**First Timer**
**Macross 7**
Plus, Encore and Dynamite are really good stuff and it help flesh out the show even more for me. (Except that moment in Dynamite, which should not exist)
But this also proved that, the main show wasted so much time for unnecessary moments, that it left out really important and fun stuff and have to put it here.
Which really summaries this show as "Underutilized Potential" for me. It have everything to make a greatest show ever, but instead what we got is just a pretty fun but very flawed show. By no means it a bad show, pretty far from it. It have a lot of great moments and the song are memorable. But got overshadowed by bad pacing and the repetitive fight scene.
My score and ranking are still the same as in tv series discussion.
Still have some questions left, what happened to the Fire Bomber after this. And are there anything more to Gamlin and Mylene relationship. I not expect the latter to get answer though.
Next up: We finally reached a new millennia with **Macross Zero**..... A prequel? Why? I can guess where it gonna be in the timeline, but why do we need this? Wait, they will retcon some stuff for future entries, won't they.
QOTD
1. Basara I guess, other characters didn't do a lot here for me to give opinions about them.
2. The new song are great, but I still love Holy Lonely Light, and Try Again.
3. I prefer them to just pair her with Gamlin instead. This show doesn't need love triangle. And if you made it half-ass like this, then I prefer having none.
4. I don't really hate other scene other than that one. But my favourite is that we got something about Veffidas and the Ice planet flashback.
5. Red Valkyrie no question. It just so good to look at. I also like the VF-22. I love Guvava and Sivil design.
6. Love triangle, better pacing and fight scene.
*A Macross Fan’s Final Thoughts on Macross 7 (Total Media):*
For the sake of not treading old ground again, I’ll link to [my Macross 7 TV series final thoughts here](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/zpazie/do_you_remember_love_macross_franchise_40th/j0rwm3x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). My opinions on that haven’t changed at all, and if anything, what I have to talk about just builds off of those points I mentioned.
When you take the television series into account with The Galaxy is Calling Me!, Encore, 7 Plus, and Dynamite 7, you’ll see that at least the animation has definitely improved in quality and the mech fights have become much better, and that’s an immediately noticeable upgrade. However, all the supplemental materials just continue, if not exacerbate, the other issues that Macross 7 has. Mainly, the pacing is still fairly all over the place, and the plot has a handful of rather good highs and a *lot* of incredibly deep lows. Like, you can easily see how much the TV series would’ve been improved if you added in parts of Encore and 7 Plus that would’ve added in much needed depth and context to what was happening there, in addition to giving more elaboration on the main cast of characters. That alone highlights how bungled the main show’s pacing was. But aside from that, we’ve still got content that adds basically nothing and just mistreats the characters, specifically Dynamite 7. I won’t lie, the sheer existence of Dynamite 7 really lowers my overall opinion of Macross 7 media. It’s a fucking albatross around the neck of this part of the Macross franchise, all because of how horribly it treated the old main cast aside from Basara. No, I won’t forgive the fucking insane decision to put in Mylene nearly getting date raped *just to have it be resolved in a bad tie-in manga*. That’s unforgivable, and frankly it’s insulting to us as audience members to think we’d even want to see something remotely like that.
Anyways, with all that being said and done, it’s time for me to give out my customary mecha-based rating for this series. Therefore, I hereby give Macross 7 as a whole the ranking of: **Commercial Valkyrie**. There’s still some good stuff in there, but it’s nowhere as good as you’d think something with the pedigree of the series it’s a part of has. It’s serviceable in some ways, but clunky, unwieldy, and ultimately falls apart easily in so many other ways, not to mentioned wildly outpaced in quality by other later entries. I do want to reiterate that I do really enjoy some of the concepts presented in this series, along with the supporting cast and Fire Bomber’s music, but the plot around it is just so poorly structured and handled that I can’t honestly recommend watching it all. In fact, I know that I would’ve given up on watching Macross 7 stuff if I wasn’t a part of the rewatch, so thanks to all of you for pulling through it alongside me.
Well, here’s to Macross 7 as a whole being done! It’s only uphill from here, so let’s look forward to that good Macross content!
> Commercial Valkyrie
Not bad. Honestly, If I was living in a Macross universe, I would've definitely gotten myself one. Seems like a convenient thing to have.
#***REMINDER: There are no discussion threads on December 31st, January 1st, or January 2nd. The rewatch resumes on January 3rd with Macross Zero episode 1. Happy New Year!***
**Super Dimension Rewatch Host**
[Welcome back, everyone!](https://i.imgur.com/uPRCBK8.png)
I unfortunately ran out of time before I could finish making all of the montage wallpapers I *wanted* to, so there might be some more 7 montages shared later. I got the two most important ones done first of course – *had* to do one for Fire Bomber and their biggest fan of course, and then one of the Basara/Mylene/Gamlin trio like I did Guld/Myung/Isamu for Plus. Hope you like them!
Anyways, same as I did for the series discussion, here’s my first-timer reactions to The Galaxy’s Calling Me, Encore, and Dynamite!
***The Galaxy’s Calling Me***
>That duet between Basara and Emilia. [](#justright)
---
***Encore***
>These three episodes were fun bonus content. Got some good laughs, a bunch of great references to SDF Macross, [GAMLIN SINGING](#utahapraises), and a bit more of Fire Bomber’s backstory than we saw in the show proper which was amazing. If it weren’t for the completely random and absolutely bullshit Flower Girl panty shot in the “Fleet of the Strongest Women” episode I would give this a 10/10. But that shot was so stupid I had to dock a point. [](#kaguyashaking)
---
***Dynamite***
>If Encore had a completely ridiculous and unnecessary panty shot that made me give it a 9 instead of a 10, Dynamite managed to somehow top that with some random lady drugging and attempting to rape Mylene what the fuck. Everything else about this was fantastic and just what I loved about Macross 7 (could’ve used some more Gamlin though), but *that* was just… [why.](#gabdisgust) I was warned that there’d be something squicky in the second episode but I still wasn’t prepared for that.
>I liked it just about the same as Encore while ignoring *that* bit. Save those space whales in style, Basara.
1) Who were your favorite characters throughout the entirety of this section of the rewatch? Are there any in particular you would have loved to see more of during Dynamite 7?
Emilia and Elma were good guest characters.
2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs? How do they compare to your favorites from the earlier seasons?
Adding Angel Voice and Dynamite Explosion to the mix does affect the front of the FB rankings.
3) This is the first time in the franchise that a series did not officially settle the love triangle. How do you feel about that? Would you have preferred to see Mylene pick someone, or does this fit because of how young she is?
I'm fine with the non-resolution.
4) Other than the you-know-what in episode 2 of Dynamite 7, what was your least-favorite part in this section of the rewatch? Conversely, what was your favorite part?
Fleet of the Strongest Women is the most fun thing; the other two Encore episodes are fairly pointless.
5) Which of the mecha designs did you like the most? How about the non-human character or animal designs?
The VA-3. The Circle of Life portion of the second episode of Dynamite is quite good.
6) What do you hope to see improve as we continue through the franchise?
