If you're around anime old heads for long enough, there's a good chance you'll eventually hear about the mythical year of 1984—a year that wowed audiences with now-timeless classics like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer. However, there's one other film from that year that changed the face of anime forever: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? Like the series it reimagines, this jaw-dropping film shot the careers of an entire generation into the stratosphere. Forty years later, these hungry young artists are now industry legends, with Shōji Kawamori, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Ichirō Itano, and Hideaki Anno among their ranks.

Aside from the heavily edited Clash of the Bionoids and an English dub produced by TOHO, Do You Remember Love has never received an official international release despite its legendary status. This comes down to the long-chronicled rights dispute between Harmony Gold and BIGWEST. Despite both parties finally coming to an agreement in 2021, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Do You Remember Love are unfortunately absent from the series' streaming catalog outside of Japan. With that bit of history in mind, it was something of a revelation when Bandai Namco Filmworks announced that their brand-new 4K Blu-ray release of the film would include English subtitles—a godsend for those willing to import it. While I was happy to throw down a little extra dough to finally own this classic for myself, the execution of this 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray combo pack leaves something to be desired given the film's historical importance.

Before I get too deep into the weeds of this release, let's talk a bit about the film itself.

Do You Remember Love is a lavish retelling of the original Macross television show that's laser-focused on the series' key pair of storylines—the Human-Zentradi conflict and torrid love triangle between Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay. This streamlined approach works rather well for the story's main beats. For example, the tension generated by our love triangle is eventually sorted out through a series of quiet conversations. Meanwhile, the series opts for a more drawn-out, soap opera approach that occasionally drags despite being riveting television.

But here's the real reason this film is so beloved: it's drop dead gorgeous. Do You Remember Love has an intricately detailed but dreamlike visual style—one that the original series couldn't have hoped to achieve given the limitations it was made with. While the series had bursts of incredible mechanical animation, this film is drowning it in. As I'd often tell friends in college, viewers can see the animators' blood, sweat, and tears used as the ink in every frame. Speaking of tears, I found myself choking up while listening to Kentarō Haneda's incredible score. Particularly when the Macross appears out of the darkness for the first time, accompanied by an orchestral version of the series' theme. I felt a similar tingle in the back of my throat whenever any of Minmay's songs took center stage—especially with the early inclusion of “0-G Love” and the film's iconic title track. Do You Remember Love's breathtaking animation and rousing score effortlessly work together in concert, culminating in a finale that's been often imitated but never surpassed.

However, I believe this intense distillation and reinterpretation of the Macross saga loses much of the heart that made the series so beloved to begin with. Super Dimension Fortress is bolstered by an incredibly endearing supporting cast, with their own stories often rivaling those of our main trio. At best, the film reduces these characters to essentially cameos in the case of Max, Milia, Captain Global, and the bridge crew. At worst, it commits the sin of actively sabotaging some of the series' most beloved characters. Specifically, I'm referring to Roy Focker and Claudia LaSalle.

In Super Dimension Fortress, Roy is introduced as an occasionally skeezy but good-hearted older brother figure to Hikaru. The audience comes to learn that he used to be a playboy, but war and his long-standing relationship with Claudia pushed him to finally grow up. Roy and Claudia have such a fun, healthy, and adult dynamic about their relationship. While she might have to wear the pants sometimes, they both rise to meet each other. Meanwhile, Claudia is a pillar for the ship's bridge crew, always willing to lend a ear to Misa and the girls. She shines brightest in a subtle but powerful arc that meditates on grief and alcoholism in the wake of an intense personal tragedy.

Anyone who has seen the original series knows that Roy left an indelible mark on anime history in the episode "Pineapple Salad." After experiencing such a well-rounded character at his finest, seeing him reduced to a shallow, blisteringly drunk caricature of himself is heartbreaking. Do You Remember Love's version of Roy sees all women (including Claudia) as made only for pleasure and he often goes on rants about the “true purpose” of women. As a knock-on effect, this reiteration of Claudia seemingly reinforces his bad advice whenever Misa's in the room. Not to mention that she's been more or less reduced to an object for Roy. Few characters have stuck with me over the years like Roy and Claudia have, and I truly wish this film had treated them with the respect they command.

I hate to say it, but these character shifts are only the start of Do Your Remember Love's rampant problem with misogyny. This hits viewers right over the head in Misa's first encounter with Hikaru, when he refuses to take orders from her (his commanding officer) just because she's a woman. From that point onward, the film just keeps hitting Misa with this pigheaded nonsense until sparks fly between her and Hikaru halfway through.

Is this present in the original series? To a degree, but it's more of a “teenage boy who has never dated before” sort of ignorance. It's still not great, but it's more understandable as to why Hikaru would walk in with these preconceptions in place—he's a dumb kid who doesn't know any better. However, nothing he says in the series is nearly as venomous as his comments are in the film. It reeks of inexperienced nonsense from boys who've yet to learn a thing about women or dating, which makes sense when one considers the young and predominantly male crew behind Do You Remember Love.

