Introduction
After a mysterious spaceship crashes into Earth, humanity realizes that they are not alone. Fearing a potential threat from space, the world pushes aside their nationalism, conflicting interests, and cultural differences, unifying under the banner of the United Nations. The newly formed UN forces decide to repurpose the alien spacecraft, naming it SDF-1 Macross. Unfortunately, on the day of its maiden voyage, a fleet of spaceships belonging to a race of aliens known as the Zentradi descend upon Earth, and the SDF-1 Macross, acting of its own accord, shoots down the incoming squadron, sparking an intergalactic war.
In an attempt to escape, the Macross tries to launch itself into the Moon's orbit, but the ship—as well as the city it was in—is teleported to the far reaches of space. Caught up in this mess are Hikaru Ichijou, a free-spirited acrobatic pilot, and Minmay Lynn, an aspiring singer. These two, alongside Macross' crew, experience an epic journey rife with grief and drama, coming face-to-face with the cruelties of war along the way.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Gintokiee
first thing though this is a mecha which is the least mecha this is more culture than mecha more romance but has its charms in its great characters and the world building its just so quick that it just feels absurdily great and uneasy like a journey and the feel of great retro anime though more on the pg side ...
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but but the best thing about this and my favourite it moves like a war not a one mech show with op abilities its raw where be good and lucky or die just like a war which favors none just like what happens ....
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now to appreciate my goat of this anime so far and this season sir. Jenius man just outshines everyone has a alien wife and a superhuman kid and has been seen the most happiest in this anime romance wise so yeah he is a great character...
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now for some culture yeah mill…
Read at the sourceShadesukz
Intro:
SDF Macross was the first in a long-lasting series, focusing on the blossoming Mecha Genre of the time, and managed to focus on a much more grounded and, arguably, realistic take on the style.
Animation: 10/20
Age is dragging this down the most, but it's incredible what they were able to achieve with the cel-based animation style, and for the most part, stayed on model. Scenes are dynamic but obviously suffer from the animated 2s style of the era.
Story: 15/20
I was actually really gripped with the story, the twists and turns, as well as the much more mature and realistic style of writing. All of which were impressive to me, but a lot of the characters felt like they were constantly in conflict with their own emotions and acted like they had never been socially conditioned in thei…
Read at the sourcetheo1763
I have no idea if this was the first anime I saw or if it was Speed Racer, but Macross (or Robotech, as I knew it when I was growing up) is among the first things that I recall viewing as a kid. I was likely 8 or 9 at the time, and honestly, the only two things that actually registered back then were the mechs and the uniforms. Stumbling upon it again now as an adult, after having gotten into Gundam and other mecha anime, I approached it with a great many expectations. I ended up coming very close to dropping it because it just was not holding up for me. I'm also stubborn, though, and hate to leave anime unfinished, so I continued. While there were a couple of moments of enjoyment, I for the most part just felt disappointed. The show itself is rather meh, and by the latter part of the seri…
Read at the sourcePrashantttt
First Let's give it a correct -
Title ( Macross - A Total Disaster with a Cringe Story, Lame Romance, and Useless Characters)
Basically 90% of the 90s romance anime are xhit and macross is one of them ... If you’re looking for an anime that’s a complete waste of time, “Macross” is perfect for it . I thought I was going to watch a mecha show with some romance but what I got a boring, confusing story, a love triangle that makes you want to roll your eyes, and characters that are so irritating you’ll want to throw your TV out the window. Let’s break down all the ways this anime fails horribly.
About story ( a mess)
(Macross) tries to mix space battles, alien invasions, and love drama, but it just doesn’t work. It feels like the writers had no idea what they were doing and threw in every id…
Read at the sourceMarco_Yooo
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
If we are talking Mecha, there are a certain number of shows that still serve as the main inspiration for future shows of the genre. “Macross” is a show that has had a massive cultural impact both in the anime industry as well as japan itself. It´s refreshing mix of mecha and music cemented it as one of the most influential anime franchises ever, but how well does it hold up today in 2024?
Story – 8/10
The story is fairly straightforward. What sets this show apart from other shows of the genre is it´s pacifistic approach to conflict which was a new thing at the time, especially if you look at how war was treated in shows like “Mobile Suit Gundam”. The war itself functions merely as a vessel to contain the more personal, small-scale stories between our main…
Read at the sourceJastereich
The story of SDF Macross is about the war, love, adventure and other things. It is unique because it manages to weave all these aspects together in an effortless way that is not often seen in other shows trying the same thing.
Its strength lies in its fascinating story and well-developed characters. In the story, people find an abandoned alien space ship known as SDF-1 Macross and try to build it. However, alien invaders named the Zentradi show up and a war begins. Thus the Macross, its crew and 70.000 civilians escape to an unknown place in the outer solar system with Zentradi on their heels. They have to go through a lot of obstacles on their way back home.
