I was very wary of Macross. I mean, the concept sounded terrible to me. Mecha and the power of song? Really? It didn’t help that the one part of Macross F I’d seen was the few minutes where Sheryl collapsing because she was sick and couldn’t sing and the Zentradi being all offended because of it. The quick glances I had at the CG also repulsed me.

But damn, those Macross F songs are good, so I ended up with the Macross Frontier Vocal Collection and I listened to it. And as I listened to it more and more, things like KIMI WA DARE TO KISU WO SURU, WHAT BOUT MY STAAAAAAAAAAR, and MOTTEKEEEEEEEE MOGITATE PRETTY CHANCE stayed in my head.

So yeah, I guess I should give the anime a shot.

As I suspected, Macross F was really good. As I also suspected, I didn’t like Alto very much. I did find it surprising that I liked Ranka and disliked Sheryl. Sheryl was a lot more irritating than I anticipated and Ranka was a lot less irritating than I predicted.

The story on the whole wasn’t anything too innovative. Generic alien hivemind race attacking deep space exploring colonizing fleet because they didn’t understand? Yeah. Still, the thing I found most interesting was the how normal everything seemed. Other than the technology, life in 2059 on Frontier is pretty similar to life right now.

Unlike Gonzo’s clunky CG, Satelight’s CG grew on me. It really worked for the fast paced combat and the large scale battles. And unlike my worst fears, the battles juxtaposed with the concerts were surprisingly well put together.

As for the love triangle thing? When I heard that it ended unresolved when I didn’t watch it, I scoffed and thought the writers took the easy way out. That may be true, but ended up not liking him enough to care. And of course, he doesn’t care either. He’s in love with the sky in the same way Setsuna is in love with Gundam.

Was it good enough to make me want to watch the older series in fierce loyalty? No, I guess not. But I was probably biased against it and it’s managed to win me over. Congratulations.

So after my shoujo manga binge, I picked up Macross Frontier after a week or two of listening to the vocal soundtrack. I also decided to finally read the Jinchuu arc of Kenshin, so that it would end better. Anyhow, one night, I just got tired of watching the Vajra wreck Frontier and Kenshin fighting mans that hate him again. So I ended up reading all of Kare Kano (Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou/His and Her Circumstances).

I’d originally planned to watch the anime version of Kare Kano, but found that it was a lot older than I thought, didn’t cover the entire manga, and was impossible to find. And now that I just looked up a clip on Youtube, I’m glad I didn’t. It had never occurred to me to read the manga, but I figured that if the anime was shorter and it was as good as people said, I’d end up reading the manga anyway.

Kare Kano had been brought up a number of times in various anime threads and forums. The times I remember were as a recommendation for more like Toradora or Clannad.

The beginning definitely reminded me of Special A, what with them being the top students and Yukino’s obsession with defeating Souichirou. Luckily, that got resolved pretty quickly, which gave plenty of time for developing their relationship.

But, I’d say somewhere around a quarter to a third of the manga in the middle was spent developing the relationships of side characters, which might have been interesting in small doses, but dragged on way too long. I thought the same thing about the family history of the Arimas. At least this was actually important with the development of the main plot.

The manga was definitely most enjoyable when it was focusing on Yukino and Souichirou: Yukino’s early development with breaking out of her mask, Souichirou’s later development with his dark past and inner demons, and their development together as a couple. It doesn’t stay all fun and games or sweet and sugary. It takes a really dark turn later on in the story.

I’m probably most happy with the fact that the standard shoujo tropes are non-existant. There’s no first kiss leading to several chapters of running away. There’s no amg my boyfriend might be tired of me. There’s no accidentally seeing my girlfriend with another guy out of context. There’s no ex-girlfriend from middle school showing up to wreck stuff.

Pretty much all of the problems that the two go through are a product of their personalities. This has more to do with Souichirou than with Yukino, whose problems actually get sorted out pretty early. His jealousy, the way he treats Yukino, and his ‘perfect kid’ mask is tied to his difficult past. The characters’ actions and motivations are grounded in reality.

I’d totally put Kare Kano on my list of favourite love stories, up there with Clannad and 5 Centimeters per Second. Do want anime remake.