Subject: REVIEW: MACROSS PLUS

From: syegul@!ix.netcom.com (Serdar Yegulalp)
Date: 6 Jan 1997 14:19:10 GMT

MACROSS PLUS
                       A film review by Serdar Yegulalp
                        Copyright 1997 Serdar Yegulalp

MACROSS PLUS (video) (pts. 1-4)

CAPSULE: Gives "Akira" a run for its money, and makes more sense. Gorgeous
to look at, and more than a little heart-tugging, too.

The excellent "Ghost in the Shell" hinted at what combining computer
graphics with conventional cel animation could do. "Macross Plus", an anime
series distributed in four 40-minute installments by Manga Video, ups the
ante even further.

This is quite simply the most astonishing-looking animated series I've
seen. It's also a hell of a story, lest we forget that the visuals are not
going to make it alone (which was the single biggest problem with
"Memories" -- stunning images and very shallow storytelling).

Set in the same universe as the other Macross stories (although seeing them
is not a prerequisite), the story revolves around three characters: Isamu
Dyson, a reckless but incredibly skilled pilot whose antics have gotten him
reassigned to a test pilot gig on his homeworld, Eden. Most other pilots
would veer shuddering from the opportunity, but Dyson gobbles it up, not
even blinking when he hears that the other folks who flew the transforming
fighter he's going to be testing didn't last more than a week.

Another plane is being tested in the same program -- a sleek monster that
is straight out of the Clint Eastwood movie "Firefox": the pilot operates
it with mental commands. And as it turn out, an old rival of Dyson's, Guld
Goa Bowman -- an alien halfbreed -- is the pilot. The two are snarling down
each other's necklines almost instantly.

Also on Eden is Myung Fang Lone, a former singer-turned-producer who is now
manager of the galaxy's most popular singer, Sharon Apple. Myung was
romantically involved with both men at one point, but something terrible
happened between all three of them at some point (the single weakness in
the movie's story is the use of the Gradually Expanding Flashback to reveal
this detail), and now tension rides high.

The plot twists come on quick and strong. First, Sharon Apple is a
computer, whose music-making is guided by Myung's thoughts in exactly the
same fashion that Bowman pilots his craft. No one outside of the inner
circle of Myung and her producer know this -- and there's even more to it
than that. Much more. And then there's the *third* plane being tested in
the project, about which the less said the better.

What's amazing is that with all of this hardware, the story is never less
than absorbing on the human level. The characters are all very strongly
delineated and draw us into their world without seeming to try very hard;
the voice-acting is also several notches lower than the usual anime
histronics, thank goodness. A spectacular score, second only to "Memories"
and "Akira", accompanies all the action, and is available on two CDs -- and
includes several songs allegedly by Sharon Apple which in my opinion have
the potential to chart. They are that good.

The ending is astonishing in its emotional impact. I will not reveal it
here. All I can say is that the last thirty minutes of the movie find the
perfect metaphors -- story, visual, conceptual, technical, what have you --
to get the point across brilliantly. "Macross Plus" deserves to share shelf
space with "Akira", or any of the Miyazaki films, as one of the best
examples of how animation can transcend its boundaries.

Four out of four virtuoid idols.
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