Anon

If you click on the "Rocket Angel" unit enough(female power armor unit armed with energy whip and missile spam), I swear she says "Machida!"...

Does Alto really have to be the war hero though? I find it rather refreshing that he's not the one that people rely on to turn the tide of the battle or whatever, he just did the best he could for those that he knows. Hey, we have those in real life too. Army Reserve ;p I had a million dollar humvie armed with anti tank missile that i had to sign for when I was a freshman in college...

Lets go back further... Gigantor/Tetsujin 28. Hell, that's where the term shotacon came from...

Sheryl Actual character development.

Well, I wasn't too overly fond of Macross Plus either. As for Roy Fokker... I dunno, it felt like its just milking it.

It didn't feel like Macross to me, that's why I hated it. For me, Macross has always been space exploration, different way of life, giant transforming space ships (you know, the title?), and to some degree, giant females that can fly circles around males. Macross Zero had zero of what I mentioned above. Yeah, it's got Valks and Protoculture back stories, but that's just enough reminder that its named Macross without having what I loved about the series.

Aside from the Marduk super-robot-esque mecha, I actually rather enjoyed it. The destroids and macross cannon design from it was also highly enjoyable.

Track 19 is LOVE...

The three greats: Larry, Moe, and Curly. though they might just spend most of the time shooting each other's sensors out...

Any way for me to get a confirmation on this? According to both the Chinese and Japanese wiki entry on Macross Frontier, it was described during the novelization of MF, aside from Skull and Pixie, S.M.S also had three other squads （Blue, Crimson, and Purple), with unknown composition but each is equipped with one electronic warfare variant of VF-22S similar to RVF-25.

Something just hit me, homage-wise. In the last ep, at the end of the mental/psychic heart to heart between A-S-R, when they put their hands together, I thought the scene looked familiar... The DYRL scene where Hikaru handed the lyric to Minmei's hand anyone?

In ep7, when Alto connected his ex-suit to Luca's VF didn't it show that there was mocap function to the Valk?

Re-watching the Ep 25 of MF for the Nth time right now, and this question just hit me... What kind of music would I want to hear for the next iteration of the Macross franchise (aside from the MF movie)? Personally I would prefer a little bit of rock 'n roll again, maybe a female [punk] rocker a la Priss from Bubble Gum Crisis, what about you guys here? Sure, j-pop is always a good safe bet, but I think something with a bit more edge (especially after listening to the back and forth switch between Sheryl and Ranka in this ep) would definitely be welcomed on my part

Well, like valkyriepilot above, I too had grew up in Asia (Taiwan more specifically). Being a former Japanese colony, even with a Japan hating martial law government in charge of Taiwan at the time, a lot of our entertainment sources came straight from Japan (the other half being the US), japanese anime pretty much made up most of my animation watching days growing up. In fact, one of the earliest memory I have of my childhood was watching Macross on TV at my grandfather's house, where Hikaru and Misa talking onboard SDF Macross. Macross was a definite obsession of mine growing up, and would doodle various mechas in my textbooks in school (to include a series of fruit-based battlepods, hey, I was in first grade, I thought that was cool!). Got the songs on cassette tapes, and have posters and various toys littered about my room. After moving to the US shortly before M+ came out, my friends and family and Taiwan would still mail me VHS and VCDs of shows that they know I would like, and managed to keep up my fandom that way. Also got exposed to Robotech on Sci-fi... Not knowing english at the time, I just watched it religiously because I didn't have the original Macross with me, with a WTF factor slowly creeping in as I learn more engllish. Also went and got the Robotech books too, which is actually the first recreational use book I've read in english. Once again, the WTF factor slowly creeping in as I learned english lol. Watched and rewatched my M+ and M7 VCDs, and also went and bought the english M+ VHS when it came out in the states. Also remember the days when they used to carry some Macross models at the local Michael's/MJ Design shops (pretty darn cheap too thinking back... less than $20 a pop, cheaper than VHS), I went and loaded up on the various destroids that they have available, due to the fact that I was nitpick about the VFs not being able to transform... When internet first became available to me I would stand around searching for Macross related stuff online. Also made a now defunct Geocities site devoting to Macross, and participated in some of the old Yahoo! Group RPGs about mechas, choosing the VF-17 for my character and throughly confusing the heck of the other players that would use "Alpha VT Fighters"... those were the days, and I feel freaking old. I was actually born the same year the Macross originally came out, so everytime they have an anniversary of some sort, aside from reminding me of the good ol' days, also serves as a reminder of my age

As a now older fellow than my first exposure to Macross.... I have to vote for HMM. I see Hikaru's choice from Minmei to Misa more as how a boy grow up to be a man. Going from an idol/cute girl chasing idiot to become a real man that knows what's important in life. As for the other pairings... M7 "triangles" in my view is more about the Mylene choosing a way of life for herself, fringe and mainstream. Though her character was too young (and too woefully underdeveloped) for this to play out completely in my book. M+ triangle... Kinda meh, reminds me more as a continuation of HS level romance several years later. M0 was way too short for me to see it as an actual triangle. More like competing crushes where one side never got a chance. MF triangle also don't have much of an impact on me, since the only difference between S and R is probably just maturity level on their part in my book.

