I have been absent from blogging for awhile. I hope to catch up. I’ve been quite busy lately with switching from working at a cubicle monkey job to a retail grocery chain job. I haven’t had much time to write but I have been watching more episodes of Mospeada, and yes I intend to finish reviews and comparisons of the rest of Southern Cross episodes a well.
I thought I would veer a bit from the path of chronological episode reviews to a bit of character comparisons from Robotech to Mospeada. So far the most striking difference in the Mospeada cast between the Robotech adaptation’s New Generation is Annie or Mint. I have noticed her dialogue is a bit more of a flirt and boy crazy obsessed pre-teen in the Japanese Mospeada series than Robotech. I find this another one of Robotech’s improvements on the characters of the Japanese series’. For instance some parts would not come across as easily and would be maybe a bit innapropriate for American audiences. As in the scene where Annie lifts her shirt to prove she is not that young. This would definitely be odd for western audiences, except maybe the French. However, that is more of a cultural difference than an improvement but I have found some reasons that our Robotech Annie is more interesting than Mint in the Mospeada series.
Since I am usually not a huge fan of the comic relief convention in cartoons though Shnarf of the Thundercats was an enjoyable character. Usually the addition of a new younger and funnier character is thought to be the “Jumping the Shark” point of many Television serials. However as in all the New Generation and Mospeada characters there was an internal struggle of real human emotion. Emotions like resentment, self-doubt, loneliness and mourning are rather absent from most animated shows, when they are dealt with they tend to be a bit contrived.
However I can see more realism and struggle with Annie’s character. In either series she is a runaway a bit of a vagabond and is quick to wear her heart on her sleeve. However in Mospeada her flirtations seems to be overdone leaving her character a bit more simplified. In Robotech she has a lot of lines that I think where acted quite well, as when Lunk asks her do you want to walk instead of drive while the rest of the group flies she responds “YOu gotta be nuts!?” it’s a simple line but it gets me all the time.
Another moment that I think Robotech seized in creating a magical kind of sad irony with utilizing Ulpio Minucci’s music is the 2nd episode the New Generation: “The Lost City” where Annie is introduced. As the scene opens we see Annie and her boyfriend as he is dumping her to move out of town, we hear the love theme with the glissando violins playing a Robotech love theme most fans are familiar with . It has a mournful sweet yet introspective theme in a classic Italian Romantic fashion which draws a stark contrast to the humorous dialogue and actions on the screen with Annie’s childlike balling and tugging on her boyfriend to stay. This bittersweet and tragic contrast gives us a perspective of childhood’s end and adolescent love and loss amidst a war to society. Though we can all relate to the right of passage through lost love and the broken hearts of adolescence, the narration and plot reminds of how it must be like for one to grow up with the standard travails of youth and coming of age all the while war, death and destruction are surmounted on these lives.
reality reflex 