Another trailer for Robotech: Love, Live, Alive

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

Well, another trailer dropped. Seems they located the original Narrator (at least it sounds like him). Wonder if Tommy will have the Condors transform....

Robotech：Love Live Alive

Funny enough, even though the production values are incredibly low, the cel-shaded ships STILL look better than those in The Shadow Chronicles.

[Chris0013]

Did it look to anyone else (I know it was a brief clip) like the Condors were doing a re-entry from orbit?

[glitterboy2098]

Did it look to anyone else (I know it was a brief clip) like the Condors were doing a re-entry from orbit?

given that was what they were supposed to be doing in the flashback in the show, that would follow.

[mech798]

I just saw that... And I'm speechless. I mean, seriously, that would have been middle of hte road animation back when New Generation came *out*. Now? It's just terribly, terribly painful to watch.

[Seto Kaiba]

Well, another trailer dropped. Seems they located the original Narrator (at least it sounds like him). Wonder if Tommy will have the Condors transform.... [...]

At present, it's looking like Tommy opted to stick to the OSM line and leave the AS-C03 Condor as a non-transforming unit.

Funny enough, even though the production values are incredibly low, the cel-shaded ships STILL look better than those in The Shadow Chronicles.

I dunno, honestly... I think it's just shifted which format the material looks like an embarrassment to. The CG animation in the Shadow Chronicles movie would've been an embarrassment to CG animation if it'd aired at any point prior to, say, the mid-1990s. The cel shaded animation in the new bits for Plan 9 from Harmony Gold Robotech: Love Live Alive look like they belong to a not-especially-well-designed video game from about fifteen years ago.

Did it look to anyone else (I know it was a brief clip) like the Condors were doing a re-entry from orbit?

That's... kind of what they were designed for, in the OSM. That's why they had similar engine configurations to the Legioss even though they didn't transform, they were basically orbit-to-surface mechanized paratroopers.

I just saw that... And I'm speechless. I mean, seriously, that would have been middle of hte road animation back when New Generation came *out*. Now? It's just terribly, terribly painful to watch.

Well, the original bits in the MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive OVA that they're bastardizing were actually pretty passable when the OVA came out in the 80s. The new cel shaded bits they've interspersed with it look absolutely terrible, like the studio tried to splice bits from a Battlecry-era video game into it.

[mech798]

I just saw that... And I'm speechless. I mean, seriously, that would have been middle of hte road animation back when New Generation came *out*. Now? It's just terribly, terribly painful to watch.

Well, the original bits in the MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive OVA that they're bastardizing were actually pretty passable when the OVA came out in the 80s. The new cel shaded bits they've interspersed with it look absolutely terrible, like the studio tried to splice bits from a Battlecry-era video game into it.

Yeah-- sometimes I wonder if anyone at HG has even *bothered* to look at animation in the last 15 or so years. Robotech worked very well not simply because it was a good story, but because it was, in comparison to most American animation, high quality and different. It had higher animation standards, forcused more on realistic looking people and backgrounds and was just in many respects superior to what you had coming out alongside it.

But that's not today. Shadow Chronicles was a badly done retelling of a very common story and Love Live Alive A. doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're starting out a robotech fan, and B. has subpar animation, compared to say, Avatar, or even things like Mystery Incorporated or Transformers Prime. Which makes me wonder what they are thinking, because it's one thing to put out a terrible film if you don't know any better, quite another to do so when all you have to do is watch the Hub for 30 minutes to realize you're putting out a product that is at least 15 years behind the curve in story telling and animation.

[Seto Kaiba]

Yeah-- sometimes I wonder if anyone at HG has even *bothered* to look at animation in the last 15 or so years. [...]

I can assure you that they have... it's just that Harmony Gold can't/won't put up the cash to do a good job, because they know Robotech doesn't sell well enough to justify it. The Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles movie was made on the tightest of budgets, with the studio stretching the sort of budget that would ordinarily be allotted to one episode of a televised anime to cover an entire movie... and then stretching it further thanks to the Screen Actors Guild payscales and hiring "big name" VAs.

Robotech worked very well not simply because it was a good story, but because it was, in comparison to most American animation, high quality and different. [...]

The three component series that were used to make Robotech were animated for a different purpose. The American cartoons of the period were meant to be little more than toy commercials, so very little effort went into their creation. In Japan, the original Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam had demonstrated that anime was a viable format for serious storytelling, a fledgling industry movement that Macross and its copycats got in on with gusto and aimed for something more sophisticated both visually and narratively.

But that's not today. Shadow Chronicles was a badly done retelling of a very common story [...]

Eh... the Shadow Chronicles might fairly be called a well-intentioned, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to make a name for Robotech as a credible mecha action series by copying Macross and whatever American SF was big at the time (Battlestar Galactica's remake). Copying the best practices of the big names in your industry is a good idea for a small company, it just didn't come out well for a variety of reasons.

[...] Love Live Alive A. doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're starting out a robotech fan, and B. has subpar animation, compared to say, Avatar, or even things like Mystery Incorporated or Transformers Prime. [...]

