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SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE
The History of ROBOTECH
Written by Enrique Conty (conty@mcs.com) April 27, 1993
(Edited by Peter Walker)
Harmony Gold's ROBOTECH is one of the five best remembered
science fiction television shows ever, according to a recent
poll. However, few people are aware of the convoluted story
of how the show was brought to the US, and I constantly
see questions in USEnet's rec.arts.anime newsgroup as to
whether a particular anime is related to ROBOTECH. This
document will try and make some sense of the convoluted
history of this show.
I have chosen to retain the majority of Enrique's original
work, almost without alteration. Where I did step in, it
was to correct minor issues of detail in which I feel I
have some expertise, to update it with new material, and
to remove sections redundant in this FAQ. This essay was
revived in the hope that a coherent introduction for the
alt.tv.robotech, and robotech@list.gatech.edu FAQs would
bring a newcomer or casual fan up to a higher level of appreciation
for the show's history and complexity quickly.
There has been much confusion regarding this show's history,
and though I feel I have much to add to Enrique's comments
in specific areas, I decided to preserve the integrity of
his writing, and add most of my thoughts elsewhere. In all,
I feel that this is the most comprehensive introduction
to the Robotech phenomenon I have seen, and give full thanks
to Enrique for the effort he put into it.
In late 1982, Tatsunoko Productions' SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS
MACROSS premiered on Japanese airwaves. Originally intended
to be a comedy, it went on to become one of the most popular
shows ever in the giant robot (a.k.a. mecha) genre, right
next to MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM. After MACROSS ended in 1983,
it was followed in the same time-slot by Tokyo Movie Shinsha's
SUPER DIMENSION CENTURY ORGUSS. ORGUSS shared some creative
staff with MACROSS (thus the similarities in character designs
and mecha), and there were a couple throw-away in-jokes
in the first few episodes, but otherwise there was no relation
between the shows. Meanwhile, an obscure mecha show called
GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA came and went. According to Robotech
Art I, Mospeada was placed with a disastrous time-slot,
but developed a very popular fanfollowing, ensuring its
survival in an OVA, Genesis Climber Mospeada: Love Live
Alive.
When ORGUSS finished its run in 1984, it was replaced
by SUPER DIMENSION CAVALRY SOUTHERN CROSS. Again, there
was no relation between the shows other than the words "Super
Dimension".
Two other important events happened in 1984. The first
one was the theatrical premiere of MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER
LOVE? in July. This movie was a condensed re-telling of
the original MACROSS plot, with completely new animation.
The second event was the release of MEGAZONE 23, one of
the first OVA (Original Video Animation, i.e. made-for-video)
features ever made. It had the same character designer as
MACROSS and ORGUSS, Haruhiko Mikimoto, who had become a
fan-favorite due to his previous work in these shows. MEGAZONE
23 PART II was released in 1986.
American toy company Hasbro was looking in Japan for a
transforming jet model for their "Transformers" toy line,
which uses the premise of vehicles which transform into
giant robots.
Model kit company Revell was also looking in Japan for
models for their "Robotech Defenders" line of robotic model
kits. They eventually used models from MACROSS, DOUGRAM
(more on this later), and ORGUSS.
Toy giant Bandai got the license to manufacture toys based
on MACROSS. Bandai was approached separately by Hasbro and
Revell for the rights to sell the "Valkyrie Fighter" from
MACROSS (a jet which transformed into a humanoid robot).
Bandai sold the rights to the fighter to BOTH companies
separately. Hasbro's toy eventually became known as "Jetfire",
where the Revell models, called Vexar, Axoid, and Orbot,
represented, with altered paint schemes, 1/72 scale Macross
VF-1S, -1J, and -1D Valkyrie models respectively.
Sometime around mid- to late 1984, the rights to the MACROSS
series were acquired by an American company, Harmony Gold.
Originally, MACROSS was slated to be translated rather faithfully,
and a TV-movie compilation of the first three episodes had
been broadcast. However, the "golden number" for television
syndication is 65 episodes (13 weeks of daily weekday episodes),
and MACROSS only had 36 episodes.
Carl Macek, a producer for Harmony Gold, came up with
an idea which to this day he insists was brilliant, although
many purists might disagree. Macek bought the American broadcast
rights to SOUTHERN CROSS and MOSPEADA, and rewrote the plots
of the three series to get a more-or-less coherent plotline.
The "chapters" in this generation-spanning story were now
known as "The Macross Saga" (MACROSS), "The Robotech Masters"
(SOUTHERN CROSS), and "The New Generation" (MOSPEADA).
With the addition of a "bridging" episode between "Macross
Saga" and "Masters" (created entirely from re-used footage),
the episode count was brought up to 85 episodes. All they
needed now was a title.
Revell was looking for ways to advertise their line of
"Robotech Defenders" in other media. There was a two-issue
limited comic series published by DC Comics, whose plotline
no relation to any of the original Japanese shows, or to
Harmony Gold's plot.
When Revell learned about Harmony Gold's plan to bring
Macross to the US, they forced Harmony Gold to rename the
series to "Robotech." They also wanted to stop Hasbro from
manufacturing the "Jetfire" model. Hasbro won that legal
battle.
