Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross

Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (超時空騎団サザンクロス) was the third Japanese animated (anime) series released under the "Super Dimension" moniker by the sponsor Big West. This 1984 science fiction robotic mecha series followed Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982–1983) created by Studio Nue with Artland and produced by Tatsunoko, and Super Dimension Century Orguss (1983–1984), also created by Studio Nue with Artland and produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. Unlike the other two series, The Southern Cross was created and produced almost entirely by Tatsunoko with mechanical designs by its sister studio Ammonite. The series lasted for 23 episodes. The three titles share some of the same creators, and Macross is referenced by character cameos and inside references by the latter two series. However, the basic stories are unrelated. Southern Cross was the least successful of the Super Dimension banner and was actually cancelled due to low ratings, forcing the scriptwriters to hastily conclude the series.

Most of the animation of The Southern Cross (with edited content and revised dialogue) was adapted outside Japan for the second part of Robotech, following The Macross Saga, and preceding The New Generation. In this form, it is frequently referred to as Robotech Masters (as it was titled in the comic book adaptation released by Comico).

Main characters
[Robotech adapted names in brackets]

Jeanne Fránçaix (ジャンヌ・フランセーズ)  [ Dana Sterling ]  (Michie Tomizawa): At 17 years of age Jeanne finds herself the leader of the 15th Squad in the Southern Cross' Alpha Tactics Armored Corps (ATACs). A native from the planet Liberté, Jeanne sometimes has a tendency to follow her heart and act rashly, much to the chagrin of her superiors, who consider her to be an embarrassment to the army, believing that she doesn't take her duty seriously. Her frequent disregard for protocol, orders, and regulations continually lands her in solitary confinement, often placed there by Lt. Lana Isavia. Fortunately she always manages to be let out when needed. Jeanne develops a romantic interest in Seifriet Weiße, but his reaction is one of puzzlement and disdain. Most of the series revolves around Jeanne's escapades with the 15th Squad, and her almost personal war with the invading Zor.

Mary Angel (マリー・アンジェル) [Marie Crystal] (Kumiko Mizukura): If Jeanne can be labelled as impulsive, then Mary can be her exact opposite. Nicknamed the "Cosmo Amazon" she represents the model soldier. She was once the leader of a biker gang and has also an aptitude for machines. Despite her tough exterior she still has deep feelings and begins a rocky relationship with Charles de Etouard. As a capable leader, Mary is often the one to snap Jeanne out of her periodic episodes of shock or indecision, usually with a harsh slap to the face. Mary leads her own unit within the Tactics Armored Space Corps, for which she is also an ace.

Lana Isavia (ラーナ・イザビア)  [ Nova Satori ]  (Mika Doi): The third central female of the Southern Cross. At 19, Lana is the youngest military police officer on Glorie, and one of the highest ranking. Like Mary, she is the polar opposite of Jeanne, taking her duties very seriously and allowing for no compromises regarding protocol and regulations. Her rivalry with Jeanne can be viewed as a subtle game of "cat and mouse". In the beginning of the series, Lana appears to be colder and less personable than Marie. But as the story progresses, she is revealed to be even more of a romantic than Jeanne. Her military training eventually conflicts with her passionate emotions, and she is forced to choose between her duty to the Southern Cross, and her friendship with the 15th Squad. She slowly develops feelings for TASC pilot R. Brown, and they later become romantically involved.

Other characters
Bowie Emerson (ボウイ・エマーソン) [Bowie Grant] (Arihiro Hase): Bowie is a private first class assigned to the 15th Squad at the age of 16. Due to his father's influence he was pressured to join the military even though he is a pacifist more interested in composing music rather than fighting.

Andrzej Sławski (アンジェイ・スラウスキー) [Angelo Dante] (Yūichi Meguro): The sergeant of the 15th Squad who occasionally acts as its leader in the absence of a superior officer. He has served longer than anyone else in the 15th Squad, but his conventional mindset is sometimes at odds with his new female leader, Jeanne Fránçaix.

Louis Ducasse (ルーイ・デュカス) [Louie Nichols] (Issei Futamata): The resident mechanics expert and in-house genius. A quiet individual until a mecha-related issue comes up. His expertise comes in use when assessing and analyzing the Bioroid threat.

Charles de Etouard (シャルル・ドゥ・エトワード) [Sean Phillips] (Bin Shimada): At the age of 23 Charles was the former commander of the 15th Squad until a romantic indiscretion had him demoted to private. Charles is a constant womanizer who eventually winds up falling for Marie.

