Macross

Macross... The original.

Originally intended to be just a parody of Gundam, it evolved into becoming an entity of its own, with a compelling storyline and a deeply anti-war message.

Genre-defining character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto, excellent space craft and mecha designs by Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake and great directing work by Noboru Ishiguro were the first part of Macross' enormous success. Shoji Kawamori's VF-1 Valkyrie is one of the most easily identified anime mecha ever and for good reason: I've yet to see one that can match its sleek, yet strong and purposeful lines. It looks like it's ready to take off and go on a war, whereas other mecha often look like gimmicks.

The characters seemed to actually live and breathe, developing their personalities through the ordeal of their perversely unequal war against the Zentradi, the loss of friends, loved ones, the senseless suffering and carnage that war is, their change of heart over time...

And all this enhanced by the very fine voice acting of Arihiro Hase, Mari Iijima, Mika Doi, Akira Kamiya, Michio Hazama, Noriko Ohara and other distinguished Japanese voice actors and actresses, who conveyed the dialogue in a manner forceful, economical, emotionally wealthy and mature.

Add to this Mari Iijima's excellent voice and performance on each and every one of Lynn Minmay's songs - even the songs seem to evolve as Minmay grows: from the childish and girlie-love pop of "Zero-G Love" and "Watashi No Kare Wa Pairotto" ("My Boyfriend Is A Pilot") to the beautiful, softly-sung and emotionally overwhelming anti-war "Ai Wa Nagareru" ("Love Drifts Away"), which was performed during the Macross' battle against Gorg Bodolzaa's armada, the equally powerful elegy "My Beautiful Place" or the series' last song, "Yasashisa Sayonara" (Farewell Tenderness"). And the rest of Macross' soundtrack is a wonderful merger of a symphonic orchestra with rock, jazz and even blues influences.

Macross is a sad story; it is not quite an epic, although it features battle after battle. It's an anti-war story - it brings forth a message to everyone, a message stating that the works of peace and culture are immensely superior to the cruel barbarity of war.

Sadly, in the haste to produce the episodes fast enough, a number of episodes was farmed out to a Korean studio named Anime Friend, whose work was sub-par and introduced a fair number of animation errors. Despite this, Macross still is a shining gem and deservedly enjoys a strong following in Japan and internationally, even now, 20 years on.

Unfortunately for the Western world, in 1985, an American company named Harmony Gold and someone named Carl Macek combined Macross with two other anime series (Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Pit Climber M.O.S.P.E.A.D.A.), dumbing down the dialogues, to which they added even more (to the point where you wondered if the characters ever stop talking), replacing the meticulous use of silence with excessive narration with someone who sounds like a sportscaster on steroids, the cohesive storyline with a mangled patchwork, the artful voice acting with over-the-top "performances" by third-rate "actors", the lovely soundtrack with generic synth stuff, Mari Iijima's wonderful songs with outrageous "creations" "performed" by the Reba West (Rebecca Forstadt), who is more annoying than a car alarm. The worst display of Harmony Gold's inability to comprehend ANYTHING that Macross stands for is the replacement of "Ai Wa Nagareru" with the jingoistic attempt at anthem-writing titled "We Will Win".

The Important stuff first; if you've seen the entirety of the non-Robotech version, then you've seen the series that's included in the Blu-ray version. The only thing that you're missing are some booklets and the "special disk" which includes some re-animated sequences using a mixture of CGI and traditional cel-animation.

The entire TV series has not been re-animated, as I and others were led to believe with this super-expensive special edition.

Background; I was first introduced to this series as Robotech way back in 1983 or 1984, and I didn't think much of the animation, as even for offshore Japanese animation it seemed a bit more jerky than normal compared to other shows.

Where I was impressed with the dynamics of the story, I had a hard time watching it because of the quality of the animation. So, fast forward to 2012 and the "30th Anniversary" blu-rays come out, only I've got lots of obligations to meet, and no time to buy, watch and enjoy this show. If and when that big promotion comes, then I'll splurge, but, as fate would have it, I would have to wait five more years.

In the meantime I'm seeing snippets of the special edition, and I'm seeing new intro and musical sequences for Lynn Minmay. It appeared that the show had been re-animated. I mean, wow. That's something worth buying. Unfortunately the entire series was not reanimated, as I had hoped.

In 1984 I was shown the Feature Film via a bootleg copy based off of the same TV show, and was impressed with it. It wasn't quite Disney quality in terms of the actual animation, but it was many time better than the TV series, and the entire saga was compressed into a two hour format from hours of animated TV episodes, and done with exceptionally high production values.

Regrettably only select segments were redone, and are on the "special disk" included with this set. It's not worth spending the extra cash, even if you're a millionaire. Oh sure, if you have a lot of friends who were Macross fans back in the day, you all might get a kick out of it, but otherwise pass it up.

The real odd things is that the opening episode is repeated on the special disk in addition to the Blu-ray disks of the actual show. What for, I can't imagine. There's even a recording from the VHS release included on this disk. Again, why this is I have no idea--perhaps to compare the image quality.

In short, it's not worth buying. If you have the money, and really want the show on bluray, then buy the less expensive no frills version.

I hope this helps.

Many fans dislike the Robotech version of Macross, but there is a more faithful, official English dub out there, and it's pretty great! If you're not a subtitle fan or just want one more way to experience this awesome show, check out the ADV dub from the mid-2000s! If you can't locate an original copy, there are plenty of unlicensed copies on certain giant auction websites :)

The Macross franchise is to the anime industry what Star Trek is to live-action sci-fi television in terms of precedent setting and influence on their respective worlds. Macross has trace elements of Gene Roddenberry's magnum opus and even little bits of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in that alien technology advances humanity's social and technical progress to levels un-imagined before.

As a space opera fan this is deeply compelling work and I recommend it for anime buffs and science fiction fans as well; truly great stuff honestly. And this series explores relationships between humans and extra-terrestrial humanoids incredibly well! Give Macross a go whenever you can.

Still has a strong following and for good reason: The plot, the character descriptions, the mecha, the music, everything was wonderfully done - except for some sub-par episodes done by a Korean studio.

The voice acting was just what you would expect from self-respecting professionals. The storyline is tight and cohesive, while the characters seem to actually grow and mature before the viewer's eyes, seeming like actual personalities rather than just being mediums for the action.

This is definitely an anime everyone must see.