Macross 7 (マクロス7, Makurosu Sebun) is an anime television series. It is a sequel to the show The Super Dimension Fortress Macross that takes place many years after the events of the first series following a cast of mostly new characters. The show ran from October 16, 1994, to September 24, 1995, at 11:00 a.m., and 49 episodes were aired. Although it has been distributed in the other parts of the world, it remained unlicensed in North America until July 2022 when Right Stuf along with Nozomi Entertainment announced that they would be releasing the series on home video.
Macross 7 is best known for its music, and since the show began airing over a dozen albums have been released by the fictional band Fire Bomber that stars in the show. Macross 7 exists in the official Studio Nue chronology and canon, with story concept by Shoji Kawamori, who also handled mechanical designs along with Kazutaka Miyatake. A theatrical episode, Macross 7: The Galaxy is Calling Me!, was released in 1995. Several OVAs were also released, including Macross 7: Encore and later, Macross Dynamite 7. In 2012, a crossover movie retelling the Macross 7 events by Macross Frontier characters, Macross Fb7 Listen to My Song!, was released.
Contents
Synopsis
Thirty-five years after the events of the original The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, a spacecraft called Macross 7 leads the 37th colonial fleet on a colonization mission into deep space. The story focuses on the fleet's encounters with an alien force called the Protodeviln, and especially events surrounding a rock and roll band called Fire Bomber, consisting of Basara Nekki (lead singer), Mylene Flare Jenius (seventh daughter of Maximilian Jenius and Milia Fallyna Jenius), Ray Lovelock, and full blooded Zentradi Veffidas Feaze.
The fleet's flagship is the Macross 7, which is actually composed of two parts: Battle 7 and City 7. Battle 7 is the fore section of the ship. It is a fully transformable battle carrier that is able to separate itself from City 7 during battle. Battle 7 is captained by original series regular Maximilian Jenius, who is also the commander of the entire fleet. The much larger back section of the two part ship is known as City 7 and is the main civilian population center of the fleet, containing a population in excess of one million people. The mayor of City 7 is the estranged wife of Maximilian Jenius, Milia Fallyna Jenius. City 7 features a "shell" that can close in order to protect the civilian population during battle.
In the seventh year of their mission the Macross 7 fleet encounters an unknown alien enemy. This new mysterious enemy is composed of heavily modified Valkyries led by a man named Gigil. In the first encounter, the Macross 7 engages the enemy with squadrons of their own Valkyries. This conventional warfare does little to stop the attack however. The enemy's tactics are different from the average rogue, or 'uncultured', Zentradi that are encountered in space travel. In the first battle with the Macross 7 fleet, the new enemy's main tactic is to extract an energy form called 'Spiritia' from the Valkyrie pilots, leaving them in a vegetative state.
Civilian musician Basara Nekki has a modified red state of the art VF-19 "Fire" Valkyrie of his own, and goes out to engage the enemy of his own accord. His VF-19 has an unusual control scheme that mimics a guitar, and he does not attack the enemy with weapons, choosing instead to fire speaker pods into enemy mecha, and playing his songs to the enemy. In the first few encounters, Basara's music does little to drive the enemy away, and the Macross 7 fleet's ace pilot, Gamlin Kizaki is bewildered and annoyed by Basara's endeavor, claiming that it interferes with the other pilots during combat.
Characters
New characters
Basara Nekki (Nobutoshi Hayashi, Yoshiki Fukuyama [singing])
Mylene Flare Jenius (Tomo Sakurai, Chie Kajiura [singing])
Ray Lovelock (Masashi Sugawara)
Veffidas Feaze (Urara Takano)
Gamlin Kizaki (Takehito Koyasu)
Akiko Hojo (Urara Takano)
Michael Johnson (Takehiro Murozono)
Miho Miho (Rio Natsuki)
Sally (Junko Iwao)
Kinryu (Hiroki Takahashi)
Docker (Takashi Nagasako)
Physica S. Fulcrum (Akio Suyama)
Rex (Kaoru Shimamura)
Dr. Chiba (Keiichi Sonobe)
Girl with Flowers (Akiko Nakagawa)
Returning characters
Maximilian Jenius (Sho Hayami)
Milia Fallyna Jenius (Eri Takeda)
Exsedol Folmo (Ryunosuke Ohbayashi)
Protodeviln
Lord Geppernich (You Inoue)
Gigil (Tomohiro Nishimura)
Sivil (Akiko Nakagawa)
Grabil
Gavil (Akio Suyama)
Valgo (Hiroki Takahashi)
Goram (Arihiro Hase)
Zomd (Rei Igarashi)
Media
Movies
Macross 7: The Galaxy is Calling Me! (劇場版マクロス7 銀河がオレを呼んでいる!, Gekijō-ban Makurosu Sebun Ginga ga Ore o Yondeiru!) is a theatrical episode of Macross 7. It is estimated to take place around episodes 38-41 of Macross 7, and was shown alongside Macross Plus: Movie Edition. The story tells of how Basara Nekki and Mylene Flare Jenius' sister, Emilia Jenius became acquainted. Basara winds up on an icy planet due to a fold accident. The townsfolk he encounters say a monster lives in the mountains, which causes Basara to investigate. He then meets Emilia Jenius, a full-sized Meltlan who sings on the planet because her voice is too loud for populated worlds. Emilia, who sports Milia Fallyna Jenius' green hair, aspires to be like Lynn Minmay, flies a Queadlunn Ouilqua Power Armor—a custom variant. Emilia's singing causes an Anima Spiritia irregularity, causing the Protodevilin, Gavil, Glavil and Natter-Valgo to investigate on orders by Lord Gepernich. Basara and Emilia fight the Protodevilin with song after Basara throws his VF-19-Kai "Fire Valkyrie" in the way of Emilia's missiles attacking Glavil. With the help of the other Sound Force members who show up during the battle, along with Gamlin Kizaki, the Protodevilins are repelled and flee. However, Emilia's custom power armor is destroyed during the battle while saving the townsfolk from a flood.
