junior

Bobby's gay, but that doesn't mean that he's constantly effeminate. He's very aggressive and intimidating when the situation demands it. Case in point is episode 9, when he threatens Elmo for not managing Ranka's publicity well enough. Anime's been full of gay characters that have been anything but effeminate, dating back to at least the original Daley Wong in Bubblegum Crisis 2032.

In SDFM, Hikaru's family ran a flying circus. iirc, Hikaru mentions to Roy that the latter had promised Hikaru's father that he'd return to the circus. So the implication is that Hikaru's family is still alive at the start of the TV series, though there's the possibility that it isn't the case.

Anything that froze that quickly would undergo some serious cracking as the density of the planet's core changed rapidly from liquid to solid. Exactly. So just as we shouldn't worry too much about the depiction of the planet's core, we likewise shouldn't worry too much about the atmosphere. Frontier isn't hard sci-fi, and the planet isn't reacting in a way that really fits with real world physics as we understand them.

Generally when something gouges out that much of a planet, one would expect to see a rather fiery core. Since we don't, I wouldn't let scientific realism interfere with any ideas about what state Gallia 4 might be in now.

Alto's the only guy that can see past her fame and appreciate her as a normal human being. I don't think he exactly shows her disinterest so much as he's just not interested in playing mind games. Now that Sheryl's aware that yes she really does like Alto, I suspect she'll stop playing her mind games. Then we'll have to see how long it takes Alto to notice the change and realize that she's not just teasing him again. Unfortunately for Sheryl, the preview summaries

Keep in mind that Sheryl's been teasing Alto with actions like the kiss in episode 10. Her action suggests that she's interested in him romantically, but she pokes fun at him when he starts to actually consider that the action might actually indicate her feelings. So it's reasonable for Alto to require a little more reinforcement from Sheryl before he finally realizes how she feels. And truth be told, I don't think Sheryl realized how she felt until the trip to Gallia 4. Alto doesn't have a problem with Luca. His annoyance with his circle of friends is largely limited to Michael, who likes to tease him. The rest of his annoyance revolves around Ranka. Up through episode 11, Alto's relationship with Ranka is like that of an older brother, giving friendly advice and looking out for her. But Ranka's infatuated with Alto, and all of her friends are aware of it. Further, they tend to get annoyed with Alto when he shows anything other than absolute devotion to Ranka. Since Alto doesn't share Ranka's feelings (at the moment), this tends to happen frequently. And since Luca's more or less the only person that doesn't engage in this independently, he's the only person who doesn't seem to at least occasionally draw Alto's ire. What I see of Alto is someone who decided to leave a successful career in his family business to strike out on his own and do what he really wants to do. He doesn't have much patience with anyone who would try to stand between him and flying. He already gave up his family (which is a huge deal in Japan), and he's not going to quit flying just because someone asked him nicely. He also doesn't have much patience with people who try to push him around. Michael and Sheryl, both decent judges of personality, realize that about Alto and amuse themselves by pushing his buttons. Further, he's still well-known for the work that he did in his family business. Sheryl has the good sense to leave it alone, but it seems to be an open target for anyone and everyone else and is no doubt the cause of his nickname among other things. Is it any wonder that Alto isn't exactly the most sociable guy around? Alto's a nice guy, but for very good reasons he's had to adopt something of a loner attitude. People treat him differently and he doesn't like that. His stand-offish attitude is his way of coping with that.

No, she won't. She'll have forgotten it by the next episode. She doesn't even know why she's crying at the end of episode 14 when Brera asks her.

On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, no. Cathy didn't... - Shoot Alto's gun without warning when he was using it to free Luca - Attack Klan Klan without warning and leave her drifting in space (at best) - Attack Alto with intent to kill in order to keep Alto from rescuing Ranka from the Vajra

On the other hand, Sheryl's actions make a certain amount of sense at the time. I don't think she realized just how much she liked Alto until the opportunity came up for her to spend time away from him. With the trip to Gallia 4 she realizes just how much she likes to have him around. And then Ranka gets to take the flight with Alto that by rights should have been Sheryl's. I think Sheryl's finally realized just how much she likes Alto. But she's teased him enough that it's going to take a little time for him to take her seriously. And unfortunately for Sheryl, Ranka's about to start her little offensive just as Sheryl gets sidelined by the illness.

The dialogue seems to be Brera stating that he's rescued the "hostage" (i.e. Ranka) from the Vajra. And Ranka's in a hospital gown in a scene with Alto in the preview for the next episode. So it's even more unlikely that the prisoner translation is correct.

