Implied secks ftw

A relatively boring episode compared to the previous two weeks, not much was learned in terms of character and plot that we didn’t already know or that we couldn’t have inferred from recent events. The SMS’s rebellion was the only significant event of the episode, along with alliance pledging, Alto and Luca deciding to abandon Ranka and the SMS and stay on Frontier with Rossiu Leon.

Usurpation of the throne, campaign based on fear mongering and preservation of way of life and ugly as sin? Rossiu 2.0

Leon’s a really weird character, he’s meant to be the penultimate bad guy of the series, the Vajra supposedly being at the top of the chain, however, he just isn’t doing a good job. While everything he does seems to be out of pure malice, he’s just isn’t a very threatening force. Perhaps it’s because he’s made his objectives known, his motivations are so typical of villains that I no longer find them the least bit intimidating, you have to get a little more creative than money and power these days. Than again, maybe it’s just his RIDICULOUS hair that’s making it impossible to take him seriously.

I have to admit though, he’s smart enough to cover all his bases with this coup d’etat, going as far as taking out Grace…or at least trying to.

This scene would have been a lot more menacing had she not started to fondle herself

But regardless, FUCK YEAH, GRACE!

Grace remains my favourite and the most interesting character in Macross Frontier, unlike Leon, who has pretty much laid his cards out on the table for us to see, Grace remains lurking in the shadows, inching out ever so slowly, revealing her motives bit by bit. Her reasons for being so damn evil continue to remain in the dark, mostly. This episode we learned that her goal all along was to have Ranka lead her back to the Vajra home planet, but what she plans on doing with this information is up to interpretation.

Will Grace manipulate Ranka’s fold waves, tame the Vajra and use them as her personal army to take over the universe? Does she also want to harvest Fold Quartz for some reason beyond monopolizing the transportation and communication markets? Is she looking for a new homeworld for her and her mysterious voice only friends? Or is she really a good guy and plans on eradicating the Vajra to ensure the survival of Frontier? While unlikely, the last of those would make me rage uncontrollably and relegate Macross Frontier to my “complete waste of time” pile.

As for our little Vajra queen, I’m still wildly confused over her choice to up and leave Frontier to search for the Vajra homeworld. I understand that the pressure of being the Songstress of Hope got to her and that she no longer wanted to be used as a tool for warfare, especially since it blew up in her face and ended up causing the very invasion she was supposed to prevent. However, you’d think that the massacre of Frontier and the deaths/injuries of several people close to her would make her despise the Vajra, not defect to them.

There had to have been some other trigger for her “betrayal”, Ai-kun may have been a good pet and all, but for Ranka to not have a backlash when he turned out to be a Vajra and furthermore run to the Vajra’s aid suggests she knows something no one else does. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if maybe the Vajra aren’t bad guys at all, a la first generation Space Monsters in Diebuster. I guess we’ll find out in the coming episodes, probably via expositional flashback to Ranka’s past.

As for Sheryl, I found it hilariously out of character that she, who had lived such a pampered life prior to her fall from grace, would be content doing underground (well, by Frontier standards) charity shows. However, I suppose it is somewhat fitting with her new found motivation to sing for the sake of the people, not to mention that after hitting rock bottom, she probably isn’t being too picky these days.

With regards to Sheryl becoming the new Songstress of Hope, I’m a little torn, on one hand I find the mere fact that she succeeded Ranka’s title far too convenient and more of a plot pushing move than a situation you could honestly believe would happen. However, the plot does need to move forward and this just so happens to be a necessity, that being said, I like the way they handled it. Sheryl gaining fold wave powers like Ranka could have easily been attributed to her new attitude and genuine emotion in her recent singing, that would have been horribly cliche, instead they opted to tie it into her illness, making her situation bittersweet, which is almost always preferred as it leads to better drama and conflict.

The relationship between her and Alto is also progressing at a believable rate, the only gripe I have being the speed at which Alto has all but forgotten about Ranka, especially given that she hit the guy with a parting confession. By all rights, this should have torn him in two, but it didn’t seem to phase him much. I guess his deep seeded hate for the Vajra overwhelms his feelings for Ranka, which is odd since much of the hate he harbors towards the Vajra is because they were responsible for her traumatic childhood.

Alto’s behaviour since Ranka’s departure raises some questions about how attached he was to her in the first place. As I just mentioned, his hate for the Vajra stemmed largely from what they did to her, to see that outweigh the determination he had to protect her is odd, to say the least. At the beginning of the episode it looked like Alto had turned off the emotional receptors in his brain and turned to full combat mode, relentlessly ordering rookies around and pouring all his concentration into some good ol’ fashioned Vajra ass whooping. But then he turns around and has an extremely emotionally driven moment with Sheryl, arguably the beginnings of him actually falling in love with her, especially when you consider Klein’s pep talk. I wonder if I’m the only one who thinks that Alto-hime and the Galactic Fairy may have comforted each other in more than one way that night…

Lastly, Macross Quarter’s rebellion, which, in hindsight, was inevitable. Leon was eliminating all threats to his newly acquired power, and an independently contracted military trained group with weaponry that outstrips NUNS, not to mention their highly individualistic ideals, certainly qualifies as a threat. Alto and Luca choosing to side with the government was a bit surprising, but I suppose it makes sense, given that both Nanase and Sheryl aren’t in any condition or position to become fugitives.

I can’t believe they dug up the whole “Why do you fly?” thing with Alto again though, I thought that was a dead horse. On that note, for someone who was so deathly opposed to going back to the Saotome mansion the first time, Alto didn’t show much aversion to waltzing in this time around. By the same logic, it’s weird that the rest of the household hasn’t tied the bastard up and waterboarded him in an attempt to get him to act again, since they were so gung ho about it before.

I’m not sure if it’s just me not looking deeply enough into these things, but Macross Frontier seems to have a lot of continuity issues when it comes to how characters act. It seems like certain characters will act in certain ways only when it’s convenient or necessary to do so, but will later on contradict their actions in order to bend the plot in a certain direction. A perfect anime is one that bonds character and plot development together seamlessly, whereas Macross Frontier seems to be keeping them in separate rooms divided by a concrete wall with a peephole in the middle.

Obligatory Klein ;_;

~ Shirukii ~

Good night sweet prince ;_;

The post Sherylfags have been waiting for, it’s time for some Ranka bashing!

Prior to this episode I hadn’t put much effort into picking apart Ranka, not nearly as much as I put into picking apart Sheryl, and as such have come across as quite the Ranka supporter (don’t think I don’t see you animesuki goers talking about me in your forums :3). The reality is, I was never trying to put Ranka on a pedestal, I was just trying to drag Sheryl down from hers, Ranka has been a brat throughout the entire series, but a cute loli-brat, so she got my support. However, the events of episodes 20 and 21 simply can’t be justified.

BAAAW more Ranka. What the hell? She finally makes up her mind to tell Alto how she feels, terrific, but then she sees him with Sheryl and suddenly she has an emotional “I can’t take it anymore” breakdown? Ranka has always known that she was locked in a battle for Alto’s heart with Sheryl, and she’s done a pretty good job holding her own against the Galactic Fairy, given how much of a head start she got. But when she just happens to be there when Ranka decides to confess to Alto all the courage she built up, everything she’s done to lead up to that moment disappears? BS. She should have confessed anyway, sure it would have been a slap in the face to Sheryl and confuse the hell out of Alto, but if she truly had the resolve, that’s what I’d expect her to do.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, her emotional hissy fit almost causes the downfall of Frontier. The resulting Vajra shitstorm led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and immense physical damages, including the destruction of an entire colony island. By extension, I’m going to guess that the exact same thing happened 11 years ago when her previous colony was attacked and destroyed by Vajra.

The one thing in these episodes that I don’t fault Ranka for though, is refusing to sing anymore. While this sort of falls in line with the brattiness that I’m beating her up for, there’s more to it than simple selfishness. The pressure that was put on Ranka by Frontier was an unreasonable burden to bear, branded the Songstress of Hope and Frontier’s future being put on her shoulders is all fun and games while it’s smooth sailing, but when shit hits the fan, it’s no fault of Ranka’s that she cracked under the pressure. Being unable to protect those who believed in you, let alone being responsible for putting them in harm’s way, Ranka can’t be blamed for wanting to run away from the responsibility…

…however, abandoning everyone completely and defecting to the Vajra, confessing to Alto on her way out, was a pretty dick move.

