Well, as I post this, it’s October Third in Japan, so it’s officially 39 years since the debut of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Already, the 40th Anniversary hype is starting up, with a new Delta feature, a new Frontier short film, and a Frontier concert that will be livestreamed around the world.
Perhaps more importantly, though, as everyone knows by now, everything Macross except the original TV series and the ever-recalcitrant Do You Remember Love can now be potentially released outside of Japan, without fear of legal attacks from Harmony Gold.
Almost six years ago, I started this blog in the run-up to the debut of Macross Delta. Its primary purpose was simple: to get into writing everything I’d learned about Macross over the years, both in-universe and in the real world. After that, it became a home for the translations I’d done, and the translations that I’d do later.
There was a secondary purpose, though, which was that I’d moved back to L.A. from Tokyo in 2014 because of a family medical emergency. That took a lot of time and effort over the next few years, so it was nice to escape back into Macross a couple of times per week.
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there now. The important point, as far as this blog is concerned, is that big changes and new opportunities are coming for Macross. And there’s a hell of a lot of international fans (i.e. outside of Japan) trying to influence where things go, what gets released first, what doesn’t get released at all, and even what gets made next.
For the last few years, I’ve felt like one of a fairly small number of people who were advocating for Macross (that is, ALL of Macross, sequels included). These days, I often feel like my voice has been lost in sea of other fans. Which is GREAT (I hasten to add). If other fans with bigger platforms than a doinky free WordPress blog can use it to champion Macross, I’m all for that.
But I don’t want to add to what must be an exciting but stressful time for the Macross creators. I don’t want the rights holders of Macross to decide that my translations are a step too far and must be removed. So I think that it’s best that I bow out now, and let other people do the talking for a while. I’ll continue translating for myself, though, and maybe someday soon, I can bring those translations to you.
In the meantime, I’ll be moving over not very far, to do another big rewatch, this time for more idiosyncratic faves, the five series that the late Yuu Yamamoto created in the early ‘80s, Acrobunch, Srungle, and the legendary J9 Trilogy. I thought about just shifting this blog’s purpose to accommodate those shows, but decided that I really did want to keep this a primarily Macross blog, and a resource for anyone who wants more info about it. So, a new blog it is. See you there, and I’m sure that, like Alto, I’ll come back here eventually.
Gubaba Blog 