Anime has been on American TV far longer than the “Pokemon” wave of the mid-1990s. In the 1960s, “Mach Go Go Go” was brought here as “Speed Racer.” The 1970s saw the American release of the first of the Japanese “big three” sci-fi epics: “Uchuu Senkan (Space Battleship) Yamato” as “Star Blazers.” “Robotech,” in 1985, brought a new group of fans to anime.
Now, within six months of each other, the other two “big three” shows have made their official debuts in America: “Gundam” and “Macross.” Yes, Macross was released back in 1985 as the first part of “Robotech,” which was an attempt to meld three shows together into one. But until now, Americans have been denied the chance to see the series that helped begin the current interest in anime here in its original form.
It is the year 2009. For 10 years, humanity had worked on repairing a mysterious alien warship, which crash-landed on a remote island south of Japan. Unbeknownst to Earth, the warship is just one vessel involved in a massive galactic war. During the gala launch celebration, including a demonstration of the “Valkyrie” mecha (a fighter plane capable of transforming into a humanoid robot), aliens attack Earth, intent on destroying the vessel. So begins the story of “Chou Jikuu Yousai (The Super Dimension Fortress) Macross,” a classic, 20-year-old Japanese anime show.
The show, plotted by Ken’ichi Matsuzaki and Shoji Kawamori, juxtaposes the gigantic scale of space warfare (pitting our heroes’ one ship against a fleet of four million) with the intimacy of a love triangle.

Animeigo, Inc., dyed-in-the-wool otaku (anime fanatics) and a company which specializes in anime classics, including “Bubble Gum Crisis,” “Urusei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens)” and “Waga Seishun no Arcadia (Arcadia of My Youth),” took the best part of two years to work on the TV series, and it definitely shows. Harmony Gold (the prime offenders in Robotech) supplied Animeigo with the original TV broadcast film for “Macross” that it still had in a Los Angeles film vault. The first task that the set’s producer, Shin Kurokawa, set himself to was to clean the original stock of the grime and dirt that every film accumulates over time.
Not only are the colors of the show more vibrant than ever before, but the restoration team also eliminated most frame jitter and all splice lines.
The dialogue in “Macross” is light years away from what it was in “Robotech” and should give a whole new dimension to the characters for those who have seen only “Robotech.” The subtitles are up to Animeigo’s usual excellent standards and should pose no problems to anyone trying to follow the dialogue. One caveat to those who like dubs: There are none. Harmony Gold, which also approved a release of “Robotech” on DVD at the same time, doesn’t want a competing dub of “Macross.”
One slight problem with the show is the spotty animation quality from episode to episode. In late 1982, after “Macross” was garnering a sizable fan following, the show’s sponsor, Takatoku Toys,
approved a request to bump the show’s run from 23 episodes to a full 36-episode season. While it gave the creators more leeway storywise, it left the producers of the show scrambling to complete an extra 13 episodes in a relatively short time. One partial solution was to farm certain episodes out to so-called “understudy” studios.
This is why Episode 24 (“Goodbye Girl”) and Episode 26 (“The Messenger”) — which both have excellent animation — sandwich Episode 25 (“Virgin Road”), which has animation that is amateur at best and painful at worst.
The packaging for each disc is good-looking, if somewhat minimalist. Each cover consists of a black background overlaid with a colored outline of one of the main characters and the show’s Japanese title logo at the bottom. The menus on each disc are interactive, which is a surprise — my own experience with Animeigo discs is that menus are often given short shrift — and mimic the cockpit of the “Valkyrie,” the main mecha of the show. Each disc (except for Disc 9) comes with illustrated liner notes that have trivia and creators’ insights into the show, as well as lyrics for most of the songs presented in the show.
The “Macross” DVDs will be released this summer for individual sale at most video stores at an expected price of about $30. The other shows that were part of “Robotech,” “Chou Jikyuu Kidan (The Super Dimension Cavalry),” “Southern Cross” and “Kikou Souseiki (Genesis Climber) Mospeada” will be released later this year by ADV Films.