VF-15 Banshee

My original post of this seems to have been deleted, so... Right Into The Danger Zone! Originally in my SDF Macross review I said the macros was Top Gun meets Battlestar: Galactica meets Transformers with a dash of Star Wars thrown in. Well no where does the Top Gun analogy become more apparent than with the 4-episode mini-series(or OVA) Macross Plus, released in 1994. The story features two rival jet fighter test pilots in a setting that is highly reminiscent of the classic Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer flick. There’s planes, space, dogfights, pretty girls, but unlike Top Gun, Macross Plus features a psychotic AI pop star, a kinda-sorta love triangle and a futuristic setting. Macross Plus marked the return of Shoji Kawamori to the Macross franchise. Initially he hadn’t wanted to do anymore work on Macross after DYRL and Flashback 2012 were finished, which is why Big West went ahead and made Macross II without him and the others. In making Macross Plus, Kawamori had originally wanted to do a show that was just about test pilots, probably in a more modern setting. It sounds like the studio then made the stipulation that it had to be a Macross project and so, Macross Plus was born. I guess Kawamori must have been feeling very creative that year because 1994 was also the year that the full-length series Macross 7 premiered. In order to properly capture the art of fighter combat for the animators, Kawamori, choreographer Ichiro Itano (famous for the Itano Circus missile animations) and other staff members travelled to Edwards Air Force Base in California to take lessons from dogfighting school Air Combat USA. This is reflected in the absolutely awesome fight sequences in the anime. Even just the animation of the Valkyrie variable fighters flying around is superb. Famous director Shinichiro Watanabe was also hired as a co-director for the production. He’s probably most famous here in America for the series Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo and, of course, Macross Plus. Watanabe always makes good stuff and this is reflected in the quality of the animation. Watanabe also believes very heavily in the ties between the film and its score and the power of music (one of the central themes of Macross). So, it’s not so surprising that the composer of Macross Plus is the prolific Yoko Kanno. Kanno is pretty much the Japanese equivalent to John Williams. She’s worked on some of the most famous and successful animes in Japan as well as live-action movies and television. Some of the most famous projects she’s worked on include Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne, Wolf’s Rain, Turn-A Gundam, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Macross Frontier. She would probably most famous here in America for the jazz, blues and funk-inspired themes of Cowboy Bebop. As for her work in Plus, her talent shines through especially in the songs for Plus’s idol singer Sharon Apple. Three of Sharon’s songs are in English, one in French and four are in the fictional Zentradi language. There’s only one Japanese song in the whole soundtrack and that’s Myung Lon Fang’s “Voices.” (which actually got dubbed into English but is still very good; sounds a lot like an Enya song.) With all this star talent in place, it was time to make the series. Macross Plus takes place in the year 2040, 30 years after First Macross. It starts off on the colony planet Eden where childhood friends Isamu Dyson, Guld Goa Bowman and Myung Lon Fang are introduced. Isamu and Guld are trying to fly a self-propelled glider that they’ve built. Fast forward to 2040 and Isamu finds himself back on Eden to be a test pilot for Project: Supernova, a competition being held between two rival companies, Shinsei Industries and General Galaxy, to field a new variable fighter for the UN Spacy (United Nations Space Navy). The two competing designs are the YF-19 and the YF-21. Project: Supernova is based on the real-life Advanced Tactical Fighter competition that the US Air Force held between the Lockheed YF-22 (which became the Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor) and Northrop’s YF-23. In any case, Isamu is assigned to be the test pilot of Shinsei’s YF-19 and finds out that his childhood friend now-rival Guld Bowman has been assigned to be the YF-21’s pilot. Here’s where a lot of the similarities where Top Gun come into play as you could very easily say that Isamu, with his recklessness and cocky attitude, is Tom Cruise’s Maverick and Guld is Val Kilmer’s Iceman. It’s clear right from the get-go that these former friends have a clear dislike of each other for some reason and this is magnified even more when they find out that their other friend, Myung, is on Eden also and is now the producer for Sharon Apple, the known galaxy’s hottest entertainer… and supposed fully-functional AI. Both Isamu and Guld are somewhat confused by this as Myung was a fantastic singer in youth. Concerns over Myung fade somewhat as the two engage in multiple aerial duels with each other as the testing of the two prototypes heats up. Also, we learn that Sharon isn’t as advanced as we claim. When Isamu and some friends attend her concert on Eden, we find out that Myung actually provides the emotions for Sharon as an emotions program is the one thing that Sharon still lacks. Things begin to get a little suspicious when the holographic Sharon shows an inordinate amount of attention to Isamu. Sometime later both Isamu and Guld get a strange electronic phone call saying that fire will break out in the concert hall. Isamu chooses to ignore it but Guld races to the concert hall and rescues Myung from certain death in a fire… exactly as predicted. From the way that the cameras were moving and how the fire just started up, it’s pretty clear that the Sharon AI started the fire. Things get even more tense as the rivalry between Guld and Isamu results in an accident. Even though it’s a fairly serious matter, the General in charge of Eden’s New Edwards Base sweeps the whole thing under the rug. As Myung and her team depart for Earth so that Sharon can participate in the UN Spacy 30th Anniversary celebration of the end of the Human-Zentradi war, we learn that the reason the General swept the accident under the rug is that UN Spacy has been secretly testing the unmanned Ghost X-9 fighter, which seems to be superior to both the YF-19 and YF-21. A furious Isamu decides to go to Earth and screw up the ceremony where the X-9 will be unveiled. The YF-19’s designer Yan Newman goes with him and Guld is ordered to go after both of them in the YF-21. This turns out to be a good thing as Myung discovers at the eleventh hour that Sharon has indeed become self-aware and like all advanced AI’s that gain self-awareness Hint, hint. she restrains Myung and tells her that she is doing what she is doing because Myung’s thoughts have given her life. She loves Guld and Isamu even more so and wants to give him the ultimate emotion that he is seeking. This is sort of going to involve killing him. Isamu and Guld at this point are doing their level best to blast each other to smithereens in one of the most kick-arse dogfights in the whole series. Guld has a slight advantage due to the YF-21 having the Brain Direct Interface, which allows Guld to control the YF-21 with his thoughts. But just as Guld closes in on Isamu and fires the killing shot, the BDI breaks through the mental barriers Guld had in his mind. He finally remembers what the incident was that drove him, Isamu and Myung apart. As a half-Zentradi, Guld had lived with those fighting instincts his whole life but then things began to change in their little circle of friends. Myung and Isamu became more than friends and when Guld burst in on them during a tender moment, he lost control. Guld attacked Isamu and pretty much sexually assaulted Myung before he regained control. After that incident, Myung and Isamu left Eden and Guld blocked the memories out as he regained control of those instincts. Thing is as part of that he blamed Isamu for supposedly hurting Myung but Isamu let him go on thinking that, not wanting to let his friend, who truly loved Myung, to remember what he had almost done to her. Guld thinks this realization has come too late but Isamu managed to survive the missile barrage. As the two friends are about to reconcile, the Sharon Apple-controlled Ghost X-9 comes screaming out of the sun, guns blazing. Guld, who can more easily manage the X-9 with his YF-21 tells Isamu to go rescue Myung. Guld then heroically sacrifices himself to destroy the X-9. Isamu arrives in Macross City and realizes that the holographic projection of Sharon has hypnotized the whole city and the AI itself has infected every computer. This is no more evident as the good old SDF-1 Macross has been launched from Lake Global to intercept him, even though it’s been lying there for thirty years. Dodging anti-air laser fire at every turn, Isamu tries to destroy the central core that Sharon has infected while trying to rebuff her holographic hypnosis. Kind of a hard task considering that Sharon can take the forms of various hauntingly (literally) beautiful women! At one point he looks like he’s about to give in when Myung starts singing her song “Voices.” Isamu snaps out of it and in true Luke Skywalker-fashion, pulls off a hundred to one shot and destroys the central core. Sharon’s AI unit explodes and the day is saved as Myung watches Isamu soar over the city. Now first of all, I have to say that after the disappointment that was Macross II, Plus was about 10x, no, 100x better. I seriously wanted to have Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone or Cheap Trick’s Mighty Wings come blaring out of the speakers as the YF-19 and -21 danced across the sky. I mean, I enjoyed this so much I think there was only two things I really want to have them improve. They could have explained Sharon’s self-awareness a bit more and also why she seemed so intent on hypnotizing people and why she wanted to kill Isamu. I also didn’t care much for Myung as well. I don’t dislike her but I think to myself “Gooooossshhh! Get off the pity wagon and stop being so damn depressing, especially when you’ve got guys like Isamu and Guld around." I don’t really blame Isamu for being more interested in Lucy when he got back to Eden than Myung. Other than that this was solid, first-rate, no holds-barred, thrill-riding fun. I would not be embarrassed to say that I enjoyed Macross Plus more than Transformers 3, and that’s saying something. The characters, planes, visuals (none of that damn moe crap), music and sounds all come together beautifully. The fact that this was a good dub as well is an extra plus. With the talents of VA’s like Bryan Cranston (TV’s Breaking Bad), Richard Epcar and Beau Billingslea, it’s actually a joy to listen to as the actors actually emote. What a concept! All in all, on the MAHQ scale of stars, this gets five gold stars! Now if only it had Danger Zone… Historical Note: The Ghost X-9 was deemed too dangerous if its controls were ever hacked, so the YF-19 won Project: Supernova. The -19 was mass-produced as the VF-19 Excalibur Main Variable Fighter and was the plane of choice for Macross 7’s Basara Nekki. The YF-21’s dangerous Brain Direct Interface was removed and it was produced in limited numbers as the VF-22 Sturmvogel II. The BDI would show up again in the VF-27 Lucifer from Macross Frontier.

