of "My Time To Be A Star" of all things? It's the fifth time they've used it -- god, I would've thought it'd be more by now -- and it rarely seems to pop up at appropriate times. Then again, "The Man In My Life" and "To Be In Love" are both sappy love songs and are equally inappropriate. But "My Time To Be A Star" is so self-centered. Then again, I guess it is her time to be a star right now. She just saved the morale of the people of Macross City.

MINMEI LIP SYNCS! THE SONG STARTED PLAYING BEFORE SHE STOPPED TALKING! SCANDAL!

I am amused by the fact that Kyle pats Gloval on the back, offers his respect, and then we cut to Rick looking perturbed.

Also, Gloval's still frame appearances in the final montage sequence under the song are absolutely sinister-looking.

(1) If there's one thing that going through the series again has taught me, it's that remembering the plot doesn't necessarily mean remembering what the episode is about. The story beats of this episode are simple. The Zentraedi spies go home, while the Macross City refugees are cast off of their home planet. But the episode is really about the revelation of the effect and influence Minmei has on everyone. Her second-hand pacification of the Zentraedi Imperial-class fleet has begun, as tale of her song spreads from soldier to soldier and ship to ship, while at the episode's end she has just completed her ascent to the role of chief morale booster aboard the SDF-1, a rise that began all the way back in "Transformation" when she pulled the sign for that Chinese restaurant out into the street and reminded the mayor that this was still home -- a fact she just reminded every man, woman, and child aboard the SDF-1. Minmei might drive ROBOTECH viewers nuts, but at this particular moment its her personal charm turning the key of fate in this war towards our heroes' final victory.

But there's still a ways to go before then. First, she's got a movie premiere to attend.

"Don't miss 'A New Dawn,' the next chapter in the amazing story of ROBOTECH!"

DAY TWENTY-SIX: Bursting Point

2010-07-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

(10) Hey, it's the episode where Captain Gloval flagrantly defies his superiors and accidentally nukes Canada!

While it's entirely possible that the character art of other episodes of The Macross Saga have the fingerprints of "name" artists of the 1980s who aren't character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto on them that I just can't see, none has them on it so blatantly as "Bursting Point." The characters are all in a consistently different and familiar style, that of this episode's key animator Toshihiro Hirano, who would go on to do the character designs for MEGAZONE 23 PART ONE (to which Mikimoto contributed the character design of Eve, which would be a case of HIS art style invading Hirano's space), DANGAIOH, and the three ICZER OVA series. Looks like his style became unfashionable in the mid-90's, and the last ten years he's spent directing sequels and remakes to 70s and 80s material -- his own GREAT DANGAIOH, Nagai's DEVILMAN LADY, and a couple of recent FIST OF THE NORTH STAR movies; the last two seem weird resume entries for a man who made his name designing cute anime girls with extra-tiny mouths and extra-big eyes. But hey, whatever pays the bills, I guess.

(9) One must wonder what the man on the street thinks when he sees the sight of the SDF-1 in its attack configuration floating over his city. Based on what the UEDC told Gloval in "Homecoming," they've managed to successfully keep the story of the alien invasion out of the press, and ran a cover of the SDF-1 being destroyed by terrorists. On top of that, the SDF-1 in this configuration doesn't even look like the ship that was destroyed. For all they know, THIS could be an alien invasion; remember the reaction of the folks in the street on Macross Island back in "Countdown." That's the card Gloval's playing here; while he's careful not to say it outright, he's creating a state of panic as a ploy to try and get his superiors to let the civilians go, returning to a key story thread the MACROSS creators just didn't have any time for in "Farewell Big Brother." Claudia makes a speech about headquarters losing face if Gloval chucks his orders out the window, but who's really going to care if they've all already been declared dead? More likely they're going to lose face because they're not attacking that big scary robot ship that's flying over major cities. Lisa, on the other hand, points out that a sympathetic ear might have been listening in, which leads us to this episode's A plot.

(8) Claudia's crying in her coffee, Rick's brooding on an observation deck; losing Roy has really soured the mood among our band of heroes. The fact that the citizens of Macross City have come to think of themselves as prisoners and the captain is egging on his superiors in hopes of getting them safe passage off the ship can't be helping matters, either.

First public performance we've heard of "To Be In Love." Total performance count: five, though most of those were in Rick's dreams back in "Phantasm." I think this is the first time we've heard it with the music correctly synched.

When Lisa asks Rick how he and Minmei are getting along, she says, "That girl on the P.A., that's your girlfriend, isn't it, Rick?" Calling the ship's biggest star "that girl on the P.A." seems really weird to me. At the same time, given the way Lisa's falling for Rick, throwing the word "girlfriend" out there seems a deliberate move on her part to try and suss out whether or not there is actually anything going on with Rick and Minmei at the moment. Rick grumbles about Lynn Kyle and changes the subject to the new omnidirectional barrier system, which is sort of a leaden exposition-filled conversation with the only exception being Rick's crack about what happens if the Zentraedi get serious -- "everybody on-board gets killed, is that it?" Well, they DID just kill off Roy Fokker ...

Meanwhile, Minmei faints.

(7) The North American Ontario Quadrant -- I guess the United Earth Government isn't as united as the series has implied so far -- sends a "secret crypto-communication" to the SDF-1 that, to my eyes now, is obviously a bunch of Japanese written out in romaji that name-checks both Sammie ("Shamy") and Captain Gloval ("Glorval"). That's all I can take away from it, though.

How are the orders handed down to Azonia and Khyron not to attack the SDF-1 "new" orders? Azonia's been diligently not attacking the space battle fortress the entire time she's been hanging in orbit, and Khyron's been defying orders and attacking it since even before that. It sounds to me like Dolza's been monitoring the situation and is underlining the rules one last time for the slow kids in the back of the class; that would explain why Dolza reverses the decision he made in "The Big Escape" in the next episode. He gives them one more shot, and Khyron, as usual, blows it.

Azonia gives in rather quickly to Miriya's desperate, teary puppy dog-eyed request for Micronization. I can only assume that Azonia trusts Miriya implicitly, and knows that if she needs to do this, she NEEDS to do this. Either that or Azonia can see quite clearly that Miriya is of no use to her in this state. You can tell her defeat in "Farewell Big Brother" has changed her entire demeanor. That cockiness that defined Miriya in all her previous appearances is completely gone. All that's left is wounded obsession.

(6) Rick makes his self-flagellating remarks to Ben and Max about the irony of how the guy who's always getting shot down is taking over flying the aircraft of the guy who was never shot down, Roy Fokker's Skull One. Ben and Max have come by to give Rick the good news about the civilians being accepted by Ontario and invite him to a nice dinner to celebrate, and all he can do is beat himself up a bit. No, he's not feeling unworthy or anything, perish the thought!

Well, at least Ben got one bite of HIS last meal. Roy's pineapple salad in the last episode, Ben's steak in this one ... never make a date with your favorite food before going out into action in The Macross Saga. Clearly it's bad luck.

(5) Khyron's plan for today isn't exactly subtle; sneak up on the SDF-1 with all the ships under his command by jamming their radar, then let loose with a punishing laser barrage, destroying the ship. He wasn't counting on the omnidirectional barrier being there to literally put a stop to it; the crew of the SDF-1 and the civilians in their care are lucky they'd just gotten it up and running.

Speaking of the omnidirectional barrier ... while the obvious assumption in this episode would be that the barrier system was newly developed by Dr. Lang's crew aboard-ship, later on, in "The Robotech Masters," the Masters speak of the barrier system as though it was there all the while. I suppose the obvious interpretation then would be that this is just one of those things Gloval was referring to back in "Countdown" when he said to Russo that they didn't even know how half of the ship's systems worked yet.

At the same time, Grel tells Khyron that the barrier is unlike anything they've ever encountered. If you wanted to build a circumstantial case that the SDF-1 is the unique precious little snowflake of a ship that Daley & Luceno (and, to some extent, Macek) implied in their work, this would be a useful data point.

(4) Assuming that the barrier won't hold out forever, Khyron presses the attack, and is proven right when Gloval gets word that the barrier system is already overloading -- just as Lisa told Rick it would in their conversation earlier that day. Lisa makes a speech to Rick basically telling him that if he and the Skull Squadron can't take out the Zentraedi ships, they're all gonna die. First the burden of taking Roy's plane and his command, and now the burden of saving the SDF-1 from certain doom. Big day for Rick. He taps the side of his helmet and, for the first and only time in footage that ISN'T reused from the opening theme, he lowers the cool "sunglasses visor" on his flight helmet, then goes to work taking out Zentraedi laser turrets.

But it's too little, too late. The barrier turns red and the generator releases a wave of energy that, by the sound of it, kills everyone working in the generator chamber. Lisa radios Skull Squadron and tells them to evacuate the area, because there's going to be a massive chain reaction.

(3) So Khyron's plan backfires; that barrier system he and Grel had never seen the likes of before did something very unexpected and, when pushed too far, pushed back. Khyron pulls his flagship out of the battle zone just in time. The rest of the Zentraedi ships, and the city below the SDF-1, aren't so lucky. Neither is Ben Dixon, whose plane is torn apart by the rapidly spreading energy effect. As Vanessa reports, it takes out everything in a twenty-five mile radius -- but not the SDF-1. Gloval unhelpfully remarks that "because we were at the center we were able to survive," which I suppose means that it was protected from the energy effect by the remaining barrier itself, or at least by the fact that the barrier effect stood a certain radius away from the ship's body.

(2) Max makes the sign of the cross after Ben dies. I've always found that an interesting touch, that and the way "Season's Greetings" actually reflects the Christian part of Christmas rather than just Santa and presents. Those aren't things you normally see in an anime series, regardless of the vintage.

The only way you see Ben's death coming is if you caught how the camera lingered on that steak of his. It's thrown in at the end, not even a death in the heat battle, just another terrible consequence of the barrier overload. You know how it's said that when the body count gets too big you just get numb? We don't know any of those citizens of the Ontario Quadrant that the barrier blew to smithereens, but we did know Ben Dixon, and his death was just as tossed off and pointless.

(1) So they have a barrier system that's too dangerous to use for any length of time, they just wiped out a fair chunk of a major Canadian metropolitan area, they lost their comic relief guy, and now Ontario sub-command is calling with news that their actions have consequences -- yeah, those civilians they wanted to drop off? No go. Gloval takes that particular call in his quarters, I guess to spare the bridge crew the sound of what had to be one angry, angry war of words.

And THEN you get Lynn Kyle using the media attention from Minmei's fainting spell to send a message that he thinks the war needs to end. Fair point on the media attention on an overworked celebrity when there's more important things going on around them every day, I'd say that pretty well mirrors our own useless trashy news media today, but Kyle's hard-line ideological stance is, well, stupid. Like Claudia says, it's total surrender. Then again, Kyle isn't privy to the nature of the enemy they're facing. He doesn't understand what Rico, Konda, and Bron do; Rico says it himself, "that would negate our entire reason for existence." The Zentraedi don't understand peace, don't understand negotiation, and are only interested in seizing the battle fortress -- or in Khyron's case, destroying it for his own glory and revenge. What we the viewers at home know makes Kyle look like more of an idiot than he really is; he's an annoying gnat, to be sure, but we (and Lisa and Claudia) are looking at him from the perspective of someone who really knows what will happen if they "stop the war."

When Rick picks up that yellow phone to talk to Minmei, he looks and sounds exhausted. When I was younger I laughed at him hanging up on Minmei as she natters away at how it would be "great fun" for him to come see her, that he doesn't need to bring her anything, and so on, a mile a minute -- but now that I think about it, she was nice enough to come see him when SHE was tired and overworked and run down from her frankly ridiculous schedule as the SDF-1's one-woman entertainment industry. Yes, that scene puts in stark contrast the worlds Rick and Minmei inhabit now. When Minmei has a bad day, it's just about a little overwork, some stress, the news media on the lawn. When Rick has a bad day, good people have died and they've made it through yet another life and death struggle by the skin of their teeth. Consequently, I certainly understand Rick's point of view, I get that he doesn't feel like dealing with self-absorbed and frivolous Minmei after the day he's had, but he could have at least had the courtesy to say something to her, even a quick, "Sorry, I don't feel up to it right now." In MACROSS we at least get a shot of Minmei looking at the phone, confused; ROBOTECH doesn't even grant her that dignity. Clearly Macek & Co. sided with Rick on that one.

I remember reading somewhere about eight to ten years ago that in the original plans for MACROSS, long before production when it was still being planned as BATTLE CITY MEGAROAD with a female captain in the center chair and numerous other differences throughout, that this was going to be a longer arc, that after watching Ontario obliterated by the war, the ship was then going to seek refuge elsewhere and THAT place was going to be destroyed as a consequence, and this would actually go on for a while -- and I guess that was going to form the spine of this arc, much as the return to Earth formed the spine of the first thirteen episodes. Then the episode order for MACROSS was reduced from either thirty-nine or fifty-two episodes down to a measly twenty-three, so something had to give. That something wound up being this particular stretch of the show. The rest of The Macross Saga seems to breathe a little better, even if the animation quality seems especially variable for the rest of the lead-up to the climax of the war. Then again, if you're going to put most of your eggs into one basket, that would be the basket to put them in ...

"Stay tuned for 'Bursting Point' --" Wait, hold on, that was THIS episode. Wrong episode title in the next episode preview? Real nice, guys. Next time, "Paradise Lost."

