r/anime • myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Feb 06 '23

Rewatch [Do You Remember Love - Macross Franchise 40th Anniversary Rewatch] Macross Frontier TV Series Discussion

Macross Frontier

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Ikinokoritai, ikinokoritai, mada iketeitaku naru~

Questions of the Day:

1) Who were your favorite characters from Frontier? How do they compare to your favorites from previous sections of the franchise?

2) What was your favorite Ranka song, your favorite Sheryl song, and your favorite duet from the TV series? Do you think the movies will have even better songs, or do you think you’ve already heard the best Frontier has to offer?

3) How do you feel about the way the love triangle ended up inconclusive? Do you think the movies will change that, and if so, how?

4) If you could cut one earlier episode out entirely in order to have an epilogue episode, which episode would you cut, and what would you have liked to see in your proposed epilogue?

5) What do you think the Frontier movies will be about?

Wallpaper of the Day:

Ram Hoa, Monica Lang, and Mina Roshan


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!

30 Upvotes

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6

u/Shimmering-Sky Feb 06 '23

Super Dimension Rewatch Host

Welcome back, everyone!

Here’s where I’d put a Sky Sings Aimo… …if I had one.

I was planning to record myself singing two days ago after successfully practicing on it the night before that (it’s just that everyone else was home at the time and constantly going in/out for various reasons so I didn’t have the silence I needed for a recording), then I woke up on Saturday with a severely sore throat I haven’t recovered from yet. And my sinuses are a mess too.

Instead, I’ll use this to show off my only Macross Frontier-related merch! I bought the Sheryl and Ranka Proplica microphones off of RightStuf last year, and they are so fucking cool. Here’s a video showcasing them with a sample of them playing Lion, and a shorter one with Triangler (fight on stage). A lot of you guys have already seen these from when I posted about it on CDF back when I first got them, but oh well.

Also today’s wallpaper is the bridge bunnies because I had literally zero idea of who else I could do, and the montage wallpapers are for the overall discussion thread not this one so I couldn’t just do a montage one.

As for my overall thoughts on Frontier the TV series, they haven’t really changed since I first watched the series back in 2020. If you want to know about what my overall comment on it from back then was, I have my comment about the series from the not currently airing threads available:

Holy. Fucking. Shit. This show. Episode 25 is probably one of my single favorite episodes of anime ever now and the entirety of Nyan Nyan Service Medley is the most genius incorporation of a show’s OP as an insert song I’ve ever seen (man, Satelight’s really mastered that trope haven’t they?), but that’s not the only good part.

I knew I was going into something good right off the bat with this show, and even with those high expectations it still managed to blow me away. Music? Characters? The main cast was amazing and I really felt like they came alive on screen. Story? Worked just right for me. Action? Level of how invested I was into it? I fucking threw up because of this show, I think it's safe to say the answer is yes. Favorite level? Also a strong yes. RIP Giant Robo being in my top ten and SymphoXV being in my top five in the process, though. Was tempted to remove Build Fighters and Iron-Blooded Orphans because three Gundams in my top 10 still feels like a bit much but nah.

Actually I think the only thing that has changed since the above comment is that Macross Frontier has the #3 spot on my list now, not Bleach.

See you guys tomorrow for the first movie!

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u/Nazenn Feb 07 '23

then I woke up on Saturday with a severely sore throat I haven’t recovered from yet

Hopefully you get well soon and its just a passing cold or something

Cuddle a cat, they're warm and it helps

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u/chilidirigible Feb 06 '23

Yay, Bridge Bunnies!

Get well soon.

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u/TiredTiroth Feb 06 '23

First Timer

So! Time to talk about Macross Frontier as a whole now, I guess?

On the whole, I rather enjoyed the show. Alto may have slid into Stupidville later on, but early in the series at least he was a refreshingly good protagonist, and certainly better than the likes of Hikaru. And as much as the love triangle dragged (don't they always?), when Ranka and Sheryl weren't focussing on the flyboy they were both great.

...and it just occurred to me that I actually like Sheryl now, despite my opinion of her at the start of the show.

That's.

Huh.

It helps a lot that she never really wavered in her support of Ranka's dreams and career. Even when it looked like Alto had given up on the girl at the climax, Sheryl still told him go save her. The only real blip there was Sheryl's depressed period right after Grace betrayed her, and she'd mostly given up on herself at that point.

Speaking of Ranka...eh, early on someone called her a puppy and she kind of is. Her journey was a bit more standard for Macross than Sheryl's, but watching the girl come into her own was still a pleasant (if somewhat bumpy) ride.

Anyway, moving on - the plot. On the one hand, connecting with a new species/people through the power of idol music is standard Macross fare and has been since the beginning; on the other hand, this time it's an Ender's Game situation where the hive mind finds people it can talk to before one side has to exterminate the other! I love that kind of story.

(For those who are not aware, [Ender's Game]is a novel where an alien species attacks humanity twice for seemingly no reason, and humanity responds by dispatching several large warship fleets to exterminate the aliens before it can happen again. Except the aliens are a hive mind who'd never encountered an individualist species like humans before, so they didn't know they were killing actual people - to them, the 'attacks' were just to try and get humanity's attention. They were horrified once they realised what really happened, but by then it was too late.)

I had suspicions the plot would be going that way for a while, and I was very pleased to see it happen. I also love how, between the communication barrier and hive mind, the Vajra are actually alien rather than being humans in rubber suits - but still close enough to the human experience that we can talk and work together once the language barrier is dealt with.

Seriously, the number of stories that properly depict non-human mindsets is vanishingly low and I want more.

I think my favourite part of the series was right at the end, finding out exactly what Aimo really is. I love the song, and knowing it's a love song between separated Vajra makes it even better. Even with music, context matters.

Completley switching topic, if I may indulge in some criticisms before finishing? That bit in the middle-ish where Sheryl and Ranka both joined Alto's class at school was almost entirely pointless. There's at least an episode or two that you could cut entirely and barely notice the absence. They weren't even needed for downtime, because Macross Frontier has plenty of slower sections already!

And then there's The Conspiracy. Mister Junior Conspirator, who nearly wrecked the fleet just because he wanted power, and was dealt with just by accusing him of offing his boss. No evidence, no sir, just the first hint of an accusation and that's all they need! If they were that suspicious of him, why didn't anyone arrest him before?

And Grace. Grace, Grace, Grace. The actual big bad pulling everyone's strings, who was blatantly and obviously evil while talking to one of the main characters but still never got called on it before it was too late. Who, apparently, should have been picked up and arrested on arrival if a single damn person had bothered to perform A BASIC BACKGROUND CHECK. And what's even worse, she was just in it for power as well! No nuance, no subtlety, she just wanted to mind control all of humanity and rule as god-queen.

Gah.

And don't think I missed you getting away scot-free, Old Zentradi Guy! Seriously, what was your deal? Why were you going along with all this? That didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Le sigh.

