Arcade Archives Brings Macross II To The West—Along With Its Baggage

In 2025, Macross is one of the most long-running and recognizable anime franchises.

The IP has been called “one of the three unassailable pillars of Japanese sci-fi” by historians Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy—the other two being Gundam and Yamato. Generally speaking, the series focuses on ongoing struggle between space colonists and natives, and generally focuses on the power of music and culture over military might. Its signature motif is transformable mecha that can shift from jet fighter (Fighter form) to humanoid robot (Battroid form), with a stocky in-between form (Gerwalk). To date, there are four television series, four Original Video Animations (OVAs), and three feature films; this does not include several compilation films and shorts. Most Western audiences likely remember the first installment, Superdimensional Fortress Macross, through its truncated American adaptation Robotech.

But in 1984—after a television show, feature-length remake, and sequel clip compilation—series creator Shoji Kawamori was ready to pull the plug.

“I don’t want to be concerned with Macross forever,” Kawamori told Animage in October 1984. “The story is done.”

True to his word, the prolific director and mechanical designer moved on for the better part of a decade. But in spite of design contributions to favorites such as Patlabor The Motion Picture, Crusher Joe, and Gunhed, it is fair to say Kawamori did not work on another hit quite on the level of Macross during this period. Still, when rights holder Big West commissioned a sequel to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the original series, Kawamori kept his distance.

This is how Macross II: Lovers Again came to be the sole entry with no involvement, whatsoever, from the series creator.

It would be a disservice to dismiss the six-episode OVA as a cash-in, though. Original writer Sukehiro Tomita not only penned each episode, but a series of five companion novels that go beyond the OVA’s conclusion as well. Character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto also returned, with AIC’s animation giving ample expression and motion to his signature female character designs. Work from eight other Macross staffers, such as Akira Nishimori and Kenichi Yatagai, help to legitimize the mini-series as a proper successor.

The series itself is a direct sequel to the original series, set 80 years after with no returning characters. It follows photojournalist Hibiki Kanzaki as he investigates the Marduks, an alien race impervious to the ‘Minmay Defense’—a music-based military strategy named for the original’s supporting heroine. He’s aroused to action by Ishtar, a refugee Hibiki rescued from explosive warfare between the Marduk and UN Spacy forces. Ishtar is an Invoker—a woman forced into military slavery, her voice used as a weapon to overpower and destroy all who oppose the Marduk. With the aid of ace pilots Sylvie and Nexx, Hibiki plans to educate Ishtar on human culture and prevent a cataclysmic war between races that could leave millions dead.

Though easy to criticize for its cramped exposition and repeated beats, Macross II is a worthwhile successor to the original in terms of theme, tone, and intent. Big West believed in it enough to push hard, with the aforementioned novels, a manga series, and even a five-issue American comic. The US Renditions movie-length edit of the OVA was also screened in some North American theaters, including a one-week engagement at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood—now Landmark Theaters Sunset after a 2022 closure by AMC.

Said Charles Solomon in his Los Angeles Times review:

Unlike the popular, fast-paced features of director Hayao Miyazaki, “Lovers Again” moves at a snail’s pace, despite all those space battles. At two hours and 14 minutes, it’s longer than “Fantasia,” but probably required fewer drawings than an hour of Saturday morning kidvid.

As Solomon’s review indicates, the film did not make a splash during its very limited Western distribution. It was, however, a financial hit among North American anime fans. According to Animerica, the first and second volumes were—respectively—the best-selling anime VHS tapes of September 1992 and January 1993.

After its initial release period, however, Macross II was sunsetted in Japan by Big West. This is due to the fact that shortly after its release, Kawamori was convinced to helm not one, but two sequels. It was at this point that Lovers Again was relegated to ‘alternate continuity’ status and quickly left to rot amid a glut of incoming Macross 7 and Macross Plus merchandise. Its soundtrack would be reused for both shows, however. 

Plus would come to America shortly before Harmony Gold began blocking attempts to localize later series, and became the de facto ‘Macross OVA from the ‘90s’ most fans remember. It took until the 2008 PSP game, Macross Ace Frontier, for the OVA to receive any sort of major merchandising inclusion from Big West again; the series itself finally received a Japanese Blu-Ray in 2014, after the rest of the franchise up until that point.

