Forum - View topicMacross II Anime Film, True Masterpiece! **Heavy Spoilers!**
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retroborg
Posts: 10 |
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I watched Macross II Movie (DVD) and I must say it was a fantastic film, a true masterpiece!
Here are my thoughts and feelings about the film. It featured everything a self respecting Anime should deliver. Awesome animation, epic intergalactic battles, a dramatic / sad story line / plot and a fantastic sound track. The voice acting in both the US & Japanese versions were very well performed, but my favorite factor in the film was its music. When Hibiki takes Ishtar to the Moon festival and they listen to Wendy’s Love Song for the first time, with all the fans cheering inside the amphitheatre under the glass dome and the flagship Gloria in orbit, was my favorite moment by far! I love Lady Ishtar’s ecstatic expressions of joy and happiness. She then reveals her wish to Hibiki, which was to sing the song of love to her own people and bring them peace. Later on, another very dramatic and shocking moment was when Ishtar starts singing the song of love at the Alus Nova chamber inside the alien flagship, (Sarride) bringing confusion to the Zendraedi soldiers. The outraged Emperor then orders the executioner death ship to cleanse the polluted flagship by blasting it with its laser beams. Lord Feff and Lady Ishtar, manage to fly out of the doomed flagship inside a battle Mech, just in the brink of time! As they watch the large nuclear explosion of the Sarride from afar, Ishtar cries for the loss of lady Elensh, but Lord Feff replies:
The order given by the Emperor to his soldiers is equally dramatic (And very Japanese in style if I may say so)
The final battle between the U.N Spacey forces and the Mardook fleet is one of the best in any Macross / Robotech film. The music used for the battle scene is just perfect, as you watch the ships mobilizing for the imminent battle to come! The two huge fleets engage in a devastating clash, in close proximity to the moon’s orbit. At first impression, it would seem that the earth’s fleet gains the upper hand by wiping out 60% of the Mardook fleet in a single blow after using four Macross cannons, but all of a sudden, a huge wave of enemy ships de-folds and begins hammering the outnumbered earth fleet with a devastating laser storm! The entire fleet, the Macross Cannons & the Gloria Flagship it self are destroyed! What’s interesting is that the Earth side fleets, in all the battles that take place in the film; consist almost primarily of old Zendraedi style battle cruisers also seen in the older Macross DYRL film & the Robotech series. An apocalyptic dialogue that reveals the true feelings of Lord Feff for Lady Ishtar, takes place at the hangar of the Mardook command ship. Lord Feff releases Ishtar, but before she leaves, he tells her:
Finally, at the earth’s siege, in the last decisive battle over the scourged earth landscape, Ishtar sings the song of hope and sends to everyone the gentleness of her own heart and saves her people from the dictator. I find Wendy Ryder’s love song (Japanese) (At the Moon festival) better than Minmay’s “Do you Remember Love” song from Macross DYRL and superior to the English translated version “We Will Win” song, from Harmony’s Gold Robotech series imo. Same goes for “The Hush of Two Hundred Million Years” intro song (Japanese) compared to Macross DYRL & Robotech intros imo. Overall, Macross II is definitely one of the best Anime films and should be placed in the hall of all time classics! Lady Ishtar  
Macross VF: 
Lord Feff and Lady Ishtar at the Hangar: 
Lord Emperor Ingues 
Lady Ishtar Concept Art. 
SDF-1 Fortress 
A few nice Wallpapers / Flyers: http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2453/ishtari4wo.jpg http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2638/macross53b4eh.jpg http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5774/ishtarblue10249ke.jpg http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7007/ishtar14oy.jpg http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6875/macross11b2jn.jpg |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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Don't be fooled by the American DVD cover, Macross 2 is an OVA series, not a feature film. Anyway, I have to disagree about Macross 2 being a "masterpiece." While it was very enjoyable and I like it a lot, it has too many flaws in it for me to consider it a masterpiece. The plot itself is highly predictable. It's just your average "We want to destroy the universe just because we're evil" plot that's been done to death in anime a million times and you can tell what direction everything is going to go in straight from the first episode. The characters are rather uninteresting, too. Almost all of them are rip-offs of the original Macross characters. Hibiki is a slightly less whimpier version of Hikaru, Ishtar is a slightly less annoying version of Minmay, Silvie is a slightly less feminist version of Misa, Mash is Claudia in drag, and the bridge bunnies in Macross 2 are complete ripoffs of the original bridge bunnies but without the likeable personalities that made the original cast fun. Outside of Hibiki, Silvie, and Feff, none of the characters recieved any development at all and since the characters in Macross 2 are ripped off of the original Macross cast, you can already predict how the few characters that are developed are going to be developed. The love triangle between Hibiki, Silvie, and Ishtar is nearly identical to the love triangle between Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa, expcet less dramatic. Some of the songs were pretty catchy, but most of the BGM was pretty forgetful, which is a major let down when the Macross universe is centered around the importance of music. Macross 2 is a good anime for nostalgic purposes, but it's too predictable and cliched to be a masterpiece. IMO, if you want to see a true Macross masterpiece, check out Macross Plus.