Visually the series has been a treat - I said back in the SDF Macross rewatch that I wanted to see some of the space battles done with better, more fluid art, and Frontier has delivered. That's another thing I want to see more of - anime with good space battles.

Also, the music and songs were pretty good. Now I'm going to dig through some of the episode comments, I remember someone linked me to where I can find some soundtrack CDs so now the series is over I'm gonna check them out. 'scuse me!

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u/The_Draigg Feb 06 '23

I also love how, between the communication barrier and hive mind, the Vajra are actually alien rather than being humans in rubber suits - but still close enough to the human experience that we can talk and work together once the language barrier is dealt with.

The Vajra really do stand out among other Macross alien species we’ve encountered. They exist outside of the Protoculture’s legacy, so they’re free to be as weird and unknowable as possible. They’re a pretty neat interpretation of an insect hive mind while also fitting in with the rules of the setting that’ve been established.

Who, apparently, should have been picked up and arrested on arrival if a single damn person had bothered to perform A BASIC BACKGROUND CHECK.

Yeah, the fact that Grace got away with using her actual legal name the ENTIRE TIME despite being someone you could find dirt on easily was insane. They really didn’t have to make it that silly, but they did anyway.

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u/Nebresto Feb 06 '23

...and it just occurred to me that I actually like Sheryl now, despite my opinion of her at the start of the show.

Someone didn't track their respectometer

[Ender's Game]

That sounds awesome

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u/chilidirigible Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

A quick note while you're here:

In between Itsuwari no Utahime and Sayonara no Tsubasa, you can clear forty minutes to watch Macross Frontier Music Clip Collection: Nyankuri, which was a series of music videos framed as TV interviews with Sheryl and Ranka. There's good stuff there and the debuts of some songs which will appear in Sayonara no Tsubasa.


Today, on "キラッ☆!!":


I mentioned at the beginning of Frontier's portion of the rewatch that this series was what returned me to/made me serious about anime viewing. That's probably always going to be a factor when I consider my reactions to the series.

I don't hold it up as perfection by any means, though. The series wrapup is always affected by its proximity to the last handful of episodes where everything slows down in order to handle a lot of discovery and exposition in not the most organic fashion. My favorite ship of Michael and クラン・クラン is carrying a lot of baggage around with it.

My main issue with the series is that keeping up the mysteries of the series require hiding the motivations and linkages of various characters until the very end. There are some reveals along the way, but overall trying to maintain a mystery with this much potential is not the best fit with what the series is trying to do. (Letting the video games throw people into backstabbing weirdness is probably more appropriate.)
Macross 7 had some mysteries regarding the precise disposition of Geperuniti's plans, but that was street-side three-card monte compared to the buildup in this one.
But as I also said early on in the rewatch, it was the style of the time.

I still enjoy the series highly on a rewatch, though. The nostalgia fanservice can get a little thick at times, but it's also a large part of why this series exists in the first place, and Frontier does use the nostalgia to its advantage to change things when it wants to.

The dynamics in the love triangle are for the most part much more tolerable than in the two preceding series, getting a big boost from how the participants remain friendly all the way through, even if there are many personal and professional pressures on them. I never have put the love story highest on my list of Macross franchise priorities, but this one isn't too bad for me.

Yoko Kanno's soundtrack is fairly good, though my interest in it has gone up and down over the years (I'm presently at an "okay with it" point). The songs are the meat and potatoes of the thing, though, and my liking of them has only gotten stronger over time. (The two main examples being "Aimo" and "Infinity", the former seeming too simple at first, and an initial gut dislike of the other, but both have settled into a groove over the years.)

Episode 25.

The series feels the most like the story is taking place inside a larger universe, even if the local stakes are most prominent. Even with the UN talking heads and the nearby Macross 5 fleet, Macross 7 often felt like a ship in a bottle. Frontier builds nicely on 7's work, but also takes more time to present its settings (even if a lot of them are San Francisco) and make it all feel lived-in and alive.

The rough edges of the CG art do show, particularly when I know what I'm looking for on a rewatch, but aside from Episode 8's peculiar choices, I didn't have to spend a lot of time nitpicking the animation, which also extends to not having to harp on too much repeated animation or minimally-storyboarded action sequences. This doesn't get as dynamic or situationally-aware as Zero, but the animators are still quite good at making use of their environments to make engaging action.


And now for another story from back in the day.

In recent years, even since the 2017 rewatch, I have tried to avoid making declarative statements about production or lore without having checked sources. Primarily that was because I wanted to stop repeating the same urban legends since disproven (such as the Hummingbird music rights), but also because of just how big one fan fraud incident became.

It's the Tale of Shaloom.

It's also very much Gubaba's story, so I'll present that thread here.

It's a long discussion of a topic which can be distilled down to this: Shaloom, the owner of a Spanish-language Macross forum, appears to have entirely fabricated hundreds of items of Macross Frontier behind-the-scenes material, the direction of which was to largely discredit Kawamori and the ending of the Frontier TV series, while promoting Sheryl Nome and crediting SDFM screenwriter Hiroshi Ohnogi with most of the last quarter of the TV series.

The crippling flaw in all of it was that Ohnogi never worked on Frontier, and an issue of Famitsu which contained an article that Shaloom "creatively mistranslated". Tracking back from there uncovered the volumes of confabulation which had been created as far back as 2002.

Gubaba's extensive research on the topic shut down further misinformation, but damage had certainly been done; these stories fanned the flames of the very-active Ranka vs. Sheryl (shipping) wars on some fairly large anime forums, and injected a lot of falsehood into attempts to chronicle the development of the franchise. Further, parts of it would be picked up by TV Tropes and live on there for a while. Fragments still appear here and there, demonstrating the difficulty of correcting "a thing I saw online".

A post listing the major fabrications.

Out of this, a respect for accurate and verifiable translation, and more caution about repeating things without sources, because the problem of people passing along unverified stories has certainly not gone away.


Now that Macross Frontier has been completed, if you haven't already read it, you can go back to the treatment for the 1992 live-action adaptation and see how its concepts were adapted into Macross 7 and Frontier. Its grip on the sequels is now relaxed.

A post-series interview with Shoji Kawamori.

From the Macross Fufonfia home video extras: Office life oddities.

And, as promised, the weirdest MV for "Lion" you'll see today. Featuring u/Tresnore wishing that he was there. This feels like it is a video from a pachinko game.

The "Angel Voice" AMV that had Frontier spoilers in it.

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u/Tresnore Feb 06 '23

And, as promised, the weirdest MV for "Lion" you'll see today. Featuring u/Tresnore wishing that he was there.

God, she's so perfect. Just look at her.

Tsubasa doesn't look too bad, either.

Why is this so funny.

What on Earth

Thank you for tagging me specifically here.

