If you've actually seen this movie, I'll be a bit surprised and assumed you either watched the awful Clash of the Bionoids dub, the better but extremely rare British VHS dub, or were like me and obtained the film through other means. My love of Robotech is no secret on this forum, and like most Robotech films, I agree that the part taken from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross is easily the highlight since Macross is just a phenomenal series. The studios behind the series thought so too so in 1984 they released a film adaption of the series. Unlike the Mobile Suit Gundam films through, they actually wrote a condensed and altered story while creating a completely new animation for the film.
The film begins in medias res, with the SDF Macross deep in space and trying to get back to earth. The ship had made a risky space fold maneuver to escape the alien invasion and had accidentally taken the island the ship was on with it. Saving the civilians, they rebuilt their community within the gut of the massive alien ship. The all male alien Zentradi tracked them down and has been engaging the ship in small battles as they try to capture the ship unharmed from the micronoids (humans). Hikaru Ichijyo is one of the ace pilots for the ship but in the most recent battle he rescues the civilian Idol Singer Lynn Minmei but crashes them into a part of the SDF that cuts them off from the rest of the crew. Trapped down there days, the two bond over the expectations other place on them. They are eventually rescued, but now have a romantic bond formed between the two. Hikaru sneaks Minmei away and steals a Valkyrie trainer model so he can show her Saturn's rings, but the two are captured by the Zentradi along with Hikaru's two superiors Roy Föcker, and Misa Hayes, as well as Minmei's manager and cousin Lynn Kaifun.
The group learns that the Zentradi are completely baffled by human culture and customs, as well as the fact that both genders intermingle. The intelligence gathered by them has started to cause confusion and mutiny among the crew who have only ever been bred for war and wish to learn more about this "culture" the humans speak of which may be linked to a strange music box the Zentradi commander has kept for centuries and is said to be linked to the fabled protoculture. The interrogation is interrupted when the Zentradi are attacked by the Meltrandi, their all female alien counterparts and sworn enemies who also seek the Macross. The humans try to make their escape but Roy is killed and Hikaru and Misa are caught in a space fold while Minmei and Kaifun escape back to the Macross.
I won't spoil the rest but even if you're familiar with the plot of Macross. the film takes a few interesting turns that will keep you surprised. The film does a great job of capturing all of the really big moments from the series and the higher production values are much appreciated. While I'm not a huge fan of the Zentradi redesigns, the higher quality mecha designs and the character designs closer to Haruhiko Mikimoto's designs are much appreciated. The original Macross was plagued with off-model episodes thanks to outsourcing and budget issues, but the film is absolutely gorgeous and insanely well animated. It's no surprise that this was one of the films that really inspired Studio Gainax. The film also does a better job of making the love triangle work better as Minmei character alterations from the Robotech dub and just basic value dissonance from the original are kind of swept away and instead her relationship with Hikaru feels much healthier. Likewise, the film finds some good ways to really keep the love story with Misa workable since a lot of her backstory and character moments from the original were left out of the adaption. Also, the film's main theme song "Do You Remember Love?" is a way better song than "My Boyfriend is a Pilot" to be singing for the fateful battle and I am still grateful Robotech had the common sense to also change the theme song for that battle to something a bit more epic and fitting.
This film is just a real awesome flick that reminds me why I love Macross and Robotech so much. While it's nigh impossible to find a legal DVD copy of this film unless you speak Japanese, I would certainly recommend it for anyone who loves Robotech, Macross, or just good space opera.
Coming Up: Well I can see once again that I made it just in time. The problem is in the past!
Everyone: *gasp*
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