Macross Plus

What? They moved Evangelion again? To October???!!! No! And now what am I supposed to watch, eh? Macross Plus? But Macross is a monstrous bore… well, actually it’s not that bad, in fact it’s really good… how cool is that!!!!(So vulgar… – Goku’s note)

That is what yours truly and a whole lot of other people thought after watching this tape: but let’s start from the beginning…

Isamu Dyson is a fighter pilot whose reason for living is recklessness, which is why he is transferred to the planet Eden as a test pilot for Valkyries (the fighters that transform into robots). On the planet, in fact, the Ministry of Defence is about to replace the old fighters with new-generation models: the YF-19, a highly manoeuvrable plane that adapts wonderfully to the pilot’s needs, and the YF-21, a plane similar to the previous one, but which uses brain waves to fly, making the aircraft behave as if it were an extension of your own body (great joke: guess what it uses for the handbrake? – Ryo’s note)(The thumb? – Goku’s note).

Needless to say, Isamu is assigned to the YF-19 team, which thus has to face Gold Bornam, his former friend and former partner in crime on Eden. To complete this reunion there is also Myung, an old flame of both, who has come to the planet as manager of the famous virtual singer Sharon Apple. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that the three were very close in the past, but a not-so-clear episode of violence against Myung cracked their relationship. What on earth can have happened? Did Isamu try to rape Myung? Did he force her to use Windows ‘95? And above all who is Sharon Apple? The only singer ever generated by a Macintosh? No, wait, nooo…

A FEW HOURS LATER

Now that I have recovered from the lynching by the editorial team because of my terrible joke (I liked it), we can continue: in the second OAV, in which we can enjoy a nice big concert by Sharon Apple (I wonder if it was sponsored by Microsoft? OK, I’ll stop…), we find out that the virtual singer doesn’t have a perfect artificial intelligence, and therefore makes use of Myung’s voice and brain waves, and Myung is still very tense about meeting her old friends. Meanwhile the relationship between Isamu and Gold degenerates to the point that the two, not caring about anything or anyone, beat each other up using the Valkyries they were testing. Against all expectations Gold wins, while Isamu, unconscious, is taken to hospital and entrusted to Myung’s caring hands. Isamu is not the type to stay in a hospital bed, though, and manages to get Myung to take him out, secretly of course, and the two start a dialogue about which I don’t want to say anything so as not to give away too much of the plot. Let’s now dissect (how gross! – Goku’s note) this excellent product. I must say that, as I said, I started off quite prejudiced, while now I have to admit I found myself in front of one of the best OAV series I have ever seen: the similarities with the old Macross series stop at the Valkyries, the presence of a singer and the incredible giant transforming spaceship that gives the series its title, while for the rest it presents itself as a story that grabs the viewer right away (WDIM says it is implausible that 3 people living in the galaxy would meet at the same time on the same planet, but only he could be dense enough to take seriously what is simply a script necessity).

Excellent character design by Masayuki, completely different from Mikimoto’s (who designed the previous series), wonderfully brought out by great colouring full of nuances and well-calculated shadows. Also worth considering are the computer-graphics animations, which don’t look bad at all and blend perfectly with the traditional animation (though not always). But the honourable mention undoubtedly goes to the splendid soundtrack, written by Yoko Kanno (who also wrote the splendid music of Escaflowne) and performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, certainly one of the best I have ever heard (after hearing “Voices”, the opening theme of the first OAV, you will agree with me), which alone is worth buying the OAV and the CD together (not very hard to find). Two last considerations: congratulations to Polygram for the dubbing (we’re at a high level), a little less for the price: 32,000 lire for 35 minutes of animation (and not 45 as it says on the cover) seemed too much to me, it would have been better if they had put the first two OAVs on a single tape. That’s all…