Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again Part 1 Episodes 1-3

2092 AD.  It’s been 80 years since the end of the Zentradi war and now humanity lives in peace with many members of its former sworn enemy.  That peace is threatened when an Alien attack force believed to be rogue Zentradi appear near Jupiter.  Their threat grows more dangerous when even Earth’s best weapon, the Minmei Defense, is ineffective against them.  In the middle of the chaos, reporter Hibiki Kanzaki steals a beautiful girl named Ishtar from an Alien vessel and brings her to Earth.  As he tries to show her Earth’s vast culture and learn more about her Identity, Ishtar cannot help but be drawn to the long dormant Super Dimension Fortress Macross, whose reactivation might be Mankinds only hope to survive destruction once again.

Much like Mobile Suit Gundam, Super Dimension Fortress Macross was a pioneering scifi/mecha title for Anime in the 80s.  The slick and fast paced action combined with a masterfully done love story and gorgeous soundtrack has made it an endearing legend that has spawned its own successful franchise.  Over the years we’ve seen several success stories like Macross: Do You Remember Love, Macross 7, Macross Zero and, my personal favorite, Macross Plus, just to name a few.  So why don’t we hear much about the title meant to celebrate Macross’ 10^th Anniversary?  Well over the next two weeks were gonna find out why that might be as we take a look at Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again.

Off the bat I can see one major thing wrong with this one: the Animation.  Macross titles are notorious for being some of the most gorgeous looking Anime in history, especially Do You Remember Love and Macross Plus.  You’d think the same care they got would go to such a celebratory project like Macross II.  While I think some of the character models aren’t bad, the animation overall ranges from decent in space battles to down right terrible, especially by the third episode when it all feels half assed.  Worse yet, one of Macross’ claims to fame, their transformable Mecha planes, look hooooorible.  In the original series, you could see the amount of detail that went into animating these bad ass weapons of the sky.  Macross II’s Valkyries just feel rushed and without inspiration.  To be blunt: they aint pretty.

Ok, so if the mecha and art design doesn’t work, what about the story?  Well, it fares a little better at the start.  I like that our lead character is a journalist who’s being shown that media in a crisis can be manipulated as easily as it is.  The UN Spacey doesn’t want a panic in a crisis so theyre willing to keep a crushing defeat out of the loop just to keep the people happy and keep up the charade that theyre an invincible fighting force.  It really makes “the good guys” almost as menacing as the antagonists of this OVA, the Marduk.  Humanity has been at peace with the Zentradi for so long, it terrifies the frak out of everyone to go back to a war they’ll actually have to work hard at to win.  This mindset is so terrible, even the Ace Valkyrie pilots are so…uncomfortably chill.  Yeah, when they fly out into battle at Jupiter, with everyone dying around them, all Silvie’s flight team is concerned with is why Silvie was caught with a high ranking officer and if theyre getting it on…THERES A WAR ON YOU IDIOTS!!!!!

And who’s our intrepid hero who’s going to get the truth out to everyone?  Why Hibiki Kanzaki of course.  I’ll admit, I’m not as mad with him at the halfway mark as I was at the beginning but Hibiki can still be an insufferable jerk.  While he does have a good stance on news being blacked out by the military, he comes off as more of a whinner than a competent hero.  Like I said, he actually does grow in three episodes thanks to his bond with the beautiful Ishtar and I’m ok with a Macross lead being someone other than a hotshot pilot.  That said, I kind of wish that leading role had instead gone to the gorgeous Silvie Gena, leader of that disturbingly chillaxed Valkyrie squadron.  She doesn’t put up with Hibiki’s crap and even has his same questions about how the military is trying to keep things hush, hush when they have a real problem on their hands with the Marduk that no one wants to admit they have.  As for Ishtar…she’s ok, if not a fish out of water alien character I’ve seen done way too many times, including in the original Macross.  I guess she’s supposed to be the poster girl for this OVA, but in my mind, Silvie is the winner there (and way cuter btw).

I’m not sure what to think about the Marduk beyond their cool sounding Alien language.  Maybe we’ll learn a bit more about them in the latter half but right now they just seem like bad guys to be bad guys without the complexity or depth of the Zentradi.  It is neat that they can counter music with music though.  Music has always been an essential component to any Macross tale from bands to idols to AI controlled Idols and has been used as both a weapon of peace and war.  That said, the music in Macross II isn’t terrible.  The opening and ending themes are decent successors to the original Macross, with the ending theme being particularly beautiful.  My moneys on Ishtar coming up with her own song to help dial back her peoples destructive nature and Hibiki’s gonna get the exclusive scoop on it.

As things stand, Macross II: Lovers Again is…just ok at this point.  There’s a lot to complain about but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested fully.  I wonder if Hibiki and Silvie are going to shock the UN Spacey into more direct action against the Marduk and how the world will react to being lied to about this secret conflict they’ve been kept in the dark about.  Still, when your story with potential looks this uninspired, I can see why this is largely ignored in Macross cannon.  We’ll see if the second half can salvage this rough beginning next week.