Robotech: Love Live Alive (2013) Reviews

• Should have been re-animated from scratch rather than a mediocre edit job

  xamtaro2013-09-18

  Robotech. A franchise best known as a successful rebranding of 3 unrelated Japanese anime series. It's claim to fame was the construction of a cohesive narrative and rich backstory using footage from the Japanese anime Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeda. In a bid to shed that polarising reputation, the Robotech franchise created its first mass released original production "Roboteh: The Shadow Chronicles" in 2006. Yet 7 years after that, they have gone back to old habits with this 'new' production "Robotech: Love Live Alive". True to what it did with the original Robotech, the production team took "Mospeda: Love Live Alive", a music video OVA, and expanded it into a full flashback detailing the experiences of fan favorite character Lancer, aka the concert Superstar Yellow Dancer, during the 3rd Robotech War. Now, summary movies are quite common in the anime market, compressing a whole season into a feature length production. Love Live Alive does that wonderfully by using a pre-concert interview with Yellow Dancer as a framing story for the movie. In present day 2044, the war with the alien race known as the Invid has finally ended and Lancer is about to hold his final concert as Yellow Dancer. An intrepid reporter gets an exclusive interview with the superstar in which he shares the journey he had with his comrades: Lost solder Scott Bernard, the mysterious Ariel, the happy-go-lucky Rand, hot headed Rook, spunky Annie, and gentle giant Lunk. We are brought through their first meeting where the group mistakes Lancer for a lady to the ups and downs of their relationships as they face a clash of ideals, betrayal and seemingly insurmountable odds. The narrative never seems disjointed, showing how much effort the producers took to craft a coherent story, reframing what was originally Scott Bernard's adventures from the perspective of Lancer. Amidst the backdrop of war, a "romeo/Juliet" like romance develops between Lancer and an enemy Invid princess called Sera. A romance that may be more than what Lancer is willing to share with the reporter. Now other than jumping on the whole "summary movie: bandwagon, another trend Robotech producers have picked up on is combining old classic anime footage with newly produced animation. The most famous example of this is the "Dragonball Kai" series and the "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" movies. In Love Live Alive, the old footage is beautifully restored to a pristine state, both footage from the series and that from the music video OVA. Sadly, the "new" footage comes across as a major disappointment, consisting of only at most 10% (including a long drawn out opening sequence of planets and asteroid fields) of the movie compared to almost half of Dragonball Kai and half of the Zeta Gundam movies. The quality of the animation also varies, having apparently been done by 2 separate animation studios (Ragex and Big Star). Some scenes do look spectacular at first, such as a flashback to the final moments of the Invid's initial invasion and the evacuation of Earth. The animation is smooth, it has a really dark atmospheric look reflecting the desperate hopeless last battle and the computer generated imagery (CGI) is blended seamlessly with the traditionally animated characters. On subsequent viewings, the stark reality of the animation's shortcomings become apparent. The cel shaded CGI has a "lag drag" in the models' movements. Character animations look like it was done in Adobe Flash. And To hide this clunkiness, the production company takes full advantage of the 4x3 frame and has a good deal of action take place out-of-frame or have close-ups of irrelevant foreground objects such that the object takes up most of the frame, thus drawing viewer attention away from the actual subject of the scene. This lack of quality control in the newly produced animation is disappointing. Those expecting quality over quantity thanks to the small amount of new footage would be let down. The voice acting is expertly done but, again, there is a clear distinction between lines from the original TV series and newly recorded dialogue. Some of the actors, particularly the women characters like Rook, clearly sound older in the new dialogue. Afterall, 20 years is a long time and can change how a person sounds. Thankfully, Cam Clark who reprises his role as Lancer is able to maintain consistency with his recordings from back then. No doubt a labour of love from the producers of Robotech, Robotech Love Live Alive remains polarising among audience. Those expecting a musical extravaganza like the original Mospeda Love Live Alive would be let down by the inclusion of 2 snippets of songs, one full song over the end credits and one more full song that Yellow Dancer performs in concert. That concert, by the way, seems hastily edited, with Lancer changing costumes and even stage props constantly throughout the song, and too much repeated footage; a flaw that permeates the entire production. Seriously, there are at least 4 of the same shot of the reporter with her obsolete tape recorder on her lap pausing and restarting the recording. The whole thing comes across like a fan made anime music video. For all the time and effort that went into digitally restoring the old footage, perhaps this summary movie would have been better off if it were animated from scratch. That way the flaws in the original series animation, like inconsistent quality of artwork, would not be so apparent. Or perhaps the slip shod editing of re-used scenes would not be so obvious. But most importantly, with a fully reanimated production utilising modern animation styles, Robotech would have finally shed it's sad reputation of being no more than a cut-and-paste americanised edit of japanaese anime.

