Video Backlog: “Sailor Moon S”

Publisher: Madman Entertainment (Australia)
Format: Region B Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 38 episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 1994 - 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

In the time that has passed since I’ve reviewed “Sailor Moon R”, Madman Entertainment announced new Blu-ray sets based upon masters used in a 2015 broadcast on NHK Premium Broadcast Satellite. I was rather sceptical that these set of masters would be much of an improvement over Viz’s dreadful sets. However I was really impressed with the video quality. First though, let’s talk about the show itself;

Rei has started to have disturbing apocalyptic dreams where the city is engulfed in darkness and destroyed and the Sailor Senshi are tuned to stone then eventually rubble as the darkness destroys everything in its wake. Attempting to gain more insight as to what her dreams mean, Rei preforms a Shinto fire ritual reading. When that yields few results, Rei later places a prayer on a sacred tree. The tree suddenly transforms into a monster who pins her to nearby wall and proceeds to draw out her heart in the form of a floating, glowing crystal. Usagi hears Rei’s screams and transforms into Sailor Moon, but is unable to defeat the monster. The remaining Sailor Senshi appear to help out but are also pinned down. Tuxedo Mask manages to distract the monster and Sailor Moon attacks it using Moon Princess Halation, but it has no effect. In response the monster overpowers Sailor Moon and ends up breaking her Crystal Star brooch. She reverts back to Usagi and all seems lost until two mysterious energy blasts destroy the monster. Two shadowy figures in Sailor Senshi outfits take Rei’s crystal heart but return it after determining it isn’t the talisman they’re looking for.

It is later revealed that the monster was born from a Daimon Egg, cultivated and sent from a mysterious new enemy called the Death Busters headed up by a strange scientist, seemingly always hidden the shows, named Professor Tomoe, he orders his subordinate, Kaolinite, to plant the “eggs” into inanimate objects. Once a pure hearted person touches the object, a Daimon monster is born and draws out the person’s Pure Heart Crystal. Tomoe reveals he needs three of these crystals (or talisman as he calls them) to order to obtain a Holy Grail which will bring him great powers. After the Daimon’s attack on Rei, the Sailor Senshi discover a second monster attempting to take a young girl’s Pure Heart Crystal. As the Sailor Senshi struggle in the ensuring battle and are once again saved by the mysterious pair of Sailor Senshi, Usagi regains her ability to transform again through the power of her and Tuxedo Mask’s love. Sailor Moon’s damaged Crystal Star brooch transforms into the Cosmic Heart Compact, and she gains the Spiral Heart Moon Rod and, along with it, the ability to transform and defeat the monster.

Usagi and Minako later meet Haruka Tenou, an attractive student of a prestigious high school. Both are smitten by Haruka but are soon disappointed to discover she is a woman. Her constant companion, Michiru Kaiou, is a talented violin player. The pair always seem to be present whenever Daimon are present. The attacks from the Daimon increase, facilitated by Kaolinite and later Eudial of the female scientist group in Death Busters called the Witches 5. In one attack, Haruka and Michiru become trapped in an underground carpark with the Daimon and Usagi. Having no choice but to transform and reveal their identities to each other, the Sailor Senshi are shocked to discover Haruka and Michiru are in fact the mysterious Sailor Senshi Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Sailor Moon asks why they need the talisman, but they refuse to tell her. In the midst of this, Queen Serenity sends Chibi-usa back to present day Earth in order for her to continue her training. As the Daimon continue their attacks, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus tell Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Senshi to stay out of their way and not to interfere.

With the sudden and unexpected resurrection of Sailor Pluto and Eudial of the Witches 5 creating a computer program to find the talisman, the story arc comes to a thundering conclusion with Eudial setting a trap for Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. However of course Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Senshi manage to save both of them and thwart Eudial’s plans. In the second story arc, Chibi-usa encounters the sickly and lonely 12 year old Hotaru, whom she quickly becomes best friends with. As their friendship continues to blossom, Usagi pays a visit to Hotaru’s home where they meet her father’s assistant, a woman who looks just like Kaolinite. Usagi is initially taken aback, but comes to the conclusion that the woman merely just looks like her as the real one was defeated. However Hotaru is in fact living the in same house as Professor Tomoe and is supposedly his daughter. A mysterious being called the Messiah of Silence, who has the same appearance as Hotaru, is shown living in the house as well, and demands Tomoe deliver her Pure Heart Crystal. Sailor Uranus accidentally witnesses Hotaru using a mysterious power to fight off a Daimon and warns Sailor Moon that she and Chibi-usa should stay away from her.