Despite my structural issues with the film, I can't help but smile while watching the plethora of iconic moments spread throughout. Be it the audience's aforementioned introduction to the titular ship, Hikaru's late night date with Minmay, or Max's beautiful first encounter with Milia, there are so many striking moments that have been burnt into the back of my mind. However, to best savor those moments, I'd recommend leaving the yellow-rimmed standard Blu-ray disc in the case. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of watching this disc first under the assumption it was the 4K Ultra HD disc—an easy fumble to make since both discs are labeled as “4K Remaster” and the red-rimmed UHD is trapped under a stack of paperwork.

While the proper 4K disc looks good enough (if not a touch dark due to the implementation of HDR), the standard Blu-ray exposes all the major problems with this classic's brand-new restoration. It's odd considering that one would often expect the UHD to exacerbate any technical issues present. Due to an aggressive amount of film grain reduction, and dark colors—reds, oranges, blacks—on-screen often look like an angry colony of ants trying to escape. I'm glad to say that's not a concern on the 4K disc, but a common issue between both discs is a distractingly smudgy picture at times.

There's an inherently blurry nature to the film simply due to the cameras it was originally photographed with. Some shots look sharp, while others are frustratingly out of focus—that's just how those cameras worked. In addition to Do You Remember Love, another animated film with this specific quirk is 1986's The Transformers: The Movie. The only way these inconsistencies could be fixed is if the film was rephotographed entirely...which is impossible. This new restoration tries to sharpen up the picture wherever possible to great effect, but the exacerbated juxtaposition between clear and blurry frames can be downright maddening.

Not unlike the recent 4K upscales of James Cameron's films, I believe many of these technical issues lay at the feet of Do You Remember Love's surviving director, Shōji Kawamori. In an interview with Japanese audio video publication Stereo Sound, restoration director Mitsuhiro Shoji spoke on Kawamori's desire to make his 1984 classic look like a modern film—particularly when it came to the topic of film grain. It's frustrating to hear, as I believe that a 40-year-old movie should be allowed to look as such. Of course, any restoration specialist worth their salt will put in the hard work of removing dirt, scratches, and anything else that looks off, but in some cases, too much goosing of the picture might result in a distractingly inconsistent result. It all comes down to the discretion and finesse of those in charge of the restoration knobs, and it's not always the specialist holding said knobs.

Of the iconic moments I mentioned before, the initial shot of the Macross emerging from the darkness instantly springs to mind as an example of this restoration's often smudgy picture. As more of the ship is illuminated, viewers start noticing the staggering amount of greebly details plastered across every inch of the transforming behemoth. However, due to the processing at play, these minute details are seemingly smeared in comparison to their slightly blurry, original appearance. The film's dreamy quality comes from this inherent soft focus, but that additional smeary layer really takes the oomph out of key moments like this. I'd be remiss if I forgot to mention that the red text that accompanies the film's title card is rather hard to make out as well. However, I will say that all of these technical issues were far more noticeable while watching the film on a larger screen—it was generally less distracting when viewed on my office monitors.

But to give this restoration some points, previously blurred moments such as Minmay's shower scene and a brutal decapitation from the film's climax have been restored. In addition to those changes, earlier changes that shifted the color of the occasional laser from red to blue have been reversed. The reinclusion of these often discussed moments are one of the many benefits of this release's brand-new 5K scan of Do You Remember Love, sourced from the 35mm master negative.

Behind their rather spartan menus, both discs contain the film's original theatrical cut from 1984 and its complete edition cut from 2016, along with those coveted English subtitles. The complete edition cut adds a Star Wars-esque text crawl at the top of the movie to bring viewers up to speed on the story and a Minmay performance of “Angel's Paint” to accompany the credits. Included as a special feature is an attempted upscale of extended "Angel's Paint" vignette from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Flash Back 2012. I say “attempted” because a higher resolution video source for Flash Back 2012 appears to be nonexistent. Naturally, this would turn any sort of upscale effort (especially to 4K) into a tall order. With that in mind, this version of the iconic vignette isn't exactly looking its Sunday best either.

However, the English subtitle track (courtesy of the lifelong Macross fans at Creative Sphere) is why most potential buyers will go to the trouble of importing this release. These subtitles give the film the proper weight it deserves while also reaffirming and slightly tweaking the terminology employed by AnimEigo's classic turn-of-the-century DVD release of the TV series. With these official subtitles in place, most Macross fans will probably be pleased with this release. I'd normally be right along with them in this sentiment, but the standard Blu-ray's presentation left me with something of an unpleasant taste in my eyes—and I'm usually not a picky percy about video quality! Just make sure you're putting the red-rimmed disc into your 4K UHD player of choice.

As a longtime fan of both the Macross series and anime classics of the 1980s, I can safely say The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? is an staggeringly significant film that has continued to wow audiences and inspire new creatives in the years since its release. Even with the film's rough edges, it's absolutely worth seeing at least once. However, I'm not convinced that this is the release this classic deserves.