One thing I've noticed with both Voltron and Robotech: the American voice directors and writers liked a lot more dialogue and narration than the Japanese creators. Sometimes it seems to be because the American producers thought the kids needed more explanation; other times it's clear that they wanted to explain, that, well, yes, the characters are looking at grave markers, but, really, the people the commemorate aren't dead, they're safe in another dimension.
And sometimes, the silence of the Japanese original just seems to make Americans uncomfortable.
I've noticed this to a major degree in Southern Cross and Dairugger XV. During battle scenes in the originals, long sequences of fighting go by with just sound effects and music (and the occasional "UWAAAAA!" death screams--is there an anime seiyu school of screaming out there?!). But in the American versions, there's suddenly voiceovers from involved characters filling every last open space. Sometimes they're just ensuring the episode will not be censored--"There goes another robot shipped manned by robots in which no one was actually killed because they were all robots and if they weren't robots they made it to their escape ships and made it to exile in another galazy." The rest of the time . . . I don't know. Big gun on space station fires. "Fire the Magna Laser." Enemy ship explodes. "Only a few more ships to go."
One of the things about anime--they know how to do destruction. At the risk of getting poetic and sounding a little looney, there's a certain elegance--especially in the Studio Nue "Itano's Flying Circus" stuff--to battles accompanied only by music. The same sort of scenes play in live action Japanese television and cinema. If you've ever seen some of the Jidai Geki (period films--most of the ones I've seen involve Samurai) with long scenes of soldiers on both sides dying. . . There's a cultural significance that Westerners might be missing, maybe.
Once, I was at a friend's and a group of us were watching YuYu Hakusho. Some of us watched anime regularly, some of us were new. There was a moment after a tournament particulalrly important to the plot and all of our heroes are standing in front of a tree and the cherry blossoms suddenly start blowing down. One of the anime virgins said "Oh, that's manly, posing in front of the pink flowers." When, well, sakura petals have certain significance--being representative of the fleetingness of life, and all. To a native Japanese viewer, my guess is it looks pretty macho.
Here's another example--an American viewer sees a character dress all in white. He's a good guy and all, right? 70 years of Westersn can be wrong. A Japanese viewer might immediately associate him with death.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Is There Really a Robotech, Virginia?
Every since I got ahold of (and watched obssessively) the original Japanese sources--Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada) Robotech has had a sort of strange, impressionistic existence for me. Two sets of characters, two corresponding sets of events, but they are linked together in one and in separate continuity in the other. Add that to the fact that even in the original production of Robotech there were things going on that they tried to shift in dialogue away from what was happening on screen--like the Macross-era episode where the narrator states Khyron is closing in on the battle fortress from behind, where they cannot be seen! and they're obviously flying in toward the bow--and Robotech just seems sort of . . . approximate.
I've never been interested in the inter-fandom wars and bickering: "Robocrap sux" "Macross4evah" blah blah blah. I'll watch either, depending on my mood. I also never jumped on the anti-McKinney bandwagon. For a long time, the McKinney novels were all the Robotech I had. I couldn't afford the three-episodes-to-a-tape VHS releases--most of which chopping half the episodes down to 15 minutes each ANYway--and I never got into comics. I've seen some issues of the comics, but the McKinney version of the Sentinals is the only version I've read in its entirety.
And there is a certain epic massiveness to Robotech that I like. In high school, when I finished the End of the Circle, I felt a strange urge to reread Dune, up to Dune Messiah. I guess that was the only other series with which I was familiar that had the same sort of "galaxy-spanning" epicness (epictude? epicosity?) I mean, now Star Wars is the franchise with the greatest scope, with stories spanning thousands of years, but, at the time, I'm not even sure the Thrawn Trilogy was out. If it was, I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet.
Transformers, too, has similarly expanded in scope. That family of franchises has sort of a canonicity advantage in that they went with the "multiverse" explanation--there are many different parallel realities, so all of the different franchises and continuities (G1, Bayformers, Transformers Animated, Pokefomers--er, ARMADA, Shattered Glass) happe parallel to each other. It makes it easy to give different authors creative licenses that way. (Personally, though, I'm partial to the stuff Simon Furman was doing with IDW--I guess I'm more into comics as an adult than I was as a sprout).