Buuuuut.... In Episode 13, Brera wonders to himself why he constantly feels that he needs to protect Ranka. So there's more going on than is immediately apparent where Brera is concerned. It's true that Grace wants Ranka protected (temporarily shifted to a secondary goal in episode 13, though probably back to a high priority goal - but Alto had her rescue in hand in this episode, so Brera shouldn't have needed to reveal himself), but Brera seems to have a need to protect Ranka that goes over and above Grace's instructions. And as I said, Grace's instructions don't seem to include publicly revealing himself to the Frontier fleet. Brera got in trouble over his defence of Ranka in episode 10, and it's possible that he might have just done something else that would get him into trouble. Actually, afaik there's been no indication yet that the anti-cybernetics laws exist anywhere but Frontier. I'd be surprised if there weren't other fleets with those laws as well. But we don't know what sort of laws the rest of the NUNS has regarding cybernetics. And there's no reason to think that there aren't other fleets with at least a partial pro-cybernetics stance. She was at least able to fly the thing, if only somewhat. Most people in that situation would probably do a lot worse. And she would have made it back to the Quarter if she hadn't managed to attract the attention of four of the smaller Vajra. Even Luca didn't do very well against them, and he's a trained combat pilot (though admittedly apparently not a very good one). As for Alto's reaction to Sheryl, it seemed to me that Alto was oblivious to the intent of Sheryl's words. It's not really his fault, though, given how Sheryl has treated him in the past (the kiss in episode 10 being the most obvious example). He wrecked one of those planes in the process of saving a much more expensive plane and its pilot. I'd cut him some slack on that one at least. Except that Brera appears to be Ranka's brother... It's possible that the NUNS might attach him to the SMS much as Cathy is currently. Brera's unique plane makes things a little odd since you can't really give him a regular wingman to run interference for him due to the vastly different operating characteristics of his VF-27. Since the SMS already operates different aircraft and is a unit that performs special operations, sticking him there does make a certain amount of sense. On the other hand, I don't think the SMS would be too happy with him, given that he's fought against or interfered with the group on three different occasions... Let's wait until something actually happens to Ozma... It's entirely possible that he'll make it through the series in one piece. Michael still has seniority, however.

Part of C.C.'s most recent pizza order was accidentally sent to the Macross Quarter by mistake, and Mr. Bilrer decided to save on a month's worth of food bills by using the pizzas to feed the crew instead of the regular rations.

Cathy spends all of episode 11 asking people about Gallia 4 and the 33rd Marine Unit, and you don't think she suspects Leon? She suspects him, alright. She wouldn't have approached Klan Klan about the 33rd Marine Unit if she didn't. But it takes more than mere suspicions to prove that something's actually wrong. He's highly placed in the military and works closely with the President. She can't do anything without some actual proof of what he's doing and what he's up to. And since she doesn't know what he's up to, she needs to figure it out first. And I suspect that she's had an inkling that something was wrong since at least episode 8 when he discounted Alto's report of Brera's VF-27.

Huh? Mikhail appars to have suffered a concussion and a nasty cut directly beneath his eye, but there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with him that would affect his piloting or sniping skills, or that would keep him in the hospital for more than a day or two. There's no reason based on this episode to believe that he won't continue piloting Skull 2 (once it's replaced, of course). And speaking of members of the Skull Team, what happened to Luca's ghosts? We saw them when Luca initially sortied, but then they just vanished. They might have been very useful when Luca tried to rescue Sheryl and Michael.

Alto wouldn't have left that long after the Vajra did. The Vajra left when the Dimension Eater was activated. Alto went into orbit when the Dimension Eater was activated. There wouldn't have been much for him to do other than re-equip Michael's Fold Booster and leave for Frontier. All told, I don't think he could have been there for more than 15 minutes after the Vajra left. There's nothing that would explain him staying at Gallia 4 any longer than that. I'm also inclined to believe that what was shown with Alto at Gallia 4 actually happened before the Vajra arrived at the Frontier fleet. Or in other words, the bits that are shown of Alto at the ruined planet take place before the Vajra arrival that's shown before and after Alto's departure from Gallia 4. It's a dramatic device that's seen in stories from time to time in order to keep the flow of the story moving properly. Alto's attitude during the scene when he retrieves the fold booster fits better with the mood evoked by the battle than it does with the relative quiet time during the earlier part of the episode. Additionally, showing Alto's departure from Gallia 4 much later helps to keep the audience from anticipating his arrival in the fight. If we saw him fold out immediately after the OP, then we would have been wondering the entire time when he was going to arrive in the battle, and possibly anticipated that he was going to be the one to save to save Luca, Michael, and Sheryl (I figured it was going to be Ozma that did so). Instead, by delaying showing his departure, they kept the audience in the dark about his impending arrival. Of course it is possible that Alto literally left at that point in the battle. If that's the case then the fold booster was able to allow him to travel near instantaneously between Gallia 4 and Frontier. But the important thing is that either way he arrived after roughly just as much time had passed since the battle started as passed between when the Vajra left and Alto left Gallia 4. As I said earlier, I don't think that it could possibly be more than ten to fifteen minutes difference. It's possible that Grace kept Leon somewhat in the dark on the true purpose of the Gallia trip. Though I'm also wondering if Brera has at least partially turned on Grace. Somehow I don't think "Await further orders" includes "Reveal yourself to Frontier in a public announcement". Guess we'll find out soon. I'm also guessing that the SMS group has a lot of questions that they'd like to ask him...

Regarding this bit of info about episode 15... I'm guessing that the real reason is that...

