Shameful Otaku Secret!

You may have heard through the grapevine that I recently went on a week’s vacation — holiday, to you fancy folk in some countries. It was great: learning about another culture, eating freshly-caught (and freshly-clubbed) fish, relaxing on the beach, and spending the declining US dollar in a way that was more wallet-friendly than staying at home. And it occurred to me (with a little prodding from someone…) that place is important. In the context of anime, a place can be as compelling a character as any human, Abh, or magical ferret, but rarely gets the same attention. What is Love Hina without the Hinata Inn, and where else but planet Gunsmoke does Vash the Stampede make even a drop of sense? Here are some my favorite anime places.

Neo-Venezia

It probably won’t surprise any Aria viewer that this one would go at the top of the list. Yes, there are cute gondoliers and suteki~ oneesamas like Alicia, but the lead character of Aria is not the titular cat, but Aqua — and its fake Italian city. Built by human hands, and mostly as a tourist destination, but not to be a gaudy Vegas/Cancun/Dubai statement of “look what we can do” or a faux-experience Disneyland. Instead, Neo-Venezia is an authentic locale born from the dedication of a few intrepid souls to recreating a simpler time and place. It’s the best kind of future, really: Technology ensures that all of the wonderful baked goods and none of the diseases of the past live on in a pleasant and welcoming place that neither gets you too dirty nor reeks of touristy “plastic”-ness.

Glie

If any anime gives off a similar vibe to Aria, it’s Haibane Renmei. I don’t mean in the sense of stories, characters, or even mood (Haibane actually has a story, which doesn’t make it superior to Aria necessarily, but different for sure). It’s that indescribable something special that makes you feel like you’re the only person who’s ever watched this, regardless of how many other people you know who find it wonderful. And like Aqua, Glie is a place that affects the story as strongly as any of its residents. Unlike Aqua, it has a complex set of rules and physics that separate it from the rest of the universe — at least, people assume that, but seeing as how they can’t freaking leave, it’s hard to prove anything about the outside world. Glie provides a wonderful mirror to the characters’ minds. Rakka loves it at first, but mistrusts its intentions more and more as she comes to empathize with Reki, who finds the town to be a comfortable cage from which she can’t escape.

Mayan

Leave it to Kawamori to name his island ode to vanishing culture and environment so plainly after a nearly-decimated American culture. Obvious message is obvious. Mayan serves two main purposes: it inspires a desire in Shin, Roy, and the viewer to protect it (wait… geographical moe?), and it provides a unique perspective on the story of the final world war on Earth. So it’s not the most well-developed location, but it does what it does well. In Macross Zero’s pre-SDF timeline, the world has yet to unite behind the giant ship to fight the Zentraedi, and is instead fighting itself. Honestly, it’s probably a more compelling story, and that’s largely because it’s told from the perspective of the Mayan Islanders — the collateral damage who can understand neither the motivations nor the sophisticated weapons of the mainlanders. The low-tech, spiritual world that they inhabit lends a mysterious new meaning to the Protoculture for fans of Macross, and their mythology does more to explain exactly what the Protoculture is (and means) than Exedol’s visit to the edge of the universe in Macross 7.

There are more, many more…

Even a completely real place (like Tokyo) can be an effective focus of a story, especially if, like other fictional characters, it’s put in a unique situation or circumstance (a massive earthquake). The question of place is often what elevates an otherwise ho-hum anime beyond average, whether it’s a school life or post-apocalypse setting. So what are your favorite anime places? Is there anywhere that’s crucial to a plot, fascinating to think about, or just well-drawn enough that it catches your brain as much as the characters and story? I, for one, would like to watch it, so I can take another vacation without having to get the days off work.

Well, it’s that time. Fair and balanced: we report, you decide. Let’s not get into that. I sort of feel like I’m too ignorant of Gundam (despite a few tries with some supposedly accessible series) to take a side in the OG Mecha War, but if you asked me, I’d tell you: MA-KUUU-ROSSS. So after being immolated for questioning (some of) Macross’s many faults, it’s only right for me to turn the coin around so that if anyone out there is on the fence, they might hop on my variable fighter and take a ride through the greatest things about my greatest anime love.

