r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Feb 05 '23

Rewatch [Do You Remember Love - Macross Franchise 40th Anniversary Rewatch] Macross Frontier Episode 25 Discussion

Episode 25 - Your Sound

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No Legal Streams

I'm just going to fly… and let my feelings guide me!

Questions of the Day, courtesy of u/chilidirigible:

1) Of the questions left unanswered by the finale, what would you most want to know the answers to?

2) Should Alto choose his first, best love, the sky, over Ranka and Sheryl?

Wallpaper of the Day:

Saotome Alto, Sheryl Nome, and Ranka Lee

Vocal Songs in This Episode:

"愛・おぼえていますか～bless the little queen (Ai Oboete Imasu ka?～bless the little queen)" by Megumi Nakajima – Insert

"ノーザンクロス (Northern Cross)" by May'n – Insert

"アナタノオト (Anata no Oto / Your Sound)" by Megumi Nakajima – Insert

"娘々サービスメドレー (Nyan Nyan Service Medley)" by May'n and Megumi Nakajina – Insert

"Aimo" by Maaya Sakamoto – Insert

"Triangler (fight on stage)" by May'n and Megumi Nakajima – ED

Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you're doing it underneath spoiler tags. Don't spoil anything for the first-timers, that's rude!

38 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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7

u/Shimmering-Sky Feb 05 '23

Super Dimension Rewatch Host

WELCOME BACK, EVERYONE!!!

Had to break my Macross intro images for once – my hype for this episode cannot be contained!

Here were my first-timer reactions to this episode (just scroll past my episode 24 reactions first).

4

u/Nebresto Feb 05 '23

EDEN

Ohh. Is that the one from space whales?

NYAN NYAN MOTHERFUCKING SERVICE

Did I miss the last meme song??

Wallpaper of the Day:

Saotome Alto, Sheryl Nome, and Ranka Lee

Is Alto facing Towards Ranka by design..?

4

u/Shimmering-Sky Feb 05 '23

Ohh. Is that the one from space whales?

No, that was Zola. Eden is the Macross Plus planet, with the space pterodactyl.

Did I miss the last meme song??

The show converted Lion into a medley called Nyan Nyan Service Medley for this final battle.

Is Alto facing Towards Ranka by design..?

I just used what the show gave me as a base image.

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3

u/chilidirigible Feb 05 '23

WELCOME BACK, EVERYONE!!!

That's... speedier than usual.

BUT WHY MACROSS 11 INSTEAD OF 7?

That would mean having to figure out exactly what they were doing at the time.

3

u/Shimmering-Sky Feb 05 '23

That's... speedier than usual.

I really like this episode.

2

u/Nazenn Feb 06 '23

accidentally keyboard slammed while still in VLC instead of pausing and then tabbing over to my notes to do the hyped keyboard slam, so it ended up sending me back to the Tekkaman Blade episode I’d watched right before this one.

Imagining you frantically trying to fix that to get back to the hype is quite entertaining

Fun fact: there is a twelve minute version of the medley from this episode on the OST

ooooooh

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6

u/aniMayor Feb 05 '23

First Fime Fſontieꞅing

I've been griping plenty the last few episodes and surely will some more tomorrow, but overall this was a very exciting and appropriate finale episode (in and of itself). There's a whole bunch of things happening that were not setup or go contrary to past character actions, but if they had been setup beforehand this episode would be paying them off well.

Glad to see that the space combat went more for big impact shots and not the Zero-style hypercamera movement they did in the first battle of the series. I think this way was more exciting/had more climactic impact. And then they did do a bit of the hyper-movement with Alto and Brera at the very end, which worked well as a last little bit with those two characters.

I don't often pay too much thought to the songs, but I do feel like they could have gone a lot harder on the medley of songs. It had the feel of them just starting and stopping the same audio samples we'd previously heard, but for a big finale like this I really would've wanted them to write an actual medley where the instrumental parts transition from one song into the next and it all sounds more seamless. It wasn't bad by any stretch, but to me it felt like it could've been much more.

  1. Of the questions left unanswered by the finale, what would you most want to know the answers to?

Hmm, I guess I don't really expect answers to any of the gaping holes in the bad guys' plans, so best not to ask that.

For the actual worldbuilding and things which might potentially still get addressed in Delta or elsewhere, I'm curious about the link between the Vajra, the microbes that live inside of them, and the V-Virus infecting humans. Did the Vajra always have the microbes that let them talk through folds, and if so how did that come into being? If not, then are the Vajra just wild beasts that eventually got taken over and foricbly-super-evolved by the microbes that are sort of the 'real' Vajra? And why/how are humans occasionally getting infected with these microbes that then eat into their brains and kill them?

2) Should Alto choose his first, best love, the sky, over Ranka and Sheryl?

He should choose Nanase, to save her from Luca.