Well, they're trying to appeal to fans of the original as well, since the Love Live Alive OVA has never been released in America (legitimately). A lot of fans feel that LLA is a smokescreen intended to distract the fans from the lack of progress with the live-action movie proposal and RTSC Part II. The animation quality? Well, that's just what they can afford when their production budget's so small. (Due, according to HG's PR guy, to senior management's attitude toward the franchise itself.)

Which makes me wonder what they are thinking, because it's one thing to put out a terrible film if you don't know any better, quite another to do so when all you have to do is watch the Hub for 30 minutes to realize you're putting out a product that is at least 15 years behind the curve in story telling and animation.

I've often wondered what they're thinking as well, since they tried something very similar to this back in 1986 and it was a huge disaster for them. I suppose they're hoping that it'll sell on the basis of it being 1. a new thing with "Robotech" on the box, and 2. allegedly Carl Macek's final creative contribution to Robotech.

[Alpha 11]

Don't they know, they need to speed money to make money. Ya, the best I can say about the new animation, is ok. Need to see more to get a good feel for it. I honestly wish I was really rich, I would by HG, say sorry to the owners of Macross and do everything to get it dub and over here, even if it isn't HG who does it, as long as some does it, so that they might lift the restrictions on Robotech to make something halfway descent.

[mech798]

Don't they know, they need to speed money to make money. Ya, the best I can say about the new animation, is ok. Need to see more to get a good feel for it. I honestly wish I was really rich, I would by HG, say sorry to the owners of Macross and do everything to get it dub and over here, even if it isn't HG who does it, as long as some does it, so that they might lift the restrictions on Robotech to make something halfway descent.

For a major animation production you're spending a LOT of money, and Seto Kaiba may very well be right-- it might not bring in enough to make it worth it. The problem is that the one thing they could do that would almost certainly make it a hit is completely cut off in a legal sense. The second problem is that there's a lot more competition out there.

But to be honest, if you literally cannot afford to make a movie that isn't a collection of clips from an older show with the bare minimum of added material, I'd say a pretty logical decision would be "don't make it." (I mean, let's be honest-- HG is releasing what is very close to a 'clip show' rather than an actual production) That's *especially* true if you're serious about a live action film, which may or may not be the case (having a film "in development" or even having a director for a film is a far different thing then having a film in actual production). Publicity is important and honestly, if I was thinking of seeing a live action robotech film, Shadow Chronicles and Love Live alive might go far to make me save my 10 bucks. Of course, if the production values are the same, robotech the live action movie is likely to live up to the same challenging standards set by Robot Jox.

I would love to be wrong, but the fact is that the Robotech franchise on film had one success-- the original series, and everything else has ranged from bad to "utter disaster."

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

At present, it's looking like Tommy opted to stick to the OSM line and leave the AS-C03 Condor as a non-transforming unit.

Ah, except that its a funny designation AS (Armo-Soldier)-C (Convertible, perhaps) kinda like AFC (Armo-Fighter....Convertible?).

[Seto Kaiba]

At present, it's looking like Tommy opted to stick to the OSM line and leave the AS-C03 Condor as a non-transforming unit.

Ah, except that its a funny designation AS (Armo-Soldier)-C (Convertible, perhaps) kinda like AFC (Armo-Fighter....Convertible?).

The creators of the original MOSPEADA didn't go into the head-crushing depth of detail that Macross's creators did, since the only mecha that was intended to be featured prominently in MOSPEADA was the... er... MOSPEADA. I know that, in the animation model sheets, the Legioss's AFC-01 designation is short for "Armo-Fighter Custom". The Condor is only referred to as a regular Armo-Soldier, the C on the other side of the hyphen presumably meaning something else that isn't specified. (The transformation system was a new feature on the AFC-01 Legioss, which was part of a new generation of mecha developed after the Condor and Convert.)

Don't they know, they need to speed money to make money. [...]

Problem is, they're pretty sure it won't make back the money they spend if they spend more than pocket change on it... by keeping their budget really low, they can at least ensure that a few thousand sales nets them enough of a profit that their bosses won't lay them off and can the franchise entirely. LLA is a minimum-effort holding pattern at best... and common decency doesn't permit me to say what it could be at worst.

For a major animation production you're spending a LOT of money, and Seto Kaiba may very well be right-- it might not bring in enough to make it worth it. [...]

It's not me positing that, that's what Harmony Gold's own freaking staff have said... their bosses don't have much faith in RT's selling power, which is part of the reason that RTSC Part II is on hold and why they won't make merchandise for the Masters Saga anymore.

But to be honest, if you literally cannot afford to make a movie that isn't a collection of clips from an older show with the bare minimum of added material, I'd say a pretty logical decision would be "don't make it." [...]

Oddly, making a cut-and-paste job like that in this day in age is actually much more expensive than doing a straight dub... which is part of why credible studios don't do rewrites anymore.

