Otaku, No Video

News on Goro Miyazaki’s next film, Appleseed XIII, the second Macross Frontier movie, Toriko and Luffy to meet, more Evangelion manga, and fewer employees at Tokyopop.

Note: I wrote this review several months ago, and subsequently forgot to publish it. As late as it is, I’m proud of this review, so here it is.

Oh man, I love this show.

And I mean it that way. I love this show. Is it fantastic on any specific level? Debatably. Does it sport some flaws? Sure. But I love this show.

It helps that so many things work here. It has a high budget, actual character development, an overall plot that builds (slowly, but with a stately grandeur appropriate for a mecha show), a dash of romance, just enough comedy to keep the show from bogging down, and some great battle sequences.

Problems? Sure. There were times when I wish the plot developed more quickly. Some of the comedy felt out-of-place, closer to Godannar than a Macross series. A few characters were clichés, though they were fun clichés.

But those are quibbles. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this show.

Let’s go into details. But before that, a word about spoilers: This review will not reveal any significant plot events. I will refer to scenes such as ”the scene where girl A explains her feelings,” but I won’t reveal what that means. I will treat anything revealed in episode 1 as fair game.

Animation Quality (number of frames) — Wow. This is one of the higher-budgeted TV series I’ve ever seen. While it’s not quite movie-quality, the show feels lush throughout; there’s no “mid-season slump” where the animation quality drops. There’s plenty of facial movement, and the CGI work on the ships is just drop-dead gorgeous.

Character Animation (acting) — This may be my favorite aspect. The characters act; they express emotions beyond the stock expressions we typically see in anime.

This is particularly true later in the series; the last 5 episodes contain some of my favorite character animation of recent years. When Ranka tells Alto that she’s going along with Brera, Ranka’s face has a wistful, hopeful feel to it while never losing self-confidence in her decision. During the scene between Alto and Sheryl in the traditional Japanese house, Sheryl’s haughty and somewhat testy, without ever degenerating into the anime tsundere cliche. She acts exactly the way you’d expect someone in her situation to act: desperately clinging to her standard methods of dealing with the world, despite the cracks that have appeared in her facade.

Artistic Appeal — The show just looks good. Ranka’s cute, Ozma’s grizzled; everyone looks appropriate to their role and everyone’s easy on the eyes. The characters are easy to differentiate and well-animated throughout; there’s barely a scene where the characters look off-model.

Character Development — It’s rare for an anime character to really change during the course of a show’s plot. Macross has been defying this trend since the original series; its protagonists go through quite a bit of growth before the final battle.

So, too, in Frontier. While the story is arguably about Alto’s struggle to change, both Ranka and Sheryl grow significantly by the end of the show. I was particularly impressed with Sheryl’s plot, as she’s put through the wringer, and we see what that does (and doesn’t) change about her personality.

Also, several characters have tragic backstories, which very much affect their current behavior. I was impressed to see how this was handled. I didn’t particularly like Sheryl as a person for the first 10 episodes or so, but once I saw her backstory, not only did I sympathize with her, her personality completely made sense. Of course Sheryl is distant and controlling.

Plot Development — Well, this is space opera. It’s a story of giant space battle fortresses and hordes of mindless aliens, of fiery explosions and potential doom. It’s also a Macross story, so there’s got to be some singing and some emotional drama. So the question is, how well does it build up to its big ending?

Very well, thank you. And because I’m trying to write a spoiler-less review, I’ll write no more about that.

Originality — Again, it’s space opera, and it’s Macross. It’s also the 25th anniversary Macross series, so it’s not meant to be original; it’s meant to be a pastiche of and homage to Macross shows of the past.

And yet, it manages to do so while telling its own, original story. It’s a space opera story, so let’s just say it lacks subtlety, but at least it’s not a tired re-telling of any earlier Macross story.

Music — Yoko Kanno at her best. It’s a melange of John Williams, Toshihiko Sahashi, and Kanno’s classical orchestral work from Turn-A Gundam.

If it seems like I’m raving, well, that’s because I am. I love this show. It works on so many levels. It’s a grand ride.