Macross 7

35 years have passed since Lynn Minmay had brought peace between the Zentradi and the humans in the events of Macross. Nekki Basara is a guitarist and a singer of the band Fire Bomber. Living in a less-developed part of the flying colony City 7 which is looking for a habitable planet, he composes and sings songs in the belief that music holds a greater power.

During its flight, an unknown alien race appeared and started laying siege upon City 7. However, its attacks are not conventional -- instead of trying to destroy them, they steal what is known as "spiritia", rendering victims unresponsive and zombie-like. During these battles, Basara always goes out into the middle of the warzone, singing his songs and expecting friend and foe to listen and be moved by his music.

(Source: ANN)

Nekki, Basara Main

Canna, Nobutoshi Japanese

Jenius, Mylene Flare Main

Sakurai, Tomo Japanese

Kizaki, Gamlin Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Jenius, Maximilian Supporting

Hayami, Show Japanese

Fallyna, Milia Supporting

Takeda, Eri Japanese

Flower Girl Supporting

Nakagawa, Akiko Japanese

Sivil Supporting

Nakagawa, Akiko Japanese

Feaze, Veffidas Supporting

Takano, Urara Japanese

Gigile Supporting

Nishimura, Tomohiro Japanese

Folmo, Exsedol Supporting

Oobayashi, Ryuusuke Japanese

Amino, Tetsurou Director

Kato, Takao Episode Director

Fujimoto, Yoshitaka Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director

Murayama, Kiyoshi Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 22, 2008

TriumShockwave

Recommended

I'm one of what is probably the most rare breed of western anime fans, those who will defend Macross 7. While not masterpiece of the anime art form, there is a lot to like about Macross 7. Since the series is so polarizing among fans, I'll take a pros vs. cons approach.

Pros:
1. Music. While obviously a matter of taste, I find most of Fire Bomber's songs quite enjoyable. They're one of the few anime soundtracks I will listen to on their own merits.
2. Fun factor. Basara is genuinely entertaining to watch.
3. Nostalgia. There are numerous ties to the original series, and it's interesting to see ... how things developed. Most notably, it's great to see Max and Milia again. Also, it continues the concept of the colony fleets introduced in Macross Flashback 2012.
4. Focus on characters. While ostensibly a mecha series, the focus of the story is on the characters. Fire Bomber's road to stardom, Basara's quest to move people's hearts with his music, Mylene growing up and understanding her own feelings for Basara and Gamlin, reconciling Max and Milia's relationship, etc. If you avoid mecha shows because they have too much technobabble and focus on the robots more than characters, this is not a problem here.

Cons:
1. Music. Some people hate it. If you don't like pop/rock, especially of a Japanese variety, you will be assaulted by it for the duration of the series.
2. Use of stock footage. Especially early on, there is an extreme use of stock battle footage of VF-11's and Elgarzorenes fighting.
3. Lack of focus on mecha. Fans expecting to have lots of cool animation of all the new Valkyrie models introduced here will be sorely disappointed. I recommend you pick up the VF-X games for the Playstation instead to get that fix.

Macross fans should give the series a chance, and don't give up on it too soon. This is certainly one of those anime deserving of the time honored line "it gets better later." Just be aware of what kind of show this is you're getting into. Macross 7's greatest flaw is simply that it isn't what people expected of a continuation of Macross.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 8, 2007

Stormy_77

Mixed Feelings

So, since I'm hell bent on watching all the macross series I thought I'd start on Macross 7. For a while I thought I'd made a big mistake.

Story

It took a LONG time to finish this series which already indicates at first glance it's not all that exciting. It's all about Nekki Basara, guitarist and lead singer of the band Fire Bomber (what a great band name). The band starts unknown, living and practicing in a hovel on City 7, joined to Battle seven. They're the mainstay of the colony fleet Macross 7, searching for a habitable planet to live on.

