Shameful Otaku Secret!

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and sort of like Macross 7

I have tried multiple times to watch Macross 7 in recent years — most recently at the onset of Frontier. I just couldn’t manage to get past the first few episodes. The dated-sounding music, the ceaseless dunderheadedness of protagonist Nekki Basara, the generally crappy animation quality. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, if I want to throw my weight around as a True Macross Fan, I’d have to get down to business and finish this sucker. The insistence of its fans that it was actually good didn’t hurt either.

Anyway. Fortunately, these days it’s totally unneccessary to spend big bucks on an unlicensed series. That’s right, unlicensed. The issues with Harmony Gold, Macross, and Robotech are well-documented and I guess in M7’s case they really got the better of the licensers.

According to Manga, those OVA tit-merchants I love so much [quoted for truth from Wikipedia]:

“It would take all the anime companies working together to be able to afford to bring the series over to America”

And I’m pretty sure if representatives from any of those companies have watched the series, that idea becomes even more laughable.

What’s the big deal?

There were innumerable things wrong with Macross 7 from the start, though there are some great things too. But the more I watch, the more I’ve come to love those things I saw as flaws.

The things I liked from the start:

• Maximillian Jenius, Millia Fallynia Jenius, and Exedol are back from SDF-Macross, acting as the big shots that war heroes of their caliber tend to end up being.
• Valkyries are updated to look like Stealth Fighters. Pretty neat. Which makes me wonder why the old standard fighter plane style came back in Plus and Frontier. At any rate, it’s classic Shouji Kawamori mecha and ship design.

The things I warmed up to:

• I’m finally coming around to Nekki Basara. He’s a real dolt, but he gains depth as the series goes.
• Mylene Jenius, daughter of Millia and Max, also grows as a character after starting off kinda bratty. Plus, she’s good in a Valkyrie and shows far more spunk than emo Ranka — although she’s just as bafflingly short, being half-Zentradi.
• The comedic/goofy feel finally stopped confusing and pissing me off. This is most decidely not Macross Plus. The flower groupie is freaking hilarious, deadpan Meltran drummer Veffidas is used sparingly for laughs now and again, and don’t get me started on the whacked-out Dr. Chiba. Tonal change in the second half? It’s possible.

Things I still can’t get over:

• The music just isn’t up to snuff. Like most Macross series, M7 is all about the music. But the rock anthems (or “folk oldies,” as Alto called them) of Fire Bomber sound hopelessly dated and cheeseball even for the time. Remember 1994? Nirvana was on top of the charts, but the music writers behind Macross 7 were still jamming Twisted Sister and the Crüe on the tape decks in their Camaros — and watering the cock-rock down with anime-pop overtones. To make matters worse, there’s a shortage of tunes. Whereas Yoko Kanno writes a new song for Frontier every time a major character takes a shit, and then pads those with Mari Ijima’s Minmay classics, M7 constantly assaults its viewers with Fire Bomber’s signature hit, “Planet Dance.” I think “Totsugeki Love Heart” has a solid melody and is totally listenable, but after how many more times listening to it will I still think that? I have heard rumors that a couple Minmay hits will rear their heads, so here’s hoping.
• The animation and production values are right up there with the music. SDF Macross looks a little dated, sure, but was great for its time. Do You Remember Love? still looks good for any time. Macross Plus (also from ‘94) is a marvel of early computer-assisted work. Macross 7, however, is cheap-looking and cheap-sounding. Sound effects are of the cheap analog synth variety, recycling runs wild, Variable Fighter transformation scenes are often instant or skipped over entirely, and no one’s going to confuse Fire Bomber’s concerts with Haruhi’s any time soon. On the plus side, it’s consistently mediocre rather that alternatingly impressive/horrific, like some other Macross series I know.

Time (and just under 30 more episodes) will tell whether I consider Macross 7 as deserving of the name as the rest of the OVAs and TV series that bear the Macross name. I’m already tired of the songs and the awful VHS-rip files that are the only reasonable method of watching.

What ’bout my peg leg

Well, well. When Ozma and Cathy finally bring Captain Global whatever his name is news of Leon’s assassination of the president, and that same Leon somehow cons Bilrer into folding SMS into NUNS, it’s munity on Macross Quarter, complete with jolly pirate lingo. But our favorite cabin boy won’t be along for the ride, as he’s finally discovered he’s in it for the laydeez. Some truly random thoughts:

Like the noble people of the American plains, the good warriors of Frontier use the whole Vajra.

Alto and Luca talking after testing the warheads was a bit melancholy, somehow the execution of this scene made the absence of Michel very noticeable. Well done, for once, Satelite. In fact, animation was right on for the first time in a while, even as Geass seems to be running out of steam. But the characters don’t necessarily seem on model if you rewind 20 episodes back, especially Ozma’s thin face and Cathy’s overpowering eyes.

Ozma and Cathy wandering through the wrecked Frontier was very reminiscent of Hikaru and Hayase searching the scorched Earth for remains of life. I think that’s the first really big reference I’ve seen in a while to the old school.

Sheryl plus Elmo equals win. Especially in that outfit.

Let’s get this girl back on track with a retro-80s synth pop band: Sheryl and the Fold Waves! Get me Elmo’s number! At any rate, Sheryl and Ranka have reversed places so many times now I’m not sure who’s who.

The new Sheryl song is probably the most Yoko-Kanno-like tune in the Frontier repertoire. Mayhaps she’s wearing through her ability to write idol pop?

I hate to see a bridge bunny look so down.

Klan providing a pep talk is good, but probably the last significant thing she’ll do in the series.

