Macross F

Following a catastrophic war against a race of giants known as the Zentradi, humanity has escaped towards the center of the galaxy aboard a fleet of colonial vessels called the Macross Frontier. As the extraterrestrial threat is left further and further behind, life on Macross Frontier proceeds as usual.

In the year 2059, a young mecha pilot trainee named Alto Saotome and his colleagues are preparing to perform an accompanying routine for the famous singer Sheryl Nome, who has come to Macross Frontier for a concert. During the performance, a biomechanical alien species known as the Vajra make a sudden appearance, breaking through the defensive perimeter surrounding the vessel and crash-landing near the concert venue, plunging the entire city into chaos. As the concertgoers evacuate, a young girl named Ranka Lee is left behind and gets targeted by the Vajra, but she is saved at the last minute by Alto. Following these events, the Strategic Military Services program notes Alto's skill in battle, resulting in his recruitment to combat the new alien threat.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nome, Sheryl Main

Endou, Aya Japanese

Lee, Ranka Main

Nakajima, Megumi Japanese

Saotome, Alto Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Klang, Klan Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Sterne, Brera Supporting

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Blanc, Mikhail Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Lee, Ozma Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

O'Connor, Grace Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Nome, Mao Supporting

Wilder, Jeffrey Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru Japanese

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Morotomi, Hirofumi Producer

Kasai, Tsutomu Producer

Matsui, Chinatsu Assistant Producer

Reviews

Mar 3, 2025

Dawsenkar

Recommended

If you love anime, you will definitely love this. There are astonishing fights, great music, a good story, good romance, giant robots, and excellent music. The ending of this series is the most ANIME end I have ever seen in my whole life, it was an almost perfect conclusion.

For Macross fans, this is definitely peak. This anime is almost a remake of the old Macross, with many parallels to scenes from the original, such as the trio being stuck in a bunker during an alien attack or Ranka Lee's audition, she even sings Minmay's song. Several references to the older series are present, like a ... movie that retells events from Macross Zero or the music from Fire Bomber.

But for me, the most important aspect is the love triangle. It is present from the very beginning and serves as the main motivation for the characters' actions. My personal favorite is Ranka, one of the cutest anime girls ever, she stole my heart. At first, she was just a shy, insecure girl who wanted to sing, but her love for Alto led her to achieve her potential and become an idol.

10/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jul 16, 2017

BowlingJD

Mixed Feelings

At this point, a true Macross series had not come out since the mid-90s. This time, fairly new Studio Satellite without much prior success got the task for Macross Frontier. This is where the series truly takes a turn away from the mechs and makes the full transition to idols. A bonus was the role of director was shared between the experienced Yasuhito Kikuchi and the famous Transformers designer Shoji Kawamori. Where the Macross franchise was successful in the past, it was quickly established that Frontier is no Plus and certainly no Super Dimensional and more towards Macross 7 with more emphasis on female idols ... instead of a band.

Only 50 years have passed since the alien invasion of the first Macross, but from the show, the viewer could guess centuries. Macross Frontier takes place primarily on an immigration fleet ship traveling through space in search of a new frontier. Life is normal for our two main characters. Alto Saotomi is the typical male anime blank slate with a teenage angst personality while the other is Ranka Lee whom is a petit quarter alien ambitious future idol. All is well until the super pop idol known as Sheryl Nome visits their ship and all of a sudden a dangerous alien lifeform known as the Vajra attack. Naturally, Ranka becomes an idol to fight through singing and Alto becomes a fighter pilot, so all the Macross elements are in place, plus a love triangle that totally is not frustrating or confusing at all (sarcasm).

Does this series have much to do with the focus on aliens like other Macross shows? Instead, the show wants to focus on the development of our three characters and coming to terms with their own identities, pasts, and future. This can make for excellent storytelling, but Frontier just does not have the writing and dynamics to make it character driving and ends up focusing too much on being plot driven instead. Frontier is its own standalone series and separates itself enough where watching other Macross shows are not needed.

Each of our three main characters have their own quirks. Alto is extremely selfish and is the complete opposite to both Ranka and Sheryl. For some reason, both the girls fall for him. Alto does compliment the otherwise predictable personalities of the two girls though. The romance and plot are extremely slow paced and never seems to go anywhere until the Vajra makes them. It can get quite irritating. The show also makes all the effort it can to have a little 2008 touch like most anime of the time: a little bishounen, school life, some shoujo undertones, and more.

Music does not falter in any way. An extremely strong unique soundtrack matches the action and drama occurring. Kanno Yoko and Nakajima Megumi’s debut happening for the show just adds to the level of where the show could have been. Animation and art is all over the place though. It can be stellar at times, while be incredibly terrible from non-moving backgrounds to off-set character models. Not to mention the CGI which is certainly a bit off-putting during action scenes. Sure, the second half of the show picks up and gets super “out there” and makes extreme leaps for plot progression. Worst of all though is the blatant disregard for character development and climax moments the series lead up to. This is where Macross Frontier drops a heavy ball (plot magic).

