The highly influential anime will finally fly again.
The highly popular and influential anime and film series Macross is finally set to be officially released worldwide for the first time, resolving decades of legal battles. You can see the influence of Macross, or its American remake Robotech, in everything from Star Wars Rebels to Godzilla vs. Kong, and now fans will finally be able to experience the original franchise.
This week, it was announced in a press release that advertising conglomerate Big West and American company Harmony Gold had finally reached an agreement, which “immediately permits worldwide distribution of most of the Macross films and television sequels worldwide,” but doesn’t specify what titles will be available, or where. Another important bit of the announcement is the fact that “Big West will not oppose the Japanese release of an anticipated upcoming live-action Robotech film,” presumably referring to the long-rumored live-action film Sony has been developing for years.
Back in the 1980s, it was common practice to take beloved Japanese series and edit them heavily to accommodate a Western audience. Shows like Voltron, or Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years, combined unrelated shows and edited them together to form a quasi-coherent narrative. When the time came to do the same with the popular anime franchise Superdimension Fortress Macross, it was combined with the completely unrelated (but kind of similar-sounding) Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The result was the uber-popular Robotech.
Sadly, when Harmony Gold licensed the original Macross for its Frankenstein monster, they thought they had just licensed all future Macross titles, while Big West, animation Studio Nue and anime studio Tatsunoko Production disagreed on who exactly owned the rights to what. Though there have been several Macross films and TV shows since the ’80s, none of them have made their way to the U.S. because of the legal disputes.
This is, without a doubt, the biggest anime licensing news since Netflix added Neon Genesis Evangelion to its library last year (to some criticism). The original show was a huge space opera that focused on a love triangle, transforming fighter planes, and had lots of J-pop songs. It was a cool and hip version of Mobile Suit Gundam, but with aliens, and soon, you may finally experience it all.
No release date has been confirmed for these Macross titles, so stay tuned to Collider for when we’ll confirm that info.
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