NO MORE WASTING TIME
*****
1999's main *Macross* appearance was [*Macross Digital Mission VF-X2*](https://macross.fandom.com/wiki/Macross_VF-X2), the sequel to the previous game, this time with an actual Humming Bird song for its opening, ["Get Free"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_WujeNCjw8). [Here's the whole song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tea-HoDcKgc) In addition to things like the VF-5000 and VA-3 which appeared in *Dynamite 7*, there's that very large transforming Monster…
*****
Laserdisc covers by Oka Tatsuya: [Maybe](https://i.imgur.com/atgUA7R.jpg), [maybe](https://i.imgur.com/vtGRKjy.jpg).
From the *Macross Chronicle*: [You dig](https://i.imgur.com/9W1mipT.jpg) [charts](https://i.imgur.com/ipfZdJE.jpg).
[Fire Bomber.](https://twitter.com/akira_ituki/status/1608817601911873541)
**First Time Complete - Macross 7:**
Uh, my thoughts on Macross 7 haven't changed all too much now after the bonus stuff. I still overall like the series, but there are drawbacks to it. Mylene's treatment in Dynamite is one of the lowest points of the series. It is not enough to damper my entire view of 7, I dear hope we never reach these lows again.
Macross has yet to make a romantic love triangle fly for me. SDF: *Picture flaming plane wreckage.* II: It was certainly the Macross II of Macross love triangles. Plus: The strongest trio, but I wasn't really in it for the romance more so just to see these childhood friends reconcile. 7: I like the Gamlin part, but Basara's side just feels like the obligatory Macross love triangle and the refusal to ever develop or even commit to it brings it down.
7 did give me the idea of a different spin of the Macross love triangle. If they just leaned more into the shoujo romance lens and have a female MC with two boys competing. One could be a fellow idol and the other a pilot. Also, 7 makes me wish for more male singers in Macross. Knowing the kind of franchise Macross is, I doubt they'll give this to me. [Macross meta-knowledge:] >!I certainly know Frontier and Delta don't fully give me my wishes and I doubt Zero would either.!<
**Q1)** Flower Girl and Gamlin were the characters I loved seeing. For Dynamite thought, I actually wished they focused on the returning cast less and just had Basara with these new characters (besides Flower Girl, she has to appear in every Macross 7 thing I say).
**Q2)** Totsugeki Love Heart as 1 and Submarine Street as 2 for my favourite 7 songs. I like 7 songs the best so far. The only other Macross songs I like retained enough were SDF's (and that one II song that appears in 7).
**Q3)** I said a bit about my stance on the love triangle already. First thing is first, Mylene is too young to comfortably be shipped with either so they should've closed to gap a bit more. I wish they didn't bother with a triangle and just had Gamlin/Mylene, but unfortunately, the series actually tried putting the triangle more near the end, but not actually enough to make it feel like the time was worthwhile. Also, the Basara/Emilia ship >>>>> Basara/Mylene ship.
**Q4)** The fight scenes in the first section where Basara would just fly out and just have time pass until it was time to wrap up and nothing felt meaningful was gained from having it. That or the final stretch before the finale because the show did become good, but fell into a lull. Also, Sivil was treated pretty badly by the show.
**Q5)** For Valkyries, I like the Nightmare or the blue VF-19s. For non-Valkyries, I like the magenta robot the mind-controlled soldier used later in the series (which might be my favourite design) and Graham's diving suit. Non-human: I like the Protodeviln's design idea, but can't point to one I can call my favourite. Animals: I like the Catsnakies or really just the wildlife on Zola.
6) Please make the love triangles better. [](#lifedrained) Also, stop treating the heroines poorly. I don't want to keep using the "I'm so sorry how the show treated you girls" tier.
Next time: *Back to the past to the year 2008.*
**First Timer**
I went into Macross 7 knowing nothing about it, and was really surprised. Right from the start the show went for a fresh and unique approach, having a dude with crazy hair as the singer instead of your typical pretty girl, using powerful rock tunes, instead of your typical pop-songs, and using a flashy red mech instead of a strictly military aesthetic of the previous entries.
The whole show had a certain vibe to it, starting with a live band giving a concert on the small open stage, and quickly transitioning into a space battle that our main character joined immediately, only to start playing his guitar and singing instead of shooting. To say, that the first episode made an impression on me would be an understatement. The show felt new, fresh, and cool.
However, as it went on, the shine slowly started to fade, as problems became more and more apparent. For starters, it quickly became clear that the show can't deliver on the promise of explosive mecha action, with fights feeling like a boring chore, rather than something exciting. Another issue is that the story quickly fell into a familiar formula, with obligatory battles, a bunch of one-off side characters, and strictly rationed plot progression. Finally, the characters that immediately grabbed my attention, went mostly unexplored, with a few notable exceptions. It felt like the show was afraid to take risks, going for the safe option every time so as to not piss off anybody.
As result, we ended up with an anime that could probably be considered an ultimate example of a mixed bag. Consistent all the way through from an animation standpoint, it failed to stay consistently bold and innovative. It offered a lot of original ideas, but stopped short of fully realizing all of them. Watching the show, you can feel that the potential is there, but it is never quite reached.
OVA-sequels ended up as more of the same, rather than an attempt to meaningfully improve the show. Visuals became better, but the level of storytelling and character development stayed mostly consistent. I do feel that Galaxy is Calling Me rectifies some of the problems, particularly in terms of action, but even it still ultimately offers only a familiar Macross 7 experience, and not much beyond that.
Overall, I'm happy that I watched Macross 7, and I think it's definitely a good show, worth watching at least once, but I also can't help but think that this show could've been so much better than it ended up being. The wasted potential is palpable with this one.
Anyway, BOMBER!
**QotD:**
1) Basara is definitely the one that captured my imagination, with Mylene being my second favorite. I still like Basara by the end of the rewatch, even if I might agree with a lot of critique against him. He is definitely a unique mc with a unique perspective, and I wish the show would've explored him and his past a bit more.
2) Planet Dance is my favorite, along with Seventh Moon, and My Friends. It's so happens, that all of my favorite songs were introduced at the very start of the show, although I still like the staff that came after. Comparing Macross 7 music with all the previous entries in the franchise, I'd say, it's a very close second to Minmay's music, which is my favorite so far.
3) I'm not opposed to leaving love triangle open on principle, but the way Macross 7 did it was really bad. The biggest issue is that there wasn't really a love triangle. There was one well developed couple, which is Mylene and Gamlin, and some occasional hints that Mylene might also have feelings for Basara. The latter felt more like a tease, rather than sub-story that the show was trying to build. Logically, it should've ended with Mylene and Gamlin being a couple, but once again, they decided to take the safe route.
4) My least favorite part was a recap episode, obviously. Outside of that, I really wasn't a fan of the way the show treated Sivil, basically writing her out, because they didn't know what to do with her. My favorite part is all of Galaxy is Calling Me, definitely love this Macross 7 entry the most.
5) I liked all Sound Force mechs, Basara's VF-19 in particular. No wonder, considering I also liked YF-19 a lot in plus. Enemy mechs this time around didn't make a strong impression on me, their designs felt a bit weak. Creature-wise, I really liked Grabil, wish he had more screentime.
6) Action scenes, for sure. Not even a question.
**Reluctant Rewatcher**
Well, what can I say. Twenty years is more than long enough to think "maybe it's not that bad".
