Alien invaders, resurrected from the original "Macross," have returned to plague Earth once again. Who will stop them!? Earth's armada of seventeen-year-old fighter pilots, led by jailbait Sylvia Gina.

Commander Exogran in Earth's flagship orders the execution of "Operation Minmei." At his command, a unified fighter effort projects the giant image of a seventeen-year-old girl into space. She begins singing saccharine Japanese pop songs. This effectively "Destroys the enemy's will to fight!" And it allows Earth's fighters to blow the bad guys to smithereens.

But what's this!? The aliens have their own seventeen-year-old singer, named Ishtar, who reinvigorates the alien attackers by singing even crappier music!!! The attackers begin to overcome Earth's defenses.

To the rescue! Our hero Hibiki Kanzaki, seventeen-year-old cub reporter for SNN (Scramble News Net), while covering the fight with drunken war correspondent Dennis Loane, completely penetrates the alien defenses. Finding themselves alone with Ishtar, Dennis and Hibiki decide to kidnap the alien singing nymph. She doesn't resist. However, there's only room for two in the fighter. Luckily, a bad guy appears and blows Dennis away. Problem solved. Hibiki and Ishtar make their escape.

Bored with hanging around Hibiki's apartment in a baby-doll shirt and panties, Ishtar leaves and wanders around the city. On cue, the killjoy antagonists fly down to recapture Ishtar. She's been wearing a transmitter!

Hibiki, out of the blue, deciding he's now in love with Ishtar, leaps in to save her. Irked, sinister Lord Feff in his giant robot suit points a laser gun at our hero. This causes Ishtar to realize that she is in love with Hibiki too, and is fed up with Lord Feff's gratuitous, snarling evilness. She casts off the broadcasting bracelet to show her disdain. Livid Lord Feff is about to ventilate Hibiki's head when the good guys arrive in planes that transform into robots. Feff flees.

Do Hibiki and Ishtar have something going on? And what will Sylvia Gina think!?

"Macross II" is a bad sequel. The production concept seems to have been to rip off the original "Macross," and sell the rehash to "Macross" fans. Fan will recognize all of the formulaic elements from the original "Macross" in a degenerate duplication, like a bad Xerox copy. A rash and cocky young hero. Check. Transforming robot space fighters. Check. A bevy of cow-eyed teenage babes with pouty little mouths. Check. A soapy love triangle, an alien attack, a plot that revolves around syntho-pop music. Check, check, check.

These elements are cut and stitched together, without transitions nor explanations to form "Macross II." The plot hinges on the expectation that cliches will rationalize the storyline from the bones that are given. That Hibiki, Sylvia and Ishtar should each be points on a love triangle is to be accepted as a matter of course simply because they are in the same story together, not because there is any logic to back it up. Even worse are the nonsensical battle treatments. The creators do not allow reason to interfere with plot points as good guys and bad guys waltz through one another's defenses to perform story devices and dialogue. In one feeble attempt at character development, Hibiki makes a transition from a reporter willing to do anything to get a scoop to a reporter concerned with the integrity of a story's content. The breakneck speed at which he screeches to his new opinion in one 30 second scene causes whiplash. And his subsequent moralizing comes off not only as jarring, but as laughably simplistic as well.

Only the most forgiving and devoted "Macross" fan will be able to watch "Macross II" without wincing. Unfamiliarity with the "Macross" universe makes this sequel even worse.

Zentrans + Meltrans = Zentraedi. If these words, along with terms like Valcaron and Micron and catch phrases like, "Long live culture!" are not in your vocabulary already, "Macross II" will do nothing to help explain them for you. You will be hopelessly confused whenever they are used. But this will be the least of the novitiate's issues.

When, in the first ten minutes Earth unveils its keystone defense against alien attack and it's a singing teenage sexpot, credulity is stretched. This tape does nothing to ease a beginner into the "Macross" universe. "Macross II" is a sappy, trendy, robotic Frankenstein in a plaid skirt living in space. Watching it as a first exposure to anime could irreparably damage anyone's perception of the genre.

The review could end here, but for one other aspect of "Macross II" which was so outstandingly bad as to demand recognition. The dubbing. Dubbing should be like icing on a cake, adding sweetness to substance. Luckily, as "Macross II" is insubstantial, there is nothing for the wooden and amateurish dubbing to ruin. Indeed, it seems fitting that the crappy dialogue is crappily delivered. Doo-doo cake iced with creme de doo-doo.

Fundamentally, "Macross II" suffers from being horridly underwritten, and so fails everything it attempts. "Silly" is the kindest word I can think of to describe the cardboard characters. Yes, the sweet love affairs are there, but forced. Yes, the space battles rage, but absurdly. "Macross II" was slap dashed together from a brainstormed outline no one bothered to flesh out.