After 25 episodes, Macross Frontier has finally ended. Let me get one thing across right now, because it's important: it was much, much better than Macross 7, the last full Macross series (which was a horrible piece of work barely lifted past mediocrity by the presence of Max and Milia).
That said, it must also be mentioned that it was not better than the original Macross. Even comparing it to the OAV series, Frontier still ranks below Plus and Zero. But that still makes it good, overall.
Was I entertained? Yes. Especially during the first two-thirds of the series. After that, the story quality dropped, and I can tell you why. The pace felt too fast, character development stalled with some characters while it was rushed in others, and some technical aspects of the story lacked exposition or justification.
The reason behind this is the 25 episode limitation the makers of the anime placed upon themselves. In an effort to exagerrate the whole "Macross 25th Anniversary" theme, they placed numerous 25s in the series, both within and without. This included the 25 episode limit, which, quite frankly, SUCKS.
The original series was great, and though it had flaws of its own, had a fully developed plot and character development. Despite the relatively simple plot, it spanned a glorious 36 episodes.
Frontier was hamstringed by limiting it to 25 episodes, depriving viewers of desired subplot coverage, closure on multiple elements, and action scene length. I wasn't expecting another 36 episodes, but they could have surely increased the number of eps to 30+ if they hadn't gone with the stupid 25 theme.
The combined traditional + CG animation elements, especially for mecha battles, was a wonderful touch, but the times when I wanted to see long protracted dogfights felt like paying for a bucket of popcorn and getting a bare cupfull instead. Ozma versus Alto? One single kharmic pass. Brera vs Alto? Let's blow the guy up please, ASAP. NUNS and SMS vs. Ghost v9.0's? No. A few scenes, but nothing definite.
Ugh.
Lost potential. It could have been so good.
On other things, the ending was actually good, ignoring the fact that it was rushed. I liked the maintenance of the Archie-Betty-Veronica triangle between the three lead characters, and the fact that Alto was no longer a TOTAL wuss. Leon's dying horribly was denied to me, but at least Grace got annihilated. Damn. Do I HATE clones. I hate borg clones even more. A lot of things were left hanging, but the closure on the Vajra-Birdman-Protoculture metaplot was nice.
If I were to rate this I'd still give it a 7 of 10. That's a pretty good rating considering I'm so critical.
Time to look forward to the movie. If they make it a pseudo-continuity retelling of the series, like they did with Do You Remember Love?, I'd be overjoyed. That would mean it gets chance to correct some of its errors.
3 comments:
Let me start by saying that I was a huge Robotech fan as a kid. I know it was a rip of the original Macross, but it was my introduction and I've come to appreciate it just the same, though I'll always have more love for Robotech. (But the Japanese Minmei music will always be far more tolerable.) I also tried to watch that pile of Macross 7. I made it through the first episode, and died a little inside. Even the summed up Wikipedia couldn't save that series, I don't know why the Japanese actually like it. Now, I bring you to yesterday, I was bored, needing new anime to watch, so I chanced Macross Frontier. I think its awesome, a brilliant reflection of the original. Every episode is like a little easter egg of memories for me. I'm loving every minute of it so far, but I'm only 8 episodes in. I chanced upon your blog as well and read everything up until the final paragraph where I think some spoilers might reside, so I stopped. I just wanted to reply because I appreciate your writing. Very descriptive and honest. I enjoyed reading it and felt it so far mirrors my feelings toward the anime, though I don't have the 25 blues yet. I'll let you know what I think in the end, but for now I'll keep watching. So far though, I can't believe you liked Zero better.
Haha. I still AM a diehard Robotech fan. For all its infamy as a Macross rehash, it's incredible for an anime Frankenstein (and it's not like Carl Macek had a choice, they wouldn't have let him bring Macross in otherwise). It was my opening to the wonderful world of mecha, and I will always think fondly of my Robotech days. Macross Frontier is an incredible tribute to the entire history of Macross, a fitting anniversary series. I'd rate it an 8.5 as a mecha anime. My beef with it stems from my frustrations with the inconsistent character development of Alto, and the fact that they limited the series to only 25 eps. If they had extended it for several more episodes, episodes 20+ wouldn't have felt so damned rushed. You're early in watching the series, so later you'll see what I mean. And watch those easter eggs. They number more than you'd expect. :D
I also remember Robotech from my childhood fondly. It followed up Star Blazers in my introduction of Japanese Anime. Fast-forwarding 25 years, I stumbled over Frontier a month ago, and have obtained and watched all 25 (subtitled) episodes. I did a little research, and learned due to licensing issues, the series is not going to be coming to the US anytime soon, and as a result, probably won’t be dubbed into English either. I agree that the series seemed ‘rushed’ and that many sub plots were left vague and unfinished. The character development was lacking at best (Michael, and Klan Klan comes to mind). I had assumed that this was because I was looking at episodes that had been victims of post-production editing. After all, the set I got has two episode #1’s, which are significantly different from each other, and there were a number of other obvious cuts in the series.
Overall, I enjoyed Frontier very much. Could it have been better? Yes. Alto would have punched Michael’s lights out once an episode, just for being a dick. Leon desperately needed to be tossed into a slowly de-pressurizing airlock, and Barera needed to die in some spectacularly unpleasant way that even I cannot imagine. I noticed that just about all the characters are nasty to each other, all the time. I wonder if the sub-titling is done well, of if that has something to do with it. I believe this was “fan-subbed” leading me to suspect that some of the dialog was interpreted by someone who might not have been that strong with either Japanese, or common English idioms. If this is how Japanese treat each other, there must be bedlam in the streets there.
I liked the music, and the singing very much. I thought it was a VAST improvement over the Lynn Minmei (Minmay) tunes that were beaten to DEATH over and over in the old Robotech show. I also see in my reading that some of the soundtrack has hit the Japanese Pop Charts impressively; showing that Anime there has crossed over into the mainstream there (which it probably was already).
I have also just discovered that there is a pile of Robotech/Macross “re-imaginations” and sequels that I never knew existed: “Macross Plus”, “Macross Zero”, “Macross 7”, “Do you Remember Love?” “Sentinels” , “Shadow Chronicles”, and a bunch of others. I have started to watch Macross 7. It’s painful. Really, really painful, but I’m watching it. I hope the others are better.
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