I was thoroughly confused by Macross before sinking my teeth into the series. You’re telling me that these aliens, who are giant humanoid creatures, are usually, there’s exceptions, tamed and turned vulnerable through the power of Japanese pop idols and mechs that resemble a fighter jet with human limbs? Frankly, I was sold because that sounds like the sickest shit ever. My first exposure to this franchise was watching the original series, SDF-Macross from 1982. It’s one of my all time favorite mecha series, and I loved everything about it. The larger than life robot fights, aliens (zentradi), personalities, drama, and the music. The song “My Boyfriend’s a pilot” is a song I never grew tired of. In fact, it still pops up in my music rotation to this day. When I heard that they were airing a Macross movie in my local theater, I knew I had to be there. Macross on the big screen?! My imagination ran wild, but as long as the fights were epic, the idol singing got stuck in my head, and there was a love triangle that humanity's fate rested on, I’d be a happy man. So did Macross Frontier: The False Songstress meet my expectations?
Being mostly unfamiliar with the franchise outside the original series, I was worried I’d be missing vital information, crucial to understanding this movie’s plot. Thankfully that wasn’t the case at all. Upon research after watching the film I found out that this is actually a movie adaption of a TV series of the same name, with some slight differences, at least in this movie. I knew enough of the lore to pinpoint Zentradi in the crowd, understand the vocabulary they use in this film with words like, ”deculture”, and a handful of references to SDF Macross. The girl who’s working to become an idol even sings the classic, “My Boyfriend’s a Pilot” at some point. That being said, even without my basic understanding of the universe, a viewer could watch this movie on it’s own completely blind and still be thoroughly entertained.
The movie centers around Alto, a young pilot for the Macross, who’s unit and area get ambushed by aliens called the Vraja while on an expedition across the galaxy. Meanwhile his friend, and head commander’s daughter, Ranka aspires to become an idol instead of following her “Nii-san” footsteps. He’s not her biological brother, but took on the role of raising her after her actual family was killed in an attack by the Vraja, and she lost her memory as an effect. Coinciding with the invasion is the appearance of pop idol legend Sheryl. Who’s claim to fame is that she’s not genetically enhanced, or biologically altered with robot parts and sings/performs as impressively as she does. It’s up to Alto to fend off the Vraja, find out if there’s a lineage between their attack and Sheryl’s arrival, and make sure Ranka is in good company while on the road to becoming an idol.
This story is remarkably similar to SDF-Macross’s story, and for that reason you’d think that I’d be peeved, but I wasn’t. Maybe it was the relief I felt that it was going to be similar enough to SDF-Macross that I wouldn’t be lost. Regardless of the reason, I was glad the plot was more familiar than I’d anticipated. I was surprised the love triangle wasn’t drawn out long, or held much significance at all. Ranka and Sheryl held little to no ill will towards each other, even before the climax of the film where they perform together. Maybe it’s a different case in the sequel, but the love triangle drama wasn’t as strong as the dilemma that Alto faced when dealing with Sheryl and his CO (Ranka’s brother) when he was convinced she was a spy. Alto even goes as far as to slam into Sheryl like a professional football player after he thought she was going to hurt Ranka. As far as the plot goes, there’s only two gripes I have. The first one being that, either I missed a scene or it’ll be explained in the next movie, but the significance of Ranka’s pet alien rodent, Ai-kun, is never fully explained. The other is that Alto’s learning the ropes of what it takes to be part of the fighter unit he joins is glossed over, as are the other people in his squad. They’re given distinct designs, but aside from Michael, hardly anyone else part of their platoon has any lines. Again, maybe this touched on more in the sequel or the TV series, but our roster in this movie is very small. I was also confused about the significance of Sheryl’s earring and how Alto was able to see into her past while wearing one. None of these problems had deterred my enjoyment, in fact, it motivated me to learn more about the Macross universe.
The characters are fun and unique, with their dialogue and banter between one another being endearing and feeling natural. It wasn’t ground breaking dialogue, but it did more than serve its purpose as a vehicle for what I was looking forward to most from this film: The mechs, the space kaiju, and a cute idol performing her guts out to a background of space warfare. And boy did this film deliver on that front. I was slightly disappointed that the ships and Vraja were CG, but something about the way it looked appealed to me aesthetically. It wasn’t good CG, or particularly attractive to look at, but something about it was endearing and I liked it. Sometimes the camera would spastically jolt left to right instead of just staying still and focusing on the action. Instead it felt like it was trying to be a part of the action, which was done right for the most part, but it was something I picked up on. Aside from that, the fights, explosions, and final performance culminating together at the end elevated my experience from an 8 to a 10. It was amazing stuff, great powerful songs being played while these huge robots, ships, and aliens are all fighting each other in an effort to save Sheryl’s unit from being annihilated. Sadly they’re not able to take all the ships they set out to save as refuge, but they regardless put up a great fight and arguably came out victorious.
Macross Frontier surprised me with its charming sense of humor, larger than life fight scenes, and tantalizing romantic drama much more than I’d expected. Being only familiar with the first installment of the franchise, I was floored that this gave me a similar vibe as that series did. Though my theater’s audio wasn’t as loud as I wanted it to be, and the film itself seemed compressed and not set at the right resolution. From what I’ve heard, this was not mutually exclusive to my theater. So I don’t dock it any points for that, and I’d recommend this in a heartbeat to any fan of mecha anime. Did this movie meet my expectations? Yup, all I wanted was giant robots, explosions, and cute girls singing and it did more than delivered.
