As the UN personnel begin to learn more about the alien artifact found near the island, the anti-UN forces plan to take it for themselves while increasingly strange things begin happening as the fighting comes to the island in earnest. Sara tells Shin that it’s his fault that this is happening, that the UN forces are ‘weakening the bond’ between nature and the island, and somehow this relates to the Protoculture artifacts but no one is quite sure how. Now that the generator is fixed, the islanders are becoming ever more entranced by the offerings of modernity, much to Sara’s dismay. And Mao suddenly makes her move on Shin, while his reactions indicate that he might have some sort of thing for her older sister. Ah yes, it wouldn’t be Macross without a love triangle now would it?

Shin, trying to distract Aries and Edgar by…doing a witch impression?

Loved Sara’s facepalmstaff.

Mao, NO! Oh gods, the kancho has spread to even this remote island. Maybe it was occupied by the Japanese in WWII? Though after getting a wikipedia link to make the reference, apparently this happens in South Korea and the Philippines too (Koreans and Philippinos, confirm/deny that this horror lurks in your countries as well) . You learn something new terrible everyday.

For all that Macross seems to promote the virtues of pop culture, the scenes of people greedily turning the generator on during the day to watch TV certainly weren’t portraying it as a good thing.

Kind of reminds me of Qoo. Also, is this an actual language or something made up for the show? Reminds me of Thai, but I don’t know enough about what that language looks like to say.

Edgar feels like a third wheel, but hey, at least this Shin actually deserves the girls that go after him, unlike a certain Gundam pilot of the same name *cough* Shin X Lunamaria WTF *cough*

Commercialism already existed on this island!

Right after Sara notices Shin watching her and stops singing, the rocks immediately fall to the ground, all of them seemingly having runes carved into them. When he asks how it’s possible, she just replies that he has brought a Kadun to the island and that it’s weakening the bonds on the island, though I suspect something to do with anti-gravity generators similar to those aboard the Macross. Perhaps they are part of the Birdman machine buried under the island and something is causing them to malfunction…or work as designed? Sara cautions Shin not to tell anyone what he saw, but replies that no one would believe him anyway. While she agrees and tells him that he and the other UN personnel have a Kadun attached to them that only lets them believe what they see, clearly meaning it as a negative, I for one am all for reason and science. But it’s a matter of one’s point of view, and from my point of view the Jedi are evil. Aside from this, Sara is also angry at the researchers and the UN presence on the island, thinking that they’re corrupting the people by bringing them modern standards of living. Certainly the islanders are now very eager to watch TV inside instead of being out in nature, but to be honest I think this is a bias of the writers and of people who live in advanced industrialized societies in general, that being out in nature is superior and ‘purer’. If we all lived on islands, were at the mercy of weather for our food, had no antibiotics, and never saw a TV we’d probably wax poetic about progress and technology. Soon after this conversation, Mao takes Shin by the hand to show her her ‘treasure’ a site underwater that they must dive to get to. We get a long scene about the wonders of marine life, with fish, coral reefs, an octopus, and diving birds swimming along with the two humans. Just as the two are oxygenating their lungs before the deepest part of the dive, Mao asks Shin if he likes her older sister, but before he can answer in any form he dives down. Coming to a cave opening, they stand before a Protoculture artifact with an eye that opens and follows them. Shin is so surprised that he panics and loses most of his air, and Mao kisses him both for romantic reasons and to pass air to him.

Some really bright, beautiful shots of the coral reefs not far from the islands shores as Shin and Mao swim through them.

Mao swimming along with the diving sea birds, certainly suggesting the link between her (and the people of the island) and the natural world.

I saw this in a movie once…

They recreated this scene shot for shot in Macross Frontier’s ‘Tori no Hito’ movie, the only real change being that Mao/Ranka asking Shin/Alto if he loves Sara being in a voiceover during the kiss in the movie version.

You almost can’t tell the difference.

The Mao/Ranka surprise kiss attack. Oh Ranka, I really was cheering for you at the beginning, but you had to go and betray everyone.

While the two are off on their scuba dating, the Celestial Being forces are planning on seizing the Protoculture artifact from the hangar bay of the Asuka while simultaneously sending a submarine and amphibious force to the island to secure other artifacts. Sara senses a disturbance in the Force, and the UN carrier battle group seems to have some advance warning as well, scrambling Valkyries and Ghosts shortly before the enemy VFs approach the fleet. But even with this notice the UN battle group is loses a destroyer and takes damage to the Asuka II in the attack. But just when the Old Man and his wench of a sidekick Lesser Selvaria start entering the hangar deck, what at first looks like a Destroid ‘THIS IS SPARTA!!!’s the geezer’s VF out of the bay and jumps to the deck of the carrier to fight back. Lesser Selvaria is sent to the island to reinforce her allies there, while Roy Focker in an armored VF-0 fights it out on the deck, at first looking destroyed and then purging the extra armor around the VF-0 and continuing the fight. While this was happening farther from the island, Shin picked up the alert on his radio just as Mao was trying to consolidate her romantic gain with conversation. He tells her to head towards the island when Edgar shows up in their VF-0D and floats it on the surface to pick Shin up, just as a torpedo from an anti-UN submarine heads towards them. Shin quickly scoops up Mao and gets her inside the cockpit, then takes inspiration from the seabirds he saw earlier and dives the Valkyrie into the water in pursuit. A nice and realistic touch was his firing the main cannon into the point of entry for the Valkyrie, helping to break up the surface tension that could have damaged his Valkyrie. Destroying the sub in close combat and seizing an artifact it had recovered, he sees the larger amphibious force move on the island, fighting it out with the Destroids from the UN camp.

A breakdown in traditional social order caused by rapid modernization. Though I don’t think it’s quite so bad as Sara seems to think it is, at least it hasn’t gotten that bad at this point.

AHHH now I want one, possibly two VF-0 models and an arming crew model kit!

Quite possibly the coolest shot of a Destroid evar, I really liked the grainy green light from the missile exhaust.

These Destroids featured Code Geass-style wheels at the heel of each foot for added mobility.

This is Roy’s house!

The Macross team certainly likes their external, detachable armor. They even brought it to Gundam when some of them worked on 0080.

The Birdman was all YAKK DECULTCHA!

Carrying the girl to safety in the hand of your Gerwalk-mode Valkyrie: a retrospective.

The island sees a lot of destruction as Shin delivers a traumatized Mao to Sara, then jets off to try and protect the artifact from the enemy. Meanwhile Mao is MedEvac’ed to the Asuka along with Aries and a group of UN troops and about to be given a transfusion of the blood that was leaking out of the artifact, as it matches her own blood type. But just after the helicopters leave UnterSelvaria dives down on Shin, her ammo low but her fanatical determination in full supply. After a running battle she send the VF-0 down in flames, and secures the artifact, only to have Shin steer the flaming wreck INTO HER FIGHTER! Hell yeah! Ejecting just in time, he and Edgar parachute to the ground, but find themselves confronted by their rival once more. Things are going to get…interesting.

That’s some regression. Also, Mao as prototype Ranka: loli with psychological issues due to trauma.

Indiscriminate attacks on populated areas to take out a few military units? Check. And you wonder why I call them Celestial Being.

Ah, more cool cockpit sequences. I wish Gundam did first person views like this more/at all.

Tsun tsun, tsun tsun, kuroshitai hito wa pirotto!

Oh my. If only you weren’t evil.

Final Thoughts: - As I watch more Macross, it’s becoming quite clear exactly how much influence it has had over Japanese arcade flight sim games like the Ace Combat and Airforce Delta games. Two enemies in Airforce Delta: Strike look a lot like the enemy pilots in Macross Zero, for example. And then there’s the song bringing everyone together from the end of Ace Combat 5 that was very reminiscent of the final battle scene in DYRL. Along with Area 88, Macross seems to be a huge influence over the genre.

- The original series and DYRL had elements of environmental concern to them, though in DYRL it was also tied in with an anti-nuclear message. Zero seems to put more emphasis on with the coral reef scene and the generally positive portrayal of life on Mayan Island. Which I think can potentially be kind of hard to reconcile with the franchise’s love of pop/consumer culture and the way that it argues the virtues of that culture. Depending on which level the environmentalism/nature argument is made. If it’s more about just taking notice of and valuing the natural world, the feeling I got from the original series and DYRL, then it’s fairly compatible. But Zero seems to be idealizing, at least at this point in the story, a sort of goodness/virtue of pastoral life. That living in close contact with nature and actively avoiding modern technology and culture is a better way to live. Which, excuse me if I sound cynical, seems to be only the daydreams of people who have grown up in and lived in advanced societies. It’s all too easy to forget about the myriad of very bad things that people are subject to when living outside of modern societies. Low life expectancy, easily curable diseases, living one drought or storm away from starvation, lack of communication and education, the generally oppressive nature of traditional societies towards women and anyone defying the norm, etc etc. But there exists, and has existed probably since Rousseau if not earlier, this longing for a more natural and ‘purer’ way of life that’s seen as the cure-all for the ills of modern society. It just seems like human nature to want these elusive things, even opposites to what one has. The old PC adventure game The Longest Journey commented on this nicely when you were in the magic-filled world and people wished for all kinds of modern things to solve their day to day problems, while in the futuristic world people were wishing for magic and adventures while complaining about how the world has no mystery.

- Zero’s dogfights continue to be the best Macross battles I’ve yet seen. I even went back to Frontier to refresh my memory, and they just don’t compare. Zero’s fights are just more fluid, they utilize cockpit points of view more, and they focus more on the battle itself instead of one individual machine. That is not to say that I didn’t find Frontier’s dogfights and battles gorgeous, just that I find Zero’s approach much cooler and more like the original series.

The skirmish between the UN and enemy VFs continues about Mayan Island as the villagers take shelter and Shin goes to find Mao. But the fighting isn’t limited to the skies above the once peaceful island as Valkyries use their gerwalk and battroid modes to get close to or on the ground. Shin and Mao barely manage to dodge a crashing VF-0, while the merciless anti-UN pilot strafes the crashed UN pilot in front of them. Seeing this brings back terrible memories of a previous massacre perpetrated by anti-UN forces in Shin’s past, and doing his best Shiro Amada impression he uses the now one armed Valkyrie to fire back at the SV-51 above. But this skirmish is only a small part of the story. Sara’s words and rituals are now seeming to align with some of the archaeological facts being discovered. The Asuka anchors near the island and pulls a large alien artifact from the waters, missing its head just as in the Mayan legend. As training for the new Valkyrie pilots is overseen by Roy in the air, a research team headed by Dr. Aries lands on the island and begins looking around. After convincing the locals to provide some blood samples, Dr. Aries has found something interesting. The islander’s cells have some odd properties and start to become abnormally active at the same time that Sara is standing naked at the island’s waterfall singing a song in French of all languages.

Roy gets into a duel with a familiar face: Ivanov, apparently an old instructor of his. Why he decided to join the dastardly forces of Celestial Being is unknown, but one thing is for certain: when Roy left he was but the learner. Now he is the master.

God of Wind? I didn’t know Talim was from Mayan.

The duel continues down into the canyons of Mayan, both combatants constantly changing forms to take advantage of the terrain and evade each other’s attacks.

The way the main gun tracks with where Roy looks is really cool, kind of like the chain gun on an AH-64 Apache.

Shin is not letting that CB scum get away with mowing down a defenseless man again, though he nearly gets Mao killed in his single-minded rage.

The enemy plane takes a hit and dives down at Shin’s nearly disabled VF-0. The pilot is some woman who looks kind of like Selvaria, but without the sense of honor or duty of the ill-fated Valkyrur. Ah, Selvaria, I miss you already *runs off to replay Valkyria Chronicles for the third time.*

She can do a Char Kick too, though fortunately for Shin the Skull Squadron was still in the area and took notice.

Roy lands after driving off the Selvaria-impostor, and seems a bit more worried about Shin and Mao than one would think from he would allow to show.

After the skirmish ends due to low fuel on the part of the enemy forces the Asuka moves into the area to raise the alien artifact found by earlier scans. Shin is brought back aboard and reunited with Edgar, who apparently survived their F-14 being shot down but had to remain in sick bay for several days due to his injuries. With their carrier destroyed, the two orphaned pilots are given a new home in Skull Squadron and its compliment of early model Valkyries. Training is arranged, but for the moment the pilots have time to relax while the scientists take a better look at the artifact. Aries has a little chat with Roy after she emerges from the artifact’s isolation dome, though we’re still left to wonder about the details of their past. All that is certain now is that the two went to college together and that Aries knew Roy back before he was as cool and self-confident as he is now. They may have been a couple once too, though Roy’s ass-grab may have just been his natural lecherousness. The next day the first round of training takes place, with Shin and Edgar in some sort of different Valkyrie model while Roy in his VF-0S acts as the aggressor. After mid-air refueling the exercise takes place and it’s not a good day for Shin. He hesitates to engage gerwalk mode to slow his descent, nearly crashes, and then gets eliminated first. And when he tried to get a shot in on Roy even after being eliminated he gets his Valkyrie tripped up in close combat by Roy and handed another defeat.

The Asuka’s battlegroup begins raising the artifact for study, something that seems to have a place in the mythology of the islanders.

Adding a little Evangelion to this Macross series.

There’s no better place to be.

Roy does not care to admit the mistakes caused by his youth.

Aries is a smooth woman, definitely has to be to be Roy’s senpai.

Really cool mid-air refueling sequence. In keeping with the real world aircraft we have S-3 Vikings refueling the Valkyries.

Not off to a good start.

Despite Shin’s objections this is a new era in combat and pilots just might find themselves having fight on the ground as well as in the air.

More training is scheduled, and surely Shin needs it, but that evening the crew relaxes by watching some sparring while the mechanics get to work fixing what Shin broke by flying his Valkyrie so brashly. Nakajima is not happy with Shin making his team pull the engines and work on them all night, but he later tells Roy that he’s happy to see a pilot that’s willing to push the design to the limit. On the hangar deck Shin enters a sparring match with a tall female Marine and gets his ass handed to him every which way. She points out his weaknesses: he doesn’t understand his opponent and keeps forgetting about his center of gravity, which are the same problems he had while piloting the Valkyrie against Roy. The latter point is an interesting training tie-in with Frontier, since the pilots-in-training use their exoskeleton suits to develop a similar awareness, one that is necessary to piloting a fighter whose center of balance can change rapidly as it switches from one form to another. Afterwards Shin is feeling pretty down, but Roy joins him and cheers him up a bit by letting him know that Nakajima isn’t as upset with him as it sounded. And instead of training the next day, Roy has a special assignment for Shin and Edgar: escort Aries’ team to the island and stand guard.

Interservice rivalry.

So much for that. If Cima Garahau and her fleet taught us anything, it’s that Marines in mecha are not to be messed with.

Shin forgot to Remember Love (for his engines.)

A pretty sweet detail.

Sara greets the UN landing party coldly, refusing to allow them in with their weapons and referring to them as Kaidun, but after they agree to stay outside of the town and lower their weapons they’re allowed to stay by the other islanders. Dr. Aries begins collecting blood samples under the pretexting of checking the islanders’ health, though with all the research going on concerning the artifact and possible alien manipulation of ancient humans and their genetic structure this is likely just a cover. Sara is extremely against collecting blood and thinks that their souls will be stolen, though everyone is convinced to give a sample when Aries offers them delicious soft drinks in return. That night the scientists return to the Asuka while Shin works on finishing his repairs to the island’s generator. Mao joins him and asks why he’s working on it again, but a promise is a promise to Shin. But just as the two are about to start it up Sara stands outside the hut glowering at them. She asks if he’s there to steal the stars from them by starting the villages’s electric lights up again, her understanding of light pollution coming from an old story passed on to her. But Shin informs her that Mao wanted the lights back, and he turns the power back on. In all honesty there’s little light pollution that can be produced by the few houses on the island, but Sara is nonetheless displeased. Out at sea, a huge anti-UN submarine is also closing in on the island, the Celestial Being SV-51s stored aboard it. We get a bit of the enemy mindset from wannabe-Selvaria, who apparently thinks that sharing technology for the good of mankind in the face of possible alien invasion is theft. She must read a lot of Ayn Rand and applied the concepts to interstellar war. The next morning on the island Shin is walking near the waterfall pool when he hears singing. Approaching he sees Sara standing naked in the pool, singing. Continuing his Shiro Amada act he stands and watches, but then notices that the plants around him are spontaneously growing and the rocks around him levitating. And back on the Asuka at the same moment, Aries cell samples start acting oddly. Unbeknownst to her the alien artifact in the isolation chamber has started bleeding or leaking some sort of red liquid in response to the song.

I don’t know Sara, that sounds a little too Hitler-esque to me.

Reason 1, superstition 0! I <3 you Aries.

A variation on ‘come to the Dark Side: we have cookies.’

One thing about Macross, it’s always been pretty positive in regards to commercialism.

A nice shot visually contrasting the two worlds that each character comes from. Sara under the natural starlight but in darkness while Shin is inside with artificial lighting repairing the generator.

