Forum - View topicMacross.
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12098 Location: Frisco, TX |
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In light of a few recent posts, I've been thinking of starting to watch the Macross/Robotech series or whatever it's called (which one is it, by the way?).
I went to www.deepdiscountdvd.com to see if they had some box sets, and sure enough, they do. But I'm not sure what order this series goes in. Could someone out there please give me some information about this renowned series? Thanks! |
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king_micah
 Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
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Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, 36 episodes, Circa 1982.
Macross is something most of us have heard of, yet few have really seen. This is an important anime for its effects on the Genre of Mecha, and for the talent it has nurtured, including Hideki Anno, and other Gainax founds, who got their start doing key animation for Macross. The jist of Macross is that it is 2009, ten years after World War Three. The war ended when an alien spacecraft crashed in the South Pacific. The UN Spacy has been formed to exploit the craft and rebuild it as center of Humanity’s defenses. They don’t know much about those they are to defend against except their monstrous size. To combat them, they have created the Valkerie fighters, nimble planes that can transfer into a battle mecha. Despite this, the initial battles do not go well for humanity. There are too few fighters, too many enemies. Civilians are caught up from the beginning in what is now the cliché of women and children on a battleship. The cliché is played to the fullest here, with the civilians becoming the key to the war. The series has a focus on its mecha combat, sharing time with several sub plots that vary from enemy intelligence missions to a battleship beauty contest. It presents a rather broad view of war, one now common, but a previously rare one. Macross looks to see why the enemy is aggressive; they are not just attacking because it is the cool hip thing for aliens to do, but for actual reasons. Macross keeps what is still a rare view, a reason for war. Most anime now prefer to have backroom conspiracies to explain why war happens. It happens often that war is something caused by the Hero’s side, whether it be a hidden weapon (Gundam 0083), or a hidden shame (Nadesico). Macross is, in essence, a bridge between the Gundam style of politics and the 70’s super robot heroism. In keeping with the mix of heroism, Macross gives us characters worth remembering. Roy Fokker and Lin Minmei are well known to even non-viewers, yet a casual fan will remember more. The characters of Captain Gloval, Maximillian, Misa, Mirya all have good development, solid backings, and are believable through out most of the series. There are, however issues with the reactions they have to death. The war kills a lot of people, including many civilians connected to the ship. There is no thought of them, nor any hesitation, just good old fighting fun. At the same time, the death of a comrade is enough to devote episodes to angst and uncertainty. It sticks out as the only sore point in the show. The voice acting is great for the time, despite the legendary horridness. That legend is due to the American dub. The original language track was professional and well done. As for the English, well, for those of you who don’t know, Macross was edited together with two other series when it was originally imported to form Robotech. An American toy company, Harmony Gold bought Macross with two similar series and edited them into one series. Their purpose was to create a long series with many tie-ins for merchandise. Due to the original money offered, and the limitedness of anime at the time, Harmony Gold obtained all rights outside of Japan to Macross in order to sell Robotech to other nations. Meaning today it is hard to obtain copies of Macross, with only a very expensive dvd set available. This dvd set is a remastered copy, uncut, with only subtitles. The deals between Harmony Gold and the Japanese right holders prevent a new dub to be made. The upside is the original video and audio are of such quality to make a collector quiver with joy. A significantly cheaper, but unpalatable to purist, choice is to purchase Robotech: The Macross Saga. You get the story, but only in a dubbed format. The dub chose libel replacements of voices and attitudes presented by the actors. On top of that was the replacement of the original singing with songs of such mind numbing quality, my computer destroyed my copies rather than play them a second time. The remastered glory found in the $250 boxsets is not found in the Robotech collection. The video is constantly washed and grainy, affecting the viewing and decreasing the enjoyment of it. |
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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Actually they're re-issuing Robotech: Macross saga using the remasters now. Apparently they dubbed the entire original episode and later edited it, because the scenes cut have been restored.
Not that they should be purchased, touched or looked at. |
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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Actually they're re-issuing Robotech: Macross saga using the remasters now. Apparently they dubbed the entire original episode and later edited it, because the scenes cut have been restored.