It may seem strange for Banpresto to release a Macross II game, then, a full year after the OVA concluded. But this was a consequence of the franchise’s aforementioned 10th anniversary. NMK Co. Ltd. also developed Super Spacefortress Macross for Banpresto the previous year, which itself was an adaptation of Do You Remember Love—the feature-length 1984 adaptation of the original TV series. Both share much of the same development team, including producer Toshifumi Kawashima, software designers ‘Ore Dayo’ and ‘Tommysan,’ and graphic artists ‘Kate Seki’, ‘Gaku Arita,’ and ‘Ikezu Kenzi,’ among others. (Outside of Kawashima, these are all pseudonyms.) This game saw limited release in the US arcades by Fabtek; though a marquee is viewable via Arcade Museum, I couldn’t find any photos of a full American cabinet online.

The Macross II arcade game was never released officially in North America, though the PCB does feature English settings—probably in anticipation of possible distribution abroad. Hamster Corporation, thankfully, has finally given it an official release through their long-running Arcade Archives series. For the first time, American audiences can legally purchase one of the vintage Macross titles.

Why the sequel over the original? That’s thanks to the aforementioned Robotech. For the better part of two decades, Harmony Gold barred any release of new Macross in North America over a dubious ownership claim. This was finally resolved in 2021, when both the Robotech owner and Big West came to an agreement over international licensing rights. The caveat? “41 characters and mecha” would remain exclusive to Robotech. This means the original Macross, Do You Remember Love?, and all related adaptations will—for the foreseeable future—remain Japan-exclusive.

Hence: we get Macross II: Lovers Again instead of Super Spacefortress Macross.

That minor disappointment is hardly a knock against the stellar shooter, however. In fact, Macross II is the more unique of the two titles. Whereas it’s fair to describe the original as an above-average take on Raiden, the Lovers Again arcade game makes several changes that help turn it into a more exciting game. It also shifts perspectives from vertical scrolling to horizontal scrolling, although some space stages play around with direction as a visual gimmick.

At the top of the game, players are presented with three unique routes—Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. Following these routes will roughly take players through the events of the OVA from the perspectives of Sylvie and Nexx—P1 and P2, respectively. While the latter is a little faster, there are otherwise no differences between the characters or their abilities. Main shots are individual presses, not automatic, though the Arcade Archives release mercifully includes auto-firing options.

The stages themselves are lush and colorful, busy and bright without ever feeling too cluttered. Intermediate route is my personal favorite, mainly for the inclusion of the Culture Park—a massive installment that features monuments such as the Easter Island statues and Great Wall in the same ecosystem. These bright stages, capped off by a sunset descent into a city before a nighttime dogfight with a drop ship, encapsulate the vibrancy of the OVA’s color palettes. This isn’t to say the other stages are slouches, either—the Advanced route’s second stage is a blistering race through a series of tight corridors that evokes blasting through the trenches of the Death Star in terms of kinetic speed. It’s tied together with an energetic score by an all-star roster of composers, as the likes of Kazunori Hideya (Metal Gear Solid 3) and Manabu Namiki (Deathsmiles) transliterate Macross II tracks by future Evangelion composer Shiro Sagisu with energetic synth hits and “woo!”s. 

Each stage is timed, with a two-minute countdown clock always visible, and there’s no guarantee that even beating the stage is enough to advance. That’s because the player’s score counts determine whether or not they progress to the next level, not their actual clear state. This means a player can best a boss fight, but still not earn enough points to advance to the next stage, and therefore be rewarded for finishing the level with a game over. But on the opposite end, if a player does well enough before the boss fight, they can hit their quota and progress without actually defeating the stage boss. While some arcade shmups that reset the player with each death, setting a performance par per stage is unique to Macross II—at least in my experience.

Shmups with this genre of time-based scoring system, however, are referred to as ‘Caravan’ shooters. It’s a term derived from the Hudson Soft All-Japan Caravan Festivals, a series of gaming competitions held by the former publisher from 1985 until 2000. These events pitted players against each other in timed challenges, competing for the highest score in games like Star Force, Final Soldier, and (in funny Kawamori kismet) the tie-in game for Gunhed. In honor of these challenges, ‘Caravan’ modes would become a fixture in later shmups; Hamster, in fact, includes Caravan modes for its release of shmups.

