Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - Southern Cross
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Cloe
Moderator
 Posts: 2728 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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I agree on all counts, although I love the original Macross series and Do You Remember Love? to almost obscene levels. I prefer Macross Plus in its OVA form, personally, but the movie edition is fine as well. |
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lord_darkseid
 Posts: 57 |
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Interesting. I've gotten more fond of Genesis Climber Mospeada and its Robotech New Generation counterpart out of the three, but still love watching Robotech. Admittedly, my lower regard for Southern Cross is tied a bit to its Robotech Macters incarnation so this one's my cross to bear, but it's a mixed bag. I hated Masters for its very serious story inconsistencies and amount of protoculture technobabble, butI liked its tone, voices and bgm choices better than the Japanese version. It was hands down the most violent of the three and I still couldn't believe what I was seeing in some of those battle sequences.
So when I watched Southern Cross, it was hard to get used to those aesthetic differences but eventually I got through them. I guess I didn't like the... hmmm... less serious comedic mentality you mentioned in the review, but that coupled with the very rushed and openess of the ending made me not like it. Guess I'm one of those kinds of fans you mentioned in your piece, which as usual was well-done and one of the reasons (along with the Chicks Who Dig Anime column) I keep coming back. Oh, and for the record, I liked Robotech: Shadow Chronicles and am wanting its sequel. Still can't sit through Robotech: The Movie (featuring re-used Southern Cross footage, just to make this thread-relevant.  ) . Some things are just... um yeah.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Thankyou Justin for putting the spotlight on this series. One could argue that it is the perfect candidate for a Buried Treasure article, given the way it is sandwiched between two other series in its Robotech incarnation.
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Ai no Kareshi
 Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
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Can it be? Have I finally found a kindred spirit? 
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Renaisance Otaku
 Posts: 469 Location: Modesto, CA |
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I picked this up ages ago for less than 20 bucks during one of ADV's clearences (just in time given that by the next sale it jumped to 60) along with Mospeada. I watched Mospeada and enjoyed it a lot, even if it took me awhile to get to it. I've never really gotten around to Southern Cross. Of the three Robotech series, it's easily the least loved.
Of Robotech, I've only seen about 30 episodes of Macross before I finally got my hands on the real series. Between the four of them, including Orguss, Macross is my favorite. Particularly the original series. It's actually number 2 on my all time list. DYRL is great for its astounding animation, but the TV series just had a wonderfully done storyline, and I've never felt that it suffered in pacing. Heck, Frontier has worse issues in this regard. I'll get around to it eventually, but for now, it's yet another of the dozens of discs I haven't watch while I've been busy with newer shows. I actually have Brian Daley and John Luceno's Southern Cross novels thanks to my sister. Of all the versions of Robotech, those are the best. Namely due to the depth added and the lack of butchered animation. I've yet to read them though. |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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But you sure are big on posting while watching your anime, HEY-OOOOOOOOO 
The reason I never much cared for Southern Cross, even during its "Robotech Masters" incarnation which was my primary viewing of the material, was actually the same reason I didn't like Shadow Chronicles: I don't like the mecha designs. They're exceedingly box-like and clunky in both their vehicle form and robot forms, especially when compared to the Valkyrie and Legioss robots from Macross and Mospeada. What was incredibly awesome about Southern Cross were the armor designs worn by the characters themselves. In a ways, they resembled a sort of futuristic samurai armor a la Yoroiden Samurai Troopers aka Ronin Warriors. It's too bad that we never really got to see very much of the characters in their cool armor doing things compared to the not-so-cool robots. EDIT: Oh, the other absolute deal-breaker for Southern Cross was the rushed and pretty awful ending. Even though anime kind of always did this to some degree, once Evangelion came along and set a tremendously horrible example by way of its "let's only plan out the first few episodes and then make up the rest as we go" approach resulting in unparalleled success, pretty much all anime follows this philosophy with regards to planning out a series. The result is lame, unsatisfying ending after lame, unsatisfying ending (see: everything Gonzo's ever done other than Gankutsuou). Say what you will of Macross and Mospeada, but their TV shows end in a matter that wraps up most everything rather neatly (check your Flashback 2012 / Megaroad discussions at the door). I know that the Southern Cross makers had the situation sort of forced upon them, but I'm much less forgiving of bad endings than I am of bad beginnings. Last edited by Anime World Order on Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
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B-503_MIA
 Posts: 149 Location: Green Bay, WI |
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As one of those "wake up early to watch Robotech every weekday" types in his late 30's I always enjoy threads/discussions about the series or any of the originals it was compiled from.
