After a mysterious spaceship crashes into Earth, humanity realizes that they are not alone. Fearing a potential threat from space, the world pushes aside their nationalism, conflicting interests, and cultural differences, unifying under the banner of the United Nations. The newly formed UN forces decide to repurpose the alien spacecraft, naming it SDF-1 Macross. Unfortunately, on the day of its maiden voyage, a fleet of spaceships belonging to a race of aliens known as the Zentradi descend upon Earth, and the SDF-1 Macross, acting of its own accord, shoots down the incoming squadron, sparking an intergalactic war.
In an attempt to escape, the Macross tries to launch itself into the Moon's orbit, but the ship—as well as the city it was in—is teleported to the far reaches of space. Caught up in this mess are Hikaru Ichijou, a free-spirited acrobatic pilot, and Minmay Lynn, an aspiring singer. These two, alongside Macross' crew, experience an epic journey rife with grief and drama, coming face-to-face with the cruelties of war along the way.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Beatnik
Aired just two years after the end of Mobile Suit Gundam, a show which defined the mecha/space genre in anime, Macross takes the 'humans attacked and on the run in a super ship' template and blazes forward a new path of its own. Macross is the sexier version of Gundam, the carefree serenading romantic. There is an air of enthusiasm and happy-go-lucky charm to its characters that the Gundam franchise rarely ever allowed on its unlucky downtrodden crew. Whereas Gundam grinds Amuro and company through the emotional wringer from episode one, Macross lets Hikaru and gang regularly let off steam in the interior cityresiding within the Macross itself.
This small city is the show's unique selling point. Whereas most other shows, that might have civilian refugees crammed aboard a ship, will ignore them except when they riot, Macross instead gives them equal focus. They spend so long on the ship that they are forced to adapt and eventually get accustomed to living in an artificial city that incidentally ended up in the bowels of the ship in the most amazing way possible.
Macross is filled with amazing action sequences. Amazing simply for the year it was aired in, the effort and skill of the animators to bring us visually excellent setpieces, featuring awesome-but-underused-in-anime fighter jets, is admirable indeed. The major highlight is an early scene involving a falling jet racing to catch up with a falling human, the camera revolving around the pair seamlessly. The scene is indicative of the ambition of the show.
Gundam is about technology. Whoever has the superior technology wins. Macross is about love. The quintessential emotion that can bring peoples of all race, colour and creed together. Of course these anime are about other things too, but these aspects are at the core.
Macross focuses on other things that mecha fans will have missed in Gundam, such as the affect of media and celebrity in wartime, the clash of two different cultures, and as mentioned before, the society that exists within a ship on the run.
Macross is probably more famous now for its music than its war hijinks, and this first series shows that it was all part of the master plan from the beginning rather than something that evolved later on in other parts of the franchise. The character of Minmay will probably annoy most viewers with her witless selfish ways, but she is the epitome of a teen idol and acts like one. Her cousin Kaifun is the one most deserving of your unbridled hatred, one of the biggest scumbags in all of anime! But anyway, back to Minmay. The role she plays in the story is important despite her ditzy manner, and alongside Hikaru, a main character in a mecha show who is more average and easier to relate to than most others. Although he does for some reason, get increasingly dumber as the show progresses.
Amazingly enough Hikaru is not the best pilot in the story either, and neither is one of the manliest characters in the anime medium: Roy Focker. A man who lives up to his name, let’s just leave it at that. Genre stereotypes are subtlely subverted in Macross. For example there’s a staple bespectacled genius character, Max, but he's not a cliché, he’s not unapproachable and coldly analytical. He actually has a normal personality and is even a hit with the ladies. Macross characters are a genuine treat, much like everything else with this show, always keeping you on your toes. And a disclaimer: half the cast ARENT killed off in the last episode, how refreshing! Not only do characters unexpectedly die in this show, they unexpectedly live too!
What is great about Macross is that it doesn’t heap misery on its characters constantly, but when it does, the characters move on quickly. It never feels like a copout, they're still affected by the changes around them, whenever comrades die for example, but we're thankfully spared five episodes of them moping around like stroppy teens.
Instead we get a ship populated by a plucky group of women who belong more on a playground than the most important part of a warship. These women gossip away and yell out "yada!" when things don’t go their way. At one point the ship gets a new barrier system, called Pinpoint Barrier and it consists of a room somewhere in the ship operated by a couple women who have to roll balls around their table in order to move a mobile barrier around the ship's exterior to absorb enemy attacks. Yes, it really is as ridiculous as it sounds, you can only laugh at the image of cute girls rolling balls furiously in the middle of an attack, yelling "yada!"
Macross is entertainment through and through. It's not going for weighty philosophy, but at the same time, it decorates its carefree nature with worthy topics and doesn’t so much explore them as it acknowledges them. Midway through the show the ugliness of politics, discrimination and the sacrifices that must be made rears its head leading to dramatic, yet ultimately always uplifting stuff.
It's not perfect, the second arc towards the end of the show is a bit of an extended epilogue that may feel like it drags to some viewers, but I appreciate how it resolved dangling plot points and developed characters more than the entire first arc. The love triangle between Hikaru, Minmay and officer Hayase heats up and leads to an excellent climax, and it’s all the more beautiful because the anime doesn’t manipulate you into rooting for one person by making the other a complete bitch, you can see why Hikaru would want to be with either of them.
The art is the show's biggest flaw, it's not pretty. Character designs are fine, but sometimes their eyes go wonky and you wonder if the animators were high on something at the time. The animation itself though as mentioned earlier, constantly surprises you in random episodes with how seamless the 'camera' revolves around setpieces. Though in the second arc the animation suffers and sometimes resorts to US 80's cartoon level quality, but thankfully the attention to characterisation makes up for it.
The music is obviously awesome, and I'm not even talking about Minmay's pop ditties, but the actual score soundtrack is very memorable and funky.
I really loved the characters of Macross and their voice acting, it's a very different approach to the Gundam template when it could have been a simple rip-off. I want to give it 10 out of 10, but will show restraint as the antagonist race weren’t developed well, even if their origin was very interesting. Macross’s strength revolves around just a handful of characters who get ample characterisation and attention, and both a perfect ending to the series and perfect beginning to the franchise.
ninjasan8
Story: The main story is split up into two main arcs (from 1-27, and 28-36). While the second arc might not seem very necessary to the story itself, it closes up the loose ends left behind from certain character relationships. The story is very fluid, pretty deep, and all around well-planned. It's unique, and I never found myself wondering, "Now why are they doing this again?" like in other animes. The anime has a starting point and an ending point, with very little fluff in the middle. Every episode has its purpose, and it's basically very well thought out. Art: Now, it's an old(ish) anime, soobviously the art won't be as good as some of the newer shows. However, all that aside, there is very few sequences that are reused (one being a Zentraedi ship being destroyed), and honestly, it's aged very well. The character designs are very nice, and the environments look very beautiful. But we all know that the main point here is the Mecha design. Both the VTs (good guys' mechas) and the enemy mechas look great. They're every guy's dream, and are more realistic, closer to what Earth's mechas might look like in the distant future; unlike other animes in the genre.
Sound: Once, again, we're listening to an older anime, but this show pulls no hits in this department. Very crisp humming accompany the fighters, the classic rumble of the vulcan gun, and an excellent voice-over give this anime a great sound score. But, if you know anything about Macross, you'll know that the three main points are the Mecha, the love triangles and the singing. This time around, we have Lynn Minmey to give us the occasional concert. Minmay is one of my favorite Macross singers, and every once in a while I find myself humming "My Boyfriend is a Pilot" (while substituting Boy for Girl...) I really like the songs, and they're a pivotal part in the show.
Character: I love the characters, and like I said above one of the main points of the storyline is the love triangles. It's a pretty good idea, but sometimes it gets really frustrating, and sometime you'll say, "Just make up your mind already!" the character relationships are necessary to the story, and make up a large part of the emotional element. My favorite characters are Roy, Hikaru, Gloval and Misa, and my only regret was I wanted more of Roy and Gloval and less of Max (but he's also necessary to the metplot).
Overall: I really loved this series, and it ranks up there with First Gundam. All the above elements make one of my favorites of all time.
jmoriarty84
The characters themselves are what really drive the show. Hikaru may be an ace, but deep down inside he’s still a kid that’s growing. He’s also discovering love as he is trying to be a man. Roy, his big brother figure, is well confident in his abilities and never second guesses anything. Hikaru will also develop as a pilot or soldier and he eventually has subordinates assigned to him. Max, one of his men is a very popular character amongst fans all over the world for his gentle personality and nerdy looks but yet death defying piloting skills in the stars. Minmei is slowly embracingher fame as the ship’s idol and is torn apart that it keeps her from spending time with Hikaru who eventually develops a relationship with Misa.
