20https://bestanimations.com/SignsShapes/Arrows/Left/leftarrow15.gif https://anilist.co/review/7456 20https://bestanimations.com/SignsShapes/Arrows/Right/rightarrow29.gif https://www..com/watch?v=ZDtRsJ9GE520https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rszmacross74407.jpg LISTEN TO MY SONG REVIEW ANILIST AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHhttps://youtu.be/Deui1C5tA?t=25 If you couldnt tell from me opening my review with an oftused quote from Macross 7 I had a lot of fun with this show and I had a lot of fun reviewing it too. Its the same the same type of fun I had watching Mobile Fighter G Gundamhttps://anilist.co/review/3900. Compared to other entries in their respective series both shows are silly dare I say dumb even. Yet they take themselves seriously enough to ground them. Theyre goofy yes but endearingly so. Theyre just so earnest and exciting that its hard to not love them despite how radically different they are from the rest of their series. Your mileage obviously will vary a lot based on what youre looking for in mecha its essentially the difference between real robothttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperRobotGenre and super robot.https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperRobotGenre That said despite how much it departs from what weve seen before it still feels like a Macross show still ultimately committing to the same themes and aesthetics established in Super Dimensional Fortress Macrosshttps://anilist.co/review/3394 just changing how theyre conveyed. For what its worth this very well may be my favorite Macross show thus far. But enough of the warm up lets get this concert rolling The story of Macross 7 takes place thirtysix years after the events of the original series and five years after Plus though 7 is definitely more of a sequel to SDF than Plus and its Zentraedi War which culminated in the coexistence between humans and Zentraedi. Two years later of course during the finale of the original series humanity decides to take to the stars in order to ensure their survival by creating colonies throughout the galaxy. Macross 7 takes place on one of these colony fleets the 37th Long Distance Colony Fleet led by the eponymous Macross 7 which is comprised of the residential City 7 and the battle carrier Battle 7. Macross 7 follows Nekki Basara the leader of an upandcoming rock band known as Fire Bomber. Macross 7 begins when their concert is interrupted as sirens blare. The fleet is being attacked by an unknown force and Macross 7s elite special force unit Diamond Force is sent out to repel the enemy. However in an act that shocks the military most notably the deuteragonist the straightlaced Gamlin Kizaki and new enemy alike Basara a citizen with apparently no military training also sorties to battle in an unregistered ruby red custom Excalibur variablefighter astute viewers might notice that the VFExcalibur Custom is derived from the YF19 the variablefighter that Isamu piloted in Plus. In an act that will soon become nothing short of iconic Nekki Basara commands the enemy to listen to his song before he begins singing and playing guitar in the middle of an active battlezone. Thankfully Macross 7 doesnt suffer heavy casualties and the enemy retreats. The military is obviously confused at the rockers actions but he flees the area before they can question him. As the story of Macross 7 unfolds we follow the career of Fire Bomber as well as Gamlin discover the identity of the new alien force and find out why in the cosmos Nekki Basara keeps flying into battle to sing at the enemy. 520https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks000041260450svk6yzt500x500.jpg You can probably tell by the synopsis how wild this show is. Very quickly we learn that in Macross 7 battles may be waged with bullets and reaction weaponry theyre won by the immortal unadulterated power of rockhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThePowerOfRock. I can see how some could be annoyed by this. While its better in some episodes than others as a whole the power of music doesnt supplement the power of actual weaponry but instead completely replaces it in Macross 7 the fearsome reaction weaponryhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NuclearWeaponsTaboo are rendered a complete joke in the face of the new enemy the Protodeviln. What does work wonders is Fire Bomber flying out to give the enemy a show and rock them into absolute submission. If you still need an example of what type of show this is the villains are revealed to be what essentially amounts to space vampires draining other species of their spiritia essentially spirit with an ia attached to the end to get stronger leaving the victims in a comatose state. And want to know how spiritiadrained individuals get better? If you guessed through the power of Fire Bombers singing then congratulations Give yourself an easilyearned treat. Apparently Macross 7 is an extremely contentious show within the fandom and I can definitely see why. Most of the time Macross 7 reads less as a serious war drama and more like a Saturday Morning Cartoon. But I absolutely revel in Macross 7s more silly elements its a fun show one of the more outlandish Ive seen in recent years yet it never really feels like its dipping into joke show territory. 