Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone around the world! 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, and the best we can do on this special day is reflect on the fact that we’ve made it this far, and help each other get through the rest of this pandemic together. Since rewatching our favorite Christmas episodes of anime is a delightful way to enjoy the holidays, I wrote a guide to the best Christmas anime to re-watch. I started to wonder where the “Christmas anime episode” tradition originated from, and I realized it was the Super Dimension Fortress Macross series, known as Robotech around the world. I re-watched the “Robotech Christmas Special” last night, and here are my thoughts!
Why Macross is my Favorite Anime
I’m often asked what my favorite anime is, and I always answer Macross. It’s the show that made the deepest impression on me, and the first series I watched in Japanese, back in the days before subtitles existed. Transforming mecha are cool, but what drew me in was the intensity of the love story between Hikaru, Minmei and Misa, which was something none of us had experienced at that point, as well as the sheer “giant-ness” of the story, an intergalactic war that results in the destruction of everyone on Earth. Since you never forget your first anime shower scene, Macross also left an impression on me for giving me my first nude scene in anime form.
Read my post about why Macross: Do You Remember Love? is the most perfect anime film ever made.
I re-watched the Christmas episode of Macross, which was incredibly dramatic and well-animated, like nothing any of us had seen in 1985.
And it apparently was the beginning of NTR, too.#robotech #macross #robotechchristmasspecial #ntr #netorare pic.twitter.com/60Pvkmj7V8
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) December 25, 2020
We didn’t know the word at the time, but the intensity of the love triangle between the three characters in Macross also gave us our first experience with NTR.
The ‘Robotech Christmas Special’ Began an Anime Tradition
Nowadays we’re used to special Christmas-themed episodes of the anime we watch, allowing the characters to experience some holiday cheer together, which in the context of Japan usually means having a loud party with firecrackers and music, or a romantic date with someone special. From Toradora! to Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid to The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, re-watching the Christmas episodes has become a solid tradition for many otakus around the world.
While Robotech was incredibly influential in preserving the virginity of bringing many new fans into the fold of anime fandom in the 1980s, many turned on the show and its creator Carl Macek for taking three unrelated series and mashing them into something new without concern for what the original creators would have wanted. In much the same way that Star Wars fans cried foul when George Lucas made changes to already-released films, thus seeming to take a part of our childhood away, anime fans were less than charitable towards Carl as anime went on to become a huge industry flowing directly from Japan.
In the Christmas episode of Robotech/Macross (episode 35), Khyron/Quamzin attacks the city to steal a Reflex Engine that he needs so he can escape Earth. In Robotech, “protoculture” was reduced to an energy source, but in Macross, it’s the original culture that the Zentraedi had lost when they were created as giants whose only reason for existing was warfare. Re-learning “culture” from Minmei’s songs gave them the ability to repair their spaceships, something they could not do before. As the Zentraedi flee with their stolen Reflex Engine, they set off explosions in the city that causes many deaths.
One thing that’s cool about re-watching classic anime in the age of Blu-rays and large TVs is the ability to detect an incredible amount of detail that you missed the first time around. The original Macross series is especially awesome in Blu-ray format because you can see individual pieces of dust and hair that got caught on the animation cels back in 1982. It gives you an appreciation of how much has changed in the world of animation.
The first anime Christmas episode was in #Macross, aka #Robotech. What a surprise.
Whatever you do, don’t realize that this episode is closer to D-Day during WWII than to the present day. That would make you feel old.#robotechchristmasspecial #ntr #netorare pic.twitter.com/6k3T1ytM4k
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) December 25, 2020
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