Macross Frontier (Preview)
MACROSS. MAAA-KUUU-ROOSS!
New Macross.
The words alone brought chills to me. However, I didn’t see the last Macross. I heard it sucked. It looked like it sucked. So I didn’t watch. But the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross is not just a classic because someone said so — it’s classic because it’s awesome. In spite of its vintage, and its sometimes-weak battle scenes, the original anime space opera holds up very well. There are some episodes that I can always go back and watch. I believe it’s #27, the giant against-all-odds battle juxtaposed with Lynn Minmei singing, as the earth is pretty much wiped out — I’m not sure the impact of that has ever been equaled.
And Macross Plus was a lesser but still significant landmark, not just for its story but for its pioneering use of computers.
Anyway. I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it.
Story
40-some years after the events of SDF Macross, the humans have expanded further into space, leaving their mostly-wasted planet pretty far behind. The giant spacecraft have come a long way from the Macross itself, with oceans, natural environments, and blue atmospheres making human life much more pleasant.
The galactic idol Sheryl is visiting the idyllic-looking Macross Frontier station for a concert, and cute young Lanka or Ranka (who works in a Chinese restaurant, hmmm) is stoked to be going.
For visual entertainment, Sheryl employs some young chaps with snap-on flying suits called X-Gear (sort of a mecha lite thing), including the overly-ambitious Alto.
Alto is not incredibly pleased to be doing this kind of work, and no matter what he does, he can only fly as high as Macross F’s ceiling, though he longs for more. He’s also incredibly effeminate, which to me means that he was probably dimensionally warped to manly Macross World from the Gundam universe.
When Lanka gets lost in the huge concert crowd and has a mishap with a sprinkler, she and Alto share a little meaningful moment, but all isn’t well. Crazy scary aliens attack during Sheryl’s concert, eventually piercing the outer layer of Macross F’s protection. The crowd scatters to shelters, again leaving the smallish (not quite loli-like) Lanka stranded and hurt. When a Valkyrie pilot is brutally crushed to death by one of the enemy robots, Alto is the only one around to jump in the variable fighter and try to save her.
Computers!
While the storyline is a more direct successor to the original SDF Macross, the legacy of Plus is apparent in Macross Frontier’s digital-heavy animation style. In fact, the computers are so prominent that it’s sometimes a bit much for me, but it’s hard to deny that the battle scenes and Valkyrie transformations are light-years away from SDF’s choppy and repetitive dogfights. Even the well-blended cel portions are smooth and bright, and the backgrounds evoke a beautiful future far removed from the dark and low-tech original, which took place very near present day.
In short, this is visually fucking impressive.
Animation production is by Satelight, whose list of work isn’t really familiar to me (although they did cleverly work their name into the episode), but the credits in the ED show a billion names, including Xebec and JC Staff. It doesn’t surprise me at all to find out that a lot of hands are in the pot to make this work.
Music
The incidentals and the OP are composed by the ever-impressive Yoko Kanno (who did Plus as well), but the OP isn’t her best work. The rest of the music, which varies between symphonic and rock-ish, never sounds cheap and, along with the animation, elevates the feel of Macross F to a cinematic level. You probably won’t hear better music this season.
Acting
It’s all pretty damn good. Kikuko Inoue, best known as Ah! My Goddess’s Belldandy but also recently as Sanae in Clannad, seems somewhat wasted as Sheryl’s assitant Grace. Yuuichi Nakamura, our hero Okazaki in same, plays Alto. Sheryl is handled capably by Aya Endo (Miyuki in Lucky Star, Kinue Crossroad in Gundam 00). Most surprising is how great newcomer Megumi Nakajima is as Lanka. She’s a natural fit.
First Impressions
Everything about Macross F screams big budget, big battles, big awesome, a movie-like experience on your TV. I hope they didn’t dump everything into this one episode, though.
The connection with the Macross legacy is firm — there are two versions of this episode, and the original special broadcast features a concert intercut with a battle that reminds me of that amazing episode of SDF I mentioned. Then Alto attempting to save Lanka in the Valkyrie closely parallels Hikaru and Minmei’s meeting.
Bottom line, of anything I’ve seen thus far this season, this is the episode 2 that I absolutely can’t wait for. Seriously, if you could see my pants now. CRAPPED ‘EM!
And because I DO remember love, here’s the original Macross opener, which plays mercilessly through my head every time I so much as hear the word Macross.
