Macross Frontier 06
May 11th, 2008 by Shirukii
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t putting a personal charm inside one’s cockpit the equivalent of attaching a gigantic neon sign that reads “SHOOT ME” to the back of one’s plane? Or are main characters exempt from this rule?
In either case, I can’t say I’d be displeased about Alto-hime being marked for death at the moment, I found his behaviour this episode far from admirable.
Following Ranka’s performance at the Zentradi mall, an independent music producer scouts her and goes to Ozma for the go ahead to launch her career. Ozma has voiced his opinion on this subject quite clearly before, however, after seeing what lengths Ranka is willing to go to to achieve her dream, it would be selfish of him to stand in her way, so he hands over his cute imouto, fists clenched in frustrated reluctance.
Meanwhile, Sheryl is going over her routine for her farewell performance, Grace and the stage crew noting her enthusiasm as she meticulously combs over the performance. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be Sheryl’s final performance before going back to her home colony, Galaxy, is met with bad news as word reaches Grace that Galaxy has been attacked by Vajra, news which she passes on with a heavy heart to Sheryl.
Meanwhile, at school, Alto-hime is called out by Mikhail on his date with Sheryl, profusely denying any romantic connotation to the outing. Mikhail congratulates him nonetheless, but wonders what will become of his relationship with Ranka, which Alto also denies having that sort of relationship with. Before Mikhail has a chance to probe any further, Nanase barges in with some urgent news concerning Ranka.
Despite Nanase’s panicked state, the news is good, Ranka revealing that she got scouted by a company called Vector Promotion. Everyone congratulates Ranka and claim their rankings in the newly formed fanclub, but Alto seems rather indifferent to the news, taking an “I don’t see the big deal” attitude. Ranka is a depressed by this, and when she finally gets over it to talk to Alto, apologizing because she wanted to tell him first, Alto tells her that he was at the Zentradi mall for her performance, so he saw first hand. But when she asks Alto whether he was there alone or with someone else, he lies and tells her he was flying solo that day. Alto then, rather nonchalantly, hands her a ticket to Sheryl’s farewell concert. Poor Ranka ;_;
The celebrations are interrupted when Howard Glass, leader of the Frontier Colony, delivers an address to the people informing them of the nature of the Vajra attacks and the fate of their sister colony, Galaxy. Alto, Luca and Mikhail are called back to SMS HQ, whose members are now under the enforcement of Exemption Article B, which states that in the event of a state of emergency that they are to be treated as military personnel.
This leaves Ranka to wallow in a state of melancholy as the man she loves is falling for an idol she can’t hope to compete with and now is being sent off to fight a war alongside her beloved brother, whose attempts to reassure her that he will bring back everyone alive don’t seem to cheer her up much.
Elsewhere, Sheryl is dealing with some issues herself. With the Galaxy Colony known to be her homeland, she’s swamped by questions about the Vajra attack, which basically boil down to whether or not she thinks it’s fair that Frontier has to come to their rescue, to which she asks if it would be any better hiding in fear waiting for the Vajra to come to them instead. She also extinguishes the rumor that her farewell concert planned for that night will be canceled, affirming her will to perform and the desire to return home peacefully.
Meanwhile, the military has been put into action, scouts sent ahead of the attack force to gauge the current situation at Galaxy, only to run into Galaxy’s military fleet Kaitos, swarming with Vajra. Over at SMS headquarters, Cathy has arrived on orders from the military to aid in their operations.
Remembering his promise to Sheryl, Alto pays her a visit just before her concert to return the earring that she lost, only to be told to keep it as a token of good luck. In return, she makes Alto sit through some of her life’s story, telling him how much she hated living in Galaxy with no family or friends.
Rushing back to SMS headquarters, Alto goes on launch standby, Sheryl’s earring dangling on the side of his cockpit (upon rereading that sentence, lol). And the rest of the episode is a combined scene showing the SMS launching to assist the Galaxy fleet accompanied by Sheryl’s farewell concert, both of which Ranka witness, closing in from a distance.
Thoughts
S-s-stupid Ranka, it’s not like I’m inviting you or anything, I just happened to have an extra ticket, that’s all.