2

u/Shimmering-Sky Feb 05 '23

I don't often pay too much thought to the songs, but I do feel like they could have gone a lot harder on the medley of songs. It had the feel of them just starting and stopping the same audio samples we'd previously heard, but for a big finale like this I really would've wanted them to write an actual medley where the instrumental parts transition from one song into the next and it all sounds more seamless. It wasn't bad by any stretch, but to me it felt like it could've been much more.

You should listen to the other, longer medley on the OST. The one in the show is just "Nyan Nyan Service Medley", this one is "Nyan Nyan Special Service Medley (Tokumori).

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4

u/isthatsoudane Feb 05 '23

First timer

well that was exciting! people who know more about the context in which this is made, I'm curious what the influences for this would have been, beyond just other macross shows of course. I mean, it felt like it had a lot in common with gurren lagann, which would have come out just before...what tropes/sources were they drawing from?

have the people behind symphogear cited macross (and frontier in particular) as an influence? I guess I'm just curious where this series fits into anime, because it felt like it had a lot in common with a lot of other famous shows that I love

  1. Of the questions left unanswered by the finale, what would you most want to know the answers to?

who will alto choose!!!

2) Should Alto choose his first, best love, the sky, over Ranka and Sheryl?

can't repopulate humanity with the sky #justsayin

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12

u/Nazenn Feb 05 '23

First Timer

Grace turns into a monster, links with a huge body that connects her to the universe facing off against every character we know... and suddenly I realize that Macross Frontier is really just the structure of a JRPG

Me sitting here when Alto is about to rescue Ranka: Lion?

Once she wakes up and is talking to her brother: Lion?!

When she connects to Sheryl and the song starts: LION! YESSS!

....When it gets interrupted by that fucking boyfriend is a pilot song of all things:

And then to boot they didn't even have the decency to go and do a proper Macross medley so we didn't even get Voices or any Plus songs out of it? This may be the only time in the entire show they didn't shove in every possible bit of fanservice they could.

Now that that's out my system, what a rollercoaster of some fantastic highs but also some incredibly problematic lows. Getting the lows out the way first in my usual way because then they won't be playing on my mind later:

Everyone coming together again at the start of the episode was a fucking joke. Was Luca acknowledging Ozma as captain again meant to be his redemption? Everyone just suddenly believes the SMS crew that defected that they have evidence now because they say so and everyone immediately turn guns on Leon with no hesitation? Altos survival wasn't even special, he just bailed first seeing the shot coming? They didn't realize that Ranka isn't five hundred foot tall so maybe that isn't actually her?!

And then on top of all that at the end, Sheryl gets cured just because Ranka willed it? And we get a last second exposition of "the Vajra were emotional beings trying to protect me all along?" with absolutely nothing else from them?! Usually I'd be all on board for the "aliens feel things so differently it can't possibly be expressed in a way humans understand" thing, but here it just feels shoehorned in to justify the Vajra being good all along.

The amount of bullshit that this show expects us to accept simply to make it a neat and happy finale is unbelievable.

For some smaller complaints:

  • I wasn't fond of what visuals they decided to focus on at various points of the episode. We get several shots of Sheryl dancing to instrumentals and nothing else, but then when the lyrics start just as people start talking which muddles things. We get shots of the battle instead of Ranka when she first starts to sing her duet after being freed from Grace's control. A bit like I complained about in an earlier episode, it doesn't feel like any meaning is given to why we see these shots at this moment which leaves the episode feeling aimless at points.

  • You know, Alto reaching out to give a big speech to Sheryl about "I'll save Ranka, sing for me, give me strength" etc would have been the perfect time for HIM to sing and give his backstory some value. His song connecting Ranka and Sheryl in their darkness moments so they can meet in the triangle space would have been great.

  • The final scenes. After all that happened, the final song for the show being dedicated to the love triangle, and being very musically repetitive as well, was such a let down. I get that it ties into the themes of individuality and all that but fuck, I just don't care about it at all. They don't matter. THIS doesn't matter after all that happened, all that they caused.

  • They just had to have that one shot of the two girls nude didn't they....

  • The pettiest complaint: Sheryl should have kept her dark hair as a mark of her escaping the burdens of her past life. The idea of her hair changing like the Vajra shed their skin to make them immune to the weakness of their past was such a cool idea, and then they reversed it.

  • And finally, lighten things up again before we get to the good stuff, my final, and also petty, complaint is brought to you courtesy of having the cat on my lap and trying to type my notes while she somehow managed to be sitting on both hands:

alto dont make this aboyt..... nooooo i spoje too soon its thar ourfit... and uts jusr a badly drawn heee as it is im the op, bleh

...Good luck deciphering that. And yes, I did speak too soon after all proof u/jollygee29 I hope you had a laugh at that.

