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Intense, powerful, eloquent, moving.

These words came to me when I saw this alternative version of the Macross series. (It's not compulsory to watch the tv series to understand and enjoy this movie)

First of all, I'd like to say that, visually, I took a slap. I saw Akira, Redline, Gurren Lagann and many other quality shows but I never ever saw something so divinely well moving than in "Macross, do you remember love?".

The fights are at same time violent, powerful and choregraphed with a sort of delicacy, nobility in the movement. Theses movements are incredibly harmonious and at the same time, on numerous occasions, direct ... and true. The sweetness and the violence alternate in a brilliant way. The decorations are extremely worked, colors are magnificient and even monsters are well designed. (I advise you to watch the HD version)

But this movie is not only beautiful ; what makes it a true masterpiece are the tackled themes, that can be explicit or implicit. It's a "form" in the service of the "content" and mutually, that is to say : the ideal situation. Moreover, even if the duration of two hours obliges to get to the point, all is said, all is clear, all is explained. That speaks about extraterrestrial, about genetic things, that looks complicated... but not ! Everything is totally clarified, it is probably the most clearly science-fiction anime I've ever seen. The made choices are relevant, the characters are very credible. Of course, they are note incredibly charismatic, but worked with accuracy, what makes them charming and relevant in the story they have to tell.

The message of the movie, that I let you discover, is of an absolute foolishness, but that's also the japanime's magic ! Everything is radiant, filled with magnificience, we have a gorgeous fight with a romantic music in background. To mix so skillfully the genres was a brilliant idea. There is some dispair, fury, enjoyment, beauty and the most important :

Romantism !

(First of all I apologize for my shit english, it's not my mother tongue. I hope it will be understandable.)

I try to write this review because some friends asked me "why do you consider Maison Ikkoku as a masterpiece ?". Indeed we can have some prejudices : It's an old anime, the graphic style is really different from the actual, the anime is very long (96 épisodes for a romantic show, never see it) and worse than everything, in France the name was quite ridiculous and people who saw it during their childhood have sometimes difficulties to be objective. So let's talk a little about ... the contents and the qualities of Maison Ikkoku.

The central theme is of course "love" but it is not approached no mather how. The development is really adult, very thoughtful. It could to be led only by an author who already has a real experience of life and who thought in depth of the subject. With the two main protagonists Godai and Kyoko, it shows a relationship built on a long term (seven years). A love where each learn to know the other one, to admire him, with its faults and its qualities. A love where we learn to feel the life for two. The anime has a great deal of things to say, to communicate. It deals as well with the mourning, the forced mariage, the customs and the social constraints. But it always tries to approach things under a profoundly human vision and filled with hope. It tends to show the beauty hidden behind this ocean of feelings which constitute a human life.

Everything is not so simple, the series asks good questions, evokes the real problems which prevent people from being lucky in love and even happy in general. Every minor character: Mikata, Kozue, Ibuki, brings an additional and necessary contrast. Right in the middle of that, we catch living really the adventure in the side of Godai, seeing him growing up, wanting that he success its life and that he becomes deserving of the woman he loves. So much to say to you that from a certain stage, we are totally touched by the beauty of the things which are presented. It is a brick-built happiness, everything is magnificent. Intense romantic scenes, scenes where we simply see characters enjoying life, getting drunk in a student room. Scenes where we see children laughing and playing and blooming in streets. Scenes which speak to us simply about life. Because it's really that, I don't lie, everything is in the concrete, there is NO superficiality, it touches directly the televiewer permanently with sometimes totally insignificant scenes but which are already magnificent. It is an ode for the happiness, for the joy of being alife, an invitation to enjoy this short time, to fill it the best as possible.

I am not going to write a book about the artistic side, everything is just fucking perfect. The music sublimates always the atmosphere, the landscapes are poetic, delicate. The direction has benn extremely worked. Everything is rhythmic and brought at the right time, we are never bored during the 96 episodes. There is a permanent intelligence at the level of all which takes place, examples to be given is far too important. I shall quote the episode 24, the dialogue with the father-in-law, the episode 52 where even the words are not necessary any more, you look at the image, you understand and you roar with enjoyment. The episode 92 where Akemi-san is badass as fuck.

But besides all these sentimental moments, let us speak about the humor ! After 80 episodes I thought I knew everything about the author's funny register, all her quiproquos, etc... Nevertheless she still managed to surprise me ! Better : All the recurring jokes remain effective till the end : Ichinose-san with her fans, Shun and his "shine-teeth" family, the best oba-chan of the world (all her episodes are epic), Asuna and "pot-au-feu", and last but not least Yotsuya-San and his "Godai-kun !" I'm sure you will laugh to roll on the ground at least three times during each episode.

Finally I'll say two words about the end, without spoiling. I guess all my street heard my shout as an asshole. The last words show that ALL which passed before was meaningful, that everything is held, that everything was thought, that every episode, so commonplace it can seem, brought irreparably to this sublimate end, which transcends everything. I really said myself that the author had understood everything, that she managed to gather all that we could produce of best to inject it to us by package of 20 minutes. That this anime, was the ultimate anime, all what an anime should be. I repeat that I never saw a similar end, where we condense in 15 words all the beauty of the human feelings in their ideal shape and all the complexity which was treated in 96 episodes. It was the most beautiful end for the most beautiful anime of the world.

So go watch this show, you won't regret it !