First part deals with character ... development (boring) then the protodeviln appear. Instead of getting exciting it's a wash-rinse-repeat of Nekki using his songs to save the day. There are a few plot twists but overall this series though keeping with the Macross themes of Love Triangle and Power of Music ... is not done very well and honestly could have been squeezed into 26 episodes. There is a LOT of filler (1 min flashback at the start of every episode) and too much "Basara is a rebel" for my taste. Wakate, wakate, we get it, Basara is a rebel. Luckily the story picks up towards the last 10 episodes but it took a really strong will to continue watching this series!

Art/Animation

Dated animation and TONS of frame reuse. Like every episode there's frame reuse. I hate when it's done badly enough that I felt like fast forwarding through the same old animation of the same old battles with the same old songs. The mecha look nice but that's about it.

Sound

Shoot me now! The first 25 episodes I *hated* Nikki's singing. Oh god he's singing the SAME old song. Again! and Again! and Again! Ugh! Hate hate! Play something else dammit! I don't know if they did it to save money by reusing the same songs/frames but somewhere around episode 35 I started enjoying the songs and found myself singing along at some parts. Ack! Insidious! So ... that was their evil plan! Repeat the song until the viewer starts liking it. Well, I hate to say but it worked. I guess I now have to go download the soundtrack. Grrr!

Character

This is a mish-mash. There are a lot of characters, all with different personalities. I really started to feel for some of them towards the last 15 episodes so I guess you can say this series "grew" on me.

The lead protagonist is Nekki Basara, the cool tough rebellious guitarist/lead singer who has a huge ego and doesn't care what other people think. He's also a pacifist who sings instead of blowing up enemies. Of course while he's singing there's plenty of innocent people getting blown up by the enemies he won't shoot. But somehow no citizens protest his peacenik ways getting others killed. I hated this character.

The secondary singer/bassist of Fire Bomber is Mylene, daughter of Maximilian Jenius and Milia Fallyna. Supposed love interest who spent most of the episodes in teenage angst. Mylene is cute, young (14 years old) and spoiled. She treated her suitor, Gamlin, not too well. I hated her too.

The other 2 members of the band are Ray, the ex military guy and 3rd guitarist, and Veffidas the zentradi drummer. Ray was ok but Veffidas was just big and must have had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to drum everything in sight when she isn't at her drums - car windows, tables, chairs, other people's bodies etc. Veffidas is the strong, silent type. When she showed her strength and spoke it was with great impact. I loved Veffidas.

Then there's Max and Milia, the first human and zentradi love connection from the original Macross Series. Max is older and handsomer, Milia got all straight laced. Estranged in this series (he's the military commander and she's the civilian's Mayor) I spent the whole series waiting and hoping for them to get back together. If only Macross 7 was about Max and Milia this series would have scored much higher. I loved them both!

Lt. Gamlin is important and such a nice, honest, man. That's not good when you start falling in love with a 15 year old girl with no brains and who will likely choose the "bad boy" thus giving birth to the saying "nice guys finish last". I was 15 once and liked bad boys then but now that I'm more mature I wouldn't marry one. Gamlin is really likeable and he is the only human of 3 characters that really develop over the course of the series (other 2 are protodeviln). This was a well written character and I loved him too.

There's a whole slew of other side characters. Mylene's ecchi fan. Basara's fan who is always trying to give him flowers. Take the damn flowers Basara! Learn how to treat your fans better! I just pitied some of the side characters.

Enjoyment

Well I wasn't enjoying this series at the start (it sucked) but it started changing around episode 33 and by episode 40 it was fun. Just takes a lot of time and patience to get to the good parts, so overall I can't say it was much more than mediocre.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 21, 2019

deathabarbar

Not Recommended

Fanatic pacifist hippy mc who doesn't care how many innocent people and "asshole" soldiers have to die so he can keep forcing people to listen to his singing in the middle of battle. He repeatedly intereferes with the elimination of the enemy because he is convinced his singing will make everyone buddy buddy. One of the most annoying MCs, he is right and everyone else is wrong, he does whatever he wants, no one can tell him what to do, such a rebel!

And it doesn't help that they made like 4 songs for him for 49 episiodes and he keeps repeating the same one for ... the first 20 or so episodes. While the scenes are also repeated, they reused a lot of scenes to the point that sometimes you can't tell if it's a flashback or not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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