Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Trivia


 * Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its spinoffs. The key to defeating the unstoppable millions-strong fleet of clone troop alien warriors is the music of a civilian pop singer...who lives on the eponymous fortress in a city hastily reconstructed inside a cargo hold after a teleportation accident.
 * And then, in Macross 7, the universe is saved from all-powerful empathic vampires by a rock band. Who fly custom made Transforming Mecha, controlled by guitars.
 * Executive Meddling: The series was actually going to be called Megaroad, but an executive's love for Shakespeare suggested it to be called Macbeth. After some compromising, Macross was created.
 * No Export for You: A large assortment of absolutely hideous legal snarls between Harmony Gold, Studio Nue/Satelight, Tatsunoko Production, and Big West means that virtually nothing of the Super Dimension Fortress Macross series that wasn't incorporated into the original Robotech adaptation has seen the light of day outside of Japan. Macross Plus apparently got released only due to absolutely titanic pressure from fans, critics, and other distributors for the parties involved to not completely sit on triple-A-quality material needlessly; the same may happen to Macross Frontier (especially with the DVDs and soundtracks of that show pushing sales numbers not seen in at least a decade) but so far no plans for export have been announced (and as time grinds on, it begins to look less and less likely). Macross 7, Macross Zero and various video-game projects and the like stalled out completely and will almost certainly never see release overseas.
 * It's gotten so bad that some people with dogs in the fight have said that it may be that nobody knows who has international rights for some of the Macross property, in particular "Do You Remember Love?"
 * Robert Woodhead, Anim Eigo CEO, once said he does not expect to ever see a legal US release of Do You Remember Love because of the titanic, multi-side battle (yep, it's not just Harmony Gold who's in the way, but apparently Shogakukan, Toho and a few others who have some sort of interest in the film).
 * As noted above, it's not specifically a Macross problem, it's an industry-wide phenomenon. Macross just takes the cake for being ensnarled not only inside Japan, but outside of it too.
 * This legal snarl has caused some severe issues with the Battle Tech franchise. When that was new, much of the game was found to be copyright infingement of the Robotech franchise. Despite a massive redesign, they keep getting sued occasionally. The confusing part is that nobody knows if the entities suing them still have any rights to the IP whatsoever.
 * Not quite true. FASA had bought (or they believed they had bought) rights to the designs in good faith, and used the designs without molestation for 10 years. HG got pissy in the '90s when both they and FASA were negotiating with PlayMates for toylines -- that would have been based on the same designs (this was when the Battle Tech cartoon was about to be produced). Then, and only then, did HG's lawyers spring into action. In the end, HG was able to force FASA into not only stopping the use of the Macross designs but also those derived from Crusher Joe and Fang of the Sun Dougram, neither of which HG had the least bit of ownership in. Only now, in 2009, does Catalyst, the successor to FASA, feel comfortable in ressurecting the Dougram and Crusher Joe mechs (realizing that the law is most likely on their side there) -- they were on the cusp of allowing the Macross mechs back in as well (in fact a trailer for an upcoming game used the Warhammer as the hero 'Mech -- derived from Macross' Tomahawk Destroid), when Catalyst's lawyers said to leave those 11 alone.
 * On a side note, Tommy Yune, representative for Harmony Gold, has stated that they're willing to license Macross Zero and sublicense it to ADV Films, but Big West took the license off the market.