Forum - View topicThe Anime Backlog - Macross Plus
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18385 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I never thought about it before on previous viewings (I think I've seen Plus three or four times over the years), I do have to agree that Plus shorts Myung a bit at the expense of resolving the conflict between the pilots.
Despite that, I've long found Plus as a whole to be the high point of the franchise on any criterion except OP. (That will always be Frontier's "Lion.") Fantastic music and action sequences and prescience about virtual idols, and - as Lynzee emphasized - a focus on adults dealing with adult matters is a big plus for me, too. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2252 |
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Man, I've only seen this once (in OVA form), and that was back in 2009. I haven't watched any Macross since the second Frontier movie, uh… ten years, one month, and three days ago.
If it's all right to ask, did Nick know you had this in the pipeline? |
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mgree0032
Posts: 291 |
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I also learned that Bryan Cranston played Isamu Alva Dyson in the English dub.
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1453 |
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I’m mildly amused at the science fiction names of the male protagonists— Dyson, presumably inspired by Freeman Dyson, known in science fiction for “Dyson spheres”. Bowman, presumably from “David Bowman”, the surviving astronaut from 2001: a space odyssey (the “Dave” in HAL 9000’s “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave”).
Thanks, Lynzee, I’ll have to revisit this, since I don’t think I’ve seen it this century. |
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q_3
Posts: 157 |
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This was my first and last Macross and honestly I think it did the series a disservice as an introduction. The two male leads were just horrendously insufferable to watch, most of the series they felt to me like gorillas flinging poo at each other.
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Monster Man Enishi
 Posts: 15 |
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I have a keen ear for voices, and I noticed that Isamu sounded much like Tim Whatley on Seinfeld despite the names being different. This was the 1990s, and the internet wasn't a thing yet for us, no Wikipedia to check. So I didn't get validation for my theory until the movie version of Armitage III came out, and they added some Hollywood actors to the English dub, but the character of Eddie Barrows had the same voice, however, the name was changed from Lee Stone to Bryan Cranston. Also, Macross Plus surprised me when I saw the SDF-1 Macross and realized I had a toy of it when I was a kid, but under the Robotech franchise. I hope Disney doesn't withhold Macross from streaming in the U.S. for no reason. I have been waiting forever to be able to watch it all, and it'd be a real kick in the face if the just sat on it here and released it everywhere else. |
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meiam
Posts: 3443 |
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Same, but in completely opposite way, I couldn't really get into any other macross stuff (except zero) after starting with Plus. Its really hard to get back to teenager when you had adult. I couldn't get into frontier love triangle with Alto all around boringness and jail-bait Ranka couldn't hold a candle to Sheryl, making any sort of love triangle really hard to care for (would have loved an all Sheryl version though). And Plus treating plan/mech seriously made it impossible to get into 7 (and seriously damaged any subsequent mech show). I might have been able to get more into those if Plus had been unrelated. I think its fair to say Myung got short change if you think of the story as being about the 3 main character. But if you expand it to consider Sharon as one of the main cast, I think it gives more of a fair share of the story development to Myung. She essentially has two main character conflict, she love Isamu but know that he'll never love her as much as he loves flying. And she failed at becoming an idol, having instead to become a "producer". Both of these are explored trough her dialogue with Sharon. As far as Gould, she doesn't really seem to hold any animosity toward him from the beginning of the story, seems like she mostly blamed his "disease" and doesn't hold him personally responsible. But I do agree that it would have been nice if she had a last conversation with him on that. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4745 |
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I watched the OVA version back when it aired on SyFy many years ago; it was (and still is) the only exposure I've had to the Macross franchise. You can probably guess from my username choice that I'd be strongly predisposed to like it, and oh boy did I. It was Watanabe, Nobumoto, and Kanno, three of my favorite creators, doing what they do best, along with Itano at the absolute peak of his talent. The dogfighting scenes remain some of the best pieces of animation I've ever seen. Lynzee is right about it being a remarkably prescient work; I can't think of how many AI-related articles I've read where my first thought is, "Do you want Sharon Apple? Because that's how you get Sharon Apple." I'll agree that Myung gets kind of forgotten the end; the focus is clearly on Isamu and Guld's dick-waving contest. Regardless, it's an all-time great work that everyone should check out if they haven't. (Also shout-out to the dub for having Richard Epcar play against a very pre-Breaking-Bad Bryan Cranston!)
