Robotech
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| 'Robotech' | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Mecha, Science Fiction, Space Opera |
| TV anime : Robotech: The Macross Saga, The Masters, The New Generation |
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| Directed by | Robert V. Barron |
| Studio | Harmony Gold USA, Tatsunoko |
| Network | syndicated |
| Original run | March 4, 1985 (USA) – october 1987 |
| No. of episodes | 85 x 25 minutes (IMDb) |
| Movie: 'Robotech: The Movie (aka. The Untold Story)' |
|
| Directed by | Carl Macek & Noboru Ishiguro |
| Studio | Harmony Gold USA, Tatsunoko, IDOL Co. |
| Released | July 25, 1986 (Texas, limited) |
| Runtime | 82 minutes (IMDb) |
| OVA: Robotech II: The Sentinels | |
| Directed by | Carl Macek |
| Studio | Harmony Gold USA, Tatsunoko |
| No. of episodes | 1 (remainder of series cancelled) |
| Released | 1987 (VHS) 2001 (DVD) |
| Runtime | 85 minutes (IMDb) |
| TV anime : Robotech 3000 | |
| Directed by | Carl Macek |
| Studio | Harmony Gold USA, Netter Digital |
| Network | (never aired) |
| Original run | 2000 (proposed) – (cancelled) |
| No. of episodes | 3 minutes (trailer only) |
| Movie: 'Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles' | |
| Directed by | Tommy Yune & Dong-Wook Lee |
| Studio | Harmony Gold USA, Tatsunoko, DR Movie |
| Released | August 11, 2006 (convention) August 25, 2006 (festival) January 5, 2007 (USA) February 6, 2007 (DVD) |
| Runtime | 88 minutes (IMDb) |
Robotech is a science fiction franchise that was launched by an 85-episode adaptation of three different animé television series. Within the combined and edited story, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island. With this technology, Earth developed giant robotic machines or mecha (many of which were capable of transforming into vehicles) to fight three successive extraterrestrial invasions.
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[edit] The original television series (1985)
Robotech was one of the first anime released in the United States that largely managed to preserve the complexity and drama of its original Japanese source material. Produced by Harmony Gold USA, Inc. in association with Tatsunoko Prod. Co., Ltd., Robotech is a story adapted with edited content and revised dialogue from the animation of three different mecha anime series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. Harmony Gold's cited reasoning for combining these unrelated series was its decision to market Macross for American weekday syndication television, which required a minimum of 65 episodes at the time (thirteen weeks at five episodes per week). Macross and the two other series each had fewer episodes than required since they originally aired in Japan as weekly series.
This combination resulted in a storyline that spans three generations as mankind must fight three destructive Robotech Wars in succession over a powerful energy source called "Protoculture":
- The First Robotech War (The Macross Saga) concerns humanity's battle against the Zentraedi, a race of giant warriors who are sent to earth to retrieve the flagship of the Robotech Master Zorprime. The ship contains the last known source of Protoculture in the universe.
- The Second Robotech War (The Masters) begins when the creators of the Zentraedi, the Robotech Masters, attempt to take up where the Zentraedi left off and capture the protoculture held within the remains of the SDF-1.
- The Third Robotech War (The New Generation) occurs after the alien Invid have been alerted to the existence of Protoculture on Earth by events that transpired at the end of the Second Robotech War. The planet is conquered, then enslaved and it is up to the Robotech Expeditionary Force to retake their ancestral homeland.
[edit] Home video
Following the original broadcast, the series enjoyed popularity on home video in VHS and DVD formats from the following distributors:
- For more information, see Robotech (TV series): Home Video Releases
- Family Home Entertainment (VHS) (First six-tape run of The Macross Saga was heavily edited, with roughly 38 minutes of footage cut from each six-episode tape.)