That's *especially* true if you're serious about a live action film, which may or may not be the case (having a film "in development" or even having a director for a film is a far different thing then having a film in actual production). Publicity is important and honestly, if I was thinking of seeing a live action robotech film, Shadow Chronicles and Love Live alive might go far to make me save my 10 bucks. [...]

That ship has probably long since sailed... if, as certain Robotech.com staffers assert, Warner Bros has been watching the official Robotech website to get a feel for how the franchise is doing, then the project is so comprehensively dead it isn't even funny. That it's been almost 7 years and the only thing they've been able to come up with for news is that the project approached a few fifth-string nobodies with minimal experience, it'll probably never get made.

I would love to be wrong, but the fact is that the Robotech franchise on film had one success-- the original series, and everything else has ranged from bad to "utter disaster."

Even the original series' success was only marginal, and limited to certain markets. It didn't last very long.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Did it look to anyone else (I know it was a brief clip) like the Condors were doing a re-entry from orbit?

One of the ones I found, Yes, there was a conbat fighter pictured in it.( It had, what I think was, the invid music theme music for the soundtrack.)

The other I found with RT:LLA in it was the RT movies (SC&LLA) DVD trailer.

[Alpha 11]

Seto Kaiba, why do you keep saying that the original tv series didn't do so well. I was under the impression that it was fairly popular back in the day, and that many people point to it has how they got into anime. So what are those sorces?

[mech798]

Seto Kaiba, why do you keep saying that the original tv series didn't do so well. I was under the impression that it was fairly popular back in the day, and that many people point to it has how they got into anime. So what are those sorces?

I think that while it got a lot of people into Anime, it's direct financial return was fairly poor-- remember, especially in teh 1980's much of a cartoon's success wsa based on secondary merchendising and I honestly can' recall very much stuff for robotech-- and what action figures I do remember were far lower in quality than say, the GI Joe figures.

Also, and this is a point for people thinking about syndication, robotech's big strength, the fact that it had a tight story, was also its weakness. You couldn't just run episodes in any order, or omit some to fit a broadcast segment.

Another factor to remember is that robotech itself was cheap to do, compared to a full-press animation series, and this really killed it. Even ignoring every other problem, HG quite simply did not have the ability to capitalize on any success, or build on its fringe reputation by coming out with other ancillary shows. Take a look at the production schedule for any Japanese company like Toei, or domestic US companies that produced animated series (either done domestically our outsourced).

EVEN if Robotech had been a great success, you had...robotech. That's it. When HG tried to do things like that horrid Megazone abortion, it merely made it very clear that you were cutting and pasting animation, and when they tried to do animation in house, like for the Sentinals movie, it was painful-- it was obvious, even to people who weren't heavily involved in animation, just how low budget it was.

Of course,the solution would be to create a relationship with another major company, oh say, the ones behind the Macross franchise, asnd use those shows, either as stand alones in the Macross setting or modified for robotech (Macross Frontier, would probably be easy to do for that), but well, to do that, you have to play well with others. In the business, HG combined two problems-- being arrogant and hard to work with and not being the sort of 500 pound gorilla that could get away with it.

[Arnie100]

Of course,the solution would be to create a relationship with another major company, oh say, the ones behind the Macross franchise, asnd use those shows, either as stand alones in the Macross setting or modified for robotech (Macross Frontier, would probably be easy to do for that), but well, to do that, you have to play well with others. In the business, HG combined two problems-- being arrogant and hard to work with and not being the sort of 500 pound gorilla that could get away with it.

Good luck with getting Big West to work with Harmony Gold...

[Alrik Vas]

Yeah, I'll basically never stop liking Robotech, but that's probably because I'll never stop liking Macross. They aren't the same thing, but I like the story and characters they share. The more I think about it though, the more I look at the situation and go..."Wow...HG really mucked this up over time. Though it's kinda like watching a train wreck!"

[Seto Kaiba]

Seto Kaiba, why do you keep saying that the original tv series didn't do so well. I was under the impression that it was fairly popular back in the day, and that many people point to it has how they got into anime.

Because of the ratings it got during its very, very brief run on broadcast television... which, amusingly enough, are publicly accessible if you're willing to pay a small fee. Harmony Gold themselves waved the ratings around at a few conventions in the past. There's also the good metric of its actual run length in 1985-1986. In most markets, Robotech didn't keep itself on the air for very long... it typically lasted just long enough to have one-and-a-half complete runs. It only lasted a year before being dropped in the best cases... and even then, it faced stiff competition from Transformers, which we know from Carl Macek's own account. (Transformers was on the air nine times as long.)

It didn't exactly do great in subsequent airings... most of which have seen it either canceled before getting through it once, having an entire saga excised, or getting dumped into an incredibly unfavorable timeslot.

A lot of the "it got everyone into anime" noise is coming from the heavily revisionist version of the franchise's history that Harmony Gold bandied about starting in the 2000s. It certainly got a lot of the older American mecha fans into anime, but you can tell it didn't get many people into anime because virtually nobody remembers it. Similar shows like Voltron or Star Blazers are more obvious candidates, though the titles that really started introducing large numbers of people to anime are Dragonball and Sailor Moon and (later) Pokemon and similar kids shows.