And so, ROBOTECH premiered in October 1985 on American
airwaves. The rest is animation history.
ROBOTECH: The Spinoffs
In early 1986, Harmony Gold was riding the crest of Robotech's
popularity, and had started production on ROBOTECH II: THE
SENTINELS and ROBOTECH: THE MOVIE.
SENTINELS was to be a brand-new series of 65 episodes,
written in the United States and animated in Japan, for
North American broadcast. Matchbox, who had the license
for ROBOTECH merchandise and was one of the major sponsors
for SENTINELS, backed out of the project at the last minute.
It has been theorized that low profits on the ROBOTECH toy
line were the reason for this.
ROBOTECH: THE MOVIE was a re-edited MEGAZONE 23, combined
with footage from SOUTHERN CROSS, plus a 12-minute happy
ending, comprised of new animation commissioned from Japan.
The movie was a disaster: after a few test screenings in
Dallas, Texas and a showing at the Los Angeles Animation
Celebration, the film's distributor (Cannon Films) decided
to cut their losses, and abandoned the project.
In 1986, both MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE and MEGAZONE
23 PART II were translated into English, to teach the language
to Japanese students. Both of these were released on video
in Japan. An "extra gift" was added to the video version
of MZ 23 II -- the 12 minutes of additional footage created
for ROBOTECH: THE MOVIE.
Also in 1986, the MACROSS FLASHBACK 2012 OVA was released
in Japan. This was made of 8 minutes of new animation showing
what became of our heroes after the war, and 22 minutes
of scenes from the MACROSS series and movie, set to Lynn
Minmei songs.
In 1984, before the Harmony Gold deal with Revell, FASA
Corporation created a pencil-and-paper game inspired by
the Japanese mecha genre. This game, at the time called
BATTLEDROIDS, evolved into what is currently known as BATTLETECH.
To give the game's 12 basic units the right "anime" look,
FASA used mecha designs from MACROSS, DOUGRAM (another anime
show), and CRUSHER JOE (an anime space opera movie). However,
FASA did this without permission from the Japanese companies.
These eventually learned about this, and threatened to sue
FASA. An out-of-court settlement was reached on which FASA
could keep the existing designs. Thus, some of the mecha
in BATTLETECH are based upon MACROSS mecha. In recent years,
new FASA publications have made the mecha taken from anime
look increasingly less like their Japanese originals, presumably
because of the whole fuss.
Comico used to sell comics adaptations of the ROBOTECH
TV series. Eternity Comics took over the license from Comico,
and for several years published comics which took the ROBOTECH
universe into new directions. In summer '94 with the issue
#12 of _Return to Macross_, Bk 3 issue #8 of _The Sentinels_
Eternity ended it's affiliation with the Robotech line.
The line will be picked up in autumn '94 by Academy Comics.
"Jack McKinney" wrote prose novelizations of the ROBOTECH
series, and an original Robotech novel called THE END OF
THE CIRCLE and THE ZENTRAEDI REBELLION, inspired by _The
Malcontent Uprisings_ from Eternity Comics.
Palladium Books sells an official role-playing game based
on the Robotech universe. For a while, they also used to
sell videotapes of the second and third chapters of ROBOTECH,
along with the 76 or so minutes of animation ever done for
ROBOTECH II: THE SENTINELS.
Family Home Entertainment (FHE) used to sell a "condensed"
version of the "Macross Saga" portion of ROBOTECH. They
also sold a video version of the English dub of the MACROSS
movie, from which they removed 18 minutes and re- titled
as "Clash of the Bionoids".
US Renditions used to sell a CD of the ROBOTECH soundtrack,
now out of print.
The American fan group Seishun Shitemasu created ROBOTECH
III: NOT NECESSARILY THE SENTINELS, a video parody/homage
mixing footage from ROBOTECH: THE NEW GENERATION and GUNBUSTER
(a recent mecha OVA series which also has designs by Mikimoto),
along with voice acting provided by the group itself. The
scary part is, their story fits flawlessly with the existing
ROBOTECH universe!
In 1992-93, MACROSS II is released nigh-simultaneously
in the US and Japan. This six-part OVA series continues
the MACROSS story 80 years later, and has Mikimoto back
as character designer. Because it's based on the Japanese
MACROSS, it obviously has no relation to the ROBOTECH story,
or to ROBOTECH II.
While Harmony Gold is still the sole rights holder of
ROBOTECH rights to all the ROBOTECH material are licensed
to producer Carl Macek, now head of Streamline Pictures,
a company formed to bring English-dubbed anime to the U.S.
Streamline also sells the ROBOTECH II: THE SENTINELS videotape,
as well as the 'Perfect Collection' which pairs two ROBOTECH
episodes, and their subtitled Japanese originals on each
tape. FHE is still selling the original ROBOTECH episodes
(now unedited) in a more conventional format. No firm plans
have been made to release either ROBOTECH: THE MOVIE or
MEGAZONE 23 in any form, though it is reported that Streamline
has acquired MEGAZONE 23 in the last year.
The status of the rights to CLASH OF THE BIONOIDS and/or
MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE is unclear at this point.
I'd like to thank Peter Walker and Emru Townsend for providing
most of the information in this article. I also want to
thank the thousands of readers in rec.arts.anime for their
input and corrections.
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