Hige vs. Otaku

Story & Characters
Macross Zero focuses around the protagonist Shin, your typical tunnel-visioned pilot out to avenge the murder of his parents with every bogie he shoots down. We don’t actually know how or why his parents were murdered, or even if the blood splattering across the cabinet in the same flashback constantly used belonged to a family member, but we can assume it all fits in with the stereotypical orphan aliens-killed-my-moms&pops war story. Macross Zero doesn’t exactly go to any lengths to make us think otherwise. Plot-wise, after a surprise attack from the anti-UN force utilising strange new aircrafts that can morph into robots and gain the advantage in battle Shin crashes on the island of Mayan, an island inhabited by some fairly primitive natives. Here Shin meets the second protagonist of Macross Zero; Sara, high priestess of the Mayan people, as well as her free-spirited little sister Mao. In the time it takes Shin to recuperate he manages to nonchalantly trample on all their customs and beliefs, and also restores a generator that supplies electricity to the island. This dismays Sara, who feels most modern creations of man will bring about ‘kudun’, another word for demons or evil. Sara thinks anything generally useful/convenient is a kudun and spends most of the OAV whinging about it (after listening to the wind, of course) and scowling at Shin. In this time she also, majestically, falls in love with him, and the feeling becomes mutual. As viewers we rarely get a glimpse at any sort of common ground between these two characters and their romance only feels ‘okay’ because everything else to do with characters and story is so cliché it’s expected, in a disappointing sort of way. My biggest qualm with this anime is that it just doesn’t put the time in to create robust and empathetic characters. It throws in the occasional flashback and expects us to be satisfied with what we see but never elaborates enough for us to really care.

However, what can’t be faulted is Shoji Kawamori’s direction, and this goes a long, long, long way in elevating Macross Zero above its flaws. Each scene flows to the next with a casual fluidity that demonstrates a great skill and ability. If you don’t analyse what you’re seeing too closely and admire the view, Macross Zero can be quite a fun ride. Each character reliably plays to its stereotype and there are some satisfying moments. I would be lying if I said I didn’t vie for Nora’s (one of the anti-UN’s top fighters and grade-A biatch) blood every time a good character went up against her in a dog-fight, or find Focker (first name ‘Arrogant’) & Aeris’ love affair quite charming. Macross Zero succeeds at what it intends to do in some senses – it just doesn’t do anything new with any particular flare. Right down to the typically-anime, all-powerful supernatural monster/evil final battle. There’s excitement and drama, no doubt about it; just nothing deep or especially meaningful. Perhaps ultimately this is a good thing? In an anime that seems to have a strong anti-war/pro-environment message I’m not so sure.

Animation
In many ways it feels like the animation is the centrepiece of this anime – a demonstration in what modern technology is capable of in the world of animation. Utilising both CG and ‘traditional’ cel animation Macross Zero manages to expertly blend the two with some stunning and truly breath-taking results. The CG focuses mostly around mechanical action sequences, such as the completely insane aerial dogfights and mecha moments. The traditional animation takes care of everything else including the characters and backgrounds with a lush art direction and a beautiful design sense. I got the impression that CG was just used for functionality rather than to be ‘showy’. I couldn’t imagine the fight sequences ever being realised to the extent they have been here with normal animation. And while it’s obvious that they’re done on the computer (set within those gorgeously painted backdrops, mind) it rarely jarred for me. Let’s call it a necessary evil that turned out incredibly well. Still, on both accounts and overall the animation quality is simply immense and I dread to think how much each episode cost to make over the two years it took to release all five, but it was probably worth every yen.

Sound
The sound quality falls in line with the animation in being very high. The music shows a lot of subtlety and beauty as to be expected from the first lady of anime music Yoko Kanno. Inevitable comparisons to Macross Plus may come up, but we have to remember this is an entirely different kind of show that doesn’t have any pop stars featuring centrally to the plot. People might find Sara’s song / the main theme tune (‘Leur Coeur’) slightly pretentious because it’s in French, but I found it to be quite beautiful and appropriate to the feel of the anime (if you ignore the obvious problem of it being in a completely different language to what Sara speaks). The audio certainly doesn’t let down the high production standards.

Conclusion
This is quite difficult to articulate clearly, but it felt like Macross Zero wasn’t intended to be a plot-driven anime or a character-driven anime. Or even an action-driven anime. To be honest I never got a definite sense of direction in any aspect of the five episodes – rather a mediocre attempt at each without any standout factor. Was this meant to be a prelude to the other Macross series? Well, it didn’t do an awful lot to explain the origins of anything I recognise to be Macross (limited as my knowledge may be), except giving us a number of practical demonstrations of some of the first YF models, a decent explanation of the human proto-culture intervention hypothesis and of course Focker. In fact it felt very stand-alone in nearly every way, and not really for the better. Even with the breathtaking fight sequences never felt like centrepieces that everything else revolved around (partly perhaps due to Kawamori’s ability as a director), even if the technical achievement of this OAV is its crowning glory. The plot had big ideas and the characters had potential to have depth and pathos, but neither seemed to develop beyond their initial representations. Everything except the superficial felt rather half-arsed if I’m brutally honest. But the half-arsed and the superficial are directed and produced with undeniable skill and quality. If taken as what it could have been, Macross Zero is simply disappointing, but taken as-is it’s actually pretty decent. Action fans and any animation aficionados will get a major kick out of the fight sequences, but Macross continuity fans will feel a touch under-whelmed. Solid but flawed.