Helmety Robotech

Back in the mid-1980's, an anime made it across the Pacific Ocean, and captured the imaginations of American kids already going crazy over Transformers and their lesser cousins, Gobots. In Japan, it was called Macross. We knew it as Robotech. It was Robotech that got us used to the idea of regular people piloting transformable machines, so that by the time Voltron came around, and then Power Rangers, kids, and toy stores, were ready for the glut.

At the heart of the story is that humanity came together to drive back an alien invasion. My memories of the original series are a little hazy, but many prequels and sequels have been made to fill in the Macross backstory. Before the invasion, the world was in civil war, with the UN fighting against an anti-UN alliance, and losing. Not surprisingly, the anti-UN alliance was able to develop military technology much faster, and were already employing a plane that could transform into a robot. Remarkably, this beginning was set in 2008, so it shows you what the end of the Cold War did to our military innovations. By 2009, the aliens had invaded, and Robotech was relying exclusively on the UN designed fighters. In the first prequel, we see the very first flight of Roy Fokker's Skull & Crossbones fighter. By the start of Robotech, in 1982, we meet Roy as a grizzled veteran, and his craft as a first generation vehicle, that had only survived due to its pilot's nigh magical flying gifts. Only someone who grew up watching the Robotech cartoons can appreciate the nostalgia, the awe, and the glee, at watching Roy Fokker's VF-0 take out its first kill. I didn't know this word 25 years ago, but it definitely applies to both machine and man: Badass.