Would YAMATO have been half as remembered if it was the manned asteroid Icarus as originally proposed? If GUNDAM kept the working title Gunboy, would we be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year? Some ideas were better off left behind on the drafting board, and MACROSS had its share of them. Indeed, many concepts were proposed, considered, and then abandoned during the two-year incubation of the first MACROSS series.

The Battle City Megaload.

In August of 1981, Studio Nue (specifically Kawamori Shouji) wrote a synopsis and story treatment for its new mecha series under the name BATTLE CITY MEGALOAD/MEGAROAD. On one hand, this early version was 52 episodes long, which allowed the creators to send the title ship on vast journeys spanning from Venus to the Caspian Sea and the Machu Pinchu ruins. On the other hand, the viewers have been treated with dubious innovations as the "Asteroid Cracker" and the ten-kilometer-wide "brake parachute." During this early planning stage, the creators were still finding the fine balance between the serious and the tongue-in-cheek that would become the trademark of MACROSS. Here is a short glimpse of what this lost MACROSS might have been.

The Breast Soldier (named after its hangar location when the Megaload is in robot mode).

The Warp and The Long Trip Home

The beginning of BATTLE CITY MEGALOAD/MEGAROAD would have been quite similar to that of MACROSS. Just as in MACROSS, the Megaload's main buster cannon fires on the enemy fleet and the war begins. The Megaload then accidentally "warps" to Pluto and spends the first fourth of the series fighting its way back to Saturn, Mars, and eventually Earth. However, the ship activates the barrier system in the second episode and the heroes do not discover the true size of the alien giants until a unit infiltrates an enemy ship. One episode highlights the first baby born on the ship, and the onboard city even starts a railway (a concept later realized in AIM FOR THE TOP! GUNBUSTER and MACROSS 7). The first Microne spy is a female who infiltrates the ship on Mars. The Daedalus Attack eventually seen in MACROSS is preceded by the Asteroid Cracker, a tactic which accomplishes just what name implies. The Megaload uses the "anchor rockets" on its arm ships to blast asteroids in its path, and later extends the tactic against enemy ships. The story arc ends with the atmospheric re-entry of the Megaload, floating back with a huge ten-kilometer "brake parachute."

From the Grand Canyon to Japan and Back in Space

Presuming the series manages to skirt premature cancellation, the war continues. The battles rage on the ground, over the seas, and even underwater. The Megaload floods but extricates itself to continue travelling across the world. Three more spies infiltrate the ship before the Battle of Grand Canyon (the gorge, not the cannon), and the Sunriser explosion destroys the land of the rising sun, Japan (instead the omnidirectional barrier system destroying Ontario). The Megaload then immediately returns to space and travels near Venus. However, the enemy captures the Megaload captain close to the Sun, and the remaining episodes of MEGALOAD's first half focuses on the captain's rescue and the loss of the ship's right arm.