November 21, 2009.

Macross Frontier the Movie : Itsuwari no Utahime (The False Songstress) opens in Japan theatres. Of course, it is a big thing. Macross fans are waiting for this moment to see how much the movie has changed from the TV series. Some wants the pairing issue resolved, some wants to see what’s new in the movie, even for non Macross fans, they are going to watch the movie (or not) because the following monday is a PUBLIC HOLIDAY. A perfect menu for dating couples to spend their weekend.

And I went for it today.

I had a very hard time watching this movie because my neck hurts from sitting on the front most row, facing up looking at the big screen for 119 minutes straight, which is the movie’s length. But you can see that everyone is eager to watch the movie. Else I won’t be sitting at the front most row when the rest of the rows are taken.

I was treated to a total of 80 to 90% of new scenes and cuts for the movie. Which essentially changed the story’s direction. It is almost impossible to relate this movie to the old TV series because of the changes it made. But what is guaranteed that the movie actually remained the bone of the concept : One pilot, two songstresses, triangle love story, Vajra, and war. I was never a strong Macross F fan, but I actually prefer the movie version better.

It’s also hard to write how I feel completely about the movie without spoiling it. But thinking of how Shoji Kawamori essentially tried to drive himself away from repeating his direction seen in the TV series. I’d say that he did well for attemping to do something new from an existing material which he already created. In this movie, action scenes are lesser, the developments are focused more on the characters which it took about 65% of it’s movie length so if you’re looking for heavy action scene..well I don’t know, you better not hope much for this.

Many thoughts came to me during the showing of the movie : The pacing of the movie essentially covers what it’s needed for a textbook movie. I find the pacing enjoyable but not to the point of “Wow” and “Splendid!”. And for those who are a fan of Nanase (I don’t know if there is even one…), She did not appear in the movie. Poor Luca got his lines extremely little this time round. The focus of the movie is mostly Sheryl-Alto-Ranka heavy. With Sheryl essentially the spotlight as you can see from the trailers. Quite a few terminology in this movie were given focus : like the origin of the song “Aimo”. Ranka also had her moments in the movie with 5 to 6 new songs even. But since Sheryl is heavily focused, it can be arguable if Ranka actually got her shining moments in this movie or not. But personally the balance of the both characters and their role are actually well done. Sheryl fans would love how mysterious and dazzling Sheryl has became in the movie (She is no longer just a pure songstress with sex appeal with a tablespoon of not-so-positive background); And Ranka fans will also be delighted with the treatment that the director gave her in the movie as well. Brera has his appearance doubled (almost), Grace…does not act like the Grace we knew in the TV series (yet). So essentially we are actually given a movie : A new Macross Frontier never seen before even though we already knew how it went.

Visuals are no doubt absolutely gorgeous and stunning. The mixture between 2D and 3D is well done and worth the eye-candy and quite impactful as a whole. The direction for Sheryl’s live scenes has been changed completely (not all though) and it’s worth the love it deserves. Free from drawing errors, you can say that it is one of the top notched animation quality that is not to be missed ever. Direction is as great as ever and the connection between scene to scene is smooth and I personally see no problems nor I doubt on Kawamori’s skillful direction as always.

Songs in Macross Frontier are the ones that shines the most in the movie. Given it’s Macross where song plays a huge role in the movie, Yoko Kanno has once again proved her skills in her composing. “Universal Bunny”, is a song of rhythm that makes you feel like jumping and dance along with it. “Obelisk” is my personal favourite because of it’s beat (and it heavily reminds me of Northen Cross). Some of the songs are re-used in the movie, but of course there are also new ones that are also memorable. Some songs in the movie are recomposed and remixed too. I also took a whole new liking to “Sou Da Yo”. Though Ranka’s other gag songs (in TV series, you only have “Ninjin loves you yeah”) made me laughed a lot (particularly because it’s funnily disgusting in a way). Which might be the reason for it’s enjoyable ride.

In the end, movie-goers would enjoy the movie that everyone had anticipated around, and Macross Fans will especially love the movie. That’s how it goes. Personally, it’s a 8 out of 10 movie for me. Not a perfect movie, but it is absolutely enjoyable for people who haven’t watch the TV series counterpart or knows nothing about Macross at all, and also for people who already have.

P/S : You will have to come to me personally if you want spoilers…

Some of the booklet scans can be viewed here (Beware, some MAY contain spoilers) :

That’s all folks. Have fun browsing through!

Tags: Anime, Macross, Macross Frontier, Satelight, Shoji Kawamori, Yoko Kanno

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 5:13 pm and is filed under It's all about entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.