Battletech: the animated series

[Zor]

On a trip down nostalgia lane I watched the series on youtube, and here are my thoughts. I look forward to seeing your opinions.

I am going to say that i am not all that familiar with the Battletech universe. I have not played the game, nor have i played the video games. This series was the only real experience with battletech during the 90s. Only recently i have looked over the B-Tech Wiki and i am still not an expert, so minor continuity errors are not something that i am going to deal with and the basic story is a good idea.

This series, while not horrible for what it was is a textbook case of Good Idea, Bad Execution, with a lot of its problems comming from on high. In praticular since so much of the stuff, including designs for mechs was already done this should have been a straight in and out.

The first problem is the animation, which is in the same lines of Exo-Squad and (not to diss the awesome show that Exo-Squad was) is in general rather poor. Some the backgrounds and charecter animation looks alright (the First Somerset strikers in praticular look good in terms of uniform designs), the animation itself is generally subpar and stiff, in praticular anything that has to do with mechanical things and mechs. At the same time, alot of the designs look bad and in praticular the clanners. The one you see the most of is Star Colonal Nicolai Malthus, with his Talaxian Haircut and face covered with green Tattoos and badly designed jumpsuit thing, and there are a few of them that look even worse.

The combat scenes are also substandard, for the most part Mech combat consists of Mechs getting within the distance where the two sides can open their cockpits to yell insults throw beer cans at each other while for the most part just stand in place firing at each other. During battle, their is little in terms of effects from being shot beyond blowing up or toppling over if a Mech is destroyed, and what firepower is needed to take down a Mech is rather inconsistant. Then there are the general poorly handled Zero G scenes, which are all over the place.

Finally, a key shortcomming of this show is the target audience that it was put for (8 to 12s). Shows have risen above the limits imposed by this, like Avatar or Exo-Squad, however how this manifest in Battletech TAS is in a good deal of things that does not work, such as Adam Steiner's catchphrase "information is ammunition" and scenes such as "I thought you said you had Zero G combat training" "I never said i passed". This series could and should been targeted more to teens and adults.

In short, this is a show that could have been a pretty good quality, probably bringing more people to Battletech itself. However, it was half-assed into creation and the result was so much mediocraty which endured for 13 episodes before dying.

Zor

[Sidewinder]

I remember watching the series! (God, I feel ancient.) It was one of many shows I watched to get my daily fix of "giant robots beating the scrap out of each other." As for why I was trying to get that fix- I grew up in the 80s and became a Transfan, lived in Taiwan for a year- the Gundam series are extremely popular there- and returned to the US in time for the Persian Gulf War and Beast Wars.

As for the clan members' "tatoos," I believe they were cybernetic implants which provide "enhanced imaging," i.e., the CGI battle sequences. I was disappointed the animators- Saban?- failed to animate entire battles in CGI, instead of the half-assed scenes we got. (Mind you, this was before I learned how expensive it was to even make a CGI model.)

[PainRack]

This series, while not horrible for what it was is a textbook case of Good Idea, Bad Execution, with a lot of its problems comming from on high. In praticular since so much of the stuff, including designs for mechs was already done this should have been a straight in and out.

The first problem is the animation, which is in the same lines of Exo-Squad and (not to diss the awesome show that Exo-Squad was) is in general rather poor. Some the backgrounds and charecter animation looks alright (the First Somerset strikers in praticular look good in terms of uniform designs), the animation itself is generally subpar and stiff, in praticular anything that has to do with mechanical things and mechs. At the same time, alot of the designs look bad and in praticular the clanners. The one you see the most of is Star Colonal Nicolai Malthus, with his Talaxian Haircut and face covered with green Tattoos and badly designed jumpsuit thing, and there are a few of them that look even worse.

You're forgetting how poor graphics were back then. This is when 8 bit games were still popular. Take a look at old Macross anime.

Granted, exosquad animation was still far superior to the Battletech series.

The combat scenes are also substandard, for the most part Mech combat consists of Mechs getting within the distance where the two sides can open their cockpits to yell insults throw beer cans at each other while for the most part just stand in place firing at each other. During battle, their is little in terms of effects from being shot beyond blowing up or toppling over if a Mech is destroyed, and what firepower is needed to take down a Mech is rather inconsistant. Then there are the general poorly handled Zero G scenes, which are all over the place.

lol. You didn't like tｈe EI bits? That was the only part of the series that redeemed it. Well, for its era.

Insofar as I recall it, the series was a success and did draw more fans to battletech. The only real problem was its relative lack of budget. Afterall, Exosquad could rely on toy sales to boost its season viability.

