Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984)

Waste of time

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I gave this a watch because I hadn't seen a single bad review on this and it seemed like a good anime to watch. In the beginning, it was good to see ships being turned into transformer like figures. The anime I have to say was good but its length and the fact I did end up watching this in English dub were pretty much boring. As well, it didn't concentrate a lot on the Hikaru character but the others. Add to that, Lynn's character was pure b*tchy also.With the overall good part, the anime drawing of the movie was good and that's why I'm giving this a 6/10...

Let me say this, I love this film... I absolutely love it. I am a Macross fan, and for any Macross fan who loves the original TV series, you will enjoy this film. Even if your not a fan of the series, you will enjoy this film. My rating shows a bit of my bias to that I'll admit to that up front, but I'm not afraid to admit when the film has it's own faults.It is a retelling of the original series. But that's not a problem, it was made a couple years after the original and unlike some series that have usually a TV movie that does a retelling, it's usually a cut and paste job of the series and slaps it together.No, this film had a theatrical release with an all new story (a retelling but still a new story) and brand new cutting edge animation of the time to really separate itself from the original.It is truly a visual spectacle to behold. For this was hand drawn animation at it's finest. You will never see hand drawn animation in this detail in anything else. It still holds up very well to this day. When you see the VF-1 Valkyries in space (or Veritech for the Robotech fans) It is beautifully detailed out from the paneling on them, to the shading and the firing of the multiple missiles. Even the space battles have insane amounts of detail to them. But nothing seems to compare to the opening's beautiful Reveal of the SDF Macross, it is a massive wow factor.Another thing to note, the music selection is perfect and works harmoniously with the animation and doesn't ever feel like it's out of place. And Mari Iijima (The actress that plays Lynn Minmay) her songs are placed through out the film But there is one particular song in this film that shot her off into super stardom in Japan. I won't spoil what song it is for you, but it plays a massive part in the film, that is what I will say.However the film has it's faults as I said before and I will not deny them. Biggest faults are in it's story. It is a retelling of the original that is going for 2 hours. And there is not much you can do with the very large diverse cast of characters from a TV series that spanned 36 episodes and now is condensed to 2 hours.So while some of the more minor but still somewhat important characters may make an appearance, they're subplots are either omitted or skimmed over like in the case of Max Jenius And Milia Fallyna (Known as Max Sterling and Miriya Parina in Robotech).In the case of the main cast though, they changed Hikaru Ichijio's (Rick Hunter in Robotech) origin and Lynn Minmay's (Lynn Minmei in Robotech) origin. They stayed relatively true to Misa Hayase's (Lisa Hayes in Robotech) origin however.But the telling of the love triangle is vastly different. Where as in the TV series Minmay is a character no one likes for being what she is... A teenager caught up in the moment with a budding singing career. In here she's actually very sweet, kind and loving, despite her singing career and would do anything for Hikaru.Misa on the other hand, in the series you had to warm up to her. In the movie you still have to warm up to her but she whines a tad bit more than she did in the series.And Hikaru Ichijio... He's very much the same lovable idiot that fans of Macross know from the TV series. I've read from others complaining about a certain scene that makes him appear as chauvinistic pig. The scene in question I won't spoil. But you'll know it when you see it.In a way, yeah it does look a bit chauvinistic. But I don't think that was the intent. Even though he's a good fighter pilot, through out the Macross series, he kept showing how much of an idiot he could be, especially when it came to women and there feelings for him. This I feel was more a moment of him showing some of that idiot from the TV series and I personally think it's funny. Others don't.The Love triangle that is done in the movie is a tad forced and you will notice that it's more forced in this one than in the TV series. But it's OK. For a film trying to condense down a 36 episode TV series, it still did a good job at handling the Love Triangle as best that it could. The rest of the movie makes up for some of the faults in the story itself.While I love the Japanese dub, I absolutely hate the English Dub. The original English dub was done in Hong Kong in 1986 and was a way to teach natives of Hong Kong, English, and it has a mix of both people from Hong Kong and a couple Australians in their, probably the voice coaches for the Hong Kong actors. it's a very horrid dub, and I really don't recommend it since it will ruin the viewing experience of the movie. This same dub can be found on the heavily edited "Clash of the Bionoids" VHS tape as well.I highly recommend people watch it subbed, but if you really cannot live with watching a movie subbed, then I hope you won't dock the movie points because of a horrid dub.

