Yeah, for shows like Macross I think the ratings are not what matters, the DVD sales are the true test of success... Especially since I think (really I am just guessing) there has been an upshoot in P2P usage in the last year or two, and Macross is probably heavily shared thanks to an awful airing time... and this is not the thread for it but I think part of it has to do with the way they collect those ratings; what sort of people take part in the ratings and do the boxes count recordings etc. (I'm dead sure SeijiSensei explained this somewhere in another thread, but I've forgotten it all...)
I think it isn't like variety shows where ratings are important as the target audience is highly unlikely to rewatch it later and collect it.
At least going by the music sales I think this is a pretty successful series already - it helps that they're really pulling out the stops with the marketing campaigns, maybe not as much as Haruhi's ingenious interaction with the fans but well... yeah. I don't know if the music makes money for the actual folks who make the anime though, but I wish it means the investor companies decide to give Satelight a nice fat budget for whatever they'd like them to do next.
I only watched this episode the day before yesterday, but while I've been really hoping for Ranka x Alto and want to believe they'll be together by the end of the series (actually not romantically, my perfect scenario would that they go their separate ways but remain single, yet the best of friends - won't happen in a million years, I know
)...
This episode made me feel, much more than the others, that there's a high chance they'll use the reverse-situation formula as mentioned by others here: where Ranka swaps positions with Sheryl. Ranka has to put in lots of effort to rise up to a new world, whereas it's probably easier for Sheryl to slow down and enjoy time with people. I think that scene of Ranka deciding made me think of it - I know it's a wacky interpretation but that's how my mind thinks - Ranka being outside, largely on her own and having to make a huge effort to get to the next step, compared to Sheryl who can go to whoever she wants in the comfortable shade of that hut.
So now I'm not so sure I want Ranka
or Sheryl to be close to Alto, because...
My biggest worry is that Ranka's character changes into one more distant and professional. That'll make me kind of sad. But at the same time, it would be a bit unrealistic for all that pressure she'll face from now on, as well as a somewhat bitchy environment, to have no effect on her character...
I hope Bobby sticks around her more, seriously, since I think at this point of time Alto isn't the person she needs to talk a lot to. Maybe.
What I really would like from the series right now is more Alto development when possible - I
still cannot feel his character very well. Ranka and Sheryl feel so much more natural and believable, but perhaps I can empathize with them better as I'm a girl too? Alto, on the other hand, feels like he's still acting mostly as if he was programmed by the labels stuck on him. I cannot
feel his emotional confusion or outlook on life very much; if he's supposed to be introverted it seems like an odd form of introversion...
Graphic Designer
(It takes something like Jin-Roh to make me cry in real life, I don't think Macross will.)
Fly since ↔...
