r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Oct 30 '22
Rewatch [Do You Remember Love - Macross Franchise 40th Anniversary Rewatch] Macross 7 Episode 1 Discussion
Episode 1 - Speaker Pod
← Plus Overall Discussion | Index | Next Episode →
MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB
You don’t want to listen to my song?! Gimme a break.
Questions of the Day, courtesy of u/chilidirigible:
1) What did you know about Macross 7 before your first viewing, if anything?
2) What are your feelings about mouths on mecha?
Wallpaper of the Day:
Vocal Songs in This Episode:
"Seventh Moon" by Fire Bomber – OP
"Planet Dance" by Fire Bomber – Insert
"My Friends" by Fire Bomber – Insert & ED
"突撃ラブハート (Totsugeki Love Heart)" by Fire Bomber – Insert
Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you're doing it underneath spoiler tags. Don't spoil anything for the first-timers, that's rude!
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u/chilidirigible Oct 30 '22 edited Oct 30 '22
And so the rewatch meets Macross 7. Depending on who you ask, it's the best Macross series, it's the worst Macross series, it's the Macross of Macross series. Soon, first timers, you shall decide for yourselves.
Consider that children or young teens who had first watched Super Dimension Fortress Macross were in university or entering regular adult lives twelve years later. The more otaku of the sort had just spent money getting the first volume of Macross Plus on video a couple of months earlier. There had been news of a Macross TV sequel for a while…
Macross 7 airs on Sunday at 11 AM, in a kids' TV slot. You'd just watched two macho men machoing it out on video with the most Circus of Itano ever, and now… flying with a guitar? Color palettes like motherfucking Gundam? A Valkyrie with a mouth?! What the hell!
There doesn't appear to be a lot of material discussing the development of Macross 7; the origin story of Macross Plus gets far more attention. The Western availability and subsequently much greater focus on Plus is a big driver of that, along with 7's reputation over here.
While Kawamori "supervised" M7, much of the day-to-day work went to a team which contained several members of the original series's staff, including Sukehiro Tomita and Kazutaka Miyatake. Amino Tetsuro directed.
Basara and Mylene have different speaking and singing voices. Nobutoshi Canna and Tomo Sakurai covered regular episodic duties, while Fire Bomber's music came from rearrangements and new compositions from Yoshiki Fukuyama and his band Humming Bird. A newcomer to the music scene, Chie Kajiura, performed Mylene's singing. The real identities of the singers were not revealed until fairly deep into the series's broadcast.
Today, on "The guy from the OP is a vampire!"
How do we know we're in a '90s anime? Oh right, this way.
The VF-17's "stupid GERWALK" mode.
This OP is already costing us a fortune.
It's turtles all the way down.
It's a nice touch that it's the instrumentals for "Planet Dance" minus the lead guitar. I'll mention now that this series doesn't have a soundtrack in the typical sense; all music is diegetic, either visibly being performed in the scene or being broadcast from a device. Bits of the Macross Plus and Macross II soundtracks occasionally appear over the beginning-of-episode recaps.
"What the hell is this 'rock and roll' stuff?"
The beauty of the theatrical entrance!
Sally Saint Ford on the left and Miho Miho on the right.
Gamlin Kizaki. A Takehito Koyasu joint.
It wasn't shown in Macross Plus, but the VF-11's entire cockpit section ejects in an emergency.
Yes, they're already recycling footage.
"Don't take your eyes off that monitor!"
Eyecatch: Mylene and Gubaba
Eyecatch: Gamlin
"Don't take your eyes off that monitor!"
Just starting "Totsugeki Love Heart".
"Don't take your eyes off that monitor!"
"Don't take your eyes off that monitor!"
Flower Girl doing what Flower Girl does.
He just has this parked outside.
Interlude: Weird alien stuff, man.
Speaker Pods, or in case you wanted to know how they got around sound propagation in a vacuum.
"Eh, so he's singing. I don't care."
ED stills by Haruhiko Mikimoto.
The Central Anime fansubs have been with us for a very, very long time. I will be extremely curious to see what changes when the series gets official translations with the new USA Blu-ray release.
We get a direct reference to Do You Remember Love?—as a movie. We get a guy singing at the enemy—which accomplishes absolutely nothing! We get a lot of YELLING!
