July 6th, 2019 
AstroNerdBoy Harmony Gold Sez, “Up Your Butt, Weebs! No Macross For You!”
Ugh. So for those who don’t know, the word has come down that Harmony Gold has apparently renewed their licenses for SDF Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. This means they can continue with their hideous Robotech franchise, at least for now.
Harmony Gold Being Cagey
While the people at Harmony Gold took great pleasure in whipping out their pathetic chinpo and slapping Macross fans in the face with it, they avoided answering any real questions. They did not say how long their licensing extension is. They did say that they are moving forward to work with Sony over the next eighteen months, which ironically is when the current licensing agreement ends.
Some people are pointing to Frank Agrama’s glib statement as proof that they have a 35 year license extension.
Over the past 35 years we have been blessed to work with our friends at Tatsunoko on developing one the world’s greatest entertainment franchises.” He added, “With our extension we look forward to the next 35 years of working with Tatsunoko and world class business partners on Robotech.
I don’t think this means that HG has licensed Macross for the next 35 years. I mean, if you are going to do a long-running license, why not 50 years? Or 100 years? As I see it, Mr. Agrama’s remarks are his desires to see his company continue to frak the Macross fandom for another 35 years while saying, “What are you going to do about it, weebs?! Robotech FOREVER!”
Sony Movie Project
I suspect that Harmony God’s license extension protects their disgusting Robotech franchise in order to allow Sony to make the live-action movie. It wouldn’t surprise me if the clueless bozos at Tatsunoko, who are the ones to licensed Macross to HG, leaving co-owner Big West and series creator Studio Nue is the dung, gave HG a conditional license extension. If the Robotech movie does well, then HG gets to bend Macross fans over forever. If not, then the license may be restricted or revoked completely.
Of course, this is just pure speculation on my part. Regardless, I will NEVER watch whatever filth Sony produces. There’s glib talk of making this a movie franchise, but I just can’t see that happening. But the Japanese and Chinese may bail the bloody thing out, especially if the subtitles/dubs in those countries use the original Japanese names and such. Hopefully, Japanese Macross fans will become educated on the hideousness of this situation. But I’m not sure Studio Nue or Big West will say anything negatively publicly.
It May Not Matter
One thing I’ve learned from the video gaming industry is that it may not matter how much outcry some fans like myself have. EA has been screwing up the Star Wars license for years now, to say nothing of their other shenanigans. But they still rake in money hand over fist ’cause the more casual gaming market doesn’t care about microtransactions or game screw-ups. And even hardcore gamers still buy the crap while bitching like mad. And the same can be said for the bloody Epic Games store crap.
So when it comes to Macross, there’s a massive fan outcry about the news that HG is going to continue to frak Macross. But there are those who try to shift the blame to Big West for not giving into HG’s blackmail. For those folks, they want Macross titles, and if that means that Big West has to give HG global exclusive rights, sobeit. The fact that HG has done all sorts of dirty pool, like trademarking Macross (how the frak was that even allowed?) is apparently no big deal to this group of fans.
I will NEVER understand this mentality of accepting dirty dealings just to fulfill my own lusts. I’d love to see more Macross (and ZERO Robotech) officially brought outside of Japan. But HG has everything held hostage, and apparently it’s Big West’s fault for not entering hostage negotiations ’cause “muh Macross.” It is this very mentality that keeps rewarding terrible behavior, though in HG’s case, these cockroaches have somehow managed to survive.
Harmony Gold Somehow Survives
Something has kept the bastards at HG alive for the last 35 years. Beyond the lawsuits and whatever else, HG is making some kind of money off of their Robotech BS, to say nothing of them putting out low quality releases of SDF Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (which you can actually stream on Amazon Prime).
Back in the day, I sadly supported HG by buying the Macross series on DVD when AnimEigo sold the box sets. I didn’t know what I was contributing to back then. I do now, so I will NEVER support them ever again. And hopefully, no one else will either, though I know that is wishful thinking on my part.
But still, it amazes me that these cockroaches have managed to survive as long as they have.
Eighteen Months
We’ll see what happens over the next eighteen months. Frankly, I see little hope of ever seeing any of the other Macross titles (Macross II and Macross Plus don’t really count to me since Tatsunoko and Studio Nue weren’t involved in their creation). Studio Nue and Big West aren’t going to license their Macross stuff to HG, and HG has somehow managed to prevent the Japanese creators from making money off of the Macross franchise outside of Japan.
All I can say is, it is a sad day to be a Macross fan. Meanwhile, Harmony Gold laughs in our face while clubbing us like a baby seal with their Robotech excrement.
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How in the blue hell is Harmony Gold still a thing? Like, why do they still exist? How do they still exist? Do enough people still like Robotech enough for them to still make a profit off of it? Did they make a pact with Satan? The existence of such a mockery of anime might have flown in the 80s when hardly anybody had a concept of what “anime” was. But 20 years after anime started to boom in earnest in America? This is unnatural. Not even 4Kids exists anymore.
When you look at HG, they act very much like a criminal organization. While HG isn’t doing anything illegal, they do a lot of ugly things and apparently profit from it.
I don’t think Robotech itself makes them a lot of money. But they may have scored money form their numerous lawsuits over the years. And they are holding Macross (and the other titles they licensed) hostage, hoping for a big payout. To make matters worse, they are still licensing out Macross and other titles to places like Amazon, which gives them a revenue stream.
It doesn’t seem like they should be getting that much money though. But clearly they’ve got their fingers in pies that allow them to survive and then some.
We, of course, can trust Sony, the makers of such brilliant movies as The Emoji Movie, Ghostbusters 2016 (before you say anything, it’s not that I’m against the idea of a female Ghostbusting team, it might have been great if done correctly, but the movie stunk regardless of the gender of its protagonists) and the Smurfs live action films, to deliver on a fine film product based on Robotech, right?
I’m convinced Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse was only a lucky fluke its creators managed to save somehow DESPITE having to work for Sony.
When it comes to Hollywood touching any anime (or manga or light novel) adaptation, I always bet on jacking it up.
Warner Brothers merely lucked out with their adaptation of All You Need is Kill (which became Edge of Tomorrow). But that is due to the fact that (1) hardly anyone in the West was really aware of it and (2) the novel is just OK, but mostly forgettable to me. So while stripping it of its Japanese origins was annoying, I passed on complaining ’cause the movie works a bit better on the whole.
But otherwise, Hollywood adapting Japanese franchises and such if “ugh.”