I think that while it got a lot of people into Anime, it's direct financial return was fairly poor-- remember, especially in teh 1980's much of a cartoon's success wsa based on secondary merchendising and I honestly can' recall very much stuff for robotech-- and what action figures I do remember were far lower in quality than say, the GI Joe figures. [...]

Robotech was born from a failed Transformers knockoff hashed together out of Macross, Dougram, and Orguss by Revell (yes, the model train people)... which collided with Harmony Gold's Macross direct-to-video dub during production. Its merchandise did very poorly, and due to various restrictions ended up being very poorly suited to the show's audience. This is part of what killed Robotech II... the toy partner backing out on the project after seeing the lousy sales returns for Robotech's original series.

[...] HG quite simply did not have the ability to capitalize on any success, or build on its fringe reputation by coming out with other ancillary shows. [...]

In many respects, Harmony Gold was obstructed in this by three factors (per their own earlier accounts):

1. Their very limited rights to the original shows meant that they were severely constrained in what they could do.
2. Tatsunoko further limited their latitude by saying that making a Robotech movie with stock Macross footage was out-of-bounds.
3. Their funding was so limited that once the toy partner bailed on them they couldn't afford to do anything.

There's also the unspoken part of that, which is indirectly illustrated in the difficulties they had in dealing with Tatsunoko's staff and the Japanese writers they'd hired. They had no frigging clue what they were doing when they tried to produce a totally-new series... they didn't have the chops to do it themselves, they couldn't afford to hire someone qualified to do all the design work, and Robotech's story was such a tangled mess that the writers couldn't make heads or tails of it.

EVEN if Robotech had been a great success, you had...robotech. That's it. When HG tried to do things like that horrid Megazone abortion, it merely made it very clear that you were cutting and pasting animation, [...]

Choosing a title on a different film stock was a huge mistake, but they were forced to use Southern Cross for that by Tatsunoko, who said that they didn't want HG stepping on any toes while they were busy promoting Macross's movie over in Japan.

and when they tried to do animation in house, like for the Sentinals movie, it was painful-- it was obvious, even to people who weren't heavily involved in animation, just how low budget it was.

That wasn't in-house... the animation work was done by Tatsunoko Productions, the same studio that animated the original three shows. The development work was done by Harmony Gold, and the budget was tiny, which is why it was so painfully bad.

In the business, HG combined two problems-- being arrogant and hard to work with and not being the sort of 500 pound gorilla that could get away with it.

Eh... they were actually on pretty good terms with Tatsunoko until 1999's absolute catastrophes. They were just clueless and broke and, like many inexperienced amateurs in any field, thought they were much better than they actually were. The burning of bridges with Macross's owners occurred because of what may have been an innocent mistake caused by their lack of in-house legal staff, though most folks think it was a deliberate attempt at intimidation so Robotech 3000 would not be facing competition from the far higher quality Macross sequels.

[Alpha 11]

You think Sentinals was bad? I thought it was good. What is wrong with it? Yes, there are some things wrong with it, like Macross and Southern Cross footage that shouldn't be there, and changing the dialoge in one screen from Macross, but other then that, I thought it was great.

[Seto Kaiba]

You think Sentinals was bad? I thought it was good. What is wrong with it? [...]

There's no accounting for individual taste, but the answer I would have to go with is "just about everything."

I mean, c'mon... it was such a godawful mess from start to finish that its own writers couldn't figure it out, the studio had so little confidence in the project that they did the design work as cheaply as possible by doing it in-house (some sources claim several designs were reuses of rejected designs from other Tatsunoko projects), the toy company sponsoring projection quit early in production, and no distributor wanted to touch the bloody thing. Also, its animation and writing were decidedly poor quality for the period, and the "new" characters were such obvious carbon copies of Rick, Lisa, etc. that it verged on being insulting. 'bout the only one who came away smelling of roses was Leonard, and that's ALWAYS a bad sign.

(Never mind that, despite its technical legitimacy, the whole affair felt like it belongs to the same class of knockoffs to which Astro Plan and Space Gandam V belong.)

[Arnie100]

You think Sentinals was bad? I thought it was good. What is wrong with it? [...]

There's no accounting for individual taste, but the answer I would have to go with is "just about everything."

I mean, c'mon... it was such a godawful mess from start to finish that its own writers couldn't figure it out, the studio had so little confidence in the project that they did the design work as cheaply as possible by doing it in-house (some sources claim several designs were reuses of rejected designs from other Tatsunoko projects), the toy company sponsoring projection quit early in production, and no distributor wanted to touch the bloody thing. Also, its animation and writing were decidedly poor quality for the period, and the "new" characters were such obvious carbon copies of Rick, Lisa, etc. that it verged on being insulting. 'bout the only one who came away smelling of roses was Leonard, and that's ALWAYS a bad sign.

(Never mind that, despite its technical legitimacy, the whole affair felt like it belongs to the same class of knockoffs to which Astro Plan and Space Gandam V belong.)

