RIP Carl Macek

[Qyöt27]

For us older fans (and by 'older' I mean either age-wise or fandom-wise; I may only be 24 but I came into this in the mid-90s boom) that know who Carl Macek is, it somewhat comes as a shock that he passed away Saturday of a heart attack at 58. He was definitely a polarizing figure when it comes to Western anime fans, but he is one of the major forces responsible for breaking the ground in America so that the scene as we know it today could even exist.

I personally loved Robotech, I have all the novels, and it was one of the series that did initially get me into anime more than simply a passing view here or there, way back when Toonami (which has been no more for a couple years now, and even at that was a hollow shell of what it originally was for practically the entire second half of its existence) was in its first couple years. To this day I side firmly with Macross rather than Gundam in the mecha franchise of choice, and Robotech is the reason for that, as the Macross portion of the series was the least edited/adapted of the three (nevermind the fact I actually came in on it during the Southern Cross portion, but I caught the Macross part when it looped back around like Cartoon Network has always done).


More info here:
American Anime Producer Carl Macek Passes Away - Anime News Network

 

[MoonlessNight]

I heard about this awhile back, but I haven't passed by these forums for a long time, and I thought that Carl Macek deserved some more tribute.

Robotech was my first exposure to anime. I knew some die-hard fans (who had the whole thing on VHS, and all those tie in books,) but never really enjoyed it on the same level that they did (perhaps that's why I ended up firmly on the Gundam side of the Real Robot Gundam/Macross divide?) Nevertheless, my exposure to Robotech caused me to find out that there were a lot of anime out there, and most of them (at the time) were worth checking out.

I came across Macek again much later, when I started watching Aura Battler Dunbine (he handled the dub.) I think that this was a personal favorite series of his (I know that he wanted to follow up Robotech with a show that would combine Dunbine and L-Gaim.) Dunbine's popularity never really caught on, but it received a dub for the entire 49 episode run, and I have to think that Carl Macek must have pushed for it. At the time it seemed like all that was getting brought over were guaranteed hits, or short gimmicky fanservice series, so I'm glad that he did what he had to get it over here because I really loved Dunbine.