I finished Macross 7 and it was... odd. It did keep in tune with the theme of music and warfare, but beyond that it was a really different tone from any other Macross show I've seen. Let me put it this way: There is an arc in this anime where the protagonist Basara has to sing to a floating, naked chick. This lasts for a good fifth of the series. That, and the core group of characters pilot robots with musical instruments, something I could never take serious. Unfortunately the show really builds on that concept and I spent the entire time feeling incredulous with the whole situation. Sprinkle that with other odd moments like that crazy, screaming, floating chick grabbing Basara and flying around the galaxy for half an episode for no apparent reason, and at some point you start pondering what the fuck you are watching.

But I think the real issue is "Song Energy." You meet this crazy fucker early on in the series who says there's something specific about Minmay's music that was able to reach the Zentradi, and you write him off as some weirdo. However he's for real and eventually it comes to light Basara's music is more special than other music, and they're able to build this stuff called "Sound Blasters" and "Sound Buster" which literally fire lasers through the power of music. Other members of this band are not as good as Basara and often have to increase their "Song Energy" levels to match his performance in battle.

This fucks up not only itself but the first show as well. For one, contemplate that sentence I wrote above: The characters literally fire lasers through the power of music. It completely changed the dynamic, much like when they added power levels to Dragon Ball Z. Music as far as I knew should be music, but now I find there are some people whose music are innately better than others. I liked songs like Planet Dance or Holy Lonely Night, but I don't think there's anyone in the world who'd say they're the pinnacle of anything. To say that's the only thing that could cure people from having their energy drained is a bit of an insult to every other song out there.

And then you're saying that Minmay's music also was innately amazing, which it wasn't. That's what made the original Macross so funny; the Zentradi found this stupid little song about a boyfriend being a pilot to be the height of culture, or this "Shao Pai Long" figure to have super powers, and the audience laughed at these silly aliens. It could've been any song really and worked since the Zentradi never experienced this. Simply the power of culture alone helped win the battle. And you knew it wasn't Minmay because at the end of the series her career is shot as she wanders the world trying to find a place that would book her. Minmay turned out to be just a part of the entirety of culture, and although she was useful in fighting the Zentradi there were other things that freaked them out like Max and Milia's baby or seeing people kiss. It showed it was the power of humanity itself that won the battle.

Really the only time I got super excited when watching Macross 7 is whenever Max or Milia jumped into a Valkyrie to fight, but they always kicked ass so quickly that those sequences only lasted about fifteen seconds. Man, those two never should've been put into leadership positions; they clearly were meant to be front-line soldiers. Denied promotion because you're too fucking good at what you do.

I guess you can look at this similar to Chrono Cross: As a sequel it's somewhat disappointing, and actually can stand on its own without seeing the original, but even then it's pretty weird. But Chrono Cross never had something like this:

Macross, why do you keep doing this to me?

Chores update: Mom and dad were aghast that it took me four hours to sweep and mop the kitchen floor.