Saruta

I just bought these, and now I wonder if they might give me the Var or something...

As it has been mentioned, individual songs are good. Ensemble songs? It's getting there.

With that song at the end of ep11, definitely getting there. (Was this song glimpsed before? Or is it a completely new one?)

Yes, it's not up to Kalafina standard (in Kalafina, three voices sound VERY close together), but Walkure is not Kalafina. They did not have years to train together under a dedicated eye, either in the real world or in the Macross world. They also have additional responsibilities that Kalafina don't have, whichever world you look at. In the real world Walkure also have to voice dialogue (except JUNNA but she's in high school). In the Macross world, endurance training and all that battlefield stuff (and the occasional foray into spying behind enemy lines, I guess).

The team is showing their work on the music. While this still does not get to the sheer awesomeness of Fukuyama or Kanno, they are not just making up for it with quantity as I thought before, but also with a well thought out line of development. All five singers have lead songs after ep 10, and then in ep 11 we get an attempt at blending their voices - done acapella and with clear demonstration, in animation, who joins at what time.

Also Remember 16. Together with the Little Catgirl of Ep 7, this shows that covering is still a thing in canon, though not as big a thing as it was in M7. I do wonder if the eventual encounter of Heinz and Walkure will involve some covering.

I share most everyone's disappointment in that they did not show the end of Ep10's battle in any way. Okay, you don't want to animate it because you only have so many episodes - why not have Arad review it with the captain as an outline on a monitor? It would only take 15 seconds of screentime or something.

But I did like the way character development went on in this episode. Even Messer's notes being used for melodrama works in my opinion. Probably nobody would have read them that way while he was alive, but he is dead and that's how many people tend to handle death. The joke about a chance to read one's obituary is very old.

I honestly can't see Hayate with anyone but Mirage. Sorry Freyja. I like you but you and HayaHaya just don't seem to fit.

Was this the first shot of the mandatory shipping war?

Ah whatever #TeamMakiReina #TeamSherriRan

On a different note: I saw death flags over Messer and Mikumo from the first episodes. Messer is gone. I wonder if Mikumo will be gone too, but we do have to learn what she is, either before or immediately after she folds. (And if she does she will probably rival Messer in "going out with a bang", a standard set, I think, by Kinryu and Guld).

While waiting for subs for Episode 11, just wanted to drop a note that I actually like Axia, the song. I think it has a nice "throwback to early Macross" vibe to it. It is not a Minmay song, but Minmay could have sung it. (And yes, I'd like to hear Mari Iijima actually sing it - while she would sound out of place with most modern Macross music, her distinctive soft style would, I think, work nicely with Axia).

I'm not alone in liking it - youtube already has a full cover by a Japanese woman, HINA, who probably had to play the music for it (or have someone play it), because not only is the off vocal not released, but a clear version apparently has not been released.

Speaking of Space Elves: Klan/Mirage...

Klan is 8 years older, still hot, and the one man in her life is dead (series-verse). And she's a badass pilot. "Teach a Jenius a few tricks? YESS!"

It's all googleable. (Discussing further details is not allowed here, but I hope "google it" is too generic to break that rule)

Nope, female umineko are just smaller, as we can see in their intro "kawaii" sequence. Querule, the young kitty, is I think smaller yet.

In Episode 10 Scarfish got some love. Zero-G love, Zero-G love...

I have no problem with the idea of Macross having a same-sex couple kicking around the plot... but I'd rather they didn't make a big to-do about it if and when they finally do.

Isn't that apparently going on? MakiReina together and nobody makes an issue out of it.

It was pretty obvious from the start of the episode that Messer was going to die (or that they want you to think so). And I felt his manner of death, with the "controlled Var", was a reference to Guld, continuing the Delta way of referencing all past Macrosses (Plus seems to have been omitted before this episodem right?)

Also it seemed obvious to me that the name Messer was a reference to Fokker so, again, he had to die or else the viewer had to think he has to die. But I did expect him to take some enemies down with him - and did he?

Scarfish and his girlfriend yay!

