MZero Ep. 5 *SPOILER THREAD*

[Keith]

Nope, it's already established that Protoculture consider human/zetnradi mixing to be a "good thing,' i.e. "the sign of peace."

[macplus]

About the Sharon Apple thing, she wasn't trying to kill Isamu, she said that what he wanted was to see the line between life and death and that she will make that posible for him since she loved him, remember that her program was fully based on Myungs brain so as I understand Isamu heard Myung thank's to Sharon... she took him to the spot he wanted then he release him with Myungs song... no Spiritia crap or anything, to my understanding Macross Plus was devoid of any "magic" as also the original series. About Macross Zero ep5 I'll wait 'till I see it to make a post, I actually don't mind the magic thing but only if it's limited, not cheesy and on believable parameters. By the way Keith, I think you're obsessed with Macross 7 man!

[treatment]

Ok.

Just to be fair with M7-fans...

There was an M7-like nod in ep-5. Sara in the AFOS bubble kinda sliiiiightly reminds one of Sivil's cocoon in M7.

But the whole Sara controlling the AFOS control was much more reminiscent of the controls of Orguss-2's last villain. Except O2's was a dude and Zero's was Sara.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

I think macross 7 is kind of believable if you subscribe to the theory that a person's spirit can be awakened to a higher consciousness through music. There is probably some explanation as to why repetitive chants and the person's intent (thier state of mind when performing the magic shamanic chants?) is so important in religious/magic rituals and stuff.

As Jonathan Goldman so keen has detected in his book ”Healing Sound”: sometimes different people apparently used different frequencies or different sounds to heal the same problem? A colleague and friend brought his attention to the missing area in question:

”Sound is a carrier wave of consciousness”

This means that depending upon where an individual’s awareness is placed when he/she creates a certain sound, the sound will carry information on that state to the person receiving it. It is the intent or the purpose behind the sound, that matters. With the word intent, we are really talking about the consciousness of the sound being created. This encompasses the overall state of the person making the sound and involves the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of that person.

----snip----

CYMATIC THERAPY

Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss scientist, spent ten years of his life observing and photographing the effects of sound upon inorganic matter. He would put water and other liquids, plastics, paste and dust on steel plates and then vibrate these plates with different frequencies. Much of this work was originally inspired by the work of Ernst Chaldni, an eighteenth-century scientist who put grains of sand on glass and vibrated them with a violin bow. The sand would take on the most beautiful and symmetrical shapes. The experiments of Jenny took this understanding of the relationship between sound and form a quantum leap ahead.

Dr. Jenny spent thousands of hours experimenting with the effects of different frequencies upon the different inorganic substances he was using. Within the hundreds of photo- graphs which he and his staff took are pictures that look like starfish, human organs, microscopic bacteria and underwater life. In reality, these shapes are nothing more or less than lifeless mounds of plastic, dust and other inorganic material that had been exposed to sound.

  Cymatics is the name which Dr. Jenny gave to his work. The name comes from the Greek kyma, a word which means wave. Cymatics is the study of wave-form phenomena. It is proof positive that sound has the ability of creating form. Once they are exposed to sound waves, the inanimate blobs of liquid, pastes, and other materials in Dr. Jenny's experiments begin to undulate and move. Slowly as the sound continues to affect them, they begin to take form. No longer shapeless blobs, these forms pulse and vibrate with the sounds that course through them, looking for all the world like living breathing creations. They are, however, not alive, but merely assume the features of life through the extraordinary power of sound. Once the sound is stopped, these shapes cease and the inorganic creations resume their shape as formless blobs.

----snip----

from: http://home3.inet.tele.dk/hitower/harmonics.html

That could explain how God "spoke" the world into existance using the word. And also how the breath of life (or the "spirit" given to all living things), which was sung by Basara to his demonic victims who fed upon souls/spirits to sustain thier life, through his music, was handed over. The singing was half of it, the 'intent' maybe forming the other half but the result was him giving soul/spirit energy to them. This explains how the performance must be live because the singer needs to put thier soul into the music and thier intent forms part of the effect. Recordings are a poor sustitute. Also the reaction of the blood sample in the test tube in mac 0 is explained by this.

The song of healing in mac 0 can be explained through the frequencies that exist on a purely spiritual level (think of those people who can see your auras as a 'color') as well as physical level (sound waves and thier vibrations) that bring people back to what they normally were before they got sick/diseased or in a state of disharmony.