Though Gundam was the first to utilize mechs as a military weapon, Macross uses the same concept but with a completely different approach. Rather than just huge robots, transforming fighter jets known as the Valkyries are introduced. In comparison to Gundam, I thought of the story driving the characters, but with Macross, it’s the characters that drive the story. I’m not saying either one is good or bad, but they each successfully approach this in their own respective rights. I’ll use an easy example. There is romance in both series. The romance is the Gundam series’ tends to be very secondary as well as the characters and the action tends to be more primary, while with Macross it’s the opposite. It’s more about the emotional situations and the action comes across as more secondary. I’d like to explain more but it’ll take time. Like I said, I’m not saying either one is good or bad. But I think it’s overall a good thing so it helps the series stay distinct able from each other.
The art and animation is pretty cool thanks to the creator Shojo Kawamori. This guy is just the man and a well respectable name in the world of robot anime. I wouldn’t say the animation was years ahead of its time, but it still stood out. The design of the Macross is very deep and complex and captivating. It had a great sense of size and the way they showed camera angles of it made you wonder how big it was and it was amazing that it was supposed to be the size of a city. When it turns into a mech, it looks really menacing and find it really interesting that something that is supposed to house civilians!!!
The Valkryie’s are pretty sweet themselves. I already explained that they transform. They can be fighter jets and they can transform into robots for hand to hand combat. Thanks to special customization, they are also used in space. The engineering of the transformation doesn’t look complex and I figure it makes an easy toy to transform. The battles are also pretty intense and fun. In comparison to Gundam where it has lazers and beam saber fights, the fights in Macross are also more “realistic.” The series limits itself to using more reality based weapons such as bullets and missles and out maneuvering your opponent with agility.
The bad guys, the Zentradi, have an interesting gimmick to them being giants. They tend to have really menacing and intimidating looks with the leaders having bald heads. Just makes them look like evil nazi guards or something.
The characters are good and have distinctiveness to their design. Minmei of course is stuck with the unrealistic purple color hair, but yet she is so cute. Misa has a more mature look to her that reflects on her plain personality. The captain Global looks like an old war house. Ichijo has a wild youth look to him but still has an innocent face. Max doesn’t really look intimidating and he looks nerdy but he can still kick ass and get the girl.
So even though it’s an oldie, you still got a goodie.
The Japanese version is pretty well casted. It has veteran seiyuu Akira Kamiya playing Roy Fokker. His dark voice gives a mature sounding to it since he is a role model to not only Hikaru, but to his men, but yet still has some lightness to it to reflect his laid back personality. Hikaru’s seiyuu Hase Arihiro, gave a very teenage sound to it and he captivated qualities where he’s trying to grow up and understand the world around him, and yet he has to fight in a war. Sho Hayami who plays Max brings unique traits to the character by being serious and yet having a mellow personality at the same time, while in comparison to his other roles like Burn from Dunbine and Zarbon from DBZ tend to be more serious. Mari Iijima who plays Minmei in both the Japanese and the newer dub is just excellent.
This anime helped jump-started her music career as well. She brought a high pitch sound to the voice that not only brings out a teenage girl, but brings a Chinese authenticity to her voice the same way Shampoo’s voice in the Japanese version also had where it was high pitched to indicate some sort of accent. Plus, her singing is just excellent and addicting with such songs like Xiao Bai Lo which was her biggest hit on the show. But outside of Min Mei’s songs which I will also talk about when I get around to reviewing the movie, Do You Remember Love, the opening and ending themes of Macross are excellent pieces of music themselves.
Like the opening theme simply also titled Macross is amazing in its own right. The singer sounds pretty old school with the tone of his voice and the opening trumpets sound something you’d hear in a military march and goes with to the aerial imagery when transitioned to all the fighting with faster paced music and singing. And the song Runner has a pretty mellow feel to it. And the background music in general tends to use a lot of trumpets in general and gives a military feel to it overall whenever in the midst of battle.
In comparison to Gundam, this anime brings a different kind of twist to the military centered mech genre. Like in Gundam, the series tended to be more about humans fighting each other, while in Macross it is more about aliens but there is more elaboration to that in relation to the origin of the Zentradi which would be a spoiler if I got around to that. The series is more light hearted and more drama based with the love triangles but a different kind of coming of age story in its own right. Not just for Hikaru, but for Minmei as well. The main cast all have their roles in the story and develop in their respective rights. Despite some changes when it became Robotech as an early gateway anime over 20 years ago, Golden Harmony still managed to keep its main themes in faith, but this overall great anime with a wonderful story with interesting art and excellent action with terrific acting and music.
Rampant
A simple summary of this series is that it is a really inferior imitation of both Gundam and Space Pirate Captain Harlock/Galaxy Express 999. The style of the anime sits firmly on the laurels of a Mobile Suit Gundam, but it forsakes this with the actual character styles, opting to imitate the Harlock/Galaxy Express style instead. Instead of airs to grandeur, the characters instead all are fairly subdued and slow to react to everything. This results in every character looking like Harlock, talking like Gundam, but not really having a personality at all in the end. It is just a bunch of gazing at each other,talking about Minami, or elementary school level bickering or gossiping.
The story of aliens for whom culture (mostly just pop idol singing and sex, unfortunately) is either a drug or alternately a poison, is fairly humorous. Everything else is pretty bad though. The pop idol storyline is all bad, especially because the songs are so lifeless. Minami is all anyone will talk about for pretty much the whole series, and it becomes incredibly obnoxious as the series goes on. The fights are decent, but the reasons given for the enemies not just destroying them from the getgo are pretty implausible (especially given what they finally do later, although that is too big of a spoiler for me to include here).
The art is simply atrocious. The lines are bold and chunky, or maybe a better way to put it is that especially all of the characters look smeared all of the time. When a zoom out happens the character art becomes even better. At least it resulted in some hilarious moments, like when (probably due to a guest director or producer) all the eyes start bugging out in episode 25.
The voice acting is average in Japanese, and actually listenable in English with the exception of Minami whose voice is an insulting psuedo-Asian broken English trainwreck (no other character sounds like this, the rest all speak perfectly decent English, including her entire family). The music has some really good ideas...and is unfortunately incredibly limited. Like if you tried to listen to a song and replayed it in 15 second format on amazon.com, the music here repeats incredibly short stretches over and over. No matter how good the classical style booming drums sound, banging them the exact same way every episode is exasperating.
Overall, I guess go ahead and watch this if you are absolutely obsessed with space works or gigantic robot works, but just know you are getting something that is a derivative and inferior work. There is much better you can spend your time on, like the aforementioned works from which Macross is derived, or perhaps a nice cup of Legend of the Galactic Heroes!
CodeBlazeFate
*SPOILERS FOR MACROSS. I WILL ALSO BE COMPARING THE ORIGINAL VERSION TO THE AMERICANIZED VERSION CALLED ROBOTECH SEASON 1, AS WELL AS SHOW BOTH VERSIONS OF CHARACTERS` NAMES, EXCEPT FOR ROY SINCE HIS NAME DOESN`T CHANGE WITH EITHER VERSION. HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT, THEN TAKE IT UP WITH THE SDF-1. THIS IS ALSO GOING TO BE LONG AS HELL, BUT BEAR WITH ME. THIS SHOW IS WORTH IT* Well, this is easily the oldest anime I`ve ever seen, and this was also my first. Nostalgic memories flow within me as this, Southern Cross, MOSPEADA, and Star Wars movies 3-6 introduced me to not only mechs,but sci-fi as well, and I am forever grateful to all of them for it. Now, for the present. This show has existed for 34 years. If you wanted anything even remotely popular from the 80's, (aside from DBZ because that came out in the tail end of the decade and ended in 1996) then you only have 3 options: Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, and this. They even have good MAL scores, with 8.31, 8.02, and 8.08 respectively. Now, why did THIS show, an impressive mech military show combining mechs, love triangles, and the spread of musical culture, become such a big hit back in the day? Well, I think I just answered my own question, but whatever. Pretend we don`t know, and with that, let's find out, shall we?