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: The Legend of Zor #6 - The Avenging (1992)

2010-07-25T06:00:00.523-05:00

By Jason Waltrip (Writer/Artist) and John Waltrip (Writer)

(10) Jason Waltrip, he of the slightly better character art and less imaginative panel layouts than his brother John, brings the 1992 full color mini-series chronicling the twins' take on the story of Zor to its pedal-to-the-metal conclusion. And while in all my earlier readings of this series I found things to enjoy in the earlier issues -- and even in this reading you probably noticed my appreciation for John Waltrip's storytelling in the odd-numbered issues, even if I was frowning and wincing every once in a while at the story being told -- this one's always bugged me.

(9) I'll be hitting a few issues of the Waltrips' SENTINELS comics during the course of the coming year, so at some point in the future I'll be taking a good look at how Jason Waltrip depicts Tirol, but right off the bat the moon is depicted as having one circular megalopolis, Tiresia, a few small bodies of water, and ... err, lots of brown. No cloud cover, either. Again, obvious problems of scale. An entire empire ruled from a planet whose entire civilization takes up approximately the space of, I don't know, Tokyo? At least when watching the SENTINELS video you could tell yourself this is a world in decline -- "Only the old and sick remain on Tirol!" -- and the Regent's victory over Tiresia is more symbolic than anything else. But here at what is supposed to be the height of the Robotech Empire, the Masters' immediate area of influence is a silver spot on a sandy-colored sphere hanging above the gas giant Fantoma. How terribly ignoble.

(8) When Zor enters the throne room of the Robotech Elders, for once they appear to be speaking as one, their remarks flowing from one to the other. But once he approaches the center of their chamber, Nimuul takes over again, settling the matter once and for all that the Waltrips' version of the Empire will never evolve into the Masters we see in the episodes of the TV series that bear their name. When Zor insists that the Zentraedi cannot be used to "complete [the] annexation" of the Local Group worlds, Nimuul goes into a red-faced rage worthy of the Waltrips' T.R. Edwards, a far cry from the Masters who constantly maintain an even tone and prattle on about "primitive emotions."

I can only assume the Bioroid Terminators who guard the Elders are red because the Emperor's Royal Guards from RETURN OF THE JEDI were red.

(7) Zor is given command of the SDF-1, described as the flagship of the Masters' new fleet. If memory serves, it was Daley & Luceno who assumed and stated that the ship was of Zor's own design; the RPG might have said the same, I forget. Since then, many have stated that it's a little over-the-top ridiculous for Zor to be not only adept with biology (deriving the bio-energy of Protoculture from the Flowers, cloning/genetic engineering) but also starship design. Given the pace of this version of the story, I'd certainly agree with the Waltrips' take, though in a longer, more drawn-out version I'd either go all-out and make Zor a Jack-of-all-trades genius or make him the imbalanced "visionary" of a triumvirate of scientists who have the additional skills, expertise, and understanding to make his concepts a reality.

(Remember: the Masters' society is fixated on the triumvirate, and yet Zor is given all the credit as an individual. This means either he predates the rise of the triumvirate -- highly possible given how he gave rise to the Age of Robotech with the discovery of Protoculture -- or he was so exceptional as an individual that he rose above his station as merely one of three. To be honest, over the last year-plus I've become fascinated by the latter possibility, for reasons I'll get into later ...)

Nimuul tells Zor that he's being given command of the SDF-1 because he seems "so adept that these space voyages." The discovery of Optera was, however, either dumb luck or Shaping-influenced "destiny," depending on your take; I'm gonna say the Elders just want to put Zor out to pasture now that they've got their hands on all the Flowers of Optera, a society of completely obedient clones, and the legions of Zentraedi out among the stars doing their bidding in the name of empire-building.

And then Nimuul does a stupid thing and tells Zor that Zol died -- off-panel, around the end of issue #4, if you don't recall. Zor staggers about for a bit, crestfallen and dumbstruck, and then makes a grandiose gesture of looking out into the pink clouds and purple skies of Tirol, raising his fists into the air, and crying out that he shall avenge his father. Once again, I find this whole issue of Zor's father highly unnecessary -- shouldn't the abuse of the wonders Zor has created for the Republic-turned-Empire be enough motivation for Zor to desire vengeance on the Elders' heads? Is that not the interpretation one would most easily take from the sequence right before the commercial break in "Catastrophe," as Zor cries out, "The Protoculture has brought only death!" and blasts the Flowers with his rifle? One might argue that it humanizes Zor, but one of the things that's intriguing about the way ROBOTECH bashed luckless and vengeance-driven Seifriet Weiße into the character of Zor Prime is that the resulting character feels so detached, disjointed, and alien. Some of this comes from Paul St. Peter's odd performance, while some of it comes from mapping the desired Zor Prime arc on top of the preexisting Seifriet Weiße character arc. In any case, the end result is that when I take into account the Masters' bizarre culture, the oddity of Zor Prime as a character, and the way that the original Zor is spoken of throughout the ROBOTECH TV series, the last thing I expect is for Zor to have the same motivation to fight the Masters that Inigo Montoya had to fight the six-fingered man.

(6) The one thing I like about Zor's reunion with Arla is the remark she makes when he tells her that he's been ordered away again: "Not again! Every time you leave, things here get worse." Which is true. Zor disappears, and the Elders' power and influence increases. This time things will be different; this time he goes to his computer, forges some official-looking documents, and -- hold on, orders the cornerstone of the modern age of Tirolian society to be loaded onto his starship? And this all happens as he sits at his computer, with Arla hovering over his shoulder? The entire operation to disconnect and disassemble it, put it in a series of containers, have it moved to the spaceport, have a shuttle pick it up and transfer it to the SDF-1 ... you see what my problem is, right? It's farfetched and a little ridiculous that the most important thing on the planet could be removed from its chamber with so little as some forged digital documents that could so easily be traced back, by the technicians under Vard's command, to Zor's laboratory.

Zor thoroughly frying all his documents via a power surge at least makes sense, though you'd think information that valuable would have been backed up by Robotech Empire computer technicians -- especially given how long the Elders have been mistrustful of Zor and how long and often he's been away. If he'd held his misgivings closer to the vest and played up his importance as the only one who understands Protoculture, I'd buy this scenario a little more.

(5) Vard confronts Zor about the transfer of the Matrix to the SDF-1. Zor and Vard have their ideological argument once again about all that's good in the cosmos versus what is "good for the Empire," and Zor just about convinces Vard to let him go, but as he and Arla walk away, Vard fires and hits Arla as she shoves Zor out of the way of the blast. Then Zor freaks out, draws Arla's gun, and blasts Vard repeatedly in typical "red rage" overdramatic fashion. My pattern-obsessed mind looks at this and jumps straight to Rick in the VF-1D in "Countdown" thinking that Minmei (the mother of "a" Zor per THE END OF THE CIRCLE) is dead or wounded and blasting that Battlepod to scrap, though certainly this sort of scene neither begins or ends there.

The problem with this scene, besides being a bit cliche? Remember that this series was following from the ROBOTECH saga as written in Daley & Luceno's novels. In the very first novel, Vard is still alive and serving aboard the SDF-1. I presume that the Waltrips, as they admitted they did with Nimuul in the Special Edition of issue #1, just mapped the most appropriate name from the already established stories onto the character they created. Hence we get the Vard that breaks from Zor's side following the Techno Voyages rather than the Vard that stays by Zor's side until his death at the hands of the Invid.

Two things strike me about Arla's death in particular. First, there's a part of me that wants to somehow tie this to Zor Prime's dream sequence where Musica is killed by the Bioroid Terminators -- perhaps that was his mind filling in gaps in his long-term clone-progenitor memories with elements of his own personal history? Second, it would have paid off the scene in issue #2 where Zol pulls his gun out of the safe if it had been established that the gun on Arla's hip was Zor's father's gun.

(4) I do find it interesting that Cabell is officially ordered to continue Zor's research on Tirol; that adds more fuel to the idea that Zor was being sent off-world because his usefulness to the Elders was at an end, that his post as commander of the SDF-1 was about keeping him out of the Elders' hair going forward.

From here on, things sort of fast-forward. Zor's lab and the Flower of Life greenhouses explode, the SDF-1 flees -- and why don't the Masters have any ships to pursue him, anyway? Where are those millions upon millions of Zentraedi ships? Why isn't anyone in orbit to defend Tirol? Why isn't anyone in orbit just doing BUSINESS with Tirol? Why is the universe so small?

The SDF-1 design used, of course, is the very Zentraedi-styled SDF-1 design from the Comico Graphic Novel which was adapted into the SENTINELS/pre-SHADOW CHRONICLES SDF-3 design.

Dolza and Breetai are aboard the SDF-1; the former was established in the Comico Graphic Novel, the latter in Daley & Luceno's very first ROBOTECH novel, GENESIS. Both presences bug me, but it's not Jason & John's fault.

The seeding missions, Zor's atonement for his "sin," is glossed over in a single panel. Oddly, though we know from other accounts that he visits the worlds of the Local Group, which are all under the Masters' control, the Zentraedi and the Masters never find him. Obviously the Waltrips have made him a fugitive too early; the Masters should still trust him when he loads the Matrix on-board; the Empire should be in a state of prosperity and have plenty of Protoculture to spread around, and the Matrix should be, in their short-sighted minds, superfluous at the moment -- and THEN Zor dies, his secrets dying with him, and the ship is lost.

(3) Quickly, the Invid are whisked on-stage in the crab-like mecha form we know them from the TV series so that they can fulfill their destiny. killing their betrayer. Given Dolza's show of strength in "First Contact," you've got to wonder why, when Cabell tells the Elders that the new threat is coming from Optera they don't just order the Zentraedi to take care of the planet. Then again, there is that line the Regess gives at the end of The New Generation about the Invid being driven from their planet "twice in our recorded history," or words to that effect. It could be that the Zentraedi DID surround the world in one of their patented full laser bombardments, and then the Regess just did the phoenix of mindstuff thing and escaped through the cosmos.

I was going to ask where the glowing sphere ship comes from, but it's actually straight out of the Comico Graphic Novel. Which does make you wonder where Neil Vokes got the design from, but given early ROBOTECH, it could be anywhere or just out of Macek's (or Vokes's) fevered imagination.

In the Comico Graphic Novel, it was established that there were already obvious hostilities between the Empire and the Invid -- Dolza warns Zor that an Invid Sensor Nebula would spot them if they lingered for too long -- but here when the Invid arrive in orbit this is the first time Zor sees the fruits of his handiwork, the foul turn their evolution has taken. It shatters him, and causes him to make his final desperate gambit. That right there, that actually works for me. Zor, who was so fascinated by the society of simple hive-minded slugs, bears witness to their ultimate form, designed for death and destruction -- after having seen everything he's created perverted to that end -- and it finally causes him to give up. "It doesn't matter anymore," he tells Dolza and Breetai. "Look at what they've become because of me. Let it end HERE."

(2) In the short time available, there's only one panel of Zentraedi mecha attempting to repel the Invid onslaught. This is the ONLY TIME Zentraedi mecha appear in the entire series. Mind you, I think that's one panel more than we saw Zentraedi mecha in the very same sequence in the Comico Graphic Novel.

This is one of two times the loss of Breetai's eye is shown in a comic published by Eternity, out of three times the death of Zor is depicted in comic book form. The story that Breetai lost his eye in the service of Zor originated with Daley & Luceno's GENESIS, and the other take on it -- in the pages of Bill Spangler and Mujib Rahiman's RETURN TO MACROSS #1 -- was, as I recall, much closer to Daley & Luceno's work.

In the Comico Graphic Novel and, IIRC, GENESIS it is Dolza who speaks to Zor as he is dying, not Breetai. And I wonder, how does Breetai expect them to leave? He tells the dying Zor that they must return to Tirol, but they have no ship. The SDF-1 is en route to its fate per "Boobytrap."

(1) It drives me a little crazy that in the eighteen years since this comic series was published there hasn't been an alternate take on this material. The reason prequels usually suck is because there isn't actually a story there. But in the theft of the Flower from Optera, the crafting of the Zentraedi, the period of civil war suggested by Gloval and Exedore in "Khyron's Revenge," the "war with the Micronians" Dolza speaks of in "First Contact," the transformation of a freer and more open society into the bizarre restrictive clone society of the TV series with its assembly-line psuedo-androids and swapped-out clone bodies and such, and the ultimate defiance of Zor -- "your purpose has always remained the same," the Masters say in "Catastrophe," suggesting that purpose has always been at odds with the Empire at large -- and the rise of the Invid as a potential threat just as the Empire begins to wane and the situation grows desperate, there is so much potential for powerful, dramatic storytelling. It doesn't have to be this obvious, juvenile rough outline with a cackling bad guy, a generic blonde love interest, an imprisoned noble father, a best friend-turned-enemy, and plot holes and loose ends you could ram the SDF-1 through as it breaks through hyperspace on its fated collision course with Earth.

Of course, at the time nobody at Harmony Gold was doing anything more than rubber-stamping this material, the Waltrips were obviously working from the timeline in the back of the last SENTINELS novel more than anything else, and this was the first comic book story they'd ever written. It's not like Malibu editorial was going to deny the artists of their flagship book the opportunity to flex their writing muscles on a six-issue mini-series designed to fill in the blanks of a story that had a direct bearing on said flagship book. The failure of LEGEND OF ZOR is one of the authors' ambition being too great for both the space available to tell the tale and their storytelling skills at the time. Shame, that.