As much as they deserve to die I kind of hope they live long enough to witness the arrival of the Zentradi to show them how wrong they were.

So…um…do you have to sing naked for this to work?

I hope the text that was cut off says that she showed no signs of malaria and tapeworms. Parasites are kind of not moe.

Something crazy is going on on this island.

Final Thoughts: – The dogfights continue to be amazing, especially the one between Roy and Ivanov at the beginning of the episode. The VF-0 is very cool, and even the SV-51 is looking better now that I’ve seen one that’s not in ‘rival ace’ fuchsia. Though I’m wondering what’s going on with the Valkyries that Shin and his group used since they’re definitely a different model from the VF-0 Valkyries that Skull Squadron has used so far.

- Continuing on that positive approach to commercialism thing, I’m getting the feeling that it’s a running theme in the Macross series. That seemingly insignificant commercialized things like soda and pop music are a way to bring different peoples together into a larger human culture. It worked on the Zentradi in the original series, and it seems to have a lot of influence on Mao. Frontier showed it too with the full integration of humans and Zentradi aboard the colony ships. That if a globalized (or interplanetary) monoculture is established then it will be the way to lasting peace. Which might not be unusual coming from a country as monocultural and commercial as Japan (seriously, I thought we Americans were supposed to be the commercial whores, then I lived in Japan for a year.) But even if these things seem to lack substance, they’re given purpose with how they build common ground between people who share in their consumption. And in that way I think Macross tries to show us the value of seemingly artificial and ‘pop’ cultural elements, redeeming them from being dismissed on their lack of inherent content. It’s an optimistic view, but I have to say that even with ocassional backlashes against globalization I agree that moving towards some sort of Macross-like monoculture is probably the best way forward for mankind in the long run.

There’s something inherent in being a fan that compels one to want to experience the shows you love in various forms. Watching anime is the start, but the community abounds with different ways that people delve deeper into the experience of anime and the community surrounding it. Blogging, making AMVs, cosplaying, and drawing are just a few forms that fans use to further their experience. Having recently watched and retroblogged the original SDF Macross and the ‘Macross: Do You Remember Love?’ movie, I’ve been itching to get a hold of a Valkyrie model kit and build it, both to have and to get a better understanding of the fighter and the mechanical design philosophy of the franchise. So I ordered and received a ‘VF-1S Valkyrie Super Figher’ kit a few days ago, the VF-1S with FAST Pack being my favorite mechanical design from the original AD 2009-2010 time period. Over the last three days I’ve built and painted the Valkyrie, as well as building and painting a set of same-scale ground crew and a stand/background made to look like the hangar deck of the Macross.

Day Zero: Getting inspiration

While I waited for the model kit to arrive from the store on Amazon that I bought it at I went through all the screenshots I took while retroblogging Macross and DYRL to get an idea of what I wanted to do with the model. One of the things that I loved about Macross was its attention it paid to the background features of (space)naval aviation. This included the use of elevators, specialized AWACS craft, and there were plenty of scenes on the hangar deck and bases on Earth where Valkyries were being serviced and repaired. So right after I ordered the kit I also ordered a Hasegawa 1/72 scale USAF ground crew and equipment set with the intention of setting up a hangar deck or flightline scene. As far as a Google search would tell me, there was no US Navy equipment/crew set, but the USAF one would do nicely.

The series featured several scenes where Valkyries were undergoing repairs and arming, as did DYRL even given the time constraints of a movie.

Day One: Valkyrie assembly and painting, part 1

Models as they arrived.

After listening to Animetal’s cover of the series OP several times to get in the mood (thanks to Sakura at Calamitous Intent for making me aware of this 1 minute 38 seconds of awesome), I opened the boxes and got out my painting supplies. First day I set out to do all my large area painting with spray paint for the black and white areas and my airbrush for the blue ones. However, the airbrush at first had the wrong sized hose for the propellant can. And after buying an adapter I still had tons of problems getting it to work, even though it’s nicer and has more features than the old airbrush I bought in Akiba (and I couldn’t find a can or adapter that would fit the Japanese brush here in my corner of the US.) So the blue was on hold for the day, but the rest went off without a hitch. I then started the small, hand painted stuff, which I’m a lot more used to having painted a fair amount of wargaming miniatures. The cockpit of the VF-1S was a lot of fun, there were plenty of details to paint. I even tried painting Misa on the central MFD as she would look when communicating with the pilot, though this was more of a suggestion of Misa because I’m not some insane micro-portrait painter (my camera unfortunately couldn’t get a clear image of the small cockpit details though.) Put together everything but the FAST Pack sections that day and painted the ground crew.

This image was used for inspiration for the cockpit details, though with more Misa (center MFD panel) and no Minmay.

Day Two: I have to paint what?!

Second day I still couldn’t get the airbrush to work right, so I went on to details and decals on what I had already put base colors on. And it was at this point that I realized the model kits back in the 1980’s were only for the dedicated. As I got to the engines and thrusters, I realized that some of the instructions were not making sense. And I noticed on the sprue that there were gerwalk-mode parts AND heads for different Valkyrie models (VF-1A and VF-1J) as well as others that didn’t belong. The model kit was from 1985, and I guess they wanted to cut costs by making a kit that could build any Valkyrie type, with or without FAST Pack, with series or movie decals, in fighter or gerwalk mode. And then I got to the decals. In all of the instructions there were only two places marked for decals. Guess you just have to look at the picture to figure out where the rest go. Then I got to the decals themselves: there were no decals for big, important things like the stripes on the wings! I HAD TO HAND-PAINT LONG, STRAIGHT LINES. WITH A BRUSH. I’ll admit to being a bit spoiled by the few models I have done before, more modern Gundam and real life aircraft models with every decal or sticker you need and then some, but what the hell was this? So I taped off straight lines on the wings, did my best to hope that they were of even width on each side and where they should be, beseeched sacred Misa to guide my hand, and painted them on with a broad paintbrush. I was relieved to see that they turned out alright, but wow was that nervewracking. The whole model could have looked terrible if they didn’t turn out right. The model builder of the 1980’s must have been, as men who live outside a polis, “either a beast or a god.”

Painting the wing stripes using scotch tape to mask off the edges.

End results of day two. Fire extinguisher and ground crew didn’t require blue paint so I did them by hand. Went with Millia-green hair for the female ground crew member, since post-war the UN forces surely included some miclonized Zentradi.

Day Three: FAST Pack, ground equipment, and staging.

Having given up on the airbrush until I can ask a more experienced friend of mine for help, I went out and bought blue spraypaint for the FAST Pack and conformal fuel/coolant tanks. Since the maintenance equipment in the series was also blue, I used the same color as a base for those as well. For whatever reason the blue paint took forever to dry, much longer than the white, black, and gray ones. After it dried I finished assembling, detailing, and applying decals to it: the VF-1S was done! Moving on to the ground equipment, for the time being I just assembled the M32C-10 Air Conditioner and M32-A-60A Generator Set, though I’ll move on to the others later. Assembling them was a bit shaky though, the way they’re designed to fit together is not very precise. With the models ready, they needed a home. So I went over to Construction Junction, a building materials recycling place that sells used and surplus materials to look for a tile to form the base and a piece of wood to serve as the background. Along the way I also picked out a couple interesting looking pieces of metal and wire to try and make the scene look more like the inside of the Macross. Found a perfectly colored and textured tile (the texture looked like what I’ve seen in pictures of carrier flight decks and sounded like it had a similar finish to the epoxy surface described by the DoD here) and a piece of unfinished wood of the appropriate size. Total cost: $1.45. Spraypainted the background panel, used two pieces of metal to both better secure it to the tile and to look like more ’ship interior’, and then painted on a line and an ‘03′ berth number on the tile. When all this was done, it was just a matter of positioning the models and taking pictures. Needless to say I was really excited to have my first Macross model, and pretty happy about how it turned out. There’s still some gaps on the FAST Pack boosters and nosecone of the VF-1S, but otherwise I’m quite happy with it. Next project: something from Frontier, perhaps Mikhail or Luca’s VF-25.

The tile and wood background with assorted metal and wire bits. Two more metal wires would be added later.

The finished setup. Went with yellow for most of the crew as per the series and orange-brown for the operator’s clothing (for variety), as per DYRL.

VF-1A being serviced, image for comparison.

Left side of the scene, one crewman at the generator, the miclonized Zentradi checking the front landing gear.

Topdown view.

Groundcrew member attaching hose from the air conditioning unit. I really like the hoses that came with the groundcrew kit.

Operator directing the pilot (Hikaru).

Wings extended, and I have on crewmember working on the U-shaped bend in the metal strip that I painted and put decals on to make it look like something functional.

Staged rear view of the VF-1S.

The scene’s home, right next to my mecha and sci-fi manga on one of my bookshelves. Had to put it in a central place in my apartment, hehe.

The Valkyrie now has a prime location in my nerdiest of bookshelves. Full resolution of all images is here.

The year is 2008 and the Unification Wars continue to rage between the U.N. and Anti-U.N. forces. In the face of evidence of advanced alien lifeforms in the form of the crashed ship that would one day become the SDF Macross, a movement to unite the Earth under one government begins so that humanity can be prepared for what may come. But there are many on the wrong side of history, who would rather fight to defend their petty interests even in the face of interplanetary warfare, and war has been ongoing for nearly eight years. And now, both sides are deploying a revolutionary new fighter, capable of transforming from fighter to intermediate to humanoid forms. In the middle of this conflict, Shin Kudo, a U.N. carrier fighter pilot, is shot down by one of these new aircraft and washes up on an island where the people worship strangely colored statues called ‘birdmen’. Here we are at the earliest series in the Macross saga, a prequel that predates the original series events by a year and promises to reveal much about the background of Protoculture involvement in Earth’s history, the development of the first Valkyries, and something of the past of characters, their relations, and ancestors of those aboard the future human colony ships. So here comes retroblogging project #3, venturing further into the Macross saga by starting at its chronological beginning. Veterans, newbies, and fellow newly minted fans, join me for another journey into the Macross universe!

A young Shin, as the Macross crashes to Earth on South Ataria island. The way they used a bunch of still images at for the start of the war, and the young protagonist looking out at the water as an explosion happens, reminded me a lot of the first narrative video in Ace Combat 4. Maybe they borrowed from it a little (AC4 was first by a year.)

Shin explains his motivations for becoming a pilot as the Unification Wars engulf the world.

Shin’s opening monologue is set against flashes of his F-14Kai preparing to launch.

The OVA series opens up with a mix of three (technically four) different visual styles, which if I had only read that last statement would’ve sounded like it could confuse the audience. But each served a purpose in that they differentiated the kinds of events going on. The first thing we see is the regular animation/CG style, a photograph of Shin’s family stuck to the controls in the cockpit of his F-14 Tomcat. The personal experiences of his youth flash back as he narrates them, in simpler lines and soft, watercolor tones and still images. And many of the images of the wars use real photographs to give a gritty edge to them. As opening sequences go, it certainly had style and worked to set the tone for Shin’s view of events. The way that a lot of still images were used also helped to  give a sense of how Shin wandered through events hurried and confused, with only his desire to bring an end to it as his guiding principle.

After launching, Shin’s flight encounters a flight of enemy MiG-29 Fulcrums somewhere over the Pacific. The Tomcats have a slight numerical advantage, but the MiGs certainly have the edge in maneuverability (unless the fictitious ’Kai’ version of the F-14 somehow greatly improved the big fighter’s dogfighting abilities.) However Shin is a masterful pilot, and manages to outfly the more agile MiGs, downing all three and earning enough kills to add to his previous 8 and a half and make him a double ace. But just as his flight reenters formation, they’re attacked out of nowhere by a new model fighter, painted a bright purple and looking something like a Sukhoi Su-37 Flanker. But in the dogfight it changes forms, revealing itself as a Veritech fighter, downing Shin’s comrades. For a moment Shin almost manages to outfly the vastly superior craft, but even his skills are not enough when it surprises him by entering humanoid form and downing his Tomcat.

I remain impressed with Macross’s use of cockpit points of view, though I still think the original series did them the best.

Shin’s RIO, Edgar LaSalle. Related to Claudia LaSalle?

Thus begins (at least in in-universe chronology) the tradition of the nemesis in the bright purple, Flanker-esque fighter.

It’s a testament to Shin’s skill that he managed to get this close to getting a shot at the enemy Veritech.

Seems like Zeon is supplying the Anti-U.N. forces, judging from the head and machine gun. Along with Celestial Being, the three form the mecha Axis of Evil and must be dealt with preemptively.

With a gasp, Shin wakes up in some kind of wooden building built above water, with a sharpened wooden stick sitting next to him. He quickly remembers ejecting from his F-14, but he has no idea where he is or what happened to Edgar. Taking the sharpened stick he leaves the house, and eventually finds an old man and demands to know where he is. Then, out of the edge of the jungle, a woman appears with several people behind her. She’s not happy with his presence on the island, fearing that he can summon something called a Kaifun Kadun to her home. Things are confrontational until her younger sister intervenes on behalf of Shin and calms things down. He finds out that Edgar did not survive their fighter being shot down, and wreckage of his carrier washes up on shore, and in his sorrow the younger sister, Mao Nome, convinces her older sister, Sara, to let him stay. Elsewhere, on the U.N. carrier Asuka II, a briefing is being given concerning the island, an ancient alien artifact having been located in its vicinity. As Doctor Aries concludes her briefing and leaves, she runs into her old friend and ours, Roy Focker.

Shin awakes, apparently cared for by the locals while he was unconscious.

Funnier in hindsight.

Hi there Hare, I mean, Mao.

From humbles beginnings on an undeveloped island in the Pacific, the Nome bloodline would one day produce a descendant that would use her song to save a fleet and send thousands of followers of the Great Traitor, Ranka Lee, to the depths of despair at her final victory!

The Protoculture just leaves all kinds of trash lying around, doesn’t it?

Since it’s the second Asuka, I had assumed the first was an actual aircraft carrier, but after checking it seems Japan never had a CV by that name.

Roy Focker: the legend begins.

Marooned on the island with no communication available, Shin recovers and starts learning more about the place and its customs from Mao. The residents believe that the island, Mayan, was the place where the birdmen came down from the sky, turned the ‘fishmen’ into humans, and are still worshiped. Sara is their priestess, and interprets the winds and seas to determine what is to come. The sharpened stick that Shin used is apparently a symbol used for declaring one’s affection, in effect a love letter. Shin has a good laugh after he’s informed of this, having previously threatened Sara and the old man with a love letter, and he and Mao are both pleasantly surprised to see him laughing for once. Though why a stick was left next to him while he was unconscious is uncertain, since it would be a little quick for someone on the island to declare their love for him when he hadn’t yet said a word to anyone. During that time Shin also notices a communications antenna, though he is informed that the generator is broken and anyone who knew how to fix it left for the war. To repay Mao for her kindness he gets to work on fixing it, the system being his only way of contacting the U.N. forces as well. Back aboard the Asuka, Roy speaks to engineer Nakajima about new fighters that have arrived: the U.N.’s own Veritech fighters. Incorporating the most advanced systems available including a particle/energy reinforced armor system, the ability to transform, and the latest weapons, they are top of the line, however were rushed to the front without their intended reactor engines, instead replaced by highly tuned, fuel guzzling standard type engines. Soon, Roy’s team will make its first sortie, intending to intercept a patrol of enemy Veritech fighters.

Ehh, I’m not so sure about this place.

The ’secret midnight date’ is not very secret if everyone on the island knows that the sticks mean. Also, this item-based courtship reminds me a bit of the blue feather in the Harvest Moon games. Were love so easy…

The insight into the technical aspects of the Valkyrie predecessors was really cool, though my biggest question is how did the anti-U.N. forces get their hands on the same technology.

Engineer Nakajima, possibly a reference to the Nakajima Aircraft Company that produced, among others, the ‘Kate’ torpedo bomber. It wouldn’t be the first time a WWII aircraft reference was made in anime (Kai Shiden from the original Gundam.)

On the island Shin finds Sara carving the love letter sticks underneath one of the houses, and starts teasing her about having so many, first for having received so many, then switching to implying that she wanted to give out a bunch of them. And switching attacks yet again, he goes on to suggest that she’s making them to sell for a profit, as if she wasn’t tsun-tsun towards him enough! Though after he sits down and starts carving one, the two have a non-confrontational conversation for the first time as she explains to him how to carve one using the wind and sea as inspiration. But just as things are going well she cries out and seems to have a vision of both U.N. forces bringing fighting to the island and of something that looks like one of the birdmen statues flying over the island and bombing it. And not moments after this vision ends it part of it comes to pass. Roy’s flight of VF prototypes swoops in over the island in pursuit of their targets. The combat is a fierce back-and-forth, but Roy eventually proves the worth of the prototype he pilots and downs his first enemy VF. On the ground Shin runs off to bring Mao to safety while Sara goes to move the townspeople out of harm’s way, a prophecy of destruction spoken to herself as she watches the fighting.

Living on this island must suck if what you do for fun is carve sharpened sticks. No wonder Mao wants no part of its traditions.

