the first episode of Macross 7 is up on the Macross Channel’s Youtube:
Also available: the first episodes of Macross Delta and Macross Frontier. Which means you can now sample the first episodes of all three Macrosssequels free.
As you should know, the original Macross was broadcast in 1982-1983, the story of an alien ship crash landing on Earth in 1999, giving rise to a huge technology boost. Ten years later, the aliens invade and turn out to be giants, but luckily humanity now has transforming mecha to fight them. Outclassed nevertheless, humanity’s sole hope rest in idol power as the aliens are completely devoid of any culture… Carl Macek would Frankenstein this together with two other, unrelated mecha series into Robotech, which is how I first discovered it, on Super Channel in 1986 or 1987. Even in that mutated form it stood out from the rest of the American toy commercials disguised as cartoons.
Macross 7 came out in 1995 and is the Gundam ZZ of the Macross franchise: seemingly less serious and more humour driven than the original, more childish at first glance. As such it contrasted poorly with the released in the same year, much more serious, adult, cool and cyberpunky Macross Plus OVA/movie. As with Gundam ZZ however, Macross 7‘s reputation has improved over time. You can also see 2008’s Macross Frontier as a remake, following the same general story of an alien power attacking a colony fleet and how music resolves conflict where violence cannot, a theme found throughout Macross.
I first heard about Macross 7 from a trans woman friend of mine on the Lspace IRC channel sometime in 2000, then when I finally got broadband, downloaded the first few episodes in good old Video CD format, using my DVD player to play it on my old, grotty CRT tv. Even then it was a revelation. Having it now available in HD is a minor miracle, after decades of copyright wrangles due to the existence of Robotech and the parasites of Harmony Gold.
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