Macross Frontier will finally be released officially in the United States.
Fathom Events announced that it will bring the two Macross Frontier movies, The False Songstress and The Wings of Farewell, to the United States with one-night special screenings. The two movies tell a loose adaption of the 2008 Macross Frontier TV anime and feature a significant amount of new content. Both movies will be presented with their original Japanese audio tracks with English subtitles. The False Songstress will be screened on June 16, while The Wings of Farewell will debut on June 30.
The screenings will be the first time that a Macross series produced after 1995's Macross Plus will receive an official release in the United States. The franchise was previously caught up in a protracted legal battle between the Japanese rights holders to the series and Harmony Gold, the producers of Robotech, a 1985 American TV series that was partially created using edited footage from the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross. The dispute over who owned the American rights to the series prevented most of Macross' sequel series, including everything from 1997's Macross 7 all the way up to the current Macross Delta movies, from receiving distribution outside of Japan. The dispute was finally settled in early 2021, allowing the rest of the Macross franchise to finally make its way out of Japan, and freeing up Harmony Gold to continue production on its long-delayed Robotech live-action movie.
Set several decades after the events of the original series, Macross Frontier tells the story of Alto Saotome, a restless young man living on the titular Macross Frontier, a massive colony ship that is looking for a new planet to call home. The Frontier's journey into deep space is halted after it is attacked by the Vajra, a dangerous race of giant, insect-like aliens who are mysteriously drawn to both Ranka Lee, a friend of Alto who aspires to be a pop star, and Sheryl Nome, an established diva who is famous across the galaxy.
Frontier was a massive hit in Japan when it debuted in the region over a decade ago. The series topped Japanese sales charts when it was released on home video, and the show's soundtrack, which was composed by Cowboy Bebop's Yoko Kanno, was credited with inspiring a new boom of popularity for anime music.
The new screenings will be Fathom's second Macross release: late last year the special events company brought Macross Plus, which also featured a score by Kanno and was directed by Shinichiro Watanbe, to American theaters for the first time.