It was hard to suspend disbelief at Bogue and the others approaching Walkure WITHOUT firing a barrage of lasers or missiles at them. This gave time to Messer to swoop down and save the day. But why were the Knights not shooting at the Walkure while approaching them? Unless capturing them (or just Freyja or just Mikumo) alive was the order?

I don't recall him saying anything about the Draken's legs in that interview..

I wasn'asking about his words, just the image. It seems to have some module protruding forward between the legs, which to me seems to have an uncanny resemblance to... a certain organ robots do not need.

At this point the Umineko kind does not seem to be getting much love, with Querule playing with an iUmineko mobile phone being the only way they are featured in all of three episodes...

I want moar mercat.

This is from the Forbes interview at http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/05/28/shoji-kawamori-on-macross-delta-and-his-hopes-for-the-series/#57cd9e9e1210

And it has WHAAAT between the legs?!

Positive. The episode surprised me in a few ways and they neatly got out of the "how do they make his Var a problem" trap that I mentioned.

They make his Var a problem because he is WAY TOO MANLY to go talk to the Captain. Installing a live projector of Kaname (or Mikumo) into his cockpit would have avoided the entire sequence when he nearly got killed, but for that he would have to open up to Arad or the Green Lantern, sorry, Green Captain. Totally believable, and also a known thing in anime/manga (this same "man does it all himself" thing apparently undoes the mission of the protagonist in Tezuka's Adolf). I wonder what's the right TVTropes entry for this one!

The surprises were:

- Messer/Kaname. I was half expecting Messer/Mikumo in this episode, seing the obvious parallel between them. But no.

- The Main Triangle finally starting... as a fake-out! (Though it does give us clear indication that at least one-sided Freyja/Hayate attraction exists).

- The Knights doing a decoy attack - that one was nice and finally shows them as having some brain. Too many of their previous actions appeared either futile or way too show-off-ish to succeed. Here, however, they got excellent tactics, with the show-off-ish stuff working to mask the Real Mission. Wonder if that same stuff was happening before.

Also some nice points:

- Knights finally being Knightly - as in NOT attacking any civilian targets despite having a clear shot. (But this might be a reputation thing, especially if they intend to occopy Ragna)

- A Kaname song - now all five Walkure members have songs

- Fold receptor capability of Hayate's - nice crossover between "pilot" and "singer" roles. I do wonder if someone will have an idea about getting Hayate to sing. Oh, and it would be fun to hear him cover Seventh Moon or something (as the only major source of "male" lyrics in Macross-world is Fire Bomber)

Some eyebrow raisers:

- How come Messer did NOT get killed while disabled by the Var? Was he so capable he could dodge attacks of his equal (though not counterattack) even at the peak of the Var?

- Agree with some previous posters - why no ground-to-air attack on the Knights? Especially after they tried missiles at Elysion so this was no longer some sort of "keeping it to the fighters". Does the Elysion not have some heavy guns even without that carrier?

It seems to me that Walkure singing disrupts the fold wave system of controlling Var-infected persons, as opposed to the Var infection itself. And without the control, the Var infection becomes dormant; unlike the Vajra infection (the one Sheryl had) the Var infection does not seem dangerous in its own.

(Going by Episode 7 it might not even be an infection at all, it is a compound chemical that causes certain human/humaniod tissue to acquire fold resonance, which is why it can come from a combination of chemicals in apples and water).

I do wonder, however, why the problem with Messer is so much of a problem then. Put him in the Walkure singing practice room for a regular high dose and you're done? Unless the White Knights are trying to control him with a directed beam 24/7 - but they can't really do it 24/7, Heinz has to sing for that to work. He can't keep singing all the time, and while the other side has one Heinz, Chaos has a minimum of four singers (even allowing for Freyja's rune being inactive without a crisis, perhaps she does not care about Messer enough to make it a crisis). This seems stacked heavily in favour of Chaos.

Unless perhaps the other side does not want to kill or "turn" Messer, they just want to get Messer out of action, and if he is subject to random control without a Walkure singer present, they can't afford to put him into the cockpit... unles they put, say, Kaname into the second seat but this would risk her life while taking *her* out of ground Walkure action... But wait, Walkure singing can work through projection at short range - so put a projection device right into Messer's cockpit? Have him view Mikumo singing at all times, given that she *is* likely singing during the battle? If this happens, shippers rejoice.