It discusses the confrontation and later harmony between two groups, like aliens vs. humans, soldiers vs. civilians, and men vs. w…
Read at the sourcebboy_X
What do you get when you combine gundam, intergalactic warfare, idols, giants, and a harem? Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Until doing my research after I had finished watching this show, I had no idea that this was a beloved series known in the west as “Robotech”. Never looked into any of the other series from this franchise, so my experience with macross and robotech starts and ends with SDFM at the time of writing this. With that said, is this anime from 1982 still worth your time four decades later?
Short answer is yes, but really. How many series are able to juggle a love triangle, intergalactic war, and idolshit this tastefully? I’ll tackle each of the aforementioned topics on their own. So firstly, the characters. I’ve actually heard from other people that the characters are the…
Read at the sourceFashion_Mage
{minor spoilers}
As Macross started, I found the basic premise, theme (music/culture vs violent aliens) and story very fascinating, and I was gripped. Unfortunately, the story quickly descends into the most repetitive, contrived melodrama that I've ever had the displeasure of watching, filled with characters that behave in a similarly melodramatic and contrived manner. Additionally, despite the characters acting absolutely batshit, the series doesn't seem to be quite self-aware of this at all.
Macross' romantic plot can be summed up fairly easily into a few repeating segments. The two main characters Hikaru and Minmay meet at the beginning of the series, circumstances cause each of them to be trapped with each other, but before anything can develop they are saved from these circumstances…
Read at the sourceKatomegumi_10
Macross one of the best mecha anime in general
It has amazing character design and mech design
Combined with spectacle and good world building
And likable character amazing plot with the side of being campy
Most character contribute in the plot and not being a background
character
The mc has the good development hikaru choose a girl in the end
And not being a pussy
Badass character like max and roy
Amazing heroin like misa and minmey The singing is good and related to the story
One of the best love triangle in anime
Even thought its mecha anime
The idol heroine has good characterization and contibuting in the plot
For being the one who can spread the magic of the song more like the culture
And the transformation of vf-1 is amazing and has 3 mode
Read at the sourceEndless_01
An iconic classic that despite the age, still offers decent entertainment even if it is not perfect.
Macross is one of those iconic anime that managed to stand out worldwide during the 80s (well, it was Battletech actually) thanks to a good collection of positive factors, mainly its mecha action and cool style.
The story has enough cool new concepts to draw the viewer in; the war, the culture, the different encounters, the mecha, the macross, etc. These are cool and interesting concepts that are well explored as the story progresses, creating a good storytelling model.
The action, of course, is great. A clear difference in budgets can be observed between the dialogue scenes and the combat scenes. The combat is fantastic, fluid and violent, while the background scenes or conversations, o…
Read at the source_tyzu
First review! Having not watched much mech anime. Going into this one was more pleasant then I would of thought.
Story: 7
This series is mostly serious sometimes with a light silly undertone. The audience will crack a laugh or two. Specifically every time "protoculture" is mentioned. The main story-line of this series ends at episode 27. The story itself progresses in the same direction of aliens fighting humans until after episode 27. Then the story take a turn to focus on the aspect of life and relationships after the climax of the series. Some people may enjoy this. I found it to be too long; a whole 9 episodes feels stretched to end the story. Not to mention this part kind of made the story fall off.
Art: 7
I think the animation is fine for a 80's anime. I'm not expecting perfect…
Read at the sourceSpirit_Chaser
There will be spoilers.
In my experience, Macross pulled me into, as a witness to, a love triangle so painful and hard to watch that by the end I couldn't even decide. Even more bittersweet, is that it was a decision that ultimately came down to being more out of circumstance than personal choice. If you watch the film, "Do You Remember Love?" which I watched first, It makes the love triangle even more complicated because of the differences between that and the film's approach. The movie pushes in favor of Minmay and makes the effort to make Misa look very unlikeable in how hot headed she is and with rushed emotional development. One the other hand, the series pushes far more for Misa's very pleasant growth and emotional development with Hikaru for a long while, while making Minmay look u…
Read at the sourceSirLol31
TL;DR
Macross was made after Mobile Suit Gundam, but it still manages to change up the genre, the characters and the story are both well written, and the music is great: for me it’s an easy recommendation even for people that don’t necessarily like the mecha genre.
Story [10]
Macross’s story is divided in two arcs: the main one, from episode 1 to 27, contains the bulk of the story, while the second, from episode 28 to 36, mainly concentrates on the love triangle between the characters.
The first story arc moves at a good pace and it mixes war and romance beautifully: thanks to the action it never gets boring, but time is also given for slower moments.
The second arc is a bit slower and it concentrates on the love triangle between the main characters: it may get frustrating, but it clos…
Read at the sourcejpxavowwgamer
I started watching Macross playfully, "let's see this old anime, it's got a good grade and it has a cute character on the cover, and mecha is one of my favorite genres", that was my thought...
I started to see and came across a really cool story, with a good romance, and with a strong and beautiful character: Misa Hayase.
OMG! What a character!
The art is very detailed and at certain moments the animation sequence was very well done, I took a lot into consideration the limitations of the time, and I really loved the vibe, especially when Minmay sang during the battle with the main fleet, and Hikaru saving Misa while the Earth was destroyed.
About the sound, even with the limitations of the time, it could be better, but Minmay's songs are really good!
The characters are very good, Max is am…
Read at the sourceLostNomad4471
**Spoiler Warning**
Story 5/10
I had high expectations for this anime going in because I thought it had a really cool premise and I'm a huge fan of Mobile Suit Gundam, and it's painfully obvious this show was heavily inspired by Gundam. I mean Macross premiers in 1982, Gundam premiers in 1979 and both are about giant robots in space.
My biggest problem with this anime is it feels sappy and too sentimental. For example, there are several episodes where the aliens hear Minmay singing and than suddenly decide they don't like war and want to stop fighting. They explain how Minmay's song is the first music they've ever heard, but in despite of that I just find it impossible to believe that trained soldiers will just spontaneously change sides like that all from hearing one song. I mean mayb…
Read at the sourceTheCoolGuy82
Note: This is my first time writing a review on myanimelist so plz go easy on me.
After finishing countless gundam shows i feel kind of tired. I started watching macross with more of zero expectations bcoz of how old it is. But i was very wrong..
Spoilers:
Story:
Macross is a story of an alien spacecraft land on earth years ago and the humans with their Technology made Spacecraft Macross. It shows the realism of human existence (which was explained great). It also center around love Triangle (which i like the most about this show).
characters: the characters in macross are huge piller (since they are the ones that made this show most memorable
Music: Aside from lin minmay's songs and ops, eds. The music in macross is better than anything
Art: the artstyle may not be that Impressive bu…
Read at the sourceLaLeLuLiLo
There’s more interesting things to say of Macross as a show than about Macross and it’s story. From it’s conceptual beginnings as a parody of Gundam before getting scrapped. Being the only show in the Super Dimension series that lifted off into a franchise. It’s use of pop culture as a tool which lead to the iconic duo of pop idols and mechs the the franchise is now known for. And also being two of the three super dimension series that became part of the Robotech tv show. The last one being something I watched a bit as a kid and now as I am older, am seeing where some of it came from. Of course it’s not like the show has nothing to offer as it focuses on being entertaining, and does a good job at it.
Despite the shows plot being about a war between the United Earth and the extraterrestri…
Read at the sourcemendelwn
Macross sparkeed the love I have for anime, so do forgive me my bias. I have watched it countless times on TV as a kid back when it was known as Robotech, than watched it as Macross once when I was 16. Finally, I watched it again after I turned 35, and with that I suppose I can make a fair acessment of the real quality it has to offer.
Macross is a product of it's time and has not aged very ellegantly. I do prefer it over the movie (Do you remember love) when it comes to the story, but in all other counts the movie is the superior version.
All the characters are very dear to me and I still have the feels whenever I have anything with pineapples. What I mean by that is that all characters, and there are loads of them, have their time to shine and have some depth to them, even the three Ze…
Read at the sourceMast3r_waf1z
Here's my first review in my first viewing of all of macross, i'll be reviewing all the serialized anime on here.
please note that this is scores based on the fact that "it's for a show of that time" which means that the art is really bad for todays standards but for that time it's on the level of scooby doo which was a hit at that time so it's really not that bad.
Summary:
anyway, the good parts of this anime was clearly the story, NOT the characters.
i mean they were alright, i liked them all up to like episode 20 or 25 but the drama got stale, the whole cast's decisions outside of battles got really questionable and MC just litterally turned from a good guy to an asshole, i mean he's dense but NOBODY is that dense!
Pros:
cool ass mecha with some really well made sounds for an 80'ies…
Read at the sourcePockeyramune919
Originally from Anilist:
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross was a doozy.
I know that doesn't instill much confidence in its quality, but I can assure you that the show never dipped into absolutely awful territory. There were times when I was amazed at the show and there were moments where I couldn't help but wonder what were the writers thinking.
As a bit of a forewarning: it's difficult to go into a show (or any type of media, really) without it being colored in any way by one's previous experiences and notions. Prior to watching Macross, I had already immersed myself in the other premier mecha anime series: Mobile Suit Gundam. In fact, I spent a lot of time comparing Macross to its contemporaries - the original Mobile Suit Gundam as well as Zeta Gundam. Parts of this review will detai…
Read at the source