The song of destruction could be seen as the reverse of this where the intent of the singer creates a negative feeling or reverses the good harmonic frequencies that exist in a persons natural state.

Dr. Manners is the creator of cymatic therapy which utilizes the Cymatic Instrument. For over twenty years, he has been treating various illnesses with sound. Working under the premise that disease is an 'out of tuneless' of some aspect of the body, Dr. Manners has correlated different harmonic frequencies, which are the healthy resonant frequencies of different parts of the body. He states:

”A healthy organ will have its molecules working together in a harmonious relationship with each other and will all be of the same pattern. If different sound patterns enter into the organ, the harmonious re1ationship could be upset. If these frequencies are weak in their vibration, they will be overcome by the stronger vibrations of the native ones. If the foreign ones prove to be the stronger on the other hand, they may establish their disharmonious pattern in the organ, bone, tissue, etc. and this is what we call disease.

If, therefore a treatment contains a harmonic frequency pattern which will reinforce the organs, the vibrations of the intruder will be neutralized and the correct pattern for that organ re-established. This should constitute a curative reaction”.

My guess here is that it is only exaggerated to an enormous level in m7 so that audiences understand what is happening onscreen. Kind of like what you see in hollywood movies (note I said hollywood, notice how LOTR tried not to create an unecessary light show on the subject of magic unless absolutely necessary?) where you see special effects to enhance the experience for little kids that are designed to make us go: "ccccooool!"

Sometimes what you see on a film that is "obvious but not realistic" is more important than just doing something that is "realistic but that doesn't seem to get the idea across easily" to an audience instanty. It needs to be dumbed down somewhat for the audience to grip the idea imediately or risk confusing or boring them.

Remember all of this is considered a part of magick to some cultures, (Sharon merely used a hypnotic "spell" with the frequencies she was sending out, and sound coming from the mouth is conjuring up a magic spell just as you see in fantasy where wizards that are silenced seem powerless) but we've been conditioned to view magic as a large lightshow and fireworks display thanks to hollywood and sfx people. Dragonball Z is a good example. It just looks cool to have things that are flashy and exaggerated. (like in sdf macross where hikaru saves minmay by opening his canpoy and phyiscally grabbing her, which would be insane if tried in real life.)

I think star wars gets away with magic easily while macross doesn't, because we all are preconditioned to think that all the machinery in the macross world may at some time be possible in real life. Robots are real, but not to the extent that they would move exactly how they should onscreen. This translates into hate for anything remotely magical because it conflicts with the focus on technology over the spiritual and personal. To me all anime should be allowed to be left in the realm of comic book fantasy where anything is possible and details are just modelled on the real world only out of convenience not because the creator deliberately intended it that way. It was never really explained in star wars how Luke could levitate objects off the ground (the force is more metaphysic) so neither should we expect an explanation as to how sara could levitate rocks off the ground.

Edited October 26, 2004 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Oihan]

After seeing it a second time, it isn't as bad as I first thought it was.... There's just a lot of it I didn't expect...and there are things I was expecting that I didn't see at all. I think it's one of the best as far as animation goes... I think I like it a little more than DYRL, on par with Flashback 2012, and I like it a little less than Plus, with SDF and II being my favs.

Edited October 26, 2004 by Oihan

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Nope, it's already established that Protoculture consider human/zetnradi mixing to be a "good thing,' i.e. "the sign of peace."

Yeah but I always got the impression that there were 2 PC factions fighting each other?

PC 2870

A Protoculture survey ship stops temporarily on "Earth." By genetically reconstructing the native life, it plots the emergence of a sub-Protoculture adapted to the planetary enivronment, "Humankind," to prepare for future colonization. During its return to its home planet, the survey ship is destroyed by military ships opposed to the Stellar Republic. Records of Earth and Humankind are eventually lost. [PC 2900]

The ones who fullfilled the prophecy were wiped out, so maybe any PC survivors in future series (I know I know thye are supposed to be extinct) would be scared to see an armed and dangerous experiment out to meet them? They would know nothing of who we were and treat us as another specie altogether. All they would know is that we might be some zentradi variant with increased intelligence. Being proud of thier superiority and not realising we are partially like them, they would look down on other races as inferior and try to eliminate us.

Edited October 26, 2004 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[treatment]

Here's the cast of Zero.

