SDF-1 Macross

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The SDF-1 Macross is a fictional interstellar transforming spacecraft from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, an anime science fiction series that aired in Japan in 1982–1983, and its American adaptation Robotech (1985).^[2][3] SDF (Super Dimension Fortress) is a reference to the ship being a maneuverable space fortress capable of space folds, or travelling in subspace for faster-than-light movement. Mechanical designer Kazutaka Miyatake of Studio Nue created the original SDF-1 ship design for the first Macross anime series.^[4] The fictional ship has also appeared on many videogames set in the Macross universe.^[5][6]

In February 2009, the special event Macross: The Super Dimension Space Launching Ceremony was held in Akihabara to celebrate the fictional launch date of the SDF-1.^[7] During the event, the toy manufacturer Yamato displayed the prototype for a 1/2000 scale replica toy of the SDF-1.^[8]

History and background

In both the fictional Macross and Robotech continuities a massive alien spaceship, 1210 meters (3,970 feet) long, crashes onto an unsuspecting Earth in the year 1999, on an island in the Pacific Ocean.^[7][9] In Macross, the island is called South Ataria Island, and is located at the extreme end of the "Ogasawara Island chain".^[10] In the Robotech Universe the island is known as Macross Island and is located in an unspecified area in the South Pacific. Inspection of the wreckage showed that the spaceship was manned by giant aliens several times larger than humans and that their technology was centuries and probably millennia beyond Earth's.^[7]

The alien ship is revealed to be a war vessel.^[11] As a result of this humanity realizes that there exists a potential threat beyond Earth and some believe an international government should be established to unite the world against any hostile aliens. The action to unify the world under one government leads to a new world war, called the U.N. Wars in Macross and Global Unification War in Robotech, where hold-out nations fight and ultimately lose the battle to remain independent.^[9][12]

The crashed ship is rebuilt and a city, called Macross City grows up around it.^[9] During the reconstruction, the huge ship is given the hull number SDF-1 for "first ship of the Super Dimension Fortress type" or "Super Dreadnought Fortress" and the name "Macross".^[1][13] Like most military designations in Macross, the ship's hull number formatting is based on that used by the United States Navy. In 2009, manned by a completely human crew the ship was prepared for its maiden voyage to seek out alien cultures and seek peace - its initial goal being never to start a fight. Giant alien humanoids called the Zentradi arrive in the solar system with a force of several hundred ships at this time, looking for the spacecraft which belonged to their enemies. The SDF-1 turns out to be "booby trapped" (preprogrammed to fire its main gun at its enemies when they find the ship).^[9][14] The human crew of the ship are unable to stop it from firing at the Zentradi, forcing the humans to commit to a war with aliens. After a failed attempt to take off using its alien gravity control systems, which tore through the ship's hull, the renovated alien spaceship takes off using earth-made rocket thrusters. During battle with the Zentradi, the SDF-1 attempts to draw the enemy away from the island and the civilian population using its space fold capability to travel to the far side of the Moon so it can rendezvous with the human space fleet. However, the first space fold transported the ship, the island and part of the surrounding sea to the orbit of Pluto instead of the Moon. After rescuing the civilians from the island the ship underwent refit with a civilian and business sector built into the aft section hull and was also docked with the CVS-101 Prometheus and the SLV-111 Daedalus sea carriers from February to March 2009. Due to the loss of the Fold system during the first space fold the SDF-1 "Macross" crew was forced to implement a modular transformation to the ship each time the main gun was used. According to series creator Shoji Kawamori, the whole process takes about 15 minutes.^[15] The resulting transformation changed the external appearance of the ship and made it look like a giant robot, which was called the "Storm Attacker" mode in the original Macross series.^{[3][9][16][17][18]}

The Super Dimension Fortress One (SDF-1) Macross in "Storm Attacker" mode.

In Macross

In the original Macross anime series the SDF-1 Macross was the flagship of the United Nations Spacy.^[19][20] Gunsight One was the tactical call-sign for the bridge of the SDF-1.^[21] The bridge crew included captain Bruno J. Global (Henry Gloval in Robotech), chief tactical officer Misa Hayase (Lisa Hayes, who was promoted to executive officer in Robotech) and chief weaponry officer Claudia LaSalle (Claudia Grant in Robotech).^[9][22] The final three members of the bridge crew were Kim Kabirov, Shammy Milliome, and Vanessa Laird (Kim Young, Sammy Porter, and Vanessa Leeds in Robotech, also referred to as the "Bridge Bunnies").^[9][23]

In the 1982 TV series the ship was originally a gun destroyer that belonged to a group of aliens called The Supervision Army. After being damaged in a battle against their longtime enemies, The Zentradi, the Supervision Army abandoned the gun destroyer. It wandered through space for some time before reaching Earth.

The alien ship was called Alien Star Ship 1 (ASS-1) upon discovery.^[24] The arrival of the ASS-1 provoked the "U.N. Wars", since it motivated a movement to unite Earth under a U.N. controlled military government. This war was bloody and lasted throughout most of the first decade of the new millennium. In the course of that decade, the ASS-1 is rebuilt on the island where it crashed and renamed SDF-1 "Macross" (a term coined from Macro to imply its massive size).^[1] (Note: English-speaking fans have extrapolated that the "-ss" suffix stands for space ship, but this is not an official explanation from the Japanese creators. The "-ss" originated from "-su" in the Japanese pronunciation (makurosu), which in turn was derived from the Japanese pronunciation of Macbeth ("makubesu"), a pre-production name that one of the show's producers, an admirer of Shakespeare, initially suggested. "Macross" was settled upon as a compromise.^[15]

In Macross, the Zentradi captain involved in the kamikaze run in the last episode was named Quamzin Kravshera. His assault doesn't completely destroy the Macross but does result in severe damage to the ship, including the loss of its main cannon and the Daedalus landing craft. The ship is repaired and refitted, and it returns to service as UN Spacy headquarters. The missing Daedalus and remaining Prometheus carrier are replaced by a pair of ARMD class carriers. The bridge crew also survives almost unscratched and Macross city remains a thriving city.

