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NEWS: Funimation to Add Robotech TV Series, Films to Catalog

Lord Vaultman wrote:

So basically for better or worse robotech happened way back in the day and while not everyone hates it they also just want the original releases of macross and others in the west in addition to robotech but harmony Gold basically refuses to release all or some of the nonblenderized versions of the said blenderized show known as robotech?

Harmony Gold aren't the only issue. While anime fans love to villainize them (and lets be clear, they are a bad company), but Tatsunoko and Big West are also to blame for this whole rights issues. I'm not an expert, however this whole issue stems from the weird laws in the 80s and companies failing to reach to understanding before things got way too complicated.

Lord Geo wrote:

The only problem is that in order to do an HD release for Robotech, HG would have to literally recreate the entire show using these HD masters, which would obviously be a massive (& very expensive) endeavor. The only time something like this was done for anime was when Media Blasters digitally remastered Voltron by taking remastered GoLion & Dairugger footage, & literally redoing all of the edits to recreate Voltron. That being said, that remaster did wonders for Voltron, selling outstandingly well & even making remastered releases of the original Japanese shows possible. Really, for all we know, FUNimation could have had to agree to assist with HG in doing an HD remaster & eventual Blu-Ray release for Robotech, as FUNi has the ability to do HD remasters, in order to make this deal happen in the first place.

It's kind of sad to me how even though Voltron and Robotech were basically conceived the same way, Voltron is still pretty well respected by American anime fandom because the American company actually respects the original GoLion and the Voltron franchise stays active with new entries in the series as opposed to Robotech where outside of that boring recap thing, there hasn't been new Robotech animated content in like a decade.

So basically for better or worse robotech happened way back in the day and while not everyone hates it they also just want the original releases of macross and others in the west in addition to robotech but harmony Gold basically refuses to release all or some of the nonblenderized versions of the said blenderized show known as robotech?

FWIW you can still get Macross Plus and II on Amazon Video, but they're standard definition. If I had enough money I'd be importing the Blu-ray of Plus since it has the dub included (the final episode has a different voice actor for Isamu and a few other characters and the script is changed, but it's still a good dub)

MoonPhase1 wrote:

So Funimation goes from releasing Shadow Chronicles on Blu-ray and DVD, letting the rights expire and now gets it back for Streaming.

Shadow Chronicles is not on Blu-ray, only DVD. I doubt it would look good on the format because that CGI is horrendous and having it upscaled would highlight that even more. Same with the 2D animation.

Harmony Gold has actually released all of the individual shows in their original form. They're all available to stream in Japanese with subs on Amazon Prime. In fact, there's even a faithful dub of the original Macross divorced of all Robotech-ness. People are mad that they're involved in blocking the newer Macross shows from coming over.

ZeetherKID77 wrote:

They are NEVER doing Blu-rays for Robotech. There is no possible way that will happen because of the Big West ordeal. It's going to be the same DVD set with likely the same extras, except maybe now you get The Sentinels.

Not exactly true. While Big West has the original film masters for Macross & Southern Cross, Harmony Gold does have its own 16mm film masters for those two shows. Therefore, HG has the ability to do their own HD remaster of those two shows using the film it has, with the main difference being that a HG-lead Macross remaster would look somewhat softer than the Japanese Macross remaster, since HG has a 2nd generation master. Southern Cross, on the other hand, has no remaster in Japan, so HG doing one for that would look better, in general. Mospeada, however, is 100% Tatsunoko, so HG could simply get the HD master for that show that was done back in 2013.

The only problem is that in order to do an HD release for Robotech, HG would have to literally recreate the entire show using these HD masters, which would obviously be a massive (& very expensive) endeavor. The only time something like this was done for anime was when Media Blasters digitally remastered Voltron by taking remastered GoLion & Dairugger footage, & literally redoing all of the edits to recreate Voltron. That being said, that remaster did wonders for Voltron, selling outstandingly well & even making remastered releases of the original Japanese shows possible. Really, for all we know, FUNimation could have had to agree to assist with HG in doing an HD remaster & eventual Blu-Ray release for Robotech, as FUNi has the ability to do HD remasters, in order to make this deal happen in the first place.

Meanwhile, I do think that FUNimation wouldn't agree to this deal if they didn't get the rights to the original Japanese shows, alongside the Robotech stuff. Therefore, I'm sure we'll be seeing new releases of Macross, Southern Cross, & Mospeada from FUNi, at some point. Mospeada being given an HD remastered Blu-Ray release is easily the most likely, as it being completely owned by Tatsunoko makes that easy, but we'll just have to see what FUNi will end up doing with Macross & Southern Cross.

Can someone expound on the tatsunoko (original japanese creator/owner of all three non blended shows I assume?) As well as on big west? (Who or what is big west and how do they play into this along with tatsunoko?)

Excellent! Now I can finally own this series! Which totally only has (...carry the 4, divide by 3) like, 10+ releases to its name so far! Versus Macross' 2 (both very OOP)! Good good good!

Excellent! Now I can finally own this series! Which totally only has (...carry the 4, divide by 3) like, 10+ releases to its name so far! Versus Macross' 2 (both very OOP)! Good good good!

Not exactly true. While Big West has the original film masters for Macross & Southern Cross, Harmony Gold does have its own 16mm film masters for those two shows. Therefore, HG has the ability to do their own HD remaster of those two shows using the film it has, with the main difference being that a HG-lead Macross remaster would look somewhat softer than the Japanese Macross remaster, since HG has a 2nd generation master. Southern Cross, on the other hand, has no remaster in Japan, so HG doing one for that would look better, in general. Mospeada, however, is 100% Tatsunoko, so HG could simply get the HD master for that show that was done back in 2013.

Can someone "calmly" explain this whole harmony gold/macross fiasco that has everyone up in arms?