Mark Nguyen

I like being right on occasion. Any chance of a screencap of the suspected berth for this ship? I'm waiting patiently for the subs... It looks great though that SMS has their own mobile fortress, which will inevitably be separated from the its home (much like SDF-1 folded away uncontrollably and City 7 was abducted). At least this time I figure most everyone on this ship will WANT to be there. Mark

So, we've pretty much concluded that Macross Frontier has the most direct ties to Macross Zero, APHOS, and the "Nome Inheritance" (sic). I sense some serious fun happening here, starting with me re-watching Macross Zero start to finish and picking apart every detail. Shin, where art thou? Mark

That's a good point - we saw a bridge, and we dont' know where the VF-25s launched from. It most likely wasn't the same ships our surprised VF-171 pilots came from, and it might have been too far away to have been Frontier itself. You're right, it makes sense for the SMS to have a ship of their own... But one as huge as that?! Mark

Which makes fun for everyone trying to rationalize the existence of 3+ city ships in the Macross 5 fleet. I'm sure they'll clarify it in the series when this puppy shows up. I'm more firmly of the opinion that the ship we see is NOT the same ship currently attached to the front of Island 1... but we'll find out soon enough. Mark

Say, aren't Valkyries powered by nuclear fusion? Isn't leaving an active fusion reactor untended for years at the top of a school filled with children sorta dangerous? Mark

I did some fansubbing once... And I stopped when I realized just how much pressure is on these VOLUNTEERS to get stuff done for people who don't understand the terrific amount of effort that goes into translation, timing, graphics, etc. Now, I patiently wait for my chosen subber to produce their work, and I'm happy that they're doing all this for free simply to share their enjoyment of the show. Macross Frontier is great, and while we've every right to WANT it soon, we have no right to demand it of people who are really our fellow fans, and not paid workers who are tasked to do it. Mark

Ask Kawamori. In the first episode of Macross Zero, he did the same thing for Roy's first transformation, first taking a VERY long time showing the transformation from several different angles, then showing it at real speed to show just how much was involved in transforming a fighter. I think it worked just fine here, albeit in reverse. Really though, it's a fairly common anime technique to repeat the same action multiple times to emphasize its coolness. Mark

It does seem to be an omission. Perhaps it has something to do with the X-gear interface and armor. Maybe the helmet makes up with the 360-degree view somehow? On the flipside, the VF-25 seems to have no problem projecting reticles and communication screens on the inside of the transparent canopy (i.e. not a dedicated monitor). I don't think any other Valkyrie has had this ability... Mark

It does a little, thanks! But the best view of the ship is just before it passes out of view on the left of the screen. However, even here you can see how much it's shaped like Battle 7, and now the details don't match up well at all to the ship we see in the opening. Also, the quick CG view of the colony ship later in the episode shows it to be very Battle7-esque, including the head section which looks nothing at all like what we see here. Any chance of a screenshot of the OTHER view of the opening ship, with guns-a-blazin'? Mark

I can confirm that it does indeed say "Battle 25" in one of the graphics describing the makeup of the Frontier fleet. As to whether or not we'll see it CALLED Battle 25, remains to be seen. But you know what, guys? I'm not entirely sure that the ship we see in this picture *is* the same ship attached to the front of Island 1, at least from the visual evidence. I don't know if the broadcast episode still shows it, but in the introduction of the Deculture edition the ship we see docked to Island 1 looks very much like a standard New Macross-class carrier, albeit with much more surface detail. Perhaps someone could post a screencap? The way I see it, the detailing on the colony ship and the one we see here are completely different, especially around the legs. The colony ship also seems to have the standard Macross cannon and the hands of Macross 7, and the title sequence ship instead drops the hands (thank goodness - the whole hands + cannon thing didn't make much sense) and integrates the big gun as part of the right arm (though perhaps not the left, but we'd need a cap of the other shot of this ship in action to decide that). Also, the head is much larger than the CG graphic we see of the colony ship. While it's still possible that these two ships are one and the same, somehow I'm starting to think that the title ship is not in fact the same ship we see in the anime. They may pull a Konig Monster on us again, though... Mark

Oh, bloody hell... BATTLE 25..! Mark

Excellent - while I don't completely trust background art, it will be fantastic to see the latest machines make it to "grunt" status for a change. Zero aside, in plus and seven the coolest fighters were the rarest, and the CF mechan were meant to be forgettable. Here, we'll hopefully see the latest machines go into full production for the helpless masses of VF-171 pilots who have so far shown their excellent skills of sucking and dying. Mark

