Macross Frontier Episode 6 Talkback Thread *READ 1st Post*

[Sorata]

Here's one for those working on the wiki: It looks like that Catherine Glass' birthdate is December 26, 2036. That would put her about 22/23 years old. Looks like NUNS really gets those recruits while they're young.

They have too. Look at the size of the area NUNS is responsible for, all the human controlled worlds and the space around them then add to that the protection of colony fleets, science and exploration fleets, trade routes etc etc the list goes on and on. So its to reason that theyare stretched for their most precious resource, people. They have to recruit the young to man the military and it is also the reason behind the existance of companies like the SMS, (not unlike real world situations these days). After all Gamlin from Macross 7 was 15 when he entered the UN Spacy academy via special entry for his skill (normal entry age is 17). Catherine may be the same way.

oh did anyone notice the missiles at time index 15:07, arent those the same as the ones on the VF-0 Man the Zero references are huge, the missiles, music, movie being made, the unidentified VF has designs akin to the SV-51 (the unique canards), the missile pod on the VF-171 looks similar to the ones on the VF-0 Booster and the large outer edge missile is similar to the ones the SV-51 used etc.

Edit: wanted to throw in how after watching the 6th ep it reafirmed the vibe i get that was also in Zero were Kawamori's designs are going for an edgey angular designs with lots of external equipment and weapons similar to designs found on US aircraft in the 70s like the F-4 Phantom which used external gunpods at first and used HARM missiles similar to the missiles on the VF-171 and SV-51. Seems Kawamori has a fondness of that design element lately. its even evident in the Macross Quarter nad to a small degree on the modded Q-raus.

Edited May 9, 2008 by Sorata

[Gubaba]

This is who he has to be.....

Taksraven

If that's true, it doesn't bode well for the inhabitants of the Macross Frontier Fleet...I'll be waiting for them to mutate into tiny blobby things any week now...

[Bill C.]

Now that it occurs to me: why is it the New U.N. Spacy, anyway? Or did I miss something from around the M7 period?

[Gubaba]

Now that it occurs to me: why is it the New U.N. Spacy, anyway? Or did I miss something from around the M7 period?

We're not sure yet...there's been some speculation at Japanese Wikipedia that the events of VF-X2 led to some kind of split, but that may be just speculation at this point.

[MisaForever]

Understand, MEN, that Klan Klan is Zentraedi and may have slightly different proportions than a human female. BE MEN AND LET IT GO!!!!!

[MisaForever]

By the way, is it just me or did I hear Ozma call Kathy a "Bimbo" when she was on the bridge? It almost seemed like a DYRL scene with Hikaru and Misa when he told her he wasn't going to listen to her.

[TehPW]

So did they annonce the name of the VF-25? is it really Messiah?

[Mark Nguyen]

Messiah was announced as a "pet name" or nickname. Not OFFICIAL, but there's no reason to use it. In any case, it's not like we as a fandom use the formal name when describing VFs for the most part.

Mark <--- Likes the 19

[wraith1701]

Understand, MEN, that Klan Klan is Zentraedi and may have slightly different proportions than a human female. BE MEN AND LET IT GO!!!!!

LOL!

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this episode, especially considering that it was another character building episode.

As with the other episodes, I could kind of figure out what was going on from context, but some of the details and technical aspects escape me. Can someone explain to me what was going on with the drinks table at the 'creation of the Ranka fan club' scene? The characters seemed to be sending electrical pulses through the table's surface by tapping on it... what was going on there?

[Impreszive]

Macross Quarter.

Okay. I am down with that. I love the defold sequence, and the concert was kind of haunting in a way.

[ackem]

By the way, is it just me or did I hear Ozma call Kathy a "Bimbo" when she was on the bridge? It almost seemed like a DYRL scene with Hikaru and Misa when he told her he wasn't going to listen to her.

