Macross 7 Part 1 Episodes 1-5

2045 AD.  Thirty Five years have passed since the end of the Zentradi War.  Humanity has rebuilt and begun pressing further into the sea of starts.  The Macross 7, leading a deep space Emigration Fleet to the Galactic Core, comes under attack from a mysterious enemy with unknown weaponry.  But the Macross isnt totally defenseless.  They possess their own secret weapon in the form of Basara Nekki, a hardcore rocker who loves music and wants to share it with the universe, even if it means flying into the middle of a battlefield to play his songs.

Welcome Dear Readers to our annual Extended Summer Series Review.  It’s hard to believe that as popular as Macross was in the 80s, it wasn’t until 1994 that it got a full on TV Series sequel.  Considering how game changing the original was and how excellent Macross Plus turned out, I’m sure expectations for a new Macross TV Series were high.  Well we’ll be looking at the entire series over the next few weeks.  Though, based on how I felt about things right at the end of Episode 1, I’ve gotta say…I think I’m in trouble folks.
 
Alright, let’s just jump into the biggest problem with Macross 7 so far: Basara.  Look I’m not opposed to following a musician as the lead in Macross.  Given how important music is to the universe it makes sense to me.  What doesn’t make sense is how immensely unlikeable they try to make Basara at every turn.  He’s obsessed with singing to the point where he’ll risk his life to do so on a chaotic battlefield.  He’s oblivious to just about everything around him and nothing is ever HIS fault, it’s always the fault of others.  Oh and when I say he’ll risk his life, I mean Basara wont try to harm a hair on anyone if he can help it and gets pissed when he finds out his custom Valkyrie is outfitted with defensive missiles.  Honestly, that’s only scratching the surface and not getting into his disregard for human life in battle and baffling ego tripping.  I’m guessing much of this ten part series review is going to have at least one section dedicated to Basara’s BS of the episode set…in fact maybe I should take a cue from popular scifi reviewer SFDebris and create a “Stupid Basara Moment” for each review…but narrowing that down will be difficult.  Honestly, just seeing his face on screen is enough to classify as a stupid moment.
 
Ok, the lead is terrible.  How’s the rest of the series premiere?  I do like that we’re following a deep space exploration fleet, showing that despite nearly facing annihilation 30 years earlier, Humanity is flourishing amongst the stars (as if Macross Plus wasn’t evidence of that).  I don’t quite get how the fleet itself works, much less the Macross 7 itself.  We haven’t gotten a good up close inspection of the ship yet so for all I know, it’s just that giant clam shaped structure.  Actually, that’s the city of the ship, housing upwards of one million people.  We’ve only glimpsed the battleship section and there’s no indication it can transform like it’s predecessor.  Also the fleet is interconnected by shuttles via space highways, I’m not even kidding.  It’s a far cry from the impressive makeshift job they did on the original Macross after it jumped an entire island population to Pluto.  I guess I’dve like to see the launching of this fleet to get a better deal of how it’s made up.
 
Running the fleet are some of the returning characters from the original Macross: Max and Milia Jenius, now that captain of the Macross 7 and Mayor of the City 7 section respectively.  Ignoring the annoyance of making a popular romantic couple hate each other because reasons, the dynamic between Max and Milia kind of reminds me of Admiral Adama and President Roslin from the Battlestar Galactica reboot, with the pair often butting heads over how much the government should be brought into matters involving military matters and vice versa.  It makes sense to put Macross veterans in charge of a new Macross vessel but do we really need the lovers quarrel drama that comes with it?  Hopefully Hikaru and Misa are doing better than these two.  Oh and Exedore is acting as Max’s second in command…and he’s just a giant head right now on the bridge (I assume he’s Zentradi body is still intact but why is he back to his original body size?).
 
We’ll talk about the musical aspect of Macross 7 in a moment but let’s touch on the action first.  Everyone knows the Macross franchise is famous for its high stakes and fast paced dogfights in space between transforming mecha fighter planes and alien adversaries.  Macross 7 has that…but even when you don’t compare it to the majesty of Macross Plus, the action is not that impressive.  Fights play out similarly across the first five episodes with an extreme lack of the usual missile dodging acrobatics Valkyries are known to do often.  It’s, in a word “dull” which is not what you want your Macross action sequence to be.  It doesn’t help either that Basara will butt his head into the middle of a battle just to blast his music (with mini speakers he fires from his rifle btw) and the head of Diamond Force, Gamlin, practically begs his superiors to shoot Basara down just for being in the way…and always being told no.  There’s none of the traditional Macross magic in the action and to me, that’s unacceptable.
 
If action doesn’t seem like Macross 7’s priority…well that’s because it isnt.  The energy lacking in battles in space has clearly been allocated to the music and let me tell you, for better or worse, the music slaps.  Macross 7’s biggest claim to fame in the franchise is the number of OST’s it’s put out with music from Basara and his band, Fire Bomber.  Hate him or hate him, Basara can sing and his band can jam.  Tracks like the head banging OP Seventh Moon and My Soul For You are excellent additions to Macross’ impressive musical roster.  There’s even some Macross Plus music being used in various spots, fitting since 7 was coming out during Macross Plus’ OVA run.  However, kind of like with Minmei’s two or three reused tracks in the original series, you might get a little tired of Basara trying to sing the same damn song in battle over and over again.  I do wanna hear more Fire Bomber originals.  But is this really going to be the only part of the show worth singing praises about? (no pun intended). 
 
There’s an entire pletohora of questions I still have after Macross 7’s first five episodes.  What the hell is “Spiritia” and why are these new Aliens after it (also why do they have Mechs that look like Valkyries?).  Just why is Basara allowed to do whatever the hell he wants and why isnt Max doing anything about it?  What’s up with the bands admittedly hot Zentradi drummer, Veffidas, and why does she only seem to communicate through drum solos?  Why are there run down sections of buildings in City 7?  That cant just be for authenticity sake.  Are we gonna bring up Basara bringing a battle into civilian sections and he doesn’t get arrested for not giving a damn about potential casualties cause he’s so focused on having his song heard?  And just who the hell is that blonde girl with flowers who keeps popping up everywhere Fire Bomber goes?
 
This is gonna be a painful experience, isnt it?  Well 5 episodes down, 44 more to go (there are some bonus OVA episodes but I’ll probably skip those).  Macross 7 has begun but I already smell the flames of a crash and burn…but at least there’s good music for the trip.  We’ll see how many more of my brain cells Basara can slaughter with his stupidity when we return to Macross 7 on Friday, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.