At Anime Expo 2022, Macross license holder BIG WEST announced that they would be partnering with multiple distributors to bring almost every post-1987 entry in the beloved franchise to North American home video for the very first time. One of these distributors is Anime Limited—the Glasgow-based company that serves the UK and its neighbors as one of Europe's premiere anime companies. This makes it somewhat serendipitous when they revealed that they had licensed one of the franchise's crown jewels, Macross Plus—a title previously distributed by another UK-based company, Manga Entertainment.

After years of thinking that I'd never see an official Macross home video release in my neck of the woods, that announcement-filled day felt like Christmas, or Macrossmas if you will. After a few more years of waiting, serendipity struck again when a giant box from England hit my doorstep on Christmas Eve.

Anime Limited's Macross Plus Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Box Set is one of the nicest anime home video releases I've ever handled. This isn't just a collection centerpiece for hardcore Macross Plus fans, but an incredible archival release for animation scholars. I could see this in a university library alongside Bandai Visual's Honneamise releases of the Patlabor movies.

Ultimate Edition compiles all four episodes of the original OVA series, Macross Plus Movie Edition, interviews with Shōji Kawamori and Ichirō Itano, and every single crunchy cutscene from the Macross Plus Game Edition PlayStation game. And that's not even getting into the minute setup options, or the most elaborate part of this set—the Macross Plus Archives artbook. The Archives live up to their name, as they're jam-packed with production art and oodles of interviews featuring the likes of Shinichiro Watanabe and Keiko Nobumoto—all officially translated into English for the first time.

With those in mind, Ultimate Edition's US$189.99 MSRP starts to make a little more sense. However, that price tag naturally raises a few questions.
1. What about Macross Plus justifies the praise and lavish treatment it's been given?
2. Since the set costs THIS much, you'd expect it to be perfect and pristine, right?

Let's tackle that first question.

Macross Plus kicks viewers in the teeth with an intense interpersonal drama against the backdrop of a thrilling giant robot air show. That air show is set to an eclectic and otherworldly score by Yoko Kanno. Plus, in many ways, is the initial jam session between Shinichiro Watanabe, Kanno, and the late great Keiko Nobumoto that led to Cowboy Bebop. The original OVA and Movie Edition have both continued to age like fine wine over the past thirty years.

Especially when viewers look at the series' virtual idol, Sharon Apple, and the role AI plays in the plot. Sharon was on the tip of every fan's tongue during the initial heyday of Miku Hatsune in the late aughts, and once again a decade later with the meteoric rise of VTubers in 2020. Today, the conversation becomes much hairier when one considers the relentless corporate push of AI as a way to increase efficiency and cut the human element out of everything entirely. Like in real life, AI encroaches into the world of Plus—from performing onstage to flying jets—and ends up leading to disastrous consequences.

The fear, or perhaps grim acceptance, of that technology seemed to be running through the minds of Kawamori and Itano as they worked on the series. In the set's included interviews, these industry legends mused about Plus as their last dance—two pilots staring down their final chance to push hand-drawn animation to its limits before they were deemed obsolete. The beautiful airborne tango in the series' dogfights is an undeniable proof of those feelings.

Speaking of intense feelings, the drama that entangles the protagonist trio—Isamu, Guld, and Myung—has them in spades. Even with the macho nonsense between our two pilots, Myung shines bright as the beating heart of this classic. Thanks to a symphony of pitch-perfect character animation and Rica Fukami's nuanced performance. Every little piece of her body language makes it clear that Myung isn't exactly thrilled about being back in Eden. Perhaps, the galaxy-wide tour she's on is dragging her back to a place she has done everything to move on from. It's quickly implied that those feelings have been present long before her reunion with Isamu and Guld.

In an interview from the archives, Kawamori, Watanabe, and Nobumoto spoke on how they focused on presenting the dialogue in a filmic fashion. They didn't want performances that were overly elevated, but something that was understated and from the heart. However, while the original Japanese vocal performances accomplish that goal, it's a different story in English. The dub originally produced by Manga Entertainment plays in a much more elevated space, as was the dubbing style in the late 90s. Regardless, Bryan Cranston and Richard Epcar turn in spectacular performances as Isamu and Guld respectively. Not to mention that they were backed up by an entire cast composed of some of North America's most iconic anime voices, including Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea.

As a quirk of those punched-up performances, some character motivations are made muddier in English. For example, the circumstances behind the crash that concludes the OVA's first episode. I'd imagine this is probably why the dub is noted as having “Forced Narratives” in the setup menu, which is a reasonable disclaimer given those quirks. Viewers may also notice a change in the English voices once they hit Episode 4, with David Hayter taking over as Isamu. The episode was rerecorded at the request of Bandai Visual due to a lack of parity with the original M&E (music and effects) track, but a decent swathe of the dub's cast was unavailable to reprise their roles at the time. However, the original dub of Episode 4 is included as a special feature on the OVA's disc.

Macross Plus Movie Edition is a masterful recutting of the OVA series that goes the extra mile to serve its characters—Myung especially. The film jettisons much of the competition between Isamu and Guld but allows our heroine to shine even more. Despite being the series' heart, she is occasionally overshadowed in the OVA. Aside from reorganizing many of the series' events, Movie Edition strengthens the core story with new scenes, a boob, and a much stronger, less abrupt conclusion.

