Now that almost the entirety of the Macross anime franchise is available to stream in English-speaking countries worldwide (with the exception of the US, likely due to complicated, unresolved rights issues), I’ve been gradually reviewing my way through it. Previously, all I’d watched was the original SDF Macross show from the 1980s, in its heavily altered Robotech: The Macross Saga guise, and the 1990s OVA series Macross Plus. While Macross Plus was only tangentially related to the original show in terms of plot, Macross 7 has multiple direct links to SDF Macross that means it has a slightly higher barrier of entry, though it’s not insurmountable.
At 49 episodes (plus another three OVAs set during the show’s continuity, bolted onto the end of the episode count by Disney), Macross 7 is by far the longest Macross TV show, and was extremely popular in Japan. Its reception from Western Macross fans has been more mixed — it’s certainly extremely goofy. Instead of idol music like SDF Macross and Plus, Macross 7 focuses on rock band Fire Bomber so much that the entire sound track is composed solely of their songs. Thankfully Fire Bomber is, well… fire, so that’s fine!
Linked below, you can read my review of the first half of the show at Anime News Network. I’m currently watching through the second half, so a review of that will be forthcoming. Following that, a review of Macross Zero, and hopefully whatever else Macross is left on Disney+ that I haven’t reviewed already!
Additionally, I hope you all had a merry Christmas yesterday! My son gave me a model of Macross 7’s main character Basara’s custom red Valkyrie mecha, which was a very timely present! It’s a 1/100 scale HG model, and will be the first non-Gundam gunpla model I’ve built. Maybe I’ll post a picture of it when I’m done!
Kevin Cormack is a Scottish medical doctor, husband, father, and lifelong anime obsessive. He writes as Doctorkev at https://medium.com/anitay-official and appears regularly on The Official AniTAY podcast. You can also find him on Twitter @Herrdoktorkev. His accent is real.
