Last week, several Macross series debuted on Hulu and Disney+, but fans quickly noticed that Macross Dynamite 7 had been censored. The four-episode OVA, originally released between 1997 and 1998, has now been retroactively altered to remove controversial content.
The Macross franchise revolves around transforming mecha, giant robots, in the context of grand space battles, often intertwined with themes of love, music, and the brutality of war. The series first launched in 1982 with Super Dimension Fortress Macross, where humanity relies on advanced mecha to defend itself against alien invaders, the Zentradi, while music plays a pivotal role in uniting people and sparking hope.
Over the years, Macross has expanded through a variety of sequels and spin-offs, each introducing fresh characters and settings, but consistently delving into the emotional and philosophical conflicts surrounding war and humanity’s survival. Central to the franchise are the Valkyrie mecha, which can transform between fighter jets, humanoid robot forms, and other configurations.
Macross Dynamite 7 on the other hand is a four-episode OVA set within the Macross 7 timeline, offering a lighter, music-centered tone compared to the more intense themes of other Macross entries.
The series centers on Mylene Flare Jenius, a vibrant young pop idol with luscious pink hair, as she navigates her career and personal life. It highlights her relationships and explores how music can transcend cultural boundaries. While mecha battles are still part of the story, the focus is more on character development, humor, and the uplifting power of music, rather than intense intergalactic conflicts. The mecha remain an essential element, but the series adopts a more laid-back, character-driven tone.
Disney however have censored a scene in Macross Dynamite 7 involving Mylene, a central character from Macross 7, being drugged by her manager in attempt to sexually assault her. Initially, this moment was intended to shed light on the darker aspects of the entertainment industry, offering a stark commentary rather than glorifying the act.
Depictions of violence against women, both physical and sexual, are frequently used in media globally as a means of establishing reprehensible villains, making them more all the more detestable and heightening the anticipation surrounding their death and downfall.
However, in today’s era of globalized censorship, where Western corporations increasingly dictate the standards of Japanese anime, content deemed “problematic” is rapidly being sanitized. With anime’s international profits now surpassing its domestic revenue, scenes involving nudity, fanservice, and controversial tropes, especially those featuring “loli” characters and now it seems depictions of sexual violence are being quietly erased to cater to broader audiences.
This particular edit becomes even more suspicious when considering that the attempted assault was perpetrated by another woman. Disney, a company notorious for injecting progressive narratives into children’s programming, likely found the idea of a same-sex assault scene too inconvenient for their ideological propaganda.
As a result, the Macross Dynamite 7 scene has been heavily edited, cutting out key moments and removing any explicit implication of the attack.
In reality, the entire sequence lasts only a few minutes in total, spread across the second episode. Mylene is drugged with a spiked drink while having dinner with her producer, Sazapie, after a music performance. In her incapacitated state, she is stripped (with her underwear still on, though this isn’t shown on screen) and thrown onto a bed before Sazapie climbs on top of her.
By the beginning of the third episode, she is rescued before anything worse can happen yet Disney has completely erased this short but significant subplot.
The animated series already contains ample female nudity, including fully visible nipples. Disney correctly labels Macross Dynamite 7 with a Mature rating, acknowledging that the OVA is intended for adult audiences due to graphic violence, strong language, or nudity.
Yet, despite this designation, a brief and narratively significant scene involving an attempted sexual assault has been removed, seemingly to protect those sensitive few who struggle to differentiate between fiction and reality. Ironically, Macross Dynamite 7 still features explicit nudity of “petite” loli-esque characters, which many more viewers would argue is more questionable than the scenes that were cut.
Censorship of anime has been an ongoing issue with modern streaming platforms. Sony-owned Crunchyroll, for example, previously altered scenes from Mushoku Tensei‘s second season, removing a sequence in which a man gropes a provocatively dressed girl, deeming it too problematic for global audiences.
What makes this case particularly concerning is that the censorship applies to the Japanese version as well. Unlike past instances where only Western releases were altered while the original remained untouched in Japan, this marks a shift, suggesting that Disney’s involvement in global anime distribution now extends to enforcing creative revisions even on decades-old content, even domestically.
The decision to censor Macross Dynamite 7 aligns with a growing trend of Western corporations exerting influence over Japanese media. Companies like Sony, through Crunchyroll and partnerships with KADOKAWA, have been instrumental in pushing for not just “global standards” in anime, but global production as well with the end goal being prolific censorship, redesigns, and the sanitization of themes deemed problematic by modern Western sensibilities, such as those found on Reddit.
Disney, a company infamous for its draconian content policies and revisionist approach to older media, will likely face little real backlash from anime fans or industry professionals, despite this blatant act of historical revisionism compromising the artistic integrity of the original work. The reality is that millions of retarded consumers continue paying $10 or more per month for these streaming services, and even those who claim to be outraged rarely cancel their subscriptions.
Over time, these streaming services continue to raise their prices. In fact, Netflix has just announced yet another price hike, tacking on a few extra dollars per month. As always, this sparks brief consumer outrage before quickly dying down, allowing Netflix, Disney, Amazon, and the rest to keep raking in even more profit.
Their grip on foreign media remains unmatched.
This also raises concerns about the future of anime under Western corporate control. With Disney expanding its presence in anime distribution, securing exclusive streaming rights and forming partnerships with Japanese studios this incident signals a growing shift toward editorial oversight that will lead to even more censorship, reworked narratives, and alterations catering to modern Western sensibilities.
Fans who want the unaltered Macross Dynamite 7 will have to turn to older releases through piracy, as streaming platforms universally offer censored versions or ones riddled with cancerous localization changes. Whether this trend escalates further remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: corporate meddling is reshaping anime, often at the expense of its original vision and artistic integrity.
