Einherjar

Buried Treasure: Macross DYRL (Anime News Network) I thought this part about it's availability was kind of sad:

I've learned not to worry about the fate of Hikaru, Misa and Minmay after the TV series. Hikaru and Misa had a kid and Minmay kept singing, they're all probably someone out there doing okay. The creator just didn't want to talk about them anymore. Rick, Lisa, and Minmei on the other hand, the more Robotech talked about them the grimmer it got. Rick and Lisa lost a kid and got legally altered while Minmei was never seen on screen again. Admittedly, without the singing aspect surrounding the show Minmei lost all relevance. It can only go downhill from here.

Hehe, can't argue with that. Harmony Gold: Robotech can be anything you want it to be... as long as you give us money to keep it going for you.

But currently what do fans want Robotech to be, a Macross clone visually but focusing on some random wars that pop up involving Protoculture (flowers) every few years? They're in dire need of a respectful end to material that's passed its prime in their hands.

The Covenant Hunters/Lekgolo from Halo Almost like a Zentradi battle suit from Macross Plus (at least the design of the heads)?

I'd like to add, in 2008-2009 you also can't decide to abandon your plans for future sublevel crud and rely on Hollywood to solve the problems you as a company got yourselves into.

That's the situation now, but not back in the 80s. Some work on The Simpsons was still done in the U.S. back then, but eventually it led to the shift to South Korean animation companies. Work on Robotech on the other hand had production done in different countries with a lack of coordination. HG didn't have the foresight to hire other companies to work on the Sentinels besides Tatsunoko to increase production. In fact, they didn't even have the money to make the series by themselves to begin with, unlike Fox.

But how did those shows get a lot of work done while Robotech II the Sentinels got only 3 episodes?

That doesn't sound like enough time to complete a series that long. I talked about logistics a while back and after seriously thinking about it, it's still a nightmare to complete. Think about the conditions back in the 80s: -Animation done in Japan and other Asian countries for a series intended for a foreign market -A creative director based in the U.S. who oversees the project by getting material mailed to him or visiting the studios personally -Language and other barriers making it difficult to translate Macek's vision into animation, with him having final say on how it's supposed to go -Variable waiting time for each episode -Finished material sent to the U.S. for voice and FX work -Waiting for enough shows to be completed to last weeks or months for syndication reasons (shows once a week or 5 for weekday showings) to start putting them on U.S. TV -Eventual release to other countries after more dubbing and editing are done -Merchandising and material to promote the show sometime in the future or while it's being done (toys, comic book tie-in, etc.) I can see why Matchbox pulled out from this, it would take too long to get anywhere.

About the Sentinels, if all the plans for the series went through how long was it supposed to take to finish and then release on TV? In fact, when HG decided to scrap the series how long had people been working on it?

We pretty much got through much of that in the older thread. There's not much else we can talk about until HG posts news about their developments, but you know how ambiguous they tend to be about their future. For all the comics, novels, and animated projects like the Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles made, I thought it was a case of professionals contractually obligated to make content for Robotech. They did the bare minimum to make the stuff have that Robotech feel, whatever that means, and got their money. Judging from the content and reception by fans, many weren't paid enough or have enough time to care what they were doing. To tie it in with future projects, they might be handled the same way for salaries and potential profits.

I'd have to argue that rt.com members and fans at the moment are the only people making an effort to keep Robotech going. The lengths they go to execute this brings its share of criticism to the series because of the similarities to how HG originally made Robotech at the beginning and the closeness of certain fans to the creators to the point of molding the direction of the series as they see it. Heck, they hired a couple of them blurring the line between fans and creative staff further. As I heard from one blogger a while back "The Future of Robotech IS in the Hands of It's Fans," not Harmony Gold.

I'm surprised Doug hasn't heard about it yet, unless Plus is Doug. There's got to be a show in the works just to spew profanity at the fan sullying his rep. By now people in the fandom should really be asking what the hell is going on with Robotech if Captain JLS decides to go.

I suddenly have the urge to see Trekkies III made sometime in the future. Imagine, casual people cool about being Star Trek fans.

A chilling thought came to mind; from what I know Captain JLS leaving marks the end of the last blogger and neutral personality that offered consistent commentary for the fandom. That only leaves Justy Ueki of RDF Underground, who still occasionally does podcasts. But then there's The Robotech Fan The Dougbendo Show, who will probably be talking about Robotech forever. Let's face it, the show is more about his ego than anything, but he's the only one left willing to talk about it constantly now. Until people learn what kind of person he is, he may get all the attention of newer fans online as THE vocal personality of Robotech by default. But then again, he's been around for years doing his thing and tarnished his reputation by now. People might hate him, but if they want more besides posting on forums or going to conventions, they'll be forced to put up with him for now.

Captain JLS of the Roboblog has quit. His final commentary on the series in the link. http://sdf5x.blogspot.com/

Having heard about the Mospeada publication idea a while back but not knowing what happened to it until now, that whole thing was surprising. The problem revolved around Harmony Gold being ambiguous... again. Everything they touch turns to crap, doesn't it? I agree, Roger probably doesn't deserve flak after being used like that.

Dominic Monaghan was on The Soup on Friday promoting the film, or Lost, I'm not really sure. I couldn't find a thread about Lost, so might as well put it here anyway.

It's hard to believe that they would hire someone whose past would make him an equivalent to a Dougbendo today. Even more so if they keep things like that public online for everyone to see and use. Skeletons like that usually hurt people's professional reputations, especially if they're in PR or a position of authority in a certain community. And here I thought the current Robotech crew was filled with normal people. What, can't HG hire people with standards, professionals, or well adjusted individuals? Instead they settle for mostly fans who may have grown up like you said, Gubaba, but are generally no better than all the other fans excessively hating on them.

Courtesy of RobotechFanPlus on the rt forums: http://bankofkev.blog-city.com/macross_wor...pts_in_rage.htm If this is true, is he serious? This is the kind of guy who now represents Robotech? Also watch out, FanPlus now knows of Macross World.

Darn, I thought the movie was going to parody other fandoms including Star Wars.

Reminds me of what happened with the Clue film with Tim Curry from 1985. It had 3 possible endings you could see, but some theaters at least announced which one they had. Eventually, all of them were put together for the video/DVD release, which is probably going to happen here. But those were funny, so it didn't matter as much. I guess Fox wanted people to watch it again in different theaters to increase revenues or something.

If only David Hayter was involved in the film's development maybe it could have been better.

There was an edited dub made years ago that didn't turn out as well but was released in the U.S. as Clash of the Bioroids. As for a version with Roboech songs, leave it to the fans.

There are already legitimate English versions of some of the songs from Macross 7 that could be used for a U.S. release, but there are reasons inside and outside the series universe that would make them difficult to use. Still, they'd probably be better than any new tunes from RT.