Macross (series)

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Review: Macross 7 (マクロス７)

Posted by ranpha on 21st February 2009
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: , . 5 comments

The general public was stunned at how crappy Nekki Basara singing is.
The general public was stunned at how crappy Nekki Basara singing is.

This review is late because I have plenty to do during the Lunar New Year holidays, then I moved this blog off wordpress to a self-hosted version (I did not finish customizing it yet, probably I will switch the theme in the future), but here it is, the third Macross title reviewed in this blog, Macross 7. I don't want to pull any punches, so I will make it clear that this anime is the worst anime I have ever reviewed in this blog. In fact, the score I give to this anime is 3 out of 10, the same as Hani-Hani Operation Sanctuary. But even Hani-Hani Operation Sanctuary is better than this pile of steaming crap, at least it has a better story (hahahahahahahaha) and I can feast my eyes at its unrealistic female character designs, which you won't get with this anime.

One of the nicknames for Nekki Basara....
One of the nicknames for Nekki Basara….

Story:-
Macross 7 is a huge space-faring fleet that is looking for a new planet to colonize (want to know why? Watch the excellent first installment of Macross), and it houses many civilians (human and Zentradi) aboard many flying spaceships. While going towards the center of the Milky Way, the fleet was stalked by some mysterious aliens who prefer to suck spiritual energy off the fleet's inhabitants rather than killing them. Our Lynn Minmay-wannabe Nekki 'Karaoke Ninja' Basara then flies out with his mecha and play crappy rock songs to fight against these aliens that even the Zentradi are afraid of.

...and another one that is more apt, considering Basaras singing skill level.
…and another one that is more apt, considering Basaras singing skill level.

This anime is the second title that uses 'songs as weapons against alien invaders' plot device that I have watched, after Kachou Ouji which I have watched in AXN a few years ago. Both of them also have their stories to revolve around this particular plot device. But while Kachou Ouji has a decent (although unspectacular) seinen-type story behind it, Macross 7 story is truly fucked up. By itself, the story isn't really that bad, but there is one huge factor that sinks this anime to oblivion: the excessive amount of music this anime has.

Recalling the original Macross and Macross Plus, during the course of both anime, I have seen (or hear) a lot of songs been sung by Lynn Minmay (Macross) or the renegade AI (Macross Plus), but mainly the songs/music are performed because of the said characters' job description. That in turn ensures that the musical elements did not infest the storyline like a plague, but acts as a complement of the main story. In Macross 7, the musical element overwhelms the story entirely. This does not happen with Kachou Ouji that did not let the music disrupt the sexual tensions between its two main protagonists.

A facepalm moment that I consider as one of the most stupid scenes in mecha anime history.
A facepalm moment that I consider as one of the most stupid scenes in mecha anime history.

There are so many music in this anime, it resembles a musical or a Bollywood movie than a typical Japanese anime. Another factor that impacted the story negatively is that it (the story) has a very slow pacing, even slower than Powerpuff Girls Z. The slow pacing caused the early episodes to become very similar in structure (battle broke out, hero went out with his mecha and started singing, the Diamond Squad becomes angry, the enemy is puzzled at the Spiritia abnormal reading, enemy commander ordered a retreat and the episode ends), which do not advance the storyline or do character development. I think this anime can be slashed by 20 episodes and still be somewhat coherent. And this hold really true in light of the filler episodes in the second half of the anime.

Another complaint that I have for this anime's story is the plots in this anime are easily predictable, I can easily anticipate events that will happen in the future. This is actually not this anime fault, but more likely that I have watched so many shounen anime, it allows me to superimpose their plot flow over the ones in this anime and it makes the story appear ordinary by the bias of my mind. Yet another complaint is that the story become worse as the episodes went by. Song Energy hahahaha! That's one of the worst concepts in mecha anime history. Chasing aliens away by using bad singing that has been weaponized IS MADE OF FAIL! At least with Kachou Ouji, I can enjoy heavy metal music performed by experienced musicians compared to the clearly manufactured j-rock/j-pop tracks in Macross 7.

