Did anyone else love Robotech growing up?

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vhs1138@reddit

I loved it so much that I quit afterschool sports to watch it on Toonami.

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VoddieMC@reddit

Got so excited when Pacific Rim came out because I figured Robotech couldn't be far behind...and yet, here we are...in the darkest timeline.

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Transformers in their early era were just re-branded copies of toys from Japan, which included some from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the original series that the first season of Robotech was adapted from.

Robotech was a combination of three unrelated anime series from Japan, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. That were dubbed into English, the stories altered and new animation added to make a cohesive whole.

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Minimum-Mention-3673@reddit

Love the show but didn't know this until more recently (past 8 or so years). It's pretty audacious they even did that but it's crazy that it actually worked. Like.. how. And inversely, Japanese audiences of those shows must think a frankenshow based on those shoes is also totally bananas.

So cool

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TheOsirisOfThisShit_@reddit

And by "cohesive whole" you mean "not remotely cohesive mess".

The only Transformer imported from Macross was Jetfire/Skyfire. It was my favorite Transformer toy, but was never involved in the TV show.

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ThomasGuycott@reddit

And it’s worth noting that while Harmony Gold’s numerous attempts to continue a Robotech franchise have stalled or stumbled, Macross has flourished across multiple media outlets.

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djseifer@reddit

With a new series coming soon produced by Sunrise, the people behind Mobile Suit Gundam. Gonna be a lot of singing, a lot of dogfighting, a lot of horrors of war...

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Geebeeskee@reddit

Battletech/Mechwarrior have entered the chat

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lanemyer78@reddit

It was my favorite Transformer toy, but was never really involved in the TV show.

Yes he was, he was in several episodes. The reason they had to change his name and design was because he was on the show.

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TheOsirisOfThisShit_@reddit

2 episodes.

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lanemyer78@reddit

No, 6 episodes. 7 if you count the cameo in "Dark Awakening".

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handsomeape95@reddit

I lost Jetfire in the great attic purge years ago. Off all the toys I lost that was the most heartbreaking. But I recently reacquired him with all of his red gear. I just need to 3d print his gun.

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djseifer@reddit

Transformers is the reason why Robotech never got a proper transforming Valkyrie toy. Hasbro licensed the Takatoku mold for Jetfire (who is his own mess of rights) before Harmony Gold could.

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DaoFerret@reddit

Still have my diecast Skyfire which was just a rebranded Macross Valkyrie. Sadly the snap on armor and gun are long since gone, but I remember when young me realized it looked similar and got it into GerWalk mode without a guide, just because “it looked right”.

Only years later did I find out what had actually happened and how the toy actually WAS related.

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Piccoroz@reddit

I remember some of the early toy boxes depicting the fights and a valkyrie just in the middle of it.

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ShortRub7942@reddit

Heck yeah

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FigNewton555@reddit

Sure. Until I learned how it was created, now I love the source material way more.

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CubicleHermit@reddit

I love all three of them (Robotech, Macross, and Mospeada), although I've never managed to track down Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (and as my least favorite chunk of Robotech, was never particularly inclined to.)

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djseifer@reddit

There are... other means of finding it, but yeah, it was the least popular of the three series even in Japan. The last I heard, it has yet to get a proper HD release, unlike Macross and Mospeada.

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Bluecrush68@reddit

I not only loved it but also lived it in my imagination.

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vsaint@reddit

Squiggly missiles are dope

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RinkinBass@reddit

trope namer for Macross Missile Massacre

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacrossMissileMassacre

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cnhn@reddit

well the source cartoon that got turned into robotech is the trope namer.

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ThomasGuycott@reddit

The real name for it is Itano circus.

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djseifer@reddit

Also known as the Itano Circus after its animator and creator, Ichirou Itano.

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14ANH2817@reddit

Yes, although it causes me to chuckle when people wring their hands over what evils kids are watching or otherwise consuming today. There was colossal violence in all three sagas, including what could be clinically termed genocide. I'm like eight years old, with my after school snack, watching the tragedy of mechanized war.

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djseifer@reddit

Roy Focker was probably a lot of kids' introduction to death in media. Him and Optimus Prime, at least.

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djseifer@reddit

Never heard of it.

