Instant Favorite.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

As I am from the United States, my first exposure to the world that is Macross actually came from Robotech, the combination of three anime titles: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. While there were some similarities to the original Macross storyline, between the Americanization of the story and the new English dialog, I don't consider that my first exposure to REAL Macross, although it did get me interested in the original anime.I recently had the opportunity to watch Macross Zero, a 5-part OVA (direct-to-video) prequel to Macross. I was just going to watch one episode at a time and decide if I enjoyed it or not. I ended up watching the entire story in one afternoon.The animation in Macross Zero is nothing short of stunning. The use of CGI animation with "old school" 2D animation is almost seamless and there are sequences which will just cause your jaw to drop (Roy Focker's first transformation of his VF-0 to Battloid is a prime example).The story, however, is not as strong. Part 5 of the series seems to suffer from a need for a part 6. Too many plot lines are resolved in the final episode in an unsatisfactory manner. The viewer is expected to assume the causes of some of the events seen at the beginning of part 5 which were not even hinted at in earlier episodes. The story is still quite entertaining, but it just loses cohesiveness at the end.The music is either good or bad. Actually, it is either extremely good or extremely bad. The battle sequences have a soundtrack which just draws you into the action. If you're REALLY crazy, you could even take the battle sequence music and plop into any Hollywood dogfight footage from the past 30 years. It's that good. On the other hand, incidental music for other non-combat moments is sub par at best, especially one of the main themes (don't know the name, sorry). You'll know the one I'm talking about, though, for two reasons: 1) There's a real high note which the singer just CANNOT hit, always comes up short.2) Obligatory naked anime chick in the scene where the music is used. What is it with this obsession with naked women in anime, anyway? This is a series which I will want to watch over and over (not for the naked chick - get your mind out of the gutter). I would even put money down for the soundtrack, although only for certain tracks. Too bad iTunes doesn't have an anime soundtrack section.

I've been waiting for another Macross series or movie coming up to reinstate its own strong genre in the anime industry, but i found it disappointing in this new prequel.1999. The year when an alien craft from space fell on earth, nations tremble upon knowing they are not alone in the universe, and different factions wage war upon the search for the ultimate weapon related to alien technology. Shin Kudo, a Un-Spacey pilot of an F-14-like aircraft fell to an island after having being shot by anti-UN fighter plane/mecha. He met the ancestral villages of a certain island led by Sara Noome as a girl with mystical powers that enable to float organic rocks through a song. After Shin's discovery of the mysticism, certain UN-Spacey troops landed on the island for related underground research that led also to more attacks and casualties by the anti-UN...and an unearthing revelation of a massive organic weapon 10,000 years buried beneath the island that may wipe out the whole human civilization.There were some points on the need to expand the Macross saga (amidst the non-inclusion of Kawanori's Minmay-Hikaru-Misa trilogy due to the copyright restraints) but it still cannot save the fact about the more details pertaining to one of the most viable weapon used in the whole Macross saga...the SDF-1. There is still no conclusion as to where the detailed origin of the space fortress being inclusive and informed in the prequel, and how the whole world had united to form the defense attacks prior to the first encounters with the Zentraedi. Furthermore, the good points goes to the relation of Protoculture origin through relations with the Mayan Civilization, and to the adaptability of evolving designs that leads to the famous VF-1.The prequel answers the crave for wanting to watch a new Macross saga, but after watching it, it's still lacks relative detail to the original story.

After watching Macross Plus, I was very interested in having a look at other anime series bearing the Macross name. Macross Plus is one of my favourite anime series of all time, so I thought it would be hard to top. After discovering Kawamori had made another Macross mini-series, Macross Zero, I was really looking forward to seeing it, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. At the very least, this mini-series is, for my part, well on par with the Macross Plus series. Both had a very memorable main song that will have you humming it for a good while after watching it.Parts are funny, parts are heartwarming and parts are incredibly emotional and sad. Oh, and let's not forget the fantastic action sequences. The blend of CG and cel animation was interesting, and one didn't intrude too much on the other's turf. One thing though - I really hate the way that characters don't finish sentences, for example they might say "Is that..." or "That's...." etc. This is a typical anime trait that I'm not fond of, but given all the plus points of the series I am more than willing to overlook this annoyance.Thoroughly recommended if you are a Macross fan, but if you haven't seen any Macross stuff before you might want to go over the history of the series by looking at the older ones first. That way you will get the most out of this gem of an anime.

A prequel to tthe eighties "Macross" series ? It could have been junk, but asides of some lackluster animation and stylistic differences between the traditional cell animation (characters, bgs) and non-ILM-quality CG (dogfights, mecha) it´s quite probably one of the finest first episodes I´ve seen in some time. Rumored to be a 5-part series, it deals with several interesting issues: UN forces unifiyng the world under one government to oppose alien invasion, anti-unificationists rebelling with superior mecha, anthropological research beginning to suspect mankind is genengineered by aliens, Roy Fokker (hero of the original series) testing the first production run VFs (modernized decently and visualized with one of the most beautiful transformation sequences ever)...and our hero is stranded not only on an island, but also without any distinctive political opinion.Technically great stuff, good writing, decent humor, interesting characters bearing some resemblance to the original "Rick Hunter" character, a youth shaped by the conflicts around him.