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Originally Posted by Darthtabby
The part where you said that Kawamori didn't let him write Frontier is fresher in my memory, along with other denials that he had much influence in the project. But if you're willing to acknowledge that he was responsible for writing Frontier and did have significant influence maybe we can wrap up that debate.
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In our
current discussion, I haven't. That is what I am referring to.
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Personally, I think the second half of Frontier showcased Yoshino's strengths as a writer fairly well (aside from the cop-out ending).
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Actually, looking at Frontier as a whole, I noticed a few similarities to Guilty Crown in it. One example is the talk about Sheryl's illness via the V-type virus, which is much similar to the virus in GC, though without the crystallization deaths. However, despite that, Sheryl's earrings are also the same color of those crystals--purple. Also, quite a few scenes of Sheryl's personality is a lot like Mana's, though it isn't as heartless as the girl's.
It seems to me that Yoshino wanted to do something similar to GC with Frontier but was denied by Kawamori, and so he inserted this little details. It's odd, but those similarities are there.
Actually, the second half of Frontier only showcased his ability to write. It did not showcase his ability to carry a plot. And GC shows this very well, since he had even more involvement in that than Frontier.
A good example is how he handled the triangle in particular. Instead of going along with building the characters anymore, he decided to have Ranka leave Frontier, as if Sheryl wouldn't have won any other way. This was something that Kawamori disliked, as he spoke sadly of it in the commentary. Then came the absolute plotholes. How a lot of the war was solved left people both upset and confused. One minute they're going to kill the Vajra in cold blood because they are enemies then by a fluke, Alto sees the true enemy as Galaxy thanks to Ranka, lives to tell about it due to a fake death, and then they're all for killing Galaxy. Multiple times, people have stated that is a large, irritating plothole. However, a lot of what became of Ranka was a plothole itself, given that people felt her character had become at least strong enough not to fall to mind control.
I'm sure that mostly everyone will disagree with me here, but I saw do not think about couples when I continue to speak in this.
The fact is, in the second half of Frontier, all the characters were pulled by the plot rather than choosing their own paths away from the writers. Therefore, it was easy to tell which person wrote which part of the story.
In the first half, the characters had their own paths away from the writers and had separate personalities, allowing the writers to create a vibrant universe around them. Alto had his own demons but also had a standoffish personality that slowly opened up around others over time. Sheryl had her past but also had a rather standoffish, at times, but also open personality that slowly opened up with time. Ranka had no memory of the past but also had a truly open personality. They each had potential to grow into amazing characters. I won't say they are any past Macross characters, but they had large potential, and the movie showcased this lovingly.
However, when Yoshino took over for episode fifteen and onward, the growth all stopped. They were no longer separate characters. They either needed another character to make their choices for them or to grow. Only the fan favorites grew a little, and that was in the romance category. It was like he saw the characters and thought they were perfect as they were, that they didn't need to develop anymore. However, this shrunk down the maturity level of each character, as they needed to develop into understanding themselves... but they had no confrontation scenes or episodes, and so, by the end, Yoshino felt that Alto was more in love with his sky; because he didn't truly understand Alto's character at all. And because he'd rid himself of dealing with Ranka, he had no understanding as to her character either. The only one he seemed to truly understand was Sheryl's character. But he didn't give her much growth either. Besides coming to terms with her illness and choosing to be selfless (which was within her character already), there was no change to show maturity on a more adult level outside of the romance. It was the same as usual for each character. Except for Alto, whom literally was pulled along by the plot itself, being told information and not questioning his position. And, noticing he's the only character whom doesn't confront anything outside of the same problems he encountered and dealt with in the first half.
I really disliked all those changes. So instead of watching the second half of the series, I recommended to all of my friends that they watch episodes one through thirteen, or even fourteen, and then jump right into the first movie. Otherwise, they'd get confused, irritated, or hate Frontier all together for its lack of character development in the second half.
Hey, look at how many people wish Alto had actually died instead of lived? They blamed his lack of romantic confessions on him. However, looking at what I stated above about his character, it doesn't shock me that Yoshino felt like Alto's sky was more important than his romantic attachment to either girl. One can only say that when they don't understand the character, because obviously, his friendship with both girls was more important than his sky.
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Series Composer is a position that is generally associated with TV Series and episodic OVA series, not movies.
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No, no; that's not what I meant. He doesn't even have an association with the composition of the movie. It was shocking but his role was downplayed, as if Kawamori was pissed at what the ending of the series had been. I think he wanted to remove Yoshino from having anymore involvement with the characters he'd grown to perfection, as he wanted
his ending.
That doesn't mean Yoshino might not have given ideas that Kawamori might've taken (like the flashback of Alto and Sheryl to help compensate for the time--never mind they spent four months together, I mean; ain't that enough if you wanted to hook them up--but no, apparently, we needed a flashback because we didn't think they were in love yet, which meant Ranka would win by default and it would piss a lot of people off), but it means his role was nowhere near how it was with Frontier.
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