My original post of this seems to have been deleted, so... Flashback 'Em All When a movie or TV show has a sequel that’s separated from it by a number of years, you still like to think that not much is going to change. Take Ghostbusters for example. The first movie came out in 1984 but Ghostbusters II didn’t come out until 1989. Where Macross is concerned however, there really is no true sequel to the original series. The 1984 movie Do You Remember Love? was a cinematic retelling of the series and Macross II was set eighty years later. When Mac2 was retconned, the next production in chronological order was Macross Plus, which is still set 30 years later. Now, that all doesn’t mean there isn’t actually a sequel of sorts to First Macross, it’s just not quite what you think it would be. Released in 1987, Macross: Flashback 2012 is a 30 minute music video that is largely made up of clips taken from First Macross and DYRL, hence the title Flashback. There is a story there but it is very short. This is primarily due to the fact that most of the new footage that was used in Flashback was intended to be the final scenes of DYRL but weren’t ready in time for the movie’s release date. Disregarding all the flashback footage, the story is thus: It is September 2012, nine months after the end of Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and Quamzin’s failed attack on New Macross City. The city has expanded and the SDF-1 has nearly been repaired, looking much like it does in DYRL. Lynn Minmay has arrived in Macross City to perform the final show of her Sayonara World Tour. The OVA then goes into all the flashback materiel before switching back to the ‘present.’ Minmay walks around the deserted concert hall where she gave her last show. We see Hikaru Ichijyo, one of the heroes of the last series, test flying the new VF-4 Lightning III variable fighter. He’s now married to Misa, who is about to take command of humanity’s first super long range colonization ship, the SDF-2 Megaroad-01. Minmay recalls the days of her youth, about how she wanted to be a singer and left her home in Yokohama to go live with her aunt and uncle in Macross City because her parents were not in favor of it. She remembers arriving in the city and seeing a poster about the SDF-1 Macross, which shifts to a scene of her in New Macross City looking at a poster for the Megaroad. The Megaroad-01 is launched and thousands cheer her on as she soars up into the sky. Minmay waves to the people below from one of the observation decks as Misa directs her crew from the ship’s bridge, stealing glances outside at Hikaru in his Lightning III. The ship reaches orbit and joins with an escort fleet of Zentradi warships and sails off into a bright new future with our hero and heroines. At least that’s what you would like to think. The one thing I don’t like about Flashback is that it doesn’t reveal the characters’ ultimate fates, which in this case is pretty important. The video also focuses pretty exclusively on Hikaru, Misa and Minmay (except for the flashback clips), but we do know some of what happened. A year later Hikaru and Misa have their first child, a little girl named Miku Ichijyo. We know that Max and Milia have eight children (seven natural, one adopted), all girls, and are seen again in the 49 episode series Macross 7 with their youngest daughter Mylene, but that’s about it. We don’t really know what happens to Claudia or Admiral Global or the bridge bunnies, although I suppose it’s not terribly important. Ah, I almost forgot Breetai and Exedol. The Zentradi tactician Exedol goes with Max and Milia to the Macross 7 fleet and I believe Breetai becomes UN Spacy Commander-in-Chief at some point. What I’m saying is, that it would have been nice to have had the whole cast get a send off. There is one other thing that bugs me a little bit about this particular snippet of Macross lore. You see in Flashback we get Hikaru, Misa and Minmay riding off into the space sunset, but what you find out if you look it up is that the Megaroad-01 disappears without a trace near the galactic core in 2016. I’m a bit annoyed about that if only for the implication that Hikaru, Misa, their daughter Miku and Minmay all die a cold, lonely death in the forsaken depths of deep space. Me, I like my characters to have a happy ending, like the end of Return of the Jedi. All in all, Even though Flashback really is just a long music video set to a bunch of Minmay songs (although I’m not sure why they didn’t include My Boyfriend is a Pilot), it’s worth watching for that new footage and as a chance to see these particular Macross characters one last time. Besides, maybe it’s not all bad as that. Maybe the Megaroad-01 is next to the second star to the right and straight on ‘till morning.