Roy earns his daredevil reputation early on, this time nearly crashing into the ground as he chases an enemy fighter.

The new HUD has a nice way of displaying depth with those curving altitude indicators.

The new, all-digital instrument panel is a nice improvement as well. With all the complicated, multipurpose aspects of a transforming fighter I’m sure you’d need something that you can change on the fly.

Prototype Valkyrie in humanoid form for the first time. The transformation sequence was very cool, it even halfway convinced me that the way that the location of the cockpit changing could really work. Almost. The CG for the mecha is most impressive too, I think I like the style even  more than what was used in Frontier.

Just as in Sara’s vision, Roy downs and enemy over the island before jetting off to help out his teammates.

Where have I heard similar phrases to this before?

Final Thoughts: - Even with the greater historical detail in Do You Remember Love there was still a lot unanswered about the recent and distant past. Which is why I’m glad that both are being dealt with in Macross Zero, even if not everything is being explained at the moment.

- The CG is just beautiful, and the dogfights are very fluid and nicely done. The regular animation is very nice too, and as mentioned the use of various visual styles in the opening scene was very effective at establishing the mood and character of Shin.

- I’m having an interesting experience having watched Frontier first, then the original series and DYRL. Details, people, events, and technologies from the most recent series are starting to make more sense now. The pieces are starting to fall into place for me, and it’s a fun way to watch things so far. It almost feels like I’m someone from the Frontier time period, learning about history. And I love history, real and in fictitious universes.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Christmas holiday, and after my week off (and the site undergoing work), it’s time for the Macross movie, Do You Remember Love. In it the series has been altered (in ways that change the story and aren’t canon) and shortened into movie format. The familiar characters and mecha have gotten a pretty impressive visual makeover too, even by today’s standards. There’s only so much you can pack into the short span of a movie, but even so DYRL was a lot of fun to watch. While I enjoyed the series much more because it included more background, character development, battles and the post-war situation, DYRL was definitely enhanced my viewing of the series as well as being sweet, sweet mecha eyecandy. Some parts of the story were very different, and some things changed a lot. For one, I actually liked DYRL Minmay through almost the entire film. Shocking, I know. Many things are different, but at it’s core it’s still the same Macross, so let’s remember love and take a look at the SDF Macross movie adaptation. Warning: this was a two hour long movie with a lot packed into that time, so there are a lot of images in this post.

Additionally, I’ve followed through on the idea I had back at near the start of blogging the series about making a Macross Meal. So after the recap/commentary on the movie, a short feature showing my culinary tribute to Macross. HAVE SOME PINEAPPLE SALAD!!!

Ugh, those are some ugly Zentradi. Have to say, I DID NOT WANT the messy, cancerous, deformed organic look for them and their ships.

The Zentradi aren’t the only ones to get a visual re-do. The Macross and it’s Valkyries are now redone in the hyper-detailed style that was popular in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Eventually I liked it, but at first it was quite a shock and hard to adjust to.

As the movie opens, Minmay is making her debut before a huge crowd onboard the Macross.

While Roy, Hikaru, Max, and Kakizaki are out on patrol in their Super Valkyries. I liked how they showed them using their smaller thrusters to change orientation.

While the cinematography is not as interesting or innovative as in the series, the movie does do a lot of cool point-of-view cockpit shots.

Max showing off right from the start.

The movie starts off with Britai and Exedol on the bridge of their command ship, speculating about what could be onboard the Macross that’s giving their forces so much trouble. Cut to the Macross where life is going on as normal for the population inside. Minmay is making her debut, but given the crowd that’s jammed into the huge stadium, she’s already much more of a superstar than she was in the series. As it has been told to me by the elder Macross fans, she’s more like a predecessor to Sheryl Nome at this point, and she acts that way too. More confident, more forward, and less arbitrary and confused than her series self. Outside Skull Squadron is on patrol and is directed towards a group of enemy battlepods inside Saturn’s system of moons. Misa calls out their location, while the four Valkyries head out, fire off a barrage of missiles, and then engage the remaining enemies. In one of many nods to the original series, they even throw in Kakizaki calling Max a genius during the fight, despite his last name or the term never being mentioned otherwise. They quickly deal with the battlepods, only to find out that they were a distraction as a Zentradi capital ship defolds and begins attacking the Macross. As the main battle commences, a few Zentradi manage to get inside the Macross and Hikaru disobeys orders and follows them in. The three enemies are dealt with, but as the Macross undergoes transformation and deals with battle damage, Hikaru spots Minmay falling down the length of the ship. Pursuing her, he manages to grab her, only to crash his Valkyrie right into the isolated engine compartment.

The Destroids get their due in the sweet new animation, and my favorite Valkyrie returns for a few shots, the Armored Valkyrie. It seems to be used only for defense, which is wise because while it has a lot of firepower, it’s probably not very maneuverable.

Hikaru disobeys Misa’s order and chases the three enemies inside. But from this confrontational beginning, great things arise.

Three Zentradi battlepods entering the Macross. Travelling down the tunnel like this and having it open to the ’sky’ of the interior was definitely a nod to the opening scene of the original Gundam.

The first YAKK DECULCCHA! I finally understand! In the movie version, the Zentradi are even more horrified and puzzled by men and women living together, because instead of just being segregated they’re at war with each other.

The classic ‘girl falling caught by Valkyrie’ scene.

Stuck inside the engine section of the ship, Hikaru and Minmay are in a similar situation to that in the series, only much more fun, lighthearted, and NOT CRAZY. Minmay is actually really likable from the get-go, her and Hikaru enjoy their time in the mostly zero-g environment and things are going pretty well. Hikaru is really shy around the pop idol he just rescued, but Minmay takes to him pretty quickly. They scavenge for food, fulfill their Coca-Cola product placement obligations, talk, and wait for someone to find them. Eventually Hikaru asks Minmay about whether Kaifun is her boyfriend, since their on-screen romance seemed so real to him, but she tells him it’s all show. And to demonstrate she starts telling Hikaru that she loves him, and eventually he either plays along or suddenly expresses his feelings, Minmay purposefully leaving him in doubt as she kisses him. The ‘just acting’ setup was definitely a Sheryl-like move, and it was both funny and odd to see Hikaru so flustered by it and Minmay so comfortable being that forward. Just as they’re kissing one of the walls opens up and a bunch of reporters have come to photograph Minmay now that she’s been found. Minmay and Hikaru are all over the tabloids afterwards, leaving Misa furious at one of her pilots making the front page in such a manner. The members of Skull Squadron are disappointed in Hikaru only for the fact that he didn’t do more with Minmay while they were trapped for a few days. Well, except for Max who actually did sound disappointed in him for starting a scandal.

Space Tuna shows another nod to the original series and those who watched it, though there was no shot of them cooking the head over a campfire. The can of soda rocketing off into the distance was a neat idea, but likely a lot messier in real life.

The famous improvised shower is back too, though this time the viewer is the one peeking in, not Hikaru.

DYRL Minmay: trolling for love.

Conduct unbecoming an officer. Misa does not approve.

Skull Squadron in their new digs. I’m loving Roy’s Titans-esque dark blue with red trim flightsuit, but I’m not so keen on the Dragon Ball Z shoulders design, especially the larger ones on the spacesuits.

Woah, Roy, woah. Your question is a little TMI.

The bridge bunnies are back! Sharing the latest gossip about Minmay and Hikaru, and teasing Shammy. Always. Though I think they looked a little better in the series.

Definitely a ‘nobody home inside’ face. Don’t worry, I still love you Shammy, even if you’re a little dense.

Later on in the evening Roy, Claudia, and Misa are having some drinks when Hikaru shows up to turn in a report. Roy insists that he stay for a drink, and even when Misa gets uncomfortable having the pilot who just caused her a bunch of problems there, he makes both of them sit down. Then he starts lecturing the both of them to be more feminine and masculine, respectively, though in the stereotyped, not-so-progressive kind of feminine/masculine (hello 1980’s Japan!). But it seems to work for him, as he demonstrates by starting to make out with Claudia in front of the two. Hikaru is spared further embarrassment when a phone-robot arrives with a call for him. He claims that a family member is sick and runs off, but in fact it was Minmay who called. They meet in a park, where a not very well disguised Minmay asks Hikaru to go out on the town for the night. One of the places they visit has holographic projectors that allow those inside to literally jump into different outfits and costumes, culminating in a moment where the two are dressed for a wedding, another reference to the original series, though in a much more lighthearted sense. After their date, Minmay says that she’d love to go outside and see some of the universe outside the ship, and Hikaru obliges her by taking out a trainer Valkyrie (without permission) and giving her a ride around the rings of Saturn. Misa and Kaifun eventually track them down in a shuttle, but before they can return home a ground of Zentradi show up intent on capturing a human for questioning. Roy shows up, drunk, to assist them, but even he’s not enough and after diving through a ship’s hatch in pursuit he ends up captured along with Hikaru, Minmay, Misa, and Kaifun.

Don’t change, Misa.

My thoughts exactly Claudia.

Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to stop ‘making culture’ inside the club.

DYRL Hikaru is apparently an idol otaku.

Very similar to Minmay’s (CRAZY) fantasy from an early episode of the series.

Making the two seater Valkyrie a trainer makes more sense than the arbitrary seating arrangements in the series.

I’m here to rescue….oh.

Inside the ship they are questioned by Britai and Exedol, who are still shocked at the concept of men and women cooperating. Misa correctly surmises that the two genders are actively hostile to each other among the Zentradi, and when their captors demand a kiss they are further shocked. Kaifun and Minmay have a short, awkward kiss, before the Zentradi get spooked and have the group taken to different cells. But as Misa, Hikaru, and Roy are being taken to their cell, an attack led by Millia rattles the ship and allows the three to escape. They find their way to the hangar, and are almost caught except that Roy tells Hikaru to kiss Misa and shock them into retreat. At first Hikaru is intent on rescuing Minmay and Kaifun, but the attack makes that increasingly difficult. Finally Roy pays the ultimate price buying them time to escape, catching a Qeadaluun Rae in his Valkyrie’s arms and shooting into it, but also into himself. Just as Hikaru and Misa’s Valkyrie is close to Minmay and Kaifun’s cell, the ships starts folding and the two in the cell are left behind while the VF-1 gets tossed back to the devastated Earth.

The Zentradi certainly brought in a good haul.

I’m not really so fond of the men and women fighting each other approach in DYRL. I though the separation was a better idea, with the Supervision Army and whatever else might be lurking out there as the Zentradi’s main enemies.

Awkward kiss is awkward. Also, I’m not sure if not enough Kaifun to hate is a good or bad thing.

Sound advice, even if it got Hikaru slapped.

Elsewhere Millia is making short work of the defending male Zentradi.

Not quite as GAR as in the series, but he had a good run given his short time in the movie. Nice Kamjin cameo as the pilot who he takes with him.

At first Hikaru and Misa don’t know what planet they’re on when they defold, and they wander a cratered desert until they come upon the wreck of the Prometheus after Misa takes momentary control of the VF-1 and crashes it rather than sit and wait as Hikaru wanted.  After raiding it for what canned food remains, Misa has Hikaru fly around to various places looking for any survivors, but they find none. Hikaru is a bit of a jerk for a moment when he sarcastically suggests going all over the world when it’s clear that nothing remains, but he chills out pretty quickly as the two find a place to set up a tent. At night the two talk, and Misa confesses that she feels powerless in her situation ever since the Earth was effectively destroyed. Both of them take some comfort from talking with the other, but Misa is momentarily shocked to see Hikaru’s handkerchief is signed by Minmay. Still, both of them manage to get themselves together a bit and get some sleep.

More cool cockpit shots, this time panning across the ruined landscape.

Ugh, I don’t blame her for refusing to eat it at first. Hikaru mentions that it’s safe to eat since it’s been through a radiation neutralizer. This was the first point that I started to see the undercurrent of anti-nuclear messages in the movie. The series never mentioned any radiation from the Zentradi weapons. Personally, I think stuff like this is kind of preachy since it wasn’t an integral part of the material, but I’ll let it slide since the movie was made during the last decade of the Cold War when nuclear weapons were still a probable threat.

Though of less consequence than the scarf in the series, Minmay’s name on something may as well be the Mark of the Beast.

The next day Hikaru and Misa are out scouting around when they notice an odd tower sticking out of the ocean. Landing on it, they find inside an ancient-looking set of computer consoles, designed for miclones. The computer starts relaying a message to them, and Misa knows enough of the Zentradi language to figure out some of what it’s saying. Apparently it was part of a colony ship that came to Earth and built a city thousands of years ago. But before she can get more answers it diverts its remaining power to raising the city. From out of the water come a huge city, built by the Protoculture. While exploring the city Misa gets a little crazy and starts playing house with the plates and cups left in one of the ruined homes. It’s very odd, but then she snaps out of it and starts crying, but is comforted by Hikaru and the two kiss. To be honest, as much as I prefer Misa to Minmay in personality, both in the series and DYRL, the way the relationship between Misa and Hikaru started felt lacking to me. If I had only ever seen the movie, I might have felt that it didn’t make sense for them to get so close without much in the way of relationship development. Some time later, in the morning, they hear a rumbling and find the Macross descending on the city. Once they’re back aboard, they make their report to Capt. Global, and inform Claudia about Roy. While I understand the writer/director’s reasons for it, I did miss Claudia in the movie and this is one of the few scenes that she’s in.

That’s a lot of time, something which, if canon, I hope is expanded upon in later series.

I need no reason to include more Misa images!

What a sight to come home to! If only it wasn’t caused by a momentary lapse in sanity.

Cute, but kind of lacked for development leading up to it. Still, MISA FOREVER!!!

Misa coming out of their shelter while zipping up her shirt? Bow chicka wow wow! Hikaru, you ladykiller you.

The battle-worn Macross descends on the ruined city. Wonder if the writers were trying to work in the Atlantis myth into the Macross universe.

EO’s ‘Daaawwww of the week movie.’

Global didn’t have much screentime in the movie version, but there was this cool camera angle when Misa and Hikaru were giving their report.

Even with few lines, Claudia managed to have presence in DYRL.

There isn’t much time to rest back onboard the Macross though. A female Zentradi cruiser defolds near the ship and launches battlepods, prompting the Macross to launch its own fightercraft. Skull Squadron leads the way for the humans, with Millia in command of the opposing forces. Kakizaki gets shot down in the opening moments of the fight, while Max engages in an amazing bit of ace combat against Millia, fighting her in the air and chasing her back to her mothership, continuing the fight as a brutal, close quarters slugfest. HELL YEAH! This is exactly the kind of epic fighter/mecha duel I was hoping for in the series. While Max had his share of great battles, none were really all that satisfying to me. This, on the other hand, was just what I was looking for. After pursuing Millia into the ship it folds as a male Zentradi fleet approaches, huge fortress in tow. The male Zentradi ask to start peace negotiations, though this is just a ruse to try and complete an old Protoculture song for use against the female Zentradi.

Another cool cockpit shot. They may not have been as creative as the series was visually, but they certainly did a good job making you feel like you were there inside a Valkyrie.

Poor guy, taken out by a stray shot, though not all deaths are glorious.

What a fight! The constantly turning and anticipating each other’s moves in the air, then the desperate close quarters fighting inside the ship, it was perfect!

Max’s first face to face meeting with his future wife, as the two emerge from their battered mecha after their duel.

The Genshiken Team makes an appearance, though bald this time.

Yes, series Minmay would know all about saying things she doesn’t mean…only to regret it later.

Now that the male Zentradi fleet is feigning peace with the Macross, Minmay and Kaifun are released back to their home. A reunion ceremony is held for her, and Hikaru and Misa are the special guests. She had apparently requested to see them after they were separated during the fold, but it turns into something other than what she expected. In the meanwhile Misa and Hikaru have become a couple, and despite past feelings Hikaru now turns towards Misa when Minmay hugs him. It’s a big shock to her, though I have to compliment DYRL Hikaru for not wavering once he made up his mind. Later on, Hikaru is visited by Minmay when he was just about to take down his Minmay poster (again, it’s a nice touch referencing all these series elements), and she hugs him from behind while he’s pouring coffee, just in time for Misa to come in having translated the lyrics for the old Protoculture song. There’s a moment that would have resulted in several episodes of confusion and hurt feelings had this been the series, but Hikaru quickly explains the misunderstanding to Misa. Minmay is understandably heartbroken to finally confront Hikaru’s feelings, and runs off. When Hikaru and Misa are alone, he explains to her that he knew as soon as he got back to the Macross and saw Minmay’s videos playing that he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, not Minmay. He more or less proposes to her, and she starts crying True Tears of happiness before embracing him. The series had to stretch the conflict out, but I really liked the quick, clear resolution to the love triangle in DYRL. It felt more real to me, and both Hikaru telling Misa how he felt and her reaction were sweet in a believable way.

The thing is, I actually feel bad for Minmay in DYRL. My allegiance to Misa is forever, but Minmay is so much more likable and a much better person in the movie version.

You put up a much better effort in DYRL, but even that pales before the power of Misa.

Misa with a surprised, but somewhat K-ON looking facial expression.