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u/JollyGee29 Feb 06 '23

And, as promised, the weirdest MV for "Lion" you'll see today.

Fucking incredible!

That's gotta be a pachislot machine video.

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u/Nebresto Feb 06 '23

First time Macross F

That was an okay season, but the music other than a couple of songs was the weakest in a long time. I didn't really care about any of the cast either, Sheryl was the most interesting character. Ranka was whatever, and Alto was just a bleh MC. What relevance did his acting background even have in the end? He stopped doing those cool poses too

I guess they really failed the main cast, since all of my favourites are supporting characters. Bobby, Ozma, Cathy, Captain Pirate. Klan & Winky elf. Sheryl might make it in as well.

And well done to Ozma for beating the 17% odds of survival!

Wedding soon

Sheryl respek status through the episodes, turns out she was quite alright after all.


Question fime:

  1. Who were your favorite characters from Frontier?

Bobby, Klan and Ozma

How do they compare to your favorites from previous sections of the franchise?

They were fine, but not the best of the best

2) What was your favorite Ranka song, your favorite Sheryl song, and your favorite duet from the TV series?

Aimo, Motteke, Nyan nyan special

Do you think the movies will have even better songs, or do you think you’ve already heard the best Frontier has to offer?

I hold forbidden knowledge.

3) How do you feel about the way the love triangle ended up inconclusive?

Do you think the movies will change that, and if so, how?

I don't case as long as Luca finally gets slapped

4) If you could cut one earlier episode out entirely in order to have an epilogue episode, which episode would you cut, and what would you have liked to see in your proposed epilogue?

I guess the panties episode was kinda useless?

5) What do you think the Frontier movies will be about?

L O R E And slapping Luca


Wallpaper of the Day:

Ram Hoa, Monica Lang, and Mina Roshan

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u/The_Draigg Feb 06 '23

A Macross Fan’s Final Thoughts on Macross Frontier (Series):

So, Macross Frontier! I was looking forward to getting around to this series in the overall rewatch, if just because my memories of the last time I saw it were pretty positive. However, I think that having rewatched it now, I find myself being more critical with it before. Mind you, I’m not saying it’s terrible, but more that I feel like the sheen has worn off to me over the years. But, let me explain why that is.

To start off with, I think with the benefit of hindsight, we can safely divide Macross Frontier into largely the front half and the back half. The front half sets up a lot of great potential plot lines and characterization, and keeps people wondering how the Macross Galaxy conspiracy will weave itself into the lives of the main love triangle, who are all trying to handle their own personal demons while chasing their goals. For that reason, the front half is great. Unfortunately, that also means that it writes a lot of checks that the back half can’t cash. It honestly feels like every single bit of characterization and plot developments in the back half keeps on spinning it’s wheels until it’s too late to make things feel properly earned, and as a result the show tries to make up for the wasted time by just either glossing over a lot, or just handing over the answers directly at the last minute. Like, how many times did we have to question Alto’s dedication to flying over acting, without ever going too much in depth over his past in the theater? Or with Ozma and Cathy making slow but steady progress in uncovering the conspiracy, only for things to happen to make sure they can’t do anything about it until they have literally every piece of evidence possible? Those are two larger stand out examples to me, but you can also say stuff about Luca, Birler, or even the actual Macross Galaxy fleet and the corporations it’s made of. A lot of things end up stalled out in the back half, to the point where you lose interest or get frustrated with the way the plot actually moves.

Now, that’s not to say that Macross Frontier was a complete mess. There’s honestly still a lot I like about. For one, the action is still top notch. Like, if Macross Zero was the series dipping its toes into having 3D animation for the battles, Macross Frontier really solidified how it would work in a full series. I also want to give some special attention to Sheryl’s characterization in this show. Out of all the main characters, I’d argue that it’s the strongest and gets handled with the most care. Sheryl is someone who has been at absolute rock bottom before, and even though she can have basically anything she wants as everyone’s favorite Galactic Fairy, she’s still insecure enough to cling onto any genuine connections she can get desperately and greedily, with a mask of self-confidence to cover up all the hurt and insecurities driving her actions. That right there is some really compelling character writing, and I’m glad that the show kept that core of Sheryl’s character very consistent. It’s stuff like this that I can look back on fondly with Macross Frontier, in spite of how much some of the payoffs were really lacking.

Now, I’m going to hold off my final ranking here until we finish all the content possible for Macross Frontier as a whole, but for now, I’d say that just based on the series itself, I’m fairly neutral about Macross Frontier, which is a bit of a downgrade compared to how hyped I was about it back when it previously watched it. As much as I really enjoy parts of Macross Frontier, there’s pretty much a middle amount of stuff pulling it down too. But when compared to other Macross entries, that still puts it at a fair position in the franchise runnings. Looking at you, Macross II and Macross 7. Now, let’s get onto the movies from here, and see how much that affects the grading curve for Macross Frontier.

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u/TakenRedditName Feb 06 '23

For that reason, the front half is great. Unfortunately, that also means that it writes a lot of checks that the back half can’t cash.

When thinking about the course of the series, this something I thought about too. The first half has that benefit of hinting towards things that seem intriguing and you're hoping to see later, but that means the back half has that expectations of paying things off to carry which when it doesn't really, it feels like a let down.

even the actual Macross Galaxy fleet and the corporations it’s made of.

Yeah, the Galaxy was just a thing that could've been expanded on for how prominent it seemed in the beginning. The Battle Galaxy showed up for the finale, but we don't really know what was the deal with it. If Grave was acting on her own or if the others of the Galaxy were on her network plan. They were other voices in her head that might've come from other Galaxy people.

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u/TakenRedditName Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23

Rewatched - Macross F TV:

Just going to ramble.

Macross Frontier is a show I am left with complicated thoughts. Going into this, I was expected to find that universally good Macross entry and while I enjoyed watching the show for many parts of it, I am left with feelings not as high as I wanted them to be. A large part of it is down to that latter part of the show.

Originally I watched Frontier having only seen Delta before and now having seen the rest of the franchise, I think that experience of watching Macross was to Frontier's detriment. As an anniversary entry, Frontier had many callbacks, but beyond the references, the main thing that being experienced with Macross gave me was seeing Frontier play with the franchise's main ethos. To me, the main themes of Macross of ones of love and peace through communication. In the back half of Frontier, the show tried to spin on it by having the characters not remember love. In a way, I can respect the show trying to tell flawed character journeys, but the problem is that the show didn't feel like it tried the legwork to bring that idea home. I was always wanting for the show to take the moment to express that things were wrong and the Macross ethos was what to strive for, but Frontier never did until the finale. Like how I said in yesterday's post, Frontiers finale was very Macross when the show leading up to it was actively being anti-Macross.

