I was going to wait till the first few episodes of the new season came out until I made my mark on Banzai, but I feel I needed to get my writing ‘eye’ (hands/fingers?) in. So I’ll start off with something simple, like Macross…

A quick glance at the blogging community shows a vague upsurge in the number of macross (ok, maybe saturated by the Gabriela Robin site on the Maaya opening sequence - Triangular) post over the past month or so, notibly for the imminent arrival of the 25th Anniversary series ‘Macross Frontier’. For some, the prospect of more Macross constitutes to - “Wow, cool effects” and “w00t, epic transformations!”, results of the visually spectacular but unfortunately rather insipid plot of Macross Zero.

ut for the old folk, myself included - even if I was still in my dad’s ball sac when it was made.. yes, yes, bebop reference - it hopefully bring a return to that genre with the most closet fans (except maybe ludicrously ecchi harem/fighting series. yes, looking at YOU Girls Bravo/ikkitousen fan-san!) - cheesy space drama. Indeed, some of us are typically tsun-tsun dere-dere towards the original macross, with its sappy love triangle and the old love and music conquers all.

These plots are very much like those of Brit-movies, ol’ Bridget Jones and Love actually spring to mind, movies where you put up that strong cold front in the presence of a girl/lady-friend but find youself welling up inside (if not for the drama, then for pure dispair at Hugh Grant’s p-p-p-pa-thetic portrayal of perfectly normal English gentlemen, turning them into bumbling lovestruck fools)

Although I hope for something like that, I do have a feeling that I’m going to find myself let down. Yes, the effects are going to be brilliant - we’ve seen that already. Yes, the music is also going to be very, very good particularly with Yoko Kanno (In my, and the consensus’ view one of, if not the best in the business) behind the reins. We’re probably not going to be let down by the voices either, with a massive cast of world class A-list seiyuu including Tanaka-demoted from songstress-Rie, Aya-idol>seiyuu-Hirano, Inoue-Hai~ o/-Kikuko, Hoshi-Athruuun!-Souichiro… the list goes on. What I worry about is the execution of the series. SDF Macross felt wholely personal, everything was hand-drawn, the character designs, however lacking in consistency befitted the drama. Some will point out the success of recent drama with precision animation to provide us with good heart-wrenching-moments etc. for instance the abstract e.f. ~a tale of memories~ and the immense scripts for the Key (gameinspired) animes. But for these series, the focus was solely on character interactions where as Macross will have to dive between character interactions, transforming Mecha, and an abundance of action scenes/explainations/upgrades and whatever else is required of the mecha genre. Let me remind you, theres only 26 episodes (for the moment) to do this in where CLANNAD failed (well, bit harsh but thats due to ep. 22) in 23 eps. I’d like to feel that Macross Frontier has been given a whole load of exqiusite and refined ingredients and told to make a 3-Michelin-star meal, where sometimes its better to keep it simple and only have one or two. Just think, the last mecha with great ingredients was Gundam SEED (2 seasons of 52) and that was Gre - nope, can’t finish that sentence. I mean, 52 episodes with Maaya Sakamoto, and not even a hint of her singing.

While I look to Macross Frontier as a reprise of the original, particularly with younger lead female, Nakajima Megumi, in her debut role (much like Iijima Mari as Lynn Minmay), I can only wonder that the eventual product will be anything like the original. That said, the first episode does follow the same ‘course’ as that of the first series.Lanca Lee starts off with the same roots as her counterpart Lynn Minmay, a waitress at a chinese restaurant who enjoys singing - Alto Saotome, the next Hikaru, arriving during a celebratory time as a talented pilot (if you can say that for those sky-girls-esque suits) ending up in what appears to be a valkyrie. Hell even the final pose of him in GERWALK mode blasting at that alien(?) having saved Lanca appears to be exactly the same as in the original. Interestingly, there is already a songstress introduced, Sheryl Nome. It wouldn’t be hard pressed to suspect that there will be some sort of rivalry between the younger and older singers in both love and music (will the more mature Sheryl win this time like here putative counterpart Misa?).

It would be nice to see some old characters returning, Max and Millia didn’t age in Macross7.. and are probably on the other side of the universe. How about Minmay, Hikaru and Misa? now might be a good time to ‘find’ Megaroad 1 - having been missing 4years since leaving during flashback 2012.

And I sit here, awaiting what this new Macross will bring to the table. SDF Macross/DYRL brought us unbelivable space opera, Macross Plus a new take the musical theme and more mature themes, Macross7 had a more ‘family’ theme to it on top of the transition or the music to rock, and Zero gave us the spectacular visuals. Don’t you just wish this series could bring all these elements together and turn this 25th Anniversary series into something deserving of its prestigious name.

During the writing of this, the broadcast version of Frontier aired with a number of cuts/edits to the ’special’ version. Upon inspection, much like omniI did feel a little let down by the cut of the Sheryl Nome concert intwined with the fighting scenes. I can remember seeing it on the special broadcast and thinking of the legendary final battle scene in ‘Do You remember Love‘. It could just mean they’re saving it up for the grand finale. And to those who got through this dappy post, I salute you! Rest assured, later post will be full of pics and have a much smaller wordcount!

Wanma