NationStates Jolt Archive


Robotech:The Shadow Chronicles

Neo Bretonnia
22-09-2008, 18:57
When I was growing up there were very few TV shows that were good enough to really stick with me over the years. The best of all of them was Robotech.

Ah, the wildly varying animation quality went from drunken animator to talented Japanese artist from episode to episode, and the dialog went from embarrassingly corny to utterly brilliant and yet I love it all. (Well, maybe not the Southern Cross part... could never really get into it.)

Rick Hunter, the quintessential coming of age main character who goes from a cocky young stunt pilot to a respected military commander and fighter jock. Scott Bernard, naive but good hearted pilot turns resistance leader trying to mend his broken heart. and OMG so much battle mecha even a die hard robojunkie can get his/her fill...

I played the RPG. I collected the toys, yes, even the VF-1S Veritech repackaged as Jetfire the Autobot. I got the Battletech game even though they ripped off Robotech mechs. I didn't care. It gave me miniatures to paint like the Robotech versions and I was in bliss.

And so it was with some trepidation and surprise that I saw there is a new story available, Robotech:The Shadow Chronicles. I looked at it with a mixture of excitement, hope and terror. Would this be another aborted attempt at a series like Robotech:The Sentinels? Would it be a continuation of the Macross series ala' Macross Plus, good but ultimately unrelated?

Would it be like Jack McKinney's bizarre end to the Robotech/Sentinels storylines, in which Minmei becomes the mother of the guy who discovered Protoculture? (Seriously)

So I want to see it. I want to own it. I want to put it next to my complete set of Robotech DVDs... and yet I hesitate. Will the resolution to the Scott Bernard story be cool, or will it make me bleed from my eyes?

Has anyone here seen it? Do you recommend it? Will it break my heart?
JuNii
22-09-2008, 20:14
Robotech was good. haven't seen shadow chronicles. let me know how it is. ;p

oh and FYI, Battletech ripped off from other anime and not just Macross.
Neo Bretonnia
22-09-2008, 20:19
Robotech was good. haven't seen shadow chronicles. let me know how it is. ;p

oh and FYI, Battletech ripped off from other anime and not just Macross.

Yeah I know they did, I just didn't care about them ;)
Miller18
22-09-2008, 20:20
Loved Robotech, haven't seen the shadow chronicles either, but if you are that big of a fan just go for it!:)
Lochek
22-09-2008, 20:44
Shadow Chronicles was pretty good. It satisfactorily resolved the whole Invid conflict, basically like how the series did just with more detail. It also introduces a whole new storyline with all new characters but Scott Bernard and his Invid girlfriend are still on the cast. The hilarious part is that the japanese took it as an opportunity to make sequel to Mospeada.
Neo Bretonnia
22-09-2008, 20:55
Shadow Chronicles was pretty good. It satisfactorily resolved the whole Invid conflict, basically like how the series did just with more detail. It also introduces a whole new storyline with all new characters but Scott Bernard and his Invid girlfriend are still on the cast. The hilarious part is that the japanese took it as an opportunity to make sequel to Mospeada.

Wow.. talking about coming full circle...
Kecibukia
22-09-2008, 23:05
Saw the first one. Basically they scrapped Robotech II: the Sentinels but kept some of the names in place w/ a new storyline directly following the Invid Invasion. Animation is a mix of classic style w/ mediocre CGI.

Palladium has an updated RPG for it. I have the original ones but haven't picked up any of the new ones.

I personally wasn't thrilled (and this is coming from a guy w/ a Robotech tattoo) but each to his own.
Non Aligned States
23-09-2008, 01:33
Saw the first one. Basically they scrapped Robotech II: the Sentinels but kept some of the names in place w/ a new storyline directly following the Invid Invasion. Animation is a mix of classic style w/ mediocre CGI.

Palladium has an updated RPG for it. I have the original ones but haven't picked up any of the new ones.

I personally wasn't thrilled (and this is coming from a guy w/ a Robotech tattoo) but each to his own.