As I said before, I thought Alto was a bit of an ass this episode. For someone who is the pillar of Ranka’s emotional support in her quest to become an accomplished singer so she can share her voice with the world, that was a pretty lame reaction to her first breakthrough. Let alone his failure to claim the #1 spot of her fanclub, he seemed reluctant to join at all and had nothing positive to say about her scouting in general, going as far as questioning the legitimacy of the company that signed her. What the hell Alto-hime, show some support.
Not to mention he lied about being alone at the Zentradi mall, which shows that Alto doesn’t confide in Ranka as much as she does in him, and also prodded at the seed of suspicion that is no doubt growing in Ranka’s head about his relationship with Sheryl. If she does believe that the two are more than just friends, she most likely won’t be able to bring herself to even compete, for one, she’ll probably think that Alto already made his choice despite being more or less oblivious to both their feelings at this point, and furthermore, it’s intimidating to have to compete against an intergalactic idol like Sheryl.
To his credit, Alto seems to be falling for Sheryl and never truly showed any signs of romantic interest in Ranka, probably thinking her of a imouto more than anything at this point. But he must be blind to see that she’s interested in him, and to lie about his date with Sheryl, ESPECIALLY when Mikhail knows about it anyways, was a pretty lame move.
It’ll be interesting to see how Ranka copes with all the emotional turmoil in her life. Let alone her brother being sent out to what is almost certainly his inevitable death, taking her love interest as a wingman, she has to deal with a disenchantment of sorts concerning Sheryl. She is Ranka’s idol, her goal in life is centered around emulating her, and yet now the two find themselves at odds because of Alto. It’s tough when someone you put on a pedestal comes crashing down on top of you, Ranka must be pretty conflicted at the moment. But I’m sure she’ll bounce back to the green haired genki we all know and love.
As for Sheryl, she continues to impress me, making it really hard for me not to turn in my Ranka fanclub card in lieu of a Sheryl one. It was admirable the way she stood her ground when confronted with reporters asking her about Galaxy. although, I argue that it’s pretty stupid to be asking a pop idol about politics in the first place, that’s like asking Paris Hilton what she thinks about the ongoing recession fueled by the subprime crisis. Nevertheless, it was nice to see her take a stance and firmly hold her place. Even more so when she decided not to cancel her concert, reminding everyone that she’s capable of shining brightly even in the darkest of times.
Next episode looks like it’ll be filled to the brim with plenty of PEW PEW I’MA FIRIN MY LAZOR type stuff, which is nice, it’s why I got drawn into the Macross Series in the first place. Hopefully they shed some light on who’s behind the Vajra and the reasoning behind their creation. It looks like we’ll also get to see a confrontation between our two songstresses, Ranka and Sheryl. Given Sheryl’s personality, she’s likely to instantly pick up on what’s bugging Ranka and set her straight, declaring her as a rival in both love and their careers as idols.
Finally, a note on animation. It sucked. God I hope they’re saving up for later episodes, Ranka got hit by the QUALITY stick so many times this episode, it was horrifying.
Ah, travel by means of folding the third dimension through the fourth, I hope they delve further into this. What Macross has in terms of romance drama and dogfight combat is unfortunately balanced out by the lack of an established physics system and political drama.
~ Shirukii ~
19 Responses to “Macross Frontier 06”
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“Ah, travel by means of folding the third dimension through the fourth, I hope they delve further into this. What Macross has in terms of romance drama and dogfight combat is unfortunately balanced out by the lack of an established physics system and political drama.”
The spice must flow!
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t putting a personal charm inside one’s cockpit the equivalent of attaching a gigantic neon sign that reads “SHOOT ME” to the back of one’s plane? Or are main characters exempt from this rule?”
Taking Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed as an example, we can assume that if the one putting the charm in his cockpit is the main character, impending death will target whoever gave it to him instead. Sheryl is far too prominent in the opening to be dying any soon, though, so I wouldn’t worry about that… yet.
As a die-hard Ranka fan, noooooooo! I don’t want Alto-hime to fall for Sheryl. I miss my nyan-nyan song. *goes off to cry*
LOL OH SHIT, I’m on the Sheryl boat.
