Macross Zero

As I am from the United States, my first exposure to the world that is Macross actually came from Robotech, the combination of three anime titles: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. While there were some similarities to the original Macross storyline, between the Americanization of the story and the new English dialog, I don't consider that my first exposure to REAL Macross, although it did get me interested in the original anime.

I recently had the opportunity to watch Macross Zero, a 5-part OVA (direct-to-video) prequel to Macross. I was just going to watch one episode at a time and decide if I enjoyed it or not. I ended up watching the entire story in one afternoon.

The animation in Macross Zero is nothing short of stunning. The use of CGI animation with "old school" 2D animation is almost seamless and there are sequences which will just cause your jaw to drop (Roy Focker's first transformation of his VF-0 to Battloid is a prime example).

The story, however, is not as strong. Part 5 of the series seems to suffer from a need for a part 6. Too many plot lines are resolved in the final episode in an unsatisfactory manner. The viewer is expected to assume the causes of some of the events seen at the beginning of part 5 which were not even hinted at in earlier episodes. The story is still quite entertaining, but it just loses cohesiveness at the end.

The music is either good or bad. Actually, it is either extremely good or extremely bad. The battle sequences have a soundtrack which just draws you into the action. If you're REALLY crazy, you could even take the battle sequence music and plop into any Hollywood dogfight footage from the past 30 years. It's that good. On the other hand, incidental music for other non-combat moments is sub par at best, especially one of the main themes (don't know the name, sorry). You'll know the one I'm talking about, though, for two reasons:

1) There's a real high note which the singer just CANNOT hit, always comes up short.

2) Obligatory naked anime chick in the scene where the music is used. What is it with this obsession with naked women in anime, anyway?

This is a series which I will want to watch over and over (not for the naked chick - get your mind out of the gutter). I would even put money down for the soundtrack, although only for certain tracks. Too bad iTunes doesn't have an anime soundtrack section.

A prequel to tthe eighties "Macross" series ? It could have been junk, but asides of some lackluster animation and stylistic differences between the traditional cell animation (characters, bgs) and non-ILM-quality CG (dogfights, mecha) it´s quite probably one of the finest first episodes I´ve seen in some time. Rumored to be a 5-part series, it deals with several interesting issues: UN forces unifiyng the world under one government to oppose alien invasion, anti-unificationists rebelling with superior mecha, anthropological research beginning to suspect mankind is genengineered by aliens, Roy Fokker (hero of the original series) testing the first production run VFs (modernized decently and visualized with one of the most beautiful transformation sequences ever)...and our hero is stranded not only on an island, but also without any distinctive political opinion.

Technically great stuff, good writing, decent humor, interesting characters bearing some resemblance to the original "Rick Hunter" character, a youth shaped by the conflicts around him.

I've seen a fair bit of Macross, understand the back story, and was looking for some new stuff to watch. I was sorely disappointed. The bag guys they brought in were clichéd and unbelievable, and the central plot descends from a great Sci-Fi story into sub par fantasy.

To understand why the bad guys don't work, you need to know a little about the original series. Alien ship crashes in 1999 ending a global war and uniting the world. Some anti-unification dissidents make a little trouble, and then in 2009 the aliens arrive. This takes place between 1999 and 2009.

With little else to work with, the anti-unification guys get tasked as the main bad guys for this. While Macross is known for variable fighters, here we learn that it was these bad guys that came up with them first. Theirs also seem to be better than the United Earth versions which are just coming out. So without any access to the alien technology on the ship, they have better variable fighters first, that actually work. Right, and what they're not telling us in the real world is that Al Queda was really the first to deploy the F-22 Raptor.

Otherwise the central story revolves around an island with remains of an alien culture that influenced our evolution. This is standard Macross fair, but they manage to take it to ludicrous ends. On this island, singing by the shrine maiden can induce spontaneous high level mutation in nearby life. I can just see the cautionary warnings now. Be sure not to teach the shrine maiden any Britney Spears, it causes cancer. Now music has always played an important part in Macross, but I'll buy it having an emotionally debilitating effect on a group of emotionally sheltered giants long before this makes any sense. In the end this is all to support an unnecessary claim that life on Earth evolved way faster than it should have. It's like the makers saw some of the more clichéd Disney fair of the princess dancing around and singing while the animals rally and decided they needed to throw it in.

It's a real shame, but Macross sequels and spin-offs have been extremely hit and miss. If you want action this is okay, but if you want a logical storyline, stick to the original Super-Dimensional Fortress Macross, and Macross Plus.

The story is a little hard to follow, and honestly a little dry. The characters are not particularly strongly conceived, but this is only five episodes in length. Are the islanders Polynesian? That makes more sense than them being Mayans, as they are called in the show. I don't know.

To me, the most memorable character interactions occur during the dogfights, because, honestly, those visuals carry the show! I'm not a huge fan of the character design here (nothing here is as distinctive or attractive as Do You Remember Love or Macross II), but golly the CGI dogfights are spectacular. There are times when the Valkyrie sequences are astonishing, and the operatic music is beautiful and affecting. The intense last episode really moves at a fast clip; things are finished up but not necessarily tied up story-wise.

After watching Macross Plus, I was very interested in having a look at other anime series bearing the Macross name. Macross Plus is one of my favourite anime series of all time, so I thought it would be hard to top. After discovering Kawamori had made another Macross mini-series, Macross Zero, I was really looking forward to seeing it, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. At the very least, this mini-series is, for my part, well on par with the Macross Plus series. Both had a very memorable main song that will have you humming it for a good while after watching it.

Parts are funny, parts are heartwarming and parts are incredibly emotional and sad. Oh, and let's not forget the fantastic action sequences. The blend of CG and cel animation was interesting, and one didn't intrude too much on the other's turf. One thing though - I really hate the way that characters don't finish sentences, for example they might say "Is that..." or "That's...." etc. This is a typical anime trait that I'm not fond of, but given all the plus points of the series I am more than willing to overlook this annoyance.

Thoroughly recommended if you are a Macross fan, but if you haven't seen any Macross stuff before you might want to go over the history of the series by looking at the older ones first. That way you will get the most out of this gem of an anime.