Saw the movie, saw the new Macross Frontier anime. Comparing the two, I have to say that the former is the worst of the two. Animation is stunted and clumsy, and the lines are cheesy.
Markreich
23-09-2008, 12:11
I also loved RT when I was a kid, having discovered it in 7th grade since my sister hogged the bathroom before school and I had to use it before 6.30. (lol!)

Anyway, yes, I picked up Shadow Chronicles for like $12 last Christmas at Le Target. In short, I liked it. It took a little while to get used to seeing familiar RT characters and mecha in a newer animation style, but the storyline was good and the dialogue was better than it used to be. I had a few quibbles with "The Big Plot Element" they added because I don't think it was really necessary and they could have done fine without it.

Overall: B+.

I still wish they'd dust off Southern Cross and do a version in English with modern productions of the WHOLE series, not the half series we got because Carl was forced to cut the series up so that the 3 stories would be even.
JuNii
23-09-2008, 18:25
I still wish they'd dust off Southern Cross and do a version in English with modern productions of the WHOLE series, not the half series we got because Carl was forced to cut the series up so that the 3 stories would be even.
I want to see the original SDC Southern Cross and GPC Mospeda.
Neo Bretonnia
23-09-2008, 18:29
I still wish they'd dust off Southern Cross and do a version in English with modern productions of the WHOLE series, not the half series we got because Carl was forced to cut the series up so that the 3 stories would be even.

I think that's one of the reasons I just couldn't get into Southern Cross... the first few episodes were so oddly re-edited that Dana Sterling goes from a repeat stockade resident to the ultimate soldier overnight, after basically repetitive incidents which as I understand it, isn't anything like how it was originally done.
Markreich
24-09-2008, 13:48
I want to see the original SDC Southern Cross and GPC Mospeda.

You can! Just go buy them online from Japan and score yourself a regionless DVD player. :D
Markreich
24-09-2008, 13:55
I think that's one of the reasons I just couldn't get into Southern Cross... the first few episodes were so oddly re-edited that Dana Sterling goes from a repeat stockade resident to the ultimate soldier overnight, after basically repetitive incidents which as I understand it, isn't anything like how it was originally done.

I'm sure you know this... Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeada were all ~26 episodes... but Southern Cross started out DOUBLE to content! So yeah, there are inconsistencies and things that were just edited out due to time constraints.
I actually like some of the SC, especially the episodes where they're running around the Masters mothership and the last four.
The OTHER big problem with SC is that while the Hovertank was cool, it didn't get nearly as much time and differentiation as the Veritechs in Macross or Mospeada: think of all the variants of the VFs and Cyclons. Worse, the Logan (which at least in the Robotech game is my favorite "non-super" mecha!) got about 2 minutes of airtime, most of which involved it getting blown up.
Free United States
24-09-2008, 14:33
The movie was good. Saw it both on DVD and at the theaters. For someone who never watched the Invid series and forgot huge chunks of the SC plot, I liked it.

I, however, hope the live-action gets made in a good way. And I really hope Tobey isn't Rick Hunter.
Neo Bretonnia
24-09-2008, 15:47
The movie was good. Saw it both on DVD and at the theaters. For someone who never watched the Invid series and forgot huge chunks of the SC plot, I liked it.

I, however, hope the live-action gets made in a good way. And I really hope Tobey isn't Rick Hunter.

...

Live action...?
Western Mercenary Unio
24-09-2008, 15:49
I remember playing Robotech:Invasion. Nobody I know liked it but me.
Neo Bretonnia
24-09-2008, 16:01
I remember playing Robotech:Invasion. Nobody I know liked it but me.

That game had one helluva steep learning curve.
Free United States
24-09-2008, 16:47
...

Live action...?

Here's the discussion on robotech.com

http://www.robotech.com/community/forum/read.php?id=1774514&forumid=31
The Brevious
25-09-2008, 06:41
(and this is coming from a guy w/ a Robotech tattoo) but each to his own.My own is a shirt and occasional humming/strumming of "Voices" from Yoko Kanno, but that's just about as far as i'm gonna go with it (even if a particular loonie a few of us here know used Roy as a template for me in a graphic novel ....)