Macross F

--- Warning: Contains spoilers ---

Most series can be summed up in a few words, and regardless of their implications, some descriptions may throw you for a loop. When you hear the words triangles, music, missiles, more music and even more missiles, what is it that you think of? Most well-versed anime viewers should be thinking of the Macross franchise, as this can effectively sum up a great portion of what it's all about, ranging from the original series to the latest installment entitled Frontier.

Macross Frontier happens to be a fairly ordinary anime that in its simplicity, loses direction as it progresses, only to attempt ... to get back on track after wasting lots of time. When you break it down, at least half of the episodes are fillers, and a majority of the rest are short arcs that don't really connect and flow together to form a solid plot like any good series would. Since this is not an episodic series, this format begins to hurt itself in the long run, as only little bits of crucial information about the grand scheme of things are revealed throughout the series. This makes the progression of the main plot very slow and unnecessarily dragged out. It's not until the final third of the series that it decides to focus on what can be considered the main plot. Up until this point, the plot was nothing more than a simple "Defend the human race from unknown aliens", which is already weak in and of itself as it's really just a poor excuse for some mecha action, but it decided to take a sharp 180 and go down the oh so wonderful conspiracy route.

With this development that couldn't help but be expected many episodes prior, everything starts to become a giant mess. This was hinted to a few times throughout the beginning of the series, usually only for a very short time period in select episodes displaying things like undercover discussions or trades, so it's not like it came on unforeseen by the audience. If anything, it happened far too late, as the motives behind Grace and Leon who were originally working together are hardly delved into, and they simply play the bad-guy role because the series needed a better antagonist than random aliens. Both individuals having very grandiose goals of wanting to rule the universe, you can't help but wonder how they actually planned on executing this in the first place. It is only explained after Grace O'Connor, the great evil mastermind behind everything, had her plans proceed to completion without any hitch at all. Now, having full control over the Vajra, it's pretty safe to say she holds much more power than anyone else currently, yet, of course, is defeated by the power of... music (Catchy j-pop music at that). A lot of build up was wasted in favor of going this predictable route, and it is basically the equivalent of beating the bad guy through the power of friendship. At the very least, they tried to give some basis for this being possible with information from earlier episodes explaining the power of music within the Macross universe.

Seeing as this all happened in the span of a few episodes, it's safe to say that pacing became a huge issue, and solidified the fact that most of the other episodes were nothing more than "filler" and short arcs. They could have used this time to begin to develop the plot, but that wasn't the case. They may as well have cut out these episodes in favor of getting straight to the point, rather than extending the series unnecessarily. With the remaining episodes not being devoted to plot advancement, some character development should be expected in them, however, it's nowhere near as much as there should have been for how much time was devoted to this aspect. A majority of the remaining episodes used most of their time focused on the love triangle between the three main characters, but the events and developments that took place were usually undermined due to the indecisive and undeveloped protagonist of the series, Alto Saotome. He is also better known by some of the characters as Princess Alto, and for good reason.

And while it may not all necessarily be because of him, he is directly involved in many of the simple plot conveniences used to keep the love triangle from moving forward. Whether it be going out to fight against the Vajra during a crucial time when he was supposed to be with Ranka, or Ranka seeing him with Sheryl and then wallowing in her own sadness about it afterwards. However, with Alto being the resident princess of the series, it's not a far stretch to say he certainly can act like one at times. Ranging from his daddy issues leading to him running away from home to become a pilot, or how he likes to ignore any real problems that he faces, there's almost nothing about him that doesn't scream "Princess". He even has gorgeous flowing locks of hair to accentuate this. In fact, I have no doubt that some would start to question his manhood, as he practically ignores any advances from both Sheryl and Ranka, which goes back to him being largely at fault for the triangle never progressing. Any time it seems like he's made up his mind about who he wants to be with, the next episode has some bad news for you, as he basically does the equivalent of saying "Just kidding!", and begins to show what can be considered interest in the opposite girl. As for the whole "Princess" nickname and his daddy issues, they are touched on briefly, but it comes off as nothing more than the writers quickly throwing together some semblance of a back story so that they could pass him off as more than your average self-insert main character.

Having Alto bounce back and forth between who it seemed he was interested in clearly shows which characters are supposed to be the selling point of the series, and of course, I can only be talking about Ranka and Sheryl. Long winded fan boy name calling and debates aside for now, they both have their ups and downs as characters.

