15 years ago the first OVA of Macross Plus was released.

[UN Spacy]

Let's take a trip down memory lane.

When was the first time you saw the Macross Plus OVA?

[MjrMisaHayase]

On VHS back in the late 90's, what else.

[Gubaba]

I had read about it in Animerica, but I'd already been burned by Macross II, so I wasn't very excited about it (although this Macross 7 thing sounded intriguing, since it had Max and Milia in it...).

But there was a comic shop/anime video rental store that I frequented (still do, actually, although its location has changed), and, the week Macross Plus Vol. 1 came out, the owner of the store was raving about it. I said that I wasn't terribly excited about it, and anyway, I didn't like dubs (the subtitled version came out later).

He said, "Look. Rent it today. If you don't like it by the first SCENE, I'll give you your money back."

He kept my money.

I didn't end up buying the VHS tapes until the subtitled versions came (which gave me my first rude awakening of how much more subtitled videos cost than dubbed ones), and then, variously patiently and impatiently, waited for each successive volume.

The ending of Volume Three, though, totally did me in. That was SUCH a massive cliffhanger, and I so desperately wanted the episode to keep going and not end, that I think I ended up shouting expletives at the TV all through the ending credits.

[valkyriepilot]

wow, 15 yrs for M-Plus!

hmmm... i last saw it about 3 months ago maybe?

but the very first time i saw it though was '99 i think, way back my college days, i had the impression that it was an "excitingly different" yet "comfortingly familiar" Macross. i had to save up for 2 whole months from whatever was left from my allowance just to get a hideously recorded VHS tape of it... but i enjoyed every minute of it.

Edited August 26, 2009 by valkyriepilot

[dreamweaver13]

Sometime between 1997 and 1998 (can't remember exactly) on VHS. I think I saw the movie first. blew my mind away, not because it was a Macross sequel, but because of the dogfights. jeezus, my first viewing of the last fight between Isamu and Guld... I can only wonder how I looked like then while staring at the screen in disbelief, and how close my jaw was to the ground.

Since then, I have both the series and the movie on DVD, and watched them regularly. But i'm pretty sure that legendary VHS tape is still lying around in my house somewhere.

[Ghost Train]

I was in HS when I first read about this in 1996. Back then information traveled slowly lol....

It wasn't until my senior year in 1999 that I actually bought the commercially released subbed VHS Movie Edition. I saw the OVA's independently while at college a few years later. Still my favorite Macross series/OVA after so many years.

[Sergorn]

I think it was in 1995. I had heard of Macross Plus a few month before along with the other Macross sequels when Animeland (which was pretty much the only french magazine about anime at the time) wrote several articles on Macross and its sequels. That was pretty much the beginning of the whole Anime VHS Market here, and we got quite a bit of Macross in a short time - DYRL was released in late '94... and Manga Video came over here around that time as well and they started releasing Macross Plus fairly quickly.

I was pretty much blow away by the first OAV - the opening scene really was awesome with a big A. Ironically I only rented Macross Plus because I felt paying full price for a single episode was rip-off - I instead bought Macross II instead which was released at the same time by another editor (but I liked it too ! ). The first three OAVs were released pretty quickly (though the third came a bit later... and with pretty half the cast of the dub replaced :-P) but then nothing and it felt for a long tim ewe would never get the final OAV.

It eventually came a couple of years later when the full series was aired on TV (with a brand new dub of episode 3 even which has been lost in time now ) and that was very much a kick ass ending too !

We never got an official release of the movie here though

-Sergorn

[Save]

First time I saw any of it was at the Monthly Shrine Sci-fi show in Los Angles. Big West back when they had an LA office presented 15 min of the first OVA. I remember seeing the character settings and I swore off the show because Mikimoto wasn't involved but later the story won me over.

[mitch]

I saw it when it first came out in the UK on VHS. I'd heard it mentioned before in a video games magazine's anime section (Super Play anyone...?) and a few (years?) later I saw the trailer for it before some other 'Manga' titles and thought the music and visual aesthetics were fascinating. It's been one of my favorite animes ever since. Yoko Kanno's score mixed with the stunning animation (the technical animation is some of the best I've ever seen, not like these dang kids with their CG mechas and their inter-webs and their MP3s..!), and the mature story line that didn't shy away from the complexities and trials of love and friendship like so many other titles out there. I know that some people didn't care for the pacing of episode 3, but I loved the whole thing from start to finish (you get used to pacing like that when you are a Mamoru Oshii fan), and I consider it one of the pinnacles of 90's animation.

Macross Plus is, in every sense of the term, a work of art.

[Pat S]

I know I saw a fansub of OAV 1 before it was released in the US. 1994 or 1995, don't know. The rest I saw as they came out dubbed in the US one by one. I remember the 4th OAV took forever to come out, I kept checking every week at some shop in the mall in Spokane, WA (where I grew up).

