parakkum

If you're around my age, you may have watched Robotech as a kid. Robotech is an amalgam of three Japanese animated series, Super Dimension Fortress Macross (which became the "Macross" portion of Robotech), Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (which became the "Southern Cross" portion of Robotech), and Genesis Climber Mospeada (which became the "Invid Invasion" portion of Robotech).

My favorite part was always the Invid invasion portion, and I now own the original Japanese series, which benefits from being disentangled from the overarching story used to stitch the three series together for the American show. Only in the last couple years, talking with my friend Tim, did I realize something kind of odd.

Mospeada is a kids' primer on insurgency.

The basic plot of Mospeada, which you can review in more detail here, here, and here, goes as follows:

An alien species known as the Inbit (Invid in the American version), invade and take over Earth. Those humans who weren't on-planet at the time flee to the sanctuary of Mars.

Thirty years later, the humans send an invasion fleet to retake Earth. They lose badly.

Three years after that, they send a second fleet to retake Earth. They also lose badly. A survivor from this fleet, Stig Bernard (Scott in the American version), decides to carry on the fight as an insurgent. He nucleates a group around him, incorporating people who grew up under the occupation and other former military personnel from the crushed first invasion fleet and before.

Through the bulk of the series, the protagonists ambush Inbit patrols, steal supplies, and generally carry on a normal insurgency. Notably, the show even deals with issues of collaboration with the occupying power, with some communities selling out insurgents for offers of safety. The picture I used, above, is from an episode in which a former military hero is revealed as a collaborator, handing over other insurgents in exchange for peace for his adopted community (alien on the left, collaborator on the right). Naturally, Stig is having none of it, and things don't go well for the collaborator.

What's most striking about Mospeada is that the humans don't win militarily. They do, at the end of the series, send a third invasion fleet to retake the Earth -- and that fleet, too, does poorly. At the end of the day, the Inbit leader, the Refless (Regis in the American version), decides that the humans are just too much trouble, and leaves.

In other words, the insurgency succeeds by making the occupation cost too much for the occupying power. How's that for a lesson for little kids?

Edit: Fixed an error in the sentence above that makes it seem like I'm opposed to the show. Oops. Also, see comments for notes on how insurgencies make an appearance in every Robotech element.