Macross II: Lovers Again, A Cautionary tale of NOT Evolving | Macross II Exploration 

Macross II was my introduction to the series, back in the late 90's.

Also 120% this is THE most underrated channel geared towards mecha content. Keep putting out bangers fam 😤

I love Macross II. It was one of the first introductions to Anime in general as a kid growing up without too many options. It was mind blowing, and the music was so good. Also my first Macross series, that made me fall in love with the entire mythos.

Hands down THE best soundtrack of all the Macross series. The songs of Macross II are amazing individually

Now that the Macross II Kickstarter smashed it's goal and will be coming to the west soon (dub and all!) this video is a fantastic video and a way of looking at the OVAs in a way that makes total sense and improves on the story! I'll be looking at the mini series this way going into it on the next rewatch!

Watched this one for the first time back in 2020 after finishing the original Macross and Do You Remember Love, and it was okay. I think I'm inclined to agree with you that it didn't add much or flesh out other parts, but I liked it fine. Your head canon, however, sounds really good to me. Considering Macross II in that context, I think I like it a lot more. So, good work!

Macross II has some very cool space battles and mecha designs. I liked that there was a bit less focus on singing and more about the war. One of the reasons I cant stand Macross 7 and Delta.

Macross II was not terrible, and I still loved it.

I bought this in the 90s when I was a little kid. I watched that VHS soooo many times

Really, really great work on this video. Subbed

The huge Space Battle in the fifth episode is something I come back to every once in a while. Definately my favourite part of this Series. Also, I like Shiro Sagisus' soundtrack; its pretty much a prototype of his work on _Neon Genesis Evangelion,_ made several years later.

When Macross 2 first came out, one of my friends asked why Ishtar was 90% naked. But the real question is why they didn't make that a selling point. Today, that's all it would take to sell videos.

I love everything with Macross in it. So, even if its not cannon, I just added it to my collection. Love the design for VF-2SS Valkyrie II, VF-2JA Icarus, and VA-1SS Metal Siren in Macross II and I'm thankful that these design existed. 😁

As for the valkyrie designs: This shows that because you dont know japanese, you cant understand the entire timeline of events of all of macross. You look at the numbers and say "HEY LOOK VF31 is there so VF-2SS cant exist!" macross delta tv series shows there are STILL VF-1 types still in active service. The VF-2SS is based on the VF-1 with zentradi technology added into it... Just like the VF-22S Sturmvogel II. After various historical events, some of which described in VFX-2, NUNS basically locks earth out from the rest of the galaxy, and the leader of Heimdahl in Macross Delta Zettai Live explicitly states this. Ernest Johnson, at the end of the first delta movie also says "NUNS doesnt have any energy left (to fight back against the war crimes they committed) so they'll just agree wto peace with Windemear." VF-25 tornado packs, VF-31 Siegfried shoulder cannons, Messer's Delta 2 Siegfried modified by Windemear to carry 2 ghosts, all technological starting points for the Squires.

Stumbled across this channel a day or 2 ago. Subscribed and been binging all the Gundam content. Might have to pick up the Macross franchise too 😅

I love MII. It looks and sounds gorgeous, and was a window into the broader world of exotic Japanese media.

1. its wasnt studio Nue that didnt want to do macross anymore, both Itano and Kawamori said they would NEVER do macross again. 2. Macross 2 is not considered a parallel world. Kawamori and Itano BOTH stated that without it, they would never had done macross again. Also, in ALL of the associated media going back to 1997, Macross 2 has been represented. I have a 15th anniversary B2 sized poster that has ishtar on it. I also have Macross Big Examination (マクロス大解剖) magazine that was released right after the 2nd delta movie, macross 2 is in it. On top of that, they have a special macross display thing going on at the Tezuka osamu museum in Koube right now and that also has macross 2, so everyone needs to stop with this "parallel" world crap. Kawamori and all of the media around M2 has shown its rightful place in the timeline. 3. the use of LOTS of macross 2 songs in 7 (INCLUDING Dynamite 7). They even went as far as to use an UNRELEASED macross 2 track from the 2nd soundtrack in 7 (as it wasnt used in 2). As for your lies that M2 doesnt evolve the series: 1. The first time the enemy uses songs. Delta uses this, but Macross 2 bases the entire enemy race on it. 2. The love triangle involves an enemy. Ishtar is the enemy, but she is part of the love triangle, which M2 is the ONLY canon member of the series to do this. 3. The protag is a reporter and NOT a pilot. Hibiki is the only actual protag in ANY macross series to not fight as he is just a regular person (Basara is very much involved in the battle even if he doesnt shoot bullets, Hibiki doesnt at all). 4. Humans never left earth point: In various media, i.e. Macross 7, macross frontier, and Macross VFX-2 the game, all show that the NUNS on earth has VERY little interest in all of the colony ships (in 7, they outright tell Max that they are cutting ties with them and that they are on their own). Hell even Delta has ZERO input from NUNS outside of a few things like stealing the pieces of dna for the 星の歌い手 to use as a weapon (which then "Lady M" steals to prevent them from starting problems). 5. the mind controlled zentradi ARE affected by the earth songs (watch that first battle scene again), but the Marduk emulators are more powerful than a stupid hologram with music playing.

