Discussion Main / Macekre

It's an existing term, though not one that people use much any more. So we can't really change it. It was already moved away from being the main name for the trope (which is now Cut And Paste Translation) and this page is just a remnant.

Requiescat in pace, do not speak ill of the dead and all that. I agree with Charred Knight that this could use a rename now.

This article doesn't concern his personal life so I don't see it offensive to point out some his short comings in adapting anime.

Also I should point out that Macek's work was really ahead of it's time, tv dubs wouldn't reach Robotech's quality until really the late 90's.

Umm, that was because TV dubs between Robotech and 1995 didn't exist, except for Dragon Warrior and Samurai Pizza Cats, neither of which were poor quality. The first TV dub to show up in 1995 was Ronin Warriors, which wasn't poor quality either.

I'm glad to see the change to the description of Macekre. I found it really disrespectful and hateful while the man was alive.

I'm not against the Cut and past translation or Woolseyism being associated with his work. It happened. It was what was a necessity of the time. It is the sheer hateful vitriol that comes up. The man brought anime over into the US. He didn't sacrifice babies and kittens to a dark god.

I view it similar to Black actors in the 40s and 50s. You could be a genius, but you will play a stock role or you don't act. The best you can hope for is to push the envelope. There are other similar cases. These pioneers seldom get the accolades they deserve until long after their deaths.

The biggest thing I'd remove was the insinuation that Macek was "xenophobic". Anyone who read anything the man ever wrote about Japanese animation fandom could plainly see that Macek had vast admiration for Japanese storytelling and the Japanese animation industry. He was an early 80s underground fan before he was hired by Harmony Gold. It is in fact tales of his "hatred" for Japan and desire to "steal" from Japanese creators which has been used to fuel hatred for the man to this day in anime fandom. Which is tragic and ironic, given what Macek was really on about.

In reality, Macek called manga-derived popart expressions and body language "ethnic gesture" because that was about as polite and non-judgmental a term as conceivable at the time. There is no evidence that his decision to remove some of it was based on racism / xenophobia. Rather, he realized that the product had to preserve what was cool and interesting about the source material without instantly turning off anyone who was unfamiliar with non-western animation. This included everything from fan service shots to partial nudity, to "bizarre" facial expressions and character emotes that western viewers had no reference for.

In one account Macek wrote about his experience working on Robotech, he related how the director of Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross reacted, upon being made aware of the way in which that series had been integrated as the 2nd act of a vast story. The director approved and appreciated that the show had been saved: Southern Cross was canceled early, its plots never resolved. Sadly, even this story is disbelieved by Macek-hating American "otaku".

You left out the subjective part of the description. It's two or more anime spliced together poorly. The subjective part is when it is done poorly, and this creates flame wars.