Not that they should be purchased, touched or looked at. |
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eva05
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SDF Macross series. Buy the Animego box sets. Subtitling is on the money, nothing is edited out and there's no wacky side story inserted to connect it will Mospeada/Southern Cross and video is really nice. and alternate retelling of this story is: Macross the Movie. (also Macross Do You Remember Love) Not avail in the USA yet, this is a trucnated version of the story but the production values are through the roof. I mean this looks amazing. Macross Flashback 2012. Series reedited to a bunch of Lynn Mynmei songs with a few seconds of new footage showing the lives of the characters post SDF Macross series. Not avail in the USA. Macross 2. series Not so great 2nd Macross series that follows on the heels of the original. Released in the USA by Manga Entertainment. Macross 2 The Movie. The series truncated into a movie with a few extra scenes added. Reelased in the USA by Manga Entertainment. Macross Plus. OVA series Released in USA by Manga Entertainment, considered the true sucessor by most fans to the original series. This OVA is brilliant. I actually missed it when it came out (because Macross 2 hadn't exactly been so hot). I checked it out 3 years ago and I now consider it to be among the best anime ever produced. Macross Plus the Movie. Released by Manga Entertainment, this is the OVAs slightly consolidated, re-edited and with a few more mature scenes (sexuality, violence) introduced. It's hard to say which I prefer actually. Macross 7. Released in the US by Manga Entertainment. I really didn't care for this one. I'll let you discover it for yourself (see links below). Macross Zero. Latest series from Japan, has received a mix reaction from most. It does have nice character design and animation, but the story seems to have a binary effect on people. Some love it, and some don't. I fall into the latter. Check out http://www.anime.net/macross/production/animation_live_action/ for a compelte release history. j |
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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Macross 7 isn't out in the US, and likely never will be 1- The music rights are actually 150% of the cost of licensing the series 2- Most US fans despise Macross 7 (the only good part being the music) 3- It's "old" and therefore won't play well on Cartoon Network. Bad sales+Expensive rights+No TV= No buy |
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king_micah
Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
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Macross 7 has Max in charge and thus is alright by me. The series though, is differant enough that it doesn't seem like a true sequel, even though it is the only true sequal to Macross. The others are mostly retellings and side stories.
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jmays
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Hey, where'd you hear that one? I knew the rights were expensive, but I've never heard any specific figures... |
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gnollman
 Posts: 535 Location: Richmond, KY |
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Seems most everything to be said, has been....
Though there are a number of games available that expand the Macross series a bit, the most common being Macross Digital Mission VF-X and Macross VF-X2 for Playstation, and Macross: M3 for Dreamcast. Notice, none of these games were released Stateside... There are also a number of other games for the Playstation and Super Famicon and others, but they are generally harder to find.... |
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eva05
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Macross 7 wasn't released in the USA? My bad. it's been a few years and I didn't particulaly like it.
Ooops. j |
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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It had to be at least 3-4 years ago at a con panel, someone was nagging one of the companies to get Mac7 and they said that the music rights, which are seperate from the series cost half again as much as the actual show |
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Ramen
 Posts: 346 Location: San Jose |
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I love Macross, but I admit I have a soft spot in my heart for Robotech since I consider it the show that got me into Anime. Come on, anyone else like Robotech?!?
Since it has not been said yet, Macross and Robotech are NOT related in their story in anyway. The only link is that footage from Macross was used to make Robotech. If you are interested in Macross, see Macross, not Robotech. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12098 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Oh? Good, thanks for clearing this up then. All the sites I kept looking up had Macross and Robotech in the same category. If they aren't directly related, then I'll just stick with getting the Macross stuff for now. By the way, I looked up some of the prices for the SDF box sets, and man they were expensive. Fortuntely though, I think I can get each of the 3 boxes for $40 or less, which is a heck of a lot better than the MSRP of $89 per box. 
Doesn't this sound like a great deal? 
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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The peopel who helped it happen and pre-ordered it all paid $260 for it, so yes you're getting a deal.
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zaphdash
 Posts: 620 Location: Brooklyn |
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It's only a year older than Gundam Wing, and we all know how popular that was. |
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