Shark Bytes

Jumped with the Second Generation. Jumped back with Third Generation.

The resolution of the love triangle in the Macross sage is what has always impressed me the most; it's a very surprising outcome. Most sappy love stories work on an idealized "first come, first served" idea of love; that first (or earlier) love is purer and more "right" than a love that blossoms slowly. Especially after what had happened right at the start of the show (Rick and Minmay's "I'll never get to be a bride"! fake marriage), I could have sworn that they would end up married.

Like many here, I lost interest in the show at the end of the Macross saga. The voice they chose for Dana Sterling was just incredibly annoying, and as a kid it was difficult to accept the shift to an entirely new cast of characters.


The Macross saga, though, stands as probably my favourite cartoon show as a kid...

Never jumped!Though the first cycle with Rick and Minmei and Lisa was better than the others! The invid were cool, too! And yes, Rick should have married Lisa AFTER he pushed Minmei out of the airlock, the little selfish, spoiled bitch! Remember when Rick gave her his medals for fighting which is why he did'nt have time to get her a present? I remember watching that 20 years ago and remember saying to myself, "What a bitch!"

Of all of my favorite shows as a kid, ROBOTECH had to rank near the top. Unfortunatly, when the Macross saga ended with Lisa and Rick pledging to marry (which they do, though we never see much of Rick after it), the thought of following the adventures of Max's daughter (half-human/half-Zentradi) just nevewr grabbed me like the Macross series. It all felt stilted and anti-climactic.

It's an AJACS, Frank. Do 11 seconds of research.

Never jumped, it was a good show consistently all the way through. It wasn't arrogant about it's style like Firefly, or too cheesy like Star trek. Great stuff.

Robotech was my first exposure to anime and turned me into a lifelong fan. My favorite part was Southern Cross, because of the hopelessness of the situation. I hated the Robotech Masters, truly disgusting villains. The bioroid was the coolest of the badguy mechs, and the ATLAS helicopter was the coolest goodguy mech. Southern Cross is to Robotech what The Empire Strikes Back was to Star Wars, the high point of the series.

Never Jumped! The love triangle in Macross so so good. Rick spends the whole saga loving Minmay (even though she treats him like crap)but realizes that the person he needs is Lisa. How many guys have screwed that up in real life? Minmay spent so much time only thinking of herself that she lost Rick. Oh, and Minmay singing "We will win" during the space battle still brings a tear to my eye. That was the moment that truly described the magic and power of the Macross saga. Southern Cross was more boring but wasn't that bad. I loved the way it ended when the heroes have realized that they have failed. The invid are going to conquer them and they cant stop it. The Next Generation was just balls to the wall cool. Those transforming motorcycles were kick-ass! The final battle between Scott Bernard and Corg was the best fight in the whole show.

Robotech was good through-out, especially considering that it was a kluge of three utterly distinct shows. Despite the naysaying, Carl Macek did quite a good job translating them into English and he attached a far superior music track. As for Minmei, I was one of the few people who didn't hate her and even liked a couple of her songs. She is much better in the Japanese version. And I loved Dana as a pre-teen. Loved her. I still like her as Jeanne Francaix, though she sort of stops being developed half way into the Japanese show (Southern Cross). Anyway, Never Jumped.

Never did. The show was great and had some pretty interesting storylines. The best part about the whole show the music. It had a way of luring you into the plot or getting you excited when Lance got on his bike to get to Reflex Point. Overall its the little things that made it worthwhile

Ahhh..... Robotech the movie, if you've seen it, then I don't need to explain any more, if you haven't consider yourself to be a lucky individual. Otherwise the show was great, cheesy at points but for a 10 year old, great. By the way, the other part that has bothered me all these years would be the episode where Ben Dixon dies, I think that by leaving that gigantic slab of steaming beef laying on the counter, that caused his death. Seriously, who could dog-fight when they just left a steak of that magnitude behind?

When it changed to SC. Southern Cross had it's cool points but it was maybe 1/50th as good as Macross. Minmei's singing was pretty bad but I still love her. Love her Madly. She was the first girl I ever had a crush on, back when i was six. The first female image I ever thought of as "pretty". Try out listening to her Japanese songs someday. Still not the greatest of voices but not bad music.

The final attack on Earth was a real high point - tied up the storyline and closed on the great shot of Rick and Lisa. Everything after that was OK, but the show really devolved into soap opera. Plus Chiron is too damn stupid and annoying to be a proper lead villain. I did like the teaming up with Breetai though - that was class.

The changes in generations were not confusing for anyone over the age of 9 or 10 and in retrospect were a genius means of dealing with drastic changes in civilization over a 50-year or so period. (At least it beat the crap out Doctor Who's methods.) I think maybe the Jack McKinney series of books cemented the continuity between three otherwise unrelated series and explained the Robotech universe better than the cartoons, not unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey being written to explain the movie. True, Minmei could have done Robotech in, but once she was gone the series blossomed like a Flower of Life oozing skunky protoculture throughout the second and third generations.

Overall the show was the first of it's kind, however being marketed as a children's show initially it jumped the shark when the Macross Saga ended. Many kids were confused and missed the old characters. Also, the lack of seeing the old Macross characters was very very disappointing in the continuity and believability of the show. (Yet it was still engaging) Even though we still liked the show, we knew something was wrong. (Turns out it was actually 3 independent Japanese series rolled into one storyline. )