Macross Frontier Character Discussion - Sheryl Nome

[hai_san]

Spoiler for Speculation about the earing in ep 2:

the earing she lost is from a boyfriend(or at least someone very dear to her) who is a pilot and died ? seeing as how she talks with Lanka at the end of ep 2 and the song she sings could be for this person.

[orion]

I don't think she'll lose her Galactic Fairy tagline. She's too old to get the main character. The demographics are 13-15 yo males (Ranka's territory), otaku (again Ranka's territory) and females. The manga is potentially set up as a "he said, she said" scenario with Alto's (one manga) and Ranka's (second manga) perspective being told.

Earring found at 16:23 in episode 2 in Gilliam's personal effects.

Edit: Wow, you guys were right. Sheryl was hitting on Ranka.

[Westlo]

17 is too old....? Seriously you're pinning your Alto/Ranka hopes on really flimsy reasons. Sheryl is too old at 17, otaku fav girl (didn't help the loser in True Tears), Alto has long hair and Ranka has short... I bet Alto gets a haircut at some point in this series.

[orion]

Actually those are good marketing reasons. Otaku buy DVDs more than mainstream in Japan. Sheryl is too old for the demographics for this title and if they weren't interested in the female demographic then Alto would have been drawn and motivated differently.

Sheryl may be 17 yo but her actions and mannerisms place her at age 25 and above which is good for what she does for a living but not so good for a female anime protagonist since there is an age limitation apparently. See R1 Witchblade volume 2 booklet page 3.

True Tears may be paying for its misstep already but we won't know for sure until the subsequent Oricon data comes out.

[Westlo]

Can you please tell me the age of the main casts for Code Geass which is one of the biggest otaku hits in the last few years and the 6th highest dvd selling titles by avg list. After that have a look at the ages for the Gundam 00 main cast and than keep in mind that both main casts for those two series will be older for the second series. After you look them up can you please realize why this "17 is too old" reasoning is just making me /face palm over and over and over. The biggest selling Nanoha series in StrikerS the main characters are 19 as opposed to 10, StrikerS doubled the sales of A's.... to be blunt your age reasoning sucks.

In response to what you included in your edit... Does Lelouch act like he's 17? Do you really think the viewers aren't going to see another side to Sheryl aside from her idol persona? As for Witchblade you're better off explaining that one.

[DonQuigleone]

The age reasoning might apply to an Dating sim adaptations like True Tears. But this isn't a H-game adaptation it's a MECHA show, with large amounts of Romance, that type of reasoning just doesn't work. At all. You don't need to rely on characters ticking off moe boxes in a Mecha series. Mecha series have COMPLETELY different boxes from a moe show, like teenage wonder pilots. Moe attributes don't usually factor in any big manner (was there any moe at all in Gundam 00????). Also this show is also targeting long time fans of Macross, who are probably fairly old by now and would have nothing against Sheryl being 17 or 25.

Besides Lieutenant Hayase in the original was at least 20, how does that affect your age arguments?

[Cadorna]

^ Misa have 19 years old , hikaru 16 and Minmei 15

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by donquigleone

Also this show is also targeting long time fans of Macross, who are probably fairly old by now and would have nothing against Sheryl being 17 or 25.

Exactly, there is so many homages throughout its crazy to think this is just aimed at 13-15 year olds. Even if it was that age argument is just full of fail as shown by Code Geass and Gundam 00. Saying Sheryl will win because she's listed 2nd after Alto on the credits in episode 2 makes more sense than that age argument. IIRC Ranka was listed 2nd in the first episode/deculture, I thought this was a more Ranka centric episode than the first but whatever.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Well Sheryll may have the same ability as Ranka if only to a lesser degree.

If I'm right that she is related to Mao Nome of the prequel Macross Zero.

The Vajra did attack during her concert.

Then instead of having a band we have an idol duet.

Though I'm getting Bi yuri vibes from Ranka.

As she is interested in both Sheryll and Alto.

Oh heck Alto looks like a girl anyways.


Alto to Sheryll and Ranka: So if I don't pick either one of you, you'll get together?