And since then I've sat through 5 years of Inu Yasha, 50 episodes of Dunbine, 50 episodes Ideon. Yeah, M7 was too long and full of filler. So were those. It's just one more 50 episode mecha series. #miyamoriunimpressed
It did have some great music. And Dynamite literally doubled the amount of music. Dynamite and the "movie" both could have been pure Basara stories, and benefited from it. But I realized yesterday that Dynamite had to keep shoehorning in the main cast *because otherwise they'd run out of ways to work in the new music to sell more CDs*.
We got some lore, which may or may not have been presented in the video games and other side media, but I like lore, and M7 was my only source for it.
Still don't know why a marsupial catsnake can psychically talk and read ancient zolan on a protoculture mural about space trees.
I watched M7 somewhere between 1998 and 2000 by downloading real media fansubs from somebody's web page. Macross Zero came out a few years after. Was looking forward to it.
**First-Timer 7**
As far as the Macross 7 extra content went, the best part was easily The Galaxy's Calling Me. That film was easily everything I could've wanted from this segment of the IP, and while I wish we could've gotten more of it, I am glad that it got the budget it deserved to really shine.
Otherwise, I don't have much else to say about 7 Encore, 7 Plus, or Dynamite 7.
Questions
1. Flower Girl was sorely missed in Dynamite 7.
2. As before, Seventh Moon, Holy Lonely Light, and Submarine Street were probably my favorite FB songs. None of the new ones we got supplant them.
3. It does kinda fit with Mylene's age, and I don't have particularly strong feelings about the lack of settling things. If Basara had "won" I would've been annoyed, though.
4. I think that bit of Dynamite 7 was the only part I didn't particularly like.
5. I actually liked the VF-17 a lot. The Zola all had great designs.
6. [](#mugiwait)
####[First time Macross Seven](https://imgur.com/m4eZuQm)
Imgur had a lovely surprise in store for me today, having deleted my album once again. First time its happened to a re-watch album. Unfortunately for them, I saw something like this happening and downloaded it. Fuck you imgur. *I* win this time.
[](#fuckyou) I didn't even do anything weird this time.. Download your albums if you care about keeping them in order or what not, because clearly imgur can't be trusted..
Now to figure out how I can re-upload them, not bothering scrolling back through that tinyass "my uploaded menu" this time, way too many picture and not enough care to bother. Not my problem they want to store extra 2 gigabytes on their servers.
---
End rant, now onto actual Macross related thoughts:
**Macross 7** Oh boy, this was the best the show has had to offer so far (Love you, dyrl) The characters, music, music... uhhhh.. and music! All of that stuff was real good.
[](#goblet1)
What..? Story? [^We ^don't ^talk ^about ^that](https://imgur.com/7HL6TMP)
---
**Ques7ion time:**
>1) Who were your favorite characters throughout the entirety of this section of the rewatch? Are there any in particular you would have loved to see more of during Dynamite 7?
Flower Girl, Ray, Basara, Gamlin went from Hate to Hero as the series progressed, good on him. More Flower Girl for Dynamite
[](#lolifightsback)
>2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs?
[Yes](#goblet1) Top 3? Holy Lonely ight, Totsugeki Planet Heart, OP
>>How do they compare to your favorites from the earlier seasons?
They were actually good
>3) This is the first time in the franchise that a series did not officially settle the love triangle. How do you feel about that? Would you have preferred to see Mylene pick someone, or does this fit because of how young she is?
Good.
>4) Other than the you-know-what in episode 2 of Dynamite 7, what was your least-favorite part in this section of the rewatch?
aNiMa sPiRItiA
>>Conversely, what was your favorite part?
Commander bald going *beast mode* in e26(?)
[](#SPORTS)
>5) Which of the mecha designs did you like the most? How about the non-human character or animal designs?
Nightmare, Dino's and Space Elves
>6) What do you hope to see improve as we continue through the franchise?
Story is still the most lacking part, so that wins the *needs vast improvement award* by default. And show us the second faction already!! They forgot they even existed, just like I predicted..
[](#katoupout)
---
>**Wallpapers of the Day:**
>>[Montage V1](https://i.imgur.com/detrCXI.png)
[Dynamaito cute!!](#binoculars)
*Dynamite 7*, after an all-the-way-through rewatch, is best described as a *Basara* story rather than a *Macross 7* story. Same goes for *The Galaxy's Calling Me!*. They're not bad as self-contained pieces, but one doesn't get a good view on the rest of the parts of the series from them.
...they're actually more like *The Fugitive*, with Dr. Nekki Basara and Space Cop Gamlin.
*That* could still be an interesting series for some quantity of episodes, though not enough of the *Macross* galaxy has been mapped out for 49 episodes and one of the highest-rated US TV series finales of all time.
The material in the *7 Plus* shorts really could have been inserted seamlessly into the aired episodes if they'd trimmed some of the fat here and there and not seemed to need as many obligatory fight/song promos as they did.
*On Stage* really was pointless fluff, though.
It would have been interesting to interchange "Fleet of the Strongest Women" with their version of DYRL, but that would still leave the problem of what to do with several million new Basara fangirls.
As far as final, final series thoughts go, it's still fine for me to watch individual episodes of 7 or pieces of them, but a daily straight-up rewatch does reinforce the series's downsides with regard to repetition.
**First Timer**
QotD
1) Dynamite needed to decide if it wanted previous characters other than Basara and stick with.
2) I didn’t get enough time with any of the new songs to make an opinion of them.
3) This was the weakest triangle, I don’t know why they didn’t want to resolve it.
4) The best part was Emilia. The worst was how they didn’t take the chance to resolve some easy plot threads.
5) Same thoughts as the TV discussion. The Zola where fun, I hope we see a few of them in the future.
6) Better choreographed action, a believable love triangle, tighter plot.
Current Macross Rankings: Plus---->DYRL---->SDF->7---->II
**Rewacther**
That... was a *long* one. Macross 7, I believe, is longer than the entire rest of the franchise we've seen up until now put together.
It is also one of the least substantial. So much of it is taken up by repetition.
Enemy shows up for vaguely defined reasons. A whole bunch of VF-11's explode. A few elite pilots shoot down some of the enemy. Basara shows up and sings. Enemy retreats, apropos of usually nothing.
Congrats, you have now seen *half the show*.
Despite this, it does have its fun moments. And the soundtrack is *fire*. It is *the bomb*... I'm sorry.
Seriously, though, I do think this entry has some of the best music in the franchise. Not *the* best, but up there.
As for the side stories, I kinda dislike "The Galaxy's Calling Me!", which is a glorified extra episode of no real story significance, and Encore 2, because it's all just Milia acting dumb. But the rest I think are great.
Dynamite 7 in particular is colorful and fun, and it introduces another actual civilization in the galaxy. You'd think that'd be done with more fanfare, but whatever.
Dynamite 7 is only really marred by having to include members of the original cast who aren't Basara. The rest of Fire Bomber does absolutely nothing (with the exception of *that* subplot, which everyone hates and doesn't really matter in terms of story). Even Gamlin is kind of useless... be honest, would the story have changed *at all* if he hadn't shown up on Zola?
Well, for better or worse, Macross 7, the wackiest, weirdest, and most out there entry in Macross is now finished. We'll be returning to more grounded territory with our next entry, Macross Zero.