Ranka, who is easily the character who receives the most focus in the series, happens to be the one who receives the least development for all the time she spent on screen (Go figure). She manages to slowly get over her timid nature when it comes to singing, but only because of the encouragement Alto gives her throughout the series. Although this was good however, even with her having the most interaction with other characters and general screen time, she never developed a reason for singing past doing it for Alto's affection. Due to the fact that the time spent on her was poorly utilized, her development was hindered in the long run. This is made especially apparent when you see that a few of the side characters have more motivation for their actions than she does. For the sheer amount of focus the series gave her character, seeing them do nothing with it past the first few episodes was disappointing to say the least.

Sheryl, on the other hand, plays a much more interesting role in the series. Many pass her off as "Bitchy", "Overly arrogant" and many other demeaning terms from the moment she appears on screen, but she manages to easily become the best character in the cast. With her status established right from the beginning, it's not unfitting for her to act much like she runs the place. Providing a stark contrast from Ranka, Sheryl is confident and domineering to an extent, yet still caring of others, shown by her attitude towards Ranka and Alto. She eventually softens up a bit, mostly due to her feelings for Alto since he doesn't worship her like everyone else in the colonies. The struggle she goes through while falling from the top as Ranka took over is far more believable than anything Ranka or Alto went through. Having to cope with her fall from stardom, as well as her impending death due to a disease, she accepts these facts and still tries to move forward, doing the only thing she can do: sing. This made her far more endearing to the audience by the end of the series, as this shows her confidence wasn't simply based on her status as the Galactic Fairy, but her strength of will that was built up through living her old lifestyle of complete poverty. While she did remain mostly static, what she went through didn't feel contrived, much like the case was with Ranka.

But of course, like many other series, one of the biggest problems Macross Frontier presents is the ending. Again, I find myself questioning Alto's sexuality, as the ending provides zero closure for what is considered the main focus of the series: the love triangle between the three main characters. This is Macross, the plot is only there to help move the romance forward, and that's one thing Frontier severely failed at. Not only was Alto himself preventing it from taking a big step forward with his indecisiveness and constant character changes, the sheer amount of conveniences that kept the character's relationships from developing sure didn't help either. Like I mentioned, the filler episodes would mostly focus on the love triangle, but focusing on it is not the same as actually having it progress. Regardless of how much it actually progressed by the end, a conclusion is needed, and that's something the series never provided. While it was very heavily suggested that Sheryl "won" before the finale, the final moments of the series throw the entirety of the few episodes Alto was together with Sheryl right out the window, and has Ranka enter the competition once more.

As we all know, Alto has a major fascination for the sky, more so than for the two girls who fawned over him for the entire series. So what does he do? He doesn't clearly choose either girl, but instead chooses the mother fucking sky. Whether it was intentionally done this way so that the Sheryl and Ranka factions wouldn't destroy the world due to a simultaneous outburst of angry fan boys crying over the fact that their waifu "lost", or because they wanted to leave it up for interpretation, it doesn't change the fact that giving no closure severely impacts the series in a bad way. And when one of the main selling points of the Macross franchise is left untouched, it leaves nothing more than disappointment in the eyes of fans and newcomers alike. While making no decision on which girl the main character wants to be with may be a common occurrence in most harem series, it should not be the case when there is only a love triangle at hand. When ample time is given to devote to two characters and their interactions with the main character, going down this route is nothing more than a bad decision as it should be nearly impossible to get fans to feel satisfied with this kind of ending. It was a shame to see them use this kind of cheap exit strategy after putting forth the effort to develop the relationships in the series.

After all of this, there's nothing left but disappointment in the series. There may have been good j-pop, great action scenes, as well as throwbacks to previous entries in the franchise ranging from songs, to name drops and simple phrases, but that only adds to the enjoyment factor. And as most intelligent people will know, even that isn't enough to save a series which continually makes mistakes along the way. At the end of the day, Macross Frontier had a lot of potential, but unfortunately it was ruined by Alto who could not manage to keep the series flying smoothly.

Story:
I tried to like the story but it opted for cheesy melodrama, bad action sequences and a love triangle that I did not care about. It tries to go for gut wrenching emotions but falls short because it does not bother to establish a conflict we truly care about, nor does it establish characters that I really cared about much at all.
Art:
The art ranges from absolutely awful, to pretty good, sometimes varying wildly between episodes. One thing that I absolutely hated was the CGI dogfight scenes, the action and the choreography were well done, but the computer generated graphics felt clunky and out ... of place, and could have been replaced with hand drawn frames with more fluidity.
Sound:
The music and sound effects in this anime are absolutely wonderful. I am a major fan of Kanno Yoko's work, and the music here is her working masterfully. I loved both Sheryl's Techno arena hits and Ranka's ballads also the classical mood music is wonderful and it evokes the traditional feel of the Macross franchise.
Characters:
Truthfully I can't stand most of the major characters, Sheryl is the only one that I like and that I feel plays out realistically. Alto is a major jerk to everyone, and it's a wonder to me that he even has two love interests, thinking on how he treats them. Ranka is whiny and timid, except when she sings, we can see this play out throughout the the series, her character never changes from that mold. Sheryl at least is the only one that acts in a believable and likable way. She is confident and arrogant in a way you would expect a star of her caliber to be, yet she is not unkind and shows streaks of humor that I find to be very likable.
Enjoyment / Overall:
I enjoy Macross Frontier mostly for its characters and the wonderful music. I keep hoping for interesting dramatic developments or good action scenes but I come away disappointed every episode. So it earns a mild recommendation on my part.