Anyways, Macross Plus is my favorite Macross. Great designs, music, action, and story. Love it!

[BeyondTheGrave]

Man it's been 15 years.

Um.. I don't remember the year it was the first time i saw Mac Plus.

I do know I was younger than 12 though or was I 12?

Anyway I remember my brother bringing home the tapes he borrowed off a friend when he was in High School.

So .... to put it simply I'm a young guy who got (deeper) into anime when I saw the ova for the first time.

But I do know I wasn't able to buy it until I was about 18-20.

[Roy Focker]

This was couple years before I had access to the internet and dvds. My anime news came from magazines or previews on VHS. I rented an anime by Manga (can't remember which one) on it they had a preview for Macross Plus. I couldn't make heads or tells of it. Character designs didn't look right but it was called Macross. Made a mental note and kept an eye out for it at rental stores.

[kung flu]

1997, i bought the movie version on VHS by manga entertainment cost me £13.99

1999 i saw the ova episodes on a vhs recording from a friend who recorded it for me when it was broadcast on the sci fi channel, which i Couldn't get cos i didn't have satellite TV at the time

[taksraven]

ALL HAIL MACROSS PLUS!!!!!

I remember seeing it when it first came out in Australia in 95/96, whenever, I'm not sure.

A bunch of us just sat there going "WOW!!"

It was the first show that I used the internet for to track the release dates. The big gap between the release of Parts 3 and 4 was VERY annoying, I remember.

Happy days.....

Taksraven

[Gui]

The OVA it was a bunch of years ago, but the movie it was in 1998 (it was broadcasted on french TV and a pair of friends lent me their record on VHS because we shared a common interest into animes) and the first time I heard about Mac+ was when I found the This Is Anime artbook of the movie in 94 or 95, a pair of years after having seen Macross II: needless to say, I was very pleased that these friends lent me their tape because I could finally put some animation onto the great pics and designs I slavered on since years...

After that, the OAV looked like some sort of mercantile rehash of the movie, probably because I was exposed to the movie first, but I also liked it: I can't be objective with Macross anyway

[Vepariga]

it was when i first gazed upon the cover art of the dvd when i first thought,i must buy this, watched it that night and still do now and then.

cant get past the final fight scene and the scene at the start in the asteroid belt. memory's.

[Zinjo]

I first saw it on TV and wondered what it was all about. They were showing each episode weekly and then for some strange reason the scheduling got all screwed up and I never got to see the last 2 episodes.

So I was on the hunt after that!

It took a few months, but a local comic shop was renting anime tapes and they got in Macross Plus. I rented them all and devoured them... It was and still is quite an awesome series.

[Valkyrie addict]

urrr...around 1997 a friend was introducing me to anime, he knew I was a Homotech fan (before I saw the light) and lend me some VHS copies of Macross Plus and II he rented

[Impreszive]

Saw it for the first time as a Freshman in college. Had a Japanese roommate who "gently" corrected me on the error of Robotech vs Macross. I thought plus was pretty bad-ass from the get go. Have been a fan ever since.

[Gubaba]

Saw it for the first time as a Freshman in college. Had a Japanese roommate who "gently" corrected me on the error of Robotech vs Macross. I thought plus was pretty bad-ass from the get go. Have been a fan ever since.

Heh. I've gotten some pretty "interesting" reactions from my Japanese friends when I explain Robotech to them...

[Ghost Train]

Saw it for the first time as a Freshman in college. Had a Japanese roommate who "gently" corrected me on the error of Robotech vs Macross. I thought plus was pretty bad-ass from the get go. Have been a fan ever since.

What? You mean they didn't kidnap you in broad daylight, force you into an unmarked black VW-van and take you to a secret deprogramming facility and beat the daylights out of you?

[RogueTrooper]

Think i was about 11 when i watched this, friends older brother had loads of the Manga Entertainment UK VHS, don't know how he afforeded so many.

Remember being blown away and defiantlely remember saying that ths is just like codename:robotech which i owned then being put in my place by the firend older borther Korean buddie.

[grymg]

saw it on Manga crappy VHS in the 90's with some middle school friends. A friend of mine bought each tape as he gathered enough money for it from Suncoast in the mall. At that time watching anime like Ninja Scroll, Blue Submarine, and some ADV vision VHS tapes.

I was really impressed by the new fighter designs, the cockpit view was fresh and original. Still remember the excitement of Isamu as he was dancing on the pedals making the Dino bird in the sky.

And the fold CG was pretty badass.