By contrast, Sheryl did pretty well for herself these past couple episodes, as I figured she would after running to Alto. She finally gets over her stubbornness and accepts help and sympathy from others, as well as getting over Ranka beating her in record sales and going back to singing for the people and not for the people’s money and adoration. Furthermore, she gave Ranka the good ol’ slap in the face to snap her out of it, as well as a slightly misguided pep talk on her obligation to perform because she’s a pro, in my opinion a talk about doing what she wants (Brera’s point of view) would have done much better. However, given that the Vajra were tearing apart Frontier and that they thought that Ranka’s song was the only thing capable of stopping them, it makes sense that Sheryl chose the former.

GOD DAMNIT.

I remember saying that Mikhail would be my favourite character if he would just take the sweet loli bait dangling in front of his eyes. Figures that when he clears that condition he dies a couple minutes later, Japan haet lolicon D=? It sucked seeing these two come together only to have them ripped apart moments later, it was painful seeing Klein go berserk after Mikhail’s death.

I didn’t like Mikhail’s stupid explanation of why he waited until now to admit his feelings for Klein. While it fits his character that he fears commitment, with the death of his sister and all, I hate when that card is played because if you truly love someone you can’t help but get involved with them, even if uncertainty looms over the horizon, one truly in love would grab their partners hand and run blindly into the unknown. It’s strange that Mikhail left saying “I love you” rather than “I like you”, yet took so long to admit it. It also angers me that Klein would have had confirmation of his feelings for her if she had just sneaked a peak into his cockpit (if you know what I mean).

BOKU ORE NO TURN

Leon’s coup d’etat succeeds and now I wonder where he plans on going from here. If I recall correctly his plan is to harvest Fold Quartz from the Vajra for massive profits, but the method by which he’d do this is something worth pondering. The fighting has descended to the point where it takes a planet eater bomb just to effectively fend off a Vajra attack, and Leon plans to what? Somehow rush their main hive and enslave them for harvesting?

I still maintain that Leon is a mere pawn and that Grace is the true mastermind behind all the chaos, if this ends up being wrong I’m going to be extremely annoyed. Aside from the Vajra, Grace must be the final boss, she just has to be, she’s so evil I bet she excretes pure malevolence.

Plot wise I’m not sure exactly what to expect, Ranka’s defection to the Vajra will probably spread fast, and I can’t see the public nor military’s reception to that news being very good. From the preview, the only notable thing I noticed was Luca looking at what seemed to be a blood sample with tiny Vajra, all having a piece of Fold Quartz at their core, scurrying around. I’m not sure how they’re going to explain that if it is indeed a sample of Ranka’s blood, she doesn’t shed Vajra eggs or anything. I’m guessing next week will give us a lot of information as to what exactly the Vajra are and who/what controls/drives them, perhaps with a side of Ozma and Cathy gathering evidence to oust Leon.

Obligatory, and pissed off, Klein

~ Shirukii ~

]]> http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/2008/08/31/macross-frontier-2021-ffffffffff/feed/ 20 http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/2008/08/18/macross-frontier-19-school-days-06/ http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/2008/08/18/macross-frontier-19-school-days-06/#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:23:35 +0000 Shirukii http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/2008/08/18/macross-frontier-19-school-days-06/

Uso da…

Ugh, I hate when built up relationships are reset to square one thanks to some stupid misunderstanding like this. It wasn’t dramatic when School Rumble did it god knows how many times, and it’s not dramatic here! It’s just a half assed plot device to drag out the relationship dorama where it would have otherwise been more or less resolved. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF…

You know the drill, another Macross Frontier post, another seemingly futile attempt at reasoning with the Sheryl shippers. Hey, I’ll stop doing them once you guys start admitting that she has no more character depth than the kiddy end of your local community centre swimming pool.

Here’s the thing, Sheryl is your typical supersillious badass female lead, the kind you see in Hollywood action movies, reacting to male advances and genuine concern with coldness and violence. While this was interesting for, oh, maybe the first five minutes, it just got old after that. Having the same stock reaction to every single interaction from a cordial hospital visit from Alto to the news of her death does not depict a woman who does not compromise on her pride, it’s just plain poor characterization. Yes there were isolated incidences like that date episode or that time Alto returned her earring where she displayed vaguely human emotions, but in the grand scheme of things, she’s as stock and predictable as many other of the characters on the show.

Considering the events of late is all the proof you need that she doesn’t exhibit any vaguely humanistic traits. She was told that she’s dying and refuses to accept the help of those around her, not because she’s in denial or anger stages of DABDA, but because of a foolish sense of pride. Real people do not act like this, real people go through DABDA, because it’s the psychological response to grief.

Preemptive rebuttal: yes, Sheryl is a superstar and thus has a lot of pride, she’s a human being before that and thus shouldn’t be impervious to the psychology that affects the rest of us. No, you cannot excuse this by saying that Sheryl is an anime character and not a real person, because then you have to concede that she lacks depth.

Also, I post this knowing full well what probably happened in that last scene, where Sheryl did go to Alto for comfort and help. Yes, that means that she will finally have attained some level of depth and characterization past that of the aforementioned supersillious badass female lead stereotype. No, that does not nullify everything I’ve said up to this point, it just means the ice queen has melted.

On that note…

I pretty much said my piece about this scene in my opening paragraph, it was stupid for them to have thrown it in. Things were going well between Alto and Ranka, and Alto and Sheryl had just had a touching moment where Sheryl finally opened up to him. There’s no reason why Alto couldn’t have had time to think things over and come to a decision on his own, instead they chose to stage this grand misunderstanding that will send Ranka, Sheryl and Alto into the depths of angst for the better part of the remainder of the series.

The above is made especially true by the scene that preceded it, Mikhail has a blunt conversation with Alto, making it absolutely clear that he has two girls vying for his heart and he has to act or lose both of them to indecisiveness. Alto realized this and was going to make a decision anyway, why was it necessary to force his hand and up his angst by making him look like a two timer?! The only thing that came out of this scene was the furthering of Mikhail’s place as a voice of reason and a really good friend.

And what a great friend he is, even offering a reassuring nod to Luca, reminding him that they’re all friends, that they’ve been together this whole time and that everything will be just fine as long as it stays that way. How Mikhail came to be in tune with Luca’s nervousness of late as he had to deal with the L.A.I. and pressuring from Leon is beyond me, or at least beyond the scope of what the anime has shown us.

Now if only he’d take the sweet sweet loli bait that dangles in front of his face, he’d be my hero.

Wonder what Leon’s grand scheme is anyway. The guy seems really shallow and power hungry, he probably just wants to climb the ranks as high as he can and reap the financial rewards. From the looks of it, he set up the assassination of Frontier’s president and will announce his planet eater bombs as a countermeasure against the Vajra to skyrocket his popularity in the public eye, assuring his succession to presidency. I still surmise that he’s just Grace’s pawn though, and that she’s the real final boss of this series, she’s just so evil, she can’t be a lackey!

Finally, as expected, confirmation that Ai-kun is indeed a baby Vajra.

Weekly crybaby Ranka shot

~ Shirukii ~

Much like that feeling of guilt you get when you call someone retarded only to find out that they really are mentally ill, I can’t help but feel bad for ragging on Sheryl in my last entry, especially the bit where I told her to be a good little girl and stay in bed. However, my assertion that she’s just as shallow a character as the rest of the Macross Frontier cast still stands, no terminal illness is going to change that.

Grace is an evil, cold hearted bitch, and I’m loving every second of it! However, while it’s awesome to see her true colors, I feel disappointed that the mystery behind Grace is all but gone now. The mystery that surrounded her has been more or less cleared up and it’s safe to throw her under the “batshit insane” classification of villains. While her motives remain unknown, they’re for the most part irrelevant, because as with all characters who exhibit the traits that Grace does, she will undoubtedly crush herself under the weight of her own aspirations. But hey, that’s not to say that her rise to and fall from grace (har har har) won’t be a fun spectacle to watch.

