Final Vegeta

Generically in anime some power escalation occur on all sides of the conflict. Nowadays though I think that if you resolve the climax simply by having one side becoming stronger, than you are doing a lousy job. It is something that could be done in old anime, but after years of evolution of storytelling a 1 dimensional approach to the climax doesn't feel very realistic. Kawamori's transversal solutions are one thing that put him a notch above the rest. FV

The Protoculture. Fact: they spawned most of Macross villains. And they did it for the lulz. FV

Undoubtly. I repeat myself. While Roy destroying a Regult was mainly a homage to Gundam (it was a scene that looked unrealistic even in Gundam), Roy didn't actually destroy an Octos with his lasers: he hit a missile fired by the Octos, and the missile destroyed the Octos. Here is the actual sequence: FV

First of all, there is a misunderstanding here: Roy did not destroy an Octos with his lasers, he destroyed a missile just fired by the Octos, and the missile exploding destroyed the Octos. The lasers themselves did some negligible damage to the Octos. Also Roy was hit by what seemed Octos' own lasers, but he simply shrug them off. I think that Shin should have done more damage to Nora's SV-51, but maybe it wasn't possibly to show all due to time restraints (keep in mind that Macross Zero was Kawamori's first attempt at making CG viable for mecha). Hikaru though was hitted repeatedly in the second episode and his plane didn't explode. That said, I think the VF-0 has underpowered lasers compared to the VF-1. Even the gunpod is an earlier model, after all. Also powerplants may matter. In this regard, a VF is likely to be superior to an amphibious tank. Roy destroying a Regult in SDF may be due to superior powerplants + the focus of 4 lasers, but keep in mind that the scene was just a homage to Gundam (Amuro once destroyed a Rick Dom with his head vulcans, something that seemed slightly impossible but cool nevertheless). After said this, I must notice there was some kind of change after the 2010 era. Before this, lasers were used mostly to shot down missiles. With Macross Plus missiles were shot down with the gunpod, while head lasers were used to try to shot down aircrafts. One addition to make is that in fact head lasers were becoming head beams. It is possible that this kind of beams is even superior to the gunpod, but limited in usage by excessive heating or energy capacitor. Aside from this, I think it is possible the existence of some kind of anti-energy weapon armor in Macross. In episode 13 of Frontier, Brera hit a yellow Vajra obliquely and the hit was deflected. FV

And there are those who deny it but ultimately mean that. But I do have an outspoken attitude. Why not? It's so unsatisfying being teased. You want to disagree. I wanted to agree, so I tried to get all the pieces of your logic chain. Like, how the episode could have satisfied you? This episode was rushed, but I think in this case it is actually good storytelling. Quick pace makes story twists even more effective, especially after some slow paced episodes. Even if I didn't agree, I will still reply to you. This is the internet, there is always someone replying to you I still say that episode 12 was very reminiscent of SDF in tone. At the beginning we were discussing about seriousness. Now it is about pacing? An episode later? Then you didn't notice Temjin was alerted of Alto's escape by some mysterious spy who couldn't be someone other than Grace. And you didn't notice that captain Wilder himself was highly suspicious of the event. The episode itself gave strong hints that the uprising was engineered. And in the previous episode it was specifically mentioned this was Grace's scenario. But you are wrong into thinking the appearance of Ranka was planned. This event was totally unexpected and there are no lines supporting that. Instead Temjin talks about a treasure in Gallia 4, suggesting he initially was the one supposed to inadvertently awaken Vajra's queen, maybe using reaction missiles. We are using different words, here. "The events in Gallia 4" is different from "the Gallia 4 crysis". I said the Zentradi are secondary, while the primary conflict is with Vajra. That some action on Gallia 4 resulted in Vajra awakening and assaulting Frontier, this is primary. That a band of Zentradi became villain of the week, this is secondary. It's not budget and time costraints, I think it's the director of the episode. A different director would have handled some things a bit different, and we would have had another result. As for me, the second part of the episode was handled greatly, with a rollercoaster of emotions. FV

The images you posted, hobbes221, are all fan-made and can be found on pixiv.net, like this one. FV

Here? FV

Words like "Serious" and "deep" are thrown a lot when discussing anime, but their actual meaning is muddled. Usually "seriousness" requires blood. There was seriousness in the episode. Like when Sheryl was frustrated because she couldn't give Alto his present, and Alto's friends were worried about him. Also the situation was nearly escalating to devastating consequences since Temjin had access to nukes and Ogotai was ready to fire his big guns. So, what is it that was really lacking in that episode that doomed it as "unserious"? Zentradi shoot at each other but noone is dying or even hurt. This is what was pointed out in the thread of the episode. This is what I called "gore" (using the first word that came to my mind). Someone gave a convincing answer to that: they were all warning shots, no side was ready to up the level of fight. As for characterization, the Zentradi (commanders included) gave a very SDF Macross vibe. For all the seriousness you can claim, Kamjin was a doofus. In his first appearance he bet on how many ships he would have bumped into after defolding. Temjin was more serious than him, he just lost some points because of the seven colored carrot If this is not what you had in mind, then please be very specific. Two episodes would have been overdoing it. Even the time dedicated to the event is a sign of importance. Too much importance and Ranka's appearance would have been anti-climatic. Anyway, I like crammed episodes. It's secondary for the viewers. The primary conflict officially is between Vajra and Frontier. The Gallia 4 crysis had little relevance to Frontier. FV