By the third season of this series (actually called “Sailor Moon Super” as evidenced by the next episode previews) the format of each episode had been set in stone. While the “monster of the week” formula is rather predictable, the creative staff manages to make things interesting by creating some really hilarious and bizarre monsters. All of the Daimon monster names are puns on whatever the theme of the episode is such as festivals, an episode revolving around a planetarium etc. The women of the Death Busters sent out by Professor Tomoe also spice things up, in particular the Witches 5. While their main goal is pretty dark, taking the hearts of innocents, a lot of the time they are used for comedic purposes. In particular Eudial and her station wagon and Mimete’s continual obsession with celebrities. By this series Kunihiko Ikuhara has really stamped his influence on the show. There are some really surreal moments in this which at times seem like experiments and ideas that would be refined for “Utena”. A lot of the Witches 5 sequences in the lab look and feel similar to those in “Utena”. In one episode directed by Ikuhara himself, he uses a set of bespectacled triplets which look very similar to the triplets in “Utena”.

One of the biggest changes in this series is the addition of an overt yuri-like subplot. The addition of Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou is quite interesting as we are never in doubt of the nature of their relationship. Apart from their relationship and despite obviously being Sailor Senshi, their goals and allegiances are not made clear to at least the half way point of the show. Even then at times it’s unclear if they actually have the same goal as Sailor Moon and the rest of the Senshi. Besides the sudden resurrection of Sailor Pluto, the other big surprise is the return of Chibi-usa and her ability to transform into Sailor Chibi Moon. Her attacks are of course hilariously ineffectual. But Chibi-usa’s reintroduction into the series isn’t just for comedic effect. Her relationship with the lonely and sickly Hotaru is what makes the second story arc work, as well as her and Professor Tomoe’s tragic backstories and redemption. In amongst all of this are some really good episodes focusing on individual members of the Sailor Senshi. In particular I liked the episode where Minako’s self-doubt kicked in as the Daimon hadn’t attacked her for her pure heart.

Interestingly as the series progresses, it increasingly focuses in on the Sailor Senshi at the detriment of the secondary cast established in the first two series. By this series they only make fleeting appearances. Some only appear in a single episode such as Umino, Naru, Rei’s grandfather and Usagi’s family. However one of the episodes highlights Yuuichiro and Rei’s feelings for each other. It’s a fantastically sweet story with Rei finally letting him know how she feels. This series also contains the infamous Shin-chan parody sequence with Chibi-usa which baffled many fans of the show who were unfamiliar with “Crayon Shin-chan”. Both shows were huge at the time of broadcast and featured on the same TV network. As a result the voice actors for Shinnosuke (Shin-chan) and his mother, Akiko Yajima and Miki Narahashi appeared in that episode. “Crayon Shin-chan” included a parody of “Sailor Moon” within the show called “Sailor Mufoon” and Aya Hisakawa (Sailor Mercury), Emi Shinohara (Sailor Jupiter), and Kae Araki (who voiced Sailor Moon when Kotono Mitsuishi was ill in the final episodes of the first season) reciprocated by appearing in an episode of “Crayon Shin-chan”.

The video quality of Madman’s Blu-ray box set is miles ahead of Viz’s substandard video. As I previously mentioned before, it seems the video for the series was remastered for a 2015 broadcast of the series. While it is a major improvement, it’s certainly not perfect. There is some banding visible at times and for some odd reason lighter optical camera effects, such as light strobing effects or scene transitions to white screens, don’t look that brilliant. In those shots the video can look rather “splotchy” (forgive me; I don’t know what the technical term is). Darker scenes fare much better. Overall it’s more than passable and the vast majority of the time it looks very good. Other aspects of the set don’t live up to Viz’s admittedly excellent looking box sets. While the video on the discs is vastly better, the discs oddly have no pop up menu and no chapter stops before the pre-episode preview, which means you have to rewind to the end of the opening if you want see that preview and skip the opening. Other than the clean opening and closing animations (which seem to be from an unremastered composite tape, and look rather mediocre when compared to episodes), there’s no other extras. The set comes in a chipboard box with the same artwork used for Viz’s set, but complied in a different way making it look totally different to Viz’s set. It also contains a much smaller booklet which only has artwork, character bios and a relationship chart. The discs are definitely region B coded and not region free like some other Australian discs which state region B on their covers.