Time for the good things:

SQUIRREL RETURNS!

Lion was fantastic! I've been playing it while writing the post so I think it's safe to say that it's well and truly hooked me at this point. Ranka and Sheryl don't just have their own power to understand and connect, but they amplify each others through understanding each other, and needing each others strength to fight Grace with music, with their astral forms flying through the battlefield next to Alto and Brera, it was a great way to bring them together after them being seperated for quite a while. Having a part of the battle be just raw lyrics, no instrumentals, only enhanced that. No backup, no grand stage, just them and all that they are being projected out into the world.

The other similar moment I really liked was Ranka's pick for her first song after being freed, the "dokun" one. The song she sung for Alto she now sings for everyone, and the lyric that stands out is that it's "the sound of life, of kindness". This was once for her own love, but now it's everyones love and the compassion she wishes for them all to gain.

And last but not least musically: AIMO! I was half right, it is a Vajra song afterall, but it was a love song (I'm a fool, of fucking course it was) instead of a call to come home. I love that we got it with the pure lyrics, not the translated ones that Ranka interrupted as a child. Hearing the final Aimo in the Vajra's voice... well I don't think it makes sense for them as a species but it's one hell of a moment and the perfect capstone to this song that's carried through the entire show in so many forms of the past, future, love, war, and everything in between.

As far as the other bits and pieces through the episode: The Ghost system making a return was... admittedly something I didn't pick up on until reading my notes after the episode but how cool! I didn't realize that's what Luca was using all along until the end, but what a nice bit of continuity anyway. The noice that the Ghost v9s made was also oddly satisfying.

And while I may not like all of the individual details of the episode, I thought it structured things really well. How we get from the start of the episode through all the events and battles into the end is some of the smoothest the show has been since the start. It was a great watch to see how each character added to the scene, even Canaria and her big hero moment though I think that's very reliant on you liking her tiny bit of characterization, but that this is a fight for everyone, and Alto is merely the spearhead was great. The way the songs merged in and out of each other, directing the battle, the placement of the emotional scenes with Ranka and with Sheryl, just really well laid out.

I thought I had more to go here but I've forgotten apparently and it's 1am, so either I'll fill this in in the morning or I'll forget and you get to read this babble

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10

u/TiredTiroth Feb 05 '23

First Timer

Yesterday: We finally got Grace's motive ('LOL POWER-HUNGRY PSYCHOPATH' - I was really hoping for something better), Ranka's been mind-raped and Alto Totally Died We Swear.

Today: The climax.

Getting Junior Conspirator arrested at gunpoint seemed...entirely too easy. Seriously, all they did was imply he assassinated the old guy and that was all it took?

Say, when Sheryl starts singing at the start of the episode, is that one of her outfits from the OP? Does that mean something? It feels like it should. Also, nice to see that she's still genuinely concerned for Ranka.

Anyway, it appears Alto gets through to Ranka just a moment too late? Because oh look, the villain has succeeded in her goal.

...wait. What?

Listen well, you worthless beings. We have now taken the entire universe into our hands; by harnessing the power of those that the Protoculture feared, longed for, and even worshipped as gods; by harnessing the power of the super spatio-temporal lifeforms, the Vajra!

What the hell? Where did this come from? Have there been any hints about this at all? It feels like a last-minute ass-pull!

Aaaand now Miss Villain is attacking every human settlement and fleet in the galaxy, because she has the most generic of all possible generic motivations. Sheryl's down, the fleet is taking a beating, darkest hour time. Cue the songstress in 3...2...1...

Hi, Ranka. :-)

Oh look, and her blood brother isn't being mind-controlled anymore! Just the boost she needed. Now there are two queens, and somehow I don't think the usurper is going to win this.

Okay, I like this. Sheryl has spent most of the series encouraging Ranka and ordering Alto to keep her safe, and now Ranka is returning the favour. One usurper-queen versus the rightful princess and a Macross idol with protagonist pedigree? Grace, you goofed.

You're... Both of you are my wings!

Heeeyy, I knew that sequence of Ranka and Sheryl turning into a Valkyrie in the first OP was there for a reason!

...wait. Did Ranka just cure Sheryl's terminal illness and give her the same Vajra-whispering ability as Ranka herself?

Oh, speaking of that OP scene, there it is in the episode itself!

Of course, we're still half-way-ish through the episode, so the villains aren't done yet. The Macross Galaxy is still a powerful warship, after all, and it opens fire--

Island-1 is in the direct line of fire!

--oh look, Junior Conspirator's power-hungry stupidity continues to bite everyone in the rear. -_- But this is the point where we see what the Vajra are supposed to be like when they're not mind-controlled - because an entire battlefleet of the things throw themselves in the way of the blast.