Seifriet Weiße (サイフリート・ヴァイス) [Zor Prime] (Yoshikazu Hirano): A human pilot who was captured and brainwashed by the Zor to become a pilot in their Bioroid forces and later an informant. Seifreit pilots a red Zor Bioroid and he is almost unstoppable in battle against Jeanne and her ATAC squadron. He is recaptured by Lana, and his memories are examined for clues into the Zor. His human mind begins to conflict with his Zor brainwashing, and he is nearly driven insane. But instead of breaking down mentally, he decides to take revenge on the Zor for their violation of his mind.

R. Brown (ブラウン) [Dennis Brown] (Kouji Totani): A lieutenant in the Tactics Armored Space Corps. Lana is impressed with Brown's sense of integrity, optimism, and duty, and she develops a crush on him. The two eventually become a couple.

Claude Leon (クロード・レオン) [Eli Anatole Leonard] (Daisuke Gōri): The supreme general of the Southern Cross. A megalomaniac determined on wiping out the Zor at any cost, he begins to take extreme measures to ensure victory. His policies are heavily criticized by General Emerson.

Rolf Emerson (ロルフ・エマーソン) Rolf Emerson (Makoto Terada): Father of Bowie Emerson, and part-time guardian of Jeanne. He is the primary critic of General Leon, but stops short of disobeying orders. His tactical maneuvers during battles in the war with the Zor are seen as innovative and ingenious.

Dess (デス), Dera (デラ) and Demi (デミ) (Hirotaka Suzuoki): The leaders of the Zor.

Musica (ムジカ), Musiere (ムジエ), Muselle (ムゼル) [Musica, Allegra, Octavia] (Noriko Hidaka): The triplet sirens whose music inspire the Zor people. Musica begins doubting her people's ways, and after meeting Bowie, defects to Glorie and escapes the mothership. She and Bowie quickly fall in love, and then flee into the woods to escape capture by Lana.

Background
The world of Glorie was founded by the human race in an effort to find new worlds for humanity because the Earth had become uninhabitable as a result of a catastrophic nuclear holocaust. Relay stations have been established at Mars and Jupiter, and as a result the planet "Liberté" located in the Proxima solar system was colonized. The next planet, Glorie, was discovered in the Epsilon Eridani system. Similar to planetary scale and atmospheric conditions to Earth, Glorie still had an unexpectedly harsh natural environment. The planet has an elliptical orbit around the sun with a cycle of 73 years. Sixty percent of the planet surface area is land and in the winter, fifty percent of that land is covered with glaciers. Originally the planetary temperatures in winter averaged between -5 to -30 degrees Celsius. Thanks to extensive military terraforming, Glorie was successfully turned into a suitable planet for terrestrial life.

The government of Glorie is independent from that of Liberté but is an ally to that planet. In the year 2120 (When our story takes place) Glorie is now a self sufficient planet in terms of food and resources.

Southern Cross Army
The military organization (referred to as the Southern Cross Army) is under the jurisdiction of its prime minister. The units are divided among the land/sea forces and the aerospace force. There are also military police and security forces which are independent, but directly affiliated with Supreme General Headquarters. Headquarters are located on every major city.

In the Southern Cross, each unit has a specialized vehicle for combat campaigns. Among them are:

ATAC-01-SCA Spartas: One-manned transformable hover vehicle used exclusively by the Alpha Tactics Armored Corps. The Spartas has the ability to transform into 3 modes: Hover (Sniping Clapper), GERWALK (Walking Cannon), and Robot (Battle Sniper). Models differ depending on the rank of the individual.

TASC-02-SCF Logan: Transformable aerial assault mecha used exclusively by the Tactics Armored Space Corps. The mecha has two modes: Fighter (Flying Cat) mode for high speed flying combat and GERWALK (Flying Walker) mode suited for near ground assaults. The fighter has the ability to cover great distances.

TASC-02-SCF Auroran: The Auroran was a late development during the war that was constructed to replace the Logan. It has the capability to transform into three different modes: Fighter (Crusader), Heavy Combat Helicopter (Cross Fighter), and Robot (Cosmo Sniper). The new Robot mode was specifically designed to deal with the Zor Bioroid threat.

Sylphide: The Sylphide is a fighter used by the Tactics Air Force. This fighter can also be distinguished by a center tail as well as vertical surfaces mounted in the middle of each wing. The weaponry of the Sylphide include two guns in the fuselage and four missile hardpoints (two on the outside of either lower engine nacelle).

Garm: The Southern Cross Glorie Military Police uses this mecha fielded exclusively for it. The unit is capable of identifying personnel and recording evidence in investigations. Its systems has access to the military legal code to assist in determining if the law has been broken.

