MACROSS PLUS - MOVIE EDITION

VOICES OF: Bryan Cranston, Takumi Yamazaki, Richard Epcar, Unshô Ishizuka, Rica Fukami

1995, 115 Minutes, Directed by: Shôji Kawamori, Shinichirô Watanabe

Description: 2040 AD. Humankind's first colonized planet, Eden. Master pilot Isamu Dyson is assigned to New Edwards Flight Center as the test pilot for the prototype variable fighter, the YF-19. YF-21 pilot Guld Goa Bowmann is also there. Once friends and now rivals, the two compete in prototype trials. Meanwhile, virtual singer Sharon Apple has come to Eden to hold a concert. Her producer, Myung Fan Long, was a former friend of the two pilots. The three will fulfill a fated reunion . . . — Amazon.com

Macross Plus - Movie Edition cuts the 180 minutes of the four episodes of this 1994 anime TV series down into a single 115 minute movie. Obviously the original TV episodes are to be preferred as they make for a more immersive experience.

Two rival test pilots with a “history” end up at the same testing facility at a distant planet named Eden. They however find that they have to work together to fight a plot by a sentient AI gone haywire . . .

While it might be easy to describe it as a sci-fi / anime version of Top Gun, there is however more to Macross Plus. It has a genuine literary science fiction adventure feel to it at times, in particular the details of life on the Planet Eden which is at times evocative of writers such as Peter F. Hamilton. One can easily imagine Macross Plus being novelized as the sort of page-turner that makes for great beach reading.

It however gets the date wrong (2040) for when man would not only have mastered interstellar flight also have actually colonized another planet. The movie is also somewhat hampered by the sort of histrionic characterization typical of anime, but the beautifully realized animation makes up for this.