Overall, this is a very good release of one of the best magical girl shows ever produced. The “monster of the week” formula can be frustrating, but there’s more than enough variety to keep things interesting. Of note is Kunihiko Ikuhara’s style seeping into the series with some sequences looking like early prototypes of what would be used in “Utena”. The story revolving around Hotaru and Professor Tomoe is well written, as is the climax of the series. But I think the two episode post climax could have been truncated or cut all together. This series has pretty much escaped the ravages of time, but I think the magical girl shows which came after it probably topped this show and as result the series doesn’t feel quite as exciting as it first did. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 25 TV series, 4 OVAs, 10 movies and one TV special. In addition I am also waiting for additional parts of three TV series and one movie to be released before viewing them.

Anime DVDs You May Have Missed: “Kochikame the movie”

Japanese Title: Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo The Movie (This is the Police Station in Front of Kameari Park in Katsushika Ward The Movie)
Publisher: Pony Canyon (Japan)
Format: Region 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 95 minutes
Production Date: 1999
English Version Release Date: 19 July 2000
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Good for nothing middle aged police officer Kankichi Ryotsu (or Ryo-san to his colleagues) has been chosen via computer as a “robber” for a drill at a local bank. But due to Ryo's nature he has decided not to follow the script and make the drill much more “realistic” by stopping staff from setting off the alarm and actually taking wads of cash from the bank. This horrifies everyone including his robbery partner and police officer, the long suffering Yoichi Terai. After Ryo deliberately lets Yoichi get splattered with a paint dye bomb so he can grab the bank's money, he escapes giving his waiting colleagues the slip. However Ryo happens across a real bank robbery in progress. The two bank robbers have taken one of the employees hostage. Ryo fires blanks at both the robbers from a machine gun that had been confiscated from a gang the previous week. The robbers are shocked and drop their weapons, which gives the waiting riot squad a chance to arrest them. But Ryo's commanding officer, Daijiro Ohara, is as per usual livid at him.

There is no time for Ryo's punishment as the robbers have left a time bomb behind which has five minutes until it detonates. Ryo rushes in to defuse it, but ends up entangled in its wires. He attempts to commandeer a passing bus in an attempt to have the device explode in a safe place, but the driver refuses to leave. The bus cuts a swathe of destruction through the city and eventually ends up on its side to avoid hitting a temple. Luckily for Ryo, the station's motorcycle cop, Hayato Honda, was following the bus and they make a beeline for an isolated spot where Hayato unceremoniously dumps Ryo and flees. Ryo makes a futile attempt to remove the bomb from himself and then neutralise it, with the only result being that his pants fall down. Much to the surprise of everyone, a helicopter lands and young woman exits who cuts one of the wires stopping bomb from exploding.

Later the next day, Ohara is chewing out Ryo, but he makes an excuse that he should be on patrol and quickly rides off with his boss continuing to shout at him. Unfortunately for Ryo the townsfolk have heard of yesterday's incident, one in a very long line of disasters for Ryo, and the townsfolk criticise him as he rides along the road. So to avoid them he cycles out further to he gets to Ueno park. There he reminisces about his childhood days spent there until he discovers that the temple in the park has been replaced by a gaudy hotel. Disgusted at it, Ryo throws a small rock at it, and much to his surprise the entire building collapses. However this disaster wasn't Ryo's doing for once. It is the work of Bentan Mask, a mysterious terrorist who gave a warning via the internet of his intent to destroy the building. The department has invited Lisa Hoshino from the FBI (the same woman who defused Ryo's bomb) to help investigate the crime and to help thwart any future attacks. Ohara orders Ryo to attend Lisa's lecture on dismantling bombs, in which the disinterested Ryo falls asleep in. Lisa punishes him by programming her bomb defusing robot, Dandy, to dismantle his chair, which sends the sleeping Ryo crashing to the floor. Incensed at this, Ryo challenges Lisa to duel with his homemade robot, Densuke the 28th. Naturally Ryo's poorly made and odd looking robot loses.

