Birth

Birth of the earliest OVAs.

Today's review is filled with personal nostalgia. Birth is a 1984 OVA based upon the Birth Planet Busters manga by Yoshinori Kanada, whose CV includes more than 50 television projects and OVAs. Some of his animation work include Cutie Honey and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, Princess Mononoke, and Cyborg 009 just to name a few.

Birth was originally conceived to be an animator's delight. The action shots that move from one angle to the other, feature some of the most original, yet early attempts at taking the visual experience to the next level. Hence, the reason why some of the vehicle designs and especially Rasa Jupiter's ass is prominently featured from a variety of angles, speeds, and near/distant shots.

My experience with this gem was perhaps one of the earliest I had with Anime. Birth was imported by Harmony Gold, and released in home video (VHS tapes) as Planet Busters, and The Secret of the Talisman in 1987. At that time, whether you like or not, Animé was causing a big impression in the western world, so it became the next gold rush. I remembered very little from this little OVA back then. What I do remember is that one of the local TV stations would premiere Anime on the weekends during the Saturday morning cartoon block. Years went by and all I could tell my friends about it was "There was this group of rebel heroes, they had a magical sword, and a super powered weapon that ultimately destroyed their world". Fast forward to a few decades later, and thanks to the internet forums, I found the answer to my blurry memories: It was Birth! one of the first OVAs ever made, and a must watch for any serious connoisseurs.

 

Raza Jupiter.

Raza's vehicles demand this pose.

Birth story is quite simple. As a matter of fact, what I remembered was pretty much 70% of the plot. Our heroes, Raza Jupiter, Nam, Kim, and Luzen Bao take us into a road movie with one of the most unexpected endings ever seen in animated form. In a nutshell, planet Aqualoid isn't the paradise it once was. All thanks to the invasion of cybernetic creatures known as "Inorganics". Legend has it, SHADE, a magical sword that travels throughout the universe, is the key to defeating these invaders. However, the sword's actual power won't be revealed until the very end of the story. Character wise, we're introduced to a set of characters that have been doing whatever they've been doing for quite some time. Save for Luzen Bao who is a treasure hunter, we're never told about their motivations. While this put off many Anime fans who bashed Birth on their reviews, others enjoyed the mystery. On the other hand, the Inorganics have already invaded Aqualoid for reasons unknown. Perhaps, emulating Star Wars with the idea of an "already established world" was a bit underdeveloped here. However, we can't deny the animation quality this OVA has to offer. Detailed mechanical designs in every vehicle, beautifully drawn landscapes and city scenery, and characters whose body motion looks natural and harmonious even at their most frantic antics. 

Once the "Shed" sword finds its way to Nam, we are introduced to another key character in the story: Arlia, a superior being from an undisclosed distant planet in the universe. Although, only  a supporting character, Arlia reveals the true nature of the Shed sword, and which power it hides.

Early character designs.

More character designs.

Back then when I watched it on TV for the fist time, and on later rewatch through rental video, I had this feeling the main characters reminded of Robotech's New Generation Rook Bartley, Rand, & Lunk. Moreover, the inorganics looked very similar to the Invid. Little did I know back then that the original opening sequence for Genesis Climber MOSPEADA was animated by Yoshinori Kanada himself. Also, let's not forget how influential the Mad Max movie was for the Japanese animation industry with its dystopic future.

1987 was a prolific year for the animation industry, and while Birth premiered originally in 1984, American companies began to develop a serious interest in obtaining as many Anime/OVAs as possible due to the growing fandom. Bubblegum Crisis, City Hunter, Kimagure Orange Road, Zillion, Wicked City, Dangaioh, and Dirty Pair, all premiered in that glorious year. Of course, it would take a while to see them all outside Japan, yet they are all classics, and the ones I mention are only a few of the many released that year. Harmony Gold could smell money within thousand of miles of distance, so after Robotech was still a massive worldwide hit, they went Anime hunting, and Birth was one of the many OVAs they brought to the USA. Of course, we all know the treatment this company gave to their imported products: Replace the original soundtrack,change character names, delete scenes and even modify the original story. Nevertheless, this was a common practice in the industry. Other Anime received the same treatment way before Harmony Gold created Robotech, so it'd be unfair blaming it only on them.

The World of the Talisman.

Planet Busters.

