Chôjikû Yôsai Macross II Lovers, Again

I thought this movie was very good. Unlike most Anime I've seen, it has a good story and believable characters. The violence isn't gratuitous--every fight scene means something. Also, the songs, while cheesy at times, were infecting...I often found myself inadvertently swaying in time with them.

The only thing that bugged me with the movie was the English dubbing. The main characters were all done well, but a lot of the supporting characters are very emotionless and halting. It got very annoying, very fast.

For those of us raised in a western society, our first experience with the Macross Saga was more than likely with Robotech, the 1980's animation produced by Harmony Gold, linking 3 separate Anime from Japan into 1 long saga.

The Best of the three stories was the fist part "The Macross Saga". For those of you hoping that this would be a continuation in some way of "The Macross Saga", forget it. You wont find out any further information on what happened to any of the previous characters from the original Macross Saga what so ever. What we have here is nothing more than a pathetic love story set in space with a lot of unnecessary singing. I forced myself to watch it all, even though I had to take regular breaks to relieve my boredom.

For those of you who loved Robotech but have never taken the time to view "The Macross Saga" in its original form from Japan, I strongly recommend you take the time to try and watch it. Although it wont make Macross II any more enjoyable.

Trying to be a follow-up to the original Macross series, this instalment was basically an expanded copy of the 1984 "Macross: Ai, Oboete Imasu Ka?" movie, with a few gimmicks thrown in. It was done without Shoji Kawamori's collaboration.

The mecha style isn't too bad, but lacks some of Shoji Kawamori's finesse (expectable). The plot is sub-par and doesn't rise to the challenge. The animation, on many occasions, is disappointing. The English dub is BAD. The Japanese voice acting is ok, but still, Macross II can't quite hold a candle to the original Macross.

It eventually became an "alternative universe" story and is rightly looked down upon by Macross fans everywhere.

Sequels are supposed to build upon what was left behind by the original, not re-do it. Originally made to be a sequel to both the Macross series and Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Macross II lacks insight and originality. Macross II takes the key themes of the previous Macross' (love, song, and war) and replicates them under the guise of new characters and settings. To make matters worse, the execution of the themes is rather poor. The good news for Macross fans is that Macross II is not an "official" event in the Macross timeline. The premise wasn't entirely bad, but sloppy execution and repetition make this movie/OVA a bust.

I rate this one pretty high even though it's not official Macross Canon. It was made without Shoji Kawamori for Macross's 10th anniversary. When they finally were able to get Kawamori back to work on Macross Plus and 7, He was kind enough not to dismiss this thing's Canon and instead place the Canon in that of an alternate universe that takes place after the events in Macross: Do You Remember Love? Now quite literally this OVA is an almost carbon copy of "Macross: Do you Remember Love?" with the way it's story goes. Just without any of the characters we known and love (other than the Macross Ship.) Instead it gives us 3 new characters and a new Love Triangle to deal with ,and a new Race of Zentraedi controlled by Aliens known as the Marduk.

Are main characters consist of Hibiki, a reporter for SNN and wants to bypass the military to make ratings and get the truth out to people.

Silvie, An Ace pilot for UN Spacy and already caught up in the SNN news with a scandal.

Lastly Ishtar, an emulator for the Marduk who sings to control the Zentraedi soldiers.

The story is fun and quite detailed to it even without Shoji Kawamori's involvement but without going into to much detail, to say it is a carbon copy of "Do You Remember Love?" holds true to it.

Animation wise though it is quite nice and the animation style is that of early Ninties OVA's which have well detailed characters, backgrounds and sharp lines. And the Mecha's used in it are rather nice Though the UN Spacy mecha's are not a Kawamori design so design wise it's different and has a few flaws in it. But you get over it after you continue watching the OVA.

Music, while the music is a good complement to the OVA, it's nothing really that memorable like Macross Plus.

The voice acting in Japanese is quite good like most Japanese audio tracks are. Where as the English Track coming from the movie version... It's more meh than anything else.

Overall? Macross II Lovers again (OVA and film) is a fun anime. It is a carbon copy and not official Macross Canon. However If you look away from these and more consider it a parody of Macross, it's pretty fun and enjoyable.

Not everyone will like it, not even die hard Macross enthusiasts are happy about it. (because in the states, it gives the very bad impression that it look like the end of the Macross Franchise which isn't true at all since it continued on with Macross 7, Zero, and Frontier.)