DeeBot

BOMBAA!

I think it's pretty obvious what happened:

Hmm... can't recall if this was seen already in the ep. 18 preview, but Ranka appears to be "phasing" due to a in-progress fold here, just like Sheryl did in ep. 1. Guess that puts that minor controversy to rest. Also seems to indicate that a fold does take place, not just an abortive attempt at one. Wonder if they get lost, like the original SDF:M fold... anyway, enough speculation. Just wanted to comment on this pic.

Doesn't one of Luca's Ghosts buy it like, every other episode?

Yep; I'm satisfied.

Something that's puzzled me for a while... is it just me, or does Ranka almost never use public transportation? We see her use it once at the very beginning of the series, and from then on she's not only perpetually late (which just seems to be a character flaw of hers), but she's always running to get everywhere. This seems odd, especially in light of the fact that Frontier seems to have a perfectly well-developed public transportation system. I was particularly struck by Sheryl's farewell concert, where Ranka's already exhausted, and then the camera pulls out to show many, many city blocks to go (what looks to be miles). Even Hikaru had his bicycle. Of course, Frontier's gravity is only, what, 75% of Earth's, so maybe it's a little less arduous, but still... (Speaking of which... Ranka always seems to get tickets to see Sheryl perform. I wonder if Sheryl got tickets to Ranka's first live? Probably not, since she was still in the hospital, and she likely could have gotten them herself if she wanted them, and maybe Ranka would have felt presumptuous offering them... still, would've been a nice gesture. After all, everyone else managed to show up, for once. Maybe in a future episode?)

Having gone back to recently watch the first episode, I'm even more convinced that her floating back into her own body has no ulterior meaning. Sheryl's traveling with a good number of people, so it would be hard to be low key about any computer hookups. From what we've seen with Grace, the procedure is pretty invasive... (Although one thing I can't decide about the scene is if she's taking a commercial transport, or if she has her own private one, and those are all her staff. Would depend on how expensive that sort of thing is in the Macross universe. Either way, seems like too many people would be in a position to snoop.) But more importantly... what's the significance of strawberry pie?

He's an old man, gotta make allowances.

Watching the gg sub, noticed another SDF:M homage that slipped past me the first time... when Ranka goes off to get Alto his drink, Alto starts poking around her stuff (her photographs in particular), just like Hikaru did to Misa way back when. Watching the scene with Leon and Grace again, I'm almost sure she's using and modifying the same body, not switching between two separate bodies (although that was also a pretty good idea!). Her voice changes in mid-scene, she puts on a pair of glasses, and her clothes are still MiB-style. Leon doesn't seem too startled, though, just impressed; he seems to understand pretty well what Grace is. Wonder if she can grow her hair on demand, if it's holographics, or if she just puts on a wig. Considering her whole body is artificial, I suppose any of these could be true... (Sidenote: I've been re-watching some of the earlier episodes... in episode 2, Grace asks Cathy if she can hook into the Frontier computers to track down Sheryl. Wonder if this is when she first got access to start hacking their systems.) This episode was even better on a second viewing, with the subs. The light fourth wall breaking at the end, in particular. What's Luca up to: Single-framing this, I'm pretty sure nobody is in the back seat of the limo with him. However, the fact that he's bringing fold quartz to Leon... also, Bilra doesn't seem to be the altruistic figure we'd speculated after the last episode after all (though with the caveat that we're getting the explanation from not the most trustworthy sources). I'm particularly interested in how Grace's plan (or at least, what Leon thinks is Grace's plan) would take place after the establishment of a galactic transportation network. Still wondering what Luca gets out of all this, but he seems to believe whatever line Leon and Grace are feeding him. As does Nanase... perhaps those two are made for each other after all. *ducks* Anyway, I'm speculating Luca's shady dealings are making himself feel important, so it's probably a self-esteem thing, or maybe an appeal to his patriotism or whatever. Ai-kun: I wonder if it's significant that Ai-kun doesn't attack the paper airplane until after Alto knocks him/her off Ranka's head with it. Shame on you, Alto. You're going to get all the Vajra madder at us. I don't think he/she grew more new legs, though, think those were there all along, just didn't need to extend all of them all the time. Reflecting on all the recent discussions about Ranka's apparent age, I think part of the problem is that she just dresses in a very juvenile fashion. When she's up jumping on her bed, her clothes look much too small for her. I wonder if people's opinions on her age will change once she gets some new outfits; judging from her concert attire, though, not sure if it makes such a difference after all. Ranka apparently learned how to cook from Ozma, if her cookies are anything to judge by. Preview speculation: Grace whispers something into Sheryl's ear, which I expect to be something like she's a total washout, and should go crawl into a corner and put herself out of everyone's misery. Whatever happens between those two, I suspect Grace gets the initial upper hand. The next episode also seems to be about a large-scale test of the fold crystals, to try and make an extreme jump of the entire colony fleet. That sounds like a rather spectacular undertaking, hope it lives up to the advanced billing. (Of course, it'll probably end up being something completely different, right? ) Also... BOMBAA! (Seriously, if you try to judge M7 by the first few episodes, heck almost the first half of the series, you'll definitely get the wrong impression. While I don't think M7 is the greatest show ever made, its detractors definitely overstate their case.)

I thought this episode was great, from the perspective of developing the characters and plot. Lots of new things to chew on. Even quite a bit of fresh mecha pr0n for the action fans. I thought some of the 2D animation was a bit of a miss in places, but it didn't detract much from my enjoyment of the episode.