[Ori]

If anything I think Ranka is a bit too young to get into a romantic relationship with our main character guy. =/

[Onizuka-GTO]

Originally Posted by Ori

If anything I think Ranka is a bit too young to get into a romantic relationship with our main character guy. =/

agreed.

i want some leftenant misa jr please.

or if not, i'll settle for Nome. got a sweet singing voice.

*can't get the ending tune out my head*

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Ori

If anything I think Ranka is a bit too young to get into a romantic relationship with our main character guy. =/

Yeah, she's not your typical girl who wants to rush into a realtionship --- we can see that's the last thing on her mind. Though i wouldn't be surprised with what the writers could do with that. Give Alto and her sometime alone in one of these episodes, and there we have it.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Ori

If anything I think Ranka is a bit too young to get into a romantic relationship with our main character guy. =/

A 15 year old too young to get with a 16 year old main character?

[DonQuigleone]

You have to take canonical anime age with a grain of salt, you should more look at how they act, both Hayase and Sheryl act around 25, so it's better to imagine them that way, they never even mention their age in the anime anyway, it's mostly a detail for fanboys to care about.

Reminds me of the way Yoko in Gurren Lagann is canonically 14 at the beginning, which left me nonplussed to say the least

[lubczyk]

I'm getting more Sheryl X Ranka vibes than either Alto X Sheryl or Alto X Ranka ones.

Maybe it'll turn out like Kannazuki no Miko and we'll have a Yuri pairing.

[Onizuka-GTO]

Originally Posted by donquigleone

You have to take canonical anime age with a grain of salt, you should more look at how they act, both Hayase and Sheryl act around 25, so it's better to imagine them that way, they never even mention their age in the anime anyway, it's mostly a detail for fanboys to care about.

Reminds me of the way Yoko in Gurren Lagann is canonically 14 at the beginning, which left me nonplussed to say the least

and you can always put a bet that when it is released in the West they will up the age of the characters so that they will be older then what is stated.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by donquigleone

You have to take canonical anime age with a grain of salt, you should more look at how they act, both Hayase and Sheryl act around 25, so it's better to imagine them that way, they never even mention their age in the anime anyway, it's mostly a detail for fanboys to care about.

I don't get your point. Why is it "better" to imagine them to be the same age as their personality? For what purpose is it better?

The fact is there are some characters that act old/younger than they look. That's an important personality trait. In fiction AND in real life.

So yeah, their real ages do matter, especially for something like couples, where the ages are there to make stuff work, uh, legally in certain anime...

[Ori]

My earlier comment talks about how Ranka act. She feels too much like a little sister sort of character for me to see her in some sort of romantic relationship.

Obviously, that can change later, but for now, I stand by what I said.

In any case, if we are just pairing our characters up by age... then really both girls have a chance since it's just one year difference.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by brightman

I don't get your point. Why is it "better" to imagine them to be the same age as their personality? For what purpose is it better?

The fact is there are some characters that act old/younger than they look. That's an important personality trait. In fiction AND in real life.

So yeah, their real ages do matter, especially for something like couples, where the ages are there to make stuff work, uh, legally in certain anime...

You can imagine them as whatever age you want them to be, however within a series you often have no actual indication as to what their age is, it's mostly an unimportant detail to please fanboys, and fanboys seem to prefer the characters younger, so the producers say they're younger to please them, while in the anime it's never particularly emphasized.

I'm not really refering to situations where a character is obviously 1 age (through being shown going to school say) and acts older. I'm more talking about situations where the age is vague, and indicated once or twice. I can't remember Misa's age being shown ANYWHERE in SDF Macross yet canonically she's 19 or 20. She is said to act old for age, but she always seemed to act 30ish to me, so 25 looked just right.

I just don't think the producers really care that much, they'll put down whatever age sells

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by donquigleone

She is said to act old for age, but she always seemed to act 30ish to me, so 25 looked just right.

I just don't think the producers really care that much, they'll put down whatever age sells

The acting is not the problem, I don't mind younger characters acting old or vice versa its the fact that they LOOK old. If I didn't watch the show and you gave me a screenshot of the cast you would had a hard time convincing me that there's only year of age difference between Lanca and Alto with the way they look.
Misa is another example, she looks like she's in her 30s. Yoko from Lagann, certainly doesn't look like a 14 year old to me.

But after years of watching anime I'm somewhat used to it by now (especially after watching Prince of Tennis)