I found it really strange that Ranka had such a non-loli voice. It was almost masculine, but her singing was pretty awesome :D !
I have a feeling that Alto..-hime? will end up with her though.
I’m just glad you don’t UTTERLY hate Sheryl like you did for Hiromi.
It’s the ‘promise to make sure he comes back alive’ that tends to mean that he’s toast. Alto doesn’t make that promise, at least not in words, unlike Ozma… which means he’s safe for a while yet. Ozma talked about his mortality, however.. or at least, that he can’t be protecting her forever, which means that Mr. Lee is doomed.
Alto gets to be tsun-tsun to everyone most of the episode, right down to protesting to Sheryl that he doesn’t know what to do when she’s in dere-dere mode. “It’s not like I’m inviting you to the concert” indeed. As for the confiding part, didn’t he just say that he’d been there to ’sort of’ shop, when she suggested that he was there for that? Basically, lying by omission rather than saying he was alone?
Still, it’s nice that they make the attempt to explain plot mechanics in the beginning of each episode… thus giving everyone the ‘folds do not take place immediately’ rundown that anyone who didn’t watch Macross needed, as well as suggesting that the Vajra were coming from somewhere fairly closeby (like the center of the galaxy) due to the fold limitations stipulated.
Next episode looks like it’ll be filled to the brim with plenty of PEW PEW I’MA FIRIN MY LAZOR type stuff, which is nice, it’s why I got drawn into the Macross Series in the first place.
I knew there was something missing from this BATTLING SEIZURE ROBOTS series for the last couple or three episodes.
Finally, a note on animation. It sucked. God I hope they’re saving up for later episodes, Ranka got hit by the QUALITY stick so many times this episode, it was horrifying.
Welp, that’s what happens when you farm out heavy lifting to some no-name studio the Phillipines.
I’d be ok with Alto just wanting to go out with Sheryl, but if he totally didn’t consider Ranka a love interest, why would he lie to her? Especially after his whole “I’d want to know” speech to Ozma, it seemed hypocritical. I guess maybe Alto just had a lot on his mind.
Sheryl has really come a long way from haughty pop princess to the self made woman who basically said that she will return home. Bold words for a 17 year old orphan, sadly given the odds Macross Galaxy might be little more than a bunch of burned out drifting hulks by now.
Ranka is going to have to fight hard to negate the head start Sheryl has on Alto-hime’s affections. Thus far Ranka has not made clear to Alto-hime or herslef precisely what kind of relationship she wants. All Ranka has done thus far is share her dreams and cling to Alto-hime like a scared imouto. Once Ranka overcomes that may Alto-hime will see her as more than an imouto who needs protecting. Given that Ranka has almost come of age I hope as a woman Ranka will be a force to be reckoned with by Sheryl both professionally and romantically. Such a shame that Alto-hime does not see Ranka as a love interest, but that may soon change.
I do not like Alto. That is all.
And Ranka was really adorable in the bunny suit!
MUAHAHA, KILL BUNNIES!!
*huggles her Sheryl fancard*
The farewell concert was beautiful. Can’t wait for the next episodes as this NEEDS MORE BATTLE! *suddenlyhas urge to go back and watch first Macross series*
Man up, Ranka -_- She strikes the “grr” nerve in me.
I still think Ozma’s the dead man. They definitely wouldn’t kill a guy who went out to battle after snubbing a girl who digs him and barely showing interest in the girl he likes. Especially since he made no big promises or grand gestures that said “hey, marvel at the imminence of my demise.” Basically what Haesslich said.
I’m also with Kabitzin, what’s Alto’s motivation for lying to Ranka anyways? Maybe he’s aware of how she seems to feel and doesn’t want to overtly hurt her, but that seems odd for a guy who’s being so cold. It is true that he has a lot on his mind.
and blissmo, I was thinking that was a hippo suit, which excited me because obviously that means Ranka is a Kaiba fan.
why dont we just shoot first and ask questions later?
oh so true, ever since episode one there has been a slow decline T___T. Sheryl \o/!!
@ Calawain: gb2dune
@ Erilex: I think that’s just a case of Kira having Godlike plot armor, though Alto most likely has the same.
