[Ranks 30-21]

I thought I’d refine how I presented my guideline criteria from the last post. I think it’s very important to say that while I love characters, drama, crowning moments, etc. It is perhaps even more important to say that character design, mechanical design, and how these are animated are critical to my appreciation of anime. After all, I’m not talking about my favorite things in all of media – albeit my passion for anime exceeds that of the rest of film and television. I don’t consider the very best of anime to be as good let alone superior to the best of television and cinema (let alone printed literature).

Thus, you can have superb characterization, an interesting plot, great scale, superlative music and all, but if the illustrations in your anime aren’t good, and are not in motion in a way that makes love to my eyes then I will have difficulty favoring your show. Some of you may think this is a superficial means of appreciating anime. I say to you that you are wrong. Anime is nothing without moving illustrations and for me to favor a show I demand to be satisfied at some level regarding this element.

For this same reason, I welcome remakes, retellings, and rebuilds of past anime. Many of the shows I love suffer in some way from budgetary and/or time constraints during production and the results speak for themselves: characters go off-model, previously shown footage gets reused, characters conversing with each other are shown as dots on an escalator viewed from a hundred meters away, characters conversing with only their mouths moving, and so on.

The most spectacular things to animate are battles, showing the dynamism of the human form in the most exciting of ways. Expand this to the proportion of giant robots and you’re looking into the core of what gets me hot-blooded about anime. Older shows are often limited by budgets and the technology of the time. When such shows are remade, retold, rebuilt, we never lose the shows we’ve seen. We get a net of two works, and get to remember a whole lot of love with all the power and effort of new blood, new eyes.

Back to the list!

20. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

How could I rank a show that’s barely halfway done (as of this writing)? There’s two ways to think about this:

1. I’m so starved for Gundam that I’d take any new show set in the Universal Century and make babies with it; or
2. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn satisfies the very possibilities that attracted me to Gundam as a mecha anime franchise in the first place.

I mean, I did write all of 7 blog posts corresponding to a whopping total of three episodes right? I really must be crazy about this show, and I am. While not an ideal introduction to the franchise, and even less for the Universal Century, it brings with it everything I’ve wanted to see in the franchise as the standard bearer of real robot anime. This is a show for the big boys, and doesn’t apologize for it.

What do I mean? A romantic context further explored for the conflict that swept the Universal Century; an incredible exploration of the Newtype concept — once an albatross around Gundam’s neck as far as I was concerned; and perhaps most importantly incredibly choreographed and animated mobile suit battles. The stuff here is the best in the franchise, and I can’t be happier.

For the love of God Gundam make the next episode come sooner!

19. Macross: Do You Remember Love?

“I’m not alone anymore, now that you are with me” the dissonance of these lyrics, with what the song is doing to countless giant aliens, and the context from which the song came and is performed with… It’s an unmatched brilliance. Yes, there’s an 8 minute stretch of this film that constitutes for many, one of the finest moments of animation history.

It certainly captured my imagination, and its influence is something I’ll forever feel even in a matrix of meaninglessness that I wade through in my appreciation of this work – related to how this film is the prime example of how a continuity fan like me cannot approach my favorite franchise the way I want to, the way that feels natural to me. Whatever. I can look upon this movie as a pseudo-free and independent work that tries to get away with being unencumbered by continuity and at the same time remembering love for it. And Minmay, I can keep looking at Minmay.

18. Macross 7

I never tire of dealing with the hate Macross fans have for this show, the sequel in the franchise that I favor above all others. It’s interesting how casual anime viewers will never hate this. They will drop and dismiss it, but the activity of hating Macross 7 is a pastime of the passionate Macross fan. I don’t blame them, because they are ignorant and lack spirit. They seem to think of Macross as some beacon of excellence and purity at some level… perfect in some ineffable way of being both taken seriously and not taking itself seriously.

But they’re not prepared at what not taking itself seriously looks like in Macross 7. Granted, for its time the production values suck monkey butts after a banana buffet and the whole exercise is that of getting a show out every week in a 4-cour TV series. But those who really let Macross into their hearts experience something truly incredible at some point. Just like how enemies turn into allies by the power of song, we are all in awe of the Power to the Dream that is Macross itself, and Fire Bomber sings it out to us across the stars.

17. Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still

This show remains one of the most exhilarating anime experiences I’ve had, or can imagine. Everything about it is devoted to a presentation that is as awesome as possible. The integration of the OST with the action scenes is incredible, but not only that… the bombastic and dramatic score punctuates every dramatic moment giving it a gravity that feels far impressively heavier than the actual story is. I once sat through an 11-hour queue with the complete OSTs as my only company. It gave my pathos a dramatic dignity that entertains me when I look back upon the ordeal.

But the music is great too because it is more than matched by the stunning animation filled with extreme POVs which make everything bigger, deeper; move faster, with more power, and generally just be more awesome that if you’re not moved by the excellence of all this, then you have no emotion.

16. Sekai no Senki II

Banner of the Stars is a great space opera franchise, notable for its unique fleet battle dynamics. The use of inter-dimensional (fantasy) physics is a brilliant coup in creating believable, and incredibly exciting space battles. It is also notable for making the “bad guys” be the protagonists. The human lead, can also be easily read as a collaborator, a turncoat that serves the interests of the conquering “space elves” of the Humankind Empire Abh.

But this isn’t why I truly love this show. I love it because of the love story between Jinto and Lafiel. It had its beginning in Crest of the Stars, pushed along in Banner of the Stars I, but it’s in this OVA that it’s demonstrated in full. Jinto gets to be awesome without changing his character. Lafiel gets to be vulnerable despite being the one who saves the day. And Beneej Spoor steals the show in her usual spectacular fashion (and how!). So many little scenes that burned in my mind: Lafiel asking Samson for advice on how to face Jinto… Soobash taking over negotiations for a seething Lafiel and talking about Abh Hell… these are my most favorite moments in this franchise.

15. Summer Wars

A film like Redline will amaze and astound me, in incredible ways even. However, it takes something like Summer Wars to go beyond pumping me up like crazy and truly move me. This film has both crowning moments of awesome and crowning moments of heartwarming. Maybe it helps that I too come from a big ‘ol’ family with colorful gatherings, albeit we are neither landed nor have samurai histories that figure in notable battles in the Sengoku period (nor Japanese for that matter).

Also, I really enjoy how it’s almost present-day in its futurism. That sounds incredibly illogical but bear with me here. The interconnected world of OZ isn’t that big a leap for me to imagine, as it’s kind of like making payments and generally running your day-to-day lives using social media like Twitter and Facebook. Of all these I like Google+ the most, and it’s not terribly difficult for me to imagine how such a big bully of the internet can put all the pieces together at some point — albeit its current stance on avatars and real names. I suppose one must use real names on OZ.

Google goes Koi Koi! in my face.

14. I Can Hear The Sea/Ocean Waves

This film is unique to my list because there is no spectacle here in any way. Even its most dramatic moments are executed with a lot of restraint, which is wholly not in keeping with the stories of how this production went over schedule and over budget as a showcase of what would’ve been the “future” of Studio Ghibli. What it is, is a high school love story in the countryside — complete with the appropriate slow pace and fine attention to detail.

It is in these details, that you’d find in a show like K-On!! but not with the same level of restraint and (somehow, gravitas) that this show truly shines. It’s a mundane story about young love, but even if we could not relate to it (my high school and university experience is certainly quite unlike it) it gives me a sense of the universal. It’s a movie to fall in love with.

13. Whisper of the Heart

This film is even sillier and more child-like than any of the previous films, but I watched it relatively recently and I was spellbound by its charms. Certainly the ending would have gone down rather startlingly rough had I not been enchanted by Ghibli magic. It’s a funny place to look, here in these quiet urban story of a little girl discovering love in a rather unusual way for a high school romance.

Perhaps what got me about this story is the simple, heartfelt music. The dissonance of a city girl singing “Country Road” in re-interpreted Japanese verse is strangely affecting for me. There is a longing for an existence she knows little about, having grown up in the city… but she writes about a “Concrete Road” that will take her home… but she has never left! This leads to two different kinds of journeys, buy I don’t want to give too much away. Talk to me when you’ve seen it.

12. Aria the Origination

One thing that never fails to strike me about this installment is how it doesn’t lose the slow, pondering way that allowed us to take in the air of Neo Venezia over the previous 39 episodes and yet make us feel the weight of a ton of bricks on our chests for how we are seeing it for the last time, as if rushing to this end being set up so carefully and for so long. The passing of things is to me so bitter — not so much the career turns of the vaunted trio primas, but with the ascension of the friends means the passing of their days spent together.

But was it not for this end? It always was. But the show made us forget it as is the work of the undine themselves: they’re not there to be the attractions, they’re there to show us Neo Venezia. But of course they would be the attractions too, as if they could help it. They’re the humans that humanize the place, and Aika who is the most human of all, steals this show is its dramatic best.

11. Honey & Clover Second Season

I did not expect anime to come up with such a remarkably heart wrenching and relatable show. I too, was in university once, and was frustrated by love in an even more bitterly fought triangle caught up with heady notions of all the art I’ll do in life.

The first season was damned good, but it’s the finality and resolution that this installment brings that sends the show home for me. The bigger questions were all asked here, and while some time was spent with characters I care less about, it’s how it all points towards the big compromise at the end that makes the show unforgettable for me. I mean, how can I ever be satisfied with anything that happened  in the end? But it is exactly this, how Honey & Clover went out of its way seemingly to frustrate me, to deny me the wholesome feeling I craved that I appreciate so much.

It makes me be at peace at how the character I like the least gets to narrate the show, as if this was his own story. I don’t accept him even if he gets to eat those sandwiches. I just console myself that whatever sweetness is there between those slices of bread is turn to ashes in his mouth by the burning tears falling like a firestorm from his eyes. Wait, why am I crying too?!

My ghost is glowing with an awesome power and its loud roar is telling me to seize victory, and put up a table summary:

*Shows that are still ongoing as of this writing, but I’ve convinced myself they could tank the rest of the way and I’ll still love them (at least until I watch more anime).

As you’ve probably begun to notice, the friends  that I’ve brought over to comment on the different shows are stars of their own respective shows on the list. I needed to rely on their being to articulate things I have trouble saying myself, despite my variable abilities of appreciating anime. It’s also strange to me how the animated films kind of bunched together at 15-13 excluding DYRL at 19; it kind of just worked out that way. I do realize now, after a year of thinking through this list, that as amazing anime films can be, I can’t prefer them to the sustained excitement I get from quantity. I like long series because I get more goodness in more episodes. But does that mean Legend of the Galactic Heroes at 110 episodes will storm the highest of ranks? Let the opening paragraphs of this post also be your guide.

