is a Japanese science fiction mecha anime media franchise/media mix, created by Studio Nue (most prominently mecha designer, writer and producer Shōji Kawamori) and Artland in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth and the human race after the year 1999, as well as the history of humanoid civilization in the Milky Way. It consists of four TV series, four movies, six OVAs, one light novel, and five manga series, all sponsored by Big West Advertising, in addition to 40 video games set in the Macross universe, two crossover games, and a wide variety of physical merchandise.
Within the series, the term Macross is used to denote the main capital ship. This theme began in the original Macross, the SDF-1 Macross.
Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship ASS-1 (Alien Star Ship - One later renamed Super Dimension Fortress - One Macross) that crashed on South Ataria island. Humans were able to reverse engineer the technology to create the mecha (variable fighters and destroids), faster-than-light space fold drive for starships and other advanced technologies that the series features. The first TV series was adapted into the first season of Robotech in 1985, with edited content and a revised script.
Title
The series title comes from the name of the main human spacecraft (which is usually shortened from Super Dimension Fortress to SDF-1 Macross as it is the first). The original name for the Macross project was Battle City Megarodo (or Battle City Megaroad, as the Japanese transliteration to either "L" or "R" gives the title a double meaning in reference to the story line: Megaload, referring to the spacecraft containing an entire city of people; and Megaroad, referring to the long journey through space back to Earth); however, one of the sponsors of the project, Big West Advertising, was a fan of Shakespeare and wanted the series and the spacecraft to be named . A compromise was made with the title due to its similar pronunciation to Macbeth in Japanese and because it still contained connotations to the original title. The word Macross comes from a wordplay combination of the prefix "macro" in reference to its massive size in comparison to human vehicles (though when compared with the alien ships in the series, it is a relatively small gun destroyer) and the distance they must cross.
Themes
The following are themes commonly seen and established among the various series in the Macross franchise.
U.N. Spacy
The is a fictional space military arm of the . It was established by the successor to the modern United Nations in order to defend Earth from a possible attack by hostile aliens, and was involved in Space War I against an extraterrestrial race called the Zentradi. Later operations of the U.N. Spacy expanded into interstellar colonization and general peacekeeping of off-world Earth settlements.
The term "Spacy" is a portmanteau of the terms Space and Army or Navy. Some Japanese sources also use the term Space Army and some English-language sources use the term Space Navy, suggesting that the term is a contraction.
Variable fighters
A variable fighter (also known as a "veritech" fighter in the Robotech adaptation of the series), is one of a series of transformable aerospace fighters, primarily designed by franchise creator Shōji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake. They are generally able to transform into jet/space fighters, a humanoid robot and a hybrid of the two modes, better known as Gerwalk (Guardian). The original VF-1 Valkyrie was actually named "Valkyrie", but the craft have generically been referred to as such in the series since then.
Music
Music is integral part to almost every Macross title by having significances in a series' antagonists behavior towards it. Music idols also play a central role to various Macross stories. Often, the protagonist will be involved in a love triangle with a series' music idol; most notably, Lynn Minmay.
Space fold
Space folding permits nearly-instantaneous ultra-long distance travel: a space-fold transports a spacecraft in a very short amount of time by first swapping the location of the spacecraft with super dimension space or subspace, and then swapping the Super Dimension space with the space at the destination.