Retro Chocolate

Ah, yes, I misread that. I do agree with this. Power levels in general are pointless in almost any show

Well IMO the visual effects make the battle scenes cooler. It probably could have done with out them, but I really think this plays back into M7 being more Super Robot than Real Robot, with flashy effects being the heart and soul of Super Robot shows. Similarly, the Chiba Sound Units act as a mid season upgrade, as well as the combination sequence in every episode, so more Super Robot elements. I understand the Super Robot elements may be a turn off for some, but for me it just made it all the better. It also makes Basara fit in perfectly in SRW

So this is out in Italy now. Man, I can't decide if I want all of the spoilers or if I want to wait for an American release (or a blu ray release)

Currently watching Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. It's a fun show, but a lot darker than I had expected considering it's a kids show

Oh I definitely see where the complaints come from. M7 is really more of a Super Robot show than any of the other Macross series, and it's certainly not for everyone, but as a huge fan of Super Robot shows, seeing a franchise I love use elements from Super Robot really worked for me. That and Fire Bomber's music is the bomb (no pun intended) Anyways I didn't to cover my opinion on Dynamite 7. I thought it was good, albeit not as good as 7, but I felt they either should have covered all of Mylene Beat in the anime, or cut the Mylene scenes from the anime entirely. As it is, some of the Mylene scenes just don't make sense without context (like the lesbian rape scene) and at times there's contradictions due to excising scenes from the manga (like Veffidas and Ray running off with Mylene after the rape scene instead of being attacked by the bird thing)

So I finished Macross 7 about a month ago and I really liked it. I think it's probably my favorite Macross (Don't get me wrong, SDFM and Macross Plus are better series, I just personally like 7 better). I didn't really have any problems with the complaints I hear about the series. I can understand most of them, but I didn't find them to be problems. It has great music, I really liked the characters, and even if it's a bit repetitive, I still found it really fun. I understand the complaint that it gives too much power to music and it's probably my biggest problem with the series, but I'm still OK with it. There's only so far you can go with music as a center-point without either powering up music or dropping it as a focus, and I think Macross 7 understood this. The problem is if you keep music as not being powerful like in SDFM, you just get the same plot of a musician culture shocking aliens told again. There's only so many ways you can tell one story. In fact, this is one of my main problems with Macross II in that it tries too hard to be like SDFM and DYRL and just ends up not being very good. I think powering up music was just a logical step.