The future world of tomorrow is upon us.....tomorrow.

I was 11 when Robotech first aired.
With the Cold War at it's fever pitch, armageddon seemed like it was only minutes away.

The year 2009 seemed like an impossible dream.


Yet, here we are.

In the Macross saga, tomorrow is day the SDF-1 launches to protect the world from the evil Zentradi invaders.

It's significant to me because it's a part of a fiction that I adore more than almost anything.
When I was 11, I had several Valkyries and an SDF-1.
Sweet little 6 or so inch tall things bought at a KB Toys.
They had no real information on the package other than they were transforming jets called Valkryies.
I loved them like nothing else.
More than my GI Joes, more than my Transformers.

So when I was 11 and I see this commercial showing my odd little toys from Japan in action, I geeked out.

The morning the first episode aired I sat dumbstruck.
Waiting for the bus, I didn't wanna leave to go to school.
Our Betamax was recording the show, but I didn't care.
I'd have to wait all day to see the rest of it.
That day in school I could think of nothing else.
None of my friends saw the show or cared.
To them it was just another stupid Japanese cartoon.
But I was already a Japan-amation fan.
Battle of the Planets and Thunderbirds 2086 and Galaxy Train 999
and other anime they played on Showtime took care of that.

But this was different.
Everything about Macross blew my mind.
The designs of the characters, the mecha, the aliens, the girls.
All of it.
It blew my mind.
It made me want to become an artist.

When I got my hands on the Art Of Robotech: Vol 1 a few years later, it became my bible.
I studied every page, everyword, every drawing.

It's stupid to celebrate a fictional event, even one that only holds a minimal grasp to something significant.
But tomorrow I'm gonna get some cake and beer and pour some out for my dead anime homies in the U.N. Spacy.

But not for Ben Dixon.
He can eat the rest of his steak in hell.

Then I'll celebrate living in the future.