Lo, there shall be an ending! Well, to the Macross saga, anyway. Was it a satisfying finish?
Before I answer, I have to say recent episodes have forced me to adjust my initial expectations. ROBOTECH is not a sci-fi Japanimation show featuring transforming robots warding off an alien threat--it's a love story. I resisted admitting that for over three-quarters of the Macross saga, frustrated when all the mushy melodrama kept intruding on the Earth vs. Zentraedi intergalactic battle plot. But after the recent string of all-angst episodes "Broken Heart," "A Rainy Night," "Private Time," and most of "Season's Greetings," I had to give up and admit I was a fool to deny it: The Rick-Lisa-Minmei love triangle was always the central plot; the space battles were secondary and oftentimes just window dressing.
So YES, the conclusion was satisfying in that the lunkhead hot dog Rick finally figured out that Lisa is the girl for him, not that brainless one-song warbler Minmei. I despised Minmei from the moment she went running back to retrieve her dumb diary. Minmei is a character that evoked surprisingly strong emotions from me--virtually all of which were of abject loathing! When she disappeared from the playground, running away from Rico and friends, I thought good riddance. But nooo... she turns up emoting outside Rick's door. I was so enraged when that door opened I wanted to chuck the DVD case at the TV screen (mind you, I'm watching the broadcast versions housed in the c. 2001 Zentreadi-sized ADV bricks!).
I credit the original Macross creators and the late, great Carl Macek for writing animated characters so believable that I became thoroughly invested in their outcomes. I didn't like Lisa in the beginning, but as her origin story was revealed I came to sympathize with her and finally to cheer her on. She learned humility over the course of these 36 episodes, going from hardshelled sourpuss to humbled and vulnerable, but nonetheless confident in her considerable abilities. I was glad she received the promotion--she earned it.
My favorite characters were all Zentraedi. Exidor and Breetai, the defectors Rico, Bron, and Konda. Towards the end, I even grew to like Khyron and Azonia, villians you love to hate. They had a semblance of love between them, and the hand-on-hand gesture they made before dying in the kamikaze attack parallelled that of Max and Miriya when they weren't sure they'd return from battle.
My least favorite/most hated characters list has Minmei scrawled at the top in a madman's scribble! What an insufferable spoiled brat who never grew up or developed, besides taking a liking to liquor. I also intensely disliked Kyle too, as we were no doubt intended to. He's another character who drank too much. Add to the AA recruitment roll Claudia ("Hi, Claudia"), who was seen drinking alone and admitted to Lisa booze was her crutch after Roy's death.
I was never won over by the "bridge bunnies," who were usually annoying as heck but were necessary for exposition dumps and light comic relief. I wanted to write a review for an earlier episode and title it "Gloval's Report: I Folded to Pluto with an All-Girl Crew." Maybe I will yet when I rewatch the series on the remastered blurays.
Of course the Zentraedi were defeated even before Khyron's last-ditch Hail Mary attack on the SDF-1. No surprise the good guys won in the end, though it admittedly came at a steep cost.
Among the loose ends that weren't tied up tightly is what about all the giant-sized Zentraedi "malcontents" running around and wreaking havoc? Exidore warned that the Zentraedi were genetically engineered for war, so many can be expected to revert to type (and all the Minmei songs in the world--I think there are only two, right?--won't pacify them!).
Thirty-six episodes in and I'm still not exactly sure what Protoculture is. Khyron needed it to power his ship, but in "Viva, Miriya" it was implied Protoculture has something to do with s-e-x and reproducing naturally versus test-tube babies. Remember Miriya going all Lion King with baby Dana and shouting, "It is love that is the basis of Protoculture! You cannot conquer love! Observe the power of Protoculture! Observe the power of love!" Okay, okay, Miriya, but how does that power a starship?
Onward to ROBOTECH: THE MASTERS, where I am eager to finally find out about that bobbed blonde that has fired her weapon directly at me in 36 opening credit sequences!
Before I answer, I have to say recent episodes have forced me to adjust my initial expectations. ROBOTECH is not a sci-fi Japanimation show featuring transforming robots warding off an alien threat--it's a love story. I resisted admitting that for over three-quarters of the Macross saga, frustrated when all the mushy melodrama kept intruding on the Earth vs. Zentraedi intergalactic battle plot. But after the recent string of all-angst episodes "Broken Heart," "A Rainy Night," "Private Time," and most of "Season's Greetings," I had to give up and admit I was a fool to deny it: The Rick-Lisa-Minmei love triangle was always the central plot; the space battles were secondary and oftentimes just window dressing.
So YES, the conclusion was satisfying in that the lunkhead hot dog Rick finally figured out that Lisa is the girl for him, not that brainless one-song warbler Minmei. I despised Minmei from the moment she went running back to retrieve her dumb diary. Minmei is a character that evoked surprisingly strong emotions from me--virtually all of which were of abject loathing! When she disappeared from the playground, running away from Rico and friends, I thought good riddance. But nooo... she turns up emoting outside Rick's door. I was so enraged when that door opened I wanted to chuck the DVD case at the TV screen (mind you, I'm watching the broadcast versions housed in the c. 2001 Zentreadi-sized ADV bricks!).
I credit the original Macross creators and the late, great Carl Macek for writing animated characters so believable that I became thoroughly invested in their outcomes. I didn't like Lisa in the beginning, but as her origin story was revealed I came to sympathize with her and finally to cheer her on. She learned humility over the course of these 36 episodes, going from hardshelled sourpuss to humbled and vulnerable, but nonetheless confident in her considerable abilities. I was glad she received the promotion--she earned it.
My favorite characters were all Zentraedi. Exidor and Breetai, the defectors Rico, Bron, and Konda. Towards the end, I even grew to like Khyron and Azonia, villians you love to hate. They had a semblance of love between them, and the hand-on-hand gesture they made before dying in the kamikaze attack parallelled that of Max and Miriya when they weren't sure they'd return from battle.
My least favorite/most hated characters list has Minmei scrawled at the top in a madman's scribble! What an insufferable spoiled brat who never grew up or developed, besides taking a liking to liquor. I also intensely disliked Kyle too, as we were no doubt intended to. He's another character who drank too much. Add to the AA recruitment roll Claudia ("Hi, Claudia"), who was seen drinking alone and admitted to Lisa booze was her crutch after Roy's death.
I was never won over by the "bridge bunnies," who were usually annoying as heck but were necessary for exposition dumps and light comic relief. I wanted to write a review for an earlier episode and title it "Gloval's Report: I Folded to Pluto with an All-Girl Crew." Maybe I will yet when I rewatch the series on the remastered blurays.
Of course the Zentraedi were defeated even before Khyron's last-ditch Hail Mary attack on the SDF-1. No surprise the good guys won in the end, though it admittedly came at a steep cost.
Among the loose ends that weren't tied up tightly is what about all the giant-sized Zentraedi "malcontents" running around and wreaking havoc? Exidore warned that the Zentraedi were genetically engineered for war, so many can be expected to revert to type (and all the Minmei songs in the world--I think there are only two, right?--won't pacify them!).
Thirty-six episodes in and I'm still not exactly sure what Protoculture is. Khyron needed it to power his ship, but in "Viva, Miriya" it was implied Protoculture has something to do with s-e-x and reproducing naturally versus test-tube babies. Remember Miriya going all Lion King with baby Dana and shouting, "It is love that is the basis of Protoculture! You cannot conquer love! Observe the power of Protoculture! Observe the power of love!" Okay, okay, Miriya, but how does that power a starship?
Onward to ROBOTECH: THE MASTERS, where I am eager to finally find out about that bobbed blonde that has fired her weapon directly at me in 36 opening credit sequences!
