Hypnotic on my Heart: Across The Stars

SPOILER ALERT: Plot details for Super Dimension Fortress Macross are discussed.

Super Dimension Fortress Macross, released in America as Robotech, is composed of three basic elements: mechs, a love triangle, and pop music. The standard mechs, the Valkyries, are transforming planes, while their strongest mech, the Macross is the alien fortress wherein they reside. The pilot at the center of this love triangle is Hikaru Ichijo, whose affections fluctuate from the stern lieutenant Misa Hayase to the bubbly pop star Lynn Minmay. Minmay's songs, while providing hope and joy for those aboard, are also the key to intergalactic peace.

The story is set ten years after an alien ship is left stranded on Earth, and has now been repurposed for human use as the "Macross." The aliens, giants known as the Zentradi, have waged war with the humans to get their ship back. The Macross escapes with thousands of refugees from the war using a "Space Fold" that teleports them near the orbit of Pluto. Now the crew of the Macross must make an arduous odyssey back to Earth, fighting off the relentless Zentradi along the way.

Many of the standard mechs aren't as stylish as those in, say, Gundam or Evangelion, but the VF-1 Valkyrie jets are known for their smooth transformations into massive battle suits. Indeed, a great deal of the animation budget is spent on their transformations and epic space battles. While done without the aid of computers, the flashy, dizzying battles still hold up as impressive. The aesthetics of Top Gun and Star Wars are written all over this. The greatest mech of them all, however, is the Macross, whose transformation is so disruptive that it causes havok for those living aboard.

The romance in Macross can rise to the level of soap opera, especially with the indecisive back and forth between Hikaru, Minmay, and Hayase, who come in and out of states of love, hate, and uncertainty. It can be frustrating, at times, to watch these three trip over their feelings, and at others, humorous to the point of parody. It's best not to take the romance too seriously, but it remains the better of the others in the show. Claudia and Roy have a touching and tragic love that ends on a note of pineapple salad, but it remains a side story. Max and Milia's deadly rivalry is exciting, but their transition to a married couple feels very rushed. In the central love story, things are allowed to take their time. What makes this love triangle one of the more effective, is that you genuinely don't know who Hikaru will pick, as he has enough of a relationship with both to choose either. Minmay is the cute first crush who showers Hikaru with affection and warmth, a pleasant escape from military life. Yet Minmay's ascendance as a pop star keeps her farther and farther away from him. Her childish antics also have less emotional pull with his growing life as a soldier. Lieutenant Hayase is rather strict and cold with him at first. Theirs is a love that grows with mutual understanding. Hayase grows to better understand the visceral terrors exacted on those she commands in battle, while Hikaru grows more accepting of the military code that his superior follows. His eventual selection of Hayase represents his maturity away from the youthful pleasures childhood, to the meaningful fruit produced by a life of labor.

Macross is very much a musical. To distinguish itself from the other mech show, Mobile Suit Gundam, and other spaceship odyssey show, Space Battleship Yamato, it needed a new stand-out element. That element was J-Pop, to be sung by newcomer Mari Iijima as Lynn Minmay. Her music, initially, serves as a comfort for the many refugees lost in space. They are mainly bubblegum pop songs, "My Boyfriend Is A Pilot", "Zero-G Love", and the theme for her film "Xiao Pai Long." We soon learn, however, that this music has an adverse effect on the Zentradi, who were a race created only to wage war. Music or displays of romantic affection shock and weaken them. The apex of this achievement occurs when Minmay's songs are broadcast to all the pilots and Zentradi during an all-out space battle in episode twenty-seven. This battle is so exciting because you get a sense that humanity is on its last legs, with all of Earth's population annihilated, and the Zentradi forces greatly outnumbering the humans. It's all so terrible that even Hikaru's plane is taken down. Minmay's music is their only advantage, as she sings through her every song as ships explode around her. The last is a "Bolero" infused march of "Love Drifts Away", during which the Macross lunges its way into the interiors of the main Zentradi ship, firing all of their missiles and winning the war. At the same time, Hikaru rescues Hayase, the last woman on Earth, as they realize their love for each other and cruise away to see the Macross landing on the horizon. It really is a perfect ending, and much of what occurs afterwards is unnecessary filler that can be skipped.

