I discovered Macross, or by any means Macross Delta first, back in the today distant March 2020 when Italy entered the first ever lockdown; needless to say I truly fell in love with this particular franchise that made me love the mecha genre and started to make me interested in the idol hell.
For a way or the other the Macross experience made my taste and judges grow because, despite loving this franchise, I truly recognized what was good and what wasn't truly the best and unfortunately the anime series of Delta wasn't the best. Delta missed a lot of what was the essence of Macross : romance, drama and action mixed perfectly together with music; which is everything there but it wasn't even tried to develop these things to the best but rather chose to take full advantage of the music aspect with the monopolisation of Walkure, and well I am not truly mad because I love their music but you can get me, it was a wasted opportunity of taking the bases of something that could've been legendary but didn't succeed at the end.
If you ask me the movie completely changed everything and took what was good of Delta and brought it to the maximum, and as well took what was left behind and made it amazing in one of the best movies I've ever watched where everything fell perfectly in place.

This is the redemption of Macross Delta and I am proud of it, I've waited 2 and a half years that felt eternal but the outcome of this wait great.

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2 hours of me staying on the edge of my seat

The first that came in my mind after more or less the first 30 minutes of the movie was "this is a lot of action, and it doesn't feel even wrong". The opening sequence of the movie should be put in a frame because it perfectly alternates between the music of the Walkure, the typical Macross comedy and the sweet romance of an extremely early confession that will place the bases of a movie I was never expecting to be like this.
Nothing truly felt forced and everything progressed smoothly without feeling I was jumping between a point and another, but rather walking at the pace decided and admiring the execution of it. I truly can't complain for what I've seen in 2 hours of movie that felt like a whole anime series where imagining what will come after is one of the leaders of it.
An absolute fantastic choice was to involve old characters from the previous titles to create an environment that I could only dream of in the anime series, and even better were the interactions where some background got explained and as well some awesome choices were shown; but the best part comes now because all of this led to a great character development that never truly happened in the anime : I want to report how human Mikumo got shown instead of being a music weapon or Mirage growing and facing her true feelings and realising what she truly wants to become, a boring role fighter or a leader? As well I loved the interactions of the Walkure with everyone because everyone felt more involved in the events and the grown of everyone. But most of all I loved these new versions of Freyja and Hayate, versions where they truly faces the consequences of their decisions and then have to deal with them because the world is cruel and unfair.
I really liked the antagonists of the movie, Yami q ray were truly an interesting concept that got executed appropriately for the amount of time and nature of it and as well it perfectly fit the context of the advanced technology. But the best is the final outcome of them because they led to and end that I can't put into words if not "sweet for some bleeding wounds".
In fact the ending of this movie is really painful, and I already knew about it because I lost the patience and got into spoilers on reddit and at the time I felt beyond the furious and yelled that I was going to hate this movie like very few times, but instead today I am here praising what I just watched because it not only surprised but also made me incredibly happy and emotional; because the ending is the most realist outcome of Delta and something that should've been shown directly in the anime series.

However, the ending becomes sweet and happy after the credits and truly made me emotional.

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The technical part is outstanding once again

The first thing I think about Macross is being ahead of the time for the animations, CGI and some visual effects because they feel massively natural. Everything is incredibly smooth and the dogfight sequences are truly some pieces that should be put in a museum, they in fact made the final battle one of the greatest of the franchise visually and if you ask me even one of the best overall.
The soundtracks were always great in the movie and fell in place at the right moment with the right symphony; as well I liked the idea of making some previously released songs of Walkure featured in the movie like making them actually canon. Do I even need to talk about the final symphony? I don't need to because it gave me so many chills and hype. It took even by surprised because despite the anticipations I even liked the Yami q Ray songs, pretty happy about it.
I might complain a little bit because some animations got recycled, but it's a really small percentage that happened I think once in the whole movie.

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Against all the odds, this is redemption time

Shouji Kawamori is a hell of a crazy man, single handedly changed the nature of an anime that became quite hated by the fanbase because it had lost the steps of the previous titles but not only it regained them back in this movie but brought them to the absolute next level.
Is this the best Macross title? Who knows but honestly I am not scared of putting it as the best movie of all, even ahead of the all time classic Do you remember love?
What a single piece of work that I will never forget.

Personal scores
Story : 9/10
Characters : 9/10
Music : 10/10
Animations : 8.7/10
Personal enjoyment : 9/10
Next level Macross

__W: Spoilers ahead!__

Macross Delta was my first entry into the franchise.

I have bought the vanilla wafers, collected the cards, bought key-chains, and even figures. Macross Delta was a crucial part of a specific phase of my life.

It was a journey I set sail on. I cheered, I sang, and I cried with Freyja.

The CG was a massive improvement from what we have seen in Gekijou no Walküre. From the facial structure to the movements, the camera angles and even the variable fighters looked polished more than ever.`` I myself have watched Do You Remember Love?, the TV series of Frontier and the movies, but I could never compare each entry to each other as they seemed to be good for their own reasons. Macross Delta seemed to get the short end of the stick by the western community (sadly, I haven't much to do with the asian community). Naming one example would have been the "transformation sequences" that were already introduced in Do You Remember Love? as hologram outfits, way before Delta.

For me, Macross Delta had me by the first episode. And I watched as the anime debuted, following each episode eagerly as they aired.

The first movie changed a few things about how Hayate and Freyja met, and as it was mostly a recap of the original TV series, the character developments we have witnessed in Zettai Live were very fresh and seeing these sides of the characters felt amazing (at least, to me).

The interactions between characters felt genuine, real and emotional. My favorite scene that shocked me the most was by Mikumo, when she approached Freyja after she overexerted herself. Her worry for Freyja, and her honesty about wanting to sing with her was a whole different side to the stoic Mikumo I was used to, personally. But it felt so great to see Mikumo approach Freyja. It was a very memorable scene.

In the TV series, and Gekijou no Walküre, her condition as Windermerean was clear to us from the start. While the TV series did not reach a definite conclusion about the effects of what it meant to "risk her life", Zettai Live did.

And even though it left -what I assume is many of us- heartbroken, this was the only ending that made the most sense. From the warnings, from the foreshadowing, from the damage onwards, this was how the story had to be tied.

I never realized how much I had really liked Freyja until tears started to roll down my face. A part of me still hoped the small sliver of hope, that maybe, somehow, her condition could be regressed, and even though I knew it was coming, it was a pain followed with emptiness after.
But the ending was still satisfying in a way. There was nothing else left. No questions.

This journey wasn't about Freyja living forever and singing with Walküre. This journey was about how Freyja would live what was left of her life.

It was clear from the start, and yet...

From the start, Freyja lived her life without hesitation. She stepped forward to make the best of her life, and to sing. She has always been risking herself and many other things. Just for the sake of singing.

But even though she is gone, Freyja's songs will stay.

She lived.

Freyja lived with everyone.

And she lived. Absolutely.

_There are no spare lives. You and me, to the limit._ Right?