520https://cdn.donmai.us/original/54/7d/547d1eb480d568ae30d9bd69d86ce9c4.jpg The show works in large part due to its treat of a main character Nekki Basara. As you can begin to see in my synopsis Nekki Basara is a very ridiculous character but he works because hes a ridiculous character for a ridiculous very fun show. I wouldnt say he carries the show because there are many great elements that carry the load but I would say hes a great character to carry us into the show. Hes a young man with a very onetrack mind if there was a telepathic character theyd go deaf the moment they tried getting into Basaras mind because theyd find themselves blasted with Planet Dance at ungodly decibels. What you see is largely what you get just a guy that believes in the power of music and wants to spread his shredding guitarbacked message of love throughout the galaxy. Theres not much in terms of development but we certainly get a bit of it. He begins a devout pacifist and still largely is by the end but hes more willing to accept weaponry if its used to save others even if it still pisses him off. In the series proper we dont even get much of a backstory besides the fact that as a child Basara would sing at a mountain believing that if he did it enough it would move which is in parts ridiculous parts naively charming and parts so goddamned onbrand that it actually starts to hurt a bit. The chaotic energy that radiates from this guy is such that this is probably the only thing a given anime fan will know of him: https://www..com/watch?v=JYps5fUrAWs As someone whos watched the series Im pleased to tell you thats as much context as youre going to get. Ive seen two theorieshttps://basaranekki.weebly.com/explainingtheleafgif.html as to the meaning of this scene yes I know. Reading this it might seem like Basaras a bit generic after all having a dense protagonist with a onetrack mind is a pretty big staple of shounen. Just replace music with fighting becoming hokage or whatever have you. I still think Basara ends up being more unique than not though. For one hes not really dense at least when it comes to relationships. He might come across as this way but I think its moreso than hes just a really chill person who takes things in stride. Its not that he doesnt grasp things its just that he doesnt particularly acknowledge them. Furthermore he has a surprising amount of attitude. Theres a certain edge a bite to Basara that you might not expect. He can be a bit of an ass to his bandmates most notably Mylene and in general is often rude and brusque when it comes to...well anything that doesnt involve music. And hey if Basara isnt quite your cup of tea Macross 7s got you covered through Gamlin who balances out Basara excellently essentially serving as his Javerthttps://www..com/watch?v=qNAOKyoGm8g. Gamlins the salt to Basaras spice and his role in the love triangle that Ill get into further contrasts him with Basara as hes the Betty to Basaras Veronicahttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BettyAndVeronica. Even if you like Basara if youre dumbfounded at his antics youll no doubt empathize with the militaryman Gamlin who just wants to ensure that no one gets hurt from Basaras reckless actions. Theres just something endearing about how awkward he is when hes not on a battlefield and I kind of saw myself in him in ways. He quickly and easily became my favorite character of the show as one of my favorites overallhttps://anilist.co/user/Pockeyramune919/favorites. He has some pretty good character development wherein hes brought closer to Basaras pointofview. Mylene also serves as a good foil to Basara getting her own bit of positive development. I cant stress how well she plays off as him. In another series her complaining might make viewers annoyed but in the face of Basara nearly everything she says is justified. I liked the supporting cast in general. While its a shame that no one else is quite as fleshed out as Mylene Gamlin or Basara the cast is at least pretty colorful and I liked the other bandmates Rey and Veffidas. It was also nice to see Max and Millia again and see how they changed. Take notes Yashahime this is how you satisfyingly utilize your existing characters while still focusing on the next generation. 520https://gubabablog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/7ep6.png?w=700 The character designs themselves also inform the tone of the show in ways. Haruhiko Mikimoto returns as character designer following his absence in Plus. As always his designs are stylized but theyre particularly striking here. Theyre quite loud for a lack of better word like the music this anime rocks and they fit in with some of the more outthere elements. Hair is notable for its wildness Mylenes is bright pink Gamlin rocks a haircut thats either Wolverine or Devil Horns and Exedolhttps://i.ur.com/44fa0KF.jpg is pretty much a giant head of broccoli. Fire Bombers outfits are a mix between glam rock and cyberpunk Basara has a wild spiky mane thighhigh white boots sleeveless rubber vest with...lights a leaf...zipper and a fishnet vest beneath. Its the little things that Haruhiko does too. I love Basaras glasses theyre just another thing that makes him distinct. There arent a terrible amount of main characters with glasses in the first place and Basaras dont pigeonhole him into a nerd role. The mech designs are also great. Theyre extremely distinct. At times I have trouble