Robotech / Forums / Robotech Shadow Chronicles (2024)

glokthedestroyer

SetoKaiba

I mean, if its anything like the oither seasons it will rock.

If you’re hinging your hopes for Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles on it being like the original series, then you’re likely to suffer a severe disappointment. It’s not very much like the original series at all. Sure, there are some familiar mechanical designs and songs, but everything else has been redesigned.

Since I really don’t feel like summing up all of the movie’s failings again, I’m just going to copy and past one of my previous explanations:

Let’s not beat around the bush… the writing in Shadow Chronicles was nothing short of awful. The story really didn’t go anywhere, and there’s very little character development. The sudden renewal of romance between Scott and Ariel feels incredibly forced and stilted, and the dialogue is absolutely jammed to bursting with stupid one-liners, even stupider technobabble, and really dumb jokes.

Overall, the shoddy writing leaves the 88 minute movie feeling like an overlong intro cutscene. I’ve actually seen some people try to defend it because of that too! They claim that because it’s the start of a saga, that excuses its poor writing, lack of characterization, and bad dialogue. The simply fact is that there are plenty of movies out there of similar length that don’t have those problems, so there’s no reason to excuse Shadow Chronicles from those same standards.

As far as animation goes, the character animation wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything impressive. The character designs were bland and unoffensive, and for many, the sudden change in style from the old 80’s shows to more Yukikaze-esque character designs is jarring and aggressively unfamiliar, like a stranger sneaking into your house thinly disguised as your best friend. It was a trifle annoying that every female character showed off enough cleavage to hide a small family car in, and their uniforms looked like they had been applied with an aerosol can.

The digital animation for the backgrounds, ships, and mecha was the movie’s real weak point. It was antiquated in the extreme, and practically screamed “low budget”. The quality is so poor that it only stacks up favorably against shows from the mid-90’s, and is about on par with Roughnecks: the Starship Troopers Chronicles. Even titles that came out several years previous, like Yukikaze and Macross Zero have dramatically superior computer animation. The CG in Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles is amateurish, low-poly, poorly shaded, has a tendency to clip into itself, and doesn’t blend well with the conventional animation. It just looks BAD. I’ve actually seen people try to defend this too, with the absolutely hilarious argument that “of course it will look bad if you compare it against good shows”.

The best that can be said for the music is that it too is unoffensive. Generic background music, and a couple remixes of the old theme song, plus a few reused Minmei songs. Nothing to write home about, but they’d do well to leave the horribly dated Minmei songs out of the next one, particularly if they’re sung by a particularly bad vocalist like Chase Masterson. I’m sorry, she’s cute, but that woman can’t sing.

Miakl7

Slow it down, Seto, slow it down. Take a deep breath. Shadow Chronicles has its flaws (Especially if a hard-core Robotech fan seriously critiques it), but it gave us what we wanted: A continuation of a story that we thought was never going to be revived. Albeit a sloppy continuation that could have been done a whole lot better, but a continuation nonetheless.

I don’t want to debate flaws here, so I’ll try to stick to the original post.

It’s okay to get excited about the Shadow Chronicles. Feel free to once again delve into the Robotech universe, just be prepared. What you will see is stylized after anime that is geared toward a Japanese audience that wants tight uniforms, busty women, Cookie-cutter character designs, etc. Now, this is to be expected, seeing as how Harmony Gold contracted a Korean animation company, but we can only hope that they will listen to the Fan-Base for the next installment and improve in areas that were not up-to-par.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, and I hope you will, too. My advice is to take it at face value, don’t go too deep, like Seto (No offense). Take your time to enjoy it. There’ll be plenty of time for… “discussion” after that.

SetoKaiba

it gave us what we wanted: A continuation of a story that we thought was never going to be revived.

That’s exactly the problem… the fans were so happy to have something, ANYTHING, new for Robotech that their standards went right out the window. If you excuse its flaws just becuase you’re happy to have a new Robotech movie, then the creators have no incentive to improve the quality of their work.

If you judge it solely by its own merits, and not as part of the larger whole of Robotech, it is a poorly executed, decidedly generic sci-fi action movie. Even when judged as part of the greater whole that is Robotech, it still comes across as a mediocre, half-hearted continuation.

What you will see is stylized after anime that is geared toward a Japanese audience that wants tight uniforms, busty women, Cookie-cutter character designs, etc.