You gave it your best shot Minmay.

Though I prefer the series in most respects, DYRL really did this scene well. It also helps that it was late enough in the movie that I didn’t have to worry about Hikaru getting wishy-washy unlike the last few episodes of the series.

As before, happiness is quickly interrupted as a female Zentradi fleet with its own fortress defolds in Earth orbit and the male Zentradi decide to engage them and the Macross since the Song of Ultimate Power is still incomplete. All Valkyries are scrambled, but Hikaru must first get the lyrics to Minmay so the Zentradi can LISTEN TO HER SONG and allow the Macross to carry the day. With the battle raging outside, Hikaru runs as fast as he can with the lyrics, finding Minmay at a bench near an observation window, a place they had previously spent time together. She’s still distraught and doesn’t want to sing something translated by her victorious rival, though Hikaru tries to convince her otherwise. She does descend, briefly, into something more like series Minmay or, dare I speak the Great Traitor’s name, Ranka Lee. She starts saying that the fighting has nothing to do with her and wishes that everyone but her and Hikaru would die. So Hikaru gives her a Bright Slap to shake her of such disgustingly selfish thoughts and after recovering she comes to her senses and resolves to sing. If it were just DYRL Minmay, I’d feel bad for her put acknowledge the necessity of it during a moment of imminent danger. But knowing what Minmay was like in the series made The Superdimensional Slap enjoyable.

Girl pilot running with toast in mouth.

Female Zentradi main force, possibly reinforced by Zeon aces.

I would put the mushroom clouds up to just the size of the impacts, but given the other hints at ‘nukes are bad’ in the movie I think this was in line with the writer or director’s message. Man, I’m glad I was only alive for the last few years of the Cold War. Except for where they intersect terrorism, the threat of nuclear weapons seems almost fictional now.

So you can live to mope about it?

The world should just break, right Minmay? Wish Mirai would have gotten slapped too, oh wait, something worse and karmic happened to her!

Thank you online animated gif maker!

Post-return to sanity, Minmay decides to sing that famous song for the first time in centuries.

The fight moves to Earth orbit as the two fleets slug it out and the Macross gets caught in the middle. Bodollza even fires his fortress’ main cannon through his own fleet to attack his enemies, killing Laplamiz and destroying her fortress. But the tide turns when Minmay starts singing, with Britai the first to move to the defense of Protoculture culture. More ships join the Macross in attacking the remaining fortress, some beaching themselves on its exterior to fire point blank at it. Even Millia joins the attack, with Max in another Queadluun Rae beside her, apparently macronized to be able to pilot the craft. Both sides are taking heavy damage, but the Macross and its allied fleet presses onwards and loses no momentum as it advances. Luckily for them, the fortress’ main canon was only able to fire once due to damage it had taken earlier.

The Macross, with its main cannon disabled, heads towards the remaining fortress. Not quite the ‘last flight of the SDF Macross’ from the series, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Minmay at her finest.

Still not liking that deformed look for some of the Zentradi, but Britai remains as cool as ever.

Love and teamwork!

Pretty sweet reflection shot as Hikaru suppresses the fortress’ external defenses.

Minmay continues singing ‘Ai Oboetemasu ka’ as the preparations are completed for the final strike. Hikaru launches in a specially equipped Super Valkyrie for the heart of the fortress: Bodollza, who is hardwired directly into it. Hikaru makes a high speed run for the interior of the structure, dodging enemy fire along the way. In the central chamber, he appears before the huge screen showing Minmay’s singing, in one of those definitively Macross moments. I could definitely see the echoes of it in the last episode of Frontier, now that I’ve seen the original. Bodollza and the fortress meet a quick end once Hikaru gets to the central chamber, and as the fortress starts disintegrating Hikaru returns to the Macross, the humans and allied Zentradi victorious. On the bridge, Minmay finishes her singing and exchanges some knowing glances and nods with Misa. The bridge bunnies immediately start taking a deserved break, and Claudia asks Misa about the song. Apparently it was just an ordinary love song to the Protoculture, but its power was clearly shown, and the power of song in the Macross universe is reinforced by the last shots in the movie, of Minmay on stage preparing to sing.

I liked how they contrasted the similar shot at the beginning where the two were arguing, to this shot right as Hikaru leaves for the final mission.

There were some neat visuals near the end here, like this one showing the pilot and the singer working together.

Another cool one, this one rapidly alternating between the two characters before finally centering on Hikaru during his attack run.

Combination of boom headshot and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

War’s over, time for a nap.

Another war has come to a close. Both (at least in the movie) were worthy, but there can be only one!

In the Macross universe, songs aren’t just songs.

Final Thoughts: – What struck me the most about changes in the movie was in how the love triangle was done. Minmay was actually a likable person and didn’t act so indecisive and selfish, apart from one moment. And Misa seemed to not have been given enough time to show the audience why she should have won, just that she was also a nice, likable person. It almost seemed like the writers felt bad for making Minmay so easy to hate in the original series and wanted to rewrite her to make her a sympathetic character.

- The visual style was really great in some ways, though really not my style in others. The very detailed mecha and human characters were very nice to look at. But the mutated organic style for the Zentradi (apart from Millia) and their ships was not a good choice in my view. While I know that that was a popular style/design theme in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, they’re Zentradi not Supermutants! If the Protoculture was so good at genetic engineering they could have made it so that such abnormalities didn’t occur.

- Lots of nods to the original series was definitely welcome for someone who has watched it. The poster, the tuna, Kakizaki calling Max a genius, I really appreciated all those little bit of detail.

- All in all, it was a fun movie, and I enjoyed it as part of the Macross experience. I prefer the series by far, but DYRL did a few things even better. Max’s duel with Millia and Hikaru’s confession of his feelings to Misa were superbly done.

Special: The Macross Meal – Dishes from or inspired by Macross

Some time ago, when I was still early on in my viewing and blogging of Macross, I though about eventually making a Macross Meal to celebrate the end of the series given the amount of significant foods. Supplied with a list of popular Nyan Nyan dishes listed in My Fair Minmay by Yot-chan, I set out to make a multi-course meal worthy of the series. So here’s six dishes from or inspired by the show. Recipes can be provided upon request, just email me at executiveotaku AT yahoo DOT com. Since the Nyan Nyan dishes are Chinese style food, which I have little experience with, I had fun trying out some new things. Some of it wasn’t too different from Japanese food (indeed, Nyan Nyan is a very Japanese-style Chinese restaurant), so I used what I know from that kind of cooking as a base.

The meal (all but one dish that I forgot to put on the table before the eating started.)

Tuna sushi, for the giant frozen, floating Space Tuna. Bought this one, I don’t trust myself enough with raw stuff.

As per My Fair Minmay, Shooting Star Pork Fried Rice. Pretty much regular pork fried rice, but with a shooting  star of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce on top.

Another My Fair Minmay listed dish, Dynamite Ramen. I couldn’t think of anything that looked like a stick of dynamite and would work with ramen, so I made it extra spicy to earn the name. Toppings were fried beef (pork would work too), enoki mushrooms, and chopped scallions. Primary spices were garlic, ground cayenne pepper, goma rayu (hot sesame chili oil), and a little Sriracha sauce.

The final Nyan Nyan dish that I made, the Five Ingredient Parfait (though technically I have nine if you count the toppings, I just counted the layers.) From the bottom layer up I had: crushed chocolate cookies, vanilla ice cream, blueberries, more vanilla ice cream, lingonberries, and strawberry ice cream. Then topped it with a few strawberries, a cookie straw, a little dark chocolate syrup, and a chocolate covered cherry.

Kakizaki’s last meal, teppanyaki Pepper Lunch-style sirloin steak. Ever since seeing Kakizaki’s last meal before his tragic death, I’ve been on something of a personal quest to replicate the Pepper Lunch meals that I loved so much when I lived in Tokyo. I went out and bought the cast iron pan and began looking for ways to recreate the honey brown sauce and their distinct blend of pepper. Eventually I managed to get it right. I used two kinds of pepper on the meat and vegetables, and for the sauce I mixed worchester sauce, honey, and a little bit of soy sauce.

Speaking of tragic, I saved the best for last: the infamous Pineapple Salad! Very easy to make, and you can add whatever kind of fruit you want to it. Drizzle some honey over top if you want it extra sweet. Just don’t let your significant other make it for you, especially if you’re a pilot.

He thought someone was making fun of his weight...

With the balance of power shifting with the new era of peace it seems the Thieves that stole the bald lady have been using them gold bricks they also nabbed to get high positions in the local police. The Boone family is out hunting escapees so that they can’t finger them in court since their corrupt union with the cops has come to an end. Chirico finds himself with three aspiring managers for the battling circuit, its good to see that Chirico is already finding employment rather than going into a breadline or causing trouble. Unfortunately the Boone Family has Chirico as the last person on their hit list. Despite being out numbered Chirico and his new pals fix up a Scopedog for to face the Boone Family, and while Vanilla lacked faith the Scopedog made a glorious slaughter of biker malcontents though the police showed up for some crime fightan. The battle was brief but plenty of criminal scum were killed though the Police helicopters actually contributed a lot to the burning corpse count. Despite having minimal damage the heat seemed to be a greater hazard than in most mecha with Chrico getting roasted alive in the inferno, thankfully Rochina sends a team to put out the fires. Gotho seems to be rather surprised though since Uoodo doesn’t have a fire department, but makes no further inquiries. i really like how despite the fact that Chirico took no damage that he still felt the heat from the fires around him, it’s rare to see that even with no damage there are other ways of killing the pilot. I confess I am loving this gritty feel, even if Chirico is super human this is still very much real robot and has a more hard sci-fi feel to it than most.

Of the three new people in his life, Gotho the oldest seems to have a glimmer of wisdom when he laments how during the war they gave kids guns and only gave them skills relating to killing and now that there is peace they cut loose all the veterans to fend for themselves. I like how they are making a point to discuss the problems of the post war from time to time as Chirico is 18 and has only ever known fighting, but at least now he has an underground sport to participate in. Sadly this sport is pretty much gladiatorial combat though not every fight ends up with someone dead. I think it really says something when the spectators get all excited when one of the stands gets blown to pieces. Chirico really seems to have trouble making friends it seems the only guy who has come close so far was Carson from Roots of Ambition, though perhaps now he can have a friend in Coccona, Gotho, or Vanilla. Being poor and all with unemployment through the roof I can’t really fault them for worrying about money. Gotho seems to be ahead of the curve as he sees some inate talent in Chirico but has doubts that Chirico can take on the established VOTOMS jockeys. Chirico’s instincts seem to have sharpened enough for him to be able to detect that the he was going to fight Conin and not his original opponent. I am surprised though that even these veterans still cling to thier old rank structure and actually defer to Conin despite the fact that none of them are in the military any more. Conin put up a good fight but in the end Chirico only received a glancing blow while Coning got a BIG BANG PUNCH to the face. I have to say that it was much more satisfying than if it had been a projectile kill. Also it seems that the Bald Lady has a local name as well, but I am not sure what the Phantom Lady’s role is in all this given how she has only been rolling around in an armored limo through fire fights. I guess we shall see in good time though.

Oh ho, dealing in arms are we?

That side car could use an MG-34...

Chirico has no need for a drunk lady with Billy Baggage to tell him how to plan an operation.

I like how Chirico can do maintenance on his own machine.

...

Scopedog seems to own insolent biker gangs pretty well...

Man Rochina seems to have all the bases covered...

Even if they are just firemen they still look pretty badass.

Seems Uoodo doesn't even have a fire department.

Man the old dude is pretty wise even if he has a reputation for fleecing people.

LOL you have no idea Gotho...

The Bastard Conin.

I still have no idea how he picks out Scopedogs.

Covering her baldness I see...

Chirico finally repaid Conin for his SUGOI leadership.

Meet the vile traitors of the series, thank goodness none of them are bishie.

So with a little down time due to lack of training M1151s that the Army was willing to let us use I decided to start retroblogging Armored Trooper Votoms after having seen Roots of Ambition and Pailsen Files. I hope to blog it in chronological order instead of order of release just to see how it pans out as a whole. With the end of the 100 Year War at hand and the huge expenditure of men and machines at the end of Pailsen Files the war comes to a negotiated end, but there seems to be a few malcontents who are keen on making it big with peace on the horizon. The stealing of gold I could understand but I wonder what was special about that bald lady, though I have been spoiled as to what Chirico is I am sure that what Bald Lady is will provide enough of a mystery.  So far it seems the thieves are the being set up to be the primary antagonists with Captian Rochina playing a sort of Javert in his pursuit of Chirico. So far with Rochina he seems to pursuing the Bald Lady and the thieves through Chirico rather than simply wanting to beat the information out of him. I have to give Rochina credit for rebounding from his grand fuck up of letting Chirico escape right off the bat. I wonder how long Rochina is going to play guardian angel for Chirico, but I suppose that for now Chirico has a very efficient protector during his stay in Uoodo.

Speaking of Uoodo It is pretty much hell on earth as IKnight had described I am sure ExecutiveOtaku would have delighted in seeing a post war scenario where domestic issues come to a head when the crooks and crooked cops have to deal with the fact that it is harder to hide their crimes when the war is over. Uoodo has acid rain, biker gangs, street vendors who sell interesting sources of protien, and cops who are all in on the cut from the biker gangs. I like how that its very 1980s in that bikers are the cancer that is killing society, it reminds me of GI Joe when Zartan was rolling with a biker gang, but I digress. So far Chirico shows how much of an unnatural survivor he is by wiping out a platoon of guards, though to be fair many of them were caught completely by surprise and Chirico is a Red Shoulder after all… So far the action is plenty good and I like how Chirico is not completely useless out side of his Scopedog but at the same time is only killing off 2-3 guys at a time at most and not whole platoons like these newfangled mecha pilots. I did have a laugh or two when the Boone Family showed up, man they were some hurt ass fat mother fuckers and I could not help but cheer when Chirico turned them into a bloody mess. Despite Chirico being super human I like how he does come close to death but is saved from it by Rochina and his sniper teams. I hope that they continue to show that while Chirico is super human that he is still a mere mortal and needs someone to save his ass from time to time. Also his Unnatural Survivor ability doesn’t tangibly help him in combat, it just makes him insanely lucky like Patrick Colasour though piloting skills and personalities differ greatly. I wonder if the head of the Boone Family was a nod to LOGH since those robes reminded me of the Terraism Cult. All in all I am pretty pumped to be continuing to watch this show, it might not be as pretty and grand as Pailsen Files right now, but I like the post war scenario they have built up here. If nothing else it sure beats “everything ends at peace” theme that is more common these days, hopefully they will make good on showing how the post war period can be just as shitty as the war which preceded it if not worse.

Damn team killers…

Seems Purple Scopedogs lose out to Green Scopedogs, who in turn lose to Green Scopedogs with Red Shoulders…

Chirico smelled something rotten from the start, making him smarter than most of these n00bs who pilot Gundams.

I wonder if Chirico is going to pwn his ass later.

I guess they were keen on getting CASH FOR GOLD.

AHHHHHHH RUN FOR THE HILLS THAT BALD MAN HAS BOSOMS! WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE?!

Man what a mess.

Chirico only lied because he was too embarrassed to admit he likes bald women.

Best part it was that it was a suppository.

OH SHI- its the Earth Cult from LOGH…

LOL putting your money where your mouth is, did he have a jijirium grill to go with that?

BOOM, headshot…

Nothing surpasses the bond between Chirico and his Scopedog.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, and I’m going to miss this series that I’ve enjoyed and come to love over the past four months or so. There was so much to enjoy in the 36 episodes, from the aerial combat to the love triangle, to the memories of those lost and the little technical touches in the background. In these last episodes we see the conclusion of the Kanjin Insurgency and of the love triangle between Misa, Hikaru, and Minmay, as well as hints of what is to come in the future of the Terrans (both human and Zentradi.) So here’s to the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross! Following the regular recap I’ll be sending off what has become one of my favorite series with a massive image/commentary spam of my favorite moments from all the episodes. It’s my long, long goodbye to a series I’ve had tons of fun with. Thank you to everyone who’s watched along with me or remembered a favorite series alongside my posts, from the old veterans to the relative Macross newbies like myself.

A Quick Announcement: I will be out of town next Wednesday, but the week after that I will watch and blog ‘Macross: Do You Remember Love?’ and attempt to make the Macross Meal that I mentioned once way back in an earlier post to accompany it. As for future retroblogging, my plans are this: while I would love to do the entirety of the Macross series as retroblogging posts, I don’t want it to monopolize all my blogging of old series so I won’t go on and do Macross 7. However, after DYRL I will be blogging Macross Zero and Macross Plus since those are both shorter, and because I feel a responsibility to try and help my fellow mecha fans through this Winter of Our Discontent (more like year, but anyway…) I plan on watching the remaining series in the Macross saga in in-universe chronological order, so after I watch/blog those I will move on to Macross 7. Maybe I’ll make one post every few episodes or something like that, but I plan to blog a non-Macross series after the OVAs. I’m open to suggestions on what that future series should be, if you have a recommendation.

