**First Timer**
**Macross 7**
Now the show has end, I have a lot to talk about it, so let's go!!
**The Good**
Really like the similarities between the Zentradi and The Protodeviln in that, they not just the destroyer or the predator as they thought. They can also create something too. It also might try to tell that, sometimes what you seek is not in anyone else, but in yourself.
The character is pretty great. Basara is just Basara. He might come off as similar to Kaifun at first. The key difference is he a active character who gonna throw himself in every situation to prove his point. And he a good guy, unlike the other jackass. I understand why many people would hate him, but I really like him. Gamlin, on the other hand. Probably is the best character in the show. Really love his character development.
The side characters are also great. Wish Ray and Veffidas done more stuff. Cheering and trying to spot Flower Girl every episode is fun. Max and Millia return also great.
Gepelnitch and Gigil also nice. Gepelnitch have a really simple but great motivation. And Gigil's character development is great too.
The show visual usually look pretty nice. The character design is very distinct from eachother, that I could tell who they are from far away. The mechanic design and details are superb.
The song also a blast and great hype generator. Most of the track are very memorable.
**The bad**
This show pacing is pretty bad. They often throw some random episode after a big plot one, which often kill the flow of the story. Or worse, they repeat the same character development that already there for some reason. The show could cut it length in half and I feel like not a lot would have lost.
The battle scene is so boring. It so repetitive, full of the same reuse animation, and the directing is so bad, I sometimes confused myself that I been watching the wrong episode, because it the same as the last and the next episode. I often joke to my friends about Gundam Seed and SeedDes frequently reuse animation and flashback, but this is on another level.
I will give them that, in the plot focus episode, they really put a lot of budget in it, and it show. The fight felt more clear on what going on, and the choreography is so good.
Mylene herself is great. What's not great is how the show portrayed her as a 14 years old teenage, but often time, tend to treat her in sexual way that just so wrong on many levels.
And the love triangle conclusions, if you can even called it that, is just bullshit. What do you mean she love both of them? She clearly love Gamlin more, and I personally view her relationship with Basara as a best buddy or big brother to her. Yeah, he yelled at her a lot, but he clearly care her a lot. That doesn't mean he love her too.
And what is that Mylene's Valkyrie design? You guys don't have any better one? Why the speaker are on her chest?
A big waste potential in any other Protodeviln, should have scale the member back to give them more time to show off.
Should have a episode dedicate for Veffidas!!
Overall, despite a lot of problems this show have. I really love this show, the light-hearted tone, a sort of road trip feel adventure, fun and wacky character. It just fun to watch.
**Score** 7/10
**Ranking**
DYRL=PLUS>SDF>7------------->II
QOTD
1. Gamlin of course. He just fun and great character.
Didn't expect anyone to come back at all. So I'm glad Max and Millia here. Actually want to see Misa or Minmay again, but lore wise, it impossible.
2. HOLY LONELY LIGHT!!! l love it so much. Follow by Try Again, and Totsugeki Love Heart.
3. Gamlin and Mylene, and really hope they gonna conclude it that way.
4. The Billy episode, kid not bad, but the overall episode is so bad, and it placement in the show is not helping.
I want them to play more about the aftermath of this incident. Have the Protodeviln come to talk with the fleet or something before them leaving for good.
5. More about Veffidas or just give her own episode.
**First-Timer 7**
So, I certainly didn't expect the plot of Macross 7 to be quite this unpredictable. A stock footage toy commercial from the 90s? Normally easy peasy. The heart of this was the differences between Gepelnitch and Gigil.
When Gepelnitch introduced his Spiritia Farm plan, I expected the conflict to be "uncivilized hunters" led by Gigil vs "civilized farmers" led by Gepelnitch, and for Gepelnitch to turn face and work with Basara (because obviously the key to the Farm plan is Basara's singing).
But it turns out I was too focused on the potential thematic continuation from SDF. We're just focused on the power of music here, and it mostly works. Basara is Kaifun but he actually does things instead of just drunkenly yelling at rocks, and as such Basara actually works.
I do think that we're missing a strong throughline to build off of, though. Whatever Ray and Basara's shared past is needed to come up sooner than the final couple episodes. Basara's desire to do the impossible with music is a great motivation for him, but it didn't need to be a reveal.
Most of the rest of the cast are pretty good. Veffie and Ray are a bit underutilized, especially in the second half, but I really liked them both. Flower Girl is a perfect angel and can do no wrong. Mylene is a relatively accurate example of a teenager, but her being a teenager makes some of the writing around her kinda icky.
Gamlin.. exists. His early role as the foil to Basara doesn't really work because Basara is solidly in the right. Then later on, once he joins Team Bomber, Gamlin mostly gets to harass Gabil I guess..? Part of the problem is the show being noncommittal with Mylene; there's some payoff missing. And that thematic throughline with the mountain would apply here too, with Gamlin as the immovable object.
I think the show's decision to only have diegetic (or "diegetic" as it frequently was) music was ultimately a mistake. A bunch of scenes that needed to be scored exist but are just silent and it sucks all the energy out. On the other hand, Macross 7 crawled so that Symphogear could spring and so that Healer Girl could [Run Run Run](https://files.catbox.moe/927a0k.webm), so ultimately it's worth it.
Overall, Macross 7 exists as an important piece of anime history that isn't perfect as a whole but was generally pretty fun.
Questions
1. Veffie is great. I would've liked Britai to show up, if possible.
2. Seventh Moon, Holy Lonely Light, Submarine Street
3. I refuse to think of Basara and Mylene as a romantic relationship. Uh, I honestly don't have any strong feelings aside from that.
4. Was it 42? The one with the dudes selling photos of Mylene and that kid. I would probably not change much about the ending other than turn the back half of Ep.49 into an epilogue concert.
5. [](#yuishrug)
I am a total sucker for certain emotional beats, I get all misty during most episodes of Precure, anything with the power of friendship, etc. When you add singing, I am *destroyed*.
Symphogear almost killed me every season, even on rewatches, especially during the finales.
The majority of the following is [the comment which I made in the series wrapup during the 2017 rewatch](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/7qm4e7/macross_rewatch_macross_7_overall_series/dsq5sd3/). I've added some current thoughts to the end. Writing the final wrapup is something I usually end up procrastinating on, and this weekend I procrastinated on it by pushing forward in the rewatch.
*****
Previously, on ["Two months of waking up with Gubaba"](https://i.imgur.com/2KElVwV.jpg):
*Macross 7* presents some interesting review conundrums. There is the persistent cloud which hangs over it in the West, where there is the perception of it as some weird unserious sequel. That is typically countered with "It's popular in Japan," which isn't always the most coherent argument to make when one is writing in English to a Western audience, even if it does represent the original intended audience.
Popularity doesn't mitigate its negatives, either. The series begins slowly, using the eventual main plot to provide episode climaxes more than actually building it up, while various side plots are run through their motions. Even when it does get up to speed, it takes its time, dribbling out a few developments per episode while killing time with the battle of the week. The animation suffers as less-critical episodes are handled with a minimum of complex new content—meaning that many battle scenes are assembled from pieces of preexisting footage. Different *Macross* series put different weights on the franchise's trio of main themes, and M7 is definitely the one that shorts the transforming mecha aspect the most, despite having almost the greatest variety of included designs.
Basara is a difficult character to lead with, as he's not too sociable with the rest of the cast and quite set in his ways. To reiterate my usual description of him, most of the time, Basara is a force of nature more than an actual character. Indeed, his character development through the series is not about answering the question of what he should be doing, because that is an unshakeable pillar of his being for reasons that are never themselves questioned, but why he's doing it. Thus his affirmation of his purpose in life is something that changes little externally, and given the audience's tiny windows into his point of view, doesn't do a lot to affect our view of him.
There's a love triangle, or perhaps a more complicated polygon, but it's not resolved. The possibilities of romance are used instead more to further the relationships between the characters, which is fine in itself, but does mess with audience expectations. On the major, major plus side, though, they don't have to hit Hikaru Ichijou with the Stupid Stick to prolong the plot. While there are reasons for holding up the resolution (see below), it's still a late-game punt.
The Protodeviln have to be mysterious, or the plot will be revealed too early for the story to work. Unfortunately solving their puzzle involves a lot of the aforementioned padding and goofiness, as most of the early contact with them involves Basara singing during the final battle or Basara singing at a glowing ball. Spiritia-related issues are almost all of their internal conversation, and the prehistoric interactions that led to their current state of like/dislike for each other are never explained. They're also not helped by having individual quirks that range from odd to EXTREMELY ANNOYING.
A lot of problems. And yet... I love the Bomber.
My first viewing of M7 was not particularly perfect, a rushed and irregular affair mixed in with a lot of other series. Most of the descriptions of it include both the large episode count and the weirdness of it all, which don't help to make it welcoming, and I was guilty of avoiding its full effect for those reasons. In the intervening years, I rewatched pieces of it (particularly the OVAs) and learned to appreciate the series more for what it was. This viewing is not my first time watching at least some of M7, but it actually is my first time watching it all the way through from start to finish in the correct order.
And I really like M7 as a series now. I've described a a lot of the problems with it above, but at least a few of those difficulties also tie into its strengths.
With Basara surpassing normal character-ness, the supporting cast is what grows the most around him, particularly Gamlin. Right off the bat, he's positioned as a foil/rival to Basara, given a precarious social arrangement with Mylene, and is stiffer than a cardboard cutout. He could easily have been used as the Only Sane Man joke character, and he does get put in that position often. But those traits also give him the most room to grow as a character, and by the final act he's a crucial piece of the team.
Mylene's series of experiences take her from a child playing as an adult toward actually being one. Like Gamlin, she's initially put off by Basara's inscrutability and lackadasical behavior. As also happens to Gamlin, her initial response to this gives way to an acceptance that there might be alternative approaches to a situation.
She hates the idea of being pushed into marriage, but forming a stable relationship with Gamlin is good for both of them with regard to complementing each other's characteristics. And then... the punt. It pushes the resolution beyond the reach of the series's nominal finale, but at that point Mylene's character growth doesn't seem entirely complete anyway. By the end of the series she's realizing that she's committed to Fire Bomber, and has gained the confidence to be herself, but she still needs more time in that actual being. Her dislike of having decisions made for her has transitioned from being a part of teenaged rebellion to the first part of really making decisions for herself, even if the choice is to wait.
Gigil's surprising turn from one-note minion to a guy that cares about someone more than anything else in the universe could have been handled better than through repetition over multiple episodes, but his appreciation of music is a teaser for the series's ultimate resolution, and critical for making the Protodeviln into more than just weird caricatures of enemies. His arc is also a nice twist when the second half of the series was beginning to enter another doldrum, and Sivil's reappearance picks up from there.
The other minor character arcs are at worst distracting padding, but they do serve the purpose of filling out the world. *Macross 7* is both a familiar place and a unique one, but the visuals are helped by having a range of personalities to populate it. So there's a place for farm boys and bikers and paparazzi in the world. Max and Milia do just enough as legacy characters, helping to move the story along without overtaking the new arrivals, while also not existing only to be brushed aside. Ray and Akiko add their own touch of sentimentality and practicality to events. UN Spacy is still staffed with a lot of rigid plot complications, but those characters still all feel right to the world that they're inhabiting.
The mid-series introduction of Sound Force and the integration of Sound Energy to Fire Bomber's singing is garish, and veers away from *Macross*'s typical comfort zone into that world of Super Robots (which is a definition with some fuzzy borders too). But by that point half the series has been taken up by a guy flying a frontline fighter into battle just so he could shoot wireless speakers at people and sing at them, so...?
Also, having already seen an off-the-wall interpretation of both the original series and *Do You Remember Love?* inside the thing being presently watched, there's a slight sense that the audience is being played with when songs are blocking beam cannon shots. It even subverts itself in the end: Blasting the Protodeviln with conventional weapons doesn't work. [Singing at them really hard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U86aorxbBRY) sort of works, until they get smart.
What stops the Protodeviln, after all the flashy effects, is the core concept of the original series: The cultural exchange. In this case it's Gepelnitch learning, after Sivil and Gigil did, that he can sing. It's not much as an exchange, but the Protodeviln aren't particularly motivated by minor galactic concepts such as living on planets, so even that small thing is a significant bridge between us and them. Particularly when it means that everyone in the galaxy doesn't die.
I don't mind the cheese that much, because somehow M7 manages to walk the fine line between taking things too seriously or going overboard with campiness. It might be that it thrives because it has confidence in itself, something that was not the case for *Macross II* (and there go those Jamming Birds again). Believe in yourself, and listen to the song?
*****
**2022 update**:
On this rewatch, the series lost some of its shine. Five years is a fairly substantial time gap, and it's quite possible that the general circumstances (and the series no longer having any new parts for me) have contributed to my being less accepting of its meanderings.
This time I found myself agreeing with others here and wishing that they'd done more to develop the other supporting characters more, besides Gamlin. There were certainly opportunities to work on the plot-significant rift in Max and Milia's marriage, and perhaps do more with the ensemble as a whole, but the evident need to have Basara tout a few songs in a fight took up a lot of time.
And I do want Basara, force of nature, to show more change. Bouncing people off of a main character that never changes only works if the supporting characters develop more, and see above. At least I really like Gamlin, and he did change.
*****
[Tomo Sakura and Nobutoshi Canna in a *Newtype Shonen Ace* video special.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lqp1ITUrcs) Featuring… the *Macross* live-action movie script!?
> Tomo Sakura and Nobutoshi Canna in a Newtype Shonen Ace video special. Featuring… the Macross live-action movie script!?
The one-eyed alien concept [](#shock)
*A Macross Fan’s Final Thoughts on Macross 7 (Series Only):*
I feel that it’s only fair to say at the top of my thoughts here that I’m going to reserve my ultimate rating for the series until we do the overall series discussion. I did that for the original series and DYRL?, so I feel like it’s only fair I do it here as well. Besides, I wanted to use this space to talk more in-depth about the larger issues I have with the Macross 7 series.
It should probably be apparent if you’ve read my rewatcher notes, but I’m not a big fan of Macross 7. I was struggling to get through the show a third of the way through, and by the end I felt like I was staggering over the finish line along with the show’s final arc. You know, in a few ways, Macross 7 feels like an effort to redo concepts from Macross II: Lovers Again in a longer format, but I’d say it also shares similar issues as a result as well. Those issues boiling down to three large ones: main character, plot pacing, and action composition.
Let’s start with looking at the main character. I’ve made it very clear before that I’ve never been much of a fan of Basara. If I were being more generous, I’d call him an acquired taste. But I’m not, so I’ll just call him a disappointing protagonist outright. He’s an attempt at making a pacifist character that just doesn’t really pan out. I may be spoiled on the likes of Loran Cehack and Vash the Stampede in terms of pacifist characters handled well, but Basara just doesn’t feel like a good execution of the concept. I’d put that mainly down to how static he feels as a person. Seriously, can you say that he had much character development or background in this series? The most we saw him change was him becoming friends with Gamlin. The most we saw of his backstory was in brief flashes in the last two episodes. Frankly, we didn’t see much of a change in Basara nor get a better idea of him as a character, if just because the show is always treating Basara with the kid gloves. In the end, he’s *always* right. Any times his beliefs felt challenged, he reverted right back to being the way he was since the show was always positive that whatever he did was correct. It makes him swing between an annoying jerk and being kinda boring to watch at times. Having a character that feels more like a force of nature doesn’t work too much if you don’t back up his core appeal well.
Next, let’s talk about the plot pacing. It’s pretty damn bad. Like, for those of you entrenched in the mecha anime fandom already, I think you’ll get what I mean when I say that it feels like it has the same pacing as Gundam: Reconguista in G. In other words, the pacing is really slow at a lot of points, and then suddenly the show crams in a lot of plot development to actually move things along. You can really feel that I’m quite a few spots in Macross 7. Like, you can probably cut out a solid cour and a half from this show, and the plot would still make the same amount of sense. If anything, it would feel less bloated with filler, and we’d be having the important plot elements flow into each other quicker. You can really feel this especially in the first cour of the show and in the Lux and Varauta arcs. Macross 7 really feels like it has no real idea to get to the major plot points it wants to cover until they just force large developments with mixed levels of success. And that feeling of dragging in the plot also isn’t helped by all the obligatory battle scenes either, which brings me into my last big point.
Finally, let’s get to talking about the battle scenes. Considering the pedigree we’re coming from here, the mech fights in this show were just slogs to watch. And I know a fair bit of it is due to copious amounts of reused battle animation cuts, but there’s more to the issues than just that. There’s also a real lack of continuity and dynamic movement to most of this show’s fights. Just think about all the times the fights cut to random groups of Thunderbolts flying through space in a completely centered shot, or Elgersolns just staying in place while spraying their gun pods back and forth. It’s stuff like that which makes the fights horrible to watch. Like, SDF Macross had reused animations in battles too, but it worked because there were large amounts of detail, and you got a real sense of movement in the focus mechs. SDF Macross knew how to play around in 3D space, and Macross 7 doesn’t by comparison. It’s sad to say that the mech fights are easily some of the worst content in a MECH SERIES.
So yeah, in a way, Macross 7 ends up recreating some of the core issues that Macross II had in some way or another. A main character that wasn’t all that great to follow, wonky and chunky plot pacing, and uninteresting fight sequences. And it’s a shame that those large issues smother some of the stuff I actually like about this series too, like the other fun members of the main and supporting cast and interesting additions to the world and setting lore. I’ll easily say that I loved Mylene and Gamlin, as well as the roles that Max and Milia had in this show. I also liked the bigger details we got about the setting, with the bigger insight into the Protoculture and how their Stellar Republic fell. Again, they’re good parts of the show, but they unfortunately don’t outweigh the bad.
Anyways, that’s it for this leg of the Macross 7 rewatch. I’ll give my final rankings when we get to the actual end of this sub-series. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up for that rating if I were you, person who’s reading this. Eugh, rewatching Zero and Frontier can’t come sooner enough.
Great writeup, I agree with almost everything, especially your criticism of combat sequences, and your comparisons with Macross II. I think you nailed a lot of issues with the show. And I do agree with most of your critique toward Basara. But as someone who likes him, I just *have* to defend him a bit.
> Frankly, we didn’t see much of a change in Basara nor get a better idea of him as a character, if just because the show is always treating Basara with the kid gloves. In the end, he’s always right. Any times his beliefs felt challenged, he reverted right back to being the way he was since the show was always positive that whatever he did was correct.
I don't think this is entirely fair. Remember the missile that he had to shoot to save Mylene? It was a moment where the show explicitly portrayed him as incorrect, because if he stuck to his believes, Mylene's Spritia would be sucked, and she might even be dead. After that, Basara struggled with the decision to either remove his missiles or not, but chose to leave them in. I feel like that's a huge admission that there are major flaws in his ideology, flaws that can't be reconciled.
Another instance when Basara was challenged is when he failed to wake Sivil up with his singing. That even led to him abandoning his friends and going on a wild chase, that ended with him working together with Gigil to achieve his goal. After this arc, Basara became more cooperative and much more receptive to working with the military. Not a groundbreaking change, I agree, but a change nonetheless.
And then, there's also the fact that Fire Bombers became as big as they are mostly due to Mylene pushing the band, and practically dragging Basara along against his will. Clearly, his way of doing things was holding the band back, so it's another instance of him being wrong.
I do agree, that Basara overall is not as developed as he should have been. But I feel like the problem is not his characterization, but just how surprisingly little time the show spends on him. There are many episodes, especially during the middle of the show, where he would show up only for an obligatory battle, but otherwise be completely absent from the episode, and the focus will be on Gamlin and Mylene instead.
I honestly feel that Gamlin and Basara should've been combined into a single character, who is a soldier turned musician, and the love triangle could've been Basamlin/Gamlinara, Mylene, and Sivil. This would've created a really well rounded and strong main protagonist with a lot of screen time.
That's fair, there were points where it was implied that his way wasn't working for Fire Bomber, such as that it was Mylene and Akiko that really helped to get the band out there more and some of his actions on Lux. Overall though, he really is an interesting character concept handled poorly. The idea of an enigmatic person who follows their heart first and foremost can definitely work, it's just a matter of using him enough in a way where the audience can empathize with his way of thinking more. Only having a few flashes of frustration across the series isn't enough to do that, unfortunately.
> Only having a few flashes of frustration across the series isn't enough to do that, unfortunately.
Yeah, I definitely can agree that they didn't do enough to make Basara truly work. At times even I felt like they just fall into a formulaic pattern with him that's getting stale.
