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Last edited by skullone on Thu Nov 14, 2002 11:37 am; edited 10 times in total

Seeing that there's no review for DYRL, I decided to submit mine (although the only versions readily available are the Best Films and Video dubbed one - horrible dub -, Kiseki's badly-subtitled VHS tapes and some Hong Kong bootlegs, of which the FX subtitled version of the Perfect Edition has the best aural and visual quality, but mediocre subtitles. Otherwise, you're looking at importing the raw Japanese version from CD Japan). Feel free to put this in the appropriate section. I hope there aren't many spoilers in this.

Rating: TA

Synopsis:

It is the year 2010, the SDF-1 Macross is caught in battle against the giant alien race of the Zentradi, along with thousands of civilians living in her holds.

We follow the footsteps of the three main characters, Hikaru Ichijyo, Lynn Minmay and Misa Hayase, through this fierce war.

Review:

I finally got the chance to really watch DYRL in all its glory (Perfect Edition), without any annoying dubs or hard subs or sub-par bootleg subs. In this review, I will address all areas of criticism I've seen so far (fair and unfair) and I might even raise some of my own.

The first thing that strikes you with DYRL is the quality of the animation. Excellent detail throughout, with good form consistency in the mechanical designs, especially considering that it was completely drawn by hand. The backdrops are very atmospheric and moody, while the emotions of the characters are excellently portrayed in the animation. I personally consider the character designs in DYRL and FlashBack 2012 to be the Haruhiko Mikimoto's masterpieces.

Two minor points of criticism here, though:

1.Sometimes, the lips don't synch perfectly with the voice actors' speech.
2. There are times when the scrolling and panning seems to be jerky.

Background music and songs: I consider myself an extremely demanding viewer and listener, ready to pick a lot of nits and even bash something that others find "wonderful". I cannot stress strongly enough how much I appreciate the fact that Kentaroh Haneda opted to use a real orchestra for the BGM of DYRL, when he could go synth-crazy; besides, synths were the craze of the '80s, with artists and bands like OMD, Human League, The Communards, Yello, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, even Leonard Cohen (especially on "I'm Your Man") using them extensively - some of them exclusively. Instead, he opted for the power of real stringed instruments and horns, giving a very classical feel to the soundtrack - I believe with Wagnerian influences, following the path carved by John Williams in the Star Wars trilogy - , with the refreshing addition of some well-thought out electric guitar soloing to give another edge to it, with rock and blues colorations. So, is this theme another "Ring" clone merged with rock? Of course not. It has some great jazzy moments as well (Hikaru and Minmay's time when they were trapped in the holds of the SDF-1 Macross, for instance).

Songs now... Some will discount Minmay's songs as silly and childish. This, however, is a claim that cannot hold a lot of water, because:

1. Her first songs (the childish ones), "Watashi No Kare Wa Pairotto" ("My Boyfriend Is A Pilot"), "Zero-G Love" and "Shao Pai Lon" ("Little White Dragon") were recorded when she was actually still what we'd consider a child. So, it is reasonable and expectable that the songs attributed to that specific period of her life and career were written accordingly. Personally, I could live without "Watashi No Kare Wa Pairotto" and "Shao Pai Lon". To be honest, I don't like these songs at all. "Zero-G Love" is a little childish, but it's rather amusing and sounds pleasant.

2. Later songs: "Sunset Beach", "Cinderella", "Ai, Oboete Imasu Ka?" ("Love, Do You Remember?") and "Tenshi No Enogu" ("An Angel's Paints") all present musical maturity and, from a lyrical point of view, I don't see how or why they wouldn't hold their own very well compared to modern pop offerings. Synth usage on "Ai, Oboete Imasu Ka?" and "Tenshi No Enogu" is successful, with some very nice, fat sounds - a Roland Jupiter perhaps? "Sunset Beach", with its jazz/funk influences wouldn't sound out of place in a song collection for someone's summer vacation.

Of course, it is an uncontested fact that Marii Iijima has a great voice and excellent talent at conveying the song's emotional content, so I will not discuss this one at all.

Voice acting: I've seen good and bad voice and live-action acting in my life and, let's just say I detest bad acting. Here, we have some "old school" voice acting, with actors that actually honor every last yen they're paid. They get the meaning across and there is no inconsistency between the emotion you get from the voice actor's spoken words and the animation. Very commendable work.