I always figured the "ghost sequence" was just sort of an exaggerated version of the fold effect we saw in SDF:M, where the frames kept oscillating out of phase. If she wears those fold quartz earrings during folds, though, it might go some way towards explaining why she gets so fold sick...

Me, too. Hopefully, Ozma and a flight of CF-25s will eat the pineapple salad next episode, as the Vajra ambush them in a glorious explosion of violence. But maybe not, and he'll just bleed to death. >

Conspiracy theory #... oh, s**** it. Ozma pretends to die in the next episode, so he can come back from the dead at the finale and unveil Leon's treachery with the help of Misa... err, Cathy, who has been working to gather evidence from the inside. Then the two of them elope, while Leon blows his brains out. Oh, and Grace gets away scot free.

Actually, you can make any TV a big screen by... (wait for it) Seriously, it doesn't really matter how big a TV/monitor is, except for establishing how far away you should be sitting from it. Resolution is an independent measurement that tells you how sharp the picture is, when viewed from the correct distance. (Of course, your older TV is going to be behind the times there, too...) So, in short, size doesn't matter. Getting back to the episode...

The really crazy thing is that Alto would probably be happy with that ending, too.

Something that's been bothering me is the role of the reaction warheads on the planet. I think I've come to some solid conclusions about them, though. If Grace's original home was the Global, it makes sense that she might have known the final resting place of the 117th fleet (so that answers the how-did-she-know-it-was-there question). The reaction warheads, and their storage facility, also probably came from the 117th fleet, and also explains how Grace knew about them so intimately. If that's the case, the 117th must have made an extended stay on Galia 4, establishing a long-term base there (rather than just crashing there during an emergency). Otherwise, there's no logical reason to build structures or relocate the reaction warheads. Which seems to indicate that whatever the 117th did on the planet took some time... beyond that, I've got nothing.

I just realized... Grace must have supplied the footage of Ranka's little impromptu concert in the mall. She seems to record everything, and it was just after she decided to switch her attention to Ranka from Sheryl. And then, of course, she officially becomes Ranka's manager, at least for the anti-Vajra project...

More for the speculation mill: Frontier sounds like a greenie's idea of the perfect colonization fleet, what with the bio-plant (which I'm taking to mean a Biosphere 2-style closed artificial ecology) and prohibition of cybernetic enhancement. Without everyone full of implants and reliant on artificial life support (ironically, on a giant colonization spaceship), maybe it makes it more difficult for Frontier to be influenced and subverted by the Galaxy conspirators, which is why Frontier has to go. I get the feeling the conspirators may either be a lot older than the human race, or artificial constructs. If the bit about Gallia 4 being someone's homeworld is true (although I don't recall what voice that was directed to), and since Gallia 4 was considered uninhabited, that could mean a remnant of the Protoculture (which presumably lived there at an earlier time), or possibly an artificial creation in the labs aboard the 117th fleet (which apparently made a stop there). This poses an interesting scenario: Could these "AIs" actually be some sort of transcended form of the Protoculture (living in fold space, perhaps), and parasitically intertwining themselves into human technology? On to some more prosaic commentary. I found it kinda interesting that the beginning of the "sing off," Sheryl and Alto actually seem to mutually push apart in embarrassment when Ranka begins singing (taking them out of the moment), and they realize how close they are. It seems as if Sheryl didn't consciously realize what she was doing, which I think is kinda sweet. Makes the whole thing less a calculated ploy on her part to try and steal Ranka's thunder, and more just a spontaneous thing. I also found the sing-off to be not that competitive. Sheryl and Ranka genuinely seem to like each other, even if they do get a bit jealous at each other when it comes to Alto. In the end, it seems like they were just enjoying themselves. Singing is what they love to do. Next episode... seems pretty clear Ranka is being groomed to play a role similar to the Jamming Birds: a government-sponsored anti-alien song weapon (only she's actually good at it). Considering her reaction to the destruction of the Vajra queen in the last episode, she's clearly not going to be happy at all about this. Should be interesting to see how that plays out. Even if they have a special weapon, I take it from that one chart of Vajra activity that the Frontier's pretty much surrounded by now. I can definitely see things getting increasingly dark and desperate as the show moves towards its conclusion, in the style of the original Macross.

Just a thought: There is only enough room in the universe for one Macross-level ship. Hence, Battle 25 will be on the verge of preparing, after many episodes, to finally enter battle... when it's obliterated by a surprise attack. It's then up to the Quarter to pick up the slack. Seriously, why have both of them? And the Quarter is clearly more important, plot-wise. I get a red shirt vibe off the crew of Battle 25...

I concur. For example, the fold bubble itself could be extremely cold, freezing the molten interior instantaneously during the consumption process. Makes sense to me, anyway; there's really no basis for speculating on the physics of it. Of course, the planet should then quickly collapse in on itself... but that doesn't have to happen instantaneously. We're talking about a planet the size of Earth, here. Even accelerating at 1g, objects don't move that fast on that scale...

Theory #5848594920540954: Grace is really Mao Nome downloaded into a cybernetic body. She's still pissed about Shin ditching her to go play spaceman with Sara. She decides humanity needs to be destroyed and is manipulating events to use the Vajra, who she created, to destroy everyone in one glorious orgy of universal violence.