Macross F Movie 2: Sayonara no Tsubasa

When I finished watching the Macross Frontier TV series, I felt it succeeded at most of the things it tried to achieve, but could have benefited from giving a couple of them more attention during the climax. I came to this movie expecting it to be mostly reused animation from the last several TV episodes with some new scenes that would enhance certain parts of the story. That's not what this is.

Wings of Farewell not only has all-new animation, it's a significant reworking of the events of the series. I don't think it's even a case where you could watch the series up to a ... certain point and then decide to cap things off with either the TV or movie ending, since some earlier events from the TV series have already been retconned by the time this second movie starts.

The good news is that it improves the weak areas of the TV series, making Alto a more proactive and capable protagonist and giving a more satisfying arc to his story. It pays off the romance arc in a more definitive way. It also adds some memorable new action and performance scenes that all have excellent animation.

The bad news is that this comes at the expense of the things the TV series did well. The war and conspiracy story arcs aren't handled nearly as well in this movie. Upcoming developments are telegraphed and too much is bluntly stated in expository dialogue, robbing it of the tension and build-up that were strengths of the TV version. Also the most memorable scenes from the TV climax are missing entirely, since events are playing out differently by that point.

Wings of Farewell is another great ending to Frontier, but just like the TV version it feels like neither is the definitive ending. So much is changed that I doubt it would be possible to splice together a fan edit of all the best parts from the TV and movies versions to reach something that pays off every story arc in the way it deserves. So I'm left feeling that the only way to have the ultimate Macross Frontier experience is to watch both versions and then blend them together inside you head.

Having seen "Macross: Do You Remember Love" in between the two "Macross Frontier" movies, I can't help but feel like... "DYRK" comes down to one thing: it promises you that the song at the end will be the best thing ever. There is one song at the end. It is, indeed, the best shit ever. And then it is over.

This is "Buy Our CDs: The Movie". Which isn't bad. I like the songs. "1000%" and "Valkyria" stand out for me. But it's not enough.

The movie fills itself out with some cool energy during music video segments, although it just can't reach the heights of Sheryl's ... show in the first one. There is definitely Gender in it with regard to Alto's relationship with kabuki. I also very much appreciated its willingness to put regular characters in real danger. Also, there were a number of big brained moves like the macross surfing on an asteroid.

Nonetheless, it's very much Just Extra for people who've seen the show. The first act has a whole beach episode segment that spotlights official couples, for example. Once the songs start, they never stop and they're rarely the singular focus of a scene. It's very common for characters to talk over them. And, like the first movie, any character who wasn't 100% necessary gets no personality whatsoever. They're just there.

And then there's the way it handled the love triangle. Talk about a cop out. How are you going to swoop in with an unrelated alternative ending to a show and not have the main characters truly settle anything between themselves?

I enjoyed it, but it's hollow.

This review is spoiler free.

I was excited when a fansub of this film was finally released. The first film remake of Macross Frontier was actually not that bad. It was enjoyable, and the changes they made from the original anime were interesting. This film follows the first.

It's immediately clear that a considerable amount of money went into the production of this film. The CGI effects are a step above what we saw in the original anime. There's more detail, the fights are faster and more frenetic, and the animations are all much more convincing. The battles are fantastic. The music's quality continues to be near ... the top of anime music. The characters themselves suffer from the same inconsistency in their drawings that's plagued this series since the TV anime, but it's become part of its style at this point, I suppose. I'm not a huge fan, but it's digestible.

Everything is so far so good.

Then the movie continues its narrative, and things immediately starts to go downhill. The story continues where the first film left off. More details are revealed about the characters' origins. They're different from the TV anime, and in some aspects more interesting. In others, they're horribly convoluted and feel contrived. The conspiracy to control the Vajra returns, but with immense amounts of absurdity and contrivance added to ensure this film fails.

That's the part I don't understand. The writers jammed so many twists into this film, and featured so many unkillable characters making surprise reappearances, I had to keep myself from fast forwarding between battle sequences. The unkillable characters reach Sunrise anime levels. The story barely ends up making sense at the end. The end itself is fairly interesting, but they take the most inane and unintelligible route to get there.

Even for Japanese anime, which is notorious for ambiguity and stories that end terribly, this film manages to reach its own depth of utter nonsense.

There's a scene where the main cast from the SMS dress up and play instruments on stage with Ranka. Michel plays a guitar. Kanaria plays drums. Clan plays what I presume to be bass. She shoots darts loaded with tranquilizers from the neck of her instrument. Near the end, the Macross Quarter surfs into the atmosphere of a planet on an enormous piece of ship hull. The main characters all "die" at least twice each throughout the course of the film.

Words cannot describe how let down I was by this movie. If you're a fan of Macross, it's worth watching at least once for the battles. Personally, I can never get enough of Macross-style action with the missile trails and transforming fighter planes. This movie, though, managed to get me to delete it as soon as the credits hit. It's amazing.