Ask John: Why is there Less Macross than Gundam?

Question:
Why does Macross have so many fewer TV series, OAVs and movies compared to Gundam if it’s almost as popular?

Answer:
The difference between Macross and Gundam lies in two primary areas, both of which fundamentally boil down to the difference in focus between the two titles. The themes and story of Gundam offer more to work with and expand than Macross does, and as an extension of this, Gundam offers more room for merchandising than Macross does.

Gundam is fundamentally a political story about human rights and discrimination. People living in space were subjected by the people of Earth until the colonies declared a war for independence. This is fundamentally a very human war story the offers the opportunity to focus on the effects of this war on different people at different stages in time during the war. The theme of subjugation, class struggle and personal ethics in the face of extreme circumstances underlies virtually all Gundam animation and was expanded into new, alternate settings in, most notably the heavily Gundam/Zeta Gundam inspired Gundam Wing and the political and economic themed Turn A Gundam.

Macross is a story of humans battling an aggressive alien force. While Macross naturally offers a great deal of opportunity for analysis of individuals, the theme of Macross itself can be summarized into a much more simplistic good vs. evil plot of humans versus non-humans than the themes of Gundam, which involve principled and opinionated humans in conflict with other equally justified humans.

At the same time Gundam has a more complex underlying theme than Macross does, Gundam has managed to maintain focus on that theme virtually consistently throughout its lifetime while the Macross animation is characterized by inconsistent focus and lacking in a single unifying thematic element throughout its various incarnations.

Early in its lifetime, Gundam was supported in Japan by hard-core fans that loved the depth and drama and “hard sci-fi” elements of Gundam. Although it does have some philosophical points to make, Macross is ultimately an escapist fantasy rather than social commentary merged with entertainment. Gundam has survived decades partially due to fan demand. Macross has survived for decades based on marketing power.

But that’s not to say that Gundam does not have a tremendous amount of marketing power. Gundam has always been known as the flagship property of Sunrise Studios, a company that earned its fame in the 1980s by becoming Japan’s dominant studio for giant robot anime including Giant Gorg, Vaifam, L-Gaim, Layzner, Dagwon, Ideon, Dougram, Zabungle and dozens of others. Sunrise has always been known for its giant robots, and Sunrise has always promoted its Gundam robots heavily. The mere universe of Gundam, with its global scale warfare and multiple factions, allows for a virtually limitless number of variant mobile suits and resultant toys and models. On the other hand, Macross was produced by Tatsunoko, a company that had already established itself in the decade before as the premier studio for superhero anime including Gatchaman, Space Knight Tekkaman, Hurricane Polymer and Robot Hunter Cashan. The 1982 premier of Macross was essentially a diversion for Tatsunoko from their traditional style offerings, thus has never had the strong studio support and backing that Sunrise and Bandai put behind Gundam. Furthermore, the tendency of Macross to focus heavily on a small cast did not allow for a massive number of giant robots on the scale of Gundam, thus not the same degree of merchandising and mass market exposure that Gundam got.

To summarize, Macross has been surprisingly resilient, long outlasting most other giant robot action series from its time period, but the very nature of the Macross franchise simply does not lend itself to multiple series well. Macross and Gundam are simply very different types of shows and franchises. If Gundam is the anime version of Star Trek- full of human drama and socio-political ideology, Macross is the anime version of Star Wars- a fantasy adventure focusing on a small cast pitted against a threatening larger force.