A problem inherited from the original Macross is the scene transition problems; a good example is when the two main protagonists are chased by the vampires during episode 4. The chain of events in that scene is so convulted with characters that appears out of nowhere, you need to rewatch the scene to understand what really happened. This is a regression because Macross Plus does not have it. Another inherited flaw from the original Macross is the ending. Despite a lot of episodes, the ending for Macross 7 is compressed into the last two episodes only, and it can do better with more. But at least the ending for Macross is decent, while the one for this anime is a predictable cliché-laden POS.

And thats why he is the best character in this anime.
And thats why he is the best character in this anime.
The other good character in this anime.
The other good character in this anime.

The only saving grace of this anime is the decent character development, with Gigil and Miria (she appears in original Macross too, which is why you need to watch all of them) being the best amongst them all. These two characters are the reason why I managed to watch this anime to the end, because they are interesting and entertaining enough to not making me drop this anime. The first of the 3 points that this anime has is because of this.

Basically what is happening in this anime as a whole.
Basically what is happening in this anime as a whole.

Character Design:-
The same comments that I have in Macross Plus also applies here, because there are no improvements, positively or negatively. The second of the three points this anime has was contributed by this section.

The pointless flower girl that appears fequently in this anime, and has decent character design too.
The pointless flower girl that appears fequently in this anime, and has decent character design too.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is just average, with Mylene being the outstanding character in this anime. Actually I think she is a better singer than Basara too. See more in the next section.

Mylene is a better singer than Basara, thats for sure.
Mylene is a better singer than Basara, thats for sure.

Music:-
The OST sucks, and so are the OP theme (only 1 of them for the whole series) and the 2nd ED theme. Only the first ED theme titled 'My Friend', sung by Mylene is excellent. For the insert songs (in concerts or battle), only My Friend and another j-rock song (the one where Basara screams first before singing) is any good, and only if the Mylene sings the song. If Basara sings it, not so much. Mylene' songs alone is worth 1 point.

The antagonist wonder why he has to listen to bad j-rock...
The antagonist wonder why he has to listen to bad j-rock…
...and the reason is outlined above.
…and the reason is outlined above.

Animation/Direction:-
While the animation is not that smooth (I have no expectation really due to the age of the anime), at least it doesn't suffer in fast-paced scenes. Choreography regressed from what you can see in Macross Plus, with no adrenalin-pumping dogfights etc. While there are plenty of actions in this anime compared to the romantic Macross Plus, almost all of them are pretty generic, mainly caused by design by the musically-infested storyline.

The directing is average at best, and I do not want to spew more hate about this anime.

Our best character trying his hands on performing evil j-rock songs.
"Our best character trying his hands on performing evil j-rock songs.

Conclusion:-
3 out of 10. I'm skipping Macross Dynamite, do not want to see Nekki Basara again. Nodame Cantabile second season is coming next!

Why Hani-Hani Operation Sancutary is better than Macross 7
Why Hani-Hani Operation Sancutary is better than Macross 7"

Review: Macross Plus (マクロスプラス)

Posted by ranpha on 19th December 2008
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment


This renegade AI acts more like a ghost than, well, a renegade AI.

Diverted by various commitments that comes up near the end of the year, it is only now I managed to watch (and wrote this review of) the second installment in the Macross series, Macross Plus. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as its predecessor. Read on to see why.

Story:-
With the dawn of the age of space travelling after the first Macross (having to watch nearly all Macross titles in chorological order sucks), humans and Zentradis (is that the correct plural form?) together are spreading out across the galaxy. In one of the colonized planets, a renegade space pilot is demoted to test pilot status. At his new workplace, he meets two of his childhood friends and a triangle love story is rekindled. BTW, the ANN synopsis says something about a renegade AI, but you do not have to worry about that in this Spanish telenovela anime series because it wasn’t important.

