Here are my thoughts and feelings about the film.
It featured everything a self respecting Anime should deliver.
Awesome animation, epic intergalactic battles, a dramatic / sad story line / plot and a fantastic sound track.
The voice acting in both the US & Japanese versions were very well performed, but my favorite factor in the film was its music.
When Hibiki takes Ishtar to the Moon festival and they listen to Wendy’s Love Song for the first time, with all the fans cheering inside the amphitheatre under the glass dome and the flagship Gloria in orbit, was my favorite moment by far!
I love Lady Ishtar’s ecstatic expressions of joy and happiness. She then reveals her wish to Hibiki, which was to sing the song of love to her own people and bring them peace.
Later on, another very dramatic and shocking moment was when Ishtar starts singing the song of love at the Alus Nova chamber inside the alien flagship, (Sarride) bringing confusion to the Zendraedi soldiers. The outraged Emperor then orders the executioner death ship to cleanse the polluted flagship by blasting it with its laser beams.
Lord Feff and Lady Ishtar, manage to fly out of the doomed flagship inside a battle Mech, just in the brink of time!
As they watch the large nuclear explosion of the Sarride from afar, Ishtar cries for the loss of lady Elensh, but Lord Feff replies:
The order given by the Emperor to his soldiers is equally dramatic (And very Japanese in style if I may say so)“Behold, Ishtar…This is the will of Ingues, lord emperor of the Mardook. And this is the result of what you have done!”
The final battle between the U.N Spacey forces and the Mardook fleet is one of the best in any Macross / Robotech film."Soldiers sworn to the Mardook discipline… In the name of our culture, crush these arrogant vermin!
In this universe nothing exists which can overpower us!
Therefore, resisting our conquest is impossible.
In the name of the Mardook, destroy!"
The music used for the battle scene is just perfect, as you watch the ships mobilizing for the imminent battle to come!
The two huge fleets engage in a devastating clash, in close proximity to the moon’s orbit.
At first impression, it would seem that the earth’s fleet gains the upper hand by wiping out 60% of the Mardook fleet in a single blow after using four Macross cannons, but all of a sudden, a huge wave of enemy ships de-folds and begins hammering the outnumbered earth fleet with a devastating laser storm!
The entire fleet, the Macross Cannons & the Gloria Flagship it self are destroyed!
What’s interesting is that the Earth side fleets, in all the battles that take place in the film; consist almost primarily of old Zendraedi style battle cruisers also seen in the older Macross DYRL film & the Robotech series.
An apocalyptic dialogue that reveals the true feelings of Lord Feff for Lady Ishtar, takes place at the hangar of the Mardook command ship.
Lord Feff releases Ishtar, but before she leaves, he tells her:
Finally, at the earth’s siege, in the last decisive battle over the scourged earth landscape, Ishtar sings the song of hope and sends to everyone the gentleness of her own heart and saves her people from the dictator."I know no other life but one of a proud Mardook soldier, in service to lord Emperor Ingues.
I will only cease fighting at my death.
Ishtar you must leave now before I regain my senses.
And remember what is my sworn duty. To the Mardook you died by my hand.
No one will know my failure that I dare to love above my people."
I find Wendy Ryder’s love song (Japanese) (At the Moon festival) better than Minmay’s “Do you Remember Love” song from Macross DYRL and superior to the English translated version “We Will Win” song, from Harmony’s Gold Robotech series imo.
Same goes for “The Hush of Two Hundred Million Years” intro song (Japanese) compared to Macross DYRL & Robotech intros imo.
Overall, Macross II is definitely one of the best Anime films and should be placed in the hall of all time classics!
Lady Ishtar
Macross VF:
Lord Feff and Lady Ishtar at the Hangar:
Lord Emperor Ingues
Lady Ishtar Concept Art.
SDF-1 Fortress
A few nice Wallpapers / Flyers:
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2453/ishtari4wo.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2638 ... 53b4eh.jpg
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5774/i ... 0249ke.jpg
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7007/ishtar14oy.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6875 ... 11b2jn.jpg
