Macross Frontier 13: Kyun Kyun Watashi no Sheryl wa Pilot (Also who is that VF-171 Pilot?)

You are a pilot my dear, but are you FIGHTER PILOT? (That’s my Sheryl all suited and ready to go destroy people, makes me kind of teary…)

I swear if they make Valkyrie Pilot Sheryl a reality I might just have to throw my lot with the the folks at Suki Suki Sheryl, I don’t care what Impz says I have a fundamental weakness for women who take up the mantle of Soldaten. While Ranka has made progress in wooing Alto-hime, Grace basically stole the show with her latest plan, more on that later, but it seems that Sheryl isn’t the kind of mopey emo dork and has dispelled the possibility for the immediate future of her treading the hated and loathed emo path. Brera also gets some time in the spotlight and seems to have a special kind of hatred for our Pilot-hime.

Is Vajra.

Is baby Vajra with tentacles…

A Leveled up Vajra.

Wow I guess even Vajra royalty are blue bloods.

So it seems that the Vajra undergo numerous stages before they mature as huge engines of destruction. I have to wonder if they really were artificially created by man, as everything so far points to some very familiar biological behavior, thus pointing towards Protoculture progenitors. Moreover their folding capabilities far exceed that of any human faction. They might have been intended as the last real creation of Protoculture that was intended as last ditch means of defense against both the Supervision Army and the Zentradi. However the program was probably cut short, but the Vajra merely developed on their own. Since the Zentradi have no recollection of the Vajra it is possible that one Protoculture faction was in the process of creating the anti-thesis of the Zentradi, where the Zentradi were denied culture and song the Vajra would need them for some yet as determined purpose. As the Vajra are superbly adapted to fight against any space faring race with superior folding technology (they folded Ranka into their clutches), and the use of enemy hulks as nests (thus preventing the salvage of ship hulls) the Vajra constitute as sort of viral infection that grows and feeds on the host (enemy fleets) as time goes on. Given that early Vajra forms are small, cute, and adorable they make the perfect expendable scout, even that little one that gave Alto-hime and Ranka a good scare at the waterfall. One thing I love about these newly revealed Vajra forms is that they share some characteristics with their fully grown brethren and this lends more tidbits in reinforcing the image of a more unified Vajra species. In any case I have to wonder how Nanase and Ranka are going to keep their little pet hidden.

Kabuki-hime has the best hair in all of anime.

Prettiness at 45%.

Ranka’s Slug! Its OVER 9000 again. Damn I need a new scale for my pretty meter.

Ranka is shocked and awed…

At any rate Ranka seems to have a very special relationship with the Vajra and given how Vajra respond to human/Zentradi vocals in song I don’t think that Ranka was a mere host for a developing Vajra Queen. Not even Grace is sure as to the nature of their sympathetic relationship, but suffice to say, soon the galaxy will bow before Ranka the First, Queen of the Vajra. While Ranka will soon be a queen she still has a bit of difficulty in wooing Alto-hime. While the brother sister dynamic has changed a bit to awareness that Ranka is not a little girl any more, Ranka is still dependent on some one to save her. This time Brera-nii answered the call first, and was most displeased about his imouto dating Kabuki-hime. For some reason that whole spiel gave me some Lynn Kaifun vibes which is really bad for Ranka since once Brera-nii makes his official appearance and declares his name and claims his birthright, things will be very hard for Ranka’s love life. When Alto-hime was trying to tell Ranka, “that it is better for her to forget” he was again being protective, but along more haughty lines. Ranka is also not helping with her “I love the one who protects me” vibe she’s giving since Brera-nii has been there more times when it really counted. Though I assume that most Ranka fans had their brains fried out for a second as Ranka proved that she could even be more loli.

That fog can’t hide your Kaifun-class jealousy.

…

I say they don’t look half bad together, a sort of puppy love. Also Brera, Alto-hime looks prettier.