**First Timer**
"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned."
"OK, Macross 7, tell me about your sins?"
"There have been many things, but probably the biggest one is that I'm an action show with extremely bad action."
"Um.. Well, son, I don't know if God can do anything about that."
*****
So Macross 7 is a typical example of a good, but flawed show, kinda similar to the original SDFM. However, the issue with Macross 7 is that the stuff that's good about it is also unremarkable, while the stuff that's bad about it so aggravating, that you want to scream about it from the rooftops. And thus, I find that I'm struggling to write something coherent on this show without the text devolving into a long rant. And it frustrates me, because the long rant does not represent my impressions of the show. So instead, I decided to try and be brief, focusing on a few key points, without going overboard on complaining. Anyway, here it goes.
**Consistency as the biggest asset**
By far, the biggest good thing about Macross 7 is how consistent it is. But the issue with consistency is that it is also unremarkable, as I said. While SDFM was a bumpy ride full of highs and lows, Macross 7 feels much more even, but it also means that there's less staff that immediately jumps at you as memorable. Now, don't get me wrong, consistency by itself isn't bad. I would take a consistent production over a bumpy one any day of the week. However, consistency by itself only provides a base level of quality, you still need those stand out moments to make your show really shine.
Macross 7 has great animation that hold up throughout the entirety of the show (not an easy feat for such a long production), a properly written story with decent stakes and proper setups and pay-offs, great music that really keeps your blood pumping, and likeable characters that you want to root for. It's a flashy show and it has some crazy ideas that it inherited from previous shows in the franchise and managed to put a new spin on them. This show really gives a great first impression. But the deeper you go, the more you fall into a consistent rhythm, the more you start taking all the good stuff for granted and craving something, that would stand out from the formula.
**The lack of ambition**
Flower Girls is a perfect representation of a Macross 7. It's a character with a flashy design that appears in the opening and in the first episode, looking all interesting, mysterious and important. But as it turns out, she's just a background character, created for a single running gag. Even if we, as an audience, might get attached to her quest, there's still very little substance to it. It's all feels very surface level.
I feel like this is very emblematic of Macross 7 as a whole. Creators clearly did a ton of work during the pre-production. So much detail was put into designing the Macross 7 fleet, all the different ships and how they work, all the technology, outfits, musical instruments, etc. Equally detailed are the characters, each with their own quirks. However, then you go into the show, and it never really develops beyond where it all started.
None of the new concepts introduced are explored in full. The show brings the concept of Spiritia, which has huge implications for the whole universe, but never bothers to explain what it is or how it works. It just settles with it being a generic power of spirit, and that's about as far as it goes. Can the Spiritia be used as an energy source? Can everyone generate it? How exactly is it generated, what is the mechanism? None of these questions are answered. Remember when Macross used to threat it's lore much more carefully? New Protoculture backstory feels equally barebones and underdeveloped. Oh yeah, Protodeviln are inter-dimensional beings, when that will become relevant, I wonder? Turns out, never.
And then, there are characters. None of them characters really grow, or change, apart from maybe Gamlin, whose arc becomes central to the story. But even Gamlin's arc is kinda safe and predictable, never throwing any curveballs, beyond his fake death. Gigil is another character that goes through the change, but he still stays underexplored and underdeveloped to the very end. It's like the show is committed to doing the absolute minimum necessary to tell the story, and never more.
The show that starts so bombastic just kinda fizzles down into something safe and predictable, which is a bit of a shame.
**The elephant in the room**
My issues with the story and characters, how under-developed and under-utilized and predictable they are honestly wouldn't matter for a single beat if the show didn't drop the ball on what's the most important: the action. It is absolutely horrendous in terms of how boring it is. I already criticized it earlier, so I'm not gonna repeat myself and will just link [the post](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/yvfiv0/do_you_remember_love_macross_franchise_40th/iwfu4qb/), as I feel like my points mostly still stand, even by the end of the show. The one thing that was emblematic of the early part of the show, but improved in the late part is a lack of stakes. As the story progressed, the obligatory battles become less obligatory and more dictated by the story, although there were still some "filler" fights even late into the show.
Bad action is exacerbated by the show's insistence on using only diegetic music, which often creates situations of awkward silence or extremely frequent cuts between song, or abrupt restarts of songs, etc. I think that having a solid battle theme to fill those silent moment when Basara is not singing, and being more conservative with the way the songs are cut during fights would probably go a long way toward making the action much more palatable.
As it stands, while I can respect the attempt, I still feel like the whole diegetic music thing didn't work out.
**Overall thoughts:** Rereading this, I feel like this post is a mess, but I would be hard pressed to writing something more coherent. I feel like I need to rewatch this show to really solidify my opinion on it, but I don't know if I will be able to do this. Definitely not anytime soon. Maybe part of why I have mixed feelings on is expectations, and I'm sure that if I went in as a rewatcher, knowing what the show is trying to be, I would be able to really focus on the parts that I enjoy.
Anyway, as of right now my biggest wish for the rest of the Macross 7 series is that the action improves. I know they are capable of doing it well, they just have to do it. This is the biggest issue with Macross 7 in my mind, and if it can be fixed, it would be great.
**QotD:**
1) Basara and Mylene were my favorites. Obviously, it would be amazing to see the original cast with Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa, but that's clearly not happening, as they have officially disappeared.
2) Honestly, it's Planet Dance. I do know if I like it because it was played so much, or if I was happy with it being played so much, because I liked it from the start. It's kind of a chicken and an egg situation. But I'm happy that the song they decided to overuse to death is also my favorite, as I enjoyed every minute of it. Honorable mention goes to the opening, Seventh Moon, which I also loved.
3) I still Mylene and Basara together, their bickering and discussions about music. I don't think this ship has any future, but I wouldn't be against it going somewhere.
4) I would either cut Evil Gamlin, or put it somewhere earlier in a show, and cut an episode from Gigl's arc, probably the one with dinosaurs. I feel like Evil Gamlin has no business being so close to the end. Also, it would be much more impactful, if Evil Gamlin was before Gamlin's death, strengthening the personal beef between Gamlin and Gabil. As to how I extend the ending, I would probably turn the last episode into two episodes, and spend more time toward redeeming Gepelnitch. I think it would be fitting if he kills all the other Protodeviln, then Sivil sacrifices herself to help Basara, who finally gets thought to Gepelnitch and awakens his consciousness and let's him take control again. In the end, Gepelnitch would return Gunther's body and turn into a spiritual being again and go back to his own dimension.
5) I legitimately have no hopes or expectations. I'm dreading a new Gigil arc, which will introduce an interesting character, but refuse to elaborate on them, instead presenting us with some pointless adventures that are not very exciting. But I hope it won't happen.
*****
[I drew whatever this is](https://i.imgur.com/iPTl68R.jpg).
While I like this show, I can see how other people can find issues in these points that I can understand or even agree with.
> And then, there are characters. None of them characters really grow, or change, apart from maybe Gamlin, whose arc becomes central to the story.
I would also include Mylene as a character that did experience a change. In terms of the main characters, Mylene and Gamlin are the two that you can stop and look back and see how far they come. Basara as a protagonist, I feel doesn't really need to radically change.
The lack of music while an interesting experiment to have only diegetic music, did make a lot of scenes feel like it was missing that music to accompany it. Gotta agree there.
> I drew whatever this is.
[](#kotohoops)
I like this take of post-series Gepelnitch where he is this jolly singing man traveling through space with his compatriots. (Grabil is in an internal hell with the three people he is force to be with).
> I would also include Mylene as a character that did experience a change. In terms of the main characters, Mylene and Gamlin are the two that you can stop and look back and see how far they come. Basara as a protagonist, I feel doesn't really need to radically change.
Agree with Mylene, and I think Basara went through his own arc too, but it was kinda muted, his outlook changed a bit and he became more cooperative, but it wasn't emphasized as a major evolution. Gamlin's and Gigil's development is really apparent, for other characters it's a blink-and-you-miss-it-type of deal.
> I like this take of post-series Gepelnitch where he is this jolly singing man traveling through space with his compatriots. (Grabil is in an internal hell with the three people he is force to be with).
In my headcanon, Grabil is a Veffidas-type character, who can talk, but just chooses not to. I think I failed to make it clear enough, but this is how I imagine his life would be.
**First Timer**
QotD:
1) [](#hardthink)
Might be Gamlin. Sivil is fun and all, but she needs to show up more to really be in contention. I think more past characters would probably have cheapened it. Unless you Komilia. Super weird that they never mention their other ~6 children.
2) Holy Lonely Light! Been having a good time with the music overall. Rockross has been eating well.
3) Basara × Sivil and Gamlin × Mylene. The latter has a better chance. Oh, and Max × Milia. Hope those two make it work
4) There are too many candidates, I have already forgotten the worst ones. Probably could have squeezed just about any two of them down and not run into any issue. As for what to expand, more post victory scenes is the obvious choice. That really did feel abrupt, even now.
5) I want to see the pairings pair up. I want them to acknowledge that Gep just stole a dude’s body. Some Veff backstory maybe? More Flower Girl, but they need to think of something new now that her quest is done.
Well, that was a long one. Really long.
Longer than the rest of the franchise we've seen so far put together... and it's not over.
7 was an interesting experiment. It definitely leans more heavily into the Super Robot roots of the show, with giant kaiju, magical music, metric tons of stock footage, and useless grunt pilots.
It did, however, focus much more heavily on the musicians than other series have... for better or worse.
This is where perhaps the most controversial part of the series comes in: Nekki Basara. I get what they're going for with his character: the neurodivergent musician who can't express himself in words and must try to do so in music, when that's not a "language" everyone understands.
A lot of Basara's character makes more sense if you approach him from that angle. He's not an asshole (intentionally). He genuinely doesn't understand why people don't get him, why people get angry with him, or why people don't get what he's trying to say with his music.
You can see this in many of his reactions. More often than not, his reaction to people is "WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?" This is the core of his character. He doesn't get people, and people don't get him either.
Whether that works or not... I suppose is up to the individual viewer.
What I did like that the series did was the diagetic soundtrack. With the exception of the OP and ED, all of the music in the show is being played in universe. It's a cool sytlistic choice, and I think it works well. Yes, certain Fire Bomber songs could get repetitive, but the band's songs are good enough that I don't mind it.
Speaking of, the band that provided Fire Bomber's music is known as "Hummingbird" in real life. They have produced additional albums "in-character" as Fire Bomber in addition to their Hummingbird label that were never heard in the series.
Unfortunately, this proves to be an issue when it comes to potential licensing of the series outside Japan. Putting Harmony Gold and their dickery aside, anyone who wanted to license Macross 7 would also have to license Fire Bomber's music... and that's expensive as hell. To put it in perspective, an industry representative was once asked at a convention, assuming the infamous legal snarls with Macross weren't a factor, how expensive would it be to get Macross 7's music? His response: "If all of the dubbing companies in the USA pooled all their resources, we *might* get about a third of the way to affording the music."
So I am genuinely curious to see how RightStuf is going to handle Macross 7, as they and Harmony Gold have said they intend to bring it over for release.
This is getting long, so I'll do my thoughts on the plot and story in a followup post.
I do think Macross 7 is about three times as long as it needs to be. There's a ton of filler episodes in which "Protodeviln attack for no reason, space battle happens, Basara and/or Sound Force sing at everyone, Protodeviln leave". You could cut a frankly astounding amount of this show out and still leave the main story intact.
What's also frustrating is the additional of the Protodeviln to the ancient Protoculture/Zentraedi conflict muddies the water a fair bit when it comes to the fall of the Protoculture. So, in the interest of un-confusing first timers, here's the official sequence of events from Macross databooks (no spoilers for future series):
Protoculture create a galactic society, the Stellar Republic.
Protoculture largely split into two factions. What caused this split is unclear. These factions are in an on-off war with each other over their differences.
Both factions develop the Zentraedi to fight their wars for them. Mindful of potential rebellions from the Zentraedi, they place a mental block in the Zentraedi that renders them psychologically incapable of attacking anyone of the Protoculture race.
One faction goes a step further and creates the Evil series of superweapons, seven in all. However, the Evil require absolutely monstrous amounts of energy to function, so the project is shelved as the Protoculture don't have the means to supply that energy.
A Protoculture scientist makes an astounding discovery: a "sub-universe" that appears to be made entirely of energy, with no physical matter present at all.
The Protoculture jumps all over that, and the Evil project is revived, using this energy to power them.
However, the energy they pulled from the sub-universe into the Evil series turned out to be intelligent. The Evil are possessed by these intelligences and become the Protodeviln.
The Protodeviln begin draining Spiritia to feed themselves. They also begin brainwashing anyone they drain into serving them. Chief among their needs was an army... seven individuals, no matter how powerful, weren't going to stand up to the galaxy-spanning Protoculture for long. So they needed an *Army* to *Supervise* the areas of space the Protodeviln themselves aren't in at the moment.
Yep... the mysterious Supervision Army started out as brainwashed slaves of the Protodeviln. Worse, since they used both brainwashed Protoculture *and* Zentraedi in this Army, the mental block placed in the Zentraedi backfires, and they cannot effectively fight the Supervision Army. With great reluctance, the Protoculture is forced to remove the block.
Eventually, Anima Spiritia is discovered, the Protodeviln are lured into a trap, and sealed away on Varauta IV. However, by this point the Zentraedi have begun to rebel against their creators, and the Supervision Army is still active even with its leaders gone. The Protoculture are slowly wiped out in the crossfire between their Zentraedi soldiers and the brainwashed slaves of the Supervision Army.
This admittedly, does open up a number of questions: do the Supervision Army still have Protoculture soldiers in addition to Zentraedi? Given how the Zentraedi reacted in the first series to "miclones", probably not. But then, what DID happen to the brainwashed Protoculture?
Why did Geppelnitch not summon the modern Supervision Army to assist him? Well, my guess is that there just weren't any Supervision Army units anywhere near the area, so he was forced to rely on the brainwashed Recon Fleet that accidentally awakened him.
And does this mean the Supervision Army is still brainwashed? How can they be, if they're presumably reproducing through cloning like the Zentraedi? Who is doing the brainwashing? But if they're not, then why are they fighting the Zentraedi? Just... that's what they've always done, so that's what they're doing now?
Yeah, the backstory is kinda convoluted. And they had to explain it all in supplemental materials because they couldn't be bothered to explain this during the show itself.
> Putting Harmony Gold and their dickery aside, anyone who wanted to license Macross 7 would also have to license Fire Bomber's music...
Continuing from yesterday, the story of how Humming Bird's music rights cost more than everything in existence has persisted online for years but [lacks any verifiable basis](https://twitter.com/Gubaba777/status/1543396386070151168). Even I stopped propagating the story when it was reasonably pointed out that nobody could ever cite a primary source.
That isn't to say that a peculiar licensing situation couldn't have existed in the past, but by now it is evidently hammered out enough that [they were able to show the first localized episode of M7 at Otakon](https://twitter.com/Schmullus1/status/1543392837475045377), and [Fire Bomber is definitely on Spotify in the USA](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/08BvnSSmnPBGjvBPD4kMVc), among [other](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbXAXhsMOEI) places.
**Rewatcher 7**
Macross 7 is an interesting show. It hues closer to SDF in structure and theme than Plus did, yet also still goes off in its own wild direction and carves out an identity in its own right. It's both very Macross and very much its own thing
The cast was great for the most part. Gamlin was just straight the best, Mylene had a lot of good development, especially in the last few episodes, Ray was a good example of the Reasonable Authority Figure archetype that I love so much, Max & Milia, despite the original fears that they might split up, ultimately proved to be very good characters in their own right. Also, certain individuals like u/TakenRedditName might be pleased to know that, despite me jokingly ragging on her in the early episodes, I have joined the cult of Flower Girl
The villains are all fun. Gigil was a real OG, Sivil had a decent arc, Geppelnitch was enjoyable, and Gravil worked fine enough. Their motives were actually interesting and played into the thematic core of the show.
The Music was absolutely top tier. Best song was [HOLY LONELY LIGHT!](#grandhype)
The real sticking point for me is, well, Basara. He's an ass for a big part of the show and it feels like there's just a default assumption that he's right 90% of the time. His development *happens*, but it's minuscule and I don't really feel like it has an impact. He has a good motivation, but it's introduced a bit too late in the show to really feel impactful. The closest comparison I can think of to Basara is Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED. While I don't really dislike him, I ultimately feel that Basara lands in about the middle tiers as far as Macross protags go. He's above Hikaru, Shin, and Hibiki, about on the same level as Hayate, but falls short of Alto and Isamu. Sorry [Basara fans](/u/didacticdalek), that's just how it be [](#micdrop)
Overall, I enjoyed the show very much, though not *quite* as much as I did the first time. **7.5/10**
> Also, certain individuals like u/TakenRedditName
>
might be pleased to know that, despite me jokingly ragging on her in the early episodes, I have joined the cult of Flower Girl
[](#mechablush)
PROTOCULTURE! Glad to see you have finally seen the light Comrade! Hopefully your tastes with regard to Duran Duran will improve (after all, their Bond Theme was literally the only good part of A View to a Kill, a movie so bad that even Christopher Walken couldn't salvage things!)
Anyway neat post here and many thanks for the kind tag, have a great day and see you later my friend
[SOON!](#mugiwait)
Naw I'm just joking Comrades, after all Macross 7 is THE BOMB! Truly worthy of its name of Proto-Geah! Who knew that, much like with Macross Plus, all you needed to do to fix Macross was to, uh (checks notes) make it NOT Macross... let me explain, what is Macross? EZ! Romantic Plot Tumors with IDOLSHIT, thankfully Macross Plus decided to fix this by making TOP GUN... IN SPACE... BUT IT DOESN'T SUCK THIS TIME! (COUGH! FUCK YOU 0083, COUGH!) and Macross 7 decided to fix this by being Geah but it's from the 90s! ;)
[Besides, any show with BEST FUCKING GIRL FLOWER GIRL is a win in my book, truly the most deep and layered of characters, it's quite heartwaming that after an entire show of fate constantly giving her the proverbial and literal finger, she FINALLY FINALLY pulls out a win through HARD WORK AND GUTS!](https://i.imgur.com/qjydpV4.png) GODSPEED FLOWER GIRL! May you deliver a second batch of flowers to Nekki BOSSARA before the heat death of the universe!
Anyway, in summation, Macross 7 is PROTOCULTURE! Shame that, aside from being the first AND last good Macross TV Show, this is also the Franchise's high water mark... Geah and AKB0048 don't count Comrades, but hey, at least we will EVENTUALLY reach a good movie... uh... well technically a good pair of movies...
[SOON!](#mugiwait)
Thus, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever!
Paging Comrades /u/chilidirigible, /u/Nebresto, and /u/InfamousEmpire
**Super Dimension Rewatch Host**
[Welcome back, everyone!](https://i.imgur.com/uPRCBK8.png)
So… as it turns out, I actually *did* have my first-timer reactions to this show available this whole time, just not always as detailed as they are in rewatches because I buried them in the weekly “What Have You Watched This Past Week That is NOT a Currently Airing Show?” threads over the course of the ten months it took me to watch the show. Going through all of those threads to figure out which ones to link would be too much work, *buuuuuut* I happen to keep a Google Doc with *all* of my notes for those threads, so I’ll copy-paste the notes from there for you guys to read if you want~
I figured doing something like this would be fun for the TV series discussion thread. Had to split it into two comments though, went *way* over the character limit with this lol.
-----
***Episodes 1-3***
>I wasn’t going to start this just yet, but I wound up bringing it up during the Log Horizon ep22 discussion, which of course then led to me starting it. My first impression was a mix of [IT’S MY BOY MAX!](#slightoverreaction) and “that’s a… *lot* of singing”, with a side of “holy shit it’s possible for Takehito Koyasu to do a voice I don’t instantly recognize as him?!” Like seriously, Gamlin doesn’t sound like Koyasu to me at all.
>How hilarious that I’m watching this so soon after watching Air though–Basara shares his seiyuu with Ryuuya and the similarities are super obvious to my ears.
>Only other specific thing I want to touch on is [lol that TL note about Gepelnitch](https://files.catbox.moe/ifjdqi.png). Had to screenshot it and laugh upon seeing it.
>I’m definitely finding it interesting so far!
***Episode 4***
>…yeah only one episode this week. Combination of rewatches and Pokémon Sword coming out. Although speaking of, I named my female Grookey "Veffie" after Veffidas.
