Macross II Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-06-26 (updated 2012-07-14)
• 3 stars out of 5 (?)

Macross II has a lot going for it: Fine art and character designs, impressive mecha action, vast space battles, interesting story and characters, solid acting in the dub, and quality music in a variety of styles. It also has some major flaws: Shaky writing, lackluster character animation, and terribly edited English dialogue. On balance, it falls short of its potential but is still an enjoyable chunk of the Macross saga or just stand-alone space opera.

Definitely worth at least a look for Macross fans, but doesn't require any experience with the series, so lovers of space opera might give it a try, too.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-06-26 (updated 2012-07-14)
• 3 stars out of 5 (?)

Macross II is another OAV entry in the ongoing Macross saga. It is also solid enough sci-fi to be enjoyed by fans and the unfamiliar alike. Although hampered by the Macross premise and a clunky dub, this attractive series strikes a good balance of action, drama, and sci-fi flavor.

The standing Macross premise--pop music saves the galaxy--has always been rather silly, but Macross II handles it as well as can be expected. The people of Earth never make it out to be more than music, and as long as you're willing to accept that it's the idea of love and emotion that's really doing the work, it's not that much of an issue. Aside from this, the effort taken to make the world seem realistic is commendable. The Marduk speak another language consistently (it's subtitled, even in the dub), the reactions of the press and the military seem plausible, and there are other similarly nice touches here and there.

The fundamentals of the story are quite good: interesting characters, a few original ideas, a functional political background, and even some thought-provoking situations. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't keep up. The pacing is a little off, parts of the plot and some of the characters' reactions (mostly Hibiki's) are contrived, and the dialogue is awkward in spots. It does, however, get its footing after a while, and even with all its flaws the story held my attention.

Macross II is also a sharp-looking, well-drawn series, particularly given its age. The character designs are by old-school master Haruhiko Mikimoto, whose classically styled faces have lots of variety and are pleasing to the eye. They also manage to be expressive without being too exaggerated, although the character animation is a bit rough. The mecha and space battles, however, are smoothly animated, and there are a few outstanding action scenes. Speaking of which, as you might expect from something with Macross in the title, there's no shortage of transforming robots and massive fleets of giant space ships, all of which are well designed (inside and out) and rendered beautifully onscreen.

Aurally I can only speak for the English dub, which is very uneven. The script suffers from terrible lines here and there, and the acting is marred by random, awkward pauses. It is possible the halting timing is due to freak script spacing or just plain bad acting, but much more likely (particularly considering how consistent it is) the editing is to blame. It's too bad, since for the most part the casting and acting are good in spite of the script. Hibiki (Jonathan Fahn) is a little whiny at times, but if you ignore the odd gaps and occasional clunker of a line, the dub could even be called good. Susan Byrkett gives a standout performance as Silvie, and Ishtar's voice is very distinctive, fitting the character well.

Finally, though it's almost a given in a Macross series, there's some fine music to be heard. The requisite Japanese pop songs (left in Japanese in the dub) are catchy, but not spectacular. Coming a little closer to the alien beauty of the songs in Macross Plus is the song of the Marduk Emulators. It only comes into play a few times, but the eerie, semi-musical wailing not only does a marvelous job of setting up the Marduk, it also makes for a couple of very unnerving battle scenes. The rest of Shiro Sagisu's background music is made up of a well-orchestrated traditional film score that would be at home in a major theatrical movie.

Macross II has a lot going for it: Fine art and character designs, impressive action, interesting story and characters, solid acting in the dub, and quality music in a variety of styles. It also has some major flaws: Shaky writing, lackluster character animation, and terribly edited English dialogue. On balance, it falls short of its potential, but is still an enjoyable chunk of space opera. Definitely worth at least a look for Macross fans, but doesn't require any experience with the series, so lovers of space opera might give it a try, too.

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Note that much of what this tried to be Macross Plus actually is, so that series is required viewing if you enjoyed this and haven't already seen it. Also somewhat similar is Gunbuster; the premise is quite different, but much of the feel is the same.