Macross Compendium


Fallacies

The following are some of the more widely-held yet mistaken beliefs regarding Macross. An attempt is made to ascertain the sources of these fallacies where possible.

General
| Production | Story |
| Characters | Mecha | Music |
| Errata |

Production

Fallacy: "Macross Dynamite 7 will feature Lynn Minmay, Ishtar, and Myung Fang Lone."
Explanation: The Macross Dynamite 7 video series will feature no previous Macross singer except for Basara Nekki and Mylene Jenius of Macross 7's Fire Bomber.
Source of fallacy: Fan misinterpretation of Macross 15th anniversary coverage featuring both the 15th Anniversary Live Macross One Night Stand concert and the Macross Dynamite 7 video series. While the concert included the singing voices behind Lynn Minmay, Ishtar, and Myung Fan Lone, Macross Dynamite 7 will not feature these characters.

Story

Fallacy: "The story of Macross Plus Movie Edition is an edited version of the Macross Plus video version."
Explanation: The video version was animated and released first, but the Movie Edition was planned and scripted first. According to co-creator Shoji Kawamori, he and scriptwriter Keiko Nobumoto originally wrote the story as a movie feature. After the producers requested that a video version be made first to create momentum, the two reedited the story and added episodic cliffhangers to create the video version's script. When production began on the Movie Edition, the video version's animation was re-edited, but re-edited to fit Kawamori and Nobumoto's script based on the original one drafted before the video version was authorized.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the video verion's release date (1994 August), a year before the Movie Edition's release date (1995 September).

Fallacy: "In the first Macross series, Protoculture created Humankind."
Explanation: Protoculture genetically altered the ancestors of Humankind when a Protoculture research vessel landed on Earth, but it is confirmed in the first Macross series and in Macross 7 that they did not create our ancestors that were already native to Earth.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the story of Macross: Do You Remember Love?

Fallacy: "Macross landed on Macross Island."
Explanation: Macross (or rather, the ship that was to named Macross) landed on South Ataria Island.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the story of Robotech (a series partly and loosely based on the first Macross series only).

Fallacy: "Flash Back 2012 is actually a 'sequel' to Do You Remember Love? only."
Explanation: Although Flash Back 2012 is often described as "the illusive movie ending" by the video promoters and print material, Kawamori himself originally created it to be a sequel to both the first series and movie. He has since now established as a sequel to the first series. Apparently, the assumption is based on the Macross's design in Flash Back 2012, which is almost identical to the one used in Do You Rembember Love? This assumption does not take into account that the ship Macross was rebuilt to this design after the events as portrayed in the first TV series.

Also, the assumption is also based on the Megaroad-01's design in Flash Back 2012, which is different from one created during the TV series production. This does not take into account that this early design was never animated and that it was the design of the SDF-2 before its design and mission role was revised as a colonization ship within the story of the first TV series. (In fact this design appears in both Macross Perfect Memory, a sourcebook to the first series, as well as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross the Movie: Do You Remember Love? Special Preview, a sourcebook to the first movie.)

On a similar note, the designs of Minmay in Flash Back 2012 is different from the unanimated designs (published in Macross the Movie [book]) initially created for Do You Remember Love?'s cancelled animation of Minmay's concert. (This would have run during the closing credits.) It serves to note that the other designs and themes of Flash Back 2012 (the VF-4, a production version of the VF-X-4; the space colonization project; Misa as captain of the new ship) were originated in or were based on concepts first presented in the first television series or only presented in the first series. Mikimoto actually created characters designs for the television series' final episode of Misa in the new colonization ship's captain's uniform (Macross Perfect Memory, p. 108-109), but they were never animated.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on video promotion material and the designs of the Macross and the Megaroad-01 in Flash Back 2012.

Fallacy: "In Flash Back 2012, Minmay stayed behind on Earth while the Ichijyos embarked on the Megaroad-01."
Explanation: Minmay decides to embark on the Megaroad-01, as confirmed by later chronologies and timelines. In fact, in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross Vol. V: Rhapsody in Love - Macross Love that was released four years before Flash Back 2012, writer Shoji Kawamori (who also wrote the last episode of the first Macross series), has Minmay tell Hikaru and Misa that she also will be on the colonization ship captained by Misa.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the symbolic image of a younger Minmay ("Sending-Off Minmay") seen on Earth as the Megaroad launches while Minmay ("Minmay at the Observation Window") watches from window on the Megaroad-01. Kawamori said he deliberately put in two Minmays in the Megaroad-01 launch scenes, but he has since confirmed that Minmay did indeed embark on the ship.

Fallacy: "In the Macross storyline, Macross II is a fictional sequel to the fictional movie, 'Do You Remember Love?"
Explanation: Despite the fact it came on the tenth anniversary of the first series, Macross II was produced without Shoji Kawamori or Studio Nue's input and positioned as a sequel to the movie Do You Remember Love? However, Shoji Kawamori and Studio Nue has since positioned Macross II as a story occuring in a parallel world, separate from the movie.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the original marketing of Macross II combined with the current positioning of Do You Remember Love as a fictional movie within the Macross storyline.

