Robotech

Such A huge part of my childhood! It fueled my imagination and made a place for me to retreat into through some tough years. Another reviewer said it perfectly, "it does not talk down to children ". While G.I. Joe never suffered any casualties fighting an ill-intentioned foe. Loss of an airplane or tank is hardly thought provoking. Be warned that Robotech aside from the future technology or ideas of what an actual alien might be like, very much is dealing with real human themes. You come to know and love these characters that have attributes both flawed and admirable. And there is a war and like in reality some people are going to die. Sometimes a huge amount of people die. If you notice your child bawling after an episode it's not a bad thing at least you know your child can feel. Something we all have to go through and being aware of it is to appreciate it. Even the love triangle I think will open a child's eyes and thoughts to consider different profundities of love. How being infatuated by someone does not constitute a solid foundation for a relationship. And even how it's confusing when it's coming from one of the most popular singers in the series of all of humanity which is the sweetheart of every man's eye. It has complex situations that your child can understand and will one day need to understand. I could ramble for hours on this program that gets me excited at almost 50 years old. If not for your kid if you've never seen it you should watch!

Watching this growing up with my family was a real event. It was taped (on a VHS) whenever it was on and I owned those tapes for years until the DVD’s hit the shelves. It’s one of the groundbreaking shows that got people into the Japanese animation genre. Including myself. It has much more mature content and themes than any other animated show I’ve seen aimed at children. All presented in a tone that tells you the issues you are seeing or loss you see are important. There’s commentary on war, bullying, friendship, gender, equality and so much more. It’s once again what I’d call a ‘gateway’ program. A transition from simple harmless shows for small children that are not complex to a more grown up way of storytelling. The themes in many adult films and series are explored here, albeit not at all as brutal. I am so glad we watched and enjoyed the stories, journeys and lessons this series presented us. My son has started watching it and the adventure and action excites him whilst the elements in it provoke some questions and thought from him which as a parent I am more than happy to explain. To list the explorations and benefits of the shoe would take up too much time and too many words. As with all media content, every individual child and parent is different with what they respond to or find appropriate. There is action violence like explosions and some of them have character silhouettes in them inferring they died. Military vehicles explode, once again, inferring those within died. There are love triangles, one character resorts to cross dressing in a later season to hide his military identity becoming a famous singer during alien occupation, main characters you follow throughout the show die - nobody is invincible. The animation is energetic, design exciting, imagination is on screen with so many different alien types through the course of the show and although the dialogue may be unconventional and childish at times, it’s harmless. I can only explain or project so much, take a look to get an idea if it’s for your family. A quick note that as this was adapted from three seperate Japanese series, there was content cut that was too risqué for the western children’s market - brief nudity and bloody violence. These scenes were reinstated in the uncut version of the DVDs. It may take some looking to find the original cut versions.