Art style and Story: 10/10
Macross Zero released during a time when the anime industry still retained some of the hand drawn flair of the ‘90s, while it also began to rapidly incorporate CGI, 3D and digital coloring. Zero’s art style is definitely reflective of its time, but I think it actually benefits from that awkward period of artistic experimentation by being incredibly unique and outside-the-box with its approach to animation.
The artists here definitely went full experimental, with beautiful 90s style character design and detailed environments mixed in with semi-blurred CG that ends up appearing almost as if it was coated with oil paints. This is especially prevalent in some of the more movement-heavy mech scenes, where these strange stylistic (or technological) choices are mixed in with absolutely fantastic background animations. Mech battles are full of vibrant, beautiful lighting and mesmerizing rocket trails surrounding these strange CG-assisted mechs, as they blur and shift around hand-drawn environments, making every mech battle have an almost otherworldly experience.
This extremely unique and vivid mix of animation styles perfectly fits in with the themes of this series, which constantly contrasts and compares the natural with the mechanical, the pragmatic and the magical, and the unthinkable possibilities of both outer space and of ancestral times. It really left me awestruck at how this series’ obvious technological and budgetary constraints ended up contributing to so much of the shows own unique and beautiful presence, while also leading to some serious thematic consistency.
Ironically, this very strangeness is what put many people off to this Macross series, with people often complaining about Zero’s use of CG. Regardless, this is one of the few times I can honestly say that a series’ “dated” and low-res qualities are a big factor in what makes this show even more endearing in the present year. The artists worked within their limitations and still far surpassed the quality and artistry of many anime coming out in the last decade (2014-2024).
The story and the characters themselves are all very memorable, with everyone having distinct personalities and motivations. Zero rarely allows its characters to simply become the typical anime cliches, and Zero’s story has enough emotion and mystery within it to really captivate the audience throughout its duration.
I personally found the story and character relationships extremely moving, and over the course of 4 incredibly cinematic episodes, the show included some emotional and real character development despite the short runtime.
If Zero has any flaws, they are all certainly due to the shows tragically short overall run time, which amounts to one long movie, or an average 13 episode season of 20 minute episodes. I do think that the longer 30 minute runtime was a massive advantage to Zero, as well as the fact that it does not have any lengthy intro and outro songs like a traditional TV series would. I find OVA and longer formats to be highly superior due to the fact that episodes can be paced much, much more calmly and retain a certain cinematic flare.
Conclusion:
If you love mechs, or you love the more introspective and artsy anime OVA/Films like Ghost In The Shell, Patlabor 2, or even Princess Mononoke, then this is a perfect series for you, regardless of your previous experience with Macross. If you have already seen some Macross and don’t know where to start to do a full series run, I still think Zero is the best place. For me, chronological is usually king.
To conclude, Zero does a fantastic job of merging nature and technology, and also masterfully combines the tech-heavy world of Mecha with otherworldly and extraterrestrial story elements- and that is often quite difficult to do correctly (looking at you, Gundam 00). Its certainly an experience you won’t forget, and one that I believe has aged to be even better with time and hindsight.