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Gauss
 Posts: 519 Location: Finland |
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Well, there is actually a movie version of Macross II... sorta. They basically cut out all the credits in the middle and then joined the OAV episodes together. In other words they're the same thing. Which makes it all the more puzzling why such an embarrassing amount of praise should be lavished on a mediocre series like this.
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GospelX
Posts: 185 Location: Ann Arbor, MI |
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Macross II is good, but not a masterpiece. I won't even go as far as to say any of the characters are ripoffs because, well, they're not. I just think it was a neat way to somewhat introduce aspects of the Robotech: Masters storyling to the Japanese audience and get a reaction by blowing up the Macross. It's good that the music has been integrated into the regular Macross continuity but not the story itself.
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retroborg
Posts: 10 |
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I have the 4 Macross Plus Episodes & Macross Plus Movie on DVD, but apart from the 4th episode which was pretty cool (Nice action / plot, cool dog fights & music) the rest of the film & episodes, were pretty boring. Macross II was better imo. |
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Fenrir
 Posts: 369 |
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Not a fan of Macross 2, unfortunately Macross is quit the kick ass series but nothing has quite come close to being as good as the original.
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Boomer
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I, for one, think that Macross II is a worthy addition to the Macross universe. Although not as good as Macross Plus (a true masterpiece), it surpasses the original series in every way. I like it much more than DYRL, for example, whose enduring appeal continues to escape me.
Macross purists scorn Macross II and heap praise on DYRL even though the latter is merely a rehash of the original series with better animation. They do not consider Mac II canon because Kawamori was not involved in its production, a fact that is completely irrelevant to me. Many of the same fans disparage Macross 7 as a piece of crap despite the fact that Kawamori created that one. And the less said about Macross Zero the better, whose spectacular animation quality does not compensate for a weak story and a bunch of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo that only serves to clutter the Macross universe. What makes Mac II enjoyable for me is the presence of likeable protagonists and absence of unlikeable ones...no annoying Minmay, no angsty Misa. The relationship among Hibiki, Sylvie, and Ishtar is handled in a very mature manner, and the bittersweet ending where spoiler[the Macross itself is destroyed] seems to be a fitting conclusion to a great narrative. |
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Fenrir
Posts: 369 |
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Well Macross 2 is not cannon, at all. There are 2 macross timelines that exist.
One is, Macross Zero, Macross the Original Series, Macross do you remember love(a movie made of space war one), Macross 2012, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Dynamite 7. The second is Macross DYL being the real space war 1 with Macross 2 the sequel to it. Macross 2 wasn't bad it just had some serious plot holes and it was pretty stupid how badly the humans got their asses kicked. It wasn't bad just not a masterpeice. I actually like Macross 7 once Kawamori gets to the point which takes liek 20 episodes or so but I enjoyed it. |
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mahoro
 Posts: 310 |
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Mac 2 a masterpiece, hardly. As many others have commented and keenly pointed out there are many flaws with the OVA series. The first of which is IMO the lack of emotional connection the characters fail to create w/the audience. Did you really give a crap if Ishtar was with Hibiki or her own people? *yawns* Ishtar was only an interesting character because she was drawn nicely, her personality like everyone else in the OVA was dull. The mecha was ok but the animation in the series inconsistent in quality. It also doesn't help that Mikimoto never wanted to do the dang series and remains against it. Over all, M ZERO is much better all around.
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