\n<\/p>\n
Macross Plus<\/em> is as much a cultural touchstone in anime as Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em> is to pop culture in the same way that you might not have watched the Guillermo del Toro flick, but \u201cthat guy with eyes on his hands\u201d is nonetheless a core memory. Only replace it with an oversized mecha plotted in the heart of a once far-flung future. It\u2019s a classic mecha landmark whose reputation precedes it\u2014so much so that old heads and new-age fans alike name-drop it in the same breath as other cult classics hailing from the same bygone, golden age of anime we\u2019ll never get back.<\/span><\/p>\n The franchise\u2019s legacy echoes today, albeit through secondhand references\u2014most commonly via funky, out-of-context vaporwave AMVs that cast its dreamlike, cel-shaded imagery into something somehow both fantastical and half-remembered, like the answer to a trivia question to test your mecha street cred. Street cred\u2014I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I\u2019m slowly working my way out of being caught lacking in the anime department.<\/p>\n After spending nearly 30 years of my life being vaguely aware of Macross Plus<\/em> while mostly taking everyone\u2019s word that this anime, as old as I am, was a certified classic, I finally took a page from its hardheaded pilot\u2019s playbook and saw for myself what the four-episode OVA was talking about.<\/p>\n I walked into the OVA expecting a dark spot of mecha anime know-how to light up like a map in a video game. Ordinate, oversized robots; rad analog tech; and elegiac characters and mech designs\u2014all laudable hallmarks of the era. What I got was far more profound: a mournful work of art wrestling with the rapturous human affliction to dream, technology daring to dream for<\/em> us, all bookended by a hopeful message in its final frame to the dreamers of the future that moved me to tears.<\/p>\n