[Batman]

16 bit. Wing Commander was released in 1990. And even if the series' was launched the very second the Clan invasion books were published, we're talking '89 at the very earliest so this is most likely mid-90s animation we're talking about.
Not that it doesn't look bad for 80's animation anyway. Whoever was in charge of colouring in those 'Mechs needs to either get off or on some medication right away.

[Swindle1984]

Never saw the show. Love the tabletop game.

[Zor]

You're forgetting how poor graphics were back then. This is when 8 bit games were still popular. Take a look at old Macross anime.

Granted, exosquad animation was still far superior to the Battletech series.

Macross was made in the eighties, this was made in 1994.

lol. You didn't like tｈe EI bits? That was the only part of the series that redeemed it. Well, for its era.

[/quote]

Enhanced Imaging did make the combat better to look at despite the obvious datedness of the CGI. Though this is not enough to make up for the fact that the mechs look like shit and move oh so stiffly in the regular animation.

It was not all that bad a series to be honest, there are some good things going, but it could have used a good deal more polish and would have benefitted massively in being targeted for a older audiance

Zor

[VF5SS]

You're forgetting how poor graphics were back then. This is when 8 bit games were still popular. Take a look at old Macross anime.

Yeah about that.

Granted part of that is due to Japan's booming economy in the 80's and a large talent pool that lasted right up until the bubble burst. Oddly enough it was Japan's animation studios that were doing most of the popular 80's cartoons and when they became too expensive we were left with a cash starved industry back home.

Insofar as I recall it, the series was a success and did draw more fans to battletech. The only real problem was its relative lack of budget. Afterall, Exosquad could rely on toy sales to boost its season viability.

There actually were tie-in toys for the Battletech cartoon. There was an Axeman, Marauder, Thor, and I think an Elemental. They were really large toys that fit a 3.5 inch figure. The show came out right after Exosquad had finished its run. I imagine there were a lot of retailers who weren't ready to buy into even larger giant robot toys. And let's be honest, most Battlemechs look really generic and the poor animation didn't help kids get a feel for why they should be interested in them.

[SAMAS]

Axeman, Thor, Mauler, Hunchback IIC, Bushwhacker, Elemental, Infiltrator (Mk I), Sloth (I think) and Banshee fighter. They were also gonna do a Vulture before the line was discontinued. They had a bunch of launchable weapons, and a "weak spot" that if you hit it, the pilot would get ejected.

I remember being rather annoyed that they seemed to refuse to use any of the female characters for their own machines. So Adam and Malthus got put into them instead.

Also, they made a shout out to the toys when they semi-retconned the Mauler's history. As it turns out, if you hit a Dooboku (The predecessor for the Mauler) in the same location as the toy's "weak spot", it really would eject the pilot.

[VF5SS]

Ah right I mixed up the Marauder (lol Glaug) with the Mauler. Here's a link to some pictures of the toys. As you can see they were big suckers.

[Darksider]

Do any of the battlemechs they ripped off from Robotech still look like their original designs? I thought they were re-designed a few years ago.

[VF5SS]

They ended up redesigning all of the Macross, Dougram, and Crusher Joe designs in their Project Phoenix source book. This is all because they lost in a court case against Playmates (the main sponsor of Exosquad) and Harmony Gold. By the time the animated series came out, those designs had been largely replaced with original designs. By this point the Mad Cat was pretty much the spokesman of the franchise. There were some interesting holdovers of the stolen designs as enemies in the SNES/Genesis Mechwarrior 3050 game. They were replaced in the Japanese release with Battletech original designs. For example all the Stingers became Sentinels in the Japanese version of the game.

[Nephtys]

When Battletech was released in Japan, it was hilarious what they did to all of the 'Classic' Mechs that were taken from Macross. They got even MORE Anime to not look like the classic Macross bots.





...that's a HUNCHBACK?



Why does the marauder have KEGS on it's shoulders?!

[VF5SS]

Nephtys is referring to these designs. The dates on the designs say 1993 so the design style is clearly post Gunhed which was in 1989. It's interesting to see that a lot of the design elements of the Japanese Battlemechs are either offshoots or precursors to the designs seen in future installments of Armored Core. If anything the Studio Nue designs did a better job representing the external nature of the weapons and gear while also altering the designs to fit the rules like how the Studio Nue Stalker has actual arms and a head. And hey look the Hunchback's AC/20 isn't just a weird box on its shoulder but an actual gun.