Harmony Gold

Background

Harmony Gold is a television production and distribution company established in 1983 by Frank Agrama. In 1984, it acquired Ziv International's anime licenses. It is best known as the distributor of the controversial Shaka Zulu miniseries and for various anime series, notably Robotech.

1st Logo (1984)

Visuals: There is a space with big shining stars; and after we see the text "HARMONY GOLD" in yellow zooming with a white trail. Also, another copy in orange does the same thing and places behind the first one, acting as a border.

Technique: Scanimate.

Audio: A strange THX-like noise.

Availability: So far, it's only found on the VHS release of their pre-Robotech dub of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. It doesn't appear on their earliest programs, such as Little Women and Call of the Wild, which open with the Northstar Entertainment logo instead.

2nd Logo (1985-1999)

Visuals: Over a black background, there is a big square marble, where "Harmony" (in a lavender-light blue color) writes itself. And then, "GOLD" (obviously in a gold texture) fades in below, and shines. Either "Presents" below the whole logo, or "A" and "Presentation" above and below the logo would fade in afterwards.

Variants:

Sometimes, the marble would be absent.
There also exists a blue-gradient background version.
The text above the logo may be in a different language like Spanish or French.
On the 1988 Around the World in 80 Days miniseries, the still logo in yellow is place on a blue background, below the "A" and above the Rete Europa logo, reading "A Harmony Gold and Rete Europa production".

Trivia: The base logo was animated at 30p, but the text above and/or below the logo appeared at 30i.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A 4-note synthesized trumpet with a harp tune, or the closing theme of the show/movie.

Availability: Seen on anime dubs released by the company, most famously Dragon Ball and Robotech. This also appeared on Disney's release of Heidi.

3rd Logo (2002- )

Visuals: On a dusk sky background, there is a golden frame rotating about, with "Harmony" in the same font as the first logo and "GOLD" in a narrow font also rotating. The text zooms out into their positions within the frame ("Harmony" with "GOLD" below it, resembling the print logo). The sky background then gets enclosed within the frame as the rest of the background turns black, and the orange clouds fade away, turning the area within the frame blue. The URL for either the company's website or the official website of Robotech, or the text "A Harmony Gold Production" fades in below.

Variant: In Robotech: Love Live Alive, the sky background transitions into the improvised footage from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, one of the three source anime programs for Robotech, then the logo fades.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None, or the opening theme.

Availability: Appears on DVD releases of Harmony Gold content such as Robotech.