Macross Frontier - Episode 2 Discussion / Poll

[cerrian]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I knew it wasn't possible but honestly thought she was pointing a magic staff at him for a second. Still a pretty funny moment .

Took me a while to figure out what that was in her hand, but I'm pretty sure now that it is her phone. It's pretty misleading b/c not 3 secs before she was taking off her sunglasses with the same hand. You can see Sheryl using her phone at around 24:30

[Kronnang_Dunn]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I knew it wasn't possible but honestly thought she was pointing a magic staff at him for a second. Still a pretty funny moment .

I just re-watched Macross Zero last night & that pose is similar to the one Sara Nome adopted when menacing Shin Kudo with her staff...

[Gohan78]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Posting too quickly? That's bizarre, I don't have you anywhere marked as spam accidentally so I'm not sure what's going on.

Kaioshin, I experienced the same problem when trying to reply to your blog. Well, I'll just put my comments here:

1. Ranka DID recognize Altoh in the cockpit, but he never told her his name. That's why she asked Ozma to investigate. She is not that stupid.

2. You can't help but bash Aya Hirano, eh? She said just 2-3 lines in this episode, I think it's too early to judge her performance.

3. The little fanservice in Macross F is not in the same league as Gundam 00's.
The latter had a whole episode with the bridge bunnies in swimsuits at a pool, not to mention that Sumeragi and Lyumin were walking fanservice machines. In Macross F until now we had just a couple of scenes of the girls changing.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Gohan78

3. The little fanservice in Macross F is not in the same league as Gundam 00's.
The latter had a whole episode with the bridge bunnies in swimsuits at a pool, not to mention that Sumeragi and Lyumin were walking fanservice machines. In Macross F until now we had just a couple of scenes of the girls changing.

I'm not saying which has more or less but in Frontier Sheryl service makes sense since she is a hot superstar idol, the galactic fairy! A future version of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera (sp) you could say that is popular the galaxy over, not some amazing tactician like Sumeragi. Not that there's anything wrong with hot tacticians... my fav Suikoden tactician is the one from #4 who's the hottest in the series by far.

Oh and this above paragraph probably applies to events in episode 3 as well.

[4Tran]

I finally got a chance to watch this episode as well, and I think that it really shows off why it was necessary for episode 1 to focus on characterization. All in all, I thought this episode was excellent.

Other interesting bits:

- Sheryl writes her messages in French!?
- Having Ranka run around listening to Sheryl feels very natural, and it adds a lot to her character. It certainly establishes the foundation to their relationship very nicely.
- Alto isn't a pilot, so they don't let him fly . The creators also managed to show how hard combat affected him (and Nanase) without resorting to flashbacks, which is certainly a nice directorial touch. I wonder why the military decided to pick him up from class with armed and armored soldiers. It doesn't seem necessary unless they thought there was going to be some sort of armed resistance.
- I'm rather surprised that they managed to incorporate that song to send off the Valkyries as well as they did.
- The combat choreography is excellent so far: with the emphasis on either movement or firing or maneuvering rather than on cool poses and still frames. However, I do wish that the red Vajira wasn't killed with that knife.
- The cool little technological design bits continue: from the umbilical in the VF-25 to Sheryl's phone making
- The physics and effects of vacuum are handled superbly. The Macross creators have always shown that they understand how it works, and how making it realistic can also be entertaining. One very telling thing is that Alto also knows how it works (not surprising since he effectively lives in space), so he knew that the only danger from Ranka's short exposure would be her ears.
- The Fire Bomber playing in Ozma's car was great especially since it makes sense for him to be a fan. Unfortunately, the music property is controlled by Victor Entertainment, so it may end up being a stumbling block to Macross Frontier's license in other regions.

Originally Posted by Westlo

She's Nanase and she's probably just classmates/friends with him, the relationship chart shows her linked with Ranka, Alto & Michael.



Can someone please translate this?
/beg

I've never found a translation of this anywhere, and I'm not up to really translating the whole thing. However, from what I can tell, there isn't all that much that we haven't already seen. About the only bit that really hadn't been covered is that Alto, Nanase and Michael are all classmates (apparently, Michael skipped class to be at SMS). What other relationship do you want translated?

[Nightengale]

Twas an excellent episode.

I suppose what I liked most of this episode was the subtlety behind each particular scene. The tidbits of the conversations between Ranka/Sheryl, the silent emotions of the SMS towards Gilliam among other things. Alto's request was rash though, though not out of character for someone like him. That recruitment scene felt mildly forced though, imo but not a general complaint.

[hga]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

- Alto isn't a pilot, so they don't let him fly :).

Not a combat pilot---yet. In pure piloting skill (just flying the vehicle), I wouldn't be surprised to see him exceed Ozma in a little while since the latter is probably losing his edge due to age, and under extreme stress Alto showed he had The Right Stuff. But there's a lot more to this game than pure piloting....

Originally Posted by 4Tran

[...] I wonder why the military decided to pick him up from class with armed and armored soldiers. It doesn't seem necessary unless they thought there was going to be some sort of armed resistance.

Ah ha! Thank you for advancing my "Cathy Hard Sell" thesis:

In the context of today's Japan as a police state where prosecution equals conviction, her leading off with that stick was a "we'll throw you in prison if you don't join the military" offer he couldn't refuse ... without Ozma's intervention (at least for now).