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battlecanary@reddit

I was obsessed with it and Voltron in the years when it was unavailable and no one remembered it. I was that kid constantly bringing up shows no one was into anymore

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Slasher1738@reddit

Loved it back then, still love it now

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GaIIick@reddit

Ishtar was done dirty in Macross 2, both with the haircut and Hibiki choosing Silvie

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Daienlai@reddit

Love love love Robotech!

I didn’t get into it at first. I saw the first three or so episodes and it didn’t hit for me. But some weeks later I tuned in again and ‘False Start,’ the second episode from Southern Cross was playing.

Little Me has never seen anything like it. It wasn’t about…anything (at least for the first few minutes). It was just this group of soldiers going for a joy ride and living their lives. There was no cackling villain like I saw in he-man or thundercats. The 15th squadron didn’t get along with the Marie and her pilots. There was no easily identifiable characters stereotypes that Little Me could see at that age.

And the music was nothing like any other animated series of the time.

I was hooked.

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moe_saint_cool@reddit

The intro music from the OG series still sends chills up my spine when I hear it, in the best possible way \m/

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Aeronor@reddit

The music makes it

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Jairoglyphics1@reddit

Robotech, Transformers, Voltron, Tranzor Z, was my absolute favorite things in the world! At 45, I still love these.

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ReiperXHC@reddit

Man I remember my uncle had some of the novelizations of this. I borrowed and read the first one and then was hooked. I ended up reading like 13 of them and never knew it started as an anime until like 10 years later.

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LV426acheron@reddit

The first serialized cartoon I got into. Loved the space battles, the love triangle, the animation.

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cnhn@reddit

I loved the cartoon, I read all the books.

i like it better than the three unrelated series.

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Top-Border-1978@reddit

Same! My local library had all the books and I read the entire series

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lancemanly@reddit

I had that awesome f-14 jet toy.

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crackedtooth163@reddit

I did. I will forever be grateful for it introducing me to macross.

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MCA2142@reddit

My friends and I were shocked when we learned about Macross. We felt lied to.

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dadneverleft@reddit

Loved it forever, though Minmay left a blight on the world where nothing beautiful will ever grow again.

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Taanistat@reddit

Same, and upon watching it again in the 90s it helped kickstart my anime obsessions.

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BloodyPaleMoonlight@reddit

The thing to keep in mind with Robotech is that, unlike most other cartoons of the 80s and earlier, and more like what started happening with cartoons of the 90s and later, such as ExoSquad and Gargoyles, it has to be watched in order.

I remember Robotech being aired on Sundays when I was kid, but I was never able to watch it order.

However, because I was into anime, I read online that it had a lot of fans.

I think it wasn't until the 2010s that it came out on DVD cheap enough that I was able to watch it in order all the way through.

I was greatly surprised by it, as it included themes that were far more mature than the children's audience it was intended for.

There's also an anime YouTuber, Gigguk, who contends that the whole idol genre of anime has its roots in Robotech, which I found very interesting.

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Sad-Structure2364@reddit

Loved it! So much so that we did the table top RPG version, which was likeD&D

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initcursor@reddit

The illustrations in those books were amazing. I think I spent more time poring over the technical drawings than I did actually playing the game!

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initcursor@reddit

I loved Robotech. I watched the show after school, bought the plastic model kits, including the Go-Bots model kits (which I knew were really Alpha Fighter and Cyclones from Robotech), the paperback novels, the Art 1, 2, and 3 books, and all of the Robotech RPG books. As soon as they were available, I bought all of the DVDs. Nowadays I see them on shelves in BluRay format but haven't pulled the trigger on those yet. I loved Robotech. Yes I know it's rebranded Macross and two other anime shows, but they were creatively intertwined and basically a trojan horse to get Japanese animation into American eyes and I'm thankful for it. And the transforming toys they make now for adults? Ho-lee-crap are those cool. I would've loved those as a kid.

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Zehdarian@reddit

Did anyone else read the delrey novel series?

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initcursor@reddit

Yep! I've still got mine. Whole set through to The Sentinels, End of the Circle, and a Zentraedi Rebellion book I still haven't read.

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Zehdarian@reddit

My school had all the way up to southern cross. It was soo good still don't know how the girls story ends.

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parabolicurve@reddit

Never got the chance to watch this as a kid. But I did get the DVD set for Macross Plus when I got older.

