One element that makes SDFM work is it great story and strong characters. It is an anime about mankind finding an abandon giant alien spaceship and rebuilding the ship that they rename the SDF-1 Macross. But things go arise and aliens hunting the ship, a war monging civilization of green giants called the Zentradi, choose this moment to investigate, and war breaks out between the two sides. And to make matters worse, the Macross, its crew, and 70,000 civilians get teleported to the outer rims of the solar system. So under Zentradi pursuit, the Macross and the people aboard it have to fight their way home.
A big part of the series is how different groups of people clashing and coming to understand with each other whether is alien vs human, soldier vs civilian, or even man vs woman. But the thing to tie all these groups of people together is culture. For example, the humans on earth and in the Macross are in fear of the Zentradi, believing is some desperate fight against an all powerful force. However, the Zentradi are deliberately holding back because they want to recover the Macross intact to recover the lost technology that its hold and are curious of the actions of the Macross human crew. Later in the series, the humans learn that the Zentradi clear they have no concept of a life beyond warfare, and the contact with the Macross has a powerful and divisive effect on them. Seeing the Zentradi trying to understand or adapt to human life is some of the most interesting and endearing parts of the show. It’s something Macross keeps coming back to, the idea that is there is more to life than fighting.
The cast is comprised of strong but understandable characters. We have Hikaru Ichijo, how is a brash kid who learns to be a man, Minmay, who grows from a girl, to an idol, to a heroine, and Misa Hayase, who is a hard ass commander who learns becomes a caring friend. All the characters have strong character interactions with each other. You’ll watch even the second tier characters grow, mature, and die throughout of the series.
Is Macross a perfect show, not by a long shot. On technical level, it haven’t age very well. There is a lot of still frames and awkward scenes. And the series kinda lossses its energy after the humans defeat the Zendari and the series of event that happened afterwards is rather unnecessary.
Despite it shortcomings, SDF Macross is a series that I would recommend to almost anyone. It is an extremely well made show and people will most likely find something they like about the show, whether it is the romance, war drama, action, mecha, etcetera.