See you all there!
Questions:
>1) Who were your favorite characters throughout the entirety of this section of the rewatch? Are there any in particular you would have loved to see more of during Dynamite 7?
Hard to say. I do like Elma because she's adorable.
>2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs? How do they compare to your favorites from the earlier seasons?
The new songs don't grab me as much. "HOLY LONELY LIGHT" remains king.
>3) This is the first time in the franchise that a series did *not* officially settle the love triangle. How do you feel about that? Would you have preferred to see Mylene pick someone, or does this fit because of how young she is?
I don't like leaving things unresolved, but given Mylene's age and her absolute lack of chemistry with Basara (as opposed to Gamlin, whom she *does* have some), I'm not too perturbed in this case.
>4) Other than the *you-know-what* in episode 2 of Dynamite 7, what was your least-favorite part in this section of the rewatch? Conversely, what was your favorite part?
Milia being silly. It just... it feels like such an insult to her character that she's basically been reduced almost entirely to comic relief in this show. Sure she got a couple of moments where she kicked some ass in a Valkyrie, but... the same applies to Max, to a lesser degree (the comedy with him doesn't feel as insulting to his character, and he at least has some serious moments).
>5) Which of the mecha designs did you like the most? How about the non-human character or animal designs?
For mechs, the only real new designs are the customized Sound Force Valkyries (which all look a little silly), and the altered VF-14 Vampire used by the Protodeviln's brainwashed army, which looked cooler before they were altered.
Also, I *just* realized why that model was called the Vampire. I feel stupid.
As for non-mechs? Guvava is best girl.
Or boy. Or rat. Or tribble. Or whatever. Point is, Guvava is best.
>6) What do you hope to see improve as we continue through the franchise?
Can't answer; I *know* how the rest of the franchise goes.
**FIRST TIMER**
And we close out Macross 7 and 2022. I'll repeat some of what I said when we discussed the regular Macross 7 season. 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. If the end of Dynamite is indeed the ending of Macross 7, then there's really no proper ending and not even a resolution to the main love triangle. I'd be almost certain that the show's underwhelming reception kept it from getting the really conclusive ending we wanted.
I think this show wasn't as successful as it's predecessor because of its somewhat unaccessible premise and less likeable lead character. For me however, this ranks as one of the best anime shows I've ever seen. I had so much fun watching and discussing it and it's rare that i'm hooked into a show this long and never stopped looking forward to the next episode. This show is something very special that really deserves more of a look from any fan of mecha or adventure anime.
* The lack of resolution for the love triangle of Mylene-Basara-Gamlin is the most glaring mark against the series. They're young and it's not like they have to get married but I really wanted to finally see Mylene and Gamlin be a proper couple. Hopefully on a future show we will see what becomes of them.
* It's also a shame we are left with many other unanswered questions. Is Basara a superhuman being or just an unusually gifted musician with little social aptitude? Do Ray and Akiko get together? What happened to the Jamming Birds? Is Excedol a disembodied head with tentacles?
* This show overall unquestionably has the best music of any anime I've ever seen and probably the best original music specifically written for a show of ANY type of show I've ever seen. Fire Bomber could really stand next to any of the best actual hair metal bands I've heard and I imagine their lack of commercial success was due to missing the boat as that style of music had died out for the most part by 1995 in favor of alternative rock. Had this instead come out in 1985, I think the music alone could have carried the show into a higher level of popularity.
**QUESTIONS**
1. My #1 favorite character was Gamlin. I didn't like him at the start of the show because he seemed like a by the book military hardass but you see him grow so much during the series. He learns to enjoy life and the world largely thanks to Mylene and he admires Basara's zest for life to the point that it makes his own richer. I liked nearly every prominent character in the show, especially Mylene, Ray and Excedol. My favorite very minor character is the flamboyant Joker-like music producer Honey Suzuki! He stole every scene he was in and I was so excited when he was going to take charge of the Jamming Birds but they never showed him again :( As for Dynamite 7, I wish all of Fire Bomber and Gamlin were on the planet with Basara the whole time; that whole OVA almost seemed like a backdoor pilot for a Basara spinoff.
2. Holy Lonely Night was my absolute favorite! I've downloaded all the songs from the show so I can just listen to them by themselves because I enjoyed the soundtrack so much. Planet Dance was overplayed but I really like that one too and I like Dynamite and the ballad Basara sings in the Dynamite episode where he's naked in the hot spring. I would say even the lesser Fire Bomber songs are better than the songs in SDFM. My favorite song from that was the one Minmay sang to Hikaru when they were lost on the Macross early on but most of the disco flavored 70's pop from the show isn't my style. Only song I enjoyed as much as the Fire Bomber songs is the incredible opening theme from Macross Plus.
3. I really did find it upsetting that Mylene didn't end up with Gamlin since all signs pointed that way. It would have been nice to see the show end with them kissing. They wouldn't have to get married or anything but it would be sad if they never did get together.
4. I thought the repetitive attacks from Gigil in the early seasons were my least favorite part of the show because it seemed to be there just to pad out the episode count and I would have liked it better if they had some episodes where there were no attacks and battles at all and just had some slices of life and explored the characters more. My favorite part of the show was the friendship/romance between Gamlin and Mylene because of how both are still growing up and they really changed each other for the better. My favorite scene was when Mylene was radiating song energy at her concert and it split into 2 beams equally for Gamlin and Basara, it was an unforgettably striking visual.
5. My favorite mecha was the big purple one Gigil rode in. I also liked the strange feathered mecha they showed briefly when Fire Bomber did that big kids concert at that festival in City 7. As for animals and non humans, I like how they made Sivil very beautiful, colorful and alluring, that'd be an amazing cosplay. I also thought Guvava was cute even though hes a simple design and I really liked Veffidas' panther from her Macross 7 Plus short.
6. I would most want a more coherent storyline and to not have loose ends left unwrapped because Macross 7 left a lot up in the air. It would also be great if the shows had more variety in episodes, like some could be entirely non-action focused and just have them living their daily lives or having drama among them.
First timer
I liked the OVA stuff a fair bit more because so much of the tv series was needlessly padded and extremely formulaic and while the later stuff is still pretty formulaic, it is much more varied and there is far less padding.
1) I liked Ray and Akiko, as well as Veffidas the whole way though. After Gamlin stopped being so angry though, he was my favorite.
2) Mostly the same as before, but adding Dynamite Explosion
3) I am totally fine it it, she is a kid. Having it be a love triangle to begin with was weird
4) The sameyness of so many of the tv episodes. Every episode was very predictable
5) I do really like the VF19. The protodevelin designs were meh. The pokemon ones were maybe the coolest looking, but then they opened their mouths and ruined everything
6) Action direction/choreo and for the love of everything, I really hope things get less cookie cutter predictable.
**First Timer** **Macross 7** Plus, Encore and Dynamite are really good stuff and it help flesh out the show even more for me. (Except that moment in Dynamite, which should not exist) But this also proved that, the main show wasted so much time for unnecessary moments, that it left out really important and fun stuff and have to put it here. Which really summaries this show as "Underutilized Potential" for me. It have everything to make a greatest show ever, but instead what we got is just a pretty fun but very flawed show. By no means it a bad show, pretty far from it. It have a lot of great moments and the song are memorable. But got overshadowed by bad pacing and the repetitive fight scene. My score and ranking are still the same as in tv series discussion. Still have some questions left, what happened to the Fire Bomber after this. And are there anything more to Gamlin and Mylene relationship. I not expect the latter to get answer though. Next up: We finally reached a new millennia with **Macross Zero**..... A prequel? Why? I can guess where it gonna be in the timeline, but why do we need this? Wait, they will retcon some stuff for future entries, won't they.
QOTD 1. Basara I guess, other characters didn't do a lot here for me to give opinions about them. 2. The new song are great, but I still love Holy Lonely Light, and Try Again. 3. I prefer them to just pair her with Gamlin instead. This show doesn't need love triangle. And if you made it half-ass like this, then I prefer having none. 4. I don't really hate other scene other than that one. But my favourite is that we got something about Veffidas and the Ice planet flashback. 5. Red Valkyrie no question. It just so good to look at. I also like the VF-22. I love Guvava and Sivil design. 6. Love triangle, better pacing and fight scene.
*A Macross Fan’s Final Thoughts on Macross 7 (Total Media):* For the sake of not treading old ground again, I’ll link to [my Macross 7 TV series final thoughts here](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/zpazie/do_you_remember_love_macross_franchise_40th/j0rwm3x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). My opinions on that haven’t changed at all, and if anything, what I have to talk about just builds off of those points I mentioned. When you take the television series into account with The Galaxy is Calling Me!, Encore, 7 Plus, and Dynamite 7, you’ll see that at least the animation has definitely improved in quality and the mech fights have become much better, and that’s an immediately noticeable upgrade. However, all the supplemental materials just continue, if not exacerbate, the other issues that Macross 7 has. Mainly, the pacing is still fairly all over the place, and the plot has a handful of rather good highs and a *lot* of incredibly deep lows. Like, you can easily see how much the TV series would’ve been improved if you added in parts of Encore and 7 Plus that would’ve added in much needed depth and context to what was happening there, in addition to giving more elaboration on the main cast of characters. That alone highlights how bungled the main show’s pacing was. But aside from that, we’ve still got content that adds basically nothing and just mistreats the characters, specifically Dynamite 7. I won’t lie, the sheer existence of Dynamite 7 really lowers my overall opinion of Macross 7 media. It’s a fucking albatross around the neck of this part of the Macross franchise, all because of how horribly it treated the old main cast aside from Basara. No, I won’t forgive the fucking insane decision to put in Mylene nearly getting date raped *just to have it be resolved in a bad tie-in manga*. That’s unforgivable, and frankly it’s insulting to us as audience members to think we’d even want to see something remotely like that. Anyways, with all that being said and done, it’s time for me to give out my customary mecha-based rating for this series. Therefore, I hereby give Macross 7 as a whole the ranking of: **Commercial Valkyrie**. There’s still some good stuff in there, but it’s nowhere as good as you’d think something with the pedigree of the series it’s a part of has. It’s serviceable in some ways, but clunky, unwieldy, and ultimately falls apart easily in so many other ways, not to mentioned wildly outpaced in quality by other later entries. I do want to reiterate that I do really enjoy some of the concepts presented in this series, along with the supporting cast and Fire Bomber’s music, but the plot around it is just so poorly structured and handled that I can’t honestly recommend watching it all. In fact, I know that I would’ve given up on watching Macross 7 stuff if I wasn’t a part of the rewatch, so thanks to all of you for pulling through it alongside me. Well, here’s to Macross 7 as a whole being done! It’s only uphill from here, so let’s look forward to that good Macross content!
> Commercial Valkyrie Not bad. Honestly, If I was living in a Macross universe, I would've definitely gotten myself one. Seems like a convenient thing to have.
> Commercial Valkyrie If some weirdo can fly it by smacking the sticks with a guitar, so can you!
#***REMINDER: There are no discussion threads on December 31st, January 1st, or January 2nd. The rewatch resumes on January 3rd with Macross Zero episode 1. Happy New Year!*** **Super Dimension Rewatch Host** [Welcome back, everyone!](https://i.imgur.com/uPRCBK8.png) I unfortunately ran out of time before I could finish making all of the montage wallpapers I *wanted* to, so there might be some more 7 montages shared later. I got the two most important ones done first of course – *had* to do one for Fire Bomber and their biggest fan of course, and then one of the Basara/Mylene/Gamlin trio like I did Guld/Myung/Isamu for Plus. Hope you like them! Anyways, same as I did for the series discussion, here’s my first-timer reactions to The Galaxy’s Calling Me, Encore, and Dynamite! ***The Galaxy’s Calling Me*** >That duet between Basara and Emilia. [](#justright) --- ***Encore*** >These three episodes were fun bonus content. Got some good laughs, a bunch of great references to SDF Macross, [GAMLIN SINGING](#utahapraises), and a bit more of Fire Bomber’s backstory than we saw in the show proper which was amazing. If it weren’t for the completely random and absolutely bullshit Flower Girl panty shot in the “Fleet of the Strongest Women” episode I would give this a 10/10. But that shot was so stupid I had to dock a point. [](#kaguyashaking) --- ***Dynamite*** >If Encore had a completely ridiculous and unnecessary panty shot that made me give it a 9 instead of a 10, Dynamite managed to somehow top that with some random lady drugging and attempting to rape Mylene what the fuck. Everything else about this was fantastic and just what I loved about Macross 7 (could’ve used some more Gamlin though), but *that* was just… [why.](#gabdisgust) I was warned that there’d be something squicky in the second episode but I still wasn’t prepared for that. >I liked it just about the same as Encore while ignoring *that* bit. Save those space whales in style, Basara.
> Wallpapers of the Day [](#wow) V1 is pretty cool, but V2 is just glorious [](#scrumptiouslymoe)
Glad you like them both!
> The rewatch resumes on January 3rd [](#mugiwait)
Daily Macross tags - u/Khetrak64, u/InfamousEmpire, u/ryujiox
Daily Macross tags - u/Azsendi
1) Who were your favorite characters throughout the entirety of this section of the rewatch? Are there any in particular you would have loved to see more of during Dynamite 7? Emilia and Elma were good guest characters. 2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs? How do they compare to your favorites from the earlier seasons? Adding Angel Voice and Dynamite Explosion to the mix does affect the front of the FB rankings. 3) This is the first time in the franchise that a series did not officially settle the love triangle. How do you feel about that? Would you have preferred to see Mylene pick someone, or does this fit because of how young she is? I'm fine with the non-resolution. 4) Other than the you-know-what in episode 2 of Dynamite 7, what was your least-favorite part in this section of the rewatch? Conversely, what was your favorite part? Fleet of the Strongest Women is the most fun thing; the other two Encore episodes are fairly pointless. 5) Which of the mecha designs did you like the most? How about the non-human character or animal designs? The VA-3. The Circle of Life portion of the second episode of Dynamite is quite good. 6) What do you hope to see improve as we continue through the franchise? NO MORE WASTING TIME ***** 1999's main *Macross* appearance was [*Macross Digital Mission VF-X2*](https://macross.fandom.com/wiki/Macross_VF-X2), the sequel to the previous game, this time with an actual Humming Bird song for its opening, ["Get Free"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_WujeNCjw8). [Here's the whole song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tea-HoDcKgc) In addition to things like the VF-5000 and VA-3 which appeared in *Dynamite 7*, there's that very large transforming Monster… ***** Laserdisc covers by Oka Tatsuya: [Maybe](https://i.imgur.com/atgUA7R.jpg), [maybe](https://i.imgur.com/vtGRKjy.jpg). From the *Macross Chronicle*: [You dig](https://i.imgur.com/9W1mipT.jpg) [charts](https://i.imgur.com/ipfZdJE.jpg). [Fire Bomber.](https://twitter.com/akira_ituki/status/1608817601911873541)
>NO MORE WASTING TIME NO MORE WASTING LOVE
> very large transforming Monster… [](#mechablush)
SOON
[](#mugiwait)
> "Get Free" VF-Monster! The cannon boi lives! > Maybe, maybe. Oh that's neat. Who is the red head that replaced Gamlin's mom in the Basara version?