It's been a while since we've seen an "A" variant in regular combat, though. The 19F may or may not have been a "grunt" plane, since we've only ever seen four of them. In practice, only the VF-1 and VF-19 had real "A" models, that we've seen anyway. And where be these pictures of a brown VF-25? Mark

Today's aircraft carriers are navigated and battles fought from the CIC way in the middle of the ship. If you need a bird's eye view, you don't go up to the bridge - you use your radar, satellite data, and the sensors of your planes to feed you all the information you need. Carriers today really use their bridge only for flight operations and docking. Few sci-fi shows have their command centre in the protected middle of the ship. The only real explanation is actually from Trek - that without shields (in their case), an enemy weapon would completely cut through or destroy a starship anyway, so there's really no difference WHERE you put your bridge. In Macross, the ships are vulnerable to mecha-sized weaponry with enough pounding. Since reliable omni-diectional shielding still seems to be impossible (at least we never saw it in Plus, 7 or the first episode of Frontier), it stands to reason that putting your bridge exactly where anyone can shoot at it seems to be a silly thing to do. OTOH, if the Megaroads were truly never meant as a combat ship, then its exaggerated bridge placement would be as acceptable as it would be on a cruise ship. Still, the New Macross class ships have 'em prominently placed... Mark

Come to think of it, the Island modules off Macross Frontier don't have any apparent protection... Also, Battle 7 DOES have secondary weapons - there are deployable missile racks that can fire reaction warheads. While not explicitly shown, they may have tiny CIWS weapons around too, too tiny for anyone to pick out. Like the real aircraft carriers the New Macross class ships are based on, the main offensive and defensive weapons would be the aircraft that are carried. Back to the Megaroad, aside from the transparent portions of the ship, the whole thing is full of beautiful design questions. What's the point of having enormous secondary domes that stick out SIDEWAYS from a ship that can operate in the atmosphere? Why isolate the bridge tower on two spindly support arms that are sure to draw enemy fire? Hell, why have the bridge stick out of the ship AT ALL? And there's also a notable lack of visible vegetation, too. Mind you, back then not too much forethought had been placed into real-world space travel for long distances. We know now that if you're gonna be living in space for more than a few months, you pretty much need some natural creature comforts or rish being driven space crazy. Mark

There was a contest in Macross 7, but I can't remember if it was of the Miss Macross variety. And it featured the hottest 49 year-old woman you'll ever see. Mark

That screenshot is full of inaccuracies, and at best should be taken as a message saying "ooh, human fleets have been launching since 2012, and there are two of them close to the galactic core in 2059!". After that, just about everything in that graphic can be questioned. Anyway, lots of us were around in 1995 when Macross 7 premiered, and I recall a lot of people wondering if the Varauta were related to the fates of Hikaru, Misa & Minmay. Didn't happen then, and I don't expect it to happen now IMO. Bring on AFOS. Mark

Give 'em a little credit - Hikaru and Minmay were protected by a shield for most of their maudlin final exchange! Also, given that even in DYRL they had the forethought to incorporate deployable shields over the viewports, the Megaroad class ships would have SOME similar systems in them to protect the colonists. I'd envision a batmobile style armor deploying along the glass from the larger superstructure. We'll never likely know, but at the VERY least they should be able to tint the windows whenever they're passing close to a star! Mark

They also say the Macross Cannon ships were all of 488m long, mostly as the result of a writer's to enable the ships to act as a mini-Macross base for RPG characters to tool around in. Anyone can tell from the anime that the ships are absolutely gargantuan in size, at least ten times larger than what they say. I would not use the MII RPG books officially in any way! As for the colonization fleets, the official stuff originally said that Macross 7 was composed of M7 herself and "seven city ships" (going along the "7" motif of the show). This number is stretched though depending on what you call a "city ship". We saw: -City 7 -Riviera -Hollywood -Sunny Flower -Beginhill -Three Star -Einstein -Mark Twain -Heaven The Heaven cemetary ship doesn't really count, since it only shows up in the not-really-canon Macross 7 Trash manga. And I'm half-and-half on calling Mark Twain a "city ship", since it's comparatively tiny and seems to be used as a fancy cruise liner or party ship rather than a true colonization vessel. Mark

