Search - Macross Set 2 (Vols 4-6) on DVD

"Will expand when unwrapped"?!

Zagnorch | Terra, Sol System | 12/30/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like most American folks (and some non-American folks to be sure) who grew up watching 80s-era 'toonage, my first look at the Macross series was in the form of the first chapter of Robotech. And even though I still hold a certain degree of sentimental nostalgia for the latter show, I gotta admit I like the original uncut Japanese version a fair bit more. Well, except for the background score-- the music used for Robotech seemed a better fit in my opinion, and wasn't quite as melodramatic as the original score. Sorry if this offends you anime purists out there, but-- no wait, actually I'm not the least bit sorry. I could give less than two doots what'cha all think...Naturally, the biggest attraction of the original Macross is the chance to see all the stuff that Harmony Gold (the show's North American producers) changed and edited out of the series to conform to the various kidvid standards of the day. You know, excess violence, naughty bits, a smattering of mature situations and language situated somewhere in PG & PG-13 territory, and stuff that might not have translated well to audiences on the opposite side of the Pacific and elsewhere. I saw a smattering of such scenes and situations (a few examples include slight extensions of the deaths of Roy Focker & Kakizaki ("Ben Dixon" to you RoboPhiles out there), allusions to Roy's battles with the bottle, and a few naughty thoughts from Max during his first encounter with Milia in the video arcade), but they made up a rather miniscule part of the "restored" bits. The vast majority of no-longer-missing moments were rather innocuous (mostly incidental or "slice-of-life" scenes), and led me to wonder why they'd been shortened or removed from Robotech in the first place. Probably to help the networks airing the series cram in another toy commercial or two between the mid-show eyecatches...I was also curious to see the results of AnimEigo's extensive restoration efforts that I'd been reading about so much on Robotech.com and other anime news sites for months before its debut on North American DVD. Although I still saw a few ever-so-slight flaws here 'n' there, I thought they did a really good job making the show as clean and pristine as it likely was when it was initially broadcast. Just compare any of the restored eppies to their Robotech counterparts, and you'll see a fairly significant difference between the two in terms of picture clarity!Although the platters in this set lack any real special bonus features aside from show production and restoration credits, the liner notes, which look sorta like mini file folders (one even has a subject tabs) come close to making up for it:- Disc four's mini-file includes brief character profiles of Captain Bruno J. Global ("Henry Gloval" to all you Robotech freakos out there), Zentradi Commander Britai Kridanik, Kamjin Kravshera "The Ally-Killer" (Khyron "The Backstabber"), and Exedol Folmo (Exedore). The basic info given for each character includes age, height and weight (in metric measurements, natch), occupation, the episode each debuted in, the person who voiced the character, and... blood type??? Hey, that's kinda personal don'cha think? Seriously, I've never understood the deal with anime characters having blood types (shouldn't it be ink types? Heh, get it? Hee hee...). But then, I've never really delved into the technical world of anime, or the culture it reflects, all that much. And why the hey does almost every Japanese anime character I've ever seen not look even remotely Japanese? What's up with all the honky-envy in animeland??? If there's anybody out there who can give me the 411 on these bits o' strangeness to me, please do so, willya? Thanks...Anyway, let's get on with the review. Also included with disc four's files are production notes on episodes 13 to 20. Brief synopses of each eppie's evolution from concept to production are given, as well as the disclosure of various in-gags and sci-fi references one can find in each show, if one looks hard enough. - Disc five's file includes technical specs and descriptions of various mecha seen in the series, including the SDF-1 Macross super-fortress, the VF-1 Valkyrie fighter/battroid flown by Roy Focker, the RoiQuomni Glaug (AKA Kamjin's battle pod), and the much-more-common Zentradi Reguld battle pod. - The sixth platter includes production notes on episodes 21 to 28 of the show, and the lyrics to two Minmei (Ijima Mari) songs. Both the English translation and the anglicized Japanese pronunciation of each song's lyrics are given. - The only real disappointment I have with this collection is that they weren't able to put Macross and Robotech together into an all-in-one presentation, like Harmony Gold did a few years back when they put out the Robotech: Perfect Collection VHS series, featuring two Robotech eppies and their corresponding Japanese (Macross, Southern Cross, Mospeada) counterparts. It would've been nice to have something that appealed to both the RoboPhile and the anime purist in me, without havin' to take up quite as much shelf space in my video cabinet. No such luck, I'm afear'd; the licensing & rights situations just didn't pan out between the companies involved in the show's production & distribution. Them's the breaks in life... 'Late"