Shaka_Z

sheryl sneaked in a bit of 'boyfriend' in the medley... that's gotta count for something ^^

so...what makes the Vajra blow up? they are essentially just big bugs, if they get stabbed they bleed, but if they get shot they blow up, small green, medium yellow and the big red lobsters... oh yes, don't forget, if you cut one of their sharp tails and throw it at them they blow up too...

any reason? or is this just the hollywood syndrome that everything that gets turn over or shot HAS to blow up?

if you had paid attention to the analysis Leon gave on one of the red lobsters, you would have learned that the average vajra combat types are very similar in terms of capabilities to a valkyrie - even going so far as growing their own ammunition, organs that serve as fold drives etc. thats a whole lot of energy capacity, and it certainly doesnt surprise me that if they take damage in the wrong place they can go boom just like a valk.

lol... didnt you watch starship troopers? bugs can go boom too ^^.

I keep seeing this but I have yet to see any text mention this.

it's a reference to when Leon is looking at some of michel and alto's cam footage, and his analyst/aide mentions that even with the Ex-Gear no human pilot could achieve that level of maneuverability.

guys we are in region 1 for blu-rays, as is japan... english should be available in subs on the japanese release - that it is not is quite annoying

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I just noticed, in episode 9, those are some pretty heavy dumbbells that Sheryl's using. Judging by the size, each plate should weigh in at around 2.5 kg meaning that she's lifting around 15 kg which is pretty heavy for someone who's cut but doesn't have much mass.

0.7g remember... while the mass and inertia would be unaffected, the working weight she is excercising with would only be about 10.5kg. still not too shabby considering her build.

lol... I would love to see her try to do a lap in even a training ex-gear without power. might be interesting to see how far she gets.

grr this discussion reminds me that I really need to either get into a gym or start swimming again.

To talk about something else -- is the likelihood of a R1 release pretty unlikely? COuld any threat of Harmony Gold expressing interest in asserting some kind of court case to try to "redecide" the Macross ownership make this a dead Region 1 property? If so, I do want to know. I've been considering buying a R2 DVD player or BluRay anyways. I'm most interested in the special items that come with the DVDs though (booklets, stickers), so I want to start looking. If the BluRays don't come with the special stuff the regular dvds do, then I think I'd rather spend less and buy a R2 player...

at least for Blu-Ray, IIRC japan and the USA are in the same region (1) so a BR disc bought in japan should work just fine on an american market BR player. there may not be any english subs on said disc however. I say to hell with a US release and just order it straight from the rising sun.

All I know is that considering how much heat sheryl can put out when she performs onstage, if Alto ever *does* get her in his bed, he may not survive the experience. dogfighting brera might just be relaxing in comparison

I was assuming those were holographic effects.

ah it might be... but simpler explanations are always better ^^. some of the sparkly effects of Ranka's are definitely holographic though - they dont make glitter that big

Just looking at the poll results. I knew that Sheryl was popular, but I didn't realise she was THAT popular. Anybody else surprised by this? Anybody want to offer any explanations?

Taksraven

I for one am certainly not surprised... Sheryl is such an outstanding character that it makes me wonder why the rest of the cast seems so lackluster in comparison - especially given that sheryl was never originally intended to be so damn good. if kawamori had left all the character dynamics to ohnogi from the start and just concentrated himself on the overall storyline and mechapron, frontier would likely have gone from being merely a superb 25th anniversary tribute to a legendary epic in its' own right - 25 years from now we might have been seeing a '25th anniversary tribute' to frontier lol.

Yeah, with all that magic-sparkling-song thing going on it seems dangerously akin to Macross 7 .

you are hallucinating my friend... that sparkly stuff was merely sweat sheryl is casting off as she performs ^^. unless you are talking about Ranka, in which case it's glitter. I dont wanna comment on what I think the vajra version of it is

There's mountain with my last name. And a kind of pudding. There's a race car driver who I am not related to, and yet he has my last name. A photographer with whom neither of us are apparently related. And that's just a few real world examples, not in a far future where humanity was obliterated down to a few thousand or a million, and then the population was beefed up through cloning for several decades.

Sheryl might know about her link to the Nomes from Macross Zero, but it just doesn't mean much to her. She's been pretty successful on her own. Or she doesn't know (pale blonde pop idol related to some tan skinned island natives?) and the name is just a mild curiosity at most, given the circumstances.

No matter how you slice it, it doesn't really affect the plot, so I wouldn't exactly call it a plot hole.

remember though that it has been conclusively shown that Sheryl is not blonde - at least when near death. Like I've said in previous threads, it seems her nome blood allows her to control her hair color to an extent (no I do not believe her hair color changes are holographic, especially given the evidence on the stage of BF in ep25). considering how Sheryl's character was apparently poorly planned until Ohnogi took over (at least, there seems to have been no original plan for her to be present past ep7), I must wonder how her character would have been handled (and the entire series effected as a result) had he been in charge of her from the beginning.

dammit on the way back to the office today I actually envisioned a better version of the final 2 eps - nothing massively changed, but rather mildly tweaked... especially wrt the transition from 24 to 25, and in particular the events that culminated in (and followed) the foldslap. dont know if i should voice the ideas though. Ranka would have gotten to show A LOT of emotional maturity my way... in a way following in Sheryl's footsteps.

