Karaoke Ninja

A lot of what Roid has said publicly doesn't hold up, but I think that might be the point. His actual aim and thoughts haven't been shown yet (I'm speculating) and we'll see at some point that this is all a cover for a bigger plan.

On a different note, with all the lampshade hanging the characters were doing on the absurdities of the plot, I wonder if their mission is also cover for something bigger. Hayate outright states how dumb it is to send pilots on an infiltration mission, Arad all but laughed when he gave them the assignment, and their orders are basically "Run around and learn stuff". In the middle of all this, Mikumo keeps wandering off and doing her own thing with much more advanced tech and techniques than the others are using. It's possible that this is the creators just winking at us and saying "Just go with it", or it's maybe subtle hints that this is actually Mikumo's mission and that she's there for something very specific while the others are being used as distraction knowing that they're going to mess up. All complete speculation, but I would love for something like that to be true.

As absurd as it is who else could they really send? Alpha and Beta squadron were all wiped out so they're out of the question. The mechanics? Chaos is a very very small organization. They really don't have much manpower.

That reminds me of the original Hi-Metal line. It started well, but then after a couple Macross 7 valks, it went belly up.

So I would stick to SDFM if I was them.

But the original Hi-Metal line started with Macross 7 VFs. It went belly up after they started releasing VF-1 toys.

How many Phalanx toys do you own?

None but I don't own a single Macross toy except for this old Destroid Defender Matchbox toy.

I know there are a lot of people hoping for other HMR lines but I hope they stick with SDF Macross for as long as possible. If they start doing Frontier/Delta/Plus we'll never get obscure stuff and this scale is PERFECT for obscure stuff.

I don't understand how anything from SDF could be considered obscure.

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Give me everything here in HMR. I'll buy multiples of each.

I'm still surprised at no HMR Delta VFs especially considering how much merch it's already getting.

I like this angle of the head, those horns look like they have eyes too.

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The cockpit seems to be well hidden in tha back too. Really flush against the gun mount.

Pity, i was hoping to see a lil of those nice cockpit sensors in front actually.

Thanks to IXTL for updating the photo's ...

Cant wait to see the CF versions!

Do the Draakens not have head lasers?

The biggest mytery I'd like addressed is how the heck are Valkyries so quiet?

Overtechnology sound dampening devices. Probably.

It's a little hard to do a direct comparison, because I think the creators have purposely shuffled things in order to not be seen as repeating themselves. That said, it seems clear that there has been a conscious effort to find the things from Frontier that worked so well and generated such a huge new audience while trying to fix some things that didn't work so well.

From that standpoint, while I don't think any of the characters map one to one, I do see:

Hayate = Alto, but less mopey (I see more Hikaru here than Shin, though, as he doesn't seem angry at all, unlike Shin or even Alto for that matter)

Freyja = Ranka, but with more agency and self motivation, cute but no longer moe

Mirage = Sheryl, but with less ego and more self doubt, almost Sheryl + Alto in a way - strong, self determined, but with something to prove

For the rest, it's a bit early to say because we haven't had deep exposure to too many yet, but clearly having a strong ensemble was one of Frontier's selling points and they're trying to bring that about in Delta as well. I expect each of the characters to be given a chance to shine as we go forward and add dimension to themselves. Like Messer enjoying the kids in the OP and the Captain being clearly depicted despite having had almost no lines so far.

Mirage is a female Gamlin.

The restriction might not exist in the Macross universe, not when idols and singers represent "culture" and it would be weird if they weren't allowed to partake in one of the most powerful elements of "culture".

That said, it might rear it ugly head this time out, especially since Walkure are closer in representation to modern idols in Japan than previous acts like Sheryl (who, as Kanno developed her discography more started to feel more like a western diva) or Sharon Apple (who's virtual). Minmay never explored it since it wasn't prevalent during the time, meanwhile Elmo was too chill to give any sort of restriction like that to Ranka. However, with Walkure, maybe the tension between Kaname and Messer is due to this.

Walkure aren't actual idols so why would it matter? They're more soldiers than your typical pop idols.

Risking your life to achieve your goals seems to be an underlying theme of the show.

Freyja's line saying "I can fly if I ride the wind. If I risk my life, I can fly." may as well be the arc words for the show.

That said, this is Macross after all, they'll likely deconstruct this halfway through the show, before reconstructing it again in time for the finale.

Arad even told him before that updraft scene that you risk your life whenever you fly so Hayate risking his life to ride the wind was him taking his words quite literally.

