Killer Robot

I have to agree on this point. I recently rewatched DYRL after rewatching SDFM, and it might be a retelling with jarring differences, but it is interesting viewing and gorgeous to watch: I wouldn't complain about Frontier getting such treatment and I might like it better than an inconsequential sidestory like some other series have followed up with. A good followup story, now that would be ideal. Mostly I just hope it isn't a condensed clip show with little new or at least reworked material.

I'm in the camp of loving Frontier, but still wishing some things were better. Even there though, I have to admit that it's not like the earlier TV series were much better on most of my criticisms, and sometimes worse. 1. Inconsistent animation: This one struck me a lot: shifting models, strange viewing angles, the occasional motion that just looked like spastic flailing around. Partly this came out of different studios being used, and it's not like this wasn't striking in SDFM. Still, I could have hoped for better. 2. Pacing: Some episodes, even with valuable character development, felt like filler, and others felt simply rushed. The ending certainly could have used more time. On the other hand, the climactic battles for all three have been really plowed through, and this was the shortest series of the three and never really went more than an episode without things rolling along. By contrast, 7 spent the first third of its run not really developing both plot and characters at glacial speeds before things really started happening, and the last episode was as muddled and rushed as anything. 3. The triangle's end: At first I was dissatisfied: it seemed like a kludge at best, another trick played on the audience at worst. But the more I consider it, the more it makes sense to me, wheras I still find Macross 7's resolution to be dissatisfying on that front. 4. Sexin' up: I can't really complain on some level of sex/innuendo/cheesecake/etc. It's not like it's new to the genre or the franchise: even on TV, SDFM had its share though it was milder stuff to suit its era, and 7 had less but was aimed for the youngest audience of the three. I do wish that it had been less of a lolicon slant: it's not as extreme as some things, and I know much of this has been done to death, but it's striking. Mylene was young, but I think it's telling that Mylene was 14 and cast in a movie as a 16 year old, and Ranka was 16 and cast in a movie as an 11 year old. And that's to say nothing of Klan: I feel the focus on her enormous-breasted giantess/loudmouthed little loli elements distracted from exploring her other dichotomy of a Zentraedi that's proud of being born into human culture, yet also of her traditional role as soldier. I could have done with several fewer suggestive shots at dramatic moments, for that matter, like so pointedly focusing on the T&A angles when Klan did her EVA-style launch in Island 1. Still, this was stuff I could live with: early in the show I feared it might collapse into another sexed up fanservice show, but the trend fortunately did not build further. 5. Hero mechs: One thing that impressed me greatly in SDFM was having the aces and the grunts go out there in the same plane, with minor differences like head design and paint job being there mostly just to show who the heroes are: if someone did better, it was from being a better pilot alone. Of course, every installment in the franchise since has focused very much on aces keeping to advanced prototypes and upgunned custom models, so this isn't a flaw of Frontier. If anything, this dialed it down a bit by putting out a whole squadron of VF-25s complete with cannon fodder models, putting the two really customized models in the hands of junior pilots and used for more support than front line fighting, and making the VF-27 a primarily antagonistic fighter. 6. Villainy: You mean the giant space bugs are our friends? It was a gradual build showing that there was more shady stuff happening on Frontier than Vajra attacks, even if the pacing of it seemed sometimes jagged. A lot of people got that the Vajra weren't the true enemy as the series progressed, but making them not necessarily an enemy at all felt very rushed for many/most, compared to the speed at which it was shown that the Zentraedi and Protodeviln weren't necessarily evil or impossible to make peace with in theory. Still, for once the aliens were actually alien, and it followed up from the late lesson of SDFM that the real danger isn't just more Zentraedi fleets and Protoculture remnants, but rather the warlike and controlling natures within humans and Zentraedi alike. And I was pleasantly pleased to see a major, and vicious, villain who didn't telegraph it on her first appearance.

What my favorite is has been changing as I watched the series and after: right now I'd say the one I keep coming back to in Northern Cross, but there are a lot of runners up. I'm really most impressed though, by overall musical direction: with the exception of opening/ending themes and Aimo being played into the ground, I don't remember any vocals getting played more than three times, or any BGM being too heavily relied upon. Even then I'll give the qualifiers that Aimo got more arrangements than anything else, the O.C version was shockingly different, and it still wasn't Planet Dance levels of overuse.

I'd agree with this, but clarify that the real branch decision happened not when Alto turned down that message to join the SMS rebellion: at that point, Ranka was seemingly turned on Frontier, and he had a fresh promise to Sheryl after learning her condition. Rather , I'd put it before the big attack and assassination, when Sheryl told him she'd decided to quit singing. He had reasons to take this at face value: he'd had a lot of problems reading Sheryl's motives in the past and he had left performing at his height too. Even knowing something was wrong he might have held back; instead, he pushed fiercely to remind her of her pride and her work, and how clearly she was meant to keep on inspiring with her song. Without that, she would have collapsed into despair, her own Vajra-related powers would have gone undiscovered, and even if Alto had chosen to stay with a dying Sheryl once he had learned the truth of her illness, the two never would have freed Ranka. So the real key was not so much staying with her so much as simply never letting her give up.

Having just watched Macross II I can't really add much that hasn't been said already here. It felt flat at some points, it felt simply strange at others. While it has stuff in common with the rest of the franchise and it explores principles common to the other series, I think I like it being the parallel universe that might have happened if humanity had never snatched the factory asteroid and started an emigration program after SW1. The main thing I'd like to say is that it was a pleasant shock to put on a Macross anime and see human females flying fighters. Even if I somewhat deflated again when the actual important one suddenly went into how much she inherited the impulsive drive of her Meltran grandmother.