Edited August 26, 2009 by grymg

[ly000001]

I think it was the summer of '95. A friend came back from Hong Kong with the Japanese LDs of parts 1 and 2. We got a kick out of the retconning from the "Macross: A Future Chronicle" featurette: <in narrator's voice> "2032: Space War I made into a movie... 'Do You Remember Love?'"

[Fortress_Maximus]

Hmm. I saw it when the first LD came out and my friend got them. Man I was floored! The story, music, crisp animation, and incredible attention to details blew me away. We must have rewatched it at least five times that day!

Later when Manga released it we held a gathering and watched the licensed domestic version with English subs and now I could finally understand more of the story. Awesomeness!

[dreamweaver13]

What? You mean they didn't kidnap you in broad daylight, force you into an unmarked black VW-van and take you to a secret deprogramming facility and beat the daylights out of you?

LOL. that might just be the most efficient way. bring on the Clockwork Orange!

[BeyondTheGrave]

LOL. that might just be the most efficient way. bring on the Clockwork Orange!

So... time to begin the ultra violence?

Edited August 27, 2009 by BeyondTheGrave

[dreamweaver13]

So... time to begin the ultra violence?

lol. who knows? maybe the Ludovico Technique was performed on me without me remembering. it would explain why i automatically cringe and feel like vomiting whenever i hear Stagefright.

[Graham]

Saw Plus for the first time in 1994, within a week or two of it's release in Japan. Same goes for Mac 7.

At that time, there was a shop here in HK that sold bootleg VHS tapes, copied from the Japanese LDs.

Of course it was raw Japanese, unsubbed, but that's how I watched most anime back in the day.

Graham

[rdenham]

The first time I became aware of Macross Plus was in a Tower Video; I was marveling over their collection of Robotech F.H.E. VHS tapes when I saw Vol. 1 I’ve been addicted to anything Macross ever since.

Edited August 27, 2009 by rdenham

[VFTF1]

I was in college. It was spring break or something, and I was staying at a friend's place. There was a video store nearby where we'd go to rent movies. One of the movies I saw was something called "Macross Plus." I think this was the movie, not the episode-by-episode thingy. Anyways, at that point in time (1997 or so), my orientation regarding Macross and Robotech was kind of foggy. And I have never actually WATCHED Robotech, just read about it in the Palladium books and in Robotech Art 3.

So, I vaguely remembered the Macross; hence when I saw "Macross Plus" I figured...well...ok... oh...it's the SDF-1... but...what is that wierd white airplane with the v-shaped wings? Where is Rick Hunter and that lady? That blue plane looks kind of like those pod things that the alien people flew around in. I'm confused...

Anyways - took it home and watched it. For the majority of the film, I sat there thinking- oh. This has nothing to do with Robotech. It therefore must be a completely different show. It's not even the original Macross, because it doesn't have any familiar faces or mecha in it.

Then towards the end the SDF-1 showed up. I wondered to myself why it was sitting in a crater with a city built around it.

I started considering that maybe the people who made this movie ripped off Robotech or whatever the original Japanese version was called?

Or maybe this was like an homage to the original series that had nothing to do with it?

I couldn't know for sure, since I hadn't watched the original shows. I did remember, however, reading that Jack Mickinney book when I was a kid, and there was nothing about this stuff in it.

I was so confused.

Add to that the demure mood of Macross Plus. I enjoyed the dark theme running throughout, but given how subdued this film was, and combined with my confusion, I wasn't "hooked" or "thrilled."

That would only come later.

With Macross Zero and then watching the original SDF Macross television series.

Pete

Edited August 27, 2009 by VFTF1

[grss1982]

Let's take a trip down memory lane.

When was the first time you saw the Macross Plus OVA?

Saw it in 1999 in the WOWOW channel. I was hardcore back then no subs and dubs.

The bad thing though was I saw the tail end of the final Guld v. Isamu dogfight. However, the musical score during the whole fight, which I would later learn was titled "Dogfight" would renew my love for all things Macross, and eventually lead me here to MW.

Edited September 1, 2009 by grss1982

[eugimon]

saw it on a fan subbed VHS tape that we rented from Super Collectibles back in their glory days in fountain valley CA, with their pit of action figures and the captain's chair from the Enterprise. I remember sitting in stunned silence at my friends house as we all looked at one another, "This is macross? holy crap!" Made me fall in love with Macross all over again, though my love for anime wouldn't be resparked until a few years later when I saw a screening of Naussica at UC Santa Cruz.

[Mr March]

Happy anniversary to some of my favorite Macross. Macross Plus is largely responsible for re-introducing me to Macross, and anime as well. I must make a point to watch it again as celebration

[Shadow]

I first saw it when it aired on Encore's Action Channel back in like 2000. When it re aired, I eagerly recorded it. It was the same with other movies that aired at the time like Patlabor 1 and 2.

Edited September 4, 2009 by Shadow