Macross Plus-Collection 1-Parts 1 & 2 (1994)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Character Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Wings Of Honneamise, Castle of Caliostro Trailer-Street Fighter Alpha-The Movie DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	77:42 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Shoji Kawamori Shinichiro Watanabe
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$29.95	Music	Yoko Kanno

    Macross Plus Collection One contains the first two parts of a four part series that has been called the 'Top Gun' of Japanese animation.

    Macross Plus is based in the Macross universe that was first introduced in 1982 with the series Super Dimension Fortress: Macross. Australian viewers may remember this series as the dubbed and severely edited series Robotech that aired here in the mid 1980s. If you have not seen any part of the Macross saga before, do not be concerned as Macross Plus easily stands alone and requires no previous knowledge to be fully appreciated.

    Macross Plus is set approximately 30 years after the original series and revolves around the relationships between three former school mates. Isamu Dyson is a maverick pilot who is transferred to the New Edwards Test Centre on his home planet of Eden. Here he meets up with two of his former school mates; Guld Bowman, a rival test pilot, and Myung Fang Lone who is the producer for Sharon Apple, a famous computer-generated pop star. All three characters share a past together that will strongly influence their current relationships with each other.

    In addition to the strong relationships and involving story line, Macross Plus also has some excellent action sequences involving dog-fighting mecha, a brilliant musical score and fabulously detailed cel-based animation mixed with minimal but effective computer generated animation.

    If you are new to anime, this would make a perfect introduction that should appeal to many viewers. If you are already an anime fan be sure to check out Macross Plus as it has something for everyone.

Video

    The full frame transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is, therefore, not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is consistently sharp and clearly reveals the gorgeous animation. A very small amount of low level noise may be seen during the closing credits for Episode One but this is very minimal and unlikely to be noticed by many viewers. The transfer has excellent shadow detail and the animation shows a surprising level of detail in the dark backgrounds.

    The transfer utilizes a wide range of colours including many subtle shadings and these are cleanly and accurately portrayed.

    At no stage during the transfer were any MPEG artefacts visible.

    During both of the episodes, a small amount of aliasing can be seen on a small number of occasions. Examples of this aliasing can be seen in Episode One at 6:20, 18:48 and 27:18 and during Episode Two at 8:24, 10:22 and 22:10. Each occurrence of aliasing is short and only slightly disruptive to the viewer.

    A small number of film artefacts can be seen during the transfer, with examples occurring at 19:01, 21:37 and 31:10 during the first episode and at 1:03 and 29:44 in the second. At no stage are these small artefacts disruptive to the viewer.

    During both episodes, a small number of NTSC to PAL conversion artefacts are visible. Examples of these artefacts may be seen at 15:35, 23:05 in the first episode and again at 5:38 and 35:17 in the second episode.

    A single set of English subtitles are provided and these are always clear and easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    During both soundtracks, the dialogue is always clear and easy to understand.

    As this is an animated feature, there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. At no stage during the transfer were any audio dropouts detected.

    With the English 5.1 mix, the soundstage is still mainly focused across the front three channels but the surrounds are used effectively during the fight and concert scenes. The subwoofer is used minimally throughout to support effects and the score and does not draw attention to itself.

    The musical soundtrack for the film is one of the best ever presented in an anime and supports the on-screen action. As one of the main characters is a pop star, there are a number of memorable extended musical numbers that are of very high quality.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Profiles

Trailers

    Macross Plus (2:53)
    Presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a musical Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The Castle of Cagliostro (4:14)
    Presented letterboxed at approximately 1.66:1 with an English 2.0 soundtrack. This trailer is quite low quality - hopefully the DVD transfer of this feature will be of much higher quality.

    The Wings of Honneamise (1:20)
    Presented at an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 with an English 2.0 soundtrack.

    Street Fighter Alpha The Movie (1:06)
    Presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

     The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Photo Gallery

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Additional trailers

    Both versions of this film appear to be nearly identical, and as the photo gallery would just include still frames from the feature, I would have no preference for either version.

    Macross Plus is an excellent series that will appeal to a large audience and should not be missed by anime fans.

    The video transfer for this title is of extremely high quality and is able to effectively show off the gorgeous animation.

    Both the English and Japanese audio mixes provided are of high quality and will be sure to please both fans of subs and dubs.

    The minimal extras provided do little to educate the viewer but are better than nothing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall