You know, it knew it was eventually going to come to this. But I was optimistic about it. Guess I should be more specific. While the final episode itself is one of the best in the series, the lead up to the grand finale of Super Dimension Fortress Macross is incredibly frustrating and occasionally even infuriating. Rather than expand more on the post war problems of Zentradi integration into human society, Macross doubles down on one of its key elements that should have been put to rest long ago. The legendary Love Triangle between Hikaru Ichijo, Misa Hayase and Lynn Minmay finally took it’s toll with me. Again, everything does wrap up just as fine, if not better than in Episode 27. Getting there, man this series might lose points off its final score for prolonging the inevitable.
So yeah, the Love Triangle. This should have ended back in EP27 in full force. Hikaru made his feelings known for Minmay and the two seemed to part on good terms while Hikaru found his way back to Misa. However, as we saw in Mondays two year time skip, all Hikaru needs to do is hear Minmay’s voice on the radio or see her in person and it’s like “Misa Who?” And for once, my problems weren’t really with Minmay, who actually had an interesting angle to play in this finale. My problems were with Ichijo two timing his two love interests. One episode is soley dedicated to Hikaru ditching Misa to go see Minmay and then thinking he can just return and have his hang out time with Misa as if nothing could go wrong. Misa has always been the better of the two love interests for Hikaru and her heart gets broken so many times in these final episodes. She’s a tough cookie and soldiers on but man did I expect Hikaru to suffer the same fate as his ill fated cousin from School Days (you know the one and if you don’t, look it up, my analogy makes sense). Misa certainly deserves better than the guy who seemed destined to be eternally Minmay whipped for the rest of his sad existence.
Like I said, Minmay actually got a meaty storyline for the finale. The toll of everything finally hit her all at once and she sought to abandon her singing in favor of running back to Hikaru, the one guy she feels is the only person who cares about her. It shows us Minmay at her most selfish, vulnerable and desperate, sides we haven’t really seen out of her throughout the first 2/3s of Macross. Surprisingly, it works but mostly because if find more reasons to despise Hikaru than Minmay for once. At the very least this mini breakdown got the less than cool Kaifun out of her way, though ironically he finally left her rather than the other way around (eh, good riddance to Kaifun, screw that guy, he’s more selfish than Minmay). For me, one of the best moments of the Series Finale was Hikaru choosing to follow Misa into the fire while Minmay desperately tried to hold onto him and that one piece of normalcy from before the world changed. For a guy who hasn’t been the biggest fan of her character, I was surprised I could actually feel bad for Minmay. Still, Minmay decided to woman up and move on, giving Hikaru and Misa her blessing and promising to return to singing in the future. Which is a good thing since Minmay’s music will be a defining factor for the Macross franchise as a whole, with her hits inspiring new music in both Macross 7 and Macross Frontier.
As for the Zentradi angle, whinny little troublemaker Kamjin was the final big bad and…tbh his final charge might’ve been epic but I feel like there should have been another villain leading it. Kamjin was amusing in his first appearance but there were other Zentradi more imposing and threatening compared to his constant childish temper tantrums at being unable to destroy the Macross. The build up to his doomed final charge against the Macross was spliced in with the Love Triangle plotline and I’d honestly rather seen more from this end than the other. It’s one of the reasons why these final six episodes should have been a final three. The plight of the Zentradi trying to adjust to life on Earth and the rebellion that rise from it could have made an entire Macross sequel series or even a movie follow up. But I think that the planning in these last nine episodes was a little all over the place, like Macross was meant to end back at EP27 but popularity dictated it go on longer and they didn’t think the show could survive without Hikaru mucking things up between Minmay and Misa. It makes these last six episode a little messy getting to the spectacular finale, which, like EP27 goes out with all barrels blazing, even if not every plotline is tied up.
And there are a few dangling plot threads too. Global assigns Misa a new command, her own ship, to begin traveling into the galaxy to find new worlds for humanity should Earth fall victim to another intergalactic conflict. He mentions the Supervision Army still squaring off with the Zentradi in deep space, but we’ve never seen these guys at all during the course of Macross (makes me wonder if this unattended plot point was a seguay for the Robotech Masters Saga in Robotech). There’s also the matter of Humans and Zentradi being a product of a long lost civilization dubbed The Protoculture. I feel like this shared ancestry wasn’t addressed as fully as it could have been cause the revelations behind it got some good emotional responses from Exedore and Ichijo regarding both species penchant for war and even loving it. What will happen to the rest of the Rebel Zentradi? Were they all destroyed along with Kamjin in his suicide run at the Macross? The only plotline that I know does get followed up is Humanity’s expansion into space. The first few minutes of the sequel, Macross Plus, shows Humans and Zentradi are doing pretty well on multiple worlds, even Earth doesn’t look that bad. I’m wondering how much of this thread is directly followed up in Macross 7 actually.
My griping about these final episodes aside, I do think Super Dimension Fortress Macross ends pretty strong. The Love Triangle is finally laid to rest and the Macross and her crew are given one last, epic battle to take out one of the last remaining threats from the war, though the Macross herself isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, or ever again for that matter. Minmay’s off to do her own thing and Hikaru and Misa are off to do their own, maybe serving on a ship together. Global, Claudia and the Bridge Bunnies are all alive (as opposed to them all getting whipped out in Robotech cause BS reasons, wow and here I wasn’t going to make many Robotech comparisons in this entire series review). And Macross City will weather Kamjin’s final assault and rebuild like it always does cause God only knows they’ve had enough practice over the last three years to do so. It was a troubled road getting here, but it looks like a happy ending for the survivors and a bright future for the world of Macross…see Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Frontier and Macross Delta for more on that.
Time for final thoughts. As a piece of Anime History, Super Dimension Fortress Macross still holds up very well. The two major plots: The Love Triangle and Humanity’s violent First Contact with alien life, both have their fair share of highs and lows, especially with the Love Triangle. The deep examination of Humanity’s customs and culture impacting an Alien species the way it did the Zentradi is fascinating and just as exciting to see the two sides interact with each other on and off the battlefield. Of course, the fast paced action always delivered with some of the most iconic and bad ass mecha in the genre. The speed of Macross’ action scenes is one of the few legs im willing to give it over Gundam and they’ve only gotten sharper, faster and better with subsequent Macross offerings. Hikaru, Misa and Minmay’s Love Triangle might be the stuff of Legends…but it did drag and Hikaru was a massive pain from time to time while Misa and surprisingly Minmay outshined him when he wasn’t in his Valkyrie. Minmay’s music is catchy but you might get tired of it eventually. Misa grows from stern military career woman to a caring woman deeply in love even if she cant fully express it. Hikaru, like I said, is an idiot when it comes to love but his skills as a pilot are bad ass for sure. The time skip is where most of Macross’ problems emerge as they feel like the series was planned for longer and then cut short or was meant to be an entire sequel altogether that started strong but rushed to wrap everything up and focused on the wrong story elements in the process. Still, both it’s sort of finale in EP27 and the Series Finale in EP36 are both masterful episodes and some of the finest in all of Macross. This series has its stumbles. But the mark it's left on the Anime and Mecha genre’s is undeniable. It might not be as successful as it’s Mecha cousin Mobile Suit Gundam, but Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a Legend whose legacy continues to shine as brightly as the theme song that accompanies it everywhere.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross receives an 8/10 (might’ve been a bit higher but these last few episodes hampered it a bit, not much but enough to keep me from giving it a 9). Til we meet again Macross, til we meet again.
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