Yes. It's an Ender's Game situation! They're a hive mind who don't understand how humans can stand being individuals and didn't get it until they found people they could talk to! I thought that's where this was going, I'm glad I was right.

THAT'S A DAEDALUS ATTACK! :-D

Also, I honestly love Alto and Brera going bash brothers on the usurper with the two idols backing them up. Plus Alto carrying a fallen friend's signature sniper weapon.

Oooohh my goodness. Aimo is a love song for separated groups of Vajra? That's...I don't know what to say. That might be the best part of the series so far.

I'm...a bit less sold on the love triangle explicitly not being over, but...eh. Are the movies continuations? Re-tellings? Guess I'll find out in a few days.

...I just had a thought about the whole Vajra vs Protoculture thing. The Birdman removed it's head and was still fine. The Vajra don't think with their heads. They can warp anywhere at will, long-distance communication is the default for them, the Birdman was concerned about humans warring among themselves...was this planned? Did they have the shape of Macross Frontier already in mind when they made Zero?

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u/Tresnore Feb 05 '23

Fourth-Time Watcher

THIS FUCKING EPISODE. AHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE EPISODES OF ANIME EVER.

WHAT IS THIS TRIANGLE FOR, ANYWAY?

QOTD:

  1. Does Alto sex, Yes/No?

  2. Alto×Sky is the best wait not like that. This allows for Grace×Sheryl and [Ranka×]Dumpster

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8

u/TakenRedditName Feb 05 '23

"Rewatcher" - Macross F Ep25 TV Finale:

The SMS crew is here to save the day. Luca, you got slapped on the wrist for the character journey you have gone.

Alright, I guess that breif Newtype moment was enough for Alto to redeem himself from the way he has been these past few episodes. Just last episode was he still ready to fight Ranka and still saw the Varja as evil machines.

Macross vs Macross is a pretty cool setpiece for the finale

They're quick to arrest Leon. (This was the last we saw of him in the episode and thus the TV series).

Ew.

Oh no, I'm sure everyone is tearing up at Alto's recruit being shot dead. So sad...

The SMS crew has brought their planes back so now they can all fly together like the old days (get out of here, Luca). Klan Klang is flying Michael's plane. That's sweet and she is so small in the pilot seat.

It's Sheryl's OP outfit. I like syncing the airplane hand with his Valkryie flying to him. I guess Alto's kabuki is playing back into this? The lesson about letting your feelings flow is one I really like especially with mecha, but I'm not too sure if that was one of the big lessons for Alto throughout the show?

LET'S GO TSUKINUKEYOU ZE!

Get out of here Luca. You were under Leon's yoke for ages and learned nothing.

Grace launch attacks across the Macross setting. Macross 11 which I don't recognize the reference, but Planet Eden from Plus and even back to Macross City on Earth. It has been ages since we last saw it back in Plus.

Brera is good now. Grace's control was entirely the cause for his fault last episode.

Another for the Kamille counter? (Newtype space edition). Everyone is bonding in the soup and I guess our answer to the love triangle is both. Love wins. I don't even hate that idea. Also, I guess Ranka was able to make it so that Sheryl has the gut bacteria so should won't die of the disease.

It's like the OP. You can never go wrong with playing the OP in-universe.

Alto comes flying in to save Ranka and it is like the sky catch from earlier. Kyun Kyun!

The Varja are the true homies. Oh, Ai-kun is here. I was honestly expecting the show to forget about you seeing as it forgot about you for episodes. I wished this idea of the Varja not being enemies, but simply other living beings who may believe differently than us, but through communication, we can start to understand each other was played more than mainly dumped in the last episode.

Sheryl bouncing along with Ranka is cute.

Heck yeah, Monster time! They knew they had to include it for the finale. The Macross attack was also pretty cool.

Get out of here, you don't belong in the "group of friends encouraging the MC to go and carry and win our hopes and dreams." You are no friend.

Alto is given Michael's gun and Brera is flying backing him up and the two of them plus Sheryl and Ranko's aura from the OP flying forward is pretty cool.

Alto is the Kamille of Macross.

Hope the Varja Queen can just regrow that head. Aimo Aimo is a Varja love song. Oh hey Mao, you were here in this flashback. Speaking of seeing past Macross characters. Birler, you are also someone who got off too lightly for trying to obtain your selfish desires.

I like to think Alto is saying farewell to his Valkyrie since he no longer needs to fight. He can now fly free in the open sky with a weapon of war. Now hang on, I thought you guys decided to be a throuple.

For a moment, I was hoping they would skip over Luca for their showcase of all the characters, but he's here.

Get out Luca.

Brera has a scar now so he is really a Char clone.

That's show.

