The moment the Macross cannon fires without warning, you realize this isn't a show about winning wars, it's about the human cost of being caught between them. A love triangle forms across a transforming mecha, a pop idol becomes a weapon, and a ship full of civilians becomes the last hope of humanity. The romance never stops the fighting, the fighting never stops the romance, and neither one lets you forget that real people are dying on both sides.

A colossal alien warship crashes on Earth in 1999, and political conflict over the vessel leads to a global war. After ten years the fighting ends, a new Earth United Nations Government takes power, and work on the ship, now called the SDF-1 Macross, is finished. During the launch ceremony, the ship's main cannon fires on its own and destroys an alien spacecraft. That shot starts a war between the humans aboard the Macross and the Zentradi, a race of giant humanoid aliens. When the ship tries to escape toward the Moon's orbit, it is carried off to the far reaches of space along with the city it sat in. Caught up in the crisis are Hikaru Ichijou, a free-spirited acrobatic pilot, and Minmay Lynn, a young woman who hopes to become a singer. Together with the Macross crew, they face grief and the cruelties of war on a long journey through space in this sci-fi mecha drama with music and romance.