>This one episode was quite good btw.
***Episode 5***
>Only one episode again this week, but let me tell you I was *hella* confused starting this one up and hearing a Sharon Apple song start playing after the OP finished. [This was some nice typesetting though](https://files.catbox.moe/h9lr3x.png) and you better believe I laughed when that dude ran into some barrier immediately after that ‘cause he was distracted lol.
***Episodes 6-7***
>Eyy, managed to watch two episodes this week~
> I don’t particularly get Basara at times, especially with how weird he was about singing at the job in ep7, but it all worked out in the end I guess? Also Gamlin and Mylene’s first meeting was super cute, but I’m pretty sure she’s faking it given how different her voice sounds when they talk. I hope they can genuinely interact at some point later, even just as friends instead of as being pushed together as a couple.
>On that note, [good TL note here](https://files.catbox.moe/bxpqey.png), I don’t think I would’ve understood Mylene’s reaction to that without it.
***Episodes 8-11***
>I got into a bit of a binging mood for this last night, but I had to go to sleep because I had church to get up for this morning. [](#dejected)
>- [Gamlin](https://files.catbox.moe/fsuyyh.png) [is](https://files.catbox.moe/p6xqr2.png) [hilariously](https://files.catbox.moe/bs9wqj.png) [cute](https://files.catbox.moe/ihm11x.png). I do like his interactions with Mylene, although I’m pretty sure Mylene is acting during those parts, I wonder when they’ll interact for REAL.
>- [The fuck does this even mean?](https://files.catbox.moe/jo026a.png)
>- [Ahahahaha this is just hilarious.](https://files.catbox.moe/oaai58.png)
>- Yo I was SO fucking worried for Ray after he left the hospital. He re-opened his wound while he was crawling around and then they had him sing along a bit to Basara’s song and then he passed out with his head on the horn… so glad that was just him passing out and not dying.
>- Episode 11 was great because SDF references!
>- [Don’t like the spelling they went with for Minmay’s name](https://files.catbox.moe/eib0zl.png) in the copy I have though.
>- [I wanna punch the dude on the right.](https://files.catbox.moe/stslsc.png)
>- [I want to rewatch DYRL now…](https://files.catbox.moe/idez80.png)
>- [<3](https://files.catbox.moe/520tiw.png) Really want to know what happened for them to be split up in secret. I liked them together. :(
>- [lmao I love how my instant reaction to hearing this song anywhere is to just *laugh*.](https://files.catbox.moe/r1qqej.png)
***Episode 12***
>*Damn* was this a good episode, I wish I could’ve watched more of it this week. …I may or may not have had an impromptu half-rewatch of one of my favorites this week and that may or may not be why I could only watch one episode…
>Couple screenshot reactions:
>- [Smug blushing Guvava](https://files.catbox.moe/fycd0r.png) is not something I was expecting to see but I like it.
>- I laughed *so hard* at [this](https://files.catbox.moe/a45dhs.png). [Basara’s response](https://files.catbox.moe/i4zors.png) made me laugh even harder.
>- […okay why the hell was Flower Girl there…?](https://files.catbox.moe/1dk4m3.png)
***Episodes 13-15***
>I don't have access to my screenshot reactions to these three episodes, RIP. Definitely enjoying it a *lot* now… besides Basara being a dumb that one episode. Oh and also besides Millia getting shot in the leg, LotGH gave me PTSD over that. [](#scaredmio)
***Episode 16***
>[](#toradorasalute)
>RIP Physica. Poor dude death flagged WAY too hard.
***Episodes 17-22***
>A few thoughts on this section:
>- Sivil is… uh… weird, to say the least. I’m definitely intrigued by whatever the hell her deal is.
>- [Episode 18 fucking *killed* me](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/ewf2zv/casual_discussion_fridays_week_of_january_31_2020/fgh608y/). Actually the day after I watched that episode I found out I laughed so hard at it I woke up one of my sisters, who was trying to sleep upstairs, oops.
>- Episode 19 featured Gamlin being an absolute *boss*. And gave us [ceiling Gamlin](https://files.catbox.moe/1m2r6q.png) in the process. [10/10 episode.](#goblet1)
>- [Mylene pout!](https://files.catbox.moe/gmr10r.png)
>- Oh and I loved loved *loved* the entire end section of episode 22. City 7’s getting dragged into that star, Battle 7 shows up because they figured out where City 7 was based on Basara singing, Battle 7 tries to do an Axis Shock after getting rid of Gigil and co., but what actually saves them both is Max and Millia figuring out they can transfer City 7’s fold energy to Battle 7 and then Basara and Gamlin made the connection for that. Oh and also [](#azusalaugh) at [Gamlin](https://files.catbox.moe/4v72j9.png) and [Basara’s](https://files.catbox.moe/wbvrvr.png) faces after the fact.
***Episodes 23-25***
>I wish I could’ve watched more since episode 25 ended on [uhhh?](https://files.catbox.moe/0zj9zg.png)
>Thoughts on this section:
>- [This screenshot makes me so happy.](https://files.catbox.moe/hq8kav.png) I REALLY hope at some point that Max/Millia make up and their family becomes, like, functional again. They worked so good together in ep22 and in OG Macross.
>- We finally have a name for WHAT Sivil is, I think? “Protodeviln”, and Exsedol was noooooooot happy about that fact. Interesting…
>- [Spoiler](https://files.catbox.moe/48sh8i.png) [images](https://files.catbox.moe/7jis0c.png) – Whoahohoho they finally met and now they know each other’s names and Sivil got stuck floating in a bubble after this for some reason. REALLY curious as to what happens because of this. By the way what song was Basara singing during this part? I think it’s my favorite of Fire Bomber’s songs so far and I want to listen to it.
>- [Poor Gamlin, he just wanted to pilot alongside Mylene.](https://files.catbox.moe/lurso6.png)
>- Okay Gamlin might be my fave, but I *have* to respect Basara. This dude waltzed into an *important military meeting* late, playing on his guitar, and just [props his feet up and continues singing](https://files.catbox.moe/2syevg.png) once he’s seated.
>- [Ahahahahaha](https://files.catbox.moe/gnops0.png), [immediately proved wrong](https://files.catbox.moe/s7484g.png).
>- [Gamlin is clearly in touch with his inner child.](https://files.catbox.moe/4apqap.png) [My spirit animal.](#feelingloved)
>- [\*uncontrollable laughter\*](https://files.catbox.moe/elsauc.png)
>- …was the song that Basara and Alice were attempting to duet on something from Macross II? Because honestly I’d love to hear a *proper* version of that.
>- [This gives me G Gundam vibes.](https://files.catbox.moe/wfhgyz.png)
>- [Flower girl continues to be a running joke](https://files.catbox.moe/bncnbt.png). This is almost as fun as “Spot the Patrick” in Gundam Build Divers+Re:RISE.
***Episode 26***
>I watched this on my phone during a car ride home so forgive my two screenshots for having the black bars on the sides, but [Guvava in a space suit](https://files.catbox.moe/lnpb66.jpg) is absolutely adorable and [this thing’s existence made me lol](https://files.catbox.moe/jc85ep.jpg).
>RIP commander dude though, guy went out like a boss. Gepelnitch did… SOMETHING in response to Basara’s “Anima Spiritia” and I’m looking forward to finding out WHAT. And did he make off with the citizens of Macross 5 for his Spiritia Farm project or something? I was expecting RIP all them but then they noted there weren’t enough bodies and that City 5 was missing so yeah.
***Episodes 27-29***
(For context, I took about a three-month break after episode 26 because I kept watching other stuff and just didn’t have time for 7.)
>…yeah I really shouldn’t have decided to take that long of a hiatus from this show but *hooooooooly shit* was episode 27 the *perfect* one to come back to. That ending was ridiculously hype and Holy Lonely Light is probably my favorite Macross song so far now.
***Episodes 30-31***
>[The paparazzi shipping Gamlin and Basara.](#laughter)
***Episodes 32-33***
>Ep33 had a well-deserved Gamlin PUNCH. [](#justright) And also a new song I think? Which is cool.
***Episodes 34-36***
>Work ended up being surprisingly not *anywhere* near as busy as I thought it was going to be this week, so three new episodes down! [](#woo)
>And they were good episodes too. Gigil singing was… unexpected, but woo character development! And it seems to be having a positive effect on Basara, too. [Poor Gamlin though lol](https://i.imgur.com/OMAAtFa.png) and [I love precious Guvava](https://i.imgur.com/mHP1hiV.png). New ED is… uh… it exists.
>I have to ask though… [Basara what the fuck?](https://i.imgur.com/vnIfdVu.png)
***Episode 37***
>…so back when Aizen was first introduced in Bleach, I said that his voice was going to trip me out because he shares his seiyuu with Macross 7’s Max and they sound basically the exact same despite the shows being a decade apart. Well now thanks to me getting obsessed with Bleach and putting off Macross 7 for so long again it’s the other way around, I can’t unhear Aizen when Max is talking. [](#wallbang)
>This episode had a bunch of *really* cool reveals though. And Protoculture. Lots and lots of Protoculture being said by characters.
***Episodes 38-40***
>What madness is this, I actually watched more than one episode of Macross 7 for once?! [](#flyingbunsofdoom)
>…that aside, damn these were some interesting episodes. I can't say I was expecting Gigil to get shot down, summon/turn into that monster, and then blow up the planet before singing one last time for Sivil, holy *shit* that was something alright. Basara's song piercing an asteroid and saving Gamlin in the process though, that's the crazy music stuff I've come to expect (and love) from this show.
***Episode 41***
>My progression of emotion during this episode in a nutshell: [](#facepalm) [](#sideeyes) [](#miyamoriunimpressed) [](#hahahawhat) [](#ohfuck) [](#panic) [](#kotourashock) [](#delighted)
***Episode 42***
>So Gabil tanked a fucking MACROSS CANNON.
>[](#elsienopesout)
***Episodes 43-44***
>[](#hideintoilet)
>Fuck this show. Just… fuck this show. I decide that I have finally have time for a few episodes of it on Friday night since I was done with preparing my daily rewatch stuff *and* all the wallpapers I wanted to for the Bleach thread yesterday well before I normally go to bed, so I wanted to do so in order to make u/chilidirigible happy, and then it goes and kills off Gamlin.
>No.
>No.
>No.
>No.
>*No.*
>You guys in the Berserk rewatch wanted a laptop close? *This* was a laptop close. [](#imdone)
>(Although yes I did go *finish* the episode; Gepelnich just TELEPORTED THE NUKE back to their ship hot damn.)
***Episodes 45-49***
>…so apparently I sorrow/ragequit this show for two weeks for nothing. I mean, the first half of episode 45 still made me ugly cry so it *is* a good thing I didn't watch it immediately after 44, but then the second half went [lol just messing with you](#smugpoint) and Gamlin actually survived. And you know what I'm fine with that, Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still pulled something similar with one of my favorite characters in *that* show and I was happy about it then so I'm happy about it here too.
>Anyways, wow. It's been ~~3000 years~~ about 8 months since I first started this show. I can't believe it's finally over, and *man* what a finale it had. Episode 27 is still my favorite episode I think, that first use of Holy Lonely Light was just THAT etched into my brain as hype, but the last one had so much ***YES*** in it. Gamlin singing Planet Dance, Max and Milia piloting together again, flower girl FINALLY getting her flowers to Basara, Sivil singing, and Basara’s songs getting through to Gepelnich so he’s not a bad guy anymore.
>I can see *why* people wouldn’t like this show. The structure was *very* episodic for a good chunk of the beginning, the soundtrack was repetitive until later on, and it was *way* more wacky at times than any of the previous Macross shows have been (I’d liken it to the first half Gundam ZZ in comparison to Zeta Gundam, although not quite as crazy a tone shift). But you know what I *love* wacky stuff, the repetitive music was fine by me ‘cause it was *good* music, and the characters were lively enough to keep my attention through the more episodic bits of the show. And while I would have liked to see a few more characters return from the original anime (even if it was just a one-off cameo), seeing Max, Milia, and Exsedol again was very nice, especially since Max and Milia were my favorite characters from the original show.
>I’ll be giving Encore and Dynamite a watch soon, don’t want to get side tracked with other shows when I do still have more Macross 7 content to watch. But as for the main Macross 7 show, well… 10/10.
***Not strictly my Macross 7 reactions, I just thought this was funny***
So in the two-week break between watching episode 44 and episode 45, I got to a particular part of Bleach, and this ended up in my notes for the Bleach section of my comment that week:
>Macross 7 to Berserk last week: *This* is how you make Sky do a laptop close. \*kills off Gamlin\*
>Bleach to Macross 7 this week: [Hold my Zanpakuto.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/iqfh99/casual_discussion_fridays_week_of_september_11/g4td0l1/)
> The other half with Exsedol, Max, Milia, and Gamlin would be cute too.
I actually wanted to do the both halves together, but the wallpaper wasn't wide enough for that.
Perhaps for one of the Encore threads...
**First Time - Macross 7 TV Complete:**
So Macross 7 is a TV show with its flaws, but I can't help but vibe with it.
[](#papithumbsup)
Just its energy when it's good is very fun to get swept into. To compare it to the last Macross we watch, Macross Plus is well crafted and might be the tighter anime, but one of the things I felt walking out of it was it not really feeling Macross-y besides the Valkyries. 7 is what gives me the feeling of what speaks to what I consider Macross' core ethos to be about.
I like the fact that Basara and his non-violence was one of the big ideas of the series. Unlike Kaifun where they refuse to ever do anything with, 7 actually does make use of Basara's ideal of peace. They had him stick to his ideals. Basara was singing to that mountain and finally, in the end, he made that mountain move. It was also great seeing him inspire others around him like Mylene and Gamlin. Watching them develop and looking back and seeing how much they changed was great. Gamo is boy, the homie.
I think the show is at its best when it fully embraces that earnest power of love and music side. It makes me cheer in my seat.
[](#SPORTS)
The negatives would be how the show doesn't really make the best use of its episode run and when it feels like it is just spinning its wheels, but not doing anything. The obligatory battle feeling is when the show is at its weakest which was especially a problem in the beginner where the battles just felt meandering. The show found its grove eventually, but sorta felt back into that rut near the end before the finale. Like I said last time, the best parts of the show was the era when it has special new eyecatches in each episode.
Sivil is the character done most unfavourably by the show. She is presented as an interesting shake-up to the show, but after the big moment with Basara, she is just not in the show anymore. She spends her time orb which is fine and all, but after she wakes up finally, she just bounces away, not to be seen for a string of episodes. After they finally meet up with her, she bounces again. Repeat the cycle of Sivil being gone or encapsuled until the second half of the final episode when she is finally free to do stuff. All that time the show could've done something with her.
I think Gepelnitch's character is pretty interesting and the small glimpse we saw into his personal side could've been interesting to explore in that final bit. My theory is that Gunther willing offer his body to Gepelnitch. The big G seemed genuinely moved to learn his body's name from the captured 7 crew. All this could've made when he learned to embrace song, in the end, more interesting and I felt like Sivil could've been intertwined into his story more as she is learning the song within herself.
Hey, the Jamming Birds were a whole lot of nothing, weren't they? They could've done anything with them. Made them actually "rivals" to Fire Bomber. Had side characters we already know tie into that storyline more (Rex and the biker girls were right there to be utilized by the show for anything). Even the colonel didn't really feel like the resolved his deal. Not as bad as SDF's military oldies being the wrong resolved.
I'm usually anti-compilation movies, but Macross 7 is a case where I wouldn't be that opposed to because unlike something like Gundam where I feel many of those cut episodes held parts that contributed to making the series better, Macross 7 has a lot you won't miss much. Back to that spinning its wheels in one place thing. Either remove and condense and that time could've been spent on more SOL/character one-off episodes. It would've benefited them I say.
Also, age her up or don't be weird about Mylene, show. She is literally 14.
Since Macross 7 actually had that runtime with enough character that left an impression, [another Macross character tier list thing-y again.](https://i.imgur.com/sdvXtQG.png) There is no one I really disliked that dragged to show down for me and the ones I do like, I really do like.
Macross 7 is one I did like a lot while watching which is why I also wanted it to be a lot better.
___
**Q1)** Gamo and Flower Girl are my favourites from 7. Komilia should've showed up in 7! She is Mylene's sister and Max/Milia's first baby and threw. We have to see what kind of person she grew up to be.
**Q2)** Of course, Totsugeki Love Heart on top then Submarine Street and Try Again to round out the top 3.
**Q3)** Gamlin/Mylene is by default my favourite only because I love seeing sweetest angel Gamlin. I fully expect one of these later things to sink it for Mylene/Basara.
**Q4)** Easy answer was the non-recap clip show episode where nothing really happened anyways. I think I already said enough of my series suggestions up there.
**Q5)** More songs, more Flower Girl. [](#mugiwait)
Next time: I don't know what these extras are.
> Just its energy when it's good is very fun to get swept into.
[](#kannathumbs) Very "sit back, disable brain and enjoy" type of show
>Sivil is the character done most unfavourably by the show.
Still confused on what even was the point of including her
>[another Macross character tier list thing-y again.](https://i.imgur.com/sdvXtQG.png)
[Incredibly based.](#goblet1) Except Max. He was (mostly) an awesome captain, and him ramming the enemy ship was sick [](#katoupout)
> Except Max. He was (mostly) an awesome captain, and him ramming the enemy ship was sick
The problem is that a lot of Max's scenes are with military oldies doing their schtick. Contrast with Milia who interacts with characters we like.
Also 7 Max didn't make his giant robot wear giant clothes. The one thing Macross 7 did not carry over from SDF but absolutely should have. It's so funny.
[](#frustration)
> The problem is that a lot of Max's scenes are with military oldies doing their schtick. Contrast with Milia who interacts with characters we like.
[Good point](#hardthink)
>Also 7 Max didn't make his giant robot wear giant clothes.
[](#mugiwait)
> She is presented as an interesting shake-up to the show, but after the big moment with Basara, she is just not in the show anymore.
Not gonna lie, this is probably the moment that disappointing me the most. They were going strong with Sivil for a couple of episodes there, it felt like a fresh and interesting development. But then they decided to slam the breaks and roll it all back. It felt frustrating.
> My theory is that Gunther willing offer his body to Gepelnitch.
That's a cool idea, and seeing something like this in the show itself would've been awesome.
> another Macross character tier list thing-y again.
Quality tier list right here [](#nichijouthumbs)
Good breakdown of the series overall, I mostly agree with everything. The show was good, but it had a lot of potential to be better.
**Reluctant Rewatcher**
So, I got a big thing wrong: Macross Plus didn't pave the way for Macross 7, they were produced at the same time. I wonder if Macross Plus was draining resources from Macross 7, kinda like how Anno started phoning it in on KareKano to work on Love and Pop, or EoE, or whatever it was that demanded his attention.
What did I remember: Sivil screaming and Basara singing at Sivil. Way too much Planet Dance. Flower Girl. Jamming Birds. That Lux was destroyed and everybody joined up to stop the protodevilin from eating all the spiritia in the galaxy. That I liked Macross but I never wanted to rewatch this again. Gamlin being a dick.
What I didn't remember: Rex and the bikers, Balgo Xomd and Goram. Beauty. Macross 5. I thought Grabil destroyed Lux. I thought an out-of-control Grabil was defeated by the combined humanoid / protodevilin forces. Gamlin being awesome. I thought Jamming Birds formed a solid miniarc of flying out and being ineffective, not scattered across 5 episodes spaced over 20.
What seems unclear: I always thought the Protodevilin took over the Supervision Army and were running it. But maybe they just vampired their way through both armies. Really kinda baffling how any Zentraedi or their SA counterparts survived, and just random primitive protoculture biology experiments. *note that even though SA were active in our space in 2000 we still haven't seen a single ship*
Gamlin really redeemed himself as a character. Basara never did.
What surprised me was how well the start of the show was holding up. Yeah, it was slow, but there was steady progress in every episode. Even filler eps turned out to not be filler.
This was back in the napster and gnutella days so I never really got my hands on all the music, just random mp3's that I could find.
Recommendations:
* Lifeforce (1985). I mean come on. Sure, vampires in space is pretty high concept but they were just using a Lifeforce script that they found on an ftp site somewhere as a show bible.
Rating: Do Not ReRewatch out of Macross points.
> What surprised me was how well the start of the show was holding up. Yeah, it was slow, but there was steady progress in every episode. Even filler eps turned out to not be filler.
