Macross Frontier

vivafruit Dec 10, 2008

4.5

StoryWant to watch a tragedy? Sit through the entirety of Macross Frontier. Then, contemplate what could have been made if the talent behind the anime had been used to make something besides a creatively brain-dead retread of a 20-year-old franchise. In the tradition of Hollywood, Macross F represents an enormous amount of time and money spent on something spectacularly shallow. For a while, the anime is enjoyable on its production values alone, since Macross F has the slickest combination of animation and sound released in a series this year. However, some glitzy animation and a deep, high quality soundtrack can only carry a work so far, and the plot never pulls together into the epic story promised in the first few episodes. Instead, Macross F continues to careen through its to-do list of key plot points, failing to engage the entire way through. Not only are the disparate elements of the show mediocre, but they never come together as a cohesive whole. Nothing fits together, from the predictable pop-star careers to the clumsy love triangle to the fights with boring bugs ripped straight out of Starship Troopers. In fact, at times the show feels like watching a four OVA story stretched into a 25 episode series. To compensate for the added length, the writers try to shoehorn superfluous plot thread after superfluous plot thread into the overarching story, and the final product is about as terrible as you’d expect: bloated, unorganized and in strong need of some ruthless cutting. The unforgivably sloppy ending is the final straw. The writers try to resolve every single one of their endless loose ends in less than five minutes so that they can spend the other fifteen minutes on yet another boring mecha battle. As a result, everything reeks of anticlimax.AnimationThe visuals are heavily aided by computers, and the resulting richness of detail is impressive. Granted, the incessantly glitzy style can get old at times; in particular, the luminous, almost neon color palette is a little painful. Still, no one is going to complain that the animators were underfunded. Arguably the best use of animation comes during the song performances. This is the best musical choreography that I have ever seen in an animated work, and no, nothing else comes close. I've lost count of how many times I've rewatched Ranka's performance of “Watashi no Kare wa Pilot.” Sadly, for all of the glitz and glamour, the action scenes are surprisingly yawn-inducing. While they’re by no means terrible, oftentimes they lack any sort of kinetic punch. By that, I mean that there's little sense of immediacy to the entire affair, and watching the fights occasionally feels more like tedious exercise than genuine excitement. Compared to the intensely frenetic battles in Macross Zero, this is a definite step backwards.SoundThe music is nice, at least. Some of Sheryl's songs are a little dull, but Ranka's singer has a great voice and some catchy songs to work with. Also, there's such a huge selection of songs that the show can pick and choose over the course of the series, ensuring none of tracks get old. Voice acting is workmanlike but unremarkable. Series like this illustrate how difficult giving a convincing performance can be when the script is ass.CharactersI’ve written about bloated casts before in my reviews of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and My-Hime, and the same concept applies here. Given the depth of the narrative, there are about five times as many characters as the show really needed. A lot of the characters' only perceivable function is to take up space and make the story seem more epic than it is. The result is that I didn't care about anyone: not about the by-the-numbers protagonist (no, adding a ponytail is not innovation) and certainly not about the numerous contrived half-baked romances between the side-characters. The fact that Ranka (girl #1) also isn't likeable is telling of just how utterly the writers fail, because God knows they try to get the audience to care about her. Still, in spite of the endless GAMBATTE dialogue, in spite of the bullshit tragic backstory, in spite of the contrived amnesia plot device, in spite of the 5,000,000 yen character design, in spite of all of this, nothing works and the primary emotion associated with her is still "indifference." Sheryl (girl #2) fares slightly better, if for no other reason than that her personality actually feels vaguely different from the clichéd character archetypes that the rest of the characters so faithfully follow. However, since her main deviation from cliche is her nigh-infinite superciliousness, oftentimes “different” translates to “annoying.” All of this culminates into an absolute disaster of a love triangle, which is easily the least convincing of any Macross work released to date. Yes, worse than Zero's. With Zero, the characters aren't given enough dialogue to convince us that there is any real romance between them. With Macross F, the deluge of face-palm dialogue convinces us that there couldn't be any romance.OverallMacross F is mediocre from the very beginning, but the series is initially enjoyable on the strength of the visuals and music alone. However, this appeal gradually fades, and by the end, the only real appeal comes from finishing the damn thing. Throw in the terribad ending, and Macross F is one of the worst full length series I've finished in some time.