Streamline Pictures also took an interest in importing Anime, or "Japanimation" as a few people would call it back then. Personally, it was just Japanese animation to me and most of my friends for a long time. Now, this company had some familiar names on board: Carl Macek, Robotech's creator and former HG's employee, was one of the founding members. The first Birth dub was released in 1987 by Harmony Gold as "The World of the Talisman" and that's the dub I was "lucky" to witness 36 years ago. Streamline's version would take longer, and it wouldn't be released until 1992. However, their legacy cannot be forgotten since they were responsible for an extensive list of Anime dubs. A few names I can think of are, Castle in the Sky, Lensman, Zillion, Fist of the North Star: The Movie, Golgo 13, Robotech (1992's home video collection),SDF Macross, SDC Southern Cross, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, Megazone 23 part 1 & part 2, Dirty Pair, Space Adventure Cobra, and many, many more.

To this very day, Carl Macek is a controversial figure in the Anime fandom. The neverending "subbed versus dubbed" debate heavily criticized his "Americanized" dubs. Nobody asked I know, but I'm team subtitled all the way. In animation, just like in films in different languages, the only way to truly appreciate the actors' talent is through their own voices. Dubbing is for couch potatoes.

 

Wielding Shed with friends.

Fan service done right in the early ages of OVAs.

 

Anyway, Birth's story, as confusing it may be to some viewers, may hide a philosophical lesson: What does mankind do when it has the power to completely erase the planet and its inhabitants? Is this purge through massive destruction, the only way to start fresh, and make a better world for everyone? The animation wastes no time. The Shed sword is not the key to destruction, but the key to survival. The military created "Dongemahar", an even deadlier weapon, one that is believed to completely obliterate the Inorganics. However, there's a catch, and a big one I   might add. Fire, and everything will be turned into plasma until it disintegrates. 

For a kid, seeing the good guys being destroyed along with the bad guys and the whole planet they lived in, definitely caused an impression. I thought it was an unexpected ending that only would to that "dark & gritty" mood people used to label Anime with. "not kids stuff", ADV would say decades later on their DVD releases.

Arlia.

Nam.

Later I would find out that there was a novelization trying to answer all the questions the OVA created. On the other hand, the Manga was as confusing as the movie, although it did expand, and tried to cover the origin story of the characters, the very nature of it, made it nearly impossible to be cohesive. Moreover the production schedule of Birth was problematic since day one. However, it did allow artists involved to produce Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko., the second biggest selling OVA from the 80s, with the first one being Megazone 23, another Idol & Victor production where Kaname Pro was not involved.

All in all, one of the first OVAs ever made. Reason enough to give it a try and consider it part of Japanese animation history.Birth ended up being a commercial failure, but did make some waves in the small world that was budding otaku culture and the developing animation fandom. After all, OVAs would always be something of a niche market, and it was mostly Kanada fans who went to see this one. However off-model it was, Rasa’s design was pretty attractive and probably played a part in the lolicon boom that had started in the late 70s and that Kaname would contribute to with its round, plump and cute girl characters. In terms of animation proper, Kanada pushed further the limits of what you could do with background animation in one of the most amazing chase sequences ever made, and it was all hand drawn, which makes it even more amazing.

Raza inspired future heroines.

Sexy read head.

Birth theme:

Harmony Gold's The World of the Talisman opening sequence:

 

Another The World of the Talisman version scene. Raza's escape. Enjoy the animation!

An action scene from the Japanese Blu-Ray edition:

機甲創世記モスピーダ / Genesis Climber MOSPEADA

600 minutes of pure 80's fun.

Today's entry will take us back to our "Animé for the retired & soon-to-be-dead" audience that visits our place frequently. The undeniable success Super Dimension Fortress Macross had when it came out in 1982 generated a list of followers & imitators, some worth remembering, some worth forgetting.

Background

機甲創世記モスピーダ AKA Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (literally "Armored Genesis MOSPEADA") is an anime science fiction series created by Shinji Aramaki and Hideki Kakinuma. The 25-episode television series broadcasted from 1983 to early 1984 through Fuji TV in Japan. While the series features a fair amount of original characters and plot, some people think it borrowed a few features from the above mentioned SDF Macross.

MOSPEADA stands for Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation Dive Armor, one of the transformable motorcycle-armors the series features. The other primary mecha featured in the show is the three-form transformable fighter called the Armo-Fighter AFC-01 Legioss, which is somewhat similar in design to the VF-1 Valkyrie from  you already know who. 