coughStarWarscough. Oh and MZero. Since I'm late to the party and haven't been able to start reading it yet, what was up with that scene where Hikaru walks in on Misa half-naked? Do they not believe in locked dressing rooms in Japan? I guess Kim, Shammy and Vanessa really CAN call him a pervert now! EDIT: Went back and I guess the curtain for the stall fell off somehow?That's kinda convenient and weird. Please tell me she Bright-slapped Hikaru into the next building.

I just wish that it was Destination: Moon or Explorers on the Moon. Though given the general apathy towards anything to do with space travel these days, i shouldn't be surprised.

All of a sudden, something occurs to me. I want a frakking explanation for NUNS! How is that they are so incapable and/or incompetent that SMS, a private military corporation, is allowed to have multiple Macross-type variable assault carriers?

I MUST have those VF-22s!!!

@Frothy: For now, it'll run strictly as an RPG, assuming it gets chosen to be the new one.

Since I missed this thread earlier... Anyway, I thought this was a very good first episode. It definitely is aimed at a younger audience I think, but it holds up and is definitely Gundam to the core. I liked the main character Flit, he definitely gets a pass on the accidental civilian pilot trope. Can’t say I’m fond of his character design though. Emily might have a little bit of Fraw Bow syndrome; we’ll have to see. Most of the other characters seem interesting, especially the pilot for the Genoace mobile suit. Largan I think it was? We’ll have to see the next few episodes for me to really get a handle on the rest of the cast. There were a couple of stand out scenes in this episode that I liked. The first was the scene where Flit’s mother dies in the first attack by AGE’s Unknown Enemy. Very Batman-esque. She gives him the AGE Device, which is certainly not the cell phone those damn fanboys were complaining about. I also like the scene in the classroom where Flit tries to explain about how it’s just so logical that the space colony they’re on, Nora, will be attacked by the UE next and how the teacher doesn’t want to hear it. Seems little Flit may be a child-genius but he doesn’t understand how a lot of people’s heads work. Seems like he might be a bit of an outcast at school too, as Emily and this kid named Dique seem to be his only friends. I also like how Flit isn’t obsessed with the Gundam to the point of being stupid. There’s a flashback scene to his home on the space colony Orvan where Flit is being shown a painting of a Gundam (one that looks a lot like the classic RX-78-2) and is told that the Asuno family have been involved with the legendary Gundams for years. But when the time comes that the UE invades the colony, Flit initially wants the trained military pilot Largan to fly the Gundam before he tries piloting it himself. Lastly, while the Gundam AGE-1’s debut fight is kinda similar to stuff we’ve seen in First Gundam and SEED, what makes the fight stand out is the way that Flit quite literally shanks one of the UE Gafran MS. It’s actually kinda hilarious. The other two Gafrans blow up their injured comrade and then retreat. I guess this is why the UE are still unknown if they won’t let their tech fall into enemy hands. What else? I can’t say that I cared much for the opening song of this series. It’s not that it’s a bad song, I just don’t think it fits a Gundam series, even one that’s aimed at a younger audience. But since this is a Gundam series, we’ll have at least two to three opening and closing themes in total, so we’ll see. I also think that this series might be pulling a Gundam X. What I mean is, Gundam X was depicted as sort of an alternate history of the Universal Century. I think they might be going with that here with all the talk of the Earth Federation, O’Neill Space Colony cylinders and stories about legendary Gundams from the past. We’ll have to see. I think I could safely say that this is the first Gundam series I’ve seen where I like the grunt and enemy suits more than the Gundam. Hopefully the AGE-2 and -3 will look cooler.

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if that happened IF that RT movie ever got off the ground.

After seeing some clips from Robotech, boy do I like Minmay done by Mari Iijima in English! Actually I thought it was someone with like a French accent or something before someone enlightened me to the fact that it was miss Iijima.

Ah, he said colony ship and that's what threw me off. And hey it probably got pretty cold in those ruins at night. Hikaru and Misa were probably just sharing body heat. Yeah, that's the ticket...

Well at bloody last. That was the one thing I didn't like about FB2012, didn't show what happened to crew members like Global, Claudia and the others. As for the credits, we didn't actually SEE it. Unless I see it, I'm extremely hesitant to believe it. Oh and how about that Basara-ish VF-1 that Ranka was rockin'? And Dynaman if you're implying what i think you're implying... I could believe that.

You're gonna have to remind me what scene that is, my memory is failing

Didn't seem very happy to me what with Sheryl in a coma and Alto MIA.

I agree with you somewhat, at least where the concerts in movie two are concerned. Felt like we were trying to have more psychedelic Ranka and Sheryl madness than Valks blowing crap up. Or some more story.

Are you sure it was a girl? You know Alto...

Funny how it's taken only thirty years for that.

Another little gripe I had with the movie is that Luca seems to have lost his three apostles.

