Some of you should know by now that I do not fancy mechas and that I rarely pick up and watch anime series with mechas as a main genre. Macross Frontier is an anime series which has been given to me by a schoolmate of mine when I was in high school and I never bothered to watch them until very recently as I had nothing else to watch. The only other anime series with mecha as a theme that I have watched till the very end is Infinite Ryvius, hence it is unavoidable that I would end up comparing the two anime series which is quite similar with each other.In this post I'm going to make a comparison between the various aspects of Macross Frontier and Infinite Ryvius, particularly on the storyline and character developments. Infinite Ryvius was first aired on Japanese TV in 1999 while Macross Frontier in 2008, some nine years later. Nevetheless, both have particularly similar background setting - both are set in space and is set in the near future (Infinite Ryvius in 2225AD, Macross Frontier in 2059AD). Both have the themes of responsibility, politics, coming-of-age and survival in space. In Macross Frontier, the mission is of searching for a new planet to live in while in Infinite Ryvius, mankind has already spread from Earth to inhabit nearly all the planets or nearby moons in colonies and settlements and hence space travel has grown and improved to the point of being commonplace. Here, the difference between the two is that in Infinite Ryvius, everyone on board the ship is somehow involved, i.e. everyone on board the Liebel Delta (a school in space for training astronauts) were training, to be a pilot or stewardess or other jobs to contribute on the space vessel. In Macross Frontier, a more earth-like atmosphere can be seen with not everyone on board the space vessel are pilots or engineers - you can see normal citizens in shopping complexes, farmers, singers, etc and even a government. While both anime series concerns survival, Infinite Ryvius seems to be more "darker" in a way that people on board the vessel are more prone to stress and are becoming psychotic after it was found out that all the adults had sacrificed themselves and the trainees onboard had to rely on themselves. Various rules are set and people are starting to backstab each other. In Macross Frontier, it doesn't get too stressful even at around the climax with all the singing, or at least that's in my opinion. Main characters from both also happen to be some bigshot pilots of some spaceship and also happen to be engrossed in romance and conflicts amongst themselves with other side characters in the series - those are unavoidable when you're out of your comfort zone, and I mean it literally, i.e. earth. In Infinite Ryvius you have Aiba Kouji, and for Macross Frontier there's Saotome Alto. For Alto's case he's handsome alright, in fact I'd describe him as beautiful with a long and silky straight blue hair. Kouji, on the other hand, is just an everyday average plan looking guy. Indecisive and reckless, both were introduced in a humble manner with both of them merely an ameteur at the start of the series (Kouji was merely an average pilot in-training taking his exams to get his licence while Alto was only an amateur pilot. However, as the story advances both of them had a struck of luck and somehow started to play an important role (Kouji ended up joining the Zwei while Alto became a member of the SMS).Somehow, both Kouji and Alto ended up being stuck in a sticky romantic situation in between two girls, forming a love triangle. For Kouji there's Faina and Aoi, while for Alto there's Ranka and Sheryl. For Alto, he met both girls at around the same time in the first episode - by then he didn't know that the girls would change his fate; in Kouji's case, Aoi was his childhood friend while he had only known Faina on board the Ryvius. Kouji first dated Faina but later Faina ended up turning "evil" due to the circumstances (she murdered someone if I do not remember it wrongly). Their relationship never worked out and Faina returned to Uranus where she was from. At the end of the series Kouji dated Aoi when they were rescued and returned back to earth. In Macross Frontier, Alto's relationship between Ranka and Sheryl was left hanging as he never made a choice to date either one of the girls, one of the things which made me rather dissatisfied with the series - I was rooting for Ranka Lee, you know.Another thing worth comparing between the Infinite Ryvius and Macross Frontier is their secondary characters' character development. As two series that involve politics and responsibilities, many equally important secondary characters were introduced into the story to enhance the story. In Infinite Ryvius there's Yuki and Ikumi while in Macross Frontier there's Michael and Luca. Yuki is Kouji's younger brother but he seems to have more spine than his elder brother while Ikumi is Kouji's best friend. These two would end up playing an important role in the story as their conflicts between Kouji would end up being a major plot. Both have their own romantic story, although Ikumi's would end up being rather... unfortunate. As for Michael and Luca, the former's a serious-sounding womanizer while the latter is the genius amongst the group. Michael would end up being the one to leave the story earliest, unfortunately, while Luca would start to blame himself for not being able to protect the girl he likes. One thing worth mentioning is that both Michael of Macross Frontier and Ikumi of Infinite Ryvius share a similar weakness - both lost their elder sister, this causing them to get really upset when they think of it. And but of course, there are many other important secondary characters in both the series, for Infinite Ryvius (like Juli Bahana, Reiko, Airs Blue, Kozue, Neya, etc) as well as Macross Frontier (Nanase, Ozma Lee, Klan Klan, Catherine Glass, Brera Sterne, Bobby, etc). You don't see this much secondary characters in purely romance animes (like Clannad, for example).As for the songs and background musics, Infinite Ryvius has used lots of songs that are of techno, western hip-hop and R&B (mostly composed by Katsuhisa Hattori who have also composed songs for the Final Fantasy series) while Macross Frontier banks on J-Pop/J-Rock type of songs (mainly composed by Yoko Kanno who have also composed songs for series such as Cardcaptor Sakura). My favourite song from Macross Frontier was Seikan Hikou by Megumi Nakajima which was featured in the anime as Ranka Lee's debut album. Theme songs and BGM wise, Macross Frontier has the obvious advantage as it has released lots and lots of songs as sung by Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee in the anime. Nevertheless, Infinite Ryvius is more creative and has the greater "futuristic" and "robotic" kind of feel.As a conclusion, both are worth the time watching. Nevertheless I'll let it rest for now - watching this sort of animes makes me tired - tired of memorizing all those jargons: Geduld, Vaia, Braticca, Vajra, Zentradi, Skull-4, Deculture!, etc.
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