The Valkyrie

This one’s pretty obvious, right? For many of us, Robotech’s Valkyrie is the original mecha, and the one that was grounded in reality just enough that we could imagine it achingly clearly.

Hikaru wrecked a couple city blocks while learning to pilot one, but Guld and Alto gained ultimate freedom by flying in variable fighters once they became aces. While the Mobile Suit may have provided inspiration, Gundam put the focus on the robot. The VF allows the pilot to shine, since really it’s just an awesome plane at heart. Without aces like Max and Shin, there is no Macross.

Getting with the times

This could easily apply to the venerable Gundam as well, I’m guessing, but I’m just not schooled in Gundam ways. Macross is an old franchise, but with the weird retro-rock exception of M7, it manages to look like a product of its own time. And yet conversely, it also seems to be able to get newer viewers into the previous installments.

And as much as Frontier remains my least favorite Macross, it does seem to have accomplished that well. From character design to its school life arcs, Frontier manages to be part of Macross without sacrificing currency.

Computer Pioneering

Macross Plus was (rightfully) lauded at the time of its release for the computer graphic work. To this day, it still looks awesome even if it’s starting to seem dated. Satelight took it to the next level with Zero and Frontier, whose computer-driven Variable Fighter animation is unprecedented in how well it meshes with the more traditional character work. Massive animation fail might be an inescapable part of Macross (especially on TV), but success comes just as naturally — which is probably what makes the failures seem that much worse.

Bridge Bunnies

In the future, a girl in her late teens will be faced with lots of career choices. At least, unless it’s a Matsumoto future, where a girl will be faced with the choices “second fiddle,” “mysterious background figure,” or, I’m guessing, “barefoot housewife.” But a girl living on a Macross station need not train for years to find her way into the exciting world of space battle. Because apparently you can work the bridge of a Battle class Macross ship by the time you’re 19, as long as you’re cute enough.

If you were Global or Max, would you do any differently? Even if you were a woman, it’d only make your bridge look that much better. Eye candy is key to anime, and a good balance of transforming mecha and bridge-bound beauties can’t hurt. My faves? Sally Ford and Miho Miho of Macross 7, but SDF’s Shammy and Frontier’s Ram Hoa probably could out-cute most of the galaxy. Check out the bridge bunny trading cards and pick your own favorite, that’s what bridge bunnies are there for.

Kawamori is a big hippie

I know, I used that as a mark against Macross already, but this is my blog and besides, what would a Kawamori tribute be without some retcon? It was probably seeing Dynamite 7 after a recent fit of Manly Matsumoto that I realized: anime concerns itself with dark futures, high-strung romances between angsty teenagers, dramatic battles to save one world or another, and sometimes even vagina-shaped monsters. When do the gun-toting, love-confessing characters take time to smell the flowers, literally or figuratively? Rarely. But Shoji Kawamori’s realms of Mayan or Zola are places where characters can go to feel a “comfortable wind” against their faces. And that translates to us.

Even if the “save the whales” thing is a little silly, tell me you didn’t desperately clench your teeth when Mayan Island came under attack by missile-spamming Valkyries. Sometimes it’s best to show a message, not tell it, and though it might still get preachy, the impact of the no-nukes/pacifist message is stronger for being visually presented.

Basara

Oh, Basara. So easy to hate, especially at first. So easy to gloat at when his boneheaded rock assault doesn’t work. And for a guy who can write a 12-bar blues jam about whales pretty easily, he seems to love repeating “Planet Dance” ad nauseam — while wearing the same clothes constantly. But is there another anime hero like him? The combination of confidence, casual bad-assery, and that rarely-seen attribute, intense pacifism, makes him a truly unique character ideal for the unique franchise. You can easily hate him at first, and probably hate him more by the halfway point, but his Charging Love Heart will charm you by the end.