Amazing mechanical designs.

Shinji Aramaki knows what he's doing.

The original working titles for MOSPEADA were: "Descent Machine Soldier Vector" (very similar to Armored Trooper VOTOMS) , "Super Immortal Fortress Reflex Point" (Really?) and "AD Patrol", which had nothing to do with what years later would become the prequel OVA to Bubblegum Crisis. The main character designs were created by Yoshitaka Amano, who would later gain renown for his character artwork for the Final Fantasy series. 

Each of the Japanese episode titles contains a musical reference. This style of titling would later be used by Cowboy Bebop. 

Mechanical designer Shinji Aramaki came up with the transformable motorcycle-powered exoskeleton design while working on the Diaclone series (which later became part of that franchise still selling toys). When riding his Honda VT250 250 cc motorbike he thought to himself that it was the right size for a person to wear. The bike design was inspired by the Suzuki Katana. The black and white stripes on the Legioss and VR ride armor are a tribute to the Allied invasion stripes in World War II. 

The incidental music was composed by Joe Hisaishi, who would later gain renown for incidental music for the movies of Hayao Miyazaki, though it is accidentally credited, because of a misreading of the name characters, to a "Yuzuru Hisaishi." MOSPEADA is the first anime series to have a jazz-based theme song (Blue Rain)
 

Our heroes are watching every move the Inbit make.

Fucking humans! you polluted the Earth!

Story 

In the 21st century, Earth's pollution problems result in the development of a new hydrogen fuel called "HBT" as an alternative to fossil fuels, while mankind colonizes Mars. In 2050, a mysterious alien race called the Inbit invades Earth. Unable to fight off the Inbit, Earth becomes desolate with only a few pockets of human beings scattered throughout the planet. Many of the refugees escape aboard a few remaining shuttles to seek shelter on the Moon. The Inbit set up their main base of operations on Earth, called "Reflex Point", in the Great Lakes area of North America. 

However, the Mars colony, dubbed the Mars Base, does not forget about the plight of Earth. Troops are sent in to fight the Inbit from the Moon, only to fail miserably. The Inbit do not attack Mars and show no interest towards the other planets. Surprisingly, the aliens show no hostility towards humans unless they are directly provoked. The Inbit can also sense the presence of HBT and use of the fuel is limited under their supervision, as HBT is a common component in weapons technology. Mars Base becomes a gigantic military factory, producing vast amounts of advanced weaponry and trained troops. In 2080, Mars Base sends in the next wave of troops called the Earth Recapture Force - but it is virtually destroyed despite a technological advantage including the deployment of transformable mecha.
 

Houquet won't take your shit.

Amazing fan artwork by Suppa Rider.

Mars Base deploys the Second Earth Recapture Force three years later but suffers a similar fate as the first fleet. Legioss pilot Stick Bernard turns out to be the only survivor as he crashlands in South America, but his fiancée, Marlene, is killed in the chaos. A holographic recording of Marlene given to Stick just before the operation began gives him the strength to move on and avenge her death. In his quest to reach Reflex Point, he meets the other main characters of the show, forming a group of ragtag freedom fighters in a quest to rid the planet of the Inbit.
 

As the plot unravels, the purpose of the Inbit invasion is revealed: to find a suitable place to evolve into more complex beings. However, the Inbit do not know that their endeavor actually threatens to cause the extinction of both humans and Inbit and thus, it is up to Stick and his group, with the help of humanoid Inbit (Aisha and Solzie), to convince the supreme ruler of the Inbit, the Refless, to flee from Earth. 

The Blu Ray looks so clear, you can see the animation cells margins.

Did I mention how much I love Houquet Et Rose?

Review

If you weren't a kid living in Japan in 1983, chances are you were like me, and like millions of "Japanimation" craving fans from countries outside of Asia. So? The very first time you watched Genesis Climber MOSPEADA was in 1985 in the brand new Harmony Gold epic Animé saga Robotech. The series produced by Carl Macek (love him or hate him, he was there) used MOSPEADA as the third and final act of their westernized view on Animé. So, "The New Generation" was 機甲創世記モスピーダ's official introduction to the world, outside of Asia. 