Happy Armstice Day! Today Macross fans share a celebration of peace to go along with the more solemn remembrance of love for the dead related to the World Trade Center crashes a decade ago, which then became the impetus for a new war. As part of this celebration I perform my annual rewatch of Macross: Do You Remember Love? the show that actually mentioned September 11th as the date an armstice was reached between the Zentreadi and the Miclones. I have now seen this film 11 times, at least 5 times the past 3 years.

In this post I will examine this film as a propaganda piece for the UN SPACY Earth-Zentran government, and some of its key variation with the more extensive TV series which prove to be far more critical of the UN SPACY’s involvement in the Great Space War. It begins with Lynn Minmay.

In the account provided in the TV Series, it was the Zentraedi who took the initiative to find out more about the humans, from surveillance, to kidnapping, to inserting spies, and ultimately by sending Exsedol Folmo as ambassador to the Macross (some records say that the treaty was signed in February 11, 2009). This is a very sympathetic view of the Zentraedi without ignoring or whitewashing the notion that they are a race genetically manipulated for warfare.

In the propaganda film DYRL there is ample interest and investigation of the Miclones by the Zentraedi, entirely fueled by both curiosity and dread towards the Protoculture. There was no envoy sent to the SDF-1. Rather, it was the continued incarceration (post-abduction) of Minmay that allowed her to act as the envoy of Earth towards the Zentrans. By the time she is returned to the Macross, Global already announced the Armstice.

Did Minmay tame the Zentraedi while she was there? With Bodolle Zer too?

If Britai and Exsedol shared the melody for “Ai oboete imasu ka?” to Minmay, did she not perform songs for them while she was there? After all, she did a recording of the melody that was broadcast during the Armstice announcement. Minmay wasn’t rescued, she was returned. In  the TV series account, the only time Minmay was abducted, the damage she did to the Zentraedi was complete. It was Kamujin’s work in a straight kidnap-for-ransom operation.

Why is this important? It’s because the final decisive battle is very important.

In DYRL, the Armstice was signed after Bodolle Zer (presumably) destroyed almost all the Earth’s surface. Also, the Armstice was signed (presumably) without Bodolle Zer’s knowledge or, he didn’t really care much about Britai making this peace. Why? It’s because the Armstice was precisely with the 425th Bodolle Fleet – Britai had not broken from Bodolle Zer at this point.

Britai represented Bodolle Zer’s own interests at this point, the Earth didn’t pose much of a threat having been reduced to ruin, with the Macross itself heavily damaged and its main gun no longer operational. All of this happened off-screen which reduces me to speculation. I don’t even know how to begin the casting of the Meltrandi as the primary enemy of the Zentradi.

Exsedol confirmed with Britai that they were forbidden to watch any broadcasts until after the “operation.” This makes me think that Bodolle Zer instructed him to go ahead with the Armstice only to betray the humans. But…

“I also, would like to try becoming a Miclone” – Vrlithwai (Britai)

“That was a joke… Mimay of the Protoculture taught me. Evidently it means ‘I am not serious’.”

“Deculture.” – Exsedol

LOL this is where it gets problematic. Why would Bodolle Zer have to resort to this kind of duplicity? For one, he isn’t a wily human used to statecraft. This should at least explain the clumsiness of it all. But on the other hand, there’s really no need whatsoever to further indulge this since the Earth is practically annihilated, unless they are trying to find a weapon they can use against the Meltrandi. Bodolle Zer later confirms:

The Armstice was signed to develop Minmay’s song as a means to make the Meltrandi surrender.

But then Laplamiz shows up, apparently to take on what seems to be a vastly numerically superior force of the Bodolle fleets. Bodolle Zer assesses that the song won’t be finished on time, and then decides to just fuck everyone. Shoots his ultimate death ray, taking out Laplamiz and tens of thousands of his own ships.

(Meanwhile, MAX JENIUS HAS TOTALLY DEFECTED TO THE MELTRANS AND HAS UNDERGONE MACRONIZATION TO PILOT A BLUE QUAEDLUN-RAU WITH MILLYA, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT MAX? SERIOUSLY)

When Minmay starts singing, Britai and Exsedol started feeling that Culture was really, really, REALLY important and that this song represents the hope that they as a race can reacquire it. Thus, they throw themselves behind the Macross, an instantaneous mutiny/defection of the 67th Glruimal branch Adoclass Fleet. Britai promises to protect the Macross and pave the way to attack Bodolle Zer’s capital ship.

“To all listening to Minmay’s song, we but have one enemy. Defeat Golg Bodolle Zer… and restore Culture to our race.”

There was no real tactics, none. Bodolle Zer just got surprised by the sudden mutiny, add to this the chaos caused by him fragging his own front line, and suddenly the Macross is punching a hole in Bodolle Zer’s ship and that’s pretty much all she wrote.

This is all very important, especially when reading DYRL as a UN SPACY propaganda film. the Zentraedi defected at the last minute for the express purpose of protecting culture. The effect of Minmay’s song is to inspire this longing for culture. Britai and Exsedol later reflect on the  power of one song to have done all this.