Shut yo mouth!

The call-up (text-up? Mail up?) was very fist-pumping, though by no means quite like the similar TTGL episode. And without Alto on board it’s not quite the same. But despite what Ozma says, Alto does have his own agenda, even if he’s just now figuring out what it is.

In a lovely kimono and pancake makeup.

Ranka’s gone to space, Sheryl’s gonna die… Perfect situation for Alto, he can play the man’s part without ever having to worry about rings, station wagons, kids (Vajra or otherwise), or mortgages.

Klan gives the pirates the traditional Meltran three-part salute

Lots of love for you Sheryl fans this episode.

And it’s nice to see a Macross episode contrast a space battle with some kind of singing concert. Pretty sure I’ve never seen that before. Also fairly certain that I could be more subtle in sarcasm.

You know Sheryl is back on top when her outfits get sluttier.

Grace continues to prove herself a worthy opponent, even if we’re still not truly aware of her ultimate goal — especially now that she’s dropped Leon in favor of her own breasts.

A villain who fondles with each victory. I can get behind that. I think.

And finally Brera and Ranka arrive at the Earthlike Vajra home world, much to the delight of the Vajra there, who are conviently psychic and speak Japanese.

You did it! You finally did it! You blew it up! God damn you all to hell!

Let’s bring this home. Only a few more episodes, hopefully the budget and the story can maintain. These past 4 or 5 episodes of Frontier have really cured the bad case of give-a-shits I previously had, but thanks to #22, I think I might actually be back to caring.

Wait, who am I? Are you my mommy?

I think that can tell you a lot about an anime fan from what they consider to be their influences — at least in the terms that we here on the anime-internets tend to related to one another. Also, I’m waiting on my Chiko to get subbed and I’m short on original ideas at the moment. So I stole one from Riex.

My most influential anime!

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion. What did they call it, the Series that Launched A Million Fanboys? You’re looking at one. The angst, the action, the symbolism, the pretentiousness, and the all-out mindfuck couldn’t be topped. I liked anime before, but all of a sudden this insatiable appetite to consume episode after episode of marginally believable animated nonsense starring underage protagonists took over — to the point where Pokémon briefly became an somewhat-acceptable form of entertainment. Plus, it was only the second time I’d seen such blatant contempt for humanity. The first?

2. Urotsukidoji. Yeah. That one. I’m not kidding. To this day, I don’t watch hentai, but I can still appreciate the horror of this flick. Make no mistake — it’s full of sex, violence, violent sex, and sexualized violence. That makes it appropriate for almost nobody, but it’s also got a well-written story that foreshadows plots like Evangelion and Blassreiter, except with huge demonic cocks. I was taken aback by the shocking nature of Japan’s original tentacle vehicle, but also by just how surprisingly good it was.

3. Akira/Ninja Scroll/Ghost in the Shell. Why put them together? There was a day when you couldn’t mention them separately. If someone had seen one, you forced them to watch the other two because that person was an otaku on the verge. Thanks partially to frequent commenter Jason (specifically for Ninja Scroll), I hit the whole triumverate of violence, story, atmosphere and quality and that’s all she wrote. Like so many American fans, if I hadn’t seen these, I wouldn’t be here yammering on about this shit.

4. Tie: Cardcaptor Sakura/Love Hina. Weird tie, no? But I watched these two series around the same time, and they served similar purposes in my degeneration into otakudom. I had mostly seen full series on VHS and of course VHS tapes were almost all dubs. We started watching CCS to find out only the first part of it was dubbed (the parts they took out back behind the shed and beat until it became the horrific American Cardcaptors). So I saw my first profesionally subtitled anime in a perfect scenario to learn just how much better it was than the dub. Love Hina was about a week after, and it wasn’t even out in the US yet (thanks, crack dealer anime-lender friend from Hong Kong), so no dub there either.

The second reason these are here: my first marathons. You bet your sweet ass I plowed the entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura. Wow. Still my longest record. Thankfully, my (now-)wife was there, and so was booze.

Maybe more important than either of those things, both of these shows proved without a doubt that an anime didn’t need to have a heavy story, or robots, or heaps of violence to entertain the shit out of me. A screwball romantic comedy and a kids’ adventure, if done well enough, can get the job done and then some. To this day, you can’t show me a harem or a childhood friend without it all looking suspiciously like Love Hina. Also, I have a coffee mug with Kero-chan on it. Judge me, go ahead.

5. Macross aka Robotech. OGT probably puts it best: The original reason anyone loves Macross is that damnable transforming airplane, the Valkyrie. When I was a kid I could give two shits about Lynn Minmay or Shao Pai Lon (which I also think is a great song, probably a shit movie though) but I did have a Valkyrie toy. And it was somehow cooler even than the transfomers because it had three forms — I still can’t get my mind around why the Gerwalk form is needed, but watching the show as a kid you knew that even that form had a point. Anyway, regardless of how bastardized it may have been, Robotech made a mecha fan out of me early in life so I have to thank it.

6. Haruhi. Easy, right? For me, yes. After Evangelion I went berserk for a while, then tapered off after a while in favor of things like Takashi Miike and David Lynch. But Haruhi made everything better again. It doesn’t matter that Haruhi is the product of a scientific formula that’s guaranteed to be loved by otaku everywhere, it’s a great show, a time-traveling treat with a pile of laughs. I also came to the mistaken conclusion that television anime had turned a corner quality-wise. Turned out that was just one studio.

So what got you going? Inquiring minds want to know, what made you the fanboy/girl you are today?