Plot wise & character wise the modifications made by Harmony Gold were minimal. The only notorious changes were basically scenes that were censored due to graphic violence, nudity or revealing moments that would have us 80's kids complaining "wait! that's not how you write his name!". The other big change made was the fact they replaced the entired original soundtrack in order to help us get a sense of continuity between the three original Animé (the two others being SDF Macross & SDC Southern Cross). Sadly, the music from the three original series is far better than what Harmony Gold went for instead. 

Moving on with the review, I can tell you, seasoned fans have already seen the original Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, and while it may seem like an obscure Animé from the 80's to some, well, like many other old Animé and Cartoons, they're still selling toys, which means there's an audience that refuses to let go of the fond memories this little 25 episode adventure created.

The extra cool looking Legioss.

The MOSPEADA. Don't leave home without it.

I remember back in the 80's hating having to go to school in the afternoons. My sorry schedule never gave me the chance of watching The New Generation from start to finish. I had, and still have this neighbor friend who'd go to school in the morning, so he would tell what I missed right after school. So not only did The New Generation become a frustration but, the whole rising Animé scene turned me into an obsessed fan looking for ways to quench my Animé thirst in some of the most obscure ways a primary student can think of: Skipping classes!!!! There were a couple of times were I said "Fuck it! I'm watching Robotech no matter what" so while that didn't become a norm, I'd still find other ways to skip classes. Imagine how great I felt when I got the flu, or a stomach ache, or whatever symptom! because it was the chance of at least watching one or a few episodes I'd never watched before. Moreover, my family hired a math tutor to, you know, help me raise the bar in the subject and, well, I fucking hated the shit out of him too! The schedule was a whole hour lesson at the same time Robotech would air! Argh! This sadness would follow my sorry ass for around four years. Robotech was such a big thing back then, reruns were mandatory, but I was destined for failure. Once my school shift was moved to the morning section, the reruns were fucking done. I seriously contemplated suicide back then, LOL.

Moving on from the Robotech version of today's review, I can pretty much assure you, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA is one of the best mecha Animé from the early 80's. People have criticized the series as being "episodical", "lacking in character development", "rushed" and even "childish". To each his own, even if they're wrong. 

You're never too busy to not appreciate flowers.

GTFOD in style.

First, MOSPEADA is not episodical. Everything taking place in an episode, will immediately affect the following episode. The same can be said about character development. There are episodes where we learn the background story of the main characters, revelations from the Inbit and even the stories of other characters that have suffered the Inbit invasion in first person. However, I kinda agree with the "rushed" label some people have assessed this Animpe. Nevertheless, there were a lot of excellent Animé that fell into the same category. While the reasons behind it may vary, it usually has to do with running out of budget or kids not buying the toys/kits anymore. The first 20 episodes feel like there's a very long distance from where our heroes start the quest, and yet the final episodes speed the action up quite a bit. Still, I don't think that's a bad thing. Characters have grown enough, and their mission has to end some time.

Now, let's take a close look at the main characters:

Stick Bernard (Voiced by Bin Shimada): A 20-year-old Mars Base lieutenant who becomes stranded on Earth as the Inbit obliterate the defenses of the Second Earth Recapture Force. As a result of the overwhelming force of the Inbit, Stick's fiancée, Marlene, is killed when her ship attempts to land on the planet surface, leaving Stick angry and bitter. Even after he gathers his freedom fighters together, he often allows his hatred and blind fury towards the Inbit to distract him from the responsible decision-making his friends know he is capable of. In the end, however, he finds his peace again as he becomes aware of his growing feelings for Aisha, despite her Inbit background. 

Ray (Voiced by Hisao Ōyama): A 17-year-old scavenger who plays the role of the historian, optimist, and wisecracker of the group. Originally, Ray was a loner who actually enjoyed teasing the Inbit as they chased him around the territory, but he joins Stig in order to deal a serious blow to the invaders. Extremely resourceful and with a good intuition, Ray is the first in the group who gradually manages to figure out important clues about the Inbit's true nature. He is a huge fan of Yellow Belmont until he learns that the female singer is actually a man. Over the course of the series, he develops deep feelings for Houquet, but she is slow to warm up to his affections.
According to the show's creators, Ray is partially telepathic. In earlier versions of the storyline this was much more predominant. However it is still present in the series as it was made, which explains the bizarre hallucination that he has at one point (which revealed several true facts of the Inbit's history and purpose) and his inexplicable understanding of what the "genesis pit" they fell into was for. 