But Macross II is the rare, true ‘caravan shooter’—that is to say, a shmup with that timed score attack as the default as opposed to an extra mode. What makes this progression more unique is the game’s score multiplier system, which is kin with some combo systems found in post-PlayStation 2 character action titles. Players cannot actually die in Macross II—there’s no life or damage counter of any kind. Instead, taking damage penalizes players’ damage and shot rate, along with causing a brief delay in fire. More crucially, however, the player’s combination is lost, and their multiplier for each score pick-up is reset. This is what dooms runs of levels, as valuable scoring items are reduced to trinkets until their value is increased by another combo. That said, because levels are so short, retries are quick, painless, and addictive.

A bugbear faithfully recreated in Arcade Archives is that retries of the 10th final stage—only unlocked after clearing one of the three routes—are forbidden. Players are given one crack at the last boss, and if he’s not destroyed within the time limit, they’re served a Game Over and booted to the Ranking screen. The absence of instant save states in Hamster’s release means that scores are fairly earned, and not accomplished by abusing easy re-loads. But it also means that out of the game’s nine stages, the 10th is the only one players can’t master on loop without the aid of an emulator.

(Sure—you could create suspend data, quit your game, load back in, then remake the suspend point. But… isn’t that missing the point of the exclusion?)

This is where, I think, the Arcade Archives release earns its $15 USD. Even as a certified shmup slut (shmlut?), it’s hard to sway me into dropping more than a few bucks on a digital-only arcade port. But because this is an arcade port that doesn’t allow the player to abuse continues, Macross II manages to scratch an almost roguelike-like (?) itch. With my arcade stick hooked up, it’s taking “just one more” crack at the final boss that keeps me coming back for more. Instead of another shmup that’s easy to breeze through in a span of 15 to 30 minutes, this manages to be a reliable challenge on repeat.

While series virgins may balk at jumping in at the second entry, I’d encourage them anyway. Canon ultimately matters very little to the legacy of Macross II in 2025. In fact, it matters very little to Kawamori himself. By the creator’s own admission, there isn’t a single Macross entry that’s canon to the actual in-universe events.

As Kawamori said in an interview with Macross 7 Fun Net from 1998:

You know, this is something I have trouble getting people to understand in magazine interviews. For example, you’ve got World War II, and then you have lots of movies based on that event, right? They are all fictional. They’re all based on a war that actually took place, but they are all different. […] OK, so in the timeline you have a movie called DYRL that was released, does that mean that the TV series is the true story? Well, you have the SDF-1 that supposedly fell from the sky, and then a story was made about the subsequent history and was televised. Then that became a movie. Then later, there was a Macross 7 incident, and a TV series was made about that. That’s basically how I see it.

Kawamori then told the interviewer, “They are all works of fiction. None of them are real.”

By this logic, then, Macross II fits neatly in with the rest of the series as a tantalizing ‘what if,’ or maybe even a show within a show. Whatever the case may be, though, Lovers Again is the oldest Macross available to watch legally in North America. On both Disney Plus and Hulu, where the franchise is now hosted globally, it is the first title in release order. 

AnimEigo will also release a full remaster on Blu-Ray this Fall, with new box art from Mikimoto; Plus has been released physically by Anime Limited, with Frontier, Zero, and Delta soon to follow. With its arcade game now available in North America for the first time, Macross II is also now the first installment in which Western fans can both watch the original title and play the accompanying game.

After years in the shadow of its older brother, it’s finally time for Macross II to be a star.

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Acknowledgements to Sean O’Mara and Marc Normandin, whose linked pieces helped fill in crucial background info and are well worth a read!

Madeline Blondeau has been writing about games since 2010. She’s written for Paste, Anime Herald, Anime News Network, CGM, and Lock-On, among others. In addition, she has written, hosted, and recorded film criticism podcast Cinema Cauldron. Her published fiction debut is due out between 2026 and 2027. You can support her work on Patreon, and find her on BlueSky @mads.haus.