Macross Frontier Episode 4 Talkback Thread *READ 1st Post*

[Gubaba]

No, it's impossible. Ranka was born in 2043, when Mylene was 12...and hadn't met Basara.

Definitely not, since Ranka was born two years before Macross 7 takes place.

*sigh* Now it's MY turn to complain that nobody reads anymore...

[Duke Togo]

What I wanna know is, just what happens in a "fold dislocation"?

[Sergorn]

Which means they are both dead, which isn't such a bad thing. But no, as discussed before, people need to stop equating Macross Frontier with Macross 7. Its a new series, a new story.

Just because it's a new series doesn't mean Frontier can't have some relation to Macross 7. Macross 7 was new series and a new story - but it was pretty tied to the story of the original SDFM. Of course stuff like Ranka being Basara's daughter aren't serious - but if some of us see somme sort Spiritia connexion and such in Macross Frontier (and eck Macross Zero for that matter) it's not because we desperatly want to to tie it to Macross 7 - it's simply because we accept Spiritia and such as a integrant component of the Macross universe, and thus it seems obvious.

Wasn't this a significant part of how things worked in Macross 7 too though? I know you've been making a big distinction between emotion vs. singing, but I always got the impression in Macross 7 that the emotion and feeling was the core component of things anyway, not specifically the singing (just that the singing was highly emotional).

Yeah that's how I got it as well. I never thought the Singing was a core element of the whole Spiritia/Anima Spiritia thing - I've always thought Singing was more a metaphor of the strength of power of the humain heart, meaning the same stuff could be achieve through different means as long as you put your heart to it. (That's also a pretty common theme in many Kawamori's works not just Macross)

-Sergorn

[badboy00z]

What I wanna know is, just what happens in a "fold dislocation"?

I would imagine it's a fold gone bad that gruesomely torn people in half when it defolded. Lol.

[Chronocidal]

K, glad someone is keeping track of the dates, I forgot when Mac7 took place. Good to know it's not a possibliity then.

The fold dislocation I would assume just means a miscalculation of some type... possibly ending up with the ship defolding within an occupied region of space (ie, the middle of a planet).

It could also mean something like a misalignment of the fold region.. like with the SDF-1 taking a chunk out of Earth with it. Instead of bringing extra stuff along with it, maybe individual fold fields intersected in some way that had a swiss-cheese effect on the fleet, only transporting certain portions of the ships.

As for the emotion angle, I think that's essentially what spritia was always meant to be anyway.. don't think it has to be connected with music (mostly, drums aren't vocal or melodic, they're essentially just hitting things to a rhythm but that didn't stop Veffidas). Emotion just happens to go right along with music most of the time. It's more the involvement of the person in the music that brings out the emotion.

I don't really think they suspect Ranka of having some sort of power yet though, otherwise they'd probably be studying her more already. Right now it just looks like they want to cover up the fact that she somehow survived a disaster that they want to keep as secret as possible.

Edited April 27, 2008 by Chronocidal

[Duke Togo]

it's simply because we accept Spiritia and such as a integrant component of the Macross universe, and thus it seems obvious.

I don't see that, at all. It played no role in SDF Macross, Plus, and arguably Zero. Its a concept that is heavily tied into what the Protodeviln were. Zinjo had a good post on this:

After re-reading the kawamori interview in NT USA Dec. I have to revise my position and agree. This series likely won't have any spiritia related concepts in it, as the man deliberately makes each series different and he has alluded that this one will likely be different than what's come before.

While Frontier seems to be paying homage to Macross of the past, we can't assume the story follows as well. Mikhail is in the blue fighter, but he's not the ace of the show, Alto is. Sheryl is the big singing star, not Ranka. Are we all assuming Luca and Ozma are going to die? Alto is going to end up with Ranka, and not Sheryl? We just don't know.

[Duke Togo]

Right now it just looks like they want to cover up the fact that she somehow survived a disaster that they want to keep as secret as possible.

I'm not getting that. She was very young at the time, and while the translation could be wrong here, it does come across that she was "one of the survivors", and not the only one (this could be wrong, though). The UN has admitted that these people were killed, they are not hiding that fact. If they were so intent on keeping her quiet, I don't think she'd have been allowed on the ship, and leave her running lose as some student and waitress.

[Chronocidal]

Hmm.. you're right, although her having amnesia may play into that. My thought was that from the way they described the incident, there shouldn't have been any survivors. Still probably up in the air from differences in translation.

They may just be worried about her relationship to SMS getting made public.. I can't tell yet if they're supposed to be a secret organization or not.

[Duke Togo]

They may just be worried about her relationship to SMS getting made public.. I can't tell yet if they're supposed to be a secret organization or not.