Can't see a man about a dog without the Inbit fucking around!

Well, uhm, you know, there's a bed & sheet section in this mall.

Mint La Bule (Voiced by Sanae Miyuki (credited as Miyuki Muroi)): A spirited and precocious 13-year-old girl who was abandoned by her parents. She tags along with the group in order to find a husband, but ends up becoming part of the team. Often considered an annoyance to the rest of the group, Mint is nonetheless loved by her fellow freedom fighters, and proves herself valuable to the mission on several occasions. Her trademark attire is the E.T. cap that she wears. It is not known whether the E.T. stands for the science fantasy movie of the same name or something else.

Houquet et Rose (voiced by Mika Doi): A 16-year-old former motorcycle gang member and girlfriend to gang leader, Romy. She was severely beaten and abused by a rival gang when they cornered her away from her group. Houquet initially fights for the helpless and refuses an alliance with Stick, but joins the team after realizing that she would be stronger with them than without them. Eventually she comes to respect her companions enough that she offers to sacrifice herself in order to save the others. She eventually falls in love with Ray, but for most of the series is unable to open her heart and express her feelings to him.

Annoying as fuck.

Useful as fuck.

Jim Warston (Voiced by Tomomichi Nishimura): A 32-year-old maintenance mechanic. Jim initially comes off as the "stupid lunk" of the group, but is soon revealed to be quite intelligent. Jim was once a member of the Mars Base forces, but deserted after failing to save a friend from the Inbit. Though he labeled himself a coward and often sees himself as a liability to Stig's team, the team is quick to object to this, noting Jim's courage and dependability during their repeated encounters with Inbit forces.

Yellow Belmont (Voiced by Mine Matsuki and Hirotaka Suzuoki): A 22-year-old soldier from the Second Earth Recapture Force. Now disguised as a female singer (thanks to his bishōnen appearance) in order to hide from the Inbit and certain locals, Yellow has made quite a name for him/herself as an entertainer, but upon meeting Stick and his friends, Yellow decides to help free Earth from the Inbit. His ability to completely change both his physical appearance and personality (in the Japanese version, this also included his voice) adds to the team's ability to infiltrate towns and cities in order to gather supplies or complete missions. His stage name in Robotech was Yellow Dancer.

Jem's favorite singer.

Me bad guy, me kill.

Aisha (Voiced by Miki Takahashi): A female Inbit changed into humanoid form as part of an experiment to adapt the Inbit to Terran conditions. (In Robotech, she was given the name Marlene by Scott (Stig) and the others, named after his old fiancée, because when they first met her, they were unaware of her real name.) Suffering from amnesia when Stig's group finds her, she gradually develop human feelings and sympathies, and ends up falling in love with Stig.

Refless (Voiced by Noriko Ohara): Supreme ruler of the Inbit. Her only goal is to terraform the Earth in order for her race to take it over. Considers humans to be genetically and socially worthless.

Solzie (Voiced by Waka Kanda): Another female Inbit transformed into humanoid form. Accidentally encounters Yellow as he is bathing in a waterfall, and the encounter leaves her resolve shaken as she slowly begins to fall in love with him. Eventually, she becomes the first Inbit to independently sympathize with the human cause.

Battlar (Voiced by Hōchū Ōtsuka): The sole male Inbit in the series changed into humanoid form. Unlike Aisha and Solzie, Battlar's experiences with Stig's team leaves him angry and insulted. His repeated defeat in combat by Stig causes Battlar to make his mission of stopping Stig's group a personal vendetta.

Aisha is not shy.

Fantastic original artwork.

Plot wise, MOSPEADA is slightly different than Robotech. There's no protoculture here, no admiral Rick Hunter coming to Reflex Point, and most of the deleted scenes are either comical fourth wall breaks, mild nudity and a tad of graphical violence. However, some plot details are different. First, the Inbit aren't THAT bad. They're actually looking for a fit environment to evolve into their ultimate form, unaware in the process they may end up wiping out the species already on Earth. You see, the real reason behind mankind leaving Earth is because of pollution. Also, they ran out of fuel, so the HBT was developed on Mars as an alternative to fossil fuels. So while, a lot of humans were conquering space, the ones that stayed home were caught off guard and outnumbered when the Inbit invasion took place. Sadly, the Inbit can easily detect HBT vehicles and weapons, so the surviving mankind go south most of the time they want to fight their invaders. Last but not least, Rey doesn't say "get a job!" and Stick doesn't name Aisha after his dead girlfriend because that's fucking creepy.

