The Robotech wars finally End

[pendell]

I can confirm. I got Jetfire primarily because it was a Robotech VF-1S. Favorite transformer ever!

For me, Robotech came on at 8:00 am, and I left for school at 8:30. That show could bring me to tears. The Macross Saga was my favorite, then the Invid, and the Southern Cross was my least favorite of the three.

Then I tried to show them to my wife when they were on Netflix. It's hard to express how annoying I find the narrator now. I love the story, but I have a hard time actually watching it sometimes.

Unfortunately it was necessary. The original robotech was, as you know, a paste-n-glue special of three different stories. The narrator was necessary to make sense of the overall storyline when the original anime were telling something different.

Sure, it could have been better if it was made in 2021. BUT in 1984 it blew all the other afternoon cartoons out of the water with its character development, its plot which carried over from one episode to the next, the very adult storyline

Spoiler

Show

How many kid's shows annihilate the planet earth and 99.9% of all life on it on-screen?

and its love subplot. Sure, it's not quite up to what we have today ... but we wouldn't have what we do today if Robotech hadn't been there first.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[brionl]

Oh, come on now. I'm sure it wasn't more than 95% wiped out.

I liked it well enough when it came out, even though I was in my 30's, not school. I liked it enough that one of my possible RPG campaigns is a mash-up of Robotech, Mechanoids and Thundarr the Barbarian. Not using the gawdawful Palladium system though, even though they have released games for 2 out of the 3. And I actually have most of the sourcebooks.

[pendell]

Oh, come on now. I'm sure it wasn't more than 95% wiped out.

You be the judge .

For context , in the 80s this was mind-blowing for afternoon weekday cartoons. As a rule, characters like He-man carried swords but never actually struck other people with them. GI Joe and Cobra sprayed a lot of ammunition around, but somehow no living people were ever hurt by it. Those shows which did have violence would typically use them on robots or other mindless creatures. GI Joe was happy to show vehicles being destroyed, but the crews always escaped.

This? :Waves at the link: This was unprecedented.

It made a distinct impression on my 13-year-old mind. It filled me with a loathing and horror of war which later experience has done nothing to allay. Which, come to think of it, is probably something the original show writers had in mind to begin with.

That's another way in which the show stood above its competitors for a kids audience -- when they had a point to make, they made it directly in story. They didn't need to cut out 5 minutes at the end of the episode, as they did with GI Joe or He-man, to have a character lecture the audience just in case they missed it. The point stuck better precisely because kids were able to work it out for themselves, rather than having it spoonfed a la afterschool special.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[GloatingSwine]

You be the judge .

This? :Waves at the link: This was unprecedented.

It made a distinct impression on my 13-year-old mind. It filled me with a loathing and horror of war which later experience has done nothing to allay. Which, come to think of it, is probably something the original show writers had in mind to begin with.

And it can be even worse with the original soundtrack.... Macross is a very musically driven show, if it can use music to make a point it will.

That said, this is following a tradition of the genre as well. Macross was heavily influenced by Mobile Suit Gundam, and they don't call him "Kill 'em all" Tomino for nothing...