Shameful Otaku Secret!

Possibly misleading post title

This not strictly a review of Macross Frontier. There are going to be a lot of those on the web, of varying quality and opinions. And I’m guessing a lot of people are going to say they liked it, with some complaining about a botched ending or how Alto didn’t stick it in your favorite girl, blah blah. And they’ll be right about many of their complaints: the end was a copout and the love triangle was lukewarm at best. But after all the shipping, all the whining, and all the missile spam, what did Macross Frontier really do for the franchise? While thankfully some reviewers can look at Frontier as its own sci-fi series, if you’ve seen previous versions it’s harder to divorce any series from the overall Macross “experience,” the way you could with (for instance) a Gundam series.

First, let’s have a look at what other series and films have brought to the table.

• The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. The birth of Macross.
• Do You Remember Love? Established Kawamori as one of those artists who obsessively paints the same picture over and over — in this case, the chill-inducing juxtaposition of an incredible battle with a majestic song performance.
• Macross 7. Took the vague mystical concepts of Lynn Minmay and turned them into vague hard science. Also made Macross a bit silly and fun.
• Macross Plus. Set a higher standard for music and characterization, and opened up the possibility of a more mature Macross.
• Macross Zero. Gave fans real perspective on the Macross world, and a new view on Protoculture. In a way, Zero made Macross “real.”

Macross Frontier

Zero animator Satelight is back, and this time they’re out to turn all your characters into cyclops. The computer work is better, in fact it’s amazing. But the end result doesn’t smell as good as I’d like it to.

The contribution… What is it? In my mind, when I try to reach a conclusion about what Frontier means to the franchise, I come up short. Since it’s Macross, here’s a musical analogy: Frontier is less like a new album by a master songwriter and more like one of those awful tribute albums — or worse, a re-recording of old tunes by the original artist with none of the fire intact.

There’s no new Macross here, only more of the old Macross. More songs (which is a good thing), more singers to sing them, more space battle, more guy-who-looks-like-Global, and more more more references to past Macross.

The peppering of little smirks and nods to Macross lovers is a cool form of fanservice, and just as panty-shots of Mylene Jenius are a rare and notable thing, so should be those references, or they become less… nifty. Sorry, saying “special” in reference to Mylene’s panties seems totally wrong.

I like a captain who looks like Global, I like the dread inherent in a pineapple dessert, I like filming a movie about the events of Zero, but put them together along with all the other (often forced) wink-wink-nudge-nudge fanservice in this series, and two things happen: instead of creating something original, you’ve created a collection of references; and it only reminds me that all those shows you’ve referenced were better than this one.

Deja Vajra

Not only is Frontier determined to look toward the past, it’s basically made of past Macross spare parts. Take, for instance, Sheryl’s climactic performance on the battle stage, an enemy who is not actually your enemy in the end, or a fold engine for Valkyries that’s newly invented. What the flying fuck? How many times must we invent this thing? Gamlin used one in M7, Isamu used one in Plus, and suddenly Bilrer’s a flipping genius for making another one. Re-inventing the VF fold engine only served to iron out a story issue that should have been solved through quality writing.

The point is…

Perhaps I’m missing the point. Fanservice seems to form the basis of plenty of series these days anyway. Maybe Macross fans deserve to have a TV series that tells a very “Macrossian” story with a modern look, bright colors, and more songs than ever before. And I think I can get behind that idea.

The problem is, Kawamori and Satelight didn’t deliver. If the goal is to sum up the “Macross experience” in an all-encompassing story, then it deserved more consistent production values, a tighter story, and better characters (Ranka…). If the goal is simply a jumbled Super Dimensional antique store full of basic nostalgia, then I guess they did well.

Let’s just say it didn’t leave the best taste in my mouth, that way I’m justified in using this picture.

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.