There was actually a sequel series to this planned called ROBOTECH GENESIS: INVADERS. The Waltrips actually finished two scripts for it before the comic license jumped from Malibu/Eternity to Academy Comics and they wound up doing the WORLDS OF ROBOTECH one-shot comics instead. The unfinished series would have covered the Invid invasion of the worlds of the Local Group in the wake of the loss of the SDF-1 and the Protoculture Matrix. Those finished scripts were serialized in issues of the ROBOTECH fanzine EMISSARIES; the first, in the last few issues of Vol. 1 published by my pal Evan Cass, and the second in the issues I managed to publish of Vol. 2. I haven't read that stuff in years, but I seem to recall it being somewhat intriguing.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: The Legend of Zor #5 - The Harvesting (1992)

2010-07-24T06:00:00.434-05:00

By John Waltrip (Writer/Artist) and Jason Waltrip (Writer)

(10) You tell me the Tirolian Civil War depicted here was long, and I just don't believe you. It was the Zentraedi versus, like, fifteen guys with a cache of stolen guns. If there's one thing that's long plagued the Waltrips' ROBOTECH work, up to and including the last decade's PRELUDE TO THE SHADOW CHRONICLES, it's been a problem of scale. And I think this is a trickle-down problem from Daley & Luceno, and even to some extent from the TV series. The difference is that aside from the First Robotech War, which really was basically a war between one ship and millions, throughout the rest of the televised ROBOTECH saga there was a sense that there were things happening elsewhere, stuff we just never saw because it was outside the scope of the narrative -- potentially other fronts in the war against the Robotech Masters, other bands of freedom fighters clashing with the planet's Invid overlords. The previous issue of this series really failed to give a sense that maybe someone else was resisting the Elders as well, or that the rebels we saw were part of a network. It looked for all the world like the guys in that one room were the entire rebellion. Even if they weren't, what did that war look like? What weapons did they have? We just see Zentraedi soldiers standing triumphant. No mecha or other vehicles, not even as scrap in the streets. And Zor wonders about Arla, only furthering the sense that this is, like, hours later instead of years.

(9) But the plot demands that this WAS a long time later, because Protoculture reserves are dangerously low. Has Protoculture become the key to the entire civilization yet? It's unclear; certainly it fuels their entire war machine, but we're not given enough sense of the culture to see how deeply infused into every aspect of Tirolian life the Flower and its fuel byproduct have become.

This is the last odd-numbered issue, and consequently John Waltrip is back on art, with his finer line and greater attention to detail. I love the look of the Elders' throne room, looking even more like something out of SOUTHERN CROSS, with its mix of Greco-Roman architecture and twisting, almost organic-looking technology. You can even see, in the background of the shot where Nimuul shows Zor the current state of the Invid, the Robotech Masters of the TV series huddled around a Protoculture Cap.

The sight of Zor genuflecting before the Masters and saying "What is thy bidding, my Masters," is a frustrating one. It's an obvious callback to STAR WARS, especially in a scene concerning the end of a rebellion against an empire. Was it absolutely necessary? Especially with that precise dialog? Ugh.

(8) Zor is ordered back to Optera with a task force of Zentraedi to seize all the Flowers, their purpose being twofold: to refuel the Empire and to prevent the Invid from ever possessing Protoculture and rising up to become a threat. Despite the images Zor is presented with, he insists that the Invid are primitive, that they pose no threat, and besides that, the Flowers were theirs to begin with. Is this Zor being naive again, or is this Zor simply pushing back, trying to resist his orders despite the one key thing that, as far as Zor knows, Nimuul still has over him? His open resistance causes unnamed Elders Hepsis and Fallagar to warn Nimuul that Zor cannot be trusted, but Nimuul is so sure he still has Zor wrapped around his finger, even though unbeknownst to Zor he has had Zor's father killed.

I guess that's why Nimuul figures he's still got him; Zor has no clue that Nimuul no longer possesses the one card he had against him.

What in the hell does Zor mean by, "What better way to fight them than to feed those monstrous egos?"

(7) Cute liquid-eyed Invid industriously copy the Greco-Roman splendor of Republic-era Tirol. When we first see the Invid in The New Generation, they're mysterious armored figures ruled over by a mother figure that first manifests as a glowing light and eventually appears evolved as a giant bald woman in a long robe, which is kind of creepy and weird. They get less mysterious and weird when they're brought back in SENTINELS, transformed into slug-like humanoids equipped with less mystical, organic-looking, and more conventional technology. Starships, landing craft, sky bikes for their combat armor -- they became more like the other threats our heroes faced in the prior two generations of ROBOTECH.

This actually is used somewhat as a plot point; the Regent's forces are supposed to be more of an emulation of the Robotech Masters, while the Regess follows her own path towards reclaiming what was once theirs.

But the end result of the conventionalizing of the Invid is what we see here, the comical robed slugs of the Waltrips' comics. What was at least visually interesting in the SENTINELS animation was played for laughs under Mason & Ulm's keyboards and the Waltrips' artwork, and evolved -- how appropriate, given who we're talking about -- into what we see here. Look at the funny slug people trying to create culture!

I had never noticed that the central hive on Optera, which appears throughout the SENTINELS comics, is shaped in an emulation of the Tiresian Royal Hall: large narrowing structure with a smaller central command structure on top. Huh.

(6) This bickering is established in the SENTINELS animation, which would be its key foul contribution to the degradation of the Invid. The schism is one thing. It's not a bad idea. It's the petty, human back-and-forth that devalues both characters and makes them ... well, too human. The name-calling in particular is just childish, and is probably the part most like what we see in the completed SENTINELS animation, unfortunately.

I actually really like the way the two are described, the Regent seeking to "evolve" through acquisition, through the accumulation of more and more material things, while the Regess seeks to evolve towards that which she desires. They're both depicted as blind towards what their industrious children are up to below the central hive, both obsessing over their own personal goals -- their racial hive-mind link between one another severed in their emulation of the more individual Tirolians, perhaps?

I think it was the RPG that floated the idea that the Regess and Regent were one and the same entity before Zor set foot on Optera, which would go a ways towards explaining exactly where the Regent was back in issue #2. It's said outright here, that these two WERE one. Only, the form Zor encountered was undoubtably feminine, and was already halfway towards Zor's own form in an emulation of Haydon, he whom she mistook Zor for. It's a problematic little plot hole I discussed in further detail back in my write-up of issue #2.

(5) The defoliation of Optera begins. The Zentraedi-manned harvesters have the smooth, simple lines of a lot of the Waltrips' mechanical designs, and to be fair share a general aesthetic style with the mechanical designs the Japanese produced for the SENTINELS animation. They kind-of sort-of look Zentraedi, but more resemble pillbugs than anything else.

Zor orders the Zentraedi not to harm the inhabitants, but doesn't he remember exactly what he told the Elders long ago, that the Invid and their Flowers live in symbiosis? Without the Flowers, what does he expect the Invid to do? Or is this the big plan, to do essentially what he does -- leave them alive to stew and become wretched, corrupt, and dangerous to the Empire that has done essentially the same to him?

What is the point of the Zentraedi soldiers on the ground, beyond the visuals of giant soldiers stomping the artifacts of the Invid's emulation of Tirolian culture?

(4) How is it that the Regent, the one of the two more prone to outbursts and tantrums and the one who is depicted as being revenge-bent and in thrall to the yearning for conquest that drove those he emulates and loathes, is the one who can see Zor and his people for what they are, while the Regess, the thoughtful, curious, and creative one, is the one who continues to believe that Zor and Haydon might be one and the same -- even after sharing a mental bond with him, even despite the logical argument the Regent gives her: why would he GIVE them the Flowers, then TAKE them back? Is this a manifestation of a sense of doubt that might have taken root in the Regess's mind if the two were still one?

It's interesting that the Regent refers to the other Invid as his kindred, while the Regess refers to them as her children. Again, a sign that the Regent is a more recent manifestation, perhaps not even as old as an individual entity as some of the smaller Invid surrounding him in the shelter.

(3) The Regess takes the betrayal ... badly. She hits Zor with a nasty mental whammy via the mind link they still share.

It occurs to me, seeing Zor aboard a Nupetiet-Vergnitzs flagship, that we've gone through five out of six issues and there is as of yet no SDF-1. It's only introduced in the next -- final -- issue. That strikes me as an odd decision given all that Zor has yet to do, but one that's par for the course with the strange push-and-pull pacing of this series. I suppose that's the price one pays for the more deliberately paced, dramatically designed odd-numbered issues. It's true, this REALLY needed to be a longer series -- at least twice as long to fully explore even Zor's own story, if not the story of Tirol's transformation from spacefaring republic, to interstellar empire, to ruin.

(2) Laid low by the Regess's mental attack, Zor orders the mission aborted with one sector's worth of Flowers remaining. It is just enough. Betrayal has followed betrayal, and now the Invid shall be transformed again. The only problem I have with this depiction is that I seem to recall someone, I think Daley & Luceno, floating the idea that the Invid become a mecha-wielding race in emulation -- again -- of the Zentraedi arsenal, and we see no Regults, no Glaugs, no Powered Armors in the defoliation of Optera. They don't even seem to reach their peak power until next issue, and it never seems as vast as we're led to believe in the TV series.

Of course, the narrative reason to keep the Zentraedi weaker would be to make the Invid on equal footing. If the Zentraedi don't pack the punch we know they can from the TV series, they can't return to Optera and raze the planet after the Invid start making a nuisance of themselves.

(1) If the Regess knows nothing of betrayal before this moment, I wonder, what of the Regess's proclamation at the end of the TV series that TWICE in their history they've been forced from their homeworld, forced to flee to another galaxy. (One of these times is when the Regess takes her Invid from Optera to Earth to seize its supply of the Flowers of Life.) Oh wait, that's one of those little hiccups in continuity that everyone conveniently forgot while they took Daley & Luceno's words as law. That was lost under the same circumstances as the Disciples of Zor were lost, the "wars with the Micronians" were lost, the Zentraedi Civil War hinted at in "Khyron's Revenge" was lost.

If you actually trace everything that's said in the TV series, you could probably craft a whole cycle of books, a whole other eighty-five or more TV episodes, from all the snippets of history hinted at there. Instead we got six comic books derived from the most streamlined version of the history, already warped to match a rewrite of history designed to support the unfinished SENTINELS animation project, streamlined even further and pock-marked with sci-fi cliches. It doesn't even get the Robotech Masters' culture right at the end; it never evolves into a standing culture like that seen in the TV series. I'd love to see someone take another crack at this story someday. I'm sure an interesting yarn could be spun from the materials the Waltrips were unaware of and the materials they neglected.

NEXT: The SDF-1 begins its mission, and the Invid begin theirs in the final chapter of THE LEGEND OF ZOR - "The Avenging."

DAY TWENTY-THREE: Farewell Big Brother

2010-07-23T06:00:00.577-05:00

(10) This is the sixth of the first eighteen episodes of ROBOTECH to have a different title from the original MACROSS episode; that's only a third of the episodes that have a different title so far, though the percentage is going to go up as the series goes on. The original title was "Pine Salad," after the pineapple salad Claudia makes for Roy at the episode's end. Ridiculous as that title might be, it at least has the benefit of not giving away the ending; the only way you'll look at that title and NOT know Fokker's gonna bite it at the end (whoops, twenty-five year-old spoiler!) is if you're going into it thinking a character death isn't even remotely possible, since after all, hey, this isn't the sort of thing that happened on Saturday morning in 1985. Or weekday afternoons in 1998, for that matter. Hey, Rick ejected before his plane blew up two episodes ago, right? Or maybe it'll be a VOLTRON thing, and they'll just say he has to go rest on, err, another planet, or something. Yeah. That's the ticket.

(9) While the narrator's implied for two episodes in a row that Rick was downed by the Zentraedi, Lisa knows the score. It was her slip-up that put him directly in that particular harm's way. Rick, telling her not to be too hard on herself, blames himself -- probably for chasing that impossible-to-catch enemy Powered Armor out too long and too far. Oddly, when Rick tells her this isn't like her -- "Where's that old command confidence?" he asks -- she has a total change of tone, washes her hands, and tells him she'll be too busy to see him again. It's almost like he flipped a switch on her: "You liked me better before? Fine, I'll be like I was before. You're an idiot, I hate you, goodbye."

Wait, no, it's not really THAT extreme. Though from Rick's stunned reaction, I could definitely see him taking it that way. Once she gets her apology out of the way, she gets all nervous, like she doesn't know what else to say or do. Does she want to admit her growing feelings (confirmed the minute she returns to the bridge, in a moment) then and there? Hell, Rick asks if she'll come back, but I guess she doesn't WANT to come back if it'll make her feel as awkward as she's feeling right now. The thing is, obviously she knows Rick still would LIKE to be with Minmei, so there's a barrier there, and she also figures that if he's still pining for Minmei, telling Rick how she feels is an invitation to get shot down.

Claudia, the most outwardly perceptive character in the entire show, hints at the backstory we'll see in "A Rainy Night" and essentially tries to shove Lisa into admitting her feelings for Rick. Lisa tells Claudia that she doesn't think Rick cares. Lisa, HE JUST ASKED YOU TO COME BACK AND SEE HIM LATER AND YOU SHOT HIM DOWN. (Literally AND figuratively.) Listen to Claudia, woman, she knows what she's talking about.

I love Gloval's response when Claudia tells him she's been briefing Lisa on "military procedures of quite a different nature." Hand-to-hand combat expertise indeed!

(8) "The Man In My Life" count: 2.

So, why does Rick seem so downbeat when Roy, Ben, and Max come in? My guess is that Lisa brushing him off has soured him. The girl he thinks he likes doesn't want to see him, the girl he's starting to realize he can't have is on the radio -- and when Ben draws attention to it, he shuts it off immediately -- and all he can do is lay in this hospital bed, alone with his thoughts. At least he's got Roy coming by to cheer him up, right? And that cool model biplane Roy tosses in his lap. That should get his mind off things for a bit.