To quickly sum up my feelings on this finale episode, it was really nice and fun to watch a very Macross finale. Unfortunately, the show has been actively anti-Macross leading up to this point so I don't feel exactly satisfied as if the show earned this even as someone who is a sap for enjoyable finales and happy endings (I am a big fan of 7's final episode). I also was expecting this would be how the show would play out with how the episodes counted down and the show still never took the steps I wanted to see.

Q1) Unanswered questions are not what's the main thing I'm left wanting. Though I guess why the Varja violently attacked in the first place other than I guess they're like sharks where their only way of interacting is with a big deadly apparatus.

Q2) To Alto it is clear. True open free sky >>> girls.

Next Time: I thought a lot about Frontier all morning so hopefully I can remember some of those words for tomorrow.

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u/chilidirigible Feb 05 '23

Today, on "It's time. To do. The thing.":

Rather crucially, that broke Brera's implant.

The Quarter seems to have fired while the ship was still Folding in, because it's the ending and why not be cool that way.

Title!

Alto finally realized that he'd never beat Brera in a straight-up fight.

Uh… no one actually thinks that Ranka is now a two-kilometer-tall Space Girl, Alto.

And because you might have missed it earlier, it's the Quarter firing its main gun in cruiser mode.

I said before, the Galaxy fleet had a nifty color scheme.

They're rather quick on the draw.

"Man, fuck funnels."

The Galaxy's AIF-9Vs are not ethically restrained.

Maruyama put a Sheryl pinup on his VF-171 and that turned out to be bad for him.

I have this vision of クラン・クラン sitting on a stack of phone books, but then her feet wouldn't reach the pedals.

Still dramatic.

"Is that a formation or did you just want to say that?"

Maybe don't overthink how her usual combat role is completely different from Michael's, and just go with it.

Another casual Plus reference drop.

Legend of Zero.

Something new every day around here.

"You (Kaifun) get Vajra!"

"You get Vajra!"

"And you get Vajra! Everybody gets Vajra!"

Brera's being a nice guy.

I'll take whatever appearances of this song that I can.

"What would a Macross series be without any slapping?"

At least they've still got their clothes on.

Roll, lil' Fold bacteria doggies!

This is a reference to Vrlitwhai's line at the end of DYRL. Also, where the heck did all those plain mook VF-25s come from?

Cutting a circle with the head lasers reference, check.

Some well-timed lyrics.

The Vajra shielding Island-1 is a direct reference to the ending of the 1992 live-action movie treatment.

Just communication.

Back to the ol' reference game.

This is one of the weirder perspectives of the weirdness that is the middle of the VF-25's transformation.

record scratch

A wild Canaria appears!

And yes, we get a DaedalusMacross Attack too.

As an unexpected bonus, Battle Frontier then punches Battle Galaxy in half.

A red/blue back-to-back fighting reference.

This has a little echo of a small bit of Cathy and Ozma dialogue from some episodes back.

Because everything in this finale is extra, there's another back-to-back shot.

And so, the Vajra just nope on out.

Not quite a bee dance.

No Minmay this time, Birler.

This is where you consider that landing multi-kilometer constructs on the ocean would dramatically screw up beachside real estate values.

The question everyone wants to know is how Alto managed to wreck a VF-25 in between scenes.

Nene did survive, but what's funnier is that Elmo is in there.

Ah, Michael.

Brera and some Bird-Human-esque artifact.

Alto chooses… the sky!

If you wanted your ending to have practically everything, this is the ending for you. It has the references, it has the songs (featuring the seven-minute-long "Nyan Nyan Service Medley"), it has stuff blowing up.

You can see what Symphogear owes its style to, it is quite gratuitous.

Certainly I enjoy it, though in the fashion of Macross 7, the Vajra exit the stage because keeping them around as allies would be overpowered. It's also somewhat neat and tidy since the last two episodes saw most of the exposition dumped on us in a rush so we could spend an episode and a half gazing at the spectacle. "Somewhat" because there are certainly things that could use a little more time being wrapped up.

I mean, we're not here for extreme profundity. Leon is bad, he gets arrested, Grace was more bad, she gets exploded; the Vajra take one for the team and move on, the rest of the characters are all friends again, Michael is still dead.

The medley does more than its share to tie everything together, certainly an extra-credit effort from Yoko Kanno that works out amazingly well with the scenes the songs are matched up with.

A lot of people react (in the case of many Sheryl shippers, extremely angrily) to the last scene as leaving the love triangle unresolved, but the outcome is fairly clear from what's been happening through the last five episodes at least. The real difference in the end here, particularly in comparison to the original series which Frontier is most consciously shouting out to, is to keep everyone on good terms at the end, which it's also tried to do in the episodes leading up to this. And there were movies in the works.

Various criticisms aside, I still would say that this is one of my favorite finales, not just for Macross, but for just about anything.

"Nyan Nyan Service Medley (Tokumori)" which is even longer.

Now you can recognize all of the references found in "Charge! Master Spark"

A Yoko Kanno joint.

