GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA - DVD review

During the early- to mid-1980s, Japanese audiences found "Super Dimension Fortress Macross", "Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross", and "Genesis Climber Mospeada" playing on television. Each animated series had nothing to do with one another, but longtime anime fan Carl Macek decided to combine the three shows and bring them to American audiences as one big series, "Robotech." In order to satisfy American broadcast requirements for an animated series (sixty-five episodes to run over a period of thirteen weeks), Mr. Macek created a new storyline for the three shows, making them a multi-generational saga about humans, aliens, and robot technology. "Super Dimension Fortress Macross" became "The Macross Saga", "Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross" became "The Robotech Masters", and "Genesis Climber Mospeada" became "The New Generation", all under the "Robotech" umbrella.

Now, after years of clamoring from the hardest of the hardcore anime fans, ADV Films was able to obtain the Region 1 distribution rights for "Genesis Climber Mospeada". ADV was able to re-master digitally the show's video and audio elements, and each episode is presented as it appeared on Japanese television (without any of the edits introduced by Carl Macek for his "Robotech" project). The entire twenty-five-episode run of "Mospeada" is being sold in one five-disc DVD box set.

Disc 1--"Prelude to the Attack", "March of a Girl With a Broken Heart", "Midday Duel Concert", "Feeling Like a Survival Song", "Live-In Robbery Operation".

Disc 2--"Pretend Tough Girl Blues", "Ragtime for a Brave Dead Man", "Jonathan's Elegy", "Lost World Fugue", "Battlefield Requiem".

Disc 3--"Lullaby of Far Away Hope", "Break Through the Fort Boogie", "Sand Storm Playback", "Mint's Wedding March", "Breaking Up Ballad".

Disc 4--"Trap Reggae", "White Night Serenade", "Old Soldiers' Polka", "Ice City Forte", "Birthday Song in the Night Sky".

Disc 5--"Arpeggio of a Killer", "NY Bebop", "Brunet's Partita", "Darkness's Finale", "Symphony of the Light".

Before the actual start of the series, an alien race known as the Inbit conquered Earth in order to use the planet's resources. Therefore, military forces from the Mars Terran Colony are seen attempting a re-taking invasion in Episode 1. One among this force is Stig Bernard (the main hero of the story). Like everyone his age from Mars, Stig was not born on Earth and has never even seen up close, much less been to, his ancestral homeland. The Inbit outfight the humans, and Stig is the lone survivor from his outfit. Armed with a Cyclone (the coolest, most bad-ass motorcycles you'll ever see) and a locket given to him by his now-dead girlfriend Marlene, Stig sets out to complete his mission--destroy the Reflex Point, the Inbit's central base.

Along the way, Stig teams up with various individuals. Ray is a happy-go-lucky country boy who finds a Cyclone of his own inside a crashed ship. Houquet Erose, a tough blonde hottie, races around on her own red Cyclone. There's Yellow Belmont, a freedom fighter (with his own dark blue Cyclone) who disguises himself as the hottest female singing sensation on Earth. Jim Austin, a big chunk of an engineer, joins the team, as does Mint Rubble, a little girl who has a crush on every boy she meets. Together, this little group will save mankind from death, destruction, and despair.

After the incredibly busy first few episodes, "Mospeada" settles down into more predictable narrative patterns. Mostly, our little band of resistance fighters encounters more Inbit warriors. Jim Austin unearths a couple of Alpha and Beta fighters, so Ray, Houquet Erose, and Yellow Belmont can now join Stig in the air during intense battles. Meanwhile, the Inbit genetically engineer one of their own into human form. They deposit this "simulagent", Aisha, into the midst of the freedom fighters in order to spy on them.

The Inbit create more powerful fighter models in order to fight the determined human freedom fighters. Stig and Company find that the alien invaders have created huge hive facilities in order to conduct genetics experiments. The Inbit are mostly bundles of consciousness enclosed in energy cels. The aliens hope to engineer an evolutionarily advanced life form in order to house their "selves". Meanwhile, Aisha seems to be regaining her memories, and she's beginning to interact with the rest of the group, even if she doesn't say much. Stig becomes more and more attached to her every day since she resembles Marlene, his now-dead girlfriend.

Eventually, the Inbit come to think of the resistance fighters as a genuine nuisance, so they create a set of boy-girl twins to lead patrol squads. However, the Inbit twins go their separate ways. The brother stays loyal to the Inbit queen while his sister, Sorji, sides with the humans. Ray and Houquet Erose continue to cement their romantic relationship, and Stig has to come to terms with his feelings for Aisha and his memories of Marlene. Human forces from deep space finally make it back to Earth in order to finish what the first wave of human soldiers set out to accomplish: reclaim Earth. Aisha convinces the Inbit Queen that it will be futile for either side to try to fight over the planet. After all, the humans are willing to destroy Earth rather than letting the Inbit keep it. Therefore, the Inbit make plans to depart for a new home world.

The "Robotech" subjugation of "Mospeada" did away with almost all of the philosophical aspects of the show's dialogue. Fortunately, the excellent subtitling job done by ADV Films allows American viewers to see that "Mospeada" is concerned with more than just humans and aliens using mechs to blast the hell out of each other. The Inbit are worried about evolutionary stagnation, and they see humans as consumed by dark feelings. However, the humans use themselves as a mirror to reflect the Inbit's hypocrisy. I'm not saying that "Mospeada" is particularly profound, but it is a representative example of how Japanese animation, on average, offers a bit more thought that the usual American animated TV fare.

Video:
"Genesis Climber Mospeada" appears on DVD with its original 1.33:1 (full-frame on 4:3 monitors) video ratio. The episodes on these DVDs look much better than they did on the "Robotech" discs since they have been cleaned and digitally re-mastered. However, there are still some nicks and scratches on the source prints, and colors don't look as vibrant as one might wish that they would be.

Audio:
We get to watch the show with its original Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Japanese track. Thankfully, dynamic range is not limited as has been the case with some REALLY old TV programs. The music fills the soundstage rather well (lots of energetic but not particularly low ends), and dialogue sounds clear and strong. There aren't many stereo effects, though, so the soundstage feels rather limited.

Optional English subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
Once again, due to the costs related to purchasing distribution rights as well as the digital restoration of a show, a Japanese animation program arrives on DVD with a minimal amount of extras. There are some simple extras on the "Genesis Climber Mospeada" DVDs, but Disc 5 doesn't have any extras at all.

Disc 1--Character Bios (text pages).

Disc 2--"Clean" (textless) Opening and Closing Credits Sequences.

Disc 3--Production Portfolio (a four-minute presentation of sketches set to music).

Disc 4--A set of six previews for other ADV Films products.

--Miscellaneous--
A twenty-two-page booklet provides a wealth of text interviews and articles as well as some credits listings. Everything is stored inside one of those Alpha multi-disc combo cases.

Film Value:
For my reviews of "The New Generation" DVD box sets in the "Robotech" saga, I wrote about liking "The New Generation" segment of "Robotech" the most. My reasons for preferring "The New Generation" are the reasons why I bothered to watch basically the same episodes again for a review of "Genesis Climber Mospeada". "Mospeada" has über-cool mecha that is rarely matched, and the characters (with the exception of Mint Rubble) are not burdened with unnecessary subplots or silly storylines. While I have to admit that I've outgrown the desire to watch humans fighting aliens non-stop (a little drama here and there goes a long way), I find my journeys down "Robotech" and "Mospeada" memory lanes to be most rewarding. ADV Films deserves big kudos for bringing the original, untouched "Genesis Climber Mospeada" vision to American audiences.