- Palladium Books (VHS)
- Streamline Pictures (VHS, Laserdisc)
- ADV Films (DVD Region 1 - North America)
- Manga Entertainment (DVD Region 2 - UK)
- Madman Entertainment (DVD Region 4 - Australia)
- FUNimation Entertainment (DVD Region 1 - USA) (Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles - Release date: 02/06/2007)
[edit] Sequels and spinoffs
Harmony Gold has attempted to produce several follow ups to the original series over the years, but with mixed success to this date.
[edit] Robotech: The Movie (1986)
Also called Robotech: The Untold Story, this theatrical film was the first new Robotech adventure created after the premiere of the original series. It used footage from the Megazone 23 Part 1 OVA (Original Video Animation, or made-for-video animated feature) spliced with Southern Cross, and had only a tenuous link to the television series. The movie disappeared from the United States after a failed test run in Texas. Harmony Gold relinquished their license to Megazone 23 after director Carl Macek washed his hands of the project, so any home video release is unlikely except for a few VHS tapes that had been in limited circulation in Europe and Latin America.
[edit] Robotech II: The Sentinels (1987, cancelled)
This aborted American-produced series would have followed the continuing adventures of Rick and Lisa Hunter and the Robotech Expedition during the events of The Robotech Masters and The New Generation. The feature-length pilot is comprised of the first three (and only) episodes that were produced. Being a sequel/spinoff to the combined series, The Sentinels featured characters from all three Robotech sagas and introduced the SDF-3 along with an overview of their new mission.
According to director Carl Macek in Robotech Art 3: The Sentinels, the proposed 65-episode series was canceled after the crash of the dollar/yen exchange rate and lack of support by toy partner Matchbox. Efforts to petition the completion of this series have gone nowhere, but the pilot was released on VHS by Palladium Books and on DVD by ADV Films.
[edit] Robotech III: The Odyssey (proposed)
Producer Carl Macek revealed ideas for another proposed series, Robotech III: The Odyssey, which would have created a circular storyline that would end where the original Robotech began in a giant 260-episode cycle to fill up all the weekdays in a year. After the failure of Sentinels, Odyssey never went into development, though its ideas were worked into the Jack McKinney novel The End of the Circle.
[edit] Robotech IV and V (planned)
Fan publication Macross Life interviewed Harmony Gold executive Richard Firth in 1986, where he revealed that Robotech creator Carl Macek had "plans through ROBOTECH 5 which would give us an episode for each day of the year for a year and a half." He also said that these two installments would have brought the series to 285 episodes. Regarding the plot, Firth mentioned a "retired Commodore Hunter, whom ever that may be, could very well be speaking at the graduation of the later day cadets or whatever, and they ask him to tell them the story all over again: it comes back [to the first episode of the series]."
It should be noted that Carl Macek himself has never mentioned Robotech IV or V in any interviews or writings.
[edit] Robotech 3000 (2000, cancelled)
Carl Macek attempted another sequel with the development of Robotech 3000. This all-CGI series would have been set a millennium in the future of the Robotech universe and feature none of the old series' characters. In the three-minute trailer, an expedition is sent to check on a non-responsive mining outpost and is attacked by "infected" Veritech mecha. Again, the idea was abandoned midway into production after negative reception within the company, negative fan reactions at the FanimeCon anime convention in 2000, and financial difficulties within Netter Digital who was animating the show. It now exists only in trailer form on the official Robotech website.
[edit] Robotech UN Public Service Announcement (2005)
A sixty-second public service announcement for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, featuring Scott Bernard and Ariel, was animated during the production of The Shadow Chronicles. Although it did not use the original voice actors and the dialogue was somewhat out-of-character, it nonetheless marked the first fully-completed Robotech footage in many years.
[edit] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006)
In 2002, Tommy Yune announced development of a new sequel movie which was not named until 2004 as Robotech: Shadow Force. The storyline overlaps with and continues from the unresolved ending of the original series. The title of the story arc was soon changed to Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. The first trailers with finished animation were shown at Anime Expo and Comic-Con International in 2005. It was not until February 2006 when Kevin McKeever, operations coordinator at Harmony Gold, was able to confirm that the pilot movie had been completed. After a series of delays, FUNimation Entertainment was finally announced as the home video, broadcast and theatrical distributor at the 2006 Comic-Con International in San Diego. Harmony Gold has premiered the movie at various film festivals in 2006 and a limited theatrical run in January 2007, and released the DVD on February 6, 2007.[1] According to Talkcast interviews with the crew, work on another sequel is underway.