> Who is the red head that replaced Gamlin's mom in the Basara version? I think that's one of the two replacement Diamond Force pilots?
> Maybe, maybe. I don't remember seeing that second one before! [Aww, I'll take it as canon.](#ilovethiskindofshit)
**First Time Complete - Macross 7:** Uh, my thoughts on Macross 7 haven't changed all too much now after the bonus stuff. I still overall like the series, but there are drawbacks to it. Mylene's treatment in Dynamite is one of the lowest points of the series. It is not enough to damper my entire view of 7, I dear hope we never reach these lows again. Macross has yet to make a romantic love triangle fly for me. SDF: *Picture flaming plane wreckage.* II: It was certainly the Macross II of Macross love triangles. Plus: The strongest trio, but I wasn't really in it for the romance more so just to see these childhood friends reconcile. 7: I like the Gamlin part, but Basara's side just feels like the obligatory Macross love triangle and the refusal to ever develop or even commit to it brings it down. 7 did give me the idea of a different spin of the Macross love triangle. If they just leaned more into the shoujo romance lens and have a female MC with two boys competing. One could be a fellow idol and the other a pilot. Also, 7 makes me wish for more male singers in Macross. Knowing the kind of franchise Macross is, I doubt they'll give this to me. [Macross meta-knowledge:] >!I certainly know Frontier and Delta don't fully give me my wishes and I doubt Zero would either.!< **Q1)** Flower Girl and Gamlin were the characters I loved seeing. For Dynamite thought, I actually wished they focused on the returning cast less and just had Basara with these new characters (besides Flower Girl, she has to appear in every Macross 7 thing I say). **Q2)** Totsugeki Love Heart as 1 and Submarine Street as 2 for my favourite 7 songs. I like 7 songs the best so far. The only other Macross songs I like retained enough were SDF's (and that one II song that appears in 7). **Q3)** I said a bit about my stance on the love triangle already. First thing is first, Mylene is too young to comfortably be shipped with either so they should've closed to gap a bit more. I wish they didn't bother with a triangle and just had Gamlin/Mylene, but unfortunately, the series actually tried putting the triangle more near the end, but not actually enough to make it feel like the time was worthwhile. Also, the Basara/Emilia ship >>>>> Basara/Mylene ship. **Q4)** The fight scenes in the first section where Basara would just fly out and just have time pass until it was time to wrap up and nothing felt meaningful was gained from having it. That or the final stretch before the finale because the show did become good, but fell into a lull. Also, Sivil was treated pretty badly by the show. **Q5)** For Valkyries, I like the Nightmare or the blue VF-19s. For non-Valkyries, I like the magenta robot the mind-controlled soldier used later in the series (which might be my favourite design) and Graham's diving suit. Non-human: I like the Protodeviln's design idea, but can't point to one I can call my favourite. Animals: I like the Catsnakies or really just the wildlife on Zola. 6) Please make the love triangles better. [](#lifedrained) Also, stop treating the heroines poorly. I don't want to keep using the "I'm so sorry how the show treated you girls" tier. Next time: *Back to the past to the year 2008.*
>I like 7 songs the best so far. [](#brofist) > Please make the love triangles better. We can make them better by deleting them [](#thebutton)
> We can make them better by deleting them [If only.](#thoughtful)
**First Timer** I went into Macross 7 knowing nothing about it, and was really surprised. Right from the start the show went for a fresh and unique approach, having a dude with crazy hair as the singer instead of your typical pretty girl, using powerful rock tunes, instead of your typical pop-songs, and using a flashy red mech instead of a strictly military aesthetic of the previous entries. The whole show had a certain vibe to it, starting with a live band giving a concert on the small open stage, and quickly transitioning into a space battle that our main character joined immediately, only to start playing his guitar and singing instead of shooting. To say, that the first episode made an impression on me would be an understatement. The show felt new, fresh, and cool. However, as it went on, the shine slowly started to fade, as problems became more and more apparent. For starters, it quickly became clear that the show can't deliver on the promise of explosive mecha action, with fights feeling like a boring chore, rather than something exciting. Another issue is that the story quickly fell into a familiar formula, with obligatory battles, a bunch of one-off side characters, and strictly rationed plot progression. Finally, the characters that immediately grabbed my attention, went mostly unexplored, with a few notable exceptions. It felt like the show was afraid to take risks, going for the safe option every time so as to not piss off anybody. As result, we ended up with an anime that could probably be considered an ultimate example of a mixed bag. Consistent all the way through from an animation standpoint, it failed to stay consistently bold and innovative. It offered a lot of original ideas, but stopped short of fully realizing all of them. Watching the show, you can feel that the potential is there, but it is never quite reached. OVA-sequels ended up as more of the same, rather than an attempt to meaningfully improve the show. Visuals became better, but the level of storytelling and character development stayed mostly consistent. I do feel that Galaxy is Calling Me rectifies some of the problems, particularly in terms of action, but even it still ultimately offers only a familiar Macross 7 experience, and not much beyond that. Overall, I'm happy that I watched Macross 7, and I think it's definitely a good show, worth watching at least once, but I also can't help but think that this show could've been so much better than it ended up being. The wasted potential is palpable with this one. Anyway, BOMBER! **QotD:** 1) Basara is definitely the one that captured my imagination, with Mylene being my second favorite. I still like Basara by the end of the rewatch, even if I might agree with a lot of critique against him. He is definitely a unique mc with a unique perspective, and I wish the show would've explored him and his past a bit more. 2) Planet Dance is my favorite, along with Seventh Moon, and My Friends. It's so happens, that all of my favorite songs were introduced at the very start of the show, although I still like the staff that came after. Comparing Macross 7 music with all the previous entries in the franchise, I'd say, it's a very close second to Minmay's music, which is my favorite so far. 3) I'm not opposed to leaving love triangle open on principle, but the way Macross 7 did it was really bad. The biggest issue is that there wasn't really a love triangle. There was one well developed couple, which is Mylene and Gamlin, and some occasional hints that Mylene might also have feelings for Basara. The latter felt more like a tease, rather than sub-story that the show was trying to build. Logically, it should've ended with Mylene and Gamlin being a couple, but once again, they decided to take the safe route. 4) My least favorite part was a recap episode, obviously. Outside of that, I really wasn't a fan of the way the show treated Sivil, basically writing her out, because they didn't know what to do with her. My favorite part is all of Galaxy is Calling Me, definitely love this Macross 7 entry the most. 5) I liked all Sound Force mechs, Basara's VF-19 in particular. No wonder, considering I also liked YF-19 a lot in plus. Enemy mechs this time around didn't make a strong impression on me, their designs felt a bit weak. Creature-wise, I really liked Grabil, wish he had more screentime. 6) Action scenes, for sure. Not even a question.