On that note, Sheryl’s free fall is going at an alarming rate. There’s no sure time line for the events of Macross Frontier, but if I had to take a guess, the events that have transpired so far have played out over the course of no more than a few months. In that time Sheryl has gone from a galactic wide pop idol to bargain bin trash. Here’s where I’d insert a witty pop culture reference comparing her to the teen sensations of the real world, but I abhor pop culture and the majority of mainstream music, so my intent to do so will have to suffice.

Begs the question though, how widespread is Sheryl’s decline in popularity. I can somewhat understand why Macross Frontier would be so quick to replace her with Ranka, as the Songstress of Hope is one of their own. But what about on other colonies, have her CDs crashed in sales across the universe? Sure she’s been off tour for a while, but surely she’s not completely forgotten. While I’d like to believe that the transient and fickle nature of celebrity popularity isn’t that bad, in the scene depicted above not a single person recognized Sheryl. Previously she had to wear a disguise and walk around in the dead of night so as not to get mobbed in crowds, now she walks around Shibuya and not a single soul so much as approaches her? Wat.

The whole deal with Sheryl’s illness was an interesting and admittedly unexpected twist which in hindsight makes a lot of sense. It explains the medicine Sheryl has been popping, one of which Mikhail stole to give to Klein for analysis. I’m still not sure what the reason behind Grace switching the vial of Sheryl’s blood in the hospital was though, my guess is that she either didn’t want Sheryl to know she was dying just yet, since at that time the effect of Ranka’s voice on the Vajra had yet to be confirmed, or she didn’t want traces of the V-type infection inhibitor to show up on Sheryl’s blood work, or perhaps both.

And of course there’s the whole issue of Mao Nome, pictured above, who, based on appearance, looks like Ranka’s mom, but based on family name, is Sheryl’s mom. Should prove interesting to explain.

Edit: So, apparently the woman in the middle is Mao, not the green haired one on the right, not that the scene was structured to make it look that way. Given her old age, it’s safe to assume that Grace just gave Sheryl the Nome namesake as a nod to the head doctor she worked under.

As for Ozma, he continues to paint the picture of his own death, relinquishing the duty of protecting Ranka, the very purpose of his life, to Alto, leaving only his relationship with Cathy to tie up before he can pass on without regret. Not that Alto is doing such a great job protecting Ranka though, being upstaged by Brera most of the time, in the eternal struggle between overprotective brothers and the dude who wants to bone his little sister.

As for Ranka herself, stagnant character development aside, her significance to the overlying plot of Macross Frontier is much more interesting to consider. Her reaction to the Vajra is growing more intense as the series progresses, this episode it looked like she had a chunk of fold quartz inside of her. The first time she had this reaction was when she and Sheryl sung a duet during Alto’s first deployment, and again when she was inside the macross infested with a Vajra nest that Brera wreaked havoc on. The physicist in me wants to believe that Ranka really does produce fold quartz inside of her and it reacts in tandem with the fold quartz produced by the Vajra, it would also be a convenient explanation of the Vajra hivemind.

SIEG HEIL!

Plot aside, the fight scenes in Macross Frontier are beginning to bore me. While the whole evolution thing on the Vajra side made things slightly more interesting, all it did was reverse the problem that Macross Frontier suffers from, largely one sided battles. Even in Code Geass R2, which I rag on for submitting to Gundam style battles wherein all mass produced units are essentially cannon fodder, the tide of battle ebbs and flows, whereas in Macross Frontier one side lays the beat down on the other until someone pulls out a quantum cannon. Well that’s all well and good for plot advancement, but a one hit kill (a.k.a The “Fuck You” Button) has and always will be a cop out battle device.

Not like it did them much good anyways, seems like Macross Frontier has a little bug problem.

Finally, an odd turn of events Yasaburo coming to Sheryl’s rescue is. I hope this doesn’t throw us into another round of Alto angsting over his purpose in life and dealing with the acting blood that courses through his veins, that dead horse has been repeatedly beaten, burned to ashes and pissed all over.

Obligatory Klein ;_;

~ Shirukii ~

Modem failure makes loli Ranka cry ;_;

One final time, sorry for the lack of presence in the aniblogosphere as of late, quite the eventful summer this one turned out to be. I haven’t gotten around to watching any of the new summer shows, but I figure I should at least keep up with our old favorites, so here goes.

Aside: Would it have killed you guys to mention the meaningless endeavor that was my summary section just a tad earlier ;_;?

Because I know how much everyone LOVES to talk about this, let’s start off with the shipping war, which conveniently has a quantifiable measure in the form of a poll now, Ranka ftw!

It pains me to say this, but Ranka’s character has remained largely stagnant for the past few episodes (and by extension, the series as a whole). While she does exhibit what may be interpreted as a heightened sense of self and along with it a rise in motivation, she hasn’t come a long way from the person she was at the beginning of the series. Admittedly, there have been isolated cases where she acted of her own accord to achieve something she wanted to and came out of it a better person, like going to Gallia-4 to rescue Alto or standing up to Sheryl in the hospital duet. However, for the most part, Ranka’s actions have been predicated by others and in the end boil down to “Just shut up and sing”. Going back as far as Sheryl telling Ranka to enter the Miss Macross Frontier contest, Ranka has been ushered along by those around her, most recently, Grace, whom Ranka clearly feels is an unnecessary escort, not only being more content with her previous management but also feeling as if she’s betraying Sheryl, yet she sits silently and obeys her orders anyway.

On the romance front, Ranka has made significant headway in terms of being able to admit to herself that she has thing for Alto, and will even act upon it when forced to step up by Sheryl. However, the little starlet just isn’t ready for a relationship with the guy yet, the dynamic between the two still reads siblings more than love interests and Ranka still shows signs of the dependency on Alto, which is no basis for any sort of romantic relationship.

Sheryl’s not doing much better herself, she continues to boast the haughty “holier than thou” attitude, and it’s gone past old, it’s just annoying. Her defiance of the rules and her semblance of heightened entitlement isn’t endearing, it’s stupid. When your friends, doctors and colleagues tell you to stay in bed and get some rest, stay in bed and get some rest ffs, not doing so is what’s causing the frequent collapsing, it’s not Alto’s girlish good looks. Sheryl is spiraling into despair as Ranka’s presence in both Alto’s heart and the galactic music scene threatens to overshadow hers, yet she refuses to sit still for a day so she can recover and launch a counter attack.

Blah blah, mixed messages, indecisive help/hurt game with Ranka, inability to come to terms with feelings, etc. etc. My stance on Sheryl’s approach to winning Alto’s heart isn’t even worth fully reiterating, as the lack of progress would only lead to a rehashing of trodden ground.

As for how the Ranka vs Sheryl issue with respect to fan reception, it continues to baffle and amaze me. The general trend I’m seeing is that most of the Ranka shippers, myself included, like Ranka almost solely because she’s cute, because truthfully there’s nothing much more to her character that goes beyond her “energetic green haired loli” archetype. Consequently, the people who hate Ranka, do so BECAUSE Ranka shippers like her on account of her cuteness.

Wat.

I can understand people liking Ranka because of her cuteness, furthermore I can understand people hating Ranka because of her cuteness. What I don’t agree with is people hating Ranka because of people liking her for her cuteness. By the same token, I can see why certain people like Sheryl because of her haughty attitude, the very reason I abhor her. However I dislike her because of the trait itself, not the fact that others like her for said trait.

tl;dr: Like or hate the character because of the character, not because of the fanbase of the character.

Aside: First to point out the hypocrisy of my liking of Ranka based solely on her cuteness while I bash series like Lucky Star and/or previous cases where I have picked on a character or series because of its idiotic fanbase gets my old modem shoved down their throat.

Far more interesting a character than either of our leading ladies is their backstabbing manager, Grace. This woman is, in my opinion, the most interesting character in Macross Frontier, her character and motives are shrouded in a slowly unraveling mystery which I was ready to chalk up to “she’s doing it for the money” until Leon came out and said that they’re above such things, leaving them to lesser minds like Bilrer. Leon, incidentally, should be standing next to Grace on the podium of most interesting character, however I maintain that he’s just Grace’s plaything in the grand scheme of things. Plus his hair is ugly as sin.