Max mentions Minmei, then catches a death-glare from Rick that makes him immediately realize that was the worst thing he could have said. Either that, or he caught the subtext of Rick flipping off the radio and it only clicked the moment the words fell out of his mouth. Ben, not versed in subtext or subtlety of any sort, courts death by joking that Rick should set Minmei up with an ace like himself.

Hold on, not the radio thing, Max brings up Minmei again after Roy's started to cart Ben off for being an idiot. Then again, it's about the flowers; I guess it only makes sense that Max would figure Minmei brought the flowers, who else would it be in their small circle of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances? Catch the way Rick bitterly tells Max they were from "Commander Hayes." Is the tone reserved for the person he's talking about, or is the tone reserved for Max for bringing it up?

(7) "Dinner tonight ... if we're lucky, breakfast." Unfortunately, Claudia, Roy's not gonna last that long -- WHOOPS, SPOILERS!

(Sorry, just can't help myself.)

Seriously, though, Roy and Claudia's banter here just makes you appreciate the two of them, as individuals and as a couple, which is kind of the point; this scene here is why whenever I see a character who's gotten the shaft for a while getting the spotlight, especially a mentor figure like Roy, mid-way through a show (this is the exact halfway point in The Macross Saga), I shake my head, point at 'em, and go: "That guy's totally going to die." The other great example jumping out at me right now is Lt. Burning from GUNDAM 0083: STARDUST MEMORY, Mr. "The Zeon secret plan is -- EEYARGHH!!!" But it's a well-worn trope at this point.

Also, minor thing, but Roy and Claudia are at Rick and Minmei's table from "Miss Macross." Y'know, up to this point this is the only part of that coffee shop we've seen -- the view from that particular table out over the city. I don't think we ever get a look at any other part of it, do we? I thought maybe in "Reckless" during the cleanup after Khyron's invasion of the ship, but that's the Chinese restaurant; Max and Lena leave it in Rick and Lisa's care. Hm.

(6) "I'd LOVE to have one for my very own!"

Would you believe that this moment is the REAL turning point in the First Robotech War? Three Zentraedi spies get their hands on a singing Minmei doll, and the future of mankind is assured for at least the next fifteen years or so -- at least, until the Robotech Masters arrive, as they're not as susceptible to such frivolities.

But the spies rushing the table to get a Minmei doll -- given that they apparently still have no cash, or are at least saving whatever they've saved/borrowed/stolen for necessities -- isn't even the best part of this interlude. It's when Rico, Konda, and Bron try to act natural around the bridge girls and fail miserably. Of course, given that the bridge girls are always on the prowl for any unattached man they can find, the fact that these three smelly weird-looking guys they've never seen before who claim to work at the disco they frequent are playing with a Minmei doll ("What? Adults don't do it?") doesn't deter them from dragging our intrepid Zentraedi spies into said disco.

"Do you suppose this disco thing is some sort of Micronian method of torture?" Bron asks. Well, it depends on who you ask ...

(6b) I love better-drawn and animated episodes of ROBOTECH because they're full of weird crap like THIS guy. Who is this guy? Why is he mugging for the camera? (Also, notice the ASTRO BOY and GIGANTOR toys up there on the shelf by the VF-1J. Oh, I long for the days when this stuff was just there in the background for you to notice.)

(5) Dueling egomaniacs. Khyron's ego makes him a solid and entertaining villain; he's always going on about how he'll be regarded in the history books, and he talks a good enough game and is just unpredictably dangerous that he can always bring his men around to his way of thinking, one way or another. But his ego is based on his delusions that one day he'll make everyone pay and be regarded as the greatest of all Zentraedi. Miriya's is based on the simple reality of her skill; as Khyron says, she's never faced a worthy foe. Her entire sense of identity is wrapped up in the fact that nobody has ever beaten her in her entire life.

So, who is Khyron talking about? Sure, Max debuted in the battle where Rick scored a few hits on his Glaug and tore his men to blood-soaked scrap metal, but -- well, Rick IS the one who scored those hits on the Glaug. He's the only pilot who's managed to give Khyron any grief on the battlefield. It's almost assuredly him. However, Max has so surpassed Rick that even if Rick WERE on the battlefield today, Miriya would surely have noticed Max first anyway.

There's a lot of silly Hollywood-parodying dialog from the director as Roy approaches the movie set. For instance: "Can we get some gaffers over here?" Yeah, that's in there probably just because it's a funny-sounding word.

Look at Kyle when Roy's talking to Minmei. Man, that guy just hates those military guys. Heyy, I see what's happening here -- two episodes ago he put Lisa under a spell that nearly got Rick killed, now he's doing the same to Roy! It's all Kyle's fault!

(4) Another male subordinate voice responding to a female superior.

Last episode we saw the entire sequence from the opening theme of Rick taking off used in mid-episode. In this episode we have a properly repainted version of that sequence used for Max's VF-1A; I even took a close look and there's only the one -1A laser on the fighter's belly. That's attention to detail.

And then for some reason Ben's dressed in white with orange highlights instead of the usual yellow. Then Roy's in Rick's colors when talking to Ben and Max, both pictured on his displays. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

Max sounds like he's got helium coming into his cockpit ventilation system when Roy relays the order to retreat. There's that weird inconsistency again. You don't see that when Cam Clarke returns to the series later to play Lancer. Then again, Lancer DOES get a lot more screen time than Max does.

One thing I've been noticing a lot doing frame-by-frame to snag the screen grabs is that there's an awful lot of minor video tape drop-outs in the old masters ADV used for the original DVD release. Years after the fact I'm coming around to the idea that the Remastered version was probably necessary, especially since more than half of the episodes I've watched so far have been weirdly zoomed in, to boot. But it would have been nice if it was just a proper remastering as opposed to an opportunity to splice in additional footage from the Japanese shows, throw in goofy new sound FX, update the title effects, etc. I'd have preferred it to still sort of look like a product of its time, because, well, it is what it is: a military sci-fi action cartoon taking place in a future that's already past. No amount of print cleaning, overblown stereo sound FX, and cluttered titles are gonna make it any more contemporary.

Roy was right. Minmei dropping by, even just to crash on Rick's bed for a second, raises Rick's spirits. However, listen to Rick's internal monologue. He's getting to this point where he's like, "Well, as long as she's happy and safe, I'm cool with that, even if she's no longer a part of my world." He's taking his first steps down the long road of "we'll always be friends."

(3) I had forgotten how brilliant Max and Miriya's battle actually is. (I only ever think of the final stretch, where Max finally tags her in the streets of Macross City; it's the first time she stops moving the whole while, so Max getting a few shots in doesn't actually seem that impressive. Clearly she's not used to urban combat. Certainly well animated, but not a dazzling display of combat.) The animators put an amazing amount of detail into every sequence of the fight, from the crazy close-up of the -1A's head looking up early on (gorgeous translucent effect showing all the workings behind the clear green cover, intricately consistent from frame to frame), to their high-speed aerial dance. There's even one cool blink-and-you'll-miss-it little detail as Max skids along the streets of Macross City where he casually tosses the gun pod from one hand to the other before locking onto his target. Likewise, blink and you'll miss the poster for Minmei and Kyle's movie that Miriya passes as she speeds down the Macross City streets, and the red race car that's doing a good job keeping up with her, until the blast from her engines tips it over.

Speaking of Miriya's engines, when she fires them up right in front of the hospital, I always think, shouldn't Rick be incinerated by them? Certainly he should wind up with some extra wounds from the shattered glass.

Why exactly does Miriya take off when the opportunity presents itself? That's the part that doesn't make sense to me. I realize this is all about pride, but you'd think she'd relish the opportunity to get back at him then and there. Has he damaged her craft too badly? Is she out of ammo? I don't think so; she launches one more missile barrage as a parting shot. For someone whose key personality trait is bloated pride, running away after getting a few bullet holes in the back seems contrary to her character. I get that she thinks Max is crazy for continuing the battle once she reaches the city streets. I get that she's frustrated that there IS someone clearly better than her out there. But I'd think she'd turn around and lash out in anger, not flee like a whipped dog. The only thing that makes sense is, well, this is the only way to build the story arc they wanted. And if Max had done any more serious damage, it would have impeded her getting away.

Minmei's manager is wearing lime green flip-flops. What a ridiculous man.

(2) "It has never been a game, Claudia. Maybe someday you'll understand that."

We've all talked about this time and again, but one last time -- for me, at any rate. Roy gets mortally wounded in battle. We all know the shot; a couple of Queadluun-Raus get some good shots at him from behind, he winces terribly, and then we see the burn marks on the plane. By some miracle ("You're losing altitude, Comm. Fokker ...") he gets Skull One back aboard-ship, gets changed out of his flight suit without anyone noticing the bleeding wounds on his back, switches back into his regular uniform, and makes his date with Claudia. He knows his time is up, he's made his peace with it, and now he's spending his last moments strumming his guitar with the woman he loves, a little selfishly since he has to know Claudia's going to get the shock of her life when his clock stops, but certainly he dies on his own terms.

Except, if it was blood loss that got him, as the doctor suggests, if he'd actually gotten to the hospital in time, maybe he could have been saved. Then again, maybe he couldn't have. I guess that was the calculation he made. Maybe he played his cards wrong, but I guess that's life for you. Sometimes that final decision is the wrong one, and everyone suffers for it, just because you had to go for that pineapple salad.

(1) Claudia is never the same after this. Go back to the start of the series, the argument we see between Lisa and Claudia on the bridge, that late dinner Lisa got on her case about. Roy was everything to her. All she's got left after this is her duty, her alcohol, and -- oh yes, getting Lisa and Rick together once and for all. If she can't be happy, SOMEBODY has to be, and she sets her sights on those two. That seed's planted early on in this episode, and pretty much goes on through the rest of her off-duty appearances for the rest of the series.

The episode opened with a grim-faced Lisa visiting Rick because she felt guilty about nearly killing him with that missile barrage. "Have you come to bury Caesar?" he quipped at the time. It ends with an equally grim-faced Lisa visiting Rick to give him the worst news of his life so far, that his oldest and closest friend -- his "big brother" -- is dead. This time her expression doesn't even register with him; he's too busy playing with the model biplane Roy got him. Or maybe he's just happy to see she reneged on the whole I'll-be-too-busy-to-see-you thing she said earlier. In either case, once the words leave her lips, his expression doesn't change from one of wide-eyed shock through the fade to black at the end of the episode; the last thing we see is Rick staring at Lisa, his mouth agape, without words to express what he's feeling. You know how the narrator said Rick was in a state of deep shock at the end of "Countdown"? That wasn't deep shock. THIS is deep shock. This is a sit-there-for-an-hour-with-tears-welling-up-in-your-eyes-not-knowing-what-to-do-or-say moment.

And the worst part of it is, Rick doesn't know it yet, but there's another one just like it coming around the corner.

"Don't miss 'Bursting Point,' next on ROBOTECH!"

DAY TWENTY-TWO: Phantasm

2010-07-22T06:00:00.254-05:00

(10) "Phantasm" is like a recap episode, only rambling and nonsensical. It's the polar opposite of "Gloval's Report." While that was a just-the-facts recap of the entire story so far without any of the soap opera character stuff, "Phantasm" is a no-facts recap of the story so far that's entirely about our lead characters' relationships. Rick appears to start off as a civilian, pushed and pulled by dream logic into the military to rescue Minmei from the clutches of the Zentraedi -- or is that from her cousin, or is that from her career? -- along the way running a gauntlet of familiar scenes and events in the pursuit of his goal, which winds up being Minmei's hand in marriage.

What's funny is that in hobbling together an episode to pad the episode count and keep the show on schedule, the MACROSS staff did exactly what the ROBOTECH staff would later do to even out their episode count, turning eighty-four episodes into eighty-five by creating "Dana's Story." Only "Dana's Story" isn't a dream and actually mostly makes sense (except for the AGAC thing).

(9) Let's see, first it's a mix of "Miss Macross" footage and Minmei's concert at the end of "First Contact."

Second time out for "To Be In Love," after Minmei sang it to Rick in "The Long Wait." Here the vocals are miscued to the music.

Of course Breetai is the initial "villain" in Rick's dream; he's the one who personally clobbered the hell out of his Battloid.

When Rick jets off to save Minmei, of course, we leap into the end of "Boobytrap." Then when Vanessa delivers that humiliating P.A. announcement about auctioning off his flight suit, it's footage from "Bye Bye Mars" and then "Transformation," when he was glumly pondering Minmei's "just friends" remark.

Now that I think about it, I wonder, Rick's checkered blue button-up shirt and white sweater -- he didn't seem to bring any personal effects with him, you think those were originally Kyle's? I've actually been thinking about that since watching "Transformation" a couple of weeks ago.

(8) Minmei begging to be saved, his dream from "The Big Escape"; Rick and Roy encountering Lisa and the bridge girls, going through his training, and being slapped on the back by Roy, all "Blitzkrieg."

Things get random when we go from the fight in "Blitzkrieg" to Rick departing in the Armored Battloid from "Miss Macross" without any explanation. But it's all just a dream, so it doesn't have to make sense.

I do like the bit where Kim makes the offhand remark that she wishes some guy loved her enough to keep going back to save her despite constantly being shot down. (This is about the point where Rick has decided that he is, as he later refers to himself in "Bursting Point," the guy who's always getting shot down. He's lost one VF-1D, his fanjet, and at least two red-and-white VF-1Js: the one Breetai clobbered and he self-destructed and the one Lisa shot down. That isn't counting the damage he took in his duel with Khyron and the time he nearly got blown to smithereens by the Zentraedi spies detonating their Cyclops recon ship.)

