Mark Nguyen

Finally watched Episode 6... -About the twinned fold booster on the VF-171: from at least one translation, they seem to be forced to make short hops to get from Frontier to Galaxy due to interference. This implies that fold boosters are re-useable, since with at least one stopover on a four leg trip you'd be short a couple one-shot boosters. Some have suggested that two boosters would essentially halve the recharge time, or allow for a quick getaway if they folded into a firefight. As these guys were a recon/scouting force, the latter would be useful. Don't think it was for the unfortunate pilots, though... Alternately, since the boosters were smaller than the versions seen in Macross Plus and 7, perhaps these ones are needed in pairs like Trekkish warp nacelles. -So Macross Galaxy is not a typical dome ship at all, if the hulk we see in the one shot is Galaxy itself. There were two kinds of ships seen in that clip, the big orange bruiser later seen folding in, and a smaller green ship that looks a little like the Musai class from Gundam. No sign of an actual "Macross" style ship, as the name has always implied... -Who's in actual charge of this rescue force? We only see several Gunatanamo-class carriers fold out with Macross Quarter. Is there a NUNS commander? Is Wilding in charge? I get the feeling that the NUNS forces will only be so much cannon fodder while SMS looks better - we'll only hear the screams of hapless 171 crew as they get shot to pieces. -However, at least the SMS crew seemed to be loading ammo and warheads that would hopefully be more effective against the Vajra than in previous encounters. One would hope that NUNS have done the same. -Is there a reason Macross Quarter is launching with a bunch of VF-25s strapped to the flight deck? It DOES look really, really cool, but we usually see fighters safely tucked INSIDE the folding ship, only launching into combat after it arrives. Are these fighters ready to launch? If so, why aren't they ON the catapults? I suppose an exception can be made to newer fighters, which probably must be hardened against the rigors of fold space and therefore CAN stay outside a ship in a fold if need be. But if they're folding into a combat zone, why isn't everyone on deck or hanging on to the hull, ready to launch at a moment's notice? -About M1/4's firepower - it DOES seem to have a big gun, which composes the entire right arm. This of course renews the issue of WHY we need the ship to transform in the first place. If then cannon works fine in cruiser mode, you should simply be able to reorient the ship to point it in the direction you want to fire. The original Macross had to transform to made their cannon's three-prong fit into the wall socket; the New Macross and M1/4 ships shouldn't have this issue. -And further distances equalling inaccurate folds makes sense to me. I get the impression you can't navigate while in a fold - there are no signposts along the way. As fold space is inherently turbulent, you could be knocked off course the further you go along. We have some examples of incredible control over short range folding (most notably when Geper-whatever folded a reaction warhead from IN HIS FACE to just off the side of Stargazer) but it figures that longer distances would require a level of power and control not capable in Macross physics. On the flipside, a beacon or something could make precise, longer-range folding possible, if Bodolza's fleet had something for Britai's ship to home in on, or if Earth's exact coordinates were known so the factory satellite could get there with limited trouble. Mark

Quad Hmm... This time the Quedlunn seems much more in-scale with Klein Klan's, err, proportions. It's much closer to how we saw Miria in her suit, wih the shoulders of the suit matching her shoulders. The first time we saw it, KK was much smaller than the cavity she was sitting in, to the point shere she was in fact SITTING. No such thing here. Mark

I thought I mentioned it in December... Ah well. It starts at about 11:00 of the Deculture edition, and you'll need a version with a resolution of at least 1280 to see it. They have tons of ship names in there too. Amongst those I'm able to make out on a quick pass: Northampton-class Stealth Frigate FFM-805 Glendale FFM-796 Century FFM-860 Amagi FFM-810 Eden Guantanamo-class Aircraft Carrier CVR-699 Belleau Wood CVR-XXX Clark 2 CVR-663 Kaga CVR-670 Rakuyou (repeated as an Uraga; can't see the prefix code) Uraga (?) class Aircraft Carrier CVS-707 Velagulf CVS-570 Rakuyou CVS-720 Fahrion CVS-671 Vandeglift Plenty more in there... Who knows what others are repeated, but it's awesome to see how much detail they put into a 20-second CG sequence! Regarding the class names, I was looking at the Macross 7 Animation Materials and the pages for the ships denote the artwork as depicting CV-404 Uraga and ARMD-368 Maizuru, but it does not state that those are the class vessels. In fact, both ships are clearly marked in episodes of Macross 7, with Uraga being destroyed (or at least severely damaged) in Episode 16, and Maizuru shown as being attached to the Sunny Flower agricultural ship. Mark

