Macross Plus
“The 1994 OVA That Still Wins”
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, Pinned Up Ink may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the site!
Have you ever gotten into arguments with your buddies to become best friends? How badly does it have to go before we say goodbye forever? It is crucial to take accountability and apologize in life. Anything might occur at any time. We are fortunate to have another chance to mend what we damaged.
“Macross Plus” is a 4-episode OVA series and a theatrical movie based on the original Macross television series, set in the official timeline. Macross Plus was written by Keiko Nobumoto and co-directed by Shinichirō Watanabe and Shoji Kawamori. It was produced by Studio Nue, Triangle Staff, and Bandai Visual, and Yoko Kanno oversaw the music. Manga Entertainment licensed the anime. It was released in 1994 with exceptional production standards for its time and is often considered the pinnacle of anime. It aired from August 25th, 1994, until June 25th, 1995, and lasted 39 minutes per episode. It featured the genres of drama, romance, and sci-fi. It had the core themes of Adult Cast, Mecha, Military, and Space. It received an R-17 rating for its violence & profanity.
Writer Keiko Nobumoto, who would go on to pen Cowboy Bebop and Wolf’s Rain, passed away in December 2021 at the age of 57. Macross Plus marked one of her earliest major anime credits and remains a key part of her legacy. In 2026, the Macross Plus Movie Edition received a 4K restoration to commemorate the 30th anniversary of its theatrical release, with screenings in Japan beginning March 20, 2026, and a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray released on March 25, 2026. As of 2026, the OVA series is available to stream in the US on Hulu, with the Movie Edition also accessible on Disney+ in select regions.
Shogakukan published a companion visual book titled “This Is Animation Special: Macross Plus,” which covers the first two episodes of the series. A further book covering the production of the movie edition was published. Kadokawa Comics is currently serializing Macross Plus: TAC Name, a brand-new manga adaptation of the anime. The comic’s plot recounts the anime’s events and provides a more thorough explanation of the characters’ history.
Naoki Moriya created the comic and has been available since 2010. A sequel, Macross 7, aired in 1994, animated by Studio Production Reed, and a prequel, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, aired in Fall 1982, animated by Studio Tatsunoko Production. In Japan exclusively, the original OVA’s video game adaptation (“-Game Edition-”) was published in 2000. The game includes specific units from the first Macross series as well as the interchangeable fighters and mecha from the OVA. Some of the original cast and crew are present in this Shoeisha Co., Ltd. PlayStation game, which also includes original music and a few sequences taken from the Macross Plus Movie Edition.
The year is 2040; three decades have passed since the major conflict between humans and the Zentradi, and the galaxy is thriving with numerous colonies and advanced technology. Artificial intelligence is almost flawless, and Sharon Apple, a practically finished Virturoid idol, is the current top idol. Her emotions are the only thing lacking, but Myung Fang Lone fills that need. On planet Eden, Sharon performs her first performance as loose cannon Isamu Dyson in prototype YF-19, and the Zentradi mixed-race Guld Bowman in prototype YF-21, an even more advanced fighter jet controlled by its pilot’s mind, engages in air superiority combat for the “Supernova Project.”
Isamu, Guld, and Myung were once childhood friends, but after an accident seven years ago, they drifted apart. Isamu is allowed to test the boundaries of human flight in his dream career. Still, as the mission takes him back to his home planet of Eden, he is also forced to face a history he would rather forget. Their resentments end up interfering with the testing and sabotaging the program. Their hatred intensifies further when their old friend, Myung Fang Lone, arrives. When they run into each other again, they discover that Myung is now the developer of the hottest performance in the galaxy, AI hologram Sharon Apple. The Sharon AI is not finished and, unbeknownst to the broader public, requires Myung’s emotional input during performances.
The last showdown between Guld and Isamu occurs during a testing session. The two pilots engage in a breathtaking dogfight using the test aircraft before switching to battroid form and concluding the battle on the ground. After turning off their communications equipment, the two pilots immediately start tearing the entire area apart in their battle for supremacy over each other, even though they are in the middle of a testing area. During this fight, an “accidental gun pod discharge” injures Isamu. He is then transported to the hospital, where, when he awakens, Myung is keeping watch over him.
The Ghost X-9, an advanced stealth UCAV prototype secretly being produced on Earth, was completed. In contrast, Isamu and Guld simultaneously tested two other prototypes (YF-19 and YF-21) for Project SuperNova on planet Eden. Testing of the YF-19 and YF-21 was put on hold indefinitely after the Ghost X-9 was completed, as officials believed the new crewless aircraft was superior in every respect. The New Edwards Test Flight Facility station commander reluctantly informs both pilots that the U.N. Space High Command has scrubbed their mission and the project. Marge Gueldoa, the project’s principal scientist, placed an illegal biochip that has caused the AI, Sharon Apple, to gain sentience, which is unstable and makes her hostile. Sharon quickly commandeers the Ghost X-9 and the SDF-1 Macross Fortress during her performance in the Atlantis Dome of Earth’s Macross City, hypnotizes her audience and the Macross employees, and imprisons Myung within the Macross.
