Macross Frontier!

[Newtype]

Who put sand in your bonnet?

 

stupid people and work but mostly the stupid people at work.

 

So what did you think of this show?

 

I loved all the little nods to the past shows.

[bishopcruz]

Ok, did a marathon of this over the last couple of days, and I have to say it was better than i expected. Not perfect, no, and still not as good as the original, or shall I say the Macross Saga part of Robotech (still have to see the entire original series in its original form) but it was much much better than 7, and at times nears Macross Plus in quality.

 

Liked:

 

The Mechs - Seriously, the VF-25 and 27s were the SHIT!!! really cool designs that looked awesome, and were a nice tribute to earlier Valkyries.

The tone - Nice mix of light, dark, epic and mundane, much like the original series. Very good in that regard.

The music - Possibly the best part of the show, Yoko Kanno is a beast of a composer, and she does an amazing job here writing not only the background music, but all the songs. At times the tracks do sound like unused pieces from Plus, but hell that's really not a bad thing.

The love for the fans - Throughout the series the creators subvert expectations about how the plot is going to go based on dropping in similar situations to previous Macross titles, and then going a different way with them, there are a couple in particular that could have gone horribly wrong, but the twist made them very interesting.

Zentradi - The Zentradi had often been ignored in everything past the first series, and seeing them full sized had been rare, this one really did it right, by showing that their culture had integrated, yet retained a sense of identity. Very, very cool.

Sheryl's story arc: Best done arc in the series, very interesting, and at times extremely moving. She was also probably the most complex and unique character in the show.

 

Meh:

The characters: Outside of Sheryl, most of the characters felt pretty cliche. I never warmed to Alto like I did to Hikaru or Isamu, and that was kinda a pain. A few standouts existed, but were often underused, I would have liked to see more of the bridge crew and Klan's friends. It's wierd, in the same number of episodes, the original series was able to juggle a similarly sized cast MUCH more effectively than they were here. Let me add that Ranka did not turn out as bas as I feared she would, but she was still pretty damned annoying at times.

The triangle: Really could have been handled better, and a lot of it has to do with the characterization of Alto. He seems to vacillate in his feelings from one episode to the next, and there are times I don't buy some of the emotional pay of moments.

 

Dislike:

Otaku pandering: There are a few things that happened in this show that are pretty much done, because it's become an Anime cliche. First of course is the UBER Moe, Ranka, who seems created by committee, and because apparently Otaku all want to fuck their little sisters. The high school setting is next, we've gone through several Macross series without having to bring high school into a space opera. Why start now? Macross has also, until now, mostly avoided having ridiculously young protagonists, but this one embraced it wholeheartedly. Having 3 of the 4 main pilots be in the 16-18 range just bothered me. There wasn't much need for it.

Villains: The Vajra were horrible, HORRIBLE villains, and the whole secret about them, and the background with

the Galaxy survivors, who are now apparently clyons.

was pretty lame too. The fights were great, but without knowing what is really going on with an enemy, I can't get as involved in the overall fight.

 

Now don't get me wrong, this is a REALLY good series, and much of this is just me picking nits. The overall direction of the show is amazing, and it is the best Macross we have had in over a decade. If they decide to do a sequel series, and fix up some of the hanging problems (ditch the high school angle, better villains) then it could be one of the all time classics.

 

As it stands it is a worthy addition to Macross, gets the juggling of personal drama, space fights, and a focus on inappropriately bubbly music right, and is damned addictive. Best of this type of show I have seen in a long time.

 

Edit: Also, anyone else get "What 'bout my star?" stuck in their head fora few days after hearing it?

[bishopcruz]

Trailer is out for the Movie version coming out this year:

 

 

let's hope we actually get a better ending.