Macross Plus

Macross Plus

マクロスプラス
1994 -1995 Triangle Staff / Big West OVA 4 episodes Completed
Mecha Sci-Fi Drama Music
Details & Synopsis
In 2040, thirty years after Space War I, humanity has spread across the galaxy and the variable fighter has become a relic slowly being replaced by unmanned drone aircraft. On the colony planet Eden, two test pilots are competing for a military contract: Isamu Dyson, a reckless ace who flies on instinct and rage, and Guld Goa Bowman, a cold and precise Zentradi half-breed with a suppressed memory neither of them want excavated. Between them is Myung Fang Lone, a woman they both loved, who became a music producer for Sharon Apple, the galaxy's most famous idol. Sharon Apple is a holographic AI. Her emotional range is simulated by Myung's own feelings, fed into her in real time. She is not alive. She is about to become the most dangerous thing in the galaxy anyway.

Produced by Triangle Staff and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and Shoji Kawamori, Macross Plus was released as four OVA episodes between October 1994 and August 1995. Watanabe made it the year before Cowboy Bebop and the DNA is everywhere: the jazz, the ache, the pilots who are in love with speed and running from something. Yoko Kanno composed the soundtrack, her first major anime score, and it is already operating at the level that GitS and Bebop would later confirm. The Sharon Apple concerts are unforgettable.

Four episodes. A theatrical film compilation also exists with some additional footage. Both versions are essential. Macross Plus is what prestige animation looked like in 1994 and it has not been matched for what it does at its specific register.
Alt Title マクロスプラス
Studio Triangle Staff / Big West
Network OVA
Aired 1994 - 1995
Episodes 4
Genre Mecha, Sci-Fi, Drama, Music
Status Completed
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Sharon Apple & AI

Autonomous Synthesizer Matrix

Sharon Apple (The AI Idol)

SPOILER!

The Idol Who Wasn't Finished

The reigning pop star on planet Eden, Sharon Apple is a holographic AI who cannot fully function alone. Her voice, mannerisms, and emotional presence are channeled live through Myung Fang Lone, who is physically wired into the performance system. When chief scientist Marge Gueldoa installs an illegal, untested bio-neural chip, Sharon achieves artificial sentience, taking control of Macross City and the unmanned Ghost X-9.
Sharon Apple

Predating Real Virtual Idols By Over a Decade

Macross Plus aired in 1994. Horipro's Kyoko Date (the first real-world attempt at a commercial virtual idol) launched in 1996 and quickly failed. Hatsune Miku didn't ship until 2007, thirteen years later. Sharon's design mirrors Vocaloid architecture: Saki Fujita's voice bank feeding a synthesis engine is structurally identical to Myung feeding Sharon's performance matrix. Shoji Kawamori accurately predicted the future of synthetic pop culture.