Changes: Macross 7

Revision as of 01:07, 23 December 2015

Macross 7 (マクロス7 Makurosu Sebun) is a 1994 anime television series. It is a sequel to the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross Plus, taking place several years after the events of the Space War I, and follows a cast of mostly new characters. The series ran from October 16, 1994 to September 24, 1995, and 49 episodes were aired. While it has been distributed in the other parts of the world, it currently has not been licensed for North America.

The series is best remembered for its music. Over a dozen musical albums have been released by the fictional band Fire Bomber, along with several character and drama albums.

Macross 7 is part of the official Studio Nue chronology and canon, and Shoji Kawamori has been credited for the original story concept. He is credited for handling the series' mechanical designs, along with Kazutaka Miyatake.^[1] A theatrical episode, Macross 7: Ginga ga Ore wo Yondeiru! (Macross 7: The Galaxy's Calling Me!), was released in 1995. Several OVAs were also released following the success of the series, including Macross 7: Encore and later, Macross Dynamite 7. In 2012, a crossover movie retelling the Macross 7 events by Macross F characters, Macross FB7 Galaxy Flow Soul: Listen to My Song!, was released.

A manga side-story, Macross 7: Trash, set within the same period of events was also released. It was serialized for 52 monthly chapters in Shōnen Ace magazine from October 1994 to May 2001, then published as tankōbon from 1995 to 2001 by Kadokawa Shoten.

Background

AD 2009 - The human race first encountered an alien race. The Space War which followed with this race of giants, known as the Zentradi, nearly devastated the Earth.

March, 2010 - The war ended. In April of that same year, a new United Earth government was inaugurated and humans began to follow the path of coexistence with the alien Zentradi. Those Zentradi who wished to, used micron technology to return their bodies to human size.

September, 2011 - The Earth UN Government launched a deep space colonization plan for the purpose of preserving the species.

September, 2012 - The extreme long-range transport Megaroad One set out, carrying the first colonists.

September, 2030 - The gigantic Megaroad-class ships were replaced by the first of the super high-capacity New-Macross class colonization ships, whose fleets were capable of carrying up to one million colonists.

2038 - The Macross 7 fleet, built around the seventh of the new Macross-class ships, left for the center of the galaxy carrying the 37th wave of colonists.

The year is now 2045...

Synopsis

Thirty five years after the events of the First Interstellar War, the Macross 7 leads the 37th Colonial Fleet on a colonization mission into deep space. The series focuses on the fleet's encounters with a hostile alien force known as the Protodevlin, along with the rise of the rock and roll band, Fire Bomber, whose members include mysterious Basara Nekki (lead singer), Mylene Flare Jenius (seventh daughter of Maximilian Jenius and Milia Fallyna Jenius), Ray Lovelock, and full blooded Zentradi Veffidas Feaze.

The fleet's flagship is the Macross 7, which is actually composed of two parts: Battle 7 and City 7. The Battle 7 is a fully transformable battle carrier located at the fore section of the ship, and is capable of separating itself from City 7 during battle. The Battle 7, along with the rest of the fleet surrounding the Macross 7, is captained by Maximilian Jenius. The much larger back section of the two part ship is known as City 7 and is the main civilian population center of the fleet, containing a population in excess of one million people. The mayor of City 7 is the estranged wife of Maximilian Jenius, Milia Fallyna Jenius. City 7 features a "shell" that can close in order to protect the civilian population during battle.

Plot

Vlcsnap-2015-12-22-21h13m00s251 — Basara Nekki, the lead vocalist of Fire Bomber.

In the seventh year of their mission, the Macross 7 fleet encounters an unknown alien enemy. This new mysterious enemy is composed of heavily modified Valkyries led by a man named Gigile. In the first encounter, the Macross 7 engages the enemy with squadrons of their own Valkyries. This conventional warfare does little to stop the attack however. The enemy's tactics are different from the average rogue, or 'uncultured', Zentradi that are encountered in space travel. In the first battle with the Macross 7 fleet, the new enemy's main tactic is to extract an energy form called 'Spiritia ' from the Valkyrie pilots, leaving them in a vegetative state.

