Postby TheSubtleDoctor » Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:35 pm
Library War
Production I.G. gave us this little gem via the notiminA block during the Spring 2007 anime season. After seeing it, I have to wonder why I haven't heard anybody really talk about it (apart from Mr. Cloggz). I found it to be utterly charming, compulsively watchable and truly addicting. It is a show that tries and succeeds at doing several different things very well. When it wants to be serious and dramatic, it can do so, but when it wants to be light and comedic and it also pull it off with aplomb. So, we get a simultaneously heartwarming yet intense whole that doesn't feel manic at all. I won't lie: there were a few moments that made these old eyes well up with feel-good!
The cast of characters is excellent. It's one of those groups that makes you end up rooting for each one of them, and there's not a dud in the bunch in terms of being interesting. The aforementioned Cloggz describes the cast as "admirable," and I think this is accurate. It's not just that they're cool characters, fully developed characters or even likable chaps. For me, Dilandau from Escaflowne fits these categories (love that guy!), but one thing he is not is admirable. You want your kids to be like, say, Kasahara when they grow up. In this same vein, the show is sincere. It wears its heart on its sleeve concerning a love for books, for reading and a passion for intellectual freedom. These are ideals that you can really get behind, and the cast's honesty about these things just increases my love for the show.
A real treat.
Macross 7 and all of its Ties-Ins
Oh man. This is a difficult show to write about. In order to convey everything I'd want to convey, I would have to write about both the history of Macross as well as my own personal history with Macross. I want to spare everyone that tedium. There's also the issue that, while I unashamedly adore the heck out of Macross 7, I can completely understand why people would and do hate it (not enough battles, overly cheesy, not SERIOUS). I'm not sure I could recommend this series without actually knowing the person I'd recommend it to.
But enough of teasing, vague prefaces. Macross 7 is, in a nutshell, about an emigrant space fleet who encounters energy vampires that can only be defeated by the power of rock music (thank you Master Dias for that description). There are some hooks for fans of older Macross series, such as the fact that Max and Miria Jenius play prominent roles in this series (their daughter is the main character). Yet, this show is VERY different than any Macorss show before or since.
Macross has always been about music, transforming robots and love triangles. Macross 7 has each of these elements, but it only carries out the minimum requirements for the love triangle and robots parts and really goes all in on the music element. And, really, this element of Macross, specifically the power of song and the way it changes people, has always felt like the core of the franchise with the other aspects being important but secondary to this.
The plot matters, but it doesn't. We have the band rising from obscurity to fame, the energy-vampires, their impact upon the Macross 7 and their subsequent fate. But, all of this plays second fiddle. Many people will be unsatisfied with the way the love triangle turns out, but while the series is about love, it's not about who ends up with whom. All of these things are interesting and make the show compelling, but that is not what the show is really wanting to communicate to you. Macross 7 is putting its beating heart out there, in the most cheesy yet sincere way, and saying "Listen to my song! Listen and be changed."
So, yes. It's different from any other Macross show in its delivery, but its message, I feel, is the very same.
Power to the dream.