Contrast this with the TV Series. The effect of Minmay’s singing, is the precise weapon used against Bodolle Zer’s grand fleet. Laplamiz and Britai were forced to fight alongside each other because Bodolle Zer considered all of them contaminated by Culture and therefore must be annihilated. Minmay singing her discography sent Zentraedi into culture shock! Those who haven’t heard it before literally went into a form of shock, rendering them incapacitated for battle.

Why omit this, as a propagandist? Was it a mere concession to Minmay? To hear her is to love her? No shock involved, only awe? Certainly, Britai comes off perhaps better here. He really saved the day, and for a very PR-friendly reason. After all, Britai became the UN SPACY’s commander in 2015… but, the movie premiered no sooner than 2032! Britai wouldn’t have had a practical need for it. Some records show that the movie rekindled a Minmay boom, so maybe it really just was a Minmay tribute.

After all, there could’ve been Zentraedi fanboys who struck it rich like Richard Bilrer did in Macross Frontier, and who knows what his involvement was in this enterprise. I think there is more than one truth, and the speculation for all of these truths remains an interesting activity for a fanboy like me.

Some records show, however, that in 2030 the second battle of Macross City occurred, the attack was made by armored Zentraedi. The succeeding legislation resulted in giant Zentraedi prohibited from Earth. Thus, it does make sense that DYRL is a propaganda piece. We just need to think for whom it was propaganda for?

It was for the Zentreadi, for lack of the actual Minmay (who disappeared with the Megaroad-01), they had to make ALL the Zentraedi uh, well, remember love.

The records I consulted may be found here, in the old compilation of often conflicting Macross histories (for reasons Kawamori)

In Macross Dynamite 7, Basara sang to space whales. This isn’t the spoiler. The spoiler is how the biggest Moby Dick of the space whales sang along. This moment is a very divisive thing among Macross fans. For those who already hate Macross 7, this is the pinnacle of everything wrong with it. For those who love it, it is the most crowning moment of awesome for the sub-franchise, and of Macross itself.

Infinite Ryvius had space whales too (or according to some, galactic squid) but no one takes it against that show. It’s always taken seriously for good or bad. No one takes Macross 7 seriously, or rather, gives it any real credit, even fans who like it. It’s as if there was something intrinsically wrong with the very idea of space whales and how it shouldn’t be part of a show the fans oh so want to take seriously like Macross.

Well, I’m telling you that the Macross itself, is a big fucking space whale. The first act of Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a play on the story of being in the belly of the whale. The Bible did it in the Book of Jonah. Disney did it with Pinocchio. The belly of the whale is a place like purgatory, it’s a place to both despair, repent, and make dreams. Here is where we find Hikaru and Minmay.

In discussions of Macross, I seldom come across mentions of the whole trapped in the hold affair. Informally I get references about “fishing in space” where the space tuna visible from the giant window. I recall the school of tuna being frightened by the giant eye of Monstro the Whale from Disney’s Pinocchio only here the tuna is dead, and the only threat from Macross the Whale is Hikaru on a rope.

Both Hikaru and Minmay are faced with the idea that life as they knew it has ended. They are now in a new world – uncertainty for both obviously, but Minmay would eventually see this as opportunity, while Hikaru would think of it as loss – of his past life as a pilot? Sure, but also the loss of that innocent moment with Minmay when he fell for her, where he was the only man left for her.

They pretended to have a wedding ceremony and would’ve kissed!

Macross: Do You Remember Love? did it very differently. Both characters are already professionals. Here it’s unclear why Minmay was attracted to Hikaru only that she really did take an obvious interest in him. She was coquettish and teasing, but here she actually kissed him. There was no wishy-washiness about Minmay here. She had it for Hikaru and likewise, obviously.

The production values were also through the roof – the film really treated this episode as an important set-piece and it showed.

Jonah was swallowed by the sea monster because he disobeyed God. He wanted no part of preaching to Niniveh so God sent the beast to swallow him until he broke. Pinocchio got swallowed by Monstro because he was trying to rescue Gepetto. In both cases, being in the belly was the culmination of the struggle. Upon escape they had less if not no conflicts left to resolve in their respective narratives.

In Macross, the belly of the whale incident happens to set up much of the narrative. It is a launching device rather than the height of the drama.

The point of this is, the space whale is important in Macross. The space whale is Macross itself.

The Zentraedi ships… particularly Britai’s flagship has the silhouette of a sperm whale. The main cast gets trapped in the belly of that whale too! Misa, Hikaru, in SDFM, Minmay was with them in DYRL. It’s not climactic, but it is definitely pivotal.

This brings us to Macross Dynamite 7. This side story has no bearing on any of the main narratives. Macross Plus introduced technology that became part of future shows. MD7 is pretty much an open-ended dead end. It resolves nothing important to the narrative, so what is its value? It is a kind of fanservice. Better production values due being an OVA is one, having that whole Mylene almost raped by a psycho lesbian is another…

But the real juice is Basara singing to the space whales. He already turned Gepelnitch to his song, so what’s next? Why space whales? For whatever other reason, it’s also because whales are a symbol of Macross. The Megaroads, the Macross Class colony ships, they’re all space whales spreading culture to the ends of the galaxy.

