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'This Robotech thing is so exciting I just
couldn't give it up. It just gets in your blood or something,
I don't know.'
- Roy Fokker
Do you remember the love?
A Robotech Retrospective
I was going to write an in depth, episode by episode analysis
of The Macross Saga, but since I am only just making this
site and have already almost finished watching the series, it's
a little late for that.
 For
those who do not know, Robotech was actually three Japanese
television series (Macross, Southern Star and Mospaeda)
melded into one by Harmony Gold. The complete story can be found
on the extra features of the DVDs. An interesting fact is that,
in the interviews at the time, it is made out as if the series
was commissioned by Harmony Gold, when anyone who has seen it
will tell you that the three sections really do not fit, but we
will get to that later. Also included in the special features
is the nonsense known as Robotech II: The Sentinals, which
was commissioned by Harmony Gold but was never finished, for good
reason.
This article deals with the first section of Robotech,
The Macross Saga (found on the first three DVD Collections).
In re-watching the series,after an initial elation at seeing
it again, I am at first disappointed. Although the action is impeccably
directed in comparison to its American cousins (in that there
is actually action and not just a fight that happens off screen)
the animation is so rushed with many glaring errors.
 During
the Second World War it was necessary to believe that our soldiers
were pure and brave. That the military action was perfect and
without fault. Notions of heroism were based on lies. During Vietnam,
the curtain was pulled back and hatred of the military grew. However,
now, as ANZAC day marches increase in number, we look through
Vietnam to see the true heroism that existed alongside the pain,
suffering and brutality. We still hate the war, but learn not
to hate the warriors.
Through the blinkered eyes of a child, I loved this series, it
was without fault or omission. Now, I look again and see fault
where there is fault, I see mistakes where there are mistakes
and yet, through this, I see beauty and depth that was never consciously
apparent when I was younger. In this viewing, I found Robotech:
The Macross Saga to be more intense and more moving than ever
before.
 In
many respects this is a soapie in space. It his high melodrama
(in the true sense of the word, as music is intensely important
to the plot). However, the people are more real than any soapie
characters. The Japanese have a way of trauling the depths of
our psyche for our hidden pain (The Japanese also have a way of
trauling the depths of the oceans for whales, but that is another
story). Any viewer of Neon Genisis Evangelion will agree
with me on this point. The characters are not The Keatons, but
they are not all crack-whores either, they are ordinary, flawed
people in an extraodinary situation. One of the people I work
with said, just the other day, 'Science-Fiction is crap because
there's no one to relate to. I couldn't give a shit about them.'
If ever a piece of television proved this statement both right
and wrong, it was this show. This is what makes most pulp science-ficiton
pretty bad (even most people that enjoy it admit it is usually
pretty bad) but it does not have to be. It does not have to have
lifeless, empty characters, it does not have to lack any connection
to our lives. Any good show must have a ground, something that
makes us care about the characters, that makes us see them as
human (and not just some little shit who talks like a regular
kid brought into the fantasy world running around blowing up trade
federation destroyers by going 'aah- what does this button do
R2', need I mention any names Mr Lucas.)
 Other
departures from soapie land come from the fact that there is a
story with a beginning a middle and an end. Serialisation also
held it apart from cartoons of the day, as did the fact that people
died. Important people. Even this time around, knowing who died,
it moved me. Anonymous pilots are blasting to peices around them,
why would I care? I don't even know their names, why would I,
but when Roy or Ben get hit , my God! I weep like a baby. And
when the SDF-1 rams Dolza's ship I feel better than when Rocky
gets the first hit on Ivan Drago. And all to the tune of 'We will
win'.
So, Minmai's vocals are pretty crap, I don't know why they didn't
hire a proper singer, but the underlying score is excellent, including
many moving recurring themes that provoke all types of emotional
responses.
When you realise this was a kids cartoon, and was played twenty
years ago on American network television, the series becomes even
more incredible. It includes interracial relationships (although
they are never called that, it wasn't such a big deal for the
Japanese, they really couldn't care) and a schizophrenic  pop
singer transvesite fighter-pilot. Also, about the only industry
that actually profits from the almost destruction of mankind is
the brewers. Everyone who is not dead is hitting the grog. Quite
realistically depicted also. Even Rick gets hammered before beating
the hell out of some Zentraedi renegades. And Claudia goes off
'to have a few drinks with this fella' while cluthching the photo
of her now dead fiance, Roy Fokker. Lin Kyle, the dirty pacifist,
turns all wino and runs hot and cold whilst beating the hell out
of the idiot, Minmai who should have lept on Rick four years ago.
Also a bit of incest (Minmai and Kyle are cousins).
One word that sums up Robotech, and indeed much Japanese
culture, is sacrifice. An American hero will be told 'twenty people
wil die if you save your wife', he will do it anyway, because
through some twisted US logic, it is the 'right thing to do'.
But of course, he will end up saving everyone in the end. The
Japanese hero will cry his eyes out after sacrificing his wife
to the greater good. The Japanese hero makes the real right choice,
he is not perfect and realises this, so makes the decision with
the best outcome possible, not the best outcome that is not possible.
The Japanese hero is actually forced to give something up. And
it is usually something pretty big. Like the Earth.
I swear, if our leaders had watched this as children we would
not be in the mess we are. If only they learnt 'not to lay down
our arms, but to hold them out in friendship'. The story deals
with rather intense issues of morality, and indeed it was used
in schools to teach the subject. The characters come up against
real moral quandries, particularly as their compassion for the
Zentraedi grows towards the end. The ship is torn between the
idoitic military masters who, in their arrogance, believe they
can easily destroy their enemy, and the pacifists who think the
problem will be solved simply by putting down their guns. The
 men
and women of the SDF-1 are caught in between trying to do the
best they can, killing for their survival but knowing the evil
they do. They not only risk their lives, but their moral integrity.
The only response even easier and weaker than ignoring the suffering
of another is to wipe your hands of a moral issue entirely. Sometimes
knowing you did the 'right thing' comes at the sacrifice of another's
life. A real hero (need I say, a Japanese hero) knows the evil
he commits, he does not pretend his adversaries are without humanity,
he knows the repurcussions of his actions, but he also knows that
he must act lest a greater evil is caused by his inaction. He
acts in the best way he can, the way that helps the most but then,
in a true act of heroism, he accepts the responsibilty and the
psychological pain upon himself. This aspect was also explored
in Neon Genesis (mentioned it again, must write an article
on it) as Shinji must choose between killing with his actions,
or committing suicide and killing even more with his inaction.
He chooses inaction, but then he was always one fucked up individual.
The final message from Robotech is that no-one wins a
war, instead we must try to win peace for ourselves and the future.
As the stakes heighten, as civilisation is brought to its knees,
pacifists remove themselves from the conflict, creating a new
state, the now corrupted Lord  Khyron
and Azonia prove that emotions not only bring love, but also hate,
and they are driven to their most vile act as they hold hands
aboard their doomed suicide ship. The crew of the SDF-1 make their
final valiant stand, and their final and ultimate sacrifice, and
the streets burst into flame brought by Zentraedi terrorists who
have become disenfrachised with the new society they have been
(not whole-heartedly) welcomed into.
The true climax of the story is that of Rick and Lisa's relationship,
and the tying up of the stories of the numerous characters we
have grown to love. The final battle is no where near as spectacular
as earlier encounters, so the suspense must build within us, not
on the screen. There is so much at stake, an entire civiliasation
already on its knees, and least of the problems is a silly relationship.
Yet we care.
We have grown to love Rick and Lisa, as they grow to realise
their love for one another.
To the men and women of the SDF-1, we salute
you!
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