I had forgotten this little gem until it was finally released on Blu Ray recently. This story is the pinnacle of the Macross cycle. Macross is in the outer solar system, on it's way back to Earth. It's just a regular day on Macross, and Lynn Minmay is performing her first ever concert.Meanwhile, rookie pilot Hikaru Ichijyo is out on his first patrol. They come across some Zentradi attackers, three of which actually get inside the Macross! His commanding officer, Misa Hayase orders his to keep on attacking, but he goes after the three instead against orders.The Zentradi (Male Giants) don't care much for music and attack the Macross right in the middle of Minmay's first song. This means, they have to transform!What happens when the Macross needs to transform? Plenty - Whole areas of internal structure are destroyed. Lynn Minmay and her actor friend are caught and separated when a bulkhead closes, a gravity generator goes out and Lynn is in Free fall, Ichijyo has to save her as well as kill the internal attackers.On the outside, Macross finishes its transformation and activates its primary weapon, vaporizing the huge Zentradi ship.But down below, Ichijyo saves Minmay and they are trapped in the Engine Block with no gravity. This is where the song "Zero G Love" is played appropriately, when Lynn finds one of her dolls. A spark of attraction is between Minmay and Ichijyo, and they fall for each other - Right at the moment the bulkhead finally opens and a news crew happens to be there to exploit it.As time goes on, Hayase is asked by Roy Focker, another pilot in Ichijyo's squad, if she ever acts like a woman and has relationships. She claims Duty is all she needs at that point. Meanwhile Ichijyo is being chased by Minmay and he takes her out in his "jet"The real star of Macross is Macross, and the fighters the pilots use. There are basically three shapes that these Mechs can use, the full Robot shape, and Intermediate shape, and the Vehicle shape. What is great with this Anime is that they depict the smaller fighters as being able to shift shapes rapidly, from Jet shape to Man shape, and when the Humans fight the Zentradi and later the Meltrandi (Giant Women), these transformations are the meat of this series.What makes this film stand out, is that it shows the power of music and Love. The Leader of the Zentradi Fleet is in a gigantic fortress, and he has "the piece of culture" - The Zentradi do not know what it is, it is actually a cassette containing the music for a popular song.As Ichijyo is flying Minmay around, he is captured by Zentradi who also capture another fighter with Hayase and Lynn's actor friend. Roy Focker sneaks into the ship and tries to free them. But before he can do it, the Meltrandi Women attack and everybody is separated. Ichijyo is in a fighter with Hayase, Minmay is with her actor friend in a mobile Zentradi Cell.Ichijyo and Hayase try to keep up with the Zentradi ship, but it "goes into fold" - this was 1984, and the "fold" looks a lot like the Star Trek "Warp" - The giant ship shoots off in a beam of light, the two fighters are cast down onto some strange Planet.They discover that they are on a now-lifeless Earth. The only thing they find is a huge structure that has been on the ocean floor for hundreds of thousands of years. Somehow, Hayase can communicate with an ancient computer, that tells her the story of how the Zentradi and Meltrandi, and ultimately, Humans came into being, they were all made from "Protoculture" - An Ancient Civilization. It is at this time, Hayase and Ichijyo find that they have feelings for each other.Hayase finds another piece of "Culture" and she is able to read it, it is a cassette what has words, words for the song that the Zentradi have.A sad "triangle" ensues, Ichijyo now has feelings for Hayase and Minmay still has feelings for Ichijyo - All three of them deal with it, and they are able to complete the song, putting the words onto the Music, which Minmay sings and Broadcasts.The Music alone, when Broadcast, has the power to confuse both the Giant Men and Women. The Giant Men come to Earth and propose a truce, but it is basically a trap so they can get the Women there and destroy them.But as they all fight, MinMay sings the complete song to all of the fighting factions-This causes them to turn on the Zentradi leader who is in the Fortress, and Ichijyo takes him out personally. There is a point at the end, where Minmay and Hayase are looking across at each other, and Ichijyo is just outside in his Fighter.In my mind, this is probably the best Anime ever made - This is full anime and nothing is held back, and the idea that a simple piece of music can have such an effect, maybe this is unrealistic, but if it is the right piece of music with the right words, it could-Especially if revealed to a group of people who have no concept of Music, Love, or Intimacy. There is one scene where Ichi takes down a Giant Woman, her helmet falls off as she lay dying, and he looks up at her and she is beautiful, he says so, but she has no concept of what he is talking about.

Japanese animation has brought forward many films which are regarded as classics of the genre (for now ignoring the fact that anime isn't really a genre in and of itself, but rather a style of animation which encompasses several different genres, eg. horror, comedy, sci-fi, etc), but for some reason Macross: Do You Remember Love is seldom mentioned alongside gems like Akira, Ghost In The Shell, or Mononoke Hime (and pretty much every other Studio Ghibli effort) - something I find quite difficult to understand. I was lucky enough to catch this movie on late night TV several years ago and was completely spellbound by it. It has a simple storyline (boy loves girl, while humanity's future is threatened by warmongering cyborgs - hey, it's anime) but an innocence at heart which very few movies, even animated ones, are able to match. I was even luckier when I discovered a subtitled VHS copy of it, and it has since become one of my favourite animated movies of all-time.For its time, the standard of animation is quite impressive. This movie must have taken at least a few people's breaths away when it was initially screened in 1984, because, even when you compare it to Japanese animation of the time (including Hayao Miyazaki's much-lauded feature debut Nausicaa), the level of detail and movement on display is mind-boggling. People don't just move their eyes and lips (as was the case in virtually 99% of animation then); their hair moves, their clothes show wrinkles, whilst the background details are nearly inch-perfect. Macross itself doesn't just look like a huge intergalactic space station, it also *feels* like one. I can think of few films which display a similar attention to detail as DYRL, and for that reason alone it deserves its rightful place in the animation hall of fame, next to anything Disney or Ghibli have ever brought forward.The storyline, as mentioned before, is fairly straightforward (and admittedly clichéd at times), but thankfully this doesn't sidetrack from its unique charm, especially as the narrative progresses from a bogstandard battle of Good vs Evil into something else entirely, which I won't describe in great detail lest I completely ruin the surprise for you - however, I will say this: the ending itself is one of the most awe-inspiring things I have ever seen. Quite aside from the strangely moving premise of J-pop saving the universe, the entire choreography of that scene is an utter stroke of genius. It's a bizarre ending, but strangely enough it works.I'll be the first to admit that I'm no expert on the Robotech series - in fact, I know pretty much next to nothing about the other instalments in the Macross/Robotech series. But I like to think that I know good film-making when I see it, and Do You Remember Love certainly is that. It's an unsung classic of Japanese animation which does not deserve to fester in obscurity, but instead requires widespread recognition as the ground-breaking work of art it truly is. Simply put, it's wonderful.(NB, I want to point out that this review concentrates solely on the subtitled version of Macross: Do You Remember Love, not the dubbed and narrowed-down version of the movie entitled Clash Of The Bionoids, which, as many here have pointed out, is a monstrosity to be avoided.)