Macross Δ Movie 2: Zettai Live!!!

It's a good cheeseburger of a blockbuster, but if I had to rate from 1-10 the amount of Macross lore you need to fully understand it, it's a hard 9. Not only is it an epilogue of Macross Delta the series, it follows the CONTINUITY of the first movie that cut out things like THE war crime and the stereotype Middle Eastern character. But even if you're an American who's watched everything Hulu has to offer, you'd still be missing the Wrath of Khan aspect to the villain.

The film feels like it added all of the things Kawamori missed out on in the 90s ... doing Macross 7 that felt like a children's show from the 80s and Plus which was well ahead of its time. It features stuff like the sick Ghost Valkyrie designs that are like the Miami skyline got squished into a jet, Dark Walkure that feels like they're out of a Sailor Moon series, and the android that explodes its human skin to reveal it has a cannon for a head which seems right out of a tail-end bubble economy anime Manga Entertainment would license... without the copious amounts of blood, tits, and swearing.

All of this isn't fully baked and I'm disappointed the music producers didn't go hard into Dark Walkure instead of simply serviceable Daft Punk beats and pop punk lyrics. I'm thinking Jacqli's songs from Ar Tonelico 2 have the right feel of apocalyptic sound with electronic-tinged female vocals. Look up "EXEC_DESPEDIA/." if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Sexual vampire goddess Sheryl Nome would wipe the floor with this group.

Overall however, it's a fun movie that feels like Macross is back to setting the standard for spectacle instead of struggling to live in it, which has been one of Delta's big drawbacks. It's the most Macross of all of Delta, and if you want this story with melodrama written for the stars and gigantic, slick action sequences, this has it. The music features a bit too much repeating of what's in the series, but the big songs from the series are still pretty damn good.

It is a very refreshing movie. The script is quite new for the Macross series, taking into account that the love triangle has a much more complete ending. And the best thing is that the open plots of Frontier and the general twist of the series also have revelations that were much needed.
But it is a somewhat boring, linear movie and the surprise of the plot... I think the direction was bad in general. The script was good. Music was fine, the previus Macross series had much better music in general and this movie had very low quality in that reward. But was fine in ... the end.

My biggest issue with these movies is that they don't follow up on the TV series. This is a sequel to the first Macross ∆ movie, which is just a retelling of the show. The prequel leaves out some things that happened in the show and instead puts them into this movie. Hayate and Freya's stories have also been altered, so they're not exactly the same characters.

Visually, the movie is beautiful; both the action scenes and the Walküre scenes are great (there's just one CGI performance that could have looked better.) The new songs were great too, as expected. Just like the TV series, this ... movie follows Hayate and Freya equally, and their dynamic is really beautiful. Thankfully, Mirage is out of the love triangle and she gets some time to shine, too. I'm also glad that this movie addressed the conflict with Windermere, even if it was brief. At least Bogue got some screen time, and it was nice to see Freya's village. The role of music in the fights was interesting too.

The poster makes it seem that this movie will have the Walküre compete against a rival singing group. Unfortunately, those other girls are just AI creations with zero personality. Apparently, it's impossible for women to be antagonists in Macross ∆. Even the main villains are so mysterious that they aren't memorable at all. The ending was also a letdown for me. I knew where the story was going and I was prepared to cry, but when the characters show so little emotion, the climax falls completely flat.

Overall, this movie is okay. It has something that both mecha and idol anime fans will enjoy. But like I said, it's a different canon from the series, and the story could have been executed a lot better.