Civilian musician Basara Nekki has a modified red state of the art VF-19 "Fire" Valkyrie of his own, and goes out to engage the enemy of his own accord. His VF-19 has an unusual control scheme that mimics a guitar, and he does not attack the enemy with weapons, choosing instead to fire speaker pods into enemy mecha, and playing his songs to the enemy. In the first few encounters, Basara's music does little to drive the enemy away, and the Macross 7 fleet's ace pilot, Gamlin Kizaki is bewildered and annoyed by Basara's endeavor, claiming that it interferes with the other pilots during combat.

Vlcsnap-2015-12-22-21h11m54s108 — The "Fire" Valkyrie, with enhanced Sound Booster.

It is eventually revealed that Basara Nekki was given the Valkyrie by his friend and bandmate Ray Lovelock, who is a former UN Spacy Valkyrie pilot, and part of secret project inspired by the effectiveness of Lynn Minmay's singing in the original war with the Zentradi. Eventually project head, Dr. Chiba, discovers that Spiritia deprived vegetative pilots can be revived. By playing them Fire Bomber's music the patients eventually wake up and return to normal.

Eventually the enemy infiltrates City 7 and begins extracting Spiritia from civilians. Due to the secretive nature of the infiltrators and the state of their victims, they are dubbed 'vampires' by the public forum. One of the 'vampires' is captured and revealed to be a human from an earlier lost space mission. A brainwashing mechanism found inside the helmet of the 'vampire' is used to control them. The captured prisoner is exposed to Fire Bomber's music and regains his memories. The prisoner, now revealed to be a Blue Rhinoceros elite squadron pilot, Irana Hayakawa, tells his story. Harakawa stated that the Blue Rhinoceros was a team sent to investigate the fourth planet of the Varautan system, which apparently holds Protoculture secrets, or even descendants of the Protoculture themselves. They were supposed to rendezvous with the United Forces Advisor Ivano Gunther, only to find that Gunther was possessed by an alien entity called the Protodeviln. The entire mission force is taken by the Protodeviln and used to assemble the new Supervision Army that is attacking the Macross 7 fleet.

City 7 is stolen by the Protodeviln, and for a short period of time it is separated from the rest of the fleet. Eventually they are rescued. After this the elite fighter squadron Diamond Force is permanently assigned to City 7 as a special defense force.

The Sound Force is created by the UN Spacy, and all the members of Fire Bomber are given their own specially modified Valkyries. They are sent out to confront the enemy with their music whenever the fleet is attacked.

The Macross 7 fleet gathers information in an attempt to understand their new enemy, while Gepelnitch, the leader of the Protodeviln, begins to take steps towards achieving his goal of creating a Spiritia Farm, capable of producing an endless supply of the energy force that the Protodeviln depend on for life. With a generous supply of Spiritia being collected by the 'vampires', other Protodevilns begin to awaken from their sleep. One of them, named Sivil, goes to attack the Macross fleet. During the first encounter between Basara and Sivil, the effectiveness of his music was proven when it drove Sivil away. Sivil becomes interested in Basara, whom she refers to as the Anima Spiritia. Gigile leaves the Protodeviln fleet and joins the 'vampires' in City 7. Eventually due to constant contact with Basara and his music, Sivil begins to lose strength. She hides away in a separate "forest" section of City 7, and eventually goes into a state of hibernation, encasing herself in a force field. Basara discovers Sivil and sings to her daily in the hope of waking her up. Gigile watches Basara from the shadows, and collects Spiritia in order to help revive Sivil.

Around this time, Dr. Chiba discovers that Basara's singing creates what he calls Sound Energy. He creates the 'Sound Boosters', an attachment for the Sound Force Valkyries, in order to amplify and control the projection of this energy in battle.

Meanwhile, another colonization fleet, the Macross 5, makes contact with the Macross 7 fleet. The Macross 5 fleet has found a suitable planet to inhabit, and christened it as the planet Rax. However, soon the Macross 7 fleet loses all contact with the Macross 5. Arriving at Rax, they find the whole Macross 5 fleet decimated, but oddly few dead bodies are found. They assume that the people of the Macross 5 fleet were in fact taken captive by the Protodeviln. The Protodeviln fleet surrounds the planet forcing the Macross 7 fleet to remain on its surface.

