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Rating: 
Summary: Robotech weather forecast: lotsa showers comin' your way!
Review: Although it's considered by most (including myself) to be the weakest act in the Robotech trilogy, Harmony Gold & ADV's initial 'Robotech Remastered: Southern Cross' box set features decent-to-moderate improvement of the show's overall picture quality, and significant improvement to the sound quality. The former upgrade is quite welcome, seeing as how the initial DVD release of Robotech's second act was pretty bad picture-wise. As for the latter concern: the new 5.1 channel stereo sound has been-- and still is-- the greatest and most noticeable upgrade in the Robotech Remastered DVD series. Most of the sound effects have been totally redone, especially the various explosions and firing weapons. Sadly, just like the redone soundtracks in the previous Remastered releases, most of these sounds aren't too varied. Most of the explosions sound like rock slides and crumbling masonry. You know, noises that metal hovertanks and bioroids probably don't make when they're gettin' blasted to bits. Other sounds have been "boosted" for better auditory perception, especially background stuff I never picked up on before. But the best audio improvement of all is the voice track: they doctored it up so that it stands out reasonably well from the background sounds, thus making the dialogue more comprehensible. 'Course, I wish the improvement to this segment of Robotech could have been more than just technical. But I suppose it's better than no improvement at all...Just like the prior Remasters, the main attraction of this "upgraded" edition is the inclusion of some "new" footage that was originally edited out of the original Southern Cross show 'cuz it was considered less than appropriate for the American kidvid audience at the time. Ya know, stuff like an extended shot of central character and primary heroine Dana Sterling showering... and not leavin' much of anything to the socially-inept, undersexed imaginations of the average anime fanboy (and you know who you are!). Other restored bits include... well, another Dana-lettin'-it-all-hang-out-in-the-shower scene, yet another nudie moment with Dana in the shower, and-- SURPRISE!-- Dana takin' a bath. Whew, I'm glad they decided to mix things up a little with that last one-- they sure had me fooled there, heh. Interestingly enough, aside from the shower shenanigans and a Dana panty shot, there isn't anything new here in the way of restored footage. Which I found kinda disappointing; I was hopin' to have a few new scenes of gratuitous violence to go along with the gratuitous displays of female flesh. I guess there's always the original, uncut version of the Southern Cross show (available at www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008G8PQ/qid%3D1089967459/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-1200342-3991361) if I wanna see what I'm REALLY missin', hmmm? As for bonus material and special features-- well, aside from trailers for other ADV anime videos and a cutesy transformable super-deformed Max Sterling model Veritech fighter toy (BTW why did they include a Macross toy with Southern Cross DVDs? What, they couldn't find a super-deformed transformable hover tank to stick in there?), there ain't any. Looks like you'll hafta hang on to those 'Elements of Robotechnology' bonus discs that came with the Legacy Collection box sets you bought a couple years back if you've a hankerin' for supplemental material... 'Late
Rating: 
Summary: Robotech Remastered Volume 4 Extended Edition
Review: As a longtime fan of the Robotech series I'm thrilled about these new releases. It's great to see the show again with the deleted scenes put back again and I can't wait for the rest of the series to be released.
The only drawback is on every episode they show the opening and ending with credits and such. Should have that just once.
Overall, a great DVD set and I recommend it to all Robotech or early anime fan.
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