Macross Plus (Ultimate Edition) Blu-ray Unboxing

Macross Plus (マクロスプラス) is a 1994 original video anime series directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, and produced by studio Triangle Staff. Staff credits also include chief director Shōji Kawamori, screenplay writer Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Masayuki, and music composer Yoko Kanno. The OVA series was released across four parts in Japan between August 1994 up until June 1995.

Also included with this package is Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION (マクロスプラス MOVIE EDITION), a 1995 theatrical compilation film by the same director, staff and animation studio. The film was first released theatrically in Japan on August 1995.

Background:

“In the year 2040, on the distant planet Eden, former childhood friends Isamu Dyson and Guld Goa Bowman find themselves pitted against each other as test pilots of rival teams in a competition to decide the next generation of variable mecha fighters. The two must also deal with their own unresolved history with mutual love interest, Myung Fang Lone, who has returned as the manager of Sharon Apple, the AI pop star (virturoid) and the galaxy’s biggest singing sensation.

When Sharon’s advanced artificial intelligence gains consciousness, Isamu, Myung, and Guld must face their turbulent past and come together as Sharon Apple becomes self-aware and takes control of the Macross battle fortress itself!”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, October 2024.

The classic Macross franchise is finally back in the west! It’s been many years since we have last seen a home video release for either the UK or US for the original instalments in this sci-fi epic. Now it’s a messy situation so I’ll try to summarise the whole ordeal here.

The first series in the franchise Super Dimension Fortress Macross was produced in 1982 by Shōji Kawamori and studios Artland and Tatsunoko Productions, North American distributor Harmony Gold acquired the rights a few years later to release the series over in the west for English audiences and combined the anime with two other Tatsunoko Productions shows The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada in 1985 to create Robotech, which edited the storylines and such to become one big saga. During this whole ordeal, apparently Harmony Gold also managed to secure the Macross trademark alongside some of the characters which resulted in a very long legal battle against Big West.

Before the situation got worse, some of the earlier Macross properties were able to be licensed outside of Harmony Gold – Macross II: Lovers Again by Manga Entertainment, Macross Plus & Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION by Manga Entertainment and Bandai Entertainment, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? by Kiseki Films and the original version of Super Dimension Fortress Macross by ADV Films. Everything else, including Macross 7, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, Macross Delta, and all of the individual instalments as such, could not be brought over and that included any re-releases of the ones that did see a single release or two.

This didn’t just impact the anime but also any figurines or cameos in video games. So if you were wondering why a lot of Super Robot Wars games didn’t make it over to the west or those Macross games released on PlayStation as such? Harmony Gold is why. Harmony Gold is still around and working their way through a live-action Robotech with Sony, but eventually Big West, Studio Nue, and Harmony Gold settled on the ordeal in March 2021.

With the exception of Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the characters related to it, everything else in the Macross franchise will be able to see a release in the west without Harmony Gold interfering, meanwhile Big West and Studio Nue will allow the live-action Robotech film to be distributed in Japan. The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? is with TOHO and that’s in its own situation, but there is a 4K Ultra HD release with English subtitles planned in Japan so there will be an option for fans to own the film.

After that, Big West unveiled the big announcements over at Anime Expo 2022. AnimEigo will distribute Macross II: Lovers Again via a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign which was successful and eventually upgraded to 4K Ultra HD. Nozomi Entertainment will distribute Macross 7, Macross Frontier and Macross Delta via an Ultra Edition Blu-ray box set similar to their Mobile Suit Gundam titles. And Anime Limited will distribute Macross Plus & Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION for not only the United Kingdom & Ireland but also for United States & Canada and France via an Ultimate Edition Blu-ray box set alongside an Deluxe Edition Vinyl box set. At MCM London Comic Con in May 2024, Anime Limited also revealed Macross Zero for the same regions as well.

Now out of the lot, Nozomi’s licenses are in a messy state because a few months after the news reveal, Crunchyroll bought Nozomi Entertainment & Rightstuf which means all of those licenses are pretty much in limbo now so we have no clue what’s going on there. Crunchyroll have released Robotech on Blu-ray on behalf of Harmony Gold before the legal battle calmed down, but whether Big West will want to stick with them is unknown. On the plus side, all of those titles bar the original series and Do You Remember Love? are available to stream worldwide on Disney+ if you can’t wait any longer.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Macross Plus because I was lucky enough to be able to watch both the OVA series and Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION on DVD by renting them from LoveFilm back in 2013, a few months before I went to University. Admittedly it has been a long time since but I remembered reading an article by Sky that went over the 25 or so best films to watch from Japan for anime and Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION was among those. I used that list a lot to help get into anime a lot and I think at this point I’ve watched them all. As I live in the UK the rental discs I had were of course from Manga Entertainment with the OVAs watched in English and the film in Japanese. The film was not dubbed in English for those curious.

In fact the English dub for the OVAs has an interesting cast – Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise) voiced the main lead Isamu Alva Dyson, alongside Richard Epcar (Lupin the Third) for Guld Goa Bowman. Anne Sherman (Ah! My Goddess the Movie), Melora Harte (Tenchi Muyo! GXP), Steven Blum (Cowboy Bebop), Beau Billingslea (Cowboy Bebop), and Dan Woren (BLEACH) all had voice roles as well.

