MacrossReviews

Macross 7 Ep. 17: Pretty Devil

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Summary

On an isolated frozen world, Gigile descends into a cavernous area and uses a large amount of Spiritia to awaken the Protodeviln named Sivil. Gigile asks Sivil if she recognizes him, and she flies off to find Spiritia. On City 7, Milia watches a video of Irane repeating his name, rank and serial number. The doctors don’t expect to get much out of him at this point, but Milia thinks it’s a first step to him regaining his memories, all because of being exposed to music. As they leave, Basara is happy that their music was able to wake up Irane, but Mylene tells him he’s just making assumptions. Ray agrees with Basara, and Basara leaves to finish a new song so he can bring back all of Irane’s memories. Milia thanks them for their work and asks to speak to Mylene privately. Milia tells Mylene that she doesn’t want her going on any sorties, and Mylene says she wanted to help. She adds that it would be awkward if she can’t fly a Valkyrie on a date with Gamlin, and Milia asks her who would go on a date in a Valkyrie. An aide interrupts and informs Milia that they’ve been able to reestablish contact with Battle 7. City 7 sends a fold communication to Battle 7, but the transmission gets cut off. Despite that, Sally tells Max that they’ve been able to determine City 7’s location. Gamlin plays Physica’s music box and looks at picture of Physica’s family. Kinryu tells Gamlin there’s no time for depression, and he adds that Gamlin doesn’t understand what Physica was worried about since he’s still single. He says he’ll have to report Physica’s death to his family, and he wants to protect all the civilians. Kinryu gets a call from the bridge to scramble with fold boosters to City 7’s location. Kinryu and Gamlin then take off, and Basara works on his new song. Gigile orders his men to prepare for attack, but Geperuniti calls him and asks him about bringing back Sivil. Gigile says there wasn’t enough Spiritia to bring him back, and Geperuniti orders Gigile to find the colors that don’t match the picture he’s painting. Gigile declares that he’ll do what he wants and wonders where Sivil is. In space, Sivil approaches City 7 at high speed and passes a police ship. She then lands on the ship and begins sucking Spiritia from the pilots. Milia is informed about the UFO and the conditions of the pilots. Her aide calls her and reports that the battleship Mamoi is on its way, followed later by Battle 7.

In space, the Mamoi and Diamond Force fold out near City 7. The Mamoi immediately comes under attack from Sivil and is destroyed after she sucks Spiritia out of its crew. Sivil then flies away from the ship and dodges fire from the Thunderbolts while sucking Spiritia from the pilots. Gamlin attempts to chase her, and the battle is broadcast within City 7. Milia is furious about the news getting out, and Michael blocks Mylene as she tries to run away. Basara continues to work on his new song and doesn’t hear the phone. In space, Sivil lands on Kinryu’s Nightmare and sucks Spiritia out of him. Gamlin rushes in and tries to attack her, but she escapes at high speed. He chases and opens fire, but she dodges his attacks. She then appears before him and smashes the glass of his cockpit. Moving in, she attempts to suck his Spiritia, but she stops when she’s hit by one of Basara’s speaker pods. Sivil detects Anima Spiritia from Basara and begins examining him. Gamlin calls Basara and tells him to attack, but Basara says his songs will work too, so he begins singing “Charging Love Heart.” As he sings, Sivil reacts with pain and escapes. Basara chases after her and keeps singing, but she continues fleeing. The TV news loses sight of Basara, but he eventually returns and is seen by all the citizens in City 7. Basara sees the wreckage of the battle and is shocked. Gamlin floats outside his cockpit and wonders if Sivil was an illusion. Later, Basara is surrounded by the press as he walks back to his apartment. They ask for comment, and he tells them to shut up. Gamlin lies in a hospital, and Basara begins playing guitar and singing “Remember 16” on the roof of his apartment. Gamlin wakes up and looks Physica’s music box, which reminds him of what Kinryu said earlier. Later, Gamlin sees a family outside the hospital and runs away because he’s reminded of Physica. He eventually stops to catch his breath in a park and says that Physica doesn’t have to worry because his family is safe in City 7.

Commentary

There’s some progress on several plot threads here, along with the introduction of a new character. The mysterious Sivil can best be described as resembling an elfish vampire, and she’s quite powerful in destroying battleships and sucking Spiritia out of people. We see that Irane’s memory restoration has hit a wall, but Basara is determined to get the job done and works on a new song. Although the brief contact between City 7 and Battle 7 is cut off, it’s enough for the fleet to determine where City 7 is. Unfortunately, the advance group they send is soundly defeated by Sivil. Piling on to the loss of Physica, Kinryu gets his Spiritia sucked away by Sivil, and Gamlin has a very close call himself, but he narrowly avoids that fate thanks to Basara’s intervention. The appearance of Basara on the news certainly is making him a star, but we see that he really doesn’t care for it much.

Original Review: May 17, 2000

Overall Rating
3.5/5

Macross 7 Info

Director:
Tetsuro Amino

Writer(s):
Sukehiro Tomita
Minto Hajime

Mechanical Designer(s):
Shoji Kawamori
Kazutaka Miyatake
Hiroshi Ogawa
Munehori Nawa
Meijo Maeda

Character Designer:
Haruhiko Mikimoto

Musical Composer:
Fire Bomber

Format:
49 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 10.16.1994 – 09.24.1995

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