Kikou Souseiki Mospeada

A fond childhood memory of mine is watching "Robotech" airing on TV. It was one of my first contacts with mecha anime, and it's not hard to see the appeal a cartoon full of battling robots holds for someone under 12. "Robotech" comprised three arcs, the last of which, "The New Generation", was my favourite.

I now know that "Robotech" is just the editing and mashing together of three anime with virtually completely independent stories, and that "Robotech: The New Generation" is just an edited version of an anime called "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA", which I managed to dig up following my reacquaintance with "Robotech" thanks to ... the internet.

Like the other two series that made up "Robotech", "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA" is about humans vs aliens, the aliens in this case being the Invid (or Inbit, which sounds a lot crappier, so I prefer "Invid"). The differences between the plot of "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA" and "Robotech: The New Generation" is small. The version-neutral core premise is as follows: Earth was invaded by the Invid. After being part of a failed attempt by Earth's space fleet to recapture the planet, Stick/Scott (depending on which version you watch) Bernard crash lands on it. Determined to continue his mission, Stick begins a journey across the land in order to launch an attack on the Invid's main hive at Reflex Point. Tagging along with him is a ragtag group of freedom fighters made up of random people he meets along the way.

The thing about this anime is that it's the only series part of "Robotech" for which the "Robotech" version is better than the original. This was largely thanks to the music that "Robotech" brought to the table. Although the original music weren't bad, the "Robotech" tracks were better and more effective at setting the mood. Also, surprisingly, the original Japanese voice acting is more lacklustre than the "Robotech" English dub.

What I was looking to get most out of watching "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA" is the story, because I found "Robotech: The New Generation" baffling at points. Unfortunately, the original isn't much better. Granted, it doesn't have the whole protoculture thing that was crowbarred in to make it fit in with the rest of the "Robotech" arcs; but aside from these merging issues, the rest of the story didn't change too much. The ending to "Robotech: The New Generation" had been so bad that I was convinced it was the result of editing, but the original ending from "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA" turned out to be similarly rough. It felt hurried, as though they had to finish the show prematurely. Not only that, they seemed to do a u-turn towards the end, portraying the Invid in a completely different light compared to the start of the series.

It's not hard to see the reason Harmony Gold brought this into the "Robotech" franchise: it shares a number of elements with the other two series, for instance the obligatory human-alien love story (which was getting quite stale by this point), certain stylistic aspects in the battle sequences, not to mention the very "Macross"-esq fighter plane/mecha hybrid designs. "Genesis Climber MOSPEADA" does have its own unique aspects as well. For example, the bio-mechanical, insectoid nature of the Invid and the transformable motorbike armour are all pretty cool. (Useless info: The motorbike armour actually gave rise to the title of the show - MOSPEADA stands for Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation Dive Armour, which refers to the said motorbike armour.)

The reason why "The New Generation" was my favourite arc of the "Roboech" franchise is because of the colourful characters and their interactions. Stick's group is filled with different personalities (though a few of them aren't that great, like that loud, annoying girl), there's plenty chemistry as well as tension within the group as they make their way across the desolate, war ravaged land. The series is mostly episodic, painting a bleak picture of life under Invid occupation with its stories full of fear, betrayal and hardships. But they also show the best in addition to the worst of human nature, as there are many instances of bravery, friendship and heroic sacrifices. A lot of the one-off characters found in these episodic adventures are quite interesting in their own right, and I found myself caring about what happens to them, despite their brief screen time.

Other than the names, very little of the characters was changed as "Genesis Climber Mospeada" made its transition to "Robotech: The New Generation", which means that the best parts of the show were left intact. Add to this the superior music production in "The New Generation", and you have yourself an anime where the Americanised version outdoes the original. Well, who'd have thought that was possible! But anyway, whichever version you like to think of it as, the anime doesn't fare too badly even today - I still found it enjoyable at least. Admittedly that might just be nostalgia speaking, but I reckon there's a bit more to it than that.

I just finished Genesis Climber Mospeada this evening, and to be honest, it feels like I'm still absorbing what took the past three (or so) days to watch! The fact that it's still on my mind so strongly is, for me, a good sign of a plot that extends far deeper than surface action. My overall impression? Though it has its flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed "the ride" of watching the series.

The story is easy to grasp but at the same time a little difficult. Earth was invaded by aliens known as the Inbit. Humans have either already been living on ... other planets or perhaps flee to other planets after the arrival of the Inbit; they try twice to liberate Earth and fail. The main action follows Stig (Stick) Bernard, a member of the Second Liberation Force and the only survivor from his squadron, as he journeys to the Inbit headquarters in hopes of completely obliterating it. The Inbit are mysterious creatures who were seeking a peaceful place to live, but that's all I really feel like I understand about their intentions.

