Macross Frontier Episode 7 Talkback Thread *READ 1st Post*

[Duke Togo]

Just watched the AiA I-Z sub, Mentions Michel and Klan knowing each other in childhood and that the Macross Quarter is 400m long. Oh and Alto's so very very noob...

Indeed they did. That'll be covered in upcoming episodes.

[Steve]

Seems like Luca has a bit of a one track mind he focused right in on getting the scan rather than well anything else really.

[Heron]

Seems like Luca has a bit of a one track mind he focused right in on getting the scan rather than well anything else really.

Good thing too because he detected a Fold reactor and provided enough data to the Macross, so they could beat the Vajra Mothership.

[dreamweaver13]

You know, I was wondering this when I first saw ep.7 but nobody brought it up. In episode 1 we see Sheryl using a holo-suit, hence why her clothes seem to always be changing on stage, they are holographic. However in ep.7, when she goes to take a break, you can see her actually taking off the clothes she had on, but earlier they were changing as if she was wearing the holo-suit. Then she physically puts on a dress, which then later changes into something else when she starts Infinity. The holo-suit made that perfectly understandable, but now I can't tell if the holograms are working with her real clothes or if someone made a mistake when they did all that.

I'm just thinking. maybe she goes for the holosuit when she takes on her fast paced and effects-heavy songs. but when she goes for the ballads, she uses good-old actual clothes. i assume the concert is long enough for several costume change breaks, so she sometimes wears the holo-suit, and sometimes wears real clothes.

now, i have to watch the ep again. if sheryl actually wears real clothing at one point, and then immediately shifts to a holo-costume in the very same scene, then there might have been an animation mistake.

but then again, as gubaba pointed out, when you get a panty shot, who cares??

Also it seems Ozma sure is hooked on Fire Bomber enough to quote in combat lol.

haha, funny to think that Ozma was a bonafide Fire Bomber fanboy back in the day. hell, maybe he and cathy were always present in concerts.

[Steve]

haha, funny to think that Ozma was a bonafide Fire Bomber fanboy back in the day. hell, maybe he and cathy were always present in concerts.

That gives me a fan art idea... hmm

[darkrealmbahamut]

Good thing too because he detected a Fold reactor and provided enough data to the Macross, so they could beat the Vajra Mothership.

Yeah if there isn't too much damage done while captured. I mean the Vajra had to have a reason for snagging Luca beyond "Oh crap they may have found the fold system".

[d3v]

haha, funny to think that Ozma was a bonafide Fire Bomber fanboy back in the day. hell, maybe he and cathy were always present in concerts.

Maybe they broke up because Cathy didn't want to learn to play bass and join his tribute band.

[Heron]

Yeah if there isn't too much damage done while captured. I mean the Vajra had to have a reason for snagging Luca beyond "Oh crap they may have found the fold system".

Which is why I want to know why he was making such a big deal about there being a Fold Reactor.

[dreamweaver13]

Which is why I want to know why he was making such a big deal about there being a Fold Reactor.

is luca making a big deal just because he saw a fold reactor? or because he saw a super-duper special kind of fold reactor?

haven't watched the subbed yet, so i'm not sure about this one. but i had the impression that it there was something special about the fold reactor in the vajra carrier.

[dreamweaver13]

Maybe they broke up because Cathy didn't want to learn to play bass and join his tribute band.

that's too bad. having a former ms macross runner up (or winner) as a member would have put ozma's tribute band on top!

Edited May 21, 2008 by dreamweaver13

[Heron]

is luca making a big deal just because he saw a fold reactor? or because he saw a super-duper special kind of fold reactor?

haven't watched the subbed yet, so i'm not sure about this one. but i had the impression that it there was something special about the fold reactor in the vajra carrier.

He was doing a scan and he thought it was a beam oscillator but then he detected fold energies and realized it was a Fold Reactor. He says: "No way, a Fold Reactor?!" Of course, it looks like a giant purple crystal...