The big SMS tower seems to be in a fairly public location. Its behind Sheryl in episode 3 while she is looking for Alto and runs into Ranka.

[Elektrix]

What I wanna know is, just what happens in a "fold dislocation"?

I suspect it's sort of like what you see in other sci-fi dealing with accidents with warp/etc. technology. I remember Star Trek: TNG did an episode where a ship, the USS Pegasus, was testing some sort of interphase cloaking device..... there was an accident and the ship rematerialized inside an asteroid.

In other shows like BSG they usually mention the dangers inherent in using the FTL drive without plotting coordinates, with the risk being that you end up inside a star or planet or whatever.

So I would guess a fold dislocation is something similar; folding into the wrong location, with disastrous consequences.

-Elektrix

[Elektrix]

Hmm.. you're right, although her having amnesia may play into that. My thought was that from the way they described the incident, there shouldn't have been any survivors. Still probably up in the air from differences in translation.

They may just be worried about her relationship to SMS getting made public.. I can't tell yet if they're supposed to be a secret organization or not.

Probably not a secret organization, but it seems like the military providing part of it is (hence the cover of "SMS Shipping", etc.). People probably know what SMS is, just not exactly what they are doing.

-Elektrix

[Gubaba]

What I wanna know is, just what happens in a "fold dislocation"?

"I teleported home one night

With Ron and Sid and Meg.

Ron stole Meggie's heart away,

And I got Sidney's leg."

(Yeah, I know...a fold's different, but I couldn't resist. I would imagine that it's something like Cowboy Bebop episode 4, where the missiles don't make it out of the gate before it closes. You can still see them, but they'll never interact with this universe again.)

[Beltane70]

*sigh* Now it's MY turn to complain that nobody reads anymore...

Actually, Gubaba, I started the reply before yours was there, but got side-tracked a bit before I hit the submit button.

[Vinnie]

"I teleported home one night

With Ron and Sid and Meg.

Ron stole Meggie's heart away,

And I got Sidney's leg."

(Yeah, I know...a fold's different, but I couldn't resist. I would imagine that it's something like Cowboy Bebop episode 4, where the missiles don't make it out of the gate before it closes. You can still see them, but they'll never interact with this universe again.)

I thought more like that, since Kawamori created the gates for beebop. I seem to recall him doing an interview about the gates on one of my DVDs.

[Gubaba]

Actually, Gubaba, I started the reply before yours was there, but got side-tracked a bit before I hit the submit button.

Well clearly, there's only one solution: neither of us can post if we see the other viewing the topic.

[wolfx]

Some food for thought. KK's loli micronisation is said to be due to a genetic flaw. KK should've been a 2nd-3rd generation zentran by now meaning she probably was born from at least one zentran parent, rather than being cloned like the 1st gen zent. If this was the case, which may or may not explain the genetic flaw, did this mean she was "originally" a midget and has always been until she joined the army to be macronised, revealing her "true form" ? Or maybe she IS a 1st gen, picked up from a rogue zent fleet not too long ago. Thoughts?

And another food for though. It just occured to me that she may possibly be a Zolan. Zolans seem to have joined the human/zentran empire and have access to both macro/micronisation technology as well as valkyries, as shown from Macross 7 Dynamite. They also wear the funky headbands that Klan Klein and the other girl wear.

Zolan loli from Macross 7 Dynamite...forgot her name

The giants.

[Gubaba]

Some food for thought. KK's loli micronisation is said to be due to a genetic flaw. KK should've been a 2nd-3rd generation zentran by now meaning she probably was born from at least one zentran parent, rather than being cloned like the 1st gen zent. If this was the case, which may or may not explain the genetic flaw, did this mean she was "originally" a midget and has always been until she joined the army to be macronised, revealing her "true form" ? Or maybe she IS a 1st gen, picked up from a rogue zent fleet not too long ago. Thoughts?

And another food for though. It just occured to me that she may possibly be a Zolan. Zolans seem to have joined the human/zentran empire and have access to both macro/micronisation technology as well as valkyries, as shown from Macross 7 Dynamite. They also wear the funky headbands that Klan Klein and the other girl wear.

I guess if we see her belly, then we'll know for sure if she's Zolan or not. But she's also lacking the snake that all of them seem to have around their necks...although I can't remember if Graham had one...

She definitely has a lot of Meltran pride, though...so I think she's either, as you suggest, a 1st Gen who became (somewhat) cultured, or perhaps the product of a Zentran/Meltran marriage (it seems ludicrous to me to imagine that ALL Zentradi marriages were with Earth people). At any rate, I think she's pure-blooded Zentradi...at least, she acts like she is.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Gubaba

[grss1982]

Michael and Luca explains why the military is so "incompetent". Lots of previous speculation has been proven true. Lacking of money, training and morale seem to be the reason. Poor cannon fodders.

