So many people never learned or don't properly appreciate just how ahead of its time Robotech was for America when it came to animation. I was born in 76 so all I ever had until Robotech came out in 85, aside from a few like Thundarr the Barbarian, Voltron, Transformers, and GI Joe, which was all still rather sanitized for young kids. lol Like in GI Joe you could bail out of ANYTHING and treat it like hopping out of bed. Bahahahaha! Ten billion laser blasts and not one person actually shot. :) All the rest took that even further like Disney, Hanna Barbera, Loony Toons, and about the most violent thing was lol, all of Tom and Jerry. All in all it was cartoonish harmless violence. Then Robotech comes along and says hold my beer and frags most of humanity in almost literal hellfire and SHOWS IT. lol It was like buckle up butter cup, I'm going to show you what war really looks like. This was not your mom's cartoon so to speak. It went so far as to kill off main characters in a time where nobody ever dies in most TV shows and sure as hell doesn't in cartoons. I'm in my 40s now and it's hard to remember that far back, but I think when Roy Fokker died it may very well of been the first time in my life watching something gave me an actual visceral reaction. It opened the door for so many other great shows that treated animation as merely another art form. Not something that has to be for kids. It's a shame what Harmony Gold has done to the franchise.

I remembered seeing the ships charge up for firing, and I was still convinced that there was going to be some cheap last-minute save, only to see them fire. All my brother and I could react was mutter in horror, "Oh my God! They actually did it!"

Alien: destroy most of the population on earth and irrevocably mess it up. Humans: "....Alright then... our turn."

What gets me is the shot of the two Soldiers on the Tank getting vaporized a second before the Tank blows up.

“When are we going to Zentraedi Prime?” “I don’t know, but we’re burning it down when we get there.”

'Emperor Dolza, we have detected a high energy reaction coming from the third planet.' Dolza: 'Third plan....wait...what...'

I just saw this series a few days ago. Binged it. I remember thinking when the Zentradi showed up, "Haha I'd just attack Earth, not the Macross" and then he commands an attack on Earth. I'm like "ok well grand multi episode battle, nice" and he fucking DECIMATED the Earth. I still can't believe they did that.

As a kid, I was IMPRESSED that a 'cartoon' would allow genocide to be inflicted on earth and the 4 million ship number.

Everyone is freaking out over the devastation of Earth, but here I am flummoxed that they made a weapons platform so heavy that it can't even take a step without crushing the hull plating of the ship it's deploying from.

GI Joe cartoon - a hundred jet fighters are shot down and we see a hundred parachutes Robotech - 4 million Zentraedi warships appear out of hyperspace and nearly wipeout all life on the Earth's surface.

imagine being a kid in 80's and reacting at this images. that was creepy. very impressive and shoking

I have all 3 generations on hard drive. Havent watched them in 30 years or so. I remember getting home from school just in time to watch, record and pause during commercials on the Betamax player.

Minute 3:29. Several years passed and I'm still affected when the soldier hugs the girl to protect her ...

This scene alone, the bombardment, singularly sparked my interest in space, getting off this rock as fast as we can, and the idea of creating and maintaining actual defenses in case someone DOES come to visit with a Big Stick.

I remember how freaking intense this was when it first aired in the U.S. I couldn't believe a "mere cartoon" would show death on this scale or deal with the aftermath. Between this, "Mach Go Go Go" and "Gatchaman" I became an anime fan for life.

Watching that cloud vaporize; one of my favourite pieces of animation.

This was the best episode of the series when the planet Earth gets attacked. Earth gets devastated but still fights back, but it still doesn't sanitize the war, when people get killed they get killed and the few scenes show it.

35 years later and I still get the chills.

Zentraedi: i destroyed 70% of your planet Super Cannon: so u choose DEATH

In the 80's up through the 90's we'd called this being Dolzad as in, you just got Dolzad because whenever we roleplayed or played any game it usually resulted in one side going into MAD or games just resulting in whoever could Dolza the other gamer first if we got locked in a stalemate or wanted denial of resources to gain footholds or advantages.

I recall reading someplace (in Jack McKinney's Robotech novelizations most likely) that when the Grand Cannon fires it destroys more Zentraedi warships in that single moment than all of their other warships ever lost combined.

I absolutely love that this feels so much like "crisis narrowly averted" right up until, y'know, it's not averted

In essence, Macross did not went to save Earth from the Zentradi, but simply to save what the Zentradi had MISSED.

You do realize if an advanced species do visit Earth and declare war, it's not gonna some Hollywood invasion but a total wipe from orbit.

I just love that blast from the grand cannon

I remember as a sheltered kid in the 80’s on a steady diet of He-Man and Transformers watching this it just blew my mind. People dying even kids with cities and ships full of crews vaporized. Yeah it was traumatic but you have to grow up sooner or later.

Even as someone who has watched this for the first time because I didn't follow Robotech much as a kid, this is still an amazing scene with the tension building up to the GIGANTIC FLEET preparing to fire at Earth. Previously it had been established that if the Zentreadi were serious about wiping out humanity, they'd do it. And the dub didn't pull any punches, the bombardment annihilated most of humanity.