It comes in two formats, a four episode mini-series or a movie. Of course the movie has a lot cut out of it compared to the four episode version, but both are worth watching.

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FastWalkingShortGuy@reddit

I was an Exosquad kid.

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WaWa4JimmyPop@reddit

Grew up watching this on SciFi channel at 7am. Just downloaded all eps on YouTube and rewatched while on a work trip. Still love it and now getting my kiddo into watching as well.

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Left_Maize816@reddit

I think you mean jetfire, not starscream. Jetfire was a direct reissue of the Japanese veritech toy, including some early releases having macross logos on them. Hasbro bought distribution rights to a bunch of different transforming toys and just built a shared universe with them. When Harmony Gold brought Macross over and a toy company licensed toys for the show, they couldn’t use the original transforming veritech. They might have been able to use the smaller transforming toys.

A few years later, fasa was making a game about giant mecha fighting and they stole their robot designs from Macross and a few other Japanese shows. Eventually they got sued and had to stop using those designs.

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Garf_artfunkle@reddit

From what I can tell FASA didn't steal anything. According to sarna.net, they licensed the Macross designs from an importer who was bringing over model kits of the mechs in question, while Wikipedia claims they licensed them directly from "the Japanese producers of the series" but doesn't say if that was Tatsunoko or Studio Nue. In any event, it seems like they thought they were on the up and up, and the rights conflict wasn't discovered for over a decade. By that point, the importer was out of business and Harmony Gold filed suit against FASA. That got settled out of court, and one of the consequences was that FASA had to stop using the Macross designs. Lookalike designs under the same Battletech names have since been published.

Harmony Gold has had subsequent lawsuits against both Hasbro and a couple of companies making Mechwarrior games be dismissed with prejudice, which means they can't sue about the mecha designs referred to in the dismissed suits any more.

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Piccoroz@reddit

I bought some battletech kits back then just because they looked like the destroid monster, turns out they were the very same model.

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Taanistat@reddit

I still own my partially die-cast Takara made Jetfire with all his red deep-space gear intact. I didn't realize it was from Robotech as a little kid but when Sci-Fi Channel started airing Robotech in the early-mid 90s it dawned on me. I got it out of the old cedar chests in my parent's attic that house my old toys and it's been on one of my bookshelves ever since, including 2 cross-country moves. Right now it's on top of a shelf guarding the door to my game room.

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Status-Hovercraft784@reddit

I thought it was dope AF as a kid, though admittedly I didn't understand anything that was going on.

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JediNeo101@reddit

Robotech was my introduction to soap operas. I picked this up at a recent convention based on the cover.

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JediNeo101@reddit

This was at the same booth.

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JediNeo101@reddit

Robotech was my introduction to soap operas.

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Professional_Scale66@reddit

I read all the novels while I was juvie for a few months. Good stuff, better than the cartoons, highly recommend

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

I absolutely loved it. I can still remember the first time i watched the original episode at 6 or 7 years old. My second anime after Speed Racer.

Now my whole family watches anime.

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OkieRising@reddit

Hell yes

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Ender_v1@reddit

Macross Plus was an absolute masterpiece

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Osoroshii@reddit

Still love Robotech

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SamwiseTheOppressed@reddit

I got a free VHS from collecting cereal tokens, absolutely wore that out over the next few months!

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Greyburm@reddit

I loved "Robotech", when the first scenes showed a plane exploding and NO PARACHUTE!(fucking GI Joe...). It shocked me. and I knew this was super hardcore for my 12 year old self.

Later found out it the series is three unrelated anime series placed together to create a new sorta story, which is kinda why the 'Second Generation' was, kinda weird. Now I sound like the comic book guy from the Simpsons....

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vequinox@reddit

my crush on Rick Hunter was directly responsible for me learning how to draw, I never stopped drawing and am still a huge Macross fan. CLASH OF THE BIONOIDS (dyrl) blew my mind as a kid and was rented countless times

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Collapsinginblue@reddit

It was amazing. In my 30s I bought the dvds and watching the first series took me to a very special place.

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SurviveDaddy@reddit

I liked the show a lot, except for all the attention the show face to the female pop star.

I couldn’t stand her, and just wanted more space fights.