Of the three component series of Robotech, Macross is the one that's continued in the ensuing decades. Not bad for something that was potentially a parody of Mobile Suit Gundam (which also has a whole crazy mass of meta-series and parallel continuities!). Other than one quirk (the Macross-DYRL designs being canon), I guess it's one of the more consistent fictional continuities. My favorite, personally, is Macross 0, with Frontier a pretty close second (Macross 7 and its spin-offs just don't appeal to me as much, even though it continues the story with my favorite character from the original, Max).
Robotech did make a huge impression on me when I first saw it, though at the time I just liked the robots and the fact that ANY mecha could be carrying about a million missiles in hidden compartments on its limbs. My girlfiend is just enough younger than me that she didn't see it in its first run; she first saw it in high school when it was being rerun on Cartoon Network. She said she watched it off and on until "that big fleet of bad guys showed up and threatened to blow up the earth. I thought, 'Whoa, how are the good guys gonna get out of this? And then they don't, and everyone on earth dies. And I thought, 'I love this show!'"
That's the main difference between anime and American animation in the 80s. American cartoons had to reset everything at the end of the episode so they could continue selling the same collection of toys. The Japanese apparently had no qualms about letting 'the bad guys' win. A sense of real jeopardy does wonders for making a story more compelling, doesn't it?
I've never been interested in the inter-fandom wars and bickering: "Robocrap sux" "Macross4evah" blah blah blah. I'll watch either, depending on my mood. I also never jumped on the anti-McKinney bandwagon. For a long time, the McKinney novels were all the Robotech I had. I couldn't afford the three-episodes-to-a-tape VHS releases--most of which chopping half the episodes down to 15 minutes each ANYway--and I never got into comics. I've seen some issues of the comics, but the McKinney version of the Sentinals is the only version I've read in its entirety.
And there is a certain epic massiveness to Robotech that I like. In high school, when I finished the End of the Circle, I felt a strange urge to reread Dune, up to Dune Messiah. I guess that was the only other series with which I was familiar that had the same sort of "galaxy-spanning" epicness (epictude? epicosity?) I mean, now Star Wars is the franchise with the greatest scope, with stories spanning thousands of years, but, at the time, I'm not even sure the Thrawn Trilogy was out. If it was, I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet.
Transformers, too, has similarly expanded in scope. That family of franchises has sort of a canonicity advantage in that they went with the "multiverse" explanation--there are many different parallel realities, so all of the different franchises and continuities (G1, Bayformers, Transformers Animated, Pokefomers--er, ARMADA, Shattered Glass) happe parallel to each other. It makes it easy to give different authors creative licenses that way. (Personally, though, I'm partial to the stuff Simon Furman was doing with IDW--I guess I'm more into comics as an adult than I was as a sprout).
Of the three component series of Robotech, Macross is the one that's continued in the ensuing decades. Not bad for something that was potentially a parody of Mobile Suit Gundam (which also has a whole crazy mass of meta-series and parallel continuities!). Other than one quirk (the Macross-DYRL designs being canon), I guess it's one of the more consistent fictional continuities. My favorite, personally, is Macross 0, with Frontier a pretty close second (Macross 7 and its spin-offs just don't appeal to me as much, even though it continues the story with my favorite character from the original, Max).
Robotech did make a huge impression on me when I first saw it, though at the time I just liked the robots and the fact that ANY mecha could be carrying about a million missiles in hidden compartments on its limbs. My girlfiend is just enough younger than me that she didn't see it in its first run; she first saw it in high school when it was being rerun on Cartoon Network. She said she watched it off and on until "that big fleet of bad guys showed up and threatened to blow up the earth. I thought, 'Whoa, how are the good guys gonna get out of this? And then they don't, and everyone on earth dies. And I thought, 'I love this show!'"
That's the main difference between anime and American animation in the 80s. American cartoons had to reset everything at the end of the episode so they could continue selling the same collection of toys. The Japanese apparently had no qualms about letting 'the bad guys' win. A sense of real jeopardy does wonders for making a story more compelling, doesn't it?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Good vs. Evil, or Voltron vs. Golion
I never actually got the lion Voltron DVDs when they came out. I did, however, get the Golion release. Blame it on my graduate studies--I spent a lot of time with textual history and how narratives develop and evolve over time. So, give me even a hint of an "original version" of ANYthing and I'll be first in line, slavering uncontrollably.
