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Directed by: Noboru Ishiguro, Shoji Kawamori Starring: The voices of Arihiro Hase, Mari Ijima, Mika Doi The year is 1999, and as World War III rages on across the planet, a large metallic object appears from out of nowhere from beyond the moon. Entering the atmosphere, it crashes on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. As the authorities scramble to the site, they make several shocking discoveries: 1) The large metallic object is an alien starship. 2) The aliens are technologically superior to us. 3) They are also over ten meters tall. 4) The ship is a warship. Alarmed by the now very real prospect of annihilation from an alien civilisation, over the course of the next decade a united humanity begins to repair the ship, now dubbed the "Macross". Reverse engineering of alien "overtechnology" results in advances such as fighter planes that can transform into robots that would give Earth a fighting chance if humanity crosses paths with the aliens in the near future. Meanwhile, around the Macross crash site itself, a thriving metropolis has also developed, bustling with people supporting the repair work. On the day of launch, the aliens, calling themselves the Zentradi, finally appear and launch an attack on the ship. The crew decides to escape by attempting a hyperspace jump to lunar orbit, but the alien technology backfires, instantaneously transporting the ship, the island and several thousand of the city's residents somewhere near Pluto. And so begins the plot of the highly popular and successful 1982 Japanese animated television series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, of which this 1984 feature film is a summarised retelling that features all new animation and some changes to the original storyline. I guess I probably had to explain what happened in the beginning because Do You Remember Love? (also known as Clash of the Bionoids) just dumps you without exposition right in the middle of the Macross' journey back to Earth. Here, despite their seemingly hopeless situation, the residents of the ship have settled in nicely, building a city inside of the cavernous spaceship and going on with their everyday lives. Even a teen popstar by the name of Lynn Minmay is performing in concert for her fans. But soon the ship comes under attack and is forced to reconfigure itself into a giant robot in order to fire its super powerful energy cannon. This results in the complete destruction of the settlement inside, which is only compounded further by the Zentradi shock-troops that have managed to enter the ship and wreak havoc inside. But then something odd happens: the aliens are shocked at seeing this unusual world the "Micrones" are living in. They try to capture a specimen, Minmay, but Hikaru, a young pilot saves her just in time. With Minmay in his fighter's large robotic arms, Hikaru crash lands in a section deep inside the ship. Trapped for the time being, the two fall in love. After being found, Hikaru tries to continue his relationship with Minmay despite his combat duties and the media attention. He takes her on a tour of Saturn's rings, only to be kidnapped by a Zentradi patrol, who also grab Hikaru's ace fighter pilot friend Roy Focker (sic), his commanding officer Misa and Minmay’s manager who, looking for the missing songstress, were just in the wrong place at the wrong time... It is evident that the money allocated to this project was used to much better effect in this 120 minute film than spread across 36 half-hour episodes. The hand drawn animation is gorgeous, and holds up exceptionally well to today's computer-assisted cel animation. The space dogfights that make up the bulk of the action are also thrilling to watch, employing fluid and innovative camera moves that uses the free-form nature of animation and the limitless boundaries of space to its advantage. The widescreen aspect ratio in DYRL? is also used greatly to frame the new animation, and is most evident in portrayal of epic space shots, such as the four million ship strong Zentradi armada surrounding Earth. I also believe that the Macross series is also responsible for some of the best mecha designs in anime, and this film is no different. Elsewhere, the musical score competently rehashes the entertaining original Macross TV score while Minmay's J-Pop songs are also generally quite listenable as well. However obviously both score and songs are not quite up to par with the brilliant stuff heard in the more recent Macross Plus. Unfortunately, while the budget is best seen and heard onscreen, the far lesser running time does noticeably restrict elements of this retelling. Having watched and loved the original TV series, DYRL? does feel like stripped down treatment of the original grand space opera. For example, themes and subplots that run through the length of the series have far less time to build up and create an impact. Most notably, a subplot in the series that involves the Zentradi fascination with human culture is slowly built up as a fascinating and ultimately shocking thread in the story. Here it is just an ordinary plot device, introduced and then quickly transmogrified into the next logical step. Meanwhile various popular supporting characters and their own subplots that were prominent in the original series are generally pushed to the background or omitted entirely. The film also has a deliberate slower pacing than other films of the ilk, with a leisurely-paced middle section that concentrates more on character development or discussion of plot issues rather than Transforming Robot Combat, so those expecting wall-to-wall action may find themselves getting restless. In the end Macross: Do You Remember Love? is an exceedingly good anime space opera that for this reviewer, a long time Robotech and Macross fan, did not disappoint in any way. 4.5/5 PROS: Thrilling space battles, transforming robots. CONS: Fairly boring middle section, leaves out a lot of backstory and exposition from the series. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087660/ mrkillboy fucked around with this message at 11:27 on Jun 29, 2004 |
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Jun 29, 2004 08:24
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There are so many people I've met over the years who consider this to be their all-time favorite Japanese animated movie/movie overall. Someday I hope this movie will finally be licensed and released uncut in the US, but in the meantime I'll live with the encodes that can be found online. Personally, Macross never stuck with me the way that it stuck with the fan generation who comprise the core staff of some of the longer-running Japanese cartoon conventions in the US. Despite this as well as the fact that the middle of the film is sort of just there for those of us that've seen the series, I still think it's a "must-see" film, even though I can't convince anyone I know who hasn't already seen it to watch it on account that they really hate Minmei. For what it's worth, I also am not a Minmei fan, so I'm one of the few that considers her naked zero-gravity shower scene which was put in the film as a "service" to the fans a minus. The attention to detail in this film is amazing. If you're a huge nerd like I am, you can go frame-by-frame through the action scenes and see exactly how they managed to dodge that Itano Circus of drunk missiles within the span of one second. Most animators would just settle for having a flash of action or an explosion with the pilot emerging unscathed, but that doesn't cut it for Macross. Those geeky enough to do the frame-by-frame thing will see that the animators made one of the bazillion missiles in the film a soda can as a gag. That gag would later be reused in Project A-Ko. Worth seeing just for the final battle sequence alone (the juxtaposition of the love song set to the footage of guys getting their heads lopped off by blast doors and such is particularly effective); the reanimated fight between Max and Miriya is just icing on the cake. EDIT: Wow. I wrote this post nearly three years ago and now I'm editing in an addition. I just did an audio "review" of this film which you can listen to here.
Daryl Surat fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Mar 22, 2007 |
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Jun 30, 2004 06:33
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