Moving on from characters to plot, quite a few things have happened over the course of the past few weeks. After Grace tore a chunk out of Gallia-4, we were treated to a conference call of her co-conspirators speaking cryptically of plans and operations, I tried cross referencing the voices of the conversation with existing characters in the series but came up blank, aside from Grace obviously, did anyone else do the same with better results?

Sheryl’s earrings come back and take centre stage, now revealed to be Fold Quartz, some rare gem that is produced internally within Vajra, allowing them to smooth out fold dislocations. The implications are instantaneous travel and communications technology, much like the booster pack that the LAI gave Mikhail on his Gallia-4 mission. Such technology would revolutionize the universe and a monopoly on said technology would mean a virtually infinite supply of money. My guess is that at the end of all this we’ll get some thinly veiled “some things aren’t meant to be controlled” moral, seeing as the origin of Fold Quartz is inside the bellies of mankind’s greatest threat.

Ranka’s significance in the show continues to skyrocket over Sheryl’s, in addition to being the hip new songstress on the block, her voice is a military grade weapon against the Vajra. Along with more Ranka screen time comes the unraveling of her past, a brief scene showing her moving in with Ozma, initially nothing more than a shell of a human being, but surprisingly quick to recover after some crappy pineapple cake.

Lastly, it’s more or less confirmed that Brera is Ranka’s supposedly late brother, or at the very least, his consciousness implanted into a cyborg body, a la Grace. It’s hilarious to see how overprotective he is of Ranka, especially when it comes to Alto, seizing every opportunity to humiliate or show him up, as any caring brother would do in lieu of their little sister falling for some strange guy.

As far as PEW PEW LAZORS action goes, the past few weeks sure have had an abundance of it, so much so that it was beginning to get a little boring after the SMS started to use reactive missiles to tip the scales. However, things are looking up now, the Vajra displaying that they’re not complete pushovers and have the ability to adapt evolutionarily to protect themselves against the attacks that are bringing them down. Hopefully this means that we’ll see more interesting and involved dogfights, perhaps with even *gasp* strategy and formation playing a role. Although, more likely is that this is just going to lead to a whoring out of Ranka’s hax ability to stop Vajra in their tracks.

Another thing that has been made blatantly clear, most poignantly in episode 17, Ozma’s a dead man. They’re just teasing us now, the fake death scene surely just to keep us on our toes as to when it will actually happen. But rest assured, it will, everything anime has taught us about lengthy battle speeches, continual promises -not- to die, reckless fighting, and loss of primary motivation for existence dictate that this guy is going to kick it.

Lastly, Grace is such a bitch, haha. The smug look on her face when Sheryl confronted her, awesome.

Oh, and if this guy’s unknown biological make up, and little tentacle arm thingies weren’t evidence enough, his propensity to swat at things with even the slightest semblance to aircraft is. This thing is a Vajra.

Obligatory Klein shot

~ Shirukii ~

Loli Ranka!

I don’t care what you naysayers out there say, I think Ranka is ridiculously cute, character design wise anyways.

We’ve hit Macross F’s halfway point (and consequently the start of the summer anime season, I haven’t forgotten) and it seems like this show is finally ready to start. And by start I mean stop beating around the figurative bush and finally start explaining just what the hell is going on. Hopefully this puts a stop to the True Tears-esque fancamp war and spurs some meaningful plot and character discussion.

D-pulse waves, which seem to be the Macross equivalent of EMP, have knocked Alto’s valkyrie out of the air and are causing periodic white outs to all electrical systems on Gallia-4. After a controlled crash landing, Alto and Ranka stumble upon a downed Macross ship, a first generation Macross which seems to have been sitting there decades. The familiar silhouette triggers Ranka’s dissociative amnesia and she has a panic attack in front of Alto. Alto later reassures her that if the memories of her past are causing her so much pain, it would be better to forget them and stop dwelling on the events of the past, focusing instead on the here and now.

After another white out, the two trudge through the forest in the blistering heat until they stumble across a water source where they have the opportunity to rinse their bodies off and reminisce about the time they’ve shared together since meeting. Alto notes how Ranka was self critical at first but since then has gained a lot of courage, which Ranka says is all thanks to him protecting her and giving her a push in the right direction whenever she lost her way or got cold feet. As the two get ready to head back to the valkyrie, Ranka runs off to go to the washroom when she’s suddenly kidnapped, the only clue a trail of downed forestry leading directly to the downed Macross.

Back on Frontier, the SMS is beginning to worry since they haven’t received a transmission from Gallia-4 in quite some time, the last one being a confirmation that Ranka and Alto had taken off and begun to make their way back, which they obviously didn’t do since they’d have been back already. Klein suggests once again using the LAI’s fold technology to get to Gallia-4 to assess the situation, but given the trouble Luca has gotten in for doing so once already, that’s not an option.

Back on Gallia-4, Alto scouts the Macross, preparing to go in and rescue Ranka, when he notices that the serial number of the Macross matches the one which Ranka had previously been stationed on, the one which was supposedly attacked and destroyed by Vajra during her childhood. Nearby, Brera continues to receive orders, but the sender is revealed this time around, as most of us thought, it turns out to be Grace pulling the strings, this time telling him to watch over Ranka, an important research subject, however she’s only secondary to their objective here on Gallia-4.

Alto infiltrates the Macross to find that the data in the research labs has been completely erased, and just recently as well. In the same lab he finds a sealed Vajra specimen, and more curiously a photo of Ranka as a child. As if on cue, Ranka wakes up from her kidnapping in what appears to be a Vajra den, contacting Alto asap and giving him her location. However, before Alto reaches her, the Vajra overseeing the den wakes up and begins to rampage, Brera barging in to protect Ranka. Soon afterward, Alto arrives on scene to see Brera fighting off the Vajra and flies around him to Ranka’s side, only to be blocked by a force field put up by the Vajra. Suddenly, a flash of purple light erupts from Ranka, pushing both Alto and Brera out of the den as the Macross awakens to give rise to a Vajra fleet led by one of their motherships.

Amidst the commotion, Alto tries to head back in to save Ranka, only to be engaged by Brera, who by virtue of superior piloting skills, a better valkyrie, or a bit of both, pins Alto down. Luckily for the princess, Mikhail and Sheryl took off earlier to see if they couldn’t figure out what exactly what was going on with this planet. Alto tells them to head inside the Vajra mothership to save Ranka while he takes care of Brera.

However, before anything else happens, Grace steps in and closes the curtain on this act, standing by an ominous machine she coins the “Dimension Eater” she tells Brera to retreat for now. Activating the machine, it turns out to be a planet eating weapon, opening a massive fold distortion that destroys everything in its path, including her, not that she seems to mind that much. Mikhail and Sheryl get away by piggybacking on the Vajra who fold out, while Alto has to rely on guts and a stereotypical courageous pilot scream in his attempt to outrun the wave of death.

Thoughts

I guess the biggest story following this episode is Grace, who we all knew was up to something behind the scenes, but who we probably weren’t expecting to destroy an entire planet. With this WTF twist, Grace now occupies the spot of most interesting character in my mental Macross hierarchy, not that she’s my favourite character, Ranka still holds that, but most interesting by far. On the surface she looked like nothing more than a side character, Sheryl’s organized secretary lackey, that quickly faded as we continually saw her prowess in information manipulation and her intrigue has now exploded after having swallowed up an entire fucking planet.

She did get sucked into the fold dislocation she caused and has technically “died”, but I certainly hope that we haven’t seen the last of her. Given that we weren’t told her past or motives, I’d expect that she’ll return later on, as no character in anime dies without being either completely and utterly useless or until after they’ve vomited out their entire life’s story in a couple episodes of expositional dialogue, neither of which fit the bill.

Secondarily to Grace absolutely wrecking Gallia-4, whose political and military stability we had spent an entire, now useless, episode restoring, is Ranka. The mystery behind Ranka continues to grow, just exactly what is she and why is she of such great interest not only to the Vajra, but to the military and various other independent organizations as well. Currently, she has the Vajra, Leon and now Grace all vying for possession of whatever it is that she can do. The ability to glow and emit forceful waves of colorful light isn’t anything new in anime, so I’ve got absolutely no idea on where to begin formulating a theory on her purpose, so I guess this one will be up in the air for at least a week longer.

