Most people hate Macross 7, and it isn't hard to see why. It takes everything that made the original material so amazing, and tells it to piss off. The original was chock full of military might, and the movie (which is basically an in-universe retelling of the first series) retains that. Macross Plus continues this, and hell, even the second movie, which portrayed a pacifistic main lead, still had plenty of military action.
A lot of people hate this series, but me? I f***ing love it, and today I'm going to tell you why. SO LISTEN TO MY SONG!
First of all, let me introduce you to NEKKI F***ING BASARA.
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| Image courtesy of Absolute Anime. |
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| Image courtesy of The Macross Wikia. |
Fire Bomber (ファイヤーボンバー Faiyābonbā?) is a legendary rock band from Macross 7 (and related projects such as Macross 7: Trash, Macross 7: Encore, and Macross Dynamite 7)Key word here is legendary. Just take a look at their band: You've got a dude, a chick, a black dude, and a f***ing alien chick on drums. These guys are about as diverse as you could possibly get in mid-90's anime. And their entire schtick? They rock hard as f**k.
Seriously, they are rock stars in every sense of the word. They are already a big deal by the first episode. At the end, they've literally transcended into legendary status by virtue of sticking to their guns. Their music is some of the most amazing high-octane rock/metal to come out of anime. Think of the 80's hair bands, then crank it up to eleven. Now crank that up to eleven and you've got Fire Bomber.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself "What the f**k am I looking at? THIS is our main protagonist? This looks like garbage!" And I couldn't necessarily fault you for that. Because you see, our main boy, Nekki Basara, as I hinted at in the intro, is a pacifist. But he's no ordinary pacifist, you see. He's a super pacifist.
See, when aliens come knocking on the door of the Macross 7 (because that's the actual title of their fleet's flagship), Nekki isn't content to just sit around and let his concert get wrecked by this war bullshit. No. He goes out into battle and f***ing gets in the middle of the fight, and attacks everyone with his goddamn guitar.
You did not read that wrong. He literally fires speakers from a specially-modified cannon that shoots SPEAKERS INTO THE ENEMY so that they are forced to listen to him wail on the guitar in his cockpit.
By this point, nobody could blame you for saying "this is the dumbest f***ing thing I have ever heard in my f***ing life and you have just lost all credibility with me by saying this". But I implore you to finish hearing me out before you pass such harsh judgments, because I know for a fact that all of this is stupidly ridiculous. I'm not going to defend that. This is, by and large, the stupidest plot set up ever. It transcends mere stupidity. It is egregiously moronic.
And yet, I love it despite these things. Let me tell you why. It all boils down to one thing:
Nekki sticks to his guns, and never, ever backs down on his beliefs. He's an idealist, and despite being tested at every turn, he refuses to yield that peace is not an option. Even when everyone is trying to kill him, he is still trying his damnedest to force everyone to take the peaceful approach.
Let me come out and make this clear: Nekki Basara is f***ing insane.
I mean that in a clinical sense too. This dude is so totally unhinged, he makes Ozzy look like a damned saint in comparison. Johnny Cash was a pretty incredible human being next to Nekki f***ing Basara.
Which is, oddly enough, part of his appeal.
Nekki wants people to listen to his music, hence his catchphrase "Listen to my song!" Human, Zentran, something inbetween, he doesn't give two shits who you are. He just wants you to sit and listen to his music. Which has had an interesting impact not just on the series overall, but also on the people he met, and even all of the other Macross fleets. Everyone that knows him knows that he's insane. Yet, he still did something nobody prior to Macross 7 thought was possible:
He managed to weaponize music.
This is the important thing to remember about the legend that is Nekki Basara. The man turned music into a weapon. Minmei, the original songstress who reminded an entire race of what it meant to feel, has NOTHING on Nekki. He was the first to literally turn music into a weapon. I don't mean just the speakers he shoots at people to force them to listen, but also in terms of sheer damn effectiveness. A single powerful musician can turn an entire hostile enemy invasion into putty. By putting these guys on the battlefield, you gain an actual military edge.
