Phallic cannon is phallic

So for all my incessant complaining about Macross Frontier’s animation being QUALITY for the past couple episodes, at least the reasoning for doing so became apparent from this episode’s kick ass CG and above average animation. The effect was slightly lost in Gattai’s artifact heavy encoding job. But hey, at least they got it on time…[/sarcasm]. Just kidding guys, keep up the good work.

First off, we get a brief history lesson concerning Macross Galaxy, Sheryl’s home colony. It was launched some years ahead of Frontier and was the 21st Colony Fleet. With corporate interest in mind, the colony received virtually infinite funding and was at the forefront of technology with unprecedented cybernetics development that continued even throughout its voyage.

Continuing from last episode, the SMS have launched and prepare tn engage the vajra while Sheryl’s concert kicks off and we see exactly why Alto coined her an exhibitionist early on in the show, going through numerous on stage wardrobe changes.

On the way to help the Galaxy Fleet, Ozma asks Alto to stay out of harm’s way for this, his first mission, of course Alto refuses so Ozma, obviously getting the answer he expected, tells him to make sure he keeps up. Mikhail sets up his sniping position and the Skull Team engages, Ozma in particular being a freaking monster, taking out every Vajra that passes through the radius of his weapons arsenal. A path is cleared for the medic ship, which turns out to double as heavy artillery and the fight seems to be going their way…

That is, until a Vajra mothership shows up and blasts a hole clear through one of Galaxy’s Fleet ships with a weapon that seemingly ignores the distortions caused by fold dislocations. What’s worse, in the commotion of the mothership showing up, Luca tries to get closer to do some data collection and ends up being captured and dragged inside.

Meanwhile, back on Frontier, Sheryl’s concert is going well, everyone sympathizing with her, impressed that she is able to perform with the news of Galaxy’s attack looming over her head. During an intermission she’s given an update on the ongoing battle by Grace’s implant hax, relieved to see that Alto is doing well. Gathering herself by reaffirming that if Alto’s job as a pilot is to fight, then hers is to sing, she heads back out on stage. Ranka also gets an update straight from Ozma, which clues her in to why Alto isn’t at the concert, he must be fighting as well.

However, despite her pep talk, as Sheryl begins her final number, tears begin to stream from her eyes, eliciting the supporting cries of her fans. It’s Ranka’s voice that makes it through the crowd to Sheryl, allowing her to collect herself and begin her last song, dedicating it to the ones fighting for Galaxy as well as Ranka, who she invites to sing along.

Back to the fight, Alto recklessly charges in after Luca, and by some miracle manages to plow his way through the barrage of fire and get inside the Vajra mothership. Using data gathered from the fight thus far, the crew of Quarter, the SMS battlecruiser, draw up an evasion pattern and announce that they’ll be heading in for close quarter combat. Cathy objects to the plan, reminding the crew that one of their main goals is to gather data on the Vajra, which will do no good if they’re blasted to pieces, but this is how the SMS operates, so they charge in regardless.

Inside the mothership, Alto finds Luca and manages to get him loose with the help of a mystery pilot, with a clearly superior valkyrie, who vanishes after lending some support even when marred by a mystery pilot, who disappears quickly afterwards*. The two hightail it outside the mothership after it fires off its main cannon, which Quarter does well to avoid. It is at this point we see why Quarter, despite its size, is still dubbed a Macross, transforming much like a valkyrie would into a fighter mode wielding a ridiculously large and phallic cannon, whose discharge tears the Vajra mothership to shreds.

*thanks to Kabitzin for the fix

Afterwards, Quarter receives a transmission from the remaining Galaxy fleet thanking them for its efforts, Alto gets a pat on the back from Ozma for rescuing Luca and Sheryl’s concert ends to the roaring ovation of her fans.

Thoughts

Great episode, it was a relief to see that the CG was spot on and that the weeks of subpar animation were going to something greater. I ragged on Gattai earlier for their encode being artifactiliscious, but given the amount of dynamic unique frames and the speed at which they were flying by, it’s to be expected, perhaps a cleaner version will surface later *hinthint*

Plot wise we didn’t really see much happen, but one of Galaxy’s fleet ships were rescued so I’d expect that a debrief from them will reveal more about the Vajra, along with the analysis of the data that was collected in the SMS’s fight with them. Otherwise, all we got was a shot of Mr. Bilrer along with Leon smirking throughout the entire fight, foreshadowing that there might be something to gain from all this, to Frontier’s government at least.

Character wise, we got a little more insight on Sheryl, showcasing more of her “tough on the outside but soft on the inside” personality. Again, I don’t like her stage personality which is obvious fabricated to pander to her fans, exhibitionism included. Spewing out lines of thanks and love for her admirers while on stage, she reeked more of self indulgence rather than sincerity. I did like how she went out of her way to dedicate her last song to Ranka along with the SMS, though it is a bit of a slap in the face to the rest of her fans.

Ranka didn’t get much love this episode, aside from the subtle indication that she’s somewhat gotten over the whole SherylXAlto thing as she gladly joined her idol for a makeshift duet. More interestingly, this episode confirms what I thought all along, Ranka’s hair -IS- sentient! It freaking moved out of the way for her when she went to put her cell phone’s ear piece in, complete with sound effect. Awesome.

I have once again cemented my place in the Ranka fancamp, partially from seeing the good old energetic Ranka back, but mostly for reasons not pertinent to this blog.

And this guy, how random. Who the hell is he, where did he come from and why does his valkyrie kick so much ass?

Anyways, next week looks like a filler-ish episode where Ranka transfers to Alto and co.’s school. “Calm before the storm”-type episode, hopefully we at least get some love triangle development to tide us over until the next big dogfight.

Poor Klein, only got a couple frames of screentime this episode ;_;

~ Shirukii ~