Macross

After a mysterious spaceship crashes into Earth, humanity realizes that they are not alone. Fearing a potential threat from space, the world pushes aside their nationalism, conflicting interests, and cultural differences, unifying under the banner of the United Nations. The newly formed UN forces decide to repurpose the alien spacecraft, naming it SDF-1 Macross. Unfortunately, on the day of its maiden voyage, a fleet of spaceships belonging to a race of aliens known as the Zentradi descend upon Earth, and the SDF-1 Macross, acting of its own accord, shoots down the incoming squadron, sparking an intergalactic war.

In an attempt to escape, the Macross tries to launch itself into the Moon's orbit, but the ship—as well as the city it was in—is teleported to the far reaches of space. Caught up in this mess are Hikaru Ichijou, a free-spirited acrobatic pilot, and Minmay Lynn, an aspiring singer. These two, alongside Macross' crew, experience an epic journey rife with grief and drama, coming face-to-face with the cruelties of war along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hayase, Misa Main

Doi, Mika Japanese

Lynn, Minmay Main

Iijima, Mari Japanese

Ichijou, Hikaru Main

Hase, Arihiro Japanese

Focker, Roy Supporting

Kamiya, Akira Japanese

Jenius, Maximilian Supporting

Hayami, Show Japanese

Fallyna, Milia Supporting

Takeda, Eri Japanese

Global, Bruno J. Supporting

Hazama, Michio Japanese

Milliome, Shammy Supporting

Miyuki, Sanae Japanese

Kravshera, Quamzin Supporting

Meguro, Kousuke Japanese

La Salle, Claudia Supporting

Ohara, Noriko Japanese

Ishiguro, Noboru Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Honda, Yasunori Sound Director

Yamaga, Hiroyuki Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director

Akiyama, Katsuhito Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jan 25, 2024

MizuhoKamui

Recommended

The story of SDF Macross is about the war, love, adventure and other things. It is unique because it manages to weave all these aspects together in an effortless way that is not often seen in other shows trying the same thing.

Its strength lies in its fascinating story and well-developed characters. In the story, people find an abandoned alien space ship known as SDF-1 Macross and try to build it. However, alien invaders named the Zentradi show up and a war begins. Thus the Macross, its crew and 70.000 civilians escape to an unknown place in the outer solar system with Zentradi on their heels. ... They have to go through a lot of obstacles on their way back home.

It discusses the confrontation and later harmony between two groups, like aliens vs. humans, soldiers vs. civilians, and men vs. women. Culture is the connecting thread, which highlights the intricate relations between the groups. The Zentradi come first as a formidable force which human beings fear, but they later realize that the zentradi harbor the desire to explore something beyond warfare. Its depiction of the Zentradi trying to understand and adjust to human life is an interesting and appealing aspect. One of the reoccurring themes in Macross is that life does not consist only of warfare.

The cast has the strong and relatable characters, such as Hikaru Ichijo starting from a foolish youth to an adult, Minmay who transforms from a girl into idol, then heroine; also Misa Hayase, a stern commander who develops into a compassionate friend. Characters’ relationships, including those in minor roles, demonstrate progression and even sometimes tragedy.

Although Macross has some flaws, such as outdated visuals and occasional lapses in energy post-Zentradi conflict resolution, it remains entertaining. The well-crafted narrative ensures that we, whether drawn to romance, war drama, action, mecha, or other aspects, will find something to appreciate in this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 18, 2024

Marco_Yooo

Mixed Feelings

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

If we are talking Mecha, there are a certain number of shows that still serve as the main inspiration for future shows of the genre. “Macross” is a show that has had a massive cultural impact both in the anime industry as well as japan itself. It´s refreshing mix of mecha and music cemented it as one of the most influential anime franchises ever, but how well does it hold up today in 2024?

Story – 8/10

The story is fairly straightforward. What sets this show apart from other shows of the genre is it´s pacifistic approach to conflict which was a new ... thing at the time, especially if you look at how war was treated in shows like “Mobile Suit Gundam”. The war itself functions merely as a vessel to contain the more personal, small-scale stories between our main characters. Most of the show is episodic in nature, but a lot of the episodes push the main plot forward from time to time.
The love triangle aspect was done pretty well but the main story was the thing that kept me coming back. The villains in this show, the Zentradi, have a very interesting twist to them, their way of thinking and their understanding of the purpose of life itself is completely different from us humans, making them a highly unique group of villains that are just a blast to watch.
The show itself is split into two main story arcs, one from episode 1-27 and one from episode 28-36 with the first one being the main story and the second one serving as a kind of aftermath or extended epilogue. I heard a lot of criticism online about this structure but I actually kind of dig it. A lot of the most engaging pieces of the lore was kept up until the final few episodes so the story never ran out of steam. I also think the story of the characters gets rounded out a bit more nicely at the end. A lot of shows just kind of end after the final battle and then speed-run trough the ending, but Macross does not commit the same mistake. Other than that, although it definitely shows it´s age with the slow pacing, it has everything you could want: exciting space battles, mechs and a great space opera story that lands it´s ending.

