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The North American adaptation/westernification of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada -- actually an edited amalgamation of the three original (and unrelated) Japanese anime series, with their plots significantly altered to appear as though they comprise a single continuous storyline.
The ROBOTECH adaptation also featured modified dialogue and different music (by Ulpio Minucci), which was developed by an American company called Harmony Gold and producer and story editor Carl Macek. It was first syndicated to American TV stations in 1985 and a few years later in several other countries across the world. It was quite popular during its first time of release in the West, as many anime fans of that era thought it was made of original content (which it wasn't).
Historically, ROBOTECH has been an extremely polarizing subject amongst anime fans, and it remains controversial even to this day.
Many critics look down upon the show for its extensive edits to the source material (Westernizing character names, editing for content, forging a connection between previously-unrelated series, and so on), to the extent that some of its most ardent detractors compare it to the Woody Allen film What's Up, Tiger Lily?, a Japanese spy thriller completely redubbed and re-edited to become a campy musical comedy.
On the other hand, the series does have its staunch defenders as well, most of whom will cite the fact that the adaptation had a new original epic and memorable music soundtrack and that it served as an important "gateway" to anime (particularly the mecha genre) for many Americans (and other Westerners) who grew up in the 80s.
After several legal disputes over the international rights of the original series (MACROSS mostly) a settlement was reached between the parties in 2021 and now both the original and adapted series will be freely available everywhere in the world, allowing western anime fans to know more about the original franchises and the Japanese to watch the adaptation and purchase their respective merchandise without any legal constrains for the first time.
This tag should be used sparingly, and only on pictures that are clearly intended to depict or reflect the ROBOTECH version of events. Otherwise, the tags for the original three series should instead be used:
- The Macross Saga: Choujikuu Yousai Macross
- The Masters Saga: Choujikuu Kidan Southern Cross
- The New Generation: Kikou Souseiki Mospeada
Also note that the American-produced anime film The Shadow Chronicles is considered part of the ROBOTECH universe, but not that of any of the original Japanese series.
