Macross Frontier Series Discussion Thread *READ 1st Post*

[Mr March]

I haven't started watching Frontier yet, but I was flipping through the Mecha Manual and noticed something about the destroids.....is it me, or do they look like destroids from Macross Zero? I know it's supposed to be a redesign of the original UN era war destroid, but it seems a little silly to go retro for millitary applications. Cars I can understand...for marketing purposes.

When was the last time you saw a modern military aircraft resemble a bi-plane?

I don't see the analogy applying. For all intents and purposes (and ignoring the obvious anachronistic answer), the Cheyenne I and II appear to be of a near identical tech level. In fact, if we didn't know better, could any of us honestly say the Cheyenne looks less advanced that the Cheyenne II or vice versa? No we couldn't. After all, the VF-1 isn't nearly as advanced as the VF-25, but the VF-1 is clearly not a bi-plane. Both craft are within the same magnitude of technological advancement.

A more apt analogy for comparing Cheyenne to the Cheyenne II is to compare the Leopard I to the Challenger II.

As near as I can tell the immunities only develop in the big red Vajra, rather than the smaller ones.

In addition, there are a couple other potential points:

In space, unless you're really on top of it a nuclear weapon is just a radiation pulse, with no physical shockwave and fireball like it would be in atmosphere. While it can certainly damage electronics and kill unprotected organisms through radiation poisoning, it only would destroy physical objects through massive overheating or somesuch. Assuming this level of physics applies in Macross, the ablative coating Vajra used against reaction weaponry would make sense, but on the other hand might not be any more use against bullets than their normal armor. Even if the Vajra so struck die later of radiation poisoning, so long as they can continue the battle right now their use to the hive has not been diminished. As a result, bullets used on Vajra types that survived nearby reaction weapons in an earlier episode still wouldn't be ridiculous.

Building from this in general, it's entirely possible that developing increased resistance to one attack type might diminish resistance to other attack types (say, to keep from bulking up, an anti-radiation coating would diminish the thickness of their armor against bullets, armor that stops bullets better might be less resistant to a PPB-covered knife cutting it, etc.) and against an enemy the hive will send Vajra that are strong against that enemy's known attacks. You can forestall this by switching attack types a lot, but the more the hive under the intelligent direction of its queen learns about you the better it will be able to optimize its soldiers to have the best possible combinations and tactics against your particular arsenal. This makes them a really fearsome enemy but explains why they haven't already evolved total immunity to kinetic projectiles, radiation, and everything else that's a pretty common danger in the universe at large.

This is a good analysis and makes sense. But we should remember that reaction warheads are not nuclear fission bombs. They are something more exotic, but at least some of the principles you've examined might hold true. It is true that any high-energy WMD has much farther reaching destructive effects in an liquid medium (atmosphere) than in a vacuum.

I'm not really sure if radiation would have all that much effect upon the bio-mechanical nature of the Vajra. For one, they have a much more dense exterior than a carbon creature like a human, the V-type virus might be an effective method of radiation prevention and finally they have been described as operating in high radiation areas (dead stars). Plus it makes sense that if they can adapt to harsh conditions, they have long since adapted to dangerous radiation in space.

[peter]

Yeah, the biplane was a bad example, but there were 50 years between the Cheyenne I and II. Look at the advances between WWII aircraft and ones 50 years later. They don't look anything alike. Now, you go from destroids in Mac Zero....to more advance designs like in DYRL and TV show, then back to Mac Zero style Destroids. Why would military equipment go retro in design?

[VFTF1]

Why would military equipment go retro in design?

For the same reason you have street cars from 1920s San Francisco driving around a space colony - because no where is it said that a good design can't be re-used.

Pete

[Keith]

These do? Not done by me.

Sweet, thanks.

[edwin3060]

Yeah, the biplane was a bad example, but there were 50 years between the Cheyenne I and II. Look at the advances between WWII aircraft and ones 50 years later. They don't look anything alike. Now, you go from destroids in Mac Zero....to more advance designs like in DYRL and TV show, then back to Mac Zero style Destroids. Why would military equipment go retro in design?

Because in real life the Mac0 destroids were designed more closely with the MacF destroids (2000s) than with the SDFM destroids (1980s). The VF-0 also shows other design anachronisms like the nose-side mounted sensor windows like the YF-19; and is about the same size as the later designed YF-19 than with the VF-1. I would just accept it and move on...not everything has to make sense in-universe

[nhyone]

I know this is all late and wrong but I give it a 9. I just finished the series.

I went into this show thinking I was gonna hate it. Boy was I wrong. Im not going to break it down into categories. But the animation was great. The story was good. The japanese "actors" sounded right. But I do wish it was a little longer.

Oh and I really didnt like the music until about half way through then it really grew on me.

Exactly my thoughts!

I didn't bother with Frontier because I just wasn't interested in it. And when I read it was a rehash of the original, it was enough reason for me to give it a miss.

I must say I enjoyed the show very much!

It resembles the original, but still has its originality (and threw fans many curves along the way). One thread mentioned that Hiroshi was brought in halfway and he changed the story. I couldn't tell (plot-wise), so it's not as bad as it seems.

3D graphics are well-integrated, unlike Macross Zero.

There were a ton of homage, but I thought most were quite well-done. (Surprisingly, the one I hate the most is in the last ep. Reminds me too much of DYRL.)