STORY: 9/10
In 2010, these war-mongering humanoid aliens know as Zentradi come in to engage in war against Earth, so now, the people of Earth must put their differences aside, and team up against this alien threat. However, when the SDF-1 or Super Dimension Fortress 1, tries to engage in space fold, it ends up taking the nearby city of Macross with it, and now all the inhabitants end up living in this giant fortress large enough to fit the city. Meet Hikaru/Rick Hunter. He is a newbie to this military that uses Veritechs, and of course, rises through the ranks with eventual friends Max Jenius/Max Sterling, and Hayao Kakizaki/Ben Dixon, and along with Admiral Global/Gloval, Roy Focker, Misa Hayase/Lisa Hayes to combat this threat. Of course, there is the civilian side to the story as well, with Minmei`s rise to stardom, and the eventual consequences of her fame. This show is split into two major arcs. Episodes 1-27 make up the Macross War arc, and 28-36 make up the post-war ark. The first ark perfectly blends all of the characters' military, and personal lives together to make things feel more real, and, for the most part, show how much musical culture can affect both sides of a war as well as show off how the characters of both sides live their lives, brilliantly. The final arc, focuses on the tensions between the humans, and not only the Zentradi, but the particular Zentradi forces who can`t stand society. It also shows how badly Minmei has it now, and how badly everyone has it now, except for Max and his new wife named Milia Fallyna/Myria Sterling. Tensions get hotter than ever, the love triangle between Hikaru, Misa, and Minmei, while overall not heated, lands members of the 3 members into dramatic, and heated situations that make them desperate, and volatile, especially during the rebelling Zentradi threat. It all ends with the start of a journey... a journey TO THE STARS!!!
CHARACTERS: 9/10
Hikaru is an interesting guy. He is a hesitant hero, who`s mainly in it for the flying rather than the fighting, and has a dry wit to him, especially with Misa. His ties to this love triangle, unfortunately hamstring him at times, causing him to be hesitant, which he has gotten unwarranted flak for. Misa is an experienced officer of the fleet, and is equally snarky with Hikaru, but a particular bit about her past in episode 7, and how volatile she becomes in the final arc, really make us feel sorry for her, and make us want to scream: "Hurry up Hikaru and pick Misa GODDAMMIT!" Now for Minmei, easily the most hated character of the series, whoses infamy among the show's fans not only rival that of Nena Trinity from 00 and Flay Alister from SEED, but even Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass, and while I can agree that she is a total ditz, and she's definitely more ignorant to other people's feelings than she should, not to mention the it's her fault Hikaru is so hamstrung and hesitant, I can't agree that she is the most unlikable character of the show, mainly due to that despite all of this, she's pretty nice at heart (unlike the examples from other shows mentioned above), she makes some nice performances, she gets the worst outcomes in the last arc which practically beats her physically as well as emotionally, but what she does in the second half of the finale, is downright admirable, as we don't really see many love triangle rivals do what she did at the end.
Now the most unlikable character here is Kaifun/Kyle. He is such a dickbag to both Minmei and Hikaru, you want to see him choke on his own alcohol instead of throwing it in Minmei`s face, and even the ground. Now for the military guys. Roy Focker is a total badass pilot, and a cool guy to boot. Max is nice, a total dork, and easily the most badass pilot in the show, which his why she gets the girl. Speaking of which, Milia, at first, starts off as an arrogant Zentradi before Max shows up. After a few confrontations, they hook up, and even have a kid, after being the first Human/Zentradi couple to get married. As for Hayao, he's pretty funny, goofy, and laid back. It makes it painful to see some of them die, something Hikaru can attest to. Admiral Global is a pretty good admiral, and Claudia is a pretty funny and refreshing character, especially in her interactions with Roy and the backstory she has with him. The 3 zentradi spies are lovable goofs and no one can deny that. Quazmin/Kyrhon is such a fun villain of pure assholishness that I can't help but love the guy, and these kinds of villains are not always that easy to pull off, so props to a classic title for being able to do this. I realize I many not have covered everyone, but hey, what can you do? Either way, this was an extremely lovable cast of characters present in this series.
ART: 8/10
This show came out in 1982, and with few exceptions, looks better than most TV anime until BEBOP! Mobile Suit Gundam, pfft, trash tier visuals when compared to this! Southern Cross, mediocrity! The sheer cohesion and level of fluidity in the action scenes is not only great, but movie quality level at the time, only really comparable to Dragon ball and DBZ, and most good quality movies of the time. The action scenes are adrenaline pumping as well, especially for the time. Even Minmei's performances look decent. There are definitely a few problems though. The last arc in particular has a few moments in which the quality dips to that of an 80's western cartoon. That, and there's the very occasional coloring error and awkward moment here and there. Looking at you, knife fight and Drunk Kaifun/Kyle.
SOUND: 9/10
For the original OP, I can't stand it, and many of you will kill me for saying that so, I won't elaborate on that any further. The ED, while better, isn't anything special either. It`s so hard to find the original OST, but from the few songs I've heard from clips, it's still good. Minmei's performances in the original are fun little ditties, if I do say so myself. Now, for ROBOTECH. Many flame wars have started arguing whether this, or the original is better. Personally, I prefer the ROBOTECH version myself, and nostalgia does NOT play a big role in it, but a role none the less. The ROBOTECH OST is honestly amazing, really bringing more flare to the action, and really sweetening the calmer scenes. I also really enjoyed Minmei`s more outgoing performances in the original, which again, has more spice and flare than the original. Albeit, while the ROBOTECH OP, is nice and memorable, it has no right being the ending as well, and it shows. Now for the dubbing part of ROBOTECH. Man, oh man. The amount of crap it got past, is enough to impress Hetalia, and considering it originally aired in Cartoon Network, that sais something. There are plenty of really juicy double entendres and sayings that make you want to pull your inner Quagmire from Family Guy and say "giggity". Hell, there was so much, that eventually the radar managed to censor a few, which the DVDs obviously rectify. You can play a drinking game with the amount of explicit sayings you find. The actual performances are rather good, ESPECIALLY for an 80's dub. Like with Berserk, a lot of names here you won't recognize with a few exceptions, but from what I`ve heard, the Berserk English dub is great too. Hikaru/Rick Hunter was voiced by Tony Oliver, who went on to play as Lancer from Fate/Stay Night, and UBW. Aside from that, these people aren`t that well known in the anime community. Even Rebecca Forstadt, voice of Minmei, who went on to voice Nunnally from Code Geass, isn't that popular, but despite that, a few forced moments aside, the dub was pretty good.
ENJOYMENT: 9/10
The action was pretty awesome, and the OST only made it sweeter. The characters were cool, and the drama of the last few episodes was seeping. Even the villains were good. Quazmin/Khyrron is gloriously douche, and the other Zentradis are good villains and negotiatirs too. Hell, there's three Zentradi dorks who are directly responsible for Minmei`s singing reaching the Zentradi in the first place, while they're suppoded to be spying There are only two episodes I don't like. 14, and 16. 14 was just recap, and 16 was some weird, messed up dream/recap with all the dialogue changed. Aside from those two, every episode was great. The finale, was really impressive as well, especially the epicly dire and nigh apocalyptic fight and the choice Minmei makes near the end, gracefully cutting herself off of the love triangle to let Hikaru and Misa get together, despite all the trauma she just went to. To do something like that, takes a level of maturity and understanding you just wish you'd see more often in anime.
OVERALL 9/10 RAW SCORE: 91/100
If you like mecha anime and have somehow not seen this one, you should. Don't give me or any Macross fan that "it's old so I won't watch it and it looks ugly because it's old" crap because, you'll gate yourself from SO much good anime. Yes, I did paraphrase GR Arkada from his Berserk review; no, I don't care, since you need to watch this show, especially if you want to know what a sci-fi pioneer is like in the anime world. It's the quintessential love triangle anime for a reason, and one of the best space operas as well, up there with Gundam and Star Wars.
PersonaSimon
SDF Macross is anime of epic proportions. It’s a story of war, of love, of adventure, and a dozen different concepts. But the biggest feat is that all these concepts actually blend these concepts in a way that actually work. While this sound fairly simple to do, it is not as easy as it sounds. Many anime try do this, but fail because of lackluster execution or lack of time. A good example of this would be Charlotte, where it tried to bite off more than can chew and put no effort in trying to blend its concept together in a natural way. One element thatmakes SDFM work is it great story and strong characters. It is an anime about mankind finding an abandon giant alien spaceship and rebuilding the ship that they rename the SDF-1 Macross. But things go arise and aliens hunting the ship, a war monging civilization of green giants called the Zentradi, choose this moment to investigate, and war breaks out between the two sides. And to make matters worse, the Macross, its crew, and 70,000 civilians get teleported to the outer rims of the solar system. So under Zentradi pursuit, the Macross and the people aboard it have to fight their way home.
