Robotech II: The Sentinels

A falling dollar/yen exchange rate. A scared financial partner who backed out of the deal. These were two official reasons (among other rumored ones such as the anime studio short changing Harmony Gold) as to why the proposed full length series sequel to Robotech was aborted in its infancy. Only less than 3 episodes worth of material was ever completed. Despite the various setbacks, Harmony gold edited the remaining completed material into a 75 minute feature meant to bridge the gap between the first and second Robotech sagas. Where it succeeds is in answering the burning questions left to fans of the original series. What happened to the macross saga characters?

Following the defeat of the giant Zentradi armada, the remaining Zentradi have joined forces with the humans to build a massive vessel, the SDF-3. They intend to reach the home-world of the Robotech Masters, the masterminds behind the Zentradi invasion, and establish peaceful relations with them. Thanks to the truncated nature of the completed animation, the movie is split into two story arcs. The first takes place around earth. As the heroes of the first robotech war prepare for their interstellar voyage, new heroes try to earn their place among those chosen for the expedition. Here we are introduced to the hot headed Jack Baker and the intelligent and spirited Karen Penn. Re-introduced are the characters from the Macross saga like Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes, who are in the midst of planning their wedding. Fans would no doubt get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters, older nonetheless but still the same ol people they knew and loved.

The second story arc takes place around Tirol, the home-world which the Robotech Masters abandoned to search for the lost protoculture matrix, leaving their old, sick and young behind. The invid led by the dreaded Regent (husband of the Regiss) takes this opportunity to launch an all out invasion of Tirol. Amidst the decimation, an aging scientist called Cabell and a familiar looking man named Rem try to survive and carry on their research.

As expected, the earth scenes featuring the recurring macross saga characters are pretty much all talk and no action other than a combat simulation at the beginning. Most of the action takes place during the Tirol invasion scenes. Thankfully the voice actors put up an excellent performance and the script keeps the dialog very natural preventing the slower scenes from feeling dull.

Many fans have lamented the lower quality animation but really, the artwork is no less inconsistent than what was in the original series and the animation is actually on par with the Macross saga footage that was spliced in for flashback scenes. It is bad for a movie but one must remember that Robotech II The Sentinels was produced as a TV series thus resulting in mediocre TV series level animation. Another common complaint is the altered character designs for the returning Macross saga characters. Keep in mind that this show takes place 8 years after Macross saga. Eight years can do a lot to someone's appearance especially characters lie Rick Hunter and Lynn Minmei who went from teenagers to full adults. If anything, the changes in appearances of said characters adds to the realism of the series, showing that characters do not remain immortally young unlike other TV animated shows.

While this show does provide some answers for fans, no one else but fans who have watched the original series would be able to understand it. Furthermore The Sentinels concludes rather abruptly; actually showing the SDF-3 leaving earth would have been a much more fulfilling conclusion but given the limited resources available, this is also not unexpected.

Despite the valiant effort of the creative team, Robotech II: The Sentinels loses points for its abrupt ending, inconsistent story and mediocre animation for a movie. Despite this the movie serves as a decent enough teaser for any fan looking to follow the rest of the unfinished tale in the Robotech novels or comics (which is, sadly, out of print nowadays but is still available online or in 2nd hand book shops). For fans of Robotech, watching Robotech II The Sentinels would be like returning to visit a family that one has not seen in years. It is a quick simple visit to catch up on old times and marvel at how much they have changed over the years, nothing more nothing less.

I enjoyed this "movie", actually the start of an incomplete series supposed to span 65 episodes. A diehard Robotech fan, I couldn't get enough of this tape, which kept the original voices of the Robotech TV series while recreating the feel of the series even with new animators. Sadly, the story is very incomplete, since all it takes is the first 4 episodes of what would have been a series. Having read the (complete) robotech books, I know that the Sentinels are a group of aliens the SDF-3 is supposed to meet early in the Robotech II story, but despite the "Sentinels" present in the name of the movie, you don't even get a glimpse of them! I hope, probably in vain, eventually someone will pick up and finish the series.

If you're a Robotech fan, you need this film, no questions asked.

If you're into anime or animation in general, however... Sentinels is the result of the abortive attempt by Harmony Gold to create a series that would fit into the "Robotech Universe" (consisting of altered series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada). In the original series, 3 successive generations of wars are shown; the first generation (Macross) being the most popular, and the second (Southern Cross/Masters) the least. The need was felt to show the continued adventures of the first generation characters over the time-span of the second, and leading into the third, as the original series made continuous mention of the "return" of the original characters, but was never shown. Confused yet?

Animation in Japan began, with "aged" versions of Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, and other protagonists from the Macross story arc, and stories designed by Harmony Gold. Financial backing was given by Matchbox Toys, who were manufacturing American toys based on the Robotech series. Unfortunately, Matchbox's finances weren't up to the strain, and the Robotech "fad" seemed to be tapering off, so production was halted after fewer than 4 of the proposed 85 or so episodes were animated.

Harmony Gold didn't want to completely write off the whole thing, so they stitched together the completed animation.

Is it worth it? Only if you're a Robotech fan. It's great seeing Rick and Lisa again... but the animation really isn't up to the par of the original Macross, the story line is very sketchy and incomplete (by necessity, of course), the voice acting is worse than the original. Streamline/Orion have been selling this as straight anime, and most people accept it as such, but I feel that this is misleading, and may reflect negatively upon newcomers' opinions of anime. It's really no different than any other "American" cartoon- story and character direction came from America, and the animation seemed to have been done half-heartedly by Japanese studios.

i first saw these on sci-fi awhile back. i had no idea this was anime at the time, but it ruled. the story is awesome, the characters are awesome, the alpha fighters are awesome, and the motocycles are awesome! whew!! lol. anyway, if you've seen the lame south cross series, this series clears up all the confusion heard at the end about the ivid and such. if you like the previous robotech series, see this.

An incomplete story. Only one real storyline gets completed. Its the soap opera type storyline that usually accompanied the action in the TV series. The action storyline never actually get completed. I guess thats because its only the first 3 episodes of a TV series put together and labeled a movie. I grew up watching Robotech on television. It was by far my favorite of all cartoons. Maybe it influenced my decision to pursue an education and career in mechanical engineering. Apart from that I was always intrigued by airplanes. In any case if I had seen this "movie" in my youth I would have been sadly disappointed by the fact that the action was left unresolved. So I guess I'm saying that if you primarily enjoyed the soap opera style love stories that took place in the series you might like this "movie", but otherwise don't waste your time.