Robotech (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Harmony Gold's cited reasoning for combining the three unrelated series was its decision to market Macross for US-American weekday syndication television, which required a minimum of 65 episodes at the time.
• A poor screen-test at the Robotech: The Movie screening in Texas led to Cannon Films pulling the feature from release in 1986, getting a very limited home video release in Europe.

Production history

Harmony Gold brought in American writers to rework scripts from three separate Japanese anime series, a task overseen by Carl Macek, who helped establish anime in the United States. The merged material created a single narrative covering three generations, during which humanity fights a series of devastating wars over a resource called Protoculture. The first conflict, known as the First Robotech War or The Macross Saga, starts when people find a crashed alien vessel. Giant warriors called the Zentraedi attack, sent to recover the ship without explanation. Earth suffers near-total destruction, but the Zentraedi are beaten, and humans learn about Protoculture. They also discover the Robotech Masters, whose galactic territory the Zentraedi guarded. The Second Robotech War, titled The Masters, brings the Robotech Masters themselves to Earth’s orbit. They want the only device in the universe that can create Protoculture. Mistrust and pride on both sides lead to war, ending with the Masters defeated and Earth covered in spores from the Flower of Life, the plant that produces Protoculture. These spores attract the mysterious Invid, who search the galaxy for this plant. The Third Robotech War, called The New Generation, starts when the Invid arrive, drawn by the Flower of Life, and quickly take over the planet. Earlier parts of the story reveal that many heroes from the first war left Earth to find the Robotech Masters in a preemptive strike. This group, the Robotech Expeditionary Force, sends missions back from across the galaxy to free their homeworld. The final chapter follows one band of freedom fighters as they move toward the decisive clash with the Invid.

Television broadcast

Robotech first hit television screens in 1985 through first-run syndication, meaning local stations bought the show directly instead of waiting for a network to air it. This approach was part of a broader shift in 1980s animation, kicked off by He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which proved that shows could be sold straight to stations and funded by toy sales. While the original Robotech series pulled in solid ratings, the push to sell toys may have backfired for its planned sequel, Robotech II: The Sentinels. The show attracted an older audience, not the young kids the Matchbox toy line targeted, and the failure of those toys is often blamed for the sequel’s cancellation.

In Australia, Robotech began airing on April 12, 1986, and continued through 1988 and 1995 across the Ten and Seven networks, plus regional stations like RTQ7, AMV4, and GRV6. Ten stopped at episode 52, titled Love Song, while Seven ran all 85 episodes. In 2018, Network Ten’s multichannel Eleven started showing the Macross Saga. Italy saw the series in late 1986 on Rete 4, later moving to Italia 7. France first broadcast it on La Cinq in summer 1987, switching to TF1 in 1991. The Philippines’ GMA-7 aired the Masters and New Generation segments in the late 1980s, while RPN-9 had shown Macross earlier in the decade. Hong Kong’s Star Plus (now Star World) aired all 85 episodes from May 1994 to January 1995, shifting from Sunday mornings to weekday afternoons. Super Channel brought the series to several European countries in the 1980s. In the UK, The Children’s Channel ran it in the mid-to-late 1980s. Spain aired all episodes with Latin American dubbing on Telecinco from August 1990 to April 1991, and again from October 1993 to May 1994, though only the Macross Saga and Robotech Masters Saga were shown, leaving the third saga unaired.

Critical reception

Over the years, Robotech built a devoted cult following and earned critical praise; in 2009, IGN placed it 34th on its list of the top 100 animated shows ever. Hyper magazine gave The Macross Saga a perfect 10 out of 10 in 1996. On home video, Family Home Entertainment first tried releasing single episodes on VHS but stopped after just a few. In 1987, they cut the 36-episode Macross Saga into six feature-length tapes, removing episode introductions and shower-scene nudity, and skipped the Southern Cross and New Generation series entirely. A later VHS run finally put out the whole series with two uncut episodes per tape across 42 volumes. Laserdisc releases of The Macross Saga and The Masters arrived in 1993 and 1994, each holding four uncut episodes. Palladium Books, the company behind the Robotech role-playing game, became the first to release Southern Cross, New Generation, and Robotech II: The Sentinels on VHS, sold by mail-order and through select game and hobby shops. After those went out of print, Streamline Pictures—founded by Robotech’s Carl Macek—put out Robotech II: The Sentinels on VHS and Laserdisc. In 1994, Streamline also started an incomplete “Perfect Collection” VHS line, each volume pairing two Robotech episodes with their original Macross, Southern Cross, or Mospeada counterparts, fully uncut but with inaccurate subtitles. GameTek Cinema released the first episode on CD-ROM in 1994, using QuickTime 2.0 at 320x226 resolution and a slightly different background music arrangement. In 2001, AnimEigo issued the original Japanese Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series on DVD, subtitled and unedited, with footage extensively restored from original film stock by Shin Kurokawa.

Original series cast and crew

Crew includes Ahmed Agrama as Executive Producer, Jehan Agrama as Associate Producer, Debbie Alba as Dialogue Director, Robert V. Barron as Supervising Director, Writer, and Dialogue Director, Ardwight Chamberlain as Writer, Greg Finley as Writer and Dialogue Director, Kent Hayes as Production Manager, Jason Klassi as Writer, Steve Kramer as Script Editor, Writer, and Dialogue Director, Carl Macek as Producer and Story Editor, Mike Reynolds as Writer and Dialogue Director, Gregory Snegoff as Script Editor, Writer, and Dialogue Director, Tao Will as Writer, Jorge Allia as Transfer, Leonardo Araujo as Recording Engineer, George Bours as Recording Engineer, Guillermo Coelho as Video Tape Engineer, John Reiner as Recording Engineer, and Bryan J. Rusenko as Chief Engineer.