For those unaware, Carl Macek was the guy who, back in the 80's, superglued three disparate anime series (Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada) into one semi-coherent whole. I say semi-coherent because I've seen the whole series (85 episodes) several times, read all the comics, played the role-playing game, and collected just about all the toys and I'm still not 100% sure what's going on.
This is all apparently about a singing Japanese girl
I've been a Robotech fan for 22 years. I'm self-deprecating about it because I've seen enough other stuff to know that it's confusing, inconsistent, and quite frequently rushed, but at the same time it's spectacular and exciting. Yes, okay, the whole story is apparently about a spaceship filled with flowers that turn robots into super reactive combat machines with the energy they generate but also a singing Japanese girl and some crab-like bug things and old men in a spaceship that looks like a floating tumor - I told you it was kind of F'd up.
But there's also giant robots and space combat, an apocalyptic hell-scape, huge epilepsy-inducing explosions - it's kinetic and strange and it doesn't really matter if it's confusing because you get swept up in it so quickly that you just have to go along. Unless you're some sort of boring douchenozzle, in which case, fuck you.
Nice Harley - my bike turns into battle armor and shoots missiles
Robotech launched my enthusiasm for giant fighting robots - although Voltron predates it in American release, I got into Robotech first. Robotech had less robots than Transformers, but it also had a lot more people. Unlike other cartoons, those people were mortal - they could die, and die they did, sometimes by the billions. It was comparatively mature stuff, and nobody quite knew how to deal with it - it started out on Saturday mornings, then it got shuffled to after school, and then eventually the show quietly finished up its run as everyone sort of lost interest in the convoluted plot and inconsistent action.
Everyone that is except me and a few other nerds scattered around the world who found a sort of place in the series, a home-away-from-home. Regardless of any failings it has as art, it's always been something special to me and to a lot of other people, be they relatively normal casual fans (like Toby Maguire, who purchased the rights to make a Robotech movie in 2007) or a frothing horde of obsessive basement-dwelling lard-butter weaboo neckbeards who like nothing better than to go on the internet and bitch about how Carl Macek is an idiot gaijin who spits in the face of Japanese culture with his craptacular show that they can quote by line, scene, and verse, or as I call them, the other 99% of the fan base.
It's a tank and it hovers - I can't help you if you need an explanation of why that's awesome
Still, Robotech was part of a huge boom of Japanese animation - back then we still called it Japanimation, and America still had a manufacturing sector, which should tell you how old I am. Regardless, I think historically it got passed over as an also-ran. It married one hugely successful Japanese series (Macross) to a couple of lesser-known contenders, and I think that hurt it in the long run. Macross went on to spawn some very successful follow-up efforts (one was the gorgeous and powerful Macross Plus) while we didn't hear much more about Southern Cross and Mospeada on this side of the Pacific. If you are still reading this, you are a weeaboo. Also: The Game.
But RIP Carl Macek - I loved Robotech, and still love it to this day. It's not Gundam, it's not Voltron, it is its own little thing, and I'm glad it's here. For those of you reading this who don't know what I'm talking about, hulu has whole episodes available to watch, and for those of you who found something special in the Robotech universe, pour yourself a glass of Tirolian wine or Carbonaran ale, munch on some Flower of Life, and raise a glass to the guy who made it all happen.
Yes, it's all about the characters and the giant fighting robots are only stage dressing
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