I adore Macross.
Like many all over the world, I've watched Anime to one degree or another my whole life. However none, and I mean none, have taken hold of me the way the Macross franchise did. That said, if you're reading this blog you can fully expect a lot of gushing about Macross and how amazing it is.
One especially amazing thing about the original TV series, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (SDFM), is the love triangle between the three leads. Over 36 episodes, the whole narrative is executed so perfectly, I literally cannot stomach most of what passes for a love triangle on most media nowadays.
The characterization is handled very, very well. SDFM's narrative allows us to see where each of its triad is coming from and why they make the choices that they do. By series' end, the three of them have been established within an inch of their lives and their actions make perfect sense. If someone doesn't know where they stand or if a misunderstanding happens, it's never out of character.
Another refreshing aspect of SDFM's triangle is that there is no cat-fighting. The two women are rivals, yes, in the sense that they are romantically linked to the same man. But the conflict isn't between them. The conflict is within the guy who's torn between them. His indecisiveness is the problem. They have their own lives to live given that there's an interplanetary war going on. That right there sets SDFM's triangle apart from that of so many movies and TV series.
The Feature film Macross: Do You Remember Love? takes a slightly different route. Everything I said before about the female characters' dignity and lack of cat-fighting still applies. The same level of characterisation unfortunately isn't possible in 2 hours versus 13 hours. What we do get is a more explicit undercutting of the traditional rivalry. The two female protagonists, Misa Hayase and Lynn Minmei actually save the day. Their cooperation provides the key to defeating the movie's villain.
The nice thing about how this all ends is that the male lead, Hikaru, makes his choice based on his own character arc and not because of some flaw in the woman he doesn't chose. Meanwhile, the woman he doesn't choose maintains her dignity. She doesn't lose it and become a villain. She doesn't hop into another relationship right away. She just accepts the decision and moves on.
As a pop-culture portrayal of romance, that seems pretty healthy to me. None of that "I can't live without you/love me forever" nonsense. Relationships end, so it's best to take it like a Macross girl.
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