(Or were the Knights hoping the infection would not be noticed so they could "turn" him mid-battle? In this case, however, they had to make sure it does not show at all outside battle. And they did not, he is obviously ill at the end of Episode 8, on the ground. Roid you eejit, you bungled up a perfect catch!)

Does it come with Sharon (Apple) as the Virtual Assistant?

The Virtual Assistant is probably Hyperhighway Enhanced Information Node Zone, a.k.a. HEINZ.

Windermere Apple iPhone! Can be safely immersed in water and continues to work! (but you get the Var syndrome)

There are some videos found on Youtube when one searches for JUNNA and they have this same spelling (all caps) but apparently a different singer? Or is any of them actually her?

I do feel, too, that to an extent Delta is making up for loss of quality (compared to Frontier) with quantity. On the other hand, it is definitely showing its work NOT to be repetitive like M7 - which had a couple of absolutely awesome songs repeated way too much. (Not to mention what SDFM did to My Boyfriend is a Pilot).

Ikenai Borderline seems to hold the "best song" cup as yet and, yes, it is a Mikumo/JUNNA song far more than a Walkure song.

Yes, I, too, warmed up to the OP after listening to it without the anime. (To be exact, after the real-life music video, even though I did not really like most of the choreography).

It's more likely that the pilot induced it. Not a fail, per se, as the pilot recovered. More likely it was a demonstration of the aircraft and pilot's ability to recover from a post stall situation. A fail would have resulted in a fireball.

The demonstration suggestion seems to make a lot of sense. Especially since a professional was filming the aircraft in action (note perfect zoom and panning). Thanks!

If we are talking taste in women... Claudia, Myung, possibly Sharon, Sivil, Sheryl. For Delta, Makina (or even "Makina and Reina"). I'd also like to know more about the green-haired bridge bunny.

Mirage is pretty and badass, which is a great combination, but way too tsundere. And evey trying to look at Freyja or Ranka in that way makes me feel they are way too young, even though Ranka and Sheryl are only different by a year or so.

But yeah, I don't really care for Walkure's singing. I would be happier with a wall of Mikumo solos.

I'd just go to a JUNNA concert.

I hope she does one in Europe eventually, with or without Walkure.

The engrish song was good, but I think Azrael has it right, the ensemble songs are the weakest point for Walkure so far.

I did not hear much "engrish" there. It was more like "JUNNA showing off her English lessons". I agree it might be a notch below what Megumi Nakajima could do with "What about my star", but still very impressive.

And is not the OP a pretty good ensemble song? (All other good-ish songs do seem to have a clear lead plus support - though I di dnot clearly understadn who the lead is in Silent Hacker?).

I got the sense Keith was somewhat depressed Messer got Var'd, he couldn't get his proper fight. It is notable he stopped attacking Messer once he realized it.

That, or Keith hopes to get Messer controlled through Var and so decided not to attack him.

Roid clearly wants to see more of how Walkure affect the ruins compared to Heinz. I heavily suspect he will want to eventually kidnap Freyja to help in whatever his long term plan is.

...in an obvious reference to the plight of Ranka in Frontier series. Which would work great for the way this series works so far.

(Speaking of "the way this series works", we have seen some pineapple in episode 7 but nobody of the main cast is dead, or nearly-dead, yet? They would not waste pineapple on faceless mind-controlled catman soldiers...)

Sorry for the double post, but something else I wanted to mention is that the 'triangle' so far has had pretty much zero romantic intent in it, at least that I can see. While there's definitely some strong bonding going on in both directions, it so far feels much more like partnerships than romance. Both Hayate-Freyja and Hayate-Mirage are coming across more as buddy movie friendships than as contenders for coupling. Anyone else feeling that, or am I just blind?

I actually see some romance going on between Hayate/Freyja, what with the way they seem to care for defending each other, and with the emotional (and Fold) motivation they provide for each other. I don't see it yet with Hayate/Mirage but we are only at episode 8. There was nothing going on for Hikaru/Misa by SDFM episode 8, while there was rather much (even if confused) Hikaru/Minmay. And yet we know how that ended.