Following the news in March, the first of the Macross series to get an international streaming release are Macross Frontier and Delta, but currently only in the UK.
Macross Frontier was originally released back in 2008 and was followed by a few movies. It was set a fair bit after Macross 7 and dealt with the Frontier colonization fleet and their encounters with a seemingly new alien species called the Vajra.
Frontier marked a major comeback for the Macross series and used a similar mixed CG and 2D approach for the animation, which had been previously pioneered in the excellent Macross Zero.
Macross Delta, by contrast, is far more recent having been released in 2015 and is the latest instalment in the Macross saga. Dealing with a group of idol singers this time around, they are used to help cure something called Var Syndrome. Against the background of the bellicose Aerial Knights of the Windermere Kingdom.
In short, both these anime are very much heavy hitters in terms of the Macross franchise. In that, both have modern animation and a sizeable episode count as well as various movies. Put simply, there’s a lot for new anime fans to get their teeth into. With enough narrative history to potentially pull them in for more.
What’s odd is that both series are now streaming on Disney+ in the UK, but not in the US. At least not yet anyway. Obviously, a US release is a given, but why the UK got this first is somewhat of a mystery to me.
If you are at all curious about the history behind the Macross saga, then feel free to check out my interviews with both Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.
Read my Forbes blog here.