remembering the valkyries from previous series but thats not a problem for Basaras very striking Excalibur Custom. When the entire band of Fire Bomber gets mechs the designs are all very colorful teambased and in general super robotesque. I loved seeing the evolution of designs we first saw in Plus such as the Strumvel and the aforementioned Excalibur. I feel like Im beating around the bush the longer I hold off on talking about Macross 7s music. In short I absolutely adore its rock songs. If rock isnt your thing this show might not be for you because not an episode goes by where Fire Bomber isnt rocking. Furthermore Basara will sing the same song a lot Planet Dance is sung thirtyeight times so if you dont particularly like the songs it will get grating really quickly. But I guess Im the perfect viewer listener? for this show because I never got tired of the songs. Its no surprise I love the music as much as I do after all rock is one of my favorite genres of music and the electric guitar is my favorite instrument along with the synth. Rock always has a way to get my bloodpumping in a way that makes it hard for me to acknowledge how formulaic Macross 7 probably is. None of the songs are particularly intricate perhaps theyre not even objectively good but they always bring a smile on my face. Macross 7 handles its OST in a pretty cool way. Save for the awesome OPs and EDs Macross 7 features no nondiegetic sound everything you hear will have a source that exists in the show itself. If no one is singing or a radio isnt playing inshow radios have played the Torch Songhttps://www..com/watch?v=liCOzDWJl58 as well as songs from II apparently so Im going to say its canon and no one can stop me then the audio track will be completely silent. This does a good job of pushing the importance of music. Another cool thing is Mylenes voice as a backing vocal gets more prominent as the series goes on. You can definitely hear the difference when you compare Planet Dancehttps://www..com/watch?v=2C1Bh8FTlpY to the later Try Againhttps://www..com/watch?v=jw58JNlFPg. Speaking of which just a few great tracks are Planet Dance Seventh Moonhttps://www..com/watch?v=GaaTC1MCY0 Pillow Dreamhttps://www..com/watch?v=GsqX5fZOUfQ Holy Lonely Nighthttps://www..com/watch?v=qTlio9lPUfQ Power to the Dreamhttps://www..com/watch?v=3xZClLqSKY My Friendshttps://www..com/watch?v=crohJP5HMWk Remember Sixteenhttps://www..com/watch?v=qNAOKyoGm8g and My Soul For Youhttps://www..com/watch?v=WOVaAOPoEto. 520https://4.bp.blogspot.com/vZfa6FGFEH0/WlaGeKGcqSI/AAAAAAAAdgc/2lRcuhCQSFBOgohZbkCrh7ZVy3EKgCLcBGAs/s1600/Macross7SoundForceValkyries.jpg I just realized. The Macross 7 fleet fights the Protodeviln force in space. Basara sings at them. How the hell can they hear him? You cant say radio because he primarily will use speakers to amplify his sound waves. Which you cant hear because space is a vacuum thus a pisspoor medium for You know what its Macross 7 thinking about it takes away from the fun. While some might decry Macross 7 as a departure from the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross which is fair its definitely more in style and tone and not in themes and preoccupations. The original Macross was all about the intersection between the power war has to alienate people and the power music has to bring people together. In using music to pacify the enemy Macross 7 simply heightens a theme weve seen before and the ending is peak optimistic Macross 7 as opposed to the nighteternally pessimistic Gundam. Speaking of continuing the originals themes Macross 7 like SDF Plus and technically II has a love triangle. Theres actually two with BasaraMyleneGamlin and SivilBasaraMylene. Im pleased to say I enjoyed it this time around. I think its mainly because it never quite dominates the plot in ways that most love stories do I guess its mainly because Basara is part of them. Its to the point where neither is quite resolved which is admittedly a bit of a con. Unlike the original theres no payoff for this plotpoint but hey I suppose its better than being annoyed over who wins. 520https://gubabablog.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/7ep27f.png?w=640 While Ive praised the show to highheaven for its silliness the show isnt afraid to tone it down and be serious at times. Theres still death even though its not in spades and it does depict war even if its not quite War is Helltv tropes. Some of the highlights of the series are its more somber and mature moments such as dealing with the loss of a friend or having to grapple with divorce. Fortunately for me at least there really arent many glaring flaws to Macross 7. Sure there are things that arent great but none of them impede my enjoyment too much. One of the most common complaints Ive heard levied against the show is its length. At 49 episodes its the longest Macross show beating out the original SDF Macross by thirteen episodes. I didnt really balk at the episode count Gundam prepared me for shows of this length and I assumed every Macross show from this point on would be around 50 episodes. While I agree that it didnt need to be this long it doesnt feel artificially extended which is a lot more than I can say for SDF Macross. Many will point to this shows filler that doesnt advance the plot but for better and for worse this largely is the show so it really doesnt feel like its at odds with