It's been quite a ride with Macross Frontier in last 6 months. What I thought was a mediocre anime at best turn out to be the best of the season, possibly best of the year. Having said that, I do want to make a note that they (the story writer) seemed have gotten over their head a little bit. But when you're writing a story as impactful as this, it's really hard not to get over your head towards the grand finale. So, I probably wouldn't hold that against it.
Early in the series, I've made comparison between the original Macross and Macross Frontier: they looked quite alike early on. In fact, there's almost a one-to-one mapping of the major characters between those two. Macross Frontier also kept the same music-drama-action format as the original. But with a much more complicated storyline, and more advanced technology, Macross Frontier became much more than the original.
Now, back to the mecha anime issue. I don't like mecha animes. There are many things in Mecha animes I don't like, one of them being that most mecha animes tend to be too obsessed about the technological advancement about their mechas. While I don't have too much of a problem with it, I just don't like a story build around that. Macross Frontier is different. Instead of building a story around the imaginary technology, they build the imaginary technology around the story. I like it much better this way because it's story centric.
Also, there was an unexpected tragedy tossed in for an added bonus.
Final scoreboard (out of 5):
Drama: 5 (No lack of that)
Comedy: 3 (Not quite the focus, but what they have are pretty good)
Action: 5 (Dizzling)
Art/Animation: 4.75 (Great)
Sound/Music: 5 (A music driven anime)
Character: 5 (Great depth and variety )
Plot: 4.5 (Bit over the head towards the end, but still great)
Ending: 4.75 (Happy, happy, happy ending)
Re-watch value: 4 (I'd watch it again)
Overall (not average): 4.95 ~ Best Drama of the year
Award:
*Edit*: After seeing the end of RD Sennou Chosashitsu, I feel that in Scifi anime category, RD Sennou Chosashitsu is the absolute best in 2008. Even though I still love Macross Frontier as a Scifi anime very much, I would not hestitate remove the crown of Best Scifi of 2008 from it and place it upon RD Sennou Chosashitsu. Yes, it is that good.
(Note: Shakugan no Shana II is also being rated as a 2008 anime, I'll have to figure something out for the Best Drama of 2008 position, because I don't like ties and I think they both deserve the title.)
Recommendation: If you have not seen it, go download and watch it now. I don't think anything else in 2008 could top it.
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