As a casual fan of anime, you’d think that I would have come in contact with “Robotech” before now. The sci-fi series is easily one of the most popular franchises in the medium, and yet somehow, it’s managed to slip through the cracks while other shows about giant robots (“Transformers,” “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” etc.) have found their way onto my television set. It’s too bad, because I probably would have enjoyed “Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles” even more had I known what to expect. Originally released in 2006, the feature-length film exists as a sequel of sorts to the original series from the 80s. In fact, it even picks up at the end of the final episode with the exiled human forces making one last push against the Invids, an alien race that has invaded Earth for the sole purpose of harvesting an energy source called protoculture. The humans, in turn, have made an alliance with another race called the Haydonites so that they may use their special shadow technology to cloak their ships. But what they don’t realize is that the Haydonites are really the bad guys, and they’ve been lying in wait for the right time to strike.
As you can probably imagine, the best parts of “Shadow Chronicles” are the epic space battles scattered throughout, and though the integration of CGI has hurt other properties in the past, it doesn’t look half-bad here. The film also does a pretty good job of jumping straight into the action without making the uninitiated feel completely lost, but let’s face it, “Shadow Chronicles” is primarily for the hardcore fans who have been demanding more “Robotech” for a while. It’s still not clear whether the film will serve as a pilot to a new series or simply as a standalone movie, but if there’s one good thing that comes out of the film’s Blu-ray re-release, it’s that a new generation of “Robotech” fans will be born… and just in time for the upcoming live-action movie.
