Saber Rider and Marc Handler

[CommanderSP]

Hello there, I was browsing through some old anime reviews and I came across the following part which I find inaccurate to say the least.

"Marc Handler, the animated TV series writer behind both "Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs", as well as "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" (the immediate predecessor to this newer series), cleaned up all the weak flaws in the look and style of that story format, and imbued it with even better characters and story plot elements than ever before. In the arc of the stories for "Saber Rider", the events are more character driven, and less dependent on what the enemy wants to do next."

I do not want to flame or anything similar, but when one makes such a statement, he needs to provide clear examples in order to back it up. In the case of saber rider, I had a look at the complete japanese raw episode on youtube and then I compared it with the mecha battle of the same episode in Saber Rider and I have to say that this Marc guy is a DISGRACE to animation and only proves that american kids of the 80ties were thought to be stupid by companies like world events productions.

So what did I find? Apart from things like the fact that Ramrod NEVER talks during the transformation, I found that the actual dialogue was MUCH MORE than its japanese equivalent. All the characters kept talking every 3 seconds with colt saying stuff like "if you liked the left you will love the right". It's like they HAD to explain every frame to the kids so that they understand what is going on. Suffice to say that THE ENTIRE BATTLE on Bishmark was SILENT.

However the part I was really sick was the dialogue before the transformation. April said "when the rods are clear press the red button". I saw this video first and I did think that was weird, well it turns out that the rods moving was the director's ZOOMING IN in order to show the red button. Again in the japanese version nothing is said there either. Then Saber rider has to give the signal so that the red button can be pressed which again makes no sense whatsoever. We actually hear him say "ok, get ready, not yet...now" which is utter nonsense.

Then the final part of the battle where sabe rider said "we only have one shot" and you see that they actually fire TWO. It's like the writer and the producer lived on different states. In the japanese version the ending is totally different as well. IF you do not believe me here are the links:

youtube.com/watch?v=Ztx_fKPU3NA
youtube.com/watch?v=8aURuEXO3qw

In 4 minutes I nearly managed to throw up by their sheer stupidity and the fact than when I was 8 years old I loved those crap. Same thing happened with Voltron. I was (and still am...apparently) one of the biggest fans of the series back in the 80ties and when I watched the series again about a year ago (australian DVDs), I found so many inconsistencies in the dialogue (and I am not talking about reusing clips like the princess kissing one of the pilots at the end of the episode) that I could not even watch all the episodes.

At this point I would like to add that other series I managed to find in their original form ARE viewable by adults. SDF Macross for instance, has NOTHING to do with the crap that is called Robotech. The series does not make ANY sense simply because they tampered with the meaning of protoculture and made Minmay's singing and the subsequent "freezing" of the Zentrardi a bunch of nonsense. I was saying WTF while watching the battles. Then I saw the japanese "version" and I understood that the freezing is actually a culture shock as it is explained through the definition of the protoculture. After careful consideration I have reasons to believe that the Zentrardi could be compared to the americans themselves (as in a race with big guns of mass destruction, with people who have no culture, in the end managing to wipe out all culture on earth - the 2 nuclear bombs in Japan). I am not saying I agree with this characterization, I am simply stating this as an observation, however if that is the case, DO NOT bring the series into the US if you do not have the balls to keep it intact. (like what the Germans did with John Cleese's Fawlty Towers)

So to get back to the original point, please thoroughly explain what you mean by the above comment you made about Marc Handler, someone who I think should be trialed for crimes against animation and then executed for them, along with the people behind the biggest abomination of all time that is Robotech.

CommanderSP

[Commander Sparx]

Very interesting, I know of Macross and robotech before and I think Macross is cool, but I can not get my hands on any thing for the anime. But I fought robotech was Macross?

I may have got the wrong end of the stick (I have troubles reading long posts I tend to skip lines and my eyes hurt)

[CommanderSP]

Ok in short, SDF Macross was a 36 episode series, which became the first part of Robotech. Since they had a problem with small series, they had a habbit of "cutting and pasting" different series together (with the help of people like Marc) so Robotech is composed of SDF Macross, Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. Macross and Mospeada are reported not to have been altered much and it is true, however in order to link Macross with the other two, they had to change the ONE THING that made the series what it really is. The definition of the word "protoculture".

A similar situation takes place in Voltron, where two series were linked, again butchering them in the process.

CommanderSP

[Sanger Zomvolt]

Yes well, nothing went unedited in the 80s. I agree wholeheartedly with your statements. Add Megazone 23 and Goshogun to that list as well. I take it you must be looking forward to the Dairugger XV and Golion sets that Media Blasters plans to release after Voltron is completed? I know I'm excited about Dairugger.

[Pennyroyal Tea]

It was all about VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetleborgs:heh:

[jjah55ik]

So what's the point?