@ spring_rain: *pats on the back* It’s ok, she’ll win in the end.
@ Kaelyn: Haha, that makes two seasons in a row we don’t ship for the same lead. But yes, exactly as you see, I’m caught in between here, with only the slightest tilt to Ranka, because she was first.
@ Haesslich: Ozma is such a dead man.
It’s not really lying by omission when Ranka specifically asked him if he was there alone, and he responded that he was. Kinda hypocritical, if you consider how much he wailed on Ozma for lying to her before.
@ ItAintEazy: orly, I thought Japan did most of their animation outsourcing to the Koreans.
@ Kabitzin: Er, yea, exactly. Way to steal the words right out of my mouth, hah.
@ Crusader: Alto-hime’s view will definitely shift, all that’s left to consider is how much his relationship with Sheryl will have grown in the time it takes him to do so. Ranka is clearly a threat to Sheryl on a professional level, even Sheryl sees that first hand. It’s going to be an uphill battle for Ranka to shake off the imouto image and make Alto look at her like a woman though.
@ blissmo: lol whoa, why the sudden declaration of death to bunnies. You better hope usagijen doesn’t see that, lol.
@ Kari: I’m dealing with that urge as well, unfortunately its overshadowed by a million other series in my backlog ;_;
@ otou-san: lolwut, Kaiba? I’ve only seen one episode so far, I’m stalling D= Care to explain?
@ pangitko79: You’re thinking of Nanoha.
@ Ruki: I just hope they’re saving the budget to make the CG epic, which shouldn’t be too hard, CG is cheaper to produce anyways.
Warp speed, Mr. Sulu!
I love anime physics…
Damn you, Satelight, for focusing so much on Sheryl! Even though I know that there is an obvious bias to Sheryl-based developement so far (case and point, last episode; Sheryl to Ranka ratio was at least 2:1) I am unable to resist the call of the star idol. Ranka has cuteness but Sharyl has… I don’t even know what ;).
BTW, I forget his name but Military Guy who’s in a relationship with Cathy just has the air of “I’m gonna screw over the general populace, military and possibly the galaxy to get what I want”.
I’m just sayin’….
@ Shirukii
Watch Kaiba. By episode three it will move you. Guaranteed. (As you can probably tell, I LOVE KAIBAAAAA!)
LOL! I love your post. My sentiments exactly. I really find it so weird that Alto didn’t show as much energy (he looked forced) when Ranka was discovered. What the heck were those pep talks he gave her earlier? Did he really mean those? Ranka was really happy for him when he made it to SMS and what did he do when Ranka got a taste of her dream? He moped like a bored princess and half-heartedly gave her a ticket. He’s so dense.
Just a date with Sheryl and suddenly Ranka doesn’t matter anymore haha It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t see her as a romantic interest, he was still mean. I feel like the writers are making him look like a jerk on purpose though. Michael had to call him an idiot. I wonder if he’ll realize it later.
Man, I just don’t think Ranka is really “in love” with Alto or falling in love as she is lost and doesn’t know what to do with herself. Then she sees everyone go off to a battle they might not come back from. The Ranka/Alto relationship is hardly anything… yet. So, her being down in the dumps has a lot more to do with herself then it does with anyone else. She needs to grow up herself before she worries about getting Alto.
So far, I can’t see Ranka as much more then a little sister and lolis never win in Macross but I guess they could change their mind. So far Alto and Sheryl connect on a whole different level then Alto/Ranka. Theirs is more mutual while Alto is supporting Ranka, not really the other way around.
As for why he lied, he lied without even a thought it seemed. Probably because he was being bothered about it before and does anyone but Mikhail and Ranka know about Sheryl? Kind of something you can blurt out anyone.
>>”Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t putting a personal charm inside one’s cockpit the equivalent of attaching a gigantic neon sign that reads “SHOOT ME” to the back of one’s plane? Or are main characters exempt from this rule?”
LOL for main character, that charm would be his super secret weapon.
LOL @ that table. It is NOT an IPhone it is a Microsoft Table IPhone ^_^
Take that IPhone!!!
Kaiba ep 3 is amazing it is one of my most favorite episode so far in this season.