FIF#62-Super Dimension Fortress Macross

In the year 1999, a massive alien spacecraft crash landed on Earth, leaving destruction in its wake.  10 years later, humanity has rebuilt the ship, adapted it’s technology and now the Super Dimension Fortress Macross stands ready to launch.  But when an armada of Alien warriors appears in Earth orbit, secret fears are realized: the Macross once belonged to these monstrous foes, The Zentradi, and they want it back.  When a freak accident lands the Macross at the other end of the galaxy, a young and inexperienced crew must band together to return to Earth and hope that the Zentradi don’t destroy it, or them, first.

Welcome to the first of a special 3 part First Impression Friday.  Over the next few weeks im going to be looking at the first episodes of the three shows that comprised the 80’s classic, Robotech.  To better explain, Robotech was a fusion of three separate series: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeda.  The shows were largely unconnected to one another save for one common element: giant transformable robots (mostly fighter planes).  Through some tricky editing and clever writing, each series became a separate season (or saga) for the Robotech, each one telling the story of a different generation throughout a decades long intergalactic war.  As I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to reviewing this series as a whole (I did review the movies a while back), I decided to at least look at the shows the Robotech saga was based on, since theyre all on Amazon Prime along with Robotech itself.  And that begins here with the show that ended up being the reason Robotech is so remembered today.

The Macross franchise is the one set of titles I can think of with as long a lifespan as Mobile Suit Gundam.  Whereas Gundam redefined the genre, focusing on humans fighting other humans in giants mecha, Macross gave the more traditional intergalactic conflict focus a bit of a shot in the arm.  Youth, fast paced action, deep storytelling, and an emphasis on music and romance sent the series into the stratosphere.  And while the titles in its library aren’t as numerous as Gundam, Macross still churns out quality titles.  And that show of goodwill and trust in the franchise was birthed with this 1982 classic and it still holds up.  Classics don’t get more classic than this.

The first episode of Macross is mostly setup but its fun set up and not without its fare share of action (though the giant robots sit out the fun until the second episode).  There’s something to love about the entire cast: from the three “kind of just there” bridge bunnies to the fun sibling banter between Misa and Claudia or Hikaru and Roy.  Even the big men in charge of both sides of the battle have their shining moments: Global being the grumpy old dad who doesn’t want the spotlight but will get the job done anyway; and Bertai, a warrior general who is more calm and inquisitive than you’d expect.  If a show is to last a certain length of time (I think this show clocks in at an unusual 37 episodes), you’d hope that the cast would be more than enough to carry that weight and the cast of Macross is more than up to the challenge.

What surprised me the most about the first episode of Macross is how largely unchanged it was from the original Robotech pilot.  Yes, there were some lines changed or added to lay the seeds for future storylines (like the Robotech Masters).  But the general premise of the first episode remains the same: The Macross crashes and is rebuilt; the Zentradi come for it and Hikaru gets thrust into the middle of the fight.  That said, I know there is bound to be a lot of differences between these two stories.  It’s that familiarity for me that makes Macross more approachable and less dismissive of it being an older Anime.  And man even for a classic from the 80’s the animation here still rocks.  I can only imagine how much time went into drawing all of these characters and complex mecha, especially during the transformation sequences.  I will say, the animation has aged better than the original Mobile Suit Gundam series for sure.  This first Macross series was a benchmark for a franchise whos animation presentation has only gotten better going forward (especially with the flawless sequel, Macross Plus).

At some point, I would like to go through Super Dimension Fortress Macross and watch it from beginning to end.  While I have seen the full Macross Saga from Robotech, the only Macross related shows ive seen in full are Macross Plus and Macross Frontier.  As a huge fan of the Giant Robot Genre, I feel like I owe it to myself to put in the time to check this classic out in full at some point.  Maybe I should consider setting this one aside for a big summer review series (would be tricky to justify sticking with one series for a couple of months unless I do an accelerated review schedule).  But in general, to close out, the first episode of Macross is a show that I would put on an Anime Mix tape, a sampler to show people the perfect first episodes to show new fans that could get them interested.  They don’t call Macross, or its subsequent sequels, the Top Gun of Anime for nothing.

Check back next week for my initial thoughts of the series that made up The Robotech Masters Saga of Robotech: Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross.  And in two weeks, Part 3 of this little special: Genesis Climber Mospeda.  See ya then.