Because of legal red tape, the Macross franchise is one of Japan’s biggest anime titles that Americans had very little legal access to, until now. Americans, especially 80’s kids, probably have far more familiarity with the American anime adaptation Robotech, which combined three different unrelated anime series to tell one story. The first part of Robotech happened use footage of the first anime of the Macross series and the company responsible for the Robotech adaptation, Harmony Gold, has fought hard for decades to prevent the rest of the Macross franchise from coming to American shores. Aside from ADV’s release of a faithful dub and subtitled version of the original Macross and Manga Entertainment’s release of Macross Plus, there hasn’t been a legal release for the rest of the franchise and the two aforementioned legal releases are now expensive, out of print DVDs.
According to the official Macross website, macross.jp, the franchise is finally going to exit streaming limbo worldwide and be viewable overseas. Disney+ will be the new worldwide home, although most Americans are assuming that Hulu will be the US streaming destination, as that is where Disney streams the vast majority of its anime content to American audiences. The following Macross series will be streamed worldwide:
- Macross II
- Macross Plus
- Macross Plus Movie Edition
- Macross 7
- 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
- Gekijo Tangen Macross Frontier Toki no Meikyu
- Macross FB7: Ore no Uta o Kike!
- Macross Delta
- Macross Delta the Movie: Massionate Walkure
- Macross Delta the Movie Absolute Live!!!!!
Unfortunately, the original Macross anime, Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its movie, Do You Remember Love will remain unavailable to stream. The first thirty-six episodes of Robotech, which used footage of the original Macross is available on Crunchyroll, but a faithful adaptation is yet to become streamable. We do not have a firm release date on when we will see the Macross series stream aside from sometime this calendar year, but we do know the long wait is almost over.
And…of course the 1984 movie Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? is only streaming in Japan!