[treatment]

the hory froathing booger-head himself

[Agent ONE]

Keith, if you ever wonder why you have no respect here, it may have to do with a feverish defense of something you haven't seen yet... Just a thought, and since its from me it is briliant.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Oh my goodness are those CANARDS on that MIG-29? If so its the closest thing to seeing a MIG-35!!! YES!!

BTW anyone mind posting more screencaps of the dogfight? Thanks

[RichterX]

Shin emulates Hikaru's Minmay-rescue-attempt this time. DYRL-style but in battroid-mode, baybee!

The head of that VF-0 Looks kind of different from the one of episode 2, it looks kind of YF-19ish

[ewilen]

I did not detected any M7 tie-ins at all.

For this episode, I'd say the way the AFOS grows is vaguely reminiscent of Gepernich's branching spiritia suckers at the end of M7.

In the 4th episode, the scene where Shin sings with Sara while all the forest creatures do their thing is thematically related to M7.

[ewilen]

I think you guys are forgetting Kawamori's comment that this wouldn't follow the the SDF-M TV storyline. It didn't, it followed the line of reasoning that Misa and Hikaru were having in their discussion on Protoculture Island in DYRL.

I don't remember him saying it wouldn't follow the SDF M storyline. What I think he said was that he wouldn't worry too much about maintaining continuity.

I do agree that if you place M0 in the DYRL continuity, a lot of problems go away, because DYRL leaves a lot more room for filling in the blanks. E.g., Roy's relationship with Claudia in DYRL is easier to reconcile with M0 than the SDF M version is.

I fully believe that the AFOS would have continued to distroy the entire planet, if Shin hadn't stoped Sarah from continuing to sing the song of death... As soon as the AFOS realized that she wasn't in battle anymore and she wasn't fighting the "Kadun" it just stoped.

What I don't get is, just because Shin is a good guy and jettisons all his weapons to talk to Sara, that doesn't mean that humanity as whole hasn't failed the test. Seems to me the AFOS should have nuked everybody.

Or maybe when it folded out, it was just going for help. "Heere, Zentradi, Zentradi, Zentradi, come and get it!"

[RichterX]

What I don't get is, just because Shin is a good guy and jettisons all his weapons to talk to Sara, that doesn't mean that humanity as whole hasn't failed the test. Seems to me the AFOS should have nuked everybody.

Or maybe when it folded out, it was just going for help. "Heere, Zentradi, Zentradi, Zentradi, come and get it!"

I think it has to do with the classic, "show me one good person and I will spare them all."

But still it doesn't fit right, cause it went to space after the Monster bomb it...

[Agent ONE]

...

What I don't get is, just because Shin is a good guy and jettisons all his weapons to talk to Sara, that doesn't mean that humanity as whole hasn't failed the test. Seems to me the AFOS should have nuked everybody.

I dissagree... because she felt love, humanity passed the test. Think if the test were given to the Zjentohlauedy or Meltohlauedy. No way that would have happend, they would have failed hands down, and been destroyed.

The purpose of the AFOS was to make sure that the Protoculture didn't create another race like the Zjentohlauedy/Meltohlauedy. The purpose of creating humanity was to have a "restart" of culture, as the protoculture ruined their own.

Think of the AFOS as like a artifact or symbol that ancient cultures leave behind... Some are just to honor someone, but some are also a reminder of "what NOT to do." We write books about Hitler not to revere him, but to alert future generations of the horrible potential that one man can have. The AFOS just went a step furthur... Instead of teaching us a lesson, it administered a test. that test being a test of 2 questions...

1. Has mankind achieved space travel. if yes go to question #2.

2. Does mankind still wage war (keep in mind the definition of waging war, and having emotion was probably different to the Protoculture... As the wars they were accostomed to for thousands of years involved completely emotionless beings)? If yes destroy all.

The second Sarah felt an emotion other than rage, the AFOS thought, "oh, I guess they aren't like my creators were, and they also aren't like the Zjentohlauedy or

Meltohlauedy... I guess I should stop killing everything."

Or maybe when it folded out, it was just going for help. "Heere, Zentradi, Zentradi, Zentradi, come and get it!"

I don't think so... The Protoculture probably would have imagined that their clone army would have killed each other off by then, but it would be out of character for the Protoculture have a beacon for their kill factory to follow to destroy their creation. The irony of the Protoculture is they were a race that was all about creating things... They just created to many things that killed other things.