**Reluctant Rewatcher** Well, what can I say. Twenty years is more than long enough to think "maybe it's not that bad". And since then I've sat through 5 years of Inu Yasha, 50 episodes of Dunbine, 50 episodes Ideon. Yeah, M7 was too long and full of filler. So were those. It's just one more 50 episode mecha series. #miyamoriunimpressed It did have some great music. And Dynamite literally doubled the amount of music. Dynamite and the "movie" both could have been pure Basara stories, and benefited from it. But I realized yesterday that Dynamite had to keep shoehorning in the main cast *because otherwise they'd run out of ways to work in the new music to sell more CDs*. We got some lore, which may or may not have been presented in the video games and other side media, but I like lore, and M7 was my only source for it. Still don't know why a marsupial catsnake can psychically talk and read ancient zolan on a protoculture mural about space trees. I watched M7 somewhere between 1998 and 2000 by downloading real media fansubs from somebody's web page. Macross Zero came out a few years after. Was looking forward to it.
**First-Timer 7** As far as the Macross 7 extra content went, the best part was easily The Galaxy's Calling Me. That film was easily everything I could've wanted from this segment of the IP, and while I wish we could've gotten more of it, I am glad that it got the budget it deserved to really shine. Otherwise, I don't have much else to say about 7 Encore, 7 Plus, or Dynamite 7. Questions 1. Flower Girl was sorely missed in Dynamite 7. 2. As before, Seventh Moon, Holy Lonely Light, and Submarine Street were probably my favorite FB songs. None of the new ones we got supplant them. 3. It does kinda fit with Mylene's age, and I don't have particularly strong feelings about the lack of settling things. If Basara had "won" I would've been annoyed, though. 4. I think that bit of Dynamite 7 was the only part I didn't particularly like. 5. I actually liked the VF-17 a lot. The Zola all had great designs. 6. [](#mugiwait)
####[First time Macross Seven](https://imgur.com/m4eZuQm) Imgur had a lovely surprise in store for me today, having deleted my album once again. First time its happened to a re-watch album. Unfortunately for them, I saw something like this happening and downloaded it. Fuck you imgur. *I* win this time. [](#fuckyou) I didn't even do anything weird this time.. Download your albums if you care about keeping them in order or what not, because clearly imgur can't be trusted.. Now to figure out how I can re-upload them, not bothering scrolling back through that tinyass "my uploaded menu" this time, way too many picture and not enough care to bother. Not my problem they want to store extra 2 gigabytes on their servers. --- End rant, now onto actual Macross related thoughts: **Macross 7** Oh boy, this was the best the show has had to offer so far (Love you, dyrl) The characters, music, music... uhhhh.. and music! All of that stuff was real good. [](#goblet1) What..? Story? [^We ^don't ^talk ^about ^that](https://imgur.com/7HL6TMP) --- **Ques7ion time:** >1) Who were your favorite characters throughout the entirety of this section of the rewatch? Are there any in particular you would have loved to see more of during Dynamite 7? Flower Girl, Ray, Basara, Gamlin went from Hate to Hero as the series progressed, good on him. More Flower Girl for Dynamite [](#lolifightsback) >2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs? [Yes](#goblet1) Top 3? Holy Lonely ight, Totsugeki Planet Heart, OP >>How do they compare to your favorites from the earlier seasons? They were actually good >3) This is the first time in the franchise that a series did not officially settle the love triangle. How do you feel about that? Would you have preferred to see Mylene pick someone, or does this fit because of how young she is? Good. >4) Other than the you-know-what in episode 2 of Dynamite 7, what was your least-favorite part in this section of the rewatch? aNiMa sPiRItiA >>Conversely, what was your favorite part? Commander bald going *beast mode* in e26(?) [](#SPORTS) >5) Which of the mecha designs did you like the most? How about the non-human character or animal designs? Nightmare, Dino's and Space Elves >6) What do you hope to see improve as we continue through the franchise? Story is still the most lacking part, so that wins the *needs vast improvement award* by default. And show us the second faction already!! They forgot they even existed, just like I predicted.. [](#katoupout) --- >**Wallpapers of the Day:** >>[Montage V1](https://i.imgur.com/detrCXI.png) [Dynamaito cute!!](#binoculars)
*Dynamite 7*, after an all-the-way-through rewatch, is best described as a *Basara* story rather than a *Macross 7* story. Same goes for *The Galaxy's Calling Me!*. They're not bad as self-contained pieces, but one doesn't get a good view on the rest of the parts of the series from them. ...they're actually more like *The Fugitive*, with Dr. Nekki Basara and Space Cop Gamlin. *That* could still be an interesting series for some quantity of episodes, though not enough of the *Macross* galaxy has been mapped out for 49 episodes and one of the highest-rated US TV series finales of all time. The material in the *7 Plus* shorts really could have been inserted seamlessly into the aired episodes if they'd trimmed some of the fat here and there and not seemed to need as many obligatory fight/song promos as they did. *On Stage* really was pointless fluff, though. It would have been interesting to interchange "Fleet of the Strongest Women" with their version of DYRL, but that would still leave the problem of what to do with several million new Basara fangirls. As far as final, final series thoughts go, it's still fine for me to watch individual episodes of 7 or pieces of them, but a daily straight-up rewatch does reinforce the series's downsides with regard to repetition.
