Robotech (1985)
Robotech is a 1985 animation series. It stars Cam Clarke, Melanie MacQueen and Gregory Snegoff.
Three unrelated Japanese anime series got stitched into one continuous saga for American TV, and the seams somehow became part of the appeal. It opens with an alien starship crashing on a South Pacific island, handing Earth a technology called Robotechnology and the giant piloted mecha built from it. Across three generations of characters, humanity fights three successive alien threats while love triangles and pop songs run alongside the dogfights. The result is soap opera at the scale of orbital warfare, earnest and sprawling, one of the shows that put mecha anime on Western screens.
Quick answers
What is Robotech about?
Three unrelated Japanese anime series got stitched into one continuous saga for American TV, and the seams somehow became part of the appeal. It opens with an alien starship crashing on a South Pacific island, handing Earth a technology called Robotechnology and the giant piloted mecha built from it. Across three generations of characters, humanity fights three successive alien threats while love triangles and pop songs run alongside the dogfights. The result is soap opera at the scale of orbital warfare, earnest and sprawling, one of the shows that put mecha anime on Western screens.
When was Robotech released?
Robotech was released on 4 March 1985.
How many episodes does Robotech have?
Robotech has 85 episodes across 3 seasons.
Where can I watch Robotech?
Robotech is available on Crunchyroll, Crunchyroll Amazon Channel, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store and Fandango At Home.
Where to watch Robotech
Stream: Crunchyroll, Crunchyroll Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video
Official site
Cast
- Cam Clarke as Max Sterling (voice)
- Melanie MacQueen as Lisa Hayes (voice)
- Gregory Snegoff as Khyron (voice)
- Greg Finley as Henry J. Gloval (voice)
- Edie Mirman as Miriya Parina (voice)
- Tony Oliver as Rick Hunter (voice)
- Rebecca Forstadt as Lynn Minmay (voice)
- Dan Woren as Roy Fokker (voice)
- Iona Morris as Claudia Grant (voice)
- Lara Cody as Kim Young (voice)
- Richard Epcar as Ben Dixon (voice)
- Mike Reynolds as Dolza (voice)
Similar series
Explore Robotech guides
Robotech in our writing
- Companion guide: Mecha & Giant Robots: The Complete Guide
A few thoughts on Robotech
If the towering war machines and the human cost pull you in, Mobile Suit Gundam I tells its own grounded mecha epic with the same weight. Robotech: The Macross Saga lets you drop straight into the cockpit of the first arc's transforming fighters.
Giant-robot anime where pilots fight to save Earth
Robotech is built from mecha, giant piloted machines thrown against wave after wave of alien invaders. These films run on the same fuel, human pilots strapped into towering war machines, dogfighting across the sky and into orbit to keep Earth from falling.
More Robotech and Macross to watch and play
Robotech famously stitched three anime series, Macross among them, into one saga, and its story kept spilling into other media. These pick that thread back up, the compilation film and the games that let you fly the Veritechs and relive the Macross war firsthand.
Sprawling war sagas of love, betrayal and generations at battle
Under the dogfights, Robotech is soap opera at orbital scale, love triangles and rivalries carried across three generations of war. These epics share that mix, huge conflicts where politics, romance and betrayal matter as much as the battles, following bloodlines through years of fighting.