Speaking of......

SMS has them as well!!!!

Edited April 28, 2008 by grss1982

[Shun]

My loony theory is that the reason they might have not responded to Sheryl when she was on Galaxy was because she had both her earings on. I mean there has to be a reason that she is still wearing the right one.

hmm i suspect the earrings were the cause of the trouble.

the singing or emotion whatever may not be detected by the vajra across the vacuum of space or the long distance, but i suspect the earrings to somehow allow the vajra to trace them to the Frontier fleet.

one example is when Sheryl was looking for the SMS HQ and Ranka happened to pass by her, the vajra lobster was suddenly alerted. It was Ranka who was singing near to Sheryl and thus near to her earring.

I suppose it is reasonable to assume that Ranka was singing all along and the vajra were not alerted UNTIL she was near Sheryl (and her earring).

So it seems like the Vajra were attracted to Ranka and Sheryl but only when they're singing or experiencing some strong emotions. The earrings perhaps have some catalytic effect.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Shun

[Graham]

Quite happy with the quality of the Gattai subs for ep 4. They seem to be getting better with each episode.

Graham

[Renato]

I noticed something... The name of the fleet where Ranka was rescued by Ozma 11 years ago was "the 117th Large Scale RESEARCH Fleet". Could this mean that some kind of experiments took place on it? Could it be that... Ranka really... is a... human/zentradi/Vajra hybrid?

I know it sounds crazy, hehe... In fact, I hope this is not her real origin, since it destroys my previous series-connecting theory, hah...

I don't think it's that kind of research, I took it to mean that they were investigating space and stuff, looking for hospitable planets rather than conducting experiments and what not.

Batou

Glad to see another Led Zep fan onboard. I never felt the need to introduce anyone to Led Zeppelin because everyone knew them anyway, and they either liked them or not, that was fine with me. In the past I have shown Macross 7 to a few people who don't watch anime and some of them did enjoy it and get hooked. British, Japanese, French, whatever. And that includes girls, by the way. I never preach to the crowd, there's no joy for me introducing anime to an anime fan. I want non-anime fans to see before they judge, and if I hadn't succeeded in the past, I wouldn't be doing that now. The "I thought I was gonna hate it, but it's not bad" is all I'm going for. My girlfriend is Japanese and she doesn't like anime because of all the moe stuff. I showed her Tokyo Godfathers, Wings of Honneamise and Shinichiro Watanabe stuff and she enjoyed them.

Unfortunately, Frontier is so full of the stuff that people hate about anime that there is little hope to ever dispel any of the preconceptions they have about anime as a whole.

And to the people who say "Macross will always be the stuff of geeks so who cares", well, so is Star Wars, Spiderman and Transformers but that doesn't stop them from making lots of money at the cinema. Men and women of all ages went to see them, not just BotCon pilgrims! I don't mean everyone in the world should become an MW member and buy Yamato 1/48s, but the makers could at least try to appeal to a little bit of a broader demographic instead of pigeon-holing the show to enjoy a success within a niche market and then lay dormant for another ten years. That's why those other franchises are so successful. Yes, it's a niche market, "so whaddya expect, duh" but it doesn't have to be.

EDIT -- Because I know what some people are gonna say...

Yeah, alright, Star Wars and Spiderman etc are guaranteed successes anyway because they're household names. OK, well, what about stuff like V for Vendetta? Watchmen? A lot of "subculture" is becoming mainstream these days.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Renato

[grss1982]

Quite happy with the quality of the Gattai subs for ep 4. They seem to be getting better with each episode.

Graham

Sigh. I'm still waiting for AiA's.

I'm already at their site at scarywater doing the F5 routine.

[darkrealmbahamut]

Sigh. I'm still waiting for AiA's.

I'm already at their site at scarywater doing the F5 routine.

Same it is like hot nails being driven under my nails because I want to watch it so bad.

[Shun]

I don't think it's that kind of research, I took it to mean that they were investigating space and stuff, looking for hospitable planets rather than conducting experiments and what not.

yup, i have that impression too.

doing things such as mapping the galaxy perhaps, which will fit well with the excuse for fold dislocation.

[wolfx]

I guess if we see her belly, then we'll know for sure if she's Zolan or not. But she's also lacking the snake that all of them seem to have around their necks...although I can't remember if Graham had one...

She definitely has a lot of Meltran pride, though...so I think she's either, as you suggest, a 1st Gen who became (somewhat) cultured, or perhaps the product of a Zentran/Meltran marriage (it seems ludicrous to me to imagine that ALL Zentradi marriages were with Earth people). At any rate, I think she's pure-blooded Zentradi...at least, she acts like she is.

