Customer Reviews

Robotech - The Masters - Complete Collection

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While the Robotech story is original, full of action, and human emotion; the second act was lacking many of the things that made the first one so irresistable. There is no hint of intelligence until well towards the end of the story and it only makes the involvement of the famous "protoculture" all the more confusing. Despite these problems, I did enjoy this era in the robotech story, but it sure didn't have the feel of a real military background that I found so appealing in its first act.

I have been hooked on Robotech since it came on Sci-Fi I I'm 20 now so it's not been long, I watched teh Macross Saga and Masters Saga on Cartoon Network and got the New Gen. from here. But I must say this, Macross and the New Gen. have great story lines while the Masters falls somewhat short of greatness.

Dana Sterling is the main Character, buring the whole things she show little in leadership skills and acts more like a child. Though in the books it's differenet ( hard to find but worth the trouble of getting) I find myself comparing the show to the books, while the Macross show and book runs very well as one the Masters is isn't. Dana in the books is more of a leader with a Rebal edage. Then a kid with a hoovertank.

I really want to list the problems with this dvd,
1. Characters are block and dull nothing really great about them
2. The Saga has more battles and talking about battles than anything else which makes it dull (but atleast they are good fights)
3. To much inforamtion is put on the viewer and sometimes viewer has to watch an ep. a few times to get it all.
4. In Macross and New. Gen alot of human emoations are put into the show to get the viewer to really get into the show, but the Masters has so little that is dry and fells almost bland.

All though the show has it problems it is still key to the Robotech Saga anyway you look at it. It answers questions about Robotech, about the Masters and yes even the awful and hated Invid. It also answer that bigest question people ask when they first geting to the Macross Saga.

"What Happiend to Rick, and Lisa and the others?"

With that I will leave it as this Robotech Master is key to the story no matter how bad you hate it or love it. It is a must see even with it's problems it is still good and enjoyable just leaves that feeling of emptiness after you finish watching it. But for those of you who are looking at this and thinking about buying it I would get it hands down and with out second thought. Just remember to get Macross and New Gen. along with it and you will have yourself a good ol' time and lot of sleepless nights.

I am a big Robotech fan. i like it very much,and this part 2 is the best part in robotech i think. although haven't so many heroes, but it is so profound and has so much complexity of characters just like Dana,Zor,also Robotech Masters. this part is the core of Robotech, it is mysterious, solemn and stirring. it make me to see that the real meaning of Robotch is not only anti-war, but the forever principle between universe and being. only this part can show that. if you can't understand this part, you can't understand the whole Robotech.

Received it quickly and plays great! Cannot see any scratches at all. Like new but a fraction of the price!

The first Robotech was great, but the second wasn't as good. Don't pay more than $10 for this, it's not worth it.

This collection covers the entire under-appreciated "Robotech Masters" saga following the adventures of Dana Sterling and the Earth Robotech Defense Force after the SDF-3 departs to the the world of the Robotech Masters.

Most of what made the original Macross great (great characterization, drama, action, and storyline) was present to a slightly less (albeit still satisfying) degree in Robotech Masters. A common complaint leveled against the series is that the characterization is "poor" and that only a relatively few characters (i.e Dana Sterling) have any depth. The only merit that I can find to this statement is that a few members of the 15th ATAC Squadron were not as fleshed out as other characters. This may be true in a sense, but this is looking at the glass half-empty instead of half-full. The larger cast of good guys in Robotech Masters meant that a smaller fraction (though not necessarily smaller number) of these good guys could be given screentime as major characters. In retrospect, even Macross had several "underdeveloped" characters. For instance, a full half of the members of the SDF-1 bridge (Vanessa Leeds, Sammie Porter, and Kim Young) are relative unknowns, with the viewer barely learning anything more about them than their basic military duties. Furthermore, exempting major characters, most of the Skull Squadron remain little more than anonymous wingmen throughout the series. Although Masters did have its fair share of lesser-detailed minor characters, there were more than enough interesting relationships in the fleshed out cast of "good guys" from Dana Sterling, Bowie Grant, Marie Christal, Nova Satori, Rolf Emerson, Sean Phillips, Commander Leonard, Zor Prime (and so on) to prove that the criticism about a "lack of characterization" in Masters is simply false. One just needs to cite Bowie Grant's internal battles between his military duty and his love of the piano, or his lovesickness for an "enemy" character, Rolf Emerson's constant battle of wills with Leonard, or Nova Satori's inner conflicts between following orders and friendship, to see just how incorrect such complaints are.

