Forum - View topicNEWS: Robotech's Carl Macek on Live Online/Telephone Talk Show April 14
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GATSU
Posts: 15581 |
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You're kidding. He's still working?! |
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pat_payne
Posts: 179 |
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I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of anime fans cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced... |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4613 Location: New York |
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Macek's working on Bleach? You're kidding me.
I went and submitted a question. This could be fun. |
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Iritscen
 Subscriber Posts: 802 |
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Although pat_payne's comment cracked me up, I can't help but wonder sometimes if Macek really isn't part of the Pantheon of Evilness along with Hitler and Stalin. What if he was just trying to make a good show palatable for American TV executives so it could get on the air? Just a thought.
I know already this is going to be a disaster if it's live. Nothing but prank posters/callers dissing him over Robotech. |
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pat_payne
Posts: 179 |
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While you're technically right that perhaps he isn't the absolute worst thing to hapen to anime, from what I've read about him, he has a rather sizeable ego problem with regards to Robotech -- that he's some auteur who took three crap shows and turned them into an apple of gold. When I hear "Carl Macek" I think of some of those cheesy '50s monster movie producers who took Japanese kaijyuu films and added schlocky subplots and Caucasian actors *coughcough*raymondburr*coughcough* to them. Certainly, the movies weren't Kurosawa-quality (Gojira included), but many times the adds just added a new level of schlockiness to them. BUT they did get the source material in some way into the public eye, paving the way for the originals to be released sometime down the line as happened with Gojira/Godzilla. It's similar with Macross/Robotech. I can't stand to watch Robotech these days. I hate the poor voice acting (Dan Woren was the only good one IMHO) and the crummy rewrites. Choh Jikuu Yosai Macross itself was not a textbook example of Miyazaki-quality animated artistry (but given the budget they worked with, it's not surprising) but it was a show with heart and soul that transcended in some ways the limitations of the animation. However, we do owe Robotech and, grudgingly, Carl Macek a debt of gratitude for introducing Western fans of the show to Macross at all, paving the way for AnimEigo's and ADV's unmolested releases of the series. Although, to be fair, a lot of people's anger in the Macross fan community is misdirected at him, when it should be aimed at Harmony Gold, who IIRC did foist upon him the task of melding the three shows together. It's irrefutable that he did want to bring Macross (after a fashion) by itself to the US. And not a bit of anger headed towards acek is actually in reacton IMHO to the legal mind***ks that Harmony Gold has been perpetrating to hold on to really their only cash cow. And I hope that people won't razz him too much without cause. Although I have little use or regard for him and his skills as an anime producer/director, Carl Macek is a human being and deserves some respect and consideration. |
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Robotech_Master
Posts: 6 Location: Springfield, MO |
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First off—thanks, ANN, for mentioning the show. I hope people will also check out some of the older episodes that are available; I've interviewed a number of animé dub actors, and haven't limited my questions to just their Robotech work. Richard Epcar had some fascinating insights into the Lupin III TV series dub, for instance, and Steve Kramer had a great story about how he was asked to "help out" with the Princess Mononoke dub.