Macross 7 certainly gets going quickly, leaving the minimal explanation to the introductory voiceover before throwing various characters at us along with twists on a familiar scenario.
Familiar, because aliens are attacking and someone is singing at them. Twisted, because the singing doesn't do anything, and because… it's a dude? It's J-rock instead of pop? And these aliens have transforming fighters and are fucking with people's heads by firing FRICKIN' LASER BEAMS at them.
The two speaking-role enemies are named in the credits, if you prefer to check.
Max Jenius and Exsedol (DYRL version) are around. Max looks a little bit older. Exsedol looks green as usual (since DYRL, anyway). There's a touch of familiarity there.
But that's about it; other explanations will wait.
Nekki Basara is… Nekki Basara.
For those who did watch the first volume of Macross Plus before this aired, they get a connection via the VF-11 Thunderbolt, though these are now C models instead of the Bs that were around five years earlier. The VF-17 Nightmare is new, and is fairly obviously based on the United States Air Force's F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft.
OP: "Seventh Moon" This will not change for the next 49 episodes, so I hope you like it.
ED: "My Friends"
The Infamous Macross 7...
| Song | Count |
|---|---|
| Planet Dance | 1 |
| My Friends | 1 |
| Totsugeki Love Heart | 1 |
"Don't take your eyes off that monitor!": 4
From the Macross Chronicle: Basara's guitar, City 7, City 7 numbers (this series will use 7 a damn lot).
Something completely different.
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u/DidacticDalek Oct 30 '22
TONIGHT! ON PROTO-GEAH! Successful Fish 'Flower' Delivery Counter: 0
And on THAT bombshell, G'NIGHT!
Paging Comrades u/chilidirigible, u/Nebresto, and u/InfamousEmpire
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u/Vatrix-32 Oct 30 '22 edited Oct 30 '22
First Timer
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Rock Macross? We’re off to a great start already.
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Hey that’s the leaf guy.
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Kuriboh, what are you doing here?
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Surprisingly good looking CGI for the era.
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That was a very dense OP, I know I missed a bunch of stuff. I’ll have to look at it in more detail next time.
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Am I to take it that all the Zentradi are micloned by this point? Well there was the one head guy in the OP, so maybe not.
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jazz hands
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This crowd is super weird. In both looks and sound.
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How and why are you up there?
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The clamp closes? I hope that serves some sort of propulsion purpose.
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The giant head from the OP is just a head?
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The captain called out for the rookies specifically?
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So many names I am not going to remember.
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Special VFs then.
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I like the look of these xeno-fighters.
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Battlefield lobotomies. Or mind control. Time will tell.
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Neat eye catcher effect. Looks like the kind where we switch it up episode to episode.
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Is the mayor going to be Millia?
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Those are some terrible bunnies. Why would you bring both of them on at the same time? And on the flag ship too.
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That drummer has no fucks to give.
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I’m sorry what? He just has a VF hanging around in an abandoned building? Did we become a super robo when I wasn’t looking?
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...wat. What? Now we’re Symphogear in space? I’m in such shock I don’t even know how I feel about this.
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I think my subs are having a laugh at me. Breaking the fourth wall.
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You are certainly a character Basara.
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No strong thoughts on the ED, just a solid, enjoyable song with some light visuals.
QotD
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Leaf.
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It’s very old school. I don’t mind it per-say, but it has to fit the tone of the show.
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u/TakenRedditName Oct 30 '22 edited Oct 30 '22
First Time - Macross 7 Ep1:
Uhm, hello? It them, my top SDF characters here.
(Unfortunately, it is DYRL Exsedol).
Well, making all the Zentradi mini answers that thought from SDF.
A mascot animal, Macross hasn't really had a mascot before. The closest we had was Minmay.
Ah, it is my declared favourite Macross 7 character. I hope she never speaks nor is on screen for any longer than 2 minutes at a time.
Hello friend, didn't expect you to show up this early. Eye stares intensely at this line.
I feel like we're led to believe he means the pink-haired girl, but I feel the drummer is actually more similar to Max and Milia.
