© Harmony Gold

The planned funding campaign for a brand-new Robotech animated series has been pulled from Kickstarter by its organisers, days before it would have ended.

Producers Harmony Gold were seeking $500k (£292k) to produce a pilot episode for Robotech Academy, which would follow the children of the characters seen in the cult 1980s show. Development was seemingly well underway, with plenty of character and mecha designs revealed through updates, and brief interviews with creators and returning voice actors.


However, the crowdfunding promotion had only accrued $194,574 (£115,635), just 39 percent of its target. Barring a huge last minute surge in pledges before it was due to end on 9 August, it seemed doomed to fail. Rather than accepting a noble defeat, Harmony Gold cancelled the whole thing, leaving a PR stain that just won't wash off.

In the most recent -- and presumably final -- project update, the organisers try to spin it as a positive, writing: "We are moved by your passion and your drive to make

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Robotech Academy a success. Although we did not reach our goal, the amount of money pledged by you, our supporters, added up to over $190,000, which is still a substantial sum for any project.

Thanks to your efforts, more people have not only discovered


Robotech Academy, but new fans are also taking a look at

Robotech for the first time ever."

They also claim that they "will continue to explore our options regarding Robotech Academy." The most likely route -- finding production partners -- would always have been a necessity to take the pilot to a full series, even if the campaign had been a success.


The Kickstarter had been a contentious one at any rate, with fans of the source material (the original Robotech was edited together out of the Japanese anime series Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada) constantly criticising Harmony Gold over their strict and contentious claims to own international rights on the much wider

Macross franchise. Harmony Gold's stance has prevented any Japanese sequel series from being officiallyt seen outside of Asian territories, despite the company's seeming lack of plans to ever release or otherwise exploit the more recent material.

Bizarrely, Harmony Gold latched onto this hatred, introducing a $2 'Enemy Spy' contribution tier, described as "Do you hate Harmony Gold? Do you hate Robotech? With the Enemy Spy tier, you can feel free to argue to your burning heart's content!"

The worst part of the failure will be for the more reasonable fans, who view Robotech and its component series separately. With only the scant hope that outside or more traditional investment will save the day, Robotech Academy now joins a long line of failed sequels, each one further diminishing the likelihood of more Robotech or Macross in the west.