Lisa's lecture turned robot competition is interrupted by an emergency callout. Bentan Mask has sent another waring to the police. This time his target is the Shinatora Moonlight building and it will be bombed at midnight. Like the previous hotel complex, this one is owned by the Shinatora Company. The police have hypothesised that Bentan Mask may be out to get company CEO Torazo Shinatora. He has suspected links to criminal activities, but has managed to dodge any charges that have been levelled at him. Much to Ryo's disgust, Ohara has ordered him to be Lisa's partner on this case mainly because no one will miss him if he's killed by a bomb. Upon arriving at the building, the reluctant partners find charges in the pillars inside the building, and then search for the timing device. However due to Ryo previously kicking Dandy several times, the robot’s drive shaft is broken and it cannot reach the timer. Ryo lifts the heavy robot above his head, but slips which causes the robot to short circuit the timer advancing the detonation time to just 40 seconds. Lisa, Dandy and Ryo escape in the nick of time as the building is reduced to a pile of rubble. However the police spot a safe in junk pile that was once the Moonlight building. Inside are hundreds of thousands of yen in banknotes and Torazo is arrested on suspicion of tax evasion.

Despite the positive result in charging Torazo, Ryo is yet again chastised by Ohara. Ryo believes it is all Dandy's fault and breaks into Lisa's trailer to graffiti the robot. Unfortunately he is caught red handed and even after viewing closed circuit TV footage of him writing on the robot, he claims that someone who looked like him broke in and committed the crime. Ohara can't take anymore and confines him to the police dormitories for two weeks. Ryo's work colleague, the young, rich and handsome officer Keiichi Nakagawa, visits him and is utterly astounded to find him digging a tunnel underneath his room. He says that according to a magazine article he read (actually from a 1968 issue of Shonen Jump) that a shogun's gold is buried somewhere below. Keiichi has to leave Ryo to his own devices as Bentan Mask has sent another warning. This time it's an industrial area owed by the Shinatora Company. Lisa and Dandy are about to go in to find and defuse the bomb. But a worse problem arises when a group of children tell them that they were playing hide and seek in the building and one child cannot be found.

Luckily Ryo who has been digging all this time manages to dig through the floor of the industrial area and finds the child. Meanwhile Lisa quickly defuses the bomb. However in the child was trapped under a number of large pipes. In order to save the child Ryo removed all of the pipes, which somehow weakened the whole structure of the industrial area. It begins to topple and promptly falls apart around them. But all three of them manage to escape via the tunnel Ryo had dug. As a result the Shinatora Company is in trouble again with the law again as due to its destruction, the industrial area is revealed to be hiding an illegal toxic waste dump. The incident has also led to some within the police department to be suspicious of Lisa as so far she has been unable to stop any of Bentan Mask's bombs.

Oddly, like a number of the most popular and highest rating anime on Japanese TV, "Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo" (shortened to "Kochikame" by fans and later the producers of the show) has been pretty much ignored by fans in the west. One of the main reasons for this was the TV series never got a release on Laserdisc or even a later release on DVD. Therefore in the mid to late 1990's when this show was released, the fansubbers didn't bother with it. It's a shame as the show is really funny. To back up just a bit, the "Kochikame" TV series which ran from June 1996 to December 2004 for a total of 367 episodes (though there was a one off anime special created in 1985), is based on an extremely popular manga by Osamu Akimoto. The manga ran continuously in Shonen Jump from September 1976 to September 2016 which made it the longest ever running manga without a break. It has reached a total of 200 volumes of manga and sold over 157 million copies. Never heard of it? Can't say I'm surprised. For some reason a lot of the extremely popular mainstream manga and anime never make it in the west or are complete flops. Hence the reason why you can't buy “Sazae-san”, “Chibi Maruko-chan” or “Doraemon” on DVD in English (except for a couple of movies released in Hong Kong) or see them on TV. I think for the most part they're "too Japanese". It's much easier to market sci-fi or fantasy anime which have universal concepts and storylines.