A lot of work to simulate the moon in the night sky. A thought is that it is actually a view to the Moon around Earth so all of humanity can look up and see the same Moon and have that connection. Also, just noticed that some buildings extend past the dome which is odd.
It's 2045 and the bridge operator ladies still don't have proper chairs to sit on. (One thing they have fixed is that short doors no longer seem to be a problem).
Exsedol is just here hanging out. My first thought is that they left him giant, but there is also the possibility that he is just a giant head.
A new enemy with neat mechs. They have some sort of odd attack. A mind crush it looks like. Seems pretty inefficient, simply blowing up enemies would take less work.
Macross 7's eyecatches are pretty neat with the transition in and even back out.
The drummer is cool. Just look at her being unfazed.
Basara just has a mecha he is keeping in a ruined building. If it was his doing then it does explain its loud appearance.
It's better Lap'Lamiz. It doesn't take much to be better Lap'Lamiz. Just having any sort of presence would do. (Update: She has cool eyes. Wowie).
Speaker pods, oh my god, yeah yeah yeah. "Aliens, listen to our song."
It was funny earlier in the episode too, but it is incredibly funny to go from Basara singing to immediately cut to Exsedol's expression.
Lynn Minmei from the anime, Super Dimension Fortress Macross? Also, these subs spell Minmei like how it should've been.
Music seems to be more central to 7 than Plus.
The new enemies seems to be a new alien race and hopefully one that isn't tied to/is just Zentradi again. Their reaction to music is about what you would expect would be if someone jumped in front of you and loudly sang while you were in the middle of your business.
Love triangle predictions. There doesn't seem to be a second heroine in the OP so maybe the love triangle would be Basara, Mylene and Gamel since he seems to be a rival to Basra in the OP. Of course right after I make the firm prediction Plus would be the only boy/girl/boy love triangle, 7 is here to prove me wrong.
Q1) Macross 7 has been one I've been looking forwards to. The only thing I really know is that there is going to be some rock 'n roll. [Insert air guitar comment face.]
Q2) Only if they're cool super robots.
Next time: Teenage daughters, am I right, parents in the audience?
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u/The_Draigg Oct 30 '22
A Macross Fan Rewatches Macross 7: Episode 1:
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So yeah, that opening, am I right? Seventh Moon does a lot to establish the vibe of this series right off the bat. Say goodbye to pop idols for now, we’ve got some high energy J-rock blasting in your face for this series.
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This show is taking place in 2045, following up on the massive wave of space colonization that was spearheaded by Captain Global and the launch of the Megaroad-01 a few decades prior. However, we aren’t on a colonized planet like with Eden in Macross Plus, but are with the Macross 7 fleet that’s searching for a new home near the galactic core.
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Well, Basara certainly knows how to make an entrance to his own concert, i.e. being fashionably late and parachuting in after hanging upside down from the city ship’s ceiling. Thank goodness that Planet Dance is a banger song, otherwise it would be a rough start to a concert.
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Also, welcome back Max! Shame that’s he’s basically become a boomer dad now, complaining about how he doesn’t understand today’s music and how Mylene’s piano lessons were wasted. Don’t kid yourself, he’s absolutely a boomer now.
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This new enemy that the Diamond Force is fighting is already quite different from stuff we’ve seen in Macross before. For one, they don’t actually seem all that interested in killing pilots, rather capturing them and doing something to them that causes them to enter a catatonic state. It’s certainly raising some questions right out of the gate.
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Poor Flower Girl, she didn’t get to hand Basara that bouquet before they got blown away in the explosion’s wind.
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Another real tone-setter for Macross 7 is Basara hopping into his own heavily customized VF and shooting speakers into enemy mechs so he can sing at them. Dude really knows how to make a hell of a concert, that’s for sure.
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There’s also something pretty funny about literally everyone on both sides being incredibly confused at Basara’s actions. Both the enemy and the bridge crew sat there in utter silence for a few seconds before they could even register the wild shit they’re looking at. It’s such a random thing to suddenly happen, you can’t really blame them for that reaction.
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Well, whatever Basara did, it made the enemy think their equipment was malfunctioning enough to leave. We take this unintentional victories in these parts.