ThatAnimeSnob Apr 30, 2012

6

Macross F is a perfect example of what happens to a franchise if it stays too much in the field. It eventually runs out of ideas and excitement and goes for cheap entertainment. While the original series was also light in nature and had some fan service, it was still a cornerstone in anime history for its good production values as well as its interesting cast. Well F is none of that. It came out in a time where its visuals, although good, are not awesome next to anything else that airs close to it, and its story and cast are hardly as captivating. One could say that it’s because nothing feels special and original anymore, or that there are several well made series annually to chose from, unlike back in the time when the original owned everything else that aired at the same time. Although that is a factor too, breaking down the facts of the anime still shows how it doesn’t hold up to its predecessor. Speaking of that, F is indeed the sequel to the original, as well as Zero and Dynamite 7, a thing that it made clear with several allusions and references to the events that took place in the previous instalments. Although that is very good to make you feel familiar with the setting, at the same time they overdid it with the tributes. You clearly see that they deliberately rehash the plot of the original and even make a movie of the events of Zero. It’s as if F was focusing too much on the fans’ nostalgia and far less on continuing the story forward. That is just cheap.Now about the actual story. It is messy! Really. It tried to be epic and mysterious and more mature than before by including a hive mind notion, yet ended up as nothing but a silly mecha show with shallow logic, corny romance, and unexplained events. Especially the fate of the lost SDF is enough to demand a series of its own. While the original had a storyboard that kept changing continually to something else, F wasted most of its duration on simple events, tributes to prequels, and silly romance. And while the original had events that led to an interplanetary war and the almost extinction of the human race, F feels like a few skirmishes around a small part of humanity. It is simply all too underwhelming. I can go on comparing everything else that the original did better. Here, let me choose the Zedraedi for example. They were awesome adversaries in the original for being war-like, unable to think past their way of life, scary and mysterious, yet curious of our way of life. They were a huge contrast with the humans. In F though, they behave almost like us, having intergraded to our way of living. They no longer feel as anything more that huge people. Not only that but the only important alien character in the whole show is a Meltran female warrior, who for some genetic problem turns to a loli when she assumes human size. The conflict in her story was how she couldn’t do all the sexual stuff with the guy she liked. And that is aaaall the offer she had in the show. What a joke they made out of the once great Zedraedi. Shall I go to the new adversaries of this season? They were a bunch of space bugs called Vajra. They have no personality because of their group mind and for the whole anime they hardly show any signs of interaction. They are completely boring! There is also a person with a hidden agenda who tries to exploit the whole linked mind notion to become a god and stuff, but the whole thing is shown so messy, you just don’t even care.And then it’s the romantic interest in this season. Apart from the fact they are hardly memorable for following their stereotypes down to the finest detail, their very interaction is just silly. Where the original had a catchy premise of a normal young man having to choose between the mature military girl or the perky pop idol, here it is if he has to chose the butchy pop idol or his non-blood related loli pop idol. Well that is just silly; especially since in the end he doesn’t even choose one. Yeah, a goddamn harem ending is what you get. To the most part you see them only as pale imitations of the originals desperately trying to keep you interested with tired anime clichés around pop idols and corny romance as well as references to the original cast. The only thing I have no problem with is the production values, which I found them very good. For their time the action and the ever present pop songs are very well done. There are some quality drops in animation later on but nothing much to ruin your already not so good impression further. In all, it is not as entertaining or even as well planned as the original. Although it does have some cool action scenes and continues the story forward, it is messy and far more typical. Almost like an average space adventure albeit with good production values. I can same the same about any other show that followed the original Macross, simply because it was no longer directed by the most awesome Ishiguro Noboru (who also directed Legend of Galactic Heroes) but was switched to Kawamori Shouji. He pretty much directed all following major Macross projects and they were all hardly as interesting. He clearly lacks the talent of his predecessor and even made a fool of himself by agreeing to direct a very tasteless show called Basquash. In all, I still recommend this anime but only if you have or plan to watch the rest in the franchise and only if your bar is rather low.

arashileonhart Mar 7, 2011

8

For the 25th anniversary of the original Macross—known in the states as Robotech—we are given the product of Macross Frontier. Set in 2059, nearly fifty years after the original, Macross F tells the story of the fleet group Frontier as they make their way toward the center of the Milky Way Galaxy in hopes of finding a suitable planet to colonize. Macross F follows the story of three teenagers: Alto Saotome, a former kabuki actor with dreams of flying in a non-colony ship habitat, Ranka Lee, a waitress with dreams of becoming an idol singer, and Sheryl Nome, a traveling international superstar and Ranka’s favorite singer. The three are invariably thrust into the story together as the Frontier colony is attacked by unknown alien beings that somehow seem drawn to the colony. First, to be clear: Macross F is meant to, like all other Macross stories before it, be at heart a retelling of the original story. Like the Gundam series, Macross refrains similar characters and ideas almost like a musical composition and adds or subtracts elements to make it fresh and enjoyable. For anyone that is familiar with the original Macross or its Robotech localization in the States, the storyline will be extremely reminiscent and the characters regularly echo their Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa origins; however, they also break away from those origins just enough that none of the characters come across as absolute clones. Reverences to the original and other stories of the Macross universe abound, however, including but not limited to Ozma Lee’s similarities to Roy Focker, an iteration of the original Macross’ song "Watashi no Kare wa Pilot," and attack formations named for Macross 7's band Fire Bomber. The story itself is, in many ways, secondary to the characters and their interactions. Much as a Space Opera should, it really centers around the adventures of the three characters and their friends amidst a larger picture each only has a small part out of the whole. Alto is no Luke Skywalker or even comparable to his Gundam hero counterparts; he is, instead, a teenage boy that has just enough talent and just enough drive to carry him through the situations he is presented with. Ranka herself, though similar to Lynn Minmay of the original Macross, is no idle window dressing and grows up significantly through the series, from aspiring singer to the spiritual heart of the show and its themes of communication. Sheryl likewise goes through an evolution, though one might argue it is a devolution, as she starts the show as seemingly the most mature of the three but comes out of the story having learned the most from her younger counterparts. And that is, perhaps, the series strongest feature: a love triangle that never seems to favor either side and always gives each character a moment to shine. As Macross is known for its music, this series does not disappoint: indeed, in Japan, it smashed decade-old records for anime-related music sales. Singer-seiyuu Megumi Nakajima (Ranka) and singer May’n (Sheryl’s singing voice) have gone from unknown singers prior to the show to selling out Japan’s Budokan Stadium for their performances. The setting music is no slouch either, as Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell) once again delivers an extremely complex yet sympathetic score that sets up both energetic battle sequences and startlingly poignant moments between the cast. Animation is slick and colorful and hardly looks like anything else in the market today. Although jarring to some extent, the integration of CGI visuals for space battles is some of the smoothest integration of CGI in two-dimensional animation to date, and the well-done pacing and energy of the battle sequences help obfuscate the disconnect between the two. Of any mecha series, this is probably the easiest show to simply slip into, watch, enjoy, and feel entertained by without the headaches caused by the browbeating shows in the Gundam series evoke. That being said, it is still deep enough and its themes on love and life are still strong enough that it is more than mere popcorn entertainment.