Similarly, the "bad guys" are also well-fleshed out. Unlike much of the third season, (and like Macross), the viewer is not only treated to the thoughts, motivations, and plans of the good guys, but with nearly every episode, we are given direct insight into the plans, thoughts, motivations, and fears of the enemy from both the standpoint of the military leaders and of the civilians. The enemy army doesn't come across as just big and bad random mecha patrols that serve little function other than to serve as antagonists to destroy at the end of every episode, but like the Zentraedi, several characters stand out as having considerable depth on par with some of the protagonists. Furthermore, inspite of the stern demeanor displayed by the main triumvirate of Robotech Masters, it was refreshing to see considerable screentime devoted just to their discussing of battle plans on how to best proceed against the Southern Cross. Seeing the Robotech Masters out-think Southern Cross was especially suspenseful, especially when only the viewer knew what trouble the unwitting good guys were getting into. All this was a nice contrast to the relatively little characterization given to the Invid in the first half of season three. With that said, it is this reviewer's opinion that the overall level of characterization in Masters actually exceeds that of New Gen (although less than Macross).


I also disagree on a common complaint that Robotech Masters had the worst mecha out of the 3 series.... Despite what may be said about the transforming hover tanks, to each his own, but I didn't think that Invid "giant purple crab" mecha was very original either. I'd much rather be caught in an AJAX or a Bio-roid anyday.

One thing that Masters had, that the other two didn't was that the bad guys actually WON sometimes! Robotech Masters wasn't scared to make the good guys lose every now and then. Up until the last few weeks of the war, the Armies of the Southern Cross had actually fared pretty badly in the larger battles. Aside from small skirmishes won by Dana's group, the Robotech Masters really proved their technological superiority, particularly in the larger space battles.

As for the purported picture/audio issues from some of the previous reviews, unless these problems have since been remedied, I found no such issues after watching most of Masters twice through. All in all, this was an enjoyable solid entry to the Robotech saga, and in this reviewer's opinion was the second best in the series (after Macross). To counter some of the unexpectedly low ratings, this reviewer gives this 5 stars instead of 4.4.

This has to be one of my favorite series!
Dana sterling as well as the rest of the new female characters have all their own distinct characteristics and makes them fun to watch.
Very different then the Macross series and less 'serious' then the southern cross but definely the most fun and exciting out of the three,I really liked Danas character in Masters,she's really fun and wild out of the rest of the Robotech personas.

To begin let me tell you something about Robotech: Robotech was created by taking three Anime that were not in any way related (Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada) and creating a single series - Robotech - from them. This is because back then there was a minimum length for shows to be aired on US-TV and Macross was too short...
As you can imagine continuity is not easy to be achieved in such a project... You could drive several battletanks through the plot holes

Southern Cross (here called "The Masters") does not reach the quality of Macross by a long shot. Even disregarding the fact, that the editors were faced with the difficult task of fitting the series after the storyline of Macross, the show is quite cheap. Battles are uninspired and frequently footage is used two or three times during a single combat leading to repetitions. (If you've seen the same bioroids explode for the fourth time you'll know what I mean...) Tranformations of the good guy's mecha are done just to look cool (and it doesn't). There is no tactical reason whatsoever to change configuration three times, all the while fighting the same enemies in the same environment (Actually I found myself hoping the bad guys would exploit such stupidity and pop some of them.)
The characters are pale and only Dana Sterling (Her name was changed to imply she is the daughter of two characters from Macross, though that girl had green hair, while SC-Dana is a typical blonde.) gets any amount of screentime at all until into the second half of the series.
The second half surprisingly gets a little better with less copied scenes and more time for secondary characters, saving the series a two-star-rating from me.
As to the differences between the original Southern Cross and Robotech - The Masters (Don't worry I include no major spoilers):
First of all, for those of you that were wondering why earth is looking a little strange, SC is not set on the earth but on a colony world named Glory. (By the way, Glory had two suns, all shots that show both at once were edited or taken out of the show.) This explains why there are almost no battleships on the planet itself and all of them "return from deep space" (i.e. reinforcements from earth^^)
In SC Zor is just what the others believe him to be - a brainwashed human soldier.
And finally, what happens in the end is really a good thing in SC! I guess they cut all the cheering out to make it seem like a catastrophe^^
Definitely not a Must-See-Show...

I am a big Robotech fan. i like it very much,and this part 2 is the best part in robotech i think. although haven't so many heroes, but it is so profound and has so much complexity of characters just like Dana,Zor,also Robotech Masters. this part is the core of Robotech, it is mysterious, solemn and stirring. it make me to see that the real meaning of Robotch is not only anti-war, but the forever principle between universe and being. only this part can show that. if you can't understand this part, you can't understand the whole Robotech.

As a kid, I didn't tune in to Robotech until the second episode of the Masters. As a result, I didn't see Macross until I was a bit older. That said, it was the Masters chapter that hooked me on Robotech, and I'd highly reccomend these DVDs to anyone who enjoyed Macross or The Next Generation.