Storytelling: Clearly, this movie is a retelling of the original TV series, so it is assumed that the viewer is already familiar with the story concept and the characters. However, there are differences, which, according to the Macross Compendium, are for "UN Spacy propaganda reasons", as DYRL is now considered to be "a fictional docudrama that premiered in 2031" in the Macross universe. A clever twist, making DYRL the "Pearl Harbor" of the Macross universe.

It has often been said that DYRL has a rushed story in some places and that there are other times when it just drags on and on. Hmmm... Perhaps, if you're not familiar with Macross at all, although I know many viewers who had no problem following it with great ease. I will criticise the Max and Milia part: what happened with these two? Why was the animated scene about them cut off? This is a place where the story is rushed and becomes rather confusing. Another possible problematic part is the beginning, where we don't get any information about the Macross' origin and how the ship and the civilians aboard it ended up in this predicament.

Also, the story drags with Hikaru and Minmay's scenes in the engine compartment of the SDF-1 Macross and their night out in town. These scenes should definitely be shorter.

Hikaru's time with Misa on the destroyed Earth is long enough to bring the two to understand and eventually love each other; no rush or drag here. In my opinion, this, along with the last moments of the movie, after the main battle, is the most successful, emotionally, part.

All this has its impact on how the characters are portrayed. Naturally, the emphasis is on the Hikaru/Misa/Minmay love triangle, with the other characters almost restricted (mostly because of the limited time available) to sidekick role.

Hikaru is already a fighter pilot, brash, with a good inner sense of duty, not particularly fond of red tape and orders and, perhaps, a rough, raw diamond of a fighter pilot. Just as in the series, with women, he's in the right place, the right time for them to confide in him, appreciate him and love him - even though Misa detests his ways at first. He's not an insensitive bastard or anything; he leaves all hopes and desires of being with Minmay when, on Earth, he familiarises himself with the idea that she's dead and gone forever - he has to go on with his life, at least what short life is still there for him.

Minmay matures a lot faster in DYRL than she does in the series. She's not a child anymore. She knows what she wants; she's a woman, self-dependent and capable of showing what she really holds in her heart.

Misa, on the other hand, is exactly as we saw her in the series: locked inside herself, hiding her sensitivity beneath layers of disguise as "the strong, cold officer", although she really is a very warm woman, beautiful inside and out, and very desirable for what she really is.

In all, DYRL is a very good anime movie for everyone to watch. Be warned, though, that there is quite some violence in it, making rather unsuitable for small children.

So, this is my review of DYRL, just short of a full analysis of it.

Furthermore, seeing that most subtitles out there are not exactly what I'd wish for, I decided to edit one I was aware of and make mine (untimed). Burn of the MacrossWorld forums (Björn Wieland) has hosted it on The UN Spacy Database, in the Fan Works section, "Texts, Fansubs, Essays etc" subsection. I give you here the link to take you straight to my fansub: http://unspacy.sdf1.net/fanfic/skullone/UNSDBdyrl_script_skullone_fanworks.html

Also, lebhead of the Macross World forums (http://www.macrossworld.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi) hosts it on his site: http://protoculture.lebhead.com).

Grade:

Overall (dub): NA
Overall (sub): NA
Overall: A-
Story: B+
Animation: A
Art: A
Music: A

+: Excellent animation, the myth that Minmay is a ditz crumbles.
-: Story rushes and drags in some points, the whole movie rotates around Hikaru, Misa and Minmay.

Reviewed by: Konstantinos-Dimitrios "skullone" Tzoannopoulos

Production Info:

Project Planning: Yoshimasa Ohnishi, Kenji Yoshida
Story Concept: Studio Nue with cooperation by Artland
Director: Noboru Ishiguro, Shoji Kawamori
Story Supervisor: Shoji Kawamori
Script: Sukehiro Tomita
Character Design: Haruhiko Mikimoto
Production Design/Mechanical Design: Kazutaka Miyatake
Music: Kentaroh Haneda
Production Directors: Haruhiko Mikimoto, Ichiroh Itano, Toshihiro Hirano
Director of Photography: Kazunori Hashimoto
Producers: Akira Inoue, Hiroshi Iwata, Tsuneyuki Enomoto
Presented by: Big West, MBS, Shogakukan

Nice job, skullone. I have the badly-dubbed best video one too. Some of the voice acting is pretty funny. Anyway, it stil was a prett cool movie. Some highlights: Miriya (or Millia, my bad) going on the rampage in the zentradi ship, any action scenes with the slick strike valkryie, and "THE-GREATEST-MOMENT-IN-ANIME" when Hikaru pimp-slaps Minmay (God knows throughout Robotech, I wanted to a couple of times).

