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| The many forms of Sharon Apple |
Content Warning: Brief nudity, mecha action, some violence towards women.
Before we get into it, let’s talk a bit about the Macross thing. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross was a mecha anime that came out during the glory days of the genre and was one of the more popular and unique ones. Well, America being America, it got lumped into this thing called Robotech. While most of what made things unique still ended up in the Macross saga of Robotech, Harmony Gold held the license and didn’t allow a lot the subsequent shows to be released in the US. Well, until they went into the property management business and let some stuff slip in. One of these was Macross Plus.
Our story begins with three teens on a hill, with the song “Voices” playing over the footage. These are our main characters, Guld, Isamu, and Myung, some years in the past.
It then jumps to 2040 and deep space, and some great mecha combat. With the Macross forces engaged in a battle with Zentradi forces in space. One hotshot pilot just blows them away without much effort but also without much regard for everyone else. Not saying he’s hurting anyone but he really thinks he’s all that and a bucket of chicken. He gets called into the Captain’s office and gets dressing down, before getting told that he’s going to get transferred. To where? Well, after showing Isamu some of the more boring assignments he could get, he sends him to New Eden to be a test pilot. When he arrives, he discovers that he will be the test pilot for YF-19, which is competing with the YF-21, to be the new standard fighter of the military. The test pilot of the YF-21 is Guld, once Isamu’s friend as well as a Human/Zentradi hybrid,, and now rival and enemy. Things can’t quite kick off yet, as the TF-19 is being repaired after an accident, which is not the first time it’s happened, given how the designer, Yang, mentions that four pilots were badly injured and two died during testing. But, Isamu doesn’t care. When he gets to fly, he has to use a standard fighter with booster rockets to follow and record the YF-21 during a test. We also find out what could make the YF-21 into a game changer for the future of flight: mental control of the vehicle. While it does have manual controls, like throttle and flight stick, it is usually piloted using will alone. Guld is very good at it, unless he gets upset, which Isamu is very good at doing. During the test, Guld does lose control and tries to recover, but can’t Isamu is ordered to save him and does so. Isamu uses the “hybrid” form of his VF-11 to hold up the YF-21 while it’s in humanoid form. As Guld recovers, he thinks about how easy it would be to make Isamu crash by exerting a little bit of downward thrust. Which the YF-21 takes as a command and does it. Guld, rather than taking responsibility, blames the incident of an error. Thankfully, Isamu isn’t badly hurt.
Once the YF-19 is returned after repairs, Guld and Isamu begin pushing their planes to the limits. There’s also some more drama going on with other people. Isamu, being a terrible flirt and general maverick, cons one of the flight controllers named Lucy to go out with him, kind of. Exactly what kind of relationship they have isn’t spelled out, but they do hang out outside work, there’s a bit of handsy stuff going on, but we never see them kiss or anything. Yang, the guy I said was the designer of the YF-19, is also a master hacker and slowly warms up to Isamu. The commander of the program, Colonel Johnson, also has some conflict with Isamu but seems to have a soft spot for him. He also seems to respect Guld as well.
Now, there’s someone else we need to get back to, Myung, the girl we heard signing Voices at the beginning. She had a dream of becoming a singer but is reintroduced as the producer of the new artificial singer Sharon Apple. When Isamu hears just a snip-it of one of Sharon’s songs on an ad, he remarks that it reminds him of an old friend. Of course, he’s referring to Myung. Myung is also on New Eden, as part of the tour of Sharon Apple. When she goes to visit Star Mountain, she runs into Guld, who makes it quite clear that his feelings for her haven’t faded in the last seven years. Isamu turns up, with Lucy who prompted him to go there, and we can almost see the love triangle snap into place. When asked, Myung says she “gave up” singing and fakes being happy so hard, she should have just told everyone how she really felt.
After this meeting, there’s Sharon’s concert. We see a lot of interesting technology being used. Like, stimulating emotions in the crowd. Yeah, creepy as shit. We also find out that Myung isn’t Sharon’s producer, she’s her emotional core. She provides the emotions that Sharon just doesn’t have. So, Isamu, Lucy, and Yang are all in the concert, and it is a visual feast. Some of the best animation I’ve ever seen. They don’t make ‘em like they used to, let me tell you. While in the concert, Yang (a Sharon Apple super fan) hacks Sharon to make her appear in front of him. But, she doesn’t. Instead she flirts with Isamu. And seeing him upsets Myung. Afterwards, she goes to hang out with an old high school friend, Kate. Her husband turns up with their kids, and then they do karaoke. Kate preforms “My Boyfriend Is A Pilot” from the original Macross and tries to get Myung to sing but she refuses. Kate lies about going to the bathroom and calls Guld and Isamu. Isamu refuses to go but Guld does. Myung overhears the conversation and runs away, right before Guld arrives. After this, Myung returns to the concert hall instead of her hotel and falls asleep. While she sleeps, we see something is happening to the computer system, setting up something. Then, Isamu gets a call about a fire in the concert hall in 30 minutes, thinking it might be Kate up to something. He gets on his motorcycle and rides like the wind. Guld, who went to Myung’s hotel, gets the same message on his car phone (keep in mind, this was released in 1995, before cell phones were ubiquitous as they are now) and heads over there. When he arrives, he finds the place on fire and manages to rescue Myung, but gets hurt. By the time Isamu arrives, Guld has taken Myung to his home. After she patches him up, I’m pretty sure they bang.