[edit] Robotech (Harmony Gold) chronology
The Robotech chronology, according to Harmony Gold, is illustrated below:
- For a more detailed timeline, see Robotech Wars
| Year | Generation / Saga (release date) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 - 2014 | (1) | Robotech: The Macross Saga (1985) |
| 2022 | Robotech II: The Sentinels* (1987) | |
| 2027 | Robotech: The Movie* (1986) | |
| 2029 - 2030 | (2) | Robotech Masters (1986) |
| 2042 - 2044 | (3) | Robotech: The New Generation (1987) |
| 2044 - | Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) | |
Note: Asterisked works are now considered "secondary continuity," that is that their events exist in the continuity of Robotech but "don't count" when conflicts arise with the "main continuity" that are the three-part Robotech TV series (four with the addition of 2006's Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles).
In 2002, with the publication of the Wildstorm (DC) comics, Harmony Gold officially decided to retcon the Robotech Universe. The following Robotech material is now relegated to the status of secondary continuity:
- The Sentinels in all its incarnations.
- Robotech: The Movie (which, in the strictest sense, never was canon)
- Robotech comics published by Comico, Eternity, Academy, and Antarctic Press.
- Robotech RPGs published by Palladium Books.
- Robotech novels written by Jack McKinney, most notably The End of the Circle.
While these materials are not precisely "retired" or "removed" from the continuity, their events are subject to critical review, and are strictly subordinate to the "official" events of the 85-episode animated series. Although certain events in the new feature film (i.e., the final showdown at Reflex Point) proceed in a slightly different fashion from the original Robotech series, such disparities were intentionally introduced by the Harmony Gold producers, but are still considered canonical.
[edit] The Robotech franchise
At the time of its broadcast, Harmony Gold also launched Robotech through a popular line of comics to be followed by novels, role-playing games, toys, and other consumer products. With the cancellation of Robotech II: The Sentinels, many of these licensed products were discontinued, and led to a drought of Robotech product through much of the 1990s, except for publishers who continued the The Sentinels storyline in print.
[edit] Robotech comics
Robotech comics were first published in 1984 with DC Comics' short-lived Robotech Defenders and Comico's adaptation of the first episode of the Japanese version of Macross. However, the first adaptation of the Robotech television series did not arrive until 1985 with Comico's Robotech: The Macross Saga #2, which continued from the first Macross issue.
The various comic publishers include:
- Comico (1984-1989)
- Eternity (1988-1994)
- Academy (1994-1996)
- Antarctic Press (1997-1998)
- Wildstorm (DC) (2002-present)
[edit] Robotech collectible card game
The first Robotech collectible card game was released in 2006 by Hero Factory, which had previously produced Robotech trading cards.
[edit] Robotech music and soundtracks
Various Robotech soundtracks have been released on records, cassettes, and compact discs since 1988.
- Robotech: BGM Collection, Vol.1 (1988)
- Robotech: Perfect Collection (1988)
- Robotech: Perfect Soundtrack Album (1996)
- Robotech: Battlecry Soundtrack (2002)
- Robotech: Invasion Soundtrack (2004)
- Robotech: The Original Soundtrack (2005)
[edit] Robotech novelizations
Since 1987, Robotech was adapted into novel form by "Jack McKinney," a pseudonym for the team of James Luceno and the late Brian Daley, a pair of writers who had been working with Macek since they had collaborated on the animated series Galaxy Rangers. Using fictitious epigraphs in the style of Dune, McKinney's novels fleshed out the chronology (including adapting the incomplete Sentinels source material) in far greater detail than the original animation. Many Robotech fans consider the McKinney series to be an unofficial canon of its own, despite notable divergences in the writing from Harmony Gold's current official animation-based canon. Despite no longer being considered core-continuity by Harmony Gold, the novels have been recently re-issued by Del Rey Books as Omnibus compilations.