Though the story picks up some three years into the anime's broadcast run, for the most part you can watch this film without knowing anything at all about the series. First we have Kankichi Ryotsu, or Ryo-san, a lazy, undisciplined mono-brow cop who would rather think up get rich schemes and play around rather than do any real police work. In fact he's always getting himself and his other colleagues in trouble or difficult situations. The storylines usually revolve around Ryo inventing a new gadget or some other money making scheme and pulling rich boy police officer Keiichi Nakagawa into help when he's in financial dire straits. Other characters which regularly feature (but aren't all that important to this film) include Reiko Akimoto, a half French, blonde and busty lady police officer, and like Keiichi also comes from high society. Also in order to understand the final reel of the film, I have to make mention of the character Ai Asato or Maria as she known to work colleagues. Maria is a transvestite police officer who loves Ryo, but obviously the feelings aren’t mutual. Excusive to the anime are two young female police officers Komachi Ono and Naoko Seisho. As you can tell from this film they both love to tease and ridicule Ryo and his schemes. There are a bunch of other characters in this show, but none have particular relevance to this film, so I'll omit them from this review. The entire series is mostly confined to the Katsushika Ward of Tokyo (hence the literal name of the show in English; "This is the Police Station in Front of Kameari Park in Katsushika Ward").

In the very early days of DVD, a small number of anime in Japan was released with English subtitles, of which some were really odd choices. In 2000, possibly because the film had been translated in an attempt to sell it to various international markets, Pony Canyon released this movie with English subtitles. Strange really, as none of the TV anime or the manga has ever made it into English. However despite the fact the disc was English friendly and most DVD players could have region coding disabled, the show really failed to make a splash amongst English speaking fans, even those who regularly imported Japanese DVDs. I think that's quite a shame because as I've said before this show is really funny. While the main plot has to do with a mysterious bomber named Bentan Mask, this is nothing more than an excuse to cram in a ton of absurd jokes that have nothing to do with any aspect of the storyline. I have to say that for this most part this works really well. There's just gag after gag coming at you from all directions. Finally at about the two-thirds mark it does slow down to resolve everything and you could say at this point things get bogged down a bit. However the climax to the film and the whole absurd build up is hilarious.

While the show is supposedly set in the late 1990's and the surroundings and technology confirm that, you can't help feel that it has a distinct 1970's feel, especially in the way some parts of residential Tokyo are portrayed. Being that this a comedic police show, I suppose comparisons to “You're Under Arrest” can't be helped. In a way the two shows are very similar to each other, though I think “Kochikame” anime is aimed at a more for an older demographic. I also noticed that both the “You're Under Arrest” and “Kochikame” movies were both released in 1999 and oddly both have plot points which specifically involve raising the Kachidoki Bridge in Tokyo! There's also a bit of a nod to Masamune Shirow as the robot Dandy is obviously modelled on the Fuchikomas from his “Ghost in the Shell” manga.

Pony Canyon issued the film on DVD twice, once in 2000 in CD jewel case packaging and the second in a more standard DVD case in 2004. Despite the popularity of the series in Japan, both versions have been deleted. I have the oddly packaged CD jewel case version, which quite a number of early Japanese DVDs were released this way. It includes a “making of” featurette, several trailers and TV spots as well as cast and crew biographies. Unfortunately none of these features are in English. The disc also includes an 8 page booklet, which like all inserts in Japanese DVDs, shows how the menus works, and amusingly clearly shows where the “Easter Egg” is located in one of the menus (it's another TV spot). Both DVD versions of the film can be found online for less than ¥2,500 second hand. While hardly a classic film, “Kochikame the movie” is yet another title that against all odds made it out into the commercial market in English and then was promptly ignored. I think this is really unfair. If something as long and laden with Japanese pop culture references as “Keroro Gunso (Sgt Frog)” can be marketed in English, then this show could easily be also. While the movie has one small scene at the very end which would require previous knowledge of the show, the rest of the film can be watched without knowing anything about the manga or TV anime. This sadly out of print DVD offers a small glimpse into the wider world of “Kochikame”, and disappointingly I don't think I'll be able to see that world in English.

Forgotten Anime: “Robotech the Movie”

Distributor: Rank Home Video (UK)
Original Year of Release: 1986, 1985 (Megazone 23), 1984 (Southern Cross)
English Video Release: 1987, PAL VHS, English Dubbed
Japanese Title: Megazone 23, Southern Cross
Runtime: 82 mins

It’s been over nine months since my last instalment of this series, so I have decided to resurrect it. I really want to review all of the old video tapes I have as generally no one seems to talk about this stuff anymore. Most reviews will initially be revisions of stuff I published on my old defunct “Lost World of Anime” website and blog. First up will be a film that has fascinated me for a long time, so much so I created a now dormant website about it; “Robotech the Movie”.

