Anime Weekend Atlanta 5 - Macross and Animeigo
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 The woman on
the right, Mari Iijima, is indelibly linked with the Superdimensional Fortress
Macross TV series through her portrayal of Lynn Minmay. Ironically, while
American fans know how Iijima played the character in the original version
of the series brought to the U.S. as Robotech, most have never heard her
voice in the original Japanese series. That will change now that Animeigo,
owned by Robert Woodhead (left), has the rights to release a subtitled
Macross for U.S. home video. The contract was announced in July at Anime
Expo with few details... |
 ...but Woodhead
had more infomation at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Animeigo has been taking
applications to buy the Macross sub through the company website, and Woodhead
said they have had more than 2,000 people sign up. "The more people who
sign up, the cheaper it gets for everyone," Woodhead said about the price
of the Macross videos. Those VHS tapes and DVD discs will be made from
16 mm film prints that have been in storage at Harmony Gold's vaults, and
will provide the best view that most fans have had of the Macross saga.
"It's going to be the definitive view because it's going to come from the
original film. It's not edited," he said. |
 Iijima's voice
is on the sound tracks of those original prints (monaural sound, by the
way: Macross was made way before the era of stereo sound for TV shows).
Of course, Iijima's only anime acting role was in Macross. "I was just
having fun and trying to get along with people," she recalled of her days
making the show. "It was like a family. I just tried to be natural." |
 The DVD releases
probably will have three Macross episodes per disc, because that means
less trouble with the MPEG encoding, said Woodhead. It also leaves more
room for extra features. "The major extra we're planning to have for Macross
is to have the subtitles in English or Zentradi," he joked. Woodhead added
that Animeigo is not inventing a new language, but they'll have a "Zentradi"
font for the DVD's. |