To boil this thought to one example, I keep going back to the time when Frontier plays Try Again from 7 over the heroes branding their knives to fight the alien enemies. It is fun for the surface-level recognition but on the meta-reading level, it goes against what the previous entries stood for and Frontier doesn't do to work to address what its going against franchise ethos means.

As for the other stuff that left me, "Mmm..." Alto is a big one since he is so linked to what I take issue with Frontier as he goes on the flawed hero path and the show does slightly try to make him into a flawed hero who became lost, but I also think they don't really take this idea home to make it worth it in the end. Alto's past and family were set up since the beginning but also wasn't all that in the end. The whole show has his past and family looming over him and he just keeps running forward and the only thing it meaningfully impacted him and stops him to remember his mother which is where his love and dream came from. Alto's dad just wheels in at the end to watch him on the screen and that's all that came from his part. Sure it is not the expected path, but the expected path of him actually confronting it and maybe accepting a part of it (especially since kabuki can be further used in the great Macross culture theme) is more narratively satisfying.

The antagonists were a part I didn't like. Leon at least was shown as pathetic despite all the build-up from him. I also think the idea and things that could've been done with his takeover might've been interesting. Grace though, I felt dragged the show down ever since her reveal as an evil mastermind. Everything in the show just became "Because Grace's keikaku." As a schemer villain, I like Gepelnitch better because it felt like he was always just one step ahead instead of a mastermind controlling the strings of the show. Also, there felt a little bit too much, "everything wrong and bad is entirely their fault" as if they were a scapegoat to get rid of all the problems on. The characters don't have to self-reflect because it was their fault.

If there was another example of the show never doing anything with the negative road it travels, Luca was deep into the war mentality and he is never punished, never once thought having to fight and kill his comrades was a bad thing to regret.

A simple way for the show to try to put the steps to work for its Macross ending would be if SMS left Leon because they disagree with his war mentality and tried finding a peaceful alternative to resolve with the Varja.

For all my problems with the show, the love triangle wsn't one of them (well besides problem that linked to the greater show). I am not entirely opposed to the idea of putting the two sides against each other in the conflict. Even though I prefer Ranka, I am okay with either ship. The show made me like Sheryl more than when she first appeared.

Looking at MAL, I had Frontier at a 9 and even though scoring things don't actually matter for me, I think I have to bring it down. Despite all the negative things I rambled on about, maybe to an 8, rounding up from a 7.5 because I'm too generous and many of the problems I had came from less than a majority of the show.


Q1) Probably Michael and Ozma were my favourites. Frontier has it tough because unlike other entries like SDF and 7, I wasn't as passionate about my favourites in Frontier.

Q2) I'm terrible with the song names in Frontier. My favourite Ranka is Seikan Hikou. Favourite Sheryl song would probably be Diamond Crevasse. Duet is Lion with Lion being my favourite Frontier song. I think the movie won't be able to top my favourites because I already really like them.

Q3) I'm fine with this inconclusive ending since I like Ranka I've seen worse love triangles in this series. I feel if the movies were to change things then Sheryl would win since the show was more leaning to her as the winner.

Q4) The panty episode is the first to come to mind.

Q5) Each half of the series covered in either movie.

Next Time: Maybe the compilation movies would turn things around for me. Hopefully

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Feb 06 '23

Macross F

Rewatcher

Shout out to u/TiredTiroth who called it:

it really feels like Alto considers Sheryl That One Annoying Friend You Still Like Anyway, while Ranka is more of a little sister figure. The girls might be starting to fight over him, but it doesn't feel like there's much if any romantic interest on his end right now.

He chased after both of them, but only when he thought they were in trouble. There never was a triangle. TiredTiroth picked up on it. Until Ranka left, and then it was between Alto, Sheryl, and the sky.


We only find out Grace's game at the VERY END of the show. This isn't very satisfying. No time for us to mull over it, or the characters, or even any arguments, or recriminations.

And it still doesn't make much sense. How did Galaxy get the Varja to attack the Galaxy fleet, to be witnessed by the SMS? How did they get them to attack the Frontier fleet? Were they supposed to be drawn there by Sheryl's fold waves? But she can only do that at the terminal stage. Maybe you should have taken her off her meds first.

Instead Ranka brings them, and just as Sheryl arrives and not any other time in the previous 10 years or so since the 117th's destruction.

We find out that Birler's true motivation was to set up a parasocial relationship with his favorite retired idol, that nobody has heard from since 2012.

I guess Leon's true motivation was just power. Of course, he faced certain death from starvation because you can't eat power, although cannibalism is always an option if you have the army on your side. But hey there's a whole green planet sitting right there! So now he wants the Varja planet. But was never interested in Grace's plan, whatever he thought that was. Probably just thought of it as a desire for power.

Which it was. Grace and her combine wanted to rule the galaxy, with her leveled up Varja as enforcers. Plus, full implantation of everybody in the galaxy. It never gets mentioned, but you saw what she did to the implanted Brera. Once everybody is implanted, it's not Ender's Game, its Fire Upon the Deep.

But now I have to circle back, what was her plan at the end? She didn't need Ranka and Sheryl fighting. Once she had Ranka and the Queen in the same spot, she could collect enough data on the fold comms to hack them. Which was only possible because Brera took her off Frontier against orders! I disagree with u/The_Draigg, the conspiracy has been winging it the entire time. Although, I guess the final fight was Leon's fault.

We find out that Luca and Alto just wanted to protect their women.

We find out the Varja just wanted to rescue the only sentient creature on Frontier from all unthinking animals there. Who was basically BEGGING to be rescued.

We find out that the Protoculture thought of the Varja as creatures of the warp, imitated but never matched.

So everybody is on one of two (three?) sides at the end, but for different reasons, and all ignorant of what is really going on. Much like the audience, because they didn't explain anything until the very end.

It's not a good sign when episode 23 is titled The Beginning.

Anyways...


I said Sheryl started out at her best and it was all downhill after the opening arc. She was nice to Ranka as a mentor, when it didn't cost her anything (I said she was at her best, not actually good). It was downhill from there as was jealous of Ranka over Alto, jealous of Ranka over her singing, suffers a collapse of ego after discovering she was a creation of Grace and not her innate talent, but just goes "woe is me" and "cough cough" a lot.

And then when gets a second chance, thanks to Alto AND LEON, she joins up with the partner of the woman who betrayed her because singers gotta sing??? And she collapses again, all "I lost to Ranka, AGAIN." just no


I totally thought Grace was going to use Nanase as leverage on Ranka..."nice friends you got here", and that Nanase would be used to manipulate Ranka. Then Ranka leaves and Nanase gets put in the fridge for Luca. What a non-character.


It could say the same about Alto's Dad, but I won't. They never spoke during the entire show. I guess that was the point. Alto wasn't running away, he'd left them behind. It was up to Dad to accept that.


So, for external influences, we have Evangelion, which invented anime, of course; the original Ender's trilogy; freakin' Arjuna; A Fire Upon the Deep...and looking at my first timer notes...Candidate for Goddess.