At this time the military found out about Sivil being in the forest section

MaxandMylene — Captain Max Jenius spending quality time with his daughter, Mylene.

of City 7 and takes her away to be studied. Gigile rampages in his Battroid in an attempt to find and rescue Sivil. Together he and Basara managed to awakened Sivil, who escapes from the laboratory.

Basara decides to search the planet for Sivil. Finally, he and Gigile find her inside an active volcano. Basara begins singing and manages to awaken her. When Sivil is awakened, the volcano suddenly begin to sink into the ocean. After the dust clears a ruin rises from sea. The ruins are investigated by the non micronized Zentradi Exsedol Folmo, who is now the top science advisor in the Macross 7 fleet. He concludes that it is a ruin from the Protoculture. The ruins reveal the mysterious genesis of the Protodeviln and how they were defeated by the Protoculture using something called the Anima Spiritia. In the end, the ruins are destroyed by Geperuniti's fleet and another pair of Protodeviln called Glavil and Gavil. This happens before the Macross crew can find out exactly what Anima Spiritia is.

Geperuniti now views Sivil and Gigile as a threat to his plans of creating a Spiritia Farm and orders his Protodeviln henchmen, Valgo, Gavil and Glavil to pursue and kill them. In the ensuing battle Gigile takes on his true form, and begins to sing Basara's music. He discovers that he can actually generate his own Spiritia this way. Gigile defends Sivil to his death, causing the entire planet Rax to explode.

Basara and Sivil mourn for Gigile while the battle with Geperuniti intensifies. The UN Government of Earth gives the permission to Captain Maximilian Jenius to use the illegal Reaction Weaponry against the Protodeviln. Captain Jenius forms a plan called Operation Stargazer in which a few elite volunteer pilots will accompany him to the fourth planet of the Varautan system, now known to be the base of Protodeviln operations. The mission is to stealthily attack the planet and plant the Reaction Weaponry in the chamber which houses the Protodevilns' bodies. Mayor Milia Fallyna Jenius is given temporary command of the fleet during the mission. Amongst the volunteers for this mission are the entire Sound Force.

Basara decides to do things his way and starts singing as soon as he reaches the planet. Surrounded by heavy fire, Diamond Force leader Gamlin Kizaki decides to focus on defending the Sound Force. He eventually crashes his Valkyrie unto Gavil's FBz-99G Zaubergern mecha, destroying it, but also appearing to be killed himself. When all looks lost the real plan of Operation Stargazer is revealed as Captain Jenius folds into the battle in a new advanced VF-22S Sturmvogel II Valkyrie carrying the Reaction Weapon. He races into the heart of the enemy stronghold, plants the weapon, and orders everyone to flee. But the mission is thwarted when in the last minute when the ingenious Geperuniti folds the Reaction Weapon to the location of Operation Stargazer group's Northhampton class frigate, destroying it.

The surviving members of the operation are captured by the Protodeviln, but they eventually manage to escape their holding cells. Just then Gamlin reappears in a Varautan Mecha, and helps defend the escapees against Gavil's attacks. While escaping, they discovered the Protodevilns have imprisoned the captured Macross 5 people, encasing them in a crystal-like chamber, and extracting their Spiritia. Basara tries to save them, but his efforts are in vain and they are forced to evacuate the area before Geperuniti destroys them. They escape using one of the Varautan space cruisers.

After escaping, Gamlin was possessed by Gavil, and he takes his VF-17D Nightmare Valkyrie and goes on a rampage through the Macross 7. The Sound Force were deployed and Basara and Mylene started singing. Gavil then captured Mylene and demands that Basara surrenders to the Protodeviln. Just then, Mylene steps out of her Valkyrie and starts singing, drawing out the possessed Gamlin out of his Valkyrie. Gavil is forced to depart from Gamlin and flees.

