T5W#516-Top 5 Macross Titles I’ve Reviewed

While they overshot it by a couple of weeks into 2025, as opposed to the promised 2024, the New Year came with a special gift: a whole plethora of Macross titles making their US debut on Disney+.  Finally, after years of waiting, I can dig into this vast library of the franchise and see the stories I’ve never seen before like Macross 7 and Macross Delta.  Macross 7 is our big Extended Summer Series Review this year, set to launch Next Monday, with Macross Frontier following later in September to close out our Mega Mecha Summer Event.  Til then, how about we recap the transforming plane awesomeness to grace the Gundam Anime Corner in the last decade or so with the Top 5 Macross Titles I’ve Reviewed.

 
#5-Macross Zero

Meant to mark the 20^th Anniversary of the franchise, a Macross prequel sounds fun in concept, especially if we get to see the first official unveiling of the transformable fighters that changed warfare forever.  However, instead of looking at the lives of the original Macross crew in the lead up to the first Zentradi War, Macross Zero focuses on a new cast of characters in a conflict that feels out of place and ultimately inconsequential considering what happens later.  The animation and action is fantastic with the CG updates but Zero’s story can never match it, feeling more like a poor mans Rahxephon than Macross.
 

#4-Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again

Zero isnt the only anniversary landmark Macross has had trouble with.  Macross II, the 10^th Anniversary Celebration, has little of the original series’ creative talent behind it and it shows.  The animation is pretty low quality for a Macross entry and the mecha designs are pretty lackluster.  While things do pick up considerably in quality in the second half of this six episode OVA, Macross II still feels like a hollow and quickly rushed out title to mark 10 years of Macross.  They really should have waited a couple more years for another title that we’ll get to in due time.
 

#3-Super Dimension Fortress Macross

The one that started it all and did for Mecha in the 80s what Gundam did in the late 70s.  Macross breathed new life into the genre with high flying action sequences and a scale that dwarfed many that came before it.  It also expertly balances all the mecha awesomeness with a very human story at the heart of the conflict.  The love triangle component between Hikaru Ichigo, Misa Hayase and Lynn Minmei is so critical to the narrative that its become a staple of just about every entry in the franchise.  Action, Romance, Intergalactic Warfare and catchy JPop tunes?  Macross has something for everyone, even if youre not a mecha fan.
 

#2-Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?

How is it this feels more like an anniversary event than other entries we’ve discussed.  Released a couple of years after the end of the TV Series, Do You Remember Love is a alternate telling of the original story with a greater emphasis on the love story between its three main leads.  While the TV Series already looked great, the movie gives Macross a helluva visual upgrade, with many hailing the film as one of the best looking Anime ever made.  Compacting over 20 episodes of material into a two hour film isnt easy but somehow Do You Remember Love manages to pull it off with style and flair while never losing sight of the elements that made Macross such a hit in the first place.
 

#1-Macross Plus

They say the “Perfect Anime” doesn’t exist but Macross Plus is evidence to the contrary.  Acting as a sequel and stand alone story to the original Macross, Macross Plus is a perfect entry point into the franchise without needing to know much, if anything, about the TV Series.  Rather than focusing on a massive galaxy spanning war, Macross Plus centers its efforts on three childhood friends torn apart by past traumas struggling to get by in the present.  The animation is flawless and still holds up by todays standards.  The high flying action looks better than ever, taking the classic Macross dogfighting to the next level.  And giving the musical duties to one Yoko Kanno?  Stroke of pure genius.  Macross Plus is a title that aims for the sky and beyond and blasts past it leaving nothing but awe in its wake.  Like I said, it’s basically perfect.