Macross 7 [Anime Review]

Robotech is a classic.
Robotech was born from three separate anime: Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. Harmony Gold worked in concert with Tatsunoko Productions Ltd. and allowed Carl Macek to cut three series into the three chapters of Robotech. I recently watched Robotech, and the subsequent movies, again, and then decided to watch some of the other related materials. That meant Macross. I started with Macross Plus (a good OVA), then I moved on to Macross 7.

Macross 7 is 48 episodes of torture for this character...

... and then finally she is rewarded in episode 49.

Macross 7 is the story of a young girl and her long and arduous quest to deliver a bouquet of flowers to the lead singer of a band called Fire Bomber.

She is constantly ignored, stood up, passed over, knocked about, and generally treated in a quite awful manner. It becomes a terribly cruel running gag that just makes you want to punch the director.

I wish I was being serious.

Why? Because the plot of the flower girl is far far more lucid and understandable than the one Macross 7 actually tries to pretend to follow.

2 out of 5 stars

Why did I give it two stars? Because I actually think it was better than Transcendence, which was the most recent thing I gave one and half stars to. So I can't go as low as that.

I have to be honest there are some good moments, there are some moments of true humor. But they are few and far between in the massive span 49 episodes. Each one is a treat because for the most part they break you out of the insane repetition of every episode.

We'd all love to know why he sings at all...

I can break down what happens in 90% of the first 25 episodes very easily.

Random set up.
Band goes to play.
Attack breaks out.
Lead Singer of Band hops in his VF-19 Fire Valkyrie.
Lead Singer proceeds to SING at the enemy.
Battle ends.
Random set up is resolved.

Formulaic is being nice. Repetitive is the truth.  

I could almost stand that repetitive nonsense if, and this is a big Robotech SDF1 sized IF, the music our lead singer and mentally challenged hero, Nekki Basara, sang was any good. Most of it is not. There might be the occasional tolerable song, or one that is even mildly catchy. But no, 90% of the time it is the banal insipid crooning of his song, 'Dance on the Planet Dance.' It is just as bad as the title sounds.

Alright, I'm paying attention.

The second main character is Mylene Jenius (daughter of Max and Miria Jenius, who I knew as Max and Miria Sterling from Robotech. Jenius is just such a terrible misuse of English). Her songs, when she actually gets to sing, somewhere around 20 episodes in maybe, are generally better than Basara's.

So... of course this means that there are some characters that have continued into Macross 7 from Macross (or Robotech, which ever). There are three of them, and they may be the three best characters from the whole series. 

Exedore speaks many words of wisdom...

The first two are easy. Max and Miria Jenius. Max is now the head of the Macross 7 fleet. Miria is the Mayor of Macross 7 City. They are no longer living together, but they see each other almost daily. Together Max and Miria have seven daughters (and one adopted), all of them have moved away from the Macross 7 fleet, except their youngest Mylene (who is 14 at the start of the series). Mylene kinda lives... somewhere. She has a massively huge bodyguard who is the best Ninja ever. No seriously, he gets anywhere and no one sees him do it.

Max and Miria as they appeared in Macross / Robotech.

Max and Miria as they appear in Macross 7.

The third carry over character is Exedore (or Exadol), the Zentradi adviser who assisted Breetai in Robotech. He was the records officer who assisted Britai in Macross. Yeah... notice how similar those two roles are? Anyways, he looks like he did in Macross Do You Remember Love, not as he did in the TV series where he has brown hair. No, he has a cauliflower shaped head in this... thank you. 

Those three characters; Max, Miria, and Exedore; are probably the best characters in the series. They have the best scenes at least.

There are also a few other characters that particiapte in Fire Bomber, the band that Nekki Basara and Mylene Jenius are in. There is Ray Lovelock, an ex-military Valkyrie pilot, and Veffidas, a Meltrandi (female Zentradi) who plays the drums. She gets maybe 2 lines in 49 episodes. She expresses herslef by hitting things with her drum sticks (this leads to one of the funniest moments in the series... somewhere around episode 40 - 44).  

Guvava, the mini-Chewbacca, is the real Hero of Macross 7.

There are also the villains. For the most part the villains suffer from a serious problem. Their names all begin with the same letter. Gepelnicht, Gravil, Gabil, Gigil, Goram... They use every character in the 'Ga-ge-gi-go-gu' set of kana (Guravil). They also tend to speak in fragments and repeatedly use stupid phrases...

Sivil, pointing out what you already noticed.

Even the relatively unique villain, Sivil. She is constantly saying "Anima Spiritia," which gets a touch annoying. Again, I wonder if her name was supposed to be Sybil... maybe because I keep coming across that word: Psycho-Pass, and Simoun. She kind of acts in the role of an oracle... sorta. That or yet again I am just seeing words crop up that have become overly familiar recently. 

No matter how you slice it, this show could have been half or even a quarter as long and easily fit in all the story they had. There was so much repetition and reused footage, of battles, of songs, of almost everything. It because laughably painful by the end...

If you want a complete understanding of Macross, this can be watched. I do not suggest it... it is painful. Maybe the movie is better, I do not know... I've not seen it. Nor have I seen the Macross 7 Encore OVA, although I'm going to see it soon. I am not sure I will be able to subject anyone else to it though.

My final thoughts, this was way too long with way too little story for its length. This was from an era when they banked on reusable footage (magical girl series anyone?), and it shows. Also, while I generally like anime music, the music in this series is not... all that likeable. I really hate 'Planet Dance.'