I was in my early twenties when this came out . I was hooked on this thing called Anime . Also met someone who had some of the uncensored comic books from Japan that was translated to English . He let me read the collection that he had at the time and would bring over a new set that came directly from Japan , after he read them first of course .

When you realize your playing on max difficulty and you haven't unlocked the Minmay defence yet.

I was a few years out of High school when ROBOTECH aired on US TV. I grew up in the late 60s early 70s and was exposed to shows like Gigantor, Kimba the white lion, Speed Racer, and Marineboy. Then came Space Cruiser Yamato aka Space BattleshipYamato-Star Blazers. First, there was the movie on TV around 1978, afterward had to settle for the likes of Battle of the Planets, which was a watered down version of Gatchaman, and then my freshmen year of high school Star Blazers. After I graduated in 83 I had to settle for Voltron until ROBOTECH came along. WOW! I was hooked and still a fan in my late 50s.

1:17 when your mech so thicc she buckles the floor under her awesomeness 😂🙌🏻

Back story when the grand cannon fired the zentradi lost more ships in that one instant than ever before.

Best part of the entire series for me. It's really well directed, animated and the musical score is perfect. And of course, the performances of all of the voice actors is phenomenal at the beginning here.

Her: Our sensors can't fix on all of them. Him: ...I have to go now. LOL!!!

Japan has the most grounded and realistic takes on war.

I loved this show when I was a kid. Uses to wake up to watch it at 6am. It got me out of bed.

I'm can't help but imagine how intense it was first aired in the mid 80s during the Cold War with the fear of Nuclear annihilation. Scary stuff for kids to exposed to. I was much too young but my brother introduced me to this show when it reaired in the mid 90s in Cartoon Network. My reaction would pale to how a 80s kid would react.

Goes to show, aliens are always badass when they get to earth and throw the first punch, but the old human race, with our extreme knowledge of mass destruction, always ends up landing the knockout blow that puts the invaders down for good.

Invid looked at this and thought, "Aw, that's cute..."

The Destroid Monster was always my favorite, wish you saw more of them in the show.

0:45 taking the impending annihilation of Earth so casually! 😂

Best cartoon series on TV in the US...ever! 👍 👏

Now THAT is an extinction-level attack by the Zentraedi!

Like all good things,they don,t last!I grew up with this!They will never make cartoons like this,anymore?That was a classic!

Years later after I purchased the DVD set for Robotech, I watched the destruction scene over and over in slow motion. The animation was amazing for it's time. I was 14 when I saw Robotech on tv; I couldn't believe they showed the practical annialation of the human race in a kids cartoon.

As ridiculous as it is to believe a world that fought a world war to unify out of sheer terror of a potential alien invasion and gained the technology to rebuild the SDF-1 wouldn't build innumerable shelters and shields for cities and rush everyone into those shelters the moment any aliens appeared, I gotta say it's totally awesome that the response to the bombardment was to calmly return fire. Something the Zentradi not doubt had *absolutely* never imagined happening.

All of earth is destroyed... "VERY GOOD THEN, WE WILL BEGIN THE COUNTDOWN AT ONCE"

that freaking grand reflex cannon, so fucking epic we need shit like that pronto

The absolute best 80’s animated tv series. Pure war from different perspectives. Still Nothing like it. It Needs a feature film!

As a kid from the 80’s watching this blew my mind. I knew this was not your typical after school cartoon!!!

This, & Space Battleship Yamato, A.K.A. Star Blazers here in the U.S., the after school rush to get home & Watch, theses were more important than Homework!!😂🤣😁😎

Wait a Sec! 4 MILLION SHIPS!?!? Damn, the Overkill-Win in terms of Fleet Size is one of the Reasons I love Macross!

I wonder how much of the fleet the Grand Cannon took out? It may not have been able to get all of them, and they may have destroyed it, but the Zentraedi knew they had been in a fight when it got done.

This was in syndication at the same time that cartoons like GI Joe and Transformers were airing. Think about that for a moment.

I remember there was an original art book to go with this version of he series and even it tried bridging the other 2 unrelated series together. The Zentreadi actually fought the Invid some thousands or millions of years in the past which was how Breetai lost his eye. If HG (Harmony Gold) did things right I would have loved to see either a prequel series of that happening or eventually the 2 sides would clash. But as we all know HG just messed it up and they made sure that no one else could even expand on the series in any way without lawsuits, even though supposedly they recently decided NOT to renew their claim to it.

La devastación representada en esta secuencia es brutal, la primera vez que la vi tenía unos 12 años! Fue impresionante!.

When i saw this episode when i was kid, i was thinking fire the freaking cannon first but then i realized that the whole destruction, the planet and the alien fleet was kinda amazing. 😜😜😜😜😜😜

The most realistic serie (destruction,casuality,war and history)

Anyone in 2023 watching this? Hoping Sony gets it together with a live film adaptation, or a series. Word is that it's finally in development after years of legal wrangling . Will they have the courage to present this the way it was? Imagine this if it's done right, in a proper film franchise, or streaming series. Forget zombies and comets, THIS is an end of the world scenario truly horrifying.

