Macross Zero

Macross Zero

Anime Review

Publisher: Aone /Anbu

Genre: Action

With all those other robot anime, you start to wonder what do people see in those big giant robots fighting each other? And you can't help noticing that "Mobile Suits" in "Gundam" look like big colored plastic toys.

Now here is the anime that separates those "Mobile suits" wannabes from the real deal of action flying fighting animation. At first glance with Macross you are taken away with the amazing visuals. The first battle sequence features no "Robots" or "Suits", just amazing dogfights between jets. This is really a new step for anime, as the characters in the jets are all animated with amazing detail and superb quality, while the jets themselves are all rendered in CG with the help of modern computers. Unfortunately the CG effects aren't perfect, while the background isn't amazing it passes, but the problem appears to be in the sense of speed and change in velocity. I admit I have never ridden a Jet fighter, or witnessed one taking off and doing splendid maneuvers in the air, but in some scenes they just don't look that realistic.

As you are released from the hook that the visuals provide with the explosions and barrage of bullets on a jet fighter, you are quickly hooked again - but this time on the amine's story line. Within the first episode you start to see some character development and some of the story line starts to unveil. And as you go along it gets better and better, except you never get any other source of story except from the main characters and they never tell you anything about the "bad" guys. As it later appears in the anime even the good guys aren't really that good.

While watching the anime you can't help the ominous feeling that all the characters are going to meet a horrible fate. The story is set in the near future so it gives you the feeling that we are all doomed. But for those who love happy endings, not to worry, the anime Macross Zero is set before the first anime Macros also known as Robotech. So this is a prequel to the seven chapters in the Macross series, and a start to hopefully a new series involving more prequels to the Macross series.

The most interesting aspect of this anime is how long it took them just to produce three episodes of the anime. Each episode takes about 4-6 months to release, so it took a full year just to produce 3 episodes. Most surprisingly the 4th episode is scheduled for release next month.

Total score 9.3 (out of ten)