• This is absolutely not an adaptation of the 1985 Mospeada OVA.

  genesisclimber72013-07-24

  Forget the gushing studio plant. Let me preface this. I have loved Robotech since 1985. I have every series on at least one DVD release, of the many out there, and the DVD releases of Macross, Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada, which I'm the biggest fan of. I have about a thousand dollars worth of Japanese Mospeada toys. I have several Mospeada soundtracks. I have never been a purist though, and I love the Robotech universe. I have defended the late Carl Macek and Harmony Gold's treatment of Robotech for YEARS. This release is not Love, Live, Alive. This is a kick in the teeth to fans who actually expected anything along the lines of Love, Live, Alive. This is a 90 minute compilation movie. Or more specifically, 80 minutes of footage of the remastered New Generation releases from 2004, about 8 minutes of Love, Live, Alive footage from the original 1985 OVA, and 2 minutes of new stuff. THAT IS IT. You get book-ending and occasional narration from Cam Clarke as Yellow Belmont/Lancer, whatever you want to call him. This is not a dub of the 1985 movie. This does not have any of the music videos. This features two whole songs, and one in the credits. If you have seen Robotech: The New Generation or Genesis Climber Mospeada, you've seen this. You are watching a recap movie like Macross: Do You Remember Love, or the Gundam movies that recap an entire season in 90 minutes. Yeah, it's great to revisit the series in one sitting, but this was marketed as Love, Live, Alive, and the continuation. IT'S NOT. You get to see Yellow's concert for about 3 minutes. You get the same stock shots of him being interviewed over and over, any time the narration is revisited. (And hey, doesn't that look like April O'Neill?) You see ONE lousy song at his concert, and the great scene from the end of the original Love, Live, Alive where the gang meets up again and eats together and they camp out is finally dubbed and seen. That amounts to about 5 minutes. There is a minor revelation before the credits that MAY mean something if Shadow Chronicles gets off the ground within the next 15 years. Great. The other review posted sickeningly gushes over this 90 minute non-event. Harmony Gold markets the original Robotech series to us roughly once every two years. Legacy collection, complete collection, remastered collection, Protoculture collection, oh look, another COMPLETE collection, plus the original Japanese releases. Shadow Chronicles got a double dip cash grab within a year, and then a Blu Ray, and look, here it is again! It's great that over the past ten years of DVD releases we've had ONE ACTUAL NEW MOVIE, and a thousand re-releases. The Sentinels was cancelled. Robotech 2000 was cancelled. Shadow Chronicles was released, no, it ESCAPED, and that was that. Why have I defended Harmony Gold's treatment of this series for years? WHAT ARE THEY WORKING ON? What is Tommy Yune DOING?? I'm the kind of fan that defended this series up and down for ages. I'm done. These are non-releases. This is a months work, tops, on 30 year old re-released footage. And Scott Bernard is my favorite Robotech character of all time, and Greg Snegoff, I love ya, man, but I can't believe your name is on this adaptation as a new product. I've been a fan since 1985, and I feel I can be honest and no longer simply rave about something new with the word "Robotech" on it. This was my favorite part of the series, and I wanted to see a release of "Love, Live, Alive". This isn't it.

• Not sure what Harmony-Gold was trying to accomplish here...

  DarthBill2015-11-05

  ...beyond simply trying to put out a "new" Robotech film. Except this isn't so much a film as a clip show recounting the third season, the New Generation (Genesis Climber Mospeda), told from Lancer's perspective, splicing together footage from a Mospeda music video OVA and some new footage, some of it good (an admittedly well animated opening invasion sequence) and some of it not (the last scenes between Lancer and his Invid lover Princess Sera). As a giant clip show it's an okay recount of the last season/series but anyone who was expecting a truly new expansion of the Robotech mythology or the original Love Live Alive OVA in all its glory will be disappointed. Fans of Lancer and his voice actor Cam Clarke will probably appreciate the emphasis placed on him and enjoy hearing Clarke reprise the role along with the other New Generation actors who came back for the few lines they're given (and as another review noted his voice it seems has not aged that much - and fortunately Barbara Goodson, the voice of Sera, also still sounds more or less the same) but outside of that this is strictly rental material. The closing song "Only A Fool" is a nice touch.

