Robotech - The Macross Saga - Complete Collection
Producers at Harmony Gold combined the seriesSuper Dimension Fortress:  Macross,Genesis Climber Mospeada, andSuper-dimensional Cavalry  Southern Crossto create a sprawling space opera with a new plot:Robotech(1985), which helped to build an audience for anime in the U.S.  The story begins in 1999, when a gigantic spaceship strikes the Earth. Ten  years later, Earth forces relaunch the ship as the alien Zentraedi attack,  hoping to recapture it. The seesaw warfare is played against a vague  romantic triangle involving brash pilot Rick Hunter, straight-laced officer  Lisa Hayes, and aspiring singer Minmei. The Zentraedi have somehow lost the  secret of biological reproduction, but the two races are virtually identical  biochemically. The similarity is sealed by the marriage of Earth pilot Max  and Zentraedi spy Miriya. Minmei's performances become a key element in the  ongoing war, as the Zentraedi consider her bubblegum pop songs a form of  "psychological assault." (They have a point.) Although humanity emerges  victorious, much of the Earth is devastated. Lisa and Rick discover their  true feelings as the new threat of the Robotech Masters appears--which leads  into the second continuity. Gen-X-ers who grew up onRobotechwill  delight in retracing the coy romances and crude space battles; viewers  accustomed to the faster pacing, snazzier effects, and more dramatic conflicts  of more recent anime will grow impatient with the endless shilly-shallying. It's a  classic of sorts. (Suitable for all ages; appropriate for ages 8 and up:  mild violence restricted to spaceship and robot battles)--Charles  Solomon