From: dan@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Dan Parmenter)
Subject: Re: Robotech: Love it, Leave it, or Get out of the Way.
Organization: /home/fsg/dan/.organization
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 17:00:12 GMT

In article <joshm.720944744@crash.cts.com> joshm@crash.cts.com 
(Josh Mercer) writes:

   Eventually, I learned how everything fit together, between Robotech, 
   the original Japanese series that comprised it, Robotech The Movie, Macross
   the movie, and the ill-fated Sentinels.  Now I'm an anime fan, though 
   I seem to like fewer shows than many other anime fans do.  But just because
   Robotech WAS a hatchet job (though hardly on the level of say, BoTP) doesn't
   mean I feel the need to bash it endlessly and those who still like it--
   partly because I still do.  I don't even pretened to think that Robotech
   is a pure translation or even especially well done anymore, but I _do_  
   still enjoy it for its merits: it was a good, entertaining show that
   got me into anime.  And that's that.  Come on, anime fans.  Robotech got
   a lot of you into anime too.  For what it was, a show on AMERICAN tv 
   (not Japanese tv, guys...try to remember that) in a timeslot meant for
   CHILDREN that showed you what "good" (or, at least, complex) storytelling
   could be achieved with animation, it deserves better than to be treated
   as the spawn of hell that single-handedly "ruined" anime for people.  It
   did more for anime than virtually any TV show shown here.  It grew anime
   fandom a thousand-fold.

@#$%^!

Robotech didn't get ME into Japanese animation.  In fact, it didn't get
YOU into Japanaese animation either, Starblazers did.  That it got a
lot of people into Japanimation is indisputable - the question is
whether this was entirely a good thing.  To my mind, part of the
problem with Robotech is that it set a standard for shoddiness that
other shows (most notably Captain Harlock/Queen Millenia) latched
onto.  

Sure it got a lot of people interested in Japanese animation.  So
what?  "Anime fandom" today is a perfect example of "too little, too
late".  Animation is on the decline in Japan, the technical quality
may be going up, but the story quality has fallen way off.  In the
seventies there were far more animated television shows with a far
broader range of interests represented.  So now we have a larger
"anime fandom", but virtually nothing of interest to celebrate.  You
couldn't pay me enough to go to "Anime-Con" and hang out with hundreds
of rabid Dirty Bubble Gum Z or whatever the fuck is popular thes days
fans. 

   My point, after all these ramblings: You wouldn't like it if people 
   endlessly picked on something that you liked.  Robotech fans deserve the
   same courtesy.

To hell with that.  People rag on stuff I like all the time.  It
doesn't bother me, I just respond.

- Dan
--
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Dan Parmenter       |"I'm waiting for a time, when I can do without these  |
| dan@gnu.ai.mit.edu  | things that make me feel this way all of the time"   |
|                     |                            - Spiritualized           |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation,rec.arts.disney,rec.arts.tv