I also like it, though personally I'd tone down the hue of the windows by increasing their transparency or tinting them a little less brightly. It looks fine and accurate, and does justice to a great design, but honestly in some ways it looks like a really big aquarium ship. Mark

While we're looking at that graphic again, it's also important to point out that the scales are all wrong anyway. Eden is supposed to be over 11 light years away from Earth, but if the galactic extent of that graphic is accurate, then either Eden is a few THOUSAND light years from Earth, or the Milky Way is a heckuva lot smaller than we thought it was. Mark

Also, I think it was pointed out that there were various colonization efforts made without using a UN Spacy fleet. Eden was supposed to have been discovered by one such expedition (can't find the reference, but it was in 2012), but the graphic seems to indicate that Magaroad-04 did it - and the Macross Chronology suggests that Megaroad-04 was launched in 2014. Perhaps it was discovered first, and THEN the fleet was sent to properly colonize it? Also, while I understand that we may be reading WAY too much into a quick graphic that was on the screen for ten seconds, perhaps said graphic only depicts fleets which are still on the move. Regardless of when they launched, it might be that all the other fleets have since found homes somewhere in the galaxy, and these are the ones that are still unaccounted for in some respect. Megaroad-04 stopped at Eden and was not seen "re-departing" the planet with the other fleets, for example. Mark

Someone pointed out earlier that M-Frontier is the 25th SUPER Long-Range colonization fleet; and that Macross 7 featured the 37th Long-Range Colonization fleet, no? Translation mileage does vary, but it suggests that there were at least two series of colonization fleets constructed, with M-Frontier and M_Galaxy being members of fleets sent WAY out there to find new worlds to live on. Also, we know that there have been multiple planets colonized by the time of Macross 7; it's more than likely that it's not just Earth and Eden that are the two main shipyards for the big fleets. I'd surmize that there are at least a couple more that crank out the colony ships as fast as they can find millions of people to ship out on them. Mark

Yes, which likely means we'll never see a VF-1 in this series. Shame, really. OTOH, they ARE using the Q-Rau, which is easily identified as a variation on the SDFM original. Regarding the F-18 and VF-17/171, as noted earlier the F-18 E/F series are almost entirely new planes with only a general similarity to the original A-D variants. They only share some avionics components, but otherwise are entirely different aircraft. They are only still called F-18s for political reasons. This is contrary to the F-14Ds, which are indeed mostly upgraded earlier airframes with better engines and avionics - the latter to enable the F-14 to carry bombs, thus expanding its role from "mere" carrier-based interceptor. And there was indeed a scout fleet in M7 besides the Stargazer. In episode 26 or 27, Macross 7 sends a small fleet of frigates to investigate Varauta. They are quickly destroyed by Grabil as he passes by. Mark

Indeed - though as the series premiere date approaches, specualtion will only become more rampant. I hope the majority of fans will not be let down - the first episode has caused Frontier to be the most highly anticipated major anime series in years! People have been wanting to find out what happened to Megaroad-01 for almost twenty-five years now, but I'm still with the camp that believes Hikaru, Misa and company are still just "out there", having long since sailed into the sunset. Instead, there seem to be more clues that this is a follow-on to Macross Zero (Nome, the aliens' decorative script, etc.). But I digress... To keep this on topic, maybe it's not unheard of in the Macross universe, but why would NUNS want to divert two colony fleets to where Megaroad-01 was last heard from? Why risk the lives of milliions of people on a hunch? Assuming there's no conspiracy going on (dun dun dun...), if someone wanted to investigate a clue behind the disappearance of Megaroad-01, I'd send a purely military scout fleet (perhaps sectioned off from one of the colony fleets) to check it out first. The Macross 7 fleet did just that while investigating Varauta, and the wisdom of that was played out when that fleet was annihilated in seconds. Unless someone was dumb enough to think that something that made a fleet disappear almost half a century ago couldn't possibly harm today's military might, they wouldn't want to place millions of civilians in harm's way like that. And the VF-25 must be public, but probably not widespread knowledge. Alto knew exactly what it was and he was a civilian. Whatever's going on, the 25 has probably had its unveiling back on Earth or wherever it was built and initially tested, and was only secretly shipped out to Frontier for field combat testing. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Macross Galaxy or other "way out there" fleets had an SMS squadron aboard, complete with all the coolest toys for testing against known and unknown enemies. Mark