[Agent ONE]

What I don't get is, just because Shin is a good guy and jettisons all his weapons to talk to Sara, that doesn't mean that humanity as whole hasn't failed the test. Seems to me the AFOS should have nuked everybody.

Or maybe when it folded out, it was just going for help. "Heere, Zentradi, Zentradi, Zentradi, come and get it!"

I think it has to do with the classic, "show me one good person and I will spare them all."

But still it doesn't fit right, cause it went to space after the Monster bomb it...

I think it does... the AFOS wasn't automated... It required Sarah and her thoughts to function. If Sarah's thoughts weren't ones of killing and distruction, then humanity passed the test, period.

[Anubis]

What I don't get is, just because Shin is a good guy and jettisons all his weapons to talk to Sara, that doesn't mean that humanity as whole hasn't failed the test. Seems to me the AFOS should have nuked everybody.

Or maybe when it folded out, it was just going for help. "Heere, Zentradi, Zentradi, Zentradi, come and get it!"

I think it has to do with the classic, "show me one good person and I will spare them all."

But still it doesn't fit right, cause it went to space after the Monster bomb it...

Hitting it with Reaction weaponry was probably a big no-no.

[ewilen]

(responding to RichterX)

Except that, in the classic case, that isn't what happened. Ten good people might have done the trick, but when it was just one, the decision was "Evacuate his family and initiate orbital bombardment."

Gen 18:23-33

Or "drown them all but put a few good people on a bubble floating in space [okay, on the sea]"

Gen 6:5 passim

Edited October 26, 2004 by ewilen

[Agent ONE]

(responding to RichterX)

Except that, in the classic case, that isn't what happened. Ten good people might have done the trick, but when it was just one, the decision was "Evacuate his family and initiate orbital bombardment."

Gen 18:23-33

Or "drown them all but put a few good people on a bubble floating in space [okay, on the sea]"

Gen 6:5 passim

Its how the Protoculture define "good" that counts.

[ewilen]

Yeah, I am just having fun. Partly. Pending the arrival of fansubs, I agree that just having some love and culture on Earth, as evidenced by Shin's conversion from snotty, heartless techno-flyboy to spiritual crooner, may have been enough to earn mankind a reprieve from the Birdman.

"There'll be a makeup exam next year. Be prepared!"

[Agent ONE]

Yeah, I am just having fun. Partly. Pending the arrival of fansubs, I agree that just having some love and culture on Earth, as evidenced by Shin's conversion from snotty, heartless techno-flyboy to spiritual crooner, may have been enough to earn mankind a reprieve from the Birdman.

"There'll be a makeup exam next year. Be prepared!"

Well HUMANS write the makeup exam! As humans have really become what the Protoculture wanted to be all along, and were untill they were destroyed by their own creations. We administer that second test to the Zjentohlauedy and Meltohlauedy at the end of either SDF-M or DYRL and many of them fail the test, but as with this first test some pass and aren't killed.

[RichterX]

Yeah, I am just having fun. Partly. Pending the arrival of fansubs, I agree that just having some love and culture on Earth, as evidenced by Shin's conversion from snotty, heartless techno-flyboy to spiritual crooner, may have been enough to earn mankind a reprieve from the Birdman.

"There'll be a makeup exam next year. Be prepared!"

I have to wait also for a fansub version to make a good analysis of what the whole thing is about... I was all the time WTF?

[ewilen]

"There'll be a makeup exam next year. Be prepared!"

Well HUMANS write the makeup exam! As humans have really become what the Protoculture wanted to be all along, and were untill they were destroyed by their own creations. We administer that second test to the Zjentohlauedy and Meltohlauedy at the end of either SDF-M or DYRL and many of them fail the test, but as with this first test some pass and aren't killed.

I disagree. Humans were tested, too, and a lot of them failed. At least in SDF M, it's possible that Earth's population might not have been decimated if the UN Spacy had entered into negotiations earlier.

In DYRL, though, it doesn't look like we had a chance. (Based also on the PS2 game version, and the video from the beginning of the Macross DYRL game (Saturn/PS1).

[Agent ONE]

"There'll be a makeup exam next year. Be prepared!"

