Robotech is an American-Japanese science fiction franchise that began with an 85-episode anime television series produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production; it was first released in the United States in 1985.

[2] In the series, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island.

In the end, both parties signed a co-licensing agreement and the Robotech name was adopted for the TV syndication of Macross combined with Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (1984) and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (1983).

Robotech (1985) is an original story adapted with edited content and revised dialogue from the animation of three different mecha anime series: Harmony Gold's cited reasoning for combining these unrelated series was its decision to market Macross for American weekday syndication television, which required a minimum of 65 episodes at the time (thirteen weeks at five episodes per week).

This combination resulted in a storyline that spans three generations, as mankind must fight three destructive 'Robotech Wars' in succession with various invading forces, each of which is motivated in one way or another by a desire for a powerful energy source called 'protoculture'.

[8] The opening night in Texas received a positive response, but Cannon Films pulled out after noting that most attendants were adults; the bulk of the scheduled advertising for the series was targeted to children.

[9] This aborted American-produced series would have followed the continuing adventures of Rick and Lisa Hunter and the Robotech Expedition during the events of The Masters and The New Generation.

[10] In Robotech Art 3: The Sentinels, Carl Macek blamed the cancellation of the series on the crash of the Yen/Dollar exchange rate,[11] which caused toy partner Matchbox to withdraw from the project.

This version has opening titles resembling those found on the "Robotech Remastered" DVDs, as well as a new ending with text explaining the fate of the SDF-3.

Originally announced as a television series with a planned 2004 release date, the project was revealed at Anime Expo 2004 as a feature-length film titled Robotech: Shadow Force.

After a series of delays, FUNimation Entertainment was finally announced as the home video, broadcast, and theatrical distributor at the 2006 Comic-Con International in San Diego with the possibility of producing further sequels.

[15] First revealed in late 2011 in the final minutes of Carl Macek's Robotech Universe, a documentary on the making of Robotech dedicated to the then-recent passing of Macek, Love Live Alive is an adaptation of the 1985 Genesis Climber Mospeada OVA, Love Live Alive, incorporating some brand-new animation.

Titled "To the End of the Universe" and "Battle Royale", these episodes contain no new footage, and are not meant to follow any continuity established in the TV series.

A sixty-second public service announcement for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, featuring Scott Bernard and Ariel, was animated during the production of The Shadow Chronicles.

Although it did not use the original voice actors and the dialogue was somewhat out-of-character, it nonetheless marked the first fully completed Robotech footage in many years.

On August 17, 2010, second teaser revealed Rick Hunter standing in front of an image of the VF-4 shown in the final episodes of the original series.

[35] In July 2013, Patricio Mosquera was included as an animation director in the staff list in the IMDb page of Love Live Alive.

On September 7, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros. had acquired the film rights to Robotech, with Tobey Maguire producing and pursuing the lead role.

[40] A March 2021 review of a 2008 draft written by S. Craig Zahler by the website Scriptshadow revealed the initial plot was very loosely based on The Macross Saga portion of Robotech.

[53] On April 27, 2022, it was reported that Hawkeye producer and director Rhys Thomas will be directing the film, with duo Art Marcum and Matt Holloway writing.

[54] In June 2023, artist Col Price posted images on both social media and his official ArtStation page of concept art he was hired to create for the film.

[55] [56] While only citing "a few years ago" as the time frame of which they were made, Price's images depict an adaptation of The Macross Saga.

At the time of its broadcast, Harmony Gold also launched Robotech through a popular line of comics to be followed by novels, role-playing games, toys, and other consumer products.

In 1986, Starblaze Graphics published Robotech Art 1, a reference book containing artwork, Japanese production designs, and episode guides from the original television series.

Since 1987, Robotech was adapted into novel form by "Jack McKinney", a pseudonym for the team of James Luceno and Brian Daley, a pair of writers who had been working with Macek since they had collaborated on the animated series Galaxy Rangers.

Using fictitious epigraphs in the style of Dune, McKinney's novels fleshed out the chronology (including adapting the incomplete Sentinels source material) in far greater detail than the original animation.

Despite no longer being considered core-continuity by Harmony Gold, the novels have been recently re-issued by Del Rey Books as Omnibus compilations.

[61][62] Some critics look down upon the show for its extensive edits to the source material (Westernizing character names, editing for content and chiefly, forging a connection between previously unrelated series),[10][61] while supporters of the adaptation have pointed out that the weaving of three unrelated series into a contiguous whole necessarily required reworking, and that it helped to maintain a slow but continuous rise in the consumption of anime in the US.

"[67] However, Animag magazine (issue 11) and Animerica magazine (issue 9, volume 4) reports that the staff of Macross at Studio Nue and Artland, such as the original story creator and mecha designer Shōji Kawamori and chief director Noboru Ishiguro, expressed their concern over the Robotech adaptation, and surprise at its differences.

[69] In a review of The Macross Saga for NEO, David West considered it a landmark in Japanese animation and an essential watch for fans of the mecha genre.