After devouring Golion, however, I did borrow Voltron from a friend. I love the contrasts between the two. They might tell us something about American values vs. Japanese values. Or they might tell us something about a plot conceived and scripted by an experience committee writing under a collective pseudonym (Saburo Hatte writing for Golion and every other super robot series Toei produced in the 70s and 80s) vs. a bunch of Americans struggling to put together a coherent story out of a series for which they have only marginal translations. If any. In a very short timeframe.
Voltron first. Lotor and Zarkon--oh, yeah, and Yurak--are evil. EEEEEVillllllll. You can tell because they laugh maniacially and start half their sentences with "Fools!" They scheme. They plot. They send robeasts to get cloven in twain by Voltron. And they mostly bumble and are pretty funny to your average 8 year old. They lose time after time because they're evil. And evil never wins. Evil's too busy cackling and plotting grandiose schemes to actually win.
The Voltron Force are good. They say "team" a lot. They work for the "good guys". They always win--because, y'know, they're good. Sometimes they have arguments, but they always pull it together.
And now for something completely different--same footage (with some extra gore), but everything else is changed.
The Galra Empire--Daibazal, Sincline, and Sadak--are ruthless. They make walkways out of naked slaves' back. Their soldiers whip slaves. A lot. Because slaves are weak. The weak deserve only death. Only the strong are allowed to prosper in the Galra empire. Failure is rewarded with death. Sorry, Sadak. The Galra Empire is a meritocracy. They lose because they fight even each other. When Golion actually makes it to planet Galra, what happens? Do the various Galran factions unite? Or do they fall apart due to constant infighting? Hmm. There's a lesson here.
The Golion pilots are drifters. They don't even have a home planet anymore (Earth was depopulated by World War III and then just exploded due to . . . um, volcanoes or something). Some members of the Altean royal court don't even see them as the rightful defenders of Alrea--they're peasants! But they're all Altea's got. They have disagreements. But, in the end, they win because they're a team. Not only that, but as they liberate more and more planets from Galra, and inspire more planets to liberate themselves, they build an alliance that works together to defeat Galra. Well, more or less. Golion does most of the work. But it's a team effort.
So: Voltron = good vs. evil. Good always triumphs in the end. Golion = working for the greater good vs. rugged individualism.
Crap!!! So THAT'S why I'm a Socialist!
Just kidding. This is just one way of contrasting the differences between the two.
After devouring Golion, however, I did borrow Voltron from a friend. I love the contrasts between the two. They might tell us something about American values vs. Japanese values. Or they might tell us something about a plot conceived and scripted by an experience committee writing under a collective pseudonym (Saburo Hatte writing for Golion and every other super robot series Toei produced in the 70s and 80s) vs. a bunch of Americans struggling to put together a coherent story out of a series for which they have only marginal translations. If any. In a very short timeframe.
Voltron first. Lotor and Zarkon--oh, yeah, and Yurak--are evil. EEEEEVillllllll. You can tell because they laugh maniacially and start half their sentences with "Fools!" They scheme. They plot. They send robeasts to get cloven in twain by Voltron. And they mostly bumble and are pretty funny to your average 8 year old. They lose time after time because they're evil. And evil never wins. Evil's too busy cackling and plotting grandiose schemes to actually win.
The Voltron Force are good. They say "team" a lot. They work for the "good guys"
And now for something completely different--same footage (with some extra gore), but everything else is changed.
The Galra Empire--Daibazal, Sincline, and Sadak--are ruthless. They make walkways out of naked slaves' back. Their soldiers whip slaves. A lot. Because slaves are weak. The weak deserve only death. Only the strong are allowed to prosper in the Galra empire. Failure is rewarded with death. Sorry, Sadak. The Galra Empire is a meritocracy. They lose because they fight even each other. When Golion actually makes it to planet Galra, what happens? Do the various Galran factions unite? Or do they fall apart due to constant infighting? Hmm. There's a lesson here.
The Golion pilots are drifters. They don't even have a home planet anymore (Earth was depopulated by World War III and then just exploded due to . . . um, volcanoes or something). Some members of the Altean royal court don't even see them as the rightful defenders of Alrea--they're peasants! But they're all Altea's got. They have disagreements. But, in the end, they win because they're a team. Not only that, but as they liberate more and more planets from Galra, and inspire more planets to liberate themselves, they build an alliance that works together to defeat Galra. Well, more or less. Golion does most of the work. But it's a team effort.
So: Voltron = good vs. evil. Good always triumphs in the end. Golion = working for the greater good vs. rugged individualism.
Crap!!! So THAT'S why I'm a Socialist!
