cc-30@ucbcory.BERKELEY.EDU (Sean "Yoda" Rouse) (11/11/85)
Subject: Harlock/Queen Millenia
Date: 5 Nov 85 22:28:56 GMT
Date-Received: 6 Nov 85 03:49:22 GMT
Mary Ann, thanks for the comments. Sorry I misspelled your named
on my Robotech-thing (under the subject of the Jean Grey Shuffle.
Sheesh! Sorry, guys, I will definitely learn how to use this thing
soon!)
The main comment I wanted to make was that I think Carl Macek
isn't doing anything horrendous to the shows. I know he's cut scenes,
rearranged them, changed names. But I think he's justified. He may
not be right, but he's justified.
The main viewing public isn't aware of Japanese animation. Face it,
the percentage of people who have actually SEEN Macross versus ROBOTECH
is very low. And what Macek has done really hasn't cheated the
public, because they've never seen the original. The choice he's making
is whether to make it more palatable to thirty new viewers, or to annoy
one old friend who'll watch it anyways. Unfair, but logical. More
people now know about Macross than ever before, and they love it in
the form of Robotech.
I LIKE what Harmony Gold has done, basically because I don't understand
Japanese. I prefer a mediocre translation to no translation at all.
I have friends in CFO who feel differently, of course, and I'm sure
the Japanimation people are also a little disgruntled at what Harmony
Gold turns out, but the thing that I think every purist overlooks is
that the American audience isn't Japanese, and that Harmony Gold has
at least preserved some semblance of intelligence in its interpretation.
And they do pick the good stuff to bring over.
Besides from what I gathered about the Harlock and Milennia series from
your writing, Macek has managed to keep the overall "feel" of the characters
and series, though not to the actual letter. (Besides, won't you have more fun
seeing a "new" story, and analyzing where and when it came from, than
seeing what you've seen before translated?) I don't think it's necessarily
evil that the original has been changed. The original is still there for
those who want to see it.(It's just SO damn frustrating to watch when no one
tells you what's going on, and you don't understand Japanese!!!!!!! written
plot synopsis on Japanese animation aren't that easy to come by. Neither
is the animation itself.)
I think these are points that shouldn't be overlooked when criticizing
what goes on that screen.
The following are original comments, replies and rebuttals.
>> As I've said, I've only heard this, so it doesn't upset me that
>> Harlock's been made psionic, and that they've put Queen Millenia in
>> the same timeline as Harlock.
>It certainly upset me. The timeline isn't too bad a problem since the
>shows were set in the same universe and they just moved them closer
>together. But where did they ever get the idea to make Harlock psionic?
>The plot must be radically changed if this is a relavant detail.
It isn't THAT relevant. Most of the writing changes are results
of the splicing. The idea was to bring the two groups into communication
with each other. Now, think. You have scenes of people, solo face
shots, etc. No phones, radios and no shots of them actually face to
face. How would you get them to communicate?
I didn't actually see any scenes of Harlock being psionic. I simply
heard Christopher mention that occasionally, in times of great distress people
could reach Harlock psionically. It is NOT part of every story, but used as
sparingly as possible. Sorry I didn't make that clear.
>Now we come to the worst offense - "spliced episode by episode", even
>Voltron didn't stoop that low. At least in Robotech some semblence of
>the original continuity was left.
Right. And when Lisa and Rick disappeared, everyone kept waiting
for them to come back in the next few episodes. Their names were
constantly being mentioned, but they were always offscreen. Bad
continuity that raised false expectations for those who didn't know
that Rick and Lisa and Minmei, etc.etc. were never coming back.
And the links between the series were the weakest writing. For chrissake!
They make Zor seem like a total idiot by bringing the world-ravaging Invid down
upon the earth, while in the original Southern Cross, he saved the
world, and died a hero! I think what Harmony Gold is trying to do is
to overcome those writing obstacles. Of course, they're creating
new ones in getting rid of the old ones, but at least they're trying!
They're as aware as anyone else what their weak points are.
>> Harlock also has an alien woman named Melody, who never seems to be
>> quite in this world, who counsels him, and listens to his problems.
>> She also saves his ass a lot.
