Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles [Blu-ray]

Great movie

I have to admit that Shadow Chronicles dissapointed me a little because I was expecting to see Rick, Lisa & the rest of the guys touring in "deep space" again. After all, I had waited 21 years for that! Instead, I got a nice piece of animation with a very intriguing plot and a pretty nice musical score. But that's not the point, and I have to be very honest with this: watching this movie moved me -I was almost on the verge of crying when the opening titles began to appear. After so many years, so many failed attempts, finally we have a continuation to our beloved series...this was REAL ROBOTECH again! Yes, of course, they could have done better; yes, of course, Rick looks weird and yes, none of the guys from the SDF-1 are there, but...who cares? I was actually watching some NEW Robotech material, it seemed a miracle to me! The movie is GREAT because it's Robotech. And considering how hard was for us fans to have our reward after these decades, I think there is enough reason to celebrate and renew our hopes to get more Robotech stuff coming soon. Go and buy this movie!!!

I just ordered this and it's hard to believe it's been over 20 years of Robotech with Shadow Chronicles already out, and some otakus still have issues over Macross and Robotech. Every Macross/Robotech fan has to have their likes and dislikes. Well here's some of the things I recall over the last 20 years of Macross/Robotech.Robotech became an anime series phenomenon next to Star Wars that consisted of Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry - Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. Macross became widely popular in Japan until Harmony Gold bought the rights to all three shows, altered some of the characters, edited some of the most shocking and violent scenes to make the series "safer" for kids to view and rewrote the storylines that would tie all three shows together.Macross, S.D. Cavalry, and Genesis Climber are originally three separate shows that had nothing to do with each other. Genesis Climber was the less popular show in Japan while Macross and S.D. Cavalry were successful. Harmony Gold changed Cavalry's Lt. Jeanne's name to Dana Sterling tying the series with Macross' Max and Myria as their daughter. After Genesis Climber/New Generation ended, Robotech II: The Sentinels movie (originally was to be a 15 episode series) reveals the beginning of who the Invid were and how they invaded Earth. But for The Sentinels movie you see Dana with Max and Myria for a brief time while Rick and Lisa were going to get married including Minmay realizing she had to move on with her life. But the Invid were already beginning their invasion by attacking the Zors/Robotech Masters who meet their demise which leads to Genesis Climber/New Generation.After the success of Macross series, the creators decided to make a movie version of the series. Now here is where a percentage of fans disliked about the movie. The story was choppy and I agree with what they are saying but here's the problem, when you make an animated movie from a series consisting of 36 episodes, how are you going to squeeze 900 minutes into a 115 minute movie? If you're the director, you have to make some really hard choices on what and what not to put in. The movie itself centers around the highlighted moments from the series. Yet the story remains the same. There are two versions of the Macross movie. There's Clash of the Bionoids and S.D.F. Macross: Do You Remember Love. Clash of the Bionoids is the English dubbed edited version where a U.S. distributor hacked off 30 mins. of footage with some important scenes that should've remained. Setting aside Myria's massacre attack on the Zentrans, I was so disappointed with 50% of Minmay's "Do You Remember Love," song with Rick blasting away Bedolza's head were edited out. However, I was relieved the uncut, unedited, Japanese dialogue version, S.D.F. Macross, came out on Ebay. The story from the movie may be choppy but the animation is fantastic. Despite every Robotech fans' fixation on the series, the movie itself has some moments that are a different variation from what we know. For instance, Max and Myria's dogfight leading to her ship. In the series, Max persues her but Myria manages to make her getaway onboard her ship. In the movie, Max persues her all the way into her ship where she tries a sneak attack ambush, Max dodges her firing and their fight continues. What I disliked about the series was during the big battle in space with the Zentrandi and Bedolza. The battle was extended with stock footage looping numerous times with Minmay's cheesy "We Will Win," song. Even Bedolza's battle fortress looked totally lame as an oval shaped asteroid compared to the movie version.Macross Zero is a 5 volume series about Roy Faulker and events that took place sometime before the Zentrandi invasion. In the beginning, Rick/Hikaru is there for a short time to reveal some early moments of their friendship. Roy learns more about himself while fighting in the Union War. As Zero reaches its climax, signs of premonition reveal near future events will occur from what we know from Macross/Robotech. Macross II, Macross 7 and Macross Plus are sequels that take place several hundred years after the end of the Zentrandi and Meltrandi War.Now we have The Shadow Chronicles Movie where some of the leading characters are from Genesis Climber. With Rick Hunter missing along with the other characters from Macross and Southern Cross. Some fans aren't satisfied with how this movie came about but last year from the Robotech website, they recommended the fans to get the comic-book mini-series of The Shadow Chronicles before the movie came out because it tells the prior half of the story that may have most of the characters from all three shows. But others say the absence of Rick, Lisa, Minmay, Max, Myria and Dana from the movie were due to licensing agreements with the original creators. I have yet to get the comic-book mini-series and to my surprise the Invid are still around after Genesis Climber when Scott Bernard will face a new threat while searching for Rick and SDF-3. And some fans are criticizing over the CGI battle scenes and how some of the female characters were drawn? Please remember Harmony couldn't get the same artists and animators from the old series after 20 years, the characters have to look more grown up as well as we are.

I thought Robotech:The Shadow Chronicles was a terrific beginning (hopefully) for a new sequel to the original Robotech. I am a huge fan and loved every minute of it. But as usual die hard fans have to critisize it. Where's Rick & Lisa? It is to Mospeda themed? etc. What did you expect, Rick Hunter to come flying in on Skull One to save the day. It's a sequel for God's sake. I thought it was great, creating new characters like Marcus Rush (Scott's dead girlfriend Marlene's little brother). Robotech is a multi-generation series and always has been. The original covered 3 generations and 3 wars. What was nice about The Shadow Chronicles was the way they represented the 3 generation even the imcomplete Robotech II:The Sentinels. Vince Grant (Claudia Grant's brother- Macross), Scott Bernard & Ariel (The New Generation) JANICE (The Sentinels) & Maia Sterling (Max & Miriya's daughter and Dana's sister - Macross & Masters). I thought Maia was the biggest suprise. Anyone who read the comics Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles would remember Rick saying that "There's more than one Sterling who can lead the Skull Squadron..." On the next page you see Dana walking by Maia and her team and assume that they meant Dana. But in fact Maia is Dana's little sister and commander of Skull Squadron. You can already see tension between her and Marcus (Rick & Lisa all over again). For those who said it was missing females in command positions and dorky guys, you must have missing Miai & Marcus and Vince & Jean and as always Scott & Ariel. The one complaint is that they did it as a feature film which left little time to really develope the new characters. Hopefully, this is just a pilot to a new series. I'm ready for more.

Robotech-the Shadow Chronicles is hands down one of the best anime stories around....I enjoyed every aspect of this thrilling adventure....the plot was fantastic,the character development was exceptional(among the best I've ever seen)and the movie itself was beautifully rendered....it's just an outstanding piece of work! After reading some of the negative reviews [...]I really didnt know what to expect. I went ahead and ordered The Shadow Chronicles despite the negative reviews and now all I can say is thank goodness I didnt listen to all the naysayers. I loved every bit of this movie and recommend it wholeheartedly to any Robotech fan out there and to any other person who enjoys rip-roarin sci fi adventure! We can only hope that Harmony Gold will contine the Shadow Chronicles(a new tv series or many more quality movies like this).