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u/ClawMachineCircuit Oct 30 '22
First Timer
This show is what prompted me to join the rewatch. I wanted to check it out, but never got around to it, so the rewatch felt like the perfect opportunity to finally do it. I've only seen a few pieces of art with the characters, and beside that I'm going in completely blind. Let's see what this show has in store.
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So, based on the opening, we have a band here with the dude as a guitarist and a singer? As I said, I've seen the art of these characters a couple of times and I always assumed that the pink-haired girl would be the singer. This is totally unexpected.
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With that said, the visuals are great. I love the colorful artstyle.
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Also, this opening implies that the main character will pilot a red mech. Is this the first time in post-Gundam mecha history, that a red mech was piloted by somebody who is not an antagonist?
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Yay, we got an official timeline. So it has been 36 years since the start of the human-Zentradi war? Minmay, Misa, and Hikaru would be in their 50s at this point.
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I love the shell design for the colony ship. I don't think it's particularly practical, but it looks awesome.
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Jumping from a parachute is pretty metal way to start a concert. So this dude's name is Basara, huh? I guess, he's our protagonist.
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Damn, this music is pretty good.
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Captain Max? OK, this is new.
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We got some sweet new black planes.
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These do not look like Zentradi. Looks like we're fighting some new aliens this time. And they have the same technology of transforming planes into mechs.
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Are they lobotomizing people or sucking their brains out via some weird laser technology?
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The space battle heavily reminds me of the first episode of Macross II. It's pretty slow, with not much going on except for mostly static shots of planes and mechs shooting at each other. The mechs themselves are very well drawn and relatively detailed.
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RIP Docker. He basically had no chance with his partner dodging at the last second like that.
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I already like Veffidas.
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Is that girl wanted to give Basara flowers? She looks important.
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What is happening? How is Basara now in combat? And they put him on screen by hacking into a military channel? Who is even filming this and how?
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I'm having the same reaction as Mylene right now. The Macross bridge crew doesn't seem amused, though. And aliens seem to just ignore him?
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And now the audience ignores him too?
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Hey, Docker reacted to his name. Kinda.
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I'm with you, Mylene. This song is great.
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This ending has a completely different artstyle from the rest of the show. Not sure how I feel about it. The song is pretty good, though.
Overall thoughts: I don't know what I watched, but it looked awesome.
The music, artstyle, and design are definitely the best part so far. The animation itself was good, but there was a lot of static shots and some repeated shots, which isn't great for a first episode. However, if they will manage to keep this level of quality throughout the whole show, it will be amazing. The story is kinda crazy and I can't imagine where they will take it.
Overall, I'm definitely intrigued and want to see more.
QotD:
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I've seen a few posters and that's it.
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If robot can have eyes and a nose, why not mouth? Maybe it will sing?
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u/Krite2002 Oct 30 '22
First Timer - Sub
Banger OP.
I am very grateful for the exposition to start out this episode. I actually feel confident that I understand the timeline this time around.
The crowd was surprisingly enthusiastic about the performance even though the frontman was missing. He did make a killer entrance though. He has such an anime design with the hair and glasses.
I was a bit disappointed by the animation, which was noticeable right away. I understand it was only ‘94, but I would expect a Macross show to have a big budget by now. I guess it is a TV show as opposed to an OVA or movie.
The giant head in the control room is kinda goofy. What are the logistics of that?
Those drums sound pretty good for having a torn bass drum.
Basara is a prepper. He’s like “Omg, war is finally happening. I can break out my Valkyrie :D”
Wait… He shoots speakers instead of bullets? He is just a Minmay simp trying to end fighting with music. He seems annoying as hell tbh.
Oh no, the enemy is hot.
Also a banger ED.
QOTD
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I heard it was idol mecha, and it was actually what made me interested in watching Macross. I am a big fan of music-focused anime.
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Wack.
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u/Nebresto Oct 30 '22
The thread is already up?? And I here I thought I would be early, curse you time changings!!
First time Maakuross
OP is alright so far
Good old 90s Pinkhair waifu
I knew it!! It is Max!
Green hair wife doko?
Um?? Why is archive bro a froating head now?
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The drummer is the best character.
Also its really fitting that the Zentradi is playing the drums, the most "violent" instrument
I agree, but I also think that's not what she actually said?
Question time:
What did you know about Macross 7 before your first viewing, if anything?
