If the Macross franchise is a family of black sheep in the anime paddock then Macross 7 is the fucking rainbow coloured weirdo of that already strange family resembling anything else even less and standing out even more. And I think its my favourite anime of all time? 1000https://i.ur.com/eMtauID.jpg Because Studio Nue decided to use pantsonhead Xbox naming conventions despite being called Macross 7 its actually the second main entry in the franchise. It follows a fleet of colonists from Earth in the year 2038 as they search the universe for hospitable planets all the while being harried by space vampires from another dimension against which their only line of defense is of course a 90sasfuck rock band by the name of Fire Bomber. Of course. Its probably worth mentioning that Macross 7 is pretty dumb. While the goofy charm was occasionally present in the original SDF Macross in this its cranked up to eleven. Whats amazing though is that it treats its stupidity with such sincerity that you end up taking it seriously as well. In Episode 1 I was saying Why the hell does that transforming fighter jet have a face but no guns?. By Episode 27 I was saying Well I mean obviously the transforming fighter jet fires energy beams from its mouth when its pilot sings how else do you expect it to defeat the enemy? Not to mention said transforming fighter jet is piloted with a guitar or that it has speakers built into its robot boobs or that its most powerful weapon is a giant battering ram wireless speaker that it smashes into enemy ships so it can sing at them. But no Im getting ahead of myself. In my opinion the brazen absurdity is Macross 7s saving grace as without the spice and genuine hilarity it brings the story would probably be a bit too plain to support its 49 episodes. 330https://ur.com/PLrRO22.jpg 330https://ur.com/jRXO4mQ.jpg 330https://ur.com/VltlMUv.jpg Being relatively long for a Macross series 7 is a fair bit slower paced than one might expect and is much more episodic in structure. The aforementioned space vampires are secretly kidnapping and brainwashing people in order to harvest a special energy that only humans can produce but in between revelations concerning that youll get an episode about Fire Bombers bassist going on a date or preparing for a concert or maybe the fleet is accidentally being dragged into the gravity well of a red dwarf. You know every day stuff. The story itself when it decides to show up gets pretty weird. The main narrative beats are pretty straightforward but it veers off of the expected path as it gets near the middle once they begin militarizing themselves against the threat. It brings in the franchisewide theme of music and love being stronger than war in pretty much the most literal and stupid way possible see: boob speakers. It certainly took me by surprise but it changes the dynamic of the whole show going forward introducing much larger scale conflicts and playing Fire Bombers rebellious rock band attitude against a wider political landscape which I thought was genuinely quite interesting. As like any other Macross though the war only makes up about half of the story. While the main characters are Fire Bombers vocalists Basara and Mylene the show takes on an almost soap operalike feel as the cast of characters expands and it begins to follow a number of people as their motivations and personalities interplay amongst each other. Its the kind of show where if someone were to sit down in the middle of an episode youd have to stop and go Well you see she likes him but he doesnt realise it because hes autistic and thinks hes in love with a sexy alien chick but this other guy totally digs her but hes in the military and hes trying to capture the sexy alien chick but then a guy in a rivalling squadron... etc. Much like SDF before it it does a good job of incorporating antagonist characters into this as well. One in particular has a really nice redemption arc that culminates in some pretty heartfelt moments. Unfortunately it also has the least conclusive main romance in the franchise in the fact that it doesnt actually conclude. Spoilers I guess. Despite that I found myself legitimately engrossed in the small dramas aboard the 7th NewMacross Colonization Fleet as much as I hate to admit. 250https://ur.com/20RJamn.jpg 250https://ur.com/L7RKmx1.jpg 250https://ur.com/2qK4lSf.jpg 250https://ur.com/sv5fgg1.jpg I suppose I should talk a bit about the music in this music anime. Do you like rock music? Do you like late80s early90s rock music? Of course you do And thats good because thats pretty much all there is. Reiterating how fucking weird Macross 7 is theres no actual soundtrack. With the exception of episode previews and recaps the BGM throughout the series is almost entirely diagetic being comprised of songs being played in the scene either live or from the radio or sometimes just beats Fire Bombers drummer is tapping out on a random surface. They even went so far as to make a handful of songs from other fake bands to play on the radio every once in a while. Its a novel and really cool idea I think and helps add to the soapopera feel even if its a bit pointless in the grand scheme of things. The music itself is great. Fire Bomber released five studio albums the latest being in 2009 15 years after the series aired all of which I think are pretty solid. Basaras singing voice is provided by a young Yoshiki Fukuyama of JAM Project fame and has the near ridiculous power youd expect from him. Mylenes is by Chie Kajiura who has a real deep husky Japanese Stevie Nicks voice and it weirdly contrasts against her regular talking voice actor who is as high pitched and squealy as youd expect a pinkhaired 14yearold anime girl from the 90s to be. Despite that I really love Mylenes songs which are generally a lot slower and softer than Basaras and have a sound thats pretty unique from anything else in the franchise. Obviously it comes down to taste but liking the music helped a lot as virtually every single action scene plays to a Fire Bomber song resulting in some really awesome scenes built around the music. But quite frankly you absolutely can have too much of a good thing. https://giant.gfycat.com/SpryAccomplishedAndeancondor. ??? As with any long running mecha anime Macross 7 has an apparent requirement to have at least one action scene every single episode. As a fan of such anime Ive gotten accustomed to that. A problem unique to this show however is that each action scene is accompanied by a Fire Bomber song as previously mentioned. This wouldnt really pose a problem if they used their full discography but they dont and so the first 20 or so episodes suffer from repeating the same two or three songs over and over and over. It gets better later on but God damn Ive heard Planet Dance and Totsugeki Love Heart a million times by now Im sure. It also doesnt help that the animation of Macross 7 can get pretty mediocre at times. A lot of talking heads and panning scenes all of the budgetsaving animation tricks they had amassed by the 90s feature here. Thats not to say its all bad but its certainly no Cardcaptor Sakura or Turn A Gundam and the action scenes definitely take the biggest hit. This show probably has the most egregious reusage of stock footage Ive ever seen as well. Most series would typically have the decency to alter and shorten their transformation stock as they go but nope. Not Macross 7. If I close my eyes I can still see the VF17S transformation sequence as clear as day which isnt entirely bad since the stealth bomberlookalike is one of my favourite VF designs in the franchise but still. Its a shame especially since the beautifully animated OP plays at the beginning of every episodehttps://www..com/watch?v=hrkhnjZzc just reminding you of how you want it to look. 330https://ur.com/cRifsUs.jpg 330https://ur.com/8xAvBOP.jpg 330https://ur.com/G1Hsta6.jpg Between its questionable animation management and absurd plotting Im really not sure if I think Macross 7 is a good anime. But thats fine it knows its dumb and thrives on that. Theres a character that shows up in every single episode who has whole scenes dedicated to her but has no lines whatsoever and whose only purpose is to attempt and fail at giving Basara a bouquet of flowers. Why? Fucking why not I guess because at the end of the day thats also part of why I love this show. Macross 7 is the only show that Ive ever finished and then immediately thought Did I really like that as much as I think I did? Lets watch it again and find out. So I did. And as it turned out I did. 1000https://ur.com/Hnhu0C4.jpg