Well HUMANS write the makeup exam! As humans have really become what the Protoculture wanted to be all along, and were untill they were destroyed by their own creations. We administer that second test to the Zjentohlauedy and Meltohlauedy at the end of either SDF-M or DYRL and many of them fail the test, but as with this first test some pass and aren't killed.

I disagree. Humans were tested, too, and a lot of them failed. At least in SDF M, it's possible that Earth's population might not have been decimated if the UN Spacy had entered into negotiations earlier.

In DYRL, though, it doesn't look like we had a chance. (Based also on the PS2 game version, and the video from the beginning of the Macross DYRL game (Saturn/PS1).

Yeah, and I think that is the story Kawamori is following closer. I know that the events of SDFM are canon but the feel of DYRL is certainly in Zero.

I also didn't see the destruction of the planet as part of the test. When the test was run (the final battle) it didn't matter what happened before that. It was just the fact that humans were the ones to administer it.

I mean the AFOS didn't get involved in any other war on Earth. They had no bearing on its mission. Its mission was to test humanity when it reached a point of space travel, not before.

[Keith]

Yeah but I always got the impression that there were 2 PC factions fighting each other

The ones who fullfilled the prophecy were wiped out, so maybe any PC survivors in future series (I know I know thye are supposed to be extinct) would be scared to see an armed and dangerous experiment out to meet them? They would know nothing of who we were and treat us as another specie altogether. All they would know is that we might be some zentradi variant with increased intelligence. Being proud of thier superiority and not realising we are partially like them, they would look down on other races as inferior and try to eliminate us.

I don't think so. Before the end of the Protoculture, both sides had banded together to join forces against the Protodevelin. The Zentradi forces were also banded together (which led to their rebellion against the Protoculture after the war, as their ban on attacking Protoculture citizens was lifted). I doubt there would be any genocidal Protoculture, though you do bring up some interesting points. Perhaps there will be more of a 2001 style twist to it, with the Protoculture remnants being futher evolved, leaving tests for the people of Earth to take on their path to evolution.

And A1, by last night I'd already watched half of the episode, broke down & pre-ordered it last month along with the new Gunbuster set. I've now seen the rest. With regards to Sara, I definately agree the AFOS was working strictly based on her emotions, and likely feeding off her energy as well. She wasn't as much under its control, as it was under hers. Though where they went to is anyones guess. I really enjoyed how much Plus imagery popped up in this episode, right down to Sara coming back for Shin & helping him raise the Zero out of its dive.

Most gruesome death now belongs to DD, a round right through the face (and highly worth the freeze frame) says it all.

[Keith]

Before I forget, I don't see how it fits in any more with DYRL than the TV series. For one thing, you'd think they would have picked up on the sunken city with the Cyclops radar.

Does anyone else think Mao was looking a lot like the TV Minmay design near the end? An intentional nod perhaps?

[striderhiryu]

any pic of D.D´s death?

[ewilen]

There may be problems connecting M0 to DYRL, but I see at least a couple problems connecting it to the series that aren't necessarily problems in DYRL.

1) Roy's relationship with Claudia in SDF-M, as depicted in "A Rainy Night", is hard to reconcile with his relationship with Aries. With DYRL, we can just assume he got together with Claudia sometime after M0 and before the beginning of DYRL.

2) In general, based on how he behaves in SDF-M, it's hard to believe that Roy knows anything about the Mayan incident. It's a little troubling that he didn't mention anything about it to Hikaru, since he's largely responsible for Hikaru joining the armed forces. (Yeah, I know it's supposed to be top secret, but Hikaru is his brother, for all intents and purposes.) In DYRL, Roy's character isn't as detailed and his relationship to Hikaru isn't spelled out as clearly--it's possible that they met after Hikaru joined the UN Spacy. (Not sure about this since I don't know exactly what it takes for someone to be a sempai.)

As for the sunken city in DYRL--do we know where it's supposedly located? Maybe it's an a completely different part of the globe and/or much deeper underwater?

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Misa mentions to Hikaru that roy mentioned to her that he grew up without a mom and his dad died in an accident. Roy must have been pretty close to Hikaru in the movie to know his whole life story.

Also Roy mutters to himself in the bar when Hikaru recieves the phonecall from minmay, "family?". So there's a hint he knows Hikaru pretty close to know the call wasn't from a family member.. Also Hikaru kinda cries when Roy dies but not when Kakazaki does. They must be very close for him to care that much.