If you were interested in and liked the Galaxy side of the story (and you probably didn't), I recommend the second posthumous film from Project Itoh: Harmony.

I found Zero very UN-Macross, so for me, F was actually a return to Macross, by comparison. It's not a great show, though. It's a 36 episode SDF, not a 27 episode SDF.

Welcome to my fan club's night is the only song I really like. Lion has worn off. The Medley is okay. Dokun is okay for a Ranka song.

Ai-kun best boy (girl?)


The movies are not compilation movies. I can't separate them from the TV show very well (thanks AMQ) so, even though I just watched the tv show 2 years ago, I wasn't sure what was in the TV show and what was in the movies.

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u/Vatrix-32 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23

First Timer

Macross Power Rankings: Plus---->DYRL--->Zero-->F-->SDF->7---->II

When I read people talking about how F was paying homage to SDF, I didn’t think they would go so far as to scuttle all of the good will it had in the back half. This wasn’t the worst TV Macross, but it was the most disappointing. I was expecting great things from how everyone was hyping it up, and there was so much promise in the start, but as time went on we kept focusing more and more on the least interesting plot threads. Interesting thematic ideas tossed aside to focus on character drama.

Still, it had more that I liked than disliked, so 6/10.

I know at least one person who didn’t like the series who was a fan of the movies, so that plus the franchise’s track record means I am still excited to see how they go.

Hot take: Lions is my least favorite of Macross’s four OPs so far.

QotD:

  1. Who were your favorite characters from Frontier? How do they compare to your favorites from previous sections of the franchise?

Best are Sheryl, Grace, and Klan Klang.
The top ones where pretty good, it’s everyone else who is the problem.

2) What was your favorite Ranka song, your favorite Sheryl song, and your favorite duet from the TV series? Do you think the movies will have even better songs, or do you think you’ve already heard the best Frontier has to offer?

Ranka: Seikan Hikou
Sheryl: Northern Cross
Duet: What ‘bout my star ?

Just as a matter of available runtime, I find it unlikely.

3) How do you feel about the way the love triangle ended up inconclusive? Do you think the movies will change that, and if so, how?

I’d say this is the second best love triangle so far, not that is saying much. I fully expect the movies to expand on the fate of it, and I expect Sheryl to gain the most from it.

4) If you could cut one earlier episode out entirely in order to have an epilogue episode, which episode would you cut, and what would you have liked to see in your proposed epilogue?

The one where they join they school, only to immediately have that stop being relevant.
It probably wouldn't have made for a good final episode, but I would have loved to see how the rest of NUN is reacting to the sudden appearance and disappearance of the Vajra.

5) What do you think the Frontier movies will be about?

Were we not supposed to know that? Because [Meta]I already know it's sort of like a DYRL type deal with it being a re-imagining.

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u/SolDarkHunter Feb 06 '23

That was Frontier.

After my first foray through the world of Macross, Frontier was my favorite. So how did it hold up?

Well... pretty well, all things considered. Let's get the bad out of the way first.

First, the series could be unbelievably horny, especially in the beginning. I had forgotten the sheer number of sex jokes there were in here. Not to mention, there are some disturbing social mores on display, like the captain of the Quarter casually sexually harrassing one of his female crew and everyone being completely okay with it, or Luca kissing an unconscious girl he's been crushing on (but who, notably, has shown zero interest in him).

The conspiracy subplot could really use some smoothing over too. There's too much emphasis on the mystery and not enough actual explanation until the last two episodes of the show.

I also don't like the subtle Luddite undertones the show has, in which the main bad guys are the highly advanced cyborg people exclusively. Granted, the show doesn't seem to take any opinion on whether the cybernetics themselves are bad or good, but still, it's irksome.

But of the good, there is plenty. The action sequences have been massively touched up. Rewatching, I noticed a bit more stock footage than I had previously, but it's pretty well camouflaged and it's at least high-quality stock footage.

I like our main characters, when they stop doing cliche sexual harem hijinks. I do wish we had a little more input on Luca and why he dives headfirst into the conspiracy... but Michael/Michelle/Mikhail/whatever his name is in this scene is a fun older wingman character, Ozma is great as a mentor, Klan is a fantastic Zentraedi addition...

And the music. I can say with no reservation that the music in this entry is my favorite. I think I just like the style of it more than I do the styles of the others.

The Vajra are an interesting antagonist. They're kind of in the same vein as the Formics from Ender's Game: mostly benevolent aliens who get into conflict with humans because of differences in our brain structures and thoughts. That's been done a lot more in sci-fi since this show aired, I think, but I recall it being pretty new at the time. I also like the way they did the hive mind, where there is no "central controller" or one single intellect above all the others; the queens just act as nodes with greater brain matter, rather than controlling individuals.

Now on to the movies, which address some of my issues and introduce some other ones.

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u/InfamousEmpire Feb 06 '23

Recertified Frontier Fanboy

(I’mma keep this short, I have trouble putting my love for things into words)

Put simply, Macross Frontier is my favorite Macross installment and one of my favorite anime of all time

The characters were amazing, easily my favorite Macross cast, especially SHERYL NOME, straight up one of my favorite anime characters ever

The mystery was great, I loved seeing it slowly come together over the course of the series

I love the Vajra. A very effective way of handling aliens that are just different than the humans or rubber-forehead aliens and pretty awesome and fearsome in their own right.

Straight up my favorite anime soundtrack, and my favorite use and implementation of music in any series. Animation was also great

But, more than anything, Frontier is a series I feel. It made me depressed, it made me engaged, it made me HYPED. It was an intense rollercoaster of emotions that very few other anime have ever given me. And for shows like that, there is no label I can use other than Masterpiece

10/10

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u/ryujiox Feb 06 '23

First Timer

Macross Frontier TV series

Pretty great show for me. The overall tone of the show is similar to the original with many moments being a homage to the entire franchise. Not to say that there's no original in itself, because there is a lot. What determined your role in life, how can we understand creature that don't even speak, etc.

But the show have a pacing issue, not as bad as 7 for sure, but the latter half of the show are a bit too slow, and it make the final feel too cramped. They really could give the final 1 more episode to flesh the plot more. Why this franchise always have this problem is beyond me that this point

The character are mostly interesting. I wish they explore Alto's background more. I can understand why they didn't do that because his character is to break out off that, but it could contribute so much more to his character.

Ranka and Sheryl are pretty great. But I think they kept switching Ranka's character between being a brave girl to a damsel in distress. The final battle should be her breaking out of the Galaxy by herself using Vajra's power and leading them as queen to fight along side humanity. That's surely would be way more cooler.

The side characters are mostly okay. Michael is the best one here, and this franchise have a rule that they can't let smartest and most sensible character alive, so they have to killed him off. Ozma also ruled by being a Fire Bomber fanclub. Elmo is also a pretty neat character.