I actually like the fact that he's not the better pilot... Hikaru sure as hell wasn't better than Max, and he turned out just fine.

I want.... Flashback style music video movie! Take that last battle, run all the songs played/sung to full length (or at least 1:30-2:00 each), with new combat footages (and yeah, some drama or what not. Leon making a last attempt to escape, more information on what's going on at Galaxy side of the battle, etc etc)... I can dream. Hell, if they just make something like that and release it as OVA I'll buy it.

Chiming in after cramming ep 16-25 in one sitting... MＦ was good, one of the best anime I've seen in recent years (being a big fan of Mecha Pron, most of the recent mecha animes just blew chunks in my book). That said, while MF was a good ride, there were a few major points about it that really disappointed me. Since everyone and their dogs are doing rankings, I'll throw mine in here. 1: SDF:M/DYRL 2: M7 (Yes, there, I said it) 3: MF 4: M+ 5: M0 (god I hated Zero, Skull 1 on screen again was what ranked it above M2) M2 Here are my major issues with MF: 1: Life on the fleet wasn't really explored as much as I would've liked. That's always been one of the biggest draw for me about the Macross franchise, the fact that human created a whole mobile world (well, city, sorta), and how they lived within that constrained environment. SDFM and M7 explored this issue really a lot better than MF did (while M2, M+ and M0 didn't really have much to do with it). 2: Sense of urgency and desperation. The story behind SDFM is a given, but with M7, I truly got a big kick out of the way that City7 and the rest of the fleet were forcibly separated (As well as the rise of Fire Bomber/Basara to stardom during the event), for MF... yeah, a tad lacking there. Watching it I got more the sense that they were harassed instead of truly being threatened. 3: Mecha Pron. Yes, I'm taking an issue with this in terms of MF. In SDFM and M7, I was showered with one mechanical glory after another, may it be ships, VFs, or Destroids. For MF, what did we get? Not much beef, and not even quality beef at that. For a 25 episode series, it offered me about as much mechas as the OVAs. The only saving grace with the new armor pack that transforms along with the VF, and thats about it. 4: The humanizing of the enemy was way too rushed. In SDFM and M7, the Zentradies and Protodevilins were introduced to us gradually. We got to see how they and humanity slowly headed towards common ground, while in MF (aside from Ai-kun) it was suddenly wham-bam-they are your friend in the last episode. Does that mean I don't like this series... heck no, though perhaps it was all the homage within the show, but it really made me remember my love for the franchise as a whole instead of loving this show over those that came before it.

Around 21 I think... (trying to recall the fuzzy math i did on their age when M7 first aired...)

Yes, but even if its only stylistic, I still prefer the buffer look of the Elgerzorene over that of the original Vampire.

Guess I'll chime in with my own top 3: 3: Fz-109A Elgerzorene. The duality of its appearance really intrigued me. Sleek like most of the variable fighters in fighter and gerwalk mode, but gets a very nice buff and intimidating presence in Battroid mode. 2: VF-1 Valkyrie. Cant say anything bad about this baby, its just classy. Personal favorite load out is the VE-1 "ELINT Seeker" variant. 1: VB-06 Konig Monster. First time I saw this thing was in the trailer for VF-X-2. When I close my eyes I can still hear the background music, as the Konig Monster slowly decent upon the battle field, transforming, and finally let off a roar with its cannons... The Army in real life nicknames the Artillery as the King of Battle, and seeing that footage, I can't help but agree. Same thing happened again in Macross Frontier, and thats the part I kept re-watching over and over again. Its not sleek, its not sexy, but there's just something about it rushing up to the battle field, shrugging off most gunfires like its nothing, claiming its ground, and let off a roar as the only warning to the enemies that they've just became its bitch.

I've had a life between M7 and now. It can go back on hold as my inner fanboy once again take over. The appearance of Macross is kinda like the command over-ride switch for me to suspend all activities unrelated to it. -Music played at the office switched from Country/Rock to Macross soundtracks: Check -Cable TV unplugged, and the TV itself goes into Macross Only Mode (even II): Check -All desktop wallpapers switched over to Macross: Check -Old Macross posters/wall scrolls replacing the current decors at home: Check -Suppressing the random boners I get at the office when ever the right song from the soundtracks hit the speaker as to avoid sexual harassment accusations: Working on it....

I'm out of school, and my full time job doesn't really keep me that occupied I just sit around managing myself, and fantasize about what's going to be revealed in 4 more days.

But don't you see these speculations are how fanboys keep ourselves occupied instead of going crazy mad over the long wait?

*pukes up blood at the mention*