Actually Ozma used the word "bimboukuji" which means something like getting a raw deal. He asked if she got a raw deal from one of her dad's orders again.

[MisaForever]

Actually Ozma used the word "bimboukuji" which means something like getting a raw deal. He asked if she got a raw deal from one of her dad's orders again.

Ohhh so I *DID* hear bimbo. Ok, just checking.

[Duke Togo]

Messiah is probably a reference to the Buddha.

Except its a name a fan came up with, not one Kawamori put on the fighter while developing the series.

[Duke Togo]

Now that it occurs to me: why is it the New U.N. Spacy, anyway? Or did I miss something from around the M7 period?

That part of the story we haven't been told yet. There clearly is a difference, something happened. Ozma has also made several references to the difficulties NUNS is having recruiting personnel.

[Duke Togo]

Understand, MEN, that Klan Klan is Zentraedi and may have slightly different proportions than a human female. BE MEN AND LET IT GO!!!!!

Whoever animated her in episode 6 gave her "missiles". Beyond ridiculous looking.

[MisaForever]

Whoever animated her in episode 6 gave her "missiles". Beyond ridiculous looking.

Ok, granted when she was suiting up they were rather large but..... it's not important.

[the_foul_fowl]

I found the buildup of tension and the intercutting between the SMS fleet and Shery's concert pretty well done actually. Probably the highlight of the whole ep

The sensor pods the RVF-171s launched... long range comms with the Frontier fleet perhaps?

After this ep, can't help but feel Alto and Sheryl seem more suited to each other than Ranka and Alto.

[Zinjo]

Why does the VF's need two foldboosters now ?

Are they smaller then the M+/M7 ones or is it because they can travel farther with two ?

Yes, they are much smaller than the ones 10 years earlier. In a combat situation, it would make sense to me to make them smaller and work in tandem, it would increase maximum range and also be less of a target as opposed to a giant glowing popsicle on the upper fuselage...

[Zinjo]

Did I hear Pirates of the Caribbean theme during the VF-171 launch sequence?

You are not alone on that one bud, definitely got the pirates vibe off the background music...

Understand, MEN, that Klan Klan is Zentraedi and may have slightly different proportions than a human female. BE MEN AND LET IT GO!!!!!

True, Viffidas was so flat chested....

I think the only Meltran with a small chest was probably Millia, all the rest had huge tatas... Welcome to Macross fanservice...

[MisaForever]

You are not alone on that one bud, definitely got the pirates vibe off the background music...

True, Viffidas was so flat chested....

I think the only Meltran with a small chest was probably Millia, all the rest had huge tatas... Welcome to Macross fanservice...

Millia??? You're not referring to Miriya are you cause her name was Millia in Japanese. She had a nice chest too.

[Graham]

QUOTE (thankheaven @ May 8 2008, 02:41 PM)

Why does the VF's need two foldboosters now ?

Are they smaller then the M+/M7 ones or is it because they can travel farther with two ?

Perhaps each fold booster is still only one way use like in Macross Plus, so the VF-171s launched with 2, so they could do a recon of the area and then fold back to report.

Graham

[Strumvogel]

I found the buildup of tension and the intercutting between the SMS fleet and Shery's concert pretty well done actually. Probably the highlight of the whole ep

The sensor pods the RVF-171s launched... long range comms with the Frontier fleet perhaps?

After this ep, can't help but feel Alto and Sheryl seem more suited to each other than Ranka and Alto.

Yeah, it's good to finally see the new Macross Fortress in motion.

The pods launched could be long range comms with the fleet, otherwise it's a "black box recorder" that receives and records all data from the recon planes. Not being able to understand what they're saying I could only hazzard a guess. For all I know they're actually waypoint markers for the taskforce fleet to follow.

I have no opinion about the relationships as of yet. I guess in a way I have the same view as Alto on the matter, it's something that hasn't cross his mind.

[Project Phoenix]

I hope by the end of the series we get to see the Frontier fleet's own fortress being deployed.

