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none today

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Get ready for a long ass review. Why so? Well mainly because the release of this title in itself is special. As a re-release this one gets a bit confusing, but to understand what's going on, we have to start from the beginning.

Originally Macross was released as "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross" as a TV series in Japan in 1982. Macross is true to the usual mecha anime stuff of the era, but distinguished itself with it's interesting story, good animation sequences, and of course the love triangle. Macross was picked up in the U.S. by Harmony Gold and produced as 'Robotech' around 1985 (if memory serves correct). Harmony Gold also decided to shovel two other unrelated series in with Macross. So nothing wrong here right? Well first of all the series was never released in a subtitled format. That in itself might not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that Harmony Gold also chopped up the story and refitted it into whatever they saw fit - and seeing as how they wanted a "cartoon" targeted at kids, most of the "heavy" aspects of Macross were cut out. With a re-arranged story, and all characters names changed (hell even the series name changed), Robotech is sort of a lobotomized version of Macross. Still Robotech got a rather large following in the U.S., while Macross established itself as a cornerstone in mecha anime in Japan.

Years down the road Animeigo was looking into picking up series. The exact story of how they decided is unknown to me, but what it came down to was; they would purchase the rights for the original Macross if there was sufficient interest in the series, and people were willing to commit to paying for the series (which isn't exactly cheap when you consider how many DVDs that comes out to). Still people in masses cried out to AnimEigo: "Yes, we'll buy the damn DVDs, just save us from the dubbed Minmay!". This is where things get weird because Harmony Gold still owns the rights to Macross, so they struck a deal. AnimEigo releases Macross in it's original format, subtitled ONLY, while Harmony Gold continues to sell Robotech in it's incarnation (also available on DVD BTW).

As luck would have it, I'm one of the fortunate people that actually got to catch a look at the new Macross, but admittedly I was a bit lost. Knowing that more than a few people may be familiar with Robotech, but not with Macross - I decided to go into detail about what's going on

Rick Hunter -> Ishido Hikaru , Lisa Hayes -> Misa Hayas , Lynn Kyle -> Lynn Kaifun Khryon -> Kamjin

Video: AnimEigo went a step beyond just re-releasing Macross, they actually restored it! They went through a lot of effort fixing things up, and got around 1/3 of the way through before they found a way that produces even better quality. Despite actually being on schedule, they decided to start from scratch and do the entire series with this new method. Watching the series for myself I must say that 'surprise' is an understatement. It's really unbelievable the job they did restoring the series. The animation looks old, but the colors are extremely vibrant and clear. I really can't say how impressed I am, and it is truly a feat within itself.

Sound/Music: The sound also caught me totally off guard. I wasn't even aware that Harmony Gold totally switched out the original soundtrack. Watching the original Macross is actually surprising that there is in fact a totally different score of music. The music itself is really sort of odd. Now for die hard Harlock fans, the music isn't that much of a surprise to those who know what anime soundtracks sounded like back in the early 80's. Still it gives the series an entirely different feel, and sometimes makes it feel more like you're watching an old Godzilla movie more than some anime title.

Voice: Here's the big one - NO DUBBING. Now you expect that there's going to be a difference, but it's still such a strong force that it's surprising - especially when you consider the way the stories themselves are different. It takes some getting used to, but feels much more natural. And Minmay is actually tolerable. In fact I'd go so far to say that she is a LIKABLE character It's rather odd because although Minmay is a little light in the head department, she's a much more real character with some good voice acting, a decent script, and a coherent story. Here's some more news: Minmay can sing! No more using your imagination when Minmay is singing thinking to yourself "yes this is fiction, just imagine she sings well", now she actually does. In fact the songs are actually (gasp) catchy. Again contrasting to the downright painful songs in Robotech that makes flowers wither & die and dogs howl in agony.

Story: What can I say, it's different. It's really hard to even describe what was cut out or switched around, since there's so much and it would take forever to elaborate on it all, but it really makes it feel like you're almost watching a different show entirely. Well with that in mind I'll give a little insight on the first DVD. The Macross episodes one and two (maybe even some of three) were compressed into the first episode of Robotech. It's not like they just cut parts out, but in fact had to cut even more out in order to paste sections in so the story would fit the Harmony Gold version. It's strange because once you see the original Macross it's like a big "oooooh, I get it now". The story is suddenly much more coherent and flows FAR better. It doesn't take long before you give up and forget everything you know about Robotech, because in Macross it's totally different. By episode 4 I was thinking that there is a lot more to this series that I had even thought. So case in point, in episode 4 Rick/Hikaru and Minmay are stuck somewhere on the super dimensional fortress and run out of food. It looks like they're going to starve to death. Minmay says she wants to at least be a bride before she dies, so they decide to have a mock ceremony. In Robotech there is a really weak air headed dialog which causes one to roll one's eyes more than anything. In Macross, Minmay says that she and Hikaru should just get it over with and cast themselves out of an airlock so they can die together. Pretty deep stuff. It certainly changed my perception of Minmay. You start to realize that there is a LOT of character development of Minmay (and her relationship with Hikaru) in the first four episodes, and the vast majority of that was CUT OUT of Robotech.

Overall: I won't recommend this series to anyone. Here's why. You like it or you don't. For the long time Macross/Robotech fans it would be like preaching to the converted anyway. Most of the themes of Macross are pretty dated, and there are newer incarnations more in line with todays anime fan. If you're okay with mecha anime (or a fan of it), and are into classic anime, then Macross might be a series well worth looking into. Otherwise not. Just remember that even if you HAVE seen Robotech, you haven't seen Macross.

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