Cooking moe done right.

There can be only one!

He remembers what he should be doing, yet fails anyway.

No, it’s not.

Hikaru and Misa have a date planned, suggested by Hikaru, to go to the forest area park and have a picnic when Minmay calls Hikaru out of the blue. She wants him to come right away to see her in Highlander City, and Hikaru reluctantly agrees to go as Minmay prods him to forsake his promise to meet up with Misa. Naturally I raged at his continued spinelessness, but I calmed myself, resolute in the belief that my OTP, possessing righteousness and True Love, would eventually win the day. Nothing like trolling your audience close to the last episode, right Kawamori? RIGHT?! Once Hikaru flies out to the city he meets a disguised Minmay and the two head to a café. They talk for a while, but then Kaifun comes in, apparently sober now, and says that work for Minmay has suddenly come up and forces her to leave, though not before she gives him an extra long scarf as a gift, intending him to share it with her when it’s worn. Misa, meanwhile, is still waiting at an outdoor café for Hikaru, that indecisive son of a…

The sideline commentary continues, and this guy takes a different, but still wrong approach. You can’t win at their teasing game, same as you don’t fight the US in straight up battle and expect to win.

Everybody in the café gettin tipsy (everybody in the café getting tipsy).

Kaifun’s douchebaggery is useful, for once.

Timing man, timing. Use this line a little later in the story after they’re a confirmed couple.

Hikaru starts driving back to the airport when he finds a UN truck blocking the road. Apparently there has been a Zentradi attack at the airport, and despite the soldier’s protests Hikaru drives straight for the scene. Once there, he talks to the local forces and manages to get a Destroid for himself, leading the counterattack. Tear gas is fired into the Zentradi forces while their battlepods are disabled and the unarmored troops knocked out with fists and rifle butts. Once the incident is under control, Hikaru races back to Macross City, now in full guilt-mode for abandoning his promise with Misa. As he should be.

Making a mess of things again, though Hikaru managed to prevent his plane from being destroyed.

Hikaru cobbled together a team from the local defense forces to put an end to things, with only a few Destroids and one wayward Valkyrie.

The infamous Destroid Spank attack.

They need some giant-sized cuffs.

You’re pushing your luck with me too, Hikaru.

After arriving back and running to meet Misa, who is still waiting, Hikaru gets back and apologizes, and Misa in her nearly limitless forgiveness accepts the apology. But I did say nearly limitless, because when they’re walking together and sharing the scarf that Minmay intended for herself, a booby trap is discovered. Much as the Supervision Army booby trapped the Macross when it fell to Earth, Minmay has added a diabolical feature to the scarf: her and Hikaru’s initials embroidered into the middle of the scarf with a heart between them. Misa is rightly pissed and leaves Hikaru to stand in the falling snow, hopefully reflecting on his actions. It’s a classic mistake in romance fiction, really, trying to use the gift or object from one love interest with another. Meanwhile Minmay is about to perform a concert, but when she gets on stage she won’t sing, even as the crowd tries to cheer her up by chanting. The concert cancelled, Minmay sits on the edge of the water when Kaifun comes over and has one of I think two moments of decency in the entire series. He questions what she’s singing for and tells her that she still doesn’t care about other people’s feelings. Even he’s had enough of her in her present state, and says that he’s going to leave, at least for now.

And it would’ve been if you had just ditched that scarf.

Ah, so that’s the scarf that Der Langrisser wanted to strangle Hikaru with.

Just not in her anymore.

Minmay needs some tough love if she’s ever going to get herself together again.

Sorry Kaifun, going out on a high note in no way undoes all the BS you’ve caused.

While everyone in more northern climes is preparing for Christmas, Kamjin and his forces are preparing for their own sort of celebrations, repairing a crashed Zentradi gunboat somewhere in near Jaburo (seriously, what a homage/reference to the original Gundam, there was even the lingering shots of the wildlife.) The Genshiken Team have moved onto a more appropriate, if less profitable, job selling model kits, and on their way home they spot Minmay sitting on a swing in a park alone. They try to say hello, but she runs off, turning up later at Hikaru’s door. Even if he wasn’t so indecisive lately, he can’t be blamed for inviting her inside given how cold, snow covered, and obviously distraught she is. There they have something warm to drink while she warms up, but it bodes ill for the future.

Maybe it’s a Gaw?

Their perfect job.

These were two really nice shots, I do love the falling snow background. Also note the contrast in the colors worn. Coincidence? I think not!

It’s already bothering me.

The bridge bunnies, and Misa? How do I get invited to this party?

Christmas Eve is not all carols and celebrations though. Kamjin needs components for the engine of his ship and has found out where they’re being stored. He personally leads several ships to find and seize the parts, and adding some strategy to his usual ‘guns blazing’ way of doing things, the UN team going out to intercept them is ambushed by Laplamiz’s forces who were waiting in the wreckage of a crashed ship. Millia and Max are leading the effort and engage in aerial combat with the Queadluuns, Millia and her old CO recognizing each other in the middle of it all. Eventually Kamjin finds the parts, and to prevent his forces from being pursued he orders the detonation of several incendiary bombs that were prepositioned in the city, forcing Hikaru and the others to return and help with firefighting and evacuations.

I’m not sure how any of those insurgents managed to survive a fight with Max AND Millia fighting against them.

I wish they had done more with Laplamiz and Millia in this scene apart from just the quick recognition of each other.

YES! Make the pineapple salad of your love, for its end is at hand!

The Apsalus?

Damn Kamjin and his micloned supporters. Large areas of the city ended up being destroyed by the fires he started.

Even through all of this, the residents of the city managed to keep their spirits up through Christmas Eve night. Carolers and then masses of people began singing Christmas carols, and friends and families still spent the night together in relative calm and happiness. Minmay ambushes Hikaru this night too, preparing dinner and cake for the two at his home. By the time he returns its all ready, and he falls for her ploy, even responding to her moving in for a kiss. Unacceptable!

I NEED a Macross Christmas ornament!

Still together as the oddest couples in this show.

Cuteness.

I can’t stand it, I know she planned it!

WWHHHHYYYYYYY!?

The next day Misa is standing, looking out at the city and despairing over having overheard Minmay asking Hikaru if she could stay at his place when once again Claudia, Savior of True Love appears before her and consoles her. Also helping to turn the day around for Misa is Captain Global calling her in to offer her command of a ship that will be built as the first of many to take humanity to the stars. With the Zentradi and the Supervision Army still out there, Earth cannot be the only place where humanity exists. Even though she had been contemplating leaving the military since she is having a hard time seeing Hikaru all the time, this changes her mind. On her way home she stops at Hikaru’s and makes a confession covering pretty much everything in the love triangle. She tells Minmay that she likes her songs, and while she can’t contribute to culture like Minmay, she can at least protect it. And then she comes out and tells Hikaru that she loves him before she leaves, and Hikaru starts to chase after her even with Minmay shouting at him not to go.

Claudia will not let this outrage stand! And ‘steal’ is the correct word.

I request assignment to this ship.

“Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever.” – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

He needed it spelled out for him.

Can’t stop the love Minmay!

Just as this happens Kamjin’s repaired ship finishes sneaking its way into Macross City and launches a barrage of missiles. With explosions going on all around them, Hikaru runs after Misa with Minmay chasing him and begging him to go with her to the shelters. At this point Hikaru seems to finally shake off the remnants of his on-again-off-again thing for Minmay amid the reality of the situation and realizes that when things get real and infatuation fades, Misa is the one he really wants by his side. That she’s the one who he shares his ideals and way of thinking with, and that she’s the one who will be there for him. The two make their way to their stations, and not long after that Kamjin’s ship fires its main cannon at the Macross, scoring a direct, but not crippling, hit. Capt. Global orders the bridge crew back to the old bridge and orders the Macross up for one last flight in defense of the city.

The moment of truth.

Hikaru leaves Minmay for the good, though he tells her that she’s never alone if she has her music.

Nice, realistic aerial shot from Hikaru’s VF-1S. .

“These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They’re back!”

The Macross rises once more to defend humanity and its Zentradi allies! In one of the most badass scenes possibly ever the bridge crew reunites with their Captain on the bridge of the old ship and prepares to launch. The Valkyrie squadrons too are doing their part, with Hikaru making a daring strafing run on the enemy ship. All the while the opening theme plays in the background. Words can not adequately describe the pure win of this scene. I had to turn my speakers way up and watch it twice myself.

The gang’s back together.

HELL YEAH!

Makura no sora wo tsuranuite…

MAKUROSU! MAKUROSU!!!

The main cannon is then fired after the last Valkyries get out of the line of fire, but it’s not a direct, head-on hit. The ship survives intact enough to continue heading towards the Macross, with Kamjin and Laplamiz dead set on ramming it. The two have a surprisingly touching last few moments together, at first promising each other to survive and ‘make culture’ afterwards, though knowing that they’re on a one way trip. It’s probably the best way for things to have ended for the two of them, so completely unable to adapt to a peaceful life. While they killed a lot of people and caused a lot of problems, I can’t help but feel impressed with the purity and dignity of the manner in which they went out. Their ship doesn’t hit the Macross in the center like they had hoped, but their ship takes a good portion of the upper right part of the ship out before it crashes to the ground. Kamjin and Laplamiz, you were bastards, but I still tip my hat to you.

The last word of the Macross.

Almost enough.

Going out like a badass.

As deserved as it was, it’s still kind of noble and sad.

With the threat eliminated, Hikaru lands and meets Misa and as Minmay approaches we’re given closure on the love triangle. Hikaru has chosen Misa definitively by this point, and Minmay makes her future intentions clear: she’s going to move to a city somewhere far from him to try and rediscover why she sings and for whose sake. Misa offers to take her with them when the first colony ship departs for the Earth, so that her songs can be heard wherever humanity goes, and the two shake hands and reconcile their differences. Minmay gives Hikaru a goodbye kiss on the cheek, and walks away singing, leaving my OTP victorious the happy couple to start their lives together. Minmay goes out with class and determination to make her own future, and I respect that.

Someone to come back to.

A wise decision, especially considering what happened to Minmay when she lost sight of her goals.

Misa, gracious in victory.

And thus ends one of the greatest rivalries of all time.

I’ll allow it.

SUPER DIMENSIONAL DDAAAAWWWWW!

What a satisfying ending to such a great show! I’m at a loss for words to describe how much I enjoyed this.

This verse has ended. The Macross completed its final mission, its last fiery breath securing the future of all Terrans. Many were the conflicts ended on that day. And thus did Minmay return to her passion and Hikaru and Misa begin their lives together. Let the next verse begin.

Final Thoughts: – What a ride! Macross now takes its place with a select few science fiction anime in my list of favorites. As much of a Gundam fan as I am, it was a much better viewing than the original Gundam series, only falling behind it in one or two areas. While I wouldn’t say that I’m a convert to Macross over Gundam, this show is definitely on par with my favorite Gundam series (0083 and 08^th MS Team.)

- I enjoyed the almost contradictory featuring of the idea of returning to past times in the last episodes. Minmay used the idea to try and push Hikaru into leaving the military and attempting to recapture their early days, even after so much has changed. And the theme is used differently by Misa and the other members of the Macross crew in their one last fight at the controls of the Macross. In both it was a simultaneous remembrance of what was good about the past and the futility of trying to go back to how things were. In the latter case it was acknowledged, the crew knew the Macross wouldn’t stay in the air long and stoically fought their last fight, while with Minmay it was a delusional and unrealistic attempt to revive and maintain past qualities. With the final fight of the Macross (and the idea of the last, exhausting fight in general) it’s almost a celebration of the temporary nature of reviving the past.

- My gripes about the love triangle being stretched out a few too many episodes after it probably should have been resolved, it did have a very satisfying and complete ending to it. And oh yeah: both of my favorite couples got together in the end!

- MISA INVICTUS!

- It’s interesting to see two different approaches to the technology and mechanical design between this and the original Gundam. While the level of technological detail in later Gundams certainly beats that in this series, it’s too early for me to say that one does it better than the other because I have yet to watch everything between the original series and Frontier. But Macross definitely took a more holistic approach to its technology and equipment. The Macross operated like an aircraft carrier with shuttles and radar planes in addition to its compliment of Valkyrie fighters and Destroid ground units. There was more attention paid to the ground crew and maintenance areas as well. What the original Gundam does have over Macross is the attention to mechanical detail and the explanation thereof. These things might have occurred in the background of Macross, but in Gundam things like the magnetic coating upgrade and discussion of mass production plans were told to the audience.

- Despite the series being shortened and then lengthened during its run, there were very few throw away episodes. Only two, if I remember correctly, actually felt non-relevant. Everything else fit the story and was enjoyable to watch.

- Thank you again to everyone who had read these posts and to those who have commented. Having other people go through the show with me had made it that much more enjoyable, and the comments were interesting, entertaining, and exercised excellent spoiler discipline. Thank you one and all!

SDF Macross: Favorite Moments and Shots Image-spam

Hanging out with lecherous Roy.

Hikaru’s first flight.

Misa, master of teasing from the start.

Fish heads, fish heads.

Heading off to the ambush in the ring zone.

Misa and Hikaru after the Mars Base skirmish. Simply amazing, even if the animation is old.

The new recruits.

The Armored Valkyrie, the sexiest Valkyrie without a FAST pack.

The start of Minmay’s career.

Indeed.

Max throwing Britai out into space. Probably his most badass fight.

Britai and his wrench to the head move.

The Zentradi are introduced to culture: Misa and Hikaru’s first kiss.

Showing that she cares. This moment went a  long way towards making Hikaru realize that she cares about him, and for Misa to be able to admit to caring.

The beginning of great things for her and her target.

Roy downing another enemy craft while going right into the DANGER ZONE.

A man of many talents, and GAR right till the end.

On that day a great man was lost to all, and most importantly to Claudia.

The misfortunes of war struck down veteran and rookie alike.

The Omni-Directional Barrier overload explosion above Ontario.

Returning to base after losing Kakizaki and the city below. Something about the lighting and colors just communicates the feeling of emptiness even out of context.

Another moment of win for my OTP.

My favorite of Minmay’s songs, being sung for the first time.

Memories of better times for Claudia. Though she spent her time afterwards making sure that Misa and Hikaru wouldn’t repeat the mistakes that caused her and Roy to only come together near the end.

A smart enemy is an interesting enemy.

Hikaru in berserker mode after seeing Kaifun and Minmay together after the reversed Daedalus Attack.

A great use of a visual portrayal of past events as they’re being recounted by Misa.

My favorite sequence from the series, concluding a great scene. Visually, narratively, emotionally, and thematically it was among the best I’ve ever seen.

The game of love.

Claudia speaks the truth.

Max, smooth mofo that he is, turns a fight to the death into a chance for love.

Ranks right up their with the Colasaur-Mannequin wedding.

How could I not include this one?

A kiss at the end of the world.

Misa at her reunion with and rescue by Hikaru during the climactic battle of the Earth-Zentradi Conflict.

A new day rises.

At the war’s end.

Two years later there is still hope amidst the devastation.

A Misa masterstroke.

And then she outdoes herself again with her envelope full of pictures to compete with those of Minmay.

Peace isn’t easy, nor is it the end of things.

Oh Millia…

Misa didn’t hesitate on this one, she went right in for the kill.

Another couple ‘making culture’.

Misa tells Hikaru to do his damn job, and if that helps her out, then so much the better.

One of the ground crew shots that made the whole mechanical aspect of the show so much more complete than it would have been without.

Most men wouldn’t object.

Roy’s drunken confession, remembered and retold by Claudia to Misa.

Claudia’s plan realized.

Kamjin’s insurgency makes its first coordinated attack, choosing to take hostages at a Minmay concert, and while this is significant, for most of these episodes the conflict shifts to the relationship battlefield. Hikaru and Minmay being reunited brings out some intense jealousy in Misa, but even when things appear bleak Claudia’s intervention and wise counsel helps to set things back on the right track. Despite Hikaru’s temporary bout of douchebaggery and Misa’s understandable if a bit sharp-edged jealousy, Claudia knows all and sees all in the realm of romance and really shines as a friend and confidant to Misa. And we even get to hear the story of how she and Roy met as she uses it to illustrate some important lessons to Misa.

Still lacking for arms and vehicles, Kamjin’s insurgents are a mix of mechanized and infantry forces.

Storming into the concert hall, Kamjin’s forces overpower the mostly Zentradi audience and take Minmay and Kaifun hostage.

No one would really mind if this hostage wasn’t recovered.

Kamjin holds Minmay responsible for what he sees as the degradation of his people.

Capt. Global considers Kamjin’s ransom demand of a warship while smoking his disturbing looking pipe.

Still on patrol after finding and eliminating a now abandoned insurgent base, Hikaru, Misa, and their teams are told about the kidnapping. Hikaru gets all flustered when he hears that Minmay is one of the hostages, and Misa reprimands him for acting unprofessionally about the matter, venting possibly a little too strongly in her frustration. A plan is developed to rescue the hostages, a joint operation between Hikaru’s team and the 103^rd Destroid Squadron, and before setting off Hikaru and Misa argue again about Minmay’s effect on Hikaru. It is a rather strong reaction, especially given how minor to nonexistent the interaction between Hikaru and Minmay has been lately. Fortunately his emotions don’t get in the way of his ability to do his job during the rescue itself.

