Back when the Macross rights were mostly resolved, I was looking forward to all the classic Macross anime coming Westward. Well, here we are, and it feels great.
While we already had the excellent Blu-ray release for Macross Plus a while back, that was already released in the West back in the 90s, so much so that Bryan Cranston voiced one of the main characters.
However, there have been a slew of classic Macross anime that were previously landlocked to Japan until very recently, and Macross Zero is one of those series.
Originally released in 2002, Macross Zero acts as a prequel to the events in the original Macross TV series. Dealing with the Unification Wars that had only ever been mentioned in passing, Macross Zero was meant to show how these wars were fought and, more importantly, what for.
This is because when the Macross spaceship crash landed in the Pacific, it brought with it huge technological advances. How these advances were used and, crucially, who benefitted from them were, in part, the reason behind the Unification Wars.
However, the Macross was by no means the only Protoculture relic left on Earth, and a mysterious Bird Human becomes the source of a new conflict at the end of the Unification Wars.
Compared to previous modern Macross anime, such as Macross Plus, Macross Zero took a new approach to how it dealt with the mecha. While the characters were still drawn in 2D, the mecha were rendered as textured 3D models.
At the time, Gonzo were the masters of this approach, and their Yukikaze anime, also released in 2002, had set an incredibly high benchmark for this “hybrid” animation approach. So, when Macross Zero rocked up, it had its work cut out for it.
Put simply, Macross Zero was and is a watershed moment in modern animation. It took the complicated transforming mecha of variable fighters and made them fit into a modern anime setting.
I actually remember seeing the first episode of Macross Zero at a cinematic screening in Shibuya, Tokyo, literally just as the first episode’s master had been finished. Shoji Kawamori ran up on stage, waving the master tape with a fair degree of jubilation.
Like then, seeing Macross Zero again on Blu-ray is wondrous. The visual and audio quality is amazing, especially as Kuniaki Haishima’s score was not typical for Macross at the time, and really stands out as a result.
Seeing how the warring variable fighters square off against one another was and is amazing. The only minor quibble was that Macross Zero is meant as a prequel, and yet some of the variable fighters feel strangely overpowered, but I think the “rule of cool” takes care of that one.
As for this box set, there’s not much on the disc, but that’s made up for by a very thorough 128-page booklet containing all manner of interviews and background on the series.
I honestly never thought we’d see Macross Zero ever get a proper Western release in my lifetime. After watching it that night in Shibuya, I knew that the then-current rights situation with Macross internationally was a mess.
The fact that this box set even exists feels oddly fantastical, but it absolutely delivers on what I think is one of the finest entries in the Macross saga.
Yes, Macross Plus has the bombastic plot and pacing, but Macross Zero had the nuanced spiritual take that underpinned almost every other entry of the Macross saga. In many ways, it ratified this cultural foundation. In short, Macross Zero holds up very well, and the fact it even exists officially outside of Japan is a cause for celebration.
The Macross Zero Limited Edition Blu-ray box set is available from Crunchyroll’s online store for $89.99.
Disclosure: Crunchyroll sent me this Blu-ray set for the purposes of this review.
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