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Macross 7 Ep. 28: New Sound Weapon

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Summary

Geperuniti flies through the ice cave on the fourth planet of the Varauta. Using recently collected Spiritia, he awakens the Protodeviln Gavil. Geperuniti tells Gavil that Glavil has already awakened, and Gavil asks to have that task left to him. On Battle 7, work progresses on sound boosters to attach to the Sound Force units. Barton asks Chiba about the sound boosters, and Chiba explains that they’re still experimental. Barton tells him to test the sound boosters in combat, because right now Sound Force is the only effective way they have to combat the Protodeviln. At City 7, Mylene and the rest of the band, minus Basara, practice performing “Sweet Fantasy.” Basara lies on his bed and thinks to himself that Glavil’s reaction to music is the same as what happened earlier with Sivil. Mylene yells at Basara that practice has already started. He stands there as she sings “Planet Dance,” but she stops when he does nothing. Basara says he’ll pass for the day and leaves. The flower girl is excited when she sees Basara come out of his apartment, but her path is blocked by Chiba’s car. Inside, Chiba and Barton tell the band that they’ve completed the sound boosters and want to attach them to their Valkyries. Ray says they can take two of them, and Mylene explains that Basara gets angry when people mess with his stuff. Elsewhere, Basara sits atop the City 7 dome and performs “My Soul for You” with his acoustic guitar, and Gigile detects his Spiritia. Basara stops playing and feels frustrated, so he switches to “Charging Love Heart.” Gigile walks up to Basara and says this must be the Anime Spiritia that Sivil mentioned. An Elgersoln appears and captures Basara in an energy bubble. Emerald Force arrives and opens fire, but the Elgersoln escapes with Basara and Gamlin. Diamond Force arrives, and Gamlin tells Docker that the city dome is Diamond Force’s area. Docker says he’ll avenge Kinryu and continues his attack. Gigile tosses Basara’s energy bubble over the side, but he slips and falls too. Basara lands in the forest and finds the energy field containing Sivil.

At his factory, Chiba attaches the sound boosters to the Sound Force Nightmare and Thunderbolt. Later, Gamlin, Dick and Morley search the wreckage of the destroyed Elgersoln and find no sign of Basara. In the forest, Basara begins performing “My Soul for You” and is watched by Gigile. Elsewhere, Glavil rises out of a lake and sucks all its water dry. Gavil arrives and takes command, deciding to attack the Macross 7. Several battleships open fire on Glavil, but the attacks are blocked by a shield. Glavil returns fire on the ships and easily destroys them. Ray tells Mylene that they have orders to launch and says Basara will eventually show up. Basara sings “Charging Love Heart” for Sivil, and Gigile is angry that he couldn’t raise Sivil’s Spiritia level, but Basara can. Gigile tries to shoot Basara, but he holds back and drops the gun. Glavil grabs several Thunderbolts and sucks Spiritia from the pilots. Sound Force arrives, and Mylene stuns Gavil as she sings “Holy Lonely Light.” Glavil fires an energy blast at her, but Gamlin swoops in and pushes her to safety. Ray activates his sound boosters, but nothing happens. Chiba says the sound boosters require a high amount of energy, so they have to sing with more energy to reach that point. Basara stops singing and wonders if he’s reaching through to Sivil. A Thunderbolt explodes near Mylene, sending her crashing into the ground. Gamlin tells her she has to move, but she can’t because her turbine blades have been damaged. Gavil sends out a wave of energy that destroys several Thunderbolts. Basara arrives in his Excalibur and starts singing “Holy Lonely Light.” Gavil and Glavil feel uncomfortable as the song hits them, so they fire at Basara. He gets knocked back by their sound wave and fires a missile at Gamlin’s Nightmare, destroying his gun pod. Gamlin tells Basara he should be singing, so Basara continues to sing, creating enough energy that Chiba sends out the sound booster for him. Basara docks with the sound booster, and a blast of energy hits Gavil and Glavil, forcing them to retreat. Exsedol is shocked that the Protodeviln was repulsed. Basara gives Gamlin a pat on the hand and walks off.

Commentary

Now that there’s powerful monsters like Glavil running around, Sound Force needs something extra to keep up, so they get that with Chiba’s sound boosters. At first, attempts to use them don’t work because Basara doesn’t seem to have his heart in it. There’s further frustration when he sings for Sivil and doesn’t seem to reach her. Unbeknownst to him, he does when he sings with the sound booster. We’ve also got a new character here, the furry Protodeviln Gavil, who is always going on about the beauty of everything (although if he thinks Glavil is the ultimate beauty, he’s got some taste issues). We also see something kind of rare here when Basara gets so angry during the fighting that he fires a missile at Gamlin. The old Gamlin would’ve been angry, but now he urges Basara to keep singing. It’s certainly a sign of how far he’s come since the show started.

Original Review: July 11, 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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