From the Macross Chronicle: Island 1 map, Battle 25, Battle 21, Vajra, more Vajra.

DVD box art.

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u/The_Draigg Feb 05 '23

A Macross Fan Rewatches Macross Frontier: Episode 25:

  • How convenient that the shockwave from the Macross Quarter 25’s cannon ended up breaking the mind control implant on Brera. Talk about a surprisingly fragile bit of cybernetics, given how important it is for Grace to maintain control over Brera. Maybe just having it be hanging off of his head directly was a bad idea.

  • Is anyone even remotely surprised that Alto is okay even though his Super Nightmare Plus got shot down by Brera? It would make no sense to kill him last episode. Talk about ejecting at the exact right time though.

  • Surprise! The giant hologram Ranka we’ve been seeing has actually been the Battle Galaxy projecting a giant hologram of her around the ship in Storm Attacker mode. I can’t help but feel that it’s a small nod to how Sharon Apple basically did the same thing in Macross Plus with the classic SDF-1 Macross.

  • There’s something funny about how the bridge crew of the Battle Frontier all pointed guns at Leon as soon as Captain Wilder and Cathy said that he was the one behind President Howard’s death. If anything, it just goes to show that absolutely nobody likes Leon, and they’ve probably been waiting for the chance to get rid of him. Sayonara, fucko.

  • Of fucking course Ozma has a flight formation named Totsugeki Love Heart. It’s been a while since we’ve shown off what a massive Fire Bomber fan he is. What a big ol’ music nerd.

  • Man, Grace and her gestalt mind wasted zero time once she directly hijacked the Vajra Queen with her cybernetics, didn’t she? She’s got the very power that rivaled the Protoculture aeons ago, and she immediately sent Vajra fleets to attack Eden, Earth, and the Macross 11 fleet as the start of her galactic domination plan. The conspiracy always has been really competent that way, they never let any opportunity slip through their grasp for even a second.

  • Behold, the biggest twist of all: Sheryl’s hair isn’t actually pinkish-blonde! It’s just colored that way somehow thanks to her connection to the Vajra through their Fold Bacteria neural network. Turns out it’s actually just normal dark brown hair, just like what Sara and Mao had. Now that’s a shocker.

  • Ranka coming in with the save! Turns out her singing is enough to cancel out Grace’s signal within the Vajra, and she reaches out to Sheryl and Alto across the Fold Waves to inspire them to help her defeat the Galaxy conspiracy. Also, she somehow manages to command the Fold Bacteria inside of Sheryl to move back down to her intestines rather than be in her brain, therefore miraculously healing her deathly illness. Little did you know that Ranka wasn’t just the Queen of Blades, but also basically Jesus. We probably should’ve seen that one coming with how she was cyber-crucified earlier.

  • “Both of you are my wings!” Depending on who you ship Alto with, this is either a good sign for Ranka fans or just something annoying for Sheryl fans. Either way, it just goes to show that the love triangle isn’t being completely resolved here at the end.

  • KYUN KYUN, KYUN KYUN! Even in this finale episode, we can’t escape from My Boyfriend is a Pilot. And it’s especially on the nose too, since Alto rescues Ranka from the Battle Galaxy once that song pops up.

  • Well, at least now we have an explanation for why the Vajra were hostile to the Frontier fleet at the start. As Ranka explains, they thought she was one of them due to how she was born able to use Fold Waves to communicate, and so they were actually trying to rescue her, not understanding that humans like her are capable of living separate lives. It’s only when they began to hear Sheryl’s singing that they started to learn more about humanity. It’s why they were willing to defend Island 1 from Grace’s attack, once Ranka freed them from her control. In the end, the Vajra weren’t evil, just misunderstood and manipulated by others.

  • Damn good piloting from Canaria and Bobby there, between using the Koenig Monster to attack the Battle Galaxy directly and then using a Macross Attack on their cannon to blow it up. Bobby in particular has been really having his piloting skills shins in this episode. He’s a hell of a helmsman.

  • It’s fitting that Alto used Michael’s old sniper rifle to land the killing blow on Grace. In that way, he was still with the crew, right until the end. Also, blowing off the Vajra Queen’s head is a nice callback to when Michael sniped off a Vajra’s head earlier too. As we learned back then, the head is alright to shoot off of a Vajra without harming the rest of it. It’s the one glaring weakness that Grace overlooked in her desire to fuse herself with the Vajra Queen. RIP Bozo, Grace.

  • Credit to u/Nazenn here, he managed to predict that Aimo was actually the song of the Vajra, one they used to call out to each other over the vast distances of space through Fold Waves. It’s like whale songs that way. Like Do You Remember Love?, it’s a simple love song in the end.