[Ranks 30-21]

I thought I’d refine how I presented my guideline criteria from the last post. I think it’s very important to say that while I love characters, drama, crowning moments, etc. It is perhaps even more important to say that character design, mechanical design, and how these are animated are critical to my appreciation of anime. After all, I’m not talking about my favorite things in all of media – albeit my passion for anime exceeds that of the rest of film and television. I don’t consider the very best of anime to be as good let alone superior to the best of television and cinema (let alone printed literature).

Thus, you can have superb characterization, an interesting plot, great scale, superlative music and all, but if the illustrations in your anime aren’t good, and are not in motion in a way that makes love to my eyes then I will have difficulty favoring your show. Some of you may think this is a superficial means of appreciating anime. I say to you that you are wrong. Anime is nothing without moving illustrations and for me to favor a show I demand to be satisfied at some level regarding this element.

For this same reason, I welcome remakes, retellings, and rebuilds of past anime. Many of the shows I love suffer in some way from budgetary and/or time constraints during production and the results speak for themselves: characters go off-model, previously shown footage gets reused, characters conversing with each other are shown as dots on an escalator viewed from a hundred meters away, characters conversing with only their mouths moving, and so on.

The most spectacular things to animate are battles, showing the dynamism of the human form in the most exciting of ways. Expand this to the proportion of giant robots and you’re looking into the core of what gets me hot-blooded about anime. Older shows are often limited by budgets and the technology of the time. When such shows are remade, retold, rebuilt, we never lose the shows we’ve seen. We get a net of two works, and get to remember a whole lot of love with all the power and effort of new blood, new eyes.

Back to the list!

20. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

How could I rank a show that’s barely halfway done (as of this writing)? There’s two ways to think about this:

1. I’m so starved for Gundam that I’d take any new show set in the Universal Century and make babies with it; or
2. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn satisfies the very possibilities that attracted me to Gundam as a mecha anime franchise in the first place.

I mean, I did write all of 7 blog posts corresponding to a whopping total of three episodes right? I really must be crazy about this show, and I am. While not an ideal introduction to the franchise, and even less for the Universal Century, it brings with it everything I’ve wanted to see in the franchise as the standard bearer of real robot anime. This is a show for the big boys, and doesn’t apologize for it.

What do I mean? A romantic context further explored for the conflict that swept the Universal Century; an incredible exploration of the Newtype concept — once an albatross around Gundam’s neck as far as I was concerned; and perhaps most importantly incredibly choreographed and animated mobile suit battles. The stuff here is the best in the franchise, and I can’t be happier.

For the love of God Gundam make the next episode come sooner!

19. Macross: Do You Remember Love?

“I’m not alone anymore, now that you are with me” the dissonance of these lyrics, with what the song is doing to countless giant aliens, and the context from which the song came and is performed with… It’s an unmatched brilliance. Yes, there’s an 8 minute stretch of this film that constitutes for many, one of the finest moments of animation history.

It certainly captured my imagination, and its influence is something I’ll forever feel even in a matrix of meaninglessness that I wade through in my appreciation of this work – related to how this film is the prime example of how a continuity fan like me cannot approach my favorite franchise the way I want to, the way that feels natural to me. Whatever. I can look upon this movie as a pseudo-free and independent work that tries to get away with being unencumbered by continuity and at the same time remembering love for it. And Minmay, I can keep looking at Minmay.

18. Macross 7

I never tire of dealing with the hate Macross fans have for this show, the sequel in the franchise that I favor above all others. It’s interesting how casual anime viewers will never hate this. They will drop and dismiss it, but the activity of hating Macross 7 is a pastime of the passionate Macross fan. I don’t blame them, because they are ignorant and lack spirit. They seem to think of Macross as some beacon of excellence and purity at some level… perfect in some ineffable way of being both taken seriously and not taking itself seriously.

But they’re not prepared at what not taking itself seriously looks like in Macross 7. Granted, for its time the production values suck monkey butts after a banana buffet and the whole exercise is that of getting a show out every week in a 4-cour TV series. But those who really let Macross into their hearts experience something truly incredible at some point. Just like how enemies turn into allies by the power of song, we are all in awe of the Power to the Dream that is Macross itself, and Fire Bomber sings it out to us across the stars.

17. Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still

This show remains one of the most exhilarating anime experiences I’ve had, or can imagine. Everything about it is devoted to a presentation that is as awesome as possible. The integration of the OST with the action scenes is incredible, but not only that… the bombastic and dramatic score punctuates every dramatic moment giving it a gravity that feels far impressively heavier than the actual story is. I once sat through an 11-hour queue with the complete OSTs as my only company. It gave my pathos a dramatic dignity that entertains me when I look back upon the ordeal.

But the music is great too because it is more than matched by the stunning animation filled with extreme POVs which make everything bigger, deeper; move faster, with more power, and generally just be more awesome that if you’re not moved by the excellence of all this, then you have no emotion.

16. Sekai no Senki II

Banner of the Stars is a great space opera franchise, notable for its unique fleet battle dynamics. The use of inter-dimensional (fantasy) physics is a brilliant coup in creating believable, and incredibly exciting space battles. It is also notable for making the “bad guys” be the protagonists. The human lead, can also be easily read as a collaborator, a turncoat that serves the interests of the conquering “space elves” of the Humankind Empire Abh.