I like campiness sometimes. Macross and Robotech were campy but enjoyable. Sure I never liked most of the main cast but there were elements that made me enjoy the series, both when I was a kid and later when I grew older.

Problem is, I haven't seen a Macross that's captured the same spirit as the originals except from possibly Macross Plus. I never could understand this, it's not a difficult formula but it's never executed the same.

Let's start with the premise: it's a love triangle story (coincidentally, the 1st opening theme is called "Triangular") where you the three main characters ... are unlikable because of their glaring faults: Alto is a stubborn sissy that accidentally became a pilot from the circus (sound familiar?), Sheryl is a pompous star that can't express her true feelings but her pride just ruins her character, and Ranka who had the most potential was never fully explored throughout and thus you can't decide if you want to like her, much less care for her.

I guess you could compare that to Hikaru/Minmei/Misa (Rick/Minmay/Lisa for the Robotech junkies) and Isamu/Guld/Myung thing too, yet you can actually feel bad for each character. Macross F doesn't really let you do that, for 22 episodes (at least), the story flounders around everyday life while dabbling with the overlying plot. Nothing really advances with any of the characters except some secrets that *eventually* get uncovered. Problem is, sometimes those potentially plot-twisting secrets pop up, but then disappear for episodes until you kind of forget about it. It's fine once or twice in a series, but when you pile layers upon layers of secrets to the point you don't even know what's most important, then you've lost the viewer.

The Macross factor: the music. I don't believe everything Yoko Kanno is necessarily gold and while I enjoy this soundtrack, it's not the best thing I've heard of in my life. There's only about 3 songs I enjoy listening too, the rest...meh. Nothing is really memorable that really sticks unfortunately, maybe it's because they introduce 28934239 tracks by both singers and constantly bombard you either with the same song over and over, or recurring songs layered with another new song. It gets irritating. You don't need a huge berth of new mediocre vocal tracks, stick with a couple solid songs and let it be that.

This series could have easily been knocked down to 13 episodes, took out a few characters and/or combined a few elements. It's relatively predictable, feels like a lot of filler, characters aren't really all that likable, and the music is OK. The series does go out with a great bang (the final song is incredible), but getting there was painful. I wouldn't put it on par with Macross Plus, but definitely not the worst I've seen.

Story & Characters:
Unfortunately for me, this is a classic anime lacking the substance to meet the style. I really tried to like the three main characters (Sheryl, Alto and Ranka) but I found none of them engaging. I struggled to care for their plight and whilst the plot honors the previous Macross series, there is an over reliance on knowing the history. If you have never seen Macross before, I highly recommend watching the others before taking on this series. In the end, it was the supporting characters that I found interesting (Mikhail, Clan Clang, Ozma etc) and I kind of wish there was more ... development for them. However, this would go against the love-triangle formula that centers on the three main protagonists. Of the three, Sheryl is the only one with any layers to her personality. I found I just wanted to shake some sense into Alto and Ranka as any attempt at depth was instead replaced by grumpiness/chip-on-his-shoulder (Alto) or reliant-on-song (Ranka). For the majority the plot unfolds at a snail's pace and the double-dealing and political power plays are lost amongst the concert songs and stagnating dialogue. The somewhat faceless alien enemy "Vajra" are explored as almost a side-plot and did not evolve on any real scale compared to previous alien encounters in other Macross series (e.g. the Zentradi). Unfortunately for me, no amount of animated brilliance can cover up a plot that fails to deliver.

Art:
This is where most of my score lies. The animation is second to none and the battle scenes are off the "eye-candy" charts. It's an incredible face-lift from the original Macross series (not that I didn't enjoy the original series) and should please all fans in this regard.

Sound:
The music is the core of this series. Fans looking for all-out sci-fi action should NOT watch this series. Music is the central theme of Macross and it is clearly obvious that the makers of Macross Frontier invested a lot of time and energy into developing the songs and concert scenes. However, for me there was almost too much focus placed on song. The songs also do not particularly appeal to my tastes but those who follow the Oricon charts avidly should enjoy the music. The sound effects are top notch and easily match the awe-inspiring action sequences, which are unfortunately far and few between.