Starscream, it's funny you should post that pic of Sheryl in that outfit considering one of her outfits in the second Macross Frontier movie. Also, this is a part of a proposal I'm writing for a new RPG over on the MechaTalk forums. Macross: The 106th Fleet Firstly, upon further reflection, I think this would work great as a players vs. GM game. In fact I would prefer it this way but I can work with the other way. It is the year 2051. The 106th Autonomous Fleet responds to a distress call from the Macross 19 colonization fleet, currently in the newly-discovered Alterra system. Their escort armada has been decimated by rogue Zentradi (possibly Meltrandi as well) and they need assistance in case they are attacked again as they attempt to settle the Alterra system and make first contact with its inhabitants. The 106th fleet itself is somewhat of a ragtag collection. Because of the nature of its mission, the ships that comprise the fleet are often far past their scheduled maintenance dates. They have to take what they can get, so you'll see a couple of ARMD-class carriers flying around, as well as a few Oberth-class frigates (heavily modified and somewhat clunky), as well as newer ships like Guantanamo-class stealth carriers and Uraga-class Escort Battle Carriers and a couple of the brand new stealth cruisers. It is led by the venerable SDFN-10 Prometheus, one of the twelve mass-produced Macross-class ships that were built directly after Space War I (SDF Macross and DYRL). It was built all the way back in 2025 but still packs a mean punch, especially with its Main Cannon/Macross Cannon. It is the flagship of the fleet and carries about 400 Valkyries, Destroids and Ghosts altogether. Her crew is very proud of her as a carrier of the Macross legacy and she is captained by the leader of the fleet, Admiral George Armstrong. This alone is not what makes the 106th unusual but it is also the Zentradi and Meltrandi battleships that are part of the fleet. The 106th includes several Thurvel-Salan Class and Queadol-Magdomilla Class battleships and Quiltra-Quelamitz Class gunboats led by a Nupetiet-Vergnitzs Class Fleet Command Battleship, captained by Colonel Kortai. The Meltrandi ships include several gunboats, destroyers, cruisers and battleships led by one of the signature flagship-class Meltran command ships. The Meltran portion of the fleet is under the command of Colonel Areea (are-ee-ah). The Zentradi of the fleet are pleasant enough in their own right but are made up of some of the more war-like Zentradi that don't get completely "culture-shocked." That doesn't mean that they're uncontrollable, on the contrary, Colonel Kortai expects the best out of his men. The Meltrandi of the fleet are a portion of the Chlore Fleet that the Macross 7 ran into more than five years ago. They're a lot more affable than their Zentradi counterparts but don't get them started on Fire Bomber or Basara Nekki unless you want to endure a lot of fangirl gushing and squealing. Note: Unlike the rest of the galaxy, most of the Zentradi and Meltrandi in the fleet are full-size so keep out from under their feet please. Also due to the roaming nature of their mission and the Prometheus having the only factories, the 106th occasionally has to beg, borrow and cannibalize fighters and mechs for its pilots. Often you'll see fleet patrols made up of VF-4G Lightning III's, VA-3 Invaders, VF-5000B Star Mirages, VF-9 Cutlass's, VF-11 Thunderbolts, and VF-14 Vampires, as well as the latest and greatest VF-17 Nightmares, VF-19 Excaliburs and VF-22 Sturmvogels, though these last three types of Valkyries are reserved for the fleet's elite pilots. There's even a squadron in the fleet, Ragnarok Squadron, that operates some heavily customized VF-1 Strike Valkyries. The 106th also maintains a number of Destroids because in the words of Admiral Armstrong, "Everyone is so busy looking for those pesky Valkyries and Zentradi power armors in the sky that when those Destroids sneak up on 'em and cut 'em to ribbons it's pretty damn hilarious actually. Although a Monster can't 'sneak' worth a damn. Gotta be careful with those." The 106th also fields Glaugs, Fighter Pods, Nousjadeul-Ger and Quedluun-Rau power armors and the "New" Battle Suit All total, the 106th Fleet only numbers 100 ships but they're fierce fighters all. Cross them at your own peril.

As patently ridiculous as a 400 meter robot surfing across the sky sounds... it just looks SO DAMN COOL!!! Also, the 00Qan[T] gets way more awesome points than the YF-29.

You must be some kind of wizard!

Hey guys, what's up? I'm finally back after a bit of an absence and a question! Does it really matter which MFrontier ending is "official?" The TV one or the one at the end of Wings of Farewell?

Quick thing: I also seem to have the problem that I can see the new version of the site when not logged in but the messed up version after log in. Help?