But this isn’t why I truly love this show. I love it because of the love story between Jinto and Lafiel. It had its beginning in Crest of the Stars, pushed along in Banner of the Stars I, but it’s in this OVA that it’s demonstrated in full. Jinto gets to be awesome without changing his character. Lafiel gets to be vulnerable despite being the one who saves the day. And Beneej Spoor steals the show in her usual spectacular fashion (and how!). So many little scenes that burned in my mind: Lafiel asking Samson for advice on how to face Jinto… Soobash taking over negotiations for a seething Lafiel and talking about Abh Hell… these are my most favorite moments in this franchise.

15. Summer Wars

A film like Redline will amaze and astound me, in incredible ways even. However, it takes something like Summer Wars to go beyond pumping me up like crazy and truly move me. This film has both crowning moments of awesome and crowning moments of heartwarming. Maybe it helps that I too come from a big ‘ol’ family with colorful gatherings, albeit we are neither landed nor have samurai histories that figure in notable battles in the Sengoku period (nor Japanese for that matter).

Also, I really enjoy how it’s almost present-day in its futurism. That sounds incredibly illogical but bear with me here. The interconnected world of OZ isn’t that big a leap for me to imagine, as it’s kind of like making payments and generally running your day-to-day lives using social media like Twitter and Facebook. Of all these I like Google+ the most, and it’s not terribly difficult for me to imagine how such a big bully of the internet can put all the pieces together at some point — albeit its current stance on avatars and real names. I suppose one must use real names on OZ.

Google goes Koi Koi! in my face.

14. I Can Hear The Sea/Ocean Waves

This film is unique to my list because there is no spectacle here in any way. Even its most dramatic moments are executed with a lot of restraint, which is wholly not in keeping with the stories of how this production went over schedule and over budget as a showcase of what would’ve been the “future” of Studio Ghibli. What it is, is a high school love story in the countryside — complete with the appropriate slow pace and fine attention to detail.

It is in these details, that you’d find in a show like K-On!! but not with the same level of restraint and (somehow, gravitas) that this show truly shines. It’s a mundane story about young love, but even if we could not relate to it (my high school and university experience is certainly quite unlike it) it gives me a sense of the universal. It’s a movie to fall in love with.

13. Whisper of the Heart

This film is even sillier and more child-like than any of the previous films, but I watched it relatively recently and I was spellbound by its charms. Certainly the ending would have gone down rather startlingly rough had I not been enchanted by Ghibli magic. It’s a funny place to look, here in these quiet urban story of a little girl discovering love in a rather unusual way for a high school romance.

Perhaps what got me about this story is the simple, heartfelt music. The dissonance of a city girl singing “Country Road” in re-interpreted Japanese verse is strangely affecting for me. There is a longing for an existence she knows little about, having grown up in the city… but she writes about a “Concrete Road” that will take her home… but she has never left! This leads to two different kinds of journeys, buy I don’t want to give too much away. Talk to me when you’ve seen it.

12. Aria the Origination

One thing that never fails to strike me about this installment is how it doesn’t lose the slow, pondering way that allowed us to take in the air of Neo Venezia over the previous 39 episodes and yet make us feel the weight of a ton of bricks on our chests for how we are seeing it for the last time, as if rushing to this end being set up so carefully and for so long. The passing of things is to me so bitter — not so much the career turns of the vaunted trio primas, but with the ascension of the friends means the passing of their days spent together.

But was it not for this end? It always was. But the show made us forget it as is the work of the undine themselves: they’re not there to be the attractions, they’re there to show us Neo Venezia. But of course they would be the attractions too, as if they could help it. They’re the humans that humanize the place, and Aika who is the most human of all, steals this show is its dramatic best.

11. Honey & Clover Second Season

I did not expect anime to come up with such a remarkably heart wrenching and relatable show. I too, was in university once, and was frustrated by love in an even more bitterly fought triangle caught up with heady notions of all the art I’ll do in life.

The first season was damned good, but it’s the finality and resolution that this installment brings that sends the show home for me. The bigger questions were all asked here, and while some time was spent with characters I care less about, it’s how it all points towards the big compromise at the end that makes the show unforgettable for me. I mean, how can I ever be satisfied with anything that happened  in the end? But it is exactly this, how Honey & Clover went out of its way seemingly to frustrate me, to deny me the wholesome feeling I craved that I appreciate so much.

It makes me be at peace at how the character I like the least gets to narrate the show, as if this was his own story. I don’t accept him even if he gets to eat those sandwiches. I just console myself that whatever sweetness is there between those slices of bread is turn to ashes in his mouth by the burning tears falling like a firestorm from his eyes. Wait, why am I crying too?!

My ghost is glowing with an awesome power and its loud roar is telling me to seize victory, and put up a table summary:

*Shows that are still ongoing as of this writing, but I’ve convinced myself they could tank the rest of the way and I’ll still love them (at least until I watch more anime).

As you’ve probably begun to notice, the friends  that I’ve brought over to comment on the different shows are stars of their own respective shows on the list. I needed to rely on their being to articulate things I have trouble saying myself, despite my variable abilities of appreciating anime. It’s also strange to me how the animated films kind of bunched together at 15-13 excluding DYRL at 19; it kind of just worked out that way. I do realize now, after a year of thinking through this list, that as amazing anime films can be, I can’t prefer them to the sustained excitement I get from quantity. I like long series because I get more goodness in more episodes. But does that mean Legend of the Galactic Heroes at 110 episodes will storm the highest of ranks? Let the opening paragraphs of this post also be your guide.