Bitch in one hand, rifle in the other. Savin’ the day.

Ranka and Alto’s relationship grew ever so slightly this episode, the two sharing a bonding moment until interrupted by a tiny nonthreatening bug…thing. At this point I believe it’s safe to say that Ranka has broken Alto’s little sister image of her and is at least poking around in the “I might want to date her” circle of his mental Venn diagram, if not right smack dab in the middle of it. The two are now blushing profusely in each others presence and launch away from each other after prolonged physical contact like two like poled Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets.

As for Sheryl, not much development on her end this time around, as she remains dishonest about her feelings, as was bluntly pointed out by Mikhail. I’m still really confused about Sheryl, who shows continuing interest and concern for Alto, but won’t admit it to herself and others and always leaves a certain ambiguity to her actions around him. It’s as if she likes Alto but is afraid of what that would mean, like loving him would somehow undermine the confident and independent woman she has built herself up to be.

Animation was really good this episode, the fights were fluid and the scenery relatively well drawn, as if somebody had applied a trace layer to the Crytek engine. A little shiny at times though.

Next week looks to be an interesting and action packed episode as the Vajra bring the hammer down full force and attack Macross Frontier.

Obligatory Klein shot.

~ Shirukii ~

BAAAAAAAAAAAW

Haha, sorry, couldn’t resist taking a shot at the Sheryl camp after the torrential shitstorm of “LOLOL, Sheryl end confirmed, take that Rankafags” last week. I swear I don’t harbor any ill feelings towards Sheryl, I just happen to like Ranka better, that’s all. This episode by no means cements a Ranka end, no more than last episode cemented a Sheryl end, Macross F is slated for a minimum 26 episodes, we’ve still got a long way to go in the race for Alto-hime’s heart folks.

The episode starts off with a brief overview of the situation on Gallia-4, the planet is in a state of unrest, a Zentradi civil war of sorts is looming on the horizon, with the 33rd Marine Fleet acting as the primary instigators. Not exactly the best time for a Sheryl benefit concert, but plans proceed nonetheless, with Alto in tow for the opportunity to fly in a real sky.

Back on Frontier, Nanase rants about being ronery in the absence of Sheryl, Alto and Ranka, relegating Luca and Mikhail to little more than background scenery. However, Nanase’s wallowing is put to a speedy end when Ranka, in the flesh, surprises everyone by showing up to school having been given a day off to relax before her upcoming live.

Meanwhile, on Gallia-4, Sheryl and Alto land to a warm welcome from the local Zentradi, accompanied by ominous snickering from the 33rd Marine Fleet. As Sheryl emerges to the roar of the crowd, the fever she’s been nursing since last episode comes back in force and knocks her off her feet. The 33rd Marine Fleet blow her sickness out of proportion, accusing them of thinking themselves too good to perform for them and the civil war that has been on the brink of starting finally erupts. Sheryl’s crew along with Alto are captured and held hostage as the fighting begins.

News of the conflict reaches Frontier with a two hour fold dislocation delay, and some quick number crunching later reveals the earliest SMS forces could arrive to back up Alto is 7 days. Luca and Mikhail are brought up to speed on the situation, sharing the news with Ranka who pleads with them to think of something, some way to help Alto. Luckily, Luca is a child of the fold technology development firm known as LAI, and has a new toy to test out, a fold engine that isn’t affected by fold dislocation, which would allow them to zoom to Alto’s rescue without delay.

Back on Gallia-4, Sheryl offers no excuse to Alto for not taking care of her body and apologizes for not being able to give him the sky, as she promised. Alto leaves her in Grace’s care and sneaks out to see if he can’t do something about the situation at hand. The captain of the 33rd Marine Fleet rallies up his troops for war, promising to restore glory to the Zentradi, which he believes the micrones have stolen away from them, with the help of some stolen ‘reactive missiles’.

Alto tries to take off in his valkyrie, but is caught before he can make it off the ground, the local Zentradi try helping him, but can’t offer enough cover fire to do so. Just as they’re contemplating firing the huge mothership gun, reinforcements arrive, a lone SMS ship on the horizon, packing an interesting weapon, a set of gigantic speakers. Mikhail pops open the cockpit and yells out to Alto that he’s brought him a birthday present, Ranka emerges from the passenger seat brandishing a microphone. The speakers are cranked to the max, Mikhail’s valkyrie offers a makeshift stage using some large projectors and Ranka’s first unofficial live commences. In absolute awe at the “Super Dimension Cinderella” Ranka-chan and are quick to trade in their weapons for starstruck gazes and fanboyish screams.

But there’s one person who isn’t affected by Ranka’s song, the captain of the 33rd Marine Fleet takes flight, not about to let Ranka interfere with his plans, only to be blocked by Alto before he can take her out. The two dogfight a bit before the 33rd Marine Fleet captain begins to badger Alto about how fighting is inherent in Zentradi blood. Alto, having heard the speech about acting being inherent in his blood and knowing full well what a load of bs it is, he gets fed up and pulls out all the stops on the Zentradi captain, putting a prog knife through his cockpit, sending him plummeting into the ocean below.

In the aftermath, Mikhails eggs on Alto to take Ranka home in time for her live, telling him to consider Ranka’s feelings, having come this far to see him, Mikhail ensures Alto that he’ll escort Sheryl home properly in his stead. Before heading home, Ranka and Alto go for a scenic flight in the skies of Gallia-4, laughing it up, both of them blushing like a couple of lovestruck teenagers. However, their fun is cut short when a mysterious force, which we can only assume at this point to be of Vajra origin, knocks the power out of Alto’s valkyrie, forcing an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. Although a seemingly unfortunate unfolding of events, the crash landing ends up leading them to quite a discovery, a macross class ship nestled in the forestry of Gallia-4.

Thoughts

First things first, lest I get virtually stoned to death by Sheryl fans, I must reiterate, I’m not hailing this episode as the definitive turning point to Ranka’s comeback, nor am I laughing at Sheryl’s misfortune. I am, however, satisfied that she got what she deserved. And by that I mean that Ranka finally regained some ground after a full season of Sheryl’s relentless plays for Alto’s heart. If there was any exchange so far that Ranka deserved to one up Sheryl on, it was this one, between Ranka and Sheryl, Ranka was the first to ask Alto out on his birthday, not only that, but Sheryl urged her on, only to snatch him away at the last second.

It’s likely the only reason Alto chose Sheryl’s invitation over Ranka’s is the promise of being able to fly in an open, limitless sky. By no means does that extend to the thought that Alto values piloting over Sheryl, it just so happens that it was the trump card that pushed Sheryl’s offer over top Ranka’s in terms of appeal for Alto. Whether Sheryl knew full well that her invitation was unfairly weighted to Alto’s desires and whether she remembered that by taking him along she’d be backhanding Ranka remains to be seen.

I like Sheryl, the character dynamic between her and Alto is amusing to watch, the only gripe I have with her is that she continues to be indecisive in her motives and actions towards Alto, and by extension, she is often unaware of how great an impact her actions have on the people around her. I wouldn’t call her outright selfish, but she certainly acts without consideration of consequence.

Major points scored on the Ranka front this episode. Her reputation is taking off, earning her the name of “Super Dimensional Cinderella”, and she hasn’t even officially performed yet! She’s shown that she can handle the pressures of stardom, even managing to set aside time for the arguably more important things in life, like her friends. And most importantly of all, she’s finally beginning to come to terms with her feelings for Alto, or at least that’s the aura she’s emitting as of late.

I’m curious as to exactly what she is to Alto anyways, from what we’ve seen thus far, Alto has always treated Ranka as a little sister of sorts, urging her to succeed and offering reassurance while not descending into drooling fanboyism, reminiscent of how he deals with Sheryl. This episode threw that into question with its last scene of Ranka and Alto flying together, both sporting unmistakable blushes. Given that Alto seems to have understood the meaning behind Mikhail’s speech to him, we can only assume that he’s known of Ranka’s true feelings this entire time, since he wasn’t overly agitated while flying with her, nor did he react too surprised when confronted by Mikhail. However, this contradicts everything we’ve seen between the two so far, interactions which haven’t really hinted at anything past a friendly, pseudo-sibling relationship. Even in the Macross Zero movie tribute episode, when hit with the realization that he’d have to kiss Ranka, Alto’s reaction was more of an “Shit! That’s like kissing my kid sister.” rather than the type of embarrassment felt when presented with the opportunity to smooch with a romantic interest.