[Mr March]

Astounding, exciting and crowd-pleasing are all words that describe episode 7 of Macross Frontier, but even these words fail to capture the best parts of the show. The conflict between the New UN Spacy and the Vajra is clearly escalating and the stakes are becoming that much greater. The Macross Quarter arrives to investigate the location of the distress signal from remnants of the Macross Galaxy fleet. The Vajra are already on the scene but now the Macross Quarter and crew are prepared for their enemy. The episode chronicles the battle in full and we see the true power of the Macross Quarter as it engages a Vajra warship.

Macross Frontier once again proves the many virtues of a properly told story in this episode and the drama is both emotional and exciting. In Macross 7, dozens of friendly ships are destroyed and it’s meaningless, especially to the viewer. In Macross Frontier when a single friendly ship is destroyed that loss is felt by all the characters and the audience most of all. This resonance of emotion is at the heart of Macross Frontier and the creators of the story continue to play upon that theme in this episode to great effect. Alto, Luca, Mikhail and Ozuma all fight against the Vajra with bravery and skill. Unfortunately Luca takes a few too many chances to grab some close reconnaissance data of the Vajra ship and is captured. Alto fearlessly chases after him determined to mount a rescue. In the midst of this another new fighter appears on the scene, a VF-27 piloted by the unknown Brera Stern. He appears to aid Alto and Luca but his motives and possible connection to Mr. Bilrer remain unclear. The Macross Quarter makes the much anticipated transformation debut and destroys the Vajra carrier in a spectacular fight. All the while, Sheryl is playing her final concert on the Macross Frontier and Ranka is there for the show. Throughout the episode, there are hints of connections between the Alto, Sheryl and Ranka but the nature of them are unclear. The beginning of episode 7 speaks of cybernetics common among the people of the Macross Galaxy fleet and there are hints that many of the supporting cast such as Grace and Brera may feature such cybernetics.

Without doubt Macross Frontier Episode 7 is pure anime mecha action. For mecha fans, an episode of exciting battles and spectacular visuals is just the reward needed to enhance an already great show. Macross Frontier is so far delivering plenty of eye candy for action fans and it’s not something any fan of mecha anime should miss. At the same time the show never forgets the characters or the story and we’re treated to more revelations in this episode that prompt yet more questions. Where did the VF-27 come from and who is Brera Stern? Where are the Vajra coming from and who is building their ships? What is the connection between Leon and Mr. Bilrer and what are their motives?

The only way to know is to watch more and next up is episode 8. Deculture!

[Morpheus]

Which makes me worried, how Satelight is gonna produced the following episode which top epi.7. The mecha action seems to be climaxed at epi.7 (Destroid, Monster, Armored VF, Macross, nukes, etc) and its gonna be a letdown if the next mecha action episode serves least.

[Wabbit]

That purple fighter must be part of NUNS. Before Alto got inside the Vajra battleship, that cybernetic punk in his purple machine zig-zagged to it and went in ahead before Alto did. When Alto saw a bunch of those squid-like fighter-bodies sprawled inside the ship, he made a comment that those squids turned on eachother, but the next shot shows an impact hole on the inner hull of the battleship. Which means cyberboy got there first and finished those yellow squids earlier. I speculate that the purple VF pilot was merely spectating and sizing up his SMS competitors for a later confrontation. The way how he behaved, like a spoiled cybernetic überkid piloting a more manouverable Variable Fighter indicates that. Hate those types. Like Kedash, a Sephiroth remnant from FFVII Advent Children, Principal Dio from Last Exile. Those snobs makes me cringe.

