Two years ago, I embarked on my reviewing journey. One of the first works that I reviewed was Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. While not perfect it was a quite enjoyable and unique take on the mecha genre, one that stuck with me. While the Macross series is relatively short and straightforward compared to the behemoth I know and love known as Gundam, the sequels have escaped me. But now, almost exactly two years later, I’m ready to dive back into the idol mecha series with a fervor…

...headfirst into an entry that’s lukewarmly received by the fandom. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again was created by the advertisement production company, Big West, who decided to go ahead without the original creators from Studio Nue. Given the fandom’s burning hatred for a product that they feel is a bastardization of the source material created due to not respecting the original creators, it would make sense that fans would be less receptive to it. Another possibility is that, with the release of Macross shows by the original studio that take place around the same time, the continuity presented in II has been rendered non-canon, incentivizing new fans to skip over it.

However, the main reason seems to be that many just didn’t find Macross II that good of a show. Macross II was reportedly quite hyped prior to its release, and, while it certainly has its fans, the widespread consensus seems to be that it’s nowhere close to being the worthy successor to the original.

Macross II avoids the problem of having an infodump of exposition by simply foregoing any and all explanation, making for a bit of a disorienting and confusing watch. It would have really helped to have a Gundam-esque opening narration at least for the first episode. Without it, a lot of my understanding of the show came from reading a rewatch thread. I’ll be nice and give a synopsis, unlike the show itself.

The year is 2092. It has been 80 years since the SDF-II left for the cosmos. Back on Earth, for the duration of the time gap, U.N. Spacy has been successfully repelling Zentradi attacks using idol music. Owing to its successful military campaign for nearly three generations, Spacy has amassed influence, its soldiers and leaders obtaining celebrity status. This celebrity culture attracts the prying camera of Hibiki Kanzaki, a reporter at SNN, who’s hungry for the next big scoop. After reporting on (and possibly fabricating) a scandal between ace pilot Sylvie and her superior, he must discard the story and write a letter of apology. Not one to be still for too long, he flies to space with another reporter to catch the latest battle. There, they encounter a new alien force, one that apparently uses song to their benefit. During the battle, they encounter a mysterious woman who may be the answer to the secret of the new alien force…

The biggest praise that I can give Macross II is that it has really good production values. Apparently, it’s series standard, but Macross II has excellent music. Its opening is a boppy city pop jam, its ending is a wonderful J-pop ballad that I cannot get out of my head, and the OST is delightfully 80s. The character designs also scream 80s anime and they’re quite pleasing to look at. Macross II gives me a major feelings of anemoia; I can somehow distinctly see myself watching this on VHS. The action is also quite a treat to look at. I wouldn’t say it gets my blood pumping, but it’s visually striking, which I think is good enough. I’ve seen people call the animation “stiff,” but personally, I don’t see it. The mech designs are also nothing to sneeze at. The valkyries look slick while the antagonist suits are the intimidating mech designs that I live for. I’ll probably get the 1/100 Gigamesh if I ever decide I no longer want to maintain any semblance of financial responsibility. While there are problems brought on by the formatting, being a short OVA allowed Macross II to have downright immaculate production. The only mark against it is that I hear the English dub is subpar (which is par for the course for the time). The subs I used were also pretty bad, so hooray for equivalency, I guess?

The premise has a lot of good things. I liked that Hibiki was a reporter, thus allowing for a different perspective from the the pilot protagonist of the original. I enjoyed the concept of a propaganda-laden society that U.N. Spacy propped up, potentially allowing for a decent analysis of this society’s faults and fostering Hibiki’s importance. I liked the concept of Spacy relying on music to repel the Zentradi, leading to them being overwhelmed when they encountered a race that was immune. I liked the varied cast that was rife for exploring. I also just liked that there was an entirely new alien race with its own culture that we could learn about.

It's beautiful music and visuals combined with a strong premise with many concepts to explore make me understand how some people can hold this anime dear. On paper, it’s certainly a great OVA. If I did watch this as a kid, I’m sure Super Dimensional Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again would hold a special place in my heart. At the very least, its production and ambition prevent me from out-and-out hating Macross II.

And boy, oh boy, it should count itself lucky for that shield.

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Macross II has a wealth of concepts at its disposal and its biggest problem is that it doesn’t adequately explore these concepts. Lovers Again has a lot of things, but it doesn’t have many things going for it. As Macross II demonstrates, you can have the best ideas in the world, but they’re nothing without good execution.

The characters feel flat and ultimately unexplored. I barely have a sense of who Sylvie is, as we spent very little time with her. The same goes for the rest of her squadron. Hibiki’s a bit better, but only marginally and I don’t get the sense of how he’s changed (if at all) as a reporter by the end of the series. Hell, if I’m being truthful, I didn’t know much about him at the beginning besides he was hungry for a scoop no matter how sensational. Why is he hungry for big scoops? What drew him to journalism? I’d say Ishtar is a bit better, with the caveat being that I’m referring to Ishtar as she appears on Earth, because there isn’t much you have to do to pull off being a fish out of water. Ishtar as a whole is as underwhelming as the other characters. What was he life like before? What makes Ishtar special compared to other emulators? She ends up not being much besides a limp Minmay parallel and (admittedly organic) fanservice. Mash could have been an interesting, positive gender-queer character but no, like other characters, they’re a striking design and a decent proof-of-concept. Feff is on the cover as an intimidating presence. And yes, his design is badass but he really didn’t do anything to warrant being placed on the cover.

Macross II didn’t do anything to earn its subtitle, Lovers Again, which is a damn shame because it really is a wonderful-sounding title. There was a line in episode two about Ishtar and Hibiki loving one another, but I didn’t see it at all. At the end, Hibiki gets with Sylvie despite hardly interacting with her. Like in the original, my ship sunk, but this time I found myself not quite caring because it all felt so hollow. Ishtar thanks Sylvie for “being her rival,” despite that not being apparent in the OVA itself. It felt like something that was fleshed out in the series bible but not explored in the show itself.

And that’s really how I’d describe all of the concepts. The propaganda angle was more fleshed out in the series discussion by fans than the actual show itself. The alien race, the Marduk, were hardly explored and their leaders were one-note villains. The power of song wasn’t really explored more than surface level. As I said, Hibiki’s role as a reporter was underutilized. Everything being so half-baked means that I end up not really caring about what’s going on in the OVA.

In the discussion thread I followed, someone commented, “so… this is bad, right?” To that, I answer, not really. It’s certainly mediocre, but I wouldn’t jump to call it "bad" per sé. It’s certainly subpar, it’s certainly messy, but I feel its heart is in the right place. In regards to a grade, a professor once told me that he doesn't fault ambition, and I agree with that. I’ll commend Macross II for the things it wanted to achieve; it didn’t aim to coast by. Unfortunately, its short runtime made it so that essentially none of these ideas were realized. I still haven’t gotten around to watching it, but I hear this is essentially the problem of Gundam F91: a product made for an entire series being squeezed into one movie.

Its aim and its production make it so I’m wary of calling Macross II bad. Its bungling of said aim makes me confident in calling it “not good.”

Given that there’s a tabletop RPG of this, I’d be inclined to take a stab at the concept myself in an interactive manner. Unfortunately, I doubt I’d find anyone to play with ;~;