Edited October 27, 2004 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[RichterX]

Misa mentions to Hikaru that roy mentioned to her that he grew up without a mom and his dad died in an accident. Roy must have been pretty close to Hikaru in the movie to know his whole life story.

Also Roy mutters to himself in the bar when Hikaru recieves the phonecall from minmay, "family?". So there's a hint he knows Hikaru pretty close to know the call wasn't from a family member.. Also Hikaru kinda cries when Roy dies but not when Kakazaki does. They must be very close for him to care that much.

I guess you talk about DYRL?

The family thing is connected to the serie, Roy used to work in Hikaru's father air show, he knows from there that Hikaru has no family left.

In DYRL? I don't know if their history together go that back, but he was his squadron commander and he would know if he had family in the Macross, like when he went missing with Minmey, someone would be worried about that.

Again the deads, he didn't had much time to mourn the lost of Roy and much less time to mourn Kakizaki.

In the serie, he was shocked when they told him Roy died and broke down after Kakizaki's dead

[RichterX]

There may be problems connecting M0 to DYRL, but I see at least a couple problems connecting it to the series that aren't necessarily problems in DYRL.

1) Roy's relationship with Claudia in SDF-M, as depicted in "A Rainy Night", is hard to reconcile with his relationship with Aries. With DYRL, we can just assume he got together with Claudia sometime after M0 and before the beginning of DYRL.

2) In general, based on how he behaves in SDF-M, it's hard to believe that Roy knows anything about the Mayan incident. It's a little troubling that he didn't mention anything about it to Hikaru, since he's largely responsible for Hikaru joining the armed forces. (Yeah, I know it's supposed to be top secret, but Hikaru is his brother, for all intents and purposes.) In DYRL, Roy's character isn't as detailed and his relationship to Hikaru isn't spelled out as clearly--it's possible that they met after Hikaru joined the UN Spacy. (Not sure about this since I don't know exactly what it takes for someone to be a sempai.)

As for the sunken city in DYRL--do we know where it's supposedly located? Maybe it's an a completely different part of the globe and/or much deeper underwater?

Ok, I think someone has to say it...

Roy didn't told Hikaru about Mayan Island cause...

the thing didn't happen yet

Macross Zero would have work a lot nicer if Roy haven't been in it, they could have say the Focker didn't join the variable fighter program until the first experiment VF-1 was created in that way it would have got rid of most of the problems.

I have te filling that in time it will be said that it was an alternate universe...

[Agent ONE]

....

As for the sunken city in DYRL--do we know where it's supposedly located? Maybe it's an a completely different part of the globe and/or much deeper underwater?

I was thinking about that... I always thought Protoculture island was off the coast of Japan because its the first place Hikaru and Misa went after seeing Tokyo. I also never thought that it was necessarily in deep water, just under the ocean floor.

[KingNor]

hehe a high ranking officer and fighter pilot sit down to play house togeather. thats what's tieing this whole mess togeather?

actually i think mzero fits relativly nicely with DYRL. maybe thats part of roys drinking problem, knowing all this f'ked up weird stuff happend and he can't tell anyone. so he drinks alot.

claudia is alot hotter than that other girl so i'm thinking thats not a factor in his alchoholism.

[Agent ONE]

I think some of you guys are bent out of shape because Zero obviously favors DYRL's storyline to SDFM... Well I got news for you.

Kawamori did DYRL AFTER he did SDFM... Therefore he will prefer his pollished version any day.

To quote a resident genius (BSU Legato):

DYRL is basically Macross (version) 2.0

The more I think about it the more I absolutely love Zero.

[Noyhauser]

Having not seen episode five... and always being the kid who opened his christmas presents early I wanted to put in one point. One thing I like about Zero, is that it made Macross MORE believable. I mean there was far more explaination of baseline technologies than any other series. Stuff like tolerences for changing modes, energy armor, and helmet mounted sights grounded the universe on harder technological grounds, than any other of the series. The helmet mounted sights struck me particularly because my friend is in the cutting edge of this field in science, and to have kawamori use it made it extremely believable. Watching a F-14 easily getting trashed by a SV-51 by its versatility just made it all the more so.

I also have the suspicion that it also bridges the gap between Macross 7 and SDF and Plus. People often just don't get how all the series are so different, and I think zero might try to explain it. I'm not too sure about it but once I have watched episode 5 i'll see what I think then.