Oh primus where do I begin. I need to explain first why those reading this won’t have seen any Macross series, since this is not the first, and no it’s not the seventh either. Well, time to take a deep breath and start.

Macross is another big mecha genera anime series. Starting with Super Dimension Fortress Macross from 1982. It featured iconic mecha that turned into Jets as people using the giant fortress ship (that could also turn into a huge mecha) called the Macross had to deal with the invasion of the alien Zentradi. It was a story of love and how music overcame cultural differences. Sadly we can’t watch this show, because of Harmony Gold and one judge’s highly questionable decision. 

You see Harmony Gold imported and altered Macross to make the first part of their Robotech series similar to what happened with Voltron. Then they just sat on the license and made it so no one could import legally the original series thanks to, as I said, a highly questionable judge’s decision. This was then also applied to almost every Macross  series. I’m not sure how Macross Plus the OVA series got through, but for years it was the only one we could ever legally watch.

Well that original series is still locked away because of that stupid decision, BUT all the other Macross shows are now viewable on Disney plus, which was the very reason my friend got the service and we have since watched all of Seven. For more info on the legal situation with Macross, you can probably find it from someone with vastly more patience than I.

Macross 7 is set thirty five years after the end of the original. A prologue helps explain some important details (that Macross Frontier didn’t and just assumes you know) on how Zentradi made peace and many used a technology to shrink themselves down to human size, in fact one of the main characters is a hybrid of the two, and child of 2 of the characters from the first series, and those 2 also appear in this.

The Macross 7 leads a colony fleet to establish a new settlement out in space this consists of both humans and Zentradi ( I should mention, normally Zentradi are giants). The fleet is home to Basara and his band Fire Bomber consisting of himself, Mylene, Ray and drummer Veffidas. The fleet over time comes under attack by a mysterious alien race that seem to be harvesting some power off the colonists for sinister means, while various love triangles form and Basara in his special custom mecha flies off to make the aliens listen to his music, which amazingly seems to be working and somehow fending off the aliens.

Similar to the original, it’s a story of love and the power of music, though going a bit more blatant with the last one this time, where before it nearly started to awaken elements in the Zentradi that leads to peace, here… well the show will explain it.

The show is 49 episodes long, but also had 3 OVA’s that are essentially stand alone episodes and then there’s a movie, and a crossover with frontier and some more OVA sequel stuff, the series proved its worth to the point they recently did a crossover toy with Optimus Prime turning into Basara’s jet (should have been Hot Rod) and a marked improvement over Macross 2 which form I’ve gathered was not as well received to the point it was considered non canon.

Compared to when I was watching Frontier and getting confused, this show does thankfully help if this is your first Macross show so despite our inability to currently legally watch the original series ( let’s continue to shake fists at Harmony Gold and that judge’s questionable decision) this one can work at that. And now I can continue with watching Frontier without hopefully being as lost as to how the giant woman suddenly was so small.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ MACROSS 7 Episode 1 “Speaker Pod”