While some may think this Animé borrows a few aspects from SDF Macross (idol singer, three mode transforming mecha, alien invasion, love confusing aliens, etc) my answer to them is simply, no! MOSPEADA is its own thing. However, like Macross, MOSPEADA has a fantastic soundtrack. One of the best ever recorded in the early 80's if I might add. Yellow Belmonte has a varied selection of songs that go from R&B, to funk, to soul, to Blues, to rock and to 80's synth pop. Please! do yourself a favor, and buy this fantastic vinyl!

Don't trust this guy.

This lady works for The Sun newspaper.

Overall, seasoned fans have probably seen the show many, many times. Fans have probably replaced their DVD set with the high definition Blu Ray box set, and Robotech fans, well, they have replaced their DVD sets with newer DVD sets, LOL. Is it worth watching? abso-fucking-lutely.

Bonus pictures of my MOSPEADA Toys and Vinyl soundtrack:

The original Gakken toys.

Spinning the original soundtrack.

Stay tuned for more! Check our video section below!

 Here's the opening:



Here's the ending:



Lonely Soldier Boy live with Andy Koyama (original singer) boy! this song is in my top 5 Animé songs of all time!



A fan made tribute to Shinji Aramaki (sadly featuring the Robotech soundtrack)



Gakken & Imai MOSPEADA TV ads:



The opening made completely on MS Paint:



The Korean opening:



Fans covering the legendary opening theme:

Robotech Love Live Alive

"Soldier, Survivor, Superstar"

Robotech. A franchise best known as a successful rebranding of bla bla bla... Following our previous entries, we enter the final stage of our humble tribute to the 30th anniversary of a world changing animé. Although, people may or may not agree with that, we can all be sure that Robotech is a top 10 Animé of the 80's and perhaps a top 5 Animé of all times just because.

In the previous entry we discussed what is perhaps the biggest creative effort (2006's The Shadow Chronicles OVA) in the Harmony Gold head quarters for bringing back the franchise in the shape of an entirely new animated film, with new characters and brand new plot twists aiming at either a series of movies or another series. In addition, this new movie offered state of the art 3D animation and a brand new musical score partially based upon original Robotech music.

Superstar.

Life is only what we choose to make it.

7 years after that, not a single sequel to the film happened. The success The Shadow Chronicles had, went from moderate to poor at most. Lesson learned: fans wanted a return to the original Robotech roots, not CGI and new storylines. Hence, Harmony Gold producers have gone back to old habits with this 'new' production "Robotech: Love Live Alive". True to what it did with the original Robotech, the production team took the 1985 "Genesis Climber Mospeda: Love Live Alive" music video OVA, and expanded it into a full flashback detailing the experiences of fan favorite character Lancer, aka the concert Superstar Yellow Dancer, during the 3rd Robotech War. Now, summary movies are quite common in the anime market, compressing a whole season into a feature length production. Love Live Alive does that wonderfully by using a pre-concert interview with Yellow Dancer as a framing story for the movie.

In present day 2044, the war with the alien race known as the Invid has finally ended and Lancer is about to hold his final concert as Yellow Dancer. An intrepid reporter gets an exclusive interview with the superstar in which he shares the journey he had with his comrades: Lost soldier Scott Bernard, the mysterious Ariel, the happy-go-lucky Rand, hot headed Rook, spunky Annie, and gentle giant Lunk. We are brought through their first meeting where the group mistakes Lancer for a lady to the ups and downs of their relationships as they face a clash of ideals, betrayal and seemingly insurmountable odds. The narrative never seems disjointed, showing how much effort the producers took to craft a coherent story, reframing what was originally Scott Bernard's adventures from the perspective of Lancer. Amidst the backdrop of war, a "romeo/Juliet" like romance develops between Lancer and an enemy Invid princess called Sera. A romance that may be more than what Lancer is willing to share with the reporter.

Sera, Invid princess.

Lancer, singer & resistance fighter.

Now other than jumping on the whole "summary movie: bandwagon, another trend Robotech producers have picked up on is combining old classic anime footage with newly produced animation. The most famous example of this is the "Dragonball Kai" series and the "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" movies. In Love Live Alive, the old footage is beautifully restored to a pristine state, both footage from the series and that from the music video OVA.

