Macross Frontier

[KrayZ33]

I don't mean to bring the discussion off-topic or anything but I wanted to know if I have to watch any of the previous Macross series to understand what's going on in Frontier? On ANN it said its a direct sequel to the first Macross series and Macross 7. I was browsing the thread and I saw Munsu's chronological post with the links and most of you guys said to stay away from Macross 7. So is it necessary to watch these two and any of the others to understand the story in this one?

there is nothing you NEED to know... you get a small explanation at the beginning

if you don't know anything from macross 7 (edit: oh I thought the original series IS macross 7 :P sry) then it'll be just a story similiar to battlestar galactica or Freespace