Forum - View topicNEWS: Harmony Gold's Macross, Mospeada, Southern Cross Licenses Still Expire in 2021
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Sergorn
Posts: 81 |
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If Harmony Gold can't use anything from Tatsunoko anymore they might as well be gone and Robotech with it.
Well... I guess there could always be the possibilities of creating a Robotech "reboot" with new animation that wouldn't infringe on anything from Big West and Tatsunoko, but Shadows Chronicles and the nevercoming Shadow Rising has shown how competent they are on creating animated content. -Sergorn |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5467 |
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Why does Harmony Gold want the Macross license anyway, is there some legal issue that stops them making Robotech projects if they don't hold the Macross license. Because the only other reason I can think of, is they don't want anyone else to have it.
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Sergorn
Posts: 81 |
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Ding ding ding. That's exactly it. They don't need the Macross licence to do more Robotech because either they can't use Macross related content : Shadows Chronicles was all based on Mospeada stuff. It always felt they aimed to block Macross in the early 2000 because they did'nt want it to overshadow their upcoming Robotech revival. Basically they're just being dicks. -Sergorn |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Kind of. From a practical standpoint, all of their merchandise - DVDs, books, miniatures, etc. - related to the first "season" of Robotech is labelled as "Macross Saga", so it would be a tricky legal and rebranding issue for them. From a story standpoint, the biggest unresolved Robotech plotline, as I understand it, is what happens to the surviving crew members of the SDF-1 after they form the "Robotech Expeditionary Force", board SDF-3, and depart the solar system in search of the home of the "Robotech Masters". (Basically, it was a way to explain why the Macross characters don't appear in either Southern Cross or Mospeada). There were a bunch of novels covering their adventures, but they have all been retconned away, so now there's a big gap in the Robotech storyline that Harmony Gold needs to fill. Really, the biggest problem for Harmony Gold isn't a legal one, it's the fact that they rewrote both Mospeada and Southern Cross to "fit" into their version of Macross (leading to bizarre stuff like "protoculture" being some kind of valuable pollen that all the aliens in Mospeada want to get their hands on). Take away Macross, and you take away way more than just the first third of Robotech, you also take away the foundation of its backstory. Then again, this might be giving Harmony Gold too much credit. I doubt the people who are actually in charge care about any of the storyline / worldbuilding stuff. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2632 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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One thing to remember is that we won't see much of anything for a while after March 2021, at least in regards to Macross. Southern Cross & Mospeada aren't as big, so we could easily see those re-released by the likes of Discotek or Sentai within a couple years, but Macross is another thing entirely.
Without a doubt, I can guarantee that there will be bidding wars for Macross after HG's license expires, so that alone is going to delay a new release. Also, you can be sure that Big West will likely make sure that, whoever actually gets Macross, will have to license all of it in one way, or at one point, or another, which would also delay things. I wouldn't see a re-release of SDF Macross, let alone first-time releases of the likes of 7, Frontier, & Delta, until at least sometime in the mid-2020s. That being said, we can only hope that Lions Gate (the company that effectively owns Manga Entertainment & Starz) is taking note of the expiration date, however. At the very least, I'm hoping that this news will result in us finally getting the Blu-Rays for Macross Plus (& why not Macross II, while we're at it), since HG's supposed control over the Macross name has always affected that getting a new release. If Lions Gate is smart, they could even try to bring Bryan Cranston in for a new interview or the like, in order to help promote a new release. Considering that Plus & II are still seemingly licensed, we could (at least theoretically) see BDs for those two productions out within a year or two of HG's license finally expiring. |
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XerneasYveltal
 Posts: 675 Location: Philippines |
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The worst thing that could happen in my opinion is Harmony Gold's license possibly extending further, but then and then again, it also basically invites another round of legal disputes.
It does not help that certain courts are perceived to be biased against foreign litigants. On the other hand, I can also say that there really is no stopping the Macross franchise from spreading outside Japan in spite of all the obstacles preventing it from making a proper international landing. It is noted that JUNNA and Minori Suzuki performed as Walküre in the Anisong World Matsuri a few months ago. |
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SkerllyFC07
Posts: 108 |
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So why wouldn't you want any new production with Robotech in the title? To satisfy your greedy and selfish desire of Harmony Gold bankrupting fast? That's cruel. I hope for a future where Harmony Gold can maintain the Robotech IP without Macross, so they can make anything they want, like movies, animated series and anything else, independently from Macross. If anything it would be good if the movie is successful but Harmony Gold has to accomplish the law and return Macross to other people so the US can have the series avaiable.
