The Macross 7 arrives at the beautiful planet Lux, hoping
to meet their fellow fleet, the Macross 5.
To their horror, they discover this paradise hides a dark secret that
has been unleashed by their Alien adversaries: The Protodevlin, a race even the
Zentradi themselves fear. It looks like
Sound Force might be the only team capable of holding them back but when Basara
finds himself captured for an unknown purpose by Gigil, can the Macross and
Fire Bomber survive without him?
There are moments, rare ones but moments nonetheless,
where I can see glimpses of a good Macross sequel in Macross 7.
And for a moment, even a brief one…ok maybe
one episode, I thought it was going to do a major Gundam ZZ turn around at the
start of the second half and become something tolerable (no way it’s going to
be fully good).
But then comes the
reminder that this show is very set in its ways and no matter how intense, dramatic
and surprisingly good the action and chaos can be, Fire Bomber still exists and
thus the wackiness will always return and take precedence.
So when there are moments when things don’t
go their way for Basara and his band, I cheer, I actively cheer cause I cant
stand them that much.
The Basara BS List to end this week mostly boils down to
one major complaint: the fact that everyone in the Macross 7 has begun to treat
this empty headed moron like he’s a Musical Saving Jesus.
It’s gotten to the point where anything involving
music, especially as a defensive tool against the enemy, isnt usable without
Basara involved.
Poor Mylene tries her
hardest but only Gamlin believes in her talent.
Everyone else basically shrugs her off or gives her pity tries to fill
Basara’s shoes.
But nope, Basara is the
Kwizatz Hadarach, the Chosen One, the Musical Messiah.
Boosters don’t work unless he’s singing.
Musical Energy isnt at its most effective if
he isnt singing.
Heck Gigil even
realizes the only way to wake up a hibernating Sivil is to kidnap Basara and
have him sing for her (and even during his capture Basara wont stop singing
like he’s totally oblivious to it).
Remember
how well the original Macross worked as an ensemble piece and how everyone had
to work together to defeat the Zentradi?
Well nevermind that here, Basara is all you need and this show can go
screw itself with that notion.
I was genuinely surprised by the Battle of Lux.
It was like I was watching an entirely
different Macross series in terms of overall animation and storytelling
quality.
The fight was long, drawn out
and had an added sense of dread about it.
You had the entire Macross 5 fleet decimated on the surface and
Geppernich coming back to finish the job so thoroughly he actually felt like a
legitimate threat.
It wasn’t until
Gamlin had to watch his recovered commanding officer, Commander Kinryu,
sacrifice himself to halt the attack that the Macross stood a chance (I’m even
willing to partly forgive Kinryu singing Fire Bomber when he died).
The battle and its aftermath were really,
really well done.
Even the animation was
vastly improved, like they really wanted to put actual effort into this
fight.
It may very well be my favorite
episode of the series so far and I never thought I’d find one.
And as icing on the cake, we later learn that
Basara lost his singing voice after a weird close encounter with Geppernich….YEEEEEEEESSSS!!!!!!
But of course, nothing good lasts forever on this show
and it wasn’t long until Macross 7 was back to business as usual but with even
more terrifying surprises.
Geppernich
has woken up other Protodevlin’s to aid in his fight: specifically Glavil and
Gavil (yeah that’s not gonna get confusing at all).
The former is a mindless Kaiju who has an
admittedly pretty fierce first fight against the Macross.
The latter is another Sailor Moon reject who
is obsessed with beauty so much he cant finish a thought without mentioning
it.
These guys might scare Exedore so
badly that the Zentradi has to hide on the bridge from them, but it is so hard
to take them seriously when they look that silly.
Also Fire Bomber’s music is being converted
into energy that can actually repel them and their forces in just about any
situation…specifically Basara’s music, go figure.
Also, also, why is Gavil using a fighter when
he theoretically has the same fleet destroying powers as Sivil?
Why isnt he ending this fight in like 3-5
minutes?
You can probably chalk that up
to Geppernich’s Spirita Farm thing but still, the Zentradi are scared of these
guys?
Like I said, after the first couple of episodes, all that
increased danger from the arrival of the Protodevlin and the disappearance of
the Macross 5 took a back seat to Macross 7’s usual everyday antics.
Mylene for some reason decided to dress up
like a hooker to get her Dad off of the Macross bridge to start getting her
parents back together.
Fire Bomber’s
getting more and more increasingly ridiculous musically themed attachments for
their fighters against the enemy.
We’ve
even got fighter pilots fighting over each other to see who can date
Mylene.
I’ll admit, despite Mylene’s
questionable tactics, it was good to see Max and Millia not at each others
throats for a change.
We even got to see
a flashback to their younger selves with baby Mylene, it was adorable.
However even Mylene’s kind of upsetting me
when Gamlin is there cheering her on during a lead performance and yet her
musical energy doesn’t spike until Basara arrives late to the concert.
The love triangle is official I guess and it
is far from Hikaru/Misa and Mimmei or Isamu/Gould and Myuung as you can get.
Once again, it’s Gamlin who continues to be the real hero
of Macross 7.
I guess if I’m doing a
hate on Basara list at the beginning of each review, I should do the opposite
for Gamlin at the close.
The dude’s been
through a lot since we met him.
Now he’s
lost both of his original squadmates and has to contend with a new hot headed
rival who is more interested in glory than doing his job.
But Gamlin’s found solace, and growth,
through his relationships with the rest of the cast.
His bond with Mylene has led to him
lightening up, especially when it comes to Basara. As much as I cant stand the
doofus, props to Gamlin for putting his initial resentment of Basara aside and
recognizing he does contribute something to the cause.
And no that’s not a compliment for Basara at
all.
It’s more Gamlin showing he’s got
the stones to grow as a person and change as opposed to Fire Bomber’s hopeless
leading man.
Heck when Basara finally
got fed up with no one wanting to listen to his music in battle and actually
fired a missile, it was Gamlin who called him out on it and told him to stick
to his gimmick.
See?
Character growth is possible when you don’t
write you characters so one note and incapable of such change.
Was it too much to think that Macross 7 would start
getting its act together at the start of its second half?
Probably but the beginning of this set does
have merit even if the rest of it wants to stick to the safety of the Fire
Bomber comedy hour.
At least we got
moments of things not going right for Basara and his band…you know it’s very
wrong when you want the good guys to not win sometimes, right Macross.
Ugh, moving on.
More Macross 7 awaits (unfortunately) Next
Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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