I know this sounds insane, and that's because it is. But it all works off the internal logic of the Macross universe, and the effects of what Nekki did reverberate through the rest of the series. Everyone knew who Minmei was because she kind of saved humanity in its darkest hours. She was the original Songstress of hope. Everyone, everyone wanted to be like Minmei.
And then, Nekki Basara came along, and he was the first intergalactic hit artist. People heard his music, and they had to have more. Other Macross fleets heard about the research of weaponizing his music, and went "holy shit, this is a thing that is actually possible, we should try to find a way to utilize this ourselves".
Macross 7 feels like a 90's fever dream that is best left forgotten. It is a terrible show - it was so bad that it damn near killed the entire franchise, because after Macross Zero a couple years later we wouldn't see another Macross series for twelve years - and even Zero took another seven to finally materialize, and that was a MOVIE.
Everything about this series is over the top and filled with enough Narm to choke a boa constrictor. The entire season might as well have been a gas leak - something that the series tries to lampshade later on, and references as little as possible, never wanting to really admit that yeah, this happened, and we're kind of embarrassed by it.
The reason I love this series so much is that it embraces all of these qualities... and that the series as a whole never forgot about it. It happened. They aren't shy about it. They may not necessarily be proud that it turned out so bad, but as a whole, the entire Macross Franchise recognizes that this terrible series existed. When we say that Nekki Basara, and by extension Fire Bomber, are a legendary rock group, we mean that literally - every single Macross fleet out there has heard of these guys. Anyone who wants to be anyone pays homage to these guys, usually by covering one of their hit songs (and also adding their own unique spin on it).
By the way, I've gone this entire time without mentioning how f***ing awesome the music is. It's honestly the highlight of the series, and it's totally worth listening to even if you hate the show. That's how freaking great it is.
Macross 7 is ridiculous, over the top, and flips the bird to reality as often as it can. It operates solely on Rule Of Cool - I mean for god's sake, Nekki literally pilots his mech WITH A GUITAR.
Literally. A guitar. It's the stupidest f***ing thing imaginable.
And yet, the franchise embraces the whole thing. Nekki Basara happened. He is the greatest musician in the universe, and everyone will forever live in his shadow. Before Nekki, everyone wanted to be Minmei. These days, they all want to be Nekki - because no one has ever had such a broad impact on humanity since him. He proved, scientifically, that music was not only powerful, or had a verifiable impact on reality itself, but because of him humanity started figuring out how to turn that shit into a weapon.
All because one man just wanted you to hear him sing at any cost.
There are other things I love about this series too. Remember that guy from Knife Fight yesterday? His name is Maximillian Jenius. He married that alien chick? Yeah, I should mention that the backup guitarist girl? She's half-human, half Zentran. And also one of Max's many daughters. Also? He's in charge of the f***ing battle carrier for Macross 7.
As stupid as everything in Macross 7 is - and there's a lot of it - the impact of this series cannot be understated to the franchise as a whole. It set the bar for everything that's followed. All of the insane concepts that came up were actually taken seriously, and helped shape the rest of the series. Which is why I love this particular series.
It's bad. Undeniably bad. And yet, I can't help but respect the Macross team for continuing to acknowledge its existence. It's like the 70's and disco - that shit happened, and as much as everyone rags on it, at the time it was the hottest thing around. We might regret it now, but at the time, that shit was all the rage.
I can't help but admire a franchise that is willing to embrace something so terrible, and to recognize the actual impacts it had throughout the rest of the franchise. Macross 7 definitely isn't for everyone, and it definitely deserves a lot of the hate. But for all the negative things about this show, there's still something to be admired in it, because at the end of the day, it still feels very human at its core.
Which, really, is one of the best things about Macross in general. They tend to ask a lot of difficult questions about what humanity is, and what it means to be human. Between cyborgs, aliens, and artificial intelligence, the question of humanity is pivotal to the Macross Franchise, and permeates every work related to it.
And despite how stupid most of Macross 7 is, it still somehow manages to nail that particular aspect of the franchise perfectly, in my opinion.
It's hard to overstate just how important Macross 7 is to everything that's come after it, and by now I fear I may be starting to repeat myself. There's a lot to admire in it, but only if you can get past all the intentional camp crammed into it.
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