Wow. Here's a tip: try to find the three "Art of Robotech" books published back in the late 80s - Robotech Art 1, 2, and Sentinels (3). Macek wrote most of those and in them, he gives volumes upon volumes of insight on working with Japanese studios. On animated filmmaking. On translating cross-cultural properties. The works.
People who undervalue what Macek did to try and take him down since he didn't produce "pure" anime have no clue. Macek really was a true pioneer. He also was a hardcore fan of anime, through and through - he was an expert. The difference is that he wasn't a typical fanboy. He was a realist who also understood that slavish devotion to the original material could hurt things.
One term Macek coined was "ethnic gesture" (I believe he coined it). He used this term frequently to explain /why/ anime looked like anime to western eyes. Ethnic geture was in no way an insulting term; the idea is that ever culture's work have their own ethnic footprint. In the case of Japanese artwork, it's more than just big eyes. One of Maceck's key understandings of localizing Japanese film and television was in knowing what ethnic gestures, such as forms of laughter, hand signs, bows, sight gags, facial expressions, would seem unreadable and nonsensical to the average person. He put a great deal of work into adjusting dialog, voice actor inflection, and in some extreme cases, edited timing, to make films palatable to American viewers without butchering the intent of the original creators. Remember, this was at a time when Japanese animation was unknown to the mainstream. There was no "otaku" community to market at.
Macek said at one point that animation is the ultimate form of filmmaking because the creator has absolute control over what goes on the screen - their imagination is bound by nothing. This was in the age before modern computer effects allowed photorealistic animation to be used in live-action films so freely. The thing about Carl is that he was a rare person who was capable of both having true vision, an instinct on what hazy possibilities would change the world, and simultaneously having the down to earth nose and backbone for hard work to make it happen.
He also was a talented writer in terms of ingenuity. The way that Robotech was woven out of three series could have been a hatchet job like any other poor import of a foreign cartoon. But Macek viewed the original material as inspiration for an original story. And he understood what the animation creators intended for their shows. His Robotech framework respected the original stories and didn't undercut the drama or adult nature of the animation. What's more, the middle section of Robotech was cited by the original Japanese creators as an improvement! The anime show "Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross" was cut short in the Japanese version, forced into a rushed ending. Characters were half-developed. Macek rescued the material by making it the 2nd act of Robotech and giving the characters a better backstory, and a future developed in act 3 (based on Genesis Climber Mospeda. Nothing beats 80's anime series titles - nothing!)
For chrissakes; the man only pulled together one of the most complex sci-fi dramas ever in Western television out of a series of Japanese cartoons which, while well-conceived and well-written, did not have an epic narrative on the scale of Robotech.
In the end, Carl Macek was a rare person; not entirely due to his own abilities, but also do the providence in which he lived. He was the right man, in the right place, at the right time, with the right idea. It isn't just anime fan who owe something to him; but fan of animation of any kind. Robotech demonstrated to westerners something more could be done with the medium, and western cartoons also take cue from it to this day, if not in content (robots and spaceships), then in storytelling structure, character drama, and worldbuilding.