[edit] Robotech art books
In 1986, Starblaze Graphics published Robotech Art 1, a reference book containing artwork, Japanese production designs, and episode guides from the original television series. This was followed by Robotech Art 2, which was largely a collection of art by various American artists and fans. In 1988, Carl Macek collected much of the unused designs from Robotech II: The Sentinels into Robotech Art 3: The Sentinels, which also included his story outline for the rest of the unfinished series, with an explanation behind its cancellation.
[edit] Robotech role-playing games
In 1986, Palladium Books published a pen-and-paper role-playing game based on the Robotech series. The successful run also included RPG books covering The Sentinels. Contractual issues in the wake of Harmony Gold's aborted Robotech 3000 project, as well as a general refocusing of the company on production of its flagship Rifts line, caused Palladium to eventually forego renewing the Robotech license. The Robotech RPG line went out of print as of June 30, 2001. According to a report from the February New York Comic-Con, a new Robotech RPG license deal is in the works. Palladium Books indicates that they intend to have the new RPG published in early 2007.
[edit] Robotech video games
Robotech spawned five video game licenses, of which the most recent three were released:
- Robotech: Crystal Dreams for the Nintendo 64 game system. This was aborted when its publisher, Gametek, went under in 1998. The game would have taken place during the period between the SDF-1's destruction and the launch of the SDF-3. A continuity nightmare, the game had a Zentraedi invasion during what was scripted in the series as a period of peace.
- Robotech: Battlecry (2002) for the Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation 2, and Nintendo GameCube. The gameplay takes place in the Macross era, and features a storyline running exactly concurrent with that era's historical events. Multiplayer support is limited to one-on-one. Several of the voice actors from the original series, including Tony Oliver, Melanie MacQueen, Dan Woren, and Cam Clarke, reprised their original roles, or voiced new characters in this game.
- Robotech: The Macross Saga (2002) for the Game Boy Advance, a side-scrolling shooter that is a remake of the Japanese Super Famicom game Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie.
- Robotech: Invasion (2004) for the Microsoft Xbox and the Sony PlayStation 2. First/third person shooter. The gameplay covers the New Generation part of the story, with support for single player missions and multiplayer online matches. Features Cyclones, transformable body armor/motorcycles. As with Battlecry, several of the original voice actors reprised their roles.
- Robotech: The New Generation (2007) for Mobile formats. Top down scrolling shooter. The gameplay covers the "New Generation" part of the story, leading up to the "Shadow Chronicles". The player can play as one of three characters (Scott, Rook and Rand), each with their own special weapons. The player also has the ability to change into "Battloid Mode" through the collection of protoculture. Robotech: The New Generation features famous music from the TV series as well as the most evil of all the villains.
[edit] Effect
While animé shows were brought to the US as early as the 1960s, such as Astro Boy, Speed Racer, and Kimba the White Lion, most were heavily bowdlerized for American audiences, with violence, deaths of major characters, sexual references, et cetera, completely edited out for what was assumed to be an audience of young children. Robotech, along with the earlier Star Blazers (1974), broke with this tradition by leaving in some of those elements, and they are frequently credited as the series that helped spur a greater American interest in Japanese animation, leading to the current animé industry in North America. Robotech was frequently among the top-ten animé lists of American anime magazines such as Animé' Insider, Animerica, Newtype USA, and others. Cascadia Con gave Harmony Gold an award for Robotech 's contribution to the science-fiction genre.
Robotech had a similar effect in other places of the world, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Greece, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and the Philippines. In China, during the summer of 2004, it was awarded "Best Robot-themed Animé of all time" by the Cartoon Channel of China Education Television. It is highly likely that someone growing up in any of those countries during the 1980s watched at least some of its episodes. (Robotech did not start its broadcast in China until 1991.) As in the US, it helped continue a slow but continuous rise in the consumption of animé.
