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Southern Cross

Southern Cross is the second season of Robotech. Originally in Japan Southern Cross had no relation at all to Macross. In Japan the original title of the show was Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross. Since I have seen the Robotech version I will be reviewing that version of it. It is 15 years after the First Robotech war. Rick Hunter and the rest of the R.E.F. fleet have left earth to find the Robotech Masters home world. In place of the R.E.F. and R.D.F. Is the army of the Southern Cross that are sworn to protect earth.

Among the army of the Southern Cross is Dana Sterling the daughter of Max and Miriya. She and her friend Bowie Grant are both assigned to the army of the Southern Cross 15th Hover tank squadron of civil defense. In the first episode the Robotech Masters the overlords of the Zentradi have come to earth space in an attempt to reclaim the remaining protoculture hidden in the ruins of the SDF 1. They launch an all out Battle on Earth in order to test the strength of the people who have defeated the Zentradi.

The Second Robotech war begins and it is apparent that the weaken earth forces are no match for the masters. That is until Dana Sterling commands her tank squadron and saves the earth force from impending doom. The majority of the season is the earth forces getting pounded and being saved by Dana or Marie's group. Marie is a leader of the veritech fighters group and a love interest of Sean (a member of Dana's squadron). Eventually the Southern Cross is able to down one of the master's flagship and sends the 15th in to infiltrate. The group is captured eventually but not before leaning that the masters use cloning techniques, and having Bowie meet and fall in love with an alien girl named Musica.

The 15th manage to escape the ship with an enemy bioroid. The Southern Cross learns more secrets and find out that the genetic structure of the aliens is similar to the earthlings. The Masters start to lose lots of battles to the Southern Cross and get desperate. They decide to plant a spy within the Southern Cross named Zor and he intentionally gets captured.

Eventually Zor is assigned to the 15th squadron in an attempt to jog his memory. The 15th during this time are grounded and left out from certain missions. A couple of episodes go by Dana starts to fall in Love with Zor. Meanwhile the Southern Cross space forces are getting pounded by the masters thanks to the chip that allows the masters to see and hear info told to Zor about counterstrikes. Dana and her squad eventually get assigned to launch a strike on the Masters from space. They once again manage to infiltrate the ship and get caught. Zor unwilling betrays the 15th thanks to the Masters.

The 15th manage to get Zor back on their side and again escape along with Musica this time. The masters then decide to make a stronger bioroid pilot and decide to launch a last ditch effort to reclaim the protoculture matrix. The final battle begins and it is all out war. Back at the site of the fallen SDF 1 Musica and Zor learn that the protoculture has mutated into the flower of Life spores. Meaning that the Invid a vicious alien race will come to the earth to take back the flower of life.

The Masters almost are at the verge of defeat due to the lack of protoculture they have manage to make it to the site of the SDF 1. The battle intensifies and Zor decides to get revenge on the masters for what they have done to him. Zor goes into the flagship along with Dana in attempt to kill the Masters. Zor manages to kill the Masters but Dana unknowingly release the spores of the flower with a touch of her hand on the protoculture the Masters had that was mutating. Zor then kisses Dana and then pushes her into an escape pod. Zor memories have come back and he learns that he is a clone of the original Zor who created the SDF 1.

Zor blows himself and the master's ship up in an attempt to burn the spores of the flower of life with the falling pieces of metal. His mission ends in failure as he helps release the spore's quicker meaning now the Invid will definitely come soon. The victory of the Second Robotech war is a bitter sweet one and so ends the second season with the third coming very soon!!!

I saw the series a second time on DVD, and out of a possible 10 I give The Southern Cross a 7 1/2. The reason being the show gets really slow during the period the 15th get grounded from the space battles. Another drawback is that the ending is very abrupt and ends quickly due to the fact that they cut most of the major portions of the ending out to make it fit into the Robotech Saga. But still yet the end feels so rushed that you say to yourself what happen well that just shows you how much they had to alter Southern Cross but overall its still a pretty good show and a must see for mech fans!

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