A big part of the series is how different groups of people clashing and coming to understand with each other whether is alien vs human, soldier vs civilian, or even man vs woman. But the thing to tie all these groups of people together is culture. For example, the humans on earth and in the Macross are in fear of the Zentradi, believing is some desperate fight against an all powerful force. However, the Zentradi are deliberately holding back because they want to recover the Macross intact to recover the lost technology that its hold and are curious of the actions of the Macross human crew. Later in the series, the humans learn that the Zentradi clear they have no concept of a life beyond warfare, and the contact with the Macross has a powerful and divisive effect on them. Seeing the Zentradi trying to understand or adapt to human life is some of the most interesting and endearing parts of the show. It’s something Macross keeps coming back to, the idea that is there is more to life than fighting.
The cast is comprised of strong but understandable characters. We have Hikaru Ichijo, how is a brash kid who learns to be a man, Minmay, who grows from a girl, to an idol, to a heroine, and Misa Hayase, who is a hard ass commander who learns becomes a caring friend. All the characters have strong character interactions with each other. You’ll watch even the second tier characters grow, mature, and die throughout of the series.
Is Macross a perfect show, not by a long shot. On technical level, it haven’t age very well. There is a lot of still frames and awkward scenes. And the series kinda lossses its energy after the humans defeat the Zendari and the series of event that happened afterwards is rather unnecessary.
Despite it shortcomings, SDF Macross is a series that I would recommend to almost anyone. It is an extremely well made show and people will most likely find something they like about the show, whether it is the romance, war drama, action, mecha, etcetera.
TheCoolGuy82
Note: This is my first time writing a review on myanimelist so plz go easy on me. After finishing countless gundam shows i feel kind of tired. I started watching macross with more of zero expectations bcoz of how old it is. But i was very wrong.. Spoilers: Story: Macross is a story of an alien spacecraft land on earth years ago and the humans with their Technology made Spacecraft Macross. It shows the realism of human existence (which was explained great). It also center around love Triangle (which i like the most about this show). characters: the characters in macross are huge piller (since they are the onesthat made this show most memorable
Music: Aside from lin minmay's songs and ops, eds. The music in macross is better than anything
Art: the artstyle may not be that Impressive but it is part of its charm
Overall: Macross is really one of the greatest things i've ever watched alongside logh (same director)
yngtadpole
It's amazing that after this anime is over 30 years old but still excels in the quality of the animation even up to today. Macross Plus was my first exposure to mecha anime and I definitely enjoyed the tie-in between the two shows. Macross has some excellent animated sequences during fights in space and in their mechs as well. You can tell the animators really took great detail to making the action polished, the explosions delightful, and the destruction detailed. There was so much detail put into the fights you get sucked up into the epicness of fighting in space with all the war debrisaround and missles and lasers going back and forth between enemies. One of the more interesting things they animated were the perspective changes around characters and places during the fight.
Macross doesn't succeed by animation alone though. The music is really what sets Macross apart from other anime, and from the beginning to the end, the theme takes a central role in the story and character development. The classic feel of the songs make me nostalgic just listening to them. Similarly, the reverb effect by the alien forces was a very interesting touch that reminded you of the foreign origins and giant size of the aliens in general.
The war theme in this anime is taken seriously and dwelves into fighting, pacifism, killing, and losing family and friends. I thought it was well done and paced. People do die, some violently, and they use it sparing and to good effect for the story.
Overall, I loved the animation, the sounds, the music, and the story and character development. The climax of the whole series was totally worth it, and you see hard work of the animators really shine then. This is definitely a classic mecha anime worth watching if you enjoy fighting, music, and a serious story.
Prashantttt
First Let's give it a correct - Title ( Macross - A Total Disaster with a Cringe Story, Lame Romance, and Useless Characters) Basically 90% of the 90s romance anime are xhit and macross is one of them ... If you’re looking for an anime that’s a complete waste of time, “Macross” is perfect for it . I thought I was going to watch a mecha show with some romance but what I got a boring, confusing story, a love triangle that makes you want to roll your eyes, and characters that are so irritating you’ll want to throw your TV out thewindow. Let’s break down all the ways this anime fails horribly.
About story ( a mess)
(Macross) tries to mix space battles, alien invasions, and love drama, but it just doesn’t work. It feels like the writers had no idea what they were doing and threw in every idea they could think of. One moment we’re in a space fight, the next, we’re dealing with a stupid love triangle. And none of it is interesting! The plot is repeating and boring, and just when you think something might happen, it drags you into another dull scene. You will start enjoying some serious fighting scenes but suddenly a romance nonsense scene will puked it up because bitxh called (minmay) main fMC of the show is ready to play with MC's feelings , and Mc has no idea what he wants .There’s no clear direction, no real excitement, and no reason to care about anything that’s going on.
The painful annoying romance
The romance in “Macross” is just awful. We have a ridiculous love triangle that makes absolutely no sense. **Lynn Minmay** is supposed to be this sweet girl, but honestly, she’s just a selfish brat who keeps playing with the main character’s feelings. At the start, she chooses Lynn Kaifun, a movie actor, because he could make her famous. She’s always looking out for herself, jumping from one guy to another based on who can help her the most. She’s only with Kaifun because he’s a big star and can boost her singing career. But when things don’t go her way and Kaifun’s fame starts to fade, she loses interest.
Animation ( Art style)
Ya , it’s an old show from the 1980s, so we can ignore that thing but the art style is still pretty bad. The character designs are inconsistent, with their faces constantly changing shape and turning ugly at times. One moment a character looks ok , but suddenly their faces changes and turned into ugly faces ,but it's ok it's a 1980s show
CHARACTERS
Hikaru, the Main Character ( a confused with no self respect guy)
Then there’s Hikaru, the main character. In the beginning of the show I thought he will show us his true potential and lead the story alone, which will make him a worthy guy but buy He’s constantly getting dragged around by Minmay’s stupid games, and he never stands up for himself. He’s always cry about how hard things are for him, but he never does anything to change his situation. He just lets Minmay play with his feelings, and then he wonders why he’s so unhappy.
Writer never gave him a chance to stand for himself, he went from an ordinary guy to the captain of the team. For what ? For crying over a bitc.h , who is making his life worse , for what so that you will repeat the same thing again and again and will never learn lesson from your past.
Misa Hayase (Boring and Lifeless)
And let’s not forget Misa Hayase. She’s supposed to be this strong, serious officer, but she’s just boring. She’s got no personality, no interesting traits, and she’s just there to make the love triangle even more unbearable. She acts tough, but really, she’s just as clueless as the rest of them. She is chasing our MC hikaru because her boi- friend died in war , but chasing a guy who has no interest in her , till the end ..
Minmay The Annoying Diva ( the worst thing about the show)
Minmay is the worst of all. She’s not just selfish, she’s annoying too. ( The gold digger of the show) In the beginning of the show she chose Lynn Kaifun when he can made her successful at the beginning of the story.
remember her boyfriend is a movie actor at the beginning story.
then she chose the MC when the MC was successfully had the rank of commander, at this time her boyfriend not famous male actor anymore and poor. and in the beginning mc was just an ordinary guy.
She doesn’t care about anyone but herself. Even when things are serious, all she cares about is her stupid singing career. Original singers got wasted over this type of characters .
She is ready to show her love side with Hikaru, making him think she likes him, but then she ignores him whenever it’s convenient for her. She’s not in love with Hikaru; she’s in love with what he can do for her. She plays with his emotions like it’s a game, not is not only the worst character but the worst thing about this show .
Final Thoughts
"Macross"is a waste of time. The story is confusing and boring, the romance is cringe-worthy and annoying, and the characters are so bad that you won’t care what happens to them. "Macross" is a disaster from start to finish.. and thanks to that D grade romance zhit. Recommending it to someone is same as a crime.
kamirecca
Ok time to review Robotech, the Macross Saga. Its frikken awesome! Done. Ok you demand more than that, i get it. Lets break it down into details. Story. The story is solid, with a few flaws that age itself is accounted for. First of, the serie starts year 1999 when a huge alien spacecraft crashes down on earth... last time i checked it didnt happen. but concidered that Robotech was launced 1985, the year 1999 was far into the future. the story is concentrated around three parts. The first part is the obvious invasion of aliens trying to retake the crashed spacefortress (Known as the SDF-1 or the Super Dimensional Fortress 1).The second part the story is concentrated around is the love triangle of Rick Hunter, Lisa hayes and Lynn Minmei. And the third part the story is concentrated around is the alien invaders and what they experience.
