Ranked #4030

Macross FB7: Ginga Rukon - Ore no Uta wo Kike!

Can 90 minute film be worth watching for one great scene? Your reply to this is also reply to whether or not FB7 is worth your time.

To get the ugly truth out of the way first calling this film Macross 7/F crossover is highly misleading: FB7 is Macross 7 compilation film with rather oddball Frontier frame story, nothing more, nothing less. It is striking example of devious marketing of older Macross titles with overwhelming popularity of Frontier that has been going on in various forms ever since that subfranhise turned into megahit. Macross 7 series was released on BD in fall 2012 and "coincidentally" FB7 saw a (very limited) theatrical release at the time as "crossover" between two franchises. Given that you can seemingly just slap Ranka and Sheryl on any product and give lovely boost for sales this isn't surprising move but nevertheless disappointing for those hoping for genuinely new story in Macross franchise that stands on its own legs or finally seeing what Basara has been up to since Dynamite 7.

It isn't particularly surprising then that co-creator and de facto creative force behind franchise since DYRL, Shoji Kawamori, seems to have had nothing to do with project beyond early planning stage. Screenplay, directing and compilation of Macross 7 footage has all been left to director Tetsuro Amino (Macross 7, SD Gundam).

One night Ozma and Bobby are on a drive arguing about Fire Bomber when a strange, giant "bird" (its identity will be no mystery for those of us who have seen Macross 7) attacks them and leaves behind mysterious video tape. With help of Luka they manage to view the tape that turns out to consist of compiled footage from Macross 7 tv series. Over the course of film more and more Frontier cast turns up to munch chips and witness the glory of Fire Bomber from tapes the mystery bird keeps delivering on regular basis. In the end they're so taken by Fire Bomber's deeds in conflict with Protodeviln that they decide to stage tribute concert spearheaded by Ranka and Sheryl.

That's all there is in terms of new footage or "original story". Basically Frontier cast sits on coach and watch film and we watch them watch film or we watch film they're watching. While there's certain humorous metaness to the procedure of Frontier cast watching 7 on tv that highlights franchise's original approach to "canon" well I doubt this is what most fans hoped for. The art and animation are good and Amino has good grasp of Frontier cast despite not being involved with the subfranchise before: It's nice to see the old cast united again (though hilariously and inexplicably Alto is MIA) and their interactions, especially those between Klan/Michel and Ranka/Sheryl are pleasure for Frontier fans. But in the end there's no way around the fact there's very little of any substance here.

In total the new Frontier footage makes up perhaps 10-15 minutes of the 90 minute runtime with rest coming from Macross 7 television series. So a relevant question is how does FB7 perform as a compilation/summary film - unfortunately the answer is "not very well". Macross 7 is far from being the most beloved or respected entry in the franchise and its ridiculously high filler percentage is partly to blame for this but what is trouble for 4 cour show is a saving grace for summary feature of this kind: since so large part of Macross 7 is entirely skippable it actually *is* possible to cram in 80 minutes the Protodeviln vs. Macross 7 Fleet main conflict.

Possible in terms of time, that is. In terms of storytelling FB7 is simply atrocious: It has no other option than to jump from plot point/milestone to another and this results in jerky, jumpy and ridiculously discontinuous storytelling that is probably incomprehensible at times for those who haven't seen the original tv series. There's much more to telling story than lining up bunch of events that push it "forward". Generally good compilation films at least attempt to tell a continuous story through edited footage (eg. original Mobile Suit Gundam film trilogy). FB7 doesn't even manage to do that.

Secondly while the main crux of Protodeviln conflict can be summarized like this in the given time a lot has been lost regardless. FB7 is really strictly focused on Basara and Fire Bomber while other parts of Macross 7 have pretty much no presence. The marital quarreling and conflict between Max and Milia is gone, all traits of the love triangle are gone and Gamlin despite being one of its three leads (and arguably the one who has most development as character) almost has no screentime whatsoever. Mylene at least makes appereances as Fire Bomber's singer but almost nothing of her character beyond that eg. parent-child conflict with Milia is depicted.

Combine this strict Basara-centric focus with Fire Bomber songs playing on almost all the time and FB7 ends up feeling more like commercial for Fire Bomber CDs than summary of the anime the band hails from!

So we have insubstantial Frontier frame story set almost entirely in Ozma's living room and failure of a compilation film that might be downright incomprehensible for those who have not seen Macross 7. Is there any reason to watch FB7 then? Well, I guess if you're fan of Macross 7 and want to see pretty well picked Highlight Scenes selection of the show with occasional comment on them by Frontier characters you could give it a go.


Much better reason is provided by the finale that is the one saving grace of the film: The rooftop concert staged by Ranka and Sheryl (unfortunately cover of Let It Be not included!) is wonderful. Essentially it is well directed and animated music video full of fun little details, homages and cameos thrown at the end of bad film to justify the crossover claims at least a little bit. Megumi Nakajima and May'n cover Totsugeki Love Heart and Dynamite Explosion well and in-character to boot so this sequence is definetly worth seeing for any Macross fan. But is it enough of a reward for going through preceding 85 minutes? For most the answer is without doubt no.

If you're hardcore Macross 7 fan, deprived of new Ranka and Sheryl footage (like yours truly) or completionist you might as well watch it once. For others what we have here is simply a bad film and bloated commercial for Macross 7 BD sets. read more

This movie would have been much better as a short OVA released on Youtube to tease the Blu-ray remastering of Macross 7. Instead, for some inexplicable reason the production staff decided to make what amounts to a 90-minute clip show with some original Macross Frontier scenes mixed in.

What we have here is an object lesson in how not to produce any motion picture, let alone anime. First and biggest mistake is the idea that remastered clips and nostalgia would ensure an epic production at minimal cost. Visually, there are several places where you could see that they did little more than convert the original footage to widescreen and scaled up to Blu-ray resolution. Sometimes it worked, owing to the quality of the original material, but when it didn't work it was about as distracting as the dated sound effects.

Additionally, the editing of the footage for the movie is all over the place-- there is only so much Macross 7 one can show in less than 90 minutes (Kawamori's original idea was apparently 2 hours), so a lot of cohesion is sacrificed in telling the story. For example, in one clip Mylene is thrashed around in her VF, in the next she's at Basara's side yelling at him to wake up, and the viewer is left wondering how that happened (a seasoned editor would've cut the first clip). Even if it's meant to be an introduction to Macross 7 for those who never saw the series, I found the story difficult to track.

Second mistake is keeping Alto out of the production altogether. Of course, he isn't exactly a particularly compelling Macross lead, and he wouldn't have contributed anything to this scenario, but since he is a central character to Frontier it would've been nice to at least explain why he isn't shown anywhere (he might be in there as an Easter egg, but I'm not about to play Where's Waldo?).

Third mistake is doing a cover of Dynamite Explosion from Macross 7 Dynamite in the final medley, but never working in the other epic song from the OVA, Angel Voice. Since two generations of Macross have done Angel Voice (Minmay and Basara's singing voices), omitting this song is a missed opportunity that is most tragic.

It's not all bad-- the cover/medley by Megumi Nakajima and May'n is easily the best part of the movie, but you need to slog through about 9 minutes of a paper-thin Frontier story and 80 minutes of Macross 7 clip show to get there... or just skip to that spot, defeating the purpose of the movie.

In the interview extra for The Wings of Goodbye, Kawamori said that "Getting a show like Frontier going is really hard." in response to "Will there be another Macross?" Connecting Frontier and 7 is a brilliant idea, but the way it was executed here left much to be desired. read more