The idols

Iconic Minmay. Robotic Sharon. Cute but strong Mylene. Self-made Sheryl. And the mostly useless but expressively-haired Ranka. These girls are the heart of Macross’s character population. What would it be without them, and where would the universe be without their efforts? The idol characters exist in usually-uncharted territory somewhere between strong lead, damsel in distress, love interest, and unattainable goal. Without the singing beauties of Macross, we’d also be left without so many other great things: the classic Love Triangle, the Minmay defense, or uh…  “My Boyfriend is a Pilot.”

It’s about the music, man

Music. I don’t just mean the musical content itself. That’s part of it — a big part of it. I don’t really own any anime soundtracks (although I downloaded that YOU WA SHOCK song from Fist of the North Star), with one exception: I have all the Macross soundtracks. You can blame Yoko Kanno for a couple of them, but if you’re gonna call the fact that a series about music has lots of good music a coincidence, then you’re crazy. And if you don’t get a chill from “Arkan” on the Zero soundtrack, check your fucking pulse. Macross needs amazing music, it’s what makes Kawamori’s flagship scenes work, and it’s the one thread that ties everything together.

That’s great, because music happens to be a great way to tie us all together as well, and Kawamori knows it. Above all, Macross is about one all-consuming thing: the power of music. Sometimes, as in Zero, it’s a mystic power. Sometimes, as with Plus, it’s a dangerous power. And sometimes it’s a Power to the dream, a radical fire! But it unites us and makes us feel. There’s the dividing line. Other mecha shows, even the more light-hearted ones, tend to feature intellectual fanservice, interlocking robotic parts, and ethical angst. Things of the head.

Macross is about the heart.

To me, that’s gotta be the main reason why we can not only see through its faults, but why the franchise has managed to “remember love” for as long as it has.

In all of anime, there are few longstanding franchises with as much dedicated fandom as Macross (In fact, I’d wager to say there are two, and the other one has robots too).

There are even fewer that make their fans work as hard as Kawamori’s do. Having finally finished Macross 7, the first sequel and longest installment, I finally feel like I have a handle on Macross as a whole and what each chapter has done. The issues are all over the place, but the overall experience is a fun one. So what’s Kawamori’s problem?

Pretty much unavoidable spoilers of varying degrees will follow for SDF, Plus, Zero, 7, Dynamite 7, and Frontier.

Production Values

To a degree, this is one of those technical concerns that I know is hard to get away from, but still irks me a little. SDF had plenty of excuses, the main one being its age. But M7’s animation is so horribly dated that it’s hard to believe it came out of the late 90s at all. Satelight certainly had occasional problems with Zero, but compared to the wildly inconsistent and often just-plain-horrible cardboard jumpiness of Frontier, it’s beautiful. OVAs and movies generally solve the problem — Do You Remember Love? might be the best-looking anime ever made — but it’s not just the animation itself.

It’s as if directors like Amino (and even Ishiguro) weren’t even trying during the TV series. Whether it’s the majesty of discovering the protoculture, the fist-pumping power of rock, or just a realistic feeling of being around fighter planes, the OVAs have plenty going for them in atmosphere and directing that just never seem to make it into the fun but workmanlike productions shown on TV.

Power to the Music

The story of a young girl going from Chinese restaurant waitress to pop idol to savior of the galaxy: Striking. The message that your enemy may not actually be your enemy but just doesn’t identify with you: Moving. But repeated retellings of that same story have lessened the impact. You know it’s going to happen. You know there’ll be a magnificent set piece in the end a la Do You Remember Love’s titular song performance. Those repeated stories (in M7 and Frontier) serve to make the stories more “Macross-like,” but Kawamori and his collaborators flourish more when they explore the core elements (love, planes, Protoculture) a little more deeply.