[Morpheus]

That purple fighter must be part of NUNS. Before Alto got inside the Vajra battleship, that cybernetic punk in his purple machine zig-zagged to it and went in ahead before Alto did. When Alto saw a bunch of those squid-like fighter-bodies sprawled inside the ship, he made a comment that those squids turned on eachother, but the next shot shows an impact hole on the inner hull of the battleship. Which means cyberboy got there first and finished those yellow squids earlier. I speculate that the purple VF pilot was merely spectating and sizing up his SMS competitors for a later confrontation. The way how he behaved, like a spoiled cybernetic überkid piloting a more manouverable Variable Fighter indicates that. Hate those types. Like Kedash, a Sephiroth remnant from FFVII Advent Children, Principal Dio from Last Exile. Those snobs makes me cringe.

You forgot "Ultimate Coordinator"

[dreamweaver13]

That purple fighter must be part of NUNS. Before Alto got inside the Vajra battleship, that cybernetic punk in his purple machine zig-zagged to it and went in ahead before Alto did. When Alto saw a bunch of those squid-like fighter-bodies sprawled inside the ship, he made a comment that those squids turned on eachother, but the next shot shows an impact hole on the inner hull of the battleship. Which means cyberboy got there first and finished those yellow squids earlier. I speculate that the purple VF pilot was merely spectating and sizing up his SMS competitors for a later confrontation. The way how he behaved, like a spoiled cybernetic überkid piloting a more manouverable Variable Fighter indicates that. Hate those types. Like Kedash, a Sephiroth remnant from FFVII Advent Children, Principal Dio from Last Exile. Those snobs makes me cringe.

or he could be gathering data on the vajra carrier through some kind of access net/hub. hence, the matrix-type data feeds in front of him before he heard the singing. maybe he didn't even notice alto was there until he heard it.

[Duke Togo]

That purple fighter must be part of NUNS. Before Alto got inside the Vajra battleship, that cybernetic punk in his purple machine zig-zagged to it and went in ahead before Alto did. When Alto saw a bunch of those squid-like fighter-bodies sprawled inside the ship, he made a comment that those squids turned on eachother, but the next shot shows an impact hole on the inner hull of the battleship. Which means cyberboy got there first and finished those yellow squids earlier. I speculate that the purple VF pilot was merely spectating and sizing up his SMS competitors for a later confrontation. The way how he behaved, like a spoiled cybernetic überkid piloting a more manouverable Variable Fighter indicates that. Hate those types. Like Kedash, a Sephiroth remnant from FFVII Advent Children, Principal Dio from Last Exile. Those snobs makes me cringe.

I take it you haven't been reading this thread. It is, atleast by its markings, a NUNS fighter, by way of the Galaxy. Whether or not they are still "friendlies" is unknown.

[StrangeWill]

I'm just thinking. maybe she goes for the holosuit when she takes on her fast paced and effects-heavy songs. but when she goes for the ballads, she uses good-old actual clothes. i assume the concert is long enough for several costume change breaks, so she sometimes wears the holo-suit, and sometimes wears real clothes.

now, i have to watch the ep again. if sheryl actually wears real clothing at one point, and then immediately shifts to a holo-costume in the very same scene, then there might have been an animation mistake.

but then again, as gubaba pointed out, when you get a panty shot, who cares??

Better explanation:

A wizard did it.

[stray]

That purple fighter must be part of NUNS. Before Alto got inside the Vajra battleship, that cybernetic punk in his purple machine zig-zagged to it and went in ahead before Alto did. When Alto saw a bunch of those squid-like fighter-bodies sprawled inside the ship, he made a comment that those squids turned on eachother, but the next shot shows an impact hole on the inner hull of the battleship. Which means cyberboy got there first and finished those yellow squids earlier. I speculate that the purple VF pilot was merely spectating and sizing up his SMS competitors for a later confrontation. The way how he behaved, like a spoiled cybernetic überkid piloting a more manouverable Variable Fighter indicates that. Hate those types. Like Kedash, a Sephiroth remnant from FFVII Advent Children, Principal Dio from Last Exile. Those snobs makes me cringe.