In The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? 1984 animated film adaptation of the original series the SDF-1 was a female Zentradi (Meltlandi) Gun Destroyer that crashed on Earth after being chased by the male Zentradi. Since the male Zentradi and the female Zentradi or Meltlandi had already been at war for hundreds of thousands of years its prescence on Earth after being rebuilt causes the male Zentradi fleet to destroy the world's surface as soon as it is discovered by them some time before the begining of the film. The SDF-1 Macross folds out of Earth just as the Zentradi attack and begins its journey back to the planet to investigate what happened. The events prior to the film were shown in new footage created for a videogame based on the film adaptation released in Japan in the late 90s.^[25][26]The movie version SDF-1 ship had also ARMD UN Spacy space carriers already attached to the main ship since it was built, as opposite to the TV series where the carriers were supposed to join the ship in Earth's orbit.

In 2040 (Macross Plus), the virtual idol AI Sharon Apple attained sentience, and during festivities marking the 30th anniversary the treaty between Earth and the Zentradi that ended Space War I, hacked into the systems of the entire Earth defense network, which included the original SDF-1 Macross. During this incident, Sharon Apple caused Macross to briefly launch from the artificial lake that it had rested in since 2010. Furthermore, Sharon Apple used its abilities and the SDF-1 Macross' communications facilities to attempt to control the minds of nearly everybody on Earth. However, UN Spacy pilots Isamu Alva Dyson and Guld Goa Bowman and civilian Myung Fang Lone were able to defuse the incident destroying Sharon Apple in the process.

In 2059 (Macross Frontier), during a flight across the skies of Galia 4 Alto Saotome and Ranka Lee make an emergency landing and they discover the wreckage of a first-generation Macross class ship called SDFN-04 "Global" that belonged to the 117th Large Scale Research Fleet. This ship completely resembles the Macross as it appears in 2040 during the events of Macross Plus. This suggests the original Macross design was put into production at least 20 years previous of Macross Frontier Fleet's launch (this was seen in episode 13, "Memory of Global"). Also, the Global appears to have a pair of ARMD class carriers "docked" to its arms like the original DYRL Macross. In the final episode of Macross Frontier, a glimpse of Earth's Macross City appears, showing that the original SDF-1 "Macross" ship still sits in its center and continues to fulfill its assigned task of planetary defense.

In Robotech

In the American Robotech adaptation, the fictional spacecraft was originally the flagship of an alien scientist named Zor, who was killed as he sent the spacecraft to Earth. A race of aliens called the "Robotech Masters" wanted Zor's battlefortress because it held the Protoculture generator (a fuel source Zor cultivated from the Invid flower that led to further development of the Robotech Masters and Zentraedi technologies that were fundamental to interstellar domination which, in order to maintain them, all depended on the Protoculture fuel source). The Robotech Masters then sent the Zentraedi, their army of cloned warriors, to find Zor's ship.

In the Robotech version, there was already a massive bloody "global civil war" going on throughout the 1990s when "the visitor" first arrived in 1999. "The Visitor" motivated several of the warring factions to put their differences aside to create the "United Earth Defense Council", which served as the head of a global military government. After the creation of the UEDC, there were a few minor skirmishes with dissenting nations, but it was not on the scale of the "global civil war" that came before it, nor was it on the scale of the U.N. Wars in the Macross version. After dealing with those minor skirmishes, work proceeded to rebuild "the visitor" which was eventually renamed not Macross but simply SDF-1. In Robotech, Macross was the name of the island in the South Pacific that the spaceship crashed on, not the name of the ship. In the Macross version, the island was called South Ataria Island. Hence, in Robotech, Macross city was named after the island it was founded on, while in the Macross version, it was named after the ship it grew up around.

The ensuing war between the Earth forces and the Zentradi would be retrospectively labeled Space War I in Macross. In Robotech, it would be retrospectively labeled The First Robotech War.

After the kamikaze run by the disgruntled Zentraedi (named Khyron in Robotech), the SDF-1 is destroyed beyond repair. The SDF-2, the SDF-1's sister ship which was to be under Lisa Hayes's command, is also destroyed. Admiral Gloval, the Bridge Bunnies, and Claudia Grant perish in the attack, but Lisa Hayes is ejected in an escape pod at the last possible moment by the Admiral himself, and survives. New Macross City becomes too radioactive to be habitable, and is abandoned. The SDF-1's radioactive hulk along with the wreckage of the SDF-2 and Khyron's battlecruiser are buried under three gigantic mounds, and the city surrounding it is completely leveled.

Other uses

The original SDF-1 ship design was imported to the Convertors toy line in the 1980s as a Maladroid character.^{[citation needed]}

References

See also

• SDF-2
• SDF-3
• SDF-4

External links

Macross:

• Macross Class at Macross Wiki

Robotech:

• SDF-1 at Robotech.com