SNS: Robotech part 1

This time last week, Carl Macek passed away. Don’t know who he is? Remember this?

I don’t discuss it a whole lot, but Robotech was one of my favorite shows. Taken from three unrelated anime series due to neither of them being long enough (back then you needed 65 episodes for a decent syndicated TV show–not so much in recent years, as by the time syndicated cartoons were killed off by Fox Kids and Kids WB, 13 weeks were all you needed to make the distributors happy), Macek practically created a new mythology, but he went beyond that. He picked up the best voice actors he could, brought music creators who put together a score that rivals many original live action series even today, and along with Voltron: Defender of the Universe and the film Akira, may well have been responsible for anime’s popularity in the 80’s.

Over the next three weeks I’ll present my favorite episodes from each of the “Robotech Wars”, starting with the first war, aka “The Macross Saga”. These names came from the adaptation by Comico: The Comic Company, who decided to print all three wars at the same time, which caused a headache for the second war, as I’ll get into next week. Since time is a factor of late, I’ll let the episode mostly speak for itself, and if I can find it I will also present the original Japanese version.

As it turns out, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross is available on Hulu in a dubbed form. The first time I saw the original version was in the Perfect Collection videos released in the 90’s, and whether it was the episodes or the fact that (unlike many anime AND Robotech fans) it was my least favorite of the three generations. Macross itself has gone on to reign in popularity, sporting numerous sequels.

It is this series that the group I refer to as “anime purists” (you know, the ones who aren’t happy unless it’s in the original Japanese with all the blood and boobies they think is the most important part or something) use to slam Carl Macek, even in articles about his death last week. It’s this last part that really burns my butt! Check out MarzGurl’s Editorial video about his passing and look at the comments. While there are many people praising him or at least giving him credit for going the extra mile and re-introducing the West to anime (long after Speed Racer, Gigantor, and Astro Boy had taken their balls and went home), there are still a few who want to go off on him for “butchering” Macross.

For goodness sakes, it’s a TV show! A good one, but honestly, being glad he’s dead and spitting on his work? This isn’t Knights of the Zodiac! This was a great show, and the love is there for anyone whose head isn’t up their backside to see even if you didn’t like it. Remember, the very first post on this very blog was saying positive things about HBO’s Spawn cartoon, and I have so many issues against it that go beyond being a TV show. All your worried about are dialog changes and dropping the blood? Seriously? You want to see Minmei naked, I’m sure there’s more than enough sources online.

The episode that ranks as my favorite of the Macross Saga is “Farewell, Big Brother”. I think it more than any other episode gives you the best idea of how interesting the characters were, how it wasn’t afraid to kill off a main character (back when this was rare for US TV), and yet how well it balanced the light side of life with the dark side of war.

Also note that for these digitally remastered dubs, they split the wars up as if they were separate series, so the new open has the Robotech music and credits, but with new fonts and new animation–well, actually it’s just the original shows’ opens, just with the Robotech theme and new credits. That kind of bugs me.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Additionally, check out the same episode, dubbed (suck it, purists) in the original Macross form, and tell me that Minmei’s pal (yes, anime/Robotech fans, of course I know he’s her cousin, which brings all kinds of weird stuff in later) isn’t an even bigger jerk in the original. I wanted to punch him in the face. Also note how Minmei’s VA in this version makes her sound like she has an accent. According to Wikipedia (as always, question the source, and considering Hulu is using the ADV dub), it’s the same voice actress from the Japanese version.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Next week, some of the headaches that comes from merging three different series (or at least what I can imagine), and my favorite from Robotech Masters.