You know... by RPG and anime convention, shouldn't the effeminate long haired pretty boy be a super villian? Hmmmm.....

[Radd]

In the midst of this another new fighter appears on the scene, a VF-27 piloted by the unknown Brera Stern. He appears to aid Alto and Luca but his motives and possible connection to Mr. Bilrer remain unclear.

Couple questions...

At what point does Brera appear to aid Alto and Luca? He kinda shoots the gunpod out of Luca's Valkyrie's hand, and then aims his gun directly at Alto and Luca up until the point that the Quarter appears.

Also, at this point do we have any indication at all that Brera may be connected with Mr. Bilrer?

[Master Dex]

Also, at this point do we have any indication at all that Brera may be connected with Mr. Bilrer?

No, it's only assumption because of the purple stone thing, Brera has one is his hair and Bilrer has his ring. Unless there is another reason people have been linking them.

[Radd]

Sheryl has two purple stones, one on loan to Alto.

[taksraven]

At what point does Brera appear to aid Alto and Luca? He kinda shoots the gunpod out of Luca's Valkyrie's hand, and then aims his gun directly at Alto and Luca up until the point that the Quarter appears.

Put simply, he helped them by not killing them. As others have pointed out, he had ample opportunity. I still think that this is going to degenerate into some sort of three-way conflict and I think that the Vajra are going to end up being the pawns (or prawns, depending on your opinion of them ) in the battle. We do not know enough about the Vajra to know if their motives are truly evil, but I predict that they will be squished BEFORE the end of the series, with the final conflict being between the SMS/Frontier forces and whoever the hell Brera is working for.

Taksraven

[Morpheus]

Civil war: Frontier vs Galaxy, winner: Vajra

Whoever control VF-27 doesn't control Vajra so my best guess is Vajra is somehow related to a certain covert research done by Galaxy.

[darkrealmbahamut]

Couple questions...

At what point does Brera appear to aid Alto and Luca? He kinda shoots the gunpod out of Luca's Valkyrie's hand, and then aims his gun directly at Alto and Luca up until the point that the Quarter appears.

Also, at this point do we have any indication at all that Brera may be connected with Mr. Bilrer?

As Taksraven said there was enough time there for them to be blown away and he still fly away scott free. We also don't know what Brera's orders are either.

[Radd]

Put simply, he helped them by not killing them.

That's not really helping, though. Especially when he did actively attempt to hinder their escape.

[jenius]

Yeah, Brera is definitely not friendly. He intently watches as he expects Alto to die. Then when Alto manages to get away and try to help Luca he definitely plays with the two by shooting the gun out of Luca's VF-25's hands. He's not dag-nasty evil yet though, he really has several opportunities to kill Alto and Luca but chooses instead to play with them. Whatever his vehicle is, the VF-27 or whatever, it looks like it's fully capable of folding without a foldildo which seems pretty impressive. It also looks like the long expected "embryonic sack that cancels G-forces" maybe employed here also although I guess this is all better discussed in the "technology thread." What I'm really curious about is why would the Varja capture someone? It seems the idea is there's a greater intelligence controlling them, a brain bug if you will, but would it really need to research humans and their mecha at this point (it did, after all, decimate a run of the humans 20 years ago). Since Brera blasts his way into their ship it seems he has nothing to do with those controlling them so yeah, I'd say we've set the table for a three-way battle. I'm excited.

My criticism of this episode: they laid the ranka/sheryl oddness (protrusion, glowing light, Sorji/Aisha moment) on a little too thick for my liking. I was left scratching my head a bit during the mecha porn. At least this isn't like MacZero where it will end on that strange note, I look forward to having what's going on there revealed.

[wolfx]

Here's a theory.

The Vajra aren't after Ranka specifically but after the super dimensional crystals. The people that seem to have one now are: People with implants , like Sheryl's manager, Mr. Brilra, and Sheryl herself.

