MACROSS PLUS
A film review by Serdar Yegulalp
Copyright 1997 Serdar Yegulalp
MACROSS PLUS (video) (pts. 1-4)
CAPSULE: Gives "Akira" a run for its money, and makes more sense. Gorgeous to look at, and more than a little heart-tugging, too.
The excellent "Ghost in the Shell" hinted at what combining computer graphics with conventional cel animation could do. "Macross Plus", an anime series distributed in four 40-minute installments by Manga Video, ups the ante even further.
This is quite simply the most astonishing-looking animated series I've seen. It's also a hell of a story, lest we forget that the visuals are not going to make it alone (which was the single biggest problem with "Memories" -- stunning images and very shallow storytelling).
Set in the same universe as the other Macross stories (although seeing them is not a prerequisite), the story revolves around three characters: Isamu Dyson, a reckless but incredibly skilled pilot whose antics have gotten him reassigned to a test pilot gig on his homeworld, Eden. Most other pilots would veer shuddering from the opportunity, but Dyson gobbles it up, not even blinking when he hears that the other folks who flew the transforming fighter he's going to be testing didn't last more than a week.
Another plane is being tested in the same program -- a sleek monster that is straight out of the Clint Eastwood movie "Firefox": the pilot operates it with mental commands. And as it turn out, an old rival of Dyson's, Guld Goa Bowman -- an alien halfbreed -- is the pilot. The two are snarling down each other's necklines almost instantly.
Also on Eden is Myung Fang Lone, a former singer-turned-producer who is now manager of the galaxy's most popular singer, Sharon Apple. Myung was romantically involved with both men at one point, but something terrible happened between all three of them at some point (the single weakness in the movie's story is the use of the Gradually Expanding Flashback to reveal this detail), and now tension rides high.
The plot twists come on quick and strong. First, Sharon Apple is a computer, whose music-making is guided by Myung's thoughts in exactly the same fashion that Bowman pilots his craft. No one outside of the inner circle of Myung and her producer know this -- and there's even more to it than that. Much more. And then there's the *third* plane being tested in the project, about which the less said the better.
What's amazing is that with all of this hardware, the story is never less than absorbing on the human level. The characters are all very strongly delineated and draw us into their world without seeming to try very hard; the voice-acting is also several notches lower than the usual anime histronics, thank goodness. A spectacular score, second only to "Memories" and "Akira", accompanies all the action, and is available on two CDs -- and includes several songs allegedly by Sharon Apple which in my opinion have the potential to chart. They are that good.
The ending is astonishing in its emotional impact. I will not reveal it here. All I can say is that the last thirty minutes of the movie find the perfect metaphors -- story, visual, conceptual, technical, what have you -- to get the point across brilliantly. "Macross Plus" deserves to share shelf space with "Akira", or any of the Miyazaki films, as one of the best examples of how animation can transcend its boundaries.
Four out of four virtuoid idols.
syegul@ix.netcom.com EFNet IRC: GinRei http://serdar.home.ml.org another worldly device...
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