Art – 7/10

The art in this shows is a double-edged sword. I absolutely adore the art style itself. The backgrounds are amazing, the space battles, although reusing a lot of scenes multiple times, look fantastic, the outfits are stylish and the whole 80s anime aesthetic really shines trough.
However, I hate to say it, but this is probably one of the most inconsistent pieces of animation ever. There are some episodes later on in the series that genuinely look like someone just used paint.net to draw the characters. The eyes are off-center, the movement is incredibly wanky and the whole thing looks just...really bad. The worst part about that is that those underwhelming episodes are sprinkled in in an absolutely random order and really take you out of the experience from one episode to another. There had to have been some budgetary problems that explain this inconsistency and it´s a shame because this show really had the potential to outdo some of the mecha that come out today with it´s animation quality at it´s peak.

Sound – 10/10

This is review #78 and for the first time ever, a show reached the highest possible rating in this category. This is by far the best anime soundtrack that I have ever witnessed. The use of pop-music goes together so well with the space opera setting, it´s criminal: Every single vocal track sung by our female lead Lynn Minmay is an absolute banger. The tracks cover pretty much every emotion, they can be funny, loving and light-hearted but also slow and sombre. “My boyfriend is a pilot”, “Zero-G love” or my personal favourite “Silver Moon, Red Moon” have been on repeat on my headphones for a veeery long time now. But even outside of the performances, the BGM itself is also fantastic. The Zentradi theme is an absolute banger, and the different tunes that play during the fight-scenes get stuck in your head really fast. Of course, we also have to talk about the insanely catchy 80s style opening, which I never skipped. This show really outdid this category and has my personal favourite anime soundtrack of all time.

Characters – 8/10

The show mostly centres around our main love triangle. Hikaru, our male lead, is a very likeable and honest protagonist. He is a bit on the dumber side though, so if you can´t watch someone being an absolute idiot in front of women, then maybe Hikaru won´t win you over. Our two female leads are a bit more interesting. Lynn Minmay our ditzy, feminine idol is by far the most popular character of the show. Most of her development comes in the last few episodes, and those really push her character to be more than just a cute singer. Our second heroine, Misa Hayase, is the more compelling character in my opinion. She has a much more grounded character arc, which is a nice change of pace from the grand nature of the shows main story. The love triangle itself however gets resolved in a very...interesting way (no spoilers here).
Other than that, we have some great memorable side characters too. On the Zentradi side, Britai and Exsedol are the standouts. On the S.D.F Macross itself, both captain Global and Max were among my favourites.

Enjoyment – 8/10

This was a very consistently enjoyable show. The love triangle is great and the main story holds everything together and keeps you coming back again and again. The pacing is very slow though and the animation incredibly inconsistent. If you are not a fan of these kind of old-school shows, this won´t change your mind. But if you like stuff like “Gunbuster” or “Mobile Suit Gundam”, definitely give this show a watch!

- Marco_Yooo

FINAL SCORE - 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 9, 2022

Fashion_Mage

Not Recommended

{minor spoilers}

As Macross started, I found the basic premise, theme (music/culture vs violent aliens) and story very fascinating, and I was gripped. Unfortunately, the story quickly descends into the most repetitive, contrived melodrama that I've ever had the displeasure of watching, filled with characters that behave in a similarly melodramatic and contrived manner. Additionally, despite the characters acting absolutely batshit, the series doesn't seem to be quite self-aware of this at all.

Macross' romantic plot can be summed up fairly easily into a few repeating segments. The two main characters Hikaru and Minmay meet at the beginning of the series, circumstances cause each of them to ... be trapped with each other, but before anything can develop they are saved from these circumstances. This plot structure pretty much continuously reoccurs in a similar fashion for about 80% of Macross, and the lack of any real development is extremely unsatisfying. Hikaru and Minmay have a potentially romantic moment, which gets interrupted by a battle with the worst timing, and Hikaru goes out to fight, rinse and repeat. Macross' entire plot is literally fueled by this contrived bullshit until its conclusion, and it doesn't help that the characters behave and act in extremely unnatural and socially awkward ways in order to force the plot to go the way the writers wanted it to go, rather than any sort of natural conclusion. The basic idea they were trying to go for is that circumstances keep Hikaru and Minmay apart and cause strain on their relationship, but the specifics and repeating circumstances behind it all are so contrived that it's almost parody.

Somewhat nearing the end of the series, some partial conclusion finally happens between Hikaru and Minmay, and an exciting and significant battle occurs that places a lot of focus on the two of them. This would have been a great place to end the series (and this is where the story fortunately ends in the movie). However, for some reason, the story continues. The arc that takes place afterwards is extremely unnecessary, incredibly dull in comparison to the amazing battle prior, and really just drags for way longer than it needs to because the characters start acting even more absolutely absurd and oblivious than they normally do.

The only reason I would personally recommend watching Macross is to understand the lore better. Later Macross series often make reference to Minmay, who is an extremely significant figure within the Macross universe. So if you're watching this to get into other Macross series, do yourself a favour and watch the movie instead, which has a better overall plot condensed into a movie length (rather than 36 episodes), as well as far more impressive art and animation quality. It generally writes certain key characters a lot better and doesn't try to turn Minmay's character into a bipolar trash fire in order to justify a love triangle formed from ridiculous repeating contrivances (not that the justifications for the love triangle in the movie are much better). Hikaru has significant character issues in both the series and the movie, though the nature of these glaring character flaws is different across the two.

I personally regret not just watching the movie instead, as the only reason I got into the series to begin with was to watch Macross Plus and Macross 7 (both of which I enjoyed far more). I found this quite ironic as Macross 7 seems to be considered as somewhat of a black sheep among the Macross fandom. It boggles my mind how this consistently contrived garbage is held in high regard, and I can only assume that many people give it a free pass due to its age or nostalgia.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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