Ranked #307

Macross Frontier: Itsuwari no Utahime

“The animations … the insert songs … this movie is simply amazing.”

Macross Frontier: The False Songstress is an excellent example of bringing a two season long TV series to the movie theater. Unlike many recent TV-to-theater adaptation in which a large portion of the movie is nothing but recycled scenes from the TV original, the staffs behind this Macross movie has dedicated their time in rewriting the story, revising the character relations, composing new songs and OST, and most of all, using completely new animation and scenes on ~90% of the movie. In other words, there are no more than a couple of minutes of reused materials from the TV series in this 120 minutes movie! So don’t be fooled if you are told this movie is nothing but a retell/summary of the original because that is far from the truth.

While the movie is paced so that a first time viewer with no prior background from the TV series can still follow the story at ease, but at the same time it will not bore those who have already watched the 25 episodes original because the story is so immensely different on so many different levels. However, with that said, I personally still recommend watching the TV series first before proceeding with this movie so that one would have more time to get accustom to the terminologies in that universe (ie. Deculture!). To fully appreciate the skillful remake of the story, one would need to have a solid understanding of the original creation.

The Macross series has been well known to many as a futuristic action-packed, mecha, sci-fi space opera with a healthy dose of romance and lots of aliens in the mix. But what really make this series differ from other mecha shows are the superb songs, soundtracks, and OST. In other words, the music. Music is an integral part of each and every Macross title dating back to the first series aired in 1982. Following this old tradition, Macross Frontier and its first movie have set numerous sales records in the anime music industry. In fact, it is not an exaggeration when it claims that its success is nearly unmatched in the history of anime music industry. Many of its albums reached Oricon’s weekly chart top three positions and maintained those positions for weeks! Of course it is always possible to argue that the successes of the albums are thanks to the skillful J-pop singer, May’n and to a lesser degree, Megumi Nakajima, the winner of the “Best Musical Performance” award.

Character growth/development tends to be lacking in recent TV-to-theater adaptations and before watching it, I sincerely hoped Macross Frontier: The False Songstress will allow me to write something positive for a change in this category. Fortunately for me (and for all the viewers), the main casts are quite realistic albeit the girls seem a bit more moody than their TV counterpart. While not on the level as its music production, the main characters do show enough depth and personality to make me view them as something more than a 2D character with voice (2.5D?).

Much like the music compartment, the animation of Macross Frontier and its movie has been highly regarded as top notch in their respective category. The fluidity in mecha motions during intense battle scenes must have struck many unprepared viewers like an intense thunder. It is rare to see Cel-shaded animation used so well that they seem natural to be part of the environment. What makes the animation more praise-worthy is the fact that the studio did not neglect the other aspects of the show (ie. not just the battle looks great). Simply put, the animation is without doubt THE selling point of the show. Even if you are not interested in mecha or galactic warfare or singing diva, the animation alone is enough to persuade you that this movie is great in its own way.

This two hours long movie is certainly a thrilling ride and well worth my time. There were moments that threw me off my seat, moments that I cheered for certain heroic deeds, and a particular moment that I thought was slightly awkward. But all in all, the “pros” of this movie heavily outweigh the “cons”, or perhaps I was being a bit unreasonable with my expectations. For the action-minded, both the introduction and climatic ending will not be a disappointment. For the music-minded, there are enough new and old songs in the mix to tease you into buying the albums. For all other viewers whether you are new to the Macross franchise or a diehard fan, the combination of beautiful divas, awesome looking mecha, and a love triangle fighting to save the galaxy should be a pretty good recipe to stir up your appetite.
read more

Okay, I'm not really a part of this website's community, I really just use it as an anime database. I also am not that good at writing reviews, but it's been weeks since this movie has been out on dvd and no one has written a review, so as a fan of the series and this movie I am going to have to do that. First of all, I can see why there are no reviews on MAL yet, this movie still isn't subbed. My Japanese skills are limited, since I'm not a fluent speaker yet, but I have been learning legitimately for about a year and some months (I don't speak super kawaii desu), which means I can catch on to a lot of individual words and small sentences which helps me get an idea of what's going on. I also saw the series, which helped out. Well, anyway, to sum up, I am writing a review based on what I saw, I didn't understand every word of it (especially the big sciency words), but I did get the jist of the story.
First off, you don't even have to speak Japanese to tell this movie is rushed, although it's not as much of a wreck as Unlimited Blade Works, it's pacing is still kind of hectic, if you are going to watch this movie, whether you understand japanese or not, please watch the series first or you will be somewhat confused.
It is a remake of the series, so you will see some differences from the series, which to me are welcomed. I can't really say much or I risk spoiling the movie.
As with most Gekijouban, Utsuwari no Utahime's strong point is NOT the story, although the story isn't bad, what really takes it away is the presentation. This movie is a classic example of what you can do to a masterpiece of the series when given a lot more money to do a remake. The animations and fight scenes were absolutely amazing, probably the best animations I have ever seen. They were so good, at times I just found myself just completely awed by how good it was. Everything just went so far above the series, including Sheryl's concerts, the Frontier itself, the looks of the ships and vajra, the explosions, the macross cannon, ect.
The music was what stayed the most faithful to the series, although we get pretty much the same music maybe 1 or 2 new songs, it was not a letdown any less than the rest of the movie. Because one of the coolest things about Macross F was how they presented the animations during the music, such as concerts and ect. Well, they take it to a whole new level in this movie, what eyes can do to your music listening experience is just absolutely amazing, the director definitely knows this, and used it to their full advantage.
If I had to pick a weakness of this movie though was that there wasn't nearly as much action as I thought there was going to be. Especially for a gekijouban of a mech series. Mech Gekijouban usually say "screw the story" and give us action every 5 seconds. There really is only action in the beginning and end of the movie, with the middle being dramatic build up and story. Which isn't really bad, but they could have put a fight in the middle, that actually would have been pretty nice. Even if there wasn't as much action as there could have been, the action we did get was supurb, and the story was different enough from the series to constantly keep you somewhat on edge. The story goes up to about episode 7 in the series, when the Galaxy gets attacked by the vajra, but the ending is different than what happened in the series, so look forward to that.
Character-wise, Sheryl definitely played a bigger role with the vajra than she did in the series, but Ranka hasn't really done much in this movie. And Alto is the same Alto.
Overall, this movie was really damn good. If you are a fan of Macross F I strongly recommend you watch this whenever it's subbed. There is definitely enough changes to keep you interested. I now can't wait for the second movie, after watching this one, I wonder what kind of "different ending" they are going to give us, well, if anyone wants to give me a ticket to fly to Japan in February I'll gladly accept it.
read more