Macross got its first film in Macross: Do You Remember Love? It is a compilation film that summarizes the best highlights of the show. The Adolescence of Utena remains the gold standard for this, as it remixed all of the strongest elements of the show into a standalone plot, while surpassing its source material in beatific artistry. While it is preferable to have seen Revolutionary Girl Utena before watching Adolescence, the movie stands enough on its own to make that unnecessary. The same can't be said for Do You Remember Love? This is regrettable because the animation in the film is a full realization of character designs that were limited by a television budget. It also adds the new song, "Do You Remember Love?" which is played during the spectacular final battle, and has become a flagship anthem of the series. All of the mechs are purely handrawn, and the film is stuffed with so many, that it is probably the most ambitious mecha film on that scale alone. The drawbacks are that the movie tries to stuff in too much with character development terribly stunted or skipped, though I'll give it points for the juggle. In any case, Do You Remember Love? is an aesthetic firework, a rare gem of animation never to be seen of in the mecha genre again

It's a shame that so many subsequent entries in the Macross series have yet to get a Western release. Macross 7, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, and Macross Delta will remain within Japanese borders, due to arcane copyright issues between Harmony Gold and Studio Nue. The best of these entries remains the OVA Macross Plus, which thankfully has a Western release. It deals with a love triangle of three childhood friends, now split apart. Two of them pilots and one a manager for Sharon Apple, a pop star A.I., and one of the first virtual idols in fiction. Plus continues the Macross tradition of strong characterization and glamorous battle animations. The animation, it must be said, did for anime what The Prince of Egypt did for Western cartoons, in its innovative mixing of computer animation with traditional, now standard in anime today. Plus is also scored by Cowboy Bebop composer Yoko Kanno, whose grand reputation fits right in with this musical series. Macross 7 takes place not long after the original, with Max and Milia as side characters, and their daughter taking a major role. The main character, though, is the guitarist Basara, who wants to utilize rock music to end conflicts. While Macross 7 isn't as critically well-recieved, the soundtrack remains highly popular, and is worth a listen. Macross Zero is prequel to the original series that explains the origin of the transforming planes, while bringing back Roy as a supporting character. Macross Frontier is a tribute to all the prior Macross shows, with Ranka singing "My Boyfriend Is A Pilot" to Alto practicing the hand motions of Dyson from Plus. Frontier is the third best Macross show, with Kanno returning to score, and rivalry between the two very cute singers, Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee. The only downside is that all the mechs are computer animated, which may look great in Rebuild of Evangelion, but not so much here. Macross Delta is the latest installment, and perhaps the most divisive, as it utilizes the modern moe idol aesthetic seen in Love Live and Idolmaster, while introducing magic. It may have its fans, but it's a far cry from the science-fiction space opera that started it all.

The influence of Macross on anime is also quite visible. We can assume that Hideaki Anno was a passionate fan. Captain Nemo from Nadia: Secret Of Blue Water has a striking resemblance to Captain Global. Shinji's dream in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where previous scenes in the anime are repurposed to explore his psyche, echoes a similar nightmare the Hikaru suffered after a battle left him in a coma. Macross Frontier seemed to acknowledge Evangelion, by making Alto's pilot suit look similar to Shinji's blue plugsuit. Music also plays a strong role in Evangelion's copycat. Rahxephon. They even brought Yoko Kanno for the soundtrack, and while Macross had a love triangle, Rahxephon had what felt like a love pentagon. Macross has also been an influence on the future funk genre of internet pop, that samples Japanese pop songs of the 80's and 90's and remixes them with modern funk. The artist Macross 82-99 takes his name from the series, naming one of his songs after Lynn Minmay, Night Tempo has remixed the Macross song "Silver Moon, Red Moon" and the YouTube channel "Artzie Music" routinely uses Macross clips in their future funk music videos.

Macross was created by Takamori Shoji, who is also responsible for isekai-mecha fusion, The Vision Of Escaflowne and the original designs for many of the Transformers, such as Optimus Prime. Kawamori was partially inspired into pursuing mechanical design by the Apollo 11 mission, but "When he saw the moon landing on television as a child, he was frustrated. he wanted to go to the moon" (Anime Jump). From that dream of spaceflight came another dream true to the spirit of what Apollo represented: the elevation of our species for a more common good. While the message that love and music will save the world comes off as hokey, it speaks to a deeper truth, that these things are part of what make life so enriching, and the world worth saving. It speaks to common humanity that may not end war, but can shrink our fears. I think now on the words of Dr. Yury Pelyoshonok, who having grown up in the Soviet Union, remarked on the impact of hearing the Beatles in that oppressive regime, "The kids lost their interest in all Soviet unshakable dogmas and ideals, and stopped thinking of an English-speaking person as an enemy" (BBC News).