The first of the second points of the concentration, the invasion and the love triangle is actually quite normal, nothing special about them. We have seen aliens outgunning earth but eventually falls before, same goes with love dramas. No the series realy strong point is when you get to see things out of the aliens perspective. The way they tries to understand the most basic things that we humans are doing is simply amazingly wellwriten. The aliens are a warrior-race only bred for combat. They also live male and female separated. So when they see a commercial poster of a halfnaked woman in her underwear they simply cannot understand what they are looking at. The same goes when it comes to everyday things suck as kung-fu movies or music.
Music is also an importand part of the story since it is that that realy touches the aliens. This maybe sound alittle... goofy and silly, but it actually works realy well. While playing such a large portion of the story one could say that the music is the forth part the story is concentrated around, but i would say it had to be a musical for that.
Art:
The series is old, over 20 years old. Of course that means that the art is and looks old too. But that dosnt mean it is bad.
First we have the character artwork, with all the important character having a unique look without looking to Anime, meaning no spiky hair with ponytails and giant balls of color and bling sticking out of their head. The serie is very down to earth and realistic, as is the character design.
Second is the mecha design, wich is legendary. Macross Saga is made from the japanese anime Super Dimentional Fortress Macross, who always have had a great design on their mechas and ships.
The main mechas are the Veritecs, planes that can transform into humanoids. What i love about them is that even in the Mecha form you can still see that they originate from fighterplanes, and they have a very realistic and military style. If we in reality would make planes that can transform into mechas, they would pretty much look something like a veritec.
The animations on the other hand are shifting to say the least. In some episodes, especially the first two you are amazed of how welldrawn it is and it actually make you feel like you are there, watching it at first hand (Exept some funny details like a painting of a head or something on a building that suddenly turns sad when a mecha crashes into it). Yet in some episodes it is simply ugly, lack of colors, reused sceens and such. Though you quickly learn to forgive Robotech for that.
Sound:
The music in the series is awesome, got alot of soul, got alot of feeling and is simply very well done. Exept for the songs that Minmei sings, but that can also be blamed on her. But to be quite frankly she has to few songs (remember when she yells "Now im gonna sing a brand new song for all my froiends fighting out there." and sings something you already have heard ten times or so.)
Weaponsounds are realistic most of the time exept the far-of missile blasts that sounds like firecrackers, and most voice acring have a high quality. The one exeption is Minmei (Again) but that can be because her lousy charactrer overall. Speaking of that....
Character:
Most of the characters are very well written. They are deep, they are unique and they are exiting. But whats realy striking is the way the characters grow.
Example: Rick Hunter is at the start of the show a young, quite laid back anti-military amature pilot. At the end of the serie he has become a fighting veteran, a much more serious person, much more grownup and carries the weight of responsibility and guilt yet being principal and strong.
The most fun characters to watch however is the two aliens Breetai and Exedore since they are the foremost growing characters in the serie. They go from warmongeling biological weapons that thinks of nothing other than war, to peace-seeking defenders.
And here it comes again, the biggest flaw in the Robotech universe: Lynn Minmei.
Miss Minmei is an annoying, nerve-gnawing, spoiled black dot on a otherwise clean paper. It took me around 5 episodes before i hated her, and yet she is with you all the way. Nowadays when i watch Robotech i skip foreward untill she isnt in screen anymore. But she has an important part to play and i must regrettably say that she fills that part.
Enjoyment:
Robotech is an actionpacked, realistic serie with tons of wonderfull and beautifull moments and memories, it was, and still is groundbreaking, well made and has alot of thoughts behind it. Some people call it a bad remake of SDF Macross, but it isnt. The story, the settion, the idea, the whole essence is totaly different. You can argue about if Harmony Gold had the right to take an existing serie and use it to make their own however much you like, but that wint change the fact that it is a good serie.
Overall:
To fully understand the greatness of Robotech you need to do more than watch Robotech Macross Saga. After that follows the Robotech Masters and Robotech the New Generation. If you still wants more you can see the Shadow Chronicles, Untold Story and The Sentinels movie. But Robotech is in fact the best in its bookform, written by Jack McKinney.
From me Robotech gets a straight and welldeserved 10, and forever a place in my heart.
//Silver
tramontina
This is one of the best anime I have ever watched, which was back in the 80s. Last year I watched the entire series and boy, I got multiple goosebumps from sudden hormone rush. By today's standard, the art and sound is definitely nothing to shout at but it was great back those days. You can see how much it differs from MS Gundam, especially the camera works. This anime is very comprehensive and ambitious at that time, and still very few anime can match how it incorporates action, suspense, romance and science in a bag. The concept of "folding" and energy barrier are just mindblowing. The music score is still one of my top favorites where i often play them on Youtube.
The best thing about this show is perhaps it also appeals to matured audience with the intricate love conflict and the concept of loyalty. It is a definite evergreen classic with no parallel.
If you haven't, then watch it now.
MrLegitimacy
It took me a while, but I finally got around to watching SDF Macross. Beyond transforming jet fighter robots, I had no idea what to expect, and I was blown away by what I discovered. Macross kept me constantly engaged with its thematic ideas, solid writing, and charming aesthetic. This show is great not for its plot or characters as much as the themes it explores. Namely, breaking barriers between the self and an alien other, and the purpose of waging war... With giant robots. Also growing from a boy to a man and being unsure of your place in the world. Culture's value is aprevalent issue, with many of our enemy characters being changed for the better by exposure to it. The power of a song, or of a loving embrace is shown to have power greater than or equal to physical might. Many of our characters have to come to understand their place in the world, and how it constantly changes. Be it coming of age, the death of someone close, being bestowed a great new responsibility, or learning there is more to life than previously known, nearly every character has to grapple with a new issue and overcome it.
Macross eschews the more complex military plot of Gundam 0079 to tell more compelling character stories. The pacing is a bit odd, but refreshing since it doesn't get bogged down inching its way along and can present new challenges and scenarios as it pleases. The series is divided almost evenly into three acts, of which I would say the third and final act is probably the least exciting. I must say they did a great job writing consequential plot points most of the time. Our MC's senpai character as a Kamina-esque catalyst, the Macross itself becoming a symbol of life and hope, and almost every scenario where one of our heroine's is caused to doubt Hikaru because of his interaction with the other are all excellently executed.
Many of the characters serve different purposes throughout each act, a standout being the villain Kamjin/Quamzin. I couldn't help but wonder why he was left as a loose plot thread until he was brought back and put to good use later in the series. While I'm on the subject, most of the alien characters are pretty entertaining. They range from one dimensional war mongers to growing, learning.. Humans! Several female characters are very flat without much meaningful growth or importance to the story, simply as a consequence of the time the show was made. I was pleased to see that our one minority character wasn't played as a token but as a real individual, even stronger than our female leads.
Personally I find the romance plot a bit much, and would have a preferred a tighter focus on robots and war. I tend to like my robot shows to be a more distilled toy commercial rather than bogged down with character drama, but I know I may well be in the minority there. The emphasis on the romance aspect greatly increases in the final act, which was a bit off putting for me. There is a distinct tonal shift that accompanies that third act, as well as a time skip for our cast. As our 16 year old protagonist ages to 18, you can tell by looking that he has grown physically. However, for the remainder of the story he is trying to mature to fit into his older body. He sometimes makes selfish choices (Don't we all?), but is repeatedly forgiven which somewhat removes any stakes or consequences which could arise.
I can't help but feel that this story would have benefited from filling a full 50 episodes. 25 episodes for the third act would have allowed more time to explore the themes and characters instead of leaving some of them a bit flat and glossed over. It may have also lead to a lot of fluff and even more dreaded episodes without much plot progression, so maybe things are better this way.
Of course, this is a very old anime, so your opinion of dated production will greatly affect your enjoyment of the series. I personally love old animation, so I enjoyed watching this even more than modern anime. Budgetary issues and constraints are on full display, with frequent dips in animation quality and multiple episodes comprised of largely reused footage. I find the lapses in animation quality endearing, but far more off putting are the dips in audio production.
The soundtrack is upbeat and groovy, and similarly dark and somber when appropriate. The songs of our heroine Minmay appear in almost every episode, so I hope you like her debut track "My Boyfriend is a Pilot." While new songs are introduced periodically, this one gets played incomparably more than any other. The ending theme is a cheesy slow ballad, but I still found myself singing along every time. The version I watched on Amazon Prime for some reason did not include the theme song, which makes me feel robbed of the most important aspect of the anime experience. I still recognize it being played at key moments in the show, thus boosting morale, but I wasn't able to become as familiar with it as "Tobe! Gundam," so that I could sing along.
