Anime: Macross Delta

Review
Macross is a franchise built upon a mixture of music, mechas, airfighters, and space opera. It became a symbol of japanese animation when it reached the west and by now it's a name nearly everyone knows about. That said, Macross also have followed the musical trend in Japan, going from classical singers to rock bands and popular idols. Now, however, it is the ruling period of idol groups.

I was stunned when I started watching Macross Delta. I knew it was about using idol groups in the fight against alien civilizations and references to the protoculture, but damn, it still got me by surprise. Typical deres? Check. Mahou-shoujo like transformations? Check. Genki bland annoying protagonist? Check. Carefree atmosphere? Check. AK48-inspired auditions? Check. Damn. I immediately remembered what some people did to great shows recently as the first episode ran. I mean, how can I not relate this to Fam Fam Fam Adventures destroying Last Exile's dark and mist-filled world? How can I forget Eureka Seven Ao and its bland recompilation of Evangelion? What about the Hot Springs Utawarerumono turning the warfare into half-naked catgirls deres? I struggled to endure it, I really did...

Macross Delta is the tale of Freyja and Hayate, a couple destined to fight off the Windermere rise as part of the galaxy becomes victim of the Var syndrome, a mysterious effect that makes people go berserk and kill each other. Only the Walkure, an idol group formed by the military force of Macross Elysion can combat the effects of the Var, but this is just the tip of an iceberg involving the Windermere and the Protoculture.

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1. A terrible start
   Macross Delta gives the worst possible impression at its first episode. It looks like an copy and paste of the recent AK48 animation where Freyja dreams of becoming a japanese idol... I mean, a galactic idol, and must go on a selection where she must sing, face danger, and so on. It also got some mahou shoujo transformations, uniforms, and each girl represents a dere type of typical dating sims. If you were expecting space drama and mecha combats, you instead got a cheesy show about generic idols.
   
   And that goes into conflict with Macross
   Macross had always used music, yes. However, since its first series, the aspect of music used was somewhat globalized. The singers were people you could make a parallel in many other countries, it was also heavily influenced on western culture in that regard. Fire Bomber could be any rock band in US with a guy looking like a punk John Lenon. Lyn Minmay and Sheryl were something like Madona and Lady Gaga. Things mixed the japanese culture with western music world, a nice thing that made Macross into a classic in the west as well as in Japan. Macross Delta is nothing like that. Idol groups is a sub-culture restricted to Japan and Korea, a realm of music that is not only lacking in other countries, but which also feels absurdly weird.
   
   Yet, it is still Macross
   Endure the first set of episodes and Macross Delta starts showing its true colors. Instead of cheesy idols and their galactic tour you get back the alien conflicts, spaceships, airfighter combats, and ancient technology references. It's all there, every element that makes a good a Macross, and it is delivered with a decent quality and with a narrative that gets better and better as episodes go on.
   
   Dere-dere
   The idol group is a mess. They spit in your face every overused element of the animation industry in the past decade. Big-breasted dere, silent dere, genki dere, mysterious dere, etc. Join that the tsundere default and you got a female cast typical of what male watchers in Japan want. Why have Sheryl and her strong personality and will if people want Ranka and her submission and cuteness? There you have it. Now you got girls speaking cute every second and using double-words... Fure-fure, dere-dere, haya-haya, urgh-urgh, sh*t-sh*t.
   
   Hayate, the main hero, has no twists to the default template, which means he just stands there and do things average japanese protagonist do. A boring guy surrounded by boring girls. Fortunately, the villain side of the cast manage to do something more. Although they act with the tyranny of villains, they have deeper motivations, are offered backgrounds even more detailed than anyone in the hero side, and grow during the show to become the saving part of the cast.
   
   Satelight Goes Backwards
   Macross Frontier was a production blast for its time. It offered amazing CG elements, constant mecha fights, special effects, emotive characters, and a charming color palette. If you put it side-by-side with Macross Delta, however, you can see how little effort was done to improve a show nearly 10 years old. Macross Delta, in fact, moves backwards in many aspects, offering a show with flawed consistency and characters with little effort to show emotions beyond the happy-spectrum. Combats are also vastly limited to airfighter clashes, which are done awesomely, yes, but which looks far easier to be done than animation articulated mechas transforming mid-air. Considering all other works from Satelight, however, you could say this is just about what the studio can normally do.
   

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Comments
Macross' fans will certainly be disapointed here. Some may even be devastated. Macross Delta is a risky move for the franchise, pushing away its somewhat western references in favor of a closed-off culture to work as the heart of the tale. Instead of your grand epic about valiant people fighting aliens with the aid of music, it seems this is more like how a group of japanese idols can make shows across the galaxy.

Fortunately, it gets back on its track after its mid-part, becoming the Macross show most fans would expect. The damage, however, was already done. The idol group is a major let down for people enticed with the space opera of the franchise and they don't exactly work like Xenoglossia or AK48 either because in the end this is a more complex setting where much more is at stake.

Anyway, if you can endure the idol-focused start then perhaps you can enjoy Macross Delta. It is just a shame to turn a reference of mixing music and shounen action into a generic idol group tale for so many episodes.