Artists from Macross Frontier and Macross Delta released new art to celebrate the series' new 40th anniversary album and concert.
The new art was revealed on AnimeAnime.jp and features Macross Delta's leading idol group, Walkure, and their new rivals, Yami_Q_Ray. The new band, which serves as a dark counterpart to Walkure, made their debut in the latest movie in the iconic mecha franchise, Macross Delta: Zettai Live!!!!!!, which was released in Japan last October. Risa Ebata, who served as the character designer for 2008's Macross Frontier, created two new illustrations of Walkure and their new musical adversaries, while Macross Delta character and costume designer Chisato Mita portrayed the edgy new group in a new poster for the real-life Walkure band's next concert.
In addition to promoting the new concert, the art was released to tie-in with the new Macross crossover album, which sees Walkure performing songs from Macross Frontier's Yoko Kanno-composed soundtrack, while Megumi Nakajima, the voice of Ranka Lee, and May'n, the singing voice of Sheryl Nome, cover songs from the Delta anime. The album is scheduled to be released in Japan on April 6.
The new album and concert are part of the celebration surrounding the 40th anniversary of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross' Japanese premiere in 1982. In the decades since its original broadcast, Macross has become one of the anime industry's longest running and most influential mecha anime franchises, and has spawned multiple sequel series, spinoffs, movies and video games.
The series was originally brought to the West as one of three anime series that were re-cut and rewritten to form the basis of Harmony Gold's Robotech, which was broadcast in syndication in 1985. A decades-long legal battle between Harmony Gold and the Japanese owners of the franchise prevented the release of new Macross material internationally for several years, but the case was finally settled in 2021. Harmony Gold is now free to move forward with the production of its long-awaited live-action Robotech movie, while Macross is receiving its first official international releases in years: Macross Plus, which was directed by Cowboy Bebop's Shinichiro Watanabe, was given a limited release in North American theaters last November, and the recent Macross Frontier anniversary concert received an official worldwide livestream.
Despite the end of the franchise's long legal battles, the series' producers have yet to announce international releases for Macross 7, Macross Frontier, and Macross Delta. A new Robotech boxset was released in 2021 by Funimation.
Source: AnimeAnime.jp