Ranka's "protrusion"/belly seems to have one as well since it glows in resonance with Sheryl's earrings. Ranka may have a fold reactor implanted in her since she was part of a research fleet.

It also explains why the Galaxy was attacked full on since it is the most technologically advanced and probably has alot of people with glowing superdimensional "protrusions" on board.

And also why Luca was captured cuz his valkyrie also has a crystal.

[Zinjo]

Yeah, Brera is definitely not friendly. He intently watches as he expects Alto to die. Then when Alto manages to get away and try to help Luca he definitely plays with the two by shooting the gun out of Luca's VF-25's hands. He's not dag-nasty evil yet though, he really has several opportunities to kill Alto and Luca but chooses instead to play with them. Whatever his vehicle is, the VF-27 or whatever, it looks like it's fully capable of folding without a foldildo which seems pretty impressive. It also looks like the long expected "embryonic sack that cancels G-forces" maybe employed here also although I guess this is all better discussed in the "technology thread." What I'm really curious about is why would the Varja capture someone? It seems the idea is there's a greater intelligence controlling them, a brain bug if you will, but would it really need to research humans and their mecha at this point (it did, after all, decimate a run of the humans 20 years ago). Since Brera blasts his way into their ship it seems he has nothing to do with those controlling them so yeah, I'd say we've set the table for a three-way battle. I'm excited.

Thus far Brera is rather unknown.

We know he preceeded Alto into the Vajra mothership because he was spotted by Michel who didn't know who he was. Then succeeded in taking down several hammerheads inside before becoming tangled in the ship's tentacles. He seemed unconscious like Luca until he heard the singing and then acted. It is hard to tell if he shot the RVF-25's gun on purpose or in an attempt to help Alto get out of the tentacles.

Either way he made no attempt to identify himself to the Frontier SMS squad and his motives are certainly not clear at the moment.

That doesn't discount a three way battle, or at least groups with multiple hidden agendas that will undermine the others during the course of the show.

Edited May 21, 2008 by Zinjo

[Radd]

He seemed to be hiding, not entangled. He certainly did not seem to have any difficulty, whatsoever, in escaping this supposed "entanglement".

[ComicKaze]

yeah Brera was hiding and even had the evil eye flash in the darkness which usually in anime means that a bad guy is about to pounce or something sinister is watching.

Brera is a good pilot, I doubt he would miss. He was aiming for the rifle.

[darkrealmbahamut]

We know nothing about him he could simply be a soldier doing as he is told. If the civil war theory holds true then Galaxy is going to want to get rid of SMS because they have top tech. On a whole though he had plenty of time and as fast as he was he could have taken down Mikhial who spotted him as well. There is something more to Brera then what we are seeing.

[taksraven]

He seemed to be hiding, not entangled. He certainly did not seem to have any difficulty, whatsoever, in escaping this supposed "entanglement".

I agree that he was never really "entangled" or captured, but I disagree that he actively hindered Alto's escape. There is something else going on here that we are not aware of yet. That much is for certain.

Taksraven

[taksraven]

Here's a theory.

Ranka's "protrusion"/belly seems to have one as well since it glows in resonance with Sheryl's earrings. Ranka may have a fold reactor implanted in her since she was part of a research fleet.

Ranka the "experiment". With Ozma assigned to protect the experiment. Wouldn't that be a nasty (but unlikely) plot development. I think that Ozma might know more than he is letting on though. Same as Leon clearly is.

Taksraven

[taksraven]

There is something more to Brera then what we are seeing.

For sure. I suspect that he might have little or no real direct control over his actions, especially with his hypnotoad eyes. Since the failure of Sharon Apple and the Ghost project, maybe humanity (UN Spacey, UN, whoever) is trying to make weapons that can be easily controlled, but they are biological rather than mechanical.

I think when the truth about Brera is revealed we will see the storyline get much darker. I've said it before and I will say it again, I don't think that the Vajra are the real bad guys of this series.

Taksraven