It was not. Here's a pic for reference: http://kensforce.com/04m72.jpg Definitley looks like Basara's guitar or one like it. The guy wearing it might be a Basara-type outfit, but honestly, it's tough to determine ANYTHING because of the context of the song and where any of these magicians actually are (if they exist at all). Mark

Regarding the lack of transformation in the VF-171, it's nothing new to Macross. In Macross 7, despite the VF-11 and VF-17 being present in abundance, we don't see the 17 transform until episode 5, and the VF-11 after that. The idea is to give props to your "star" mecha first, give 'em screen time to impress the audience, and THEN add in the secondary fodder. Heck, even in the original Macross, no one transforms their VF-1s until Roy and Hikaru have done so, despite everyone being in combat for some time. On a separate note, I've checked the higher-def CG flythrough in episode one and the Stealth Frigates are definitely labelled as "Northampton Class". Dunno where the other designation came from for the Macross 7 examples, but these are apparently upgraded versions of those. The flythrough also clearly labels the ARMD-type ships as Guantanamo-class aircraft carriers, with the prefix "CVR". There is furthermore a flowchart-style graphic that seems to describe how the ships are arranged in the Macross Frontier grouping of modules. Battle 25 came first, and was linked to two more text blocks: one for Macross Quarter (and we know what that means now) and another for Macross Frontier. The graphic extends beyond that but there's nothing legible. Mark

Messiah was announced as a "pet name" or nickname. Not OFFICIAL, but there's no reason to use it. In any case, it's not like we as a fandom use the formal name when describing VFs for the most part. Mark <--- Likes the 19

Haven't seen it yet, but... Mark

Wasn't Haruna the CLASS of ships that was used in M3? The Algencius or whatever it was that Max & Miria were assigned to was a Haruna-class ship. Mark

From Wikipedia: "Literally, Messiah means "The Anointed (One)", typically someone anointed with holy anointing oil. Figuratively, anointing is done to signify being chosen for a task; so, Messiah means "The Chosen (One)", particularly someone divinely chosen." So strictly-speaking, it doesn't carry a specific religious connotation - but it's interesting to note that the concept of a Messiah is usually applied to the Christian, Jewish, AND Islamic tradition. So we're not talking about a particular religion here - and besides, it's just a nickname ("pet name" in the translation) like "Star Mirage", no? Mark <--- Likes it

-"Bolognese" (which STILL makes me think of spaghetti, even twelve years later) is mentioned once in Macross 7, referring to a specific ship. I'm not sure where exactly they mention this in the official artwork... The Macross 7 materials book only calls it a "Stealth Frigate". Some online sources call the Stealth Frigate "Northampton", but I'm not sure where this OR Bolognese came from... However, in Frontier episode 1, the tactical fly-through of the Frontier fleet passes over several of these upgraded frigates, which certainly look like they are labelled "Northampton Class Stealth Frigate". -Yes, I am aware that they're not the same ARMD vessels seen in SDFM; I'm saying "ARMD-type" because i'm similarly unsure of the class designation (it's been called Guantanamo and Maizuru over the years, but the aforementioned flythrough definitely says "Guantanamo"). In any case, I believe one of these ships is actually numbered as "ARMD-368" somewhere onscreen or in the artwork. Besides, I'm referring to the Stealth Cruiser - the grey ship that blew up so eloquently in the first episode. The katakana explicitly refer to the grey ship as such. -Agreed on the awkwardly-named "Destroid Work". You know, while it simply "sounds cool" to the average Japanese consumer, I think a lot of these anime coule really maintain credibility if they hired an anglophone consultant to read through all the Engrish they drop in. I hate enjoying an anime thoroughly only to see a red alert light loudly announcing that the ship is "STATUS CLITICAL"... Mark

