Truly the definitive version of Macross Frontier.
At last i have some free time after i finished all of my final exam for this term and managed to watch all 2 movie adaptation of Macross Frontier. I have to say i am really satisfied with the Movie as it greatly surpass the former anime adaptation and this time the story have the right pacing and properly concluded, Shouji Kawamori should be proud with his work this time. For this post i will just discuss parts related to the first movie while i leave the rest in my 2nd Movie review.
Itsuwari no Utahime or the False Songstress is the first out of 2 Macross Frontier Movies and roughly cover the first half storyline of the former anime. Just like the anime series, the movie focus on Love Triangle which is one of the three Holy Trinity of Macross along with Dogfight and Music. The overall plots of the movie is still same with the anime as it still revolves around the love triangle of Alto Saotome with Ranka and Sheryl. However the story of the movie now is more engaging as the movie plows through the main plots in consistent rate and most unnecessary stuff from the anime like school life stuffs and filler episodes. Moreover the main characters are given more proper role this time as Alto is familliar with his love interests already from the start of the movie and enable him to reach romantic relationship with Ranka and Sheryl within the right pace.
While the movie retells the same story with the Anime version, it is essentially different compared to the anime as the movie takes different turns on the storyline and more convincing setting. The characters are given better roles this time which allow them to engage with the story properly. For instance Sheryl Nome really deserve her title as Galaxy Fairy and actually it is quite convincing that she is suspected as a spy in the movie.
The overall quality of the first Frontier movie is really amazing as you will see the budget for it are well spent and puts the Gundam 00 movie to shame. The animation probably one of the strongest aspect of Itsuwari no Utahime especially Sheryl's first concert which is really colorful. The dogfights animation are not bad either as there are plenty of fireworks everywhere though i still find it still abit unappealing for me due to being 3D animation. While the songs from the animation are still better than the new ones in the movie, they are still pretty decent and my favorite one is Obelisk. The first movie is still really engaging despite covering the first half story only even Kawamori decided to throw Tornado Pack for VF-25 to keep stuffs interesting.
I would say i am really satisfied to be able to watch the Macross Frontier Movie since i was disappointed with the anime series previously(and i will tell the reason in the 2nd Movie review). With the movie, Frontier is really solid Macross series released after the first Macross considering it is really strong in all 3 main departments of Macross and still manage to focus on Love Triangle as the main theme. Definitely you can watch the Movie without having finished the anime series and i would recommend so considering the movie still cover the main plots of the anime with way better representation.
Great review! I still stuck at the first movie but enjoyed the pace of movie even thought it's much of a retelling of the series with some variation to how Alto got to know Ranka. I will continue with it cos my friend told me there were alternate ending and a much happier ending to Klan and Michael.
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