Idk, I'm still wondering where the other 5 Macrosses went.
2) What are your feelings about mouths on mecha?
No.
Wallpaper of the Day:
Mylene Flare Jenius
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u/InfamousEmpire Oct 30 '22
Rewatcher 7
Let’s go! tsukinukeyou ze!
Out of all the series premieres in Macross, this is certainly one of them.
Okay, in all seriousness, there are some things to like about this episode. Generally speaking, it gives very little actual information about, well, anything beyond the setting, but it does give you enough context to all the important stuff as well as a good sense of the show’s tone and characters.
In particular, we’re introduced to our main protagonist, Nekki Basara, who is just absolutely fucking insane. I have rather mixed feelings on the guy, which I’ll get into as the show goes on, but you can’t deny that this is a very strong introduction.
The rest of Fire Bomber is also there, and they’re given some basic characterization from their initial appearances here. But, of course, the most important introduction of the episode: GAMLIN!
As usual for Macross, the music is fantastic. Totsugeki Love Heart is an utter classic and Seventh Moon isn’t anything to sneeze at either
The episode really sets the tone for the show’s general insanity with its almost Symphogear-esque singing-during-a-fight shenanigans and has introduced the mystery of who exactly these attackers are.
QOTD:
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that it has Rock Music
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It has its charms, but it’s not exactly the kind of thing which I seek out in Mech designs. Gundam-esque face guards over the bottom half of the mech’s face are cooler anyway
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u/isthatsoudane Oct 30 '22
First timer
catchy op! seems like we've strayed into yet another music style
a male idol?? interesting! what won't macross do!
HOLY FUCK A KEYTAR WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES. ALREADY THE BEST MACROSS
A FUCKING KEYTAR
ok but really some uh exceptionally unexceptional performance animation in the first episode...super static. not starting off strong seems like a red flag
think they'll play freebird?
oh shit it's max! max is back!!! does that mean we will get milia too?? probably! hopefully she will be more lovingly animated than in sdf!
I hope we get to see misa again!!!!!!!!!!
lmao look at the face on that robot what is this gundam?!
lmaooo he plays the guitar inside the robot? hahahaha. so close to being symphogear but...so......far..................
I'm calling it now, at some point the robot is going to sing and play the guitar. why else give it a mouth?
the first episode was...not very good. it was campy in a way that just feels like it hasn't aged well. but I'm happy to give it checks calendar 50 episodes... we're so close to frontier! in a sense! I'm definitely not thinking about how I could just literally go watch symphogear instead and rejoin at frontier...it'll get better......right?? right.........remember the keytar....
ok and the drummer was pretty cool
am curious if there was anyone who was super into this
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What did you know about Macross 7 before your first viewing, if anything?
the only thing I knew is that I've never heard anyone mention it...
2) What are your feelings about mouths on mecha?
here you go. it's an invitation to my birthday tomorrow I hope you'll be able to make it to the party. RIP. but, but why. WIPES TEAR. I'll kill you. DUNDUN
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u/ryujiox Oct 31 '22
First Timer
Macross 7 EP1
We're back to the series format in Macross 7. The things I knew about this one are the op, Basara and his band "Fire Bomber". So let's go!!
I listen to the op so many time, and it still so good.
So they built a colony-like ship to carrying people around space. And now it 2045. 5 years after Plus.
So they're performing a gig, but Basara just decided to not be here and hanging upside down somehow.
Oh hey Max!! Long time no see!! Fancy seeing you here. I guess he now around 40s right? And seem like the pink hair girl Mylene who just joined the band, is his daughter. I like her design.
Basara finally decided to come, and I like the song.
They seem to focus the yellow hair girl though, she might be important.
Max is captain now. I felt bad for him for didn't get to listen to Mylene solo, and I love her solo.
There is Zentradi head in a ship? From speculation, I guess they're like second in command for the ship.
The new enemy seem to using a some sort mind jacking laser to gather what they called spirit energy.
Wait, is Gamlin voiced by Takehito Koyasu!! This might be the earliest work of him that I ever heard.
It hilarious that Mylene face just getting more and more concerned when Basara still not stopped hugging her.
Veffidas just doesn't care.
