Macek went on to co-found Streamline Pictures in 1988. Joining him were writers who had worked with him on Robotech, most notably, Steve Kramer, Tom Wyner, Gregory Snegoff, and Ardwight Chamberlain, each of whom are also experienced voice actors. Streamline Pictures was one of the first American companies to successfully deal in the regular production of imported Japanese animation. Among the titles released by Streamline are Lensman, Robot Carnival, Doomed Megalopolis, Twilight of the Cockroaches, Crying Freeman, Wicked City, the Fist of the North Star film, Akira, ' as well as the original English dub versions of Hayao Miyazaki's ', ', My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service. As of 1993, Streamline Pictures distributed their anime through Orion Pictures and was eventually purchased by Orion in 1996. Both companies shut themselves down, but Orion was resurrected for television in 2013 and as a whole in 2014, all by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, while Streamline stays defunct. He was working as a scriptwriter for the English dub of Naruto and Bleach for Viz Media, and consulting for Harmony Gold on ' before his death.
Other works
Macek was a co-editor of McGill's Survey of the Cinema and Film Noir—An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style. He authored The Art of Heavy Metal: Animation for the Eighties and Robotech Art 3: The Sentinels in which he chronicles in detail the conception and what went wrong during the production of the latter aborted animated series. He also worked as a scriptwriter for the animated series C.O.P.S., was the executive consultant for the animated film Heavy Metal 2000, and wrote the animated adaptation of Brian Pulido's Lady Death. Macek adapted the treatment by Merian C. Cooper for the unproduced film project War Eagles into a novel and screenplay in 2008. The book was published in the summer of 2008 by Angelgate Press.
Legacy in anime
Macek became one of the most controversial figures amongst English anime fandom. Streamline Pictures-dubbed anime were among the first to be available on home video as well as broadcast on cable. Over the years, he has seen his share of detractors and proponents, for while he did help to bring Japanese animation titles and series to the United States, his edits, re-rewrites and mash-ups angered many fans of the original titles and series. To this day, anime fans still remained divided between appreciation and scorn for his work.
Death
, one of Macek's former business partners, revealed that Macek died of a heart attack on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Barely three months before his sudden death, Macek recorded a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour podcast interview with Anime News Network, offering an extensive retrospective on his entire career. His brief obituary in the Los Angeles Times reported the place of death as Topanga Canyon. The obituary shows a picture of him surrounded by several Robotech characters from all three series.
Biography documentary film
After his death, a short documentary, Carl Macek's Robotech Universe, was produced.
