With so many good anime shows out this year it's almost hard to to pick just one out of the bunch to call the best of 2008 but I have to honestly say that for me I believe Macross Frontier was the best anime of the year.

Frontier had a lot of what I like about anime and was a much anticipated show that always had me looking for the next episode and while it was a giant space opera with the singing and love triangles and tragic deaths it was still awesome. Even though it sometimes looked like the entire budget was spent on the CGI battles (because they freaking looked awesome dang it) the none CGI bits occasionally looked really good as well and there was hardly ever a time when it looked like crap (the griffin fight comes to mind). It had just enough fanservice a ton of great battles and one freaking great soundtrack thanks to Yoko Kanno.

Now as far as worst anime of 2008 for me that goes to Monochrome Factor. After reading the little blurb that I found on Anime News Network I thought that it sounded like an interesting anime that I should check out. Well I was watching the first episode and all was going OK until the old guy told the young guy that he needed to open the gateway and he did this by kissing the younger guy and it was at that exact point where I clicked the mighty red x and followed that up by promptly deleting that show from my harddrive. Yaoi isn't my cup of tea and usually I steer well clear of it but I got suckered into that show by a promising plot and no mention of the Yaoiness of the show. That's why I'm saying it's the worst anime of 2008.

Awesome! Just replace every word in this post with awesome and that is how much I liked Macross Frontier. While Frontier is the first program in the Macross Universe that I have watched Macross has been around for years and Frontier actually marks the 25th Anniversary of Macross which is probably pretty historic for an anime franchise. You'll just have to check out the links for the entire history of the Macross Universe courtesy of Wiki because it would just take to long to explain the entire history of the show.

Thankfully Frontier doesn't need you to know any of that history in order to enjoy the Space Opera that unfolds before you. There is a lot of stuff going on with Frontier to keep track of and to discuss. I could probably write the longest review of my life on this show with everything that is going on. I'd love to but then no one would read it. So I'm going to keep it pretty short actually.
The first main focus of the show is of course on the Space Battle between the humans and the Vajra a species of insect like aliens that attack the human's deep space colony. The battles are epic and gorgeous. Some of the best CGI fighting that I've seen in a while. One interesting aspects of the space battles is that the aliens are influenced by singing. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The second focus of the show is on love and there is a lot going around on Frontier. The biggest spark is the love triangle between our unlikely hero Alto and the two song birds Ranka and Sheryl. The two song birds constantly fight for the affection of Alto and Alto looks like he doesn't even notice what is going on around him. The biggest debate over this show was of course who was Alto going to chose and while I don't think we are shown a clear answer to that I think that Alto definitely chose Sheryl as I really think he sees Ranka more as a lil' sister than a love interest or atleast that's what I took away from it. Maybe that's what the movie is going to be for.

Then you have everything else. The secret plot behind why they are fighting the aliens in the first place, who exactly Ranka is and why she can do what she does. The plot to take over the command of Frontier and oh my gosh there is still more. And it's all important, none of it is just fluff to add time to the show. Last but not least though is the Sound track for this show. Two words Yoko Kanno the composer who also did the Sound track for Cowboy and one of my favorite composers and is just an epic win when it comes to great music and Frontier is just full of great music.

Frontier was one of those shows that I always looked forward to watching and think it's the must buy no matter what anime of the season and that is saying alot in my opinion. Although I haven't heard any news at all about it getting licensed I think someone needs to get on the ball and get this here now. It might be able to even save stupid lame ass [Adult Swim] if they bothered to air this. In any case like I said at the beginning just replace every thing I've said with awesome and that's how good I thought this show was and I'm definitely looking forward to the movie and maybe a happy ending for Alto.