Genesis Climber MOSPEADA
F.A.Q.
What is Mospeada?
Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (aka Kikô sôseiki Mospeada or just plain Mospeada) is a 25 episode long anime TV series that ran from late 1983 to early 1984 that deals with a small group of human rebels who attempt to free Earth from the control of aliens known as the Inbit. The series is episodic in nature, with some episodes centering on certain characters or themes, before rounding off usually with a battle. While only mildly successful and never escaping the shadow of shows like Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Mospeada gained a measure of notoriety/fame outside Japan when it was made into the final section of the mangled mecha mix known as Robotech.
What is Mospeada: Love, Live, Alive?
Despite failing to turn into another Macross style success story like it's makers hoped, Mospeada had a small, but quite vocal group of hardcore fans who staged a large write in campaign to bring it back. Through their efforts, a special release for the home video market appeared in September 1985, the music video OAV, Genesis Climber Mospeada: Love, Live, Alive.
L, L, A is an hour long tape that centers around a Yellow Belmont concert after the series has finished. We see Yellow ride to and preform, mixed in with flashbacks to events in the series and songs and eventually a reunion with his friends.
Is Yellow Belmont gay?
Hoo-boy does this question crop up a lot. First things first, NO Yellow Belmont (and his Robotech counterpart Lancer for that matter) IS NOT GAY. I can not say that enough. He is not gay. The female singing star persona is just a role, and Yellow Belmont is shown to be interested only in women. Yellow even lampoons his own situation, using his female persona and teasing people who know he's a guy.
Why wasn't Mospeada a success?
Depends what you mean. Mospeada rated okay and really struck a cord with some fans, just it wasn't a mega-hit like Macross. Many anime series are like Mospeada, they get shown, they end and if they're popular, an OAV is made. One thing Mospeada was though was a commercial failure. Licensees like Gakken and Imai put out a fair bit of merchandise on the expectation Mospeada would be a Mega-hit, only to be proven wrong, weakening themselves and leaving companies like Bandai in a better position to rule the market in the late 1980's.
Houquet Eroze? I thought she was named Fuke Eroze?
Well, the TV series has it as Houquet and the toys and models have it as Fuke, so which is right? Houquet is a French name and is pronounced approximately "hoo-ke". Japanese is phonetic, and when written in katakana it was converted to "Huke". Unfortunately, the character for "hu" is the same as "fu", and when the toy and model licensee's switched it back to the roman alphabet someone who didn't know it was supposed to be Houquet read the katakana as Fuke and wrote it as such. Most use Houquet when talking about the character and the series and Fuke to describe the Bartley Ride Armor and Zeta-model Legioss Armo-Fighter.
How do you pronouce the word Mospeada?
It's pronounced moss-pee-da.
What were some of the differences between Mospeada and Robotech: New Generation?
Compared to the major changes Macross and Southern Cross were put through, Mospeada survived rather more intact. The background was changed to link with the two preivous sections of Robotech. Mars Base became the Robotech Expeditionary Force. Mentions to events and the foes of Robotech's past were shoehorned in, the most noteable example was Scott Bernard's constant harping about the return of Admiral Hunter.
The HBT cells used by the mecha were transformed into Protoculture, the sort after fuel central to Robotech. There was no SDF-3 in Mospeada at all, the SDF-3 being a US concept not existing outside the name until after Robotech: New Gen was finished. Likewise the later Invid Regent is not a part of Mospeada, in Mospeada the Refles was the sole ruler of the Inbit.
Why did the Inbit come to Earth?
This is a common question, as in Mospeada there was no Protoculture to draw the Inbit to Earth. The Inbit searched for planets to help them to evolve in to a better race.
The Inbit was a hive society that saw only their race's needs of value. The Inbit never used the humans as slaves, though they did take some to study in their evolutionary experiments and much like bees as long as the humans left the Inbit alone, the Inbit did not attack. The people of Earth learned to live with this, but the Mars Base troops continued to attack causing the conflict we see in the series.
Why was Mospeada chosen to become part of Robotech instead of Super Dimensional Century Orguss?
The basic themes of Mospeada clicked better with the other two shows of Robotech and the changed story line better than Orguss did. The killer blow was the fact that Harmony Gold was already planning to release an English dub of Mospeada (of which only one episode was completed) so the rights were already signed.
How does Mospeada relate to Macross?
Apart from both being a part of Robotech, they are not related. Sure, Mospeada shares some of the basic concepts (transformable mecha, singers turning the aliens, female alien falling in love with human male) but then so do many other shows. The only (minor) connection is that some of the voice actors/actresses worked on both shows. Miyuki Sanae (Mint) also played Shammy, Ohara Noriko (Refles) also did Claudia LaSalle, Suzuoki Hirotaka (Yellow Belmont's male persona) also portrayed Lynn Kaifun and Doi Mika (Houquet) also played Misa Hayase as well as Lana Isavia from Southern Cross for a Robotech-related triple play.
Where can I get Mospeada?
Be thankfull that your living in the glory days friend! No more expensive imports, Mospeada is readily available in North America on DVD, digitally remastered too boot! All 25 episodes are included in a single multi-disc keepcase with a 22 page booklet with staff interviews.
For the more hardcore fan there is the Japanese R2 release of Mospeada. The first three discs have 4 episodes each, while the fourth and fifth discs have 5 episodes each, freeing up the sixth disc to hold the final 3 episodes and the Love, Live, Alive OAV. All discs are raw Japanese without English subtitles, are coded for Region 2 and are quite expensive, but some debate that the quality of the extras of the Japanese release has everything of the R1 release and much more with toy commericals and the sequel OVA Love Live Alive.
The former champion of all Mospeada releases in the pre-DVD era was the Japanese Laser Disc set, which covered much the same ground as the Japanese DVD release (all 25 episodes and the LLA OVA), but has superior packaging. It's available if you know where to look, but with the release of the DVDs has faded into a hard-core collector instead of a only game in town style purchase.
The best option for the English speaking Mospeada fan at present, until the ADV release appears, is still Streamline Picture's Robotech Perfect Collection. Each tape contained two episodes of Robotech with two questionably subtitled episodes of its original series counterpart. Unfortunately only 7 Mospeada tapes were released before Streamline ran into trouble and folded, leaving 11 episodes unreleased. Second-hand copies can found online from time to time.
For those naughty people who insist on supporting bootlegs, which is idiotic now that the former "Not available in North America" excuse has been defeated by the ADV release, there are a few versions, include Cantonese hardsubbed VCD sets and more recently a DVD set which includes Chinese and English subtitles. Video quality of the bootlegs is passable to low grade, but the lure of Love Live Alive, missing from the R1 set is often strong enough to trump it.
Has anybody fansubbed Mospeada?
Robotech, however mangled and changed from the originals, technically counts as an English release and therefore scared many fansubbers that the Outside Japan license holder, Harmony Gold USA, will crack down if they released. The lure of completing the unfinished, and likely to never be finished, Robotech Perfect Collection was strong however and some fans put plans in motion to fansub it using the LDs. The announcement of ADV getting the license has virtually killed the project off however.
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Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (R) is the property of Tatsunoko Productions/Artmic Studios. Robotech (R) is the property of Harmony Gold.
This document is in no way intended to infringe upon their rights.
Last Updated: Sunday June 15th 2003 - 9:06 PM
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