The seminal anime mecha seriesMacrosswill stream this year onDisney+— but there’s a catch. Thanks to the complicated legal situation of the series and its rights holders, two notable entries in the franchise will only stream in Japan, and won’t be available internationally.Macross' official Japanese websitemade the announcement todaythat all eighteen series, movies, and OVAs (original video animations) in the franchise are coming to the same streaming home for the first time ever. However, possibly due to the complex ownership situation ofRobotech, the American version of the original anime series, only sixteen of those series will stream internationally.Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the 1982 series that kicked off the franchise, and its movie-length conclusion,Macross: Do You Remember Love?, will only be available to stream in Japan.
A huge hit in its native Japan, and a formative influence on everymecha animeseries that followed it,Macrossalso maintains a huge fan base internationally. Outside Japan, a generation was introduced to the series when it was adapted into the 1980s animated seriesRobotech, which took three unrelated mecha anime series and fused them together into a single, somewhat cohesive narrative. A newRobotechmovie has beenstuck in developmentfor some time;Rhys Thomasis currently attached to helm the project for Sony.
The list of theMacrossseries that will stream on Disney+ next year is below, with the Japanese exclusives marked with an asterisk:
Original Release Date
Super Dimension Fortress Macross*
Macross: Do You Remember Love?*
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Flash Back 2012
Music video compilation
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers, Again
OVA series
Macross Plus
Macross Plus Movie Edition
Movie-length OVA compilation
Macross 7 the Movie: The Galaxy’s Calling Me!
Macross Dynamite 7
Macross Zero
Macross Frontier
Macross Frontier: The False Songstress
Macross Frontier: The Wings of Farewell
Macross FB7: Ore no Uta o Kike!
Macross Delta
Macross Delta the Movie: Passionate Valkyrie
Macross Delta the Movie: Absolute Live!!!!!!
Gekijō Tanpen Macross Frontier Toki no Meikyū
What Is ‘Macross’?
Macrosstakes place in a future wherehumanity has used a crashed alien spacecraft to reverse-engineer an immense mobile high-tech fortress, theSDF-1 Macross(a combination of the words “macro,” for its size, and “across,” for the long distances it can traverse). When Earth is visited by the Zentraedi, the long-time foes of the species that built the crashed ship, its systems recognize them as an enemy and attack, kicking off a massive war. The original series follows a team offighter pilots whose Valkyrie craft can transform from vehicles to robots; it contrasts their high-tech space battles with their lives back home, especially pilot Hikaru Ichijyo’s relationship with aspiring pop idol Lynn Minmay, whose songs formed the series’extremely popular soundtrack. A huge success upon its release,Macrosshas been followed up with a bevy of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs that continue to this day.
TheMacrossfranchise has been the subject of a great deal of legal wrangling over the years, owing to the conflict betweenRobotech’s American rights-holders Harmony Gold and Big West, the conglomerate that ownsMacross, which prevented the release of much ofMacrossin North America. The two companiescame to an agreement in 2021allowing for global distribution ofMacross, which has now come to fruition with this new Disney+ deal.
Macrosswill stream on Disney+ sometime this year;no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