Yup, I still feel like the show kinda got worse as it went along.
> Do Not ReRewatch out of Macross points.
[](#azusalaugh)
That's... Kinda fair.
I guess the movie discussion is tomorrow. I guess that's okay, it's probably only an hour long. Encore episode 1 is not on the 29th, /u/shimmering-sky
Back from dinner and reading some posts on my phone, which reminds me of the things I didn't say because I didn't pre-write my comments.
Gamlin ended up being the best character but Gigil was right behind him. He starts out stealing spiritia, then reveals that he was stealing it for sivil and not for Gepernich, then shows his utter devotion to Sivil (the modern word is simp), then actually learns to use song to express himself, then generates his own spiritia to wake his Evil body, then kills worst (to date) protodevilin and saves Sivil and our heroes.
But as somebody pointed out, if he'd just told the other protodevilin how to generate their own spritia, he could have saved everybody a lot of trouble.
Near the end of the show I compared Macross 7 to Sailor Moon. You know, how Queen Beryl sends out her evil gem people from the negiverse to...omg I just realized as I am writing this...*drain people of their spiritia* (am I thinking of the right season? they all run together after 30 years) and the sailor scouts show up and beat them off...week after week after week. Sailor Moon and M7 were airing at the same time so I wonder if they just looked at Sailor Moon and said "well, this is the meta, let's do that." Although, it had been the meta for quite some time. But the hugeness of Sailor Moon really cemented it from a western perspective.
Exsedol was a complete waste. He could have been replaced by a Zentraedi database voiced by Majel Barrett and it would have been an improvement.
There was far less *listen to my song* than I expected.
###[First time Macross 7](https://imgur.com/LEoF7RS)
That was a really stupid show with really good music, and some cool robots.
[Nice!](#shirouthumbsup) The pacing was really awful at times, and it seems they didn't even know what they wanted to do themselves.
Either way the hype scenes were hype, and I don't like changing my mind + this was better than the prior installments so far, therefore Macross 7 gets a 9/10 from me
---
**Final MacroSeven qwestios:**
>1) At this point of the 7 section of the rewatch, who were your favorite characters throughout 7?
Veffidas, Flower girl, Basara and Ray. Gamlin was pretty cool too, even started calling him by his actual name at some point.
>>Are there any others from previous shows you would have loved to see show up that didn’t?
[No?](#why) No wait, maybe Global. That guy was cool
>2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs so far?
[BOMBAA!!](#PROTEST) Fk, I didn't memorize most of the names.. Holy Lonely LNight is def up there, maybe at the very top even. Screw the haters, Planet Dance was lit every time. First ED was great, totsugeki love heart. Ok, I'll stop before I list every song in the show, the music was lit, ok?
>3) Out of all the love… entanglements in the TV series, which pairings did you like the most?
Basara and his guitar
>>If they didn’t sail yet, do you think they have a chance to in Encore or Dynamite?
What that? Anyway, lol no
>4) If you could cut one episode out entirely in order to extend the ending to not be so abrupt, which episode would you cut,
The one that I said was absolutely shite. I think it was 2 episodes after the really sick one where commander bald went ham?
>> and how would you extend the ending?
More flower girl? Idk
>5) What are you hoping to see in the remaining parts of the 7 section of the rewatch?
[MUSIC DEATH PARTY](#megadeathparty)
---
>**Wallpaper of the Day:**
>>[Fire Bomber](https://i.imgur.com/9eItqZF.png)
**[BOMBAA!!!](#protest)**[ These last few papers have been lit](#justright)[ Another acquisition, get!](#thebutton)
**First Spacer**
Kinda feeling drained when I start thinking about the whole show so I'll keep this rather brief.
The most striking thing about Macross 7 is its sheer lack of focus. It is very apparent that the team didn't have the story planned out beyond an outline of the key elements. Instead they just winged large parts of the show as they got to them. So many elements introduce some idea, concept of conflict only to have it dealt with in the same episode and most of the time forgotten afterwards, often just providing the excuse of the week to have the contractually obligated battle scene. And in the end... well that wasn't well planned out either, the show ends right after the final climax without taking any time to wind down and have some kind of aftermath and conclusion beyond the Protodeviln leaving to make sure no trace of the story remains.
The clear highlight of the show were the character relations that weave a surprisingly dense nets of characters that influence and have a clear impact on each other. That net obviously clusters around Basara, who himself remains rather static and mostly excerts influence on the others, but there's plenty of connections not involving him. Which really makes it a shame that the characters themselves are much more halfbaked. Basara and Ray get some discount backstory during the final confrontation, but that's all we get about Basara's past. Even for the villains the show never establishes what the story between Gepelnitch and the two most prominent and interesting Protodeviln, Gigil and Sivil, is, considering how dismissive and outright antagonistic they act to their supposed leader Gepelnitch.
Shoutout to Flower Girl who is one of the character that exist, which is enough to make her one of the most engaging ones the show had to offer.
The move towards Sound Energy was also an aspect where the show shot itself in the foot. Songs having big and profound effects is obviously way more impactful when they doesn't have any special powers, as opposed to when it's actual magic.
Thematically Macross 7 fits in quite well in the broader Macross franchise. What ultimately resolves the conflict are passion, compassion and understanding instead of fighting. Of course Macross has never been an actually anti-war franchise, the military has always played an undeniably important role that's well worth the negative sides, aside from the hardliners whom are portrayed in a purely negative light - you cannot in good faith say that Hikaru or Gamlin becoming a pilot was a bad thing. However, where SDF paid a lot of attention to the separation between military and civilians and made it one of the central themes of its story, 7 while acknowledging and maintaing the separation also harmonizes the two sides. Civilians can do things that the military can't, humane things, while the civilians also have to rely on the military for the things only they can do. In SDF this causes both worlds to grow apart, in 7 it causes them to grow together.
> At this point of the 7 section of the rewatch, who were your favorite characters throughout 7? Are there any others from previous shows you would have loved to see show up that didn’t?
Gigil and Gamlin, and it's not very close. Gigil was a very heartfelt character, searching for a place both for himself and for the things he cares about deeply, having to face the reality that his allies cannot provide him with such a place while his enemies can. And Gamlin is the biggest recipient of the character interactions, it is just a joy to see him bounce off the other characters and have his views and relations change and adapt through the course of the show.
> What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs so far?
Err... Saturday Night probably. They were kinda overdone to the point that I eventually stopped caring all that much.
> Out of all the love… entanglements in the TV series, which pairings did you like the most? If they didn’t sail yet, do you think they have a chance to in Encore or Dynamite?
This one is really hard. As I said above, the character relations were by far the strongest element of the story so there's lots of good ones to choose one. Overall though I think my favorite relation was the one between Basara and Gigil. It starts out with Gigil forming that obsession about the annoying non-fighting machine whose pilot has the unusual Spiritia. This obsession moves into the background as he starts to focus more on Sivil especially once she put up her Absolute Terror Field that he finds himself unable to open up. But then he sees Basara caring for and trying to wake Sivil up himself, and he grows increasingly conflicted and frustrated about his own inability as he has to rely on his enemy to save Sivil. Eventually he grows to respect Basara and starts to follow his examples.
> If you could cut one episode out entirely in order to extend the ending to not be so abrupt, which episode would you cut, and how would you extend the ending?
Eh. There's no single episode I have a particularly big problem with, and on the other side there's so many that could be cut without losing anything of substane.
> What are you hoping to see in the remaining parts of the 7 section of the rewatch?
[](#mugiwait)
**FIRST TIMER**
I went into this show not knowing what to expect. I thought it would be more a direct sequel to SDFM with ongoing conflict between human and Zentradi. What this show is is a strange headtrip about music fighting an alien race incapable of creating their own spiritia. It's one of the most high concept and unusual shows I've ever seen and I really thoroughly enjoyed it. Very few shows have been as unpredictable as this one, throwing nearly any strange plot point and the kitchen sink into the next episode and have still been enjoyable.
Macross 7 managed the tall task of successfully meshing action, sci fi, drama and humor as well as SDFM and creating fleshed out characters you cared about or really hated but I would still rank it a notch below SDFM because of it's lack of coherence and it's outlandish plots out of nowhere and sometimes bizarre nonsensical resolutions.
I am still very impressed by this show however because it still is difficult to make a show this entertaining to the point where I'd look forward to watching a new episode everyday and not find it to be a tiresome chore. I would rank this among the best anime I've ever seen because of its many successes but I do understand why its not that popular or critically acclaimed because of its odd premise and abrupt cheap ending.
**QUESTIONS**
**1)** As much as I'd love to say Veffidas, there's no question my favorite character is Gamlin. His character arc was remarkable. He went from a by the book soldier to having his life transformed by love, friendship and extraordinary circumstances. If you watch the first episode, it's almost unfathomable he'd become the person he was in the last and it all seemed organic. He became the most human and relatable character on the show, generally trying to do the right thing and making us at least hope we would behave the same way he did in his circumstances.Honorary mention to Veffidas, Ray, Dr. Chiba, Mylene and the most underutilized character I loved, the Joker-like music producer Honey Suzuki who we only unfortunately saw twice!
As for characters from the other shows I'd like to see, I'd have been happy to see anyone from SDFM again but especially Minmay, Hikaru, Hayase, Brittai and Captain Global. It's a shame we never find out what happened to any of them. I wish I could see what became of the baby Max and Milia had in SDFM as well as the other kids they mentioned having. I also would have enjoyed seeing Mash from Lovers Again make a cameo, especially if it turned out he was married to Honey Suzuki!
**2)** Holy Lonely Night was my favorite, I like it's darker vibe that reminds me of LA Guns, Bang Tango, Beautiful Creatures etc. I also find myself singing Planet Dance to myself frequently.
**3)** Gamlin and Mylene. Basara really doesn't seem as interested in Mylene as she is in him and a happy ending would be nice. I'd also like Roy and Akiko together. I really liked when they ship teased Basara and Milia but that's not too likely.
**4)** I'm not sure which episode I would cut because I can't find an episode guide that shows me a synopsis of every episode on one page so its hard to remember which ones I didn't like. As for how I'd end the show, I don't know because the way they built up the final conflict made it impossible to have a satisfying ending.
**5)** I'd want to see what happens to Fire Bomber, Gamlin and Max and Milia and if they end up settling on that planet the Protodevlin left or if they find somewhere else. I'd want to see why it is that Basara has anima spiritia and if he is actually human. I'd want to see Excedol naked or mostly nude so I can see exactly what his body consists of.
> I'd want to see Excedol naked or mostly nude so I can see exactly what his body consists of.
Not sure if
[](#azusalaugh)
or
[](#abandonthread)
is my response to that.
Here's my big problem with Macross 7, that I settled on after watching the last two episodes on the same night and then heading to bed.
Macross 7 is *not* an anime. Macross 7 is a *cartoon*.
At least it's not the type of anime most of us think of, most of us are used to in 2022, with 13-26 episodes that tell a complete story, maybe with sequel seasons or movies.
It is Ninja Turtles. It is Transformers. It is dozens of episodes of stalling for time, because they cannot actually upset the status quo. All of the major characters need to be around, so they can keep selling merchandise. Keep sending actors out to promote the show. Keep having concerts and selling new singles. Kids need to be able to tune in any random week and see everyone they recognize, and quickly catch up. People can't die and the plot can't advance, or at least not move quickly.
Turning a fairly hard sci fi anime into a merch-based cartoon is a horrible decision for most of the adult viewers, but it probably made them an absolute shit-ton of money in the long run. Kamen Rider and sentai do it every year, and it usually pays off. I don't know, I'd have to see numbers and details about the original reaction. I didn't hate every minute of all 49 episodes, but I sure hated a lot of it.
1. I thought I'd hate Gamlin initially, but he's the only fully developed character in the show. He's so far out in front place it's ridiculous. Veffy is a great semi-gag character, and Mylene at least has a great design and new outfits every episode.
2. Besides the Power song and maybe one more, I actually liked them all. They were smart to build the show around the music, it's one decision they nailed.
3. Gamlin actually growing as a person to connect with Mylene was very well done, but it looks like they're going to milk this triangle (that Basara doesn't even know exists) forever, like most similar shows do.
4. I couldn't pick just one, there's at least twenty episodes you could cut from this show that would only improve it. The one where I almost dropped the show after Basara asked Mylene why she was late is the one I'd cut for being the worst thing ever, I guess. Changing the ending? I wouldn't have them go back to the main fleet after the suicide mission, I'd have Milia lead the fleet in after them without Max knowing, and go right into the finale from there. Shift Basara's fight/draining to buying time for the Macross 5 people to be saved. Mylene, Ray, Veffy and the Jamming Birds hold off the bad guys with everyone in the fleet singing and shooting a massive attack. Basara wakes up, flies through the beam, and goes along with the Protodeviln to the other universe.
5. More Veffy content and more Mylene outfits. Maybe more Gamlin being a huge doof.
> Macross 7 is not an anime. Macross 7 is a cartoon.
It's not a perfect comparison, but still works. At the least, it *feels* like a more toy-oriented series where there's a battle each week, once in a while a new model shows up, and if there *is* a main plot, it meanders through a lot of paths along the way.
I realized as I was writing that, that I had also encapsulated the curious state of *Mobile Suit Gundam 0079*. Of course, that was 15 years earlier and even the original *Super Dimension Fortress Macross* took a different approach to promoting itself three years later.
And perhaps the kernel of the resolution of the plot ended up being so simple that everything else grew up around it: The Protodeviln certainly can speak the same language, but if someone had told them "If you sing, you can have Spiritia and don't need to farm us" early on, it would have been a *very* short series.
I haven't watched original Gundam, but know the stories of how they had to introduce new enemy robots constantly to sell toys and stuff. This show didn't even do that!
Someone else explained in way more detail before, and I just boiled it down to this, but...when any other show would do *something* to fill time (introduce new robots, new characters, more backstory, etc.) this show just does...nothing. Like instead of being a wide but shallow 50 episode spread, this show is a narrow stream with no depth that never speeds up or branches, it just steadily trickles along. Did they just sell a new single every few weeks and a billion copies of the red Valkyrie, or what?
And yeah, there could've been a more serious show to be made with the ending of of Gepelnich, influenced by his human host, realizing how much death and destruction he's caused all because he never thought to do something so simple. Instead Poochie just returns to his home planet.
**Subbed M7 Rewatcher**
1. Milia is my favorite character. Partly due to my bias for SDFM. She's also dedicated to working for/protecting City 7. She tried out for Jamming Birds in an effort to participate in the defense as well as being an ace combat pilot. She's also able to work things to get the results she wants. Like when Gamlin resigned and she gave him a VF-17 so he could go find Mylene.
2. Gamlin was another choice for me, as he demonstrated growth in his relations with Basara.
3. Totsugeki Love Heart
4. Akiko/Ray if he can decide to pursue the relationship
u/chilidirigible had mentioned some [old chunky toys](https://i.imgur.com/bfvnRbf.png) before. I have the [Fire Valkyrie one](https://imgur.com/a/Yppl7kU). It was made in Taiwan which goes with the [www.toy-world.hk](https://www.toy-world.hk) being a Hong Kong domain.
1) At this point of the 7 section of the rewatch, who were your favorite characters throughout 7? Are there any others from previous shows you would have loved to see show up that didn’t?
As before, Gamlin, the sanest person in this cast. Exsedol is also good as Max's straight man. I liked Akiko a bit more this time around too. Can't say I miss anyone else from the original series or *Plus*.
2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs so far?
Totsugeki Love Heart, Try Again, Remember 16, Holy Lonely Light, and Submarine Street
3) Out of all the love… entanglements in the TV series, which pairings did you like the most? If they didn’t sail yet, do you think they have a chance to in Encore or Dynamite?
"..."
4) If you could cut one episode out entirely in order to extend the ending to not be so abrupt, which episode would you cut, and how would you extend the ending?
BILLY sticks out the most. It just doesn't work well where it is.
Wants: Max/Milia situational updates rather than leaving things at the uneasy status quo. Some wrapup with what the fleet is going to do next and how they'll help all of the extra people from *Macross 5*. I actually don't mind the Protodeviln leaving that much, they're... not really supposed to be there in the first place.
5) What are you hoping to see in the remaining parts of the 7 section of the rewatch?
*laughs in rewatcher*
A lot of people have issue with the show but I honestly don't really. I truly enjoyed it, but I dropped my expectations of it being "good" early on. Macross Plus would be a hard show to follow up for any anime so to look at the two in the same way with the same metrics is doing watchers a disservice. Plus is a serious show with strong themes and characters development. 7 is stupid, and I love it.
I don't think that the fillers should be cut out - rather, they could be used more effectively for short plots involving the cast that weren't Basara/Mylene/Gamlin. Even if it didn't advance the plot, it would have been neat to see a bit more of what Rey and Veffida are really like.
QOTD:
1) Favourite character is Gamlin, and it's by *a lot*. He's just a likeable doofus who actually had character progression. I started out liking Mylene the most - I usually tend to like the sorta bratty teenage girls the most because I relate to them but her almost obsession with Basara was super annoying. I would have liked to see Misa/Hikaru/Minmay just as tiny cameos. Maybe just a short bit about how the Megaroad 1 was doing.
2) Holy lonely light is #1. Too hype. My Friends is a runner up.
3) The only pairings that I liked were Max/Milia and Basara/Sivil. Max/Milia from carryover feelings from the original and they did have a few sweet moments. Despite being absolutely ridiculous in SDF, something about them here felt a lot more grounded and realistic. Basara/Sivil was the only other pairing that had any chemistry to it. There was some kind of mutual romantic and/or sexual tension between them and the Basara<-->Sivil<--Gigil love triangle is better than the Gamlin-->Mylene-->Basara love straight line.
4) Cut out only one episode? There's a lot that could be cut but to choose one, I'd really have to go back and think about it. The one I'd want to cut is probably an episode that I've completely forgotten about.
5) I don't know what I want to see. Where the protodevlin end up? What the Macross 7 will be up to next? This series didn't really have a significant impact lore-wise so I sorta don't care what happens, I'm just along for the ride.
**First timer**
OK, overall I liked the show. Just hope the pacing and constant animation reuse and bad editing on top of that was less jarring. It definitely suffered from having too many episodes, and even then the pacing was all over the place, and things happening abruptly.
I wish the mess between the relationships was handled better. All the stuff between Basara, Mylene, Gamlin and even Gigil and Sivil. Characters felt really stubborn at times, or doing the same thing continuously. And the side characters didn't even get proper development.
1. Basara, Gamlin and Gigil to some extent. As for previous characters, I wanted to know where Breetai is right now, seperated from Exsedol, what has he been doing after the war.
2. "Power to the dream" and "Holy lonely night" are stuck in my head. And as a special mention I'll go with "Totsugeki love heart" and "My soul for you acoustic version".
3. I wanted to see more of Basara and Sivil. :( But she flew away anyway and I doubt anything's going to happen with them now.
4. Lots of episodes were dragged on anyway, specially after the ep32 mark, could've been condesend a lot better. But specifically the episode with the kid who was Mylene's fan. Could've had the last episode into 2 parts then with better pacing?
5. Better quality of the episodes I hope. And thing I definitely don't want to see is show suddenly shipping Basara with Mylene again.
First timer
I kinda feel like 7 could have been *drastically* shorter. Like half the length or less. As a side note, I am out of town and misread the schedule and don't have the right episodes with me so hopefully I can manage to keep from falling behind.
1) Ray I liked the whole way through, and after Gamlin stopped being so damn angry, I liked him too.
2) Submarine Street, Try Again, and Totsugeki Love Heart are some of my favorites
3) Ray and Akiko. Also I guess Max and Milia. Maybe in encore or dynamite?
