V--------V
G-----------PG----------PG13-----------R------NC17
Why: [Macross series] al, nThis tape set is a rather odd one. It contains episodes of the original Super Dimensional Fortress: Macross series as broadcast in Japan in 1982 and the equivalent Robotech episodes as broadcast in the U.S. in 1985.
The basic premise of the Macross series is in the year 1999 an object fell to Earth. This object turned out to be an alien spaceship. In the following ten years, mankind systematically decoded the alien technology and, in the end, made the ship into a battle fortress. On the day that the new Macross fortress was to launch on its maiden trip, a group of aliens from the same race, which made the ship in the first place, show up and attack.
The aliens are known as the Zentraedi. They look to be reasonably human in appearance, except that they are 50 feet tall. They are also dedicated to war.
In to evade the enemy, the Macross fortress executes a space fold operation. This operation places them near the orbit of Pluto.
This probably would have work out, except that the captain of the Macross executed the fold much too close to the ground, so that a small island and some of the ocean also ended up getting transported along with the battle fortress. Further, the fold system disappeared after the fold operation.
Several persons of note are:
The Robotech series premise is similar to the series in which it was lifted. As expected, some of the names of some of the persons, places, and things are different between the two series. The main difference, in my opinion, is that the makers of the Robotech series choose to give a name to the alien technology. They called it Robotech. Further, it seemed that they choose to emphasis the actual physical battles more then the original series. They also seemed to play down the romantic parts of the story that were clearly present in the Macross series. Also, as expected, all adult language and nudity was removed from the Robotech series.
Even given the age of this anime, it has some fairly impressive animation in it, especially in the space battle scenes. Some of the foregrounds and face lack resolution, however.
Some notable mappings between the Macross and Robotech series:
Macross Robotech Who?/What? Commander Misa Hayase Commander Lisa Hayase One of the bridge crew of the battle fortress Commander Fakker Commander Roy Fakker One of the main characters, a fighter pilot Hikaru Ichijo Rick Hunter Another main character, one of the young heros of the series Yotchan Jason Lin Minmei's younger brother Macross Fortress SDF1 The name of the battle fortress South Atalia Island Macross Island The name of the island that the battle fortress was rebuilt upon Valkyrie fighter Varatech fighter The name of the transforming fighters used by Earth 50,000 survivors 70,000 survivors The number of survivers which were added after the fold operation
Streamline Pictures choose to only make 18 of the Macross episodes available in this form, the other 20 or so are available only as Robotech episodes. In most ways, this is a shame. I personally liked the original Macross episodes better then the adapted Robotech episodes, but must acknowledge that it was a rather clever reuse of animation.
It appears that 4 more Macross volumes in this form are going to be released. When released, this should provide at least 8 more episodes. The release date, however, is unknown at this time.
Like the Orguss series, a number of interesting things were done with the various view screens in this series. On one occasion, the partial contents of a library card catalogue was presented on a view screen, on another the old text adventure game Star Trek, which ran on a number of Unix boxes and has been ported to any number of languages over the years, was on another screen.
eturn to main Anime page.
Previous review (Luna Varga).
Next review (Superdimensional Fortress Macross).
oto the recent changes page.
isit the "pixselector" main index.
ip over to my home page.