I am this *CLOSE* at putting this anime under my romance genre tag that will ensure that this anime will be judged with a higher standard than usual. A reversal of Macross, the romance subplot becomes the main story while the juicy parts where we can see battles are relegated to the darkest corner of the room. But what really kills this OAV is the fact that the quality of both main plot and the subplot is also reversed, from the excellent storyline in the first series to the just about average storyline in this sequel.

Even with only four 40-minutes episodes, character developments are done very well, albeit with no outstanding character(s). I really miss the excellent main male protagonist in the first Macross. Additionally, the crappy story still moves reasonably well, has good presentation and the usage of flashbacks is impeccable. The ending is presented better than the one in Macross, but it was cheesy and predictable.


Much better character design than the ones we see in its predecessor.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime has vastly improved, so much it is like watching two completely different anime that did not come in the same series. Lack of black hair will be ignored considering the settings of this anime. The mecha design is decent, but I have started to think that the Macross series in general, unlike its contemporary rivals like Gundam or Evangelion, did not focus much on the design aspect of the mecha but more upon the stories behind its pilots. This is definitely a positive point of this anime.


The Macross that travels from Pluto orbit in the first installment of the series. Japan sure tried hard to make it similar to the look at the first season.

Voice Acting:-
Unfortunately, unlike the first Macross that was created more than a decade before this one, the voice acting in this anime is just plain average, just like the story. There are no outstanding characters either.

Music:-
The OST is still excellent, and the songs performed here by the renegade AI are better than the ones performed by Lynn Minmay. But from the OP/ED themes, only the theme used at the start of the first episode and the ending of last episode (and as inserts too) is of any good.


This is how it looks like inside a fold or hyperspace. For the sake of consistency, I hope the next iterations of the series will keep this consistency.

Animation/Direction:-
Just like character design, the animation in this anime has improved considerably. No problem even in fast-paced scenes either. Choreography has improved a lot too; here you can actually see some excellent mecha dogfights and hand-to-hand combats when the anime get away from the cheesy love triangle main story. The directing, which is an improvement compared to the first Macross, is decent and does his works well.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Not being categorized as ‘romance genre standard‘ helps this anime immensely. Gigantic Formula, downloaded by my sister will come next before I watch the next installment of the Macross series, Macross 7 that has 51 episodes.


One of the two main male protagonists, should have been up there instead.

Review: Super Dimension Fortress Macross (超時空要塞マクロス)

Posted by ranpha on 22nd November 2008
Posted in: anime review, perfect score. Tagged: , . 1 comment


Consistency is not the virtue of this anime.

After the 2 Urusei Yatsura reviews that really takes a lot of my anime-viewing time (is it 3 months?), I should be able to make more frequent postings from now on. For starters, today I will review another anime that I have watched during my elementary school years, Super Dimension Fortress Macross (just like Genesis Climber Mospeada). This is the first of many Macross reviews that will come, as it seems that you need to watch everything from the start if I were to watch Macross Frontier later on.


English in this anime seems to up to par with mine, or is it?

Story:-
A mysterious but highly-advanced giant spacecraft crashed onto Earth, and it takes Earthlings 9 years to restore it, naming it Macross in the process. During its maiden flight, an alien force called the Zentradi stormed the party and attacked the spaceship. Left with no other choice, the captain of Macross decided to enter hyperspace but this caused them to be diverted towards Pluto's orbit. From there on, the crew of Macross has to fight their way through wave after wave of Zentradi's space fleet in their bid to return to Earth.