Always liked Macross II Lovers Again, still do. The story is simple and to the point, as awesome as DYRL and a very cool tribute. Way better than some of the follow ups, like the Macross 7 series and doesn't overstay its welcome. The only other Macross I like as much as Macross II are Plus and the Macross 7 Movie and OVA Dynamite, which are way better written than the M7 series. To me it has always been canon and in the PSP game Ultimate Frontier, Macross II is acknowledged as part of the saga. The story works perfectly, the Earth was never abandoned, as shown in Plus and Frontier. Even today, Macross II still works as a far future sequel. I highly doubt Kawamori will come up with or write something better than Macross II. Even Delta has details that come from Lovers Again, mind control though dark music and quite a few technical details taken from Lovers Again, which takes place years after Delta.

As far as I'm aware, Macross II not being very original and reusing the same concepts of the original series is basically what defines almost every Macross by now. All of them have the same basic premise to lesser or greater degrees. Do You Remember Love is an in-universe movie if I'm not mistaken, as in the movie DYRL exists in the world of Macross and was released some 30 years after the "real" events (the original series), hence why it is different from the original, since movies often take creative liberties for the sake of entertainment. That's also why I believe Macross II could be a similar case: an in-universe piece of fictional media, instead of a separate timeline or universe. That way it could be integrated into the main canon without screwing up continuity.

Massively underrated series but it really needed a 7th or even 8th episode to really flesh things out. If the original series theme tackles the inter-generational conflict between Japan's militarist WW2 generation vs the post-war free-spirited generation, then Macross II's theme tackles the post-cold war issue of how Japan expects to fair in a new world where it's primary soft power (i.e. it's culture) becomes ineffective.

I first saw it on VHS in the late 90s. My brother hated it because we was expecting Robotech. I liked it a lot until I discovered Macross Plus.

Music is meh? MUSIC IS MEH!?!?!?! (Cinderella breaks glass slipper meme)

The first anime I saw at a an LA ComicCon in the early 90s. Also, showed Guyver and Crying Freeman.

I'm not a Macross II fan (despite my screen name), but I always thought of it as an OVA series that was close to being great. You could feel it move along a trajectory toward achieving greatness, but then it comes up short. My derisive nickname for it back in the 1990s was Macross II: Do You Remember Love Again.

at least the charactors still designed by Haruhiko Mikimoto (美树本晴彦)

I really liked macross II back when I saw it in middle school.

I hope they have done better w/ this because the premise is relevant especially on SDF Macross and Delta. What the government was doing is really for the better or not or just selfish gain. Also if people should know the truth even its cause or just have a front to make the citizens not worry are major questions in the series.

In Japan, animation is an art form, in the US it is a medium to spread “the message”

Meanwhile now the new seasons are only mostly about Singing… sigh.

8:15 maybe true but that comment by Gloval also shows misunderstanding. He assumes that the Supervision Army is a *distinct faction* against the Protoculture's Zentraudi, when in fact the SA's rank & file soldiery ARE in fact enslaved Protoculture and Zentraudi, controlled by which ever active Protodevils are there... [per M7's information on the faction] (again, If I understand the protagonists: This could very much be a George Lucas making it up as he goes situation, with Studio Nue thinking the SA was just another foe-of-the-week, UNNESSESSARY to the then plot of Macross SDF)