Happy Armstice Day! Today Macross fans share a celebration of peace to go along with the more solemn remembrance of love for the dead related to the World Trade Center crashes a decade ago, which then became the impetus for a new war. As part of this celebration I perform my annual rewatch of Macross: Do You Remember Love? the show that actually mentioned September 11th as the date an armstice was reached between the Zentreadi and the Miclones. I have now seen this film 11 times, at least 5 times the past 3 years.

In this post I will examine this film as a propaganda piece for the UN SPACY Earth-Zentran government, and some of its key variation with the more extensive TV series which prove to be far more critical of the UN SPACY’s involvement in the Great Space War. It begins with Lynn Minmay.

In the account provided in the TV Series, it was the Zentraedi who took the initiative to find out more about the humans, from surveillance, to kidnapping, to inserting spies, and ultimately by sending Exsedol Folmo as ambassador to the Macross (some records say that the treaty was signed in February 11, 2009). This is a very sympathetic view of the Zentraedi without ignoring or whitewashing the notion that they are a race genetically manipulated for warfare.

In the propaganda film DYRL there is ample interest and investigation of the Miclones by the Zentraedi, entirely fueled by both curiosity and dread towards the Protoculture. There was no envoy sent to the SDF-1. Rather, it was the continued incarceration (post-abduction) of Minmay that allowed her to act as the envoy of Earth towards the Zentrans. By the time she is returned to the Macross, Global already announced the Armstice.

Did Minmay tame the Zentraedi while she was there? With Bodolle Zer too?

If Britai and Exsedol shared the melody for “Ai oboete imasu ka?” to Minmay, did she not perform songs for them while she was there? After all, she did a recording of the melody that was broadcast during the Armstice announcement. Minmay wasn’t rescued, she was returned. In  the TV series account, the only time Minmay was abducted, the damage she did to the Zentraedi was complete. It was Kamujin’s work in a straight kidnap-for-ransom operation.

Why is this important? It’s because the final decisive battle is very important.

In DYRL, the Armstice was signed after Bodolle Zer (presumably) destroyed almost all the Earth’s surface. Also, the Armstice was signed (presumably) without Bodolle Zer’s knowledge or, he didn’t really care much about Britai making this peace. Why? It’s because the Armstice was precisely with the 425th Bodolle Fleet – Britai had not broken from Bodolle Zer at this point.

Britai represented Bodolle Zer’s own interests at this point, the Earth didn’t pose much of a threat having been reduced to ruin, with the Macross itself heavily damaged and its main gun no longer operational. All of this happened off-screen which reduces me to speculation. I don’t even know how to begin the casting of the Meltrandi as the primary enemy of the Zentradi.

Exsedol confirmed with Britai that they were forbidden to watch any broadcasts until after the “operation.” This makes me think that Bodolle Zer instructed him to go ahead with the Armstice only to betray the humans. But…

“I also, would like to try becoming a Miclone” – Vrlithwai (Britai)

“That was a joke… Mimay of the Protoculture taught me. Evidently it means ‘I am not serious’.”

“Deculture.” – Exsedol

LOL this is where it gets problematic. Why would Bodolle Zer have to resort to this kind of duplicity? For one, he isn’t a wily human used to statecraft. This should at least explain the clumsiness of it all. But on the other hand, there’s really no need whatsoever to further indulge this since the Earth is practically annihilated, unless they are trying to find a weapon they can use against the Meltrandi. Bodolle Zer later confirms:

The Armstice was signed to develop Minmay’s song as a means to make the Meltrandi surrender.

But then Laplamiz shows up, apparently to take on what seems to be a vastly numerically superior force of the Bodolle fleets. Bodolle Zer assesses that the song won’t be finished on time, and then decides to just fuck everyone. Shoots his ultimate death ray, taking out Laplamiz and tens of thousands of his own ships.

(Meanwhile, MAX JENIUS HAS TOTALLY DEFECTED TO THE MELTRANS AND HAS UNDERGONE MACRONIZATION TO PILOT A BLUE QUAEDLUN-RAU WITH MILLYA, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT MAX? SERIOUSLY)

When Minmay starts singing, Britai and Exsedol started feeling that Culture was really, really, REALLY important and that this song represents the hope that they as a race can reacquire it. Thus, they throw themselves behind the Macross, an instantaneous mutiny/defection of the 67th Glruimal branch Adoclass Fleet. Britai promises to protect the Macross and pave the way to attack Bodolle Zer’s capital ship.

“To all listening to Minmay’s song, we but have one enemy. Defeat Golg Bodolle Zer… and restore Culture to our race.”

There was no real tactics, none. Bodolle Zer just got surprised by the sudden mutiny, add to this the chaos caused by him fragging his own front line, and suddenly the Macross is punching a hole in Bodolle Zer’s ship and that’s pretty much all she wrote.

This is all very important, especially when reading DYRL as a UN SPACY propaganda film. the Zentraedi defected at the last minute for the express purpose of protecting culture. The effect of Minmay’s song is to inspire this longing for culture. Britai and Exsedol later reflect on the  power of one song to have done all this.

Contrast this with the TV Series. The effect of Minmay’s singing, is the precise weapon used against Bodolle Zer’s grand fleet. Laplamiz and Britai were forced to fight alongside each other because Bodolle Zer considered all of them contaminated by Culture and therefore must be annihilated. Minmay singing her discography sent Zentraedi into culture shock! Those who haven’t heard it before literally went into a form of shock, rendering them incapacitated for battle.

Why omit this, as a propagandist? Was it a mere concession to Minmay? To hear her is to love her? No shock involved, only awe? Certainly, Britai comes off perhaps better here. He really saved the day, and for a very PR-friendly reason. After all, Britai became the UN SPACY’s commander in 2015… but, the movie premiered no sooner than 2032! Britai wouldn’t have had a practical need for it. Some records show that the movie rekindled a Minmay boom, so maybe it really just was a Minmay tribute.

After all, there could’ve been Zentraedi fanboys who struck it rich like Richard Bilrer did in Macross Frontier, and who knows what his involvement was in this enterprise. I think there is more than one truth, and the speculation for all of these truths remains an interesting activity for a fanboy like me.

Some records show, however, that in 2030 the second battle of Macross City occurred, the attack was made by armored Zentraedi. The succeeding legislation resulted in giant Zentraedi prohibited from Earth. Thus, it does make sense that DYRL is a propaganda piece. We just need to think for whom it was propaganda for?

It was for the Zentreadi, for lack of the actual Minmay (who disappeared with the Megaroad-01), they had to make ALL the Zentraedi uh, well, remember love.

The records I consulted may be found here, in the old compilation of often conflicting Macross histories (for reasons Kawamori)

In Macross Dynamite 7, Basara sang to space whales. This isn’t the spoiler. The spoiler is how the biggest Moby Dick of the space whales sang along. This moment is a very divisive thing among Macross fans. For those who already hate Macross 7, this is the pinnacle of everything wrong with it. For those who love it, it is the most crowning moment of awesome for the sub-franchise, and of Macross itself.

Infinite Ryvius had space whales too (or according to some, galactic squid) but no one takes it against that show. It’s always taken seriously for good or bad. No one takes Macross 7 seriously, or rather, gives it any real credit, even fans who like it. It’s as if there was something intrinsically wrong with the very idea of space whales and how it shouldn’t be part of a show the fans oh so want to take seriously like Macross.

Well, I’m telling you that the Macross itself, is a big fucking space whale. The first act of Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a play on the story of being in the belly of the whale. The Bible did it in the Book of Jonah. Disney did it with Pinocchio. The belly of the whale is a place like purgatory, it’s a place to both despair, repent, and make dreams. Here is where we find Hikaru and Minmay.

In discussions of Macross, I seldom come across mentions of the whole trapped in the hold affair. Informally I get references about “fishing in space” where the space tuna visible from the giant window. I recall the school of tuna being frightened by the giant eye of Monstro the Whale from Disney’s Pinocchio only here the tuna is dead, and the only threat from Macross the Whale is Hikaru on a rope.

Both Hikaru and Minmay are faced with the idea that life as they knew it has ended. They are now in a new world – uncertainty for both obviously, but Minmay would eventually see this as opportunity, while Hikaru would think of it as loss – of his past life as a pilot? Sure, but also the loss of that innocent moment with Minmay when he fell for her, where he was the only man left for her.

They pretended to have a wedding ceremony and would’ve kissed!

Macross: Do You Remember Love? did it very differently. Both characters are already professionals. Here it’s unclear why Minmay was attracted to Hikaru only that she really did take an obvious interest in him. She was coquettish and teasing, but here she actually kissed him. There was no wishy-washiness about Minmay here. She had it for Hikaru and likewise, obviously.

The production values were also through the roof – the film really treated this episode as an important set-piece and it showed.

Jonah was swallowed by the sea monster because he disobeyed God. He wanted no part of preaching to Niniveh so God sent the beast to swallow him until he broke. Pinocchio got swallowed by Monstro because he was trying to rescue Gepetto. In both cases, being in the belly was the culmination of the struggle. Upon escape they had less if not no conflicts left to resolve in their respective narratives.

In Macross, the belly of the whale incident happens to set up much of the narrative. It is a launching device rather than the height of the drama.

The point of this is, the space whale is important in Macross. The space whale is Macross itself.

The Zentraedi ships… particularly Britai’s flagship has the silhouette of a sperm whale. The main cast gets trapped in the belly of that whale too! Misa, Hikaru, in SDFM, Minmay was with them in DYRL. It’s not climactic, but it is definitely pivotal.

This brings us to Macross Dynamite 7. This side story has no bearing on any of the main narratives. Macross Plus introduced technology that became part of future shows. MD7 is pretty much an open-ended dead end. It resolves nothing important to the narrative, so what is its value? It is a kind of fanservice. Better production values due being an OVA is one, having that whole Mylene almost raped by a psycho lesbian is another…

But the real juice is Basara singing to the space whales. He already turned Gepelnitch to his song, so what’s next? Why space whales? For whatever other reason, it’s also because whales are a symbol of Macross. The Megaroads, the Macross Class colony ships, they’re all space whales spreading culture to the ends of the galaxy.