Macross Δ Movie: Gekijou no Walküre

"You never deviate as far as when you think you know the way" (Chinese proverb)

A few days ago I had the opportunity to see Macross delta film - Macross Δ Movie: Gekijou no Walküre and I was pleasantly surprised.

I came with the prejudice that it was a simple summary of the series in order to sell us more albums of the band walküre, having as a precedent the macross delta series, I did not expect much from this movie

But here the surprise, the film is VERY GOOD, it is noted that Kawamori this time took the place of director, although it retains the technical cast ... of the series, the direction of Kawamori was noted.

Not only the story unfolds very naturally, but it does not bore and unlike the series is not a compendium of good pop songs with a forced story, no, it is a story of a band of idols with their conflicts and how together they surpass all the challenges of a world at war.

The characters are better achieved than in the series and although the film ends the same as in the series, the development of it makes reaching that end enjoyable and logical.

It is like a building that one rises little by little and culminates with a great battle (classic in macross at this point) and unlike the series the film leaves us a teaching.

Kawamori eliminated all the inconclusive arguments that the series raised and that only hurt the central script, this time each song, each dogfight, each character play a certain role to reach that final climax and, yes, gentlemen, the macross delta movie CLOSES THE HISTORY , GIVES A FINISH TO MACROSS DELTA HISTORY, giving rise to new deliveries of this franchise without having to continue exploiting the history of macross delta.

Here is the analysis:

Note: it is a personal opinion based on what I saw in the film and comparing it with the series and other series / movies of the macross franchise.

1) History: 8/10
Finally the history of macross delta is understood, not only there is an outbreak of a virus called Var, which is fought by the tactical sound unit: walküre, the story is mature, leaves aside all the sub-frames that hampered the development of the series, it is understood that the original idea of delta was not bad, it was only badly scripted and misdirected, this time with a revised script and a good direction, each fact, each moment of the film allows the development of the story, THE BEST: the macross delta film closes the story of Delta, allowing the continuity of the franchise with new ideas and visions of the Macross universe

2) Characters: 7/10
The story focuses on the band Walküre and it shows, the secondary characters are relegated to a supporting role for the development of the story, the story does not revolve in a single point, it is the story of a group and the members of walküre mature as characters, with unique characteristics, they finally stop being "one-dimensional characters", I highlight the work of improving the characters of Roid, Messer and Reina, but I also criticize "the decrease" of characters such as the air knights and the members of the squadron delta especially Mirage that does not have even half the role she had in the series.

3) Love Triangle: 4/10
IT DOES NOT EXIST, although the film implies that Mirage has feelings for Hayate, the script is responsible for making it clear to us that Hayate likes Freyja, which is not bad since it solves the romantic plot in a clear and forceful way.

4) Art of the characters: 7/10
You can see that it is a movie, the colors are improved and a very good CGI animation was achieved in the part of the concert of the song change !!!, negatively the difference between the new animation and the "borrowed" animation of the series is very evident

5) Mecha design 7/10
There is nothing new with regard to the series, one could add the transformable ships class macross Elysion, the "armored" version of the vf-31 sigfried and for the fans "hard core" of the macros mecha: the vf-31 with the Lil Draken modules as if they were fast packs and the Sv-262Hs Draken III with mirage´s colors.

6) 3D animation and battle choreography: 8/10
The improvement with respect to the series is noticeable, not only the battles are more dynamic, the part of the walküre concert that takes place in al shaal, the "battle" with music by the group is very well achieved, 3D point capture technique was used for the movements of the idols during the choreography of the song change !!!, that gives them more natural and realistic movements.

7) Music: 10/10
Macross delta stopped being a covert advertising campaign of a group of idols called walküre and transformed into a production worthy of being called "macross", the music is better suited to the point that the musical themes are reflected as in frontier what that happened at a certain moment, to the point that the lyrics of the songs seem to be narrating what is currently happening on the screen, also highlight the instrumental music that is responsible for highlighting key moments in the story giving it an identity of its own.

It highlights the fact that unnecessary scenes and musical themes of the series that did not contribute to the development of the plot were eliminated

Walküre musical themes that DO appear in the film:

Walküre ga Tomaranai (without Freyja)

Bokura no senjou

Run ga pika tto hikattara

Namidame Bakuhatsuon

Giraffe Blues

Change!!!!!

Ikenai Borderline

God bless you

Koi! halation THE WAR

Hear the universo

Hametsu no junjou

Axia-daisuki de daikirai

Ruchetto Arukan (song of the stars)

Ichido dake no koi nara

Absolute 5

Walküre wa Uragiranai

Giraffe Blues (kaname solo version)

Dancing in the Moonlight

Musical themes that were heard in the series but that are NOT in the film (to the delight of some and sadness of others)

Jiritic-Beginner
Fukakuteisei cosmic movement
Silent hacker
Neo Stream
Kaze wa yokoku naku fuku
Onya no ko-girl
Love! Thunder glow
Zettai Reido Novatic

Highly recommended for those who did not like the Macross Delta TV series, you can see the movie even without having seen the delta series, very good work by Kawamori.

Do this film succ? Undoubtedly. But this film kinda understands what was the TV Delta’s problem and trying to do something about it. The problem is almost nothing can be done with the source material like TV Delta, and reimagining in the Macross F way never took place for some reasons unknown to me, so the film still succ. Graphics got better, CGI improved from “make me unseen it” to “acceptable”, flat characters became more flat because their developments got cut alongside with filler parts or shortened to a fewer scenes.

This version of Delta improved in some parts and deteriorated in others, which resulted in ... the same 5 sad Mirage’s smiles out of 10 for me.

Still better than a TV due to length.

Before i started to watch the film, i thought it will be a good recap movie, that correct some of the mistakes of the original serie. But i failed so much, this film is like chaos.

The story is changed, but this is not a better version, events happening without any reason, sometimes it felt like im watching a movie trailer, everything is totally chaotic.
The cgi is really bad, and the drawing often very rough, sometimes it was hard to recognize the characters. The sound is another big problem, most of the time the songs were deep in the background and it was totally no ... impact, totally no enjoyment.

Im very disappointed, this was a very bad movie, i just want to forget it. :(

4/10