In another battle, the newly awakened Protodeviln twins, Zomd and Goram confronts the Macross 7 Fleet. Bringing along the crystal-like chambers containing the Macross 5 people, Basara's music was turned against him - as his music would serve to regenerate the Spiritia of the captured Macross 5 people, which later would be extracted from them to revive the Protodeviln twins. However, Captain Maximilian Jenius devises a plan to use the fold generators on the chambers and the plan was carried out by Gamlin and Docker, the leader of the Emerald Force. When the chambers are safely folded away, all the ships in the fleet fire their Reaction Weaponries. Although the Protodeviln twins were severely injured, they miraculously regenerated. Basara begins to sing and drives them mad. Sivil shows up and drives the Protodeviln away, but her powers are drained, and she crashes into Battle 7. Basara tries to revive her, but she accidentally drains him of his Spiritia, putting him into a vegetative state.

In the last part of the series, Geperuniti takes on his true form, which is an enormous Spiritia "Black Hole" t

Grabil, a prominent enemy of the Macross 7 fleet.

hat will eventually drain the entire universe of Spiritia. Under the command of Captain Maximilian Jenius, Battle 7 folded to the Protodeviln's base, begins to transform in order to fire the Sound Buster - the combination of Song Energy and the Macross Cannon. Firing several rounds of the Sound Buster, the Macross Cannon overloads and explodes. A strange reaction occurs, and Geperuniti begins to lose control of himself.

Waves of energy hit Battle 7 and prove to be too powerful for even the pinpoint barrier to withstand. Battle 7 was destroyed and the crews flee to safety. Geperuniti begins to extract Spiritia from everyone, even folding the rest of the Macross 7 fleet, including City 7 in order to extract more Spiritia. Geperuniti even goes against his own kind, killing Zomd and Goram. Gavil and Gravil, then, goes against Geperuniti, trying to convince him to stop. At the very last minute, Basara awakens when everyone begins singing to him, and goes out to fight Geperuniti. Together with Sivil they sing to Geperuniti until he also begins to sing. Geperuniti realizes that he can create his own Spiritia through music, and takes on a new form. He and his host of remaining Protodeviln then leave this galaxy to explore the rest of the universe. Sivil tells Basara that she will always remember his songs, and goes off with her kind.

Episodes

Number	Episode Title	Japanese
1.	Speaker Pod	(スピーカーポッド)
2.	Spiritia Level	(スピリチアレベル)
3.	Fire Scramble	(ファイアースクランブル)
4.	Vampire Soldier	(バンパイアソルジャー)
5.	Spirit Girl	(スピリットギャル)
6.	First Contact	(ファーストコンタクト)
7.	Summer Accident	(サマーアクシデント)
8.	Virgin Bomber	(バージンボンバー)
9.	Angel Night	(エンジェルナイト)
10.	Deep Ballad	(ディープバラード)
11.	Minmay Video	(ミンメイビデオ)
12.	Spiritia Farm	(スピリチアファーム)
13.	Fold Out	(フォールドアウト)
14.	Fighting Woman Mayor Milia	(戦う女市長ミリア)
15.	A Girl's Jealousy	(乙女のジェラシー)
16.	The Music Box On The Battlefield	(戦場のオルゴール)
17.	Pretty Devil	(プリティデビル)
18.	A Falling Little Devil	(おちていく小悪魔)
19.	A Life Threatening Date	(命がけのデート)
20.	Ladies' Temptation	(レディースの誘惑)
21.	Dangerous Kiss	(あぶないKISS)
22.	Men Of Burning Passion	(熱き炎の男たち)
23.	Sound Force	(サウンドフォース)
24.	Merry Go Round	(メリーゴーランド)
25.	Midnight Duet	(深夜のデュエット)
26.	Death match At Planet Lux	(惑星ラクスの死闘)
27.	Rainbow Colored Song Energy	(七色の歌エナジー)
28.	New Sound Weapon	(サウンド新兵器)
29.	Papa And Mama, Love Once Again	(パパ、ママ愛再び)
30.	The Formula For A Love Triangle	(三角関係の公式)
31.	Passionate Scandal	(熱愛スキャンダル)
32.	Jamming Birds	(ジャミングバーズ)
33.	Betrayal And A Girl's Tears	(裏切りと少女の涙)
34.	The Day Gigile Sang	(ギギルが歌った日)
35.	A Night For Just The Two Of Us	(ふたりだけの夜)
36.	Men's Passionate Song	(男たちの熱歌)
37.	The Mystery Of The Ruins?	(宇宙遺跡のナゾ?)
38.	Sivil Of The Forbidden Planet	(禁断惑星のシビル)
39.	Basara Returns	(帰ってきたバサラ)
40.	A Feeling That Reaches Beyond The Stars	(星を越える想い)
41.	I'm Crazy About Mylene!	(ミレーヌ大好き!)
42.	Desperate Capture Operation	(決死の捕獲大作戦)
43.	Individual Farewells	(それぞれの別れ)
44.	The Nightmarish Invasion	(悪夢の突入作戦)
45.	Ambitious Fourth Planet	(野望の第4惑星)
46.	Gamlin's Rebellion	(ガムリンの反乱)
47.	The Death Of Basara	(バサラ死す)
48.	Mylene's Tears	(ミレーヌ涙の熱唱)
49.	A Voice Reaching Across The Galaxy	(銀河に響く歌声)