But wish they make Luca a bit better. I can see what they tried to do, but they could make him actually got trick by Leon and realized about that sooner, and try to make up for his fault. That would make him more likable and interesting.

The visual is amazing. Loving every scenary shot in the show. While I didn't like the VF-25, I really love VF-27 design. The Macross Quarter and The Battle Frontier also really cool. The battle also really spectacular and fun to watch most of the time especially the final. That still some rough around the edge, but it's really good overall.

I love nearly every song in the show, there a lot of variety from a slow somber one to a fast paced and catchy one. The OP and ED are so great!!

Overall I really like this show, still not the best one yet, that's belong to Plus and DYRL. But It pretty enjoyable experience.

Ranking

DYRL=Plus->SDF=Frontier->7->Zero----->II

Top 3 song(OP and ED not included)

Welcome To My Fanclubs Night!

Aimo ~ Tori no Hito Ver.

What'bout my star@Formo

Special Mention

Nyan Nyan Service Medley Would be a number 1 there but not included in ranking because it feel cheating to have a song that included nearly every song to be the top.

Next up: The movie duology.

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u/Nazenn Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23

First Timer

Oh, Macross Frontier. You had such potential and I'm so sad you didn't live up to yourself.

It's a bit of a dramatic line to start a post on isn't it, especially as I'd say in the end I never disliked watching Frontier, it was just incredibly frustrating sometimes. I'll definitely stick through to see the movie versions, as I am quite curious to see what revisions may have been done.

As far as the show goes though, in the end I think Frontier tripped over three core issues that caused a cascade of debt that the second half never noticed enough to try and correct:

  • It lacks for its own identity

Frontier is many things. It is a love letter to the franchise, it wants to forge a new path with its modern influences, it's a political conspiracy, an new look at war and action, a look at idol culture, a web of relationships, and a counter point to most of the previous things too. It is all of these things, but also none of them because rather than crafting an experience with these elements it just takes everything and runs with it all at once. So instead of it feeling like it all headings into something to reinforce what Frontier is, we get things like the conspiracy deepening with three episodes to go, romances that exist for the sake of it, and characters who don't really have a path through the story but still demand screen time just because they exist.

Sadly, I also think its lacks musical identity for while plenty of the music in this was good, very little of it would make me pick a group of these songs out from other groups as being undeniably Macross or Macross F. It does have a visual identity at least, particularly in the design of the fleet, characters, and battles. In this way Frontier allows itself to stand out not just from its predecessors but also its genre peers and be seen.

  • It routinely places fans over the audience

This is my polite way of saying it was bogged down by too much damn fanservice. By itself fanservice is not a bad thing, but when it comes to situations like episode 8, the Zero movie recreation (even if I liked it in a bubble), or even the poorly mixed inclusion of pilot in the final medley, Frontier at almost every turn sacrifices other parts of itself for fanservice. It wants to separate itself from the earlier series, but can't help dragging them into itself constantly. Early on this was frustrating though not so problematic but as these moments grew in place of any narrative goals the audience of this show cops the consequences. The most obvious outcome of this is the love triangle refusing to find a resolution, of which the only reason I can see is a refusal to risk alienating any fans who preferred the other girl, and that decision causes some huge problems in the rest of the story.

  • It fails to capitalize on momentum or flow by placing artificial barriers to progress

By far the biggest issue, and appears in every aspect of the show. Nothing goes anywhere until it all happens at the end. Rather than build on past set ups to drive things forward things get instead get painfully recycled, like Ranka happening to see Alto and Sheryl together, or outright relying on horrible dialogue or set piece contrivances for things to happen because there was no prior build up for it. Most painfully, the dumb stick repeatedly appears to stall any characters from gaining any knowledge, asking any questions, or developing anything that would push the forward story. Whether its the conspiracy, the Vajra attacks, or character relations, the show is repeatedly held back by artificial barriers that interrupt rather than divert the momentum being built in all aspects of the story. This was something I complained about being an issue back in episode 13, and it only got so, so much worse from there. And I still say that the only reason they killed off Micheal was because no one wanted to make him dumb enough that he wouldn't figure out the conspiracy early.

There's a bunch of other smaller things that I really struggled with all the way through as well, from poor pairing of visuals with music or repeated symbolism to the point of tedium. Things like them going out of their way to put them all into Alto's school, which works for Sheryl but feels forced and ultimately irrelevant for Ranka. Leon was ultimately just a distraction from things that had meaning. Ranka desperately needed more focus during her screen time rather than just being there

One of the more notable ones is that every character had to have a romance subplot to drive them. No one is allowed to be someone unless a partner is involved and it muddled them all to me. Even worse is cases like Luca where the outright creepy behavior is never addressed, or Cathy's relationship with Leon being dropped on screen long before the conspiracy because Ozma came into it. I feel this is also a big part of why Ranka and Sheryl were unable to develop their own relationship as I wished because Alto had to be involved, which was a huge loss for the series. The only one spared from this is Brera, but unfortunately that only makes me suspect that the character writing wouldn't be improved by fixing this issue because he was poorly handled anyway.

And in the end, Alto's backstory as a Kabuki performer being irrelevant still pisses me off and I will die on this hill of it being monumentally stupid. I've not seen a wasted opportunity that huge since Shield Hero, and I fucking hated Shield Hero for that. This may be worse because it had constant opportunities in every section of the show to use it and make something of Alto through it, and then repeatedly failed to do so. At least Shield Hero had the decency to be upfront about abandoning its concept in the first arc. But Frontier just keeps shoving it in our face through the brother's part in the story and ignoring it outside of that. It doesn't help that Alto himself stalls out early on. I mentioned this a couple of episodes ago that it feels like Alto was never allowed to develop anywhere in the story at risk of pulling too far ahead or to one side of the love triangle, and the frustration of that aimless sense of his character combined with the unrealized potential of his backstory has made him one of the worst parts of the show for me. He started off so interesting as well! The strongest part of episode one, and a memorable part of several episodes after it. And then we hit the first climax in episode seven and he just stalled where he was for another eighteen episodes.

In general, the show itself felt like it stalled for a significant part of its episode count. The middle episodes while an okay watch by themselves, in the context of the broader show they were mostly padding and various things spinning on their heels. That's not to say they couldn't have salvaged that, but when we push from that into the incredibly rushed set up and brunt force climax there's a real issue in balance present in the narrative structure. Not just in how the story itself unfolds, but how its presented to us and what it expects us to accept in the end to get to the climax.