(7) Ladies and gentlemen, the magic bicycle.

Y'know, someone actually used to have the domain name "magicbicycle.net," with that screen grab (or another within the sequence) and a handful of ROBOTECH links to different folks' websites. Looks like it disappeared around the time of SHADOW CHRONICLES; then again, given all the ROBOTECH sites I saw had vanished just within the last year and a half when I went to edit my link list after dusting this blog off, that shouldn't come as a surprise. How much of the non-commercial, fan-driven internet is still here from five, eight, ten years ago? Not much.

(6) After the bicycle fails Rick -- even that got shot down, according to Vanessa's latest P.A. announcement of shame, Ben, Max, and Lisa join up for some retreads of footage from "Blind Game," mixed with a little "Sweet Sixteen" as Max tears 'em up. They make it inside, and then we've got Max skulking about the ship in "The Big Escape."

For some reason they splice in Rick's hand pulling the "B" lever from "Boobytrap" even though Max is switching to Guardian. Whoops. Um, dream logic! Yeah!

(5) Minmei sings "To Be In Love" again just beyond the airlock. Interesting that the song Rick's subconscious has chosen is the one that, as far as we've seen, only he has heard, as if this is some kind of bond they share. And yet when he and his magically materialized VF-1J come to rescue her, she first doesn't even know who he is, and then thanks him for picking her up for their date, but she can't go, because Lynn Kyle says she can't go out with a soldier.

Lynn Kyle?!

(4) Yup, Lynn Kyle. (This is my favorite shot of the episode, even if it is that loathsome kung-fu pacifist pest cosplaying as my fave Zentraedi commander. Rick's subconscious has cooked up an image that perfectly encapsulates Minmei and Kyle's relationship for the rest of the series.) So Rick tears away his uniform, making him NOT a soldier anymore, and Lynn Kyle melts away into nothing. Oh, if only things were that easy in the "real world." The red & white VF-1J turns into the orange VF-1D, and it's back to "Countdown," for the sequence where Rick rescues Minmei from the ruins of Macross City.

(3) From "Countdown" to "Space Fold" through the use of some new footage magically transforming the -1D to the fanjet with the flip of a switch. Rick and Minmei leave the island in space and reenter the SDF-1 through a hole in the side, bringing him back to "The Long Wait," right where he wants to be. Except ...

Except, when he and Minmei enter the hold where the airlock is, they don't see the destroyed Macross City, they see the Zentraedi fleet he, Lisa, and Ben saw when they were trapped aboard Breetai's flagship. And when we cut around to a side view to Rick's left, there's Lisa with her camera from "First Contact" -- clever cut, since as we saw Minmei is standing to his right.

With no Ben around to call the twinkling an "electro-light force," the Lisa in Rick's dream calls the twinkling lights in the distance among the Zentraedi ship a huge battle. Rick says the lights are beautiful, and Lisa tells him, "All battles are pretty from a distance, until they surround you."

(2) While so far the dream's been following its own twisted continuity, when Rick and Minmei are together replaying their conversation after her shower from "The Long Wait," suddenly Rick is aware of everything that's gone on in the past year, since Minmei was crowned Miss Macross. "Nothing's been right since then," he tells her. "It seems like you're more interested in your fans than your friends." When the Minmei of his dream outright tells him she has no time for a boyfriend and a career, he actually tells her he thinks he likes Lisa. This is not actually a conversation Rick would be so bold as to have in real life -- nor is it one he'd actually be able to track Minmei down long enough to have in real life, which is one of the many points Rick's subconscious is trying to beat him over the head with.

(1) If Haruhiko Mikimoto didn't draw the lineart for that particular image himself, I'll eat my SDF-1 commander's cap. It's a gorgeous shot, on par with the best of "Boobytrap" and "Countdown," and of course only possible at this point in production because it doesn't move ...

"To Be In Love" count: 3 times this episode, 4 times total.

We repeat the climactic scene from "The Long Wait," except instead of getting into an argument about how they'll be marooned in the belly of the SDF-1 forever, Rick and Minmei have an argument about the expectations of their life together. Minmei wants her career and Rick wants his, and he's realizing now that they ARE living in drastically different worlds now. Of course, there's the typical chauvinistic Rick Hunter undertones, like when Minmei tells him she's not going to stay at home and have children and Rick says that'll be a problem, then begins backpedaling by saying he'd just expect her to follow him wherever the military posts him. Despite that, the almost-kiss with Minmei from "The Long Wait" still goes forward and then turns into Rick and Lisa's kiss from "First Contact." Dolza then proclaims that "YOU WILL NEVER HAVE MINMEI!" which is funny.

The last words that echo in Rick's mind as he awakens are from Lisa: "You belong to my world, Rick. You belong to the service." Somewhere in that thick head of his, Rick is starting to figure it all out. He may not like it, but she's right.

"Don't miss 'Farewell Big Brother,' the next exciting chapter in the epic story of ROBOTECH!"

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Battle Cry

2010-07-21T06:00:00.002-05:00

(10) No, not the video game. No, not the novel, either, or the omnibus edition collecting it with GENESIS and HOMECOMING. No, this is the episode where Lynn Kyle and his military-hate-rays bamboozle Lisa, so she accidentally orders a Daedalus attack slightly late, so it hits the enemy ship at the wrong angle, causing the Destroid missile barrage to fly out into the open sky, right in the path of Rick Hunter's plane. Down goes Rick. Now this time we're INTENTIONALLY led to believe, just for a moment, that they've killed off the main character.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. First things first, the narrator says Rick was ordered to "secretly" ferry Minmei to her folks back in Yokohama? Really, "secretly," with all those adoring fans taking pictures and cheering and all that? Seriously, they wouldn't need to keep something like that secret. She's a celebrity, of COURSE she gets special privileges. And Minmei's parents "convinced" Kyle to return with her? IT WAS HIS IDEA. ALL HIM. There is nothing in the previous episode that indicates that they planted the seed of this idea. Once again, the narrator proves his less-than-omniscience.

(9) There is something weirdly unnatural about Minmei's Aunt Lena's initial reaction to Kyle's return home. At first it almost seems like horror, and I don't think it's entirely the actress's fault. It looks like she's just trying to play the lines based what she sees in the animation. To be fair, by about twenty seconds in she starts selling it, but that initial reaction sticks with you -- especially if you've watched the series before and realize how awful Kyle is. Meanwhile, the way Kyle stands there stoically, like an action figure, is kind of odd, too. He barely emotes upon being reunited with his parents. I'm not asking for tears, I'm just asking for even a touch of humanity. Then again, we'll soon learn just what a piece of work he is, so maybe I'm asking for too much from the guy. The only people who act completely naturally in the entire scene? Rick, awkwardly standing outside, unsure what to do since he's got nothing to do with this touching reunion; Minmei, crying tears of happiness; and Minmei's Uncle Max, who does the whole "oh, that no-good kid's back, but yeah, I gotta love him, he's my son" routine, wiping a tear away at the end.

I know of what I speak. I've been in Rick's shoes here more times than I can count. Poor Rick Hunter, always stuck playing the outsider.

Meanwhile, the Zentraedi spies try to eat plastic food. Last time it was spiked punch, this time it's plastic food. The question I have after watching this scene is, they're finally out of their original food supply from their capsule, and they can only mooch so much. What do they do for food from here on out? Does someone take pity on them and give them a job? It kind of makes you wonder what they're doing when you're not watching them.

(8) I've always thought it was a little odd that Max winds up tagging along with Lisa and the bridge girls to the Chinese restaurant. It's not a grouping that really makes sense, and he sure doesn't look comfortable following them in; note the sort of grunt he lets out as he lags a second behind. Maybe Lisa invited him along when the bridge trio asked her along for lunch. After all, while Lisa certainly spent more time with Rick and Ben in the whole incident aboard the Zentraedi ship, he was there, too. It's the only real connection he has to that particular group of characters, and the only thing that makes sense.

Rick's been jealous of Kyle ever since he came down those stairs back in Yokohama, and he's certainly had some bonus resentment going ever since Kyle looked down his nose at him for being in the military. You can hear it in his voice when he tells everyone why the restaurant's so busy today. That uncertain tone when Vanessa asks Kyle's name again? That's Rick trying to downplay it while at the same time trying to cast the name out of his head. At least, that's my theory.

I wonder who the guy in the powder blue suit standing next to Minmei's Aunt Lena is. Another relative? He's the only guy in the frame who's not a character we know. It's just kinda weird.

"Well, well, well, Rick m'boy, these are some of your friends, eh? Why don't you introduce me to the ladies." Oh, Mayor Luan. I love that guy. He's great. When Kyle walks over, he tries to sell Kyle on the girls at the table despite his feelings regarding the military. He really is something else, eh? The thing is, the way he starts that conversation going, lighting that particular fuse, you'd think he really was the meddling manipulator the novels make him out to be. I suppose scenes like this were the inspiration for that take on him.

What is it about Kyle that hits Lisa like a punch to the gut? Is it something in the face? Because it's sure not anything about his bearing; all through this episode, Kyle's ramrod straight like someone shoved a pool cue up his butt, while in the flashback in "Bye Bye Mars" Karl seemed an easygoing sort. Not a lot to go on, sure, but they don't seem that similar. And yet, Lisa's rattled and spooked by his presence. Not weak in the knees, "Oh, he's so dreamy," like Sammie, Vanessa, and Kim; honestly shaken, trembling, like she's seeing a ghost.

Kyle gets on his high horse about hating fighting of any kind, saying it only results in "devastation and destruction." Max seems engaged for the first time since he got here, looking to counter Kyle's remark; Rick just wants to get back at him for his "what's so great about the military" crap back in Yokohama, and the girls sort of stare at the table and grumble their agreement. Minmei wisely changes the subject, telling everyone essentially, "Happy up, it's great that Kyle's here, and hey let's watch me on the TV."

When we watch Minmei on the TV it's actually a new one, the third Minmei song in the TV series: "The Man In My Life." Until the song is interrupted by a breaking news announcement, you can hear someone drunkenly trying to sing along in the background.

After the breaking news announcement that nobody can leave the SDF-1, someone asks, "What does he mean, permission denied? Does that mean we're stuck here?" Confusingly, it sounds EXACTLY like Sammie, who we know already knows this given the scene that opened the episode.

Kim, a lot of people aren't "going to be" very upset, if you've been listening to the restaurant around you, they ARE very upset. Especially that one blonde guy who sounds like Konda doing a New York accent.

(7) There's something about this episode that feels like an apology for the previous episode. Sure, it's one of the weaker art episodes, looking like "Transformation" or the second half of "Blind Game," but you get an all-out brawl in the Chinese restaurant before the commercial break, and then the second half is back to Veritechs fighting Zentraedi, this time over the skies of the Pacific.

You know, I've always regarded the line about Kyle being an incredible fighter as odd, but when you really think about it, knocking a man who's about to fall on your head along like a skipping stone so hard that he shatters a table is kind of amazing. On the other hand, the blow was unnecessary; it was either instinct, or a hypocritical desire to get mixed up in the brawl in order to show off. Given that it's Kyle, I'm honestly not sure either way.

(6) This is the best hand-to-hand fighting we're going to see in ROBOTECH until, I think, Dana's 15th Squadron mixes it up with Marie's Black Lions in "False Start." However, that's played for laughs, while this is deadly serious. The nice thing is, from the moment Max lays his hand on the angry citizen accosting Lisa, the animation team really kicks things up a notch. There's a couple of wobbly bits, but all in all it's a good solid minute of swift dodges and well-placed socks to the jaw. It's a very strange sequence, though; the civilian ringleader is saying the kind of stuff Kyle later uses to his advantage when he's leading the defeatist peace movement later on in the war, but during the brawl Kyle winds up on the sides of our military heroes, fighting off people who, on a less chaotic day, would be his allies against the RDF.

"Nobody even got a hand on you," Max says. We can forgive Max's observation, as he was a bit busy dealing with his own corner of the chaos, but we clearly see a guy grab Kyle from behind and another sock him a few times in the gut.

"Kyle doesn't really like servicemen. Let me help," Minmei says, verbally pushing Lisa's handkerchief aside and dabbing Kyle's wound with her own. That's ... a little awkward. The whole thing's awkward. When Max tells Kyle he's pretty good for someone who doesn't like fighting, Kyle just says, "It was just something that had to be done, I guess. I'm sorry." It reads to me like he got caught up in the moment, and now that the fighting's done, he's ashamed of himself, especially given the people he found himself defending, and who he was defending them from.

The thing about Minmei's comment is that it's just purely thoughtless, like a lot of Minmei's actions and comments. She knows Kyle, she knows his prejudices, she knows he needs someone to tend his wounds, so push the military lady aside and get to it.

Cam Clarke's line reading on "Well. is he for real, or am I crazy?" has a bit of an accent at the end, like he just threw a little Sylvester Stallone in there for no good reason. There's parts of the series where his voice for Max winds up a little off; this is one of the stranger ones.

I distinctly remember the version of this episode I had on LaserDisc not only had the eyecatch in it -- a rarity for the home video releases prior to ADV's DVD release -- but the ENTIRE COMMERCIAL BREAK. I had to fast forward through it to get to the other half. The only other episode I had with the eyecatch intact, if I remember right, was an episode of Robotech Masters, on one of the Perfect Collection tapes, I think one of the first three episodes, though I'm not certain.