Sadly, the "new" footage comes across as a major disappointment, consisting of only at most 10% (including a long drawn out opening sequence of planets and asteroid fields) of the movie compared to almost half of Dragonball Kai and half of the Zeta Gundam movies. The quality of the animation also varies, having apparently been done by 2 separate animation studios (Ragex and Big Star).

Some scenes do look spectacular at first, such as a flashback to the final moments of the Invid's initial invasion and the evacuation of Earth. The animation is smooth, it has a really dark atmospheric look reflecting the desperate hopeless last battle and the computer generated imagery (CGI) is blended seamlessly with the traditionally animated characters. On subsequent viewings, the stark reality of the animation's shortcomings become apparent.

Lancer memories are filled with battle.

And friends fighting along.

The cel shaded CGI has a "lag drag" in the models' movements. Character animations look like it was done in Adobe Flash. And To hide this clunkiness, the production company takes full advantage of the 4x3 frame and has a good deal of action take place out-of-frame or have close-ups of irrelevant foreground objects such that the object takes up most of the frame, thus drawing viewer attention away from the actual subject of the scene.

This lack of quality control in the newly produced animation is disappointing. Those expecting quality over quantity thanks to the small amount of new footage would be let down. The voice acting is expertly done but, again, there is a clear distinction between lines from the original TV series and newly recorded dialogue. Some of the actors, particularly the women characters like Rook, clearly sound older in the new dialogue. Afterall, 20 years is a long time and can change how a person sounds. Thankfully, Cam Clark who reprises his role as Lancer is able to maintain consistency with his recordings from back then.

No doubt, another cash in labor from the producers of Robotech. Robotech Love Live Alive remains polarizing among audience. Those expecting a musical extravaganza like the original Mospeada Love Live Alive would be let down by the inclusion of 2 snippets of songs, one full song over the end credits and one more full song that Yellow Dancer performs in concert.

Jem is truly outrageous, truly, truly...oops! wrong song.

Lancer's casual attire.

That concert, by the way, seems hastily edited, with Lancer changing costumes and even stage props constantly throughout the song, and too much repeated footage; a flaw that permeates the entire production. Seriously, there are at least 4 of the same shot of the reporter with her obsolete tape recorder on her lap pausing and restarting the recording. The whole thing comes across like a fan made anime music video.

For all the time and effort that went into digitally restoring the old footage, perhaps this summary movie would have been better off if it were animated from scratch. That way the flaws in the original series animation, like inconsistent quality of artwork, would not be so apparent. Or perhaps the slip shod editing of re-used scenes would not be so obvious. But most importantly, with a fully reanimated production utilizing modern animation styles, Robotech would have finally shed it's sad reputation of being no more than a cut-and-paste Americanized edit of Japanese anime.

Yeah, there were no cellphones in the future.

Care for a Subway footlong?

Overall, the least interesting effort ever made by a production company. We already know Harmony Gold owns Genesis Climber Mospeada which means they can do whatever they want with it. If people hated The Shadow Chronicles, watching Love Live Alive makes you think the previous was at least an original film, that despite its many flaws, offered oven fresh animation. This "new" Robotech film offers nothing but thirty seconds of new information at the very last minute of the film. In case you haven't watched it, I'm not gonna spoil it for you. Nevertheless, watching 88 minutes of already known material may not appeal everyone. Hell! I'm a Robotech diehard fan and couldn't watch pass 10 minutes! 

A few weeks ago I found the DVD version of the film on the cheap and bought it expecting to enjoy it but, nope, nothing changed since I watched it the first time. Maybe for occasional Robotech fans, Robotech: Love Live Alive will freshen up memories from the past. I for one, think the Robotech subject of bringing the franchise back to life, or at least to update it to our current decade is a useless effort that is already dead and buried. Do you know the latest Harmony Gold Robotech announcement for the 30th Anniversary? Well, besides toys they've been reselling to fans in the last 10 years, they will edit a 4 CD box set with the entire Robotech soundtrack featuring, outtakes, demos and music from other Robotech films. I guess all Harmony Gold can do, is to sell Robotech stuff, not creating it, at least not anymore. With the death of Carl Macek the final Robotech episode was written for good.

Here's the OVA trailer exclusively made to announce the DVD coming to Latin American audiences:

Here's a fan made teaser trailer: