Robotech Academy - You want a new Robotech series...?

[Seto Kaiba]

oh, i just thought of the stupidest idea...

i didn't think anyone would actually do it.

Actually, the way that Robotech's universe has been set up, it'd actually be hard to avoid it.

Y'see... Robotech's setting, especially after the 2nd Robotech War, is something not at all dissimilar from the Galactic Alliance of Humankind in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. As a society, it's almost completely militarized. They make no bones about it being a setting where the only real career path open to the children born in space is military service in the Expeditionary Forces, either on the front lines as a grunt or behind the lines in logistical support. The ONLY human civilian in space was Minmei, and she had to stow away to earn that distinction. (And, of course, because Robotech's many contributing licensees were as bad a bunch of writers as Harmony Gold themselves, Minmei was depicted as a DD-cup slurm who toys with the affections of a married man and Rick's homicidal pet Starscream T.R. Edwards.)

Little Jason (I think his name was Jason?) wouldn't really have a hell of a lot of choice... if he was lucky, he'd have landed himself a posting in the Expeditionary Forces and died messily on the front lines against the Invid. If he was unlucky, he'd have ended up assigned to the Army of the Southern Cross or one of the first two Earth Reclamation Forces, in which case he's very dead.

It certainly wouldn't be an uplifting tale.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

ok, here's another idea (hopefully HG didn't do this one)

HG should make Zentraedi Origins: the young life of Kyhron.

from his day of manufactured to his days at the academy as a rebel. ramming ships and whatever, to field commander and the how he gained the name the backstabber!

start him out as a noble young man to add shock value

have some twist of fate: turning point. someone screwed him over... made him ruthless. while being funny.

like he's someone in line and just kicks him to fall over crashing into everyone... causing chaos. and he'll be the new Lobo

plan B: that's help the kickstarter succeed for sure!

[therealfolkblues]

I'm a BIG Robotech fan(as a nostalgia product)and had no desire to help HG fund another half assed attempt at keeping this franchise relevant. In my opinion, Robotech was one of those cool things that "just happen". And they have been foolishly chasing this idea that they actually created something on their own, instead of understanding that the visuals and unique method of storytelling that is prevalent in Anime is what got everybody buzzed up about it in the first place. Not surprising this failed, but also expecting some other ridiculous BS to come out of it as HG is getting desperate now it seems.

Edited August 4, 2014 by therealfolkblues

[1st Border Red Devil]

Actually, the way that Robotech's universe has been set up, it'd actually be hard to avoid it.

Little Jason (I think his name was Jason?) wouldn't really have a hell of a lot of choice... if he was lucky, he'd have landed himself a posting in the Expeditionary Forces and died messily on the front lines against the Invid. If he was unlucky, he'd have ended up assigned to the Army of the Southern Cross or one of the first two Earth Reclamation Forces, in which case he's very dead.

It certainly wouldn't be an uplifting tale.

Ya know, Seto, as much as you and I go round and round at Palladium....that story idea actually makes a depressing amount of sense.

[renegadeleader1]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that IS their idea of wooing the fans... they've spent a long time conditioning Robotech fans to be thrilled about ANYTHING new with the word "Robotech" on it.

They can't use the Macross designs, they won't revisit and finish Robotech II: the Sentinels, the fans hated Shadow Chronicles, and most fans hate Southern Cross and are indifferent towards MOSPEADA... so what can they honestly seek to woo fans with apart from "Look, it's more Robotech... maybe"? They don't have the skills to create quality original material, and even making cheap derivatives of the stuff that was actually popular is right out... so fanatical devotion to the brand name is all that they can really reliably trade on.

I hate to break this to you, but Shadow Chronicles was generally well recieved by Robotech fans. Most of you here may hate it and rant about bouncy chests, horrible cgi etc, but to be perfectly honest if it was hated people still wouldn't be calling for Shadow Rising to be made 7 damn years later. The reason it hasn't been made is the same reason they can't make any video games, they sold the farm to WB in the awful live action film deal and shot themselves in the foot.

[azrael]

I hate to break this to you, but Shadow Chronicles was generally well recieved by Robotech fans. Most of you here may hate it and rant about bouncy chests, horrible cgi etc, but to be perfectly honest if it was hated people still wouldn't be calling for Shadow Rising to be made 7 damn years later. The reason it hasn't been made is the same reason they can't make any video games, they sold the farm to WB in the awful live action film deal and shot themselves in the foot.

RTSC made enough to warrant a sequel, which HG never capitalized on, according to Tom B. Not sure about the not-being-made-part because LLA came out and they wanted to do RTA so making new ("new") animated works would appear to be allowed by their deal with Macguire Ent/WB.

Wow. That is some serious online bad PR for them. Literally calls them out for being schlocky.

Yes. Yes it does. If they allowed to fail on the clock, it would have been a respectable defeat. Could have said they tried but it didn't work. They should have tried to push for more press during this last week of funding, but nope. They killed it on their own so now they're quitters.

[1st Border Red Devil]

The reason it hasn't been made is the same reason they can't make any video games, they sold the farm to WB in the awful live action film deal and shot themselves in the foot.

Actually, the reason that Shadow Rising wasn't made is because Tommy refused to give up creative control. Funimation was ecstatic about the sales and was willing to foot the bill for Shadow Rising. This whole debacle is because of the egomaniacal "Creative Director".

[Seto Kaiba]

HG should make Zentraedi Origins: the young life of Kyhron.

from his day of manufactured to his days at the academy as a rebel. ramming ships and whatever, to field commander and the how he gained the name the backstabber!

They did that with Britai... I don't remember if Khyron was in there too.

Ya know, Seto, as much as you and I go round and round at Palladium....that story idea actually makes a depressing amount of sense.

More sense if you factor in Palladium itself, who didn't shrink from outright stating that kids born in space had pretty much zero choice other than a lifetime of military service in the RTSC core book. That's verging on WH40K levels of grimdark... God-Emperor Hunter and his Imperial Expeditionary Forces are out there to kill the hell out of the filthy heretics (Edwards) and Xenos (everybody else).

I think I favor the Macross 'verse for a lighter and softer ending for dear Yot-chan... as head of the Nyan-Nyan restaurant chain, presumably happy, healthy, and with a family.

I hate to break this to you, but Shadow Chronicles was generally well recieved by Robotech fans. Most of you here may hate it and rant about bouncy chests, horrible cgi etc, but to be perfectly honest if it was hated people still wouldn't be calling for Shadow Rising to be made 7 damn years later. The reason it hasn't been made is the same reason they can't make any video games, they sold the farm to WB in the awful live action film deal and shot themselves in the foot.

Man, I was on Robotech.com when the Shadow Chronicles dropped... and opinion of it sank like it was wearing depleted uranium shoes.

People bought it, yeah, because it was the first new Robotech animated title in twenty years. That didn't stop them from being absolutely pissed about the content. The unrest over vocal criticism of the Shadow Chronicles movie was what got MEMO and company started on the bad habit of banning anyone and everyone who spoke critically of the project and Harmony Gold. The backlash against Shadow Chronicles depopulated Robotech.com and drove a lot of veteran fans away from the franchise. For quite a while, you couldn't go on any part of the boards without seeing half a dozen threads complaining about the retcons and the lack of original content. Many of the fans who hated it simply aren't fans anymore, or at least don't bother supporting the franchise. Even now, almost every time Shadow Chronicles is actually discussed, the discussion will inevitably come back to retcons and inaccuracies and the flanderization of various characters and how mad fans are about any of those topics.

What people are calling for is for Harmony Gold to finish what it starts... they're mad because the Shadow Chronicles, as totally unsatisfying as many of them found it, was presented as a direct and ongoing continuation of the Robotech animated series of 1985. If you look at the Kickstarter comments and the thread on Robotech.com, you'll find that's the recurring theme... they're after Harmony Gold to finish what it starts, not so much to finish the Shadow Chronicles for love of the Shadow Chronicles.

Even fanatics like dougbendo couldn't find much to love in RTSC.

RTSC made enough to warrant a sequel, which HG never capitalized on, according to Tom B. Not sure about the not-being-made-part because LLA came out and they wanted to do RTA so making new ("new") animated works would appear to be allowed by their deal with Macguire Ent/WB.

Yes. Yes it does. If they allowed to fail on the clock, it would have been a respectable defeat. Could have said they tried but it didn't work. They should have tried to push for more press during this last week of funding, but nope. They killed it on their own so now they're quitters.

Harmony Gold's official, public statement about why a follow-up to Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles was not produced is that the higher-ups at Harmony Gold decided to put the brakes on the project and wait for the live-action movie to raise their profile a bit... in the name of getting better investment terms and therefore a bigger budget to make a higher-quality sequel (since even they couldn't ignore the strident complaints about the animation quality).

EDIT: Though I must admit I could totally see a creative control issue being involved as well... that was one of the reasons Harmony Gold cited for doing a Kickstarter. They wanted to develop the pilot with complete creative control over it, instead of being beholden to an outside sponsor or network.

With the live-action movie a non-starter, they're back to square one.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Seto Kaiba

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

They did that with Britai... I don't remember if Khyron was in there too.

is there a stupid idea they didn't do??

Wow. That is some serious online bad PR for them. Literally calls them out for being schlocky.

+1000

Edited August 4, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[Seto Kaiba]

is there a stupid idea they didn't do??

Well, they didn't do the rabid space lemurs yet... does that count?

[1st Border Red Devil]

Well, they didn't do the rabid space lemurs yet... does that count?

With wings, no less. Ah, Christ on a crutch DON'T give Tommy Yune anymore inane ideas...

[Seto Kaiba]

With wings, no less. Ah, Christ on a crutch DON'T give Tommy Yune anymore inane ideas...

You never know... maybe if they make it surreal enough and focus on the music, someone might mistake it for an artsy, Fantasia-style anime film, like what Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto did in Interstella 5555.

[Mommar]

That's deep man, real deep. Who said that, if y'don't mind me asking?

I agree, it's a pretty fair summation of the last twenty-eight odd years of the Robotech fandom. Ever since Untold Story and the Sentinels series went under, the fandom's been involved in a decades-long game of "What if" and finding someone else to blame so they can convince themselves Robotech isn't dead.

In practical terms, Robotech is very dead. The coroner pronounced back on 25 July 1986 when Untold Story bombed at its test screening. All this nonsense that followed is just Harmony Gold attaching strings to the corpse and making one hell of an ugly marionette out of it.

Saul Bellow, rather well known American Author.

Robotech as a brand is all but dead, yes. It's possible some genius could come along and re-write it, a la Battlestart Galactica, and renew it somehow but at this point in time it's best for fans to import an Arcadia VF-1 and call it a decade.

[EXO]

Sadly and even though I wasn't a huge fan of the Project Valkyrie... fan films would have been the best thing to keep people aware of it. Awareness thru the Kickstarter left negative connotations even if they choose to bask in the short lived and desperately needed attention. I do think that fan film makers should stay away from Macross mechs and characters though, there too much there that just leaves to the backlash in the comments section. Or even Sentinels. They should do Mospeada or beyond. They also have the extra challenge of making sure that it looks good... even when it's just a fan film, I think that a bad looking one just makes it look like they're so willing to accept anything at any quality.

[Gerli]

From Creavision FB Page:

La campaña termino sin llegar a su objetivo económico, pero no termina acá...

"The Campaign is over, but this is not the end..."

Maybe they sign a contract...? May God have mercy of their souls...

[Seto Kaiba]

"The Campaign is over, but this is not the end..."

Maybe they sign a contract...? May God have mercy of their souls...

So... is this "I need an old priest and a young priest" sort of mercy situation, or a "No ma, yeller's my dog" sort of mercy situation?

[...] I do think that fan film makers should stay away from Macross mechs and characters though, there too much there that just leaves to the backlash in the comments section. Or even Sentinels. They should do Mospeada or beyond. [...]

Therein lies a problem... the Macross Saga is the one that really hooks a lot of fans into Robotech (and, subsequently, into the broader Japanese Macross franchise), so it's also where Harmony Gold has concentrated most of its efforts in world-building. So that's naturally going to be what they're inclined to focus on.

Even the new comics, which were supposed to be the foundation of the reboot, couldn't help but leaven the New Generation's one major story with a Macross Saga mini-comic.

[Mommar]

From Creavision FB Page:

"The Campaign is over, but this is not the end..."

Maybe they sign a contract...? May God have mercy of their souls...

Just release the third part of their fan film. It's better than anything HG will ever put out anyway.

[EXO]

From Creavision FB Page:

"The Campaign is over, but this is not the end..."

Maybe they sign a contract...? May God have mercy of their souls...

Poor them. Roped into the very thing they were trying to work against in the first place. To think that they tried to do their own thing because they were tired of waiting for something new from HG. It's like a really bad and boring Twilight Zone episode.

[coronadlux]

[quote name="JB0"

I REALLY wish I'd saved the photo of the Robotech ad at Mr. Macek's funeral. Because GOD DAMN.

This one?

Edited August 4, 2014 by coronadlux

[Agent ONE]

WIRED UK wrote an article about RT kickstarter cancelling 23 mins ago:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-08/04/robotech-academy-cancelled

AAAAHAHAHAHAHA.!!

Biggest press moment HG has ever had, and its an article about how they are ace-screw-ups.

This one?

Thats a travesty

[1st Border Red Devil]

Therein lies a problem... the Macross Saga is the one that really hooks a lot of fans into Robotech (and, subsequently, into the broader Japanese Macross franchise), so it's also where Harmony Gold has concentrated most of its efforts in world-building. So that's naturally going to be what they're inclined to focus on.

Even the new comics, which were supposed to be the foundation of the reboot, couldn't help but leaven the New Generation's one major story with a Macross Saga mini-comic.

It simply shows that the "Creative Team" at Harmony Gold lack talent (and a spine I might add). When you get handed lemons, you make lemonade. You don't sit there and bitch and moan because the other guy got oranges. You have to make your own market share, not simply try to glom onto the other fellow's market share. The Sentinels was the perfect blend of the three series that could bridge the gaps. The ersatz-Macross Destroids and Battlepods are apparently in the clear because the Thundercracker appears for a few seconds in R:LLA (and the Battlepod looks ALOT like a preproduction MOSPEADA Inbit design anyway). Of course, as a personal aside, Buckethead Breetai really should have been given BD Edward's facemask instead....

[Seto Kaiba]

It simply shows that the "Creative Team" at Harmony Gold lack talent (and a spine I might add). When you get handed lemons, you make lemonade. You don't sit there and bitch and moan because the other guy got oranges. You have to make your own market share, not simply try to glom onto the other fellow's market share. The Sentinels was the perfect blend of the three series that could bridge the gaps.

Well, in all fairness, the lack of talent isn't something they can really do anything about... the franchise is not exactly in fantastic health, and retaining a studio for development assistance would be right out for the twin reasons of relinquishing some creative control and not being able or willing to spend that much. They got handed lemons, and can do little else besides bitch about it, because they don't have the ingredients, the tools, or the knowledge necessary to make lemonade.

The lack of spine, on the other hand... well, they're not really allowed to have spines. For all Tommy's supposed obsession with retaining complete, micromanager-level creative control over Robotech, he's still only allowed to make what the higher-ups there are willing to sign for. Since they've made no secret of the fact that they're only interested in what's immediately profitable, that's naturally going to limit their focus to Macross first and foremost, and MOSPEADA as a distant second. It means they neglect 1/3 of their story, and you end up with a parade of awful, samey bullshit because Harmony Gold is trying to make themselves a non-infringing clone of Macross, with a conspicuous lack of success due to the conspicuous lack of talent or a budget.

Nowadays, the appeal of the Sentinels to the majority is because of its Macross aspects... the fans are desperate to resolve the one dangling plot thread of "What ever happened to Admiral Hunter?". It wasn't even all that different from Shadow Chronicles when you get down to it, it had a lot of the same awful ideas and terrible writing and execution, but it managed to do so in a way that wasn't a huge, jarring departure from the established story. (Principally because it didn't overlap with the existing story in any meaningful way.)

The ersatz-Macross Destroids and Battlepods are apparently in the clear because the Thundercracker appears for a few seconds in R:LLA (and the Battlepod looks ALOT like a preproduction MOSPEADA Inbit design anyway). Of course, as a personal aside, Buckethead Breetai really should have been given BD Edward's facemask instead....

Have they actually confirmed that that blurry, out-of-focus mecha-bigfoot is one of the ersatz destroids? Because it's missing a few design features here and there, and looks more than a bit like one of the rejected MOSPEADA concepts too. I wouldn't go taking that as an indication that the Sentinels destroids and battlepods are in the clear.

All the same, I doubt they'd revisit them out of sheer bloody-minded paranoia.

[Marzan]

AAAAHAHAHAHAHA.!!

Biggest press moment HG has ever had, and its an article about how they are ace-screw-ups.

Thats a travesty

I'm thinking that they're currently operating on the "there's no such thing as bad publicity" idea. How the people in charge of their communication with the fanbase still have jobs, is one of life's big mysteries.

[1st Border Red Devil]

Have they actually confirmed that that blurry, out-of-focus mecha-bigfoot is one of the ersatz destroids? Because it's missing a few design features here and there, and looks more than a bit like one of the rejected MOSPEADA concepts too. I wouldn't go taking that as an indication that the Sentinels destroids and battlepods are in the clear.

All the same, I doubt they'd revisit them out of sheer bloody-minded paranoia.

Can't be the Tiger unless someone modified it to put arms on it, modified the legs and added the 'drums' to the chassis. And yes, I agree that they probably won't out of bloody-mindedness, but I disagree about paranoia. Tommy is simply an asshat.

[VF-15 Banshee]

Minmei was depicted as a DD-cup slurm who toys with the affections of a married man and Rick's homicidal pet Starscream T.R. Edwards.)

Why am I not surprised? (grinds teeth)

[UN_MARINE]

It's not just that they're devoid of talent, it's the inherent problem with people who steal ideas. They can steal* the idea, but they can never steal the spirit of what made the idea great in the first place. Eventually, the creator of the idea will go on to make better ideas, while the "thief" will be left clinging to what he stole.

*In HG's case, we know they did it legally, but I think you get the analogy.

[TheLoneWolf]

From Creavision FB Page:

"The Campaign is over, but this is not the end..."

Maybe they sign a contract...? May God have mercy of their souls...

Harmony Gold probably told Creavision that at the very least, once Warner Bros.' live-action film rights expire, that they (Harmony Gold) will no longer be contractually obligated to block Robotech: Valkyrie Project. In other words, expect Robotech: Valkyrie Project part 3 to be released in another four years.

[Seto Kaiba]

Can't be the Tiger unless someone modified it to put arms on it, modified the legs and added the 'drums' to the chassis. And yes, I agree that they probably won't out of bloody-mindedness, but I disagree about paranoia. Tommy is simply an asshat.

Can't be the not!Monster either, wrong number of guns, among other things.

Too blurry to make much more than that out anyway... I can't believe that was the single most talked-about part of the Robotech bastardization of MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive.

Pretty sure there's a little bit of litigious paranoia at work there though. Just look at the perverse effort they went to to put every last goddamn Macross Saga character they could "on a bus" or in the ground. Even ones that should have been "safe", like the not!Exsedol from Prelude (who looked more like a balding Grand Moff Tarkin). They didn't even permit Max or "Miriya" to show their faces, and all the reused scenes replaced the Macross and Southern Cross mecha that the old comics originally had with MOSPEADA ones even though it was not actually necessary to do so.

