Nice, Macross 2 was very good on it's own. True it's story, character types and such all follow the original series quite a lot. It's the perfect introduction to the entire setting as it incorpirates all the main aspects of the series into a short film.

It's mecha and ships were impressive. Although some fans may not pay attention, a lot of it was amazing. Which is why this Valkirie is one of my favs. Well mostly the SAP for it. The scale of the new class Macross ships compared with the original was also quite a jump.

Very true. and as for the lack of the SAP, well I personally always thought the made the VF-2 look to bulky, and boxy, ya couldn't really see it's streamline form

That is true. Though the SAP sort of turns it into a Fighter class Macross in a way. Still the design work they put into all the mecha was amazing. Everything looking beautiful. The interesting thing compared to this and later Macross mecha was this used touch screen displays rather tahn buttons. Gave it more of a furturistic kind of feel.

I loved Macross II. And the SAP Valkyrie does kick a lot of rump, but I'm a Metal Siren bear!

I personally thought the metal siren was a bit to super robotish but I do really love it's fighter mode, now if only I could find good reference of it.

I have several that I photocopied from the Macross II RPG. Along with the destroids.

O.O you have those?! wow I would love to get those books

I was an avid gamer back then. These books are a treasure trove of illustrations and technical specs.

Be advised that the Macross II RPG produced by Palladium Books is about as accurate as an eyeball reference made by a half-insane failed comic-book writer could get. While the original information is 95% buried (as the series is essentially "lost", being unwanted by its' creators in Japan), it would likely be better to hunt those down and draw from there. Palladium is notorious for its' extreme inaccuracies, much of which can be traced down to Mr. Siembieda's work.

On the other hand, the illustrations are QUITE good and of use for references for art.

Should you be able to find it, there was also a Bandai Entertainment Bible for Macross II which I have in my possession. However, taking scans from it would damage, if not outright destroy, this now-rare book. Should I find a second copy, though, I shall see to decimating it for posterity's sake and scanning it in its' entirety.

Yours,
Mika Kyubi
Kitsune-at-Large

That's very true but considering that there's so little out there, we have to make do. One of the things that annoyed me was how overpowered the Valkyries and destroids are and how underpowered the enemy mecha were.

Again, blame this on Siembieda never playtesting his work, ever. Also, I am of the GENERAL opinion that this was a desperate attempt to simulate a rule of anime: familiarity breeds contempt (and ease of killing), also called "Difficulty to kill is inversely related to how important the enemy is to the plot." For example: the average general grunt and the various mecha are there to be crunchy yummy popcorn that oges away under the heroes' guns in droves just to show how badass he/she/it is. Get the mid-range lieutenants, the enemies with a name and some screen time, suddenly it becomes tougher to kill them, but still they go away, maybe with a few more shots. Get to the "big guy", the "main boss", whatever you want to call him and NOW you have a knock-down, drag-out, lose five mechs and come back for more ass-kicking half-episode fight that ends only barely in victory.

Note, when the general enemy grunts show up, they're hard to kill. Five episodes later they're going away like the popcorn they are. Like the old Doritos commercial says, "Crunch all you want, we'll make more."

Palladium system does a piss-poor job of handling anime, in all truth. I'm not going to get into an encyclopedic list of where and how the system fails. After playing with it and in it for almost 20 years, I'm far too familiar with its' weak points, and whoooooo, by the GODS are they myriad!

I still recommend hunting down the original Japanese information. It CAN be found on Japanese sites, though with great difficulty (more time than I can devote to handling from work).

Yours,
Mika

Wonderful Valkirie :)

Well I have to admit the story of Marcoss 2 was a little weak ... made it look like they tried to copy the story line of the Macross series / first Movie.
Anyway the designs and battles were awesome. Still love to listen to the combat music simple to remember this great overview scenes of the defending fleet :).

as far as combat scenes macross 2 had it in spades but the love triangle felt a little forced, and the main villain was one-dimensional. But the worst thing they could have done was to destroy the macross herself, I felt a small part of me die the first time I saw that scene . fortunately mac 2 was set in a alternate universe

i have to agree slightly. Macross 2 was not the most awesome of the macross series. but in its own way i was slightly better then the infamous macross 7 *laughs8 which was just outright wtf speaking the original manga from what iheard was about veritech skateboarders and rock bands :P

though of all the macross series. Macross 2 has one of my favorites the metal siren i think it was called. armed to the teeth with 2 rifles, lasers and more missil then you can shake ya fist at, it was awesome :)

O I think I just orgasmed a little! OwO

Thats a definite fave!