I can't shake this feeling that the producers of Macross II were influenced in no small part by what Carl Macek did with Macross via Robotech, and Macross II was an attempt to turn the tables. After all, Macek appropriated Macross's animations to put forward his own, Americanized, plot. It seems only fitting that Big West would appropriate Macek's plot to put forward its own, Japanese animated series. I mean, the plot of Macross II is so close to the second part of Macek's Robotech saga, one could even look at Macross II as a retelling of the "Robotech Masters" saga (or SD Cavalry Southern Cross as originally aired in Japan). But this retelling, unlike Macek's retelling, is in better continuity with the original Macross. All the elements are there, down to the color of Ishtar's hair. The creators of the Zentradi arrive to accomplish what their minions failed to do a generation before. Unlike the Zentradi, the masters use a special caste of female musicians to create harmony among its society. A brash, half-Meltrani female pilot Silvie (think Jeanne Françaix) and the young, sensitive idealist Hibiki (think Bowie Emerson) stand in their way. While on board the Marduk ship, they discover Ishtar (think Musica), and Hibiki falls in love with her, abducting her and bringing her to earth. When the UN Spacy finds out, they aren't pleased, causing the protagonists to go rogue. The final battle happens over the ruins of the SDF-1, Earth is destroyed, but the Marduk are destroyed as well, due to the cultural contamination Ishtar introduces. This is how I interpret Macross II, part response to Harmony Gold, part critique of Harmony Gold, and maintaining continuity with Macross itself only of secondary importance.

Actually, there was a colony mission that got attacked by a fleet of Zentraedi in the Macross II timeline. The ship "Million Stars" got destroyed, causing the UN Spacy to develop and procure the VF-2S Valkyrie II a decade and a half later in response to dealing with its aging variable fighters. There are certainly other colonies in the Macross II universe, it just has not been explored.

I like your idea. If they did it for real, I honestly wouldn't mind.

My head canon is that DYRL and Macross II are movies that premiered in the universe of the Macross TV series' ... A brief, inaccurate movie about the first Macross war, and a second movie about a possible future

It's about strategy and consequence. Overuse a "miracle" strategy and eventually it backfires allowing weird rogue factions a quick path into power. Basically, Marduk are not brainless fighters they have evolved their own culture or counter measures.

I like this series. I like that the enemy had their own song.

Great video. I personally like Macross ll. Especially the gorgeous animation which imo the 90s had the best animation overall compared to today's.

MacII has damn good mech designs and character designs. Also the Metal Siren is sexy as hell. Along with that one up armored Valkyrie with all the missiles and the cannon. Far far better than that god damn Mac7 .

i used to love this show, i got the 3 VHS's but when you get to the last couple episodes the animation quality goes down a bit

This was the very first anime I bought after moving out and living on my own.

Macross II really WAS that bad when you put it along with other Macross series, especially Macross Plus, which was amazing. The only saving grace was the great music.

First person to say first (also this is my favorite "Macross" anime)

I actually like it is a fun watch even though is not considered cannon

Macross II wasn't bad, but it just seemed rushed. Even the battle scenes move so fast it feels like the video has been sped up. Still if not for Macross II we would have never gotten Macross Plus.

Macross II not Well received in Japan? Are you serious? Macross 2 was VERY successful, which is why Kawamori and Itano decided to do plus and 7. Historical revisionism on your part right there. and one more quote for you right out of Takanashi's OWN MOUTH 黒歴史でない『マクロスII』 ―今回だされた黒歴史という表現、『マクロス7』や『マクロスプラス』、『マクロスゼロ』、『マクロスF』どれも名作ですが、その間でエアポケットにハマってしまった感があります。一方で、発売当時はヒット作だった記憶があります。 高梨　 かなりヒットしました。それにOVAのやり方がいろんなこと分からなかった時代ですから、いろいろチャレンジをすることが出来ました。

And I now made another video explaining the Marduk culture to show even MORE evidence that macross II first PERFECTLY into the canon of Macross ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ILyj5hND3-Q.html

I wish you had played the entire intro as a company is making copyright claims on the old intro videos on YT.

As much as Macross II may be maligned, Delta takes a lot from it.

DYRL is classic fav, i'm just watching macross as a pallet cleanser because i need a break from the grim dark world of Warhammer 40k

Macross 2 had a great art style and Mech. Is Macross 2 a worthy sequel to the original Macross?, No it isn't, but I prefer it over that Macross 7 teen pop shit.

Honestly, I think this OVA gets lambasted more than it deserves. It's NOT great, sure, but it's not terrible either. It's a unique show/movie that builds on some ideas.... but given that there was almost NOTHING of Macross after this for so long... It was at least an ATTEMPT to do something new. I liked the idea of the new Valkyries, the new UN Spacy ships, and the idea that these were progressions from the former conflict... but the general recipe was too bland and boring. It was a decent idea, just not very well carried out... it's a neat fun thing, but glad that it spurred Macross into DOING NEW STUFF FINALLY

While the music of Macross II is forgettable compared to the rest of the Macross franchise, the opening and ending themes by Mika Kaneko are still excellent. On a side note, Viz Comics published an original sequel manga in 1994 titled Macross II: The Micron Conspiracy. It was pretty meh.