Let me get into the strong major positive point of this anime first. The story in this anime is excellent, better than many mecha anime I have watched before. If I were to make comparisons, Macross is better than any Gundams I have watched (Wing, the two SEEDs and 00), Mospeada, Heroic Age and can easily match the story in Neon Genesis Evangelion. It has some problems with scene transitions and story presentation (these will be commented below), but overall the story expanded and flows very nicely in a good pace. Unlike the titles mentioned above, this anime also has within it a great romantic sub-plot involving the main male protagonist and two other major female characters. This sub-plot helps negates the negative effect brought by the time-jump plot device that happened in the last third of the series. The ending is decent, although probably it can be expanded into 2 or 3 episodes instead of just one.

Character development is also where this anime has done very well, with the main male protagonist being the best characters in this series. Unlike many other mecha anime out there, the main male protagonist is being conveyed as a normal mecha pilot in a normal mecha instead of a God-like one like in Heroic Age or SEED (not going berserk ala Shinji Ikari is also a big plus). One of the negatives in this anime is that some of the actions performed by him, especially in the early parts of the series, are unbelievable even with suspension of disbelief. Examples include saving a girl free-falling in mid-air and also being able to re-enter Macross with his Earth-only propeller plane in deep space near Pluto orbit. The latter is truly jaw-dropping, as it bends the law of physics beyond what is acceptable even in a Japanese mecha anime (I would have accepted it if he is a superhuman, but he is not). And the less said about the hero's attempt to pull a tuna into Macross from deep space without a spacesuit and oxygen supplies, the better it is for this anime.

With unbelievable actions come unbelievable scenes and events, which is another drawback for this anime. For example, it is really astounding that the space vacuum and intolerable hostilities of Pluto's orbit did not instantly kills the refugees that were transported (or folded) with Macross. Somehow, I do not really think the bomb shelter they were in was designed to withstand vacuum and air pressure from within the shelter. Some of the scenes are also bizarrely constructed; for example, when the Vermillion team punched a hole on the alien spaceship as the genius glass-wearing pilot throws out Britai (episode 10), they did not use the same hole to escape, opting to create another hole instead (and they were captured for this utter stupidity). For all the outrageous scenes before this, it is strange that they did not use the same hole regardless of the dangers.


What did people do in a Rest Rant?

Character Design:-
The character design in this anime is not bad, although it can be better because Urusei Yatsura that has been reviewed here before this have it better. Lack of black hair can be forgiven in the setting this anime is in, and for its time, mecha designs is good.



This Zentradi guy is hilarious!

Voice Acting:-
Meanwhile, the voice acting in this anime is excellent, with Lynn Minmay and Misa Hayase being the best of them all. Definitely a positive point of this anime.


And they can be perverted too! Just look at the Zentradi guy at the background! Hahahaha!

Music:-
The OST is excellent but only the nostalgic ED theme is of any good. The ED theme really takes me back to my forever-lost youth, watching this anime dubbed in Malay.


You have to watch this fighting scene to realize how awful choreography in this anime is.

Animation/Direction:-
Even with a 5.5 million yen budget per episode (as claimed in ANN), the animation quality is awful. Urusei Yatsura that was aired in the same period has better animation. Strangely, this awfulness only happened in slow-paced animation, not the fast ones such in action scenes. Choreography is best described as below average, applies to mecha battles or real-life ones (see above screenshot). Space battles is nowhere as good as, let's say, in Legend of Galactic Heroes.

The directing is definitely the major weakness of this anime. Many of my comments about unbelievable scenes/events applies here, but what really takes the cake is presentation of key events. A glaring example that makes me go WTF is the destruction of Earth by the Zentradi in episode 23 or so, which happened in less than a minute and with so little fanfare, the significance of the event was massively downplayed.


Only in Japanese anime you can see how an ISBN entry can become a telemetry signal.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10, despite the numerous weaknesses I have listed above. The story is really that good, nearly matching Stellvia of the Universe in terms of impact. Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Dynamite and finally Macross Frontier should complete my Macross journey, although do not be surprised if you see other anime titles being reviewed between them.


A tuna from outer space. The way the main male protagonist obtains it is unbelievable.