Well really only one of them matters.

Get with the program Hikaru or it won’t just be that control panel that gets a Misa fist taken to it.

*takes a deep breath and counts to ten* It’s okay, it’s just the writers trying to find a way to stretch out the love triangle until the end of the series.

Seriously, this is most unprofessional Hikaru.

One of several cool ground crew shots in these episodes.

Back in the concert hall Minmay and Kaifun are being kept inside a cage made of Zentradi forks while their captors get drunk and act like the unprofessional rebel scum that they are. Kaifun tries talking once more to their captors, to predictably little effect, though it does cause Kamjin to bring up that he doesn’t need culture because he can make his own. ‘Making culture’ to him meaning kissing Laplamiz right in front of everyone. A rather long kiss is interrupted by a distress signal from what appears to be some Zentradi who wanted to join Kamjin’s uprising asking for help. Kamjin, tired of waiting, departs with most of his group, leaving behind only three guards without Regults inside the hall and three Regults outside.

Can’t really blame him for trying in this situation, but it’s true that his talk offers no solutions for anyone. Ever.

‘Making culture’

Kamjin feels like making culture.

I’ll never understand how these two got together, but they do provide the lulz.

The call to Kamjin for help is just part of a clever ruse set up by the NUN forces, the Zentradi asking for help in fact on their side. Scouts on the edge of the city observe Kamjin’s forces leaving the concert hall and alert the 103^rd, which is waiting with its large force of Destroid Monsters to ambush the insurgents. Meanwhile Hikaru’s team makes short work of three Regults left outside the building and overpowers the three unarmored Zentradi inside to rescue the hostages unharmed. The plan went off brilliantly, with only a handful of Kamjin’s men making it out of the ambush area, and the hostages were never in the line of fire. Though you wouldn’t think that if you asked Kaifun.

I love the idea of cigarettes as tall as a human.

Kamjin riding a captured Destroid Monster, trying to act like a cowboy. As we in America know well from the past administration, wannabe cowboys make terrible leaders.

Excellent use of scouts in service to a larger plan. The use of actual planning and tactics in Macross continues to impress.

Kamjin wanted to act like a cavalryman, now he gets to make the Charge of the Light Brigade. “Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell…”

Hikaru’s team easily takes down the remaining Regults. In a planetary environment the Valkyries’ agility and ability to fly gives it a huge advantage over the Regults.

After the area is secured the hostages meet up with the NUN troops outside the concert hall. Kaifun continues to be an ungrateful moron, trying to criticize Misa and her operation despite its emphasis on the hostages’ safety. Minmay, to her credit, calls him out on this and defends the NUN forces action before Hikaru lands his Valkyrie nearby. Hikaru is so excited to see Minmay after so long (half a year apparently), that he forgets himself and the two run to hug each other. Out at the ambush point, meanwhile, Kamjin is trying to fight his way out of a losing battle and crashes his way towards Laplamiz’s nearly disabled unit, and once he’s sure she’s safe, orders a retreat.

They’re just saving your worthless ass all the time.

Would he have preferred that they’d have been given a warship and use it to bombard a city full of civilians?

Oh sure a hug. What’s the kiss count now, Minmay? Misa 2, Minmay ½ (that crazy, ‘kiss me before we die’ thing only gets half credit in my book.)

Kamjin is obviously concerned for her. Though this shot shows how off the size of the different battlepods vs the size of a Zentradi outside one is just a bit off.

Kamjin’s retreating forces are still on the loose, and when Misa is informed of this she uses the chance to accomplish both legitimate military and personal jealousy ends by ordering Hikaru to get back in his Valkyrie and help hunt down the survivors. Hikaru gives her an attitude after being interrupted, and even throws down his helmet like a little child in protest. Then Misa asks him if he’s a flight leader or not and finally shames him into returning to his duty. It may have come off as a little harsh, but seriously, it’s Hikaru’s job and letting enemy forces go to fight another day just so he can hug Minmay is no good excuse. Minmay then chases his VF-1S as he takes off, Misa smiling at this as the sun rises, knowing it to be a metaphor for Minmay’s future: always chasing and never catching.

Damn right.

Pilot, get back in that Valkyrie and do your duty! I for one did not feel that this was harsh in the slightest. Hikaru has a job to do.

Your commanding officer will tell you when you’ve done enough! And as for it serving the great good of Hikaru X Misa, that’s just a happy coincidence.

Minmay, endlessly chasing under a shadowy sky, while the sun shines beautifully on Misa. I approve of this symbolism.

Some time after the operation concludes Misa is sitting alone at a table wondering if she was too harsh towards Hikaru and if she let her jealousy get in the way of her role as a leader. But just as she’s despairing of this Claudia shows up with a gift of some high quality tea, intending it to be used as a pretext to bring her together with Hikaru. Claudia once again shows how great of a friend she is, and how smart she is in figuring out those around her, and takes it upon herself to set things right between Misa and Hikaru. Hikaru returns from his mission, and is told that Misa wants to speak with him. Still in a bad mood about what happened, he throws her his report and then starts to leave just as Misa is about to apologize to him. She gets angry and defensive in return, and Hikaru responds by sinking to one of his lowest points since the start of the series when he tries to ask Vanessa out for coffee as a way to hurt Misa. She’s caught off guard at first, then recovers and tells him that this is inappropriate, especially because Misa is in love with him, which he SOMEHOW STILL DOESN’T GET.

Claudia, ever there to provide help in time of need, now descends, like compassionate Venus, to help along the love of her friends.

Another nice ground crew shot. Makes me want to get a VF-1S model and some appropriately scaled ground crew models and put them together as a scene. I wonder if I can find some 1/72 scale ground crew…?

The ends justify the means!

Hikaru, me glad that you’ve accumulated a lot of favor in my eyes, because this is pretty damn low.

He’s the only one who doesn’t realize this. Like, the only one in all the remnants of humanity.

The bridge bunnies then have a side conversation about all of this down on the floor level of the command center, kind of one of those classical theatrical elements where the minor characters provide the commentary and some comic relief to the main characters’ serious drama. Vanessa restates her disbelief as to how dense Hikaru really is, while Kim and Shammy are both generally in favor of one or both of the two to just admit their feelings openly already. And we find out who the people bullying that pathetic looking guy from last week’s episodes: the bridge bunnies! What a pathetic guy. He gets to work with three interesting, friendly, attractive, and intelligent (well, ok, maybe that last one doesn’t apply to Shammy) coworkers, and somehow always manages to annoy them. Come on man, the Genshiken Team got on their good side and you can’t?

If they could identify and replicate whatever it is that comprises Hikaru’s skull, they could use it for armor piercing rounds like they do with depleted uranium. They’d probably be even better, Hikaru must have something denser than DU lining that head of his.

Frustrating watching from the sidelines? Tell me about it!

Hey it could work. Especially if she wants to take the Miwako approach and “Belittle him. Point at him and laugh…and comfort him. [and then] I want to be appreciated.”

That’s about the oddest threat I’ve ever heard. But now that “Shammy is rip your pants off awesome” comment that was made by a commenter in one of my early posts finally makes sense!

If you’d work yourself into the conversation more naturally you wouldn’t have this problem, loser.

The rain is coming down as Misa walks back to the officers’ area of the city, and she hesitates despite the downpour outside of Hikaru’s house. But as she stands there about to give up on her chance, Claudia shows up again and hands her an umbrella. She then invites Misa in for tea, though Misa is in more of an alcohol mood after her spat with Hikaru and the two switch to wine. Though I won’t call this a violation of the Tytania Rule because she’s simply having her celebratory wine in anticipation of the victory that Claudia is planning. Plus it serves Claudia’s purposes of letting Misa open up her feelings. The two talk, and a few houses down Hikaru lays in bed, also having doubts about whether he was too harsh and contemplates his feelings in general.

Claudia the guardian angel.

All is proceeding according to Claudia’s design.

“It warms the blood, adds luster to the eyes, and wine and love have ever been allies.” – Ovid

Hikaru starts getting his act together.

While Misa sits in Claudia’s living room, Claudia imparts some of her wisdom to her about love. Firstly, Misa should be glad that the man she loves is still alive. Then she goes on to tell Misa the story of how she and Roy met, illustrating the potential misunderstandings and complications that may be involved in expressing one’s feelings. During the Unification Wars Roy and Claudia were stationed at the same out of the way base where Claudia first fell for Roy. However his cocky ways and tendency to show off cooled her feelings despite his attempts to make up. But later when they were both assigned to South Ataria Island he admitted to her one night that he would act they way he did because he was trying to cover up his fear with jovial actions, but that at the end of the day the only one he wanted to tell this truth to was her.

Smooth right from the start.

Hmmm, sounds like someone we know…

Roy used to party hard.

Yes, this is reasonable Roy…*facepalm*

The Colasour approach.

Half drunk confession on a rainy night. Very Roy.

After sitting at home considering recent events, Hikaru runs off looking for Misa, intending to apologize and make up. She is still at Claudia’s when he goes by her home, but rather than give up and have one of those excruciating cases of bad timing that’s so common in romantic drama, he does the smart thing and calls the command center and then Claudia to find out where Misa is. Claudia picks up the phone when he calls and tells him to head over. She then gracefully nudges Misa out the door when Hikaru shows up so the two can walk home together. Keikaku doori. Just as planned, the two quickly reconcile on their walk and Misa invites Hikaru to have some of Claudia’s tea together. The couple walks off into the night smiling and happy together. All is right with the world.

Fret not Misa, for benevolent Claudia watches over your love.

Claudia’s skills are great.

That’s ok, because if it was too sweet then you’d put salt in it.

Final Thoughts: – Claudia really shines in the latter of the two episodes this week. She’s incredibly insightful about the situation and turns around what could have been a major setback for Misa and Hikaru into another opportunity for them to spend time together and show their feelings for each other. It made me supremely happy for the Minmay moment in the first episode to be undone so quickly. Claudia is definitely one of my favorite supporting characters in an anime series.

- Whenever I’m about to rage at Hikaru acting dense and still acting like he’s as into Minmay as he was at the start of the show, I just have to remind myself that the writers are trying to draw out the romance aspect until the end. Though that just makes me rage at the writers a bit, since with so few episodes left there’s no reason to draw it out like this. This is probably the only time so far in the series where I’ve had a significant problem with the writing, it’s just way too forced how the love triangle is being kept on life support. Pull the plug already! There’s plenty of other things that can be resolved in the remaining episodes. Despite their interference, I remain confident in victory for my OTP.

- I’ve been warned by my readers about some poor animation quality in some episodes, but I never really noticed it much until this episode. I seriously checked to see if these episodes, especially 32, where in a lower resolution than the rest. Still, it didn’t get in the way of my enjoying the episodes.

There continue to be reasons for both hope and pessimism for the future of the Terran Zentradi with integration and alienation both continuing in their separate ways. The mission to capture the Zentradi weapons factory satellite is launched, another joint operation between humans and Terran Zentradi under the New United Nations government. But while this exemplary instance of cooperation is going on in space, back on Earth Zentradi rioters continue to spring up and are now being organized by Kamjin and Laplamiz. Further complicating the situation is the discovery by Exedol of the true origins of the Zentradi, the Supervision Army, and how humans fit into all of this. Everyone is certainly living in interesting times.

The scene reminds me very much of the Cyclop Team attack on the EFSF base in Gundam 0080. This shuttle also manages to launch without incident. (thanks Chinese subtitled version for getting around the Youtube copyright material ban.)

An excellent example of how the human-Zentradi partnership can work.

My man is back! And he’s learned  the very typical, somewhat formal Japanese greeting routine. He must have studied from JSL.

They brought their baby in a hardpoint mounted cargo container? The VF-1S does have a back seat you know.

Misa, Claudia, Exedol, Max, Hikaru, and Millia launch from Macross City and meet up with Britai’s command ship for the factory takeover operation. Happily Britai survived the final battle against Bodolzza’s fleet and transports the Valkyrie teams in his ship. Along the way the human officers assigned to the ship have a get together where Max and Millia’s child Komillia (which reminds me of the Musai/Komusai naming convention of the Zeon cruiser from the original Gundam) quickly becomes the center of attention. At first Millia is guarded when Misa asks to hold the baby, but then agrees and throws Komillia  at Misa, not worried since she’s build Zentradi tough. Max and Hikaru then have a side conversation about how Misa looks like she wants to have a baby of her own, Max once more prodding Hikaru towards her.

B-dog is back and looking cool as ever!

Ace pilot, skilled cook, cunning conversationalist. Max is truly a renaissance man.

LOL. Yes, go make one. It’s like baking a cake or building a model if you take Millia’s word for it.

It doesn’t even phase Max anymore.

I’m not even sure what to say Max. Devotion? Control by your wife? Going for a kawaii maid look?

Walking back from the party Claudia, Hikaru, and Misa talk for a bit and Misa invites them in for tea. Claudia decides to turn in for the night and like the great friend that she is gives Hikaru the heads up that she’s trying to give him and Misa some time together. Back in her own room she rests and is still missing Roy a great deal, while Hikaru awaits Misa’s return in her quarters. Apparently he’s not the only one still holding on too tightly to the past and he sees a picture of Misa and Ribal there. When she returns she notices him looking at the picture, but then goes on to the tea and chatting. But before she can tell Hikaru something important an alarm sounds. The ship has encountered a derelict Supervision Army ship. While Misa wants to investigate Britai is firmly against taking any risks while they’re en route to their objective.

How thick to Claudia and Max have to lay it on for you to get it Hikaru? At least he’s lucky to have such good friends looking out for him.

Poor Claudia, still so affected even years later.

Hikaru needs to learn from Misa’s tactics and respond to this with his own Photo Attack!

They are wretched little things.

Seriously, bad timing.

After folding again the ship defolds into the area near the factory satellite. Britai hails the commander, and the two seem to know each other from the past. While he demands the factory’s surrender, its commander scoffs at the idea until a rapid fire culture attack is unleashed upon them. First ‘Zero G Love’ is broadcast into their ships, followed by Misa ordering Hikaru to kiss her on screen for the Zentradi to see. Hikaru is reluctant for some bizarre reason but Misa goes in for the kill without hesitation. Go Misa! Following up these attacks are Max and Millia bursting into the command room of the factory and showing off their child to the soldiers, further confusing the Zentradi forces and making them unable to effectively respond. Then N.U.N. Valkyries, Battlepods, and Fighters are launched to lay waste to the fleet defending the factory. While folding the factory is tricky, the team manages to make it back to Earth with their prize.

More great teamwork.

Give up now before Britai comes over there and jumps down from the ceiling with a lead pipe to your face!

By the power vested in me by the NUN Spacy, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Hey, Captain Picard performed weddings.

Misa has a determined look to her. No hesitation this time.

Misa, you may now kiss your bride.

Oh if only Minmay could see this.

After returning to Earth with the factory, production begins but quickly encounters problems. Most of the machinery was damaged by Supervision Army attacks and even cannibalizing the broken machines doesn’t leave enough spare parts to keep the rest functional for very long. There are other Zentradi fleets out there, and the Terran Zentradi also warn of the Supervision Army as a possible threat. Internal threats exist as well in the form of continued Zentradi rioters. Not long after returning Hikaru is dispatched to stop a group of Zentradi from stealing a Miclonization/Maclonization machine. While this could just be looting, this act is part of a wider plan orchestrated by Kamjin.

Seems like it can only build Regults, but they’re better than nothing.

Word of Kaifun’s douchebaggery towards Minmay has traveled far.

Misa will not tolerate word of that wench in her command room.

You’d think that by watching modern anime series. Seriously, that guy that just spoke to her couldn’t relay information on his own?

Having commandeered several flatbed trucks a mix of miclonized and full sized Zentradi attempt to steal the miclonizing device and shoot up the town on their way out.

Even the VF-1S looks like it’s tired of this crap.

In his hideout in the disused Santa’s Workshop, Kamjin makes it a priority to seize the miclonization device that was recaptured by Hikaru’s team. His promise to other Zentradi was to allow them to return to normal size if they joined him, and his position would be undermined if he can’t deliver on that promise. His nascent insurgency is depending on this credibility, so he decides to go secure the device himself. But it appears that Laplamiz may be the real one in charge, manipulating Kamjin with words and displays of affection. Though one must wonder about the extent to which they’ve been affected by culture if physical affection is something that Laplamiz seems to be able to use to sway Kamjin. Back in that same city Hikaru and his team are trying to bring the miclonizing device to a more secure location when Kaifun shows up to ruin everything. He starts inciting the crowd behind him to resist the NUN from moving the device, saying that it’s their right to have it and that they can defend themselves. Minmay meanwhile sits in the car and doesn’t do anything, disappointed in herself for failing to act as she daydreams about Hikaru.

Escalating things is not a concern for Kamjin.

A prisoner of her own indecisiveness.

