A Two-Way Followup
Aug. 10th, 2017 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerIn acknowledging news of a new and "different" Robotech comic had sharpened a personal interest hardly dulled to oblivion before, I went so far as to say that should I happen to see some of the more amusing alternative covers at a local comic shop, I might go so far as to buy the first issue. It was raining on "new releases day," so I didn't get to the shop until a day later. Once there, I just saw a few of what I gather to be the "regular" cover, perhaps not quite "photorealistic" but a long way from the "anime-esque" variants that had looked more amusing in the previews. I can't say rarer covers hadn't been picked over the day before, but it is easy to suppose there weren't many issues ordered to start with. Even as my previous thoughts bumped against a lack of options, though, with an awareness of disdain from slices of whatever was left of the series-specific fandom and an assumption of unrelieved hostility from the anime fandom just "outside," the thought of buying a copy to form my own independent opinion did wind up unshakeable.
Seeing all of the issue might not have changed the impressions the art style of the preview pages had given me. There was an odd fascination in such a thorough "Westernization" (the colourful uniforms hadn't been changed very much, though, which I suppose does help draw associations back), but I do find myself contemplating one of the reasons I've come up with whenever "having stayed interested in anime for ten times as long as the average is said to be" comes to mind. "The way anime characters look appeals to me" is simple enough, even if (and no matter if that's followed up with the prompt, careful insistence there's no such thing as a singular "anime style"), there are weird areas glimmering beyond that some just smirk at from a further and safer distance. The lack of that style, though, just might link in with accusations I've seen that the old camaraderie among the characters has been jettisoned to build up a sense of this being serious stuff now.
With all of that said, I do have to face having become that much further complicit, if to whatever extent, in the whole "we might only still be getting more Robotech because the international rights to Macross are so tangled yet open if not to swift prejudice then to careful yet mealy-mouthed uncertainty" deal. I might only have compounded things by taking a while getting around to setting these thoughts down, not by ordering untranslated manga from Japan and guessing at the dialogue but by at last managing to seek out a "scanlation" of the beginning of the "Macross the First" manga. It's drawn by the original character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, bringing thoughts of "Gundam the Origin" to mind, and it does look very nice to me even if it uses the designs that arrived after the original anime series for the theatrical version. I may not have the extreme allergic reaction to them of someone who picked up on the series not that many years ago if to focus almost exclusively on the Zentradi, the giant adversaries, but somehow the new designs don't quite appeal to me as much as the originals. The translated material I did find leaves off almost where the first issue of the new Robotech comic did, at a point where I am pondering where the next issue might go. It could be a long time yet, though, for the comic to manage to get to the point where the "space opera" opens up and the more interesting divergences of Robotech from Macross begin.
Seeing all of the issue might not have changed the impressions the art style of the preview pages had given me. There was an odd fascination in such a thorough "Westernization" (the colourful uniforms hadn't been changed very much, though, which I suppose does help draw associations back), but I do find myself contemplating one of the reasons I've come up with whenever "having stayed interested in anime for ten times as long as the average is said to be" comes to mind. "The way anime characters look appeals to me" is simple enough, even if (and no matter if that's followed up with the prompt, careful insistence there's no such thing as a singular "anime style"), there are weird areas glimmering beyond that some just smirk at from a further and safer distance. The lack of that style, though, just might link in with accusations I've seen that the old camaraderie among the characters has been jettisoned to build up a sense of this being serious stuff now.
With all of that said, I do have to face having become that much further complicit, if to whatever extent, in the whole "we might only still be getting more Robotech because the international rights to Macross are so tangled yet open if not to swift prejudice then to careful yet mealy-mouthed uncertainty" deal. I might only have compounded things by taking a while getting around to setting these thoughts down, not by ordering untranslated manga from Japan and guessing at the dialogue but by at last managing to seek out a "scanlation" of the beginning of the "Macross the First" manga. It's drawn by the original character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, bringing thoughts of "Gundam the Origin" to mind, and it does look very nice to me even if it uses the designs that arrived after the original anime series for the theatrical version. I may not have the extreme allergic reaction to them of someone who picked up on the series not that many years ago if to focus almost exclusively on the Zentradi, the giant adversaries, but somehow the new designs don't quite appeal to me as much as the originals. The translated material I did find leaves off almost where the first issue of the new Robotech comic did, at a point where I am pondering where the next issue might go. It could be a long time yet, though, for the comic to manage to get to the point where the "space opera" opens up and the more interesting divergences of Robotech from Macross begin.