>I suppose I can understand renaming Mimei Melody, since she is usually
>sitting in Harlock's quarters playing the harp. But did they leave
>in the detail that she lives entirely on alcohol? At least Kei got to
>keep her name. Do they ever refer to the computer by "name" or address
>it directly?
And they could have changed her name because the old one was a little too
close to that of an annoying twit we all know. (Although I will never
forgive Macek for making up the name "Nova" for everyone's favorite GMP
officer.)
I don't know about the alcohol. I didn't seen enough episodes for
that. They call the computer "Roger", and refer to it as a "him". I love
his lines. (e.g. "The missiles are coming straight across your trajectory.
They'll be at point blank range. This is no challenge, Harlock; I'm turning
control back over to you." and "I don't have time to explain what I'm about
to do, but if it doesn't work, it's been nice knowing you.")
>> The story opens with scientists being murdered
>> by blue-skinned female assasins, the Mezone (Mazone? Meson?).
>Unless they have mentioned that the Mazone are sexless plants, they'll
>have to write themselves out of a corner later on.
Whoops. My fault. Sorry. They did mention that they were sexless
plants. I just called them female 'cause that's how I kept thinking of
them for the first couple of weeks. They had long hair and breasts, so I
kept thinking of them as "women." Silly of me. They kept the scene, where they
analyze the cell-structure of the dead Mezone. I think I must have
forgot because of the painful line "The Chlorophyll carries oxygen in
the bloodstreem" or some such basic un-science writing.
>> A subplot to all this is the little girl Maia (Minmei's
>Maiu is the daughter of Emeraldas and Tochiro,
uhhhh.... sorry, they changed Tochiro to Charles Devlin.
>> the reason Robotech and Harlock had to be combinations of series is
>> because for American syndication, an animated series must have a
>> particular number of episodes. Neither Macross, nor Captain Harlock
>> had enough. That's why they added on.
>OK, so if they wanted a long-enough series from Matsumoto's universe,
>why didn't they just buy the 115 episodes and two movies of Galaxy
>Express 999.
I don't know. How many episodes are there in a season? And do
independant stations buy by the season?
> And when they wanted to lengthen Macross, why didn't
>they buy it's actual sequels - Orguss and Southern Cross, instead of
>Southern Cross and the unrelated Mospeada.
*Tatsunoko* didn't have the rights to Orguss, and so couldn't sell
them to Macek and Harmony Gold. Besides, just how much of a sequel
to Macross is Orguss? I'd heard the only link between the two was the
fever-dream where Minmei and Lisa float by for about two seconds.
>It would also make more
>sense for them to buy shows actually made for children if they don't
>want to have to cut the adult stuff,
I don't know about this. It's a sad fact, but true that the majority
of the populace out there believes that animation, like comics, is for
kids. Honestly, when you went to see the Black Cauldron, how many other
"adults" were there to watch the movie? Not to shut the kids up for a while,
to watch and enjoy the movie? Not a lot, eh?
Then, how many stations would consider a series labelled: "cartoon
science fiction show of Japanese animation made for adults" as a show they
had to get? Face it, if it's animated and it ain't Garfield, or Peanuts, it
won't get prime time and it won't sell as anything but a kiddie show.
It's an attitude that has to be changed.
I think that Robotech, and Harmony Gold are helping, by trying, hook and
crook, to GET those adult shows on the air under any guise they can. They're
really changing the way people think about "cartoons." Animation needs to be
reevaluated by the American public, and bless 'em, Harmony Gold is helping 'em
take a look, even if it's a little crooked.
Of course, if you simply sit someone down in front of Nausicaa,
or the Macross movie, it could accomplish the same thing,
but that's rather difficult to do to an entire population, and most
people really aren't willing to watch two hours of animation, where they
can't understand what's being said, until after they've seen it. [does this
line make sense?] (Although I had heard that a version of Nausicaa had been
released in L.A. Dubbed.)
Anyways, I'd love to hear more from anyone on this subject 'cause
it's a crying shame that so many people pass over animation the
way they pass over comics. It's time we showed 'em what's really out
there.
--Kathy Li . .
\___/