THE GREAT MACROSS REWATCH 23 – LOVE CONCERT

SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS
EPISODE 22: LOVE CONCERT

ICONIC SCENE: Hikaru decides what he really needs to fight for. The moron.

STORY DATE: January 2010

BROADCAST DATE: March 20, 1983

1. As Bodolzaa watches the footage of the barrier overload, I like that the same squiggly sound effect from his destruction in Do You Remember Love (as the song fades out) is used. Probably just a coincidence, but it FEELS like foreshadowing.

And of course, his take-away from this is that they need to capture another miclone for study… and THEN annihilate them all. Another gamble… and another gamble he’ll lose.

2. And the Minmay doll’s victory march has begun, as word spreads around Britai’s ship of some of the amazing things the three spies brought back, especially this thing called “song.”

There’s a real childlike enthusiasm among the Zentradi here which makes these scenes genuinely charming. Their reaction isn’t played for laughs, but it’s fun (and funny) to see word get spread around.

Kamujin of course misunderstands this as the soldiers being scared of the Macross… Dude, they’re not scared, they’re FASCINATED.

(Although it gets a little weird when Kamujin’s advisor, Oigur, mentions that some Zentradi are talking about surrendering… and yet Loli doesn’t come up with that idea until a few scenes later.)

3. Meanwhile, Hikaru’s brooding again (big surprise). Again, you might have thought he had found a new love in MIsa last episode, but here he doubles down on his infatuation with Minmay, and it’s as pathetic as it sounds. Not as pathetic as it’s GOING to get, but pathetic nonetheless.

4. This, by the way, is another sequence that seems to get fans really angry at Minmay, and I can’t figure out why. Hikaru hasn’t actually spoken to her in weeks. Everything about their “relationship” is happening inside his head at this point, and she has no idea any of this is going on.

Again, I understand the problem: for Hikaru, there’s an “us” in his head: Minmay and him. And he doesn’t want to kill that idea. For anyone sensible (like, say, you and me), it’s clear at this point that Misa is a much better match for him. But to get angry at Minmay for messing that up is missing the reality: that this is all Hikaru’s doing. Minmay has no volition in his fantasies.

5. “Love Drifts Away”!! First appearance of this crucial song!

6. Kaifun notes that Minmay looks especially lovely today, which she doesn’t. Thanks, as usual, to Star Pro.

7. And Claudia reacts to “Love Drifts Away” in exactly the way she’s meant to… Giving us some nice shots of her and Roy together…. which, again, would’ve been nicer if they hadn’t been done by Star Pro. Although I do enjoy that Focker coordinates his outfit to match Skull One.

Vanessa points out that “you can’t forget a love like that so easily,” and I guess it’s true, since Claudia essentially becomes an alcoholic spinster, as we’ll find out later.

And Misa is also quite affected by the song (to the Bridge Bunnies’ befuddlement) and you’d THINK she’d be remembering Riber, but no… it’s Kaifun. I cannot WAIT for this subplot to vanish.

8. Um… how do Britai and Exsedol know that the Daedalus Attack is called the “Daedalus Attack”…? Did the Bridge Bunnies tell the spies something they shouldn’t have…? (I guess so, since apparently the spies brought back info about the Macross’s “attack patterns.”)

And yes, it basically turns into chaos, as some of the Zentradi start attacking the city and others don’t (This, um, would’ve been a lot clearer if the animation had been better). But even someone as dense as Hikaru realizes that some of the pods he’s fighting aren’t fighting back.

9. Meanwhile, Kaifun does something that is either entirely badass or entirely stupid, in having Minmay continue the concert, even once it’s clear that battle pods are on board the ship. He (and everyone there) is extraordinarily lucky that music is affecting the Zentradi like it does, or else they all would’ve been barbecued instantly.

Still, he does get nearly crushed by a falling stage light. Never let it be said he doesn’t have the courage of his convictions.

10. Honestly, this episode (and next episode) are ones that I tend to forget about when thinking over the series. This also happens with some of the post-war episodes, but no others. Part of it, I’m sure, is how bad this episode looks, and that this one doesn’t really have an ending, it just kinda stops (making it easy to conflate with the next one in my head). But the climax is being set up here, and the Zentradi begin defecting. Of course, Hikaru also makes the colossally dumb decision to dedicate himself to Minmay’s safety, like she’s ever gonna know about that. But I’ll save my condemnation of him for another time.