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UnknownPrimate@reddit

I walked into a clinic 8 years ago (I remember because I had just moved), and they were playing one of her songs. I had to wonder if anyone else ever noticed. There's no way it wasn't intentional lol

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jessek@reddit

Outside of Japan that is pretty odd

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

Haha, I understand Minmei's role in the story, but yes, she was pretty annoying.

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ArthurBea@reddit

Ha. Minmei was clearly the worst character on the show. Except her cousin, Kyle. Creepster.

Anyways, I was kind of obsessed with the show. All 3 seasons. I like that the pop star from season 3 is a drag queen badass rebel, quite an upgrade.

I do wonder if season 2 was more boring because there was no pop star.

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Left_Maize816@reddit

I think of the 3, the original Japanese series that season 2 is based on was the least successful of the three. Kind of not surprising that a somewhat unpopular series didn’t get more popular when translated and changed to make it try to fit with entirely unrelated series.

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DaoFerret@reddit

Team Rick-Lisa unite!

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SurviveDaddy@reddit

gif

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CatPeeMcGee@reddit

"Stage fright! Go away! this is my big day! " Still can hear it ruining a perfectly good show.

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bornt_rager@reddit

Surprisingly, I was not into Robotech, maybe it didn’t air in my market. My jam was Star Blazers.

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StatementMediocre710@reddit

Hell yes, but really just part 1 lol

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red286@reddit

I find it weird how much Anime I watched in the 80s as a kid, considering it basically vanished from television by the 90s, with the exception of Pokémon.

Watched Robotech (Macross), Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato), Speed Racer, Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, The Little Prince, and a few others. That wasn't on some specialty weeb channel or anything, that's just what came on TV on Saturday mornings when I was a kid.

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argyle9000@reddit

Bruh! My older brother got me into this as a kid. Absolutely loved Robotech. I had a crush on Minmay. I was thinking of getting Crunchyroll or whatever streaming service just to have a nostalgiagasm while watching it again.

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

I only caught a few episodes when it was on air in 85-86, and even though I didnt really understand much, I thought it was so cool. I actually just finished the whole first season recently, and it was fantastic! It reminded me how much I really liked Lisa when I was a kid.

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GoCartMozart1980@reddit

Fuck Robotech, Fuck Carl Macek, and fuck Harmony Gold.

Sorry, BattleTech fan. Long story.

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4RCH43ON@reddit

Harmony Gold took a shit on everything.

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dodgethis_sg@reddit

And every Macross fan as well.

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RinkinBass@reddit

I'm sorry for your unseens

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instant_ramen_chef@reddit

I was way into it.

I was also the only kid at my school who was. I got a Veritech fighter for Christmas when I was 8. I found out later that my godfather had to go hunting for it in some other city. It wasnt until I was 16 that I learned that the US Robotech was actually just a small, condensed version of Macross, which was way longer and had so much more storyline.

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osddelerious@reddit

Yes!

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XxFezzgigxX@reddit

When I was a kid, I had a small, black and white tv I bought at a garage sale for a couple of bucks. I hid it in my closet and only used it to watch Robotech, which I did religiously.

I grew up in a strict household and Robotech was on the banned list for whatever reason. My mom probably heard it was satanic on Christian talk radio. That’s how most of the cartoons got banned.

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Piccoroz@reddit

Glad they introduced me to macross, but fuck harmony gold for ruining the license.

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SanchoPliskin@reddit

Is Minmei a bimbo?

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Buzzderek@reddit

I started watching these again with my son, and he is loving them. It's a great series and I am happy to be sharing this series with him.

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RetroGamerKev@reddit

Loved it. It's good to go back and watch from time to time. Rick Hunter was one of my favorite protagonists as a kid.

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physical0@reddit

I woke up an hour early so that I could watch Robotech in the morning when I was a kid. SciFi channel had anime on in the AM. I wish I could remember what other shows I saw, but I remember Robotech and Gigantor.

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deephurting66@reddit

One of my first introduction to anime along with Voltron

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djsynrgy@reddit

I wanted to like it far more than I actually did. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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greatswordstudios@reddit

Weren’t Jetfire and the Veritech fighter the same toy sculpt?

Anyway, to actually answer your question, I loved Robotech. It was my introduction to serial storytelling and forty years later, remains one of the most impressive hack jobs of all time IMO.