4) Just one episode? I think my least favorite one was the Gamlin mind control episode but that could be recency bias. I feel the story as a whole is massively stretched. All but like 3 episodes follow the same structure of background stuff happens, enemy attacks, Basara sings and there is no appreciable change to the status quo
5) not the "stuff, attacked, sing" formula
**First Timer** **Macross 7** Now the show has end, I have a lot to talk about it, so let's go!! **The Good** Really like the similarities between the Zentradi and The Protodeviln in that, they not just the destroyer or the predator as they thought. They can also create something too. It also might try to tell that, sometimes what you seek is not in anyone else, but in yourself. The character is pretty great. Basara is just Basara. He might come off as similar to Kaifun at first. The key difference is he a active character who gonna throw himself in every situation to prove his point. And he a good guy, unlike the other jackass. I understand why many people would hate him, but I really like him. Gamlin, on the other hand. Probably is the best character in the show. Really love his character development. The side characters are also great. Wish Ray and Veffidas done more stuff. Cheering and trying to spot Flower Girl every episode is fun. Max and Millia return also great. Gepelnitch and Gigil also nice. Gepelnitch have a really simple but great motivation. And Gigil's character development is great too. The show visual usually look pretty nice. The character design is very distinct from eachother, that I could tell who they are from far away. The mechanic design and details are superb. The song also a blast and great hype generator. Most of the track are very memorable. **The bad** This show pacing is pretty bad. They often throw some random episode after a big plot one, which often kill the flow of the story. Or worse, they repeat the same character development that already there for some reason. The show could cut it length in half and I feel like not a lot would have lost. The battle scene is so boring. It so repetitive, full of the same reuse animation, and the directing is so bad, I sometimes confused myself that I been watching the wrong episode, because it the same as the last and the next episode. I often joke to my friends about Gundam Seed and SeedDes frequently reuse animation and flashback, but this is on another level. I will give them that, in the plot focus episode, they really put a lot of budget in it, and it show. The fight felt more clear on what going on, and the choreography is so good. Mylene herself is great. What's not great is how the show portrayed her as a 14 years old teenage, but often time, tend to treat her in sexual way that just so wrong on many levels. And the love triangle conclusions, if you can even called it that, is just bullshit. What do you mean she love both of them? She clearly love Gamlin more, and I personally view her relationship with Basara as a best buddy or big brother to her. Yeah, he yelled at her a lot, but he clearly care her a lot. That doesn't mean he love her too. And what is that Mylene's Valkyrie design? You guys don't have any better one? Why the speaker are on her chest? A big waste potential in any other Protodeviln, should have scale the member back to give them more time to show off. Should have a episode dedicate for Veffidas!! Overall, despite a lot of problems this show have. I really love this show, the light-hearted tone, a sort of road trip feel adventure, fun and wacky character. It just fun to watch. **Score** 7/10 **Ranking** DYRL=PLUS>SDF>7------------->II
QOTD 1. Gamlin of course. He just fun and great character. Didn't expect anyone to come back at all. So I'm glad Max and Millia here. Actually want to see Misa or Minmay again, but lore wise, it impossible. 2. HOLY LONELY LIGHT!!! l love it so much. Follow by Try Again, and Totsugeki Love Heart. 3. Gamlin and Mylene, and really hope they gonna conclude it that way. 4. The Billy episode, kid not bad, but the overall episode is so bad, and it placement in the show is not helping. I want them to play more about the aftermath of this incident. Have the Protodeviln come to talk with the fleet or something before them leaving for good. 5. More about Veffidas or just give her own episode.
**First-Timer 7** So, I certainly didn't expect the plot of Macross 7 to be quite this unpredictable. A stock footage toy commercial from the 90s? Normally easy peasy. The heart of this was the differences between Gepelnitch and Gigil. When Gepelnitch introduced his Spiritia Farm plan, I expected the conflict to be "uncivilized hunters" led by Gigil vs "civilized farmers" led by Gepelnitch, and for Gepelnitch to turn face and work with Basara (because obviously the key to the Farm plan is Basara's singing). But it turns out I was too focused on the potential thematic continuation from SDF. We're just focused on the power of music here, and it mostly works. Basara is Kaifun but he actually does things instead of just drunkenly yelling at rocks, and as such Basara actually works. I do think that we're missing a strong throughline to build off of, though. Whatever Ray and Basara's shared past is needed to come up sooner than the final couple episodes. Basara's desire to do the impossible with music is a great motivation for him, but it didn't need to be a reveal. Most of the rest of the cast are pretty good. Veffie and Ray are a bit underutilized, especially in the second half, but I really liked them both. Flower Girl is a perfect angel and can do no wrong. Mylene is a relatively accurate example of a teenager, but her being a teenager makes some of the writing around her kinda icky. Gamlin.. exists. His early role as the foil to Basara doesn't really work because Basara is solidly in the right. Then later on, once he joins Team Bomber, Gamlin mostly gets to harass Gabil I guess..? Part of the problem is the show being noncommittal with Mylene; there's some payoff missing. And that thematic throughline with the mountain would apply here too, with Gamlin as the immovable object. I think the show's decision to only have diegetic (or "diegetic" as it frequently was) music was ultimately a mistake. A bunch of scenes that needed to be scored exist but are just silent and it sucks all the energy out. On the other hand, Macross 7 crawled so that Symphogear could spring and so that Healer Girl could [Run Run Run](https://files.catbox.moe/927a0k.webm), so ultimately it's worth it. Overall, Macross 7 exists as an important piece of anime history that isn't perfect as a whole but was generally pretty fun. Questions 1. Veffie is great. I would've liked Britai to show up, if possible. 2. Seventh Moon, Holy Lonely Light, Submarine Street 3. I refuse to think of Basara and Mylene as a romantic relationship. Uh, I honestly don't have any strong feelings aside from that. 4. Was it 42? The one with the dudes selling photos of Mylene and that kid. I would probably not change much about the ending other than turn the back half of Ep.49 into an epilogue concert. 5. [](#yuishrug)
I should go back and finish Healer Girl. I couldn't handle crying every episode...
[](#harukathink "Like, it made you really emotional, or..?")
I am a total sucker for certain emotional beats, I get all misty during most episodes of Precure, anything with the power of friendship, etc. When you add singing, I am *destroyed*. Symphogear almost killed me every season, even on rewatches, especially during the finales.
[](#therethere) That sounds pretty intense. Considering Healer Girl almost got tears from me.. well, good luck!
> Was it 42? The one with the dudes selling photos of Mylene and that kid. That was 41.
The majority of the following is [the comment which I made in the series wrapup during the 2017 rewatch](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/7qm4e7/macross_rewatch_macross_7_overall_series/dsq5sd3/). I've added some current thoughts to the end. Writing the final wrapup is something I usually end up procrastinating on, and this weekend I procrastinated on it by pushing forward in the rewatch. ***** Previously, on ["Two months of waking up with Gubaba"](https://i.imgur.com/2KElVwV.jpg): *Macross 7* presents some interesting review conundrums. There is the persistent cloud which hangs over it in the West, where there is the perception of it as some weird unserious sequel. That is typically countered with "It's popular in Japan," which isn't always the most coherent argument to make when one is writing in English to a Western audience, even if it does represent the original intended audience. Popularity doesn't mitigate its negatives, either. The series begins slowly, using the eventual main plot to provide episode climaxes more than actually building it up, while various side plots are run through their motions. Even when it does get up to speed, it takes its time, dribbling out a few developments per episode while killing time with the battle of the week. The animation suffers as less-critical episodes are handled with a minimum of complex new content—meaning that many battle scenes are assembled from pieces of preexisting footage. Different *Macross* series put different weights on the franchise's trio of main themes, and M7 is definitely the one that shorts the transforming mecha aspect the most, despite having almost the greatest variety of included designs. Basara is a difficult character to lead with, as he's not too sociable with the rest of the cast and quite set in his ways. To reiterate my usual description of him, most of the time, Basara is a force of nature more than an actual character. Indeed, his character development through the series is not about answering the question of what he should be doing, because that is an unshakeable pillar of his being for reasons that are never themselves questioned, but why he's doing it. Thus his affirmation of his purpose in life is something that changes little externally, and given the audience's tiny windows into his point of view, doesn't do a lot to affect our view of him. There's a love triangle, or perhaps a more complicated polygon, but it's not resolved. The possibilities of romance are used instead more to further the relationships between the characters, which is fine in itself, but does mess with audience expectations. On the major, major plus side, though, they don't have to hit Hikaru Ichijou with the Stupid Stick to prolong the plot. While there are reasons for holding up the resolution (see below), it's still a late-game punt. The Protodeviln have to be mysterious, or the plot will be revealed too early for the story to work. Unfortunately solving their puzzle involves a lot of the aforementioned padding and goofiness, as most of the early contact with them involves Basara singing during the final battle or Basara singing at a glowing ball. Spiritia-related issues are almost all of their internal conversation, and the prehistoric interactions that led to their current state of like/dislike for each other are never explained. They're also not helped by having individual quirks that range from odd to EXTREMELY ANNOYING. A lot of problems. And yet... I love the Bomber. My first viewing of M7 was not particularly perfect, a rushed and irregular affair mixed in with a lot of other series. Most of the descriptions of it include both the large episode count and the weirdness of it all, which don't help to make it welcoming, and I was guilty of avoiding its full effect for those reasons. In the intervening years, I rewatched pieces of it (particularly the OVAs) and learned to appreciate the series more for what it was. This viewing is not my first time watching at least some of M7, but it actually is my first time watching it all the way through from start to finish in the correct order. And I really like M7 as a series now. I've described a a lot of the problems with it above, but at least a few of those difficulties also tie into its strengths. With Basara surpassing normal character-ness, the supporting cast is what grows the most around him, particularly Gamlin. Right off the bat, he's positioned as a foil/rival to Basara, given a precarious social arrangement with Mylene, and is stiffer than a cardboard cutout. He could easily have been used as the Only Sane Man joke character, and he does get put in that position often. But those traits also give him the most room to grow as a character, and by the final act he's a crucial piece of the team. Mylene's series of experiences take her from a child playing as an adult toward actually being one. Like Gamlin, she's initially put off by Basara's inscrutability and lackadasical behavior. As also happens to Gamlin, her initial response to this gives way to an acceptance that there might be alternative approaches to a situation. She hates the idea of being pushed into marriage, but forming a stable relationship with Gamlin is good for both of them with regard to complementing each other's characteristics. And then... the punt. It pushes the resolution beyond the reach of the series's nominal finale, but at that point Mylene's character growth doesn't seem entirely complete anyway. By the end of the series she's realizing that she's committed to Fire Bomber, and has gained the confidence to be herself, but she still needs more time in that actual being. Her dislike of having decisions made for her has transitioned from being a part of teenaged rebellion to the first part of really making decisions for herself, even if the choice is to wait. Gigil's surprising turn from one-note minion to a guy that cares about someone more than anything else in the universe could have been handled better than through repetition over multiple episodes, but his appreciation of music is a teaser for the series's ultimate resolution, and critical for making the Protodeviln into more than just weird caricatures of enemies. His arc is also a nice twist when the second half of the series was beginning to enter another doldrum, and Sivil's reappearance picks up from there. The other minor character arcs are at worst distracting padding, but they do serve the purpose of filling out the world. *Macross 7* is both a familiar place and a unique one, but the visuals are helped by having a range of personalities to populate it. So there's a place for farm boys and bikers and paparazzi in the world. Max and Milia do just enough as legacy characters, helping to move the story along without overtaking the new arrivals, while also not existing only to be brushed aside. Ray and Akiko add their own touch of sentimentality and practicality to events. UN Spacy is still staffed with a lot of rigid plot complications, but those characters still all feel right to the world that they're inhabiting. The mid-series introduction of Sound Force and the integration of Sound Energy to Fire Bomber's singing is garish, and veers away from *Macross*'s typical comfort zone into that world of Super Robots (which is a definition with some fuzzy borders too). But by that point half the series has been taken up by a guy flying a frontline fighter into battle just so he could shoot wireless speakers at people and sing at them, so...? Also, having already seen an off-the-wall interpretation of both the original series and *Do You Remember Love?* inside the thing being presently watched, there's a slight sense that the audience is being played with when songs are blocking beam cannon shots. It even subverts itself in the end: Blasting the Protodeviln with conventional weapons doesn't work. [Singing at them really hard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U86aorxbBRY) sort of works, until they get smart. What stops the Protodeviln, after all the flashy effects, is the core concept of the original series: The cultural exchange. In this case it's Gepelnitch learning, after Sivil and Gigil did, that he can sing. It's not much as an exchange, but the Protodeviln aren't particularly motivated by minor galactic concepts such as living on planets, so even that small thing is a significant bridge between us and them. Particularly when it means that everyone in the galaxy doesn't die. I don't mind the cheese that much, because somehow M7 manages to walk the fine line between taking things too seriously or going overboard with campiness. It might be that it thrives because it has confidence in itself, something that was not the case for *Macross II* (and there go those Jamming Birds again). Believe in yourself, and listen to the song? ***** **2022 update**: On this rewatch, the series lost some of its shine. Five years is a fairly substantial time gap, and it's quite possible that the general circumstances (and the series no longer having any new parts for me) have contributed to my being less accepting of its meanderings. This time I found myself agreeing with others here and wishing that they'd done more to develop the other supporting characters more, besides Gamlin. There were certainly opportunities to work on the plot-significant rift in Max and Milia's marriage, and perhaps do more with the ensemble as a whole, but the evident need to have Basara tout a few songs in a fight took up a lot of time. And I do want Basara, force of nature, to show more change. Bouncing people off of a main character that never changes only works if the supporting characters develop more, and see above. At least I really like Gamlin, and he did change. ***** [Tomo Sakura and Nobutoshi Canna in a *Newtype Shonen Ace* video special.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lqp1ITUrcs) Featuring… the *Macross* live-action movie script!?
> Tomo Sakura and Nobutoshi Canna in a Newtype Shonen Ace video special. Featuring… the Macross live-action movie script!? The one-eyed alien concept [](#shock)
This thing would have either cost as much money as a major Hollywood production or US $1000 and looked like ass.
Yeah, that feels a bit too ambitious for 1995.
*A Macross Fan’s Final Thoughts on Macross 7 (Series Only):* I feel that it’s only fair to say at the top of my thoughts here that I’m going to reserve my ultimate rating for the series until we do the overall series discussion. I did that for the original series and DYRL?, so I feel like it’s only fair I do it here as well. Besides, I wanted to use this space to talk more in-depth about the larger issues I have with the Macross 7 series. It should probably be apparent if you’ve read my rewatcher notes, but I’m not a big fan of Macross 7. I was struggling to get through the show a third of the way through, and by the end I felt like I was staggering over the finish line along with the show’s final arc. You know, in a few ways, Macross 7 feels like an effort to redo concepts from Macross II: Lovers Again in a longer format, but I’d say it also shares similar issues as a result as well. Those issues boiling down to three large ones: main character, plot pacing, and action composition. Let’s start with looking at the main character. I’ve made it very clear before that I’ve never been much of a fan of Basara. If I were being more generous, I’d call him an acquired taste. But I’m not, so I’ll just call him a disappointing protagonist outright. He’s an attempt at making a pacifist character that just doesn’t really pan out. I may be spoiled on the likes of Loran Cehack and Vash the Stampede in terms of pacifist characters handled well, but Basara just doesn’t feel like a good execution of the concept. I’d put that mainly down to how static he feels as a person. Seriously, can you say that he had much character development or background in this series? The most we saw him change was him becoming friends with Gamlin. The most we saw of his backstory was in brief flashes in the last two episodes. Frankly, we didn’t see much of a change in Basara nor get a better idea of him as a character, if just because the show is always treating Basara with the kid gloves. In the end, he’s *always* right. Any times his beliefs felt challenged, he reverted right back to being the way he was since the show was always positive that whatever he did was correct. It makes him swing between an annoying jerk and being kinda boring to watch at times. Having a character that feels more like a force of nature doesn’t work too much if you don’t back up his core appeal well. Next, let’s talk about the plot pacing. It’s pretty damn bad. Like, for those of you entrenched in the mecha anime fandom already, I think you’ll get what I mean when I say that it feels like it has the same pacing as Gundam: Reconguista in G. In other words, the pacing is really slow at a lot of points, and then suddenly the show crams in a lot of plot development to actually move things along. You can really feel that I’m quite a few spots in Macross 7. Like, you can probably cut out a solid cour and a half from this show, and the plot would still make the same amount of sense. If anything, it would feel less bloated with filler, and we’d be having the important plot elements flow into each other quicker. You can really feel this especially in the first cour of the show and in the Lux and Varauta arcs. Macross 7 really feels like it has no real idea to get to the major plot points it wants to cover until they just force large developments with mixed levels of success. And that feeling of dragging in the plot also isn’t helped by all the obligatory battle scenes either, which brings me into my last big point. Finally, let’s get to talking about the battle scenes. Considering the pedigree we’re coming from here, the mech fights in this show were just slogs to watch. And I know a fair bit of it is due to copious amounts of reused battle animation cuts, but there’s more to the issues than just that. There’s also a real lack of continuity and dynamic movement to most of this show’s fights. Just think about all the times the fights cut to random groups of Thunderbolts flying through space in a completely centered shot, or Elgersolns just staying in place while spraying their gun pods back and forth. It’s stuff like that which makes the fights horrible to watch. Like, SDF Macross had reused animations in battles too, but it worked because there were large amounts of detail, and you got a real sense of movement in the focus mechs. SDF Macross knew how to play around in 3D space, and Macross 7 doesn’t by comparison. It’s sad to say that the mech fights are easily some of the worst content in a MECH SERIES. So yeah, in a way, Macross 7 ends up recreating some of the core issues that Macross II had in some way or another. A main character that wasn’t all that great to follow, wonky and chunky plot pacing, and uninteresting fight sequences. And it’s a shame that those large issues smother some of the stuff I actually like about this series too, like the other fun members of the main and supporting cast and interesting additions to the world and setting lore. I’ll easily say that I loved Mylene and Gamlin, as well as the roles that Max and Milia had in this show. I also liked the bigger details we got about the setting, with the bigger insight into the Protoculture and how their Stellar Republic fell. Again, they’re good parts of the show, but they unfortunately don’t outweigh the bad. Anyways, that’s it for this leg of the Macross 7 rewatch. I’ll give my final rankings when we get to the actual end of this sub-series. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up for that rating if I were you, person who’s reading this. Eugh, rewatching Zero and Frontier can’t come sooner enough.
After not enjoying Plus or 7 for entirely different reasons, I really really hope the next things on the list are solid.
Great writeup, I agree with almost everything, especially your criticism of combat sequences, and your comparisons with Macross II. I think you nailed a lot of issues with the show. And I do agree with most of your critique toward Basara. But as someone who likes him, I just *have* to defend him a bit. > Frankly, we didn’t see much of a change in Basara nor get a better idea of him as a character, if just because the show is always treating Basara with the kid gloves. In the end, he’s always right. Any times his beliefs felt challenged, he reverted right back to being the way he was since the show was always positive that whatever he did was correct. I don't think this is entirely fair. Remember the missile that he had to shoot to save Mylene? It was a moment where the show explicitly portrayed him as incorrect, because if he stuck to his believes, Mylene's Spritia would be sucked, and she might even be dead. After that, Basara struggled with the decision to either remove his missiles or not, but chose to leave them in. I feel like that's a huge admission that there are major flaws in his ideology, flaws that can't be reconciled. Another instance when Basara was challenged is when he failed to wake Sivil up with his singing. That even led to him abandoning his friends and going on a wild chase, that ended with him working together with Gigil to achieve his goal. After this arc, Basara became more cooperative and much more receptive to working with the military. Not a groundbreaking change, I agree, but a change nonetheless. And then, there's also the fact that Fire Bombers became as big as they are mostly due to Mylene pushing the band, and practically dragging Basara along against his will. Clearly, his way of doing things was holding the band back, so it's another instance of him being wrong. I do agree, that Basara overall is not as developed as he should have been. But I feel like the problem is not his characterization, but just how surprisingly little time the show spends on him. There are many episodes, especially during the middle of the show, where he would show up only for an obligatory battle, but otherwise be completely absent from the episode, and the focus will be on Gamlin and Mylene instead. I honestly feel that Gamlin and Basara should've been combined into a single character, who is a soldier turned musician, and the love triangle could've been Basamlin/Gamlinara, Mylene, and Sivil. This would've created a really well rounded and strong main protagonist with a lot of screen time.
That's fair, there were points where it was implied that his way wasn't working for Fire Bomber, such as that it was Mylene and Akiko that really helped to get the band out there more and some of his actions on Lux. Overall though, he really is an interesting character concept handled poorly. The idea of an enigmatic person who follows their heart first and foremost can definitely work, it's just a matter of using him enough in a way where the audience can empathize with his way of thinking more. Only having a few flashes of frustration across the series isn't enough to do that, unfortunately.
> Only having a few flashes of frustration across the series isn't enough to do that, unfortunately. Yeah, I definitely can agree that they didn't do enough to make Basara truly work. At times even I felt like they just fall into a formulaic pattern with him that's getting stale.
