AnimEigo to launch Macross II Kickstarter

Robert Woodhead, the founder of AnimEigo, has announced a Macross II Kickstarter will be launched when he spoke at North Carolina's Animazement event last week.

More details will be revealed on July 28th at the Otakon event in Washington DC, however Bigwest did announce back in 2022 that it would release the OVA on blu-ray, and Woodhead tweeted that this would be an HD transfer and not an upscale.

We've known about this kickstarter project for a while, as I contacted Robert and sent him the Macross II design masters uncovered in the UKA cupboard, which you can read about here.

Macross II was originally released in 1992, with now defunct label Kiseki handling distribution in the UK. The sequel was mostly successful in the US, as Japanese fans were more sensitive to the lack of input by series lead Shoji Kawamori who had been instrumental in the original show. The show did however feature character designs by original series legend Haruhiko Mikimoto and are as lovely as you'd expect.

Macross II has seen a recent resurgence in pop culture relevance with more merchandise being released in Japan, particularly more collectables featuring singing alien songstress Ishtar and even multiple Hi Metal R releases of the series' signature VF-2SS Valkyrie fighter.

Macross II was my first exposure to Macross and therefore has a special place in my heart, despite being the largely abandoned step-child of the Macross world. Hopefully this new HD release will give the series a second chance to win over audiences.