A crossover retelling of the Macross 7 events by the subsequent series Macross Frontier characters, Macross Fb7 Listen to My Song! (with "Fb" for Fire Bomber), was released in 2012 in celebration of Macross 30th anniversary. Macross Fb7 was a full-length theatrical movie that continued the Macross 7 and Macross Frontier series' story.
OVAs
The Macross 7: Encore (マクロス7 アンコール, Makurosu Sebun Ankōru) OVA consists of three unrelated episodes set in the original Macross 7 TV series timeline. It is speculated that the story of Macross 7: Encore takes place around episodes 39-42 of Macross 7. The first episode, "Fleet of the Strongest Women", the Macross 7 fleet encountered a fleet of uncultured Meltlandi led by Chlore, an ace pilot rival of Milia. The second episode, "On Stage", details the story behind Basara Nekki, Ray Lovelock and Veffidas Feaze and describes how the rock band Fire Bomber was formed. Lastly, in the third episode, "Which One Do You Like?", Milia Fallyna Jenius thinks that she is dying due to her micronization, and thus desires to fulfill her last objectives before she 'departs'.
Macross Dynamite 7 (マクロスダイナマイト7, Makurosu Dainamaito Sebun) is an OVA set one year after the events in Macross 7. Released in 1997 in celebration of the Macross 15th anniversary, Macross Dynamite 7 was a four episode OVA that continued the Macross 7 series' story. A subplot that involved the drugging and sexual assault of Mylene was removed when the OVA series was released on streaming services in Japan and overseas in 2025.
Manga
Macross 7: Trash (マクロス7 トラッシュ, Makurosu Sebun Trash) is an eight-volume manga series by Macross character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, serving as a side-story to Macross 7. Trash takes place early during the year 2046, focusing on Shiva Midou (a young "T-Crush" athlete who is rumored to be an illegitimate son of the famous Max Jenius), Mahala Fabrio (an ex-military officer), and Enika Cherryni (Shiva's girlfriend, who becomes the next "Minmay Voice" singing idol), as the three become entwined in a military plot. Unlike many other Macross manga, Trash does not feature any mecha or combat, instead focusing on the characters themselves. It was serialized for 52 monthly chapters in Shōnen Ace magazine from October 1994 to May 2001, then published as tankōbon from 1995 to 2001 by Kadokawa Shoten. In 2003, Tokyopop announced that they would be working with Harmony Gold to bring the Macross 7: Trash manga to the West with a slated spring 2004 release. However, licensing issues (likely due to legal complications regarding the Macross franchise rights in the west at the time) caused the release to get cancelled.
Trash takes place in the Macross 7 fleet early during the year 2046 of Macross timeline. The story revolves around a sport called "T-Crush", similar to roller derby but with air blades (hovering roller blades) and fighting. As the story progresses, weapons are added to the equipment and it becomes a one-on-one combat tournament.
Another plot element is the "Mind System" used to power the weapons in the tournament. The system was in development 7 years before the story begins and it caused a fatal accident during a military training session. On the surface, the system converts the emotions of a person into energy but the true functionality of the system is hidden until late in the story.
The story starts with Mahala quitting the military and being asked by Colonel Bacelon to seek out talented people and recruit them as pilots. By chance, she meets Shiva, a T-Crush player, and she becomes the coach of his team. Bacelon supplies the teams with weapons powered with the Mind System and organizes a tournament. Mahala became suspicious of Bacelon's intentions but is forced to cooperate after she was caught breaking into his data files. The team makes their way to the final where the truth is revealed.
Shiva Midou (シバ御堂, Shiba Midō): A young "T-Crush" athlete who is rumored to be an illegitimate son of the famous Maximilian Jenius.
International release
Due to a legal dispute over the distribution rights of the Macross franchise, involving Studio Nue and Big West against Harmony Gold, much of the Macross merchandise, including Macross 7, have not received an international release.
However, on March 1, 2021, Big West, Studio Nue and Harmony Gold reached an agreement on the international distribution of most Macross sequels and films. On July 2, 2022, during an Anime Expo panel held by Right Stuf and Nozomi Entertainment, they announced that Macross 7 would be getting its first North American home video release on Blu-Ray via two sets being regular and collector's edition Blu-Rays, respectively.
Soundtrack
Macross 7 is unique from other Macross titles, as it does not have its own musical score. Instead, it relies heavily on songs by Fire Bomber as its soundtrack. The series also reuses selected BGM tracks and songs from Macross II and Macross Plus.
Episode list
Reception
Writing for The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Piotr Konieczny argued that Macross 7 pushed the franchise's recurring theme of music as a force for peace to its logical extreme, portraying Basara's pacifism as a deliberate critique of mecha genre conventions. He praised the series' anti-militarist themes and optimistic emphasis on communication across cultures, but criticized its repetitive battles, filler-heavy pacing, and extensive reuse of animation, noting that the story would have benefited from a substantially shorter adaptation.
References in other media
In the anime adaptation of the manga All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, a parody of Macross 7 features a Basara look-alike who sings about saving the universe.
