Macross Zero

One year before the launching of the legendary Space Fortress, the world is still locked in conflict.  UN Spacey Pilot Shin Kudo crashlands on an island whose inhabitants have formed a religion around a mysterious entity that came to Earth before the dawn of man.  The power of this hidden treasure promises so much power than both UN and Anti UN forces are desperate to gain it.  At the same time, a new breed of fighter jet is about to be unleashed, one that will change the stage of war forever. 

Released in 2002, just in time for the franchises’ 20^th Anniversary, a Macross Prequel holds a ton of possibilities.  After all, there was a world war esque conflict that resulted from the Macross’ crash landing and many of the original series’ main cast were part of it in some fashion.  The promise of seeing the Variable Fighters in their first sorties and in modern day animation is pretty enticing too.  The ingredients are there for something fans have wondered about since they first met the Space Fortress and her crew back in 1982.  However, Macross Zero goes in a very different direction.  It has all of the same hallmarks of past Macross entries but tries for a new kind of story, one that both isnt the one we want to see and also one that goes against the Macross grain so much it doesn’t feel like true Macross.
 
As I said, the Pre Zentradi War days are good starting point for a prequel and the OVA starts off well enough with a look at how the game of war instantly changed when Shin encounters his first enemy VF and is totally outclassed by it. Heck, I’ll just get this out of the way, the 3D animation on the VFs is freaking amazing.  Franchise Godfather Shoji Kawamori brings his beloved mecha series into the new millenium with ample care and the enthusiasm of a kid who’s grown up with Macross and wants to see it taken to the next level.  The dog fights are crazy intense with all the maneuvers and missile spamming Macross is best known for.  The transformations between the VFs three modes is also more seamless than ever before.  Probably the best sequence in the entire short series involves an almost step by step breakdown of a full transformation of Roy Focker’s Skull laden VF fighter from Jet to Battleoid mode.  And all of this still holds up today, I might add.  I’ll give this to Macross Zero, it’s attention to detail and exciting animation make it a far better looking Anniversary title than the rather lackluster looking Macross II back in 1992 (the franchises 10^th Birthday).
 
Ok, gushing over the visuals out of the way, onto everything else that weakens an otherwise spectacular looking Anime.  Macross Zero has all the elements of traditional Macross stories: the love triangle, the giant robots, music playing a role in proceedings.  And while the main Macross cast is absent, Roy Focker makes a very welcome return to the franchise and his mere presence is enough to make anyone wonder why this OVA isnt focused on him?  It makes sense he’s one of the first test pilots of the VF and its so cool to see his Skull Squadron fighter take to the skies again.  He even has a new/old love interest in cute scientist Aeris but really, I was wondering where the heck Roy’s main flame from the original series, Claudia, was.  Heck why cant we check in on Misa coming up through the ranks or what battles Captain Gloval was involved in (Maybe he met Roy during this time period too?).  Zero even provides a couple of personal rivals for Roy and Shin in the form of Roy’s former mentor DD and the incredibly sexy Nora.  A fierce competition between these two sets of pilots could provide all the plot needed for this OVA (even if it came up shorter than five episodes).
 
All of this leads me into the story and the new characters. The three leads: Shin, Sara and Mao, make up the central love triangle of the Anime.  Shin is fine, if a little bland and unexplored.  Sara is so uptight and so dedicated to her religion she might as well be a zealot.  Granted she has reason to want nothing to do with the outside world but she’s a far cry from the bad ass Misa Hayse type.  Only Mao offers a bit of fun to break up the overly seriousness of Sara’s uptightness and Shin’s blandness.  In fact, she and Roy are the only characters I really liked in the whole OVA.  As for the story, Zero tries to do a more spiritual/supernatural take and…yeah it never caught on with me.  Listening to Sara spout scripture about Kadun and Birdmen got old very quickly and the way things escalate with these lost artifacts, by the time we got to the finale, I realized this was more in line with Rahxephon than Macross.  Also, everytime Sara went on and on about Shin and his people bringing the end of the world to their island, all I could think of was “Wow…wait til a year from now when the Zentradi show up.”  I felt no connection to most of this new cast and instead kept thinking of ways to rework the story to fall more in line with Macross and become a story I wanted to watch and enjoy outside of the action.
 
Lastly, there’s the music, a key staple of any Macross endeavor.  Now I’ll admit following up the triple threat of Lynn Minmei’s catchy tunes, Yoko Kanno’s legendary score and the Jrock hits of Basura and Fire Bomber isnt easy.  And Macross Zero does have a soundtrack that fits with its tropical setting and the more spiritual elements of Sara and her people (some of which are very beautiful).  But still, I missed the futuristic sound Kanno brought to Macross Plus and the lack of a true pop theme kind of bothered me.  Yes this is before Music was discovered to be a key weapon against the Zentradi but still.  Oh and for some reason one of the action tracks combines scores from two different Hollywood movies: Starship Troppers and the Brendan Fraser Mummy Movie…what’s up with that?  And again, the music feels closer to Rahxephon, especially in the finale…which is fine for another Rahxephon take, not Macross.
 
Macross Zero has a title with a lot of possibility and promise for a prequel.  And while the action is gorgeous and thrilling, the OVA doesn’t take advantage of those possibilities, instead trying to do something wildly different with its story and characters rather than show us a larger look at the final days of the last big war on Earth before the Zentradi arrived.  I found myself groaning a lot whenever we cut away from the action to Sara gripping about ancient prophecies and stuff that really doesn’t matter given how things end up in the original series for Planet Earth (aka not good). Sure, it’s good to have Roy back in the pilots seat once again and he’s in the OVA a lot.  I just wish the rest of his fellow future Super Dimension Fortress Macross crewmates could’ve joined him for a proper origin story rather than this ultimately forgettable side story that pushes for new boundaries but never comes close to reaching the heights of its predecessors.
 
5/10