I've just finished up watching the entire Robotech series from start to finish (including all the bonus features DVDs - love the toy demos & the Sentinels movie on dvd) & the Shadow Chronicles movie. The Shadow Chronicles was pretty good & I feel guilty about snagging it & the Full Metal Alchemist movie from the $3 bin at Big Lots (both were the lenticular insert versions). I recently posted a thread about which version of Macross I should buy & I went with the more recent version by ADV, bought it all at one time through a combo of trsi & second spin (for the collectors box). I already had the Southern Cross & Mospeada box sets from an incredibly cheap sell off through either ADV (or trsi?). My next step now is to watch all three of these series back to back, after this review I look forward to that even more now. Who is the bigger jerk- Zor Prime from Robotech or Seifriet Weisse from Southern Cross?? RE: Robotech vs Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeada, I enjoy both fairly equally. I was exposed to Robotech 10+ years before I even knew of the original series existence so I harbor no ill will toward Harmony Gold/Carl Macek... I am quite happy to have the original 3 series on dvd to compare & contrast. I kind of look at it the same way folks can be fans of Sailor Moon in both the dub & subbed formats... P.S. Anyone going to have the balls/cash to pony up to get an R1 release of Macross Frontier?? I've already seen the whole thing via CR & veoh but I want dvds (or eventually blu ray)... |
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LordPrometheus
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Heh, so I suppose Full Metal Panic, and Solty Rei, and Chrono Crusade, and Witchblade all had "lame and unsatisfying" endings as well?  I would add them to the list of exceptions, and I'm sure I've missed a few others.
EDIT: reworded for clarity Last edited by LordPrometheus on Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:37 am; edited 2 times in total |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5909 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Chrono Crusade's ending was written in stone from the very beginning. The foreshadowing was plain throughout the series. Sure it was sad, but it fit the show.
Never saw the original Southern Cross. Was never really happy with the Masters and New Generation. They never seemed to match the same levels of Macross Robotech, despite its problems. |
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LordPrometheus
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I think I'm going to have to edit my post for clairity, because it looks like I'm agreeing with him, but I'm not. I was trying to use some sarcasm, but it didn't come across very well.
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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Bro, don't mind it too much; this seems like "Hate on Gonzo Week", even where Gonzo doesn't really need to be mentioned
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lord_darkseid
Posts: 57 |
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Hey, Mospeada was a fun show and (as A.W.O. pointed out) it has a decent ending. If Justin does a piece on it, we'll definitely have to talk more about it.
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CaptainAvatar
 Posts: 381 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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I see the combo box set from ADV (Mospeada & Southern Cross) is available locally for $42.99 - gotta pick it up. Also, the bilingual Macross (remastered and with an authentic dub) is available pretty cheap now from ADV for those interested. I bought it as singles, and love it. I never have seen Robotech though - Star Blazers was my first anime series I was passionate about (Speed Racer was actually my first exposure).
Maybe I'll rent Robotech one of these days, or pick up the cheap megaset I see on occasion at various retail outlets. |
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Vicserr
 Posts: 480 Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA |
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Southern Cross has always been the brat of both families (Super Dmension and Robotech) Jeanne/Dana at least grows into a relatively proper commander (Dana does it a bit better than Jeanne IMHO) and puts her unit into shape as the series goes, the series does try to give the conflict an epic feel, too bad that it's shortened run didn't help as basically the Southern Cross High Command tries and fails miserably to stem the Zor/Robotech Masters force with brute force with almost no help from Liberte (A planet colonized by Earth)/ The Pioneer Expedition better known as the Robotech Expeditionary Force), some say that Southern Cross would have faded into obscurity if it wasn't for it's inclusuion in Robotech
And at least the Downgraded mecha designs were explained in the Robotech version because almost all of the resources were channeled to the Pioneer Expedition and the Armies of the Southern Cross had to do with whatever they could produce. and a tank is supposed to be one armored beast so the Spartas/Veritech Hover Tank is forgiven and the Auroran/Veritech Agacs was cool. |
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krpalmer
Posts: 33 |
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The comment about how "even mentioning Robotech brings out the antique fans" seems to pre-empt a lot of what I could say, but I suppose I'm always a sucker for "this is a bit better than a lot of people say" arguments, and suggesting Southern Cross is a "mecha comedy" sounds somehow interesting. (It did remind me, though, of how I rushed to order all of Patlabor after CPM went bankrupt, but still haven't got around to watching any of it yet.)
I will risk going so far as to say that since "2009" is an auspicious year in the Macross and Robotech stories, I'm rewatching the component anime series of Robotech. I've already finished off Macross (although I would say whatever "pacing issues" it may have seem to miss me, although perhaps by being overwhelmed by how inconsistent its animation is episode to episode), and have plans to rewatch Southern Cross in the next few months... although at this very moment, I'm actually rereading the "Masters" volumes of the "Robotech novelizations" somebody already mentioned. (They, though, are controversial to some people in their own way...) |
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