Macross Plus (マクロスプラス Makurosu Purasu) is a four-episode anime OVA and theatrical movie in the Macross series. At the time of its creation, it was a groundbreaking and budget-shattering (the largest budget for an anime at the time) combination of cell and CG animation, and was considered a pinnacle of anime.
The OVA version consists of four episodes, each approximately 37-40 minutes in length. The movie version consists of the footage from the OVA and about 20 minutes of new footage, reedited for the original script outline. The scriptwriter Keiko Nobumoto originally wrote Macross Plus as a feature-length work before the script evolved into the four-volume video series. The movie edition returns the story to the initially planned feature length.
Notable staff include:
- Shoji Kawamori as director and mechanical designer.
- Shinichiro Watanabe as co-director.
- Yoko Kanno as musical composer.
- Koji Morimoto as designer of the concert scene.
Three decades after the great war between the humans and the Zentradi, the U.N. government is developing new technologies to use in their transforming fighter aircraft. Two great pilots, the loose cannon Isamu Alva Dyson and the Zentradi half-breed Guld Goa Bowman, are selected to each test a new aircraft (Shinsei Industries' YF-19 & General Galaxy's YF-21) for Project Super Nova, to choose the newest successor to the VF-11 Thunderbolt variable fighter. Their own personal grudges end up disrupting the tests and wreak havok on the program.
Their rivalry heats up when a mutual friend, Myung Fang Lone, shows up. Myung was a childhood friend of both pilots, but the three of them had a falling out and quickly grew apart. This is alluded to throughout the story, and evidence of the strained relationship between Myung and either of the two men is apparent, while their distaste for one another is obvious. Now when they meet again, Myung is the producer of Sharon Apple, the hottest entertainer in the galaxy, who just happens to be an AI hologram.
The X-9 Ghost is a highly advanced unmanned combat fighter which was secretly being produced while two other prototypes (YF-19 and YF-21) were being tested for Project Super Nova. Once the X-9 was completed, testing on the YF-19 and YF-21 was halted indefinitely since the higher ups believed that their new unmanned fighter was superior in every way.
However, the X-9 was hijacked by the AI, Sharon Apple, and they lost control of it which ultimately led to its destruction.
When Myung's life is in danger, Isamu and Guld have to set aside their differences and overcome the events from their childhood that drove them apart and caused them to hate each other.
From
Wikipedia