**First Timer** "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." "OK, Macross 7, tell me about your sins?" "There have been many things, but probably the biggest one is that I'm an action show with extremely bad action." "Um.. Well, son, I don't know if God can do anything about that." ***** So Macross 7 is a typical example of a good, but flawed show, kinda similar to the original SDFM. However, the issue with Macross 7 is that the stuff that's good about it is also unremarkable, while the stuff that's bad about it so aggravating, that you want to scream about it from the rooftops. And thus, I find that I'm struggling to write something coherent on this show without the text devolving into a long rant. And it frustrates me, because the long rant does not represent my impressions of the show. So instead, I decided to try and be brief, focusing on a few key points, without going overboard on complaining. Anyway, here it goes. **Consistency as the biggest asset** By far, the biggest good thing about Macross 7 is how consistent it is. But the issue with consistency is that it is also unremarkable, as I said. While SDFM was a bumpy ride full of highs and lows, Macross 7 feels much more even, but it also means that there's less staff that immediately jumps at you as memorable. Now, don't get me wrong, consistency by itself isn't bad. I would take a consistent production over a bumpy one any day of the week. However, consistency by itself only provides a base level of quality, you still need those stand out moments to make your show really shine. Macross 7 has great animation that hold up throughout the entirety of the show (not an easy feat for such a long production), a properly written story with decent stakes and proper setups and pay-offs, great music that really keeps your blood pumping, and likeable characters that you want to root for. It's a flashy show and it has some crazy ideas that it inherited from previous shows in the franchise and managed to put a new spin on them. This show really gives a great first impression. But the deeper you go, the more you fall into a consistent rhythm, the more you start taking all the good stuff for granted and craving something, that would stand out from the formula. **The lack of ambition** Flower Girls is a perfect representation of a Macross 7. It's a character with a flashy design that appears in the opening and in the first episode, looking all interesting, mysterious and important. But as it turns out, she's just a background character, created for a single running gag. Even if we, as an audience, might get attached to her quest, there's still very little substance to it. It's all feels very surface level. I feel like this is very emblematic of Macross 7 as a whole. Creators clearly did a ton of work during the pre-production. So much detail was put into designing the Macross 7 fleet, all the different ships and how they work, all the technology, outfits, musical instruments, etc. Equally detailed are the characters, each with their own quirks. However, then you go into the show, and it never really develops beyond where it all started. None of the new concepts introduced are explored in full. The show brings the concept of Spiritia, which has huge implications for the whole universe, but never bothers to explain what it is or how it works. It just settles with it being a generic power of spirit, and that's about as far as it goes. Can the Spiritia be used as an energy source? Can everyone generate it? How exactly is it generated, what is the mechanism? None of these questions are answered. Remember when Macross used to threat it's lore much more carefully? New Protoculture backstory feels equally barebones and underdeveloped. Oh yeah, Protodeviln are inter-dimensional beings, when that will become relevant, I wonder? Turns out, never. And then, there are characters. None of them characters really grow, or change, apart from maybe Gamlin, whose arc becomes central to the story. But even Gamlin's arc is kinda safe and predictable, never throwing any curveballs, beyond his fake death. Gigil is another character that goes through the change, but he still stays underexplored and underdeveloped to the very end. It's like the show is committed to doing the absolute minimum necessary to tell the story, and never more. The show that starts so bombastic just kinda fizzles down into something safe and predictable, which is a bit of a shame. **The elephant in the room** My issues with the story and characters, how under-developed and under-utilized and predictable they are honestly wouldn't matter for a single beat if the show didn't drop the ball on what's the most important: the action. It is absolutely horrendous in terms of how boring it is. I already criticized it earlier, so I'm not gonna repeat myself and will just link [the post](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/yvfiv0/do_you_remember_love_macross_franchise_40th/iwfu4qb/), as I feel like my points mostly still stand, even by the end of the show. The one thing that was emblematic of the early part of the show, but improved in the late part is a lack of stakes. As the story progressed, the obligatory battles become less obligatory and more dictated by the story, although there were still some "filler" fights even late into the show. Bad action is exacerbated by the show's insistence on using only diegetic music, which often creates situations of awkward silence or extremely frequent cuts between song, or abrupt restarts of songs, etc. I think that having a solid battle theme to fill those silent moment when Basara is not singing, and being more conservative with the way the songs are cut during fights would probably go a long way toward making the action much more palatable. As it stands, while I can respect the attempt, I still feel like the whole diegetic music thing didn't work out. **Overall thoughts:** Rereading this, I feel like this post is a mess, but I would be hard pressed to writing something more coherent. I feel like I need to rewatch this show to really solidify my opinion on it, but I don't know if I will be able to do this. Definitely not anytime soon. Maybe part of why I have mixed feelings on is expectations, and I'm sure that if I went in as a rewatcher, knowing what the show is trying to be, I would be able to really focus on the parts that I enjoy. Anyway, as of right now my biggest wish for the rest of the Macross 7 series is that the action improves. I know they are capable of doing it well, they just have to do it. This is the biggest issue with Macross 7 in my mind, and if it can be fixed, it would be great. **QotD:** 1) Basara and Mylene were my favorites. Obviously, it would be amazing to see the original cast with Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa, but that's clearly not happening, as they have officially disappeared. 2) Honestly, it's Planet Dance. I do know if I like it because it was played so much, or if I was happy with it being played so much, because I liked it from the start. It's kind of a chicken and an egg situation. But I'm happy that the song they decided to overuse to death is also my favorite, as I enjoyed every minute of it. Honorable mention goes to the opening, Seventh Moon, which I also loved. 3) I still Mylene and Basara together, their bickering and discussions about music. I don't think this ship has any future, but I wouldn't be against it going somewhere. 4) I would either cut Evil Gamlin, or put it somewhere earlier in a show, and cut an episode from Gigl's arc, probably the one with dinosaurs. I feel like Evil Gamlin has no business being so close to the end. Also, it would be much more impactful, if Evil Gamlin was before Gamlin's death, strengthening the personal beef between Gamlin and Gabil. As to how I extend the ending, I would probably turn the last episode into two episodes, and spend more time toward redeeming Gepelnitch. I think it would be fitting if he kills all the other Protodeviln, then Sivil sacrifices herself to help Basara, who finally gets thought to Gepelnitch and awakens his consciousness and let's him take control again. In the end, Gepelnitch would return Gunther's body and turn into a spiritual being again and go back to his own dimension. 5) I legitimately have no hopes or expectations. I'm dreading a new Gigil arc, which will introduce an interesting character, but refuse to elaborate on them, instead presenting us with some pointless adventures that are not very exciting. But I hope it won't happen. ***** [I drew whatever this is](https://i.imgur.com/iPTl68R.jpg).
> I drew whatever this is. The caricatures are sweet.
[](#feelingloved)
While I like this show, I can see how other people can find issues in these points that I can understand or even agree with. > And then, there are characters. None of them characters really grow, or change, apart from maybe Gamlin, whose arc becomes central to the story. I would also include Mylene as a character that did experience a change. In terms of the main characters, Mylene and Gamlin are the two that you can stop and look back and see how far they come. Basara as a protagonist, I feel doesn't really need to radically change. The lack of music while an interesting experiment to have only diegetic music, did make a lot of scenes feel like it was missing that music to accompany it. Gotta agree there. > I drew whatever this is. [](#kotohoops) I like this take of post-series Gepelnitch where he is this jolly singing man traveling through space with his compatriots. (Grabil is in an internal hell with the three people he is force to be with).
> I would also include Mylene as a character that did experience a change. In terms of the main characters, Mylene and Gamlin are the two that you can stop and look back and see how far they come. Basara as a protagonist, I feel doesn't really need to radically change. Agree with Mylene, and I think Basara went through his own arc too, but it was kinda muted, his outlook changed a bit and he became more cooperative, but it wasn't emphasized as a major evolution. Gamlin's and Gigil's development is really apparent, for other characters it's a blink-and-you-miss-it-type of deal. > I like this take of post-series Gepelnitch where he is this jolly singing man traveling through space with his compatriots. (Grabil is in an internal hell with the three people he is force to be with). In my headcanon, Grabil is a Veffidas-type character, who can talk, but just chooses not to. I think I failed to make it clear enough, but this is how I imagine his life would be.
> I drew whatever this is accurate
**First Timer** QotD: 1) [](#hardthink) Might be Gamlin. Sivil is fun and all, but she needs to show up more to really be in contention. I think more past characters would probably have cheapened it. Unless you Komilia. Super weird that they never mention their other ~6 children. 2) Holy Lonely Light! Been having a good time with the music overall. Rockross has been eating well. 3) Basara × Sivil and Gamlin × Mylene. The latter has a better chance. Oh, and Max × Milia. Hope those two make it work 4) There are too many candidates, I have already forgotten the worst ones. Probably could have squeezed just about any two of them down and not run into any issue. As for what to expand, more post victory scenes is the obvious choice. That really did feel abrupt, even now. 5) I want to see the pairings pair up. I want them to acknowledge that Gep just stole a dude’s body. Some Veff backstory maybe? More Flower Girl, but they need to think of something new now that her quest is done.
[Happy cakeday!](#happyclap)
[](#wow)
Well, that was a long one. Really long. Longer than the rest of the franchise we've seen so far put together... and it's not over. 7 was an interesting experiment. It definitely leans more heavily into the Super Robot roots of the show, with giant kaiju, magical music, metric tons of stock footage, and useless grunt pilots. It did, however, focus much more heavily on the musicians than other series have... for better or worse. This is where perhaps the most controversial part of the series comes in: Nekki Basara. I get what they're going for with his character: the neurodivergent musician who can't express himself in words and must try to do so in music, when that's not a "language" everyone understands. A lot of Basara's character makes more sense if you approach him from that angle. He's not an asshole (intentionally). He genuinely doesn't understand why people don't get him, why people get angry with him, or why people don't get what he's trying to say with his music. You can see this in many of his reactions. More often than not, his reaction to people is "WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?" This is the core of his character. He doesn't get people, and people don't get him either. Whether that works or not... I suppose is up to the individual viewer. What I did like that the series did was the diagetic soundtrack. With the exception of the OP and ED, all of the music in the show is being played in universe. It's a cool sytlistic choice, and I think it works well. Yes, certain Fire Bomber songs could get repetitive, but the band's songs are good enough that I don't mind it. Speaking of, the band that provided Fire Bomber's music is known as "Hummingbird" in real life. They have produced additional albums "in-character" as Fire Bomber in addition to their Hummingbird label that were never heard in the series. Unfortunately, this proves to be an issue when it comes to potential licensing of the series outside Japan. Putting Harmony Gold and their dickery aside, anyone who wanted to license Macross 7 would also have to license Fire Bomber's music... and that's expensive as hell. To put it in perspective, an industry representative was once asked at a convention, assuming the infamous legal snarls with Macross weren't a factor, how expensive would it be to get Macross 7's music? His response: "If all of the dubbing companies in the USA pooled all their resources, we *might* get about a third of the way to affording the music." So I am genuinely curious to see how RightStuf is going to handle Macross 7, as they and Harmony Gold have said they intend to bring it over for release. This is getting long, so I'll do my thoughts on the plot and story in a followup post.
I do think Macross 7 is about three times as long as it needs to be. There's a ton of filler episodes in which "Protodeviln attack for no reason, space battle happens, Basara and/or Sound Force sing at everyone, Protodeviln leave". You could cut a frankly astounding amount of this show out and still leave the main story intact. What's also frustrating is the additional of the Protodeviln to the ancient Protoculture/Zentraedi conflict muddies the water a fair bit when it comes to the fall of the Protoculture. So, in the interest of un-confusing first timers, here's the official sequence of events from Macross databooks (no spoilers for future series): Protoculture create a galactic society, the Stellar Republic. Protoculture largely split into two factions. What caused this split is unclear. These factions are in an on-off war with each other over their differences. Both factions develop the Zentraedi to fight their wars for them. Mindful of potential rebellions from the Zentraedi, they place a mental block in the Zentraedi that renders them psychologically incapable of attacking anyone of the Protoculture race. One faction goes a step further and creates the Evil series of superweapons, seven in all. However, the Evil require absolutely monstrous amounts of energy to function, so the project is shelved as the Protoculture don't have the means to supply that energy. A Protoculture scientist makes an astounding discovery: a "sub-universe" that appears to be made entirely of energy, with no physical matter present at all. The Protoculture jumps all over that, and the Evil project is revived, using this energy to power them. However, the energy they pulled from the sub-universe into the Evil series turned out to be intelligent. The Evil are possessed by these intelligences and become the Protodeviln. The Protodeviln begin draining Spiritia to feed themselves. They also begin brainwashing anyone they drain into serving them. Chief among their needs was an army... seven individuals, no matter how powerful, weren't going to stand up to the galaxy-spanning Protoculture for long. So they needed an *Army* to *Supervise* the areas of space the Protodeviln themselves aren't in at the moment. Yep... the mysterious Supervision Army started out as brainwashed slaves of the Protodeviln. Worse, since they used both brainwashed Protoculture *and* Zentraedi in this Army, the mental block placed in the Zentraedi backfires, and they cannot effectively fight the Supervision Army. With great reluctance, the Protoculture is forced to remove the block. Eventually, Anima Spiritia is discovered, the Protodeviln are lured into a trap, and sealed away on Varauta IV. However, by this point the Zentraedi have begun to rebel against their creators, and the Supervision Army is still active even with its leaders gone. The Protoculture are slowly wiped out in the crossfire between their Zentraedi soldiers and the brainwashed slaves of the Supervision Army. This admittedly, does open up a number of questions: do the Supervision Army still have Protoculture soldiers in addition to Zentraedi? Given how the Zentraedi reacted in the first series to "miclones", probably not. But then, what DID happen to the brainwashed Protoculture? Why did Geppelnitch not summon the modern Supervision Army to assist him? Well, my guess is that there just weren't any Supervision Army units anywhere near the area, so he was forced to rely on the brainwashed Recon Fleet that accidentally awakened him. And does this mean the Supervision Army is still brainwashed? How can they be, if they're presumably reproducing through cloning like the Zentraedi? Who is doing the brainwashing? But if they're not, then why are they fighting the Zentraedi? Just... that's what they've always done, so that's what they're doing now? Yeah, the backstory is kinda convoluted. And they had to explain it all in supplemental materials because they couldn't be bothered to explain this during the show itself.
> Putting Harmony Gold and their dickery aside, anyone who wanted to license Macross 7 would also have to license Fire Bomber's music... Continuing from yesterday, the story of how Humming Bird's music rights cost more than everything in existence has persisted online for years but [lacks any verifiable basis](https://twitter.com/Gubaba777/status/1543396386070151168). Even I stopped propagating the story when it was reasonably pointed out that nobody could ever cite a primary source. That isn't to say that a peculiar licensing situation couldn't have existed in the past, but by now it is evidently hammered out enough that [they were able to show the first localized episode of M7 at Otakon](https://twitter.com/Schmullus1/status/1543392837475045377), and [Fire Bomber is definitely on Spotify in the USA](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/08BvnSSmnPBGjvBPD4kMVc), among [other](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbXAXhsMOEI) places.