Just kidding. This is just one way of contrasting the differences between the two.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Peter Keefe and Carl Macek
I'm of the generation that was introduced to anime through Voltron, Robotech, and Tranzor Z. With the passing of Carl Macek (April 17, 2010) and Peter Keefe (May 27, 2010) I've decided to start writing about anime in general--as well as these earlier series.
Yep, it's more 30-something nostalgia. Can't I just say this stuff gave me something to do after school and then get on with my life? Nope--a friend of mine from those days said recently that the stories we heard in our childhood stay with us. I agree.
I do have DVDs of the old Sunbow Transformers and GI Joe series. That's pure nostalgia. But when I first succumbed to the nostalgia bug and got Robotech on DVD, I realized that this series was the first time I was exposed to an overarching plot arch and character development. That, and it being 2004 when I first rewatched it after 20 years, I realized an anti-war war story was still relevant, even if told through such devices as giant aliens and transforming robots.
Let's look at some of the main characters from Robotech. First, the guy everyone wanted to be at recess, Rick Hunter. When I was 8, the fact he was the hero and yet got shot down in almost every episode just totally wooshed over my head. As did the fact that he was basically a pacifist who found himself forced into fighting a war--aaand was among the first of the main characters to look for a peaceful solution.
Contrast Rick with Lynn Kyle. Kyle's sort of the fourth wheel in the Rick-Lisa-Minmei love triangle. He's outwardly a pacifist--at least he's anti-military and won't let an opportunity for military-bashing to pass him by--and yet in his introductory episode he's shown to be an unparalleld martial artist. Over the course of the series, he goes from Macross media darling to (implicitly) abusive alcoholic.
Huh. That's sure diffferent from GI Joe's Duke ("Didn't you read my greensheet? Man of action!") or Transformer's Megatron ("Today Cybertron, tomorrow the universe!!").
The Japanese series were obviously intended as 25-minute toy commercials just like their American counterparts, but I think many of the Japanese animators realized that compelling characters and coherent storylines made for even better advertising. (Well, after watching some of the behind-the-scenes features ((NERD!!!)) on some of my DVDs, the conditions under which they were produced had something to do with it, too).
I wonder sometimes, if by importing these more-developed-series in the 80s, did Keefe and Macek have an influence on modern programming, animated and otherwise? I didn't follow the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica very closely, but some aspects of it seemed awfully . . . Robotechy.
Yep, it's more 30-something nostalgia. Can't I just say this stuff gave me something to do after school and then get on with my life? Nope--a friend of mine from those days said recently that the stories we heard in our childhood stay with us. I agree.
I do have DVDs of the old Sunbow Transformers and GI Joe series. That's pure nostalgia. But when I first succumbed to the nostalgia bug and got Robotech on DVD, I realized that this series was the first time I was exposed to an overarching plot arch and character development. That, and it being 2004 when I first rewatched it after 20 years, I realized an anti-war war story was still relevant, even if told through such devices as giant aliens and transforming robots.
Let's look at some of the main characters from Robotech. First, the guy everyone wanted to be at recess, Rick Hunter. When I was 8, the fact he was the hero and yet got shot down in almost every episode just totally wooshed over my head. As did the fact that he was basically a pacifist who found himself forced into fighting a war--aaand was among the first of the main characters to look for a peaceful solution.
Contrast Rick with Lynn Kyle. Kyle's sort of the fourth wheel in the Rick-Lisa-Minmei love triangle. He's outwardly a pacifist--at least he's anti-military and won't let an opportunity for military-bashing to pass him by--and yet in his introductory episode he's shown to be an unparalleld martial artist. Over the course of the series, he goes from Macross media darling to (implicitly) abusive alcoholic.
Huh. That's sure diffferent from GI Joe's Duke ("Didn't you read my greensheet? Man of action!") or Transformer's Megatron ("Today Cybertron, tomorrow the universe!!").
The Japanese series were obviously intended as 25-minute toy commercials just like their American counterparts, but I think many of the Japanese animators realized that compelling characters and coherent storylines made for even better advertising. (Well, after watching some of the behind-the-scenes features ((NERD!!!)) on some of my DVDs, the conditions under which they were produced had something to do with it, too).
I wonder sometimes, if by importing these more-developed-series in the 80s, did Keefe and Macek have an influence on modern programming, animated and otherwise? I didn't follow the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica very closely, but some aspects of it seemed awfully . . . Robotechy.
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