Jump to content

Another Macross Rewatch


Gubaba

Recommended Posts

I love the rewatch flashback. Honestly, the original animation has not aged well for me (though I just watched DYRL again just now, love the classic love story there). I would kill for a "Yamato 2199" treatment for Macross, done with love and care!

Are you planning to do it all, or just SDF Macross?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just watched Macross for the first time in it's original Japanese form. Hadn't watched the whole thing since I last watched the Robotech version on toonami...when was that...1997?

Anyway....I sure wish I'd been following your blog all along! That would have been great to read the commentary after each ep. Oh well...maybe next time.

The thing that really struck me was just how BIZARRE it all was. Was the show intended for Japanese children? I barely remember the Robotech version but they must have really had to chop it up to make it "appropriate" for American children. I can't imagine even an edited version being aired on American TV today.

What was the reception when it first aired in Japan? Did only geeks like it or was it popular with mainstream audiences?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just watched Macross for the first time in it's original Japanese form. Hadn't watched the whole thing since I last watched the Robotech version on toonami...when was that...1997?

Anyway....I sure wish I'd been following your blog all along! That would have been great to read the commentary after each ep. Oh well...maybe next time.

The thing that really struck me was just how BIZARRE it all was. Was the show intended for Japanese children? I barely remember the Robotech version but they must have really had to chop it up to make it "appropriate" for American children. I can't imagine even an edited version being aired on American TV today.

What was the reception when it first aired in Japan? Did only geeks like it or was it popular with mainstream audiences?

That's a good question... I know it was pretty much the biggest thing until Zeta Gundam came out, two years later. But, yeah, two PM on Sundays was a pretty mainstream, family TV time, so I guess plenty of people were at least exposed to it...?

Anyway, NEXT!

Love Drifts Away and MY ALBUM:

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/the-great-macross-rewatch-28-love-drifts-away/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/the-great-macross-rewatch-29-my-album/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I like to think the elderly Monster crew in M7 is this group we see in Love Drifts Away too. I always wondered how they could still have such a huge thing. It would have been a pain and expensive to maintain, especially for some guys in an elderly home. Plus it still had live ammo!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In just marathoned a bunch of these posts and was reminded in one of them about something i wasn't exactly clear on regarding reaction weapons. Reaction weapons are suppose to be clean nukes? The Zentraedi want the macross for the reaction weapons? Wouldn't this be something they could get their hands on without having to go through the trouble of going after the macross?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In just marathoned a bunch of these posts and was reminded in one of them about something i wasn't exactly clear on regarding reaction weapons. Reaction weapons are suppose to be clean nukes? The Zentraedi want the macross for the reaction weapons? Wouldn't this be something they could get their hands on without having to go through the trouble of going after the macross?

If memory serves - they had reaction weapons, but lost them (either used them all up, or they held onto them until the reactive material in them exceeded its half-life - can't remember which exactly, could be both).

Nevertheless, again if memory serves, the Zentraadi were more interested in the ability to repair.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If memory serves - they had reaction weapons, but lost them (either used them all up, or they held onto them until the reactive material in them exceeded its half-life - can't remember which exactly, could be both).

Nevertheless, again if memory serves, the Zentraadi were more interested in the ability to repair.

Yeah... That's pretty much it. They used up their supply of reaction weapons and couldn't make more. The fact that humans had them AND had the ability to repair things made them fascinating to the Zentradi.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I like to think the elderly Monster crew in M7 is this group we see in Love Drifts Away too. I always wondered how they could still have such a huge thing. It would have been a pain and expensive to maintain, especially for some guys in an elderly home. Plus it still had live ammo!

I also wonder if the Skull Squadron member(I think at the beginning of Romanesque?) was Millard from Macross Plus. I think there's a profile out there somewhere that says he was a member of Skull Squadron at some point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also wonder if the Skull Squadron member(I think at the beginning of Romanesque?) was Millard from Macross Plus. I think there's a profile out there somewhere that says he was a member of Skull Squadron at some point.

