https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4KrOoxUUXs
Cut together from three different animated series, and re-written for a US audience Robotech was thrilling! Airplanes that turned into giant robot battle armor?
One of the first televised anime series I can remember, as a kid I hoped and hoped for the story to continue! Evidently, so did the show producer Harmony Gold, who tried to make several new Robotech properties, but couldn’t quite get one to go.
It seems, in 2006, they quietly snuck Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles in on us! I had no idea.
The Shadow Chronicles runs concurrently with the last episode or two of Robotech, and then continues the story. Decades after a mysterious alien ship crashes to Earth, gifting us with wonderful Robotechnology, and uniting humanity in preparation for an impending alien attack, humanity is screwed! Galaxy wide religious wars are still being fought over energy! The only remaining sources of “proto-culture” are either on Earth, or onboard Admiral Rick Hunter’s long missing Super Dimensional Fortress-3, extracted from of the wreckage of the original alien ship! Everybody wants that protoculture!
I’m not a huge fan of mid-2000’s CGI, but the story is pretty much pure Robotech. Be prepared to take some huge leaps of faith with the characters, and for cliff hanger after cliff hanger to extend the tension from episode to episode, even when edited into movie form. Evidently this was released both as a series, and a single movie.
I enjoyed this new installment, but felt they left us waiting for the next chapter, again.
The movie is on Youtube, and Amazon Prime. The entire original Robotech series is on Amazon Prime as well, and is still a ton of fun to watch!