[Graham]

OK, after watching the episode, I gotta agree with the majority and say the character animation absolutely sucked sweaty donkey balls in this episode.

It was such a noticable drop in quality that it was jarring. Like the bad old days of Anime Fiend IMO.

I've been extremly impressed with the character animation in eps # 1-5, so the character animation in this episode was a huge disappointment for me. 'Shockingly bad' is the term that springs to mind.

I really hope, that Big West drop this animation studio, as they just can't hack it. If they carry on using this studio, I'll probably cancel my plan to buy the DVDs.

Definitely my least favorite episode so far. Maybe, I'll enjoy it slightly more when we get a subbed version.

Roll on next week when we get back to the action. Two episodes of character development in a row is enough. I need to see some big stompy robots killing lobsters again.

Graham

[Nexx Stalker]

Whoever animated her in episode 6 gave her "missiles". Beyond ridiculous looking.

Aha! So I'm not alone here, after all

[treatment]

Is the animation quality for this episode really that bad, or are you guys just being too picky?

Graham

The animation is fine in this ep. Character and non-character movements were consistent and good.

However, the designs on Ranka and Sheryl particularly took a hit on certain scenes with thicker and inconsistent lines/detailing, making some of their faces subpar and ugly. A bit of a contrast to previous episodes, where there were no detailing at all resulting in subpar designs (or non-designs, if you may) as well.

As such, I'm just not bothered by any of it. I'd seen far worse (like Ergo Proxy's tv-run).

They're noticeable, sure, but I chalk it up to simple rushed tv-scheduling. I'm pretty confident they'll clean it up in the home-video versions (vhs/dvd/bd/etc) like, say, Ergo Proxy's dvd-production.

[treatment]

Aha! So I'm not alone here, after all

I say they've redefined the term "fun bags" with Klan^2's swinging/hanging boobies.

[eugimon]

No... it was the character animation that suffered the most. Static shots were passable but all the movements seemed like they were missing a few frames. For example, watch the scene with altoh and sheryl talking before the Quarter launches. When altoh is leaving, Sheryl jumps up... shes sitting one moment a frame of her jumping and then, tada! She's standing.

A lot of the profile scenes are drawn horribly as well... nananse at the mall while starting the ranka fan club looked particularly amatuerish.

[Graham]

IMO, not just Ranka and Sheryl were badly drawn, but also Alto in every scene and Luca, Mikhael and the entire Macross Quarter bridge crew all looked terrible. Just to clarify, I'm talking about their faces mostly. Although some of the clothing was poorly drawn as well.

I've been a huge fan of this show so far. In my eyes it can do no wrong up to episode 5, but the charcter animation is just inexcusable in episode 6 IMO.

I thought some of you guys were exaggerating when I first read the negative comments about the charcter animation in this ep, but, IMO it really is bad, bad, bad.

Graham

[treatment]

IMO, not just Ranka and Sheryl were badly drawn, but also Alto in every scene and Luca, Mikhael and the entire Macross Quarter bridge crew all looked terrible. Just to clarify, I'm talking about their faces mostly. Although some of the clothing was poorly drawn as well.

I've been a huge fan of this show so far. In my eyes it can do no wrong up to episode 5, but the charcter animation is just inexcusable in episode 6 IMO.

I thought some of you guys were exaggerating when I first read the negative comments about the charcter animation in this ep, but, IMO it really is bad, bad, bad.

Graham

IMO, Nanase's designs were inconsistent from ep-2 onwards or somewhere thereabouts. Sheryl's was pretty in the press-conference, then got ugly eyebrows and stuff in the backstage and actual concert scenes. Ranka's was inconsistent from pretty much every scenes. Well, except for the hippocow-jammies shot, I think.

As for Alto, his designs were also inconsistent, but not really by much in comparison with Sheryl's and Ranka's. In some scenes, he's GAR and a bishounen-moemoe. In others, his design was just flat.