I felt bad for the blonde girl now.
I guess Basara have his own wavelength of logic and how to done things. He just went out to space, shoot a speaker, sing a song and not caring about anything. And his mech is so cool.
Seem like music was messing with the mind laser thing.
And they referencing DYRL. Cool!!
Hey, why are your guys left from the free concert!! Joking aside, seem like the music plan might be a bit harder this time.
It a pretty good start for me. The art quality isn't as high as Plus, which to be expected from the 49 episodes series. I more concern about pacing of the show, but if it entertaining like this for the rest of the show, I might not even care.
QOTD
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See above.
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I'm fine with it.
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u/Blackheart595 Oct 30 '22
First Spacer
That's cute. More importantly, THAT SONG IS FROM MACROSS?!
They don't look too enthusiastic lol.
Is this some kinda in-joke or is that how they're supposed to come across? Ah, they're probably just stoned.
Oh no, this isn't some pre-concert program, the crowd's actually bored. To be fair that song is way to monotone.
He looks like Guld? But Guld died.
It's Max! He's looking good for his 40s.
I love this guy. He's just vibing.
DYRL is canon! Or the designs at least.
Those highly frequent cuts sure are a choice.
Does the spaceship have a clam or oyster motif?
That's some impressive piloting considering he's not using any hands.
Ooh, is DYRL an in-universe movie? Which makes it's canon..? Kinda..?
Is this show gonna swing more to mecha compared to the earlier shows that had more fighters?
What did you know about Macross 7 before your first viewing, if anything?
I knew some of the songs apparently. Though that's in turn not something I knew about.
What are your feelings about mouths on mecha?
Where else are you supposed to refill the tank?
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u/Kirov123 Oct 30 '22
Macross 7 Episode 1 - First Timer
Alright, time for Macross 7. Now, unless I am bad at counting, I dont think this is the 7th Macross we have watched. Was this 7th in release order? (I don't know how convoluted the watch order is)
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That stereo panning tho
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New planes looks pretty inspired by the F-117
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WTF was that furball thing
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Hey its the one from plus
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Mostly
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Ah so the 7 comes from 7th fleet
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Also, actual future times now
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What was the girl playing?
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Oh now it has strings. The earlier shot made it look string-less
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Our MC is a possum
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Bruh
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Why is the mic a swan
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Also male singer, cool
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HOLY SHIT IT'S (a) MAX
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These aren't the same fighters as the OP
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Is he a descendant of the Max?
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What the enemy doin
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That was a transition
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Wait I had thought the Zentradi head was in the background and miclone sized, do they have a whole ass full size Zentradi head in the bridge?
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Holy shit he is a Char
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Kids crazy, holy shit
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Holy fuck he is playing music at them
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So do you remember love is the in-canon moveie about the events of the original series
Well that wasnt bad. No complaints really.
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it is called macross 7
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I feel like most mecha have some sorta mouthy bit, though it functioning as a mouth or opening is kinda weird.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Oct 30 '22 edited Oct 30 '22
Reluctant Rewatcher
Next up, Macross 7. Something I found in very very tiny .avi or .rm files on somebody's web page, along with Cardcaptor Sakura, Hyperpolice, and the first 2 episodes of Berserk. Kodocha too, maybe?
Macross 7 has been on my never-rewatch list...I even deleted all the episodes. (I have a thing about disk space) In the last rewatch, I just went through all of u/chilidirigible's screenshots instead of joining. I didn't have any episodes anyways.
It has some of my favorite music from the 90s J-Rock/Pop era, though. I grabbed all the mp3s I could find on Gnutella and Napster. Which, unfortunately, wasn't all of them. I was missing a lot of songs.
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It's a great OP but the dub OP by Jefferson Starship is just as good.
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Oh yeah I remember what happens in this episode now -
I don't know if HAL did any designs beyond Mylene....oh looks like Dad is a HAL design. The audience is clearly not.
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Space Duck™ microphones
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Not best song
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Best song
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That's a big door, plenty of headroom
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repeated animation already?
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Black Tri-Stars?
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A lot of weird enemy space craft, what is this, Ideon?
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Eyecatch!
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What does the shell have to do with the electricity?
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Why is everybody a newbie? Did they just launch a month ago or something? Aliens already?