It's not just that they're devoid of talent, it's the inherent problem with people who steal ideas. They can steal* the idea, but they can never steal the spirit of what made the idea great in the first place. Eventually, the creator of the idea will go on to make better ideas, while the "thief" will be left clinging to what he stole.

I think that's a big part of why Robotech fans are doomed to be disappointed over and over again. Look at the comments over there on Robotech.com, and you'll see many of them mistakenly credit Macek and Harmony Gold with creating the iconic parts that they loved in Robotech. Problem is, Harmony Gold and Macek created very little, apart from a nonsense macguffin and a couple minor story changes... so their hopes that Harmony Gold will one day create something just as exceptional are founded upon false hope, since they never created those things in the first place.

Harmony Gold probably told Creavision that at the very least, once Warner Bros.' live-action film rights expire, that they (Harmony Gold) will no longer be contractually obligated to block Robotech: Valkyrie Project. In other words, expect Robotech: Valkyrie Project part 3 to be released in another four years.

So, who's up for a bet? Will Harmony Gold or Creavision be first to "market" with a new cinematic Robotech project?

[Protoculture]

For me, the way HG has been promoting RT: Academy as another late Macek's project is a bit disheartening. It kinda mirror's Macek's own crash and burn pet project RT: 3000. I mean, at least RT: LLA is kinda a tribute the man's own work in adapting Robotech from 3 diff anime series.

HG shouldn't have promoted RT:A as a Kickstarter project. Atleast reserved it as sort of a graphic novel or a new Robotech comic series to reboot the RT II: The Sentinels. The fact that HG refused to even fund the animated RT:A is a glaring example.

Am I disappointed that RT:A fundraising campaign fails? Nope. I am only disappointed that HG expect fans to fund an animated RT production when HG should've done that in the first place.

I have a sinking feeling that Creavision is being roped in by HG for another project. That could easily be RT: Shadow Rising, if that production ever see light of day. Creavision may have signed on perhaps to replace the Korean studio, DR Movie which contributed to the animation for RT:SC.

I've also a feeling that RT:A several mechanical designs might be picked up and appear in future RT RPG by Palladium. Atleast it can be properly salvaged.

[Protoculture]

So, who's up for a bet? Will Harmony Gold or Creavision be first to "market" with a new cinematic Robotech project?

Creavision won't signed on unless 'something big' is being thrown its way. I speculate it could be Shadow Rising. It could very well be since the way DR Movie (and Tommy Yune's too) designs in RTSC are almost universally frowned upon (big racks, anyone?) ....

[Duke Togo]

This is priceless. From the neck beard:

With any anime no longer in production, this has a chance. But not with Macross, who are as close to a new show as us (as in it might happen in two years or so).

Oh yeah, those guys are really close to a new show.

[Seto Kaiba]

Oh yeah, those guys are really close to a new show.

Poor Rabid, that Ottselspy25 guy is probably giving him an ulcer from the sheer stupidity of it all.

The tragic part is that this is actually the closest Robotech has come to having a new series in twenty-eight years... they actually had a going-nowhere concept in development before events conspired against it.

I see they're back to the hopeless what-ifs, wishing that Harmony Gold could somehow pay its way into permission to use all the familiar Macross designs...

[jenius]

There's nothing about that walking artillery that makes me think MACROSS! except for the name. I'm sure HG could use that design if they wanted to.

[anime52k8]

This is priceless. From the neck beard:

Oh yeah, those guys are really close to a new show.

it's a strange, scary place over there.

[Protoculture]

The tragic part is that this is actually the closest Robotech has come to having a new series in twenty-eight years... they actually had a going-nowhere concept in development before events conspired against it.

The tragic part is that HG asked the fans to foot the bills for the new animated Robotech project ....

I see they're back to the hopeless what-ifs, wishing that Harmony Gold could somehow pay its way into permission to use all the familiar Macross designs...

Beating the dead horsey ...

Sigh ..... That's why it is almost pointless to remind 'em fans why RT II: Sentinels the way it is .... PttSC and RTSC went the hard way of MOSPEADA-izing Robotech.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Protoculture