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Macross Plus Anime Review
Macross Plus is a four part Anime. Isamu and Guld are childhood friends turned rivals after a shadowy incident in their past. Years later the two find themselves pitted against each other as both are now test pilots for competing fighter jet companies. One company will win the funding of the military for their new jet depending on the which pilot can prove his craft and himself superior. But this is not the only contest, as both Isamu and Guld love the same girl, Myung. Also a childhood friend of Guld and Isamu, Myung finds herself torn between them, as well as the bad memories of the past.
This manga has some amazing flight scenes. The artists do a really nice job on the clouds and the sky using beautiful colours, and the action is so fast and breath taking. It's kind of like Top Gun but even better since it is manga style. One scene I have watched quite a few times is in part one. Guld pilots the YF21, a new fighter prototype which is operated by the brainwaves of the pilot. Several dozen high maneuver homing missiles are fired at Guld by several drone fighters as a test. Guld actually accelerates towards the missiles rather than running, using the YF21's computer to predict the missile's paths. He then weaves and twists his way past every single missile. The scene looks really amazing, especially how Guld sits relaxed in the cockpit with his eyes closed the whole time and his fingers folded together as his brainwaves control the craft.
Isamu later gets his chance though with the YF19, the second company's prototype but this one is controlled manually, the old fashioned way. Nevertheless Isamu can make it dance just as well as the YF21, on his first outing taking the craft up and out of the planetary atmosphere in a matter of seconds, not to mention totally ignoring the testing procedure to show off his skills - Isamu is very reminiscent of Maverick from Top Gun.
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Isamu and Guld are not the only ones with toys, however. Sharon Apple is an artificial intelligence computer program/robot pop superstar which you could say is the brainchild of Myung. Sharon's thinking and personality are based somewhat on Myung's and she is also needed to help control Sharon at times due to the incompleteness of the AI. However, Sharon's "incomplete" AI certainly plays a big part in the final stages of Macross Plus. At the end of episode three things are certainly set up precariously by Sharon herself. Then it's on to episode four... what an ending! Most of the last episode is made up of amazing flight scenes more beautiful than any of the others in the previous episodes, and all elements of the plot come together perfectly in the thrilling climax.
In conclusion I can tell you that, like Ninja Scroll, the Macross Plus saga has got it all: plot, romance, and action. It even came close to taking the anime throne. However I would rank it as my third favourite, coming in just after Ninja Scroll and Berserk.
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