It can't be... he shows up in Macross Classic ~ Inside Story, which is set during the "lost two years," and he loses his leg there. So he would've been out of Skull by the time the post-war episodes start.

And speaking of those post-war episodes... Here are episodes 29 and 30! We're nearing the end!

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/the-great-macross-rewatch-30-lonely-song/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/the-great-macross-rewatch-31-viva-maria/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Milias Lullaby' was not only performed but also written by Eri Takeda? I did not know that. I think that's a great and pretty underrated song in Macross lore. The lyrics are pretty poignant stuff too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing that really struck me was just how BIZARRE it all was. Was the show intended for Japanese children? I barely remember the Robotech version but they must have really had to chop it up to make it "appropriate" for American children. I can't imagine even an edited version being aired on American TV today.

In what little fairness I offer to The Other Show, Harmony Gold's adaptation of Macross for US broadcast actually stays fairly true to the original(This is not a trend that holds for the other shows that make up the "epic saga" of Robotech, but this is MacrossWorld, not SouthernCrossWorld). The changes made to Macross are really fairly minor(ignoring the books, which are their own thing), and consist mostly of terminology variances and deleting Minmay's naked teenager butt(Cartoon Network would make more edits, but that's on CN, not HG).

Though I never understood why they make "protoculture" into a fancy power source when it isn't what the english words mean and they're adding the Robotech Masters in a similar role to the one that Macross' protoculture would fill ANYWAYS.

The most startling change comes at Macross' final moments, when Robotech becomes likely the only cartoon in history to be made MORE violent while adapted to US TV as they opt to kill of Global, Claudia, Kim, Shammy, and Vanessa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most startling change comes at Macross' final moments, when Robotech becomes likely the only cartoon in history to be made MORE violent while adapted to US TV as they opt to kill of Global, Claudia, Kim, Shammy, and Vanessa.

Man, even when I was ten or whatever, watching the early-00's Toonami run, I remember being like "WAAAAAAAT?!" at that. I guess they basically felt like they needed to in order to set up the next bits?

They needed protoculture to be the energy source for the Mospeada bits, I guess?

God I remember how confused we all were when Robotech swapped shows.

Funny after the SDFM section was done I thought the Southern Cross bits were dumb so I gave it up.

The protoculture inconsistency wouldn't have even mattered...Did that run even end up getting to Mospeada?

Edited by Rbstr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In what little fairness I offer to The Other Show, Harmony Gold's adaptation of Macross for US broadcast actually stays fairly true to the original(This is not a trend that holds for the other shows that make up the "epic saga" of Robotech, but this is MacrossWorld, not SouthernCrossWorld). The changes made to Macross are really fairly minor(ignoring the books, which are their own thing), and consist mostly of terminology variances and deleting Minmay's naked teenager butt(Cartoon Network would make more edits, but that's on CN, not HG).

It's a little bit more than that (and one change kind of infuriates me), as I've said several times on the blog (including in today's posts!).

SATAN'S DOLLS and BROKEN HEART:

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/the-great-macross-rewatch-32-satans-dolls/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/the-great-macross-rewatch-33-broken-heart/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks a lot for all the recent updates! There are so many references and names there that I did not know. I knew it had to be full of references, but the ones I ciuld see are mostly Western, while you describe the Japanese ones, obviously more prominent for the intended viewer. Also, Itano :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a Japanese version of Robotech? How did they handle translating that?

I think he's being sarcastic. There is no Japanese version of Robotech.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think he's being sarcastic. There is no Japanese version of Robotech.

I do now at least one person who desperately WANTS one, though...

But hey, at over 5000 words, here's probably the longest blog post I have ever written, and will probably ever write:

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/the-great-macross-rewatch-38-do-you-remember-love/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But hey, at over 5000 words, here's probably the longest blog post I have ever written, and will probably ever write:

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/the-great-macross-rewatch-38-do-you-remember-love/

Just a quick note on the bridge personnel talking in English, it was for realism - all air traffic control in the world is done in English. (well maybe not in third world air forces or the Russian air force but all commercial air traffic control and most military as well)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...