A less lenient man might have arrested him for attempting to incite a riot. That’s pretty balsy of Hikaru to stand up to the crowd like that outside his Valkyrie, things could have turned ugly very quickly.

Minmay’s wishful thinking.

Hikaru and his team leave the city since they’re so dead set on fending for themselves, but just as he told them another force, larger and better equipped, descends on the city to seize the device. It was moved underground, but that and the small amount of older Destroids only manage to slow down Kamjin’s forces. Before long the device is taken and Kamjin begins allowing miclonized Zentradi to use, swelling his ranks. At NUN HQ Exedol gathers the senior characters to tell them that he has found the link between the protoculture, the Zentradi, and the humans. Terran humans are apparently not the Protoculture, but have been affected by their genetic manipulation to some unknown degree. The Protoculture itself used genetic engineering to create the Zentradi (and apparently the Supervision Army too) for use as soldiers, denying them culture so they would not threaten their creators. It didn’t exactly work out that way. The Protoculture was destroyed by the Zentradi, beginning their untold years of constant warring against the Supervision Army and themselves. This fact is rather discouraging for the Zentradi, who have to face the fact that they were created only to be warriors.

Oh yes, look more cheerful Minmay. Your career is just on the edge of failure, Hikaru has eluded you, and Kaifun is treating you like crap. But other than that there’s plenty to be happy about.

Again, the Tytania rule: wine is for good news and victories, coffee for defeats.

As Exedol put it, the Zentradi now feel as if they are just the ‘dolls of the devil’, their very existence a manipulation.

Destroid PUNCH! The outnumbered and outclassed Destroids still put up a good fight.

The few Valkyries in the city were below ground guarding the device where their mobility was of little use. Kamjin has some impressive new units too. They look like a cross between a Valkyrie, a Queadluun Rae, and certain models of Armored Cores.

As the raid is going on Hikaru and Misa almost have another heart to heart talk and are once again interrupted by outside events. Word comes in of the attack and Hikaru rushes off to his Valkyrie and heads back to the city. There he sees the destruction and blames himself for not forcing the issue and taking the device regardless of the mob that Kaifun stirred up. Kamjin meanwhile plans his next move with Laplamiz lurking in the background. And Minmay gets a quick look at Hikaru before being driven off by Kaifun, wondering to herself why she didn’t try to help him earlier.

Only to the Minmay fans. Otherwise you’re lovely.

Let the hate flow through you Hikaru! The ignorant masses don’t know what’s best for them.

Very nice detail on the half-destroyed Destroid.

US Army? Must have been an early model left over from the Metal Gear program. Also, that’s one fugly car.

Pretty simpleminded, no wonder Laplamiz has him in the palm of her hand.

Final Thoughts: – The thought has crossed my mind before, but the more I watch this two years later arc the more parallels I keep drawing between Macross and Battlestar Galactica, specifically the last 1-2 seasons of BSG. Attempting to integrate the two sides, the remainder of the former enemy that’s not willing to change their ways, there’s a lot in common and I enjoy how it’s done in both series.

- I understand that this is anime and all, but it’s been years now and there still hasn’t been much more than tiny, incremental steps in the relationship aspect of the show, excepting Max and Millia who went the complete opposite route. Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay are still moving very, very slowly.

- Seems like in the next episodes Kamjin’s forces will start attacking. I tend to think that he has less appeal with the content Zentradi, but it could still be awkward asking them to fight their fellow Zentradi.

- I’m kind of hoping that Hikaru indulges in the Dark Side for awhile and starts punching Kaifun in the face when he stirs up trouble again. And as for the rioters, can Valkyries be equipped with rubber bullets and tear gas?

- Speaking of BSG parallels, Kaifun reminds me an awful lot of Tom Zarrick just without the political ambition (so far anyway.)

About two years have passed since the end of the UN-Zentradi conflict and the survivors of its final battle have been rebuilding on Earth as best as they can. A few cities have been rebuilt, the survivors settled, and life goes on for the remnants of humanity and the Zentradi fleets. However not all is well both in the personal lives of some of the characters and in the wider human-Zentradi society. Chafing under the constraints of a peaceful life, several Zentradi lash out at the world around them, while others leave the settlements to either die or become bandits. Not only does this cause social friction and immediate destruction, it’s also leaving a substantial segment of the population disaffected and susceptible to being influenced by demagogues. War is the easy part, now the survivors have to create and manage the peace.

Hikaru patrols the wasteland with his flight, checking for survivors or signs of trouble.

The Zentradi bombardment pretty much sanitized Earth’s surface, but life has a way of hanging on.

Look who’s hiding out here. Durable little things, one survived the bombardment while another managed to survive a colony’s impact on the moon in Zeta Gundam.

The remnants of the war are scattered about all around the Earth.

After Hikaru takes some time looking around on the ground, he thinks back to what Roy told him about the job of being a pilot. For Roy it was about protecting the woman he loved, and Hikaru gets some pangs of guilt about not being into Minmay as much as he thinks he should be and flies off to the city where she is having a concert. Back in (New) Macross City, Misa is cleaning out Hikaru’s prefab house and comes across his photo album. It’s filled with old pictures of Minmay from around the start of the war, and she’s a little indignant about this seeming obsession with a failed love. So before leaving she turns the Minmay poster on his wall upside down! Misa, you’re my hero! Sitting at a café outside she sees Millia and Max with their child and for a second imagines herself and Hikaru in the same position. She leaves after a noisy pair of soldiers show up listening to Minmay on a boombox, but the gears in her head start turning.

Two of the new settlements are built around the largest capital ships that managed to make it to Earth roughly intact. A good idea since building materials are right there, but I’d be kind of afraid to live in Grante under that Zentradi battleship, it looks like it could fall over eventually.

Make him pay you with kisses.

Stop living in the past Hikaru. The future is bright and even cleans up your mess.

Masterstroke!

The Jenius family and their eventual ace-of-aces child makes Misa think about the future.

Over in Grante City Hikaru arrives looking for Minmay and comes upon her and Kaifun talking so he hangs back for the moment. Kaifun is drinking heavily like the pathetic scum that he is, complaining about the meager pay they’re getting for Minmay’s concerts. To which Minmay replies that they shouldn’t even need to be paid when everyone is just scraping by, much less demand more. That spine Minmay’s been starting to grow finally kicks in and she tells Kaifun that they shouldn’t see each other for awhile, and she walks off worried about her situation, Kaifun, and Hikaru. As this happens Hikaru gets an emergency call from Misa in the command center. Three Zentradi have stolen Regults and are attacking a civilian area. She chastises him heavily for going off to meet Minmay while on patrol, her anger at his irresponsibility heightened by the fact that it was Minmay he went to see. Hikaru’s current flight members aren’t the best pilots, but eventually Hikaru shows up and quickly deals with the Zentradi, disabling their Regults. The last image is that of the Zentradi in Hikaru’s gunsight running away from his VF-1S. I have to wonder if he shot them, pursued and apprehended them, or just let them go. I think the last one is unlikely.

Keep drinking Kaifun, maybe you’ll pass out and choke on your own vomit and then we can be rid of you.

You tell that punk ass lush!

Kaifun dumbstruck, though I’d rather he just be struck…by the backhand of a Valkyrie.

Rioting Zentradi began firing indiscriminately, though Hikaru’s flight managed to lure them away from the city.

Wondering why she hasn’t been promoted, she goes on to say she also has better looks than Vanessa. Oh Shammy, we love you but you’re just not the brightest bulb in the box.

Hikaru deals with the Regults Millia style by shooting off their legs. I liked how the fight was in the rain.

After returning to base Hikaru runs into Misa who asks about whether he got to see the person that he went to see. While she’s probably happy that he didn’t talk to Minmay, this is merely a ploy to put him off balance before her true love attack begins. She runs up from behind him and gives him a pink envelope and then walks off smiling. Inside are three ri-god-damn-diculously adorable photos of her to add to his photo album and increase the album’s win levels by over 9000%. There’s a reason why she’s in charge of the Valkyries instead of just in one, for her grasp of strategy and tactics is both broad and deep, in love and in war.

Oh Hikaru, stop your stalking and see the true love that is stalking you!

At first I thought this was one of those high school love letter things. Misa, forgive me for ever doubting that you would stoop to such immature levels. Your direct attack on Minmay’s place in Hikaru’s photo album is both bold and inspiring!

I wonder if it’s Shammy’s pet?

CUTE OVERLOAD!!!

And one serious one to round out the three.

While episode 28 deals primarily with the human characters and what they are doing after the war, episode 29 tells us a lot about the challenges of integrating the Zentradi and how they are trying to deal with living in peace. The opening scene is a skeletal Zentradi corpse propped up against a piece of wreckage. As the winds continue their constant howling its hand falls off, revealing that it was clutching a box with a Minmay doll in it. It’s an amazing sequence, telling you everything about the current Zentradi situation in just a few shots. The deaths from the war and of those who leave the cities, the desperation that comes through from the positioning of the skeleton, and the sad worship of and frustration with human culture seen in the way the soldier was clutching the doll; it’s pretty powerful. Elsewhere the singer who inspired such adoration is having troubles of her own, being unaccustomed to singing before a tiny audience in an exclusive club. Kaifun arranged this gig because the smaller crowd could pay more, but Minmay isn’t even sure what she’s singing for anymore.

Pictures worth thousands of words.

How do you get people who only know war to adjust to a peaceful life? Macross is dealing with some interesting DDR (disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration) issues.

It may be an exclusive club, but it has to be more than a little demoralizing for Minmay to perform before such a small crowd.

So Kaifun, so far you’ve got: Lust for your cousin, Envy of Hikaru, Pride for encouraging people who need it not to take military assistance, Gluttony for alcohol, and now Greed when trying to get even more out of people who have little. Just need some Sloth and Wrath and your damnation will be complete.

Minmay had enough of Kaifun’s douchebaggery and goes back to Nyan Nyan in Macross City to stay the night with her relatives. She’s glad to see them, but afterwards she goes into her room where the repaired walls remind her of Hikaru. She takes out the medal he gave her and for a moment thinks that he’s calling for her, only to find an empty street outside her window. The next day she runs into the Genshiken Team, who have now taken up jobs as laundry cleaners. They’re overjoyed to see her and this cheers her up a bit. Though shortly afterwards she sees Hikaru and Misa walking together and chatting. When he stops to tell Misa that he added the pictures of her to the album he turns just enough to make eye contact with Minmay, who breaks out in tears and runs away. Hikaru and Misa then chase after her, but she doesn’t stop.

At least some of the Zentradi have managed to make new lives for themselves.

Maybe it’s the way she’s dressing lately, but Minmay is certainly looking more like an adult lately.

Sucks to be you.

While I’m not on Minmay’s side or anything, I think Noe would consider these to be True Tears. They are however, futile.

Minmay and the pursuing Misa and Hikaru then run right into another incident with Zentradi that are unable to adjust to life in peacetime. Two Zentradi have started smashing cars and are arguing with the mayor and his wife. Another Zentradi tries to calm them down, but he’s pushed to the street by one of the rioters. Hikaru tries to defuse the situation, just as four Destroids show up to enforce the peace. But despite getting flicked by the finger of one of the Zentradi, Hikaru calls for the Destroids to hold their fire. His act of bravery seems to get through to one of the Zentradi, but with something of a regretful look in his eyes he just says ‘so long’ to Hikaru and starts leaving town with his accomplice.

Amuro Rey Zentradi is not adjusting well to peace.

Why are the missile pods on opposite sides with these two? Cost cutting or actual reason?

Looking down the barrel of a gun, son of a gun.

Hikaru being GAR for peace.

It seems my fears about the Zentradi’s unrealistic expectations were right.

It is in this set of circumstances that two plans are being set in motion. Kamjin and Laplamiz meet in Kamjin’s command ship buried under snow near one of the poles. There, they discuss a plan to recruit all the disaffected Zentradi into a force and then probably make trouble for the rest of the humans and Terran Zentradi. Meanwhile in Macross City Archivist Exedol and Commander in Chief Global brief Hikaru, Misa, Millia, and Max on a plan to seize a Zentradi manufacturing satellite. The extent of the entire Zentradi force is unknown, and Earth will need the ability to build more ships should another Zentradi fleet arrive to try and determine what happened to the last one.

Always the hothead.

For shame Laplamiz. What would Millia think if she knew you were involved in this?

He couldn’t have picked a more able team.

The episode ends with the same corpse from the start. This problem isn’t going away any time soon.

Final Thoughts: – Having the show deal in such detail with the reconstruction and reintegration of both sides is very interesting and a welcome change from most anime series. It’s also personally interesting to me since so much of what I study is post-conflict situations.

- I’m wondering where Captain Britai is. Unless I missed something I don’t believe they showed his death during episode 27. I hope he’s still around, he needs to Brght-slap some sense into Laplamiz and the other malcontents.

- The threat of future Zentradi attacks hasn’t gone away, and I’m wondering what the rest of the Zentradi are thinking at this point.

- Minmay is redeeming herself and is something of a tragic figure. Hopefully things turn out well for her in the end…just not with Hikaru!

- I absolutely love time skips in series, such as the one in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, because it gives you a much more complete view of the world and the characters. However I was a little surprised that little progress seemed to be made on the love story aspect of Macross during the past years.

Given the grand scale of the events of episode 27, I felt it would be best to just do a one episode post this week. Preparations began among the Macross-Britai fleet last time as the main Zentradi force began to defold into Sol system, and now the battle begins. All the various resources of the Macross, Britai fleet, and UN Spacy are at the ready, but the scale of the incursion is massive. Bodolzza even brings the entire headquarters fortress WITH HIM for the battle along with millions of ships and countless soldiers. With the stage set, events occur on both civilizational and personal levels that will forever change the lives of everyone involved.

Ready for the fight.

Before getting into the cockpit himself, Hikaru tells Minmay that he always loved her and wishes her well with Kaifun. No regrets before battle.

Everyone aboard the Macross-Britai fleet ships prepares. For the first time we get to see a little bit of the inside of the Destroids. I wasn’t even positive that they were piloted before now.

UN HQ is preparing as well, with Misa directing the deployment of Earth-based Valkyrie squadrons.

The UN Space Cartography Department leaves something to be desired unless there were massive sealevel increases that somehow didn’t touch Japan. They’re also not the only powerful international organization to forget about Africa (Australia and most of SE Asia is noticeably missing too).

As Hikaru gets into his flightsuit and prepares to launch, Minmay comes to see him again. She still wants to talk about what Hikaru said to her, starting to say that she just thought of him as a friend but trailing off like she has more to say. But Hikaru calmly and without any sign of emotional distress, tells her that it wouldn’t have worked out. Even in the confines of one ship, they’ve been living completely different lives. Minmay seems shocked by this, though one would think that she would have noticed by now. But just then the Bodolzza fleet begins its planetary bombardment of the Earth, shooting through the orbiting UN ARMD-class ships, wiping out most of the inhabited areas and effectively destroying human civilization there. This is done from such a long range that the Macross-Britai fleet didn’t even have a chance to engage them before they fired.

Very nice use of the helmet in the scene. Why doesn’t more anime try to be creative with its cinematography like this?! Such an old series puts so many more recent ones to shame.

The final killing blow to the Minmay X Hikaru ship. Though as much as she was the enemy of my preferences, at the end I feel more like moving on and letting her be than savoring her shock. She screwed up big time in the middle, but towards the end she at least went out with dignity.

The Zentradi reduce the surface of the Earth to ruins as they did to another planet when Hikaru, Misa, and Kakizaki were captured. Despite planetary bombardment being outlawed by every civilized world.

The second shot from Battlestar Galactica reminded me of the original, though I would doubt it was an intentional homage to Macross.

The Earth is now devastated, but the Grand Cannon at Alaska Base is still operational, and the UN HQ fires back at the Zentradi fleet, surprising Bodolzza with its power. The forcefulness and totality of the Zentradi attack seems to have vindicated Admiral Hayase’s plan to shoot first and seek negotiation later as the Zentradi didn’t even think twice about trying to destroy the Earth. Hikaru came up with an idea for Minmay to sing and distract the enemy Zentradi by exposing them to ‘culture’, and on the bridge of the Macross Capt. Global, Archivist Exedol, and Capt. Britai finalize the coordination of this jamming by other means. Minmay then readies herself and begins going through her repertoire of songs, with a kiss between her and Kaifun in the middle to heighten the effect on the enemy. At that moment she says goodbye to Hikaru in her thoughts.

You may fire when ready. BA-BOOM Big laser! PA-PEWWW! Zentradi chunks EVERYWHERE!

She never looked so mature or introspective.

Some of the Zentradi are watching, though it’s too late for Earth.

The bombardment of Earth will not go unanswered. The Macross-Britai fleet capital ships begin attacking the enemy command ships while the Macross’ Valkyries, loaded with reaction warhead equipped missiles, keep the mecha busy and take out several capital ships of their own. Millia now joins the fray in her own VF-1, painted red because real aces have custom paintjobs. Down on the surface the Grand Cannon’s firing made it a target for the orbiting fleet which quickly devastates the base. Misa is still trying to contact any units that may be out there when she gets a message from her father telling her to leave. Everyone else in the base is either dead or has fled, and the transmission ends with Adm. Hayase’s death as well when the control room explodes.