Probably my biggest beef with Frontier as a whole is how they seem close to acknowledging the events of Zero as having some relevance (Dr Mao, Zero the movie, birdman-esque markings on the Varja, etc) only to do a 180 degree turn and ignore it completely.

you know... thats quite possibly my single biggest problem with frontier as well. I really wanted to see sheryl belt out her own version of arkan - just enough to tell us that she indeed was aware of her heritage on some level. she wouldnt even have had to do it in the presence of other characters... just humming it while she was putting on the kimono while staying at alto's family estate would have been enough, and she wouldn't even have had to be really aware of its' own significance - it could have been a lullaby her mother used to hum to her or something, or perhaps she could have had her own repressed memories like ranka (but then, I am quite sure she does).

In there defense.Who wouldn't want Sheryl straddling there back?

not that I would mind her straddling my back, but... (dirty thoughts spoiler mode ON)

Not just anime. All big screen and TV capital ships have this problem. Look at the Executor from Star Wars.

If a 20th Century CIWS can hit a supersonic missile, an Overtech AA shooting lightspeed bolts would wipe any small manned flying object at extreme range.

hey... the Executor and other ISDs were in fact shooting down fighters on their own. remember that the furball was happening all around them and their own fighters were all up in it too, so their AA fire was a bit on the restrained side. not to mention that the fighter that kamikazed the executor was an A-Wing. a ship barely bigger than the pilot and droid that fly it, easily and by FAR the quickest, fastest and most agile starfighter of the day (yes it was... there is no debate on this), that was flying even more erratically than it normally would because it had been torn up by the shrapnel from an X-wing that had exploded right behind it, and was being piloted by a guy who knew he was gonna die.

Ah, but then you have to believe that a CIWS can ACTUALLY shoot down a supersonic missile.

Mark

I dont see why a CIWS gun couldn't do so. it is all dependent on how early the control radar can detect the incoming, and how quickly and accurately the gun can adjust its' aim, which shouldnt be too hard considering that the rate of angular change for in inbound missile wouldnt be very high. it would certainly help if the CIWS was firing hypersonic rounds, or was the type of gun (I forget the actual name) that was developed in the last few years that can fire thousands of rounds from parallel barrels.

I've been wondering about the anti-aircraft defense of the NMC class though. In the last episode (of Frontier), not only is Canaria able t land her VB-6 on it so that she can shoot out it's head (which I assume knocked it's sensors out giving Battle Frontier the chance to close in and sink it), but earlier on, Alto was able to not only get close, but get inside it.

we already know that the NMC is heavily dependent on fighter cover for protection against enemy fighters, with destroids scurrying all over for close-in point defense. in the specific case of Battle Galaxy, its' v-9 ghosts were being swatted down hard by the time alto penetrated it to rescue Ranka. I also noticed that Galaxy had NO destroids wandering the hull for close-in defense, whereas both BF and the quarter pounder had them in spades.

As for the monster, remember that it has a very annoying (to the enemy) habit of being able to just wade through flak - even going so far as being able to completely ignore most of the weapons systems available to CF valks and ghosts. canaria did take some hits directly from Galaxy however, which cost the monster an arm and a leg. didnt stop it though.

sheryl obviously. it would be nice if we could do a poll ranking the characters though, as while I love Sheryl, there are several in the series that I also love/love to hate (grace lol).

hmmm... I think the macrossworlders are also forgetting another adventure in excellence by the goddess known as Yoko Kanno: Cowboy Bebop

I don't think the Colonials would appreciate an NMC considering their Battlestars' nature.

why do you say that? they would certainly love the BFG long time ^^. but then they would probably like the nupetiet vernitzs more

well... I have just now gotten through ep 5 on my own marathon.

honestly, I dont think alto was really concerned about ranka when he decided to take sheryl to island 3. What I DO beleive is that having seen that michel had managed to find her, and given that he knows what ozma would do to anyone who took advantage of ranka (ESPECIALLY if that unfortunate soul were one of his subordinates), alto decided that he was free to actually enjoy himself by showing sheryl around, which he did quite well if I must say so. their running into ranka and michel at formo was simple coincidence, as ranka was deliberately wandering the islands as randomly as possible just for the sake of being a PITA to michel whenever he brought up the idea of going back to ozma. the only way he even got her to stop at formo was to buy her ice cream.

I must also note that this is the episode where klan and sheryl identified that they could be friends btw - klan thought she was weird at first for scribbling on a pair of macro-panties, but as soon as sheryl voiced the line 'because they can't stand not to' to finish klan's reply to alto's question, they looked at each other and the look that passed between them just screamed you're kool in my book, we gotta hang out sometime.

some have taken sheryl's look at the end when she invited alto to her farewell concert as disappointment that he seemed to take the offer as a bribe to keep him on the lookout for the earring or something. frankly, I dont see it. the way alto toned his response struck me as 'I was going to keep looking for it anyway, but since you want to see me again, I'll make sure I find it by then'. that tone in his response touched her so much that she launched the first of what we would come to know as the 'sheryl nome liplock attack' , although she intentionally hit his cheek this first time. note that alto did not suffer a BSOD this first time, and the look he gave her as she walked away struck me as speaking volumes about his developing romantic interest in her. not ONCE in the entire series did he look at ranka in even a remotely similar fashion.

ok shipping done lol. couldnt help myself. dammit I need to find a girl that can make me suffer a BSOD when she kisses me - thankfully most of my higher brain systems run linux only the speech centers run windows atm, so I wouldnt have any problem reciprocating hehe.

Sums up the theme of the show

gaaaaahhhh!!!! my eyes!!! THEY BURN!!!!!

I agree with you that he doesn't love Ranka in a romantic sense, and I don't see him ending up with her either. Where we differ is that I don't see a whole of romantic feelings on his part for Sheryl, either. I know you believe that they slept together, but considering that she didn't want him coming near her bleeding finger, I really doubt they went any further than what the show, um, showed. He never initiated anything, and simply didn't show any interest in her sexually.

to the contrary Gubaba. during the 'bedroom' scene, I am quite confident that Alto did in fact initiate a kiss, hence the whole 'camera pan up to give privacy' moment. before you take things too far, note that it was probably a really long, passionate kiss (no frenching was likely, but that technique isn't what I would consider passionate anyway), but it very likely went no farther than that for a number of reasons.

this all goes back to when I made the observation about Alto's brain suffering a BSOD whenever Sheryl launched a 'nome liplock attack' on him. it shows that he as certain issues with control and propriety - ie he feels a need to be the aggressor when it comes to these things... probably a side effect of his upbringing in kabuki where he always played female roles which are typically highly submissive. under the circumstances in the bedroom scene, with Sheryl (for once) in a state of nearly absolute submission, alto would be more comfortable with initiating a kiss of his own and not suffer a braincrash. although his eyes in that scene were really weirding me out, them oscillating between bulging-wide and squinty narrow like that makes me think that he was having a battle with himself as to what he should do given that:

a - she was an emotional wreck

b - she didnt seem to be wearing underwear (I doubt he changed her clothes and put her to bed himself after her collapse... probably a female servant in the house)

c - she needed him (not in the perverted sense lol)

Throughout the entire series, Alto never showed any sexual interest in anyone. Hell, even Basara almost kissed Emilia (and that was mutual, unlike Sheryl's "Shock and Awe" kisses). Alto made no move on anyone, at any time. I know Sheryl was playing some serious mind games with him, so he may not have felt comfortable enough to make his feelings known (as I believe you suggested earlier), but still...we never saw him even close to trying anything, so any idea to the contrary is necessarily speculation.

true that... he never really did show any outward interest in anyone except for that one scene on the futon - which is both unfortunately and admittedly debatable. all that can really be said is something happened to require the camera pan. I say Alto initiated a long passionate kiss, but not much else happened. maybe he held her for comfort/support for awhile afterwards... gave her a semi-intimate massage or something until she fell asleep (hell, I've done that - it's the best way to go 'exploring' and not get killed or obligated ). any which way it went however, he is on a far more intimate level with sheryl at the end than with ranka.

Actually Grace seemed vindictive of both Mao and Ranshe.

Saying their blood would destroy each other.

Possibly referring to the Mayan Priestess heritage Alpha Bombay blood and the V-Type infection.

Thus her intention of using their children.

Grace a psychotic need of proving herself better that either Mao or Ranshe.

I have to agree here. Ranshe was shown actively opposing Grace in ep 23 - philosophically at least. it seems Grace and her cabal were the only ones who saw things that way. Ranshe and Mao were most likely searching for a means to pursue active communication with the vajra rather than control - the fold-network slavery idea doesnt strike me as being at all compatible with Mao's personality, granted that all my understanding of her comes from Zero. when the vajra attacked the 117th, grace swore revenge on Mao and Ranshe and most likely intended from the very start to do so by using and eventually discarding their kids.

if you guys notice, thre are certain portions of the ex-gear flightsuit that bear a remarkable resemblance to motion capture transponders - most notably on the wrists and ankles. it is possible that at least for the ex-gear system, the suit monitors both absolute position of certain body parts via these transponders, and also monitors neuromuscular activity for smaller appendages like the fingers via other sensors in the suit itself. I've long thought that the neuromuscular monitoring would be critical to any kind of battroid type mecha that isnt built like a masamume shirow style landmate - it would actually be fairly straightforward to implement as well, since the tech for monitoring that activity has been around so long as to be nearly ubiquitous (heartrate monitors for instance), and doesnt have to try to make sense of higher brain functions like some other implementations I have seen like the BDI of the YF-21.

the transponders on the ex-gear flightsuit probably monitor the muscle impulses of the lower leg and foot as well as the overall position of the ankle itself, while the wrist units likely handle those tasks for the finger, hand and wrist groups. certainly there are more transponders present than those (they just happen to be the most obvious ones).