I have to agree with Seto on this, animation quality WAS bad and the dialogue...

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

In most markets, Robotech didn't keep itself on the air for very long... it typically lasted just long enough to have one-and-a-half complete runs. It only lasted a year before being dropped in the best cases...

Sorry, but this is a load of crap and you know it.

[Tiree]

In most markets, Robotech didn't keep itself on the air for very long... it typically lasted just long enough to have one-and-a-half complete runs. It only lasted a year before being dropped in the best cases...

Sorry, but this is a load of crap and you know it.

It lasted like 2 to 3 years here in SF Bay area. And once it stopped airing in SF, I was still picking it up UHF from Sacramento.

[Seto Kaiba]

Sorry, but this is a load of crap and you know it.

You'll find plenty of fans who'll confirm it for you... it lasted a little over a year in LA, SE Michigan, Ohio, parts of Georgia, and a few other markets I have friends in. It's a damn sight better than its later broadcasts, where they didn't even get through the show once before it got pulled. It seemed to do particularly well in 'Frisco and Dallas, TX-way, getting to as many as 3 complete runs, but it still didn't last very long, and then as now it tended to move around a bit.

[Shawn Merrow]

In most markets, Robotech didn't keep itself on the air for very long... it typically lasted just long enough to have one-and-a-half complete runs. It only lasted a year before being dropped in the best cases...

Sorry, but this is a load of crap and you know it.

Its been a long time but sure it did at least 3 complete runs in my area (SE WA) and rather sure it was well over a year.

[Seto Kaiba]

Its been a long time but sure it did at least 3 complete runs in my area (SE WA) and rather sure it was well over a year.

Getting back to the point... which Rabid overlooked... even at its best, the Robotech series did pretty poorly in comparison to its principal competition: Hasbro/Takara's Transformers and, to a lesser extent, Hasbro's G.I. Joe, both of which ran longer and did far better in terms of ratings and merchandise sales. Even Macek pointed to Transformers as a major player in Robotech's less-than-stellar performance in the 80s.

[mech798]

I think it gets back to the fact that transformers was not tied to a single storyline and you could watch it, or show it, pretty much as you pleased with an exception of a few multi-part stories. I won't say it was better, but a big problem with robotech in the days before TIVO and netflix was that if you were able to catch an episode, missed two, and sat back down, you were usually pretty lost.

[Seto Kaiba]

I think it gets back to the fact that transformers was not tied to a single storyline and you could watch it, or show it, pretty much as you pleased with an exception of a few multi-part stories. [...]

That was probably a factor, yeah... but I suspect the real reason for Robotech getting plowed under as badly as it did back then is much simpler than that. Specifically, the Transformers series came out first and was backed by a toy line that was higher quality and had a tighter focus on the show's target demographic. Robotech was the imitation, trying (and failing) to cash in on the success of Transformers at the behest of Revell. It was fighting an uphill battle against the trendsetter, and its merchandise focus largely missed the demographic the show ended up appealing to. G.I. Joe's success was in a slightly different target audience that overlapped with Robotech's, but again it beat Robotech's series to market and its toy line knew exactly who its audience was.

[...] I won't say it was better, but a big problem with robotech in the days before TIVO and netflix was that if you were able to catch an episode, missed two, and sat back down, you were usually pretty lost.

That's an artifact of how the shows were conceived. Transformers and G.I. Joe were meant to be episodic, for consumption by younger kids. The K.I.S.S. philosophy is in full force in their creative process. The robots were split up in two groups, "Unambiguously Good" and "Unambiguously Evil", and every episode had the good robots fight and defeat their evil opposite numbers, saving the day and everyone goes home happy (except Megatron). G.I. Joe was pretty much the same, just with "robots" replaced by "soldiers". Because the episodic format meant the status quo was restored when each episode ended, you could watch them in practically any order without losing the thread of the plot.

On the other hand, Robotech's component shows were all originally targeted toward a much older audience, and were nowhere near as simple or clear-cut in their stories. You had moral ambiguity... the UN Spacy was not the flawless upright pillar of moral certainty that the Autobots or G.I. Joes were, and the Zentradi were not abject evil like COBRA Command or the Decepticons. Instead of a collection of separate stories, you had one monolithic story, meant to be told in the weekly installment format with recaps at the start of each episode. The status quo wasn't restored at the end of each episode in the series.

Harmony Gold tried to sell Robotech to the same target audience as Transformers and G.I. Joe, and it didn't really work out because it wasn't the same kind of show.

I'd love to know who they think the target audience for Robotech: Love Live Alive is... the only word that's coming to mind is "masochists", and that can't be right, can it?

[mech798]

I dunno, but if I wanted to do anything with a property, I wouldn't be letting stuff like LLA, see the light of day. There's just too much good stuff out there right now, and it looks painful.

Maybe they're just banking on those individuals who would buy anything robotech related?

[Seto Kaiba]

I dunno, but if I wanted to do anything with a property, I wouldn't be letting stuff like LLA, see the light of day. [...]
Maybe they're just banking on those individuals who would buy anything robotech related?

