The Macross franchise is to the anime industry what Star Trek is to live-action sci-fi television in terms of precedent setting and influence on their respective worlds. Macross has trace elements of Gene Roddenberry's magnum opus and even little bits of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in that alien technology advances humanity's social and technical progress to levels un-imagined before.As a space opera fan this is deeply compelling work and I recommend it for anime buffs and science fiction fans as well; truly great stuff honestly. And this series explores relationships between humans and extra-terrestrial humanoids incredibly well! Give Macross a go whenever you can.

What can I say about this fantastic series.Unlike "Robotech:the Macross Saga" which is good in spite of it's terrible dub, terrible music and overall cheesiness, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross is so perfect in every way (with the exception of the poorly done episodes by animefiend).A fantastic and sad love story. An epic tale of growing up and moving on.Buy the animeigo remasters which are brilliantly subtitled. Do NOT get a Hong Kong bootleg- the subtitles are unintelligible.

As has previously been stated, the cut-and-dubbed "Robotech" version is terrible. But the original Macross is a glorious piece of work. Supposedly intended as a parody of Gundam and Yamato, the story starts off in a rather innocent fashion. Hikaru Ichijo follows his childhood friend, right in the middle of an alien attack. Hikaru and Lin Minmei have a charming, innocent crush developing. But as the series progresses, Hikaru begins to grow up. War is not as glorious as he had believed, and love becomes much more complicated than he could have imagined.

"Chojiku yosai Macross" is better known in America as the first third of the three part "Robotech" series in the U.S: sometimes subtitled: "The Macross Saga". Unfortunately this (bastardized) English version of this classic series suffers from over-zealous editing, so-so dubbing and an ill -conceived attempt to graft unrelated animation into the storyline to create a new continuity. I much preferred the original (subtitled) Japanese version that is available from Streamline Pictures. This so-called "Perfect Collection" is a series of nine (9) VHS tapes each of which pairs two (2) episodes of both the original Japanese version alongside their dubbed, Robotech counterparts. Unfortunately Streamline halted production of this version half-way through so you'll have to hunt around to obtain foreign copies of the second half of the series -- but its worth the search. The Perfect Collection tapes are still commercially available as of 9/98. The best place to pick up foreign copies of the remainder of the series is from collectors on internet newsgroups or on-line auction web sites. Streamline did produce a six-tape collection of the Robotech series entilted Robotech: The Macross Saga in the late 80s. This tape was distributed by, now defunct, Family Home Entertainment. This version is no longer commercially available and can only be obtained second-hand from collectors.Happy viewing!