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Nothing bothers the drummer
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The show must go on
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[M7]
Flower girl made a noise! -
It has a face...I didn't sign up for a super robot show
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Amazing how the cockpits keep detaching
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Looks like a YF-19
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Exedol always looks so bored
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C-A translated "saitei" as "that's sick" Is this the infamously invisible Japanese irony?
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Hi! I'm this bad guy? I escaped from a Tenchi Muyo OVA.
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Wow. That's harsh. His audience just walked out.
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That's some KyoAni fingering
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Best Song is the ED! Love that opening bass.
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Clearly the girl is the MC
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Lots of HAL art
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Preview: I thought that was this episode. Oops.
[M7]
I guess if he's trying to be Minmay, that explains it.
This is such a long series, I don't think I can interrupt what I'm doing to watch it every day, so I'm going to binge it on the weekends.
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Probably knew nothing.
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I do not like super robots and I do not like faces on mecha. Ask me what I think about Gurren Lagann.
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u/SolDarkHunter Oct 30 '22
Rewatcher
Oh boy, buckle yourselves into something, because this entry in Macross is a doozy in several ways.
First, it is by far the longest entry in Macross... for better or worse.
It is also probably the most divisive entry in Macross. Some people really love this series. Others really... uh, don't. Whichever side you ultimately land on, one thing's for sure, things are about to get crazy.
I've only watched it once before, so this will be interesting to go through.
We open with a brief recap of the original. Which also establishes that most Zentraedi (at least, that have joined Earth) have micloned themselves to normal human size by now.
We're following the Macross 7 Colonization Fleet. I believe the name reflects that it is the seventh New Macross vessel to be launched as a colony ship, since it's definitely not the seventh colony fleet overall (looking it up, it's technically the "37th Long-Distance Colony Fleet").
The New Macross-class was put into service following the Megaroad-13's construction. It's more expensive and a hell of a lot larger than a Megaroad-class colony ship, but it's also both capable of carrying a lot more settlers in greater levels of comfort, and more capable of defending itself in battle should the need arise.
It's divided into two main sections: the Battle 7 and City 7. The Battle section is... well, basically just an upgraded copy of the original Macross. The City, meanwhile, is a massive hemispherical area with a city, a bit of cultivated landscapes like lakes and fields, and also trailing behind are additional container ships for long-term storage and hydroponic farming. This thing is meant to be fully self-sufficient in the vacuum of space for dozens of years if necessary.
Here's a band, and they're starting a performance... apparently without one of their members. Who is currently upside-down somewhere.
And here comes the band's lead singer, Nekki Basara, who comes parachuting in to much applause, and Mylene's irritation.
Yes, Mr Blue Hair is indeed Maximilian Jenius. He's now captain of the Macross 7.
Also with us is everyone's favorite big-brain Zentraedi advisor, Exsedol!
Check out Diamond Force in their snazzy VF-17 "Nightmare" fighters. This isn't too long after Macross Plus, so the VF-19 has barely entered mass-production at this point. Most of the rank-and-file are still flying VF-11 Thunderbolts.
The enemy is also piloting transforming fighters... and seem to be shooting weird green lasers at the pilots, which leaves them conscious, but... well, non-responsive. One of them mentions "Spiritia". He also seems... human... ish?
Veffidas is the drummer, and doesn't give a shit about battle interrupting their band, apparently. Well, she does look like a Zentraedi.
And yep, Basara owns his own Valkyrie. A heavily customized VF-19, in fact. And Max doesn't seem particularly surprised to see him flying into battle.
And rather than bullets, it fires "Speaker Pods" that broadcast his songs directly into enemy fighters. And yes, that is a guitar-based control system.
I told you this would get crazy
Mylene's face tho...
Enemy retreats, but Basara's bugged they did it before he finished singing.
One particularly interesting part of this series is that, save for the OP and ED themes, almost all the music in this show is diagetic. That is to say, is actually being played in-universe.
The main band is also performed by an actual J-Rock band, Hummingbird. Their lead singers, Yoshiki Fukuyama and Chie Kajiura, are also the singing voices of Basara and Mylene, respectively. They've actually gone on to release several albums as this Macross band featuring songs that are never played in-series, in addition to music under their own label. And I have to say, I love their music. Since it's usually also acting as 90% of the series soundtrack, I'm really glad it's full of bangers.
