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Macross 7 Ep. 23: Sound Force

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Summary

In City 7, the crowd cheers when Fire Bomber appears for their show at the Rocking Festival. The show immediately kicks off with “Planet Dance,” and Sivil moves through the crowd, sucking Spiritia out of the concertgoers. Max watches the concert on TV, but he’s interrupted by a call from Milia, who asks about the vampire investigation. Max says he doesn’t have enough information, and Milia asks him to investigate the new enemy inside City 7. After she hangs up, he wonders when it was that their conversations became so cold. A news report states that many fans “passed out” at the Fire Bomber show. Ray meets with Max, who says that he’s made preparations for the creation of Sound Force. Ray says that the team will consist of four members, including himself, Basara and Veffidas, but not Mylene. Ray believes that the plan is important for all space travelers, so he wants final selection authority. At a video conference, Gamlin reports on Irane’s recovery from mind control through music. Chiba believes that it was due to Basara’s music, but Gamlin disagrees and thinks it was due to removing the mind control helmet. Max then brings up the video showing Sivil attacking Thunderbolt squads. Chiba thinks she was repulsed by Basara’s singing, but Gamlin again disagrees. Gamlin then shows a video clip of Sivil breaking into Milia’s office, and Exsedol immediately recognizes Sivil as a Protodeviln. Max asks what a Protodeviln is, and Exsedol answers that it makes Zentradi lose their minds and is forbidden to speak of. Exsedol then leaves the room, and Gamlin comments that Sivil’s appearance set off several incidents with Zentradi citizens. Sally informs Max that there’s a call from the Macross 5 fleet and patches in the captain. The captain tells Max that they’ve found an Earth-like planet designated Rax that they’ve decided to settle on. He tells Max that he can drop by if he needs supplies, and he adds that Fire Bomber’s songs are very popular on Macross 5 and that a live show would be a big hit. Later, Ray tells Basara about Sound Force, and Basara likes the idea. Ray asks Veffidas if she’ll join, and Mylene runs into the room and asks why she isn’t part of it. Ray tells her it’s too dangerous, and Basara adds that it wouldn’t work. Mylene says she’ll shoot any enemy in space, and Basara tells her that’s exactly why it won’t work. Elsewhere, Sivil stalks the streets at night and sucks Spiritia while thinking of Basara. She hears Basara’s singing and flies down to the courtyard next to his apartment where he’s singing.

Sivil identifies him as Anima Spiritia, and he begins singing “Holy Lonely Light.” Mylene asks Ray again to let her join Sound Force, and he tells her that the military is involved, so Max and Milia would never allow it. Outside, Sivil begins to feel discomfort. Mylene asks if she’s useless and says she should’ve never joined Fire Bomber if things were going to turn out this way. Basara continues to sing, and Sivil rushes toward him, but an energy barrier repulses her. Sivil slowly moves in closer and kisses Basara, but an explosion of light knocks over his Excalibur and sends her flying away. Mylene asks Basara what happened, and just then several Elgersolns begin attacking the city and sucking Spiritia out of people. Basara stumbles over to the Excalibur’s cockpit, and Mylene tries to tell him that he’ll get killed. He says he’ll be ok, but she helps him into the cockpit and goes with him. Mylene closes in on an Elgersoln and tries to fire missiles, but Basara stops her. She says they have to fight, and he tells her this is why she isn’t part of Sound Force. She instead fires speaker pods into the Elgersoln and begins singing “Planet Dance.” The Elgersoln gives chase, so she transforms to GERWALK mode and dodges their attacks. Basara joins in on the singing, and the pursuing Varauta pilot notes a massive increase in Spiritia levels. Chiba observes the increase in song unit and informs Max. With the Spiritia level so high, the Elgersolns retreat and are chased by city police mecha. A crowd watches them on TV and cheers them on. Basara tells Mylene that there might be a chance for her. Later, the remaining units of the Sound Force are unveiled at a military ceremony, including a custom Nightmare and Thunderbolt. Max appoints Ray as the leader of the Sound Force civilian unit, and Ray introduces the rest of the members, but Basara doesn’t come forward. Veffidas comes up next, and Max is shocked to see Mylene next. He quietly reminds Ray that he promised to leave Mylene out of Sound Force, but Ray says he changed his mind. Max notes that she’s still a child, and Ray explains that he’s realized how important she is to Fire Bomber. Max relents, and Basara appears atop his Excalibur, playing guitar and saying he won’t be part of any team that’s bound by the military.

Commentary

Now that Battle 7 and City 7 have been reunited, some old problems are coming to light again. Aside from rogue Elgersoln infiltrators, Sivil is still running around sucking Spiritia out of people. The increasing awareness of Basara’s power leads to the creation of Sound Force, which Ray wants to staff with Fire Bomber members other than Mylene. She’s understandably upset, but Basara’s right in saying that she wouldn’t have fit. At the time, she was still thinking in a fighting mentality and even tried to fire missiles at the Varauta, but Basara stopped her. She sang instead, and I think she realized what Basara was doing the whole time. Thankfully, this finally gives the two of them something that they agree on. Max pops up quite a bit in this episode, and we get to see how icy his relationship with Milia has become. Although they weren’t getting along at the beginning of the series, their relationship has clearly deteriorated over time. Sivil also attempts to make direct contact with Basara and ends up with more than she bargained for. Now that Sound Force is around, it’ll definitely attract more enemy attention.

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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