Tengusaur
Since: Oct, 2010
01/04/2011 00:00:00
There are many viable criticisms one could raise about Macross Seven (the overuse of stock footage and bad animation quality in general, for example), but from those you only mention the rather uninteresting villains. Everything else is basically "it's Lighter and Softer, so it sucks" (even though other Macrosses had silly moments as well, especially the first one) and "it's a Super Robot show, so it sucks". Compare to G Gundam - despite its problems it's beloved by many fans who were willing to give it a go even though it was a Narm Charm-filled Super Robot series in an otherwise Real franchise.
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Dethroning Moment of Suck for the Macross Franchise
So, how do you take one of the most hardcorely "real" Real Robot franchises out there and run it into the ground? Not entirely sure, but Macross Seven would be a good starting point to look for inspiration. Seven to me has so, so many problems, the most striking being the Proto-Devlin. I mean, talk about ass-ugly, unrealistic, and just outright boring. There's a reason that they're mentioned only in passing, and very quickly at that, in Macross Frontier, without a one being shown; Space-demons who possessed the Proto-Culture? Thank you, but I'd rather take the Marduk from Macross II than these guys.
The other thing is the whole "Rock Band Superheroes" concept of the show. The original featured the military, and really only the military, barring Minmei, and presented them in a realistic light (in other words, human). The mecha, too, were all mass-produced, all of the relatively same calibur (no Super Prototypes to be seen), and sucked compared to the Zentran and Maltran mecha. Seven, however, takes two steps backwards towards the Super Robot genre. Now, I love Gurren Lagann as much as everyone else, but save for Voltron and a choice 2 or 3 others, I hate the Super Robot genre - it's campy, prone to Deus Ex Machinas, and just seemingly uninteresting if you're over 8 years old. The reason I loved the original Macross is that it was what I now know as "Real Robot." Since Macross, there have been more "real" Real Robot shows (Patlabor, etc.), but Macross still stands as one of the best at capturing the "real" essence while still allowing for amazing Gundam-esque battles. So, when I saw that the main characters of Seven are punk-rockers using their mechas and the Power of Song to save the day, I wanted to puke.
People have tried to tell me, "But the music's so amazing" - to which I respond, "I want to watch an anime for the quality of the story & animation; if I wanna watch something for the quality of the music only, I'll watch a music video, thanks."
I'll say this, if you've never seen any other Macross show, and never plan to, watch this, it'll probably be amusing at least. But if you love SDF Macross, Plus, Zero, and Frontier, do not, for the love of god, watch this piece of Dork Age garbage.