Macross 7

35 years have passed since Lynn Minmay had brought peace between the Zentradi and the humans in the events of Macross. Nekki Basara is a guitarist and a singer of the band Fire Bomber. Living in a less-developed part of the flying colony City 7 which is looking for a habitable planet, he composes and sings songs in the belief that music holds a greater power.

During its flight, an unknown alien race appeared and started laying siege upon City 7. However, its attacks are not conventional -- instead of trying to destroy them, they steal what is known as "spiritia", rendering victims unresponsive and zombie-like. During these battles, Basara always goes out into the middle of the warzone, singing his songs and expecting friend and foe to listen and be moved by his music.

(Source: ANN)

Nekki, Basara Main

Canna, Nobutoshi Japanese

Jenius, Mylene Flare Main

Sakurai, Tomo Japanese

Kizaki, Gamlin Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Jenius, Maximilian Supporting

Hayami, Show Japanese

Fallyna, Milia Supporting

Takeda, Eri Japanese

Flower Girl Supporting

Nakagawa, Akiko Japanese

Sivil Supporting

Nakagawa, Akiko Japanese

Feaze, Veffidas Supporting

Takano, Urara Japanese

Gigile Supporting

Nishimura, Tomohiro Japanese

Lacoste, Bobby Supporting

Hase, Arihiro Japanese

Amino, Tetsurou Director, Script, Storyboard

Kato, Takao Episode Director

Fujimoto, Yoshitaka Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director

Murayama, Kiyoshi Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 10, 2024

konor-good

Recommended

Boy oh boy where do I even begin. Kawamori... I have loved you ever since I first watched Escaflowne. The way you drew mechas and created characters that felt real, that acted with emotion. The way you handled personal character development, and the impact of every movement a mech would make, the fluidity of a valkyrie switching to flight mode, gerwalk, or battroid. I would do anything for you. I wish it were possible to freeze time so I would never have to watch you pass. You had a rough childhood but you never gave up hope. You are amazing, even void of ... the anime world, I have no doubt that you are a great husband/father. I forever fear and dread the day that comes when you and I will both no longer be part of this world at the same time. I would sacrifice my own life if it were the only thing that could make you direct a new Macross show in cel-animation. You have given me so much joy, and heartbreak over the years. I remember the first time I watched Macross Plus and my heart was broken into a million pieces. Although some people may not like your work, I will always hold it dear. I wanted you to return home, and you did, but unfortunately my love couldn't harbor with modern day Macross or Basquash or Aquarion. I was crying, I was bawling, yet I remembered these words that changed my life forever, "Dedicated to you, our future pioneers". Not only have you changed the world of anime, mecha, the culture as a whole, but you've forever made a lasting impact on my life and the ideology that I personally believe in. As I watch you get older every year, sadness befalls me knowing that our days are limited but you will always be my GOAT. I love you, my glorious King, Shoji Kawamori

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 26, 2015

ggultra2764

Mixed Feelings

Macross 7 was one of the first sequels to the Macross franchise made around the same time that Macross Plus came about. This chapter of the franchise focuses on the human and Zentradi members aboard the spacecraft Macross 7 dealing with a new enemy alien threat called the Protodevlin and a guitarist named Basara Nekki cutting in during heated fights in a Valkyrie unit between the forces to try singing to the enemy for seemingly unknown reasons. Continuity wise, the series takes place 35 years after the events of the original Macross series, clearly evident with the appearances of Maximillian and Milia, the first human-Zentradi ... coupling to come about from the original series.

This particular entry in the Macross franchise has a good deal of infamy among its fans as such where many consider it the franchise's black sheep. In part, I can kind of see where these thoughts would come from. The first dozen or so episodes to the series are a bit on the repetitive side as Fire Bomber are doing a performance, Mylene and Basara get in some sort of argument, a Protodevlin attack occurs, Basara flies in on the scene in his Valkyrie to sing to the enemy, the enemy retreats after getting what they need and the cycle repeats. Basara is a bit of a shallow and difficult character to connect with as we have no clue why he is behaving as he does and he doesn't seem to have much dimension to his character either as he mostly comes off as a free-spirited and impulsive pacifist. Even throughout the entirety of the series, Macross 7 offers little exploration to Basara's character and the viewer has no clue what drives him to do what he wants. The majority of the Protodevlin are also rather shallow as villains and the quirks with some of them can border on obnoxious. Plus unlike the original series that had a "real robot" approach to the mecha genre with plenty of drama to milk, Macross 7 crosses into "super robot" territory with its more light-hearted mood and absurd "power of song" plot devices milked to combat alien threats capable of wiping out planets.

In spite of the mentioned issues though, I would not necessarily consider this the worst offering in the Macross franchise in the same vain as forgettable entries in the franchise like Macross II or compressed film adaptations like Macross: Do You Remember Love? and the two Macross Frontier movies. The supporting cast in the series do rather well for the most part to carry along things in spite of how subpar things are with the series lead and the main conflict of the series. The series offers some nice exploration of Milia and Max's relationship as it has clearly been shown to degrade over the years in spite of the two gaining influential positions on the Macross 7 spacecraft and trying to raise their young teenage daughter, Mylene. Mylene's character also gets a good deal of development in the series as she tries handling the strain in her parents' relationship, comes to grips with the hostilities of war when events in the series escalate and get in an implied love triangle with Basara and Gamlin. The majority of the side characters in the series involve those connected to Fire Bomber's performances or involved with the military yet relevant characters still get enough focus to show there are more to them than a simple archetype.