The armed guards just might be "attached" to her (e.g. the Sheryl evacuation) although that would make her a rather special lowly Lieutenant (but note the family name). But pulling him from class like that and having them hover in the background while she's making her sales pitch just underlines her explicit threat.

Which I think was a fatal mistake: it'll be a lot easier for Ozma to patch things up than Cathy, say about the time Gilliam's VF-25 is repaired, they're both somewhat recovered from their survivor guilt, and SMS needs a pilot.

Any hopes Ozma has for keeping his sister away from Alto are obviously going to be blown in episode 3, pity that ^_^.

Actually, now that she knows his name it's all over....

- Harold

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by hga

Not a combat pilot---yet. In pure piloting skill (just flying the vehicle), I wouldn't be surprised to see him exceed Ozma in a little while since the latter is probably losing his edge due to age, and under extreme stress Alto showed he had The Right Stuff. But there's a lot more to this game than pure piloting....

Alto's not a match for Mihael even in pure piloting. (( that's why Mihael's formation leader. )) Alto's better than Luca in that respect based on academy results, though obviously not yet as good as a combatant, due to the lack of practice/experience.

A proper gauge of skills between the characters at this juncture is kind of improbable.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by hga

Not a combat pilot---yet. In pure piloting skill (just flying the vehicle), I wouldn't be surprised to see him exceed Ozma in a little while since the latter is probably losing his edge due to age, and under extreme stress Alto showed he had The Right Stuff. But there's a lot more to this game than pure piloting....

Alto's a pilot trainee, and that can be as far from a practiced surgeon as a medical student is . I expect that he'll pick up on Valkyrie combat fairly quickly, but I don't expect him to be the best pilot in the show.

Historically, rookie pilots aren't as good as the well-trained experienced professionals. The only exception to this are the singular super-prodigies; and Alto doesn't look as if he's anywhere in that category. Still, even if he isn't the best, he's in good company - Hikaru was behind at least four other characters in SDF Macross.

By the way, there isn't any precedent for Macross pilots to lose their edge due to age. For example, Miria was kicking butt even though she hadn't seen combat in at least a decade.

Originally Posted by hga

Ah ha! Thank you for advancing my "Cathy Hard Sell" thesis:

That's not a bad explanation. I wonder how hard up the UN Spacy is for talented pilots.

Originally Posted by Nightengale

Alto's not a match for Mihael even in pure piloting. (( that's why Mihael's formation leader. )) Alto's better than Luca in that respect based on academy results, though obviously not yet as good as a combatant, due to the lack of practice/experience.

He's probably not as good as Ozma or Klein Klan (whenever she shows up) either.

[Jazzrat]

Not so sure about piloting but Mihael's is pretty awesome when it comes to sniping.

[Cadorna]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

Historically, rookie pilots aren't as good as the well-trained experienced professionals. The only exception to this are the singular super-prodigies; and Alto doesn't look as if he's anywhere in that category. Still, even if he isn't the best, he's in good company - Hikaru was behind at least four other characters in SDF Macross.

Four ??, I don 't Recall the four one, Roy , Max, Miria and ...

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Cadorna

Four ??, I don 't Recall the four one, Roy , Max, Miria and ...

Kamjin, maybe? The only time he and Hikaru faced off one-on-one, Hikaru's Valkyrie probably took a little more damage than Kamjin's Glaug. That duel ended without a result, though...

[dahak]

Originally Posted by Guppy

Kamjin, maybe? The only time he and Hikaru faced off one-on-one, Hikaru's Valkyrie probably took a little more damage than Kamjin's Glaug. That duel ended without a result, though...

Breetai? Who didn't need a mech to beat up on Hikaru and Max.

[RamzaOwns]

i just noticed something

did renka just walked off with a stranger she never met before?

[Onizuka-GTO]

Originally Posted by RamzaOwns

i just noticed something

did renka just walked off with a stranger she never met before?

well its a woman, not like she's gonna get raped......then again, mylene assumed the same thing, but look what happened to her.....

oh well, thank haruhi for ranka she wasn't a hentai woman

[wingdarkness]

Wow this episode was phenomenal...After ep 1 feeling a bit outdated, this ep was truly great and a visual delight...Kinda hard to bring this 80's futuristic dynamic into the 2000's where almost everything has been done but damn Macross is back...The rescue scene with saving the girl was some of the illest $hit I've seen in years...

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by RamzaOwns

i just noticed something

did renka just walked off with a stranger she never met before?

She seems to be very trusting of strangers since she did the same thing in episode 1. It's possible that she's either tougher than she appears or that crime isn't much of a problem in Macross Frontier. Otherwise, she's just naive.

Originally Posted by dahak

Breetai? Who didn't need a mech to beat up on Hikaru and Max.

Bingo.

[Wesley84]

Was there a third person from the school that encountered the Vajra?

[cmanimevids3000]

I am doing a dub of a few scenes from Macross F and I was wondering what you think of my Sheryl's singing voice, here is a clip of her singing Diamond Crevasse : http://www.viddler.com/explore/Coreymaddox/videos/5/

This clip is from eps. 2 which is why I posted it in this thread. ^_^

-Corey

[ReddyRedWolf]

Hmm... More Ranka than Sheryl I thnk.

Though I say that because of the cuteness of voice factor.