(5) If anyone wanted to start adding in "missing adventures," this would be the period to do it in, if only to provide some account of what Azonia's supposed to be doing here. Certainly the SDF-1 is no longer moving, so she's not going to chase it like Breetai, but then what are the expectations Dolza has for her? What is her goal now? Just to wait for the spies to complete their mission and return home in their custom Battlepod? If that's all, why does she have so many ships? And once again, why the hell is Khyron here? Why hasn't Dolza reigned him in? Or is he here as a test for Azonia, to see if she can control the Backstabber? If that's the case, then Azonia is a total rubbish failure. She's even gotten to the point already where she's smiling when he takes off on his latest hare-brained scheme, curious what he's come up with this time.

Oh, and once again one of her female Zentraedi soldiers is given a male voice, when the report comes in that Khyron's taken off to take some kind of action against the SDF-1.

When word comes that an enemy ship is on its way, Gloval yells for someone to call Lisa in. Clearly he has no faith in his yellow-uniformed B-team bridge crew. After a quick cutaway to someone in another RDF installation monitoring the enemy's descent, suddenly the bridge is populated with all the familiar faces -- only Lisa is still dazed and confused. Claudia, in her best terrible soap opera delivery asks, "Is it -- is it Kyle?" Lisa assures her this isn't the case, and then Gloval gives them an "AHEM" while the urgent battle BGM quickly fades in, letting us know the show is terribly aware of what it just did there.

(4) I suppose since Rick's promotion in "Blue Wind" the Vermilion's become a full squadron; Gloval orders them on deck, and we see Rick leading a full compliment of planes across the runway, with no Fokker in sight.

There's a nice bit where a Spartan Destroid socks a Battlepod in the foot, toppling it and causing it to explode, before the Spartan is overrun by a whole team of Battlepods and torn apart. Being a Destroid pilot has got to be the worst job on the SDF-1. It's a wonder that they still have any Destroids left by now; practically the only time you see a Destroid is when it's getting blown up.

(3) Azonia sends her bloodthirsty flying ace Miriya to stop Khyron's attack, not thinking that perhaps Miriya wants to test her mettle against the enemy. Moments after Azonia tells her not to fire on the enemy, Miriya shoots down a team of Veritechs and gloats.

Khyron is actually more responsive to Azonia's orders than Miriya; when given a direct order to turn back, he does so, though he does have one more trick up his sleeve. While Khyron's Battlepods prepare to return to the fleet in orbit via the Reentry Pods Azonia deploys -- remember, we've seen Battlepods in the lower decks of the purple Zentraedi ships, clearly they carry equipment for joint operations -- he orders the helmsman aboard his ship not to forget "his souvenir," which I guess must be code for "ram the ship down their throats." The SDF-1 sees this coming and Gloval orders the Daedalus prepared to counterattack.

(2) So Rick's pursuing Miriya's Queadluun-Rau while Max and Ben cover his back. This puts him farther out than anyone else on the battlefield as Khyron's ship continues on its collision course with the SDF-1. Claudia counts down to zero and then ... nothing. She gasps and turns to Lisa, who looks completely out of it. Lisa snaps out of her trance, gives some orders, flips some switches, and the SDF-1's right arm lurches to life, smashes through what appears to be the side of the Zentraedi ship but turns out to be the belly of the ship. The front end smashes through the topside of the ship, and then Lisa, flying on auto-pilot, orders the missile barrage.

And Rick, still chasing the Queadluun-Rau, is right in the missiles' path.

(1) Blink and you'll miss the sight of Rick's Vermilion One exploding, his chute deploying, and his prey zipping away to fight another day, all overshadowed by the sight of the underside of the Daedalus sticking out of the back of Khyron's ship. It's a very brief shot, and poorly framed.

I'm not entirely sure why Khyron's ship explodes. Back in "Blitzkrieg" it was the missile barrage that did it, and the way everyone talks it sounds like it was supposed to have done it this time, only, how many of those missiles struck Khyron's ship? They all launched out into the open sky, not directed AT the ship. Did they circle back around? If it happened, I sure didn't see it. Also, you'd think the ship exploding around the Daedalus would destroy at least THAT ship as well; last time, the SDF-1 flew back away from the bubbling-up Zentraedi warship in time to avoid being caught in the blast, but here the Daedalus is still rammed into the enemy ship when it blows to bits.

Gloval, noticing Lisa's plight, makes sure to tell her she did a good job today. These are words she needs to hear; she may have slipped up, but she still got the job done, even if it may have caused the death of a young man who she's finally starting to see as a friend. And it's strange, while she's bizarrely transfixed by Kyle, she did spend a fair amount of this operation seemingly over-worried about Rick, with no build-up to that at all. Did these two streams cross, seizing up her mind and causing her to space out on the job? Is that it?

There's a lot of really well directed stuff in this episode, from the fight choreography to Rick being downed -- love the shots of missiles in Lisa's eye, the black & white shot of the missile tearing through Rick's wing, and the painted image of Rick reacting (see above) -- and ultimately his rescue and trip to the hospital. The simplicity of the iconography, the way the whole thing is conveyed in a few quick short scenes that wrap things up, letting us know that he's probably going to be fine, but emphasis on the "going to be" part. This is pretty serious stuff.

Which is why it's a good thing we have "Phantasm" next, an episode that entirely takes place in Rick's head while he's unconscious in bed. Going from this straight into "Farewell Big Brother" and then into "Bursting Point" would be pretty brutal. Best to, like Rick, take things easy and let the boy sort some things out while he gets better, before things get much, much worse ...

"Don't miss 'Phantasm,' the next chapter of ROBOTECH."

DAY TWENTY: Homecoming

2010-07-20T06:00:00.001-05:00

(10) So, "Homecoming." Another episode, much like "The Long Wait," with barely any robots and no fighting, but while "The Long Wait" had a psuedo-action scene with a giant tuna fish in space, the drama of the "stranded in space" setting, and the budding romance-that-goes-nowhere between Rick and Minmei to draw the viewer in, "Homecoming" instead has a lot of talk and arguments and drama and Our Heroes impotently shouting and shaking their tiny fists at authority figures. In the end, the only person who really gets her way is Minmei, which is a shame, because in her first scene in this episode we discover that she's really taken to the two-faced celebrity lifestyle like a fish to water, first complaining about her adoring fans, scoffing at the "mobs" and saying their presence is "the price one must pay for fame," and then for Rick she turns on the smiling celebrity act and tells him that, oh, she loves them so much, HELLO LITTLE FANS, HELLO, LET ME WAVE AT YOU, MWAH, MWAH. Surrounded by people paid to treat her like a pampered little princess for months, she's become a much more self-centered individual, as he will learn to his frustration over the next twenty-some minutes of airtime.

(9) The story of "Homecoming" is basically about two pairs of Our Heroes going to to their respective authority figures to check in, say hello, and explain what all's been going on for the last year. (The next episode preview at the end of "Blue Wind" stated it had been two years, the only prior verbal cue as to how long it's been, but when Lisa offers her report she says twelve and a half months.) So Captain Gloval and Lisa board a plane and go to United Earth Defense Headquarters hidden deep underground in Alaska, while Rick and Minmei take that fanliner Minmei won in the Miss Macross contest and are cleared to go visit Minmei's parents in Yokohama, Japan. Officially, Minmei's the only won allowed off the ship; Gloval and Lisa's mission is a secret, their destination classified, so the first chance she gets, Claudia offhandedly says to the other bridge girls, "Yeah, you don't want to go where they're going, Alaska's terribly cold all the time, and it's nice and warm out here in the middle of the Pacific," or briefer words to that effect.

Okay, being the bridge crew they're probably cleared for that information, but I just find it funny that the narrator draws a big red line under the fact that this is all hush-hush, and then Claudia immediately has a conversation about it.

The interesting big similarity between the two storylines, besides each being about two members of our regular cast going to a home of sorts is that they also introduce two supporting semi-regulars who are family to the returning characters -- two frustratingly stubborn supporting semi-regulars who philosophically stand at extreme opposite ends, one in favor of military victory at any cost, and one who despises the military with every fiber of his being.

(8) As Colonel Maistroff storms onto the bridge to take command in Gloval's absence, Claudia goes off-duty and drops by Roy Fokker's room. During her walk, the narrator spends a good minute, maybe more, explaining their relationship, telling us that it's been strained by the ongoing crisis of the past two years, and generally just filling dead air. If we were going to get some hand-holding, dead-air-killing overexplanation, I'd have honestly preferred one of those inner-thought voiceovers. The only thing this particular case of the narrator gabbing on about things we can see for ourselves has over the worst case prior, the end of "Bye Bye Mars," is at least this narration appears to be true, although for some reason Roy Fokker doesn't seem the sort who'd ask a woman to be his "fiancee." He's a man who's almost disturbingly secure with his own mortality; given the conversations we see Roy and Claudia have later on, in the flashbacks in "A Rainy Night," I doubt they'd formalize things to even that degree.

Fact: you would never see a shirtless man drag a woman out of camera view onto his bed on VOLTRON or TRANSFORMERS. This is one of so very many things ROBOTECH has up on those two shows.

(7) Minmei, don't tell Rick that it "does sort of feel like a date." It's unfair to feed his ongoing fantasies like that. Before she's even said the words, he's already muttered to himself, "I'd forgotten how I felt about her." You know how I've been saying every time he sees her he thinks about the events of "The Long Wait"? Look at what he's wearing in this episode: his old orange jumpsuit, which he last wore in ... yep, "The Long Wait." And here he is, getting in a plane with Minmei for the first time since that day he got them both stuck in that hold in the SDF-1. He has his fun with the plane, loosening up and doing a few fancy maneuvers he couldn't get away with flying a Veritech; between the change of clothes, being with Minmei, and flying a plane that's not for work, he's being given a chance this episode to regress a bit. But just like the way the jumpsuit doesn't quite look right on him, after he spends some time talking to Minmei, you can see that Rick realizes he's not just going to be able to pick up where he left off. (What he still forgets is that there's really no place to pick up FROM.)

When Minmei tells him that he seems a lot nicer now, maybe she's seeing how his experiences have blunted his boastful and sarcastic edge, or maybe she's just so used to being surrounded by bullying wanna-be Hollywood types dragging her from this project to the next that she's forgotten what an actual honest-to-goodness human being is like. Look at the contempt in her manager's eyes when he gets a look at Rick. That man clearly doesn't even like the idea of Minmei leaving; he's got a schedule to keep her to, for crying out loud. She rattles off all the things she's got to be doing over the next few weeks: a TV show, a play, and yes, a movie. Then when Rick asks where she gets all her energy, she falls asleep on him. Rick forgets that she's done this to him before; he gets to talking, and when he's not looking, she falls asleep. Did it twice in one night in "The Long Wait," yes she did.

(6) More than anything else, this is an episode of introductions. The first thing to be introduced is what Gloval calls the Great Cannon, though Daley & Luceno prefer the pun-tastic Grand Cannon -- which is what Admiral Hayes calls it later in the episode, and I'm pretty sure that's the name that sticks. ("Great Cannon" might have been a dialog flub for all we know.) Gloval calls it a massive Robotech weapon, powered by the Earth's gravitational field. While in The New Generation era it's going to be hammered home repeatedly that all Robotech devices require Protoculture, at this early stage I assume it can be understood that anything built using technology derived from that found aboard the SDF-1 can be called a "Robotech" device; if an alien refers to Robotech, they're talking about something that, in one way or another, is derived from Protoculture, but if a human refers to Robotech, they're talking about something that has been created or improved upon from something found on-board the SDF-1.

Gloval tells the story about Admiral Hayes, back when they were both young soldiers together, taking their division to raid the commanding General's food supplies when headquarters wouldn't give them sufficient rations. The thing is, these are men in their mid-forties or early fifties. (Mid-to-late fifties in Gloval's case, according the official bio on ROBOTECH.COM.) We're probably looking at them serving together in, oh, about the same time ROBOTECH was originally airing, the mid-to-late 1980's. The modern comics establish Gloval as a Russian submarine captain in 1999. The Cold War ended in 1991. Under what circumstances would a member of the Russian Navy be serving alongside an American in a military operation before 1991? This wouldn't be such a problem if we still had Gloval on "our" side, as the captain of the "Western Alliance" carrier Kenosha in '99 as in the Comico Graphic Novel and the Daley & Luceno novel GENESIS (in the chapters derived from that material); then we could just say his parents emigrated/defected to the U.S. when he was a lad and he met Admiral Hayes in the Navy and they served together, and so on and so forth. But that pesky thing called real world history had to catch up, and the borders and allegiances of the Global War setting of the late 1990's had to be redrawn.

Mind you, FROM THE STARS did indicate that Gloval and Hayes knew each other. I keep thinking the intention from the current Harmony Gold take on continuity is that they served together during some joint-U.N. operation in the early 1990's, right after the fall of the Iron Curtain. What would that be, twenty years ago tops? Gloval would be about thirty-five. That seems a bit old for being game for that kind of mischief. Then again, as we've already seen, Gloval's kind of an outside-the-box, to-hell-with-the-rules-if-it-works kind of guy. Colonel Maistroff, just earlier this episode, tells the bridge girls he's planning on running a tight ship in Gloval's absence, suggesting he thinks Gloval is failing on that front.

And of course, none of this is a problem in Japanese-language MACROSS because there Gloval is Italian.

(5) I love Rick's reaction when Minmei tells him that the "New Marine Tower," at one point the tallest structure in the world (or so she says), is just as old as she is: "It looks it." While we get a montage of moments of Minmei marveling at the sights, sounds, and smells of home, I get the feeling that by the time she's trying to impress him with the marine tower that he's been putting up with Minmei's insistence that her home is the best place ever for hours. On the other hand, her worries that things have changed and nobody will recognize her are the stuff of being that young; she's still only sixteen, not quite seventeen, and when you're that young a year is still a very long time. On top of that, given how at home she was in Macross City, it might have been even longer since she'd seen Yokohama.