Fighting Zentradi? Mark

Kresphy has dumped a Konig Monster's bumload of awesome scans from the latest Newtype, with all sorts of mecha and technology goodness! Let's take a closer look, shall we? http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080600.jpg The key new designs here are the Stealth Frigate (based on the Macross 7 Northampton class) and the Stealth Cruiser. Both follow the classic anime space batleship motif, with lots o' guns (in turrets this time) and little visible fighter capacity (though M7 proved us wrong with the Northampton). Also seen are the stretched-looking aircraft carrier and ARMD designs, which we know from M7, and the "Island" modules trailing the main city dome. The only katakana I can make out of value seems to be "bioplant", suggesting the function of the Islands, or at least what runs them. The Vajra pics don't really show anything we haven't seen, other than that the big red version seems to operate in two distinct modes. http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080601.jpg Not much new here, other than a pic of Island 1 when the dome is "closed". I wonder what the other Islands do for protection? http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080602.jpg A good look at Alto's flight suit here. It's very form-fitting a la SDFM design, with a little hard stuff on the shoulders as with later designs. It hasn't been this trim in a while, but OTOH is was definitely made with an EX-Gear interface in mind. Oddly, we dont' see his helmet or the EX-Gear. Not enough space on the page since Ranka's taking up most of it. http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080603.jpg Ahhh, Sheryl... We see her "inner suit" here, which suggests that any oufit she projects over it will by default include 3-inch heels. We see more of Ozma's flight suit too, with helmet. http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080604.jpg I'm willing to bet money that within the year, two people will be cosplaying as the grown-up AND chibi versions of Klein Klan simultaneously. Lots of good looks at uniforms here (why is Monica the only one wearing the bunny uniform hat?) and names too. The SMS commander's name is Jeffrey Wilder. He musta kicked ass in 2040 with a name like that. http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080605.jpg Back to the mecha! It's apparently nicknamed the VF-25 Messiah (the katakana calls it a "pet name"). Some GREAT pics of the 25 here, including the super pack rear views, gun pod (open and closed) and knife. Alas, nothing I can make out about the knife other than it's usable in battroid and gerwalk modes. The super and armored packs tend to make the 25 look really back-heavy, but we've seen it doesn't impact the maneuverabilty of the machine much at all under gravity. Bless you, overtechnology! http://www.jiulm.com/uploadme/me/macross/2...507nt080606.jpg We see the back and underside of the VF-171 new here - still no gunpod. Good overviews of the sniper and EWACS variants, plus a more standard super VF-25 like Alto's that Luca seems destined for. Nice to know we'll see he can fight. We get to see details on the Ghost fighters, though no real stats are provided. We also see the cute li'l "Destroid Work" (Destroid Worker?) that is clearly based on the destroid design from Macross Zero (itself mostly from teh Tomahawk lineage). A glimpse of the Konig Monster in Battroid rounds out the new stuff. Quite a wealth of information! Now to see it all in action. :) Thanks Kresphy! Mark

I haven't been nagged by it. Those CG sequences are expensive, and the quality hasn't been BAD in the grand scheme of things. Gundam 00 it's not, but we're comparing the best apples with the best oranges in a bucket of dozens here. As for why colonize other planets at all, the root is simply in the fact that humanity has always been a species of learners, expansionists, and to a certain degree explorers. Macross Frontier has possibly been on the road for twenty years (ref. the 20th Miss Macross Frontier contest), and while some people wouldn't mind living in the same place for two decades, I'm sure some people are looking forward to settling a new world. The edict of the colonization program is to make sure that humanity won't be extinct if the Zentradi (or anyone) wipes out Earth. After all, we haven't really seen what happens to a "modern" colony fleet when a suitable planet is discovered. They may land permanenetly and coert their colony ships into the bases for cities, or they may simply let anyone off who wants to stay, makes sure they're self-sufficient AND linked to the Galaxy Network, and move on. Mark

I wouldn't really call it "flying around"... The 21's arms and legs are shot off, and Guld is in free-fall for a moment before he jettisons what's left of his limbs and shifts to fighter mode. It could survive, yes - but in the case of the 21 it's because its main engines are housed in the back of the machine, and not the legs. The 25 certainly had an advantage as its super packs added thrusters in the back to compensate for the loss of a leg and its own main engine. Mark

Who knows how much we'll see of the Macross Galaxy fleet, if anything (but wreckage). The opening episode map showed Macross Galaxy and Macross Frontier (apparently the Macross 21 and Macross 25 fleets, respectively) both travelling towards the galactic core along differing routes; Frontier left from Earth, while Galaxy left from Eden. The map also showed only two symbols depicting colony fleets launched from these planets: the Megaroad-class ships and the New Macross-class ships, with both Frontier and Galaxy being represented by the latter. Now, what does this mean? Macross 7 and Macross 25 / Frontier both have the same class of big UNS/NUNS battleship leading the fleet, but the actual fleet composition was very different. Macross 7 had one big city ship and several large colony ships, protected by smaller space warships; Frontier is the one huge city ship and trailing Island modules, protected by what might be a much larger military fleet. galaxy may or may not have a New Macross class carrier attached to a wholly different type of colony ship with fewer parks and more malls. It seems like each colony fleet is like a nation unto itself; think of our North American continetn with huge swaths of undevelopped land, versus the largely tamed and controlled urban sprawl of Japan. Mark

Could be variable - there are few designs in this universe that AREN'T, so... Hey, how about a screencap of the new ship, finally seen in the next episode preview?! :) Mark