The Macross-Britai fleet flagships begin their attack, while another variant of Zentradi battlepod is engaged by the Valkyries.

All the Valkyries deployed seem to be equipped with the new FAST Pack equipment.

Given recent events I imagine Millia is less hesitant to deal killing blows.

Zentradi counterbattery fire quickly reduces the Grand Cannon to rubble. Such is the disadvantage of stationary superweapons.

Misa may be the only one left alive in the entire base.

Hikaru is good, but not good enough to get away unscathed and his Valkyrie takes enough damage to prevent him from escaping the Earth’s gravity and returning to base. He realizes that there’s nothing more he can do and prepares his VF-1S for reentry. During this he remembers the rest of his conversation with Minmay. As they saw the Earth being bombarded, staring in shocked silence, Minmay tells him that she will sing just for him and gives him a parting kiss. In his mind, Hikaru also says goodbye to Minmay as he descends to Earth. There he radios to the UN HQ and finds Misa on the radio, overjoyed to hear from him. Up in orbit the battle continues, and Kamjin watches events and is persuaded by Minmay’s song to join the Macross-Britai fleet, which is currently engaged in fierce combat as it works its way towards the fortress.

Similar to my love for the ‘point of no return’ part of Gundam 0083, the scene in Hikaru’s nearly disabled Valkyrie and the final part of the conversation between him and Minmay featured great use of silence. It really says more than words could at such times.

At least it ended well, I’ll give Minmay credit for that.

I agree, ‘Love Flows By’ has been the best of Minmay’s work so far.

Apparently Captain Harlock has also joined the fleet.

Hikaru flies into the remains of Alaska Base looking for Misa, and finally cuts his way into the flight operations center. There the two meet again, both overjoyed to see each other and to have a real human connection amidst the devastation that is all around them. It was a very sweet moment and nicely done, some parts in time to the music of ‘Love Flows By’ that was still playing in the background. A paragraph just to talk about this one short scene? Yes.

Their reunion is one small thing to be happy about on such a dark day.

Set to the drum beat from ‘Love Flows By’, I loved the snapshot style of this sequence. Not saying that the destruction of most of humanity was worth it for these Misa smiles, but it’s not a bad consolation prize.

Though I wasn’t as keen on the black and white sketch style of the embrace part. Reminds me of the video for ‘Take on Me’ and that’s NOT A GOOD THING. Argh, there’s so much to hate about 1980’s pop culture and yet my generation has this odd obsession with it. WE WERE BORN IN THE 80’S, HOW MUCH NOSTALGIA CAN YOU HAVE HAD FOR SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU MAY NOT HAVE EVEN BEEN BORN YET? AND FOR A POP CULTURE THAT SUCKED ANYWAY! GAHHH! *raeg rant*. Sorry, it kind of hit a nerve with me. At least there’s Macross and Operation Ivy to remind me that the 1980’s weren’t a complete disaster.

Now the Macross begins the final phase of its attack. Making its way to the command fortress, the Macross focuses the Pinpoint Barriers on the bow, punches through the outside of the asteroid, and fires all its weapons and reaction warhead anti-ship missiles into the interior and then raising the ODB to protect itself from the explosion. Supreme Commander Bodolzza is killed and a large portion of his fleet it also destroyed, leaving the rest of the Zentradi leaderless. Back on Earth Misa and Hikaru observe the explosion and take the time to tell each other how much they appreciate being together at a time like this. While the explosion so near Earth of a massive object would probably lead to an Endor Holocaust scenario, the Earth is already pretty screwed.

The Macross Attack utilized the entire ship in a manner similar to the Daedalus Attack invented earlier.

Bodolzza meets the face of Death, and it is a singing idol.

I had figured they were going to intentionally overload the ODB to destroy the fortress, but the reaction weapons seemed to be enough.

Quite a sight.

She never lost faith, and indeed Hikaru has grown over the months to deserve such faith.

Sitting at the end, and beginning, of all things.

Stuck on the Earth the  happy-given-the-circumstances couple is worried about what happened to the Macross, but soon their fears are alleviated when they see the heavily damaged ship float down to the surface as the sun rises of the ruins of Alaska Base. Surprisingly after so much death and destruction they manage to remain upbeat for now, holding onto each other and returning to their friends and comrades. Soon it will be time to reorganize and make sense of the new situation. The human and Zentradi have both lost their chain of command, the Earth is destroyed, and there will likely be aftereffects of the Zentradi being exposed to culture. But for now, Hikaru and Misa enjoy their flight back towards the Macross.

No need to narrate this image, just including it because I liked it.

The Macross is one tough ship.

More great use of objects in the foreground as occurred earlier with the helmet. The broken cockpit almost seems to reflect the losses of the day, while the rest of the Valkyrie is still mostly intact and able to move forward just as the fleet and survivors must.

Into the newly uncertain future.

Final Thoughts: – This really changes everything. With the Earth devastated and the remnants of a massive fleet still in-system, the future is uncertain as never before.

- I could see how the series could have ended here, on a pretty big downer but with a hopeful spirit for recovering in the future. However I’m a big fan of ‘what now?’, post-war stuff so I’m looking forward to what happens in the rest of the series. Way too often series just cover the war and somehow things are just back to normal and rebuilt by the time of a sequel series. I know a lot of people hated the show, but one of the good things about Gundam SEED Destiny is that it did address the immediate aftermath of war and the lingering animosities. I’m excited to see what’s to come and how Macross handles it.

- The end of the Minmay/Hikaru thing was well done on both characters’ parts. Even though Minmay annoyed me a lot through most of the series, she has started to wise up and mature a fair amount lately. And at least she didn’t take her unreciprocated feelings and run off into an abyss of treachery and selfishness like another loser in Macross love.

- I’ve started to notice the budget constraints coming into play somewhat. There were some obviously recycled sequences from other episodes, such as the Zentradi recon ship getting destroyed by the Macross’ main cannon from the first episode, and Hikaru getting jerked back and forth by his harness when he decelerated using the FAST Pack for the first time.

Big things are happening in the UN and Zentradi forces, changes that will fundamentally alter the nature of the rest of this conflict and the future of the two peoples. Millia tracks down Max to settle her duel, only to have the two of them fall for each other and proceed all ahead full into marriage not long afterwards. Max seeks Hikaru’s advice and blessing, and then the ceremony takes place, the first between a human and a Zentradi. This is broadcast onboard the Macross, to UN HQ, and is intercepted by the Zentradi fleet, further spreading human culture to their current enemy. With the effects of ‘culture’ being felt more strongly, Britai decides to send a peace envoy rather than have his fleet tear itself apart, further encouraged to do so by the distinct possibility that Bodolzza will annihilate his contaminated fleet along with the Macross and Earth.

Millia puts on her Chiri face for the fight, throwing Max a knife and challenging him to fight.

Love counter!

YES!

Max and Millia will kick reason to the curb and make the impossible possible! MAX WO OMAE DARE DA TO OMOTE YAGARU?!

The wedding proceeds quickly thereafter, with most of the characters in attendance and Max and Millia making a grand entrance via Valkyrie. The ship and its fighters create a brilliant display for this flight outside as Max’s VF-1J approaches the ship. After their arrival and vows Captain Global gives a speech that initially touches on the conflict and reasons for mistrust between the humans and Zentradi, but then continues into his main point about how this moment is the first step forward towards ending the fighting and living together in peace. The happy couple is presented with the coolest wedding cake ever and the guests erupt in cheers at their joining.

So that’s the real reason Max got upgraded to a VF-1J: so he could have a backseat.

The Macross spared no expense in celebrating this most worthy union.

They’re so cute. But badass. But cute. But badass. But cute.

The inspiring sight even gives hope to the Genshiken nerds. Bridge bunnies like otaku I guess?

By far the sweetest wedding cake in the history of mankind.

Their offspring will be invincible!

Not everyone is so happy about this. But who could possibly stand against the power of both mecha and love?

At the ceremony Minmay also sings for everyone there and watching at home, and in a sign of her improving skills as a singer her song once again touches those who hear it. Even Misa, far away at UN HQ, hears it and thinks of Hikaru fondly. Though increasingly she’s feeling isolated from him and the rest of her friends as the Alaska Base continues preparations to use the Grand Cannon. Captain Britai was also watching the broadcast, and reluctantly determines that he must follow his orders and destroy the Macross. The order to launch and attack is given. Fighting breaks out between the fighters and Millia advises Max of a weakpoint in the Regults that allows them to be disabled with one shot. Despite siding with the humans, she doesn’t wish to see more of her fellow Zentradi destroyed. Hikaru notices Max’s attacks and does the same, disabling most of the Regults that they encounter. Onboard Zentradi ships followers of the Cult of Minmay threaten violence if the attack is not called off, a large portion of the fleet now under the sway of human culture. Britai then calls off the attack and both sides consider their next moves.

Minmay’s songs brings forth many memories and emotions.

They probably wanted a Klingon wedding ceremony but couldn’t find any Batleths.

The Valkyries scramble to intercept the attack as Global wonders about the future of the conflict.

Britai is now disobeying the orders of his superiors.

At home after the fight indulges in some ‘can’t cook’ moe.

While next door Hikaru just misses Misa more after seeing the happy couple.

Some time after a Zentradi capital ship approaches the Macross, broadcasting a message that it wishes to send an envoy aboard to negotiate a cease fire. Kamjin tries again to disrupt any attempt at peace, to which Britai forcefully responds by shooting down several of Kamjin’s fighters. Onboard a Regult, Archivist Exedol is brought to the Macross in Miclone form to conduct the negotiation. Captain Global, his senior officers, Max, Millia, and Hikaru are all assembled for the meeting. Exedol also requests the presence of Minmay and the superhuman he saw in the martial arts movie, having mistaken Kaifun’s special effects for actual abilities. There he informs them of the threat to both Earth and the Britai fleet now that the main force under Bodolzza has been mobilized. After some further negotiation, it is decided that the forces under Britai’s command will join with the Macross against the main Zentradi forces. This is fortuitous timing for Laplamiz has just informed Bodolzza of recent events and the fleet is preparing to fold in as soon as it can. While Kaifun surrenders to despair, everyone else is ready for the fight, and with Exedol’s information on the main fleet’s command structure they may well stand a chance. Britai speaks with his other commanders, and Laplamiz joins with him while Kamjin decides to make a break for it. Though I suspect we haven’t seen the last of him. I’m betting he’ll return to the stage at an opportune moment later in the story.

Britai has had quite enough of your antics Kamjin.

…

LOL.

Back on Earth, Misa tries unsuccessfully to convince her father to approve her transfer back to the Macross to join her comrades in the coming battle. Somehow I think she’ll make it back soon, orders or no orders.

I suppose she was just following orders, but given her later decision to join Britai you’d think she might have waited before deciding to inform Bodolzza.

We now need Max to sing his Minmay cover/remake,  ”Ore no waifu mo piloto.”

An historic moment.

Minmay does one last song before the fight to ready the troops.

Well they are pretty sweet planes.

If the Bodolzza’s ships block out the sun then the Macross shall fight in the shade!

Final Thoughts: – The Millia/Max wedding was very sudden, but they make such a both sweet and awesome couple that I don’t care. They just better not get any of that dying together that they keep talking about!

- Some of the Zentradi joining with the humans has seemed like a strong possibility for a while now. Now with a common enemy and still many episodes left to go, I wonder where this conflict will end. There seems to be far too much time remaining for the issue to be resolved in the space around Earth where most of the fighting has taken place. The UN HQ’s response to all this could also throw things into disarray unless they coordinate with the Macross-Britai fleet.

Though I fear some eventual subpar episodes as we pass the original 26 episode season mark (apparently the series was extended during its course), we have nothing but more awesome in this week’s episodes. The Zentradi boarding action is still on going at the start of episode 23 and the Zentradi Cult of Minmay for the most part succeeds in linking up with the UN Spacy forces. Then we have the fallout from recent events on both the political-military and romantic fronts. And then Misa departs for UN HQ on carrying vital information as Max and Millia make first contact.

Hikaru’s even pulling out the Max moves lately. It’s been pretty good seeing him develop as a pilot (instead of being naturally good from the beginning like so many mecha protagonists.)

You’re telling this to the wrong commander.

Kamjin’s reply.

The Zentradi initially make progress inside the Macross until the combination of UN reinforcements and Cult of Minmay deserters disrupt their lines and force a gradual retreat. Hikaru is dealing with the remaining forces when he comes to the amphitheater in time to see Kaifun make his move on Minmay. Eventually she pushes him away, but Hikaru has had enough of it, calls for a team to rescue them, and walks off in his VF-1. Around a nearby corner he runs into several Zentradi Regults and enters BERSERKER mode, charging straight into them and annihilating the group.

Kissing cousins.

Minmay, on the path to redeeming herself.

Sad robot.

“None of you Zentradi seem to understand. I’m not trapped in this ship with you. You’re trapped here with me!”

Why bother with Coordinator genetic engineering when all you need is rage?

The Cult of Minmay deserters disembark from their craft and surrender themselves to the UN forces. After the remaining hostile Zentradi retreat Hikaru is called to a meeting. There Global, Misa, Max, two senior officers, and the Genshiken Team are waiting to hear his opinion on whether or not the Zentradi deserters should be taken in or not. While his first reaction was to turn them down, after hearing Misa’s case and reconsidering he decides that his opinion as someone who has observed the Zentradi onboard their own ships is that they should stay. Integrating them may be difficult since all they’ve known is war, but they did come voluntarily at great risk to be part of human culture. Their DNA matches that of humans as well, but the two senior officers are not happy with Captain Global’s decision and feign illness to leave early. Surveying the damage later, Misa and Hikaru come across Minmay’s relatives who they inform of Minmay’s whereabouts. As they leave to visit her at the hospital, Hikaru and Misa agree to watch the restaurant and have another personal talk. They both wonder about the future of the Zentradi defectors, but the topics also turn personal, with Misa admitting that she’s over Kaifun, and that it was based only on his outward similarity to her past love. Hikaru is still not ready to admit what he knows to be true, and Misa selflessly suggests that he tell Minmay his feelings.

Broken, like the one it was modeled on. Still, given her recent improvements there may yet be hope for something other than the BAD END.

I’m interested in finding out what the Cult of Minmay faction will be doing now that they have been permitted to stay. Are they going to continue as pilots or just stalk Minmay?

They’ve been speaking to each other more and more seriously lately.

Pretty neat part where their talk about the war is matched by a flashback background. These episode are just full of cool shot sequences, as I’ll continue to comment on throughout this post.

Misa admits her past mistakes in the CUTEST MANNER POSSIBLE.

Before too long there is a scramble alarm and Hikaru rushes to launch. There is a brief skirmish of little significance, but afterwards Misa asks Global for permission to head to UN HQ and personally present the evidence and information on the Zentradi and their defectors that has recently been acquired in the hopes of opening negotiations. However she leaves without telling Hikaru, or anyone else, lest news of her trip get out and make the civilians jealous of her ability to return home.

Hikaru is still working the last of the Minmay out of his system, but shows a slight smile after Misa wishes him luck and for once they don’t bicker or take shots at each other.

Another one of those cool sequences. Goes from Misa in foreground with Hikaru walking away not knowing that she’s leaving, to split screen that rotates and reverses facing, then back to single screen with Hikaru in foreground and Misa in the back. Though I wasn’t wild about the sketch-drawn looking last frame that they ended the episode on, thought it took away from the feeling of movement that the rest of the sequence had.

As Misa prepares to leave several Valkyries are undergoing repairs as Max readies to escort her shuttle back to Earth and spots a FAST Pack, an attachment of some sort latched onto Hikaru’s VF-1. On the bridge Shammy continues her on the job training in Misa’s steed with slowly increasing success. Right before the shuttle takes off Misa phones Hikaru, telling him of the mission and her reasons for not telling him of her departure. After that, with the radar clear of enemies, Misa and her escort fighters launch for Earth.

Her supervisor checking up on her.

A new toy.

Max is going to be extra stylish in his newly repainted blue Valkyrie.

Is that Frau Bow in the background?

The shuttle proceeds to Earth until Kamjin and a group of Regults ambush it and its escort. Max’s team is greatly outnumbered, but it will take 20 minutes for reinforcements to reach them. At this point Capt. Global calls for the deployment of the ‘Booby Duck’ apparently the codename for the FAST pack-equipped Valkyrie. Hikaru climbs in and launches, the huge boosters attached to the top of the fuselage allowing him to arrive on scene extremely quickly. The setup is also equipped with a large amount of missiles, which he uses to clear a path through the Zentradi before firing reverse thrusters and shakily coming to a near stop. With Hikaru there Max’s team drives off the Zentradi attackers with only some damage to the shuttle.

Kamjin’s forces backlit by a globular cluster.

Certainly makes it bulkier, but in space it shouldn’t make too much of a difference. Not recommended for atmospheric use.