On reflection, my guess would be that Harmony Gold is banking on the fanbase's (misplaced) reverence for Carl Macek to get the fans to buy Robotech: Love Live Alive OVA regardless of its (poor) quality. When they first announced it, they put rather a lot of emphasis on how it was something Carl proposed adapting the MOSPEADA OVA shortly before he died. I suppose that way it's pretty safe for the current creative staff... if it's a flop, Macek gets all the blame, and Tommy gets to look good "faithfully executing Carl's final creative vision" if it's not a catastrophe.

(Past performance being what it was, I expect Harmony Gold will set the bar low enough to be a trip hazard in Satan's wine cellar, and declare great success at a point where most credible production companies would be giving serious thought to a public execution for the staffers responsible.)

There's just too much good stuff out there right now, and it looks painful.

Spliced films like this were painful back in the 80's, when they were similar animation styles at two different quality levels... now they're practically criminal.

[Alpha 11]

I dunno, but if I wanted to do anything with a property, I wouldn't be letting stuff like LLA, see the light of day. [...]
Maybe they're just banking on those individuals who would buy anything robotech related?

On reflection, my guess would be that Harmony Gold is banking on the fanbase's (misplaced) reverence for Carl Macek to get the fans to buy Robotech: Love Live Alive OVA regardless of its (poor) quality. When they first announced it, they put rather a lot of emphasis on how it was something Carl proposed adapting the MOSPEADA OVA shortly before he died. I suppose that way it's pretty safe for the current creative staff... if it's a flop, Macek gets all the blame, and Tommy gets to look good "faithfully executing Carl's final creative vision" if it's not a catastrophe.

(Past performance being what it was, I expect Harmony Gold will set the bar low enough to be a trip hazard in Satan's wine cellar, and declare great success at a point where most credible production companies would be giving serious thought to a public execution for the staffers responsible.)

There's just too much good stuff out there right now, and it looks painful.

Spliced films like this were painful back in the 80's, when they were similar animation styles at two different quality levels... now they're practically criminal.

If this is true, I'm starting to wander how long this can go on.

[Seto Kaiba]

If this is true, I'm starting to wander how long this can go on.

With the return on investment having long since paid off the minimal production costs for the Robotech series and their Shadow Chronicles movie, sales of the inevitable re-re-re-re-re-re-re-release are pretty much pure profit, while making "new" material like LLA costs a bit. They'll probably keep going until the number of faithful fans they're peddling this stuff to drops below the level where they can find a distributor willing to accept their terms.

(By their own account, finding a distributor willing to touch Robotech has already become somewhat difficult. Harmony Gold's PR man Kevin McKeever has often attributed the delays in the release of the Shadow Chronicles to difficulties in finding and negotiating with a suitable distributor. Similar statements have been trotted out recently WRT the release date allotted to LLA. I've heard from a variety of sources that Harmony Gold's difficulties in finding distributors willing to take the Robotech franchise on is because they make some excessive demands in negotiation, though I'm not sure if that's the gospel truth or not.)

[Alpha 11]

If this is true, I'm starting to wander how long this can go on.

With the return on investment having long since paid off the minimal production costs for the Robotech series and their Shadow Chronicles movie, sales of the inevitable re-re-re-re-re-re-re-release are pretty much pure profit, while making "new" material like LLA costs a bit. They'll probably keep going until the number of faithful fans they're peddling this stuff to drops below the level where they can find a distributor willing to accept their terms.

(By their own account, finding a distributor willing to touch Robotech has already become somewhat difficult. Harmony Gold's PR man Kevin McKeever has often attributed the delays in the release of the Shadow Chronicles to difficulties in finding and negotiating with a suitable distributor. Similar statements have been trotted out recently WRT the release date allotted to LLA. I've heard from a variety of sources that Harmony Gold's difficulties in finding distributors willing to take the Robotech franchise on is because they make some excessive demands in negotiation, though I'm not sure if that's the gospel truth or not.)

For the first part, that is sad, if it is true. As for the second part, I have heard similar things.

[Alrik Vas]

Robotech ran 3 times full series when i was a kid. Lasted longer than Voltron, but not GI Joe or Transformers.

Because i watched Robotech, i couldn't stand Transformers or GI Joe. I looked at the difference between the two and had to ask myself, "Why would anyone watch this horrible crap?"

Of course, Robotech is horrible mess when compared to (most) of the material it's pulled from. Though without knowing that or having seen the original series at the time, it was easy to see Robotech as far superior to any other kids show. As a matter of fact, i was continuously disappointed by TV when i was a kid because there were not many (if any at all) shows that followed a real story. Most of them were just "hey, buy our toys" and i couldn't get with it.

In any event, I hated Shadow Chronicles. I realized it about half way through when it became apparent i was making excuses for all the crap in it and telling myself to put the rose-tinted glasses back on and just enjoy it.

Whatever they do with this...whatever it is...I'm not sure I'll even give it my time.

Though, i still love the "original" series. And i liked a lot of the material in the sentines novels (though most of it was pretty silly).

