Robotech
Robotech is a 1985 mecha anime, and one of the earliest big import series into the English-speaking world. In fact, it was arguably one of the first anime created for the English-speaking world, since Robotech was created by butchering three completely unrelated (but visually similar) short-run sci-fi/mecha animes - Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA - and redubbing them to present them as different sagas in a single ongoing multigenerational combat. Due to being one of the first major anime dubs to be aired on English-speaking TV channels, Robotech can be credited with exposing Western audiences to the (at the time) greater maturity and seriousness of anime compared to comics and cartoons, and thus paving the way for the [/a/|anime & manga]] boom.
Plot
Long ago, a race of humanoid aliens (the Tirolians) landed on a planet of bug aliens (the Invid), and learned that a flower native to the Invid's homeworld could be transformed into both a superfuel and a genetic modifying agent. The Tirolians promptly ravaged the planet to claim all of this plant, which the Invid called "the Flower of Life" and the Tirolians called "Protoculture", using it to advance their own culture. Most prominently engineering a race of giant cloned warrior-slaves called the Zentraedi (or Zentradi, however you prefer) to go out and conquer worlds for them. Unfortunately for the Tirolians, the guy who found the Invid's homeworld (Zor) had his own agenda; he only gave them sterile cloned versions of the Flower of Life, and kept the real seeds for himself aboard his personal warship. Eventually, he grew sick of the other Tirolians, by this point now calling themselves "the Robotech Masters", and sent his ship off into deep space, result in both the Tirolians and their Zentraedi forces suffering a critical fuel supply shortage that would ultimately doom both races if not arrested, and resulting in the Zentraedi being sent out to find Zor's battleship... which also gave the Invid, newly transformed into a race of biomechanical killing machines, a chance to launch a devastating war against the Tirolians for the remaining supply of Protoculture.
Nice going, Zor.
Zor's battleship crashlands on a deserted island on Earth in July 1999, interrupting World War 3 and causing humanity to get its shit together to study this new technology and form a united military in case whoever created the ship comes back from it. Reverse-engineering its systems gives them "Robotechnology", which mostly means energy weapons, forcefields, and mecha - the most impressive of which, during the first saga, is the Veritech; a space-capable jet fighter that can transform partially or wholly into a giant humanoid robot. They also repair and rebuild the battleship, finally getting it ready to travel back into space again in February 2009...
Which is when a Zentraedi fleet shows up on Earth and an automated attack from the "SDF-1", as the rebuilt ship is called, blows up some scouting vessels, causing the Zentraedi to discover that it's on Earth.
Nice going, Zor.
Thus begin the Robotech Wars...
The First Robotech War
The SDF-1, due to the ignorance of humanity knowing that you do not try to make a hyperspace dimensional jump in a planet's orbit, attempts to flee the attacking Zentraedi by "folding" to the Moon. Instead, they teleport the SDF-1, the entire city that had sprung up around it, and two aircraft carriers into orbit around Pluto. Luckily, they manage to get the civilians and a plethora of useful materials into the ship, to the point of literally rebuilding the city in its cavernous interior, and weld the ships to the SDF-1's sides for added firepower. The first half of the war consists of the SDF-1 trying to fight its way back to Earth, followed by a devastating battle that ravages the Earth and the Zentraedi alike, resulting in a forced peace due to mutual near-annihilation. Cue a roughly 10-15 year period of rebuilding wherein the majority of Zentraedi fail to adjust to civilian life and retreat to the devastated southern hemisphere to rearm. Humanity decides not to leave things to chance and forms the Army of the Southern Cross to exterminate the Zentraedi, which they do.
The Second Robotech War
Learning about the existence of Protoculture (but not that the Flower of Life is hidden within the wreckage of the SDF-1, because the Zentraedi themselves didn't know this because of certain events in the First Robotech War making them think it had vanished from the battleship), and the Robotech Masters, humanity sends an expeditionary fleet to Tirol for a preemptive strike... but ironically, once the fleet is gone, then the Robotech Masters show up at Earth. In fact, the Robotech Masters have had their collective asses kicked by the Invid, and want to seize the universe's last supply of Protoculture from humanity without alerting the Invid as to where it can be found. Instead, they cause a new war with humanity that ultimately ends with the Flower of Life being literally seeded across Earth, which alerts the Invid (currently battling the Earth expeditionary fleet and the remnants of the Tirolians left on Tirol) that they can find Protoculture on Earth.