Call it Megaroad-01

Blog version here. The 1980’s and 90’s rocked so hard. Having grown up in the 90’s I may be a little biased but think about it just for a second. Ever since 2001, the world has kinda sucked. The point I’m trying to get at is that we had a lot of good stuff that came out in that 20 year period. Just to name a few things: The Empire Strikes Back, MacGyver, Transformers, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, new Gundam shows, Home Improvement, Family Matters, Sonic the Hedgehog, Return of the Jedi, Van Halen, Top Gun, and let’s not forget Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. I say all this because I just finished watching what I believe to be one of the gems of the 1980’s, an anime series from Japan called Super Dimension Fortress Macross, better known here in the States as the first third of the 1985 Saturday morning series Robotech. Macross was released in 1982 and is usually considered a franchise second only to Gundam in terms of popularity and impact on the pop culture of Japan. It expanded the terms of the real-robot sub-genre of anime that Gundam had pioneered and made it even more ‘realistic’ in that the pilots all fly the same damn mech and the only deciding factor is who’s plot-armor is thickest. If you had to boil down Macross to something that most other people could understand then I would unequivocally say that Macross is Top Gun meets Batttlestar: Galactica meets Transformers with a dash of Star Wars thrown in for flavoring. I don’t want to write out the whole story of Macross so I’ll just go with the basics. It’s a long series after all. Macross’ story was a little convoluted by the time it got to TV. Most full-length anime series are around 50 episodes or so (unless they’re based on an ongoing manga then who knows how long it could take them. Bleach is up to 310 episodes and counting). Macross was originally scheduled to be 39 episodes but was then cut down to 26. At the eleventh hour it was lengthened to a final 36 episodes. The basic story begins in the year 1999 (remember that it was 1982 when the series premiered) with a massive 1200 meter alien spaceship crash-landing on South Ataria Island in the Pacific Ocean. This ignites a chain of events that leads to the formation of a world government and a massive project to rebuild and restore the alien ship. One of the first things that is noticed about this mysterious ship is that it is built for war. Naturally, the military immediately begins to reverse engineer the technology and is able to produce Macross’ signature transformable fighter planes, the VF-1 Valkyries. These fighters are not only deadly warbirds but they can transform into a humanoid combat form called Battroid Mode and an in-between form called GERWALK Mode. The reason for this is shown later in the series. Fast forward to 2009. A large city has been built up around the newly christened SDF-1 Macross and the people are celebrating its imminent launch. Here we are introduced to many of the principal cast including stunt pilot Hikaru Ichijyo, Major Roy Focker, Captain Bruno Global, Lts. Misa Hayase and Claudia LaSalle and bridge operators Vanessa, Kim and Shammy. Also we are introduced to civilian girl Lyn Minmay, who will become very important later on. One thing to remember here is that many of the Japanese names were changed to American sounding ones for Robotech (for example Misa Hayase became Lisa Hayes; my family name rocks so hard). Anyway, the launch of the Macross is rudely interrupted when the systems detect alien warships de-folding near the moon. The Macross’ massive main gun opens fire. Now this is one frakkin’ A gun! It shoots across the earth’s surface and then hits the warships which are still thousands of miles from Earth, unintentionally igniting humanity’s first interstellar war. The Macross launches and after some false starts manage to get into the air. But with a massive alien fleet coming to say hi, Captain Global orders that the ship initiate a space fold (Macross’ version of FTL travel). The consequences of using this still misunderstood technology are immediately made apparent. The Macross does lead the aliens away from Earth, but instead of arriving near the moon, they arrive in the orbit of Pluto… along with every bit of South Ataria island and a huge chunk of the ocean surrounding it. Luckily for the civilians they were in shelters when that happened. The civilians are brought on board, all 56,000 of them (it’s a big ship remember) and they reconstruct Macross City inside the ship. The Macross then sets out on its long journey home. Along the way, Hikaru and Minmay are accidentally trapped in the bowels of the ship for 12 days after he saves her, igniting the start of the other thing that Macross is famous for… love triangles. But more on that later. Now you might expect that a good chunk of the show would be spent with the Macross travelling back to Earth the slow way, but it’s not. There’s some nice exposition here and you have to remember that a lot of events in the series got compressed. You begin to learn about the aliens, which are called the Zentradi. They actually look very human with one not-so-small exception: The average Zentradi is TEN METERS TALL. That’s why the fighters have to transform into humanoid Battroid Mode. The Zentradi are portrayed from the start as a warrior race but only later do we really learn the extent of that. Several Zentradi characters that we are introduced to include one-eyed fleet commander Vriltwhai (pronounced bree-tye), his Archivist Exsedol and the blood-thirsty warrior Quamzin. At one point Hikaru, Misa and one of Hikaru’s pilots, Kakizaki are captured by the Zentradi and taken to their main fleet, which we learn is roughly 5,000,000 ships strong. Further surprises are in store as we begin to learn more about the Zentradi. The Zentradi are all about war. It’s all they do, day in and day out. They have no concepts of ANYTHING else. They can’t even fix their own ships properly because there are no engineers. They have no entertainment, no luxuries, no games and no romance. The very concept is foreign to them as male and female Zentradi are strictly separated and it is a crime punishable by execution for a member of one sex to communicate with a member of the opposite sex without authorization. This leads to a highly amusing scene where one Zentradi demands that the humans demonstrate the concept of romance and then completely freak out when Hikaru and Misa kiss. The Zentradi commander calls the act ‘proto-culture’ which will become important later on. Later, thanks to one of Hikaru’s other pilots Max Jenius, they are able to escape the Zentradi and return to the Macross. The Macross eventually makes it back to earth but the reception isn’t so warm. The admirals and politicians have thrown them to the wolves so that they can buy time to organize a counter-offensive and be able to fire their Grand Cannon, an energy weapon similar to the Macross’ main gun but on a planetary scale. They completely ignore the reports of Misa and Captain Global and proceed with their plans, which of course don’t work out and just make trouble for everyone else. The Macross tries to find shelter for the civilians on Earth but after an unfortunate incident with their prototype barriers system, they are forced to leave Earth. By now though, Zentradi spies have brought examples of human culture back to the fleet and culture shock slowly permeates its way through the Zentradi soldiers. The effect is comparable to a blind man suddenly being able to see as the Zentradi realize that there is more to life than fighting and dying. It gets to the point where many of them don’t even want to attack the Macross and some even defect to the ship. Unfortunately this just makes the Zentradi main command move humanity to the number one slot on their ZOINKS list and bring in the whole five million ship fleet. Here’s where things get interesting. The Zentradi fleet commander Vrlitwhai realizes that his fleet is in danger of being destroyed as well because it has been infected with the ‘proto-culture’ and he is