The characters and their travels are what made this series so enjoyable for me. My favorite is Stig, the uptight soldier who has trouble seeing things beyond the simple good/bad dichotomy. Ray and Mint are always hilarious and adorable. Hoquet is lively and strong, and it was nice to see a capable female fighting alongside the men. There wasn't a single member of the cast that I found myself disliking, even Jim, the big coward of the bunch! :p Their growing relationships were a joy to watch and cheer for, especially those between Ray/Houquet and Stig/Aisha. The latter seemed a little less natural (as in, you couldn't really watch it develop step by step), but strangely enough I still felt really drawn to them as a pair.

My favorite aspect of Mospeada is the soundtrack because, let me tell you, it's BEAUTIFUL. The opening theme, "In Search of Lost Legends", is incredibly lively and fits the series so well. Yellow Belmont's songs (performed by Mine Matsuki) are haunting and beautiful, to the point where you may be moved to tears after listening. The background score is by Joe Hisaishi, who went on to compose the music for all of Hayao Miyazaki's films; though Mospeada is older, his compositional brilliance still shines through. I can't recommend the soundtrack enough to do it justice!

I never saw the adaptation of this series in Robotech: The New Generation, so unfortunately I can't give a comparison to the original. However, I will say that the original is a strong series that stands on its own two feet as a great work of art.

Mospeada is mostly known for being the 3rd part of the Robotech series despite not being part of the super dimensional trilogy like the previous 2 parts, Macross and southern cross. Nonetheless it surprisingly shares a series of commonalities to the other titles that it fits quite in and makes sense why this title was incorporated, or maybe it was just the trend of the time for many shows and this title just got lucky. As for the show by itself, it's a bit of a disappointment. The best description would be that it's a decent show buried underneath terrible decisions.

The story takes place in ... a sort of post-apocalyptic earth where aliens have successfully invaded and taken over the planet. Humans still live on earth but have become "slaves", but for the most part are actually just complacent to the invaders. Another group of humans live in space such as on the moon and mars and par-take in operations to liberate earth. The main protagonist, Stig participates in this operation but it goes horribly wrong and Stig crash lands on earth and assumes that he is the sole survivor of the operation. This begins his journey as he travels across the earth to hopefully find other survivors and find a way to defeat the aliens.

Early along his journey Stig meets and travels with a variety of other people, creating a ragtag group of fighters. The first one is Ray who serves as a deuteragonist, and certainly looks like one due to his character designs and being more of a poster boy compared to Stig who has a more mature and controlled look and demeanor. Stig comes of more as a commander or mentor type while Ray is the more common young hothead protagonist you’d expect from the genre at the time. The other characters include Houqet a former member of a biker gang. mint a young girl looking for love. Jim, a soldier from a previous liberation operation. And yellow a man guised as a woman pop idol.

The recruitment of each of these members made the show interesting. Giving each character a basic background to build from and in some way showed a sign of progress. However as soon as they get all the characters get together the show begins to stagnate. While the objective is still clear and the way to get there is laid out via a map, the show becomes a muddled mess by being episodic with whatever the writers can get by with. From meeting ancient dinosaurs. to an entire episode focused on a fever dream. They do have some in series reason to them, but do nothing to advance the plot. Not to mention how hard the show tries to keep a status quo with the character especially on two episodes that are back to back. The first one having mint leave the group after finding someone to marry (although a bit questionable due to her character), and the next episode having some people deciding to disband. Yet in the end Mint comes back for some reason, and the other members decide to travel with them still.

The closest thing the show has to getting back a narrative is an amnesiac character named Aisha. She is found and goes along with the group on their journey. Along the way it’s shown that she has some connection to the aliens, and as it turns out she is an alien just like in Macross and Southern Cross. The difference being that they aren’t really humanoid aliens, but take the form of humans to be best accustomed with earth. But it’s these knew forms that hinder them as few becomes sympathetic to humans unlike the monstrous crab mechs of before.

The production value is ok at best with the only thing interesting being the mech designs. First being the motorcycle that transforms into a battle suit for the wearer. Unlike other mech suits that are wildly big this one is about the same size as the wearer. It’s more akin to power armor which makes it sort of unique in the anime mech landscape. The other one is that aircraft which is basically the same as in Macross. Having three forms of a regular airplane, airplane with limbs, and finally a full on mech. It does look like kind of a rip-off, but it isn’t used that much compared to the motorcycle suits.

It’s a shame that Mospeada panned out to be a disappointment of a show. There’s really something special their with it cast of characters and even a bit of the plot. Yet it’s so bogged down with a bunch of random nothing that it makes it a chore to watch at times.