The early 80s was an exciting time for anime. The explosion in popularity caused by Urusei Yatsura brought us many other influential series, which were slowly beginning to be noticed by fans overseas. One of the most important shows of this era was Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (shown in English as Robotech), which capitalized on the new trend of transforming robots to deliver an epic story of alien invasion and high drama. Let’s look at how the OG Macross changed the world!
Macross Turns 40 Years Old! How Did it Change the World?
1982 was an amazing year for sci-fi movies, at least if you lived through it. In just a few months we got Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, E.T., Tron, Blade Runner, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, The Thing, and The Dark Crystal, all favorites I still enjoy re-watching today. But it was also a great year for anime, giving us the Gundam III film, the legendary Captain Harlock: My Youth in Arcadia film, Magical Princess Minky Momo, Space Cobra… and Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, a show that would make its mark on the world, in part thanks to its English release as Robotech.
Earlier this month Macross celebrated its 40th anniversary, which caused Japanese Twitter to go wild with congratulations and fan reactions. So I decided to chime in with my thoughts on what is still my favorite anime series to this day.
Macross Made Space Operas “Fun”
While I love me some heavy space drama like the above-mentioned My Youth in Arcadia, Macross banished all those melodramatic story elements in favor of a quick-moving character-driven story set against the most dramatic backdrop possible: the destruction of Earth at the hands of giant aliens. It was seen as a continuation of the “Real Robot” genre pioneered by 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam, which wanted to tell a more realistic story of humans in space with giant robots than the goofy made-for-kids series that dominated the 1970s.
The story: In the “future” year of 1999, a huge alien battle fortress crashes into an island in the Pacific. Humanity uses the technology inside the ship to create transforming robots and other weapons to defend itself against the aliens, who they know to be giants. When the Earth is attacked a decade later, the ship and the population of the island fold space to beyond the orbit of Pluto. They slowly make the journey back to Earth with 58,000 civilians, who rebuild their city inside the ship. Main character Hikaru must learn to be a pilot in order to win the heart of Minmei, who decides she wants to become a popular singer. As Minmei rockets to stardom, Hikaru is torn between her and his superior officer Misa Hayase (Lisa in the Robotech version).
It Was the First Anime Love Triangle
You can watch Mobile Suit Gundam series until the cows come home, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a romantic relationship you can really get excited about as a fan. Telling stories in which two lovers can finally be together after a long struggle is just not Yoshiyuki Tomino’s style. But this isn’t the case with Macross, and as the series progresses, fans are whipsawed this way and that as Hikaru is torn between his two loves, Minmei and Misa.
It was Fabulously Creative
Any animation studio can make a show about a boy who pilots a giant robot. But to put in a scene in which he’s carrying a girl to safety in the robot’s arm, which gets shot off, requiring him to somehow get her inside his cockpit before she falls? That’s some next-level creativity.
Why is the Macross: Do You Remember Love? the best anime film ever made? Read my reasons here!
It Marked the Rise of Character Designer Haruhiko Mikimoto
As I wrote in my blog post about the Maison Ikkoku anime, it was impossible to avoid obsessing over anime character designers back in the 80s. Macross made us lifelong fans of illustrator Haruhiko Mikimoto, and he went on to create many amazing works such as Gunbuster, Megazone 23, Macross 7, and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. I got to meet him once at the first Anime Expo.
It Made Collecting Anime Merchandise a Thing
I’ve got many fond memories of browsing booths at the San Diego Comic-Con looking for record albums or plastic models I didn’t intend to put together, just because of the fantastic art on the box. In addition to capitalizing on the popularity of transforming mecha, the decision by creator Shouji Kawamori to express his love of contemporary singers like Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori in the form of Minmei created the anime idol genre. So if you’ve ever geeked out about an anime idol singing your favorite song, this is where it all started.
What was the “first” Christmas Anime Episode? It was the Robotech Christmas Special. Details here.
Our First Anime Nude Scene!
Although it was cut from the Robotech broadcast, early fans found ways of finding the original. And we were rewarded!
Where to Start Watching Macross?
As one of the most successful series in anime, it can be hard to know where to start. Many fans start with Macross Plus or Macross Frontier (Netflix link here). Both are gorgeous, though set several decades after the original show. Since this is a post about the original 1982 Super Dimensional Fortress Macross anime, you can watch the re-mastered version on Amazon Prime (depending on your location), or if you’re okay with the Robotech dub, you can watch the single best episode, Force of Arms, on Youtube here.
Thanks for reading this love letter to the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross anime. Are you a fan? Tell us below, or reply to us on Twitter!
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