That said, Robotech is often an extremely polarizing subject amongst animé fans. Some critics consider the show to be an abomination that runs roughshod over its original sources by Westernizing character names, making some censor-appeasing edits, and changing the stories of three wholly-unrelated series (some compare it to Woody Allen's camp Japanese movie re-dub What's Up, Tiger Lily?) to pass them off as a cohesive whole. Series writer/actor Greg Snegoff did say in an interview on the now-defunct Shadow Chronicles News fansite that, "afterwards, we received compliments from the Japanese who thought our dialogue and stories were better than the original," and Protoculture Addicts magazine reports in a Robotech fifth-anniversary article that those compliments came from the production company Tatsunoko. However, Animag magazine (issue 11) and Animerica magazine (issue 9, volume 4) reports that the original Macross creators at Studio Nue and Artland, such as story creator Shoji Kawamori and chief director Noboru Ishiguro, expressed their disconcertion with the Robotech adaptation, and surprise on its differences.
In an effort to combine the storylines of three different Japanese series, certain characters underwent drastic role changes, with little explicit character development or plot exposition. Notably, Rick Hunter (one of the main characters of the Macross segment) was changed — by a line of dialogue — from an ordinary-yet-pivotal fighter-unit commander into an unseen admiral, who is said to have ordered the destruction of Earth under the controversial rationale of saving it from the enemy. The line by an unnamed commander on the SDF-4 in the episode "Dark Finale" was, "I've been ordered by Admiral Hunter himself to obliterate the planet completely."
In addition, the 65-episode minimum guideline cited as the reason to combine the episodes applied specifically to weekday syndication. Contemporary series such as Star Blazers and Transformers were initially syndicated weekly before reaching the 65-episode mark. The guideline also did not necessarily require a combined storyline; adaptations like Voltron coupled two unrelated Japanese series without directly combining the storylines. (A year later, 20 additional Voltron episodes and a crossover special were created for American audiences by Toei Animation, after the first daily run of 104 episodes.)
Shortly after completing Robotech, Carl Macek would make the less-well-known Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years in a similar fashion by combining two Leiji Matsumoto series, Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia, together and altering the storyline significantly. In this case, however, the two animés were spliced together in a manner where the stories of the characters occurred simultaneously, not one after the other.
Robotech has been the subject of two parodies by the fandub group Seishun Shitemasu: Robotech 3: Not Necessarily the Sentinels, and Robotech 4: Khyron's Counterattack (using footage from, respectively, Gunbuster and Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack).
[edit] See also
- Earth Military Forces: Robotech Defense Force | Army of the Southern Cross (includes United Earth Forces and the Global Military Police) | Robotech Expeditionary Force
- Robotech Defense Force (Macross Saga): Bridge Bunnies | Roy Fokker | Captain Henry J. Gloval | Claudia Grant | Rick Hunter | Lisa Hayes | Lynn Minmei | Lynn Kyle | Max Sterling | Miriya Parina Sterling |
- Zentraedi (Macross Saga): Azonia | Dolza | Exedore | Breetai | Khyron the Backstabber | Miriya
- United Earth Forces: Dana Sterling | Louis Nichols | Bowie Grant | Angelo Dante | Anatole Leonard | Marie Crystal | Nova Satori | Rolf Emerson | Sean Phillips
- Robotech Masters Forces: The Robotech Masters | Robotech Elders | Karno | Musica | Zor Prime
- New Generation Characters: Scott Bernard | Lunk (Jim Austin) | Annie "Mint" LaBelle | Lance Belmont (Lancer) | Rand | Rook Bartley | Sue Graham | Marlene Rush
- Characters in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles: Alex Romero | Marcus Rush | Maia Sterling | Vince Grant | Commander Taylor | Janice | Dr. Jean Grant | Sparks |General Reinhardt | Haydonite
- General Mecha: Veritech fighter
- Macross Era Mecha: VF-1 Valkyrie | Destroids
- Robotech Masters Era Mecha: VF-8 Logan | VHT-1 Spartas | VFH-10 AGAC
- New Generation Mecha/ REF Mecha: VFA-6 Alpha | VFB-9 Beta | VR-series Cyclone Veritech Ride Armor
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Official Sites:
- ROBOTECH.COM - Harmony Gold's official Robotech website.