Fallacy: "Macross II was set in a parallel world separate from the other Macross works by the producers because it didn't make money in Japan."
Explanation: Macross II wasn't set in a parallel world because it didn't make money in Japan, but because the original creators at Studio Nue didn't work on Macross II. (Indeed, given that the producers Bandai and Big West are still trying to sell the remaining stock of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers, Again, the producers would actually probably wish there was a greater tie-in between Macross II and the other works.) During the two-year period between 1992 and 1994, the sponsor Big West authorized several Macross projects in animation, software, and print without the input of the original creators at Studio Nue. (Although Studio Nue is nominally credited for inspiring the mecha design concepts of Macross II, it did not actually work on Macross II. This is similar to how Yoshiyuki Tomino is listed in the credits for inspiring the story concepts of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, even though he did not actually work on it.) As a result, unlike every other Macross animated work, Macross II was created without Studio Nue's input. (Haruhiko Mikimoto was in Studio Nue for a brief period until 1980, but had changed studios to Artland before the first Macross series started. Sukehiro Tomita was a freelancer who never was in Studio Nue.)

Masahiro Chiba and Shoji Kawamori of Studio Nue created the Macross History timeline, not the producers. In it, all the projects in which Studio Nue worked on were included together. Macross II, being a project not developed by Studio Nue, was set in a parallel world.
Source of fallacy: Fan speculation.

Characters

Fallacy: "Kaifun is Minmay's brother."
Explanation: Kaifun is Minmay's cousin (with no blood relations between them). Minmay says Kaifun is a "cousin who is like a brother" to her in his debut during the first series.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on Minmay's name for Kaifun ("Kaifun-niichan"), an affectionate name for a brotherly figure.

Fallacy: "Minmay was born entirely Chinese."
Explanation: Minmay was born to Linn Paoshun, who himself was born to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on Minmay's Chinese last name.

Fallacy: "Minmay is at 30 years old in Flashback 2012."
Explanation: Minmay has not turned 19 yet during the events depicted in Flashback 2012.
Source of fallacy: Director Shoji Kawamori requested Haruhiko Mikimoto to draw numerous characters designs depicting Minmay in rough ages from 2 years after the original Macross to 4-5 years later and 10 years later. However, he kept the actual time period of Flash Back 2012's settings vague until recently, only saying in 1987 that it "is set in the near future." By 1994, he had established that the events of Flash Back 2012 does take place in 2012. Toren Smith apparently heard the extreme limit of Minmay's age when writing in an article New from Japan in anime-zine issue 2 about a "thirty-year-old Minmay."

Mecha

Fallacy: "The mecha designers in Japan for the first Macross TV series were the same for Macross II."
Explanation: Neither of the mecha designers for the first Macross series (Kazutaka Miyatake nor Shoji Kawamori) worked on Macross II.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on Robotech Frequently Asked Questions.

Fallacy: "The VF-X-4 and VF-4 are non-transformable." "The VF-4 is tranformable, but only now as a retcon."
Explanation: Although those fighters' GERWALK mode and Battroid modes were not protrayed when first shown, mecha designer Shoji Kawamori has specifically described both the VF-X-4 and VF-4 as transformable variable fighters since the begining when they were drawn (1983 and 1987 respectively). Their stated ability to transform is not a recent retcon.
Source of fallacy: Misintrepretation in Animag 11 and Mecha Press and lack of a official Kawamori-designed protrayal of the GERWALK mode and Battroid modes until recently. Animag 11 suggests that Kawamori "declines to describe" the VF-4 as transforming -- but actually, he does specifically state that it is transformable in an 1987 interview (The Super Dimension Fortress Macross:Flash Back 2012 Grafitti, p.63). Right before this statement on the VF-4, the questioner asks if the Megaroad transforms, and Kawamori laughs when he declines to say the Megaroad transform [in the video]. (He did not say the Megaroad is unable to transform.) This Megaroad statement (which appears right before the segment regarding the VF-4) is apparently how the overseas confusion began.

Fallacy: "The design inspiration for the VF-5 is the F-5E Tiger II."
Explanation: The F-5E Tiger II is the mission role inspiration for the VF-5, but creator Shoji Kawamori says the concept is based on another aircraft, the Sea Dart.
Source of fallacy: Misintrepretation of Model Graphix interview of Shoji Kawamori. Kawamori said that the VF-5 (as well as similar fighters) is designed to be less expensive than the VF-1 for mass production by individual colonies. When interviewer Shigeki Ninomiya asked him if it is unmanned like the Ghost. Kawamori responded that it is not unmanned, but more similar to the manned F-5E Tiger II. He goes on to say that the VF-5 is a seaborne craft like the Sea Dart.

Music

Fallacy: "'Do You Remember Love' was the most popular anime song ever."
Explanation: Although it was among the "Best Ten" on the popularity charts (and even number one on some) when it was first released, "Do You Remember Love" is not the most successful anime song ever in terms of general recognition, polls, or even sales. Surveys differ, but the anime songs most consistently on the top are the themes to Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999, and more recently, the Street Fighter II movie.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on Robotech Frequently Asked Questions.

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Go to Main Title Page | Endnotes | Last Revised on: 2003 October 23
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Egan Loo <eganloo@anime.net>
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