Alto-hime has also taken quite a lot of interest in Ranka’s protection and has done his homework on the official story of the fate of the 117th Research Fleet. I have to give Alto-hime credit for trying to snatch and grab whatever data he could along during his rescue mission. In war any information no matter how small could prove crucial in the future, too bad Brera beat hime to the punch and took it all then deleted it. Looks like Brera’s first mission was to scout out Global as part of his first day objectives. Poor Alto-hime did get bested twice in his second real dogfight with Brera, Alto-hime fought brilliantly and well given his patented slip turn maneuver that would have dinged anything else. It seems that Brera is at the very least on par with Pilot-hime or perhaps even exceeds hime in terms of skill, but his VF-27 is clearly a superior machine it wasn’t even affected by the D-Pulse. I have to say that HUD of the VF-27 is really something as it is an all round projector of the VF-27’s surroundings even if the seating layout is conventional. The whole Infantry-hime and Jump Infantry-hime scenes were pretty well done and showed the once again that Alto-hime isn’t your average mecha pilot with his infiltration skills. The most revealing thing was that he risked Ranka while trying to get some data on that VF-27. A scout role would suit Alto-hime well. I like the guy he’s not good at any one thing other than being an oyama, but does fairly well at a lot of things. I liked how hime flashed his light at his intended target, just like your supposed to do if you have a light and need to blind an enemy in darkened terrain. His grabbing of Ranka I must say was incredibly audacious and superbly executed. Bravo Infantry-hime, for that I would have given hime his combat infantryman badge.

I have you now.

Hey!

WHAT?!

YAHOOO! You’re all clear hime Now let’s blow this thing and go home.

Sheryl is indeed a formidable woman. Where a lesser woman would be skulking with her head bowed at losing her beloved Alto-hime, such was not the case with Sheryl. Even if she has suffered a few setbacks on her goal of becoming Kabuki-hime’s prince she steps up as a friend and goes off to look for both Ranka and Alto-hime, regardless of whether or not Mikhail wanted to go or not. I guess Sheryl is learning a thing or two from her Alto-hime since she was ready and eager to take a VF-25 out for a spin. She even cooled her jets when Pilot-hime was asking that they save Ranka, and like a good comrade in arms Sheryl tell Alto-hime to stop Brera even at the cost of his life. Sheryl obviously has the hots for Alto-hime, and seems to be willing to retreat to a friend position now that Ranka’s star is ascendant. Since Grace had intended for Sheryl to die I suspect that once they get back to Frontier that Sheryl will have a lot of free time on her hands hopefully she will use that time to be a better pilot or get a gig as Ranka’s song writer. If they decide to make Sheryl a full time pilot for awhile I will probably end up joining the Sheryl camp as I have an affinity for women warriors. Ranka is cute and all, but Sheryl in pilot suit made my heart flutter because I know she is a pilot and perhaps a bit of Pilot-hime’s interests have rubbed off on her. If Mikhail were not a closet loli-con I would accuse him of trying to intrude upon Alto-hime and Sheryl, but we all know that in his heart there is Meltran loli, macroned bombshell named Klein-sama. I doubt Klein would be willing to share…

Mobile.

Agile.

Hostile.

I wished General Shinseki was taking some pointers from Kawamori for the Future Force Warrior project, but I hope that the gear heads in the US Army’s secret squirrel next infantry development program are taking notes. I want what Alto-hime has for cool toys. I want to be able to fly and have that kind of HUD. I want to have powered mobility from time to time as well. I nearly had another nerdgasm over the EX-Gear system, it’s not quite Space Marine issue, but it can fly and that is what makes it so damn sexy. I can sort of see why Luca loves his so bloody much. Speaking of Luca in hindsight his role as data analyst for LAI and NUNS validates his presence within Skull Squadron since every other pilot has some sort of kill count, while Luca was playing with drones. I gave Luca the benefit of the doubt since he was an engineer, and combat engineers are always in demand, but now I can see why he gets to be part of Ozma’s flight instead of being heldback with the rest of the Bridge Crew. Too bad Luca has to play nice with Leon, though I wonder if Luca is going to tell Leon about Ranka and Nanase’s new pet… He would be doing Nanase a favor of sorts, even better if she never found out that it was Luca who ratted out Ranka. Just saying, though removing Tiny (Ranka’s Vajra, a temporary name I assure you) would increase Nanase’s chances with her beloved Ranka, but would shoot his own chances with Nanase in the face. Decisions will be made none of them easy.

That was the last time any of them appeared on our scopes. Considering the amount of damage we have sustained they must have been destroyed.

Don’t kids just say the darnest things.

Unfortunately for Klein, Luca was an engineer and not a lawyer…

Raramia Rerenia seems to be a poor dart player, while Canaria seems more privy to the dealings of Luca. Since every unit has a mom I guess Canaria has that role covered for all of her kids, while I guess Bobby would rather just be Ranka’s mom and one-san to the Bridge Crew. Klein-sama though seems to be oblivious to some of the more shady dealings of her government. Thankfully though Klein has Mikhail in an almost domesticated state, as when Mikhail recalled who it was that owned his ass it was Chibi-Klein that he recalled. I guess that being a womanizer of older women was just cover for his inner loli-con. Many Zentrans of the 33rd Marine Fleet died, and I kind of feel sorry for them, hopefully there was still a fleet in some of the surrounding space so maybe not all of them died and Ogotai will be the one to give Alto-hime a snazzy new pack or at least recover that special fold booster.

