What is the best anime movie? That’s got to be an impossible question to answer because we could never agree on what measure to use, and because we all came of age as otakus during different time periods. But it’s a fun question to ponder.
Would you try to choose based on the influence the film had on fans and the world as a whole? Then you might go with Akira or the first Ghost in the Shell. Would you try to pick a film that had the best-loved characters? Then maybe select My Neighbor Totoro or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Best overall execution by the creators? I’d argue The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya in that case. The most financially successful? The answer would naturally be Your Name.
For me, the best anime movie ever made was Macross 1984: Do You Remember Love?, the legendary film that retold the original story from 1982’s Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (known in English as Robotech).
I recently brought a new TV, and needed something to break it in with, so naturally I decided to re-watch the Macross 1984 film…which in turn made me geek out and start writing this article. Tell me in the comments if you agree with me or not!
Defining Golden, Silver and Bronze Age Anime
First, let’s talk about the history of anime a bit.
In the world of American comics, there are three defined eras, which are the Golden Age (1938-1950), covering the creation of Superman and Batman; the Silver Age (1956-1970), when popular heroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men emerged; and the Bronze Age (1970-1984), when censorship of comics faded and genius writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller started to pull the medium into the modern, dark form we know today.
How would you define the Golden, Silver or Bronze Ages for anime? It’s hard to pin down, but I’d go with these as general guidelines.
- Golden Age 1963-1978. This covers the original Astro Boy anime, through classics like Speed Racer and Space Battleship Yamato, up to the original Mobile Suit Gundam of 1978, which almost failed before the three compilation movies saved the franchise. Anime was made entirely in Japan by Japanese artists, and the idea of anime being a pan-Asian industry, or of fans around the world loving it, was a far-off dream.
- Silver Age, 1981-2000. This covers the explosion of Urusei Yatsura, the popularity of which made everything else possible, along with worldwide hits like Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Akira and Sailor Moon, which made anime a household name. The era ends as the industry is forced to convert to digital coloring when Fujifilm suddenly ceases production of the cels used to make animation.
- Bronze Age, 2000-Present. Anime is more popular than ever, and connects fans around the world. But as it often does, technology creates as many challenges as it solves, making anime difficult to monetize as people can download it from the Internet. CGI becomes an increasingly important part of the story, which isn’t always a good thing.
The Blu-Ray We Were Waiting For
Re-watching the Macross 1984: Do You Remember Love movie, which finally got a proper release on Blu-ray.
To me, this is the best anime movie ever made. Are you a fan? pic.twitter.com/tekxCxr3ot
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) March 24, 2020
When the Macross series and Do You Remember Love? Blu-ray boxed sets came out, I dutifully bought them and re-watched both, thrilled at being able to identify pieces of dust on the individual cels. While the series release was good, I was annoyed at the DYRL Blu-ray because the transfer was ridiculously dark, and they had added censorship, mosaicing out a decapitation scene, as if fans were babies who couldn’t stand to see a little blood. Happily, a definitive Blu-ray came out in 2016, which fixes all of these problems, even allowing us to see Claudia in the screencap above. If you want a copy, we have it on J-List.
11 Reasons Why Macross 1984 is the Best Anime Movie
But back to why the Do You Remember Love? film is so awesome.
It’s the Best Re-Imagining of a Story Ever
At a time when an “anime movie” meant a compilation film using TV footage, such as the above-mentioned Gundam films and the original Space Battleship Yamato movies, Macross 1984 is a totally original work, which takes the story and tells it again, but with everything dialed up to 11.
It’s basically like if the only Batman you knew was the campy 1960s TV series and someone handed you Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns for the first time.
It Tells a Huge and Dramatic Story
While stories about characters trying to find a fourth member or their school club will be closed are cute and all, what originally drew me into anime was the sheer “giant-ness” of the stories, starting with Space Battle Yamato (Star Blazers), in which the ship must travel 148,000 light-years and back within one year or the entire human race will perish. Macross similarly tells the most mind-bogglingly huge story imaginable, a tale of two races of bio-engineered giant soldiers who make war on each other for millennia. They’re programmed to stop fighting when they hear a specific song, but their creators died out, so no one’s around to play the song for them.
It’s Got an Innovative Structure
Back at SDSU I took a screenplay-writing class which basically had us learn about how good movies are structured into three acts. This involves drawing viewers into the story, taking the characters along the main body of the plot, then sinking everything to the lowest point before bringing it to a glorious resolution at the end, with the original Back to the Future pretty much being the most perfect example of this traditional structure. While anime doesn’t follow this Hollywood pattern (and we wouldn’t want it to), it is refreshing to see a work that actually gives consideration to its structure, starting the story in the middle and giving us the information we need quickly.
https://twitter.com/JListPeter/status/1242366973750603776
It Cemented Hideaki Anno as One of Japan’s Premier Animators
Working as an animator on the original 1982 Macross series while still in university, he made a name for himself animating the God Warrior sequences at the end of Nausicaä for Studio Ghibli before becoming the lead animator on Macross 1984. He went on to make many beloved series, from Gunbuster to Evangelion, and anime wouldn’t be the same without him.
It Created the Genre of “Idol Anime”
Whatever your opinion on idol anime today, the marriage of 2D idols and animation was at least as important an innovation to the overall anime industry as transforming mecha that would make fans want to buy models and put them together. Lynn Minmei was the first, created as a love letter to the idols of the time, principally Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori.
It’s a “Show Within a Show”
Why is the Macross 1984 film so different from the 1982 original series? Because it’s a “movie” inside the universe of the original show, so both can be canon at the same time. The series adds to this “meta” theme in Macross Frontier, when Ranka gets hired to appear in a movie being made about the events of Macross Zero 51 years earlier.
It’s Fantastically Creative
While the galaxy-spanning war story is amazing, the little creative touches are equally impressive. Taking a girl on “holographic cosplay” date, then flying her through Saturn’s rings to impress her? A city inside a spaceship whose gravity fails, causing everything in the city to fall the wrong direction? That’s some next-level creativity.
It’s the “Star Wars” of Anime
If you think about it, Macross is to Star Wars as Gundam is to Star Trek. One is about flamboyant adventures in which heroes save the galaxy by the seat of their pants using the Force or singing a song, and the other attempts to tell something like a plausible story about a grand vision of mankind’s possible future in space.
It Changed the Relationship Between Anime and Music Forever
When George Lucas started making Star Wars, he originally wanted to use existing classical music to score the film, as 2001: A Space Odyssey did. Happily John Williams turned him on to the idea of using originally scored music, and movies have never been the same. Similarly, Macross added a musical component that made being an anime fan and obsessively collecting record albums and CDs go hand-in-hand for most fans.
You Can Feel the Love The Creators Had For the Film
Every frame drips with love and dedication the creators had for the new universe they were crafting, from the bizarre design of the Zentradi and their language to the ridiculous animation of the missiles. All drawn and painted by hand.
My First Anime Boobs!
You never forget your first pair of anime boobs, and the above video was mine. I’m pretty sure I have Macross to thank for my giantess fetish, too.
Thanks for reading this long post!
If you want an alternate take on Macross, YouTuber Zeria has some interesting and unconventional views. I recommend you give them a viewing.
Also, if you’re a gamer, I recommend the PSP Macross Ace Frontier game, which was everything fans could have asked for in a Macross game. You basically get to reenact every battle in every Macross anime from the original series through Macross Frontier. The game is in Japanese but wouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Here’s a gameplay sample if you want.
Well what do you think? Is the Macross 1984 the best anime movie ever, or do you have a candidate you’d like to promote instead? Tell us down in the comments, or take us to task on Twitter!
