The are a fictional alien race of militaristic giants. They are antagonists in the Macross franchise and its Robotech adaptation.

It is transliterated as "Zentradi", "Zjentohlauedy", "Zentrady", and "Zentraedi" for the Japanese Macross series, with the "Zentraedi" spelling being the one most used commonly in the English-dubbed Robotech adaptation. The Robotech novels and comics added the occasional spelling "T'sentraeti". In both the Macross and Robotech settings, humans and Zentradi are capable of interbreeding. They contributed greatly to the expansion of the Protoculture Civilization's sphere of influence and the creation of an "Interstellar Republic" (akin to a galactic empire) that controlled most of the Milky Way.

As war broke out with The Supervision Army centuries later, the Zentradi entered into combat with their fearsomely powerful force of millions of space warships and mecha produced in thousands of huge automated factories scattered across the galaxy and legions of expendable giant clone troops. After the end of the war with the Supervision Army, the Zentradi fleets travelled the galaxy in search of Supervision Army survivors until they encountered the human race, an event that caused Space War I (2009–2010).

In order to better maintain control of the Zentradi, the Protoculture trained them only in the limited mix of skills which were necessary for the soldier's particular role in the Zentradi military. It seems that no Zentradi were trained in the repair and maintenance of their equipment, making them dependent on easily controlled supply stations and factory asteroids. Male Zentradi are also called "Zentran", which means "male" in the Zentradi language. Also, Female Zentradi are called Meltrandi, the word "Meltran" meaning "female" as well. Finally, the Zentradi were forbidden culture, and were instilled with orders to never interfere with culture-bearing planets and civilizations, again apparently to suppress independent thought and keep an iron loyalty in all the Zentradi forces.

The downfall of the Zentradi nomadic warrior civilization came during Space War I (2009), Many integrated into each other's population where many families became a mix of both Human and Zentradi individuals.

thumb|left|250px|The Zentradi alphabet.

In the original Macross TV series the Zentradi possessed a fictional alien alphabet which was developed by Kazutaka Miyatake of the Studio Nue staff but their dialogue was automatically translated into Japanese language. However, in the Macross: Do You Remember Love? animated film, the Zentradi were actually shown speaking a fictional extraterrestrial language (that also was developed for the movie by the Studio Nue production staff) as subtitles were provided for the audience.

The Zentradi alphabet from the original Macross TV series and the spoken form of the Zentradi language from the Macross: Do You Remember Love? film appeared again in the Macross 7: Encore OVA and the Macross Frontier animated television series. Both the fictional Zentradi language and its alphabet have been used in several video games that take place in the Macross universe.

In Macross 7 (2045), the Zentradi are noted to be especially fearful towards other alien creatures known as the Protodeviln to the point of it being a reflex.

During the third Macross TV series, Macross Frontier (2059), the Zentradi are shown to live among humans in both macronized (giant) and micronized (human sized) form in the outer space colonies. This includes having Zentradi sized buildings and facilities, including shopping malls with similarly sized products. They also seem to change sizes at will using the cloning technology described before. In the new series, some Zentradi-Human hybrids also share the ability to have their hair move on its own according to their feelings, as well as having an above-average resistance to space vacuum.

Meltlandi

In the Macross setting, Meltlandi or Meltlan is the term for female Zentradi, a giant humanoid alien warrior race segregated by gender.

In the first Macross animated TV series, the female Zentradi collaborated with the male Zentradi in Space War I against the Humans, but the two genders were segregated into separate fleets to prevent direct interaction. The segregated fleets shared the same ship types (with different color schemes), but employed different armor and vehicle complements. The movie also introduced the term "Meltlan" as the term for "female" in the Zentradi language (a language created for the movie). The corresponding term in the Zentradi language for "male" is "Zentran".

References

  • Zentradi at the Macross Compendium
  • Macross Nexus