Actually, my impression of the film was that it was style was based heavily upon American comics, which fits rather nicely with its creator’s previous work experience as a comic book artist with DC and some of its imprints…

The characters come in the usual American comic stereotypes, incredibly buff men heroes, skinny comic relief men, and women with absurdly unrealistic figures in tight, totally revealing bodysuits. The personalities are the generic bog standard action movie fare, and the dialogue is a mix of sci-fi b-movie technobabble and stilted generic action movie fare.

The reason I say that Shadow Chronicles is not at all like the original series is not merely because everything has been redesigned, but because the overall feel of the story, the characters, and the dialogue is so aggressively unlike the original that it just feels wrong somehow. Gone is all of the subtlety, nuance, and moral ambiguity that made the originals (Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada) and their Robotech derivatives so compelling. The villains are unambiguously and obviously evil, and the protagonists are all unflaggingly loyal, nice, trustworthy, and good people. The end result is that the whole thing just feels somehow wrong, like all your familiar characters have been replaced by understudies, especially if you watch it immediately after finishing the New Generation.

aka_s2h

You dont have to like it and if you do thats great.

Look though at the original work.

Macross had animation flaws all through it. Watch the first few episodes and tell me that the characters are any good because they are very shallow and LAME!

The Script was woeful :judge:

The characters come in the usual American comic stereotypes, incredibly buff men heroes, skinny comic relief men, and women with absurdly unrealistic figures in tight, totally revealing bodysuits. The personalities are the generic bog standard action movie fare, and the dialogue is a mix of sci-fi b-movie technobabble and stilted generic action movie fare.

your telling me that the original wasnt like that?

Jeebers

SetoKaiba

Macross had animation flaws all through it. Watch the first few episodes and tell me that the characters are any good because they are very shallow and LAME!

Nice attempt at an apples and oranges comparison here… a weekly TV series can afford to take a somewhat slower pace in character development because the installments of the story are released more frequently.

The state of Shadow Chronicles would be about the same as showing two episodes of Macross at a time, at 3-4 year intervals.

your telling me that the original wasnt like that?

That I am. The character designs of the 80’s were a lot closer to real human proportions than any of the uber-buff guys and wasp-waisted hourglass-figured women of Shadow Chronicles.

The Script was woeful

If you were saying that about RTSC you might be on to something. If you think Macross‘s script was woeful, you must REALLY loathe Robotech.

equirements that precluded any real attempt at a story, don’t you? It’s not the author’s fault.

Since when? They even gave the movie a run-up with the Prelude comic. There were no conditions imposed that precluded having a story. There was no excuse for the story being as weak as it was… they had plenty of time to work on it, and if the Wildstorm comics are anything to go by, they actually HAD decent writers. -_-

aka_s2h

Nice attempt at an apples and oranges comparison here… a weekly TV series can afford to take a somewhat slower pace in character development because the installments of the story are released more frequently.

The state of Shadow Chronicles would be about the same as showing two episodes of Macross at a time, at 3-4 year intervals.

Im sure that if HG could it would be weekly.

as for the stereotypes they were there.
Anyway you are entitled to your opinion and if your is different to mine it doesnt make yours wrong and mine right or vice versa

Xellos Greystar

as for the stereotypes they were there.

Thats a nice phrase…care to back it up with some noted examples from the actual Macross series, rather then the usual chump-robotech-impersonation that usually occures from the more…’devoted’...of Robotech’s fanbase? :101: :rofl: :p

Btw…why “Baby’s First Anime”? Have you not grown up yet, aka? MADMAN basicly has a love-affair with BGC, move on from this two-cent rewrite of an anime…
...May i suggest “Black Lagoon” or “Ghost in the Shell”. ^_^

Wyldfyre

Miakl7

Yeah, this is derailing the thread. The poor guy doesn’t want to read all this, he just wants to watch The Shadow Chronicles. Let him get to the point where he starts feeling all this himself before we bombard him with our opinions.

This discussion is more suited for the Fandom section anyway. Open up a new topic there, if you want to continue.

aka_s2h

Btw…why “Baby’s First Anime”? Have you not grown up yet, aka? MADMAN basicly has a love-affair with BGC, move on from this two-cent rewrite of an anime…
...May i suggest “Black Lagoon” or “Ghost in the Shell”.

Is this directed to me?

Not interested in fighting if you actually read my posts above so bye bye.