Macross II: Lovers Again

Maybe I'm old-fashioned. Maybe I've been exposed to the rich, colorful art of Disney animation and Warner Bros. cartoons for too long. I don't know. But, for the life of me, I can't understand why Japanese animation is so consistently mediocre, and why anyone would actually want to fork over their hard-earned dollars to see these films. Macross II: Lovers Again is no exception to this lackluster genre. Based on a Japanese animated television series that premiered in 1981, known as Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (which eventually made its way to the U.S. in 1985 as the syndicated and dubbed Macross Saga), this film is a sequel to the animated feature Macross: Do You Remember Love? The entire Macross legacy chronicles the never-ending story of the Earth's battle against the Zentradi -- an alien race bred for war, and who travel the galaxy in giant robots and space ships that look like insects. This time around, Macross II picks up some 80 years later after the first film, where an uneasy alliance between Earth and the Zentradi has been broken by an invasion of renegade aliens. A hot-shot cub reporter named Hibiki (who is really nothing more than a remade-remodeled Speed Racer) gets caught in the heart of the action when he becomes involved with a kidnapped Zentradi princess named Ishtar, and enlists Sylvie, a spirited pilot for the U.N. Spacey military complex, to assist him in revealing the truth about the Zentradi invasion, and to convince the government to reactivate the Macross fortress to defend Earth. The only good thing about this film exists in the space battle sequences, where fluidity and spectacular colors abound. Yet, these sequences seem to dominate the entire film without fulfilling any specific purpose other than to distract the viewer from a weak, and generally uninteresting plot line. And, true to the conventions of Japanese animation, the majority of the characters look the same -- particularly the females -- with the indistinguishable huge eyes, tiny noses, and mouths that are usually found in those third-rate “motel art” paintings of waif-like children with flowers and puppies. As well, the characters' movements range from stiff to jerky, to not at all, and at times, their mouths seem to be the only working parts of their bodies. So, unless you are a hard-core Japanese animation fan, or really, really into the Macross series, don't waste your time on this film.