Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Streamline Pictures co-founder and Robotech creator Carl Macek has passed away:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... CENSORED-away

I was a little young to be into Robotech (although I do vaguely remember seeing a little bit of it when I was about 7 or 8 years old), but several of the first anime movies I saw when I was a little older, such as Robot Carnival, Vampire Hunter D, and Akira, were released by Streamline Pictures. Robot Carnival is a really special movie for me, and it may not have ever been seen by American audiences if it wasn't for Carl Macek, so I'm grateful to him for that.

Robot Carnival OST: Joe Hisaishi "SEE YOU AGAIN - Ending"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZXQM582U1c

Sad news, indeed.

Keira and I have both been big Robotech fans since Harmony Gold first started releasing the DVDs about ten years ago.

It's unfortunate that he didn't get to see so many of his projects take off in his own lifetime. Hopefully, someone else will push for them now.

I'm not sure anime would have ended up taking the hold it did in the United States without Carl's influence in the 1980s and 1990s. He's definitely one of those legends who wasn't appreciated enough in his lifetime.

I met Carl a number of times, first at Anime North about 5 or more years ago. It was a small convention, so we spent a lot of time together. We ran into each other at a lot of cons since then. Nice guy.

Anime fans seemed to have a love/hate relationship towards him, but his work in bringing early anime over to the US and laying the groundwork for today's Western anime/manga market cannot be denied.

I was really sad to hear about the news last week. I am a HUGE Robotech fan. Ever since I was a kid and raced home from school to watch Robotech. I even started a Robotech club lol!
I have most of the comics, all the novels, roleplaying game books, toys, etc. In fact my shelf full of Robotech is right beside my shelf of Usagi!