Robotech: The Macross Saga - Legacy Collection 3 (1985)
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Noboru Ishiguro
Starring Tony Oliver, Melanie MacQueen, Rebecca Forstadt, Dan Woren, Greg Finley

Features:

• Episodes 25-36 of the series
  
• "Robotech II: The Sentinels", three episodes from an abandoned sequel series
  
• Running commentary by writer/producer Carl Macek on "Robotech II"
  
• Character bios
  
• Demonstration of two scenes dubbed in different languages
  
• Character and mecha designs
  
• Promo video for "Robotech II"
  

Anamorphic: N/A, appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Own It.

The conclusion of the Macross storyline, the first generation of the Robotech saga. This time around, we go from the marriage of Max and his former arch-nemesis Zentraedi pilot Miriya to the alliance between the Zentraedi and the Micronians, not to mention the end to the story of Lisa, Rick, Minmei and the others. This set contains massive amounts of destruction and desolation, enough to make those unfamiliar with the series sit up and blink a few times.

I've said this before in my reviews of the first and second sets, there's a great deal in here that you could groan at. Especially when it comes to the dialogue, and especially the dialogue at Max and Miriya's wedding. Its cringe factor was just enough to make me want to hit fast forward. The idea of two races coming together and living as one is a great idea and a worthy topic of a monologue--but it just goes on too long and gets too mushy. But again, the things this series does right are more than enough to excuse the things it overdoes wrong.

As the first two sets, this one comes with the episodes on the first two discs and then a disc of extras. Here we have a very interesting extra--one I had heard of for some time but never seen before. Namely this is the feature-length flick Robotech II: The Sentinels, comprised of three episodes of the aborted sequel series to the Macross portion of Robotech. The series was aborted for a few reasons that I've found--Matchbox, who had a stake in the series, losing a lot of dough, and the other animated series that it was going up against at the time--but honestly I can say it's a good thing it never came to fruition.

It's obvious that the thing was meant to be a series, since as a feature it's downright terrible. But even as an opening episode, the first part isn't even structured right. It's assumed that only the hardcore previous watchers of the original series would be tuning in, apparently, since nobody gets a decent introduction. And characters just...appear, and I assume we're supposed to figure out who they are in...what, the sixth episode? It's truly depressing when you consider that there were sixty-five episodes ready and written before the plug got pulled. They had characters and mecha and story ideas and everything ready to go--and you know, with some solid rewrites it might have been worth watching.

However--the running commentary that goes along with Robotech II isn't really a commentary. It's Macek reading from an already published bit about the process of melding Japanese and American animation in a large scale production, all in the context of Robotech II. At first, when he explained what he was going to be doing--reading instead of just speaking about the film--I was a little miffed. However, the information he was spewing was so interesting that I quickly put aside my desires to hear more about the actual film and simply got into the process behind the film. The most annoying thing is that he gets to the end of the film and runs out of time, so has to stop where he is. Hopefully later sets will fix this.

In addition to the film and commentary, as stated above there are designs and character info that cover Robotech II. The international reels are amusing, although best done while flipping between languages using the remote. The ten-minute promo video for Robotech II is merely footage from the episodes with some changes, and not really worth watching in my somewhat humble opinion.

As always, a fan of the series should buy it. End of discussion. Just having the series on DVD is enough to make the purchase, but the extras always manage to go the extra mile. Non-fans should at least be acquainted with the series--for those of you among the unwashed, rent or borrow the thing.