Harmony Gold Asks Fans to Enroll in 'Robotech Academy'

CBR

By JK Parkin

Published Jul 5, 2014

The producers of the original 'Robotech' series launch a Kickstarter to raise $500,000 to create a pilot for a new animated series.

Fans of the 1980s anime Robotech can help bring a new generation of mechas to the small screen through a new Kickstarter that launched yesterday.

Announced by producers Harmony Gold at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, Robotech Academy is based on an idea by Carl Macek, producer and story editor for the original Robotech, who passed away in 2010. The new animated series would follow several new cadets in their adventures around the Robotech universe.

“We’re thrilled to finally be able to tell the world about Robotech Academy,” Tommy Yune, president of animation for Harmony Gold, said in a press release. “Over the last few years, Harmony Gold has been working hard to answer fan demand for a new Robotech project. The next step involves fans, who will be instrumental in supporting a crowdfunded Robotech project and making series creator Carl Macek’s original vision for Robotech Academy a reality.”

Harmony Gold has brought together several names familiar with Robotech to produce the pilot episode, including writer Ford Riley, who penned Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles; producer Cesar Turturro of Creavision Studios, the group behind the Robotech: Valkyrie Project fan film; and producer Tommy Yune, director of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

Through the Kickstarter, Harmony Gold is seeking $500,000 to make a 24-minute pilot episode, with prizes for backers ranging from digital copies of the program to opportunities to name a character. The Kickstarter ends on Aug. 7.

The 85-episode science fiction anime adaptation Robotech hit airwaves in the United States back in 1985, and was produced by Harmony Gold in association with Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. The story was adapted, with edited content and revised dialogue, from three different Japanese anime series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. The series spawned several tie-in comics from a rage of publishers over the years, from Comico to Wildstorm, as well as video games, toys and novels. A film adaptation has been in the works at Warner Bros. for a while, with Akiva Goldsman and Tobey Maguire on board to produce and Nic Mathieu set to direct.