If you do not know what is, or are not into, Macross, then you’ll probably want to stop reading…. now. But if you like Macross, grew up watching it in the form of Harmony Gold’s butchered Robotech, and/or chasing down the model kits which, depending where you were, could have been as rare as hen’s teeth, then read on, this is a book for you.

Just in case you have not been paying attention, the one thing the internet has illustrated is just how much cool shit you can miss out on, depending on what part of the world you are in. But being the internet, if you look hard enough, you can find, and buy, the cool shit you realised you would otherwise be missing out on. Case in point, ‘Macross Package Art Collection’ which by all accounts is a Japanese only release, so probably will never be reasonably accessible outside of Japan.

And if you’ve kept reading this far, then I don’t have to give you a massive background into Macross; you’ll already know, like various other anime series, it was pivotal at many different levels. Published as part of the 40th anniversary, the ‘Macross Package Art Collection’ focuses, more or less, on one very specific part of what was (is?) a massive franchise – the model kits, or more to the point the box art of said kits. Unfortunately, as it’s completely in Japanese, with no available translation, all I can tell you is that it contains interviews with the various artists responsible for the box art, as well as insights and history of the Macross saga.

Pictorially, it’s pure gold. With perhaps every bit of box art produced for the various series represented, often in full page colour plates, as well as sketch work, original vs published illustrations and design development drawings spanning the breadth of the Macross universe; you can spend a solid chunk of time going through it all, lapping up all its goodness. While having the ability to read the interviews and other writings in the book would be great, simply having this pictorial catalogue is a huge bonus – the box art on many of the model kits was, and still is, brilliant stuff, bringing to life designs from the somewhat poppy coloured anime.

This is a book purely for fans of Macross; or if you simply just like origins mecha. The lack of translation kind of renders half the book worthless but having what is a definitive catalogue of what still is, even today, some the coolest mecha box art ever makes grabbing the book for your collection more than worth the effort.

I buy many of my Japanese art book from japanese-creative-books.com