Review of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

Introduction

Robotech was a series that first hit our screens in 1985, a year when I was too busy listening to music to notice. It ran for a total of 85 episodes (which I didn`t know prior to checking out Jitendar`s reviews…), ending with the invasion of the Earth by alien race the Invid. Now more than 20 years later, some of the original cast (and animation voice stalwart Mark Hamill, yes that one…) come back for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

Since being forced to leave Earth, the humans have been gathering their forces ready for the day they can re-capture it and over-throw the Invid. Marcus Rush and Alex Chambers are young hotshot pilots who are part of this attack force, under the command of Commander Taylor. The humans are using technology provided to them by mysterious alien race Haddonites, referred to as Children of the Shadows (B5 reference, anyone?) by the Invid. The Haddonite technology uses Protoculture, some kind of substance that the Invid have in abundance but that the humans only have in short supply.

General Reinhardt is leading the attack whilst Admiral Rick Hunter is off testing Protoculture with his ship SDF-3. If the attack looks like failing on Earth, the General`s plan is to fire Haddonite missiles at Earth, which would devastate about half of the home planet. This would defeat the Invid but also kill the ground forces who are trying to attack Reflex Point, the Invid main base on Earth. Just prior to the attack, Hunter calls in from his testing but is cut off when something goes wrong. Captain Vince Grant is sent on a rescue mission to see if he can find the Admiral and recover the protoculture (which I still have no idea as to what it is…).

Meanwhile Scott Bernard is attempting to lead the attack on Reflex Point with Ariel, an Invid/human hybrid. The two have a slow blossoming relationship, the two opposing races finally coming together through the pair, but hostilities are still strong and it`s touch and go as to whether they will be accepted by either race.

If you`re confused by that summing up, let me just make it clear that I am still more than a little confused at the plot and just how much has been wedged in there. It probably makes much more sense to someone who has seen this before…

Video

There are two distinct animation styles at work here, which can be a little jarring at times. There`s the old style handdrawn type that most people will be familiar with, but also a glossy but not quite CGI-standard animation - I`m kind of reminded of the old Commodore Amiga animations. It looks impressive enough for this kind of film, although wouldn`t suit a big budget TV show, let alone a film.

Audio

Soundtrack is only available in Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 and there are no subtitles (becoming something of a bugbear with me…). The main theme appears to be a distant cousin of the old Superman theme, whilst other parts of the orchestral soundtrack seem to borrow liberally from Star Wars.

Features

Birth Of A Sequel - quite detailed documentary that looks at every aspect of the film and explains that a couple of fan boys were brought on board to make sure that the new story was both faithful to the original series and didn`t break the continuity.

Photo Gallery - seems a little odd for an anime feature, I thought this might show the voice actors doing their stuff but it`s just stills from the film. Extremely short as well, but that`s probably just as well.

Trailers for Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie, Mushi-Shi and Tsubasa

Conclusion

I don`t really have a background in anime, as a child I grew up with Battle Of The Planets but that was about the only anime experience I had as there was really nothing else that caught my imagination. I tried to get back into it by watched the C4 showing of Akira back in 1993/4 and remember being suitably unimpressed. I then watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and thought it was ok, if a little flawed. Finally I was sent Blue Remains by Reviewer Towers and that kind of set the tone for me from then on, never deigning to look at anime again. Except now, I have a copy of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles and wasn`t really sure what it`s all about. Actually it`s not all that bad, if a bit of a magpie piece.

We`ve covered the soundtrack already, but the plot also borrows liberally from many other sources. Elements of Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactica are plainly visible here, but then if you`re going to borrow, then borrow from the best. At around 80 minutes in length, this is a bit of a fast paced film and it shows with some glaring plot holes being glossed over really quickly such as the complete and sudden acceptance of Ariel as being friendly. Maybe this is standard fare for anime, but it just seems a little too sudden and convenient for someone not versed in this genre.

One of the hardest things to pull off in animation is the facial display of emotion. Although probably not unique to here, what I notice is major use of the eyes. Eyes are larger than you would normally expect and tend to wobble majorly when a character has to show emotion of any kind. This seemed a little odd at first to me, but I got used to it quickly enough. What I can`t seem to get around is the obvious large breasts and cleavage on all the female characters, even the aliens and robots. It`s a little off-putting. Clearly these reservations may just be down to myself having not spent too much time watching this type of thing.

What surprised me about this was that the original Robotech was another Battle Of The Planets kind of thing (which I grew up with) but slightly different. Whereas BOTP was the toning down of violence in Gatchaman by rewriting the original stories with the (now looking stupid) inclusion of guardian robot 7Zark7, Robotech is the amalgamation of a few cartoon series to get past network syndication rules. I find it a little odd that what is essentially a re-write of anything (not to mention the merge of different series) can have such an impact, but if it`s presented well then kids will lap anything up. I did with Battle Of The Planets, although not such a huge fan now despite picking up the boxset a couple of years ago. I might just give it another go one day though…

The whole thing is entertaining enough on a certain level, but I`m guessing it`s very much geared to both the younger generation and those Robotech fans who grew up with the original series. I`m sure my son will love it when he gets his hands on it.