Summary: >

Eighty years have passed since the original Macross series took place. Although the Earth is still threatened by other Zentradi fleets, the Minmay defense has usually made defeating these immense fleets easy. You see the Zentradi get confused having never been exposed to culture, and are especially disoriented when being exposed to a cute Japanese pop star singing, dancing, and hopping around. Only in anime would this be developed into an actual military tactic.

While this has worked in every encounter with Zentradi fleets thus far, the Earth has just encountered a new wing in the Zentradi fleet - one that uses people known as "emulators" to "sing" to the fleet, and this counteracts the Minmay defence. In case you hadn't figured this out, that means the Earth is in deep crap as we're about to get our asses kicked.

During all of this a reporter named Hibiki is trying to get a good story, but also trying to get past what he believes to be a government cover up. Hibiki ends up covering his own tracks when he ends up harboring an alien Zentradi who was once an emulator. Journalism aside, Hibkiki feels the need to sheild Ishtar - however as she becomes aquainted with the aspects of human society, she may hold the key to saving the Earth.

Thoughts: >

This is one of those titles that is available in separate episodes or one movie. I watched the movie myself, and honestly I wasn't such an ardent fan of Macross that I would insist on watching this as an entire series. As far as sequels (to series) go, Macross II lives up to it's predecessor, however it does not surpass it. And pretty much all of the Macross type elements are done in a similar fashion in Macross II. Therefore if you already have a distaste for this series, you might as well stop reading now and not watch it.

As far as the story goes, it was okay. It was sort of struggling in pretty much all aspects. Character development was weak. The plot was weak. Actually the basis was weak, but that was probably the main weakness that spread everywhere else - and that's the fact that Macross II is directly inheriting much of the Macross cheesiness by default. Normally you'd say, that's to be expected however Macross Plus managed to step up to the plate and hit a home run with giving a new turn on all these elements. Macross II is just more Macross.

I was also not a fan of most of the characters for that matter. Hibiki struck me as rather annoying, and I could sympathise with those who wanted to shut him up. Taking in Ishtar I guess makes sense in a Macross plot but is hard for me to chew honestly. Especially when he follows her around with a camera all the time. The phrase "hey baby, want to make a movie" kept going through my mind much of the time.

I saw the dubbed version which was actually pretty good for a dub in my opinion. There is an interesting quirk here in that the show was dubbed, yet all the singing was still in Japanese. The last song however was dubbed in English, and this is the song which causes the Zentradi to become bewildered and confused. The irony of this, for a person like me who despises dubbing is not lost on me I can assure you.

So all in all I would only recommend this title to mecha anime fans, or more specifically fans of Macross. All in all it's just... well more Macross. Oh, and the Zentradi death songs totally kicked ass! (Might have to look into that soundtrack).

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