I wish I could be entirely positive here, but unfortunately Anime Limited's release plans are...is "obscene" too strong of a word? I don't think so. Absurd price points for what amounts to a single short OVA/movie, along with all sorts of nonsense over what versions and audio tracks are actually included. Just give me both versions on a couple of discs in a basic case for $40 or so. Like, this shit isn't hard. |
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benzone
Posts: 8 |
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Macross Plus came out when the "antihero era" was in full swing, so male protags like Isamu and Guld were typical of the period. The worst part is that these characters usually never experienced any negative consequences for their actions like Guld did. That era was so bad that when some comics writers who hated it created a character intending to harshly criticize it, Lobo, they wound up accidentally creating one of the most popular DC characters of the day. So when Jackie Chan made his American debut with Rumble In The Bronx, one of its promotional lines was "nice heroes are back."
You mentioned how the Macross Plus team went on to do Cowboy Bebop. Looks like they decided to revise the formula a bit by putting the love triangle stuff - which to be fair was a famous Macross standard - to the background in favor of making the female lead, Faye Valentine, be as bad as the two male leads were. Except that - unlike mere "see women can be just as bad as the guys!" stuff like Lara Croft in the early Tomb Raider video games - Faye Valentine actually represented progress. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3006 Location: Email for assistance only |
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Please don't take offense to this but I don't really understand the purpose of this question. |
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Cryten
 Posts: 1111 |
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I consider Macross Plus the height of the series as far as creating a story and world building goes. After this Macross indulges in more and more magical thinking in order to get its plot flowing, to the point of resorting the literal Music Magic in Delta. Which brings it a long way from the original concept of Music as a culture shock for the Zentradi, a race long isolated from anything but warriors culture. Thats not to say that Plus doesnt have a bit of magical thinking in its resolution.
Though it does decide to abbreviate its conflict after spending so long building it up, both the AI topic and the the conflict between the main trio. And the opening inferring bewitching the interests of the cast has left me feeling weirded out by the song, especially since I enjoyed it a lot before learning its translation. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8491 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I love Macross Plus! To me, it's peak Macross. Shinichiro's masterful direction, Keiko Nobumoto's brilliant character writing, Yoko Kanno's sublime music, with vocals by some great talents. Beautiful art and animation. A good concept balanced nigh perfectly and having exciting action and drama beats. It's one of my favorite anime.
I first encountered M+ on the Action Channel, the OVA dubbed by Animaze, with Bryan Cranston and Richard Epcar starring. Both of them do a pretty good job, but I don't care much for Myung's English VA, I think she kind of ruins it with her weak performance. Anyway, I went out to buy the VHS tapes from Suncoast, but I saw the Movie Edition and bought that instead of four separate tapes, which was a good deal. I kind of switch back and forth whether on which version is better, but I owned the (sub-only) VHS tape for years. Actually, I still have it, I just can't play it, because I no longer have a VCR. I never bought the DVDs of Macross Plus because I learned they were basically just a VHS transfer onto disc. When the Blu-Ray format came out, I waited years for M+ to come out here on Blu-Ray. I've pre-ordered the Ultimate set (but not the one with the vinyls... I don't even own a record player) and anticipate watching both versions at home. Oh, and I did watch the movie version in theaters a few years ago around the time Nobumoto passed. A genius taken from us too soon. I'll always remember you as long as I'm an anime fan, Nobumoto-san. |
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AverageAnimeFan
 Posts: 61 |
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Macross 7 had some music magic too. Not sure about the original, couldn't stand it. |
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Cryten
Posts: 1111 |
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Yes, our statements do not contradict one another.
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