Producers at Harmony Gold edited together Super Dimension Fortress: Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada, and Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross to create Robotech (1985), a landmark sci-fi adventure that helped to establish an audience for Japanese animation in America. In the final episodes of the Macross segment, the Lisa-Rick-Minmei romantic triangle plays out against the ongoing Earth-Zentraedi conflict and the machinations of rebel Zentraedi captain Khyron, which devastate much of the planet. Intimations of a new threat posed by the distant Robotech Masters serve as a lead-in to the second part of the epic. A planned 65-episode fourth installment in the saga was never completed, but the first four episodes and some additional footage were combined into the feature Robotech II: The Sentinels, the final installment in the Robotech continuity. The supplemental "Elements of Robotechnology III" disc includes The Sentinels, a trailer for it prepared for the 1987 Toy Fair, and a rather self-serving commentary by writer-director Carl Macek. Members of Gen-X who grew up on Robotech will delight in retracing these romances and battles; it's a classic, of sorts. Viewers accustomed to the more rapid pacing, dynamic action, and sophisticated direction of recent anime will tire of the endless shilly-shallying. Unrated; suitable for ages 8 and up: Mild violence restricted to spaceship and robot battles. --Charles Solomon
