I first watched this anime on the Sci-Fi channel sometime in early 2001 or give a year either way.  It was a discovery that would change they way that I lived my life and the way I treated my friends.  It was ground breaking for its time and was the most expensive anime OVA series made at that time.

It is about the adventures of Isamu Alva Dyson, Guld Goa Bowman and Myung Fang Lone.  Isamu and Guld had become test pilots for a secret government project to test two new planes and from the get go; they hated each other.  The acted like old friends that seemed to hate the sight of each other.  It was as if something in the past had happened to them that had made them become enemies.

After testing the planes for a while, Isamu decides to take his hot blonde side kick that had been working on the project with him for a ride and she suggests that they go to Star Hill.  Isamu doesn't seem to like the idea but goes there anyway and this is where he bumps into Myung and Guld turns up.  They say hello and then Guld shouts something about not letting Isamu hurt Myung again.  Weird I thought.  So back at the base where they hear about a fire that is to occur at the Olympic stadium.

It might be useful if I explain the job that Myung does first.  She is a producer for Sharen Apple.  Sharen Apple is the first Artificial Intelligence singer and Myung is the person who keeps everything running smoothly in the background.  We later find out that all is not as it seems on the surface.

So both Isamu and Guld get warnings about a fire that will break out in the Olympic Stadium and off they go to save Myung.  This is where the two protagonist face up but as it turns out that Myung decides to stick with Guld.  It is the beginning of the end for Myung's career, but at the moment she doesn't know this.  I'll leave it hear but to say that you will be surprised at the ending of this 4 part OVA.

 

I remember when Myung was travelling back to earth to prepare a concert for the 70th Anniversary of the Macross war and on her walkman, she started playing the song Voices.  I cried like a little girl.  For just like her, I knew that I couldn't achieve my goals and would never amount to much.  It was like looking at the sun and comprehending the vast power that it held.  It was like looking at a kindred spirit that understood me and yet never met me.  It was like knowing that everything that has ever been said to me was B/S and that all the answers that I was seeking was already at my finger tips; if only I would search for them within myself. Perhaps it was the waking of the soul that lay dead to the world and dead to myself.  It enabled me to try and do something that might leave a mark (hopefully not a urine mark) in the world and maybe if one single person remembered me, then my life would not have been wasted.

 

In what was one of the first anime OVAs to use Computers, this series benefits from it.  It is probably one of the best anime series I have ever watched.  It is slow at first and seems to be confusing, but by the end, all the loose ends are tied up and you understand the reason for the hostility between Isamu and Guld.  It is probably about ten years old or more but it looks great and I sometimes wonder why in the west their aren't as many really good stories as there are in this OVA; the story is great.  I would love to tell you the whole plot but even if I did, I could not put into words the nuances that I felt when watching this OVA. I felt a lot of Empathy for Myung and wanted to give her a big hug and tell her that it would be alright.  I wanted to make her realise that blaming Isamu for what happened isn't fair.  I wanted to tell her to become that star that she always wanted to be and to stop whingeing. I found the whole series to be emotive and the only other series that had the same effect on me to this extent, was The Lord of the Rings.  Those who know will understand and those who don't; oh well.

 

Here are the words to Voices.  The first word in my dreams I could clearly see Planet Eden high beyond the skies Beautiful and sad is this story I'll tell of the winged travellers eager 'twas one day the wind guided him where to go like an eagle high above he flew Waving from down below he flew out of sight into the mystical darkness Neither a smile nor a cry I gave when he left feeling my spleen decline And hoping one day we'd fly over back to the places we once shared Where vessels glide in silky waves and of gold deep in the gulf such planet lies Surrounded by this universe of love and hate confusion breaks through and dwells. Cast a spell, from the old magic book. Scatter pearls, in the black magic box, something strange will happen, it will take you so far. So try...We can fly, we have wings, we can touch floating dreams. Call me from so far through the wind in the light. Someone came from the dark over from the stars. Protecting my heart from crying. Taken back by surprise my traveller returned. What went wrong? Why did he change?