Robotech was revolutionary in its treatment of people of color, women, and feminine men.

Will this continue in future Robotech projects?

Robotechis the rare 80s cartoon that actually holds up.

Part of that is thanks to the nuanced and diverse group of characters.

Series likeTransformers,He-Man, orVoltronwere filled with mostly white characters and barely featured any women.

Robotechon the other hand had a much larger cast of women and people of color.

There were no weird stereotypes in it.

That relationship between Claudia Grant and Roy Fokker was a key part of theMacrosssaga.

It wasnt a flawless romance and thats what made it so revolutionary.

You know, like being under constant threat by alien invaders.

Its just like, oh, they date.

Thats how you have to treat them.

Why would you draw attention to it?

Her ethnicity isnt a super huge plot point but its very clearly established her family runs a Chinese restaurant.

Minmei ends up becoming the darling of the SDF-1 ship and the most famous person on the planet.

Dana Sterling was also a rare find in 80s kids entertainment, a leading woman in an action-based series.

Characters like this helped draw in many female fans back during the series original airing.

That really took us back.

Fifty three percent of the adult audience was female.

It had broad reach.

A black man with some traditionally feminine traits getting the girl in the end?

That would still be revolutionary on TV today.

Much like Bowie he even ended up with a girl in the end!

Even more diverse characters would have been added to franchise had the series continued withRobotech Academy.

While diversity in the classic series is laudable, it is by no means perfect.

Vince Grants design inRobotech II: The Sentinelsis at best uncomfortable.

Thankfully it was changed for his leading role inRobotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

There isnt a motivation for that kind of design at this point to be included, Davis says.

Some of that is out of control.

We have certain things that we will approve and certain things that we dont.

Because it absolutely over sexualized Minmei specifically.

Davis does add however that theres a difference between sexy and sexualizing.

you could be sexy.

I think thats fine, he says.

I think over sexualizing at this point is not necessary.

you’re free to be sexy though.

Where do you draw that line?

It depends on how people perceive it.

We arent going to like everybody when it comes to that anyway.

Going forward, the team behindRobotechhopes to continue the original series diversity both on screen and behind the scenes.

We certainly keep our eye open to diversity especially.

Its important, says Davis, We live in a different world than when the original series was produced.

Its very important for us to be respectful first and foremost.

To treat the characters with respect.

The teams commitment to diversity is bolstered by meeting all kinds of fans at conventions around the world.

If you ever do a new series…are you gonna put any Mexican characters in it?

I said, I dont know, I have no idea what were doing in the future.

And he went, If you do kindly dont make that character a janitor.

And I looked at him and said, I will never do that.

I will never do that ever.