 The Super Dimensional ROSSMANZoom zoom!
Zoom zoom!!
Ah yes, the voice of an angel. The voice that saved the Earth.
And quite literally, the voice of Mari Iijima. It is also the
voice of Macross.
Macross... The revolutionary show
that aired in the early 80s in Japan and made both Lynn Minmay
and transformable mecha household words. It's the story
of a large space opera set amidst an interstellar war between
the giant Zentradi and mankind. Love triangles and hectogons
abound as stars are born and entire planets are decimated.
Defections
and betrayals make up the rest of the story as "culture" factors
in and forges believers out of horny grey-skinned middle-aged
mammoth men who just want some mini teeny-bopper action of
their
very own.
What makes
Macross even more unique among its animated peers (on
top of its great storytelling and outstanding devices) is that
fact that it was told twice, and that the creators actually
did an even more impressive job on it the second time around.
See, when
a Japanese animated show gets popular, people get greedy and
want to make more money off of it. They usually do this by "remaking" it
in a theatrical format, but their greed most often blinds
them to plot and characterizations and the re-done (or continued)
story is customarily crap. See the Escaflowne movie and
all of the Slayers movies as prime examples.
But Macross
was different. When Super Dimension Fortress Macross
(the television series) first aired, it was quickly expanded
from a 23 into a 36 episode series. But even when that ended
people wanted more. They wanted more Hikaru. They wanted more
Minmay. And most importantly they wanted more Roy (da man) Focker.
But instead
of simply continuing the storyline from where it left off (and
raising the dead to bring back some loved ones for cameos),
the writers decided to remake their narrative for the big screen.
Macross: Do You Remember Love? was the result. And it
was good. DYRL? took only the best parts of SDF
and made them better. Por ejemplo, Hikaru isn't as much of a
hick and he has more backbone from the beginning (and when he
makes a decision he sticks to it). Minmay is not annoying in
the least and actually generates compassion from the audience.
Misa's a bit cooler too and her relationship with people is
a lot more believable. And most importantly Roy Focker dies
a bigger and much more heroic death. God bless his voice actor,
Akira Kamiya!
All that's
not to say that the television show was crap. Far from it. SDF
Macross is one of the greatest Sci-Fi stories ever told.
A bit too "bubble-gummy" for some, but they can go
fuck themselves. I'm just saying that as good as SDF
is, DYRL? is even better. The animation is spectacularly
smooth and the space battle scenes will piss your pants for
you!
So go out
right now and buy Macross on DVD (as of right now you
might still be able to get it from Animeigo, the company that's
releasing it Stateside), and stay the hell away from the Macross
saga in Robotech. I will not be responsible for the vomiting
that may occur when you bear witness to that horrid dub and
you actually realize that you paid good money for it.
What did
I think of Macross? The television show gets
a good 34.56 Points of Freedom out of 36.23, and the movie
gets a full
on 12 out of 10 Stars of Spangled Justice. Now go and pray
that DYRL? gets a release in America sometime in our
lifetimes so's we can all remember the love!
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