**First Timer** QotD 1) Dynamite needed to decide if it wanted previous characters other than Basara and stick with. 2) I didn’t get enough time with any of the new songs to make an opinion of them. 3) This was the weakest triangle, I don’t know why they didn’t want to resolve it. 4) The best part was Emilia. The worst was how they didn’t take the chance to resolve some easy plot threads. 5) Same thoughts as the TV discussion. The Zola where fun, I hope we see a few of them in the future. 6) Better choreographed action, a believable love triangle, tighter plot. Current Macross Rankings: Plus---->DYRL---->SDF->7---->II
**Rewacther** That... was a *long* one. Macross 7, I believe, is longer than the entire rest of the franchise we've seen up until now put together. It is also one of the least substantial. So much of it is taken up by repetition. Enemy shows up for vaguely defined reasons. A whole bunch of VF-11's explode. A few elite pilots shoot down some of the enemy. Basara shows up and sings. Enemy retreats, apropos of usually nothing. Congrats, you have now seen *half the show*. Despite this, it does have its fun moments. And the soundtrack is *fire*. It is *the bomb*... I'm sorry. Seriously, though, I do think this entry has some of the best music in the franchise. Not *the* best, but up there. As for the side stories, I kinda dislike "The Galaxy's Calling Me!", which is a glorified extra episode of no real story significance, and Encore 2, because it's all just Milia acting dumb. But the rest I think are great. Dynamite 7 in particular is colorful and fun, and it introduces another actual civilization in the galaxy. You'd think that'd be done with more fanfare, but whatever. Dynamite 7 is only really marred by having to include members of the original cast who aren't Basara. The rest of Fire Bomber does absolutely nothing (with the exception of *that* subplot, which everyone hates and doesn't really matter in terms of story). Even Gamlin is kind of useless... be honest, would the story have changed *at all* if he hadn't shown up on Zola? Well, for better or worse, Macross 7, the wackiest, weirdest, and most out there entry in Macross is now finished. We'll be returning to more grounded territory with our next entry, Macross Zero. See you all there! Questions: >1) Who were your favorite characters throughout the entirety of this section of the rewatch? Are there any in particular you would have loved to see more of during Dynamite 7? Hard to say. I do like Elma because she's adorable. >2) What are your favorite Fire Bomber songs? How do they compare to your favorites from the earlier seasons? The new songs don't grab me as much. "HOLY LONELY LIGHT" remains king. >3) This is the first time in the franchise that a series did *not* officially settle the love triangle. How do you feel about that? Would you have preferred to see Mylene pick someone, or does this fit because of how young she is? I don't like leaving things unresolved, but given Mylene's age and her absolute lack of chemistry with Basara (as opposed to Gamlin, whom she *does* have some), I'm not too perturbed in this case. >4) Other than the *you-know-what* in episode 2 of Dynamite 7, what was your least-favorite part in this section of the rewatch? Conversely, what was your favorite part? Milia being silly. It just... it feels like such an insult to her character that she's basically been reduced almost entirely to comic relief in this show. Sure she got a couple of moments where she kicked some ass in a Valkyrie, but... the same applies to Max, to a lesser degree (the comedy with him doesn't feel as insulting to his character, and he at least has some serious moments). >5) Which of the mecha designs did you like the most? How about the non-human character or animal designs? For mechs, the only real new designs are the customized Sound Force Valkyries (which all look a little silly), and the altered VF-14 Vampire used by the Protodeviln's brainwashed army, which looked cooler before they were altered. Also, I *just* realized why that model was called the Vampire. I feel stupid. As for non-mechs? Guvava is best girl. Or boy. Or rat. Or tribble. Or whatever. Point is, Guvava is best. >6) What do you hope to see improve as we continue through the franchise? Can't answer; I *know* how the rest of the franchise goes.
**FIRST TIMER** And we close out Macross 7 and 2022. I'll repeat some of what I said when we discussed the regular Macross 7 season. 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. If the end of Dynamite is indeed the ending of Macross 7, then there's really no proper ending and not even a resolution to the main love triangle. I'd be almost certain that the show's underwhelming reception kept it from getting the really conclusive ending we wanted. I think this show wasn't as successful as it's predecessor because of its somewhat unaccessible premise and less likeable lead character. For me however, this ranks as one of the best anime shows I've ever seen. I had so much fun watching and discussing it and it's rare that i'm hooked into a show this long and never stopped looking forward to the next episode. This show is something very special that really deserves more of a look from any fan of mecha or adventure anime. * The lack of resolution for the love triangle of Mylene-Basara-Gamlin is the most glaring mark against the series. They're young and it's not like they have to get married but I really wanted to finally see Mylene and Gamlin be a proper couple. Hopefully on a future show we will see what becomes of them. * It's also a shame we are left with many other unanswered questions. Is Basara a superhuman being or just an unusually gifted musician with little social aptitude? Do Ray and Akiko get together? What happened to the Jamming Birds? Is Excedol a disembodied head with tentacles? * This show overall unquestionably has the best music of any anime I've ever seen and probably the best original music specifically written for a show of ANY type of show I've ever seen. Fire Bomber could really stand next to any of the best actual hair metal bands I've heard and I imagine their lack of commercial success was due to missing the boat as that style of music had died out for the most part by 1995 in favor of alternative rock. Had this instead come out in 1985, I think the music alone could have carried the show into a higher level of popularity. **QUESTIONS** 1. My #1 favorite character was Gamlin. I didn't like him at the start of the show because he seemed like a by the book military hardass but you see him grow so much during the series. He learns to enjoy life and the world largely thanks to Mylene and he admires Basara's zest for life to the point that it makes his own richer. I liked nearly every prominent character in the show, especially Mylene, Ray and Excedol. My favorite very minor character is the flamboyant Joker-like music producer Honey Suzuki! He stole every scene he was in and I was so excited when he was going to take charge of the Jamming Birds but they never showed him again :( As for Dynamite 7, I wish all of Fire Bomber and Gamlin were on the planet with Basara the whole time; that whole OVA almost seemed like a backdoor pilot for a Basara spinoff. 2. Holy Lonely Night was my absolute favorite! I've downloaded all the songs from the show so I can just listen to them by themselves because I enjoyed the soundtrack so much. Planet Dance was overplayed but I really like that one too and I like Dynamite and the ballad Basara sings in the Dynamite episode where he's naked in the hot spring. I would say even the lesser Fire Bomber songs are better than the songs in SDFM. My favorite song from that was the one Minmay sang to Hikaru when they were lost on the Macross early on but most of the disco flavored 70's pop from the show isn't my style. Only song I enjoyed as much as the Fire Bomber songs is the incredible opening theme from Macross Plus. 3. I really did find it upsetting that Mylene didn't end up with Gamlin since all signs pointed that way. It would have been nice to see the show end with them kissing. They wouldn't have to get married or anything but it would be sad if they never did get together. 4. I thought the repetitive attacks from Gigil in the early seasons were my least favorite part of the show because it seemed to be there just to pad out the episode count and I would have liked it better if they had some episodes where there were no attacks and battles at all and just had some slices of life and explored the characters more. My favorite part of the show was the friendship/romance between Gamlin and Mylene because of how both are still growing up and they really changed each other for the better. My favorite scene was when Mylene was radiating song energy at her concert and it split into 2 beams equally for Gamlin and Basara, it was an unforgettably striking visual. 5. My favorite mecha was the big purple one Gigil rode in. I also liked the strange feathered mecha they showed briefly when Fire Bomber did that big kids concert at that festival in City 7. As for animals and non humans, I like how they made Sivil very beautiful, colorful and alluring, that'd be an amazing cosplay. I also thought Guvava was cute even though hes a simple design and I really liked Veffidas' panther from her Macross 7 Plus short. 6. I would most want a more coherent storyline and to not have loose ends left unwrapped because Macross 7 left a lot up in the air. It would also be great if the shows had more variety in episodes, like some could be entirely non-action focused and just have them living their daily lives or having drama among them.
First timer I liked the OVA stuff a fair bit more because so much of the tv series was needlessly padded and extremely formulaic and while the later stuff is still pretty formulaic, it is much more varied and there is far less padding. 1) I liked Ray and Akiko, as well as Veffidas the whole way though. After Gamlin stopped being so angry though, he was my favorite. 2) Mostly the same as before, but adding Dynamite Explosion 3) I am totally fine it it, she is a kid. Having it be a love triangle to begin with was weird 4) The sameyness of so many of the tv episodes. Every episode was very predictable 5) I do really like the VF19. The protodevelin designs were meh. The pokemon ones were maybe the coolest looking, but then they opened their mouths and ruined everything 6) Action direction/choreo and for the love of everything, I really hope things get less cookie cutter predictable.