[Seto Kaiba]

Well guys, mystery solved... Harmony Gold's plan for Robotech: Love Live Alive is to release something EVEN WORSE a couple of months after, so fans will look more kindly on it thereafter.

[MilkManX]

Well, another trailer dropped. Seems they located the original Narrator (at least it sounds like him). Wonder if Tommy will have the Condors transform....

Robotech：Love Live Alive

Funny enough, even though the production values are incredibly low, the cel-shaded ships STILL look better than those in The Shadow Chronicles.

I actually think this works much better then SC did. I am looking forward to seeing this. I do have the Mospeada original LLA so I know this is a total hack job but it looks "fun"

If you get too serious about these shows it will give you ulcers.

[Arnie100]

Well guys, mystery solved... Harmony Gold's plan for Robotech: Love Live Alive is to release something EVEN WORSE a couple of months after, so fans will look more kindly on it thereafter.

You're not talking about the Voltron crossover, are you?

[Seto Kaiba]

Well guys, mystery solved... Harmony Gold's plan for Robotech: Love Live Alive is to release something EVEN WORSE a couple of months after, so fans will look more kindly on it thereafter.

You're not talking about the Voltron crossover, are you?

I would've thought it was obvious that I was from the context?

[jaymz]

Robotech LLA - I will buy it for the simple reason I DO want to see it.....but I'll likely wait until it hits a bargain bin. Otherwise HG has had me in a "huh??? are they doing and why is releasing something that has in effect been out for nearly 30 years being touted as "new"? "

RT/Voltron Crossover......just.......how? How do you even ATTEMPT to explain this? You can't beyond "cash grab"

Sadly, I am resigned to RT being a red headed stepchild that will be eventually put down like a rabid dog......



Sidenote - In regards to Robotech's "influence" in getting people to watch anime, I flat out call BS. It was well after it's release that Anime started getting the attention it got with things like what was previously mentioned such as Pokemon, Dragon Ball but also things like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Let us not forget anime had been brought to NA well before Robotech as well in the form of Starblazers (Space Battleship Yamato with pretty much only name changes but no story changes), Captain Harlock, Astro Boy, Force Five (Star Vengers/Getter Robo G, Danguard Ace, Spaceketeers/can't recall the japanese name, Grandizer and Gaiking). If anything Robotech tried to ride on their coat tails and was not as "original" as everyone who touts it as such seems to think and this comes from an actual Robotech FAN, namely ME.

[Alpha 11]

Robotech LLA - I will buy it for the simple reason I DO want to see it.....but I'll likely wait until it hits a bargain bin. Otherwise HG has had me in a "huh??? are they doing and why is releasing something that has in effect been out for nearly 30 years being touted as "new"? "

RT/Voltron Crossover......just.......how? How do you even ATTEMPT to explain this? You can't beyond "cash grab"

Sadly, I am resigned to RT being a red headed stepchild that will be eventually put down like a rabid dog......



Sidenote - In regards to Robotech's "influence" in getting people to watch anime, I flat out call BS. It was well after it's release that Anime started getting the attention it got with things like what was previously mentioned such as Pokemon, Dragon Ball but also things like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Let us not forget anime had been brought to NA well before Robotech as well in the form of Starblazers (Space Battleship Yamato with pretty much only name changes but no story changes), Captain Harlock, Astro Boy, Force Five (Star Vengers/Getter Robo G, Danguard Ace, Spaceketeers/can't recall the japanese name, Grandizer and Gaiking). If anything Robotech tried to ride on their coat tails and was not as "original" as everyone who touts it as such seems to think and this comes from an actual Robotech FAN, namely ME.

I'm talking about people who grew up in the 80's, not 90's when DB and Pokémon come out. It influence me into anime.

[jaymz]

So was I. I grew up in the 80's and the shows I mentioned are what got me into anime NOT Robotech and Voltron.

[ShadowLogan]

On reflection, my guess would be that Harmony Gold is banking on the fanbase's (misplaced) reverence for Carl Macek to get the fans to buy Robotech: Love Live Alive OVA regardless of its (poor) quality. When they first announced it, they put rather a lot of emphasis on how it was something Carl proposed adapting the MOSPEADA OVA shortly before he died. I suppose that way it's pretty safe for the current creative staff... if it's a flop, Macek gets all the blame, and Tommy gets to look good "faithfully executing Carl's final creative vision" if it's not a catastrophe.

The thing is RT:LLA isn't being sold individually. It is also being sold bundled with a copy of RT:TSC. I know I'm more inclined to pass on it due to purchasing something I already own (and in the same format so it isn't like going to a new media format: VHS-DVD-BluRay) makes up 1/2 the content.

So I'm not sure how reliable the sales data will be given it isn't distributed as a pure "Macek-vision", but a "Macek/Yune-vision" bundle.

So was I. I grew up in the 80's and the shows I mentioned are what got me into anime NOT Robotech and Voltron.

