[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by Yot-chan

I've started working on the Episode Commentary for Frontier, by Kawamori, printed in the book 2059: Memories (pages 90-93). I don't know how long it will take me to do them all...maybe a few weeks, if I'm lucky. I want to give special thanks to Renato at Macrossworld, who checked my translations, corrected some errors, and gave useful tips. Of course, if any errors still remain, they're mine and mine alone.

Spoiler for Commentary:

#01 - Close Encounter
Script: Hiroyuki Yoshino / Storyboard: Yasuhito Kikuchi, Shoji Kawamori / Production: Takayuki Tanaka / Art Direction: Yuichi Takahashi, Risa Ebata
In regards to the TV series, we're aiming for it to be the culmination of everything from the Macross series up to this point. The director (Yasuhito) Kikuchi and I did the storyboards ourselves, and we were able to put in all the little items we wanted to see. With the two of us doing it, 20 minutes just wasn't long enough! (laughs) We tried many experiments in the first episode. The parts that worked out well we brushed up and developed further in the following story.

#02 - Hard Chase
Script: Hiroyuki Yoshino / Storyboard: Yasuhito Kikuchi, Shoji Kawamori / Production: Kiyoshi Matsuda / Art Direction: Masahiro Sekiguchi, Takashi Ikari
We tried Ranka singing, and Sheryl stepping in to add her her own voice, and I thought "That's it!" Apparently (Yoko) Kanno had the same response during the recording. I did have a feeling it would go all right, but I actually shiver when I hear them sing together. The was when Kanno-san began rapidly sending me duet songs. (laughs).

#03 - On Your Marks
Script: Hiroyuki Yoshino / Storyboard and Production: Takao Abo / Art Direction: Futoshi Fujikawa
Well, someone always gets locked in at some point in Macross (laughs). While we'd had people be trapped before, we'd never done it with three people. The "Tuna Bun" design was a labor of love for our scriptwriter (Hiroyuki) Yoshino and the artist (laughs). The "chest portion" of the episode was described by Yoshino, and the artist decided to imagine what it would look like. Griffith Park is a reference to the landscape of the Griffith Park Observatory in L.A.

#04 - Miss Macross
Script: Hiroyuki Yoshino / Storyboard: Kazuki Akane / Production: Takahiro Majima / Art Direction: Ryouma Ebata
The main points here are really Ranka singing "My Boyfriend is a Pilot" and Klan Klang. Because Klan's destructive power had been assumed from the beginning, it was decided not to put her in the first three episodes. For the "My Boyfriend is~" section, the young animators took charge. Thanks to these artists, the characters move swiftly, even in something like a singing scene, which is usually rather restrained (laughs).

#05 - Star Date
Script:Hiroyuki Yoshino / Storyboard: Yasuhito Kikuchi / Production: Takayuki Fukuda / Art Diection: Hiroki Marufuji
The scouting trip to San Francisco and Las Vegas, accompanied by Director Kikuchi, provided a terribly charming background for Sheryl. I can completely understand why people would fall all over themselves for her (laughs). In order to give Ranka, having just failed in the Miss Macross Frontier Contest, her debut into the entertainment world, we made the street concert scene. We were thinkng about what would push her to her chance to sing; of course it would be Alto's paper airplane...

More coming soon. And again, I'll post up the scans and the typed-out version if anyone asks for them.

And...um...any documentation of Ohnogi's involvement yet? If he really worked on the show, SOMEone must have SOMEthing...right?

Once again, thank you Yot-chan for the hard work and sharing this information with us. Well things seem to be unraveling on all the liner notes that we were exposed to earlier but I still find it hard to believe that someone would go to these lengths. Right now, I'll put my faith on the scan of the Famitsu interview to see if the information was correct.