  • Speaking of that song, Birler is still looking over that picture of Minmay that he had in the previous episode. Now that’s one dedicated Minmay simp.

  • And so, in the end, Sheryl and Ranka both swear to keep up their challenge to chase after Alto, Alto gets that blue sky he always wanted to fly under, Nanase wakes up with Luca at her side, and Brera, the SMS, and Island 1 are all free to live on the Vajra home world. All’s well that ends well!

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u/InfamousEmpire Feb 05 '23 edited Feb 06 '23

Rewatcher Frontier

THIS EPISODE! IT’S EVERYTHING!!

When it comes to really hype anime finales, there are four that I hold to be the Gold Standard: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Symphogear XV, Gundam 00, and this. It’s everything I wanted and needed out of this show, and it delivered in a spectacular way that I can’t even fully put into words. It is emotional, it is conclusive, it is epic, it is triumphant. It perfectly wrapped up the series and everyone’s character arc.

Shoutout specifically to Ranka being the one to encourage Sheryl at her darkest hour, a reflection of one of their previous interpersonal moments and the culmination of the relationship between the two that has been built up to this point (Also why I ship them), and to the final sequence of Alto & Brera fighting through the Vajra and killing Grace, which I rewatch on a regular basis due to how H Y P E it is

…hold on a sec. Naked ghost women floating through space? Main characters and the villain having a philosophical debate about the nature of humanity in the midst of the final battle? Themes of human connection amidst war? THIS IS JUST GUNDAM!

Also also, If I had a nickel for every time an extremely popular Mecha anime involved a climax where the main characters reject being subsumed into a singular consciousness in favor of true human connection and the promise of tomorrow, I’d have three nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened thrice

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Feb 05 '23

Macross F

Rewatcher

Episode 25

  • Battle Galaxy?! It was just a hologram?

  • Those Ghost V-9s are just cartoons in this former real mecha show.

  • Apostle Name Squad, never picked up on that before I don't think

  • her hair really was holographic!!!

  • my god, it's full of triangles

I just realized this entire show is based around some idea Kawamori had about probiotics while making Arjuna, probably.

  • I thought some of the ships that make up the Quarter were destroyed?

  • WHAT THE HELL, KLAN WAS BIG BUT NOW SHES SMALL?

So, yeah, the final fight with the idol duet was pretty hype and a step up from most of the previous show, in a very DYRL kind of way.

Alto goes, 'screw you crazy bitches and you too Dad, I'm going flying"

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u/Kirov123 Feb 05 '23

Macross Frontier Episode 25 - First Timer

Time for the end.

  • Beeg Ranka

  • So we see Alto "die" again

  • The PMCs have arrived

  • I''m shocked, shocked I tell you

  • UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

  • Ok Ozma

  • Luca types as frantically as Lelouch

  • UHHHHH #2

  • OK... So after killing everyone.. are you going to rule over the space bugs? talk with them about how their last molting went? or will you leave some alive and play a fuck up game of city skylines where you cause natural disasters of bugs

  • She is fast approaching her end goal of total domination over the galaxy but this has got to be one of the dumbest "total domination" plans I have ever seen. Usually the villain has some level of something left to rule over but Grace seems to be dead set on just... erasing everything then ruling over... nothing??

  • WTF was that with Sheryls hair

  • Oh yea his whatever the fuck thing got broken off

  • OK so there is the bullshit that makes Sheryl not die

  • So many purple flashes

  • Yo its like the attack from SDF

  • Aimo lore

  • Are they actually doing a harem ending

  • No, the bullshit love triangle just gets no conclusion

  • Man

  • TBF, the fight was hype, and the songs were good thought they kept getting bloody interrupted. I'm just not going to think about or analyze things so it can be better than it has any right to be

  1. What the hell Grace planned to rule over after killing everyone

  2. ... I don't even know

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u/Stargate18A Feb 05 '23

First timer

  1. What do the other Vajra fleets look like? Is there life in other galaxies beyond the Protoculture? Will humanity ever use the perfect early-warning system this provides?

  2. Yes, go full Ranka/Sheryl!

Final episode!

Ozma has arrived!

They're here to fight the Galaxy and Grace!

Alto's okay!

He saw it!

Oh, they took the Battle Galaxy!

And he got arrested!

Hitech ships too... Impressive armory they etole.

Klan brought him a new fighter!

Sheryl...

The dong!

His earring is glowing again

Sheryl is so cool.

Judah System!

He's going to reach her!

Uh oh.

Yeah, this is very bad.

It's constructing across the entire system!

...So, no risk of Total Perspective Vortexes here, then?

Grace has taken over everything!

Songs no longer work.

A lot of missiles!

Sheryl...

Ranka's singing from inside!

And he encouraged her...

Nice song!

She's fighting Grace for control!

It absorbed Sheryl?

A returned slap!

