Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 25 - Macross II: Lovers Again

Hi guys, new listener here. Found DAPDX through a sig link on a BBS somewhere.

Now, "intense" definitely describes this podcast. Most of the time it's Jeremy ranting about this or that but hey, it's usually fun or interesting, one way or another, so that's just fine by me. Unlike some other podcasts, the swearing actually makes sense when it happens (F*CK MAMORU OSHII).

The last few podcasts have been pretty good and several of the earlier ones too. Guess I'll be renting, buying or otherwise watching a few classic shows soon enough, including Yamato.

The ST 04 podcast made me both nostalgic and ashamed of the early 90's and my choice of cartoons. Liked what little I saw of Darkwing Duck, but ended up watching a lot more Ducktales and random Disney Channel crap, though the movie "The Flight of Dragons" stood out as something particularly cool, at least at the time.

As for Macross 2...never seen this one before, but I guess it's nothing special either (underdeveloped love triangles and retarded aliens FTW...or not). The show seemed to drag a bit towards the end, but overall it was cool enough, even Andrew's little reading.

Finally, I was wondering if you're planning to review, say, Orguss at some point in the future. Haven't watched all of it but seems like a pretty good 80's anime that most people tend to overlook, though apparently it's being re-released in the U.S. these days. Plus hey, it's got Haruhiko Mikimoto.

Then again, Orguss 02 might be more useful for mockery purposes, but I'll leave the decision up to you guys.

Cya.

-wielder

Remember how I said that most modern series had the problem that they were 6 episodes of content stretched out to 26 episodes of show?

I think that Macross 2 kind of had the opposite problem; that its story would have worked better as the foundation for a 26-episode TV series. Obviously they didn't have the budget for that--it wasn't the time of the TV series, after all--but they had a definitely intriguing foundation.

You've got the comparisons of the Human-Zentradei relationship versus the Marduk-Zentradri relationship. Both are based on introducing the Zentradei to music and emotion; but the humans use it to befriend, while the Marduk use it to enslave and manipulate.

You've got the significance of the name "Marduk". Now, obviously it was just chosen because it sounded cool; but why not go further with that? Where did the SDF Macross and that ancient underwater city come from? Maybe the Marduk were an ancient culture, and Earth was just a lost colony; natural disasters wiped out their civilization and their history became mythology.

Obviously the love-triangle thing could use some expansion. But there is quite a bit of "moe" to Hibiki's relationship with Ishtar. In a way, she's the platonic ideal of a moe character; she's weak and vulnerable and innocent, and needs a Strong Father Figure. And in this case the physical aspects are okay, because she's...uh, mature. No icky involved! Get in there, man, she's fine! And you could expand on that; maybe Hibiki has had trouble finding a girlfriend, because none of the women he knows really meets the perfect girlfriend he's built in his head. And now here comes Ishtar, ready and waiting to be molded into the form he wants! But then he comes to realize how empty that relationship is; there's nothing in her that he didn't put there. That's why he ends up with Sylvie. While she isn't completely devoted to him, she's an independent human, and can fulfill him in ways that the empty-vessel Ishtar cannot.

And you have a subplot with the human-aligned Zentradei. How do they feel about the repeated Minmay Attacks against their fellow beings? The standard human space-battle tactic is "put the enemy into a hypnotic trance and then kill ALL OF THEM." Doesn't really seem fair, does it?

Anyway. I'd say that if you want to look at pretty pictures of mecha, you'd do better just to buy the Macross 2 artbook; or, alternatively, get the Palladium RPG books (which do the usual Palladium stunt where they copy the Big West line art, ink it heavily, and then put an American artist's name on it. At least they have the pictures.)