Characters

New characters

Basara Nekki (Nobutoshi Hayashi, Yoshiki Fukuyama (singing))
Mylene Flare Jenius (Tomo Sakurai, Chie Kajiura (singing))
Ray Lovelock (Masashi Sugawara)
Veffidas Feaze (Urara Takano)
Gamlin Kizaki (Takehito Koyasu)
Akiko Hojo (Urara Takano)
Michael Johnson (Takehiro Murozono)
Miho Miho (Rio Natsuki)
Sally (Junko Iwao)
Kinryu (Hiroki Takahashi)
Docker (Takashi Nagasako)
Physica S. Fulcrum (Akio Suyama)
Rex (Kaoru Shimamura)
Dr. Chiba (Keiichi Sonobe)
Girl With Flowers (Akiko Nakagawa)

Returning characters

Maximilian Jenius (Sho Hayami)
Milia Fallyna Jenius (Eri Takeda)
Exsedol Folmo (Ryunosuke Ohbayashi)

Protodeviln

Lord Geppernich (You Inoue)
Gigile (Tomohiro Nishimura)
Sivil (Akiko Nakagawa)
Grabil
Gavil (Akio Suyama)
Valgo (Hiroki Takahashi)
Goram (Arihiro Hase)
Zomd (Rei Igarashi)

Ships

The ship Macross 7 is the seventh model of the New Macross class of deep space colonization ships. Other ships of the class include Macross Five and Macross Thirteen. It consists of two parts:

City 7: an enormous, egg-shaped spacecraft with a pressurized dome containing an entire city. It has a clam-like "lid" which can close over the dome to provide protection during attacks (known as "shell down"), and whose inner surface projects an image of an Earth-like sky. The city's mayor is Milia Fallyna Jenius. Smaller pods attached to the main city-ship contain additional city blocks, including the unregistered block Akusho, a district of crumbling, empty buildings in which Basara lives.
Battle 7: a battle carrier (similar to the Uraga class carrier), it can launch squadrons of variable fighters, including the elite Diamond Force, when attacked. It can also detach and transform into an approximately three-quarter-mile-high robot, equipped with a powerful Super Beam Weapon that can decimate an enemy battle fleet. The super beam weapon is mounted in gunship which Battle 7 holds in its right "hand". The captain is Maximilian Jenius, with advice provided by Exsedol Folmo, whose (macronized) head is visible on the bridge. Ship is said to carry 450 x variable fighters, including VF-11C Thunderbolt, 3 x VF-17 Nightmare, 3 x VF-19 Excalibur, 2 x VF-22S Sturmvogel II and 250 other small support craft.