…

Sheryl is shocked!

…

Grace has taught you well…

So Grace wiped out a NUNS forward base and tried to kill off Sheryl to fan the flames of hate. I am more than certain that the Grace that we saw was not the last incarnation of Ms. O’Conner. However I have to wonder it that was merely a robot or if it was a cyborg possessed by a rogue AI. Assuming that the limitations on AI are still in place ever since the events of Macross Plus then it is possible that Grace is an AI who seems to be plotting for the destruction of the humans, Meltrans, and Zentrans. I have no idea precisely why she is setting Frontier on a collision course with the Vajra, but I guess that Grace might also have been the one who orchestrated the attack on Galaxy. Since Grace was telling Brera to wait for further orders some one from her clique is ready to take her place after she dies, but I highly doubt this. Since Grace O’Conner Sheryl’s manager is presumed dead after the Dimension Eater did its work Grace is going to have to use another form factor to continue her work unless she has an excuse for being alive. I am not sure why Grace wanted Sheryl deader than dead, but maybe one of Sheryl’s parents had slighted her before and she wanted to take out the remainder of her revenge on their child. In any case given how Grace was giving Sheryl some rather dangerous drugs instead of just stopping once the Ranka stepped in I think that Sheryl remaining alive might cause problems as the flames of hatred might not go as high as she wanted. Nevertheless it is clear that Grace was doing her own research on the Vajra, and has at least learned how to steer their fleets in certain directions. As to what she is going to do with Ranka once her connection is proven is anybody’s guess at this point. Either way Grace has just single-handedly brought the background plot to the forefront. So I guess comrade Haesslich can stop trying to sink ships and content himself with Grace’s machinations.

Grace has set them up the bomb.

All your base are belong to me.

You are on the way to destruction. You have no chance to survive make your time.

Take off every Queadluun!! For Great Justice.

I think we all kind of knew that Grace was plotting something, but nothing like this. What she has revealed however is that LAI has been developing some scary shit and that the 33rd Marine Fleet was always expendable since the start. Had most of them survived then I guess the Vajra would have had more problems to deal with. I like how they kind of built it up in the background all this time in little pieces, and just let it reach critical mass at this juncture. The love triangle and other romances have been given enough time to develop and now we are in a semi-serious mode. It doesn’t feel forced in my opinion since we all saw it coming at some level, but again holy shit Grace’s keikaku doori even puts Lulu to shame in terms of quantity of shit being thrown into a fan.

With the Vajra Fleet spread throughout the galaxy in a vain effort to engage us…

Vain you say? Good thing we have a…

Good Pilot.

Sexy machine.

WTF?! NUNS?! (Seriously who is this VF-171 Pilot? The suspense is killing me.)

Galaxy and LAI seem to have a good grasp of holographic technology, but I wonder if it is good enough to conceal an entire fighter and its movements. I am very interested in this because while the preview was all round good, that VF-171 with NUNS markings caught my eye. If holo-technology is that good then that magnificently flown VF-171 in Battroid form might well be Brera with a change in armament, or it could be Brera in an actual VF-171, but some how I kind of doubt Grace would insert Purple 1 in such a manner. Other candidates for the pilot are a as of yet un-introduced bloke (highly doubtful give how large the cast is already), Cathy Glass (assuming she is no longer attached to Macross Quarter, again rather doubtful and it would constitute as a crime against civilization), or Sheryl. Given how the next battle is a major fleet engagement against a Vajra mother ship and at least eight battle cruisers (my preferred term for capital ships that have big guns and carrier capacity) I think NUNS might end up drafting every pilot they can lay their hands on for what is probably a do or die slug out to the death. Ozma will not let any newbie into SMS so if Sheryl wants to fight her only choice would have to be NUNS. If that is the case and Luca is in his usual unit, Mikhail is in his, and Alto-hime will be charging forth with Super Pack the only other named pilot of any import is Sheryl. If Sheryl does fly that magnificently then I guess she will be taking the place of Ozma or Luca when in the event either one (perhaps both given that Luca has Kakizai’s slot in the vic, and Ozma has Focker’s colors) gets offed. Regardless of who is piloting though that VF-171 in battroid form looks so sexy, I have just kicked the EU Enact and Union Flag off my list of best grunt suits, sorry Sunrise but oh I haven’t been this smitten with a grunt suit in a long time. I would like to have a VF-25 but I would certainly settle for a VF-171.