Fan service is a notch too high. Nothing out of place for anime, but it makes it hard to recommend to non-anime people.

At first I thought the music was the weakest link, but it grew on me too. In fact, I'm listening to the OST as I typed this!

I don't really like the Ghost In The Shell / The Matrix type of powers. That type of technology seems way too advanced for Macross. And it seems people with such technology are effectively immortal already.

[Gubaba]

One thread mentioned that Hiroshi was brought in halfway and he changed the story.

That's looking less and less likely to be true. As we've said in the Ohnogi thread, any proof (or even hint) of his involvement with the show has so far led nowhere.

[pondo]

I just started watching it the other day. Just finished episode 7. So far, the entire thing is amazing. it's a little hard to understand the established world, but once you catch on, it's fantastic.

This is blowing away just about any other macross i have seen (and it's in serious competition with the original)

[dreamweaver13]

It's ALIVE. (the thread, i mean).

have fun pondo. and wait til you get to ep 12.

[Gubaba]

It's ALIVE. (the thread, i mean).

have fun pondo. and wait til you get to ep 12.

But to get there, he must survive the perilous trek through episode 8...

[pondo]

It's ALIVE. (the thread, i mean).

have fun pondo. and wait til you get to ep 12.

thanks!

I didn't even know this series existed until I signed on to this forum.

The saddest part is that I spent 3 months in hong kong last year and I didn't have the macross bug at all back then. To think of all the yamatos and bandaii I could have bought!!!!!

[dreamweaver13]

But to get there, he must survive the perilous trek through episode 8...

Well, we all did. but not without some scars.

[dreamweaver13]

The saddest part is that I spent 3 months in hong kong last year and I didn't have the macross bug at all back then. To think of all the yamatos and bandaii I could have bought!!!!!

Oh now THAT is indeed unfortunate. a case of wrong timing.

oh well look at it this way, you just saved yourself a TON of money.

[pondo]

Oh now THAT is indeed unfortunate. a case of wrong timing.

oh well look at it this way, you just saved yourself a TON of money.

except of course...that I'll end up paying three times that now getting them shipped from over-drive

On my last day there I bought a 1/48 vf-1a for around $80.

The only anime shop in town has 'em at $250........

[pondo]

Oh now THAT is indeed unfortunate. a case of wrong timing.

oh well look at it this way, you just saved yourself a TON of money.

except of course...that I'll end up paying three times that now getting them shipped from over-drive

On my last day there I bought a 1/48 vf-1a for around $80.

The only anime shop in town has 'em at $250........

[pondo]

But to get there, he must survive the perilous trek through episode 8...

good lord....I just watched 8.

the only thing interesting was seeing a close-up of hikarus vf-1A on the roof of the school (does that mean they have chosen DYRL as the official timeline???)

[Gubaba]

good lord....I just watched 8.

the only thing interesting was seeing a close-up of hikarus vf-1A on the roof of the school

Wait wait wait...between pantyless Sheryl and a VF-1A, you'll take a VF-1A?

(does that mean they have chosen DYRL as the official timeline???)

Officially? No. Best not to worry about stuff like that, really.

[pondo]

well....episode 12 was pretty badass. I now regret hearing that awesome version of do you remember love a couple of years ago. (I ws just looking for a limewire version of that song and the frontier cover was what I found)

but the end was fantastic!

[pondo]

in the end, this was amazing. A brilliant tribute to the original series. The conspiracy was pretty convoluted so I would say that it could have benefited from some more episodes. They told a lot of the story through some pretty faced paced flashbacks, and if you ain't quick, you'll miss a lot.

And this also means that I'm gonna have to start buying frontier toys....

[VFTF1]

Ok...

So the following question just came to me:

Why is it that the Japanese seem NOT to have any trouble with the name 'Sheryl' ?

I've never seen Shelyr or heard Shelyr. It's always Sheryl - and yet you'd think we would have seen or heard something about Shelyr Nome...

Then again - I never heard of Rynn Minmey either...

Could it have something to do with the "Y" ? Does the presence of the consonant Y...or more likely the SOUND associated with it somehow make it easier to place and pronounce the R and the L sound in Japanese, and when Japanese see R and L somehow connected with Y (Lynn, Sheryl) - then they never switch the two?

Pete

[Alpha OTS]

When the series first came out I watched it regularly up until episode 12 or 13(the one where it ends with the planet being destroyed by a singularity weapon of some sort). I really don't remember why I stopped watching after that because I liked it and at that point the story was really revving up. I even had the episodes after that, just never got around to watching them.

I recently rewatched the original Macross, and wanting more, decided to watch Frontier from the beginning. I finally finished them tonight. Wow. That was good. I laughed out loud at the fun I was having more than once. I gave it a 9 in the poll. I liked the animation, the mecha, the characters, the songs, and the story.

One of the very few faults I can find in the series is that it's more for Macross fans than not. If you're not familiar with Macross, some of this just isn't going to click. The pre-episode summaries do help, but if you didn't "live" the previous Macross experience(s), I see a non-fan having a little trouble accepting the "science" of this.

The other fault(and why I knocked it down to a 9) is that the story is sometimes rushed in parts. Like a poster above said, during these expositions, if you're not paying attention, you might miss a vital fact(those little Grace bits especially). However, you really get to know and love the characters throughout the series. I was really bummed out about Michel and Klan Klan, but storywise it worked perfectly.

A definite good time.