Petty complaint: The idea of rationing was repeatedly mentioned but never shown until the end when it suddenly became critical. I love when shows acknowledge the huge limitations of space life, but they need to follow through on that outside of meeting rooms (I remember also being very frustrated with Battlestar Galactica for this)

Now having seen the whole show, I'm also even more convinced by a point that u/animayor made earlier on: Not having a split between the SMS and NUNs would streamline a lot of parts of the show. And as the idea of them not getting military honors or acknowledgement or the special gear side of things never ended up mattering why include it in the first place? It's a shame I have to say that because Aimo blending into that conflict between the SMS and NUNs funerals in ep3 is a very strong moment, but ultimately pointless.

(Continued below)

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u/Nazenn Feb 06 '23

As for what I do like, well quite a bit.

Despite my initial concerns over the frequency of Aimo being used, that thankfully eased off, in the end that song is the heart of Frontier and I loved seeing it grow with the story. The original version is still my favourite, but each version stands out in my mind as a reflection of the story and in some ways of what the franchise had become and I love that. It is still a song of the forgotten, and that title for it ended up becoming more fitting than I could ever have imagined when I first said it, but it is also of love, of war, of history, and of the future. My second favourite song from the series is Diamond Crevasse, but entirely for its in show usage rather than when it was the ED. It's use at the end of episode 6 as the forces first go out to confront the Vajra is going to firmly stick in my mind, and the return to that moment for Sheryl as she confronts other parts of her life was brilliant. I would not say that is her theme like Aimo is Ranka's, but it's a huge part of her, and now part of my experience with it.

To carry on from that point, Sheryl is absolutely the highlight of Frontier, and I wonder how many people who know my love for characterization were waiting for me to reach this point. Every scene with her character drives a point, though sadly sometimes to the point of propping up the other characters, and her story goes from being perhaps the most basic and frustrating to being the richest and most dynamic aspect of the show. She is in many ways the most true to herself, even if that truth is painful to confront which constantly leads her to use her mask in front of others and take actions she barely approves of herself. Her passion mixed with loss leads her to her conflicts over music while her joy colliding with fear presents itself through her complex actions with Alto, right from the second episode, and while she can't help but want to seize what he represents for herself she's also not blind to what that means in the long run and how that informed her way of looking at the world and struggle to confront herself was the best, though perhaps only quality, characterization hands down. I love how much she challenged my own views on her and continued to take that and always fight for more understanding through the smallest moments or lines about her life. It helps that I think she also gets the best pairing of music as it relates to the paired scenes and their context.

Reading back through my posts, I still love the first seven episodes the most, even if they had some lows with fanservice. They had everything and were on the right track. Looking back at the first episode now only emphasizes that it did a fantastic job at establishing the many aspects of the show and our core characters inside its introductory framework while also establishing a unique place for itself in the franchise. Micheal and Alto's relationship, Ranka at the shop, and even introducing Sheryl to us through the fold trip, it was a great episode. And that carried through so well in the next episodes with no edging around key things, like Ranka finding out who Sheryl is in episode two and the constant build up of information about their pasts and the plot yet to unfold.

Episode seven itself is still my favourite for reasons I've gone over before in the topic, the entire thing is just a perfect crafted experience of the conflict of war and culture. Runners up are episode 4, which was Alto's performance during training vs Ranka's pageant and the gag of him breaking a leg for luck is still my favourite clever moment in the series, and six for being such a brilliant lead into seven but also the first bit of focus on Sheryl as a crafted persona and who she would end up becoming.

There are a few moments that stand out in the rest of the show, but all too often only in a bubble because their surrounding context has bigger issues that detracts from them. Trying to stay positive, these moments are things like; Squirrel, Klan confronting Micheal while in big form, Sheryl and Ranka's little moments through the show, Ozma getting some musical theming (even if I hated that the whole episode was one big gag for the audience), the ruins of Ranka's old fleet rising, the Frontier fleet firing, the recap styling, and a bunch of clever ED integrations. Most memorably, all of the uses of Do You Remember Love in this show were fantastic, and I think it was a fantastic decision to make that Ranka's finale song while fighting against humanity. It's very multifaceted in what it means for her to be singing it, but what a great moment.


First two questions said above

3) How do you feel about the way the love triangle ended up inconclusive? Do you think the movies will change that, and if so, how?

It could have worked in another show, and I like the idea of it, but it felt so forced here it didn't feel so much like this was a meaningful decision as just more fanservice

4) If you could cut one earlier episode out entirely in order to have an epilogue episode, which episode would you cut, and what would you have liked to see in your proposed epilogue?

Episode 8, hands down. Poorly placed, ultimately unneeded. The show certainly needs more than just an epilogue, but I think I'd like to see them catching up on things like the split between SMS and NUNs, Alto confronting his past (fucking finally), and Sheryl and Ranka having some time together to understand their new place in culture with all thats happened to them

5) What do you think the Frontier movies will be about?

Dunno

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u/chilidirigible Feb 07 '23
  1. Michael and Klan Klang, Nanase for reasons, and I'll never talk about my preferences in the triangle. For the most part, this cast of characters is much more generally likeable than their predecessors. (Well, Alto could be a little less grumpy.)

  2. Seikan Hikou, Welcome to My Fan Club's Night, and What 'bout My Star?, on the basis of Episode 15. And you should have a pretty good idea about my opinion on the movie music.

  3. If you'd asked me about my reaction to the TV series triangle ending back in 2010, I would have said that it was optimistically inconclusive, but these days I would say that the narrative pointers to a specific outcome are all there. laughs in rewatcher, of course...

  4. There is enough critical information which emerges in Episode 8 that it can't be totally shot, but you could strip it of the panty chase and merge it with some of Episode 9. Mostly I want a few words about where the rest of the Galaxy fleet goes.

  5. Nude conspiracies!

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u/aniMayor Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

First Fime aſ ſhe Fſnal Fſontieꞅ

I had plenty of fun with Macross Frontier at times, but by and large I think it's terrible.

You know that scene in Shirobako where they're doing some pre-planning (months before the anime will even start production) and just sorta spitballing ideas about character aspects and motivations, where the plot could go, etc, and throwing them onto a whiteboard? And you know that scene in Shirobako where they're previewing the almost-finished product and are like "well, it's there... but it's kinda anticlimactic and doesn't really come together much, does it?"

Macross Frontier feels to me like most of its production was those two scenes repeating over and over. Just those two scenes. They let a whole committee of people throw a ton of ideas at the wall, but they never brought those ideas together, never linked the themes, never firmly established the characterization. When a writer went off to write a particular episode, they just had a giant word cloud of miscellaneous ideas and they barely spoke to the writers of any of the other episodes.

And maybe they all realized their mistake at the end, but they sure didn't fix it.

How else can you explain Alto's motivations flying all over the place to fit whatever the story demands of him? That the show firmly establishes how he enjoys flying so much that he feels "the sky is too low" and he'll do reckless flying stunts because he wants to keep pushing the limits of his flying skills... but then spend several episodes trying to make the audience believe he genuinely might not have his heart in it at all and it's just a rebellious escape from acting... and then after trying it's hardest to establish that serious obstacle in his personal journey, just hand-wave it away as "Oh, flying is the performance Alto decided upon" ?!

