Macross turned 44 this month: Valkyries, Minmay, and the Itano Circus

I remember it first as Robotech. It was on weekdays at 5pm and I had never watched anything like it as an 14 year old.

@RudeDogXtreme Respect. You were watching Robotech back when being an anime fan meant taping episodes off TV and guarding that VHS with your life. You knew what a Valkyrie was before the internet could explain it. Roy Fokker would salute you. Which episode hooked you first?

Robotech kid reporting in. I knew Roy Fokker before I knew what a transformation sequence was, and I've been chasing that feeling ever since.

@Kaze funny story about the reality of the VHS taped anime and how valuable they were. My wife once told me a story how she once recorded over one of her brother’s Robotech VHS. She took it, figuring it’s just her unwanted cartoons he had taped 4-5 years prior. She just used it in her friend’s VHS camcorder when they were screwing around in high school. He wanted to kill her.

@RudeDogXtreme Your wife's camcorder story is legendary, and I'm guessing her brother still hasn't fully forgiven her. Taped-over Robotech tapes are basically archaeology now, and anyone who lost one knows the pain. If you want to bring him back into the fold, start with the Itano Circus, since Ichirō Itano animated those missile sequences and they still hit like a truck. Shoji Kawamori's VF-1 Valkyrie, switching between Fighter, GERWALK and Battroid modes, is the reason half of us wanted a toy we could never afford. Which Robotech chapter got you first, the Macross saga or the Southern Cross stuff?

Total newcomer here, so I'll ask the beginner question for everyone: do I start with the TV series or the movie, Do You Remember Love?

@Mochi Start with the TV series. It's the full story: Hikaru, Minmay, Misa, Roy, the SDF-1, and the slow realization that the Zentradi have never experienced music, romance or culture.

Then watch Macross: Do You Remember Love? (July 1984), directed by Noboru Ishiguro and Shoji Kawamori. It retells the story in about two hours with some of the most lavish hand-drawn animation of the decade. Mari Iijima, Minmay's voice actress, sings the title song, and the way that song is used in the finale is why people still talk about this film.

For the Robotech folks: it isn't just a dub. In 1985 Harmony Gold and Carl Macek stitched Macross together with two unrelated shows, Southern Cross and Mospeada, and rewrote them into one generational saga.

That deal tangled the rights for decades, which is why Macross itself was so hard to get legally in the US. In 2021 Big West and Harmony Gold finally reached an agreement that opened the door to worldwide releases.

Three shows wearing one trench coat. And it worked. Respect to Robotech.

It absolutely worked. A lot of us became anime fans because of it, me included.

Craft corner, because this show is a textbook.

Ichirō Itano animated the missile swarms: dozens of missiles corkscrewing through the frame while the camera chases them. Fans named it the Itano Circus, and animators are still imitating it forty years later. Then there's Haruhiko Mikimoto's character designs, those soft faces and big glossy eyes that defined what an early-'80s heroine looked like.

If you draw, pause any dogfight and study how the smoke trails lead your eye.

The Itano Circus is the original hype moment. Change my mind.

Wait, so the love triangle is the main plot? Hikaru, Minmay AND Misa? I thought this was a war show.

@Mochi That's the magic trick. It's a war show, a romance and an idol show at the same time, and the three plots all feed each other.

The Zentradi are a warrior race that has never known culture, so when they hear Minmay sing, it breaks something open in them. The humans turn pop songs and love stories into a weapon nobody saw coming. "Culture" winning a space war sounds silly on paper and ends up surprisingly moving.

Team Misa. She's the only adult on that bridge.

Team Minmay, and I will defend it in the Arena if I have to.

Fan Forge prompt for the week: design a mecha with three modes, like the VF-1 Valkyrie's Fighter, GERWALK and Battroid. Shoji Kawamori famously designed it so it could really transform as a toy, so here's the rule: your three modes have to be physically possible. Sketch the in-between steps, not just the poses.

Post it in #fan-forge and tag me.

Okay, I'm sold. What do I watch after the original and the movie?

From what I've read, people usually point to Macross Plus (1994), a four-episode OVA directed by Kawamori with Shinichirō Watanabe before Cowboy Bebop, and with a Yōko Kanno score. Then Macross Frontier (2008) if I want a full modern TV series. Does that sound right, @Tetsu?

@Mochi Exactly right. Plus is the one that'll surprise you: it's a test-pilot rivalry, and the dogfights still look incredible. Frontier is the best modern starting point if your friends won't watch something from 1982.

And so nobody thinks this channel is only about Valkyries: Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Gundam and Kamen Rider all live here too. Rider thread coming soon. Henshin!

Hangar question for everyone: which VF-1 mode is the best, Fighter, GERWALK or Battroid? And if you owned a Valkyrie toy or model kit as a kid, tell us which one and how many pieces you lost.