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Significant_Dog412@reddit

Only ever saw Robotech figures for sale in bargain bins/Sunday markets a few times. Not sure if the show simply never made it to Britain or it tried and failed. Maybe shoved on a weird satellite channel or smaller ITV region.

From memory, the figures were the same size/style as a GI Joe/Action Force though I never owned any. The token girl character was always present in clearance, as was often the way with female figures in boy toy ranges.

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Gregorwhat@reddit

I liked the designs but I couldn’t get into the show. I feel that way about most anime. Macross, Robotech, NGE, Gundam, etc.

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IceSmiley@reddit

No I didn't watch that but I watched the show it was based on Macross and it was one of my favorites

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CountVanillula@reddit

I have a weirdly complicated set of memories about Robotech. I remember it was on, but I don’t remember watching it. In fact, I remember not liking it, but I also know that I had the complete set of the English novelization of the series, which I remember liking and going to some trouble to get all of, since there were something like 18 books altogether.

What I think is that I wanted to like it, because I loved the giant robots and the big ships, but, for whatever reason, I hated the characters and the drama and the pacing, so I ended not actually watching it.

Or maybe it was on before GI Joe and Transformers at 4, so I didn’t get home from school in time to catch it.

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RinkinBass@reddit

Robotech has a special place in my heart

And I'm one of the few that prefer Robotech to Macross. Yeah, some of the edits are bad, like when Lisa was in the command center AND on the shoulder of Rick's Veritech... somehow. But I like the over-arching story making the world bigger.

Also, Lonely Soldier Boy is a surprisingly good song to be on a show like that.

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trashpanda6798@reddit

There was a game on GameCube, can out in mid 00’s maybe? Featured some of the same voice actors and replicated the thousands of curly missiles on the screen, was nostalgic at the time. Not sure if it’s available to play nowadays, maybe through an emulator

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RinkinBass@reddit

There were actually 2 games. Battlecry, and Invasion

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HanSchlomo@reddit

Xbox had one too, or maybe the same one.

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Ryuujin_13@reddit

Same game. I still own it, and it's still pretty good!

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trashpanda6798@reddit

Nice, I remember it being pretty rad but I lost it many years ago during a move. Oh well.

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BlackLioConvoy@reddit

Yes but now I'm only Macross/ MOSPEADA as an adult.

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the_kid1234@reddit

I did love that one season and had the toys.

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urbanlife78@reddit

I have seen all three series a few times over, always loved this anime

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Mode6Island@reddit

Heck yeah! Robotech, xeno gear, gundam wing (particularly that one) it got banned from us for terrorism lol by depicting the American revolutionary war but in space... Big O and evangelion are pretty cool modern-ish titles

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jaqattack02@reddit

Yeah, my uncle had the novels. I actually read those before I ever watched the animated show.

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Positron14@reddit

I saw toys of it in the store, but it wasn't ever on tv. The same with Voltron for me.

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Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit

Hell yeah. Felt like I was watching something I wasn't supposed to, it was so different than regular cartoons.

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4_max_4@reddit

Yes, got all the comics, graphic novels and art books as well.

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Winter-0f-Discontent@reddit

I had this exact poster in my bedroom in high school!

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Im_from_the-future@reddit

Anyone play the snes game!?!

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the_real_mac-t@reddit

Loved it when I was a kid. It was my first contact with more "mature" storytelling, and also an ongoing plot arc that moved forward from episode to episode. Plus, the mechs are still some of the coolest ones I've ever seen. Not to mention, the difference between the different plot arcs kind of blew my mind in terms of how it opened up the world and told different stories. (I didn't know at the time that it was because of their adapting a bunch of different anime series into one show)

I think Robotech was my Gundam, honestly.

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Common_Juggernaut724@reddit

My cousin was big into Robotech. I read a few of the comics, and thought the mechs were amazingly cool, but never really got into it myself.

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mrtimtracy@reddit

Robotech was a collection of three different series dubbed and repackaged for the US. We only got a small portion of all of them. They’re called Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Fortress Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. Macross debuted in 1982.

Transformers, on the other hand, was a collection of different Japanese toys that were revamped for the US and the cartoon was built around it. The Valkyrie toy from Macross was rebranded for Transformers, among others.

No rip offs, just international licensing fun.

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