• Robotech Thrives!

  SilentDues2013-07-23

  Well, I literally just saw it. Before I go any further, please beware MAJOR untagged spoilers! Without any further... well, ya' know. The story: Gotta say, I really liked it! Tommy, Greg, Cam especially, you guys did an excellent job on what could've turned out to just be a copy-paste of Mospeada's original Love Live Alive. Far from it, what we have here is something of a cross between "Dana's Story" and the Gloval Report movie some may remember, but with the added twist of some new footage. Not a whole lot, but some. Going into Love Live Alive, know to expect the movie equivalent of a flashback story (ergo 'clip show') as nearly the whole story recounts The New Generation, but I re-emphasize I got so much more out of it than that. As opposed to the super-long music video vibe the Mospeada version has, Robotech's perspective explores what made the characters and their interactions. The core of their journey toward the Reflex Point destination. One tweak I really liked in this flashback story, along with Lancer's narration, came with some of the character introspections given by him and going back to the 'present' as Lancer relates his life to a very friendly reporter. Speaking of, REALLY loved Kay, an amusing personality that helped really make those brief moments surprisingly cool. Again though, expect more a retrospective on the Third Robotech War than where he is beyond that. Make no mistake though, for Lancer's past before he meets Scott's team and afterwards, we get some damn cool material IMHO. The opening few minutes are VERY memorable as we get the return of Robotech's original Narrator alongside a whole new tie-in point of view for the Invid invasion, it's so cool seeing stuff come together that originally the mid-80s couldn't pull off. Big YAYS to seeing SX Point 83 become Reflex Point, 10th Mars' battle, Dana cameo~ That's stuff near the beginning of the movie, while near the end is when some more fun stuff happens! We do get some singing from Michael Bradley as Lancer, even if it was recorded years back, we get an incredible rendition of his own "We Will Win!" (a cool parallel to the end of The Shadow Chronicles btw!) and a very beautiful scene involving "Lonely Soldier Boy" that brought tears to my eyes. Yes, I'm serious. You guys should know, the voice actor that gets the most chops flexed turns out to be Cam's role as Lancer, he's kinda in the same position Dean Stockwell was for that Galactica "The Plan" movie. The rest of the VAs do return (I admit it was hard making out where Admiral Hunter's archival cameo was), but their new time is short and they don't get nearly the same amount of perspective as our Yellow Dancer. Not that that's a bad thing, but again, go into this knowing what to expect, Love Live Alive is Lancer's story. The very end of the movie, snap, there's such a HUGE spoilery moment right before the end-credits that changes EVERYTHING in the Robotech universe. I really don't wanna give this one away, but needless to say it does move the story forward contrary to what many were afraid this story wouldn't do. While this is hyped as a sidestory, the 'present-day' events appear to be set slightly right after the end of The Shadow Chronicles, least that's the impression I got during a camp fire scene with the whole team. If only for Love Live Alive, do buy this release for that alone. You can watch it before or after The Shadow Chronicles, I say the former as well because we get a very cool something after the end-credits! Remember how I mentioned the original Narrator's return, well, see for yourself...! As for the animation quality, know first off that between the original Love Live Alive material and brand new stuff, there's about 17 minutes. I really like what we got! For the majority of the story that gives us a New Generation retrospective, it appears that Harmony Gold uses their Remastered version and all the better, while their remastering job on the original feature-exclusive stuff is pretty dang good. You guys should know about the aspect ratio, in staying true to the original New Generation and Mospeada feature, the entire movie is in 4:3. Despite being a fullscreen format, it doesn't appear anything substantial was cropped from the sides of the all new animation's material. Speaking of the new animation, it's very interesting how this worked out, it's done rather similar to the style of the original anime more-so than The Shadow Chronicles' updated designs. The new stuff mainly applies to the pre-2042 flashback stuff and some very interesting material near the end. I think both sides of the animation melded pretty well together, even though I prefer The Shadow Chronicles' quality a bit more and hope Shadow Rising is more along those lines, gotta admit it'd be nice to see mecha battles along how the 10th Division's is presented here. Mind you all I'm no animation expert myself, but I have seen the original Mospeada feature and it's very cool seeing that spirit maintained and respected so well. The new stuff, there ain't a whole lot, but I love it! Enjoy and remember, that Protoculture will always be in my blood~