I think that it's become fashionable to hate on Robotech among people who were formerly neutral about or even enjoyed it when it was on the air. To be fair, part of it, maybe even more than half of it, is true ire at how "he screwed up my favorite show!" but I suspect there's also some of the good ol' "I want animé to remain a niche so I get to feel superior to the plebes" snobbery that's been around since at least the early '90s, and also some "I can't afford to look like I like that show or people will sneer at me" insecurity. As has been pointed out, it's only due to Robotech that we can even get subtitled versions of Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada (the latter two of which are as dead in Japan as, say, The Greatest American Hero is over here) today. And let's not forget that among many Robotech fans who've seen the original shows there is some of the exact inverse feeling—people who consider the original shows to be gorgeously animated (for their budget) with many neat ideas, but too full of clichés to be enjoyable. To these people, in downplaying the clichés (changing the effect of music on the Zentraedi from a mystical superpower to simple culture shock, for instance), the dub made the shows more watchable. It's just a matter of opinion. Frankly, I'm neutral about the whole affair. I love Robotech, but I love Genesis Climber Mospeada (the only original show I've watched all the way through so far) too. If people want to prefer the original shows to Robotech or vice versa, either way's okay with me. Just be civil about it. I also think Macek gets way too much flak and, thus, too little credit for his contributions to Western animé fandom. While not the first animé series to be dubbed for the USA, Robotech was the first really popular one, and it set a lot of kids on the path to becoming fans who had money to spend down the road. Akira was one of the first theatrical animé smash hits in America, and it helped as well. His dubs of Cagliostro, Laputa, Totoro, and Kiki were many Americans' first exposure to them. And if his insistence on dubs over subs stuck in fandom's craw, well, fandom at the time was a tiny percentage of the overall audience for animation, and most of that audience scoffed at subtitles (as market figures for dubbed vs. subbed tapes from the companies that did sell both proved). It's really not even an issue anymore, given that with DVDs there's no reason at all not to include both versions on the same disc. I'm not a complete Macek apologist—I have to confess I ranted just as loudly against him back in the day as any other rec.arts.anime(.misc) poster—but in hindsight, I think a lot of the stuff he did really wasn't so bad after all.
Oh, it's going to be live, but I already have experience doing live shows with controversial personalities—I did one with Robotech/Macross II RPGmeister Kevin Siembieda (who has much the same kind of reputation among RPG fans as Macek does among animé fans) a couple of months ago. I won't be taking live calls from anyone I don't know to be trustworthy (show regulars, friends, and the like). I realize this may offend some would-be listeners/callers, and I apologize for that, but it's better to be safe than sorry—I don't want it to turn into the Jerry Springer show; my furniture would never survive it. You can still pose all the questions you want via TalkShoe's live chat client, email, etc. Last edited by Robotech_Master on Wed Apr 11, 2007 5:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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GATSU
Posts: 15581 |
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Robotech_Master:
Macek actually did release Akira subbed. Anyway, I'm assuming that the dubs outsold the subs, because they were cheaper.
I think the real significance of Robotech was that it was the first successful "mature" animated show in the U.S. I doubt we'd have American series like The Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead, if it wasn't because of it. Starblazers was the first "cartoon" in which people died, but Robotech dealt with drag queens, women's underwear, and interracial relationships, among other things. Hell, the early edits of DBZ and Pokemon just prove how ahead of his time Macek was when it came to tv content. |
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ABetterTimeandPlace
Posts: 101 |
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That maybe true for Southern Cross, but not necessarily for Macross and Mospeada. Remember that the virtually unedited Macross and Mospeada dubs were created before Robotech was even conceived. The unedited Macross dub was even initially sold on videotape in 1984. As for Mospeada being as dead as The Greatest American Hero...well, The Greatest American Hero hasn't gotten three DVD releases, or model reissues every five years, or new toys from three different companies.  Mospeada is obscure, but not dead.
Many Robotech fans say (based on Carl Macek's comments after the fact years later) that the effect of music was downplayed in Robotech compared to the first Macross TV series, but what examples are there of that? Shoji Kawamori specifically used the term "culture shock" to describe the effect of music on the Zentradi in the first series. The effect of music certainly played a bigger role in some (not all) Macross sequels, but not in the first Macross TV series.
Part of the issue is Macek taking too much credit initially. Macek's words during interviews of the mid-1980s (see the interview on the Robotech extras DVDs for one infamous example) would have him taking credit for concepts that were already in the original series.
Not Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, or Speed Racer?  Robotech does have its distinctions (along with Star Blazers, it was one of the first to help create a sustained anime fandom in North America), but it isn't the first really popular anime in North America. It certainly isn't the first really popular anime worldwide either.
That does serve to point an interesting comparison. Why was Streamlines Pictures insistent on only dub tapes (Akira and the Robotech [Less Than] Perfect Collection aside), when some companies were wholeheartedly doing both? Even in the tape era, there were pioneering companies that did both. |
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