starting to become a little enamored with culture himself. In a surprise move, he joins up with the Macross, providing information that can help the beleaguered earth forces fight the Zentradi. Still it’s a five million strong fleet and even the UN Space Forces’ Grand Cannon only reduces that by 1/5. But, against the odds, the Macross manages to break through to the command ship, causing the rest of the Zentradi fleet to scatter. The day is won, but at a terrible price. Before the Macross and Vrlitwhai’s forces were able to engage the main fleet, they were able to fire on Earth, wiping most of the surface and humanity. No exact figure is given, but fro the damage shown in later shows, it seems that somewhere between 90%-95% of the human population was wiped out. This was supposed to be the end of the series but thanks to extension, the last nine episodes go into a post-war reconstruction arc. We rarely get this sort of thing in American TV or anime. Not even Gundam showed the immediate aftermath of the One Year War (0083 doesn’t count as it’s a separate series). The story picks up two years later and many of the refugee Zentradi who have been helping their Terran brethren rebuild earth have started to slip back into their old ways. This is good for Quamzin, one of the Zentradi commanders I mentioned earlier who seems to be almost immune to culture, gathers these rebels to fight against the terrans. Meanwhile many of the main characters are resolving their personal issues, including the love triangle between Hikaru, Misa and Minmay (more on that later) and now-Admiral Global realizes that the only way to ensure that humanity never faces extinction again is to spread themselves out among the stars. Quamzin eventually organizes the rebel Zentradi and they fix up a busted Zentradi warship, ironically using the techniques the humans taught them. They attempt to attack the Macross and the ship launches one last time along with Hikaru and the Valkyrie squadrons. Quamzin is defeated along with the bulk of the rebels, the humans initiate their plan to colonize the stars and a lot of personal plots are resolved… mostly. This is mostly the story of Macross in a nutshell. I’m going to go into a few other things as I talk about the production of the series and the Characters I liked and hated but this is it. If I left anything out, don’t complain, go watch the show or read about on MAHQ.net. As I mentioned before, it’s easy to get into this show because it has such a great story. There are characters you like, some you hate, the bad guys are classically bad (until they get culture) the good guys don’t spend a lot of time moralizing and oh-woe-is-me-ing and of course there’s dogfights galore and ACTUAL CHARCTER DEVELOPMENT. You don’t get a lot of this in animes today and not even in many American TV shows. On American TV, character development will sometimes get spread out over the whole damn show and can be subject to, how do I say, illogic. This is one of the advantages of the way many animes do things. You only have, say 50 episodes for a character to mature, so if he or she is supposed to do that, they better damn well get their rears in gear! There weren’t many things I actually didn’t like about the show and most of those things are a result of the way the series was compressed and uncompressed which no one has any control over. I would say that there weren’t very many opportunities to hate the villains of the story. Most of the named Zentradi characters end up on the good guys’ side and the ones who don’t aren’t really hate fodder. The ‘Final Boss’ Lord Bodole Zer, isn’t in the series much at all so you don’t care much about him although the fact that he orders the execution of humanity doesn’t exactly endear him to you. Quamzin is charismatic, making him a villain you LIKE to hate, not just outright hate. Then you also learn that the Zentradi were basically engineered to be what they are/were and it throws a sympathetic light onto them. No the one character I truly despise is a human and we’ll get to him in a minute. The characters of Macross are what really make the series. I’m going to discuss for a moment characters that I really liked and characters I didn’t like. Actually I only really didn’t like one character… well you get my point. First off we have three of the main stars involved in Macross’ famous love triangle: Hikaru Ichijyo, Misa Hayase and Lynn Minmay. Hikaru (called Rick Hunter in Robotech) is introduced as a civilian stunt pilot invited to the launch of the Macross by his friend and senpai (mentor) Major Roy Focker. He gets caught up in the events of the launch of the Macross and the Zentradi attack and ends up flying one of the Valkyrie variable fighters and rescues Minmay. The two of them end up trapped in the bowels of the ship for almost twelve days (it’s a BIG ship). This is where their relationship begins to take shape. Hell, you go get trapped in what is basically a dungeon with someone and see if you don’t develop a connection. Hikaru comes off during this as basically your average joe with a gift for piloting trying to do his best in a strange situation. Minmay is your average teenage girl who isn’t used to extreme situations. This is made apparent when she goes a little nutty and asks Hikaru to have a mock wedding with her because she would regret it if she died without getting married. She then tells him they should throw themselves out into space and die together. I guess I can’t really blame her, dying of hunger and thirst isn’t a fun way to go. Then again, what Minmay doesn’t know is that death by the vacuum of space isn’t really pleasant either. Fortunately for the budding love birds, the civilians of Macross City break through the ceiling and rescue them. These events then set up the romance between Hikaru and Minmay. On the other hand, Hikaru’s first run-in with Misa is hardly romantic. She first encounters him when he had become an accidental Valkyrie pilot and he refers to her as a ‘nagging old lady.’ Bad move. It initially seems like there is no way Misa and Hikaru would ever be compatible. She is the exact opposite of the sweet, girlish Minmay. Misa is a career military officer whose father is an Admiral with the UN Spacy (combination of the words space and navy). She takes a no-nonsense approach to operations and doesn’t appreciate it when Hikaru tries to ‘show off.’ If Misa had her way, Hikaru would never have become more than a grunt pilot. Things change when two separate incidents occur. First is the Miss Macross contest in which Minmay becomes the first winner, garnering fame and a chance to become the singer she’s always dreamed of. Yeah it might be a little weird to hold a beauty pageant in a warship but when you have 56,000 civilians onboard and an eight month trip back to Earth ahead of you, exceptions have to be made. The other incident is when Hikaru, Misa and Kakizaki are captured aboard a Zentradi battleship and interrogated by the Zentradi leaders. Forced to demonstrate the concept of romance, the two share a surprisingly passionate kiss. This then kicks the love triangle into high gear as Hikaru grows increasingly distant from Minmay as she becomes more and more famous and he learns to rely on Misa’s direction from the bridge during his many missions, especially after Roy dies. Oops, did I say that out loud? Oh well, more on that in a moment. I liked Hikaru as a protagonist because he sort of comes off as the Luke Skywalker type of the series. He’s a seemingly ordinary guy at first who has a gift for piloting and then is swept up in events beyond his control. At first he’s a little immature and the many arguments he has with Misa over the TACnet is proof enough of that. But being a soldier starts to remove him from his childhood and forces him to start growing up, especially after he gets promoted to Lieutenant and is given two rookie pilots to deal with (these being Max Jenius and Kakizaki). After Roy’s death, Hikaru has to inherit Roy’s position as leader of Skull Squadron, the best Valkyrie unit on the ship. He also eventually is forced to come to terms with the fact that