Carl Macek, 1951-2010

Over the weekend, 59-year-old Carl Macek died from a heart attack. Macek was a producer by trade, specifically working with many anime movies and series. He was responsible for the some of the most memorable anime series to air in the United States, with names like Robotech and the entire catalog of the now-defunct Streamline Productions to his credit.
Macek and those of his ilk have been at the center of a controversy in the anime community, one that in the light of his passing I felt should be revisited. That controversy is the nature in which anime is translated and presented. This goes above and beyond subtitling versus dubbing and gets at the heart of translation. Probably one of the best examples of this is the show for which Macek was probably the most well-known, Robotech.
In producing Robotech, Macek, for a variety of reasons, incorporated three unrelated Japanese series (Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada) into one US series (Robotech). In doing so, he had to rewrite elements of each show, stringing a consistent plot between them. In doing so, he developed a lot of themes that, for obvious reasons, were absent from the original Japanese series. Fans of the original SDF-Macross (because fans of Southern Cross and Mospeada are pretty rare) generally do not approve of Macek’s approach, of his (what they saw as) bastardization of the three series.
It is the opinion of many fans, myself included, that the benefits of Macek’s approach far outweigh the failings. While it is true that Macek’s production did not use a verbatim translation of the original Japanese story and script, what he did was craft an original story, creating a new and unique identity. Many of the elements present in the original shows were retained, if not expanded upon. It’s also worth pointing out that while Macek did edit the shows, they were largely edited for content to be made suitable for television audiences in the United States. Still, a lot of unprecedented material still aired. The tear-jerking death of Roy Fokker and the subtle themes of transexuality (or at the very least cross-dressing) of Yellow Dancer were retained and are part of what helped Robotech to endure in the hearts and minds of fans.
Carl Macek would go on to found Streamline Productions, one of the premier anime distributors in the 80s and 90s in the United States. Streamline would translate and release work along the lines of Macek’s general approach which was to translate the story and not the words. While opinions of this approach certainly vary, there are those of us who hold the Streamline films up as the pinnacle of the industry. I think the best example of this approach is in the landmark anime movie Akira. In the original Streamline release of Akira, the main protagonist Kaneda hits on Kay by saying "how about we go somewhere and have a few laughs". The original line would more accurately be translated as "Let’s go together and drink some tea," as evidenced in the later release. While the second line is definitely more accurate, the first line is just more in keeping with the spirit of the character when spoken in English.
Another great example is the translation of the Castle of Cagliostro. In the more accurate translation used in later years, Lupan tells Jigan that "I got my butt royally kicked". Translated into English, this line is a little awkward for the character who is normally very full-of-himself and overconfident. When Streamline originally did the translation, however, Lupan defends himself by exclaiming "Hey, I was only a kid". It’s not as accurate, but in many ways it’s more appropriate.
I say all of this because I feel like Macek’s legacy as a producer and as an icon in the anime industry has largely gone unappreciated. Many of the films and shows we associate with anime in the late 80s and early to mid 90s (what is sometimes referred to as the Japanimation era) owe their existence in the United States to Macek for his guidance through that period. Starting with Robotech and through dozens of other shows, Macek’s unique approach to producing gave us some of the most memorable masterpieces of the artform. Now that he’s past on from this world, a major era has truly come to an end. Hopefully, we’ll see others that follow in his footsteps. But we’ll never see another like him.