The series also subverts some of the typical plot formulas you would expect from a Macross title. Outside of the "super robot" approach being milked, the love triangle dynamic that most titles in the franchise implement has a minimal presence despite the implications played up involving Mylene, Basara and Gamlin. The series is instead more focused on expressing its main themes of understanding and acceptance of others, the implied reasoning behind Basara's refusal to attack enemy forces when he rocks out in front of enemy forces. This message does lead to gradual developments with a number of the characters in the series as they come to understand why Basara had been behaving as he was during early episodes in the series and even leading some among the Protodevlin to switch sides when they come to understand Basara's intentions. As simple as the message may seem, Macross 7 still does well for the most part in expressing it through developments taking place throughout its run.

Presentation wise, Macross 7 is a mixed bag. The visuals were obviously done with a cheap budget in mind as scenery shots and character designs are on the plain side and plenty of corners get cut with animation as shortcuts like reused frames and still shots are a regular occurrence here. The soundtrack milked by Fire Bomber is a nice change for the series as unlike the original Macross' use of pop music, this series makes use of rock music. The energetic rock beats are fitting for the light-hearted mood given off by the series and the lyrics accompanying them fit in with the title's theme of understanding and acceptance. Only low point with the soundtrack is that there are points in the series where it gets repetitive as some of the same songs get recycled until new ones are composed for later episodes in the title's run.

Overall, I guess I could say my thoughts of Macross 7 as a whole are somewhat mixed and I think it's infamy among Macross fans may be overblown. While rather generic and repetitive in aspects of its premise and characters, the series still offered up some fresh aspects to the typical Macross plot formula, an engaging supporting cast, an energetic rock soundtrack and a simple yet well executed exploration of its main themes. Your mileage may vary on how you perceive the series with how different it is from other installments in the Macross franchise. But I would advise that one should check out the full series to properly judge it instead of ditching it in early episodes due to their repetitive setup for plot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 9, 2025

JoeStraatmann

Not Recommended

I gave Macross 7 as fair of a shot as I could give. I love Macross and have a fair stomach for an all-cheese diet, but this is essentially one cour of a show that combines Sailor Moon and Kidd Video while stretching it to FORTY-NINE episodes (Plus character-vital special episodes they apparently had no time for)... and Kidd Video still has more songs. Only the last ten episodes move at what I would call an acceptable pace, and even then, it's paying off tween-level material where the audience would be better served watching things like... Sailor Moon.

It starts with the main character. Basara, ... bro, you only wear the tiny, round glasses AS glasses if you're some sort of information broker. Kafka from Star Rail, show him how it's done. Anyway, he's brick-headed, pure of heart, and writes lyrics like somebody put "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" into a salad shooter. His only character growth is he sometimes gets sad and writes passable ballads. But his music is REAL, man! Sure. It's no surprise they have to angle away from the love triangle plotline because he's WAY too simple a person to imagine microwaving a burrito, much less be in an interpersonal relationship at that level. An awesome biker chick is completely wasted on this guy.

Basara jumps into the show IMMEDIATELY trying to be Lynn Minmay as a singer with songs that have the power to stops wars, but with nonsense, junky garage rock at the level of filler soundtrack songs for late 80's, direct-to-video action films. The only reason his music get traction is the evil spirit vampire villains have never heard music before and what tops the chart on Macross 7 is Lite FM adult contemporary; in a world of Amy Grant, the poor man's Winger is king. His bassist Mylene is a better songwriter, vocalist, and probably should've been the main character since she's the daughter of two characters from the original Macross and, you know, actually goes through more emotions than, "Why isn't my music reaching them? Is my music not REAL enough?!" She can at least pull off pop rock Runaways or some songs reminiscence of "Beatles for Sale." Veffidas is the real soul of the band, though. 10/10, Neal Peart level drummer. No notes.

I can roll with extremely basic music pretending to be the greatest ever, but the show is really this simple while trying to hoist 49 episodes featuring seven one-note villains where individual ones sometimes have to support ten+ episodes. It's occasionally monotonous to the point where the bottom-tier Jem episodes have more going on. It even makes the characters from the original Macross look bad. Milia and Max, how the HELL can you not find spirit vampires for MONTHS who are a foot taller than everyone and wear gigantic, cyberpunk headpieces?! It's like not being able to find Jason Voorhees in Lazy Town! To be fair, even if pacing didn't make them seem incompetent, they still set up and support their 14-year-old daughter in a relationship with a professional soldier. However, the show being creepy about both repeating how Mylene is 14 and treating her like she's five years older down to the nude fan service in the second closing is a whole other essay. Her 15th birthday brings up the prospect of marriage. YOU'RE BEING WEIRD, MACROSS 7.

Macross 7 is a pack of wafers trying to be a meal. Even if you accept the music as the series wants you to, are fine with it seemingly being aimed at a significantly younger audience than the original, and acclaim its stabs at things like war propaganda as more than a blind man trying to drive a tank, it's still not filling.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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