Well, that was certainly better. I don’t think Macross II will go down as one of my all time favorite Macross entries. However, I do think the second half of the OVA managed to turn things around a bit and provide at least a very entertaining conclusion that’s certainly in the spirit of Macross.
My biggest complaint about the opening half was how the animation seemed so lackluster for an OVA. Well Episode 4 mustve heard me because Hibiki and Silvie’s escape flying through a Marduk vessel looked awesome. This is how Macross II should have looked from the get go and the animation remained fairly consistent throughout. Same could be said of the epic and doomed space battle between the UN Spacey and Marduk forces in the following episode. Is it “Do You Remember Love?” levels of good? No but it does show that some effort went into important portions of Macross II. Better late than never I suppose.
At the core of this finale was, as I said, a very Macross message: Love is the hope for the future and what better way to convey that than with song. Ishtar managing to convince her fellow Emulators to turn on their a-hole leader was good, turning their song of death into a song of hope that saved the planet. Before then, things got pretty desperate at last. The Marduk tearing their way through the UN Spacey fleet was intense. It could have been more so if there were people we cared about involved in the fighting. But as things kind of stand with Macross II, only four characters ever really mattered during this whole story: Hibiki, Ishtar, Silvie and Feff…God what a stupid name. Sure Sylvie’s Faerie Squadron is out there but we don’t care about them cause they’ve hardly been in the story and if they have shown up it’s been for terrible comic relief. Sorry, kind of got off track there. Point is, things seemed pretty grim for Earth and even Silvie lost hope. But Hibiki remained steadfast that the truth would win out, love would prevail and Earth would be saved. Like I said, very Macross.
All along, Macross II has been kind of pushing a will they/wont they between Hibiki and Ishtar and Hibiki and Silvie. Unlike the famous love triangle of the original Macross between Hikaru Ichigo, Misa Hayase and Lynn Minmei, there isn’t really a clear “better choice”. If I had to lean towards one it would probably be Hibiki and Ishtar because Hibiki helped her see a new world and he had some obvious feelings for her and those feelings were mutual. But turns out the other romance won out and im ok with that…buuuut on the other hand pairing up Hibiki and Silvie at the end was clearly the production trying to invoke Hikaru and Misa, the hot shot winning the heart of the by the books strict as nails officer. But again, I’m not upset with this (and neither was Ishtar for that matter, in fact she cheered). In fact, I’m surprised this is one of the more Macross-y elements that Macross II handled so well.
The series does wrap up a bit too cleanly for my tastes. Sure we have peace between the Marduk and Humanity. But what about the fact that the UN Spacey kept an alien invasion threat under wraps until it was right at Earth’s doorstep? Shouldn’t there be people held responsible for gambling with peoples lives in favor of maintaining the illusion of a perfect peace? It was such a core plot point for much of the OVA im surprised there wasn’t proper closure for it. Also…I’m a little disappointed the Macross was revived only to be wiped out after one little attack. Yes, yes, Ishtar is right in that the battleships true power isn’t in its weaponry (debatable) but instead its power to bring people together. But…this is the freaking Macross we’re talking about. It can kick ass while putting on an amazing musical concert, just look at “Do You Remember Love”s finale.
Anyway, that was Macross II: Lovers Again. Is it the black sheep of the franchise as many make it out to be? I wouldn’t label it that but it also isn’t the best and there’s far better Macross out there. The first half in particular suffers from poor animation and lack of mecha imagination and it takes some time to warm up to Hibiki. Once the second half got going, things picked up and were even a little fun and exciting. But it also lacks an epic cast of characters and a truly memorable villain and it just feels like it doesn’t have the heart needed for a Macross celebration title. Still, for what it was, it was ok, not great but ok. I’m def not going to rate this as low as I thought I would at first, especially thanks to a stronger second half. Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again receives a…6/10.
Speaking of “Black Sheep”, next week we enter December and returning to Macross’s mecha cousin for not one but TWO back to back shows. One ended criminally before its time while another…might deserve the negative reputation its garnered. First up is the latter. It’s back to back Gundam for Christmas, starting with Mobile Suit Gundam AGE next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment