Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A Brilliant Conflict

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I watched the English version of ADV Films translation of this. So parts of it may be different from the Japanese version.Plot Summary: The story centers around Hikaru, a young air show pilot. He is invited to attend the launching of the Macross, a restored alien space battleship that crashed onto Earth by his friend Roy Focker. But all hell breaks loose when the ship's original systems become active and accidentally fire upon and destroy ships of an alien fleet. War breaks out and Hikaru becomes a military pilot.The story explores the theme of war and what it means to the characters of the story. As events of the story occur, the characters begin to doubt their views/lifestyles that happened during the war and want to change society/themselves to be happier from it. Most prevalent of this is the love triangle that Hikaru haves with the two main female characters, the military officer Misa Hayase and Chinese-Japanese waitress turned music pop sensation Lynn Minmay. His conflict with his views towards war will ultimately decide which of the women he chooses.The character designs and mechs are great and beautiful despite the age of the anime. Vocal music of Makoto Fujiwara (opening and ending songs) and Mari Iijima (singer/voice actress of Lynn Minmay) perfectly reflects the tone of story, and it is great to listen to.However Macross does not come without its problems. The story lays the cheese factor heavily sometimes such as the characters going gaga over the "Power of Song" that either makes you laugh if how a society canonly united/saved through music of one girl (literally!), or drives you crazy with the (Minmay) songs playing over and over again. Producers try to tone down the "Power of Song" theme with the Rebuilding Earth arc of the story and making it less effective to enemies that are constanly exposed to it. However the producers do nothing to fix the real effect the war causes on the human population. Sure the city inside the Macross, the Earth gets destroyed, and death of some character etc reflects that war isn't great and deadly but everything is made peachy again with everything (environment and characters) nice, clean, happy go lucky and perfect again in the next episode. I know the producers are trying to keep the story upbeat but it gets stupid and repeative how they have to enforce the "happy" factor with a physical environment that would sent most of us (and the characters) to the loony bin.Overall Macross is a good story. It is worth watching

I was only 6 years old when I first saw this in 1982, thanks to my friend who brought home a video from Japan. Inside the video was the actual 1st episode of the Macross TV series, which aired October 1982. The first time I saw it, I was hooked to it forever! I remembered seeing the very first Valkyrie (fighter plane)that changed into a Gerwalk (plane with legs and arms) then a Battroid (robot, and the pilot was Hikaru.Since the first episode, I went on to endure the great emotions, the great cast, and the deepest animated TV story ever! Western folks should know that Macross hit America as Robotech in 1985, and it served as the American's "introduction" to Japanese anime. It was the Macross TV series where Japanese Anime (I made a thesis about this!) evolved to a modernized form, and giant robots changed as well. I also remembered seeing scenes which were banned/edited when Macross hit the US.You seen any video collection of Macross anywhere (preferably the English-subtitled version, NOT the Harmony Gold English-dubbed Robotech), then go for it! NEVER miss this series!

I credit SuperDimensional Fortress Macross for emotionally scarring me as a small child. Say what you will about the horrible edit of the evil Carl Macek when he made Robotech, but he did one thing correctly: He left the greatest sequence of any show or movie ever almost entirely intact.Yes, I am referring to the infamous scene where, having chased the Macross across the system and played a cat and mouse game with it for over a year, Zentraedi Supreme Commander BoDolza gets sick of it and simply destroys the planet Earth. The bombardment was one of the most traumatic things I ever experienced as a child (I was about seven when I saw it) and when I was roughly 17 or so, the only thing I remembered about Macross was that scene. I went to the mall in search of Robotech tapes, and suddenly became introduced to this thing called Anime.Thank you, Macross. You and your sequels (the good ones at least..Mac II was horrible..Mac Plus is awesome) will always remain dear to my heart. Miki

"Chojiku yosai Macross" is better known in America as the first third of the three part "Robotech" series in the U.S: sometimes subtitled: "The Macross Saga". Unfortunately this (bastardized) English version of this classic series suffers from over-zealous editing, so-so dubbing and an ill -conceived attempt to graft unrelated animation into the storyline to create a new continuity. I much preferred the original (subtitled) Japanese version that is available from Streamline Pictures. This so-called "Perfect Collection" is a series of nine (9) VHS tapes each of which pairs two (2) episodes of both the original Japanese version alongside their dubbed, Robotech counterparts. Unfortunately Streamline halted production of this version half-way through so you'll have to hunt around to obtain foreign copies of the second half of the series -- but its worth the search. The Perfect Collection tapes are still commercially available as of 9/98. The best place to pick up foreign copies of the remainder of the series is from collectors on internet newsgroups or on-line auction web sites. Streamline did produce a six-tape collection of the Robotech series entilted Robotech: The Macross Saga in the late 80s. This tape was distributed by, now defunct, Family Home Entertainment. This version is no longer commercially available and can only be obtained second-hand from collectors.Happy viewing!