Pacing’s a bitch

Yeah, it takes a real masterful storyteller to weave a plot together that moves in all the right ways at all the right times. Apparently, one more masterful than Kawamori. I don’t expect something as long as Macross 7 to go without mindless filler episodes that don’t develop characters, push the plot, or even provide entertainment. But that thing had two arcs of about 4 episodes apiece that were really engrossing, and Dynamite 7’s stupid whales were still a million times better. Frontier’s story was so poorly paced and even more poorly weighted and emphasized that it actually got hard to follow a relatively simple plot at times.

The tendency of Macross stories is to draw their stories out — possibly for believability’s sake, if that makes any sense in the Macross world — and then suddenly resolve with what almost amounts to Deus Ex Machina at the last second. Kawamori and crew seem to write best, as with directing, in the shorter OVA format.

Lack of resolution

This isn’t something I normally complain about in anime. I’m not much of a shipper. But Macross’s love triangles have a tendency to dull at the edges and never resolve. You could argue the Guld-Isamu-Myung triangle did, but in truth that ship sailed long before the viewer got to witness any of it. With love being such a central theme, and recycling such a central technique, why can’t we re-experience, say, the ache of choosing love wisely over choosing the burning passion you thought you wanted? Well, you won’t get served such a satisfying dish at Mylene’s House of Waffle. I suppose there’s still hope for Alto in the coming Frontier OVA, but if Kawamori does have any troll blood in him, this is the part where it manifests — see the end of Dynamite 7 if you want in on his joke.

The Protoculture

The Protoculture is an intriguing element of Macross that adds a little mystery and, more importantly, a common thread between the galaxy’s races. If the Protoculture created the Zentraedi and also Earth’s civilization, then what do we have to fight about? Powerful if idealistic stuff on a planet where most members of our own species can’t get along. But almost every subsequent installment blindly adds another de-mystifying chapter to the myth of the Protoculture, chafing me like Midichlorians in my Jedi pants.

The Protodeviln? OK, I’ll buy it, because if you’re going to build the Zentraedi you must have a serious enemy. Too bad all the Zentrans in the UN Spacey are no match for Grabil. Also, too bad they’re really hokey to be believable as sentient life’s original arch-enemy.

At least Macross Zero did more to help the situation than hurt, for the most part. By bringing the storyline back to pre-SDF launch, Kawamori helped us identify with the characters, and the sense of wonder than encountering the Protoculture must have instilled in Shin. Zero remains an amazing part of the series for this alone. But Grace O’Connor’s declarations about the race who came before our forefather in Frontier’s final episode just felt like another game of pin the tail on the Protoculture. There’s no need for that kind of retcon, let’s move on.

Kawamori is a big fucking hippie

How you feel about this is mixed, and really it may not really be that much of a problem. I suppose that a guy who keeps writing galactic love stories should really believe in love, but the hippie shit can seriously be a bit much. To me it seems like a very 1980s conservationist stance rather than anything truly progressive, but keep in mind it’s Japan. Maybe Dynamite 7’s message of “save the whales” is a little more than a bumper sticker over there, since whaling still actually goes on in Japan. And “no nukes” definitely means more to Japan than to the people who dropped a couple on them.

And just maybe the OVAs’ focus on nature is just to emphasize the fact that they’re planet-based rather than on a Macross station, but let’s get real: somebody here loves all the plants and cute little animals.

Worth it?

I find that as anime fans we have to overlook the shortcomings in the medium more often than we’re presented with stuff that lacks those shortcomings. So Macross isn’t special in that way.

It’s often terrible to its fans (though sometimes it’s the most generous anime around) and, like Star Wars, it’s helmed by a creator who isn’t always the best executor of his own ideas. So is it worth it? Does it make me feel good to call myself a Macross fan? Of course, a thousand times yes. The benefits are great, and they deserve their own post.

The rest of the world

Do you have a favorite like this? You know in your heart you could write a giant word-bomb about its faults, but still come back and love it at the end of the day? Are we Macross fans the biggest apologists in anime fandom?