I hardly see how Delta characters are any more cookie cutter than Macross. Its not fair to judge since there are only 3 episoes. Hikaru, Minmay and Misa were hardly origial and deep characters when they first appeared. They had an entire series to develop over the course of 34 episodes.

Especially since Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay were pretty bland characters even after the final episode.

Hoping for some Delta Hi-metals...

I'm starting to miss the EX-Gears, but it's understandable since Delta Squad's role isn't strictly military. In fact, this conflict seems to be on a smaller scale than others.

Because it's a fat b@st@rd.

The EX-Gears are still there. You can see them behind the seats of the VF-31 and even the VF-1EX. Hence why it's called the EX model among other upgrades.

Hologram tech has improved to the point of working on a person in normal clothing, not a special body suit like what Sheryl wore. Worked even on Freyja who definitely had nothing special on. Also seems to be able to provide full invisibility? Pushes disbelief boundary a bit, but Overtechnology is so Overtechnology.

We've seen it before in the Frontier movies with the audience during one of Ranka's concerts.

And is the most popular anime of all time and known world wide. Just sayin'.

Gundam is only popular because of the models and less the actual show. Take Iron Blooded Orphans for example, the show itself is complete trash but the models are selling very well.

no, not really. SDF:M was about shooting a cheesy kung fu movie; having a fabulous space wedding complete with giant robot honor guard, and a ship turning into a giant robot so it can punch another ship with it's arm that is also a ship.

I think a lot of these people arn't so much fans of Macross as they are fans of a thing that looks like Macross but is completely lacking the soul and character that made Macross good in the first place.

:edit:

what I don't get is why some people are so dead set against the idea of a humanoid robot that can moves like a human.

Don't forget giant robot wearing giant alien clothing as a disguise and giant aliens riding giant robots like a horse.

Oh, I'm sorry... I totally thought SFDM was a dark, gritty war story where the entire population of an island is forced to flee on a spaceship, wander the earth looking for a place to accept their refugees, only to end up being the remnants of humanity after space aliens nearly commit a full genocide of the human race. My Bad.

I suppose DYRL was supposed to be a comedy too right?

We have to forget Macross 0 as well. That was goofy as hell when weird stuff like pilots getting splattered in their cockpits or shot after they crashlanded happened. I was like... totally ROFL the entire time.

Even Macross Frontier has serious overtones as a macross colony comes close to being totally wiped out by ancient space aliens, only to be saved by the foldwaves created by two songstresses.

Macross 7.... er.. ok I'll sorta give you that one.

They all have serious tones but they even the original isn't gritty at all. At the end of the day it's a show where a teenage girl is singing pop songs to an alien race. Macross has always been mostly silly at heart. The exception being Zero and that's the worst mainly because it was too serious.

i love that they cut the sychronized mech dancing sequencing short to a point where it's almost acceptable. That was my main gripe in the previous episode. Overall I like this much better.

But they didn't cut it down at all. That scene is still the exact same length as it was in the preview episode.

Funnily enough, I've found that among younger generation (late Gen Y and Millenial) of Macross and anime fans in the West, Macross Plus gets quite a bad rap. That generation is more used to longer, tv-series length narratives and (anecdotally speaking) they tend to find the plot and characters of Plus to be shallow and/or lacking.

It's interesting the difference that a generation can make in the way people view a title.

As a Gen Y/Millennial myself, yeah I did find Macross Plus to be pretty shallow. The animation was gorgeous and the soundtrack was great but everything else was pretty meh. I've met plenty of other fans around my age group that feel the same way so Tochiro does speak the truth.

Some please explain to me how these magical girls ride the valkries like chariots while telling the laws of gravity and Inertia to go F themselves, they need not apply....

Transforming fighter robot planes themselves already tell physics to go F themselves especially with 40+ G forces not turning them into cockpit goop.

Looks like only the VF-1S comes with missiles and only the 1A comes with landing gear.

So the VF-31 can't fire the leg missiles in B or G modes since they will go right into the rest of the airframe?

Probably the same way the VF-19 fires missiles in battroid mode, the missiles shoot out and change direction quickly towards their target.

Alrighty, heres all the Macross-related pics I took at Wonder Festival today.

Enjoy :-)

http://www.macrossworld.com/wonder-festival-2016-winter-photo-gallery/

Thank you. I appreciate all the info and cool pictures you always share.

This is going to require a bunch of stickers/decals to look good huh?

Can't really tell what differences there are between the Delta squad Valks. Maybe they've gone back to SDFM and the biggest difference are head units and some internals? Container Weapon System differences perhaps?

Besides head types only real difference is the VF-31E has a radome.