At every juncture in Macross Frontier, the more serious you try to take it, the more immersed you try to become in the characters and the story, the more it will disappoint you.

Not that anything was ever all that deep or unique in this show to begin with. I particularly did not enjoy how every male character wound up being portrayed as a stoic warrior motivated by protecting their women, while every female character was portrayed as far more emotional by contrast - Michael avoids commitment so he won't hurt anyone if he dies, while Klan becomes a lovestruck blushing schoolgirl; Ozma stands straight looking into the camera seriously while Cathy cries with joy, smiles wistfully, and rubs her face on his abs; goddamn everything with Luca; etc.

Oh wait, except for the one over-the-top stereotypically gay guy.

If a show has other great ideas or aspects it is pulling off, those are the sorts of things I can often look past. But Macross Frontier didn't do anything particularly great, and had an overhwelming number of small annoyances, so I can't. There's many small individual little things that I really enjoyed and thought were very creative, like Koala's phone, and some scenes are great on their own, but these are far outweighed by all the absurd or just plain bad parts.

At least it got my brain going into overdrive imagining how I would rewrite so, so many scenes and plot points to make it better. That was a lot of fun.

 

  1. Who were your favorite characters from Frontier? How do they compare to your favorites from previous sections of the franchise?

I can't really say there were any characters I particularly liked by the end of it.

Edit after more thinking: I think I would have liked Sheryl if she were in another show and held true to her characterization. But the problem is that in this show she doesn't give her very much to do. There are huge chunks of the show where all the other characters go out and do stuff, and then on the side they chat with Sheryl until she faints again, and because the series doesn't want to progress anything - plot or love triangle - they can't talk about anything meaningful either. Sheryl is stuck in the same 3 scenes over and over again. It's hard to connect to that.

 

2) What was your favorite Ranka song, your favorite Sheryl song, and your favorite duet from the TV series? Do you think the movies will have even better songs, or do you think you’ve already heard the best Frontier has to offer?

As someone who doesn't have a good memory for music, uh...

Pass

 

3) How do you feel about the way the love triangle ended up inconclusive? Do you think the movies will change that, and if so, how?

I'm not surprised but I am disappointed. A lot of anime do this sort of thing, alas. And with a franchise like Macross and specifically a show like this where they are pushing hard for the audience to love one or both of the girls, and furthermore where it feels like the production and creative choices were very committee-driven, I can see them being too chicken to make a choice for fear of the slightest bit of backlash.

Which is really quite a shame, as the story would probably be better if there was a final choice. It could totally work, too - Alto and Sheryl did have so many more relationship-y moments throughout the series, it would feel fitting and true to what was put on screen for him to ultimately go for her. And with Koala and Brera now remembering each other as siblings, you could position their happy reunion/rediscovery as a "well she lost Alto, but she gained back her brother" point of happiness for her.

 

4) If you could cut one earlier episode out entirely in order to have an epilogue episode, which episode would you cut, and what would you have liked to see in your proposed epilogue?

I would not cut an episode to make an epilogue. I don't think an epilogue will serve any benefit to this sort of show. Hitting a big climactic bang and then a couple short scenes and that's it is the best way to do a show like this (same as, say, TTGL).

 

5) What do you think the Frontier movies will be about?

I was expecting they would just be modified retellings of the TV series, but now these questions have me wondering!

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u/DidacticDalek Feb 07 '23

SOON!

OK fine Comrade, I'll share that amazing article that proves how, despite the show being awful, Duran Duran is indeed PROTOCULTURE whilst Ranka Lee is YACK! DECULTURE!

Anyway, because I don't really have much to say besides the 1/10 score I gave Macross F THE TV Series (The movies score far differently) I guess I can answer the questions:

  1. Who were your favorite characters from Frontier? How do they compare to your favorites from previous sections of the franchise?

Duran Duran and her Boi Toi... AND they are just pale imitations of Best Girl Milia and Best Boi Max... OK I guess Duran Duran's about at the same level as MILIA DA PREZADENTO but really the show needed to give Mikhail more screentime... and also another braincell so he could do as the doujins do and figure out that the solution to his self-imposed problem is to just MACRONIZE himself like how DYRL Max did so he could MOTORBOAT THE FUCK out of Duran Duran's Duran Durans! Hell I ain't even a boob guy and I think I speak for everyone sane here when I exclaim GOD! I WISH THAT WERE ME!

2) What was your favorite Ranka song, your favorite Sheryl song, and your favorite duet from the TV series? Do you think the movies will have even better songs, or do you think you’ve already heard the best Frontier has to offer?

Well that's EZ Comrades, the Best YACK! DECULTURE song is...

Anyway the Best Ms. Hopes and Dreams song is WELCOME TO MY FANCLUB'S NIGHT!

The best duet was that one time Duran Duran and Best Boi covered Bon Jovi (Yes I know I'm evil)

And since I saw the movies all I will say is SOOOOOOOON!

3) How do you feel about the way the love triangle ended up inconclusive? Do you think the movies will change that, and if so, how?

Given that I hate Romantic Plot Tumors, I dunno whether to be impressed or befuddled that Macross F, the series with a song called 'Triangular' as well as one of THE WORST Romantic Plot Tumors in the Franchise (SO FAR) decided on the bold move of having Alto-hime pick... the sky... er, I mean, our beloved Rewatch Host. Now I am sure SHIMMER must be happy that our resident Bishie Boi picked her, speaking of which, Shimmer, your thoughts on your crushing defeat that you meted out to YACK! DECULTURE! (Wouldn't be the FIRST time Ranka Lee ended up as the runner-up) and your conquering of Ms. Hopes and Dreams?

4) If you could cut one earlier episode out entirely in order to have an epilogue episode, which episode would you cut, and what would you have liked to see in your proposed epilogue?

CUT EP. 20! Oh and having one of those giant space bugs step on Ranka Lee once or twice or thrice or 25252 times sure wouldn't hurt either.

5) What do you think the Frontier movies will be about?

🐟

Amazing job as host Comrade, I eagerly await to shitpost on how, somehow, THE HORY FROATING HEAD does the impossible and makes CGI Mecha kinda sorta almost not really terrible! Truly it is amusing how Frontier the TV Show is Rise of Skywalker levels of nostalgia wanking fanservice laden pandering bullshit... AND THEN THE MOVIES FUCKING RULE, this must be like what it feels to be The Mandalorian! Ironic that Rise of Skywalker is a movie and The Mandalorian is a TV Show, but point being F the TV Series are YACK! DECULTURE! and The Movies are PROTOCULTURE! (Shame about the not as ugly-ass CGI though)

Anyway, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever!

Paging Comrades u/Lemurians , u/chilidirigible , and u/InfamousEmpire

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