what the shows trying to achieve. The length more becomes a problem if youre not completely into how the show does things. The show certainly would feel like a slog past a certain point if you dislike how formulaic it can be. Macross 7 is certainly a dog that can be taught new tricks but its also a dog that will get its moneys worth out of said tricks doing them again and again before moving on. Episodes can really begin to blend together something could be said about the fact that I struggled to remember when this show actually starts. The first episode at least from what I can remember isnt notably distinct from other early episodes other than the simple fact that it was the first. Finally the show can feel a bit long due to the pacing or rather sort of lack thereof. You already know my deal I never found Macross 7 boring but given its pacing I can see how some might. Again its a show that takes its sweet time not just in plot but in the medium of said plot. Episodes are generally selfcontained without much incentive to immediately watch the next one. My sporadic viewing methods actually helped me here. My heart goes out to whoever tries to binge this their first go because it really wasnt made for it. Hell watching an episode a day as mandated by rewatch threads is still pushing it. The ideal way to watch this is an episode or few per week. 520https://i.ebay.com/images/g/J08AAOSwR2RZ7WK5/sl300.jpg A critique I can get behind more is Basaras character. Hes a hard character to get into as he doesnt change that much and throughout were not very privy to his thoughts. Ive heard Basara defended as a force of nature rather than a character but I never found those types of characters satisfying at least not in the face of actual people. Dont get me wrong Basaras still fun as hell I just wish they made more of an effort to explore him as a person and not a setpiece. Many characters in general feel a bit bare Veffidas and to a lesser extent Ray come to mind. A deep character dive this aint. If youre a character in Macross 7 and your name isnt Mylene or Gamlin youre probably getting the short end of the stick. 520https://basaranekki.weebly.com/uploads/5/4/7/2/5472242/heyeverybody2orig.gif Another complaint I have is with Mylenes age. Mylene is a fourteen year old girl and the anime states this fact several times. The show proper does a pretty good job of notsexualizing her and bear in mind thats not praise as having decency shouldnt be celebrated it should be expected but the EDs are weird in that they depict her in the shower thankfully we dont see anything. It might make some viewers uncomfortable and I really wasnt a fan of these depictions. Its especially weird because again they do a good job of not sexualizing her in the show itself. Then we have the love triangle. Were reminded of Mylenes age often but were never told of anyone elses age so I had to look it up. Gamlin is 17 which is weird. Basara is 21 which is weird as shit. My rooting for Gamlin and Mylene to get together instead of her and Basara quickly went from being due to personality preference to being about moral obligation. I really really dont know why the had to make Basara 21 and makes the entire love triangle angle very weird. And again the love triangle is a bit frustrating because it never resolves. Syvil notably yeets off to another galaxy leaving BasaraGamlinMylene as the primary triangle. My headcanon is that Basara will eventually go to find her or viceversa and Gamlin and Mylene get together. Or Basara and Gamlin both decide not to pursue Mylene and decide to be bibros. At the end of the day though I still enjoyed Macross 7. It has some of Plus competence and the charm and heart of II making for a very fun show overall. 520https://64.media.tumblr.com/865b7c117dc013abea9d6a87a6db8b18/f308da5f4898ed2124/s540x810/2d88b9969a46d1a09d564a41932e95076cc7b01a.gifv From my cursory look at the discussion surrounding this show I was initially surprised to see that Macross 7 is contentious in the West anyway. From what I can tell it was an absolute smash hit in Japan being the Macross show with the most spinoffs. While I now can see how this show is contentious Im still surprised at whats not considered contentious: Plushttps://anilist.co/review/7456. When I watched Plus I assumed that would be the black sheep of the franchise. Its a bit unfair to single out Macross 7 as being different. Both sequels are remarkably different from the original just in their own unique ways highlighting certain aspects of SDF and downplaying others. Both existing is a form of divergent evolution of the franchise and makes me appreciate how different each entry is. While Im still convinced that Plus is the best the franchise has to offer so far I think I like 7 more. More than the original too. Its just again a very fun unique show that affirms part of why I liked the original but expands upon it. Theres several spinoffs to 7 that I can check out. If I get around to them I mayormay not review them depending on if I can say anything different about them compared to the parent show. I might look back and think I scored this too high similar to G Gundam. I suspect that much like G Gundam when I think about changing it I ultimately wont be able to. Maybe its not an objective masterpiece but goddamn if it isnt awesome. 9.0/10 A 520https://i.yt.com/vi/VLdnJCateo4/maxresdefault.jpg