Around 1995, Japanese animation (anime) began pouring into North America, Europe and across the globe in video form. Most of these titles were unknown outside of Japan and never covered by animation journals. Whether a title is highly popular or very obscure, a high-quality theatrical feature or a cheap and unimaginative direct-to-video release, they all look the same on a store shelf. Therefore, Animation World Magazine will regularly review several new releases (including re-releases not previously covered) that have merit and about which our readers should know.

© 1985, 2001 Harmony Gold USA, Inc. All rights reserved.

Robotech. The Macross Saga: V.1, First Contact. V.2, Transformation. V.3, Homecoming. V.4, Battlefront. V.5, War and Peace. V.6, Final Conflict. The Robotech Masters: V.7, A New Threat. V.8, Revelations. V.9, Counter Attack. V.10, The Final Solution. The New Generation: V.11, The Next Wave. V.12, Counter Strike. V.13, Genesis. V.14, Hollow Victory.
TV series (85 episodes), 1982-1985. American Producer: Carl Macek; Director: Robert Barron. Japanese Directors: (Macross) Noboru Ishiguro; (Robotech Masters) Yasuo Hasegawa; (New Generation) Katsuhisa Yamada. Price & format: DVD, English language, V.1 - 13, 6 episodes/150 minutes; V.14, 7 episodes/175 minutes; $14.98 each. Distributor: A. D. Vision Films.

The American Robotech and its Japanese Macross component are both monumentally popular and influential. Harmony Gold, an American global TV distributor, wanted to sell Tatsunoko Production Co.'s animated space-adventure TV serial Macross to American TV. But Macross was only 36 episodes and the syndicated TV market of the early 1980s required at least 65 episodes. Producer Carl Macek's solution was to buy two more space-adventure serials from Tatsunoko Pro, similar in basic plot and art design, and rewrite them into a single 85-episode saga spanning three generations. Robotech, debuting on American TV in March 1985, was designed for the teen Star Trek market. It was the first Americanized Japanese TV cartoon series to court the new anime fan cult openly instead of downplaying its foreign origins. Robotech was directly responsible for a sharp increase in anime fandom (an authorized Robotech convention in October 1986 drew 4,000 fans). At the same time, many TV stations treated Robotech like a typical juvenile TV cartoon, censoring scenes that they considered unsuitable for young children or disregarding the episode order, which destroyed story continuity. This influenced the anime fan perception that the American movie-TV industry did not understand anime, which led directly to the new fan-created anime specialty market in the late 1980s. Robotech has continued in popularity through TV reruns, licensed sci-fi novels and comic books to the present. Robotech II: The Sentinels, a planned 65-episode sequel written by Carl Macek and animated by Tatsunoko Pro, was aborted early due to business problems, but the animation that had been finished was turned into a video feature in August 1988; one of America's first animated direct-to-video movie releases.

Robotech's most popular segment was the introductory The Macross Saga (in Japan Super-Dimensional Fortress: Macross, 36 episodes, October 3, 1982 - June 26, 1983). It features believable teen emotional entanglements as young combat pilots and officers on the space battleship Macross and adjacent civilians are thrown into constant contact as they battle the giant Zentraedi warriors attacking Earth. A major fan-favorite character is killed in action; there is an interracial romance; the main protagonist, fighter pilot Rick Hunter (Hikaru Ichijo), is embarrassed and confused to realize that he cannot decide, which of two girls he loves. (In Japan there were sequels to the Macross series alone, two of which, Macross II and Macross Plus, have been released in America.) The other two segments, The Robotech Masters (24 episodes; in Japan Super-Dimensional Cavalry: Southern Cross) and The New Generation (25 episodes; Genesis Climber: Mospeada), were less popular. They were actually failures in Japan, originally planned for 36 episodes but condensed and concluded early due to poor ratings.

Robotech has previously been released on video in both partial and complete versions, simplified for children or uncut for anime fans. A.D. Vision's new DVD release is complete and uncut, but in English only since the American 85-episode story required such an extensive editing of the three separate series that the original Japanese dialogue tracks no longer match. Also, the individual Robotech DVDs do not include any extras. Those come with a special three-DVD boxed-set edition, The Robotech Legacy, seven sets at $44.98 each. Each Legacy contains two regular DVDs, plus an exclusive "Elements of Robotechnology" DVD with 2 hours or more of extras such as production sketches, character model sheets, a gallery of Robotech comic book covers, the complete 80-minute Robotech II: The Sentinels feature with a commentary by Carl Macek, creator interviews, and samplers of scenes from foreign releases in a wide variety of languages.