he and Minmay are from separate walks of life and can likely never be together. Minmay for her part serves as a voice of inspiration and hope during the dark times of the war. It was said that series creator Shoji Kawamori based her concept and the concept of her songs and their effects on the crew of the Macross and the Zentradi, on the song Lili Marlene, from World War II. Soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict apparently cherished this particular song. However, Minmay is also naïve and doesn’t really understand what Hikaru and the other soldiers aboard the ship go through as her celebrity life insulates her from the horrors of war. Basically she understands what’s going on but isn’t affected by it directly too much. She also demonstrates the double-edged sword that is fame. Initially she revels in becoming a famous pop star but as time goes on, and especially after her cousin Kaifun (sound of teeth grinding) get involved in her life, it wears her down to the point where she actually collapses and gets sent to the hospital. Later, during the Reconstruction arc, she finds all the fulfillment her singing gave her has vanished, especially since her status as ‘the girl who ended a war with song’ has been completely usurped by Kaifun at this point. She tries to run away from that life and find happiness with Hikaru but belatedly comes to the realization that Hikaru discovered long ago: they just weren’t meant to be. In the end she decides that she will discover the meaning of her songs by herself now that she’s freed of all the emotional baggage that the love triangle and Kaifun dropped on her and remains friends with Hikaru and Misa. Misa, as I stated earlier is a consummate professional, but that mask hides an inner pain. Once she was carefree and in love but then her boyfriend Riber had to go off to Mars and get his stupid self killed. This causes Misa to close up emotionally and it’s only when Hikaru shows up that she begins to lose some of that shell… with a TON of poking and prodding from the other bridge officers, Claudia, Vanessa, Kim and Shammy. As a side-note, that’s another TV trope that’s not native to just anime but other sci-fi shows as well, the concept of the ‘bridge bunnies.’ Anyway, Misa begins to have more interaction with Hikaru as Minmay grows distant from him. They can understand each other as soldiers. I think where she truly began to care for Hikaru as more than just a friend was when she nearly killed him. No, seriously she actually did almost kill him. During a battle she is distracted by thoughts of her dead boyfriend and launches a missile strike at the wrong moment. The missiles end up hitting Hikaru’s Valkyrie which plunges into the ocean with Hikaru barely ejecting in time. Later she goes to the hospital and apologies profusely for accidentally shooting him down. As Doc Brown once said, “That’s the Florence Nightingale effect. It happens in hospitals when nurses fall in love with their patients.” I may be wrong but whatever. She’s also one damn strong-willed woman as she has to put up with so much garbage from Hikaru during the last arc of the series as he waffles back and forth between his hope that he and Minmay will work out and his newly-discovered love for Misa. I was actually kind of hoping that she would slap him when Hikaru blows off their first date to go talk to Minmay. Hey fellas, here’s a little relationship hint. When you just ditched a date with your current girlfriend to check up on the ex, don’t bring a scarf that the ex gave you when you try to make up with your girlfriend because it will be she who discovers yours and your ex’s initials surrounded by a heart on the inside lining. Yeah… Hikaru was a bit of a blockheaded idiot in those last few episodes. Misa does eventually forgive him and they realize that they love each other and happily ever after and blah blah blah. Oh and because Misa is so undeniably awesome, Admiral Global gives her command of the new colony ship Megaroad-01. I feel at this point, having talked so much about romance, I need to mention Maximillian Jenius and Millia Fallyna (pronounced mill-ee-ah f-eye-yah-na) and the shortest romance in the history of television (possibly). As a bit of background, you should remember that Max was one of the new pilots that was assigned to Hikaru after he got promoted. The interesting thing about Max is that, while he’s actually a secondary character, he’s actually a better pilot than anyone else on the ship, including Hikaru. In fact, he’s so good that he draws a little unwanted attention. As previously mentioned, Zentradi males and females live separately but at one point commander Vrlitwhai calls in the Laplamiz Fleet, which consists of an entire force of these alien amazons (you think normal women can be scary? Try women that are twenty-five feet taller than you and know 101 ways to kill you with a knife.), particularly an ace pilot feared by all Zentradi, Millia Fallyna. To make a long story short, she ends up getting beat by an unknowing Max twice in combat, turns herself into a miclone (term for human-sized Zentradi), sneaks aboard the ship and then meets Max at an arcade. This leads to a rather hilarious scene in which, while she is totally focused on beating him at the flight simulator game they’re playing, Max is busy being entranced by her exotic green hair and mentally estimating her measurements. Ah fighter jocks, what are you gonna do? After getting beat by Max a third time, she agrees to a date with him (having no concept of what a ‘date’ is) but is really plotting revenge. Cut to Max in the park at night waiting for his romantic rendezvous. Out comes Millia from the bushes, tosses him a knife, declares her identity as a Zentradi pilot and then charges him. This then leads to the most badly animated knife fight ever. Despite Millia’s superior strength, Max manages to disarm her, effectively beating her a third time. Having been thus defeated, Millia breaks down in tears and begs for Max to kill her so that she can retain some measure of honor. Instead, Max, being a hopeless romantic, sweeps her up into his arms and kisses her passionately. Literally five minutes later, show time, they are being married by Captain Global. No I’m not kidding, after the kiss, there’s one scene where Max introduces Millia to Hikaru, a scene where they’re getting permission from Captain Global and then, boom, we’re at the wedding. Now I like this purely because if this was, say, an American series, the whole damn thing would have been spread out over one, two, possibly even three seasons of will-they-or-won’t-they? I have to admit that it is kind of abrupt that Millia goes from passionate hatred of Max to passionately in love with him in the space of a night, but it is unfortunately the result of Macross’ story getting compressed and uncompressed during production. Some aspects of the story, like Hikaru, Misa and Minmay’s love triangle, were more fully explored while Max and Millia had to be churned out in one episode. We do find out during one of the sequel series, Macross 7, that Max and Millia aren’t doing so well and one of their seven daughters, Mylene Flare Jenius, tries to get them back together. I can’t finish this section without mentioning the quintessential pilot of Macross, Roy Fokker. He’s exactly what you’d expect from a career fighter pilot: Loud, crude, rude and socially unacceptable… sort of. But tat’s what makes you like him because he’s just basically a fun guy. He also is one of the most unexpected deaths in the series. Normally, you’d expect an important character like Roy to not die, but if you’ve ever seen Star Wars, you should know that mentor characters either die or just really have it rough. Initially, it is implied that Roy and Hikaru grew up somewhat together and that Roy and Hikaru’s father taught the kid all he knows about flying. Roy is a little more absent as the war against the Zentradi heats up, but he’s always there to offer advice… especially on women. Roy himself has a relationship with one of the ship’s bridge officers, Claudia LaSalle, although it’s only mentioned