Also, how is it that US anime viewers know about the other Macross series anyway? Is it via pirating, or watching legally the series through other mediums? Because the series is avaiable in other countries. And also, is Robotech any good, or you're pissed off because is not good for being a censored Macross, and that supposedly is not good on its own? |
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Chrono1000
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4513 Location: New York |
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They can do whatever they want once Macross is able to be released her free of their clutches again. But if it's like Shadow Chronicles, it's gonna suck. It's their business practices, basically those of copyright trolls, that are the issue. |
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Bamble
Posts: 130 |
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I agree, and one of the first turning points seemed to be in 1999 when they were conducting affairs such as registering the Macross trademark for selected items. Just a year later the first takedown notices started being issued on stores selling Macross toys, and it's been very much downhill from there. Before then HG were relatively dormant, which is presumably partly how II and Plus managed to get officially released outside Japan during that decade. In fact, this past April marks the 20th anniversary of Macross Plus The Movie being released in the U.S., the final Macross production to ever be officially released in English outside of Japan. Later on, and putting aside 7, which was always a distant licensing prospect due to the music clearance costs, Zero was almost tailor-made for getting a few extra U.S. sales, featuring as it did one of the more popular characters from the original Macross, and being a prequel when that was part of the science-fiction zeitgeist of the time, with both Star Wars and Star Trek doing the same.
Maybe because in the 30-plus years since they acquired Macross and the other series, HG have produced very, very little original Robotech screen material in any case? Putting aside the ancillary stuff like the novels and multitudes of comics, a good portion of which were exceedingly amateurish products, actual original Robotech screen material has been decidedly thin on the ground since 1985, and that's not indicative of a healthy IP. The last full production was the Shadow Chronicles, which was made over 10 years ago, so really at this point, if Robotech simply faded away, it wouldn't make any difference anyway. And of course, the notion that there will ever realistically be a live-action Robotech movie is laughable, given that their IP for the concept is still mostly tied in with a 30 year old series, with very few other productions or innovations in-between. Meanwhile, there are a now many hours' worth of further Macross material that no one can touch, with the ultimate irony being that, thanks to its original exposure by HG as part of Robotech, Macross is one of the few 80s mecha anime with an actual nostalgia base in the U.S., which wouldn't have hurt with regards potential sales of those later productions. |
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Sergorn
Posts: 81 |
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Personally I gave The Shadow Chronicles a fair shot. It was one of the worst "anime" I've seen in my life, so there's that. I'd be perfectly willing to accept new Robotech... if Harmony Gold hadn't been such asses about Macross. There's room enough for both to coexist.
The best thing that could happens to Robotech is that the IP gets to someone else (like say... Netflix) who reboot the whole thing as fully american made cartoon, which would take the original concept of a three generation series and the basic outlines (Zor's Forteresse, Robotechnology and what else) to create an original series that wouldn't infrige on anyone's copyright. The thing is : Harmony Gold will NEVER do anything about Robotech. All they did in the 17 years since their "come back" is a crappy movie, which still had sucess but they never managed to expand on, and adapt a musical Mospeada OAV into a Robotech OAV. It's never going anywhere, especially since they're basically prevented from doing a new Robotech series of film until the live action film happens (same sort of crappy deal TOEI found themselves in with Fox with Dragon Ball hence why it took so long for new films and series happen and they could only do a couple of ONA - thanks to some legal loopholes - and editing the original series). So it feels like a moot point. I'm all for more good Robotech. But it's never gonna happens under Harmony Gold's watch.
Not just the newer : they can't use anything from Macross either in any potentiel new series. That's why Rick Hunter in Shadow Chronicles didn't look anything like his Macross character or why Maia Sterling mentionned being "half alien" instead "half Zentradi". -Sergorn |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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But then, why have Robotech comics had no issue using SDF Macross visuals and plot? I'm pretty sure the current comic is a retrospective across all Sagas. And Robotech/Voltron definitely used Macross designs.
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belvadeer
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They cling it to like it's their precious because they literally have nothing else that defines their sad little existence as a company. It's really just that pitiful. |
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Mr Adventure
Posts: 1598 |
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Well.. except for all the real-estate, |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3018 |
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Pretty sure they're way more well known by the general public as one of the companies involved in Silvio Berlusconi's $170 million dollar embezzlement scandal, not some cartoon from the 80s. The last time Harmony Gold made mainstream news, it was about all their frozen Swiss bank accounts. Let's not reduce a huge, shady company to one tiny shady thing that they've done. |
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