You can only get the dubbed version? Strange. I've got the subtitled version. It's all over the place.

I have the subbed version, but its from a bootleg company, so the subs aren't that good. But the movie makes up for it, and after watching it a couple of times, you get the point.

SuperSkylineGTR wrote:

and "THE-GREATEST-MOMENT-IN-ANIME" when Hikaru pimp-slaps Minmay

Amen, brother! Twisted Evil

The first time my buddies and I saw that there was much rejoicing. Yay. (And much rewinding of the VCR).

It's always nice to know that I am not the only one that detests Minmay.

*Sigh* Too much Robotech influence. Minmay was totally misrepresented in Robotech, because Carl Macek could not accept her as a character (see his Akadot interview, June 2001).

While it is true that even in Macross she was an "immature" person, with the major change in her happening after the destruction of Earth, we must keep in mind that she's a 15-year-old girl in the series' beginning and cannot expect her to act like a grown up. Of course, Macek, in his attempt to "simplify" things (as if the Western audiences cannot understand detailed and complex characters), made a total ditz out of her and made her all the more annoying (perhaps on purpose?) with Reba West's voice.

So, by judging Minmay from Macross using Robotech's rendition as a reference, you are being entirely unfair and comparing apples to oranges.

Besides, Hikaru's DYRL slap on Minmay wasn't a "revenge" for her not being able to see how much he was in love with her in the series (how could she see it anyway? She was a little girl, caught up in the enthusiasm for her career, with what still seemed to be a whole life ahead of her, so she might not want to commit to a relationship entirely. In a nutshell, she wasn't really looking for what Hikaru was looking for and, possibly, not looking for what Hikaru had to give at the time. Knowing this, how can one still call her a bimbo or a b*tch?), but a tough wake-up call. Their only chance to survive was this song, this little thing and, by locking her mind into her desire to be with Hikaru even for a single moment, even if that moment was their last, not caring about whatever happened to anyone else, she was throwing everything away - her life, Hikaru's life, all of Mankind.

In this sense, the slap was justified and even necessary, despite it being an extreme act that caused even Hikaru pain (emotional, not physical; if you watch again, you'll understand that it's not his hand that's hurting - a pilot has strong enough hands to give a slap without getting hurt - , but his heart, as he had to do this to someone he so deeply loved), but no one is justified in saying that Minmay was a stupid bimbo and that the only good thing to do with her is to slap her.

Skullone, I see kinda see your point... but she still was annoying, both in Robotech and DYRL.

At least Mari Ijiima (did I spell that right?) can sing.

My copy is VHS, but it came straight off of the laser disc copy. It's perfect, and the subtitles came from the disc itself. I just got lucky on this one.

You're right nagash... The voice actress from Robotech sucked. I don't how I could tollerate it when I was 7 when I first watched Robotech. Anyway, I usually can't stand J-pop (the second worst music in the world next to country), anyway but I 'll give props to the singing of the Japanese actress, she is tollerable.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don't really see how a J-pop song would be worse than, say, anything we get from Britney Spears or Jennifer Lopez. I will agree, of course, to the fact that a big part of J-pop music productions is very substandard in musical and lyrical terms.

Of course, there is no comparison between Mari Iijima and Reba West. Mrs. Iijima has a very pleasant voice and can easily hold her own in front of a demanding audience, whether she sings some of her Minmay songs (my personal favorites from this part of her career being "Ai Wa Nagareru", "My Beautiful Place", "Cinderella", "Tenshi No Enogu" and "Ai, Oboete Imasu Ka?") or something from her later career.

And her voice acting performance in DYRL and the SDF Macross TV series was very professional and slick.

On the other hand, Reba West doesn't even come close. And this is not just my opinion. These days, a longtime friend of mine is staying with me and he has seen Robotech in its entirety, both the Greek dub and the original american version, as well as the Macross Movie's Greek dub (translated off the Hong Kong dub). We sat down to watch DYRL both with subtitles and without on DVD and he was awestruck by the performances. I disagreed with him on the "let's remake it with full 3D graphics" part, though...