Due to rights issues, the sound mix for Episode 4 had to be done from scratch for Manga Entertainment’s English dub, but Bandai Visual were able to fix that and redub that episode but a few voices had to be recast due to availability issues. David Hayter (Metal Gear Solid) replaced Bryan Cranston, Michael Gregory (Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro) replaced Richard Epcar, and Derek Prince (Naruto) replaced Dan Woren.

Macross Plus is accessible to watch without knowing anything about the other Macross anime in the franchise so I do recommend giving this series or film version a watch. I can’t remember which version is considered the better one to experience, but I think both are worth checking out since its not that long.

Ultimate Edition Contents:

Macross Plus is a big name in anime, so it’s no surprise that Anime Limited want to go all-out with this classic. Now there are a few variations of the anime for home video release, one of those is a Deluxe Edition Sharon Apple Vinyl Edition that contains the music across various Vinyl alongside the anime on Blu-ray but what I have is their Ultimate Edition release for those who don’t want vinyl.

The Ultimate Edition release is packaged in a large rigid box, the size of LaserDisc & Vinyl for comparison. Inside the box is a perfect-bound 184-page hardback book that contains the OVA series & film on Blu-ray plus various pieces of artwork and designs for the characters, backgrounds, mechs and illustrations as well as interviews with Shōji Kawamori, Shinichiro Watanabe, Keiko Nobumoto, Yoko Kanno, Shiro Sasaki and more from the Macross Plus series. Many of the artwork is left untranslated but the information and interviews are in English. Also included alongside the book are 9 LaserDisc sized artcards and an A3 Poster.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The ultimate edition Blu-ray has around 1000 units printed for an SRP of £149.99 (100 units for France), with a standard edition Blu-ray for Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION planned later down the line whilst France will also receive a collector’s edition that covers both the OVA series and film with 72-page booklet and 4 art cards.

I believe there are currently no plans to release a standard edition Blu-ray for the Macross Plus OVA series at this point.

Macross Plus was available to pre-order during Anime Limited’s June 2024 early bird line-up for £119.99 which I was able to order at £107.99 with the Anime Unlimited membership. Those in North America were able to order theirs on the Crunchyroll Store for $189.99 SRP.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid-Board Shoulder Box with clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• Perfect-bound 184-page Hardback Book
• 9 Art Cards
• A3 Poster

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 28th October 2024

The ultimate edition release for Macross Plus contains 2 Blu-ray discs in total; one covering all 4 episodes of the OVA series, and another for the film Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION. Both discs have been authored and encoded by VDMS who have worked with Anime Limited on many of their recent titles including the ones that Anime Limited have US/CA rights for.

On the Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION disc, no English dub was produced so here we have Japanese with English subtitles only, but there’s an option to choose between either the Manga Entertainment translation or the Bandai Visual translation. This disc also includes the bonus on-disc features.

On the Macross Plus OVA Series disc, audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Manga Entertainment English dub with both Bandai Visual & Manga Entertainment versions available for Episode 4. To access the Manga version for Episode 4, it’s included in the Bonus Features section of the menu.

The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the discs are region accessible to players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Macross Plus English, Japanese Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION Japanese
Audio	Macross Plus English (Manga Entertainment) LPCM 2.0 (for Episodes 1-3) English (Bandai Visual) LPCM 2.0 (for Episode 4) English (Manga Entertainment) DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (for Episode 4) Japanese LPCM 2.0 Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Video	Macross Plus 1080p High Definition Native format 1.33:1 aspect ratio Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION 1080p High Definition Native format 1.33:1 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	Macross Plus English Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION English (Manga Entertainment translation), English (Bandai Visual translation)
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	2 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Macross Plus MOVIE EDITION:

• Shōji Kawamori Special Message (03:31 runtime)
• Shōji Kawamori – Bandai Spirits Plastic Kit Interview (13:27 runtime)
• Ichirō Itano – Bandai Spirits Plastic Kit Interview (38:45 runtime)
• Macross Plus Game Edition: Promotion Video (02:24 runtime)
• Macross Plus Game Edition: Opening Video (05:29 runtime)
• Macross Plus Game Edition: Isamu Clip (13:13 runtime)
• Macross Plus Game Edition: Guld Clip (13:41 runtime)

Macross Plus OVA Series:

• OVA Promotion Video (03:10 runtime)
• Next Episode Preview: Ep.2 (00:46 runtime)
• Next Episode Preview: Ep.3 (00:45 runtime)
• Next Episode Preview: Ep.4 (00:34 runtime)

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Macross Plus Ultimate Edition is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland as well as France, US & Canada. The ultimate edition Blu-ray release can be bought through the AllTheAnime Store.

For North American anime fans, the US version of this set is available to purchase through Crunchyroll’s Store and for French anime fans, their French exclusive collector’s edition is available to purchase through @Anime’s Store.