The Super Dimension Fortress Macross

I recently noticed that the Robotech series from the 80s was added to Netflix (in Canada), and so I thought I’d start watching it. I have memories of really liking the series back when I was kid, but also that I had barely watched any of it, probably because it was only available on cable, which we didn’t have — so I probably only caught episodes here and there at a friend’s house. So I excitedly sat down to start watching it and… I couldn’t get past the first 5 minutes. Never mind the fact that broadcast quality is surprisingly poor (I guess they didn’t take good care of preserving the original tapes), but what really got to me was the voice acting, that made my ears bleed. I was curious to see if watching the original Japanese series would make it better, and it indeed has.

Robotech was famously made up of 3 different series from Japan, slightly edited to make it all work together, so it could get over the minimum required number of episodes for syndication at the time. The first series that was used is The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which runs 35 episodes. I’ve watched the 4 so far, and not only is the voice acting so much better (well, except for Minmei, who can be a bit grating), but so is the music, as well as the general quality of what I’m watching — and even from just the few minutes that I watched of Robotech, I could tell that they did some weird editing as well.

It’s yet another piece of 80s anime on my current watchlist (alongside Zeta Gundam and Queen Millennia), but I like alternating between these shows, watching a few episodes here and there. And it’s good to finally get a good look at the Macross storyline — and if I enjoy this, I’ll probably continue with The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, which was the second series to get incorporated into Robotech (the third series that made up all of Robotech, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, wasn’t even part of the Super Dimension series).