{ { Infobox television
| image = RobotechTitle1985.jpg
| caption = Title screen from the 1985 broadcast
| genre = Epic, Mecha, Space opera
| runtime = 25 minutes
| producer = Carl MacekAhmed Agrama
| director = Robert V. BarronNoboru Ishiguro (Macross) | creator = Carl Macek | based_on = Part 1:Super Dimension Fortress Macross(by Studio Nue)Part 2:Super Dimension Cavalry Southern CrossPart 3:Genesis Climber MOSPEADA | story = Carl Macek | screenplay = Ardwight ChamberlainGreg FinleySteve FloodJason KlassiSteve KramerMike ReynoldsGregory SnegoffJim WagerTao WillWinston RichardTom Wyner | starring = (see below) | narrated = J. Jay Smith | theme_music_composer = Ulpio Minucci | composer = Ulpio Minucci | country = United StatesJapan () | animator = Tatsunoko Production | company = Harmony Gold USAStudio NueArtlandArtmic | network = First-run syndicationSci-Fi ChannelCartoon NetworkKTEH | first_aired = | last_aired = | num_series = 3 | num_episodes = 85 | list_episodes = List of Robotech episodes | related = { { Plainlist| Codename: Robotech Robotech: The Movie Robotech II: The Sentinels Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Robotech: Love Live Alive }} }}Robotech is an American 85-episode adaptation of three unrelated Japanese anime television series (from three different fictional universes) made between 1982 and 1984 in Japan; the adaptation was aired in 1985. Within the combined and edited story, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island. With this technology, Earth developed giant robotic machines or mecha (many of which were capable of transforming into vehicles) to fight three successive extraterrestrial invasions.
BackgroundRobotech was one of the first anime televised in the United States that attempted to include most of the complexity and drama of its original Japanese source material. Produced by Harmony Gold USA, Inc. in association with Tatsunoko Productions Co. Ltd., Robotech is a story adapted with edited content and revised dialogue from the animation of three different mecha anime series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross from 1982, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross from 1984, and Genesis Climber Mospeada from 1983. Harmony Gold's cited reasoning for combining these unrelated series was its decision to market Macross for US-American weekday syndication television, which required a minimum of 65 episodes at the time (thirteen weeks at five episodes per week). Macross and the two other series each had fewer episodes than required since they originally aired in Japan as a weekly series.
Production history
Harmony Gold hired American writers to adapt the scripts of the three Japanese series. This complicated process was supervised by producer Carl Macek, a pioneer of the anime industry in the United States.