Macross II is not in the same continuity as the other Macross series.

And IIRC, the original Macross TV series is not in the same continuity as the Macross: Love, Do You Remember? movie, which is the basis for all the other series.

Then there’s the Brian Daley Robotech books, including the Sentinels, versus the Waltrip Bros. comics of the Robotech: The Sentinels,

And then there’s the Robotech movie, based on Megazone 23, which is generally ignored by everybody.

Meltraedi or Meltrandi or Meltran are still Zentraedi… and reffered to by both terms essentially Meltran and Zentran are the Zentraedi language terms for Female and Male repsectivly. However since the two parts of the race were strictly segregated prior to becoming cultured they are sometimes reffered to by the gender terms as racial terms (much more so because in the movie version of Macross they were actually at war with each other… that movie exists as a movie in the Macross world and shapes a lot o public conception).

And Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross, is not related to Macross plot wise no… but production wise it is to some extent… it was one of two shows created as sort of conceptual sequals to Macross (think of something like Ultraman or Super Sentai that re-invents itself every year, or Combattler V and Voltes V, shows that are connected by concept but not story), though even this is dubious because Southern Cross had a long evolution point before it became a transforming robot show with space aliens… and it was a conceptual sequal created by the animation studio for Macross and not the studio which created the designs and story.

Regaurdless SDC: Southern Cross aired along side, re-runs of Macross as a cash in to create a “super dimension hour” of sorts, as did it’s immediate predecesor in the “super dimension trilogy” Super Dimension Century Orguss.

so just some key differences for you, that wern’t touched on yet.

In Macross, Protoculture is the PROTOtype human CULTURE, they were a vast human federation that created hyperspace folding (after studying the Varja), and eventually the Zentraedi. They were virutually wiped out in a civil war between the Zentraedi and the Supervision Army (which came under the sway of a power which shows up in Macross 7).

Much of Macross, like Robotech revolves around unravelling the mystery of Protoculture… but what Protoculture is is totally different.

I’m one of those who enjoys a lot of the suplemental material created for Robotech… so don’t worry, that’s okay.

And welcome to the Macross fan community.

And just to correct a little mistake that ThePlasticWerks made, Ranka is indeed the daughter of Ranshe Mei but she is not related to Mao Nome (from Macross Zero), the character that is related to Mao is Sheryl, because she is Mao´s granddaughter

I’m glad that you know what the original Macross is, but Macross and Robotech are totally different universes that split off from the first anime. Robotech is comprised of three otherwise unrelated anime series: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (similar name aside, is totally unrelated to the original Macross), and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The
Japanese Macross is a single, fluid continuity comprised of SDF Macross, Macross II, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Zero, and Macross Frontier, not to mention a few other movies and OVAs.

To highlight the differences, Dana is Max’s daughter in Robotech, but looks nothing like him or her mother. This is because Southern Cross is a standalone anime unrelated to Macross, although it shares transforming mecha and aliens. The female lead of Southern Cross, Jeanne Fránçaix, is her own character – in the creation of the Robotech continuity, she simply became Max and Miriya’s daughter.

In the Macross universe, Maximilian Jenius has seven kids and another adopted daughter scattered across the stars – in Macross 7, a picture of a 20-year-old Komillia (AKA Dana in the original R-Tech) shows she has green hair like her mother (the same color she was born with).

I like to think of them as alternate universes with a common origin. To use a religious analogy Macross is the Old Testament, which is also the Judaic scriptures, while the New Testament of Robotech is unique to Christianity. One starting point, two branches.

Thusly, things seem a little backward if you watch Frontier with a Robotech background. In Macross, the tech has consistently looked like real-world aircraft, simply getting sleeker as time goes on – the reasoning being that Valkyries (Veritechs in RT) travel with colony ships, and will hopefully one day end up in an atmosphere. If you don’t know when you’re going to land, you may as well have one weapon that can do it all rather than have vast fleets of unusable equipment mothballed for who knows how long. This is why you don’t have your boxy Alpha descendants – the Valkyries have a long, established design continuity, whereas the Alphas were simply written into the RT story. Check out the Mecha section of MAHQ.net to see Valks from other Macross series – in their Anime section, you can also find episode recaps from every Macross series!

Frontier occurs just under fifty years from the original series, so all the heroes are in their mid-sixties and likely kicking around (Max and Millia were in Macross 7, which occurred a few years before Frontier – mid-50s and still kicking ass!). Ranka is the descendant of Mao Nome from Macross Zero (the prequel to Macross). Mao is only a few years younger than Rick (Hikaru), Max, and company, making her their contemporary (in fact, she met Roy’s former wingman Shin, but not Roy himself – her offscreen relationship to the cast of Macross is unknown). Ranka is Mao’s granddaughter – we even see a picture of an aged Mao in Frontier (who is the “Dr. Mao” referenced a few times). Whoever came in between is a mystery, but Max only had daughters in Macross – Ranshe Mei, who we see as Ranka’s mother, is not one of them, and Max has no known grandchildren (Komillia/Dana would be 46 by Frontier).

Klan Klein’s condition is a weird uncorrectable genetic flaw – her wingmates are also Zentraedi (Meltrandi, actually, in Macross terminology) and micronize normally. Her age doesn’t change at all, but her body does, and her behavior in response to her body. And while we’re on it, Mr. Kawamori (creator of the Macross saga) took some liberties and did things with Zentradi that we’ve never seen before – namely, pointy ears and moving hair. No real reason to do it other than to make them a little more overtly non-human.

I think you’ll appreciate Frontier a lot more with a little more research into the real Macross universe.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=28539