3:17 tiny little dinky Earth ships firing away, likely tickling some nearby Zendraedi ships as the other 4 million warp by

And this was on day time TV for us Gen-x kids.

The grand finale of 2020

Aliens: Attack their life points directly. Humans: You've activated our trap card!

well, this first part of robotech is like the wine, just get better with time, the massive three person driven reflex units (like tanks) and the military athmosphere plus superb music and this scene of the massive attack I had never forviged, it impressed me to much when i was a Kid, still the power of the destructive forces unleashed give me the cringes, what a great anime this was, I am glad to had the opportunity to see it as a child.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

As a kid watching this it was so intense to watch. Man it really takes me back to watching SDF Macross (not Robotech)

Also find it odd they need full magnification to noticed the sky-raping beam of death. One thing I find is annoying is would it kill the VA's to fucking emote? The Zentraedi just sterilized 70% of the planet and the humans are "Oh darn, they killed our friends and loved one, how inconveniant."

Fascinating. There is a cursor arrow on the screen.

When everybody else is freaking out, I'll probably be laughing like a maniac lol

That very first line... Old Toonami fashbacks.

I was shocked when Earth was actually bombarded into oblivion. I thought they were gonna full some amazing trick and Earth would be saved, but no. Earth was lost. Over 6 billion people were wiped out along with almost all plant and animal life.

3:38 That image is from the first episode when the original fortress arrived to the Earth.

The crazy part? That's not even the whole fleet. That's just the equivalent of the covenant's high charity defense fleet. And that devastation was just one volley, not a continuous barrage.

I wish that the Grand Cannon's firepower was more clearly demonstrated. It IS meant to be a devastatingly powerful weapon (at least in the Robotech continuity), albeit ultimately quite unequal to the task set for it. The Zentraedi are supposed to lose a very noteworthy number of ships in that return of fire, perhaps a hundred thousand -- enough to explain Dolza's reaction at there being a return shot at all and also putting everything a bit more towards caution for a moment.

That MAC-II though... "Sir, we're stuck"

"I have to go now" lol

The fun fact is that only like a small ammount of Zentradi ships fired onto earth. Out of the 5Million ships from the zentradi fleet only like 100000 fired onto earth. If all the Zentradi ships fired idk if there will be an Earth left.

Now that I'm older, I realized the narrator always has to explain what we're watching like the dummies we were.

As a child I was blown away by this

I think though out of those 4,8 million ships only around 65,000 had reflex weaponry, not all Zentraedi ships had these guns built in.. This is because of the complexity of those weapons and mass production even in the "golden age" was smaller for the Zentraedi fleets than the Supervision Army. And if anyone wonders the SDF1 is a rebuilt ship of the Supervision Army.

This moment has seldom been equaled in sifi literature and never in film. Alien invasion, yea that is bad. How many ships...? ... ... over 4 million ! It was mind blowing when I saw it as a kid, and I think it always stuck with me as an example of a "real" serious attack by an alien race. In almost all sifi we are dealing with an enemy who has a few mega powerful ships, or a few hundred "space battleships" but what defenses can you build to stop millions?

The battle would have been a bit different if the rest of the canons had been made too, one was simply not enough to take them all out, but the full count would properly have cleared most of the skies. Depending on how far from Earth some of the ships would have been.

Was 10 years old bk then...nostalgic

7 billion, reduced to 700 million in just a few seconds. Just one tenth of the global population survived the Rain of Death.

Now witness the power of this ARMED and Operational planet!

i CRY IN THis episode T_T So epic!

I remember thinking, how will earth defend, what the catch, what will they pull out of the bag, the earth always wins ... or just makes it ...... I could not see how to get out of it .. annnnd. No blew the planet away ... all of my what stuck in my mind forever ...

Now i know where jj Abrams got the idea for the star killer base. 😏

this is what i believe to be an extinction level event

You know it's on when humans build something that looks like it came from aliens.

"I'm 2." Death doesn't care.

I love how everyone's still chirpy and camp even after most of the planet's glassed

The Wonderful 101 put this to Shame. The Gethjerk had a fleet the size of a Solar System.

They got the right kind of numbers down for what a high Type II/Low III civilization is capable of, no measly few dozen or hundred ships.

The grand Canon was shocking

I TURN 50 IN 2020 WE HAVE A TOP GUN SEQUEL COMING IN 2020 AND IAM STILL WAITING ON A ROBOTECH/MACROSS FILM OR SERIES TO GET MADE. HBO, SHOWTIME, NETFLIX, HULU, DISNEY PLUS COME THE FKK ON ALREADY 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️ THE BIGGEST SCI FI FRANCHISE SINCE STAR WARS AND NO ONE IS PRODUCING IT 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Holy sh*t kids cartoons in the eighties got away with a lot.

Episode 27: Force of Arms

"the terror will keep in bay the planet" unknown TAFF in Zentraedi fleet

Well, time to rewatch this again.