Friday, October 10, 2008

of Macross Frontier

(will post some awesome Macross picture later...)

The Macross franchise spans for a good 25 years of Itano Circus, valkyrie dogfight, and the power of music and culture to rule the hearts of many -as well as many saying that it rivals that of the Gundam franchise. The newest installment of the Macross Franchise is Macross Frontier, aired on April 3rd, 2008 to September 25, 2008.

The story is set (for those who are keeping track of the timeline) 14 years after Macross Seven, where the 25th New Macross-class Colonial Fleet, dubbed Macross Frontier, were heading towards the center of the galaxy to find their promise land. No one on the fleet itself, will never imagine that they will be the target of a cynical experiment...

Animation: 8/10
One of the good things that came out of Macross Zero were the CG dog fights -as one of my friend puts it, one of the BEST fight scenes he has ever seen. Macross Frontier holds the same CG dogfights, and it is quite spectacular to watch -it is almost like you have an air show happening in front of your screen. The details on the valks, the enemies, and the surrounding are to the point.

However, the quality of animation in the human parts are not consistent, having wonderful animations in some of the concert scenes, but having very odd disfigurement in some of the joke scenes. Although I didn't view this as a problem, some viewers did.

Sound: 10/10
In Macross, the one thing you can expect, other than crazy missile launching techniques, is the fact that there are going to be plenty of insert songs. My gut intuition states that it's one of the best soundtracks to ever come out of anime -definitely better than Macross Plus and Seven, in my opinion. The artist May'n and Megumi Nakajima really bring out some nice songs to listen to. I can definitely thank Yoko Kanno for discovering these two songstresses and creating/inputting in on the sound of Macross F.

If you have the opportunity to actually buy the soundtracks for this series, do a favor and buy it -grant it, that you have to like the series or the series to buy it.

Story: 6/10
In the beginning, I REALLY did not think that it was progressing slowly, rather, it had a nice flow of action packed sequence, and then a rest period, where we got to see the daily lives of the casts -I mean, the world is not supposed to be fill with action, even in Macross.

However, as a fan of Macross, it tried to play too much on bringing back the element and magic of SDF Macross/DYRL, just like how SEED tried to bring back elements of Mobile Suit Gundam. They also tried really hard to tie in Macross Zero into Frontier, a novel idea to connect the series, but it didn't work in my favor. By the end of the series, it really felt rushed -I really didn't see how it would end when so much things are unexplained.

So in the end, I will say this -It really did have the potential to go above and beyond Macross and create something new for the Macross universe, while retaining the element of the triangle love affair, music and the power of culture, and space opera. Another opinion, there wasn't that many death in the cast members, where they should have.

Character: 7/10
The characters are rather stereotypical for a mecha series and Macross, playing on the fact that they are trying to repackage SDF Macross. There were moments where other viewers hated Ranka for being her -an innocent little girl. It was sorta odd how many viewers hated people for being themselves throughout the series... By no means though, some of the character developments are rather annoying to watch -at least not on the level of Eureka Seven.

Value and Enjoyment: 8/10
I don't know when I will re-watch the entire series, but there are definitely certain parts of the series I am willing to watch OVER and over again. Having the OST and some of the insert songs really did give me enjoyment to the two artists who gave it there all to create such awesome songs. The mechanical designs that came up in Frontier are awesome; for instance, the transforming armored valkyrie, or the transforming Monster (although not a new idea supposedly). I did enjoy the series, if I forgot about the story of the series...

Those who have no footing into Macross will probably enjoy this series more, because they are not influenced by the past -although it might be hard to figure out what the characters or the story is referring to, as well as the awe and the "Oh My god" moments of the story (mostly tying Frontier with Zero).

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