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Technically any good? The premise is straightforward enough: a survivor of a military team sent to Earth to fight back against an alien occupation attempts to complete his mission by recruiting civilians and soldiers to take on the Invid/Inbit. The good news is that despite that somewhat cliched premise, the show still manages to be a lot of fun to watch. Thanks to the story being so sparse, the show's creators allowed the characters to fill in the blanks.
The most interesting of which is a soldier who hides from the alien invaders under the guise of a female singer. So, yes, one of the show's leads is a male cross-dresser with an amazing singing voice. I guess him being a soldier falls under the "don't ask don't tell" policy the military would be required to have after an alien invasion.
Underground cities, old west cliches, man vs. the elements, evolution, and other concepts are explored but not overly-exploited in this series. As a result, the show seems tempted to get boring, but never quite does. In fact, of all the anime I've seen, it's Mospeada has been the easiest for me to watch so far--the episodes fly by and I enjoy them quite a bit.
Sadly, the mecha weren't terribly well designed, but they weren't as bad as the designs for Southern Cross, either. I do like the design for the motorcycle that is driven by four of the characters, or "mospeada" as the show calls it. I also liked the actual character designs, themselves. Acting-wise, everyone was solid (I'm referring to the Japanese voice-over actors).
How did it leave me feeling? Unfortunately, the ending is a little flat. The good news is that it's not one of those "Whaaaaaa?" endings that a lot of Japanese animated shows often fall back on. However, it's not terribly satisfying, either. Still, if you like the Western genre, mixed with the post-apocalyptic alien invasion genre, this is a series for you.
Final Rating? SIYL - See If You Like. I wouldn't say this was a must-see, but it is fun and, as the original version of the third act of Robotech, it's important in a historical sense. However, as with the other two series that would get redubbed, recut and rewritten for the sake of Robotech, I think this series deserves to be watched on its own.
As an FYI, this series had a one-off sequel made called Love Live Alive, but it's very hard to find copies of it. If you find one, please let me know where you got it. I'd really like to see how they handled it.
Orignal From: MOSPEADA (1983) (anime)
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