Customer Reviews

Super Dimensional Cavalry - Southern Cross (Complete Series)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like many of these ol' foggies that write anime reviews, stated that their love of anime started from the series Robotech...

This is true in my case. The thing about Robotech that I didn't like was that the Masters series didn't really make a lot of sense, especially when they started talking about the three way war between the SDF, the Masters and the Invid...and the whole "triumphiant" was all hokey.

Southern cross was nothing like that. The so-called Protoculture was more like an energy source than a "flower of life". I considered it more like plutonium than the fountain of youth.

Characters were different too...Charles was a ladies man, Nova wasn't that much of a prude and Marie Angel had a life. Jeanne was much more than an fun loving genetically confused brat that Dana Sterling was made out to be.

The whole show had a universal theme to it...No matter how much our political differences are, deep inside, we are still the same. As with the other reviewers, this show was wrapped up way too fast, but at the end. There was a scene where Jeanne was telling the Commander that she couldn't kill an alien invader that looked just like them (human beings). That scene stuck.

In a world where politics polarize societies, this anime hit pretty close to home dealing with the politics of war. The ZOR was nothing more than cloned human beings that was genetically 'improved' to live on the planet 'Glorie'. The planet 'Glorie' was abandoned because it became inhabitable to humanoids. The Zor abandoned Glorie years prior to the current human inhabitants, to the point that they did not think that they lived there. Later in the story, the human inhabitants of Glorie discover the remants of the Zor technology, the energy of protoculture that they needed to continue cloning the zor race (being created and controlled by three old men-like deities) and running their ship. The old men force the zor to fight with the settlers (by extensive training and brainwashing). The settlers fight back (not knowing why they are being attacked in the first place). The Zor believes that they have a right to live on Glorie, their original homeland. The settler demand that they have the same rights as the original inhabitants. Sounds familiar....

At the end, we all have to live with each other...just like the Zor and the humans. Bowie fell in love with Musica...Jeanne was right all along, deep down we are all the same.

NOTE: Amazon's "Product Details" indicate that the languages of this DVD are Japanese and English. This is wrong! It is in JAPANESE ONLY with English subtitles. Most people would probably know this, but it is still a misrepresentation and grounds for a refund. So please get it together, Amazon. Also, the cover art of the product I purchased differed from the one shown in this ad.

I recently purchased this series from Amazon Marketplace for a really good price! My fond memories of The Robotech Masters still comes to mind when I was curious to see how different the original version is to Harmony Gold's version. I was surprised the backside of the box read;

"a powerful, bittersweet series from the golden age of Japanese animation which was the original source material for the second act of..." Robotech.

Watching the opening credits reveals familiar moments from Robotech's opening credits with Macross, Southern Cross and Genesis Climber cropped and combined together. The first episode is so different from how I remember the Masters. The creators of Robotech rewrote and re-editted this series to tie in with Macross to have Lt. Jeanne/Dana Sterling as the daughter of Max and Myria. A new character to Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Maia Sterling, is added in to the movie as Dana's sister. She may have originally been added in the Robotech novels. But getting back to what I remember from the first episode of the Masters, Jeanne/Dana is written in as highly skilled, confident and brave. She reflects on what went on between her "parents" and how they met during the Zentran and Meltran War with one of her friends. But in Southern Cross, Lt. Jeanne is rebellious, defiant and troublesome to her superiors spending some time in the brig on disciplinary charges.

Yet the story itself rehashes on some political grounds of planetary occupation/colonization on Gloire belonging to returning alien inhabitants called the Zors. As the story continues, the mystery behind the Zor unfolds as civilians are kidnapped and used against the Southern Cross army. The Zor and Southern Cross army become desperate to survive and win each battle as the war becomes endless with casualties mounting on both sides. Overall this is a great anime series that inspired others like "Dirty Pair" and "Gunbuster."

I think this show gets a bad rap from the ROBOTECH version. It was heavily edited to bridge the Macross saga and the New Generation, and what came out was confusing. This original, Japanese version makes sense. It's also good, for a low-budget 1980s Anime.

Way, way in the future on the planet Glorie (which has two moons), humans have established a colony, and a new army (The army of the Southern Cross). Suddenly, a race of alien triplets (the Zor), begin to orbit Glorie in massive fortress-spaceships. A slow war of attrition begins, as the Zor attempt to take back Glorie without damaging it (too much).

It's an epic story, where the main character (Jannie) goes from an immature brat to a responsible commander during a long war between aliens and human colonists. There are also many secondary characters, who are portrayed pretty well. It is very consistent in its animation quality (it doesn't roller-coaster from high to low like Macross, or stay consistently low like Mospeada). The robot-on-robot action is pretty good. When there is music... it's bad. Very bad. The creators had an obsession with shower scenes too.

It is very heavy in the exposition department, but hey, this is Anime. It's cheaper to have characters stand still and talk about the plot than it is to show the plot by actually animating something that moves. You get the whole series, complete with rushed three-episode ending, so there's plenty of material to watch. If you like 1980s Anime, you'll probably like this. It's still a cheaply made 1980s Anime, so I couldn't really recommend it to the average viewer.

Super Dimensional Calvary was another anime series in Japan that caught on in the U.S. A direct sequel to Macross.
Not as great as Macross but fun in it's own way. Too bad the toys and model kits didn't sell in Japan, the series was ended and wrapped all too quickly. The americanized version was dubbed The Robotech Masters. It was re-edited and dubbed so it could follow right after the first Robotech series. The original takes place years and in a different universe than Macross. If you enjoy Robotech this set is worth a look, it's uncut and in it's original language.

Strongly recommended.

What you are looking at is the original series that the second "cycle" of the american robotech series was based on. Basically harmony gold took this anime re-wrote and re-edited it to fit between the macross & invid invasion stories. For better of worse (i think worse) most robotech fans thought of this as the weak link in the robotech saga. And for years it has not been available in the U.S. It's well worth a second look. After macross and orgus this was the ORGINAL end the series. While more macross stuff continues to be produced this series was kind of like the farwell yamato of it's time. The orginal story is much more complex than we see on robotech *hint* zor is not a person but a race, and this is NOT earth. The only reason this series doesn't get a 5: production. ADV could have done better, we've all seen the recent Neon genesis upgrades. This is not just for nastalgic protoculture addicts, but it does help. Other reviews mention specific technical issues i haven't had that experince. However, there are no commentaries and little special features to speak of. Still if you ever were a robotech fan watch this. IT was the original end to the macross series you know you want know why...

I had to order this DVD set twice. My first set was so scratched up you couldn't see anything beyond episode 1. I returned it and got a much better set, but the last 5 minutes of episode 19 was recorded badly. I expect to see the quality like that on a CD-ROM from 1997, but not on a 2 year old DVD player. The show's story was great which is why it gets at least 1 star, but ADV should know better than to make a defective product.