Oh well, nevertheless, I look forward to seeing how Ranka’s feelings towards Alto, and vice versa, develop from here on in. Almost as much as I look forward to more of Ranka’s concert performances, I enjoy her voice much more than Sheryl’s, not to mention she has vastly superior fashion sense.

As for plot pushing, there wasn’t much to speak of. The Zentradi civil war thing isn’t at all central to the plot, from what we know anyways, and was rather poorly pieced together. It’s over and I still don’t know why the conflict erupted, aside from issues of pride, nor exactly who the party opposite the 33rd Marine Fleet was.

About the only plot development we saw this episode was all but explicit confirmation that Ranka’s pet thing is a Vajra. No one knows its genus/species and Luca’s search on the existing ecological database came up blank, labeling it as an unknown life form.

The final noteworthy piece of this episode was the fighting. I was largely disappointed with how it was portrayed, the weapons that the two sides were using emitted a characteristic “PEW PEW” firing sound that was hard to take seriously, and the damage that they did was seemingly negligible. With such a low level of urgency coming from the civil war, it was hard to take the situation seriously and the looming threat of ‘reactive missiles’ and the mothership’s main cannons didn’t help much either.

However, the dogfight between Alto and the 33rd Marine Fleet leader at the end was well done. The winding, strafing mid air combat was what I’ve come to expect from Macross F and the ending was great. I was just thinking how cool it would be if Alto stopped on a dime and gave the Zentradi captain a face full of bullets, and lo and behold, it happened, just as awesomely as I had thought it would be. As for the prog knife charge, it was a little over the top, but it worked. My only question is what happened to the Zentradi captain afterward, he gave the stereotypical “I won’t forget this!” cries at the end, but he fell into the ocean with a busted Queadlunn, shouldn’t he be…you know, dead?

Anyways, that does it for this week. Next week looks like it’ll focus on the Vajra inhabiting Gallia-4, the Macross discovered there, and if I’m not mistaken, it looks like Alto has another run in with Brera.

Dear God the QUALITY, it burns

~ Shirukii ~

Post Script: A question to you viewers out there. Sheryl’s hair: pink or blonde?

So ronery ;_;

The titular tennis metaphor of this post admittedly isn’t very appropriate to the circumstance given that Sheryl is wailing on Ranka harder than Nadal on Federer at the 2008 Roland Garros, and that was pretty harsh.

Anyways, I digress, this episode was purely a lead up/expositional dialogue episode, and as such, was pretty boring. We saw a lot of character development, particularly in Ranka and Alto (not RankaXAlto, mind you) and a bunch of ominous foreshadowing for future plot lines, but on the whole, it was a fairly static episode. While Alto’s decision of Sheryl over Ranka is poignant, it’s far too early for people to be crowning her the winner of this little love triangle, we’re not even halfway through yet, folks!

Riding the success of her role in the Macross Zero tribute movie, Ranka’s popularity explodes and her career takes off. Commercial endorsements, magazine interviews, and photo shoot sessions flood her schedule, and most notably, her debut concert will be at the same hall where Sheryl performed. Leon and Cathy chat about her success in the car, Cathy lamenting the fact that she missed her shot at such a life while Leon pokes fun at her.

Back at school, Nanase wonders if Alto has heard anything from Ranka since she’s hit it big, surprisingly, he hasn’t, even more so when she mentions that his birthday is coming up and she told Ranka about it, something which Sheryl conveniently overhears. After ranting off about knowing what it’s like to be a pro, Sheryl tells everyone that she’ll be missing from school from a little while starting the following week as she’ll be performing for a relief concert on the planet of Gallia-4.

At SMS headquarters, Cathy and Ozma talk about Sheryl’s gig there and how the SMS was asked to provide a protective escort, Ozma declined the request though, suspicious about what’s going on in the government and concerned about the presence of the peculiar 33rd Marine Fleet there. The conversation quickly derails and Cathy asks Ozma if he has seen or plans to go see Ranka’s movie, he flat out refuses the idea, shunning it as filth as he slaps down a magazine with its cover plastered with Ranka and Alto’s on screen kiss.

Back at Mihoshi, the gang is discussing the specifics of Gallia-4’s ecological makeup when all of a sudden Alto gets a surprise visit from his “brother” Saotome Yasaburo, not a blood related brother, but a fellow apprentice kabuki actor to the famous Ranzou name. He comes bearing news that he saw Alto’s role in the movie and thought it was wonderful, and delivers the more grim message that Ranzou-sensei has collapsed from illness caused by overworking…

Meanwhile, Ranka’s producer delivers a front row ticket to Ranka’s debut live, just as promised, which Sheryl points out must be for a special blue haired effeminate love interest of hers. The two talk about Alto for a while, Ranka noting how casually Sheryl can talk about her, but just as Ranka is about to confront Sheryl on their relationship, she suddenly becomes feverish and is whisked away by Grace who begins to wonder whether they should cancel the Gallia-4 concert. Sheryl declines the notion and even the medicine Grace demands she take, stubbornly relying on her will power to bring her through something as insignificant like a minor fever.

Elsewhere, Leon’s behind the scenes manipulation continues as cryptic talks with unknown correspondents continue, Leon ogling the fragment of Sheryl’s earring the whole time.

Back at SMS hq, Cathy asks Klein about the 33rd Marine Fleet, a military unit that opposes the coexistence of Zentradi and Humans, remnant rebels from the first Space War, the cancer of NUNS who play by their own rules.

Meanwhile, the pressure of success continues to bear down on Ranka, but she manages to squeeze in some gossip time, talking to Nanase about the triangle between Alto, Sheryl and herself. Nanase tells her that they’re not yet dating, but at this rate he’ll be stolen away from her. Ranka finally decides to call Alto, only to get his voice mail, she leaves him a message about his upcoming birthday and invites him to meet on that hill, Cliff Spark, so she can give him his present.

Alto’s popularity seems to know no bounds, as he receives another birthday invitation, this time from his brother. After berating him about never having lost the love of acting, about it being in his blood, even now as he acts the part of a rebellious teenager running away from his destiny, using piloting as a cover for his true desires, Yasaburo invites him to return to Ranzou on his birthday, who will be willing to retake him as his successor. But we’re not through yet! Sheryl extends another birthday invitation to Alto, offering him the chance to fly in a true sky, one without limits or ceilings.

After mulling over it for a bit, Alto makes his decision. First off we see Ranka eagerly making her way to Cliff Spark, only to find Mikhail waiting there, sent by Alto to apologize on his behalf. Next we see Yasaburo training with the rest of Ranzou’s apprentices, now with no inhibitions about taking on the role of successor. Which means…

Yep, Alto chooses Sheryl, or the prospect of flying in a real sky, depending on which you think was the more tempting perk of the offer. Acting as her escort for the duration of the relief concert on Gallia-4, the two warp out together under the watchful eye of Grace, who seems to be having an interesting conversation with Leon about things going Just As Planned.

Back on Macross, Ranka watches as two blips disappear into a fold warp as she is eats the cookies she baked Alto along with her new found baby vajra friend, wishing Alto a “Happy Birthday”.

Thoughts

Nyan nyan, nyan nyan, ni hao nyan!

What a slap in the face it must be to the winner of the Miss Macross Frontier contest that Ranka, her co-star, ended up getting the most publicity from the movie and rocketing into a stardom which she can never hope to achieve. Of course along with stardom comes with the pressure of dealing with the new schedule and the increased attention that accompanies fame. Ranka is dealing quite well with it, taking everything in stride, but she does seem to long for the days of spending time with her friends, especially Alto.