Or maybe Brera himself is detecting it? From the pictures in episode 13 it appears that the two are siblings, and since Ranka has a link to the Vajra it's possible that Brera does as well. Given that the Vajra clearly react to Ranka's singing, if Brera had some sort of link with the Vajra then he might very well be capable of detecting the song by himself (i.e. without any technological help) as well.

It's my personal belief that there really was a Grace at one point (there may not be anymore, though), and that the Grace we've seen is a duplicate that replaced her. Given that, if the original had glasses then the replacement would require them as well. Of course, there's very little evidence of this. It's also possible that the glasses have uses that have nothing to do with vision correction. They would be a good place for additional instruments that provide visual displays only visible to the wearer. It's interesting to note that the disguised Grace in episode 10 is also wearing glasses - albeit sunglasses in this case.

I think Grace wanted to cause bad relations between Frontier and the other fleets as well. There was a line from Cathy waaaaaaaay back in the very first episode about the possibility of a diplomatic disaster if anything were to happen to Sheryl. And 12 episodes later, it looks like we almost saw that come to pass. Frontier would be blamed for carelessly putting Sheryl in a dangerous position so that Frontier could acheive some minor benefit. iirc Gilliam ditched his pack so that he could squeeze through the already shrinking opening that the Vajra blew in the dome. So I don't know if we can yet authoritatively say that Super Packs can't be used in an atmosphere. At the very least, a VF-25 ought to be able to operate with the packs in an atmosphere while in GERWALK mode.

According to the Kei subs, her line translates as, "The Fold Communication Waves will be their guidepost." That could be a reference to the Zentraedi outpost broadcasting for help (though such things tend to be more general than specific). But Brera also says something about confirming weak fold waves when Ranka is captured by the Vajra, and states that, "The pattern has been caught." Obviously the Vajra got something from Ranka. It's not entirely clear what it was, but it appears to be related to the fold waves that Brera detects. So imo, the exact method that Grace uses to drive the Vajra to Frontier is still not confirmed.

Based on the sub, here's what I got about Grace's plan - 1.) She planned to have Sheryl die. Either Frontier would get angry with the Vajra over her death, or the rest of the galaxy would get angry with Frontier over Sheryl's death (probably the latter; in episode 1, Cathy makes a comment about a potential diplomatic disaster for Frontier if something happens to Sheryl). 2.) She planned to set up a link for the Vajra between Gallia 4 and the Frontier fleet 3.) The Dimension Eater was meant to force the Vajra to leave Gallia 4, and the link would drive them to Frontier 4.) Grace isn't dead. Based on the new orders that she gives Brera, as well as the fact that Luca got in trouble with Leon (Grace's co-conspirator, who presumeably isn't in on the "drive the Vajra to Frontier" aspect of her plan), I don't think Grace expected Ranka to end up on Gallia 4. However, Ranka did end up there and Grace adapted her plan when Ranka ended up at the crash site. I'm guessing that the "thing" in Ranka's stomach is what ended up creating the link between the Vajra and Frontier. We saw a connection in episode 7 between Ranka's stomach and Sheryl's earring, so it's possible that Grace's original plan was to use Sheryl's death and Sheryl's earring to somehow link the Vajra with Frontier. Then Ranka arrived, and Grace adapted her plan to use the new girl instead. Grace also didn't foresee that Sheryl would quit taking her "medicine" (in reality poison to maker her sick; presumeably she quit taking it because she was depressed about Alto flying off with Ranka), recover quite a bit, go flying with Michael, and safely make it to the Vajra fold-out quickly enough to leave the system. So Grace doesn't know that Sheryl's still alive. Of course, the question remains - why would Grace hate Frontier so much?

It was something more than that. It shut down electronics across the entire region. We saw the entire Zentraedi base get blacked out at the start of the episode. Because of the size of the affect, it was probably something too large to carry off with the Vajra fleet. It looked like a small lobster to me, actually. A small green lobster. Maybe it wasn't ripe yet? Given how wild this episode was, unfortunately I don't think I can really say anything more substantive until I've seen a translation of the episode.

I don't see that. Rather, it looks to me as if the VF-25 is a swing-wing design (like the VF-1) and Alto keeps the wings back during descent and swings them forward again after reaching a safe altitude and speed. The speakers should be fine - at least as far as their positions on the wing hardpoints are concerned. A more interesting question is how exactly they managed to survive reentry in their position at the bottom of Michael's wings. I guess I'm going to have to assume that they're made of special reentry resistant handwavium that can only be used to make VF speakers.

Didn't say that they didn't have good weapons on them. It's ironic that the humans built a number of heavily armored mecha... and ran into the Zentraedi who went the exact opposite and built a number of Regult variants that were all overgunned (to the point where the armor on the human mecha didn't mean very much) to the extreme but had paper thin skins. Regardless, Western human philosophy (and the Japanese have adopted this particular bit) tends to favor providing troops and personnel with at least minimal protection whenever possible. Given the non-armored nature of the Regults, I can't see them staying in use any longer than is absolutely necessary.

Given that the Regult is basically a walking deathtrap it wouldn't surprise me all that much if they had. In theory the human organization would presumeably have a greater degree of regard for the lives of the Zentraedi troops serving under it than the original Zentraedi forces did.