Is Macross Frontier worth watching? Compared to past Macross shows, the jury would have to say no. Is Macross Frontier fine? Yeah, the show is ok and definitely has something in the show other than the name Macross: action, romance, fan service, plot; there is something. When the best character is considered a third wheel while the other two don’t really do much for an engaging story, Macross Frontier might be worth skipping unfortunately.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 15, 2024

Irememberlove

Not Recommended

4.5/10

The president of the Macross is not also the president of the student council. 0/10, absolute trash anime.

If you enjoy a lot of modern anime tropes, especially fan service ones, and you love high school settings, then you’re probably going to disagree with a lot of this review.

Cons:

Pacing: The pacing is horrible. It was boring throughout the middle of the series, and while the end picks up, it does so at the expense of logic and a decent story. What’s here, if well written, could have been good. But it sets things up, then gets lost messing around with nothing for multiple episodes, before scrambling ... to bring everything together. The ending itself was fairly abrupt as well, which was disappointing.

Main Characters: Sheryl Nome aside, it’s hard to care about most of the main cast. Many of them were very dislikable. The side characters were much more compelling.

Saotome Alto: Ask yourself as you watch the show: What would happen if Alto was replaced with a generic isekai protagonist? Not much would change, except the love triangle would evolve into a circle (and he’d be even more clueless). It’s not that Alto’s bad, he just feels pointless compared to all of the previous protagonists. The show should have focused in on Sheryl & Ranka, with more of an emphasis on Ozma, Brera, & Cathy than was present here.

High School: High school settings where they don’t belong are one of the worst parts of anime. The show is noticeably better in episodes without it. A lot of the adult cast was great, but unfortunately they were always overshadowed by having the story revolve around high-schoolers. It’s genuinely hard not to laugh when these soldiers are running around in their high school uniforms to fight or to actually work with the military. This isn’t uncommon in anime, and Macross (and anime in general) don’t always have the most grounded stories of all time, but it’s ridiculous.

Fan Service: This also feels like the most anime-y Macross compared to the previous ones, mostly in the worst of ways. They added a loli, because every anime needs one now. Women now envy other’s boob sizes. We even get the ridiculously large, jiggly boobs to go with it. Along with a ton of modern and slightly less modern fan service tropes. I’ll give it one thing, it never gets as creepy as 7 did, but this sort of fan service is very unenjoyable. It’s the worst of anime when its placed in a show that isn’t trying to be ecchi in the first place.

Neutral:

Music: The music is good. It’s not the best in the franchise though. Unfortunately, the moments they choose to use certain songs often doesn’t work thematically with the scenes they appear in. It was also very repetitive and fell off towards the end of the show. Despite glimpses of their potential, they never took full advantage of having two singers. Aimo, however, is one of the best songs in the franchise.

Animation: The animation isn’t horrible, the CGI is better than its predecessors. But it wasn’t amazing either. Frontier continued SDF’s derp faces in a few episodes as well, which was sadly hilarious.

Pros:

References: The show is chock full of references to previous Macross shows, and Ranma ½ apparently (I have to assume it’s on purpose), especially SDF & Zero. It makes the show a lot better than it otherwise would be. On the other hand, stripped of the references, many of the shows biggest moments wouldn’t land as well; it’s very reliant on them. While you don’t need to have seen the previous Macross shows to understand this, I’d highly suggest to watch SDF, DYRL, & Zero first so you don’t miss out either. Plus and 7 are being referenced here a fair bit as well, but the aforementioned three play the biggest role in the plot.

Sheryl Nome & Side Characters: In terms of characters, like mentioned above, the adult cast is generally great. But no one wants to watch a show about elders in a retirement home (so like 25+ in anime), so they don’t get as much focus. Ozma and Cathy’s storylines would have been much more interesting had they been focused on. Of the non-adult cast, it’s impossible to not like Sheryl. She was easily my favorite character (and idol in the entire Macross franchise). And the main reason to power through the show.

Duel Singers: There’s finally a sing off! Frontier pulls off two competing singers very well. Possibly one of the best moments of the show, just because of how amazing it is to hear the two singers competing, less so for the actual scene itself.

World Building: The world building is great. There’s lots of little bits of lore in this show, which is really nice.

Overall:

The show shoots itself in the foot with its pacing. It’s main characters (Sheryl aside) range from pointless to unlikable. More consistent than Macross 7 (not exactly an achievement), but Macross 7’s highs are better than anything found here. Frontier, at its best, is mediocre. If there were ever a Frontier spin off focused around the adult cast, I’d watch it in a heartbeat.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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