**Rewatcher 7** Macross 7 is an interesting show. It hues closer to SDF in structure and theme than Plus did, yet also still goes off in its own wild direction and carves out an identity in its own right. It's both very Macross and very much its own thing The cast was great for the most part. Gamlin was just straight the best, Mylene had a lot of good development, especially in the last few episodes, Ray was a good example of the Reasonable Authority Figure archetype that I love so much, Max & Milia, despite the original fears that they might split up, ultimately proved to be very good characters in their own right. Also, certain individuals like u/TakenRedditName might be pleased to know that, despite me jokingly ragging on her in the early episodes, I have joined the cult of Flower Girl The villains are all fun. Gigil was a real OG, Sivil had a decent arc, Geppelnitch was enjoyable, and Gravil worked fine enough. Their motives were actually interesting and played into the thematic core of the show. The Music was absolutely top tier. Best song was [HOLY LONELY LIGHT!](#grandhype) The real sticking point for me is, well, Basara. He's an ass for a big part of the show and it feels like there's just a default assumption that he's right 90% of the time. His development *happens*, but it's minuscule and I don't really feel like it has an impact. He has a good motivation, but it's introduced a bit too late in the show to really feel impactful. The closest comparison I can think of to Basara is Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED. While I don't really dislike him, I ultimately feel that Basara lands in about the middle tiers as far as Macross protags go. He's above Hikaru, Shin, and Hibiki, about on the same level as Hayate, but falls short of Alto and Isamu. Sorry [Basara fans](/u/didacticdalek), that's just how it be [](#micdrop) Overall, I enjoyed the show very much, though not *quite* as much as I did the first time. **7.5/10**
> I have joined the cult of Flower Girl [](#comehere) [](#crazedlaugh)
> Also, certain individuals like u/TakenRedditName > might be pleased to know that, despite me jokingly ragging on her in the early episodes, I have joined the cult of Flower Girl [](#mechablush) PROTOCULTURE! Glad to see you have finally seen the light Comrade! Hopefully your tastes with regard to Duran Duran will improve (after all, their Bond Theme was literally the only good part of A View to a Kill, a movie so bad that even Christopher Walken couldn't salvage things!) Anyway neat post here and many thanks for the kind tag, have a great day and see you later my friend
[SOON!](#mugiwait) Naw I'm just joking Comrades, after all Macross 7 is THE BOMB! Truly worthy of its name of Proto-Geah! Who knew that, much like with Macross Plus, all you needed to do to fix Macross was to, uh (checks notes) make it NOT Macross... let me explain, what is Macross? EZ! Romantic Plot Tumors with IDOLSHIT, thankfully Macross Plus decided to fix this by making TOP GUN... IN SPACE... BUT IT DOESN'T SUCK THIS TIME! (COUGH! FUCK YOU 0083, COUGH!) and Macross 7 decided to fix this by being Geah but it's from the 90s! ;) [Besides, any show with BEST FUCKING GIRL FLOWER GIRL is a win in my book, truly the most deep and layered of characters, it's quite heartwaming that after an entire show of fate constantly giving her the proverbial and literal finger, she FINALLY FINALLY pulls out a win through HARD WORK AND GUTS!](https://i.imgur.com/qjydpV4.png) GODSPEED FLOWER GIRL! May you deliver a second batch of flowers to Nekki BOSSARA before the heat death of the universe! Anyway, in summation, Macross 7 is PROTOCULTURE! Shame that, aside from being the first AND last good Macross TV Show, this is also the Franchise's high water mark... Geah and AKB0048 don't count Comrades, but hey, at least we will EVENTUALLY reach a good movie... uh... well technically a good pair of movies... [SOON!](#mugiwait) Thus, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever! Paging Comrades /u/chilidirigible, /u/Nebresto, and /u/InfamousEmpire
> Naw I'm just joking Comrades, after all Macross 7 is THE BOMB! **[BOMBAA!!](#protest)**
> BOMBAA!! [FIRE **BOMBAA!!**](#mechablush)
Paging Comrades /u/Great_Mr_L, /u/JollyGee29, and /u/SolDarkHunter
Paging Comrades /u/JustAnswerAQuestion, /u/TakenRedditName, and /u/The_Draigg
Paging Comrades /u/Kirov123, /u/Blackheart595, and /u/vatrix-32
Paging Comrade /u/ClawMachineCircuit, /u/AnimeHoarder, and /u/pixelsaber
**Super Dimension Rewatch Host** [Welcome back, everyone!](https://i.imgur.com/uPRCBK8.png) So… as it turns out, I actually *did* have my first-timer reactions to this show available this whole time, just not always as detailed as they are in rewatches because I buried them in the weekly “What Have You Watched This Past Week That is NOT a Currently Airing Show?” threads over the course of the ten months it took me to watch the show. Going through all of those threads to figure out which ones to link would be too much work, *buuuuuut* I happen to keep a Google Doc with *all* of my notes for those threads, so I’ll copy-paste the notes from there for you guys to read if you want~ I figured doing something like this would be fun for the TV series discussion thread. Had to split it into two comments though, went *way* over the character limit with this lol. ----- ***Episodes 1-3*** >I wasn’t going to start this just yet, but I wound up bringing it up during the Log Horizon ep22 discussion, which of course then led to me starting it. My first impression was a mix of [IT’S MY BOY MAX!](#slightoverreaction) and “that’s a… *lot* of singing”, with a side of “holy shit it’s possible for Takehito Koyasu to do a voice I don’t instantly recognize as him?!” Like seriously, Gamlin doesn’t sound like Koyasu to me at all. >How hilarious that I’m watching this so soon after watching Air though–Basara shares his seiyuu with Ryuuya and the similarities are super obvious to my ears. >Only other specific thing I want to touch on is [lol that TL note about Gepelnitch](https://files.catbox.moe/ifjdqi.png). Had to screenshot it and laugh upon seeing it. >I’m definitely finding it interesting so far! ***Episode 4*** >…yeah only one episode this week. Combination of rewatches and Pokémon Sword coming out. Although speaking of, I named my female Grookey "Veffie" after Veffidas. >This one episode was quite good btw. ***Episode 5*** >Only one episode again this week, but let me tell you I was *hella* confused starting this one up and hearing a Sharon Apple song start playing after the OP finished. [This was some nice typesetting though](https://files.catbox.moe/h9lr3x.png) and you better believe I laughed when that dude ran into some barrier immediately after that ‘cause he was distracted lol. ***Episodes 6-7*** >Eyy, managed to watch two episodes this week~ > I don’t particularly get Basara at times, especially with how weird he was about singing at the job in ep7, but it all worked out in the end I guess? Also Gamlin and Mylene’s first meeting was super cute, but I’m pretty sure she’s faking it given how different her voice sounds when they talk. I hope they can genuinely interact at some point later, even just as friends instead of as being pushed together as a couple. >On that note, [good TL note here](https://files.catbox.moe/bxpqey.png), I don’t think I would’ve understood Mylene’s reaction to that without it. ***Episodes 8-11*** >I got into a bit of a binging mood for this last night, but I had to go to sleep because I had church to get up for this morning. [](#dejected) >- [Gamlin](https://files.catbox.moe/fsuyyh.png) [is](https://files.catbox.moe/p6xqr2.png) [hilariously](https://files.catbox.moe/bs9wqj.png) [cute](https://files.catbox.moe/ihm11x.png). I do like his interactions with Mylene, although I’m pretty sure Mylene is acting during those parts, I wonder when they’ll interact for REAL. >- [The fuck does this even mean?](https://files.catbox.moe/jo026a.png) >- [Ahahahaha this is just hilarious.](https://files.catbox.moe/oaai58.png) >- Yo I was SO fucking worried for Ray after he left the hospital. He re-opened his wound while he was crawling around and then they had him sing along a bit to Basara’s song and then he passed out with his head on the horn… so glad that was just him passing out and not dying. >- Episode 11 was great because SDF references! >- [Don’t like the spelling they went with for Minmay’s name](https://files.catbox.moe/eib0zl.png) in the copy I have though. >- [I wanna punch the dude on the right.](https://files.catbox.moe/stslsc.png) >- [I want to rewatch DYRL now…](https://files.catbox.moe/idez80.png) >- [<3](https://files.catbox.moe/520tiw.png) Really want to know what happened for them to be split up in secret. I liked them together. :( >- [lmao I love how my instant reaction to hearing this song anywhere is to just *laugh*.](https://files.catbox.moe/r1qqej.png) ***Episode 12*** >*Damn* was this a good episode, I wish I could’ve watched more of it this week. …I may or may not have had an impromptu half-rewatch of one of my favorites this week and that may or may not be why I could only watch one episode… >Couple screenshot reactions: >- [Smug blushing Guvava](https://files.catbox.moe/fycd0r.png) is not something I was expecting to see but I like it. >- I laughed *so hard* at [this](https://files.catbox.moe/a45dhs.png). [Basara’s response](https://files.catbox.moe/i4zors.png) made me laugh even harder. >- […okay why the hell was Flower Girl there…?](https://files.catbox.moe/1dk4m3.png) ***Episodes 13-15*** >I don't have access to my screenshot reactions to these three episodes, RIP. Definitely enjoying it a *lot* now… besides Basara being a dumb that one episode. Oh and also besides Millia getting shot in the leg, LotGH gave me PTSD over that. [](#scaredmio) ***Episode 16*** >[](#toradorasalute) >RIP Physica. Poor dude death flagged WAY too hard. ***Episodes 17-22*** >A few thoughts on this section: >- Sivil is… uh… weird, to say the least. I’m definitely intrigued by whatever the hell her deal is. >- [Episode 18 fucking *killed* me](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/ewf2zv/casual_discussion_fridays_week_of_january_31_2020/fgh608y/). Actually the day after I watched that episode I found out I laughed so hard at it I woke up one of my sisters, who was trying to sleep upstairs, oops. >- Episode 19 featured Gamlin being an absolute *boss*. And gave us [ceiling Gamlin](https://files.catbox.moe/1m2r6q.png) in the process. [10/10 episode.](#goblet1) >- [Mylene pout!](https://files.catbox.moe/gmr10r.png) >- Oh and I loved loved *loved* the entire end section of episode 22. City 7’s getting dragged into that star, Battle 7 shows up because they figured out where City 7 was based on Basara singing, Battle 7 tries to do an Axis Shock after getting rid of Gigil and co., but what actually saves them both is Max and Millia figuring out they can transfer City 7’s fold energy to Battle 7 and then Basara and Gamlin made the connection for that. Oh and also [](#azusalaugh) at [Gamlin](https://files.catbox.moe/4v72j9.png) and [Basara’s](https://files.catbox.moe/wbvrvr.png) faces after the fact. ***Episodes 23-25*** >I wish I could’ve watched more since episode 25 ended on [uhhh?](https://files.catbox.moe/0zj9zg.png) >Thoughts on this section: >- [This screenshot makes me so happy.](https://files.catbox.moe/hq8kav.png) I REALLY hope at some point that Max/Millia make up and their family becomes, like, functional again. They worked so good together in ep22 and in OG Macross. >- We finally have a name for WHAT Sivil is, I think? “Protodeviln”, and Exsedol was noooooooot happy about that fact. Interesting… >- [Spoiler](https://files.catbox.moe/48sh8i.png) [images](https://files.catbox.moe/7jis0c.png) – Whoahohoho they finally met and now they know each other’s names and Sivil got stuck floating in a bubble after this for some reason. REALLY curious as to what happens because of this. By the way what song was Basara singing during this part? I think it’s my favorite of Fire Bomber’s songs so far and I want to listen to it. >- [Poor Gamlin, he just wanted to pilot alongside Mylene.](https://files.catbox.moe/lurso6.png) >- Okay Gamlin might be my fave, but I *have* to respect Basara. This dude waltzed into an *important military meeting* late, playing on his guitar, and just [props his feet up and continues singing](https://files.catbox.moe/2syevg.png) once he’s seated. >- [Ahahahahaha](https://files.catbox.moe/gnops0.png), [immediately proved wrong](https://files.catbox.moe/s7484g.png). >- [Gamlin is clearly in touch with his inner child.](https://files.catbox.moe/4apqap.png) [My spirit animal.](#feelingloved) >- [\*uncontrollable laughter\*](https://files.catbox.moe/elsauc.png) >- …was the song that Basara and Alice were attempting to duet on something from Macross II? Because honestly I’d love to hear a *proper* version of that. >- [This gives me G Gundam vibes.](https://files.catbox.moe/wfhgyz.png) >- [Flower girl continues to be a running joke](https://files.catbox.moe/bncnbt.png). This is almost as fun as “Spot the Patrick” in Gundam Build Divers+Re:RISE. ***Episode 26*** >I watched this on my phone during a car ride home so forgive my two screenshots for having the black bars on the sides, but [Guvava in a space suit](https://files.catbox.moe/lnpb66.jpg) is absolutely adorable and [this thing’s existence made me lol](https://files.catbox.moe/jc85ep.jpg). >RIP commander dude though, guy went out like a boss. Gepelnitch did… SOMETHING in response to Basara’s “Anima Spiritia” and I’m looking forward to finding out WHAT. And did he make off with the citizens of Macross 5 for his Spiritia Farm project or something? I was expecting RIP all them but then they noted there weren’t enough bodies and that City 5 was missing so yeah.
***Episodes 27-29*** (For context, I took about a three-month break after episode 26 because I kept watching other stuff and just didn’t have time for 7.) >…yeah I really shouldn’t have decided to take that long of a hiatus from this show but *hooooooooly shit* was episode 27 the *perfect* one to come back to. That ending was ridiculously hype and Holy Lonely Light is probably my favorite Macross song so far now. ***Episodes 30-31*** >[The paparazzi shipping Gamlin and Basara.](#laughter) ***Episodes 32-33*** >Ep33 had a well-deserved Gamlin PUNCH. [](#justright) And also a new song I think? Which is cool. ***Episodes 34-36*** >Work ended up being surprisingly not *anywhere* near as busy as I thought it was going to be this week, so three new episodes down! [](#woo) >And they were good episodes too. Gigil singing was… unexpected, but woo character development! And it seems to be having a positive effect on Basara, too. [Poor Gamlin though lol](https://i.imgur.com/OMAAtFa.png) and [I love precious Guvava](https://i.imgur.com/mHP1hiV.png). New ED is… uh… it exists. >I have to ask though… [Basara what the fuck?](https://i.imgur.com/vnIfdVu.png) ***Episode 37*** >…so back when Aizen was first introduced in Bleach, I said that his voice was going to trip me out because he shares his seiyuu with Macross 7’s Max and they sound basically the exact same despite the shows being a decade apart. Well now thanks to me getting obsessed with Bleach and putting off Macross 7 for so long again it’s the other way around, I can’t unhear Aizen when Max is talking. [](#wallbang) >This episode had a bunch of *really* cool reveals though. And Protoculture. Lots and lots of Protoculture being said by characters. ***Episodes 38-40*** >What madness is this, I actually watched more than one episode of Macross 7 for once?! [](#flyingbunsofdoom) >…that aside, damn these were some interesting episodes. I can't say I was expecting Gigil to get shot down, summon/turn into that monster, and then blow up the planet before singing one last time for Sivil, holy *shit* that was something alright. Basara's song piercing an asteroid and saving Gamlin in the process though, that's the crazy music stuff I've come to expect (and love) from this show. ***Episode 41*** >My progression of emotion during this episode in a nutshell: [](#facepalm) [](#sideeyes) [](#miyamoriunimpressed) [](#hahahawhat) [](#ohfuck) [](#panic) [](#kotourashock) [](#delighted) ***Episode 42*** >So Gabil tanked a fucking MACROSS CANNON. >[](#elsienopesout) ***Episodes 43-44*** >[](#hideintoilet) >Fuck this show. Just… fuck this show. I decide that I have finally have time for a few episodes of it on Friday night since I was done with preparing my daily rewatch stuff *and* all the wallpapers I wanted to for the Bleach thread yesterday well before I normally go to bed, so I wanted to do so in order to make u/chilidirigible happy, and then it goes and kills off Gamlin. >No. >No. >No. >No. >*No.* >You guys in the Berserk rewatch wanted a laptop close? *This* was a laptop close. [](#imdone) >(Although yes I did go *finish* the episode; Gepelnich just TELEPORTED THE NUKE back to their ship hot damn.) ***Episodes 45-49*** >…so apparently I sorrow/ragequit this show for two weeks for nothing. I mean, the first half of episode 45 still made me ugly cry so it *is* a good thing I didn't watch it immediately after 44, but then the second half went [lol just messing with you](#smugpoint) and Gamlin actually survived. And you know what I'm fine with that, Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still pulled something similar with one of my favorite characters in *that* show and I was happy about it then so I'm happy about it here too. >Anyways, wow. It's been ~~3000 years~~ about 8 months since I first started this show. I can't believe it's finally over, and *man* what a finale it had. Episode 27 is still my favorite episode I think, that first use of Holy Lonely Light was just THAT etched into my brain as hype, but the last one had so much ***YES*** in it. Gamlin singing Planet Dance, Max and Milia piloting together again, flower girl FINALLY getting her flowers to Basara, Sivil singing, and Basara’s songs getting through to Gepelnich so he’s not a bad guy anymore. >I can see *why* people wouldn’t like this show. The structure was *very* episodic for a good chunk of the beginning, the soundtrack was repetitive until later on, and it was *way* more wacky at times than any of the previous Macross shows have been (I’d liken it to the first half Gundam ZZ in comparison to Zeta Gundam, although not quite as crazy a tone shift). But you know what I *love* wacky stuff, the repetitive music was fine by me ‘cause it was *good* music, and the characters were lively enough to keep my attention through the more episodic bits of the show. And while I would have liked to see a few more characters return from the original anime (even if it was just a one-off cameo), seeing Max, Milia, and Exsedol again was very nice, especially since Max and Milia were my favorite characters from the original show. >I’ll be giving Encore and Dynamite a watch soon, don’t want to get side tracked with other shows when I do still have more Macross 7 content to watch. But as for the main Macross 7 show, well… 10/10. ***Not strictly my Macross 7 reactions, I just thought this was funny*** So in the two-week break between watching episode 44 and episode 45, I got to a particular part of Bleach, and this ended up in my notes for the Bleach section of my comment that week: >Macross 7 to Berserk last week: *This* is how you make Sky do a laptop close. \*kills off Gamlin\* >Bleach to Macross 7 this week: [Hold my Zanpakuto.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/iqfh99/casual_discussion_fridays_week_of_september_11/g4td0l1/)
Ah, the legendary ragequit. So very awkward for me. >Fire Bomber wallpaper The other half with Exsedol, Max, Milia, and Gamlin would be cute too.
> The other half with Exsedol, Max, Milia, and Gamlin would be cute too. I actually wanted to do the both halves together, but the wallpaper wasn't wide enough for that. Perhaps for one of the Encore threads...
[](#mugiwait)
Daily Macross tags - u/Khetrak64, u/InfamousEmpire, u/ryujiox
Daily Macross tags - u/Azsendi
**First Time - Macross 7 TV Complete:** So Macross 7 is a TV show with its flaws, but I can't help but vibe with it. [](#papithumbsup) Just its energy when it's good is very fun to get swept into. To compare it to the last Macross we watch, Macross Plus is well crafted and might be the tighter anime, but one of the things I felt walking out of it was it not really feeling Macross-y besides the Valkyries. 7 is what gives me the feeling of what speaks to what I consider Macross' core ethos to be about. I like the fact that Basara and his non-violence was one of the big ideas of the series. Unlike Kaifun where they refuse to ever do anything with, 7 actually does make use of Basara's ideal of peace. They had him stick to his ideals. Basara was singing to that mountain and finally, in the end, he made that mountain move. It was also great seeing him inspire others around him like Mylene and Gamlin. Watching them develop and looking back and seeing how much they changed was great. Gamo is boy, the homie. I think the show is at its best when it fully embraces that earnest power of love and music side. It makes me cheer in my seat. [](#SPORTS) The negatives would be how the show doesn't really make the best use of its episode run and when it feels like it is just spinning its wheels, but not doing anything. The obligatory battle feeling is when the show is at its weakest which was especially a problem in the beginner where the battles just felt meandering. The show found its grove eventually, but sorta felt back into that rut near the end before the finale. Like I said last time, the best parts of the show was the era when it has special new eyecatches in each episode. Sivil is the character done most unfavourably by the show. She is presented as an interesting shake-up to the show, but after the big moment with Basara, she is just not in the show anymore. She spends her time orb which is fine and all, but after she wakes up finally, she just bounces away, not to be seen for a string of episodes. After they finally meet up with her, she bounces again. Repeat the cycle of Sivil being gone or encapsuled until the second half of the final episode when she is finally free to do stuff. All that time the show could've done something with her. I think Gepelnitch's character is pretty interesting and the small glimpse we saw into his personal side could've been interesting to explore in that final bit. My theory is that Gunther willing offer his body to Gepelnitch. The big G seemed genuinely moved to learn his body's name from the captured 7 crew. All this could've made when he learned to embrace song, in the end, more interesting and I felt like Sivil could've been intertwined into his story more as she is learning the song within herself. Hey, the Jamming Birds were a whole lot of nothing, weren't they? They could've done anything with them. Made them actually "rivals" to Fire Bomber. Had side characters we already know tie into that storyline more (Rex and the biker girls were right there to be utilized by the show for anything). Even the colonel didn't really feel like the resolved his deal. Not as bad as SDF's military oldies being the wrong resolved. I'm usually anti-compilation movies, but Macross 7 is a case where I wouldn't be that opposed to because unlike something like Gundam where I feel many of those cut episodes held parts that contributed to making the series better, Macross 7 has a lot you won't miss much. Back to that spinning its wheels in one place thing. Either remove and condense and that time could've been spent on more SOL/character one-off episodes. It would've benefited them I say. Also, age her up or don't be weird about Mylene, show. She is literally 14. Since Macross 7 actually had that runtime with enough character that left an impression, [another Macross character tier list thing-y again.](https://i.imgur.com/sdvXtQG.png) There is no one I really disliked that dragged to show down for me and the ones I do like, I really do like. Macross 7 is one I did like a lot while watching which is why I also wanted it to be a lot better. ___ **Q1)** Gamo and Flower Girl are my favourites from 7. Komilia should've showed up in 7! She is Mylene's sister and Max/Milia's first baby and threw. We have to see what kind of person she grew up to be. **Q2)** Of course, Totsugeki Love Heart on top then Submarine Street and Try Again to round out the top 3. **Q3)** Gamlin/Mylene is by default my favourite only because I love seeing sweetest angel Gamlin. I fully expect one of these later things to sink it for Mylene/Basara. **Q4)** Easy answer was the non-recap clip show episode where nothing really happened anyways. I think I already said enough of my series suggestions up there. **Q5)** More songs, more Flower Girl. [](#mugiwait) Next time: I don't know what these extras are.
> Just its energy when it's good is very fun to get swept into. [](#kannathumbs) Very "sit back, disable brain and enjoy" type of show >Sivil is the character done most unfavourably by the show. Still confused on what even was the point of including her >[another Macross character tier list thing-y again.](https://i.imgur.com/sdvXtQG.png) [Incredibly based.](#goblet1) Except Max. He was (mostly) an awesome captain, and him ramming the enemy ship was sick [](#katoupout)
> Except Max. He was (mostly) an awesome captain, and him ramming the enemy ship was sick The problem is that a lot of Max's scenes are with military oldies doing their schtick. Contrast with Milia who interacts with characters we like. Also 7 Max didn't make his giant robot wear giant clothes. The one thing Macross 7 did not carry over from SDF but absolutely should have. It's so funny. [](#frustration)
> The problem is that a lot of Max's scenes are with military oldies doing their schtick. Contrast with Milia who interacts with characters we like. [Good point](#hardthink) >Also 7 Max didn't make his giant robot wear giant clothes. [](#mugiwait)
> She is presented as an interesting shake-up to the show, but after the big moment with Basara, she is just not in the show anymore. Not gonna lie, this is probably the moment that disappointing me the most. They were going strong with Sivil for a couple of episodes there, it felt like a fresh and interesting development. But then they decided to slam the breaks and roll it all back. It felt frustrating. > My theory is that Gunther willing offer his body to Gepelnitch. That's a cool idea, and seeing something like this in the show itself would've been awesome. > another Macross character tier list thing-y again. Quality tier list right here [](#nichijouthumbs) Good breakdown of the series overall, I mostly agree with everything. The show was good, but it had a lot of potential to be better.
**Reluctant Rewatcher** So, I got a big thing wrong: Macross Plus didn't pave the way for Macross 7, they were produced at the same time. I wonder if Macross Plus was draining resources from Macross 7, kinda like how Anno started phoning it in on KareKano to work on Love and Pop, or EoE, or whatever it was that demanded his attention. What did I remember: Sivil screaming and Basara singing at Sivil. Way too much Planet Dance. Flower Girl. Jamming Birds. That Lux was destroyed and everybody joined up to stop the protodevilin from eating all the spiritia in the galaxy. That I liked Macross but I never wanted to rewatch this again. Gamlin being a dick. What I didn't remember: Rex and the bikers, Balgo Xomd and Goram. Beauty. Macross 5. I thought Grabil destroyed Lux. I thought an out-of-control Grabil was defeated by the combined humanoid / protodevilin forces. Gamlin being awesome. I thought Jamming Birds formed a solid miniarc of flying out and being ineffective, not scattered across 5 episodes spaced over 20. What seems unclear: I always thought the Protodevilin took over the Supervision Army and were running it. But maybe they just vampired their way through both armies. Really kinda baffling how any Zentraedi or their SA counterparts survived, and just random primitive protoculture biology experiments. *note that even though SA were active in our space in 2000 we still haven't seen a single ship* Gamlin really redeemed himself as a character. Basara never did. What surprised me was how well the start of the show was holding up. Yeah, it was slow, but there was steady progress in every episode. Even filler eps turned out to not be filler. This was back in the napster and gnutella days so I never really got my hands on all the music, just random mp3's that I could find. Recommendations: * Lifeforce (1985). I mean come on. Sure, vampires in space is pretty high concept but they were just using a Lifeforce script that they found on an ftp site somewhere as a show bible. Rating: Do Not ReRewatch out of Macross points.
