Macross 7 Movie: Ginga ga Ore wo Yondeiru!

As someone who'd got no knowledge of the Macross 7 universe other than "some dude flies the cooler Valkyrie from Macross Plus with a Guitar Hero controller," I decided the movie might be a fun place to start.

Firstly, calling it a movie is not quite right. It's a slightly longer episode of the show, really. It stands pretty much alone, since although there are references to the rest of the series it doesn't presuppose too much knowledge and that which it does can be gained by inference.

The plot is slight, and mostly an excuse for namedropping and a few awesome action scenes. The real star ... of the show is, of course, Basara and his music. The movie features some of the best songs from the series such as Heart and Soul, and it's hard not to get some kind of response from the hugely entertaining guitar duel scene.

I'd say that if you enjoy this movie, you'll probably enjoy the series itself. If you watch it and think "that was stupid," then you probably won't.

Story

Taking place within the Macross 7 series arc, Ginga Ga Ore Wo Yonde Iru (The Universe is Calling Me) starts with Basara and sound force investigating trans-dimensional a sound anomaly that ends up warping Basara across the galaxy. He crash-lands on a snowy planet, receiving an unfriendly welcome from the local residents who aren't into music at all. He has one fan though, Pedro, a four-year-old boy who watches the Galaxy Network and idolizes Fire Bomber. Basara also discovers that the sound he's searching for is generated by Emilia, a lone Meltrandi struggling to make music of her own.

Character

There's very little character development for ... Basara, but more for Emilia. This was a waste as they could have explored the human/Meltrandi relationship a lot more than just the several humorous scenes of Pedro trying to climb down from Emilia's furniture using a ... um ... undergarment as a ladder. There's also a surprise revelation from Mylene. Overall, character was quite well done for the length of this movie, though there were a lot of opportunities for development that weren't used or furthered.

Art/Animation

Dated animation and TONS of frame reuse. The animation for Emilia is very well done.

Sound

There's a new song by Emilia, and a singing contest. As usual, Sound is one of the better things about this anime.

Enjoyment

Overall this was OK at the best.