So, you've found Macross Delta and want to know if you need to watch any of the other series first in order to understand it?TL;DR: No, each Macross entry can be viewed individually, and most series start with prologue narration sufficient to bring a viewer up to speed enough that they won't feel totally lost, as well as explaining required background along the way. Already having knowledge of past series will definitely enhance one's appreciation of any individual entry, though. To that end:A Short Guide to the Macross FranchiseMacross is a long-running franchise, initially proposed in 1980 as a comedic response to series such as Mobile Suit Gundam, but developing both serious and unique ideas of its own as it reached release.All of the Macross series have three elements at their core: First, a war or conflict, featuring transforming mecha; second, a love story, typically in triangular form; third, music, as a force for cultural change. The ratio of these three elements varies within each entry in the franchise.Music is critically important in the Macross franchise, as it serves as a counterpoint to the conflicts (often massive space war) in the series; the antagonists are not typically evil for its own sake, and the series demonstrates how culture, prominently demonstrated by music (but also love and other human interactions), can have a powerful influence on them. Macross's emphasis on and interdependence with music is what set it apart from its contemporaries in 1982, and is still notable a generation later. The music in the series typically follows the trends of Japanese music at the time of production, and has thus included such varied forms as '80s pop, ROCK, techno, and idol pop.A note on standalone series and continuity: It was once claimed by series creator Shouji Kawamori that each series could be considered in-universe dramatizations of the actual events, which allows for vagueness in canon and continuity. Most notably, in Macross 7 and Macross Frontier the characters are seen making theatrical versions of other series in the franchise. So again, don't worry too much if you've missed parts of it.Broadcast/OVA/movie content, major entries in bold with secondary media inset:Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Aired 1982-1983, 36 episodes. Timeline: 2009-2012. Depicts the first contact between humanity and the aliens known as the Zentradi, the resulting conflict, and its aftermath.Macross: Do You Remember Love?: Premiered in 1984. Two-hour film reinterpretation of SDFM. Squeezes the story down to the essentials but also changes how some events occur. If you're pressed for time, it's a good way to learn the basics of the first series at an obvious cost to background details and subplots. However, it is best viewed as a companion piece to SDFM; DYRL's interpretation of events is made much richer if one views it with an understanding of what came first. It is absolutely gorgeous.Macross: Flashback 2012: Released in 1987. Thirty-minute music video collection of songs/clips from both SDFM and DYRL with a bit of new concert footage. Most notable for the ending, which shows the Megaroad-01 fleet leaving Earth alongside Minmay's 2012 farewell concert, events which were cut for time from both the series and the film.Macross Plus: Released in 1994, four-episode OVA. Timeline: 2040. The most focused and self-contained entry in the franchise: UN Spacy is conducting flight trials to select its next-generation Variable Fighter, and the finalists are piloted by two old rivals with axes to grind both in the air and on the ground. In between is their old flame and her artificially-intelligent holographic idol. Considered by most to have the best hand-drawn combat in the franchise. Backed by an impressive production pedigree which includes co-direction by Shinichiro Watanabe and music by Yoko Kanno. Also available as:Macross Plus Movie Edition: A theatrical version of Plus, which trims the opening and alters some other scenes.Macross 7: Aired 1994-1995, 49 episodes. Timeline: 2045-2046. Full series; the franchise's first presentation of the long-term project to preserve humanity by spreading it across the galaxy; characters and subplots abound. An ancient and powerful enemy soon appears, but while the Macross 7 fleet includes some of the greatest pilots yet known, their greatest advantage over this apocalyptic threat turns out to be the power of ROCK. This series is much less serious than the other franchise entries and controversial within the fanbase, but it is extremely popular in Japan. Goofy as it may seem at times, it is easily worth it for the music alone.Macross 7: Encore; Macross 7 the Movie: The Galaxy's Calling Me!; Macross Dynamite 7: Befitting 7's aforementioned Japanese popularity, there are these numerous supplemental entries for it. The first two are extra episodes and side stories set during the series timeline, the last is an encore with Space Whales.Macross Zero: Released in 2002, five-episode OVA. Timeline: 2008. Prequel depicting the final battles of the Unification War between UN Spacy and the Anti-UN, which shortly involve strange Protoculture-related artifacts on a quiet Pacific island. For a Macross entry, it has the greatest emphasis on combat and significantly less character story or music, and also the darkest tone of any entry in the franchise. First major use of CG for the combat sequences, but it looks very good; the fight storyboarding is excellent to this day.Macross Frontier: Aired 2009, 25 episodes. Timeline: 2059. Full series set on another colonization fleet, which, as is to be expected, encounters an unknown and hostile alien species. As Macross series tend to reflect the prevailing trends in anime at the time of their production, Frontier features slightly younger main characters and a more slice-of-life feel, though the setting is always present and it is by no means a light and fluffy series. Musically, it has a fantastic soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, and uses it to great advantage by featuring two main singers. Released for the Macross franchise's 25th anniversary, Frontier includes references and homages to everything that came before it, especially SDFM, enough so that it is a good gateway series to the franchise in its own right, particularly if watching something from 1983 would give you culture shock.Macross Frontier: Itsuwari no Utahime (2009) and Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa (2011): Movie adaptations of Frontier. Like DYRL did before them, the adaptations alter various parts of Frontier while also trimming the series for length. Sayonara no Tsubasa is most notable for addressing an ambiguity in the TV series's finale.Macross FB 7: Ore no Uta wo Kike!: Premiered in 2012. Essentially a Macross 7 clip show at feature-film length, framed around some new scenes with the Frontier characters.Macross Delta: Aired 2016, ongoing at time of this writing (27 episodes anticipated). Timeline: 2067. A series set on established colony worlds, something that the franchise hasn't featured since Plus. Much of the galaxy is being afflicted by a mysterious phenomenon known as Var Syndrome, which causes its victims to become extremely violent. Var Syndrome can be cured with song (in the manner which song has been technologically applied in the Macross franchise since 7), and thus a tactical idol group known as Walküre is formed to deal with Var outbreaks, partnered with the Delta Variable Fighter squadron. Kawamori has hinted at some twists to the usual format this time around, an as-yet-unseen shakeup of the balance between war, love, and music.But what about...?Macross II: Lovers Again: Aired 1992, 6-episode OVA. Timeline: 2092. ALTERNATE CONTINUITY. Done by Big West, but made without the input of Studio Nue or Shouji Kawamori, and now generally disavowed by almost everyone. However, Kawamori has been sneaking in little references to it here and there... It tells the story of a new alien invasion 80 years after the events of SDFM, ending a long era of relative peace. The new race, the Mardook (Marduk), use their own female singers, the Emulators, to inspire their own warriors, while being immune to Earth's culture. A reporter tries to find a way to end the conflict before the Mardook win. http://ift.tt/1T0yKtE
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