Forty years of one timeline, one parallel world that does not count, and a rights dispute that kept most of it out of English until 2021.
Two good ways in, depending on how much time you have. If you want to find out whether Macross is for you in under two hours, watch Do You Remember Love?. If you want the version most people would hand a newcomer today, start with Macross Frontier, which is a complete story that also works as a summary of everything before it. What you should not do is start with Macross Zero, even though it is first in the timeline.
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A hundred and fourteen minutes, fully reanimated, and one of the best looking hand drawn films ever made. It retells the original series with a different plot, so it is a real entry rather than a summary, and if you like it you will know whether to go on.
Twenty five episodes, set fifty years after the original, and built to work both as a standalone story and as a tribute to the whole franchise. The most common modern recommendation, and it needs nothing before it.
The classic route. Thirty six episodes, and the source of everything else: the transforming fighters, the alien war, and the idea that a pop song can end it. Slower than the film and considerably longer.
Four episodes, or one film if you prefer. The most stylish thing in the franchise and the shortest commitment after the films, and it stands entirely on its own.
Then what? Then go in release order, which for Macross is very close to the order the events happen: the original, Plus, 7, Frontier, Delta. Macross Zero is the exception in both directions. It is set in 2008, a year before everything, but it was made in 2002 and it gives away a mystery the earlier shows are still keeping, so watch it after the original rather than before. Macross II is set furthest in the future, in 2092, and is not part of the timeline at all: it was made without the original creators and was afterwards designated a parallel world. It is worth an evening as a curiosity and nothing depends on it. On the films, be clear about which kind you are picking up. Do You Remember Love?, the Plus movie edition and Passionate Walkure each replace a series. The False Songstress and The Wings of Farewell replace Frontier as a pair, not singly. Absolute Live is a new story that follows the Delta films rather than the Delta series. Everything in the side stories group is optional.
A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below: tick anything off in either place.
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