The film's editing is of exceptional note. A scene comes to mind in which Myung scrambles into an elevator while under the threat of gunfire. In the OVA, this scene is allowed to play out for every ounce of its tension, but the film decides to intercut that with shots of Isamu dogfighting around Macross City. Now while some of that original tension might be lost, the film's version of the scene mounts another kind of tension while effectively communicating what's going on outside at the same time. Whether it's the OVA, Movie Edition, or both, you're in for something incredibly special with Macross Plus.

Macross Plus does deserve the praise and lavish treatment it's been given. Now, that second question.

Starting with the discs themselves, the numerous visual and audio upgrades from Manga Entertainment's now-ancient DVD releases almost made me cry. They're that good, it's like seeing a color television for the first time. I can now pick out so many more fine details, be they the personality-filled wrinkles in Masayuki's character designs, Katsufumi Harui's jaw-dropping background direction, and the entrancing Kōji Morimoto animation that permeates Sharon's hypnotizing concert. And speaking of concerts, Yoko Kanno's soundtrack here is buttery crisp.

The subtitle work on the display is excellent. Movie Edition allows viewers to experience the film with either the original Manga Entertainment subtitles or the ones present on Bandai Visual's Japanese Blu-ray release. Both have been revised to match current subtitling practices and series terminology. I especially love how Sharon's lyrics are presented on-screen, fully translated from French, Japanese, English, and the fictional Zentran.

However, this does bring me to my first quibble with this release. At the start of episode one, there's a little bit of air traffic control crosstalk that has been left untranslated. Normally, I wouldn't be too bothered by this. After all, the key dialogue is present and accounted for. But in a set of this price, I would expect that crosstalk to be represented in the subtitles. Two of my other disc-specific criticisms fall in with that general line of thinking. First, during the nearly forty-minute interview with Ichirō Itano, a stray pixel randomly appears and remains on-screen for much of the discussion. I had to replay the interview on multiple displays to confirm that it wasn't an issue with my TV.

Finally (and this might be a touch pedantic), I noticed a sizable speck of what might be film dirt present in the first five minutes or so of Movie Edition. I'm no film restoration expert so I could be wildly off the mark here, but it had seized my attention for a bit there. Again, I would normally be game to handwave these little (potentially pedantic) issues away, but it all comes back to that US$189.99 MSRP.

Still, this set earns that price in its physical presentation. The packaging is a shockingly refined homage to the premium Laserdisc releases of yesteryear. That ethos spreads to the included art cards, concert posters, and most notably, the Macross Plus Archives artbook. Aside from the series itself, I believe that the Archives are what you're primarily paying for here—hardcover bound, filled to the brim, and made with so much love. It is within the inner cover that you'll find the discs, both pristinely presented.

Here's another “however”. I had an incredibly difficult time removing the discs from their metal pegs and felt like I might break them if I tried to put them back in. I would have preferred to see a more flexible, standard style of peg present just to make the process easier. Another option would have been perhaps including a standard Blu-ray case to make the discs more easily accessible after the grand unboxing. I ended up purchasing a standard 2-disc case for my discs, but with the price, you shouldn't have to do that.

This brings me to the biggest issue surrounding this set. If you live in the US, Macross Plus Ultimate Edition is exclusive to the Crunchyroll Store. Following Crunchyroll's full absorption of Right Stuf Anime, their customers have noticed a marked drop in quality on order packaging. Which is a shame, because Right Stuf was renowned for how well they packed their orders. This lack of care has resulted in dings and dents in numerous customer orders, and Ultimate Edition has been no exception. Many customers have reported seeing those very dents in their US$189.99 + Tax premium box set, and only a flimsy piece of paper was packed in to protect that pricey purchase. I was lucky. I received a ludicrously bubble-wrapped package directly from Anime Limited, but that should have been the standard for everyone who has purchased this set.

Frankly, if I were in the shoes of either Anime Limited or BIG WEST, I'd be incredibly upset to know that our EXCLUSIVE business partner has treated our marquee release of 2024 with such little care. I'd like to hope that this situation perhaps results in a fire being lit under Crunchyroll's behind to take some actual care with not just their partner's products, but their customers' orders on the whole. No one should pay for an expensive order only to have it arrive in shambles.

Finally, anyway, it's sliced, that US$189.99 price tag is a lot to swallow right now. Even more so if you're interested in the US$299.99 Sharon Apple Edition set. While I believe that Ultimate Edition warrants that costs more than most similarly priced sets, it's something I can't easily shake off. Even with the seemingly imminent drop of Macross Plus on U.S. Hulu and Disney +, I believe that these discs more than deserve a set of more financially accessible SKUs. This seems to have happened (or is happening) with Anime Limited's French release of Macross Plus, where they've offered a release of the film and OVA alongside a film-only release. I hope these SKUs soon appear in the rest of the world as well.

With all those quirks in mind, Macross Plus Ultimate Edition is still one of the best premium anime home video releases. As I've made it clear, Macross Plus might be one of the best anime ever made. This release will be the centerpiece of any hardcore Macross fan's collection and a solid addition to the library of any animation scholar. But if you need to hold off for a more financially accessible release, please don't push your means to the limit to get it.