In the end, I had a great time with this show. If you're looking to experience some classic influential mecha anime and grow tired of Gundam, this is a nice change of pace with its different focus. It's shorter than most similar series, so it's an even lower risk investment than a full 50 episode series, with the same amount of epic robot grandeur packed in.
Firlian
There's a saying in the anime old testament, " Yamato gave a dream to every anime fans, Gundam gave the power to hold to that dream, Macross showed them how to widen that dream, and Evangelion taught them to crush that dream". Enough joking, I'm here to talk about SDF Macross. A fenomenal and memorable show, which also had the same fate with the aforementioned three in my sacred verse above (Yamato, Gundam 0079, NGE). What's that fate? embarassingly, budget problem. They're are great anime, and ironically, all had to face the fate of their episode numbers being cut because there were not enough money. So,even with budget problem, does Macross still be able to achieve the title of "Masterpiece"? In my opinion, yes.
If Gundam was the pioneer of "real robot" genre, Macross was the first in industry to be able to mix that genre with drama, romance, and.....idol. Macross has advantage in that side, because Tomino was famous for not being able to write a satisfying romance in his series.
Macross was the first in my knowledge, to introduce idol genre in anime industry. You will not be able to know idolmaster, love live, even non anime features such as vocaloid. If you want to know why, the answer is Lynn Minmay.
Minmay was, probably, the mother of all animated idols in current anime industry. In one of bonus drama, the voice actor of Minmay, Mari Iijima, was asked by one of the viewer, "who's your favorite singer?", Iijima, half-jokingly answered, "Mari Iijima". Maybe for most people who heard this answer, will just shrugged it off and regarded it as a simple joke.
But, in my opinion, Iijima tried to emphasize one thing. She is not Minmay. And Minmay is not her. Although all of Minmay's songs are hers. But the substance was, Lynn Minmay alone, could exist as a standalone idol. From that on, anime industry found new way to milk out money from their fans, character songs. Now, almost all anime OST are always followed by their characters sing certain songs about them. This trend was first realized by the appearance of Lynn Minmay.
Synopsis :
An unknown spaceship that crashed on earth surface made humanity realized that they're not alone in this universe. Fearing of the possible threat from the space, for the first time in human history, mankind was able to push aside their nationalism, and different interest, to be united under one banner of United Nation. The newly formed UN Forces decided to reform the aforementioned alien ship and named it SDF-1 Macross. On the day of its maiden voyage, a booby trap made by the previous owner of the ship triggered an incident led to a war between human and a war specialized alien race, Zentradi. A free spirited acrobatic pilot Hikaru Ichijo, an aspiring idol and singer Lynn Minmay, and later Hikaru's superior, Misa Hayase were caught up in this whole mess. Together with a city which was transported into Macross, and the whole crew in Macross, they're plunged into a journey full with cruelty of war, grief, drama, and....romance.
Character:
Hikaru = a typical protagonist. Hot headed, straight forward, skilled and reliable at the right time, and.....at loss in romance. Hikaru is not like most of mecha protagonist where the majority of them have the most advanced mech and skill above average for plot convenience. Hikaru's valkyrie has the same quality with every mob chara in the series, and funnily enough, Hikaru's unit is often shot down by the enemy, and in the army Max and Roy are certainly more skilled than him.
Misa = a type of woman whom every male audiences in 80's wanted as their imaginary partner. The proof is that she's the winner of the first animage grand prix award instead of her rival Minmay. She's mature, reliable, strict, but at the same time still shows her feminine side.
Minmay = the most iconic character in the series. Her fame still echoes through the sequels and spin offs. The initial idea for her character is simply a cinderella-like story, where an unknown girl suddenly became a center of attention of the whole galaxy. Yes, literally, Galaxy. Of course her traits are not as simple as that, there are her certain quirks that made a lot of audiences gnawing their finger skin while insulting her, espicially regarding her love triangle with Hikaru and Misa.
Production team:
Macross was begun as a simple scribble about a transforming jet fighter by a young student named Kawamori Shoji who showed it to Itano Ichiro. Those two later joined with a team led by the famed director of Yamato Noboru Ishiguro, who functions as a brake for those two young creators. Young Kawamori was described by his companions as a "virgin with a great imagination", with great idea about mechanics and robots, but still has melancholic side of young man. Itano's famous "Itano Circus" made its debut in this series.
Overall :
A great ride from the beginning to the end. Straight forward plot, interesting characters, and good soundtrack (if you're into classic J-pop).
seroth77
This was my first true introduction into the drama anime genre. While I have watched shows like Mazinger Z and Voltron as a child this show opened so much more for me. It is and will always be the best anime I have ever watched hands down. This show dealt with so many different issues that to this day some anime don't deal with. This was the first anime I saw that even had an interracial couple (Roy and Claudia). (^_^) Story: The story of Macross, while centers on three people, really has a wider cast of secondary characters. Yougrow to love these characters as much as the main three people. Viewers got to grow with everyone aboard the SDF-1. You didn't just see a character once and then he/she was blown up or killed the next second. You actually experienced the highs and lows with them and if something bad happened you felt bad for that person. I think the overall story dealt with so much about humanity, racial stereotypes, love, war, etc. The story pulled you in all directions. From a nice budding love story to a vicious war to tragic loss. While some may find issues with the show I thought the script was flawless and bold. 10/10
Art: The art style to me was good. The action sequences were really well done but the repeated scenes got a little annoying. While this is how it was done back in the 90s it never sat well with me. That being said, the artwork still deserves it's praise. I knew when Rick's skull fighter went on the deck of the SDF-1 at the opening credits I was in for a great show. 8/10
Sound: The music was wonderful. It helped pull your emotions when the scene called for it. 10/10
Character: Every character in Macross/Robotech had a purpose and played their parts well. The love triangle between the 3 main characters had you chewing your nails on who would be chosen. The secondary characters held their own and were very useful to the overall story. Every aspect of character development was well done 10/10
Enjoyment: As you can tell by now I really enjoyed this show. I still remember my sister, who hated cartoons, would sit and watch this show with me for the drama and romance. 10/10
Overall: This is the only anime series I've ever given a 10 to because it was not only my first introduction into drama anime but I'm hard pressed to find an anime today that can rival the shear scope and magnitude of Macross. There are a few that have come close but nothing has gotten this much acclaim. This was truly a ground breaking series. If a series can be remade with the exact same story but updated art and sound I would guarantee that it would rise to #1 on everyone's list. I thank the Macross team for allowing us to be part of their vision for such a short time even though the mark of it stayed with me to this day. 10/10
Bones
SDF Macross definitely falls into the catagory of Classic Anime; at the time it was made it was groundbreaking, refreshing and exciting. After all these years it has lost little of its excitement and appeal, and its place in the history of anime is well earned. The story took time to get moving but was actually rather intriguing once it got going, revealing itself to be more than just humans-kill-aliens-and-vice-versa and giving a fresh look at some of the things that we might perhaps take for granted within our own lives - even today more than 20 years later. The art, however, has naturally suffered with the timesand the advancement of technology and animation techniques: this, however, detracts little from the overall viewing experience.
The vast majority of the characters were enjoyable to watch and very likeable, with one or two exceptions. I found Lynn Minmay and Lynn Kaifun in particular most irritating, especially the former and her seeming inability to appear on screen without singing one of her mostly cringe-inducing songs that sadly get stuck in your head (the less said about "My boyfriend is a pilot" the better). The overall score of the show was fairly sound; it was just the overplugging of these songs that let it down.
The climax that came two thirds of the way through the show was a most memorable experience, and the show could easily have ended there, but instead continued on for another dozen episodes or so. This was not in itself a bad thing, as it allowed for a closer look at the personal lives of some of the characters, as well as some reasonably interesting theories about what might occur in the wake of the aforementioned "climax" (no spoilers here ;)
However, it meant that the actual ending of the series feels very rushed. It could have done with running for longer (which I believe it could have done comfortably, plot-wise at least) and tying up more of the loose ends.
On the whole, though, this anime has much to offer, not only being one of the first big mecha animes, paving the way for so many many more, but also through having a good solid story in its own right.
Nito-San
Before I really got into anime, my only knowledge of the medium was what most Americans know of it (Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, and Yugioh). Although, even then I knew that some animes were popular before that wave came in (Voltron, Battle of the Planets, Captain Harlock, and Robotech). So while watching newer animes that everyone praises as strokes of genius, I thought I'd look back at the some animes that established themselves as true anime classics. Through my search, I found a little show called Macross, which in the states was known as Robotech. However, I didn't watch Robotech, I went for thereal deal. You see in 2006, a little company called ADV films took the original Macross (full name Super Dimension Fortress Macross) and released in the U.S. the way the Japanese originally saw it. Long story short, Robotech was a localization not an import, so if you grew up with Robotech expecting our main character to be named Rick Hunter then get used to Hikaru Ichijou. Anyway, so I finished watching Macross and my final verdict...