I’m going assume people reading this review are already familiar with the “Robotech” story, so I’m not going to give a synopsis of the series. Instead I’ll plunge headfirst in the story of this film; some 16 years after the events of episode 36 of “Robotech” (the final episode of the “Macross Saga” arc), the Earth has begun to rebuild and is peaceful again. However the Robotech Masters have arrived to retrieve the memory matrix from the computer that was on board the SDF-1, which crash landed in the Pacific in 1999. A platoon of Bioroids is sent down to battle the humans. Solider Todd Harris and his squad members are sent in to fight off the attack. But something strange is happening. Civilians are being captured alive by the enemy. Colonel B.D. Andrews joins in the battle and fights alongside Todd's unit. However Andrews is captured, and the enemy retreats much to the Earth Defence Forces puzzlement.

On their flagship, the Robotech Masters make the surprising discovery that one of the captured humans, Andrews, is a high ranking officer at the Robotech Research Centre where the memory matrix is being held. The Masters decide to make a bio-genetic twin simulant of Andrews, who will be able to follow their orders to the letter. The Masters dispose of the real Andrews and the other captured humans then send the cloned Andrews down to Earth. Upon arrival, the clone manages to gain control of the Robotech Research Centre and orders a cover up of the alien invasion. After a crushing defeat in a battle against the Bioroids, Andrews proposes that they use the alien computer found on board the SDF-1, named the E.V.E, to provide a counterattack plan. But before he sets the plan in motion, he gives orders to transmit the entire computer's data to an old abandoned satellite. He explains to his team that this is just to warm up the computer, but they have their doubts. The data is in fact being intercepted by the Robotech Masters.

Later we meet Mark Landry, a teenager who works at a motorcycle repair shop. He receives a phone call from his friend Todd Harris. Todd is a little agitated, and asks Mark to meet him in an underground car park. There Todd shows Mark a large motorcycle called the MODAT 5. The machine is in fact acts as a database terminal to a giant military computer as well as transforming into a robot. Todd tells mark that he stole it from the military in order to expose cover-up about the new invasion by Supreme Command and Colonel Andrews. He tells Mark they must contact "Eve", but their conversation is cut short when Andrews men come to retrieve the bike. In the confusion, Mark escapes with the MODAT 5 and unbeknownst to Mark, Todd is killed by Andrew's men. An attempt is made to search for Mark and the bike, but Mark has already disappeared and gone back to his workplace. There he gets the bike repainted red and tells the story to his disbelieving workmates.

Despite the death of his friend and warnings he gave about the bike now in his possession, Mark is roped into using the bike in a student film starring him and his girlfriend, Becky Michaels. As Mark and Becky film a scene together, pop star Eve appears on a giant screen bellowing out her new hit single. Mark wonders if she is the "Eve" Todd was referring to. After the shoot, Mark decides to ring into Eve's TV talk show to see if she knows anything about Todd and the MODAT 5. But the call is cut short on TV, even though Mark continues talking to Eve for several minutes assuming his call is still being broadcast. Eve suggests that he brings the MODAT 5 to the studio, but on his way there several of Andrew's men in civilian clothes try to capture him. They fail, and soon transformable bike mecha, known as Harguns, along with military vehicles are sent in to apprehend him. Mark once again eludes capture after a fight on a highway which destroys most of his pursuer's equipment and sends Mark and the MODAT 5 crashing into a neighbourhood playground. Mark is unsure if Eve set him up, so he disguises himself as a delivery boy and searches the TV studio for her. However he soon discovers the shocking truth behind Eve.

“Robotech the movie” is one of those films where the story behind the film is far more interesting than the film itself. However the story of the production of the film, even in places like Wikipedia and as told by other supposedly reliable sources and writers, is often flat out incorrect and repeats easily disproved myths that have built up around the film over the last 30 years. This mostly due to fact the film, outside of a few European and South American releases, did not have a wide release. My own research material I have accumulated over the years includes interviews with the film’s creator Carl Macek, (such as Bob Miller’s extensive interview in “Animato! Magazine”, Spring 1990 and his interview on  ANN Cast, Anime News Network in January 2010), the film’s entry in the “The Animated Movie Guide” (written by Jerry Beck, who hatched the plan to form Streamline Pictures with Macek after seeing a film festival screening of “Robotech the movie” in 1987) and Peter Walker’s Robotech Research website (Peter actually saw the film in the cinema in Dallas in 1986).

