Macross 2 vs Macross plus

[Dualcast_Ultima]

Hi, I’m new to watching macross and I’m almost finished watching the original series, just wondering if I should watch macross 2 or macross plus next? Is macross 2 not essential as I’ve heard mixed reviews on it. Thanks.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Dualcast_Ultima said:

Hi, I’m new to watching macross and I’m almost finished watching the original series, just wondering if I should watch macross 2 or macross plus next? Is macross 2 not essential as I’ve heard mixed reviews on it. Thanks.

Hi and welcome!

To explain a bit, Macross II: Lovers Again was made as a far future sequel to the first Macross movie Macross: Do You Remember Love?.  It has a different/separate timeline from the sequels that were created afterwards like Macross Plus and Macross 7 and is officially considered a "parallel world" story separate from the other sequels.  

It's not "essential" in the sense that it's not part of the timeline leading up to (currently) Macross Delta, but it's still a fun installment in the franchise and it does get referenced as a sort of easter egg in some later titles anyway.

 

Normally, the recommended viewing order is release order.  So if you're just finishing up the original series your next port of call would be the movie Macross: Do You Remember Love? and then the epilogue OVA Macross: Flash Back 2012 before moving on to (optionally) Macross II and then Macross Plus.

[Scyla]

With these options on the table I would recommend Macross 2. To me Macross 2 is much closer to the themes and the tone of the rest of Macross than Plus.

Macross Plus, while good in its own right feels to me very disjointed to the rest of the entries and I have an inkling that many fans of Macross got the wrong idea what Macross is about after watching the Robotech version and then Plus (and nothing else).

That is not Macross Plus’ fault given that it was not meant to be a Macross title to begin with. 

Personally I have a much greater appreciation for Macross 7, Frontier and Delta precisely because I didn’t experience the franchise in the SDF —> Plus order.

[pengbuzz]

13 minutes ago, Scyla said:

With these options on the table I would recommend Macross 2. To me Macross 2 is much closer to the themes and the tone of the rest of Macross than Plus.

Macross Plus, while good in its own right feels to me very disjointed to the rest of the entries and I have an inkling that many fans of Macross got the wrong idea what Macross is about after watching the Robotech version and then Plus (and nothing else).

That is not Macross Plus’ fault given that it was not meant to be a Macross title to begin with. 

Personally I have a much greater appreciation for Macross 7, Frontier and Delta precisely because I didn’t experience the franchise in the SDF —> Plus order.

I've seen M+ several times, and while it does feel slightly out of synch with the rest of the franchise, I accept it as its' own separate part of the Macross Universe. Yeah, it wasn't originally a part of Macross (I recall it was intended to be a stand-alone thing), but it does serve to fill in aspects of life for people on colony worlds and such. And it was nice to have something that could stand on its' own without cameos from SDFM.