IMHO, Macross II has some cool ideas, GREAT mecha designs, but just... kind of misses the mark in some ways, too. I wish they had explored the Zentran/Meltran and human society mixing some, for example... BUT basically it's just sort of mid-tier... 6/10 or so... it's not nearly as good as things like Macross Plus or ANY of the official Macross official canon stuff (even 7).

Mac II is a "Guilty Pleasure!"😁😉

Macross II would have been better received if they let Ishtar win Hibiki over Silvie. At least it wouldn't be too similar to DYRL in the ending.

No it's that good

My least favorite Macross anime entry. Because I watched this after DYRL and Plus

I was in college when this came out, and was so excited to see it, and was very unimpressed. The story and animation were fine, but my God, the English dub was just horrible. I mean, laughably bad. After I was able to see the subtitled version, it wasn't nearly as bad.

expecting something to being better then the original is a slave state of mind if it is it is if its not its not boils down to preference & opinions & bias & change & hate im honestly happy its not better but i do like this ova because good memories of the music cd and comic that i stumbled opan in 1996 oh mikimoto and koichi ohada

I don’t know. I liked Macross 2 more than Macross plus and hate 7.

I am a Generation-X American; therefore, I am familiar with the Original ROBOTECH TV Series and not familiar with the Original MACROSS Storyline. As a 1980s Hardcore RPGer, I purchased BATTLETECH: A GAME OF ARMORED COMBAT 2nd Edition; because, I thought it was a ROBOTECH Game System. Later, I purchased the Palladium ROBOTECH Role-Playing Game. The Palladium ROBOTECH RPG Book introduced me to the MACROSS Storyline; and, how the Japanese MACROSS Storyline was different from the American ROBOTECH Storyline. THE AMERICAN ROBOTECH STORYLINE -- The First Robotech War was the result of SDF-1 arriving at Earth; and, ended when Breetai's Zentraedi Armada rebelled against The Robotech Masters after Breetai's Armada failed to retrieve SDF-1 for The Robotech Masters. -- The Second Robotech War occurred after SDF-2 and SDF-3 left Earth to have a Diplomatic Meeting with The Robotech Masters; and, the UN Spacy on Earth was continuously dealing with Hostile Zentraedi Forces that were the remnants of The First Robotech War; which ended, when Kyron rammed his Spacecraft into the SDF-1 Command Bridge. -- The Third Robotech War occurred when The SDF-2 & SDF-3 Expeditionary Force to The Robotech Masters returned to Earth; and, Earth had already been overrun by The Invid; and, The Third Robotech War ended when The Invid deemed Earth Humans to be too hostile for co-existence and left Earth altogether; and, throughout this storyline, SDF-1 was deemed by Earth Humans as an Abandoned Historical Site. It is my understanding that MACROSS II occurred after the ROBOTECH Storyline; and, SDF-1 had been rebuilt and repaired to full functionality; but, was deemed as a Memorial/Museum Site; when, the Spacefaring Zentraedi Force, known as The Marduk, arrived at Earth. It is my belief that The Marduk was a byproduct of the SDF-2 and SDF-3 warring their way towards The Robotech Masters; that is, The Marduk are a Separatist Zentraedi Group that became independent of The Robotech Masters; and, had adopted Music to Mind Control the Marduk Zentraedi Soldiers. The Marduk questioned if SDF-1 was "Alus", a Legendary Spacecraft of Mythological Stature within The Marduk Culture. -- ¿A reference to The First Robotech War; and, SDF-1 being of Zentraedi-Robotech Masters Origin?

I may be in the minority but I prefer this to Mac 7🤔☺

True, a bit generic, especialy for the franchise, but "Macross 2" is still fine: Worst case scenario, Mecha-Action is nice!

No it’s not that bad. But instead of adding to the franchise they tried to reinvent it. The concept could’ve worked if they had stayed in the confines of what was already established.

You call Macross II OST a meh? I mean we have abominations from Frontier and Delta. Ishtar's songs are masterpieces compared to any of the songs from those series, lol.

Sry, but I always hated Macross II. The love triangle made no sense. Hibiki was more of a pain than Hikaru ever was. The songs were awful. And the aliens were less interesting than the Zentraedi. Oh and the plot has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. As much as I hated Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, that show’s issues weren’t nearly as glaring.

character and mech designs were fine. Story sucked hard though.

Macross II is proff Robtech is better than Macross.