The origins of the film go back to 1985 when Harmony Gold was contacted by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films, who had seen a news report on TV about “Robotech” and the popularity of anime on US TV. Both companies hatched a plan to release a “Robotech” film to cinemas in time for the Christmas holidays. Cannon Films was a notorious film company run by two Israeli immigrants that released mostly B-movie shockers. Some of their more well-known films include “Death Wish II”, “Invasion U.S.A.”, “Runaway Train” and “Lifeforce”. I recommend watching Mark Hartley’s fantastic documentary “Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films”, which just shows how insanely the studio was run. Realising that a “Robotech” film could not be completed in the time allotted, Harmony Gold looked at existing films which could be used. “Macross: Do You Remember Love” was immediately struck out as Tatsunoko (the studio that had animated “Macross”) had optioned the film for a US theatrical release in case “Robotech” was a massive success in the US. They even forbid Harmony Gold the use of any “Macross” terminology, such as “Super Dimensional Fortress”, “Zentradi” and even “Protoculture” for any planned “Robotech” theatrical feature.

Eventually Macek stumbled across an OVA called “Megazone 23”. Due to fact it was born out an aborted TV series and had an inconclusive ending, Macek commissioned anime studio AIC to create a new ending for the OVA (which makes no sense if you’ve seen the original OVA) based on his story with other additional animation of generic looking outer space scenes (stars, planets, galaxies etc.) to create an opening title sequence for the film. This early version of the film was to be set during the SDF-1's return to Earth after accidentally warping to Pluto's orbit in the third episode of “Robotech” and supposedly was a straight dub of the OVA with few cuts. The profits of the “Robotech” were apparently meant to fund the follow up TV series “Robotech II: the Sentinels”, which Macek was handling the production of in Japan.

However when Macek returned from Japan to check in on the production of the English dubbing of the film, he was horrified by the direction and acting. Worse still was Harmony Gold had already previewed the film to Menahem Golan who despised it. His directions to Macek to fix the film are the stuff of legend (as per Macek’s recollections); “They didn't understand it; they didn't like it. There was too much talking. So they said, 'Cut this scene out and cut this scene out; they've got these girls; there's too many girls; get rid of this; get rid of that. I was told I had 24 hours to make a new movie. So I said, 'Okay, what do you I want?' And the Cannon people said, 'We want lots of guns, lots of shooting, lots of robots.'”. According Macek, he recut the film with random pieces of footage from “Southern Cross” TV series (which formed the second arc of the “Robotech” the TV series). Again, more recollections from Macek, about how it went down; “I edited together a new version of the Robotech movie in about six hours. I went into a meeting the next day. I played the film silent, and I acted out all the parts for about eighty minutes, and when it was over the lights came on and Menacham Golan said, 'Now that's a Cannon movie'”.

While Macek’s statements about his interactions with Golan seem absurd, judging by the comments of those interviewed for Hartley’s Cannon Films documentary, it’s entirely likely it happened just as Macek states. But the film’s release, reaction to the film and its supposed failure are basically myths in Robotech and wider anime fandom. Frustratingly these myths are repeated ad nauseam with little to no evidence to back them up. In July 1986, Cannon Films test marketed the film in 35 cinemas across the Metroplex area of Dallas, Texas. Not realising the “Robotech” series had a wide demographic across many age groups, the company only marketed it to children. The film was generally only screened in matinee sessions and TV advertising limited to very early morning slots. Yet despite this Macek claims that the film did very well; “It did exceptionally well at the box office 'Robotech the movie' beat the hell out of (Roman Polanski's) 'Pirates', and did respectable against James Cameron's 'Aliens', which was amazing to me”. Reviews of the film were good as well. In the September 1986 Lone Star Comics newsletter, “The Lone Star Express”, Derek Wakefield wrote a very favourable review in his anime column “Banzai!” and noted that the film “had several good reviews by critics”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the only paper in the region to review the film, gave it a 7 out of 10 score

The real reason for the film’s failure to be allowed a wider release was Cannon Film’s own incompetence (Macek’s recollections again); “When they got the demographics back, they realised - it was poised to open in 1,400 theatres a month later - they got the demographics back, they realised 95% or more of the audience was adult. And they had committed to buy time on every major kids program, they were going to market this thing to children. And it was reported that children couldn't stand this movie, there was loud explosions and kids were crying. It wasn't a cartoon for kids. And so they freaked out. They got cold feet and withdrew the film from distribution so they could figure out how to retool it and remarket the film”. In several Harmony Gold sponsored Robotech convention programs in late 1986, it lists promotional videos for the film in the schedule as well as stating the feature was “coming soon to this area”. However the film was never retooled or remarketed for a US audience. The film did get a successful theatrical and video release in Argentina plus video releases in the UK, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. By 1987 Cannon Films was finically in dire straits after some very bad finical decisions such as the acquisition of Thorn EMI film group and a few too many box office bombs. The company folded a couple of years later.

