Robotech: American cartoon epic or best anime dub ever made?

I’m going to start off by stating the obvious. Robotech was awesome. This is pretty common knowledge. For those who don’t know, Robotech was an adaptation of 3 separate anime series into one new series intended for distribution in America. The ensuing result went from a debatable risk to one of the greatest sci-fi works ever made. But is it really still an anime?

Robotech was created, produced and distributed by Harmony Gold USA using three anime series: Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. Each has its own distinct story with no relation to the others, so why put these together? Harmony Gold’s cited reasoning was it’s intent to market Macross for weekday syndication, which required a minimum of 65 episodes at the time. Macross was only 36 episodes, so they picked two other similar series as well. Hire new writers, tie the series together, and change the story. It was a success.

Essentially, Robotech’s only tie to anime is the animation itself. All else was done in the U.S. The series itself has just about nothing to do with any of the other three series. The story was almost entirely re-written. Robotech was a huge success and would go on to be considered one of the best sci-fi stories ever made. When I was younger I found it strange that Robotech fans preferred Babylon 5 to Gundam. Indeed, Robotech has more in common with Transformers than Evangelion. Robotech is most popular in the U.S. but it retains a huge international following. Almost surprisingly, the series has a small following in Japan. I don’t believe it’s ever even been aired there. Regardless, there are some in the land of the rising sun who obtain import DVD’s of Robotech and are fans of the series leaving it with a somewhat significant cult following. So is Robotech a Bizarro anime? Me am not know.

Whether or not Robotech is an anime or an american cartoon is debatable. On one hand it came from Japan. On the other hand, we completely changed it and made it better than what it ever was. I don’t know. I’ll leave it for you to judge. Regardless of what Robotech may or may not be, it is a great series with an epic story. I recommend you watch what you can of it. This is Damage, signing off.