Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Southern Cross – episodes 15-24

I wrote this a month ago but never got around to publishing it. I realised today I have nothing more to say, so here it goes. Also there’s no image this time around because quality Southern Cross images are difficult to find.

Supplementary materials should never be necessary for the comprehension of anime. Sadly, despite its early promise, Southern Cross fails to realise its directors’ intent.

Traditional deconstruction inside

Continue reading Southern Cross – episodes 15-24…

Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross – episodes 8-14

Southern Cross has become a fairly compelling program, replete with several conventions of the genre and some other aspects that I can’t recall having seen before. Southern Cross is not without its surprises and, while it may have been better served with a more open-ended structure, is actually quite enjoyable.

Spoilers beyond

Continue reading Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross – episodes 8-14…

Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross – episodes 1-7

Southern Cross is best known to Western audiences as the middle third of the Robotech saga. I can barely remember Robotech from my childhood beyond the image of an upside down Minmay poster forever stuck in my mind, so I’ve created new Southern Cross memories.

The primary thought I have formulated is that this is anime that emphasises the role of women in military power, made before people realised that relying on feminine stereotypes was not an effective method of empowerment: it’s very much a “I’m just a girl after all” show.
It is also a series that emphasises that individual people are but small parts of the war machine, and it is a robot show that sees its robots as tools rather than heroes in their own right.

On top of that it’s a series that, in its first seven episodes, gives so little information that one feels an intense need to read supplementary material to have any idea what’s going on.

Continue reading Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross – episodes 1-7…