If you mean reaction weaponry, they almost certainly have them. The Macross 7 fleet certainly had a stockpile they used on several occasions, and had missiles that could be deployed on fighters. I'm sure it's a matter of time before they suggest using them, though in Macross they tend to be a strategic weapon. Regarding this Q-Lambda, I'm thinking it's a slightly larger mecha based on the scale we see it in. In both SDFM and the M7 movie, the pilot is seen head and shoulders inside the mecha, with her arms extending into the shoulder joints. Here, the pilot is seated fairly comfortably in the chest cavity. So, either these Meltran pilot are smaller than Miria and company were at their giant size, or the Q-Lambda is larger than its Q-Rau progenitors. We learn slightly more and more about the SMS ship here, now that we've seen the actual launch sequence. For starters, I think it's significantly smaller than the New Macross carriers or even the original Macross. The ship almost certainly has its left arm dedicated to fighter launch and recovery, with the other housing the big cannon, not unlike how the original Macross had the Prometheus and Daedalus. I'm REALLY looking forward to the unveiling of this guy. Mark

The only NUNS interior facility we've seen is the cavernous CIC durign the initial battle of the first episode. Since then, we've focused pretty much exclusively on the SMS ship in its berth on the side of Island 1. When it finally launches, it should be a great day indeed. In any case, right now SMS are the only guys who have the technology sufficient enough to repel the Vajra so far, and even THAT is a tough nut. If and when new technology appears (music-based or otherwise) that will let the Frontier forces fight the Vajra more effectively, I'm sure NUNS will grab it and screw THAT up too, keeping SMS at the frontlines. But boy, don't we know a lot of VF-171 pilots are maaaaaaad... A bunch of corporate mercs are flying around with the latest models, while they're stuck with ineffective planes that can't even scratch the enemy. What's keeping NUNS from starting to upgrade their forces by adding in a VF-25 squadron or two? They should have botht he facilities and plans to build them, and quickly, if Macross 7 is any indication... Mark

If anything, I'd say this is a sketch made after Kawamori roughed out the basic shapes and transformation specifics with his legos... A couple refinements later, he passes it over to the CG boys to do a proper first round, and we ultimately get the final product from there. Looks like the gun pod was always meant to split lengthwise. I guess it's a switch from the telescoping action of earlier models. Cool! Mark

Nah, it's just something to keep his beard from spilling out onto his uniform. Mark

Well, that's the reason you use a sword in the first place - it's all about area. The tip of the blade, in a thrust vs. a punch, will have the same force behind it as a fist, but distributed over a much smaller area, thus being far stronger. This is why chain mail is great against people trying to bludgeon you with something, but why it's basically useless against someone trying to stab you. I've always thought that the PPB doesn't really INCREASE the amount of damage someone would inflict, but rather it more easily protect the hands/arms of the Valkyrie equipped with it. Armored or not, a strong enough punch could shatter the machine's hands - so a PPB punch allows the machine to throw a much stronger punch without the user being scared of breaking the articulation underneath. For the knife, it's possible that PPB technology has been refined to the point where the stabbing point of the knife is effectively really, really small - again, increasing the damage at the impact point by reducing the impact area. Since regular bullets were having no real effect, the knife might apply the required force to finally pierce the soft parts in the armor of the red. Mark

I agree. I would have loved for Roy to finish the last episode in the combat premiere of his VF-1S, but that wouldn't be necessary (especially against the newer coolness of the VF-0). From a storytelling perspective, there's no need to establish any real connections to the main Macross storyline; Macross 7 barely did it either, and they HAD characters from the original series! Likewise, the ending of Macross Zero is hardly atypical for Japanese storytelling. Lots of Western fans have freaked out upon watching an anime where the hero DOESN'T get the girl, kills the bad guys, and lives happily ever after with his friends. Happens all the time in anime. We get used to it. Mark

Either way, the best boys get the best toys. Mark

Awww, yeah. Saw the screencap of the hidden craft, and it's absolutely the "hands" of the OP sequence battle fortress sticking out under the canopy. I suspect a Miyatake design based loosely off of the sketches of what would eventually become Battle 7; some of those had the arms of the new ship be copies of the Prometheus and Daedalus carriers. Something similar seems to be happening here, with the left arm being the flight deck, and the right housing the BFG. Now, one only wonders if Battle 25 (if that's its name) would ever separate and join this ship in a battle royale finale. Mark

Long forgotten? Most Macross stories feature unexpaected abduction of SOME kind as a major plot point. With the confirmation of a second ship, I expect they're going to eventually go out and DO something with it. In any case, I always thought that "school story" was more thematic than literal. None of the love triangle members are in the same school, after all. Mark