Enjoyment / Overall:
I would recommend this only for die-hard Macross fans, those who have seen the previous incarnations of this anime or those into J-pop music. For those who have never seen any Macross series before, I imagine they'll be impressed by the animation but will not be able to connect to the story or characters.

At this point, a true Macross series had not come out since the mid-90s. This time, fairly new Studio Satellite without much prior success got the task for Macross Frontier. This is where the series truly takes a turn away from the mechs and makes the full transition to idols. A bonus was the role of director was shared between the experienced Yasuhito Kikuchi and the famous Transformers designer Shoji Kawamori. Where the Macross franchise was successful in the past, it was quickly established that Frontier is no Plus and certainly no Super Dimensional and more towards Macross 7 with more emphasis on female idols ... instead of a band.

Only 50 years have passed since the alien invasion of the first Macross, but from the show, the viewer could guess centuries. Macross Frontier takes place primarily on an immigration fleet ship traveling through space in search of a new frontier. Life is normal for our two main characters. Alto Saotomi is the typical male anime blank slate with a teenage angst personality while the other is Ranka Lee whom is a petit quarter alien ambitious future idol. All is well until the super pop idol known as Sheryl Nome visits their ship and all of a sudden a dangerous alien lifeform known as the Vajra attack. Naturally, Ranka becomes an idol to fight through singing and Alto becomes a fighter pilot, so all the Macross elements are in place, plus a love triangle that totally is not frustrating or confusing at all (sarcasm).

Does this series have much to do with the focus on aliens like other Macross shows? Instead, the show wants to focus on the development of our three characters and coming to terms with their own identities, pasts, and future. This can make for excellent storytelling, but Frontier just does not have the writing and dynamics to make it character driving and ends up focusing too much on being plot driven instead. Frontier is its own standalone series and separates itself enough where watching other Macross shows are not needed.

Each of our three main characters have their own quirks. Alto is extremely selfish and is the complete opposite to both Ranka and Sheryl. For some reason, both the girls fall for him. Alto does compliment the otherwise predictable personalities of the two girls though. The romance and plot are extremely slow paced and never seems to go anywhere until the Vajra makes them. It can get quite irritating. The show also makes all the effort it can to have a little 2008 touch like most anime of the time: a little bishounen, school life, some shoujo undertones, and more.

Music does not falter in any way. An extremely strong unique soundtrack matches the action and drama occurring. Kanno Yoko and Nakajima Megumi’s debut happening for the show just adds to the level of where the show could have been. Animation and art is all over the place though. It can be stellar at times, while be incredibly terrible from non-moving backgrounds to off-set character models. Not to mention the CGI which is certainly a bit off-putting during action scenes. Sure, the second half of the show picks up and gets super “out there” and makes extreme leaps for plot progression. Worst of all though is the blatant disregard for character development and climax moments the series lead up to. This is where Macross Frontier drops a heavy ball (plot magic).

Is Macross Frontier worth watching? Compared to past Macross shows, the jury would have to say no. Is Macross Frontier fine? Yeah, the show is ok and definitely has something in the show other than the name Macross: action, romance, fan service, plot; there is something. When the best character is considered a third wheel while the other two don’t really do much for an engaging story, Macross Frontier might be worth skipping unfortunately.

Macross frontier is probably the most over-rated anime of all time. There are plenty of animes miles better then frontier. If you haven't watched much anime then macross frontier will seem awesome. But if you've been watching anime since the 80's it's a huge step down. I found Heroic age and Gundam seed much more interesting then any of the bland stuff you'll find in frontier.

The problem with frontier is that it drags its plot out for too many episodes, there's just not enough interesting in the show to carry the hopelessly senseless story.

If there is one thing frontier suffers from ... it's being generic and trying to imitate (poorly) what made the original macross series so popular.

Then there is Japans obsession with shoe-horning songs of j-pop stars into space opera. In frontier it just doesn't fit well at all with how they implemented it. The problem is that they do more then just have a singing pop star in the show but use the pop stars voice as a plot device to defeat the bad guys. I'm sorry to say it but this is just amateur level storytelling here. The whole plot is simple and comes off completely campy towards the end of the series making you feel like you wasted your time.

Another problem is that the characters are just not believable. For instance the main character and his love interest is written poorly and exists on a level of uninteresting blandness that I haven't seen in a long time.

Another problem is the characters have no depth and so you can't really identify with them at all, so you never feel in any way immersed or connected to the characters.

The problem with macross frontier is that it is corporate soul-less remake with no genuine heart and soul. The originals had way more soul then frontier can ever hope to have.