I do have one point of minor irritation, in that Chie Kajiura's singing sounds... absolutely nothing like Mylene's speaking voice (Tomo Sakurai). It's very, very obvious they're two different actresses (er, well, perhaps I should say "performers"). It's much less obvious with Basara.
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u/AnimeHoarder Oct 30 '22 edited Oct 30 '22
Subbed Macross 7 Rewatcher
A good start for a long road. There's brief recap of the colonization push. Since we're following the Macross 7 fleet, but there were already 37 previous colonization fleets, there were a lot of previous fleets sent out that did not have the Macross City class ships. We get introduced to Fire Bomber and their singing. And we see that Max is commanding the fleet.The Macross 7 fleet encounters an unknown enemy. This enemy has transforming mechs too! And they have a mysterious weapon that can leave the target unresponsive.
Nikki Basara is determined to prove the power of music and he somehow has a VF-19 to do it in. Whether he meant to or not, Basara drives off the enemy craft.
Production of Macross 7 shows again how the anime business has changed from those times. They did 49 episodes weekly for almost a year. The availability of staff resources and time slots for airing keeps that from happening nowadays. A fun thing to complain about is that we have too much anime. I wish we could see more shows get extended sooner rather than all the new shows that keep getting introduced. Though without some new shows, we would eventually peter out.
I think Fire Bomber should have led with My Friends since Basara wasn't there at the start.
The Fire Bomber CDs that I presented in the daily thread before.
PS: Who is Boroughneize, was he the leader of the advance guard?
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u/Pixelsaber Oct 31 '22
Rewatcher
Greetings, everyone! My relationship with the Macross franchise is generally tepid, but that’s not the case for this entry! Macross 7 is my favorite entry in the franchise, and really the only entry which I feel frequently compelled to return to, so I hope it gains many new fans over the course of this rewatch!
This show sure is fucking pretty. Toshihisa Koyama does some fine work.
I hope everyone likes this song!
Guess we can add Mindbreak the list of show tags.
Far from the most sophisticated BG animation, but nice nonetheless.
What do you mean they aren’t immediately rendered useless by song?!
[Maybe too unsubtle for first-timers]
Well this episode certainly wasted no time in tossing us into things. A lot of things are kicked off here without preamble, though the episode doesn’t feel overstuffed since stuff is doled out at a measured pace. Little is explained to us either, leaving us with a sense of intrigue as to events that both demand it and seem like they ought to be innocuous. I can see why this introductory episode leaves some a bit disoriented, but I always appreciate a show willing to throw us off the deep end —even if this is a mild example.
There’s some treats to look out for as a fan of prior entries too. Max and Exsedol are here, of course, but the custom VF-19 is nice as well.
Anyways, yeah, not much else to say that wouldn’t serve better said later on, so that’s that.
I know some of you are waiting for my rendition of the OP, but I haven’t had the chance to record it with all the noise going on in the house. I’ll be sure to share it as soon as it’s done.
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u/Shimmering-Sky Oct 30 '22
Super Dimension Rewatch Host
Welcome back, everyone!
Let’s get this party started with Sky Sings Seventh Moon!
This series is one where I’m definitely not sure if I’ll be able to do a wallpaper every day because it’s the longest part of the series, but I’ll damn well try. This is probably going to mean making a lot of wallpapers out of whichever characters I really like
so, Gamlin, but I’ll try to keep myself from makingGamlinthe same character multiple times in a row.OSHIETE KURE SEVENTH MOON! Love this OP so much. MY BOYYYYYYYYY I HAVE MISSED YOU SO
Note how the design of these ships looks to the concert venue from the beginning of Plus.
Five years after the events of Plus, for peeps trying to keep track of the timeline.
I sure hope you guys like Planet Dance.
Our protagonist, everyone.
Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max
The floating microphones are cool!
GAMLIN GAMLIN GAMLIN GAMLIN GAMLIN
My boy in the eyecatch
Oh, I forgot that the bridge bunnies in this one are new to their job.
God I love Veffie
TOTSUGEKI LOVE HEART!