DeeBot

Huh? It looks to me like they had to remove both her eyes, just leaving slits. Maybe they'll make an exception for her and allow her to get bionic ones to replace them.

Wait... I've got it! The False Idol is Grace, and she's been dressing up in those skanky costumes to ruin Sheryl's reputation! I'm sorry, I can't keep going with a straight face.

Makes me kinda wonder if they're going to try and play up Nanase's role as Ranka's costume designer, which never really seemed to pay out in the TV series. I can just imagine the Valkyrie Girl suit being her idea.

I guess Alto would know if the holograms are true to life or not.

I just noticed this after Roy's comment about slurmtiness (pffy, language filter) made me take a closer look... are those sticks of dynamite underneath her skirt? I gather they're functional, although I have no idea whether they're fireworks or actual explosives. (Explosion once again, eh?) Also, Sheryl doesn't dress like a stripper because a stripper actually needs something to take off.

Maybe Alto's daydreaming and Michel's bringing him down to Earth with a crash.

You know... this just occurred to me, but if Ranka is getting a Segway, does this mean I can stop complaining about her running everywhere (and being perpetually late)? Now she can coast everywhere... and be late.

I'm pretty sure at least some of that was tongue in cheek. At least... I hope it was. He made a lot of good points, too, about culture being corrupted since Space War I times into just a commercial enterprise... although I would have put the date that started right back to the concerts held in post-apocalyptic Earth, under Kaifun's management. Also, the briefer way of saying what you were saying is "TL;DR".

It looks like they did something about the polygonal micro-missiles, too... for those of you that might still be griping about that. With regards to the poster, I'm usually initially turned off by how they seem to be progressively drawing Sheryl slurmtier and slurmtier*... but then I realize that we're talking about "Sheryl, Sheryl Nome." It was probably her idea. Who am I to complain? *Apparently, my original word choice isn't allowed.

If you get right down to it, there's nothing terribly realistic about trying to control a humanoid robot thingie with a joystick or two, foot pedals, and a lot of buttons. I mean, not that you couldn't make it work, but surely you could come up with a better human interface than that.

I was waiting to see if anyone else was going to mention this, but... was Sheryl holding a gun? I guess maybe if she was redoing her recruitment video...

See, and I always thought it was just about robot-airplanes IN SPACE blowing stuff up.

With regards to the whole birthday gift incident: I think you can legitimately read it in different ways. It really depends on your read of the characters, at that particular point of the story. There probably isn't much use arguing it too much, there just isn't enough evidence to firmly say one way or another. I agree that it's a possibility, but as you said, it's never really hinted at. There's never a time where Ranka or Sheryl seem to go, "Oh, hey! We totally knew each other when we were two." I think it's likely that Sheryl's parents kept her on Galaxy, rather than taking her out to some research fleet that they had no business being other than to visit Mao. (And I'm not sure how likely that was.) I have been really intrigued by this whole mentor dynamic you mentioned, though, and I had some recent thoughts on that point, too. I think Ranka might have reminded Sheryl a lot of herself at an early stage of her career (strange as it sounds to claim that Ranka is anything like Sheryl), which is why Sheryl goes out of her way to encourage her. In particular, I think back to the Folmo Mall incident, where Ranka makes her debut. Near the end, Sheryl is looking on approvingly, then gets her determined face and mutters something along the lines of, "They make it all by themselves." I always found that moment hard to read. Was Sheryl recognizing a competitive threat from Ranka, and steeling herself to stay on top? Honestly, I think no. Again, Sheryl was planning on leaving for Galaxy again, and it doesn't really jive with the dialogue anyway. Instead, I think Sheryl was thinking back to her own rise to stardom. She takes a lot of pride in her self-image of being a self-made woman. While she offers Ranka advice and help, she mostly urges Ranka to make it on her own, by her own efforts. (I also had the interesting thought that perhaps Sheryl's initial launch to stardom came in a Miss Macross competition, which would be why she encourages Ranka to go down that route. Of course, I find it hard to believe that Sheryl would have lost such a competition... it's equally likely she never participated, though, and just rose to the top of the charts over time. Or she wouldn't have been suited to the interview parts of such a competition. I can just imagine her chewing out some poor judge with less than beauty pageant decorum...) Of course, we find out later that Grace was instrumental in manufacturing Sheryl's success, so this raises some interesting questions about whether her expression was simply reflecting back on the hard road she had to her current success, or whether she's always harbored some doubts about the legitimacy of her success. (She just seems so certain all the time, though... I don't know if she really had any doubts. But maybe she's compensating. That sounds almost probable, actually, although maybe she'd just be compensating for her childhood misery.) What I think is really intriguing about all this is how the whole "you can make it on your own!" philosophy is basically rejected by the overall arc of the story. By the end, all three main characters have realized that no, you can't. When Sheryl reboots her career, she certainly doesn't try to do it alone again--she seems quite accepting of Elmo's help, for example. Ranka's attempt to end the war by herself doesn't work--despite feeling personally responsible, it's not a problem she can solve alone. At the climax, Alto shouts out something along the lines of, "Because we're alone... we love!" I take this to be a message that because humans are individuals, we need the support of other human beings all the more.