briefly in episode 1 and doesn’t come up again until episode 18. Speaking of episode 18, Roy is also one of the progenitors’ of the anime trope “pineapple salad” after the episode of the same name. To whit, don’t promise a character their favorite meal right before a battle, as it will inevitably lead to said character’s death. It’s actually very well done, if I do say so my self. The setting is that Hikaru is in the hospital after Misa’s accidental missile attack injured him. Roy has to watch over Hikaru’s pilots, Max and Kakizaki, in addition to his own as he goes into battle once more against the Zentradi. Previous to flying out, he’d had a conversation with Claudia about having a quiet dinner with her and she had promised him to make her famous family recipe pineapple salad as an extra incentive. At first it doesn’t seem that anything has gone wrong, although Roy’s plane gets shot up a lot during the battle. Cut to Roy and Claudia in her apartment, Claudia preparing the meal and Roy relaxing on a couch playing an acoustic guitar. The camera goes into a close up of Claudia with Roy out of the frame. She’s talking to him and all of a sudden we noticed that he’s stopped playing. Confused, she turns around, salad in hand, only to find Roy sprawled on the floor, back soaked in blood (remember that in the 80’s, blood would have been a big no-no in the States). Cue scream of horror and dishes crashing dramatically to the ground. Now, they string us out a little more by cutting to Hikaru’s hospital room, where’s he resting up and playing with a small model of a Fokker bi-plane that Roy had given him. Nothing seems to be especially wrong until Misa comes in. Something’s wrong, she has tears in her eyes. Hikaru asks her what’s wrong and she somberly tells him that Roy was heavily injured in battle but didn’t tell anyone and has died. Cut to a room where Roy lies in a bed, eyes closed, medics surrounding him and Claudia crying over him. Hikaru gets a deer-in-the-headlights look and the model plane falls out of his hand and breaks on the floor, symbolizing the last parts of Hikaru’s youth being shattered. This also illustrates another theme in many animes that when a character has been in the background for a long while and is suddenly thrust in the spotlight, odds are very good that said character is about to die. Remember, this takes place exactly halfway through the series and you wouldn’t expect that a major supporting character like Roy would die so soon, but as I said, there is always a point where the mentor must step aside so that the apprentice can flourish. Roy doesn’t disappear entirely from the series. Hikaru becomes Skull leader and uses Roy’s old Valkyrie. In the last arc of the series, Claudia, in flashback, tells Hikaru the story of how she and Roy first met, trying to get him straight where Misa is concerned. And, of course, Roy will always live on to us Macross fans as Roy “I-can-still-fight-when-I’m-drunk” Fokker. J Oh and he gets to appear in the OVA Macross Zero. The other characters of Macross are also interesting enough to warrant mention. Captain Global is one of the quintessential sci-fi anime captains. He’s sort of a combination of Lord Nelson and Jean-luc Picard. He’s a proud, skilled military officer but he also lives by a strict code of honor that he expects people, even his superiors, to obey. He also has to put up with all the things that go wrong throughout the series, such as the Macross’ computers starting a war and the UN government abandoning the Macross and the civilians aboard her. Even the bridge bunnies Kim, Shammy and Vanessa provide a lot of character interactions. The one I always found funny was when Shammy is constantly reminding Captain Global that he can’t smoke his pipe on the bridge. Lastly, the one character I truly despise in the entirety of the series is Minmay’s cousin Lynn Kaifun. Why? He’s a bloody peacenik, that’s why. You know, I could write a whole other article about why this guy torques me off but that would be A) Weird and B) Non-productive. Let’s just say that he gets between Hikaru and Minmay, he dresses like he just walked out of Saturday Night Fever, his views against the military are out of place in the human/Zentradi war and, from a Western viewpoint, he’s a bit of a freak since he falls for his cousin Minmay. Oh and he totally disses Misa. Grrrr. Fortunately he turns out to be something of a lush and a hypocrite. In one episode, he inflames a crowd of mostly miclone Zentradi against Hikaru and his pilots, who are trying to safeguard a miclone chamber. Due to Kaifun’s speech, Hikaru and the others are forced to leave the chamber where it is and Quamzin’s rebels promptly steal it. Kaifun doesn’t seem to care much about that, making me think that he really didn’t care a damn about the chamber; he just wanted to get one up on Hikaru and the military. You can also tell that he’s using Minmay’s career as a way to advance his anti-military agenda. Unfortunately a little bit of that Asian misogyny creeps in and Minmay rarely stands up to him. Fortunately, he eventually gets fed up with Minmay (not her fault at all) and leaves. Me, I would have preferred that he’d had a battle pod or a Valkyrie fall on top of him and that the last episode he was in didn’t try to paint him in a positive light. Whew. 5,512 words and counting. This review has officially reached rigmarole status. Fortunately I just have a few more things to comment on, namely the animation and the Valkyries. The animation in Macross is usually pretty good. Unfortunately, they farmed some of the work out to secondary companies every so often and it resulted in some horrible, horrible work. Case in point, Max and Millia’s famous knife fight. Now a lot of the time though, the series seemed to shine especially in the battle sequences. There was nothing more awesome than Hikaru’s FAST pack-equipped Valkyrie unleashing a hailstorm of missiles at the Zentradi hordes. All in all, its aged pretty good for something that was created all the way back in 1982. That brings us to the last aspect of the show upon which I would like to comment, the VF-1 Valkyries. The Valkyries bring me back to my childhood and one of the best things that I loved about the original Star Wars trilogy. The starfighter dogfights. Yes, I’m one of those misanthropes who grew up during the 90s and all we had were VHS tapes and only a few good novels and no bloody Clone Wars cartoons. What I mean is, I have a saying and that saying is, if you can’t be a Jedi, be a frakkin’ X-Wing pilot! I bet these days you’d be hard-pressed to find a kid under fifteen that actually knows what an X-Wing or a TIE Fighter EVEN IS. Anyway, I bring this up because Macross follows a similar vein with its Valkyrie variable fighters fighting space dogfights and even engagements on other planets. Valkyries get a 1-Up on X-Wings though because they can transform into robots. There’s even a perfectly good reason why they can do that too. The average Zentradi soldier is 10 meters (33 feet) tall so they needed some kind of humanoid mechanized infantry to deal with them in hand to hand combat. It also looks pretty cool too. The particularly endearing part to the Valkyries is that they’re all the same machine. The main character does not become automatically awesome when he climbs into his VF-1J and the rest of the pilots are flying VF-1As. Forgetting about plot armor, he has just as much chance of getting blown to smithereens as the rest of the grunts. And, as has been mentioned before, Hikaru is actually not the best pilot, despite being one of the main characters. To sum up: F-22 Raptor? Screw that, give me a VF-25 Messiah! Macross left as much a mark on the anime industry as Gundam has. Macross took the real-robot sub-genre to new levels and also had a major hand in the transformation craze of the 80s (read: Transformers). But its true enduring legacy is the story. Even in the midst of terrible conflict there can be hope. That said conflict could be solved through means other than warfare. Oh and a good, old-fashioned space dogfights will NEVER go out of style. Deculture!