Following on from 2007's Phantom Hourglass , Spirit Tracks takes us forward 100 years later, to the land of New Hyrule (the land in which Link and Tetra left in search of at the end of the 2002's Wind Waker for the Gamecube), here our hero Link seeks to become a rail engineer along the land's 'Spirit Tracks'. Following his graduation ceremony performed by Princess Zelda Link is asked by the Princess herself to escort her to the Spirit Tower in order to discover why the tracks are slowly disappearing. On the way they are attacked by the Chancellor of Hyrule Cole, who reveals himself as a horned demon. His intention is to free the Demon King Malladus, and requires Zelda's body in order for him to return. Zelda is kidnapped and Link is knocked unconscious, however when he wakes up he finds Zelda's spirit is dislodged from her body, and the two discover that they must travel New Hyrule to restore the Spirit Tracks and stop Malladus' return. Cue the staple...

Macross Zero is  five episode OVA series released in 2002 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the franchise in Japan. This mini series is instantly set apart from its predecessors as it is in fact a prequel to The Super Dimension Fortress Macross , giving some insight into happened before the war between humanity and the Zentradi began. Set in the year 2008, one year before the events of the original series, Zero depicts the final battles of the U.N. Wars between the U.N. Spacy and the Anti-UN forces, and is also set in the South Pacific, where the titular alien spaceship crash landed 9 years earlier. Amidst the violence, a U.N. Spacy pilot named Shin Kudo is attacked by a strange enemy aircraft that can transform itself into a robot. Crash landing on Mayan Island he learns that this remote island and its peaceful native inhabitants hold a great secret linking them to the alien space ship and would become the focus of the war, whether they like it or not. Shin even...

After painfully enduring the 6 part OVA sequel to SDF Macross – Macross II: Lovers, Again, which was so bad that it doesn’t even deserve a review on this blog, I was sceptical about whether I was going to enjoy Macross Plus. I had seen this 4 part OVA series once before, and my vague memory it suggested that it wasn’t that great (although in its defence I did watch it on a 3+ hour bus journey to London) but given that I now had a good background knowledge of the Macross franchise and a determination to give all its iterations a fair viewing, it was time to give Macross Plus another chance. Thankfully unlike the aforementioned Macross II this OVA was created by Studio Nue, the original creators of SDF Macross. Set 30 years after (2040 AD) the events we saw in SDF, it tells the story of loose cannon pilot Isamu Dyson, who is assigned to a test flight centre on the colony planet Eden as the test pilot for the prototype variable fighter, the YF-19. Competing with the YF-19 is the YF-21,...

So like I said I would I've taken the time to go back and revisit the entire Macross chronlogy, and what better place is there to start than the very beginning? Released between 1982 and 1983, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (or SDF Macross for short) was a 36 episode series that told the story of the mysterious spaceship SDF-1 Macross, which had crash landed on Earth and had been rebuilt by a military organisation known as the U.N. Spacy. On its launching day the ships cannon mysteriously fires, shooting down an advancing alien invasion searching for the space craft, which once belonged to their enemy. A war breaks out and the Macross is forced to launch into space as the military battle these aliens, known as the Zentradi, in giant transforming mechas known as Variable Fighters (or Valkyries). Caught up in this is civilian pilot Hikaru Ichijyo, who later joins the military after recommendation from his "senpai" Roy Focker, and 16 year old Lynn Minmay, a girl wit...

"After being threatened by extinction at the hands of alien invaders called the Zentradi, humanity undertook the task of guaranteeing itself a future by launching fleets of colony ships into space. On Macross Frontier, one such fleet, high school student Saotome Alto's life is changed forever: the fleet is suddenly attacked by unidentified creatures while he is performing aerial stunts for a concert by the wildly popular idol Sheryl.  Alto quickly finds himself in the cockpit of a new-model fighter struggling to protect Ranka Lee, a young girl he met only hours earlier, from the invaders' swath of destruction. Noting his performance during this incident, the S.M.S. Skull Squadron private military company invites Alto to join their organization, where he continues protecting his friends and Macross Frontier."  Ah the Macross franchise, arguably one of the biggest mecha (or even anime in general) franchises in Japan and yet, much like its main rival Gundam , I kno...