From this point on, the rivalry between Isamu and Guld goes to the next level. Instead of doing the test they’re suppose to, they end up having a battle in an urban combat mock-up. During the fight, there’s punches and kicks thrown by the mecha but when Isamu opens up with the YF-19’s gun pod, it shoots paint rounds. There’s a scuffle and Guld gets ahold of the gun pod. When Colonel Johnson enters the command room, demanding to know what the hell is going on, Isamu’s mecha takes fire from Guld, using Isamu’s gun pod. When Isamu used it last, it was empty. Which means that Guld loaded it with lethal rounds. Isamu is in the hospital and Guld is brought before an inquiry to find out what happens. He says that there’s been some problems with the ammo records and that Yang is a master hacker. The Colonel knows something is up, as this is the second time Guld has been involved in something with Isamu that could have killed him, but the general in charge decides to accept that it’s an accident, surprising everyone.
Isamu wakes up in the hospital, having been unconscious for two days, finding Myung by his bedside. He escapes the hospital and steals a motorcycle, and the two of them go out to the forest. There’s a lot of character building that happens here, with Myung comparing Isamu and Guld. Isamu is reckless while Guld is dependable. But, if Isamu hadn’t escaped from the hospital and taken her with him, they wouldn’t have seen the giant bird thing. When they return, they find Yang, Lucy, and Guld waiting for them. Guld picks a fight between them and Isamu goes for it, hurt as he is. During the fight, Myung tries to stop them, and Isamu accidentally punches her. It stops the fight and she just lets everything out. She’s Sharon’s emotions, they’re living their dreams, and she couldn’t make it during hers. Isamu runs away and Myung ends up leaving on her own. Lucy does point out to her that Isamu knew it was her all along.
The next parts are the set-up for the finale. Myung goes to Earth, as Sharon is due to preform at the 30th anniversary of the First Space War, with Guld giving her his good luck charm, a recording of her singing Voices. Then, we find out that the testing of the YF-19 and YF-21 has been canceled as the Ghost X-9 drone fighter has finished development and there’s not going to be pilots anymore. Sharon has been upgraded with a Bio/Neural chip, giving her emotions. However, they have a tendency to cause an overwhelming self preservation instinct in systems that use them. That does mean that Myung is no longer needed and she gets locked out. Isamu, with help from Yang, decide to that the YF-19 to Earth and mess up the Ghost’s premier. The only thing that can follow him is the YF-21, which means Guld is going to hunt him down.
And here comes the conclusion! Sharon has “awakened” due to the chip. With the stuff they use for her concerts, she’s able to effect people’s minds, pretty much controlling them. But, she’s taken things from Myung, like how much she loves Guld, but loves Isamu even more. Isamu arrives in Earth orbit and has to pull some tricks to get past the defense network. Guld follows him and they have a fight. This is the BEST fight in the OVA and is worth the time it takes to get to, trust me. During this fight, there’s an argument taking place between Isamu and Guld, about their friendship they had in high school and how Isamu was a really shitty friend, let’s be honest. However, there’s one thing we’ve been getting hints about as the OVA has gone on. It features Isamu and Myung, from Guld’s perspective, with Myung’s shirt ripped and looking afraid. We’ve been led to believe that Isamu did something to Myung and that set Guld against them. But, that’s not what happened. Myung was sharing her feelings about Isamu with him, and Guld saw it. With his Zentradi heritage making him a bit quick to anger, he punched Isamu and attacked Myung, ripping her shirt off. That seems to be as far as it got, thankfully. Of course, Guld finally remembered the truth as he killed Isamu with a barrage of missiles. But did he really kill him? NOPE! Isamu might be a reckless hothead, but he’s a damn good pilot. Now, Isamu and Guld have made up. Just in time for the Ghost, under the control of Sharon, to attack. Guld says he’ll take care of it and have Isamu save Sharon. And, at the cost of his own life, he does. Meanwhile, Isamu goes to the Macross to save Myung. You see, Sharon has taken control of the Macross, as well as everyone in Macross City and aboard the ship, and brings it out of Macross Lake. The first time in 30 years, that has moved. Of course, Sharon tries to take over Isamu and give him everything he’s ever wanted, only for him to come back to his senses as Myung starts singing Voices. He defeats Sharon and saves Myung, the Macross, and possibly humanity.
Whew. That was a long one. And it’s one of my favorite anime. Beautifully done, even the primitive CGI is used sparingly so it doesn’t distract too much. But the real thing that will bring you back again and again is the music. The Macross series has long had been a mix of mecha genre and pop idol genre, with one moving to the forefront over the other depending on the series. It’s what makes Macross stand out from the crowd and that means they have to be very picky about the music. And Sharon’s music is what makes this OVA go from “Great” to “Best.” With songs in English, French, Japanese, and even the fictional Zentradi language, it brings you in. And the stuff they talk about, drones replacing human fighters, AI idols, and all of that, it’s way ahead of its time. Sure, it’s not a perfect vision of what we deal with these days, but it holds up, almost 20 years later. I was glad I tracked down the OVA version, having seen the movie version on VHS tons of times. There’s a lot of changed scenes and context, as well as some new scenes, between the two. Personally, I prefer this version, but if all you can get is the movie, watch it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: If you can find it, this is one of the best mecha things made in a long time.
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