All anime fans should watch this show...NOW!
First of all, by all means do not and I repeat do not write this anime off due to it being outdated. While the animation is from the 80's, I have to admit this animation holds up extremely well. Sure, there are times where facial expressions just seem creepy and you will spot a fair amount of continuity animations. One instance I saw a character throw a bottle of liquor on the floor, only to have another magically appear in their hand (@_@). Outdated animation aside, this show actually looks great. Characters are distinctive and backgrounds are detailed. Trust me when I say they were times I said to myself that the animation is really good, but there are also times where I said the animation was pretty bad, but I can excuse that.
I have to say though if there is one thing that you will remember from Macross, it would have to be it's unbelievable soundtrack. When I say unbelievable, I mean seriously this soundtrack is freaking fantastic. Epic sounds of horns and 80's guitar makes you feel pumped up for every battle in the show. It's one of those scores that once you hear it, goosebumps will crawl on your skin and chills will go down your spine. From the opening theme song to the ending credits, the music truly exemplifies what Macross is and what it stands for. Honestly, if you don't remember the music of Macross, then I believe you have no soul.
Like I said earlier, ADV released this show in the states the way it was supposed to be, with original flawless soundtrack and the original un-localized writing. They also included a re-dub (which is what I watched). If you've seen an ADV dub before, then you know who to see here. Vic Mignogna, Monica Rial, Luci Christian, Chris Patton, and John Swasey all do a great job here showing their dynamic ranges especially in a show like this that has some very intense moments. There are some criticisms I do have with this dub, such as some pronunciations ("Hee~Kaaaa~Ru Eee~Chiii~Joe is heard a lot) that could drive weeaboos crazy and very hammy acting from cast extras (which I think is somewhat intentional to make fun of hammy 80's anime dubs). However, there is one reason why I recommend everyone to watch this dub: The inclusion of Mari Ijima. You read that right, Mari Ijima, the ORIGINAL Lynn Minmay, from the JAPANESE track was asked by ADV to dub her character in English. The point being that Minmay is meant to be a foreign character, therefore Ijima provides the character with a thick accent. The best part being is that her performance does not feel tacked on at all. Sure there are times where I feel like she is struggling on how to execute certain lines, but most of the time she does extraordinary well and honestly it's her presence that the credibility of the English dub, of all dubs for this matter, is increased. If you don't want to watch the dub, then that's perfectly fine. I did watch the alternate re-telling movie in the original Japanese and I liked it fine except for maybe Hikaru's performance which I felt sounded too old for the role. Anyway while I do highly recommend the English re-dub, it's one of those common cases where no matter what language you hear you'll won't be disappointed.
So you ask yourself: Why should I bother with a show like Macross, with a show this old what's the point of caring about it when there are animes with much better production values and are relevant? The real question is why should you not watch Macross? Really, there is no harm from watching this show. I mean okay, sure, the story is campy and there is one scene that while I watching I kept asking myself "what?" However, can you really blame the campiness of Macross? Not to sound like a broken record, but it's from the 80's it's meant to be campy. Although, to be perfectly honest, I've not been this engaged with an anime in awhile. Macross is gripping. From the first episode, you are introduced to likable characters and a cool scenario (I might as go far to say that Mass Effect got some of it's inspiration from Macross). Even the really campy episodes like Minmay's participation in the beauty pageant doesn't feel that entirely silly but rather fitting for the show. Not to mention, the show's themes, while been used to death today, are handled quite well and do leave an impact on you even after done watching. You see while Macross on the surface looks like a regular mecha show, once you watch it you realize that it's a show about the significance of love and the impact it has on us, whether that impact be negative or positive. Macross is about that feeling you get when you're with someone and the internal struggle you could feel if they don't have know who or what is the right path for you. That's why Macross is so damn beautiful and why everyone should watch it.
Overall, while in some aspects is outdated, Macross is definitely a show that still completely holds up to this day. The music is great, the visuals are actually good for the time given, and the message is timeless. I say if you are an anime fan, then check this one out. If you're a mecha anime fan, then seriously check this one out. I believe that you'll be touched by Macross one way or another. Seriously, there is no way that you will dislike this show. Is it flawed? Yes, but that's because (all together now) it's an 80's anime and there a lot of the things you'll see that we have seen before. Although, if you put that all to the side, then I believe that you'll enjoy this show as much as I did.
ggultra2764
Being just as successful in bringing about the "real robot" genre of mecha titles for anime like Mobile Suit Gundam, Macross offered up its own unique spin on the genre with pop idols, an intergalactic war with an alien race and a love triangle. Focusing on the clash of humans and Zentradi, Macross offers a good mix of plot developments and character depth to keep you hooked on the conflict. Characters among both factions are fleshed out as not all the Zentradi are portrayed to be shallowly evil and have their own justifications in understanding human culture considering their culture's upbringing. The series also takesits time with slowly unveiling connections that the Zentradi and humans have with one another as their conflict commences. Because of this fleshing out, I found the characterization of the series to be of a better quality than what I seen from Gundam.
The various romantic developments within the series, for the most part, do get a good amount of focus and development, in particular the love triangle with Minmay, Hikaru and Misa. The series takes its time exploring the developments between the three as Hikaru eventually finds himself having to choose between the two girls when they eventually become attracted to him. Some focus is also given to Roy and Claudia's relationship with much of a later episode focused on how the two eventually became a couple.
The pop idol element to the series, while seeming silly, has its relevance to the plotting of the show in making a number of the Zentradi come to accept human culture and being an effective weapon of psychological warfare against them towards later in the series. It also serves to further flesh out Minmay's character as she finds herself becoming distant from others as she becomes more popular, particularly with Hikaru and her jerk of a cousin, Kaifun.
The show is not without its faults. Other than the outdated animation that tends to get quite rough and ugly at points, I couldn't find myself drawn to Minmay's music as it eventually got repetitious hearing the same songs from her and they failed to hook me into the show's subpar soundtrack. My issues with the music are especially apparent during tense scenes between characters as a number of the show's musical tracks seemed like they were better suited for a soap opera. In addition, I couldn't find myself buying Max and Milia's marriage towards the later half of the series due to how rushed and poorly developed it came along.
While definitely showing its age in a number of areas, Macross still makes for a worthwhile anime to look into if you wish to familiarize yourself with older anime titles. With fleshed-out characters and an unusual twist for a space opera/ mecha title that works well in the form of its focus on pop idols, I can see why this is widely recognized one of the successful mecha anime franchises.
kekekeKaj
I'm from the generation who grew up watching "Robotech" on TV. For those of you young 'uns who don't know (I say this as I stroke my long white beard and rock back and forth in my rocking chair), "Robotech" is an American adaptation of three different anime. The three series were virtually unrelated in terms of story, and were forcibly mashed together into "Robotech". By far the most famous one of the three adapted series is "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross", or "Macross" for short, which became known as the "The Macross Saga" arc in "Robotech" Around a decade after I originally watched "Robotech", nostalgia ledme to hunt down and watch all three original series, and while the other two weren't as good as I remember (or in the case of the "Robotech: The Masters" arc, not even good to begin with), "Macross" actually exceeded my expectations, turning out to be the best one of the three. After all, there's a reason why this series is the only one of the three to not be forgotten after all these years; a reason why it was so popular that it got extended beyond its original intended run and kick started a new franchise that's still going strong today; a reason why I was so caught up in the show that it brought tears to my eyes on occasions, even as I laughed at its oudated clumsiness. The reason, is because "Macross" is a classic in the true sense of the word.
Unlike the "Gundam" franchise, which tends to be heavy on politics and warfare, the "Macross" franchise is more about the characters, love triangles, music, and detailed dogfights; virtually all these can be traced back to the original. The premises is that a deserted alien space fortress crash landed on Earth, and the human race spent a decade investigating the technology on board and made drastic technological advances as a result. Then an alien race called the Zentradi shows up, having been looking for the alien fortress all this time, and the fortress - patched up by humans and named "SDF-1 Macross" - had to defend itself as well as Earth from the aliens. As the story continues, the Zentradi, who knew only of war, experiences culture shock as they began to see more of the human society, and this introduces complications into the war.