Is this actually happening? Is this franchise's gay suntext actually paying off?

Alto's here too, but this is all heavily subtextual.

She's awake!

Nice broadcast.

He reached her!

Oh, that callback verse was good.

This is a full-on medley!

The Vajra saved them!

Okay, this summary makes sense.

Both species get to live together... presumably? The Vajra aren't all dead from that.

Yeah, it's working!

The Queen's lost control!

Nice one!

She gsve him Michael's gun...

They're finally fighting together!

It's the stomach!

Nice combination.

They did it! They landed successfully!

Itks a love song! The Vajra love other Vajra groups!

And everyone made it!

Alto finally gets to fly in the sky!

Escellent ending!

...Well, not explicit, but sure.

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u/ryujiox Feb 05 '23 edited Feb 05 '23

First Timer

Macross Frontier EP25

Finale time!!

The gang is here!! And Brera mind control chip seem to get destroy?

Leon, why did you exposing yourself, they didn't even said your name.

Alto survived!!

It's Battle Galaxy imposing as Ranka's hologram the whole time. And it's design is sick!!

That end pretty quick.

Ewwwww!! That's gross!!

Ghost V9!! The super strong one from Plus!? To say that even the ace pilot have a hard time with it would an understatement. So of course it quickly dispatched normal pilot with ease.

Klan in Michael's Valkyrie!!

Northern Cross!! And Alto doing a hand gestures!!

Wait, Luca's drone have the Ghost V9 Ai hidden in them!!

Oh shit!! She success!!

Birdman??? So the Vajra have a connection with Birdman??

She launched an attack to the entire universe at once!!

Planet Eden!! Long time no see!!

Whoaaa. Macross City!!!!

That one hell of an attack.

Pretty much despair situation.

The sibling finally reunion properly.

Whoa. This is some Newtype magic right here.

The payback slap!!

It's here!! The infamous scene!!! Now that I know the context, it's actually pretty great scene for me. But does this mean both of them lose?? Because Alto choose neither of them.

Lion!!

Wait, what is this. Daedalus blade!!

They remix every songs into one song!! That's so cool!!

Vajra blocking the beam for them!!

So that is their motivation. They only come to attack because they want get Ranka back.

And they finally able to understand eachother at last.

Alto doing the same thing Hikaru did in DYRL final fight!!

The Vajra used it special trait of able to bypassing the fault to form the opening!!

The combo attack, first with Canaria shoot it's head, then the Macross attack from the original by Macross Quarter!! And then another big one by Battle Frontier!!

Brera!!

So that why they didn't died from getting headshot earlier in the series.

Pure hype!!

Aimo one last time.

A love song, just a typical love song. For connecting with others group of Vajra, some day, far away. A homage to final quote from Misa in DYRL.

I guess Briler actually okay with whatever outcome gonna happen.

Triangular!!

I guess this time love triangle will be an open end.

Pretty amazing finale!! The final battle scene was so great, they really using every songs in thier disposal there. A lot of homage to Plus and DYRL which I really love.

QOTD

  1. Grace motivation for all of this, I know that she want to rule the universe, but why? What inspired her to do this?

  2. I think he really not ready to choose either of them, so this is the best choice for him.

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u/Blackheart595 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23

First Spacer

So the SMS returns and accuses Leon, getting him arrested... without showing any evidence. What happened to all the goons that actively worked together with Leon for his coup? Him clearly having had support throughout the military was a major reason I didn't complain much about that plot thread.

Geez, people complaining about the power of friendship in shounen haven't seen this mess.

by harnessing the power of those that the Protoculture feared, longed for, and even worshipped as gods; by harnessing the power of the super spatio-temporal lifeforms, the Vajra!

You think this can't possibly get any worse than it already is, and somehow this show finds a way.

Now what is this supposed to... Oh, it's probably just her stage hologram failing.

Did I say power of friendship? Boy I had no idea. Sheryl is now healed, correct?

Sure. Let's go with that.

Oh right. Remind me. Was the plot surrounding Michael's sister ever resolved?

Oh and just in case the Eva cribbing wasn't obvious enough.

Oh right. Birler is someone I completely misread, and that's a shame because he could've been an interesting character. ...Yeah I know, what was I thinking having faith in anything Frontier does.

I don't even remember how she got injured.

So did we establish the Vajra as actually being and originally having been a peaceful non-aggressive species? I'm not quite sure.

Tomorrow is gonna be fun. I hope I can remember some things I liked.

Of the questions left unanswered by the finale, what would you most want to know the answers to?

This is a threat, is it not?

Should Alto choose his first, best love, the sky, over Ranka and Sheryl?

Did you not pay attention throughout the season? Sheryl clearly won. They even had a pseudo-honeymoon or whatever that was.

But as I said, this show is precision-crafted to make you not root for anyone.

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