Didn't really notice that much ugliness with the other characters such as Luca, Mikhail, and the bridge-bunnies. Kathy, Grace, Leon, and the SMS Captain were fine. Klan^2 was fine, too, even with her swinging fun-bags.

Bobby was, well, ugly by design already since ep-1.

Edited May 9, 2008 by treatment

[Mr March]

The 2D art and animation for Frontier are average. I expected more, but its not horrible by any means, except for episode 6. If the rest of the 26 episodes looked as bad as 6, it would impact my enjoyment of the show. The difference in quality was, in my mind and by my eye, as bad as the difference with the outsourced episodes in the original series.

What really bothers me is what should have been a great scene, the end with the concert/launch, became a showcase for some absolutely horrible work. Its ugly, its distracting, and it was a real shame.

I will admit, episode 6 is a cause for concern and it appears sadly that episode 7 will suffer from at least some or all of the same problems, based on the preview. It sucks, but this is anime. I'm sticking through the story no matter what, but I just hope Macross Frontier doesn't suffer from these weaker animated episodes to the degree that the original show did. But personally the animation for episodes 1-5 looked above average to me. It was a tight package until episode 6 came along. A shame, but I was expecting it to hit eventually.

[Lindem Herz]

I can live with the misdrawings most of the time. After all, we have been curated on Animefriend/StarPRO (IIRC) before, even in episodes as important as Virgin Road.

However, the thing that really disappointed me was the direction of Sheryl's concert, which was probably forced by the lack of abilities of the animators itself. After thoroughly enjoying every single singing scene in this series (from Sheryl's stage extravaganza to Ranka's observatory jam, or even their duet the first time we hear Diamond Crevasse, all have been extremely well done), the Bye Bye Sheryl concert just... fell short. Too plain of a scene for the situation they're in, the meaning of the song, and Sheryl herself, and not in a "simple subtle Edward James Olmos in BSG style scene" but in a "I can't act, so here's my Steven Segal face" kind of plain; specially when contrasted with the superb CG shots of Satelight during the montage.

I hope that if they can redraw only one scene in this episode, they redo this. It would really make up for all the suffering for the rest of the episode.

[Shouta]

Now that it occurs to me: why is it the New U.N. Spacy, anyway? Or did I miss something from around the M7 period?

Technically, it's been NUNS since the end of the first Space War, as far as I can gather from the Japanese wiki. Basically, the old UN Spacy is the group prior and during the first Space War, after it occurs, it's reformed and its first Commander in Chief is Bruno J Global. The JP wiki entry on the First Space War mentions it and the Macross Terminology entry mentions this change over after the war as well.

Edited May 9, 2008 by Shouta

[azrael]

I will admit, episode 6 is a cause for concern and it appears sadly that episode 7 will suffer from at least some or all of the same problems, based on the preview. It sucks, but this is anime. I'm sticking through the story no matter what, but I just hope Macross Frontier doesn't suffer from these weaker animated episodes to the degree that the original show did. But personally the animation for episodes 1-5 looked above average to me. It was a tight package until episode 6 came along. A shame, but I was expecting it to hit eventually.

Well, you can't keep producing top notch animation when you have a budget for a longer series and one with less funding than a certain bigger named mecha series. Were this a OAV, then I'd be concerned but this is a TV series and I do expect a few drops in 2D animation on some lighter episodes. The CG sequences, for the most part, are consistent and the story didn't seem affected by it.

[94medition]

I have not seen Ep 6 yet, but I am really discouraged from hearing the poor character animation. Has anyone watched Kissdum: Engage Planet which was also produced by Satelight? Shoji Kawamori did the mechanic design. The first 2 or 3 ep were great, from then on the characters were drawn so poorly that it was unwatchable. I was worry when I first found out Satelight was doing MF. I really hope SK or Big West will fix this.