However, Ranka’s attitude concerning Alto is still a vast improvement upon her earlier approach of angsty lamentation. At least she’s now showing signs of life in the competition, going out of her way to call Alto out and give him his birthday present in person, even if it didn’t work out. Now all that remains is for her to overcome her fear, born out of admiration, of Sheryl. I think that Ranka is still really intimidated by Sheryl, both as a performer and as a love rival, almost to the point where she’s already conceded defeat. It doesn’t help that Ranka probably feels she owes Sheryl a lot, having been the reason for many of the opportunities that led her to her eventual success. Only when Ranka gets over this inhibition and starts thinking of herself (you know, just like Sheryl keeps telling her to) will the fight for Alto’s heart truly begin.

Sheryl still largely confuses me, I’m sure she has feelings for Alto, but I can’t really pinpoint the extent of said feelings. Her playful nature makes me question the seriousness and sincerity of her flirting with Alto and even more confusing is the meddling she does with his relationship with Ranka. Sometimes she’s a great help, boosting Ranka’s confidence by telling her things like how happy she’s sure he’ll be to receive a ticket to her concert, but then she turns around and steals him away on the day that she plans on doing so. I’d like to say that her intentions are malicious in that regard, but I can’t even do that because she’s so damn cheerful as she does it, not expressing the slightest bit of remorse, nor hinting that it was her plan to do so all along. It’s like she lives in the moment and just goes along with however the scenario conveniently plays itself out, whether or not it invalidates previous promises she made or sentiments she expressed.

If someone can simplify her train of thought or path of action so that I might understand it, it would be much appreciated.

Next episode seems to be a PEW PEW LAZOR filled one, undoubtedly featuring the infamous 33rd Marine Fleet as the mid-bosses which Alto will have to take on all by his lonesome or with some shoddy back up. I’m not even going to wager a guess as to where Macross F is going plot wise, on the military side anyways. We haven’t been given much information about the true purpose of the vajra, nor can I extrapolate enough sensible info from Leon’s random conversations to construct much of a theory. I’m guessing this is going to be one of those things that when everything unfolds you can go back and be all “Ohhhh, so that’s what they were going on about back then”, but until then we’ll be kept in the dark. Grace corresponding with Leon is an interesting development though, I wonder how much influence she has in all this.

Loli haet breasts

~ Shirukii ~

Post Script: Another week, another apology about the lack of posting, sorry guys! Kurenai 11 -WILL- be out soon enough, tomorrow at the earliest, if not, deferred until Monday after Code Geass, at which point I may combo it with episode 12, the finale.

First off, sorry for the lack of posts lately, a week without a Code Geass R2 episode certainly didn’t help that, and life outside blogging has been eventful as of late, so that contributes as well.

Awesome episode, even if any throwbacks to Macross Zero flew completely over my head. There wasn’t much in terms of plot development, but character progression took quite a leap forward, Ranka especially.

Miran Mary, the winner of the year’s Miss Macross competition is to star in a movie called Bird Human, a lucky break thanks to Ranka’s promotion CDs lands her a small part in it as well. She calls Alto to tell him the news, whose advice doesn’t help much at first, but he eventually spits out the insight that forced acting will look unnatural and she shouldn’t think about the role and act with her true feelings, only then will her acting be beautiful. Ranka thanks him for the great advice, but her enthusiasm is dashed when she hears Sheryl calling Alto back to work in the background, part of his help for the military commercial.

When Ranka shows up on the island where filming is set to take place, she’s surprised to see the SMS there as well, who were apparently contracted to assist in the filming. Alto isn’t around at first, but shows up soon after as Sheryl is discussing the use of one of her songs as the film’s theme, which wasn’t written with the film in mind. Sheryl offers to write a new one just for the movie, but the director asks for some more time to think it over. Shortly after, Sheryl is approached by Miran Mary, but Sheryl all but ignores her, talking to Ranka instead.

In the midst of things, the director overhears Alto’s name mentioned and springs at the chance of getting him to act in the movie, having seen his kabuki performances before. This is the first time Ranka had heard of his past as an actor and she finds out from Luca that Alto didn’t want to continue the family kabuki tradition and ran away to become a pilot instead.

Sad for having not known a part of Alto’s past that everyone else seemed to have known, Ranka heads off to a nearby cliff and starts to sing. Her singing gets the attention of the director who is fishing below, who has an epiphany of sorts when he sees Ranka singing on the cliff.

However, in addition to garnering attention from the director, her singing also happens to attract a griffin like beast, who proceeds to attack her. Alto quickly comes to her rescue, trying to fend the beast off with his handgun, but it proves too powerful and agile, and ends up batting him aside. Luckily, Brera intervenes, dispatching the beast with relative ease, before disappearing once again. Ranka faints during the ordeal and awakes on Alto’s back, being carried back to camp, she assumes that he’s the one who saved her, and Alto, not being able to explain Brera’s identity or reason for intervention, lets her think that.

Back at camp, the crew has run into a snag, unable to find the actress who was to play Mao, another lucky break for Ranka, who scores the part in her stead. This makes for an interesting situation, as one of the scenes involves a kiss between Mao and the character that Alto agreed to play.

The two of them dwell on it for a while, Alto having a talk with Sheryl where he plays it off, trying to appear calm and collected by saying “it’s just a kiss”. To test the sincerity of his words, Sheryl kisses him, joking about it afterwards, “just a kiss”? Right? Ranka catches a glimpse of the kiss between the two, and after a moment’s thought, marches over to the the director to accept the part as Mao.

Ranka goes ahead with the on screen kiss, and it’s only at the film’s premiere where she blushes profusely, seeing it projected on the big screen. After the movie ends to a roaring ovation, Ranka is announced as the actress of Mao and the vocalist behind the movie’s main theme. The crowd cheers as the director congratulates her, for yesterday she was an amateur but today she is a legend. She climbs the stairs to the stage, the same stage Miran Mary and more importantly, Sheryl, stand.

Thoughts

There were some other plot revelations in the episode as well. Leon reported the findings on Brera’s VF-27, citing its speed and accuracy in flight to be far too great for unmanned operation, but that the movements it displayed are far too much for any normal human being to pull off. And of course we saw that Brera is anything but a normal human being, mechanical parts lurking underneath his skin were revealed in the griffin attack. Basic foreshadowing suggests that he’s Ranka’s brother, the one who supposedly died in the Vajra attack during her childhood.

But more importantly in this episode was the character development of Sheryl and Ranka, namely their kisses with Alto-hime. Ranka’s kiss is pretty straightforward to analyze, it shows her overcoming the inhibitions she was showing towards Alto, I can only assume she’ll give it everything she’s got to win him over.

Far more interesting is Sheryl’s kiss. She did it in response to Alto going on about how he’s fine with the prospect of kissing Ranka, a test of sorts, to see if his sentiments were genuine or if he was trying to cover his embarrassment up. After the kiss, she plays it off the same way Alto does, but at the same time it’s pretty clear by now that Sheryl has a thing for the guy too, so it was anything but meaningless.

Yet another aspect to consider is whether or not she intended for Ranka to have seen the kiss. I’m going to assume she did, given her attitude towards Ranka thus far, trying to push her to be true to herself and her feelings. Sheryl wants Ranka to try her hardest to succeed, both in her career as a songstress and in her bid to win over Alto. Why? Because Sheryl sees potential in her, potential for decent competition in both fields, she probably wants to duke it out with Ranka on a level playing field, so she can be satisfied no matter what the conclusion. The only way to do that is to pressure Ranka into being true to her desires, even if that means toying with her emotions from time to time. I think it’s rather admirable that Sheryl wants a fair, may the best woman win, fight.

Aside: Many thanks to a certain someone who had a part in coming up with that analysis, you know who you are :3

And a fair fight it’s shaping up to be. It may not have been through the Miss Macross Frontier competition, but Ranka finally stands on the same stage as Sheryl. While not nearly as well known, she’s got her foot in the door now, and as the director succinctly put it, her legend begins now. I can only assume that many trials await Ranka and her newfound stardom, as well as her relationship with Alto, she has a lot of catching up to do to reach Sheryl.

Next episode looks like it’ll cover just that, Ranka’s rise to stardom. However, we won’t be seeing this until two weeks from now ;_; No Macross F next week, losing its time slot to Euro 2008 Soccer.