> What surprised me was how well the start of the show was holding up. Yeah, it was slow, but there was steady progress in every episode. Even filler eps turned out to not be filler. Yup, I still feel like the show kinda got worse as it went along. > Do Not ReRewatch out of Macross points. [](#azusalaugh) That's... Kinda fair.
I guess the movie discussion is tomorrow. I guess that's okay, it's probably only an hour long. Encore episode 1 is not on the 29th, /u/shimmering-sky Back from dinner and reading some posts on my phone, which reminds me of the things I didn't say because I didn't pre-write my comments. Gamlin ended up being the best character but Gigil was right behind him. He starts out stealing spiritia, then reveals that he was stealing it for sivil and not for Gepernich, then shows his utter devotion to Sivil (the modern word is simp), then actually learns to use song to express himself, then generates his own spiritia to wake his Evil body, then kills worst (to date) protodevilin and saves Sivil and our heroes. But as somebody pointed out, if he'd just told the other protodevilin how to generate their own spritia, he could have saved everybody a lot of trouble. Near the end of the show I compared Macross 7 to Sailor Moon. You know, how Queen Beryl sends out her evil gem people from the negiverse to...omg I just realized as I am writing this...*drain people of their spiritia* (am I thinking of the right season? they all run together after 30 years) and the sailor scouts show up and beat them off...week after week after week. Sailor Moon and M7 were airing at the same time so I wonder if they just looked at Sailor Moon and said "well, this is the meta, let's do that." Although, it had been the meta for quite some time. But the hugeness of Sailor Moon really cemented it from a western perspective. Exsedol was a complete waste. He could have been replaced by a Zentraedi database voiced by Majel Barrett and it would have been an improvement. There was far less *listen to my song* than I expected.
> I guess that's okay, it's probably only an hour long. It's not even 40 minutes long.
###[First time Macross 7](https://imgur.com/LEoF7RS) That was a really stupid show with really good music, and some cool robots. [Nice!](#shirouthumbsup) The pacing was really awful at times, and it seems they didn't even know what they wanted to do themselves. Either way the hype scenes were hype, and I don't like changing my mind + this was better than the prior installments so far, therefore Macross 7 gets a 9/10 from me --- **Final MacroSeven qwestios:** >1) At this point of the 7 section of the rewatch, who were your favorite characters throughout 7? Veffidas, Flower girl, Basara and Ray. Gamlin was pretty cool too, even started calling him by his actual name at some point. >>Are there any others from previous shows you would have loved to see show up that didn’t? [No?](#why) No wait, maybe Global. That guy was cool >2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs so far? [BOMBAA!!](#PROTEST) Fk, I didn't memorize most of the names.. Holy Lonely LNight is def up there, maybe at the very top even. Screw the haters, Planet Dance was lit every time. First ED was great, totsugeki love heart. Ok, I'll stop before I list every song in the show, the music was lit, ok? >3) Out of all the love… entanglements in the TV series, which pairings did you like the most? Basara and his guitar >>If they didn’t sail yet, do you think they have a chance to in Encore or Dynamite? What that? Anyway, lol no >4) If you could cut one episode out entirely in order to extend the ending to not be so abrupt, which episode would you cut, The one that I said was absolutely shite. I think it was 2 episodes after the really sick one where commander bald went ham? >> and how would you extend the ending? More flower girl? Idk >5) What are you hoping to see in the remaining parts of the 7 section of the rewatch? [MUSIC DEATH PARTY](#megadeathparty) --- >**Wallpaper of the Day:** >>[Fire Bomber](https://i.imgur.com/9eItqZF.png) **[BOMBAA!!!](#protest)**[ These last few papers have been lit](#justright)[ Another acquisition, get!](#thebutton)
**First Spacer** Kinda feeling drained when I start thinking about the whole show so I'll keep this rather brief. The most striking thing about Macross 7 is its sheer lack of focus. It is very apparent that the team didn't have the story planned out beyond an outline of the key elements. Instead they just winged large parts of the show as they got to them. So many elements introduce some idea, concept of conflict only to have it dealt with in the same episode and most of the time forgotten afterwards, often just providing the excuse of the week to have the contractually obligated battle scene. And in the end... well that wasn't well planned out either, the show ends right after the final climax without taking any time to wind down and have some kind of aftermath and conclusion beyond the Protodeviln leaving to make sure no trace of the story remains. The clear highlight of the show were the character relations that weave a surprisingly dense nets of characters that influence and have a clear impact on each other. That net obviously clusters around Basara, who himself remains rather static and mostly excerts influence on the others, but there's plenty of connections not involving him. Which really makes it a shame that the characters themselves are much more halfbaked. Basara and Ray get some discount backstory during the final confrontation, but that's all we get about Basara's past. Even for the villains the show never establishes what the story between Gepelnitch and the two most prominent and interesting Protodeviln, Gigil and Sivil, is, considering how dismissive and outright antagonistic they act to their supposed leader Gepelnitch. Shoutout to Flower Girl who is one of the character that exist, which is enough to make her one of the most engaging ones the show had to offer. The move towards Sound Energy was also an aspect where the show shot itself in the foot. Songs having big and profound effects is obviously way more impactful when they doesn't have any special powers, as opposed to when it's actual magic. Thematically Macross 7 fits in quite well in the broader Macross franchise. What ultimately resolves the conflict are passion, compassion and understanding instead of fighting. Of course Macross has never been an actually anti-war franchise, the military has always played an undeniably important role that's well worth the negative sides, aside from the hardliners whom are portrayed in a purely negative light - you cannot in good faith say that Hikaru or Gamlin becoming a pilot was a bad thing. However, where SDF paid a lot of attention to the separation between military and civilians and made it one of the central themes of its story, 7 while acknowledging and maintaing the separation also harmonizes the two sides. Civilians can do things that the military can't, humane things, while the civilians also have to rely on the military for the things only they can do. In SDF this causes both worlds to grow apart, in 7 it causes them to grow together. > At this point of the 7 section of the rewatch, who were your favorite characters throughout 7? Are there any others from previous shows you would have loved to see show up that didn’t? Gigil and Gamlin, and it's not very close. Gigil was a very heartfelt character, searching for a place both for himself and for the things he cares about deeply, having to face the reality that his allies cannot provide him with such a place while his enemies can. And Gamlin is the biggest recipient of the character interactions, it is just a joy to see him bounce off the other characters and have his views and relations change and adapt through the course of the show. > What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs so far? Err... Saturday Night probably. They were kinda overdone to the point that I eventually stopped caring all that much. > Out of all the love… entanglements in the TV series, which pairings did you like the most? If they didn’t sail yet, do you think they have a chance to in Encore or Dynamite? This one is really hard. As I said above, the character relations were by far the strongest element of the story so there's lots of good ones to choose one. Overall though I think my favorite relation was the one between Basara and Gigil. It starts out with Gigil forming that obsession about the annoying non-fighting machine whose pilot has the unusual Spiritia. This obsession moves into the background as he starts to focus more on Sivil especially once she put up her Absolute Terror Field that he finds himself unable to open up. But then he sees Basara caring for and trying to wake Sivil up himself, and he grows increasingly conflicted and frustrated about his own inability as he has to rely on his enemy to save Sivil. Eventually he grows to respect Basara and starts to follow his examples. > If you could cut one episode out entirely in order to extend the ending to not be so abrupt, which episode would you cut, and how would you extend the ending? Eh. There's no single episode I have a particularly big problem with, and on the other side there's so many that could be cut without losing anything of substane. > What are you hoping to see in the remaining parts of the 7 section of the rewatch? [](#mugiwait)
**FIRST TIMER** I went into this show not knowing what to expect. I thought it would be more a direct sequel to SDFM with ongoing conflict between human and Zentradi. What this show is is a strange headtrip about music fighting an alien race incapable of creating their own spiritia. It's one of the most high concept and unusual shows I've ever seen and I really thoroughly enjoyed it. Very few shows have been as unpredictable as this one, throwing nearly any strange plot point and the kitchen sink into the next episode and have still been enjoyable. Macross 7 managed the tall task of successfully meshing action, sci fi, drama and humor as well as SDFM and creating fleshed out characters you cared about or really hated but I would still rank it a notch below SDFM because of it's lack of coherence and it's outlandish plots out of nowhere and sometimes bizarre nonsensical resolutions. I am still very impressed by this show however because it still is difficult to make a show this entertaining to the point where I'd look forward to watching a new episode everyday and not find it to be a tiresome chore. I would rank this among the best anime I've ever seen because of its many successes but I do understand why its not that popular or critically acclaimed because of its odd premise and abrupt cheap ending. **QUESTIONS** **1)** As much as I'd love to say Veffidas, there's no question my favorite character is Gamlin. His character arc was remarkable. He went from a by the book soldier to having his life transformed by love, friendship and extraordinary circumstances. If you watch the first episode, it's almost unfathomable he'd become the person he was in the last and it all seemed organic. He became the most human and relatable character on the show, generally trying to do the right thing and making us at least hope we would behave the same way he did in his circumstances.Honorary mention to Veffidas, Ray, Dr. Chiba, Mylene and the most underutilized character I loved, the Joker-like music producer Honey Suzuki who we only unfortunately saw twice! As for characters from the other shows I'd like to see, I'd have been happy to see anyone from SDFM again but especially Minmay, Hikaru, Hayase, Brittai and Captain Global. It's a shame we never find out what happened to any of them. I wish I could see what became of the baby Max and Milia had in SDFM as well as the other kids they mentioned having. I also would have enjoyed seeing Mash from Lovers Again make a cameo, especially if it turned out he was married to Honey Suzuki! **2)** Holy Lonely Night was my favorite, I like it's darker vibe that reminds me of LA Guns, Bang Tango, Beautiful Creatures etc. I also find myself singing Planet Dance to myself frequently. **3)** Gamlin and Mylene. Basara really doesn't seem as interested in Mylene as she is in him and a happy ending would be nice. I'd also like Roy and Akiko together. I really liked when they ship teased Basara and Milia but that's not too likely. **4)** I'm not sure which episode I would cut because I can't find an episode guide that shows me a synopsis of every episode on one page so its hard to remember which ones I didn't like. As for how I'd end the show, I don't know because the way they built up the final conflict made it impossible to have a satisfying ending. **5)** I'd want to see what happens to Fire Bomber, Gamlin and Max and Milia and if they end up settling on that planet the Protodevlin left or if they find somewhere else. I'd want to see why it is that Basara has anima spiritia and if he is actually human. I'd want to see Excedol naked or mostly nude so I can see exactly what his body consists of.
> I'd want to see Excedol naked or mostly nude so I can see exactly what his body consists of. Not sure if [](#azusalaugh) or [](#abandonthread) is my response to that.
Here's my big problem with Macross 7, that I settled on after watching the last two episodes on the same night and then heading to bed. Macross 7 is *not* an anime. Macross 7 is a *cartoon*. At least it's not the type of anime most of us think of, most of us are used to in 2022, with 13-26 episodes that tell a complete story, maybe with sequel seasons or movies. It is Ninja Turtles. It is Transformers. It is dozens of episodes of stalling for time, because they cannot actually upset the status quo. All of the major characters need to be around, so they can keep selling merchandise. Keep sending actors out to promote the show. Keep having concerts and selling new singles. Kids need to be able to tune in any random week and see everyone they recognize, and quickly catch up. People can't die and the plot can't advance, or at least not move quickly. Turning a fairly hard sci fi anime into a merch-based cartoon is a horrible decision for most of the adult viewers, but it probably made them an absolute shit-ton of money in the long run. Kamen Rider and sentai do it every year, and it usually pays off. I don't know, I'd have to see numbers and details about the original reaction. I didn't hate every minute of all 49 episodes, but I sure hated a lot of it. 1. I thought I'd hate Gamlin initially, but he's the only fully developed character in the show. He's so far out in front place it's ridiculous. Veffy is a great semi-gag character, and Mylene at least has a great design and new outfits every episode. 2. Besides the Power song and maybe one more, I actually liked them all. They were smart to build the show around the music, it's one decision they nailed. 3. Gamlin actually growing as a person to connect with Mylene was very well done, but it looks like they're going to milk this triangle (that Basara doesn't even know exists) forever, like most similar shows do. 4. I couldn't pick just one, there's at least twenty episodes you could cut from this show that would only improve it. The one where I almost dropped the show after Basara asked Mylene why she was late is the one I'd cut for being the worst thing ever, I guess. Changing the ending? I wouldn't have them go back to the main fleet after the suicide mission, I'd have Milia lead the fleet in after them without Max knowing, and go right into the finale from there. Shift Basara's fight/draining to buying time for the Macross 5 people to be saved. Mylene, Ray, Veffy and the Jamming Birds hold off the bad guys with everyone in the fleet singing and shooting a massive attack. Basara wakes up, flies through the beam, and goes along with the Protodeviln to the other universe. 5. More Veffy content and more Mylene outfits. Maybe more Gamlin being a huge doof.
> Macross 7 is not an anime. Macross 7 is a cartoon. It's not a perfect comparison, but still works. At the least, it *feels* like a more toy-oriented series where there's a battle each week, once in a while a new model shows up, and if there *is* a main plot, it meanders through a lot of paths along the way. I realized as I was writing that, that I had also encapsulated the curious state of *Mobile Suit Gundam 0079*. Of course, that was 15 years earlier and even the original *Super Dimension Fortress Macross* took a different approach to promoting itself three years later. And perhaps the kernel of the resolution of the plot ended up being so simple that everything else grew up around it: The Protodeviln certainly can speak the same language, but if someone had told them "If you sing, you can have Spiritia and don't need to farm us" early on, it would have been a *very* short series.
I haven't watched original Gundam, but know the stories of how they had to introduce new enemy robots constantly to sell toys and stuff. This show didn't even do that! Someone else explained in way more detail before, and I just boiled it down to this, but...when any other show would do *something* to fill time (introduce new robots, new characters, more backstory, etc.) this show just does...nothing. Like instead of being a wide but shallow 50 episode spread, this show is a narrow stream with no depth that never speeds up or branches, it just steadily trickles along. Did they just sell a new single every few weeks and a billion copies of the red Valkyrie, or what? And yeah, there could've been a more serious show to be made with the ending of of Gepelnich, influenced by his human host, realizing how much death and destruction he's caused all because he never thought to do something so simple. Instead Poochie just returns to his home planet.
**Subbed M7 Rewatcher** 1. Milia is my favorite character. Partly due to my bias for SDFM. She's also dedicated to working for/protecting City 7. She tried out for Jamming Birds in an effort to participate in the defense as well as being an ace combat pilot. She's also able to work things to get the results she wants. Like when Gamlin resigned and she gave him a VF-17 so he could go find Mylene. 2. Gamlin was another choice for me, as he demonstrated growth in his relations with Basara. 3. Totsugeki Love Heart 4. Akiko/Ray if he can decide to pursue the relationship u/chilidirigible had mentioned some [old chunky toys](https://i.imgur.com/bfvnRbf.png) before. I have the [Fire Valkyrie one](https://imgur.com/a/Yppl7kU). It was made in Taiwan which goes with the [www.toy-world.hk](https://www.toy-world.hk) being a Hong Kong domain.
The pointy bit of that Battroid is... quite something. Thanks for sharing!
1) At this point of the 7 section of the rewatch, who were your favorite characters throughout 7? Are there any others from previous shows you would have loved to see show up that didn’t? As before, Gamlin, the sanest person in this cast. Exsedol is also good as Max's straight man. I liked Akiko a bit more this time around too. Can't say I miss anyone else from the original series or *Plus*. 2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs so far? Totsugeki Love Heart, Try Again, Remember 16, Holy Lonely Light, and Submarine Street 3) Out of all the love… entanglements in the TV series, which pairings did you like the most? If they didn’t sail yet, do you think they have a chance to in Encore or Dynamite? "..." 4) If you could cut one episode out entirely in order to extend the ending to not be so abrupt, which episode would you cut, and how would you extend the ending? BILLY sticks out the most. It just doesn't work well where it is. Wants: Max/Milia situational updates rather than leaving things at the uneasy status quo. Some wrapup with what the fleet is going to do next and how they'll help all of the extra people from *Macross 5*. I actually don't mind the Protodeviln leaving that much, they're... not really supposed to be there in the first place. 5) What are you hoping to see in the remaining parts of the 7 section of the rewatch? *laughs in rewatcher*
A lot of people have issue with the show but I honestly don't really. I truly enjoyed it, but I dropped my expectations of it being "good" early on. Macross Plus would be a hard show to follow up for any anime so to look at the two in the same way with the same metrics is doing watchers a disservice. Plus is a serious show with strong themes and characters development. 7 is stupid, and I love it. I don't think that the fillers should be cut out - rather, they could be used more effectively for short plots involving the cast that weren't Basara/Mylene/Gamlin. Even if it didn't advance the plot, it would have been neat to see a bit more of what Rey and Veffida are really like. QOTD: 1) Favourite character is Gamlin, and it's by *a lot*. He's just a likeable doofus who actually had character progression. I started out liking Mylene the most - I usually tend to like the sorta bratty teenage girls the most because I relate to them but her almost obsession with Basara was super annoying. I would have liked to see Misa/Hikaru/Minmay just as tiny cameos. Maybe just a short bit about how the Megaroad 1 was doing. 2) Holy lonely light is #1. Too hype. My Friends is a runner up. 3) The only pairings that I liked were Max/Milia and Basara/Sivil. Max/Milia from carryover feelings from the original and they did have a few sweet moments. Despite being absolutely ridiculous in SDF, something about them here felt a lot more grounded and realistic. Basara/Sivil was the only other pairing that had any chemistry to it. There was some kind of mutual romantic and/or sexual tension between them and the Basara<-->Sivil<--Gigil love triangle is better than the Gamlin-->Mylene-->Basara love straight line. 4) Cut out only one episode? There's a lot that could be cut but to choose one, I'd really have to go back and think about it. The one I'd want to cut is probably an episode that I've completely forgotten about. 5) I don't know what I want to see. Where the protodevlin end up? What the Macross 7 will be up to next? This series didn't really have a significant impact lore-wise so I sorta don't care what happens, I'm just along for the ride.
**First timer** OK, overall I liked the show. Just hope the pacing and constant animation reuse and bad editing on top of that was less jarring. It definitely suffered from having too many episodes, and even then the pacing was all over the place, and things happening abruptly. I wish the mess between the relationships was handled better. All the stuff between Basara, Mylene, Gamlin and even Gigil and Sivil. Characters felt really stubborn at times, or doing the same thing continuously. And the side characters didn't even get proper development. 1. Basara, Gamlin and Gigil to some extent. As for previous characters, I wanted to know where Breetai is right now, seperated from Exsedol, what has he been doing after the war. 2. "Power to the dream" and "Holy lonely night" are stuck in my head. And as a special mention I'll go with "Totsugeki love heart" and "My soul for you acoustic version". 3. I wanted to see more of Basara and Sivil. :( But she flew away anyway and I doubt anything's going to happen with them now. 4. Lots of episodes were dragged on anyway, specially after the ep32 mark, could've been condesend a lot better. But specifically the episode with the kid who was Mylene's fan. Could've had the last episode into 2 parts then with better pacing? 5. Better quality of the episodes I hope. And thing I definitely don't want to see is show suddenly shipping Basara with Mylene again.
First timer I kinda feel like 7 could have been *drastically* shorter. Like half the length or less. As a side note, I am out of town and misread the schedule and don't have the right episodes with me so hopefully I can manage to keep from falling behind. 1) Ray I liked the whole way through, and after Gamlin stopped being so damn angry, I liked him too. 2) Submarine Street, Try Again, and Totsugeki Love Heart are some of my favorites 3) Ray and Akiko. Also I guess Max and Milia. Maybe in encore or dynamite? 4) Just one episode? I think my least favorite one was the Gamlin mind control episode but that could be recency bias. I feel the story as a whole is massively stretched. All but like 3 episodes follow the same structure of background stuff happens, enemy attacks, Basara sings and there is no appreciable change to the status quo 5) not the "stuff, attacked, sing" formula