During the Robotech: The New Beginning panel at Comic-Con 2021, fans of the giant mech series had something to celebrate. The series is getting an HD release this September, and later this year, it will be available to stream on Funimation.
The collector’s edition of Robotech is a new 1080p HD transfer featuring 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound and exclusive collectibles and deluxe packaging. Details about what collectibles are included and what the packaging looks like are unknown at the time of this writing. This collector’s edition will be available to own on Blu-ray and digital on September 28.
Additionally, the HD remaster will also be coming to Funimation. A specific release date was not revealed, but it will be arriving this fall. After the announcement, the panel showed a video of a tour of the Harmony Gold USA vaults–the production company behind the series–where the masters of Robotech are displayed. You can take a look at that below.
You can get an insider look at cases holding the originals of Macross, Southerncross, and Mospeada, along with the original 16mm film reels of the series. These are what Harmony Gold used for the remasters for the upcoming HD release.
Robotech originally aired in 1985 in the United States, and is an adaptation of the three anime from Japan that were previously mentioned. These three series are completely unrelated to each other, from three different fictional universes. The show is about pilots inside gigantic robotic machines–mecha–who are fighting off invaders from far-off worlds.
The American adaptation/amalgamation of the three Japanese series originally aired in syndication in the US, during the Saturday morning cartoon boom, and in later years, it found a new audience when the series aired on Cartoon Network and Sci-Fi Channel.