Rick is surprised that a girl with a Chinese name who lives over her aunt and uncle's Chinese restaurant calls Chinatown home. I've said it before, and I'll say it several more times before the year is over: Rick Hunter is an idiot.

This is actually kind of a brilliant exchange:

Minmei's mother: "Our darling little girl wasn't taken from us!" (Meaning she wasn't killed.)

Minmei: "Well, I was, but they brought me back."

(Cue puzzled look.)

(4) The giant faces on video screens at least have the dignity not to jump in with any "little green men" quips, but despite Lisa offering everything she pulled together from her time being captured by the Zentraedi, we still have General Wolverine-Hair McMustache asking why an alien armada with that many guns at their disposal hasn't already just blown up the SDF-1. Then General Widow's Peak Pointy-Face has the audacity to go, "Really? REALLY? You want us to believe that report? That's a thing you want us to do?" You know full well that's why they're only talking to Lisa and Gloval from the safety of their giant monitors: because at that precise moment, if they were in the room, Lisa would have totally just thrown military decorum out the window and just slapped that dude in the face.

Well, maybe not, but you know she's thinking about it, especially after her dad seems to side with Pointy-Face and tells her to sit down before she can say anything she'll regret. Then Gloval calmly asks about the request for negotiations and relocation of the survivors. Cleverly, we've already been given one tiny hint about the latter. As for the former, um, Lisa and Gloval just came here through the mouth of a ridiculously large gun which was championed by Lisa's dad, who appears to be the ringleader of the brass at headquarters. Does he really seem like the negotiating type?

(3) You know, all I can think of now when Minmei's dad gets all steamed about Minmei wanting to leave them to "go entertain troops on a warship" is a particular image from MACROSS FRONTIER -- specifically, the image of teenage Ranka Lee, wearing only a bikini top, painted on the side of a Konig Monster. (Pal Levi sent a screen grab along thinking it was a cute nod to the fighter plane traditions of, what was it, World War II? Sorry, not as up on my military history as I probably should be. Anyhoo, I looked at it and quickly messaged back, SHE HAS NO PANTS. He looked at it again himself and was all like, OMG YOU'RE RIGHT.) I betcha anything those are the sorts of images rushing through Minmei's father's mind as he puts his foot down about Minmei going back.

Also, notice that all her parents' arguments about her turning her back on family and tradition and all that are falling on deaf ears as she screams, at the top of her lungs, "I WANNA BE A MOVIE STAR!" To be fair, all her talk of fans and all the people who've worked very hard to try and build her a career aboard-ship is perfectly reasoned, but when it comes right down to it, um, yeah, she just kind of wants to be a movie star, even if it is within the microcosm of the ship.

And then we meet THAT guy. Lynn Kyle, Minmei's ludicrous anti-military peace movement-hippie cousin who left Macross Island to get away from the shadow of the battle fortress. Once he finds out Rick's a soldier, he looks down his nose at him, and once he finds out he joined up AFTER saving Minmei's life, he's all, "So, what's so great about the military?" Daley & Luceno refused to let that one go unanswered, so in the novelization Rick retorts, "Free bullets, free food ... and it sure beats working for a living!" Which really isn't in character, but given Kyle's attitude problem, it's more than deserved.

(2) To Gloval's credit, when the United Earth Defense Council rejects his proposal for negotiations he accepts their reasoning, that the enemy's is an alien culture they do not understand, and thus they don't even know if they'd negotiate in good faith. Unlike Chief of Staff Emerson a generation later, we're not going to be seeing Gloval grumbling and muttering about negotiations every day for the rest of the series. When Gloval asks about the civilians, though, Pointy-Face yells that the civilians have all been declared dead, so they can't leave the ship -- which is what the scenes with Minmei, her parents, and Kyle have all been hinting at for the last, what, eight minutes or so. When Gloval gets mad and tells the council that he's going to have rioting on his hands if the civilians aren't allowed to leave the ship, all Pointy-Face can say is that controlling the civilians is Gloval's responsibility.

While Gloval and the survivors all have a problem, one can understand the UEDC's decision. The information blackout, the false story about the anti-unificationists, these make sense given the firestorm that occurred worldwide following the arrival of a single unmanned alien spacecraft ten years prior. Throwing the potential spanner into the works of SEVENTY-THOUSAND PEOPLE who know differently, know that mankind is not alone and that their new neighbors are far from friendly, well, that could cause some serious problems. Hell, if only Minmei's parents talked to a guy, who talked to a guy, and then let the story spread that everyone on Macross Island survived -- well, actually, there are probably plenty of conspiracy theorists floating around out there telling similar stories.

It's interesting, neither Rick nor Minmei mentions the aliens during their side of the story. Sure, Rick's mostly silent and Minmei's pretty single-minded, but it's weird that it never comes up, what's been going on for the last year. All Minmei talks about is her career. Maybe she was told not to bring it up? No, more likely she's so self-absorbed by now she'd never even think to bring it up.

(1) "It's just temporary, anyway." Ohh, famous last words, Kyle. Clearly Minmei's parents put a lot of stock in Kyle, if just his word that he'll keep an eye on her is enough to allow her to go back to the SDF-1. So Kyle, to our dismay -- and Rick's -- joins the regular cast. A man who hates the military this much moving into a massive alien warship. Yeah, THAT'S gonna go well.

Like I said, the only person who gets what she wants by this episode's end is Minmei -- and not only that, she gets the happy bonus of bringing a beloved family member home with her, someone she dotes on and teases about not having a girlfriend, telling him she'd probably be jealous anyway. Rick, on the other hand, realizes he REALLY isn't as close to Minmei as he thought or hoped he was. Lisa returns feeling like a failure and feeling nothing but contempt for her father, and Gloval ... well, he seems resigned and tired; from the moment he pulled out his pipe, it was clear he had a bad feeling about this meeting. It probably went down more or less as he expected, even if he had hoped for a different result.

Men controlling their daughters -- or at least trying (and failing) -- is kind of a thing this episode. Minmei's dad tries to keep her home, but fails. Mind you, that's only because another male steps in and says he'll keep her in line, but he does fail. Then at the end of the episode Admiral Hayes gives Lisa a letter telling him he's going to try and get her assigned to a different ship, since the SDF-1 is so dangerous right now. She takes that letter and tears it right down the middle. He never gets a chance to act on that threat; she'll head back to Earth of her own accord a handful of episodes down the road, but that's HER decision. It's an interesting parallel in the two stories, probably a product of the very early 1980's timeframe in which this was animated, and probably also set up consciously as a contrast between the two women who form the legs of the love triangle surrounding idiot boy Rick Hunter.

Notice we saw no Zentraedi in this episode. The last time we saw them was in "Blue Wind." The next time we'll see them is in "Battle Cry," the next episode. Then "Phantasm" is a goofy dream sequence. The two episodes that follow feature the Zentraedi attacking the SDF-1, and then Azonia's command of the mission is terminated. No wonder she gets no characterization before she becomes Khyron's girlfriend; she's only the main villain for four episodes total, and during those episodes she's being upstaged by Khyron or Miriya!

"Be with us for 'Battle Cry,' the next thrilling chapter of ROBOTECH!"

DAY NINETEEN: Gloval's Report

2010-07-19T06:00:00.292-05:00

(10) I don't think I've actually sat through "Gloval's Report" more than twice. Then again, I only really got into ROBOTECH on video, through tapes bought randomly on family out-of-town shopping expeditions (the first, I think I've mentioned, was the first FHE 100-minute-edit tape bought at the Suncoast Motion Picture Co. store at a mall in Tulsa, OK in 1993) and laserdiscs ordered through my parents' Columbia House LD club catalog. Even with as piecemeal a viewing experience as I had until ADV started putting out their DVDs in 2001, I always had the full story from the top, so "Gloval's Report" was watched maybe once on my laserdisc, and once or twice to whatever extent it was on the third 100-minute-edit tape. I'm fairly certain on subsequent viewings, whatever of "Gloval's Report" remained on that FHE tape got fast-forwarded through to get to "Homecoming."

(9) There are only two interesting things to me about "Gloval's Report." The first is that all the dialog in the recapped sequences is rerecorded and even, in some cases, rewritten. This leads to bits like the mustached green-clad Veritech pilot in "Countdown" having a different voice and ordering his subordinates to "switch to Veritech mode," which really doesn't make a lick of sense. While much of the first half is a little iffy, after the commercial break the line readings are by and large so similar that it only stands out when a line is changed here or there.

(8) Gloval makes the claim that the barrier system can't do more than the pinpoints due to the poor output of the remaining functional reflex engines, and not the fact that it is powered by a bizarre energy bleed reaction coming from the space where the fold system used to be. Given that this is an official report, I wonder if he thinks the actual story there is a little too outlandish for headquarters. "Doctor Lang found some strange sparkly energy reaction where the fold drives used to be and told me he could make a barrier out of it."

This is actually the only factual error I found in Gloval's narration, though he does repeat Roy's claim of the Zentraedi being about 50 feet tall. Actually, what he says is "nine or ten times" the size of human beings, which would be closer to sixty!

(7) The second interesting thing about this episode is what the ROBOTECH production team wound up doing with it, padding it out to seventy-three minutes or so -- feature-length -- and using the resulting feature, "Codename: Robotech," as a sort of pilot, an introduction if you will to the TV series. Still recaps all the same stuff, just expanded to actually offer some insight into the characters rather than just plot point after plot point. "Codename: Robotech" was actually the first installment of the ROBOTECH franchise to air, way back in March of 1985. To be honest, I'm not sure if I've ever sat through the whole thing; if I did, it was an Nth generation VHS copy my pal Ian sent me a year or two before the DVDs hit store shelves, and I was probably preoccupied with something else at the time, probably some odd flamewar or the other on the old RTMB.

(6) Since the recap takes the form of Captain Gloval's report to headquarters, there's very little in the way of character material repeated between scenes of him talking into his recorder. A lot of battle footage, explanations of what new maneuvers and devices were used to defeat the enemy, what they learned about the Zentraedi in that particular battle, and so on. Rick and Lisa only get name dropped in his recap of the events of "Blind Game" and "First Contact." The only Zentraedi to appear prior or following the longest recap sequence, from "First Contact," is Breetai -- and that's only his fight with the Vermilion Team. The format requires that the footage adheres to what Gloval knows firsthand and secondhand from Lisa's report in "Blue Wind."

The neat side-effect of this is that aside from the space fold itself, most of "Space Fold" is out. In fact, you barely see any of the bad animation from the previous thirteen episodes. Since it stops with the interrogation from "First Contact," nothing from "The Big Escape" or "Blue Wind" even appears.

If you're a kid who just wants to watch a bunch of neat airplane and robot stuff, the first half of the episode delivers in spades. It's all robots and stuff exploding interrupted occasionally by scenes of a middle-aged man talking into a microphone. But they didn't want to animate much this week, so he only appears occasionally as a transition between episodes.

(5) I swear, if you wandered in at the halfway point, you'd think for some reason they looped back around to episode #7. Like I said, the "Bye Bye Mars" line readings are dead on to the original episode, and once you get back from the eyecatch/bumper, it goes right into dialog; there's no indication of the recap episode format until Lisa gets finished overloading the reflex furnace.

(4) I'm not as up on modern anime shows as I was four or five years ago, but I remember even then one still got the occasional recap episode. I recall GUNDAM SEED DESTINY having maybe four, once even a recap only a couple of weeks after the previous recap (shades of "Phantasm" only two episodes after "Gloval's Report," only less clever). WOLF'S RAIN famously had four recap episodes in a row right in mid-season, which I'm sure turned off a heck of a lot of viewers. I wonder, while it's terribly useful for keeping your show on the air week-to-week despite a bump in the production schedule, is there any real utility in a recap episode in a DVD and video-on-demand world? Does anyone watching ROBOTECH on Hulu get to "Gloval's Report" and actually watch it, or do they just jump over it and go straight to "Homecoming"?

There is, I think, utility in something like "Codename: Robotech," particularly if it's used as a primer when a show's coming back from a hiatus or a season (or half-season) break, like the mid-season break ABC did after the first six episodes of their "V" remake. But unless your show is overly complex (like, say, the Laughing Man storyline of GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX) or running ridiculously behind schedule, I don't see the need for an episode like this today.

Then again, like I said when I was talking about "Blue Wind," it's obvious that there was something going on behind the scenes of MACROSS that made this episode necessary. You don't have an episode that relies on stock battle footage to the extent that "Blue Wind" did unless something's going completely wrong, and I'm fairly certain that this and, later, "Phantasm" were slipped into the schedule as something of a corrective measure.

(3) The longest dialog scene that is recapped is Lisa, Rick, and Ben's interrogation at the hands of the Zentraedi, which includes some minor variations in the dialog -- Dolza is a lot angrier and more boastful with the humans; there's a bit more back-and-forth between him and Lisa -- but importantly, all the key dialog is the same. This is a very important scene, and clearly the ROBOTECH production team knew it and kept the variations to a minimum, occasionally using them maybe to underscore a point, but never to muddy the waters. To their credit, the actors repeat their original line readings in most instances with pitch-perfect accuracy, and when they don't, it comes off as more interesting than distracting.