Nice Review, skullone. If I can, I'd like to add some of my own comments on DYRL. Personally, I though it was a very well done film, with great art and wonderful music. I only really had problems with one thing... the whole section with Misa and Hikaru on Earth. Granted, that plotline had to be their but it seemed to just drag and drag forever, so by the time the Macross showed up again, the ending seemed kinda rushed.

Other than that one problem, my only other real problem is with the fansub, but that's only a minor consern (The audio occasionally phases out, especially when minmay is singing). I I've got a VHS copy of the Laserdisk, so that could be part of the problem

Yeah, that part in the ruined city was dragged out a bit. And when they do that "play house" scene, I was like "what the $#%^ is this?!" Thankfully, 10 minutes later we got to see Millia and Max go to toe-to-toe (The scene when they are in the Meltrandi ship is sweet).

Oh yeah, and Ben (I for got his Macross Japanese name)got blown up too.

The part where Misa and Hikaru play house would have someone say "she's flipped". But, on second thought (which is something that not a lot of films require), it makes sense: They've spent time on a planet totally destroyed and lifeless, perhaps with no hope of survival.

And this, combined with the fact that Misa was a loner and not exactly the luckiest person in love, would lead her there: she wanted to experience the feeling of BEING with someone, being attached to someone, being a WOMAN before they both died.

I know it sounds dark and ominous, but that's the way it is. If you guys try to put yourselves in the position of the characters, you'll understand it.

That part wasn't actually dragging; it was long enough for all the military coldness that was inside Misa to be destroyed and reveal the human; seeing that the Earth was destroyed, seeing that no one was left alive, coming to believe that they were stranded on a practically dead and probably heavily irradiated planet, with the Macross being but one moderately powerful ship put against millions of far more powerful ships that were on its tail - which, of course, meant that they were doomed. All this also came with a grim wake-up call: she realized that, not only was death around the corner (and a death that was coming all too early; perhaps this apocalyptic motif that is evident in so many anime productions, where the Earth gets destroyed and the characters face death, destruction and sorrow at a very young age is the reminder of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki trauma - and, of course, the carpet bombings with incendiary bombs by USAF bombers that came before the two nuclear bombs - , where thousands of innocent, harmless to the enemy's military were killed or doomed to live a wrecked life and pass the consequences of the nuclear bombs on to their offsprings... And all this "just because" Curtis LeMay wanted so), but she had also wasted her life, as she had become a military machine, cold, emotionless, with a heart that was only there to pump blood, whereas it should harbor emotions and feelings too.

And the empty dishes and glasses in that scene where they played "house" had to mean something: they had nothing to eat, nothing to live on, the Macross was either destroyed or simply powerless against the Zentradi armada, no apparent chance of survival. Actually, it seemed that they didn't have the slightest hint of a chance. Which, naturally, leads us to Misa's desperate desire to experience being a woman, living with someone in the context of a couple, making love, being held, even if this was untrue, even if this was an illusion or a delusion... Just to have the satisfaction of feeling, thinking or knowing that her life hadn't gone TOTALLY wasted.

Before they, the last survivors (as it seemed to her) of Mankind, died an untimely death.

The section of Hikaru and Misa on Earth is one of the most heavily charged emotionally scenes in all the films I've seen in my life. And the scene where they played house is actually a scene of masked desperation and great sorrow.

And, to help you a bit, the original Japanese name for the character named Ben Dixon in Robotech is Hayao Kakizaki.

this is my first post here, so i just wanted to say hi to everybody first. normally you can find me either on MacrossWorld or the TMP Anime forums, but i decided to check this place out.

i think skully's review is pretty dead on, even though i'm one of those who found that the story of DYRL was more like a B- because it heavily relied on the viewer's previous Macross knowledge. i also am one of those who think the story is a bit slow and rushed in some places. Wink

the animation and music is, as skully said, top notch. i think DYRL holds its own even in todays anime market.

while i found Minmay a tragic heroine in DYRL, i still think she's rather annoying and childish in SDF Macross TV. she may not be up to RT-Minmei level, but she's close. her saving grace is that Mari is doing her voice and singing.

very good review skully! Smile

leb, you should remember that Minmay is a teenage girl (15 years old) in both series and had gone to South Ataria Island out of a dream... Or whim, call it what you like. So, you should expect at least a certain degree of immaturity from her. Just remember, how many of us were as mature when we were 15 years old?

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