- ROBOTECH Bibliography - Comprehensive listings of books in and out of print.
- ROBOTECH: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles - Official site of the new comic series.
- ADV Films - The current distributor of Robotech DVDs.
- Hero Factory Games - Maker of the upcoming Robotech collectible card game (CCG).
- Manga Entertainment UKs Robotech section
Fan Sites: (English)
- Robotech: Zentradi War - Side scrolling Robotech arcade game]
- The Invid Connection (Beyond Reflex Point) - Information on Robotech and Macross
- The UN Navy Web-Site - Includes information about military organization in Robotech
- Roboblog III: The Odyssey - Detailed blog covering the Shadow Chronicles DVD and comic prequel
- Robotech Shadow Chronicles Group - New group for the upcoming sequel, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
- Robotech Companion News Central - The Central Source for Daily Robotech News and Fandom Activities.
- The Unofficial Robotech Reporter - 100% Unauthorized. 65% Cynical. (Retired)
- Space Station Liberty - TalkShoe talk radio/podcast with frequent interviews and roundtables
- Robotech Museum - A historical archive of Robotech collectibles.
- Robotech MMO - A fan built MMORPG based on the Robotech Universe.
- The Robotech Companion - Extensive Robotech episode and background information.
- Robotech Reference Guide - Unofficial Encyclopedia of Robotech.
- Steelfalcon.com- Loads of info on Robotech/Macross mecha and ships
- Robotech Research - Extensive Robotech Role-Playing (RPG) site.
- ROBOTECH: The Role-Playing Game - Extensive Robotech Role-Playing Game based heavily on Palladium Robotech RPG.
- Armies of The Southern Cross Recruitment Manual - Extensive Robotech Role-Playing (RPG) covering Southern Cross Armies.
- Visions of Robotech - Essays about Robotech, especially military ranks & organization
- Robotech: Attention on Deck! - First-person fan novel about a Robotech Naval Aviator.
- Chronology Central's Robotech page - Chronologically integrated listing of the cartoon and comic storylines.
- U.E.Group - Dedicated to Robotech 3D fan film projects.
- Seishun Shitemasu - Creators of Robotech 3: Not Necessarily the Sentinels and Robotech 4: Khyron's Counterattack (unofficial spinoffs)
- RDF Underground - Home of the other Robotech Podcast, the RDF Underground. Life. Protoculture. Everything.
Fan Sites: (International)
- Super Dimensional Site - French fansite about the Robotech universe.
- Robotech Union @ China - Chinese language fansite dedicated to Robotech.
- Robotech Espanol - Spanish language fansite with the latest news and rumors
- РОБОТЕК - All about Robotech in Russian.
- Macross-City Russia - Russian language fansite with the latest news and external subtitles.
- Robotech Mordecai Youth Inertia - Japanese language fan site of the Robotech Clone comics.
- STEEL FALCON.COM – Extensive fan Mecha info.
- The New ROBOTECH - RPG fan material.
Video Games:
- Robotech: The New Generation – Preview video of the upcoming 'Robotech: The New Generation' mobile game
| Robotech | |
|---|---|
| Animation | Robotech (TV series) • Robotech: The Movie • The Sentinels • Robotech 3000 • The Shadow Chronicles |
| Video games | Robotech: Crystal Dreams • Robotech: Battlecry • The Macross Saga • Invasion • The New Generation |
| Franchise | Art books • Collectible card games • Comics • Novels • Music and Soundtracks • Role-playing games |
| Robotech Wars | First Robotech War • Malcontent Uprisings • Second Robotech War • Third Robotech War |