Eventually Harmony Gold’s licence for “Megazone 23” expired. The official line from the company is that as Macek despises the film (and over the years he’s made it very clear he hates it) and they don’t want anything to do with it. Despite that statement a fair amount of material relating to the film has been released over the years; a two part comic adaptation in 1996, a wealth of promotional material relating to the film on ADV Film’s “Robotech” DVD box sets, the sale of a Garland bike figure from “Megazone 23” on Harmony Gold’s online shop, and bizarrely an incomprehensible 29 minute edit of the film with all of the “Megazone 23” footage excised which was released on a “Robotech” DVD box set in 2011. My own personal opinion is that Harmony Gold cannot be bothered relicensing “Megazone 23”. It’s nothing to do with Macek’s feelings on the film. In the 2000’s, ADV Films did have the licence to “Megazone 23” while simultaneously holding the licence for “Robotech”, yet the film was never released. As Macek was an employee of ADV Films at the time and was credited as a producer for the “Robotech” DVD sets, naturally he would have pushed hard to have any release of the movie vetoed.

My personal feelings on the film are mixed. It’s a pretty strange beast. The soundtrack, filled with a great selection of original pop music, is a highlight of the film. Being a fan of “Megazone 23”, the “alternate ending” is pretty darn cool compared to the original, but makes little sense in terms of the original OVA's plot. Of course I can easily see the many, many flaws in “Robotech the movie”. The major one is that the “Southern Cross” footage doesn’t mesh very well with the “Megazone 23” scenes. And of course the “Southern Cross” material was previously used in a completely different context in the “Robotech” TV series. There's also the problem of having two different sets of characters that never interact at all during the entire length of the film. The second major problem is that he plot is also a complete mess. The original material was literally cut up into small pieces and reassembled into a different narrative, with only the nearly non-stop dialogue relaying the plot, which serves as a glue in attempt to hold everything together. The audience is practically bombarded with dialogue and plot almost for the entire length of the film. It's all a bit tiring really. Macek was pretty much forced to attempt to string everything together as one cohesive narrative through this dialogue because of the way the film was edited and complied. But it doesn’t really work all that well.

I readily admit that the film is pretty bad. In fact it’s a total mess of film. However I do find it to be kind of a fun film. It's utterly silly and filled with almost non-stop action. But it's not exactly the worst part of the “Robotech” universe. That title has to go to the abysmal “Robotech: Love Live Alive”. But honestly, how well does this film stack up against the rest of the franchise? Not a great deal of the material in the “Robotech” universe is what you'd call a work of art. A lot of it is poorly written, is full of cliché ridden dialogue and has plot holes a mile wide. Take for instance “Robotech II: The Sentinels” which at times is as poorly written as “Robotech the movie”, and still it’s considered by most “Robotech” fans as part of the official story. You also have the continually changing meaning of the word “Protoculture” in the original TV series. One minute it has the same meaning as that in “Macross”, next it seems to be an actual fuel source.

Despite the fact I do see why people think it's a bad film, I am continually perplexed as to why fans despise it so much when the other parts of “Robotech” are just as bad or worse. According to an article by Peter Walker on the Unofficial Robotech Reference Guide website, it was the San Antonio, Texas branch of the C/FO (Cartoon/Fantasy Organisation) that first made a lot of negative noise in regards to the film. Peter also rightly notes that most people who write off the film as terrible probably have never even seen it. Prior to its first appearance on torrents and Youtube around 2008 or 2009, the movie just hadn’t been widely accessible to fans, especially those in the US who were mostly the ones deriding it. For whatever reason, “Robotech the movie” is regarded as an anomaly in the “Robotech” universe. I understand why Harmony Gold doesn’t really wish to acknowledge it or the fact Carl Macek, in his own words, wanted "for everyone to forget about it". But the fan hate is something I’ll never understand.