The Third Robotech War
Invid divisions break away from the Tirolian war and invade Earth, crushing the devastated Earth military and conquering the planet. Soldiers are sent back to Earth from the expeditionary fleet to try and liberate their homeworld from the Invid... twice. Both times end in a devastating defeat for the Robotech Expeditionary Forces and leave the Earth devastated and depopulated. Survivors of the liberation forces go to ground and try to maintain a guerrilla war, eventually finding some success as the Invid become distracted with the possibilities offered by the Flower of Life and human DNA. Eventually, the Invid evolve into energy-based lifeforms that leave the Earth rather than allow it to be destroyed by a vengeful Robotech Expeditionary Force, who have returned with powerful new weapons and are willing to obliterate the Earth than allow it to remain under Invid control.
The Shadow War
An incomplete, American-original story made to try and milk the franchise in the 90s, redone in the 00s, and revived in the 10s to try and reboot the franchise, the Shadow War covers the battle between the Protoculture-fearing Shadows and humanity. Given it's incomplete state, there's not much to say about it.
Races
Humans: Good old humanity. Notable in this series as being the only species that still has a culture outside of warfare, although ironically they become increasingly militarized and aggressive as alien races keep kicking the shit out of them. Weirdly, human DNA is remarkably similar to that of both the Zentraedi and their Tirolian makers; in the base material, this is because they were all different branches of a long-shattered precursor race, the "Protoculture", but in Robotech canon this is chalked up as just an incredibly unlikely but ultimately happened chance.
Zentraedi: Giant humanoids engineere by the Tirolians - originally as super-sized laborers, then repurposed as warriors. Are strictly segregated into one-gender ships, reproduce by cloning, and have no culture outside of warfare and military functions. This is one of the Tirolian control methods to keep them in line. The other is strictly modulating just how well they understand the technology they rely upon - Zentraedi can use robotechnology, but they can't fix it. They depend entirely on the Tirolians to repair, restore and replace anything that can't be crudely patched up. Humanity's ability to build and create fascinates them, even if they do initially fail to realize that a lot of the shit humanity is doing aboard the SDF-1 is wild guesswork and a lot of dumb luck. Humans ultimately manage to subvert many Zentraedi to their cause by showing them the existence of a world outside of fighting, although in the long years of peace after the First Robotech War, many of those converts ultimately fail to handle peace and go back to fighting.
Tirolians: Master scientists who live in a culture where everyone is part of a triad, and/or a biomechanical entity. The pioneers of Robotechnology.
Invid: Hive-minded alien bugs that could consciously mutate themselves by consuming the Flower of Life. Initially believed extinct when the Tirolians took all the Flowers of Life, they survived, mutated into combat forms, then came after them for revenge. Then came to Earth when the Flowers of Life bloomed again. Ultimately, they evolve into energy beings and fuck off into deepest space.
Reception
You have to remember, Robotech was one of the biggest anime of the mid-80s... but it's also so edited, even beyond the whole "weld three unrelated series together by redubbing them" thing and the addition of a constantly intervening narrator, that a lot of anime purists revile it. At the same time, this was the first mainstream encounter with "cartoons" that had serious storylines and genuine depth; this was one of the first times that 80s kids saw main characters die. No beating around the bush, either, characters were legitimately killed off! Because of this, there's also a very loyal fandom for the series as well.
The novelizations, however, are
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in printed form, being pretty much hated by almost every fan, save for a small crowd of diehards, and have been ignored by all other delves into the series.
/tg/ Relevance
One of the first big successes for Palladium was licensing the official Robotech RPG - remember, this series was fucking huge in the late 80s. Palladium then tried to create a squad-based tactical miniatures game called Robotech RPG Tactics... which was a steaming pile of crap, even by Palladium standards.
A new mainline Robotech RPG was released in 2019 by Battlefield Press.
Robotech also was one of the inspirations for the RPG Battle Century G by GimmickMan, particularly in a number of powers ones mech can have such as missile barrage and transformations.
Macross
No discussion of Robotech can be had without a discussion of Macross. This mecha franchise began with Super Dimension Fortress Macross and continued with several sequels, prequels, and spin-offs for another 35 years, often drawing on and combining the aspects of music, mecha, and civilization in different ways. However, unlike SDF Macross (and SDC Southern Cross), almost none of the later works have been exported to the West. The problem lies in the snarl of contracts, trademarks, and copyright conflicts surrounding the original production and the subsequent licensing of the first series to Harmony Gold, creators of Robotech. Suffice to say, fans of Macross are still bitter that Harmony Gold owns all the trademarks in the US and Europe but none of the rights, and always tries to get its cut.
As this is not an anime wiki, that's all we'll say on the subject.