Honestly I don't think I got into Anime until the mid 90s, and I grew up in the 80s. RT and other 80s adaptions of Anime had little to nothing to do with it though.

[jaymz]

Yeah that has got to be the biggest slap in the face to anyone buying it.

"oh you want to buy our "new" release? well you have to buy it with an unsold copy of this with it...."

[Seto Kaiba]

Yeah that has got to be the biggest slap in the face to anyone buying it.

"oh you want to buy our "new" release? well you have to buy it with an unsold copy of this with it...."

It's a pretty shameless effort to bolster the sales figures for RTSC, possibly to get rid of printed-but-unsold inventory.

[silvermoon383]

Or just a hope to get those who haven't seen it yet interested and up to date with the story for the upcoming Shadow Rising.

[Seto Kaiba]

Or just a hope to get those who haven't seen it yet interested and up to date with the story for the upcoming Shadow Rising.

Optimistic! But sadly, also very unlikely. As far as Harmony Gold has told anyone... including their own voice actors... their Shadow Chronicles sequel is on indefinite hold while they wait to cross-promote it with the live-action movie you might have noticed Warner Bros isn't making.

[rtsurfer]

Actually, IINM they said at SD Comic Con work would start back on SR once RT LLA was released. IIRC they made a similar claim earlier this year, although how do they start working on a project they have claimed to have never stopped working on? More smoke and mirrors probably.

[Seto Kaiba]

Actually, IINM they said at SD Comic Con work would start back on SR once RT LLA was released. IIRC they made a similar claim earlier this year, although how do they start working on a project they have claimed to have never stopped working on? More smoke and mirrors probably.

What the voice actors for the Shadow Chronicles have said, when asked, is that Harmony Gold said they were going to halt work on the sequel indefinitely, and that resuming work was on a "don't call us, we'll call you" basis. Harmony Gold reps said on a few occasions they were waiting to cross-promote Shadow Rising with the LAM, in the hopes that they'd get better financial backing to produce the next installment. If they're starting up work on it, I guess that means they've finally realized the LAM isn't happening, and that they'd better get a move on before the franchise completely implodes.

[Alpha 11]

So was I. I grew up in the 80's and the shows I mentioned are what got me into anime NOT Robotech and Voltron.

Its different for everyone. And Robotech wasn't the only factor either for me. Gundam Wing helped, followed by DBZ. But I can say and point to Robotech for me as what started it all.

[mech798]

Actually, IINM they said at SD Comic Con work would start back on SR once RT LLA was released. IIRC they made a similar claim earlier this year, although how do they start working on a project they have claimed to have never stopped working on? More smoke and mirrors probably.

What the voice actors for the Shadow Chronicles have said, when asked, is that Harmony Gold said they were going to halt work on the sequel indefinitely, and that resuming work was on a "don't call us, we'll call you" basis. Harmony Gold reps said on a few occasions they were waiting to cross-promote Shadow Rising with the LAM, in the hopes that they'd get better financial backing to produce the next installment. If they're starting up work on it, I guess that means they've finally realized the LAM isn't happening, and that they'd better get a move on before the franchise completely implodes.

That's a very bad sign for a movie-- you can never be sure you can get the origional actors once you do that (though it is much easier with voice actors). My bet? Nothing is happening with Shadow Rising because they don't have the money to finish it even to the same production avlues of TSC. They can't get anyone larger interetsed (and I bet the not-incredible showing of Pacific Rim had pretty well torpedoed what (small) hope there was for a LAM. It may not be dead, jim, but it's probably in a deep coma.

[Seto Kaiba]

That's a very bad sign for a movie-- you can never be sure you can get the origional actors once you do that (though it is much easier with voice actors). [...]

's not as bad with voice actors, but Harmony Gold had the sense to sign the cast for three films in their RTSC contracts. So having their chosen cast shouldn't be an issue.

My bet? Nothing is happening with Shadow Rising because they don't have the money to finish it even to the same production values of TSC. [...]

RTSC was made on the tightest of shoestring budgets, which is why the finished product is so embarrassingly lousy. They probably have the scratch to fart out another amateur hour mistake like RTSC, but ever since the license agreement was signed for a LAM in '07, they seem to think they have a chance to make it big, and didn't want to move forward with an unpleasantly amateurish mess if it might end up as the latest RT title when the big budget LAM they'd convinced themselves was in the offing happened. I think they've finally gotten to grips with the fact that the LAM was never gonna happen (or at best will be done as the cheap direct to video type), and decided that they need to get a move on before WB says, publically, that RT ain't happening.

They can't get anyone larger interetsed (and I bet the not-incredible showing of Pacific Rim had pretty well torpedoed what (small) hope there was for a LAM. It may not be dead, jim, but it's probably in a deep coma.

There were signs of that long ago... like their steady downward trend in writers doing story treatments, or that their first port of call for a potential director was the loser behind Stomp The Yard, and their second after he said no is a virtual unknown with zero experience...

I think WB picked up the rights just to be safe, and either never had any serious intention of using them or realized what a potential legal mess they had on their hands, and resolved to shelve the bloody thing.