Dai
Death Scythe
Macross Frontier
A Macross story usually needs to juggle a few different plot elements: space opera war story, pop idol drama, and love triangles. Frontier mostly does a solid job at all three and throws in some conspiracy mystery for good measure.
As a war story, it benefits from high stakes, a dangerous new enemy, and lots of dynamic, well-directed action scenes. Considering it's from 2008, the CG for the ships, valkyrie fighters and aliens has aged well, which is more than can be said for a lot of anime CG from the 00s.
As a pop idol drama, it pits eager newbie Ranka against established star Sheryl to great effect. The dynamics of their rivalry evolves well over the course of the series, aided by both having skeletons in their closets.
As a romance, it does a good job of keeping you guessing how events will pan out, though it is here where the the show's main problem becomes apparent: the writers aren't really sure how to develop male protagonist Alto's story arc. That's most evident in a series-long subplot about his history as an actor and resulting conflict with his father, which keeps seeming like it will become pivotal, but is never really resolved in a satisfying way. Likewise, viewers may be unsatisfied with how the romance angle plays out at the end, though this felt more like a conscious story choice and does work with the overall tone of the ending.
With the exception of some rather blunt exposition in places, any issues I might have with the story are only things that come to mind in retrospect. While watching the show, the over-the-top intensity of the final episodes does a good job of painting over the cracks. Based on the sheer enjoyment of that first viewing, I was tempted to give Frontier a 9, but thinking back on it I suspect some of that was coloured by this being the first new Macross show I've seen since the 90s. It's a great series on most fronts though, so it's easily a solid 8/10.
Minor points:
While the early episodes open with a brief account of events from earlier in the Macross timeline, it does assume some familiarity with the franchise. The only things I've seen are Do You Remember Love, Plus, and Macross II and I found Frontier easy to follow, with only occasional minor references flying past me.
I loved the scenes in the shopping mall designed for both humans and the giant Zentradi. The ways the fleet's infrastructure has adapted to allow Zentradi to live at either their original size or shrunk down to human scale was a nice touch.
As of writing, the only legal way to watch this show in English is on Disney+, which unfortunately falls victim to their habit of using descriptive SDH subtitles. They're not the most distracting I've ever seen, but it takes a while to get used to them.
Klan's full-size Zentradi form has awakened a weird thirst in me that would be a field day for Freud.
A Macross story usually needs to juggle a few different plot elements: space opera war story, pop idol drama, and love triangles. Frontier mostly does a solid job at all three and throws in some conspiracy mystery for good measure.
As a war story, it benefits from high stakes, a dangerous new enemy, and lots of dynamic, well-directed action scenes. Considering it's from 2008, the CG for the ships, valkyrie fighters and aliens has aged well, which is more than can be said for a lot of anime CG from the 00s.
As a pop idol drama, it pits eager newbie Ranka against established star Sheryl to great effect. The dynamics of their rivalry evolves well over the course of the series, aided by both having skeletons in their closets.
As a romance, it does a good job of keeping you guessing how events will pan out, though it is here where the the show's main problem becomes apparent: the writers aren't really sure how to develop male protagonist Alto's story arc. That's most evident in a series-long subplot about his history as an actor and resulting conflict with his father, which keeps seeming like it will become pivotal, but is never really resolved in a satisfying way. Likewise, viewers may be unsatisfied with how the romance angle plays out at the end, though this felt more like a conscious story choice and does work with the overall tone of the ending.
With the exception of some rather blunt exposition in places, any issues I might have with the story are only things that come to mind in retrospect. While watching the show, the over-the-top intensity of the final episodes does a good job of painting over the cracks. Based on the sheer enjoyment of that first viewing, I was tempted to give Frontier a 9, but thinking back on it I suspect some of that was coloured by this being the first new Macross show I've seen since the 90s. It's a great series on most fronts though, so it's easily a solid 8/10.
Minor points:
While the early episodes open with a brief account of events from earlier in the Macross timeline, it does assume some familiarity with the franchise. The only things I've seen are Do You Remember Love, Plus, and Macross II and I found Frontier easy to follow, with only occasional minor references flying past me.
I loved the scenes in the shopping mall designed for both humans and the giant Zentradi. The ways the fleet's infrastructure has adapted to allow Zentradi to live at either their original size or shrunk down to human scale was a nice touch.
As of writing, the only legal way to watch this show in English is on Disney+, which unfortunately falls victim to their habit of using descriptive SDH subtitles. They're not the most distracting I've ever seen, but it takes a while to get used to them.
Klan's full-size Zentradi form has awakened a weird thirst in me that would be a field day for Freud.
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