I was planning to save these for the actual day (along with the series finale of Gundam: 08th MS Team). But a friend urged me to post these today, who am I to argue? Been sitting on these reviews for a while, waiting for the right time to post them. Fireworks and Giant Robots? Sounds like a winning combination to me. So here we go, I present to you Part 1 of the Robotech Trilogy.)
2022 AD. Over a decade has passed since the end of the
First Robotech War. The threat of a
second war has always loomed over Earth, with the Robotech Masters on their
way. In order to avert another conflict,
the Robotech Expeditionary Force is formed.
Under the commands of General Rick Hunter and his future wife, Lisa
Hayes, it’s purpose, to travel deep into space to the homeworld of the Masters
for a peaceful negotiation. The
impending launch and celebration of Rick and Lisa’s upcoming wedding,
unfortunately blind Earth to the unknown truth: The Masters homeworld is
already under attack by an alien race known as the Invid and the Masters are
losing. The unknown chapter of the
Robotech Saga is about to unfold.
Ah Robotech, you sneaky SoB. It along with Voltron was one of the 80’s
successes at getting Anime into the spotlight of many a Saturday morning
cartoon watcher. For the uninitiated,
Robotech was comprised of three separate Anime series from the 80’s (Super
Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross and Genesis
Climber Mospeda) into a three arc series.
The mix of fast paced action, transforming mecha and a wide cast made it
a hit with a lot of people. When the
third arc, The New Generation, wrapped up, so did the series. But a lot of questions were left unanswered. Robotech II was an attempt to relaunch the
franchise with fresh animation not based on any pre existing Anime. Sadly, the show never took off and only three
episodes were fully completed. They were
salvaged into one film. The end
result? Well it’s kind of hard to see
why Robotech II would have been a success if I am to be honest.
The story takes place between Season’s 1 and 2 of
Robotech (The Macross Saga and The Masters Saga). Placing events here means we get to see the
long awaited return of many of Robotech’s most memorable heroes: Rick Hunter, Lisa
Hays, Max Sterling. Breetai. It struck
me as odd when I missed the end of the first season and came into the second
with no explanation as to why Rick and his team weren’t around (I didn’t know
at the time that all three Anime in Robotech were unrelated). But this is the story of their adventures
that began prior to Season 2 and continued throughout the series, only
whispered about from time to time. We
also get to see characters who will play pivotal roles later on in the series:
Dana Sterling and Bowie Grant from The Masters Saga, Vince and Jean Grant from
The Shadow Chronicles and even the Invid Regess from the New Generation. The thought of all of these chracaters from
different eras come together is pretty exciting. And the event most of them gather for is one
a long time coming for fans.
Anyone you ask about Robotech will tell you that the
first saga is their favorite (it is Macross after all). The love triangle between Rick Hunter, Lisa
Hayes and Lynn Minmei is infamous and many were happy Rick got off his ass and
chose Lisa in the end. Their wedding is
well deserved and a one of the most feel good moments in the franchise. I do think it’s strange to see Minmei
arriving to bury the hatchet with Lisa once and for all and move on with her
life, knowing she’s lost Rick for good. To
see Minmei reminiscing about the good times with Rick reminds me why she was
such a pain to watch and listen to in the series, she doesn’t know when to
quit. Even when she says it’s time to
move on at the end, I don’t buy it. That
aside, the wedding is great and Rick and Lisa are just as cute to watch as
ever.
The wedding aside, the big problem with The Sentinels is
that it is really, really, really, BORING.
These three episodes are purely set up with little to no action. What action is present, revolves around
expendable characters we don’t really care about on a far off world. And as fun as the wedding itself is, that’s
all we see Rick and Lisa doing besides going to meetings to prep the REF for
launch. I suppose this is a disadvantage
to working with original animation and not pre existing. Robotech got off to a great start cause Super
Dimension Fortress Macross had a kick ass opening episode. Any excitement or magic that made it work is
totally absent from this little feature.
Even the new generation Rick and Lisa, two pilots named Jack Baker and
Karen Penn, fail to impress. It probably
would have made things more exciting if we saw the wedding in the beginning
then got into the action with Rick and company right afterwards. The animation doesn’t look anything
spectacular either. There’s no heart or
feel and everything just looks stale and unenergetic. Even the music seems to be more on repeat
that in any of the original series. It’s
like they recorded 15-20 seconds of music and just threw it onto a loop. It’s a
mess.
Robotech II was meant to offer a return to the characters
we wanted to see in brand new adventures.
But this only existing feature is a sign that it would have crashed
worse than the SDF-1 on it’s initial launch.
The story is boring, the new characters forgettable, the original cast
does nothing, there’s no action worth bragging about. This is almost the exact opposite of
Robotech. Rick and Lisa get married,
that’s a good thing. But we didn’t need
to spend an hour building up to it when it should have just kicked off events
right off the bat. This wouldn’t be the
last time Robotech was given the chance to continue. But The Sentinels is definitely an example of
the direction it should never have been taken in. The elements are there but there’s lots of
wasted potential and no spirit the relight the Robotech spark.
3/10
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