The Birth of Macross

A look into the development and production of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross.

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Sources:

Interview with Kazutaka Miyatake on Studio Nue

SPACE FOLD: THE INVERTED KNEES AND MECHANICAL DESIGNS OF MACROSS

Kazutaka Miyatake interview from Megahouse

Macross: Perfect Memory Art Book
Roots of Macross by Shoji Kawamori p. 233-234 (commissioned translation available on Patreon).

Doko Ga TV Interview with Shoji Kawamori (subtitled)

Animego Liner Notes:
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[NuttachaiTipprasert]

After almost 40 years, DYRL's final battle is still my favourite anime finale of all time. It never fails to give me chill every time I watch.

[chigasaka]

I'm Japanese and have been a Macross fan since I was a kid, and I'm amazed at how you managed to get so much detailed information. Great job.

[SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

I had a friend who was SUPER into mecha and on a whim, I went with him to a con where we sat in on a panel about the history of mecha series and when they got to Macross, I was curious.

When I got home, I looked it up and....

"Hmmm, I wonder what the OST sounds like. I'll check that out first."

(a few hours later)

"I HAVE LISTENED TO THE MUSIC FROM THE HEAVENS WHY HAVE I NOT KNOWN ABOUT THIS SERIES SOONER?! HOLY CRAP THIS SHOW IS GETTING GOOD! YES!"

[dio]

I always wondered why the animation was done so well at times and so poorly at others. I never knew the creators were under so much pressure as to outsource in order to meet deadlines. Very interesting, great video.

[lolnahnvm]

Roy Fokker was modeled after the main character of Area 88, who was made by Leiji Matsumoto's top assistant and inspired by the Harlock character design used in his manga which was later adapted for The Cockpit.

[NOIDEDU]

Macross is such a beautiful show, despite all of its problems with animation and behind the scene shitshow, everything came up perfectly at the end with a memorable cast of characters with their respective arcs and the perfect transforming robot that's the vf1 and some of the best (and worst) animation I have seen in a tv anime

[Gunsight-One]

By far the best Macross retrospective I have ever seen. Imagine my surprise when you mentioned Gunsight One. You were very thorough.

[takkunh]

Thank you for creating a really great video. There are so many production nightmare stories on Macross, it could easily be a two hour documentary.

Some additional notes (out of hundreds I kept for my brother from various sources over the years):

1. Kawamori created the “Megaroad” dummy proposal the night before their sponsor presentation to make the Genociders proposal look more attractive. The team threw in their most ridiculous ideas such a ship transforming into a giant robot, never expecting the sponsors to like it more.

2. In addition to Takatoku, two plastic model companies Imai and Arii helped contribute to the success of Macross. Unfortunately some toy companies and products, like a series of poseable Minmay dolls, were not.

3. Kawamori had to fight with the sponsors on the Valkyrie designs. They didn’t believe children would buy a transforming airplane, so he even designed blueprints for the toy models.

4. On the music side, it took awhile to find a company willing to release the music commercially. And a proposal to release records under the artist “Lynn Minmay” was rejected by Victor, because they didn’t believe anyone would buy music from an anime character, killing the prospect of “My Boyfriends a Pilot” as a single. Of course the irony of CDs by anime characters nowadays, including their own Sheryl Nome, Ranka Lee and Walkure is not lost on the creators.

5. Per Itano, Episode 2 was originally animated by Star Pro but the quality was so poor, it was discarded and reanimated in Japan, adding to additional production time crunches.

6. The staff was notified of the increase in episodes around production of episode 11. Ishiguro thought that the Episode 13 summary episode was perfect to help viewers catch up to the story in case they missed the original airings, as there were no reruns at the time and VHS/Beta was still in its infancy.

7. The series was originally announced as “Super Dreadnought Fortress Macross, ” but changed to “Dimension” shortly before the October airing. The word Dreadnought (Dokyuu) was thought too complicated for children.

8. Regarding Orguss, Ishiguro believed that much of the Macross production hardships was because of the inexperienced staff. He believed under an established studio like TMS, the quality would be better.

[WastedSunsets]

DYRL is still one of the best animated films. Shit is gorgeous.

[Bt]

An interest tidbit is that Kawamori was so fixated with the idea of a gigantic fortress robot and a fleet of accompanying mechas and vehicles, that his input for the Takara's Diaclone line (the first two lines, not the Car Robots subline, for which he just made a couple of sketches apparently) was basically this.

[antonydrossos]

Thank you for not only putting in the work for this documentary, but for
ACTUALLY PRONOUNCING "MACROSS" PROPERLY!

[OoziHobo]

I feel like I'm learning secret lore about Japan's animation industry in the 80's

[Thanatos]

I watched this show for the first time ever last year. It's very easy to see how this series was a core building block of the Mecha anime genre

[donaustin]

I'm always amazed that when I find out the meaning of an anime's name I've loved for decades, that's heavily influenced my work, is completely bonkers and strait forward.

"Gundam? Oh, it's a gun being used as a dam to hold back enemies."

"Macross? Well it's a giant ship (Macro) and it go zoom (Across)"

...am I this stupid? 😂😂😂

[rookless]

Dude, any video about Macross instantly gets a like from me. Good work bro!

[mechajay]

Happy 40th. The Macross series is truly something special. Shame Harmon Gold's hold over its distributions has made it so it hasn't gotten the attention overseas

[TheHipsterGamer]

I just watched the original last week, It made me feel all sorts of emotions but the one I recall feeling the most was depression. I got the feeling pretty early on that Minmay may not have been a good match for hikaru, but regardless of that it still hurt to see them grow apart. Hikaru was risking his life to protect the Macross all the while watching the person who he at the time loved become distant and unattainable... for me at least I could feel the pain of having unrequited love while at the same time having to do battle and possibly not returning, hell he DID get captured as a prisoner of war and at that moment there was a possibility of him never returning. Though the romance wasn't exactly a silk road, I suppose it was more realistic than much of the romance you see in anime today simply because you don't often see a main character fall in love only to grow out of it and fall for someone else, I've seen very few anime do this such as Kokoro Connect and very briefly the Monogatari Series. The romance in space opera anime is always so complicated lol. Aside from the romance I also enjoyed the aliens being exposed to "culture" and defecting. Though at parts the animation was choppy, I still appreciate the this art style much more than current animation, it just looks so nice and it makes me feel nostalgic even though macross is older than me by almost 20 years. I think I'm going to see what the rest of the series has to offer.

[Windrave]

Just to note regarding Macross 7. I attended AX 1999's Macross Panel and Animeigo's Robert Woodhead, the owner, was in the panel for the discussion of the Macross release. The subject of Macross 7 came up and he said that the problem was that the series' license was being sold in two parts, the animation and the music. The music, by Victor Entertainment was charging an arm and a leg for the rights to use the music created for Macross 7. Because of this it was not financially feasable to bring the series over as enough dvds/vhs's could not be sold to cover the cost of both animation and music. This was the big reason why it never came out in the era when both Macross II and Macross Plus saw release in the west.

[SammEater]

SDF Macross was part of my childhood, I love this series.

[VforVendetta]

Super well done. I would say this was more professional than most broadcast videos of the same type today. You should be proud of your work. You have a gift.