Oshi-, side ponytail Ranka <3

~ Shirukii ~

Macroned loli Klein?! Mind = Blown

Pretty good episode, a little typical in that they followed the whole traumatic childhood deal with POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! saving the day in the end, but it was executed well enough and had enough Klein that I can’t really complain. Plus, compared to episode eight and successive episodes are going to seem like works of art.

So it turns out Sheryl joining Mihoshi was just another publicity stunt cooked up by Grace, who personally apologizes to Mikhail, Alto and Luca for interrupting their training time. Mikhail doesn’t seem to mind though, feeling blessed to be in the presence of such a beauty, but his advances are shot down and then some when Grace expresses her condolences for Mikhail’s sister, opening a mental wound.

On the SMS’s next mission Alto and Mikhail are arguing over Sheryl joining their flight squad, Alto suggesting that perhaps it was all a plot to get him closer to her hot secretary, Mikhail responds in kind, questioning his reasons for suiting up, wondering whether he’s just a princess who has run away from home to play war. Their bickering is broken up by a call from NUNS asking for assistance in engaging a Vajra, Alto quickly immobilizes it, setting Mikhail up for a shot, but when he goes to take it, Grace’s words about his sister echo in his mind and the distraction causes him to nearly blow Alto’s head off.

Back at the base, Alto lectures Mikhail, wondering what good his pride in his sniping is if he misses, always going on and on about his skills being acquired from his sister, Alto wonders if misfiring might not run in the family as well. Having struck a nerve, the Luca barrier crumbles and Mikhail proceeds to beat Alto to a pulp with Klein and the Pixie squad watching on.

Later, while being patched up and continuing to bitch about Mikhail’s behavior, the medic suggests that maybe he find out about Mikhail’s reasoning before bashing him endlessly. Meanwhile, Mikhail is outside in the firing range, where his accuracy is showing signs of question as thoughts of his sister run through his mind. Klein comes out to talk to him, but Mikhail dodges the issue, spewing out his usual misogynistic dribble, causing Klein to give him a nice slap to the cockpit (hehe) before running off.

Elsewhere, a meeting of key political and military figures is held to discuss a mission to find and research a nearby Vajra nest. The president of Frontier argues that it’s a needless and expensive risk, but Leon convinces him that it’s necessary to learn more about the Vajra, who are quickly becoming a threat not only to Frontier, but mankind in general.

Lounging around SMS headquarters, Alto gets a call from Sheryl where she explains the reason behind her temporarily joining Mihoshi, an ad on TV painting the picture of her as having suited up to fight for the sake of Galaxy. All she wants is that the Galaxy issue not fade from the minds of the public, who are often forgetfully fickle on such matters. Furthermore, it was an opportunity to attend school for once.

Elsewhere, Ranka is giving it her all too, her debut album receiving moderate promotion via street broadcast and handing out branded tissues. It’s not the most grandiose debut, but Ranka seems to be having fun with it and giving it her all, and that’s really all that matters to her.

Soon afterwards, the mission to locate and gather data from the Vajra nest is approved. The SMS leads the search and the squad spreads out to locate the nest, Ozma sticking Mikhail and Alto as partners, reasoning that a frontman who can’t trust his backup is useless on the field. At the same time, Brera, the mysterious pilot from episode seven is given launch orders by a, thus far, unknown commander, on orders to destroy the Vajra nest and prevent and data collection.

Klein is the first one to find the nest, but is interrupted by Brera before she is able to make her way to it, the two have at it for a while, Brera clearly possessing the superior machine and piloting skills. Nearby, Alto and Mikhail are still arguing, Mikhail offering to finish what they started the day before, with no one to interrupt, but ironically enough, they are interrupted, spotting Klein having trouble off in the distance. Alto goes on ahead to engage Brera while Mikhail sets up his sniping position.

After grappling on to Brera and prepping Mikhail for a shot, Alto notices him hesitating again, and screams at him to get over his sister and shoot. Apparently Klein told Alto the story behind Mikhail’s sister Jessica, once a renowned military sniper. On one mission she shot her commanding officer in the heat of battle, which alone might have been an excusable offense, but she and her officer had been dating and it was just before that mission that he broke up with her. She was sent to military court on suspicion that her misfire might have been backed by murderous intent, and soon after she committed suicide.

Mikhail takes the shot and nails Brera dead on, but his Valkyrie is hax so it gets off relatively unscathed, with enough structural integrity to disengage Alto, blast the Vajra nest to shreds and fly off at speeds exceeding what would allow for pursuit…right.

After the mission, Mikhail heads to his sister’s grave to pay his respects, saying that one day he’ll find out what she was thinking when she pulled the trigger that day. Alto and Luca come to pick Mikhail up for school, Alto impressed and glad that Mikhail didn’t run away and took the shot properly, and proceeds to call him “Michel”, which he reserves for his close friends (and women he’s trying to get into bed). All the while, a micronized Klein looks on from behind a tree, D’AWWWW.

Thoughts

Wow that was a lengthy summary, but I guess that’s to be expected from an episode with so much character exposition. It ended up being a pretty cliche backstory, but a fitting one nonetheless, although I’m not sure I quite like what it does to Mikhail’s image, making him out to be one of those characters who are an emotional wreck on the inside but put up a front of confidence bordering on arrogance to prevent anyone from seeing that side of him.

Much love for the MikhailXKlein subtext that was set up though, the two make a great couple, if not a little mismatched. They have the pretext of being childhood friends and they get along really well in sort of a love-hate-love relationship. The only barrier is Klein’s whole problem with her microned form being a loli, aside from the fact that it might land Mikhail in a lot of trouble for dating someone with that appearance, he appears to be into the mature older women type. Klein has that aspect to her, but not in a form that would be suitable for Mikhail to…well, you know.

Another issue I have, not so much with Klein, but with Zentradi in general. Where the hell does the energy for their transformation come from? Conservation of mass, my ass. I know this is anime and arguing physics is a futile endeavour, but come on, there has to be some explanation for it, even if it’s as simple as “protoculture acts as a energy allowing their transformation” or something.

As for our other leading ladies, I wasn’t really impressed with Sheryl’s stunt this episode. Falsifying her image as having joined the fight for Galaxy just to make sure the public doesn’t forget? That’s a pretty lowly tactic, which while effective, reeks of media manipulation. However, I can’t fault Sheryl for this, it was obviously not her idea, surely it’s Grace that’s the mastermind behind all this.

So basically, I find fault in Sheryl’s means, but not her message, as it’s not unreasonable that she doesn’t want the public to let the Galaxy issue fade from their minds as yesterday’s news, much how media works in the real world. For example, let me ask you, how many people do you think are still actively following the Tibet Independence issue even after the massive earthquake hit Sichuan, China? Barely anyone, it’s yesterday’s news, irrelevant in comparison to more pertinent news.

Anyways, I digress. Ranka. I liked Ranka this episode, who was back to her more cheerful self, not brooding over Sheryl bumping her off her TV spot, but giving it her all in any opportunity she can. She might be deluding herself when she says that her promoter is doing a great job getting her image out there, but hey, she’s having fun with it and doing her best to reach as many people as she can. I’m curious to see what big break she gets that lands her in the same league as Sheryl, or if she’ll even get one.

Also, I wonder who’s responsible for giving her manager problems when trying to promote her via the internet, hacking any attempts to do so. There are only two reasonable guesses, Grace or Leon. I somehow doubt it’s the former, as devious as Grace is, I don’t know if she is aware of how big a threat Ranka might be to Sheryl, and even if she did, would she go to such lengths to crush her career? Especially given that the two are friends. Leon is the more likely culprit, as mentioned by a commenter before, it’s probable that he will need to manipulate her ability to draw in Vajra in the future, which would be easier to control if she doesn’t rise to stardom.

Next episode looks like filler of sorts, the SMS along with Sheryl and Ranka ending up on some sort of island setting. No indication it’s a beach episode though, which I’m both disappointed and thankful for. On one hand it spares me from further pseudo-mecha vs love comedy confusion, but on the other, the prospect of seeing the female cast in bathing suits is rather appealing.

One last shot of loli Klein, just for good measure :3

~ Shirukii ~