Macross Flash Back 2012

This OVA is a treat for the Macross fan, best viewed after having watched the original series and Do You Remember Love. It brings closure to the Hikaru, Misa, and Minmei stories through the Macross series' keystone, music. Lynn Minmei's songs are presented through a series of music videos, most of which use footage from the TV series and movie. However the best is saved for last. My favorite part of the new animation is when Minmei is visiting the stage before departing and she has a vision of Hikaru and Misa appearing to show their support for her before the sequence transitions to the ... concert and departure of the Megaroad-01. I have to rate Character as only Fair since the viewer is assumed to already be familiar with the source material and thus there isn't that much development other than of Minmei's.

TL;DR

If you have already watched “Macross” and “Macross: Do You Remember Love”, and you enjoyed their music, then watching this OVA won’t leave you disappointed, but I would suggest watching it only after having watched the movie, since much of its art and many scenes are taken from there.

Story [8]

“Macross Flash Back 2012” is a music video compilation made from the scenes of the original series and the movie, so it doesn’t introduce new plot points, but the few minutes of new scenes for the ending are well made and are a great send off to the original Macross.

Art [8]

This OVA’s animation is good: most ... of it is reused from the movie and the original series, and the few new sequences are kept at the same quality.
Since many scenes come from the movie the art is more detailed than that of the series and it uses the same new designs that are used in the movie.

Sound [10]

The music in “Macross” and in “Macross: Do You Remember Love” was already great, here it’s made even better by the fact that it’s given the centre stage: some songs are extended and there is no dialogue or other sounds over the music.

Characters [9]

Since this is a music video compilation more than anything else, the characters here aren’t given much time, but they are the same great characters that are in “Macross” and in “Do You Remember Love”, so there are no complaints.

Enjoyment [10]

While watching “Macross” and “Macross: Do You Remember Love” much of my enjoyment came from the music so watching this OVA was a no-brainer and I wasn’t disappointed: “Macross Flash Back 2012” gives closure to a great anime series, and it does it very well.

There’s not much to say here. It’s a compilation of music videos. Which are occasionally interspersed with real life imagery, something I hate in anime. And even better, a lot of that is Japanese soldiers from WW2 marching off for battle (as far as I can tell). I think it’s supposed to be about the pointlessness of war, but I wish they’d just kept all real life imagery out of it in the first place.

At the very end of Flashback 2012, we get the proper ending to the DYRL movie. Older Minmay, Hikaru, and Hayase. Those last couple minutes are very worth watching, but don’t ... feel ashamed about skipping to that point.

The music is as enjoyable as it was in SDF and DYRL. But the real life imagery (especially of the soldiers) ruins much of my desire to ever see it again. Watch it for the proper conclusion of DYRL along with the older versions of our main characters (which look amazing btw!).