Isamu and Yang, the YF-19’s engineer, take the fighter aircraft and space-fold to Earth to defeat the X-9, with Guld pursuing the YF-21. Will they save the planet or mend their past wounds?
Yoko Kanno wrote the music for Macross Plus. Except for “Dogfight,” the symphonic score was recorded in Tel Aviv, Israel, by musicians from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (an orchestral track used during the final battle between Isamu and Guld). Numerous musicians have played Sharon Apple’s tunes. The series’ most famous song is Myung’s “Voices,” the sole Japanese-language track on the soundtrack, sung by Arai. An English-dubbed version with a North American cast and an English version of “Voices” were created for the worldwide market. Four songs are performed in the made-up Zentran language: “After, in the Dark—Torch Song,” “Santi-U,” “A Sai En,” and “Wanna Be an Angel.”
Mind you, this was developed back in 1994. It is a remarkable OVA series, thanks to its outstanding production quality. Each mecha, machine, and vehicle has excellent detailing and rendering. Nobumoto and Watanabe, two filmmakers, could aspire to match the grasp of atmosphere they possess collectively. Hideaki Anno’s skills as a significant animator for the opening combat in the asteroid field were also utilized in Macross Plus.
The timeless soundtrack and the story have a wholly unique plot that can be understood without having watched the rest of the series, which means being unfamiliar with the Macross universe is totally okay. It approached a conventional sci-fi topic from a different viewpoint, making it emotionally compelling and strangely poetic. The aerial combat and the soundtrack are the two key highlights of the action. If the dogfight sequences hooked you, our Last Exile review covers another series that makes aerial combat feel genuinely cinematic. The anime is entertaining despite its pace and character development issues. At times, it was just breathtaking. It is reasonable to say that this series is not just for science fiction or mecha fans; I believe everyone can enjoy the plot. Do I recommend this show to anyone? Absolutely yes!
Originally published July 28, 2022, updated August 2, 2026
More Macross?!!
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross II: Lover’s Again
Super Dimension Fortress Macross
Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Macross Plus remains, in 2026, one of the most accomplished pieces of animation ever produced, a 1994 OVA that still outpaces most of what the industry has released since. Watanabe and Kawamori set out to make something that felt genuinely adult, and they succeeded. Two pieces of that adulthood land even harder on revisit: Sharon Apple and the late Keiko Nobumoto’s hand on the script.
Sharon Apple is the direct historical precursor to Hatsune Miku and modern VTuber culture. In the story, she is the first virtual idol, a black-box CPU projecting a perfect pop goddess, as her “heart” is still someone else’s voice and control. More than a decade before Crypton Future Media’s Hatsune Miku, a holographic singer composed of sampled human vocals and software, existing only as a digital persona. Both make the idol a system that the crowd can love without ever meeting the person (or code) behind the light. When Sharon’s illegal implant tips curated fantasy into emotional hijacking, Plus ceases to be cute sci-fi and feels like a warning label for avatars, live-streamed personas, and stages that know how to push a wound until the whole room moves with it.
That prophecy sticks because of Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack. “Information High” and other “Voices” cuts blend hypnotic trance, world-music textures, and multilingual layers into one seamless wave, simulating AI-driven emotional manipulation before algorithmic playlists. The music profiles you, mixes hurt and high, and does UX and psychological warfare. So concert sequences still loop decades later.
Because of Keiko Nobumoto, this OVA feels like grown-up anime instead of a high-school soap opera in flight suits due to her grounded approach to adult dialogue and personal flaws. Isamu, Guld, and Myung speak like people who have made bad decisions—petty jabs, half-truths, and quiet cruelty you only use on someone you know too well. Cowboy Bebop’s broken bounty hunters and Wolf’s Rain’s wandering pack had mature relationships that didn’t fix anyone but revealed their scars. At fifty-seven, Nobumoto died of esophageal cancer on December 1, 2021. Her early concepts influenced Shinichirō Watanabe’s Lazarus series, dedicated to her, but the community still feels her absence.
One last practical truth for the VHS-era crowd: Macross Plus was exceptional because it slipped past the Harmony Gold blockade that kept so much of the franchise locked down in the West. Like Macross II: Lovers Again, it was actually reachable—something Gen Xers, millennials, and boomers could find on tape, laserdisc, or early DVD without waiting on a legal miracle. If I recall correctly, it was a video store in Arkansas where I first saw it.
For fans revisiting it or younger viewers discovering it for the first time, Macross Plus is not just a remarkable anime—it is an argument for what the medium can achieve at its ceiling.
If you’re picking up Macross Plus on Blu-ray or digital, these help keep the lights on at Pinned Up Ink (affiliate links):
Macross Plus Movie Edition Blu-ray – CDJapan
Macross Plus Original Soundtrack (Yoko Kanno) – CDJapan
If you enjoyed this review, support Pinnedupink on Ko-fi. Every coffee keeps the blog independent and the anime deep dives coming. → ko-fi.com/pinnedupink
And… If you’ve made it this far, consider subscribing to the Pinned Up Ink newsletter; it’s where we go deeper, drop early takes, and keep the conversation going between posts.
