First and foremost, let me say that Macross Plus is far and away the best piece of animation I have ever seen.
Macross Plus is based loosely on the Macross/Robotech series, and is set many years forward into the future. The story is about three friends, Isamu, Guld, and Myung that were childhood friends and due to some conflict, grew apart. Fate has brought them back together several years later. Myung is the producer of a hit pop-star, Sharon Apple, that also happens to be a computer. Guld and Isamu are test pilots on competing plane/spaceship projects. In addition to the tension created by the two ego-maniacs competing for the heart of Myung, further trouble arises when Sharon Apple starts exhibiting sentient behavior.
The story is split into four approximately 45 minute segments. Even with this short format, there is an excellent progression of plot from one episode to the next. The animation is a good balance of traditional hand-drawn cell animation and computer generated effects. The attention to detail is astonishing.
What sticks out in my mind even more than the beautiful eye-popping animation is the fantastic soundtrack, and sound effects. It is without a doubt the best soundtrack of any anime, and perhaps of any animated feature film yet. A large portion of the soundtrack was performed by the Israeli Philharmonic. The cello and piano solos of Myung's Theme are absolute masterpieces.
Macross Plus is available both in a four part miniseries and a movie format. I strongly urge you to see the miniseries before watching the movie, or skip the movie altogether. The edit job on the movie version is terrible, and the continuity of the plot is almost destroyed as a result. That aside, there are several minutes worth of animation in the movie that do not appear in the miniseries. I would love to see them edit the pieces from the movie into the miniseries. It would be perfect then.
Run, don't walk to your movie favorite movie rental store and check this out. Better yet, buy the whole set. I did!
