It’s the year 2009 -- 10 years prior, an alien spacecraft landed on Earth, and following a war to unify the planet, the U.N. worked to restore the spaceship. At the launch ceremony, however, an alien race, the Zentradi, pick up a signal from the ship and recognize the craft as belonging to an enemy of theirs. After sending scouts to check up on the ship -- which humanity has dubbed “Macross” -- the Macross picks up on the scouts and automatically shoots its cannon, destroying the scouts and accidentally starting an intergalactic war between humans and the Zentradi.
A complete misunderstanding is the perfect way to start a war in SDF Macross, considering that, aside from the love triangle among pilot Hikaru Ichijou, pop starlet Lynn Minmay and U.N. officer Misa Hayase, Macross is mainly about the gap between two groups that are more similar than they both initially believe. It’s just that the Zentradi are missing a key element that once made them as human as us. (And that’s all I’ll say about that. :p)
There are a number of silly elements in Macross: Lots of bizarre comic relief, some strange development with the Zentradi, pop music as a major motif and plot device, and on and on. I was skeptical about the singing when I watched Macross Frontier, and I was skeptical here, too, even though I thought it largely worked in Frontier. But believe me when I say Macross is legitimately intelligent in how it handles these strange elements, if quite off-kilter with its humor and development. There are plenty of serious moments throughout the show, but Macross is no Gundam; there is as much joy as there is sorrow.
Really, as long as you don’t take every story development completely seriously (and the anime itself encourages the audience to not approach it in a total Serious Business kind of way), the series moves in often surprising and thought provoking ways. The way Macross regards human culture is particularly wonderful, in that it somehow manages to put the best and worst of culture on a pedestal but at the same time show how hilarious and ridiculous much of what humans create is. We are a goofy bunch of people. How else can you explain how Marmaduke has gone on for more than 50 years? (And don’t get me started on The Family Circus ...)
Surprisingly enough, another point in Macross’ favor is its realism in regards to the technology employed by the U.N. Through the course of the series, the humans never get a real handle on the technological capabilities of the Macross. They figure some things about, but then something always seems to go wrong. Using the abilities of the Macross comes with quite a bit of risk, and it adds a solid element of unpredictability to the story without seeming too convenient or anything like that.
And like many mecha series, Macross nails the big moments. Lots of great space battles with creative visuals, plenty of fighting and love going on in the background. It’s a perfect slice of melodrama.
Even though I loved Macross, though, I am objective enough to note that there are at least two major problems with the series. The first is that the character development probably will not be to everyone’s tastes. The series asks for a lot of leeway in accepting the characters; pretty much everyone has an annoying streak at one point or another. Minmay is infamous in anime fandom for being selfish and incredibly dense, Hikaru is fairly sexist at times (at one point, he literally says that Misa would look cute in a kitchen; wtf man, she should have slapped the hell out of him), Misa gets a bit bitchy at the end of the series, etc.
The second big problem is that the animation quality varies wildly. At times Macross will look absolutely stunning, with missile attacks being cool to look at and certain fights being quite interesting. Other times certain scenes will look like Bee Train and Studio Pierrot had a retarded, deformed child who took a dump on an animation cel. There’s one fight in particular that should have looked amazing, but is in execution quite stupid because the animation quality is beyond awful, with tons of off-model shots and overall janky animation. It’s sort of forgivable because Macross was made in the early ’80s (TV animation has always been pretty cheap, and it definitely was not too advanced at that point), but that doesn’t make it any less distracting.
But for me, those problems are never enough to overshadow what Macross does right: It is an influential, fascinating series that absolutely holds up today, even if the technical quality of it does not. Every anime fan needs to experience SDF Macross at some point.
Further reading: I write about Macross and its approach to culture here.
If you like this, then watch ... : While Macross is not quite as prolific as Gundam, there are nonetheless several shows in the series that are held in high regard today. The first is the movie retelling of the original series, Macross: Do You Remember Love? I’ll have more to say Tuesday, but it’s easily the best movie rework I have ever seen. It does, however, have the same failing as every other retelling, in that it cannot be watched unless you have seen the original series. Next is the OVA Macross Plus, which I shall watch soon; to some, it is the best entry in the Macross canon.
Macross 7 is perhaps the most divisive entry in Macross. It is viewed as the G Gundam of the franchise, although apparently the writing, animation and characters are all terrible. Nonetheless, it has a hardcore group of fans the show due to its sheer, unadulterated goofiness. Next up is the Macross Zero OVA, which tells the story of the Unification War that happens before the beginning of SDF Macross. The final canon entry in the series is Macross Frontier, the series with which most recent fans of anime are familiar. It’s a solid series and has many, many references to everything Macross.
For fans of Macross’ director, Shoji Kawamori, there is also Vision of Escaflowne. Not a huge fan of the series, myself, but it is highly regarded among anime fans and there are no shortage of people who hold it as Kawamori’s masterpiece.
