Because I like to be different, and I’ve had a long-held, almost superstitious aversion to the mecha genre, I’ve never really been keen on getting involved in the fandom of either of the two mecha giants, Gundam or Macross. In my ignorance, I dismissed both franchises as being a meaningless decoction of transforming robots and shouneness bred for the sole purpose of quenching the thirst of hordes of machine otaku. [...]
This must the 10,000th post on the same theme, but what can you do? We all have to walk the same path.
I think I'm going to watch Macross F.
UPDATE: Animanachronism takes off the same post to compare and contrast:
[Unlike Gundam,] Macross has aliens, sentient computers and faster-than-light travel, and the franchise is closely identified with mecha that not only transform, but transform between three rather than two configurations.
I never bothered to give it a serious thought, because "everyone knows" how robots come in a great variety of magical power. According to the above, Macross is a kind of a middle ground, together with Vandread, perhaps. On the opposite side of Gundam are the likes of the galaxy-tossing Gurren-Lagann and RahXephon, who is not so crude, but turns into a god who can remake the world at will. So in a sense, the difference between Gundam and Macross is not unexpected. But it's interesting.
P.S. To confound critics even more, Dai-Guard rolls out a robot which exhibits traits of Real and Super robots in the same series (e.g. it has combining parts). How about that.