MacrossReviews

Macross 7 Ep. 19: A Life Threatening Date

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Summary

Sivil wakes up on top of a train at City 7‘s train station and sucks Spiritia out of a bird. She then jumps onto another train and saps Spiritia from the conductor. Elsewhere, Basara is angry about being covered in makeup for a TV interview. Basara then goes on stage for his smoke-filled introduction. Although the interviewer wants to ask some questions, Basara wants to jump right into the music. Basara begins to play “Planet Dance” on the guitar, and the show’s crew watches in shock. In a park, Mylene is angry about Basara being on TV and meets with Gamlin. Standing high above the city, Sivil wants to find Anima Spiritia and descends to street level, where she causes an accident. As she walks through the streets, micloned Zentradi break out into acts of violence. Gamlin asks Mylene if he should apologize to Milia about wrecking her Valkyrie, and Mylene tells her she’s probably forgotten about it since she’s so busy. But she adds that the Valkyrie reminds Milia of her time with Max and that it kept her safe for 35 years. Guvava begins to act strangely, and Gamlin sees Sivil walking down the street. He tells Mylene to wait for him and runs after Sivil, but Mylene follows. A police officer reports to Milia about the violent outbreaks in the city, and she asks him to examine his data one more time because something seems off. Gamlin runs into an alley and loses sight of Sivil, and Mylene catches up and asks what he’s doing. At the TV station, Basara angrily dismisses questions from reporters about his music. The police hold back the fans, and Basara’s fangirl manages to get past the barricade, but she runs into another celebrity who takes her bouquet away. Michael brings Milia an enormous stack of complaint letters, and she jokingly suggests he send them to Max. Suddenly, several armed men rush into the room, and Michael attempts to shield Milia from them. Milia approaches the gunmen, and one of them says they’ve taken control of all city offices. Michael asks what their objective is, and the leader smacks him with the butt of his machine gun. He then tells Milia she’s an incompetent mayor, and they’ll take care of City 7 themselves. The police surround city hall, and the gunmen shoot an officer who addresses them with a bullhorn. The police attempt to hold Gamlin back, but he explains they aren’t trained for this and he was assigned as Milia’s bodyguard by Max. High above the city, Sivil watches city hall.

A police officer shows Gamlin and Mylene a diagram of the building, explaining that Milia is being held on the top floor. With roughly 40 terrorists in the group, Gamlin grabs a rifle filled with tranquilizer rounds. Gamlin intends to go alone and promises Mylene that he’ll rescue Milia. Inside the building, Gamlin sneaks around the lobby and purposefully sets off a trap with an ashtray. When several terrorists come down to investigate, he shoots all of them. Mylene then rushes in, and Gamlin shoots three more terrorists before escaping in an elevator. The terrorists open fire on the elevator when the doors open, but no one’s in there. Gamlin then swings in from the ceiling and shoots them all. Mylene asks him why they don’t go to the top floor, and he explains that they have to take out the terrorists in the security room first. Gamlin shoots both guards, as well as the security monitors. In space, Gigile’s ship folds out, and he intends to attack City 7 and help Sivil. The approach of an Elgersoln squad sets off the city’s air raid alarm, and Milia yells at the terrorists to let her do her job. The terrorist leader screams that it was a mistake to trust Milia just because she’s Zentradi, and Milia shouts back that she’s disappointed to know Zentradi like him. Basara runs out of the TV station to launch in his Excalibur and is followed by the TV crew. Gamlin takes out several more terrorists, and the SWAT team positioned across the street is incapacitated by Sivil’s Spiritia sapping. Basara takes off into space and is filmed while singing “My Soul for You.” Milia reaches for a gun hidden in her desk, but just then Sivil smashes through the window and starts sucking Spiritia from the terrorists. Milia has an uneasy feeling, and Sivil easily dispatches the terrorist leader. Milia then shoots at Sivil, who closes in and knocks the gun away from Milia. Gamlin and Mylene then rush in, and he shoots at Sivil, who catches the bullets with her fingers. Sivil approaches them and steps on the TV remote, which switches the channel to Basara’s live feed. She then screams and smashes out of another window into space. Basara dodges Gigile’s attacks, and Sivil flies up to Gigile. He asks her to come back with him, but she tells him to leave. Reluctantly, Gigile has his forces retreat and fold in. Sivil returns to examine Basara, but the pain she experiences forces her to escape again. Later, a police officer speaks to Milia about the incident, and she says she understands their feelings since she’s also Zentradi.

Commentary

This episode focuses entirely on the City 7 part of the story, and it’s rather surprising to see so little of Basara. For whatever reason, Sivil is having a mysterious effect on micloned Zentradi, making them act violent. This leads to group of Zentradi gunmen taking Milia hostage because they don’t approve of how she’s doing her job. Luckily, Gamlin’s there to save the day, ala Die Hard. It’s also rather surprising that Sivil rejected Gigile’s appearance and told him to stay away. She’s obviously attracted to Basara’s Anima Spiritia, but for whatever reason she’s also repulsed by it and keeps running away while he’s singing.

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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