All the footage reguarding him seems to be confiscated by Leon. FV

I think that in episode 12 too much gore would have made Ranka's singing grottesque. 12 was a kind of slapstick episode, that used sheer over-the-top-ness to achieve awesome. It is not a problem it wasn't in the same tone of the first episodes, since the whole conflict was basically a side story. I am worried that the real problem could be too much predictability. I have faith in Kawamori for a good climax, though. The problem of Frontier is that secondary characters are too much secondary, this despite a keen eye on little details from one episode to another (ie: the director from ep. 10 appearing in ep. 9). Despite this, is one of the best series of the '00ies, and by the end maybe it will become one of the best series ever. FV

About the nose art, check this (click on "show"). The nose art actually never disappeared FV

There are cargoes for that. I agree with Vajra's Fold Quartz. Grace's extermination plan is therefore contrasting with Bilrer's dream. FV

I didn't check the credits, but the voice looks a bit like Cathy's. It would be weird if there was no VA available for Raramia but there was one for Cannon Fodder pilots FV

This is one thing I was thinking... we all know the Vajra used these chaff-like things in the first episode, and then never again. Well, these things maybe were indeed chaff. They were not a countermeasure against missiles per se, but they worked against the guidance system of missiles. So, if the guidance system is different, missiles are effective again. Which means they all fight without using radars. Maybe that's why they did it These days characters loved by the public can't be killed. I heard even Orange in Code Geass was supposed to die, and then they resurrected him. FV

What is bad is that it's too short, even the music is interrupted abruptly. Aside from this, it looks wonderful. There is an Aquarion reference in the red and blue trails, so possibly this is directed personally by Kawamori. My favorite scene is when Alto and Michel's VFs skydive joining hands in formation, then transform back to fighter and form an F in the sky. It mixes both plane demostrations and parachuting. Also, at the end the credits mentioned "1982, 1994, 2007", so it means VF-1, YF-19 + YF-21 and VF-25 (+ VB-6). I think there should be definitively something more complete that includes even the VF-0 and VF-19Kai. Another thing pointing out to this is that there was a VF-25 with a special color scheme in the intro that still doesn't appear in the video (or did I miss it?). FV

I heard the most popular character in the last two Comicket was Kyonko, the female version of the protagonist of Haruhi. Transgender ("rule #63") is currently trendy, so there is no surprise that ambiguous characters like Tieria are popular. Even Lelouch got girls impersonating him in the anime. When I saw Ouran Host Club, I thought it was meant to be a sexual equalization. Now that I saw even transgender male characters, I think it is related to why we got Man-Faye cosplayers FV

Probably it never worked even for them, that's why they tried to make it happen by chance. FV

Here is something that nobody seems to have noticed yet: in this episode Ozma mentions a "gun camera". This should be the reason why in episode 7 Brera destroyed Luca's gunpod. Casually, Kawamori was the director for both episode 7 and 15. FV

It is interesting to note how mysterious people are automatically assumed as villainous unless proved otherwise. Bilra was just shown in the dark, after all, he never did anything evil. Even now, he is just assumed to be a secret benefactor just because Galaxy is now openly evil. FV

This is something that always baffles me The person that has better manipulation skills is perceived as less self-centered. And I'm saying this liking both Sheryl and Ranka, it's not a critic to Macross Frontier. The episode that first showed Sheryl as someone likable has her forcing Alto to follow her by stealing his lucky charm, and even ignoring him for a while just because she had an inspiration. What is always pointed as the key deed that Sheryl thinks about other people (her birthday present) would casually have her stealing her love rival their common object of affection, in a totally premeditate way, just like Sheryl stole Alto's first kiss, and without any kind of remorse Yet, when the same is done to her, people cry foul. To say that Ranka is self-centered is going out on a limb FV

Young kids, these days FV

It's specifically stated that they used fold comunication. No different from decoy whistles used for hunting birds. FV

Probably it's only a plane. Even Aquarion got a plane similar to the VF-4 (a shame that it was unnamed). It does have almost identical transformation, so yes. Considering real life circumstances, designing a transforming mecha takes more time than a simple mecha, so having basically the same VF with cosmetic changes to make it look a bit different saves time. Internal justifications start from here. I must say that Galaxy's design slightly reminds me of preproduction SDF-1's sketches. This is probably intentional, since after all even the Macross Quarter was a mixture of Macross 7 and SDF-1 (having unjustified shoulder towers in Storm Attacker mode). The SDF-1 was always designed as a transformable ship even in preproduction designs, so maybe even the Galaxy can transform. Here's a pic to explain my points. To the sides of the bridge of the Megaroad there are box-like things that becomes arms. Galaxy has similar things attached to the sides. Galaxy also appears to have something which looks like a leg below, pointing forward, twisted so that the point of the foot points downward. There seems to be another leg pointing backward, if those yellow flattened spheres are indeed some kind of joint. Galaxy doesn't have the splitting Macross Cannon designs, which belongs to first generation Macross only, but there seems to be a joint below so that perhaps it folds and come out on the back. We'll wait and see. FV

Taoism. Wood = East (Dragon), Metal = West (Tiger). Nothing relevant to Macross Frontier. It is obvious the ones most similar to the watchers will play the good guys. Anyway, it is interesting to note that Kawamori stated in an interview that Japan is similar to Frontier's fleet in that they live in a bubble, and that it would be interesting to see them experiencing a cultural shock. FV

I've seen gg fansub, and I've concluded that there's no line that actually suggests that Sheryl is an artificial human being of any sort. Just wild fan imagination, as I guessed. FV