Salamander:The Strategic Corps uses the Salamander robot as their main combat robot for high mobility heavy weapons support. The arms have reinforced armor to assist in parrying attacks. There is a thruster in the rear to assist the mecha in leaping.

Personal Armour
Every soldier of the Southern Cross Army is issued a personal combat suit known as an "arming doublet". The purpose of the suit not only acts as protective armor but also improves combat performance. Each suit is equipped to serve different functions and can be altered depending on the mission requirements and needs of each division and rank. All suits are personally tailored for the physique of the individual, resulting in high mobility. Some variants of the arming doublet also have the ability to serve as self-sealed spacesuits.

Zor
The Zor (ゾル) are a race who serve as the antagonists for the Southern Cross army. The Zor were the former inhabitants of the planet Glorie but had to evacuate due to an apocalyptic war. Their advances in biotechnology surpass that of humanity, and the weapons they employ called "Bioroids" serve as a formidable enemy to the units of the Southern Cross. They operate in groups of three. Each member is responsible for one of three functions: information, decision and action. As whole they present a powerful threat but if one member is lost to the group then they lose their stability and become unable to function. Characteristically, the Zor are human in appearance, tall and slender with violet eyes, silvery hair and pale skin.

The Zor have a symbiotic relationship with a flower native to Glorie referred to as the Protozor which like them exist in trinities.

Bioroids
Since the Zor are not a race suited for combat, they employ biohumans to act as soldiers on their behalf. Biohumans are abducted personnel from the armies of the Southern Cross and Liberté forces who are brainwashed and forced to pilot the Bio-engineered mecha created by Zor supreme commanders. The most impressive feature of Bioroid technology is the ability to convey the thoughts of the operator directly to the mecha. This increases the response promptness making the Bioroids movements infinitely more agile that those of the Southern Cross Mechas. In short the Bioroids are actually "alive" with the pilots acting as their "brains".

The tactical advantage of the alien forces serves the Zor in two ways. One- the use of the Bioroid serves as a superior fighter over the Southern Cross mecha. Two- the use of biohumans serve as a psychological deterrent as the human soldiers find they are fighting their fellow comrades at arms.

During the time of the conflict many variations of the Bioroid were implemented by the Zor in order to adapt to the ever-changing battle conditions experienced on the field.

Opening theme
"Hoshi no Deja Vu" (星のデ・ジャブー) Vocals: Yoko Katori

Ending theme
"Yakusoku" (約束)
 * Vocals: Yoko Katori

Production notes

 * The English-subtitled Southern Cross DVD release by Harmony Gold and ADV Films transcribes グロリエ, the home planet in the story, incorrectly as "Gloire" (the Modern French word for 'glory', which would generally be given in katakana as グルワール). Egan Loo informed Steve Yun of Harmony Gold the spelling should in fact be "Glorie" (the Old French equivalent), however it was "too late in the production to correct the spelling in the subtitles and packaging".
 * In order to depict The Robotech Masters as occurring on Earth, Harmony Gold editors had to remove a second moon from the sky as was shown in the original Southern Cross. As this was years before digital editing, a complex machine was reportedly involved in the process.
 * Of the three series used to make the Robotech trilogy, Southern Cross was the most heavily altered in content as the bridge between the Macross story arc with that of the Mospeada series. The most obvious change was the creation of a new alien character, Zor (named after the alien race from the original), out of the purple-haired human character Seifriet Weiße. All other aliens in the series have porcelain white skin and appear as triplets.
 * Some of the animation from The Southern Cross also appeared in two shows produced by Harmony Gold. That firm began to produce another Robotech television series, and for it used some scenes of Claude Leon and Rolf Emerson together, ground vehicles (some of which only appeared once or twice in Southern Cross), and its three transformable mecha operated by the humans (Logan, Spartas, and Auroran). A number of designs from the pre-production phase of Southern Cross were also used, and new footage of various Southern Cross bioroid mecha was also shot. But this project failed. Eventually the remaining footage was compiled into an OVA (original video animation) titled Robotech II: The Sentinels. Some of the footage was also reused for the 1986 feature film Robotech: The Movie, though that show was composed primarily of footage from the Megazone 23 OVA.
 * Episode 37 of Robotech, "Dana's Story", was made specifically for the American Robotech adaptation and uses footage from the last episode of Macross for flashback scenes and dialogue footage from Southern Cross episode 10, "Outsider".
 * Original Character Designer: Kogawa Tomonori
 * Anime Character Designer: Miyo Sonoda
 * Sub-Character Designer: Hiroyuki Kitazume
 * Chief Director: Yasuo Hasegawa
 * Mecha Designers: Ammonite (Hiroshi Ogawa, Hirotoshi Okura & Takashi Ono)