(2) Backtracking to the recap of "Countdown," Gloval repeats what Exedore said in "First Contact," that humans and Zentraedi appear to be genetically related. Where did Gloval get this information? I mean, I can buy that following a battle a scientist on-board the ship got a hold of some genetic material and did some testing on it. However, I seem to recall later on a big point is made, I think during "Wedding Bells," that they just did some gene analysis on Miriya and made this very same discovery. Maybe that's just when Gloval feels comfortable making the fact public, I don't know. I'm just a teensy bit annoyed at the show's willy-nilly attitude towards dropping these bits of information in without actually including them in the story, or worse (as in the case of Lisa during "First Contact" and "The Big Escape"), characters arriving at long-shot conclusions based on scant-to-no evidence that turn out to be both correct and major plot points.

(1) Captain Gloval talks with Lisa about the ill omen he had about this ship, "that something terrible would happen to us, that we would be changed forever." Lisa tells him he wasn't necessarily wrong. Thing is, he doesn't have the slightest inkling just how right his omen will prove to be.

"Be with us for 'Homecoming,' next on ROBOTECH!"

(0) So there's this non-profit organization devoted to archiving local Chicago television for educational and nostalgic purposes, including local TV broadcasts and commercials. This is one such bit from their YouTube channel, which like the SPACE GUNDAM V clip, I'm sure I've posted before, but it's worth a second look, if just for the interesting note that the local announcer refers to Gloval as the captain of the Macross, not the SDF-1. This is the commercial bumper before ROBOTECH, the eyecatch/bumper (actually, the same one that appears in "Gloval's Report" -- hey, maybe this is actually from the first Chicago broadcast of that episode!), and the commercials that aired during that episode of ROBOTECH. It's the sort of thing that makes me wish someone had tapes of MY hometown's local broadcasts of ROBOTECH; oddly enough, that and TRANSFORMERS were shows that my mom didn't record for me when I was a kid, though that's probably got a lot to do with how obsessed I was with watching them when they were actually on.

Anyway, have a look at someone else's nostalgia. To be sure, though, just the look and feel of those graphics and the sort of muddy sound are enough to push my nostalgia buttons. I remember the days when TV looked like this. In fact, I kind of miss it. *sigh*

DAY EIGHTEEN: The Legend of Zor #4 - The Shaping (1992)

2010-07-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

By Jason Waltrip (Writer/Artist) and John Waltrip (Writer)

(10) The title has a dual-meaning, if you're overly ROBOTECH-literate. Not only does it refer to the way that Robotech-era Tirol is shaped by the events of this issue, but it also seems a reference to the Shapings of the Protoculture, that Daley & Luceno-penned conceit that Protoculture itself has a will, instilled in it I suppose by Haydon, to shape events to its needs and desires. A kind of hand of destiny, if you will, that basically exists to fill in plot holes and explain away some of the larger leaps of the novels' narrative. Indeed, if you're following the concept of the Shapings, you might even say that the rise of Robotech-era Tirol is the work of the Shapings, setting up all the dominos so that it can eventually flick its wrist and knock them down, leading towards the SDF-1 making its epic crash on Macross Island.

That is, if you're so inclined. Me, not so much.

My guess is that the Waltrips scripted the series to play to each brother's artistic strengths. Where John's issues are more deliberately paced, allowing him to pad the story out with artistic flourishes, panel progressions that play with space and time, and panoramic landscapes, Jason's are straightforward narratives jam-packed with story. This particular issue must take place over a number of years, covering as it does the creation of the Protoculture Factory, the development of the Pollenators, then the clone society of Tirol, and then the Zentraedi as miners, and ultimately ending with the Zentraedi's transformation into warriors as they literally trample the unrest and rebellion in the city of Tiresia.

(9) However, Jason Waltrip does get one big two-page spread this issue, the reveal of the Protoculture Factory, that device that ultimately winds up stowed away in the reflex furnaces of Zor's battle fortress. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time it's actually visually depicted prior to it being all overgrown with planet life in the Robotech Masters episodes of ROBOTECH.

The Waltrips smooth over something that had been bugging me ever since I read the Comico Graphic Novel. The description of Protoculture there made it sound like it was merely energy conveyed from arrested cellular separation, which makes sense ... except that when you watch the animation, and even moreso when you read the novels, you get the sense that Protoculture has to be a substance. We see it pumped through tubes, the corrupted Invid soak in the stuff, it flows through the veins of the Zentraedi. It cannot simply be a reaction, it has to be a THING. The Waltrips state here that Protoculture is a plasmic state of the Flower of Life following it being put through the Protoculture Matrix. (And okay, Protoculture Matrix IS the term they use throughout LEGEND OF ZOR, but Factory is the term that the TV series uses more-or-less consistently, which is why I prefer it.)

Cabell spends the first several pages of this issue basically telling Zor over and over again, "The Elders are bad, and they will use this to do bad things!" Again, no subtlety there. Oh, but on that note there is one nice artistic touch on the first page, where Zor looks up in profile with a smile on one side, speaking of all the wonders Protoculture will bring. However, after Cabell tells him all the terrible things the Elders will do, the third and final panel in the row is Zor in profile facing the other way, downcast, remarking how he has no choice for the sake of his father's life. Admittedly it doesn't work quite as well as I make it sound, but the idea is nice.

Again, the idea is put out there that this is acting on Zor's will, not by the means of the science or the mechanical procedure of turning the blasted thing on. Ooh, quasi-mystical Protoculture Shaping nonsense! *sigh*

(8) Some time passes, as we can tell by the completion of the Royal Hall, and only now Zor comes up with a means of creating more Flowers of Life. One wonders how many the science team took aboard the Azstraph if, as the Waltrips state, the entire WORLD of Tirol has now been "rejuvenated" by the miracle of Protoculture.

What Zor has come up with is the Pollenators, or as Carl Macek calls them time and again in ROBOTECH ART 3, the "Cha-Chas." Based upon an animal design we first see in the Robotech Masters episode "False Start," the Pollenators were developed for SENTINELS as a marketable design to expand Matchbox's ROBOTECH toy range out into the world of plush dolls. The funny thing is, if you look at ROBOTECH ART 3, Macek intended for them to be another part of the Flower of Life reproductive process native to Optera, not the artificial genetic construct we see Zor developing here. However, this does make more sense (the only thing the loss of the Pollenators on Optera takes away is more of a sense that the spore-Flowers from the reflex engines are "mutated," as the Masters and the narrator keep assuring us they are), and I like that this gives us the narrative snowball of Nimuul wondering if Zor can create ONE lifeform, can he make another? Like, I don't know, maybe people?

(7) So yes, clones. You'll notice first that they aren't arranged in threes, as they are in the TV series. You'll also notice that they're still all fleshy colors, not that sort of pale greenish tone you see in the TV series. On the other hand, the chamber Nimuul is relaxing in, waited on hand and foot by his new clones, does look like something out of the Masters episodes of the TV series. Likewise, Nimuul makes a nod to the high position of the Muse-class clones that is half-heartedly played up in the TV series, moreso in the novels and RPG, when he tells Vard that the music is one of the few things that keeps his new clone society in line. Vard himself even makes note a page later that they're bound by "harmonic programming."

Nimuul orders legions of Bioroid Terminators to hit the streets to squelch protestors who insist that the clone populous should be free, and clone production should cease. The protestors regroup and decide to try and break Senator Zol out of the detention center, to bring him into the fold of the rebellion and break Zor free from the yoke of the Robotech Masters. (And yes, all of a sudden they're being referred to as the "Masters.") The attack on the detention center is poorly realized on the page; there's an overly literal visual interpretation of what is said in dialog, "For every one we shoot, two take its place!" and besides that there's no sense of place or scope. The rebels rush the detention center, try to take out the guards, realize they're grossly outnumbered, and retreat.

(6) There are, Vard tells Nimuul, a million Zentraedi mining ore on Fantoma. Based on Nimuul's reaction, it's early yet in the history of the Zentraedi. But only later that day, maybe later that week at the latest, Nimuul is turning them into warriors. Perhaps this is a rolling change; the impression that's always given is that just like that, a switch was flipped and all the Zentraedi were reprogrammed from mining to warfare. Fantoma still has minerals yet to give up for the sake of the Tirolian star fleet; they still have far more use for Zentraedi up there than they do on Tirol's surface, crushing a rebellion that appears to consist of dozens of citizens at most.

Gotta wonder where they got all those giant guns from on such short notice. The armored suits were clearly designed as environment suits for tromping around on Fantoma originally, and didn't need any further reinforcement, given the fact that the Zentraedi at first are only being used to take out a small-scale uprising of under-armed citizens clad in white and blue t-shirts.

(5) So instead of breaking Zol out of prison, the rebels decide that the Imperial Science Institute is a better target. Explain to me how they think that if they couldn't rescue one man they they can surely destroy an even better guarded target, the place where all their enemy's weapons are developed and produced. Sure, easier goal, blowing a place sky-high rather than breaking someone out and getting him past the guards alive, but the place where they make all the clones and the guns is going to be OVERRUN WITH CLONES WITH GUNS.

On top of that, tell me, how stupid is it that the entire Tirolian Empire's supply of weapons, clones, and starships is constructed in a single place? I'm going to choose to think that this half-baked rebellion got some bad intel and the Robotech Masters aren't so stupid and arrogant that they put all their chickens in a single basket. Mind you, this fits in perfectly with the notion the SENTINELS comics and novels were built on that each planet in the Robotech Empire had just a single city that mattered, and once that city was conquered or freed the entire planet was then in either the conqueror or freedom fighter's possession.

(4) Okay, which is worse? The true believer going on and on about Tirol's glorious expansion, or the unwilling participant who nonetheless does everything he's told and without whom NONE of this would be possible? Zor keeps saying he didn't mean for any of this to be used the way it's all BEEN used, but Cabell laid it all out for him back on page one and he lamented even then, before the Protoculture Matrix was more than a schematic on a screen, that he had to do it anyway, for the sake of his father's life and Tirol's energy needs.

Also, was Zor paying one lick of attention to Vard way back when they were both candidates for the Techno-Voyage program? Vard has always been a team player for the state. He's always played the game to get what he wants out of life.

Question: Nimuul suggested that before Protoculture, Tirol was STILL dependent on the other worlds of the Local Group. If Tirol annexed them, though, doesn't that eliminate the problem, or is this more of an ego thing than an economic thing? Does Nimuul just want the Tirolians to be able to stand proud, their world no longer dependent on its subjects? I bring that up here because Zor says he didn't intend for his discoveries to, among other things, result in the creation of "a star fleet to conquer the Local Group." I thought this whole snowball started rolling down the hill because Nimuul proposed taking over the Local Group. They hadn't done it yet until the discovery of Protoculture? No resources to do so? That's one area where this series is lacking, providing details of the things that don't directly involve Zor himself, especially as regards the other worlds affected by Zor's discoveries.

(3) Either Zor is playing the long game he's suggested he's working on since the last issue, or he's still more concerned about his pure research over the effect it'll have on Tirol. Based on what he said to Vard moments ago, I'm gonna guess the former, though we've been given no indication what cards he now holds. On top of that, who would believe him, given what he's already given Nimuul and the other power-hungry nationalists running the Empire.

I still think this whole story would work better if it wasn't so obvious from the get-go that the Elders were going to use the discovery of Protoculture for nefarious purposes. The other interesting thing I was considering was that you've got Nimuul indulging in obvious carnal pleasure with big-busted clone women when Vard barges in with news of the prison break. Yet the Robotech Masters we know from the TV series place themselves above humanity because they no longer have any use for emotion; they are allegedly ruled by pure logic, though every once in a while the ruling Masters betray a hint of it here and there. After all, they do seek immortality, which does seem to imply some sort of ego. To play out as a more sensible extension of what we see in the TV series, Nimuul would probably have to be less of a cackling T.R. Edwards clone and more someone who rises to power from within Zor's own world of science, or at least a scholar of some sort. Perhaps a mathematician, or maybe a physicist, from which we could get to the obsession with the number three which is also notably absent from this version of the rise of the Robotech Empire.

(2) Breetai and Exedore both appear in the group of Zentraedi brought in to counter the rebels' attack on the Imperial Science Institute. Why would they send someone so ill suited for combat into battle? Indeed, what function would Exedore serve in the mining operation? I'm sure this was explored somewhat in the SENTINELS novels, or maybe END OF THE CIRCLE; I vaguely recall hints of a scene between Breetai and Exedore when they were still doing the mining thing, before reprogramming for the purpose of war, but it's late as I write this and I'm not in the mood for the research. I'm just going to hold to the point that putting Exedore on the battlefield is a weird thing to do, especially clad as he is in his advisor's robes and NOT body armor.

I assume this was just the latest batch of Zentraedi that the Institute had cooked up, that they were quickly programmed with a new set of instructions, and were equipped with hastily constructed upscaled rifles. There's no hint of a ship having transported them back from Fantoma, and the turnaround from concept to reality was awfully quick.

(1) Lots and lots of changes take place very quickly here, but the whole thing is brought tumbling down by the society of the Robotech Masters not quite evolving in the direction we see it landing in the TV series and the lamest rebellion ever. How could three or four dozen men with a cache of stolen laser guns think they could topple a government with its sights set on interplanetary domination? It's madness. On the other hand, Nimuul's reaction to these rebels is sheer overkill. Then again, it is an effective way to put a quick end to any THOUGHT of rebellion from this point onward.

Oh, and Nimuul decides that Zol must die in order to keep the fire of rebellion dead after his Zentraedi stamp them out. Except that he can't let on about it, because he obviously still needs Zor for a while longer. Again, this aspect of the plot remains a problem from a logistical standpoint.

TOMORROW: Oh god, I'm going to spend three or four hours crawling through a recap episode ...

"Be sure to stay tuned for 'Gloval's Report,' the next thrilling chapter in the saga of ROBOTECH."