At the risk of going OT, i wonder where ppl got the impression that Zolans were descended from marsupials. Was it just because of all the animals with pouches in planet Zola? I'm quite sure when we saw Graham and his daughter naked in the hot springs, there were no pouches. And trivia for some people who didn't know, marsupials have only one orifice for poo and pee and mating.

Well the snake...maybe they can't live outside Zola. IIRC the space ranger girl didn't wear the snake into space?

Well if we treat the picture below as canon and Zolans definately have pouches....then i guess she's Meltran.

http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/237402...macross_frontie

[Gubaba]

At the risk of going OT, i wonder where ppl got the impression that Zolans were descended from marsupials.

Well...I can't speak for anyone else, but I got it from the "Zomeo and Zoliet" radio broadcast that runs in the background during MD7. In episode 4, while (IIRC) Gamlin is getting ready to leave, Zomeo says that he will stay with Zoliet instead of going back to (I believe) Macross 11 (where he's from). Zoliet (who is Zolan) replies that she loves him, but it would be impossible for them to have children...since he's not a marisupial.

In the Central Anime fansub, they translate all of that. "The Beauty of Thoroughness!"

Edited April 28, 2008 by Gubaba

[Macross007]

At the risk of going OT, i wonder where ppl got the impression that Zolans were descended from marsupials. Was it just because of all the animals with pouches in planet Zola? I'm quite sure when we saw Graham and his daughter naked in the hot springs, there were no pouches. And trivia for some people who didn't know, marsupials have only one orifice for poo and pee and mating.

Well the snake...maybe they can't live outside Zola. IIRC the space ranger girl didn't wear the snake into space?

Well if we treat the picture below as canon and Zolans definately have pouches....then i guess she's Meltran.

http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/237402...macross_frontie

Cool website by the way. I recommend it for all fans of Sheryl's breasts.

[treatment]

And another food for though. It just occured to me that she may possibly be a Zolan. Zolans seem to have joined the human/zentran empire and have access to both macro/micronisation technology as well as valkyries, as shown from Macross 7 Dynamite. They also wear the funky headbands that Klan Klein and the other girl wear.

err, iirc, Mylene also wears some sort of funky headband, too. does that mean Mylene's a Zolan instead of a mixed human-meltran?

[wolfx]

Shrug. It was just pure fan conjecture. Mylene's headband was part of her rock outfit.

Doesn't have the Zolan-like markings like the ones on KK and the other woman.

[Smiley424]

Just watched Episode 4, loved it. Some nice action scenes in Alto's final test, nice to see the updated Q-Rau. Ranka singing "My Boyfriend's a Pilot" gelled very well with the action and was another nice homage to SDF:M. I especially like the part where Alto and Klan Klein are fighting and they draw a heart that matches up with the lyrics, nice touch Alto doing the kabuki pose after his first kill was priceless. My only minor nitpick is that there are more anime cliches and fanservice than I'm used to seeing in Macross but it wasn't too distracting and the comedic ones were nice (Luca ducking out to give Ranka and Alto some alone time had me laughing out loud).

Even though Ranka didn't win Miss Macross, I think she'll get some new opportunities just from the exposure (I'm sure some music producer saw her performance and thinks she could be the new Sheryl).

Loving the series so far, looks like they're going to lay on the Love Triangle heavy and thick from the get go. I hope that in the end when Alto chooses (and he better choose, I don't want no Macross 7 crap) it's not too melodramatic and over the top. I see that Luca has eyes for Nanase (who I like better than Sheryl and Ranka looks wise) and I think Mikhail should take up the Roy Focker SuperPimp mantle (showed some of that in episode 1).

[eugimon]

Sigh. I'm still waiting for AiA's.

I'm already at their site at scarywater doing the F5 routine.

it's up

[UN Spacy]

Awesome. I like AiA's smaller file size.

[Vinnie]

Thanks again to Gattai for a speedy release on this one.

I'm loving this series more and more with each episode. The only thing that concerns me at this point is the number of supporting characters. However, I suppose if they introduce and flesh out a bunch now, there won't be as much 'redshirt syndrome' later.

My Bet on the Triangle: Sheryl passes the torch of Idoldom to Ranka and then disappears from public view with Alto at her side.

EDIT: Original post was going off-topic.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Vinnie

[darkrealmbahamut]

Shrug. It was just pure fan conjecture. Mylene's headband was part of her rock outfit.

Doesn't have the Zolan-like markings like the ones on KK and the other woman.

It could be like team markings though. I can remember another species Macronizing other then Max in DYRL and that being human and Emilia who is hybrid. Other then that I can't think of any others who Macronize.

[azrael]

Quite happy with the quality of the Gattai subs for ep 4. They seem to be getting better with each episode.

Really? Cuz I find the translation is kinda... rough.