Yeah, I wasn't really happy with how that particular point came out, although I'm pleased the most important part (about the key contributions made by Ohnogi, naturally--no, I'm talking about the friendship angle) doesn't seem very controversial. I'm pretty busy these days, so I either have to get my thoughts down as quickly as I can, or not do it at all. Had to go with what I had, basically. I still don't think either one is fully aware of how deep the other's feelings go, though. They're certainly aware that they're not the only ones seeking Alto's attention, but it's really hard to tell how serious the threat is. I think most of the blame for this can be put on Alto--he just so unreadable, especially when it comes to romantic matters. You can give him a big kiss on the lips, and he'll just sorta look at you funny until you make up some lame excuse to salvage your pride. (Ahem.) With that sort of reaction, I think you could easily tell yourself that there's nothing going on with the other girl. Or equally, that he's completely uninterested in you. Plenty of girls swoon over <insert random hunky male idol here>, but that doesn't mean they're part of a love triangle, if you get my drift. I just get the impression that they spend a lot more time trying to get Alto's attention at all, rather than competing with each other. Maybe if Alto were a little more responsive, there'd be more to fight over. The girls do seem to really pour it on whenever they manage to crack his stoic facade. First off, thanks for expanding on my point, KR. Some good insights there; I liked how you tied Alto's friendships with the girls into an overall picture of a friendship triangle. Now then, I expected this particular incident to come up. I've never really bought into the whole idea that Sheryl did it purposefully to stymie Ranka, which if true, would have been a pretty jerky thing to do. But I think it's certainly open to debate. Just from the way I read the characters, Sheryl always comes off as more impulsive and reckless than calculating (she has Grace for that, after all). She pretty much never manages to make a plan that doesn't backfire on her in some way (although sometimes it backfires pleasantly). She makes her way through life by vigorously pressing forward without looking back or ahead. She's very much a person who lives in the moment. Looking at the way the events played out, Sheryl was already feeling under the weather at the time. She instantly perceives that the ticket Ranka secures is for Alto, but she really doesn't seem to care that much about it. I'm not sure if this is because she was feeling ill, putting up a front, or just was feeling ill-disposed towards Alto at the time (I personally lean towards a mix of the first and last), but she doesn't do anything to discourage Ranka from her plans. (At this point, Ranka is wondering about Sheryl's attitude towards Alto, and is about to ask her when Sheryl faints. The Queen has an awful lot of dramatically-timed fainting spells, but I guess you can't blame her for the virus and Plotonium infusions.) Later, when Sheryl thinks of her great idea, all she wants to do is meet Alto in their special place, and spring it on him in her usual exuberant way. Once again, she's let herself get carried away, without really thinking about the consequences. Of course, there's never a scene where she goes "Oops, I totally cut Ranka off!" or "Mwahaha, take that, little girl!", but I think that just tends to lend credence to the whole idea that it never crossed her mind. It's hard to believe anyone can really make it through life with that little forethought, but she is Sheryl Nome.

I find it interesting how much time ships spend not folding. Apparently, it's really, really energy intensive. (Although the Vajra seem to treat folding like rolling out of bed. I guess that makes sense, considering their exotic use of fold space.) It seems odd to think of an nearly-instantaneous (assuming no fold faults) means of travel that requires you to sit on your hands for long periods of time while you're charging up for the next jump. If you were an inhabitant of a colony ship, most of your life would be spent outside of fold, but most of the distance covered would be in fold. And what's the effective velocity if you can cover a few tens of light years in a jump, but only every few weeks/months/years? Of course, I suppose it's always possible there's a lot of short hop folding that goes on that we don't see... because fold space is boring. But it seems like the amount of work that goes into folding the whole fleet would argue against that. Also: Where does all the energy come from, anyway? Most of space is empty. I can only assume they gather up interstellar hydrogen to use in fusion reactors. It would explain why it seems to take so darn long...