The following are themes commonly seen and established among the various series in the
Macross franchise.
U.N. Spacy The is a fictional space military arm of the . It was established by the successor to the modern
United Nations in order to defend Earth from a possible attack by hostile
aliens, and was involved in Space War I against an extraterrestrial race called the
Zentradi. Later operations of the U.N. Spacy expanded into interstellar
colonization and general
peacekeeping of off-world Earth settlements. The term "Spacy" is a portmanteau of the terms
Space and
Army or
Navy. Some Japanese sources also use the term
Space Army and some English-language sources use the term
Space Navy, suggesting that the term is a contraction.
Variable fighters The valkyrie fighter is one of a series of transformable aerospace
fighters, primarily designed by franchise creator
Shōji Kawamori and
Kazutaka Miyatake. They are generally able to transform into jet/space fighters, Battroid (a humanoid robot) and a hybrid of the two modes, called Gerwalk (Ground Effective Reinforcement of Winged Armament with Locomotive Knee-joint). The VF-1 was specifically named "Valkyrie", but all of the jet fighter craft have generically been referred to as such in the series since then.
Music Music is integral part to almost every
Macross title by having significances in a series' antagonists behavior towards it. Music
idols also play a central role to various
Macross stories. Often, the protagonist will be involved in a love triangle with a series' music idol; most notably,
Lynn Minmay.
Space fold Space folding permits nearly-instantaneous ultra-long distance travel: a space-fold transports a spacecraft in a very short amount of time by first swapping the location of the spacecraft with
super dimension space or subspace, and then swapping the
Super Dimension space with the space at the destination. According to U.N. Spacy First Lieutenant Hayase Misa during Space War I (2009–2012) an hour passes in super dimension space as approximately ten days passes in normal space. One of the latest
Macross TV series,
Macross Frontier, further expands on that concept by introducing fold faults or dislocations, which further retard fold travel and interfere with fold communications. Also explained in
Macross Frontier are the limitations of space folding, such as the geometric increase in energy requirement with the mass of the object to be folded, which prevents very large objects from being folded with ease across vast distances. The act of entering
Super Dimension space is called "fold in". When arriving at the destination, the act of leaving
Super Dimension space is called a "defold" or a "fold out".
Ancient astronauts The metaplot of the franchise is centered on a purportedly extinct humanoid alien race called the . It was first conceptualized during the pre-production of
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross when the creators were researching cultural studies to develop concepts used in the plot. According to official sources, the Protoculture was the
first advanced humanoid race in the universe—advanced Protoculture civilization started 500,000 years ago—and is the creator of the
Zentradi and
Homo sapiens. Phases of colonization resulted in the establishment of an "Interstellar Republic" (similar to a
galactic empire), which covers much of the
Milky Way galaxy 2800 years after Protoculture civilization started (498,000 years ago). A civil war happened sixty years later, resulting in a split in the Republic. One of the factions created "super-Zentradi" forces, which was later possessed by interdimensional beings—these forces are later called the "Protodeviln", which feeds on
life energy of both Protoculture and Zentradi; some of both the Protoculture and Zentradi was later brainwashed into the "Supervision Army". The Supervision Army continued to battle both the Protoculture and Zentradi, which resulted in the dwindling of Protoculture population; they revoked the prime directive that banned Zentradi from attacking the Supervision Army. This, however, made the war even more intense, and the Protoculture population sharply decreased; to avoid extinction, they seeded uninhabited planets by means of
pantropy and avoided any conflict as much as possible. This action included the genetic engineering of
Homo sapiens on Earth by combining Protoculture genes with native genes; a "sub-Protoculture" race meant for preparing the Earth for a future Protoculture colonization. The genetic engineering crew, however, was immediately destroyed by anti–Interstellar Republic military ships. The final blow of the war happened because of the Protoculture lost control of the Zentradi; 475,000 years ago, the Protoculture was believed extinct. However it was discovered that 10,000 years ago, the Protoculture remnants made contact with humans on Mayan Island, genetically re-engineering the native inhabitants to utilize the artifacts left behind by them. This included the "Bird Human" bio-mecha, tasked to destroy humanity if they are still in war.
Other elements The franchise also explores minor themes including
culture shock,
capitalism,
coming of age and
nostalgia. The new era following the end of Space War I is part of the ongoing fictional time-line of the
Macross franchise. The most recent series,
Macross Delta, is set 59 years after the start of the war with the Zentradi. Its main plot is about the spread of a rage virus on a star system and the combined efforts of singing idols and valkyrie fighters to stop it spreading. Along with
Gundam, a
real robot mecha series of which
Shoji Kawamori is a fan,
Macross explored how individuals cope with warfare. Whereas
Gundam is far more political and direct on the horrors of war, each
Macross television series is unique for never depicting the antagonists as inherently evil and proved in the end that love, culture, and music can be used to resolve their conflicts. ==Series chronology==