It’s an interesting story as the English subtitles were added directly in the Japanese release, avoiding the Harmony-Gold licensing problem probably. It’s a good work around.
Not sure where this falls into the 2020 renegotiated licenses and the agreement between Harmony Gold and Big West.
In basic terms, Harmony Gold won’t interfere or prevent Big West from bringing Macross content outside of Japan, and Big West wont interfere with Harmony Gold bringing Robotech content to Japan. Harmony Gold keeps all the existing licenses they already had from Tatsunoku.
Now interestingly, nothing has been stopping Big West from bringing Macross here to the US. To me, it seems like Big West just doesn’t care about any market outside of Japan. Its a common stance for a Japanese company to take, but it is a bit frustrating being a fan of both Robotech and Macross. Here we are 4 years since the agreement and Big West still has the floodgates shut. If Harmony Gold isn’t stopping them now, were they ever really the problem or just a scapegoat for Big West to blame their disinterest on the Western market? And what is preventing them now?
A great movie, IMHO the pinnacle of 80s hand drawn anime.
Everything was drawn without CG, which is absolutely mind boggling if you think about what you’re watching.
And on top of that there’s the classic Macross soundtrack with the great Mari Iijima vocals.
