I'm just a war machine...

A love letter to the Zentraedi:

Of all the things that the Macross Franchise gave me, one of the most cherished is the Zentraedi. Quite possibly one of my most favourite alien species in any medium.

They really have it all. They're giants. They travel in armadas of cool-looking spaceships. They have their own language. They own the colour green.  Their basic fighter mecha is a headless ostrich. Most of all, they're interesting.

The Zentraedi are the creation of a series of civilizations known as the Protoculture. Having a taboo against killing one another, the Protoculture did what any pacifist would do:  get someone else to kill for them.  So .

Wheels are for amateurs

they engineered an entire species of giants to engage in warfare by proxy. We don't get much detail on the nature of this conflict. There are references to a 'Supervision Army' which the Zentraedi are fighting against. In fact, the
SDF-Macross itself is a Supervision Army vessel, and looking for it is how  is how the Zentraedi stumble upon Earth. But other than that, we see the Zentraedi primarily through the eyes of the people aboard the SDF-Macross

What the Zentraedi lack is an everyday life. Leisure, relationships and creativity are all absent from their existence. Watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross, it's fascinating to see them collectively wake up as they are exposed to things like pop music and movies. It is worth noting that consumer culture is celebrated as much as popular culture in Macross. The things are as important as the ideas in this case.

As the fictional universe of Macross progresses and expands, we see the Zentraedi integrate into the surviving human population. While many Zentraedi still reproduce through cloning and live in armadas, some of them have children leading to... you guessed it, giant babies!  Others still form families with human partners creating a demographic of Human-Zentraedi hybrids. The Macross franchise has a fair number of characters who are one-half or one-quarter Zentraedi.

The animated feature film Do You Remember Love? was a redesign not only of the ships and mecha introduced in the series, but also of the Zentraedi themselves. This redesign becomes the basis for how the species is represented in the rest of the franchise making the change not only a reinterpretation  but also a bit of a retcon. Here, the  Zentraedi look a little less human and are given their own language.

All in all, the Zentraedi are one of the main ingredients of this enduring anime franchise. Their development from antagonists to allies is one of the great triumphs of the series. The Zentraedi characters in the cast are some of the most memorable of my youth: Breetai, Exedor, Miriya, Kamjim, Laplamitz, Warerea, Loli and Conda.

Ms. Macross: The Passion and Pathos of Misa Hayase

Like many English-speaking fans of Macross, I came to know the franchise through Robotech. Robotech which began life as a straight-up English dub of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. I'm mentioning Robotech because it's where I first met one of my favourite female characters of  any medium. She was introduced to me as Lisa Hayes but, eventually, I came to know her by her real name: Misa Hayase.


I always considered Misa the true protagonist of Macross. More than any other character, SDFM is her story. That's not to take away from Hikaru and Mimnei who are iconic each in their own way. It's only to say that Misa embodies the themes of Macross through and through.

She's introduced to us first through her role in the SDF-Macross' command structure. We first see her assume station on the bridge. Naughty boy Roy Fokker speaks to her with respect.  Hikaru might insult her but it's with a little bit of fear on his part because Misa is an authority figure and a legitimate one at that. However Claudia might tease her about not having a man, Misa is all about the job.

Episode 7 "Bye-Bye Mars" (my favourite of the early episodes) is the first to focus on Misa as an individual. Making a pit-stop on Salla Base on Mars, Misa obtains permission from Captain Global  to explore and find out what happened to its occupants. We find out that, during the wars which occurred in the series' back-story, Mars base was destroyed by Anti-U.N. forces. What Misa doesn't tell anyone is that her first love, Karl Riber was stationed there. Misa might have joined U.N. Spacy because of her family tradition but her intention was to follow him to Mars so that they could be together. Watching her wander around the deserted base is hauntingly sad. The moment where she finds Karl's room and his personal effects is heartbreaking. This opportunity to reconnect is so powerful that she is content to die there as the base self-destructs. Luckily Hikaru rescues her and they're able to get away from the exploding base (Poor Misa had to be the one to flip the self-destruct switch).  Knowing that she's living day to day with this crippling loss explains why Misa takes forever to get together with Hikaru. For her to even admit to herself that she wants him is difficulty enough.

The degree of pathos generated by the character is extraordinary. She embodies a compelling combination of melancholy and dignity. Her courage in the face of apocalyptic war is quite moving. It's one thing to see the Zentraedi armada firing down on the entire planet Earth. Misa being trapped int he ruins of U.N. Spacy headquarters screaming at her console screen as she witnesses the devastation makes it all the more visceral.

When she and Hikaru and trapped on Breetai's ship, they have a bit of a conversation. It's the first chance they've had to actually think about what they've seen  of the alien army that's been dogging them for months. Hikaru is disturbed at the idea of an entire people whose existence is defined by warfare. Misa however gets it. She identifies with the Zentradi. Sad.

In a way, Misa's personal development parallels the cultural development of the Zentradi. She reconciles the civilian side of her self with the military one. She goes from hiding her vulnerability to confronting it. Her feelings for Hikaru bear this out. In the end, she gets to have it all: The guy and the career (she's given command of Earth's first colony ship the Megaroad-1) but unlike some useless rom-com heroine, she earned her happy ending.

Misa doesn't just have her 'will they or won't they?' relationship with Hikaru. She has her relationships with Captain Global, her more problematic relationship with her father Admiral Takashi Hayase and her close friendship with Claudia,  allowing us to get know her long before Hiakru does.

It's not really Macross without Misa
slamming her fist against her console...

Most importantly, Misa is a bad-ass. In addition to her heroics on Mars, she is the one who comes up with the Deadalus attack in episode 6 ("Deadalus Attack" funnily enough). A brilliant military strategy which saves the day more than once and is referenced in later Macross Series. When the long range radar is damaged during an attack, Misa volunteers to go on an unarmed reconnaissance craft with only a small escort for protection.

At this point, I'd be remiss in not giving props to the voice actresses who have made Misa come alive for me. Mika Doi and Melanie McQueen (yes I know she was on Robotech voicing Lisa Hayes. Details!). Their performances in concert with good writing and exquisite character designs, established a complex well-drawn protagonist that will occupy a special place in my geeky heart for life.

Summaries and great reviews of almost all Macross series episodes and movies may be found here.

Equilateral: Love Triangles Done Properly (Spoiler-free)

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.