ROBOTECH: THE SHADOW CHRONICLES
ROBOTECH: THE SHADOW CHRONICLES
November 4 2007, DVD, home living room, borrowed from Ryan Hill
Ryan let me borrow this delightful slice of straight-to-DVD animated bliss, as outreach to a fellow obsessive Robotech fan - because we are obsessive if we're into it at all - and what a delight it is, too. He told me that it was excellent, and it sure is. It's a new installment that takes place after the end of the broadcast TV series (which I still haven't finished watching, even though I've read the Jack McKinney novelizations over and over again - in fact, I plan to repurchase those bad boys, as they were insanely influential on me and ripping good books) and has several familiar faces, almost all of them voiced by their original voice actors. Also, there's Mark Hamill, who - I'm sorry - kicks ass. His poor reputation hurts me personally. I hope he has a massive Shatner-style comeback one of these days and is held up as a beloved camp cultural icon, as he deserves, instead of merely being near and dear to fans of quality animation (and voice acting in video games). (I gotta say, though, his face is super fucked up these days.)
There's no point in trying to provide a synopsis (mostly because I don't feel like doing it), even though it's a well-told and sophisticated anime-adventure tale, but suffice it to say that the story is excellent, it's gripping and engaging, the hand-drawn animation is great, and the CG animation is satisfyingly cheesy. And it's definitely been enough to convince me that I need to finish watching the series - finally - and then watch the whole thing over again from the beginning. I was going to try to wait so I could finish up watching with the Evil (now good) Reverend Chris, since we had vowed to watch the entire series together since neither one of us had seen all of the episodes before, though she had seen ones I hadn't seen and vice versa. Unfortunately that now seems somewhat unlikely (I wonder how she and the kids are doing?) as it has now been eight years since I've seen her. Don't misunderstand me, though - Robotech is not nostalgia; Robotech is just plain good. It holds up marvelously. It set me up for exactly the kind of slightly OTT, serialized, soapy science fiction/fantasy that I seek in this world of entertainment. I'm really not that complicated.
November 4 2007, DVD, home living room, borrowed from Ryan Hill
Ryan let me borrow this delightful slice of straight-to-DVD animated bliss, as outreach to a fellow obsessive Robotech fan - because we are obsessive if we're into it at all - and what a delight it is, too. He told me that it was excellent, and it sure is. It's a new installment that takes place after the end of the broadcast TV series (which I still haven't finished watching, even though I've read the Jack McKinney novelizations over and over again - in fact, I plan to repurchase those bad boys, as they were insanely influential on me and ripping good books) and has several familiar faces, almost all of them voiced by their original voice actors. Also, there's Mark Hamill, who - I'm sorry - kicks ass. His poor reputation hurts me personally. I hope he has a massive Shatner-style comeback one of these days and is held up as a beloved camp cultural icon, as he deserves, instead of merely being near and dear to fans of quality animation (and voice acting in video games). (I gotta say, though, his face is super fucked up these days.)
There's no point in trying to provide a synopsis (mostly because I don't feel like doing it), even though it's a well-told and sophisticated anime-adventure tale, but suffice it to say that the story is excellent, it's gripping and engaging, the hand-drawn animation is great, and the CG animation is satisfyingly cheesy. And it's definitely been enough to convince me that I need to finish watching the series - finally - and then watch the whole thing over again from the beginning. I was going to try to wait so I could finish up watching with the Evil (now good) Reverend Chris, since we had vowed to watch the entire series together since neither one of us had seen all of the episodes before, though she had seen ones I hadn't seen and vice versa. Unfortunately that now seems somewhat unlikely (I wonder how she and the kids are doing?) as it has now been eight years since I've seen her. Don't misunderstand me, though - Robotech is not nostalgia; Robotech is just plain good. It holds up marvelously. It set me up for exactly the kind of slightly OTT, serialized, soapy science fiction/fantasy that I seek in this world of entertainment. I'm really not that complicated.