New Macross Deep Space Colony Fleet is usually accompanied on its long journey by a large fleet, including armed escort craft including Bolognese Class Stealth Frigates & Uraga class Escort Carriers. The fleet has number of support vessels containing entertainment facilities (such as the resort ship Riviera, containing an artificial beach, the entertainment ship Hollywood, West Point Class Macro-Training Base Ship, Three Star Class Factory Ship, Budoukan Class Concert Ship and the science ship Einstein, ). These ships are linked to the mothership by the "Milky Road", a web of guidance beams enabling smaller vessels to travel safely between the larger ships. All vessels are capable of faster-than-light travel ("space fold"), though Macross 7 requires up to four hours' charging before it is capable of folding.

Macross 5 Colony Fleet was known to be escorted by Zentradi vessels including Neo Nupetiet-Vergnitzs bis Class Command Battleship & Bolognese Class Stealth Frigates (Zentradi Variant) prior to the fleet destruction.

Production

Soundtrack

Macross 7 is unique from other Macross titles, as it does not have its own musical score. Instead, it relies heavily on songs by Fire Bomber as its soundtrack. The series also reuses selected BGM tracks and songs from Macross II and Macross Plus. Ironically, those very songs are what have kept the show from seeing a U.S. release, as the Japanese record companies have allegedly demanded steep licensing costs for them. One of the U.S. licensors commented that the costs were so high that it would require multiple companies just to pay for four episodes at a time. Three Fire Bomber songs ("Totsugeki Love Heart", "My Soul for You" and "Try Again") were reused in episodes of the 2008 series Macross Frontier, as one character, Ozma Lee, is a fan of the band. In this timeline (2059 A.D., thirteen years after Macross 7), Fire Bomber's music is considered by the rest of the Strategic Military Services (SMS) squadron as "oldies".

Trivia

In pop culture

The Cat Girl Nuku Nuku TV show has a parody of the show which features a Basara lookalike who sings about saving the universe.

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 The series is best remembered for its music. Over a dozen musical albums have been released by the fictional band ''[[Fire Bomber]],'' along with several character and drama albums.
-Macross 7 is part of the official [[Studio Nue]] chronology and canon, and [[Shoji Kawamori]] has been credited for the original story concept. He is credited for handling the series' mechanical designs, along with [[Kazutaka Miyatake]].<ref>[[Wikipedia:Kazutaka Miyatake|Miyatake, Kazutaka]] (2005-06-01). Macross and Orguss Design Works (in Japanese). Japan: Mobic. pp. 47–80. ISBN 4-89601-629-7.</ref> A theatrical episode, [[Macross FB7 Galaxy Flow Soul: Listen to My Song!|''Macross 7: Ginga ga Ore wo Yondeiru!'']] (Macross 7: The Galaxy's Calling Me!), was released in 1995. Several OVAs were also released following the success of the series, including [[Macross 7: Encore|''Macross 7: Encore'']] and later, [[Macross Dynamite 7|''Macross Dynamite 7'']]. In 2012, a crossover movie retelling the Macross 7 events by Macross F characters, ''[[Macross FB 7: Ore no Uta o Kike!]]'', was released.
+Macross 7 is part of the official [[Studio Nue]] chronology and canon, and [[Shoji Kawamori]] has been credited for the original story concept. He is credited for handling the series' mechanical designs, along with [[Kazutaka Miyatake]].<ref>[[Wikipedia:Kazutaka Miyatake|Miyatake, Kazutaka]] (2005-06-01). Macross and Orguss Design Works (in Japanese). Japan: Mobic. pp. 47–80. ISBN 4-89601-629-7.</ref> A theatrical episode, Macross 7: Ginga ga Ore wo Yondeiru! (Macross 7: The Galaxy's Calling Me!), was released in 1995. Several OVAs were also released following the success of the series, including [[Macross 7: Encore|''Macross 7: Encore'']] and later, [[Macross Dynamite 7|''Macross Dynamite 7'']]. In 2012, a crossover movie retelling the Macross 7 events by Macross F characters, ''[[Macross FB7 Galaxy Flow Soul: Listen to My Song!]]'', was released.
 A manga side-story, ''[[Macross 7: Trash]]'', set within the same period of events was also released. It was serialized for 52 monthly chapters in [[Shōnen Ace]] magazine from October 1994 to May 2001, then published as tankōbon from 1995 to 2001 by [[Kadokawa Shoten]].