When it comes to believability in the story, "Macross" is a little weak. One thing in particular is that hack of an idea of the Zentradi turning up after a decade in pursuit of their enemies (seriously, were they just sitting around on their arses and twiddling their thumbs in the intervening years?), with the human race already technologically advanced enough by then to make a decent battle of it.
I assumed, after watching the first few episodes, that this is another one of those oldies that are only good when you watch it through nostalgia goggles (brought to you from the makers of beer goggles) - the aged production is embarassingly bad in places, the jokes are lame, the love story mediocre, and the writing unpolished. However, as the story's worked its way through most of the solar system in the space of about 10 episodes (these old shows don't drag their feet do they), it gradually won me over. Even though it's often ridiculous and more than a little rough around the edges, there's a raw but straight-forwardly engaging quality about the story and the characters.
The music in "Macross" revolves around Lynn Minmay, an apsiring pop idol who is also the love interest of the main protagonist Hikaru. Her music plays a crucial part in course of the war against the Zentradi, and the series is full of her songs. There's an impressive number of them written for the series, most of them catchy and often silly, sporting cheesey titles such as "My Boyfriend's a Pilot" and bad Engrish lyrics such as "Xiao Bai Long [Chinese for little white dragon] is a very messiah" (WTF?). Having said that, there are some songs that are more than just cheap jpop, like the classy "Farewell to Kindness" and the short but poignant "My Beautiful Place" that was used to great effect in a memorable scene. The better songs seem to appear later on in the series - perhaps this is intentially done to reflect Minmei maturing as an artist. Unlike the main vocalist in "BECK", who was made out to be amazing but sounded amateurish, Lynn Minmei's vocals are convincing enough for a pop star's - probably because her voice actress Mari Iijima is one, and in fact Mari's role as Minmei gave her the breakthrough in her own career as a musician.
There are some pretty iconic features to the combat in "Macross" that are prevalent in the franchise even till this day. One of which is the design of the "Macross" valkyries, which are able to not only transform between plane and robot modes, but also into a versatile hybrid between the two. After all these years, the designs from the original series still looks pretty good to me. Another iconic feature is the Macross Missile Massacre, where a ship/mecha spams an improbable number of missiles out in a seemingly random pattern at its target, and it looks pretty damn awesome. Apparently the animation director came up with it when he strapped a bunch of toy rockets to his motorbike and fired them off. The dogfights and mecha battles may not as spectacular as those from later "Macross" anime, but some are still decent. While the "Gundam" line of series often have overpowered Gundams capable of destroying whole fleets of ships and less mecha, the battles in "Macross" are a lot more toned down: each pilot can only make so much difference, however talented they are, and they feel far less invincible than someone sitting in a Gundam.
For some reason, the deaths in "Macross", it always manages to shock me, perhaps because it's such a feel good show most of the time. It does have a ruthless streak though, which makes the story quite unpredictable at times. In particular, one of the events during the war is so devastating that I can't think of many other things that can match it.
What makes "Macross" different, and perhaps even unique, is that it's not all about the war, and I don't just mean in the sense that there's a bunch of other things going on in addition to the war; "Macross" goes on to show the aftermaths, something that very few other shows have done. This is essentially an extension of the story after the series got approved for additional episodes, and it feels a bit like a very long epilogue. However, I think these episodes that deal with the love triangles and the rebuilding of people's lives are some of the strongest episodes in the series. There's a particularly memorable one involving a rainy night and a box of rare tea, which stuck with me from when I first watched the show as part of "Robotech". It surprised me that the episode was at least as good as I remembered... but perhaps what's more remarkable is how well I remember it from all those years ago - for this quiet, melancholy episode to make such a strong impression on a boy who was only watching the show for the cool mecha, is no mean feat.
There are some things that bothers me about the last arc though. One of these is the character inconsistency with Minmei and her cousin Kaifun. With Minmei, it's as though she became more immature compared to the earlier, and it feels like the change has come about from the show's attempt to squeeze out some extra drama to fill up its extended run. Kaifun, who seemed destined to play the role of love rival originally, ended up undergoing personality changes in order to support Minmei's new tantrum-prone role.
A worse problem though, is the ending - for an arc that eschews the high octane matters of war in favour of subdued, mini personal dramas, it's almost bizarre how rushed the ending was. I remember rewatching "Robotech" (or at least parts of it) prior to it, and assumed its abrupt ending was one of the artifacts of being mashed together with the other series, but no, the original ending is almost as bad.
Speaking of "Robotech", I feel it's appropriate to make some comparisons between its first arc and "Macross". As you would expect, the attempt to roll three unrelated series into one had adverse effects on the story, but for the most part, it wasn't too different, (mostly because this was the adapted as the first arc... it was the later arcs that had to be heavily edited to work with the first). With the exception of Lynn Minmei's songs (which were even sillier), I love the music in "Robotech"; it has a slick, glamourous 80's quality to it that made the Americanised series feel like the "Top Gun" of anime, especially during the opening sequences and when the vakyries are in action. In comparison, the music of "Macross" tends to have grander, darker tones with more compositions in the minor key, reflecting its intentions to be a serious, sweeping epic rather than something cool and stylish - the opening theme being a prime example. I like the music in both series, but like that aspect of "Robotech" just a little more. The voice acting in "Robotech" wasn't great, but then again, neither was the original Japanese. Overall, "Robotech: The Macross Saga" isn't as good as "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross", though it's still good, owing to the strength and lack of wholesale changes to the original material.
As for "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross" itself, it's one of those shows you watch for the sake of childhood memories, only to find yourself caught up in its old school charms. It's a show that, upon rewatch, reinforces rather than dispells the romance of nostalgia. Simply put, it's just a classic, and can be considered as one of the greatest legacies left behind by the director Noboru Ishiguro (who sadly passed away around the time of this re-write).
Personal rating: +1.5 (very good)
LaLeLuLiLo
There’s more interesting things to say of Macross as a show than about Macross and it’s story. From it’s conceptual beginnings as a parody of Gundam before getting scrapped. Being the only show in the Super Dimension series that lifted off into a franchise. It’s use of pop culture as a tool which lead to the iconic duo of pop idols and mechs the the franchise is now known for. And also being two of the three super dimension series that became part of the Robotech tv show. The last one being something I watched a bit as a kid and now as Iam older, am seeing where some of it came from. Of course it’s not like the show has nothing to offer as it focuses on being entertaining, and does a good job at it.
Despite the shows plot being about a war between the United Earth and the extraterrestrial Zentradi, it mostly takes a back seat to the human drama and romance of the show. Macross isn’t concerned about the technicalities and logistics of war most notably being the city inside the titular named spaceship that seems like a pain to reconstruct every time the Macross changes forms. Instead is more focused with the emotions and feelings and how it affects them during the war and how the war sometimes affect them as beings. Them being the main two characters Hikaru and Minmay, two people who meet by chance and early in the show get trapped inside the giant spaceship, Macross. Both of them forming a unique relationship during that time a la suspension bridge effect and maybe could have been more until they are rescued. Both of them then going their separate paths with Hikaru being a pilot to defend the Macross from the Zentradi and Minmay becoming an idol. Neither of them ever having the time to be with the other as they meet each other less and less as time goes by.
As time goes by, so does the plot as well as it mainly is still about the macross fighting the Zentradi. Everything else about the plot is rather subdued lacking the impact and iconography that one would expect for a show/franchise to last so long. From the fighting, to the counter attack, interesting side characters/antagonists, ‘inter-species’ relationship, and even planetary devastation lack the sort of punch in the gut the show seems to attempt to deliver. Even the use of pop-idol songs as a tool of war only comes in ⅔ of the way into the show and even then it’s rather flat. The only thing worse than being non-impactful is how contrived this show is, especially when it came with the addition of Misa and Kaifun as part of the love triangle. With the way they end up playing out being dumb but understandable at first, then to out right ridiculous by the last 6-ish episodes due to how socially unaware they all are.
The art and animation of the show usually corresponds to how much action the show has. With the beginning of the show having so much action, the character designs and background art were ok; while the animation was decent. While the show later on having more appealing character designs due to the show focusing on human drama as the show was coming to a close. The most consistent thing were the Valkyries unique detail especially on it’s airplane mode. The way the voice acting and sfx may sound are a bit dated, but are still ok. The soundtrack is rather decent but feels par for the course for it’s time and the idol-songs being ok, but over uses one song a bit to many.
Nonetheless, the show still manages to somehow be an entertaining watch. It still has enjoyable and bouncy characters, incredibly cheesy but fun moments in it’s story, and some themes that it showcases although never really explores. Despite being old and a bit dated, it’s still worth giving a chance.
