Macross Mega Marathon

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(I feel like I was hijacking the other guy's thread, so...)

Some of you might be familiar with the Gundam Mega Marathon I've been on for the past couple of years and I'm not abandoning it, but with the announcement of the new Macross Delta tv series, I realized it had been quite a while since I had watched Macross. Therefore, I'll be going on a Macross Mega Marathon, which should be a little less consuming than the Gundam Marathon.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up on Gundam; I'll of course be watching G-Tekketsu as it airs. Anyway, I'll be posting my impressions here, just like with my Gundam thread.

My thoughts on the episodes can be mainly located here: https://www.facebook.com/robert.hayes.5249/media_set?set=a.1060615947317072.1073741839.100001060297207&type=1&l=b7090795f7

It's current to episode 5.

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Now current up to episode 7.

[Mr March]

It's moving along fast. I'm still several episodes behind, but determined to catch up

[Gubaba]

I'm getting to Episode 7 today...

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technically I'm on episode 23, I just haven't posted stuff for that yet.

[sharky]

I started with M: Zero. Did that today. I'll start SDFM this evening.

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EPISODE 9: MISS MACROSS

Iconic Scene: the much beloved Armored Valkyrie... which only shows up twice in the TV series and once in the movie. And gets totally wrecked by Hikaru in this episode.

Quotable Quotes: "I don't think a flimsy uniform [read: swimsuit] like that would be much use in combat."

Best Character: Normally I'd say Minmay but this show isn't animated well enough for that, if you catch my drift... No, the award this time goes to Roy Focker, who shows much insight into the fact that the Miss Macross is rigged in Jamis Merin's favor... until Minmay wins of course. colonthree emoticon

Best Death: The Armored Valkyrie's dignity.

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So you might think that having a beauty contest on a warship in deep space, under constant threat of attack is somewhat strange but remember, the Macross started out with 58,000 civilians that they didn’t plan on having onboard. Despite the amenities that have been rebuilt in the city, you have to do something to keep people’s minds off the war and why not district them with titties? Even though a large part of the population is female? Eh, whatever it works well enough and Minmay has now started her path to stardom… and according to My Fair Minmay there is a LOT of shady stuff going on in the background to get her there (and behind the Miss Macross competition as Roy helpfully points out.) Hikaru is acting here much more like he would in the Reconstruction arc of the series i.e. being really dumb and dense. Seriously, if I was his commanding officer, I would have had him busted back down to flight cadet for wrecking the Armored Valk, not launching with any backup, Ghosts or Valkyries or whatever and watching the Miss Macross instead of doing what he was supposed to. (also, shoutouts to gubaba for translating My Fair Minmay.)

Edited November 25, 2015 by VF-15 Banshee

[JB0]

Hikaru is acting here much more like he would in the Reconstruction arc of the series i.e. being really dumb and dense. Seriously, if I was his commanding officer, I would have had him busted back down to flight cadet for wrecking the Armored Valk, not launching with any backup, Ghosts or Valkyries or whatever and watching the Miss Macross instead of doing what he was supposed to.

In fairness, Hikaru's a dumb teenager here. It's more painful in the postwar arc because he's matured a lot and SHOULD know better(though he's STILL a teenager).

As far as not getting busted back down to the bottom... It's worth considering that the Macross is in extraordinary circumstances. The majority of the Macross' Valks came from Prometheus, and thus the vast majority of their trained pilots sucked vacuuum after the space fold. They were trapped behind enemy lines with an aircraft carrier full of planes and no men to fly them. And attrition was harsh.

They do note in the show that people are being promoted ridiculously fast, and people who ought not be flying at all are being put in a chair and pointed towards the nearest zentradi deployment. They simply needed pilots too much to care about proper training and discipline.

From that perspective, I reckon that he had a LOT of leeway that wouldn't be extended to anyone under normal circumstances simply because he knew how to fly, how to fight, and how to survive. There wasn't a replacement pilot available, and they needed him flying more than they needed him behaving. So they just roll their eyes when he talks back to his superiors, turn a blind eye when he wrecks a prototype, and generally dance around the fact that he ought to be grounded for his foolishness, because some 70% of their force shouldn't be flying missions.

...

Heck, he's sixteen when he enlists. I'm not entirely sure it was LEGAL for him to be in the military.

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Even so, at the absolute minimum, I hope Roy or Misa or somebody spent some ten minutes yelling at him about how much of a moron he is.

[JB0]

That probably happened off-camera.

Well, Roy was probably more along the lines of "Hikaru! Man, you're harder to kill than a cockroach! HAHAHA! ... Yeah. Don't do that again, it was really dumb. Consider yourself chewed out. Bye."

And Misa spent ten minutes yelling at him every episode anyways, so nothing new there.

Just saying... there's a semi-logical reason he wasn't grounded indefinitely in spite of his near-terminal dumbassery and chronic insubordination.

[Sildani]

That happens in real life. Look up a Polish RAF pilot named Josef Frantisek. During the Battle of Britain, he flew Hurricanes and was considered a terrible team player and lacked discipline. However, he had already flown with the Czechs and Poles, with a couple hundred flight hours. So they let him pretty much fly and fight on his own, and I believe he scored 14? 19? confirmed before he flew himself into the ground, supposedly while showing off aerobatics to his girlfriend.

So yeah. Desperate times call for any able-bodied person who can fly and fight, to fly and fight.

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EPISODE 10: BLIND GAME

Iconic Scene: Klingon captain KLANG!

Quotable Quotes: "Hey, is she prettier than us?" (RED ALERT QUESTION! Bail out Vermillion 1! Bail out!!)

Best Character: Probably Max, for continuing to be awesome and fighting Britai hand to hand.

Best Death: The poor schmuck pilot of Misa's Cat's Eye.

Also, what's Max's Valkyrie doing back there? A soft shoe shuffle?
Anyway, things that stood out about this episode: I think Hikaru's making meters out of microns here with Kakizaki's Valkyrie and arguing with Misa for the sake of arguing because that's pretty much their relationship right now. No wonder Roy had to step in.
Also, this is where the show will begin taking on more of its own identity. They started that with Minmay's first steps to stardom and will continue it with Misa and the Vermillion team's capture by the Zentradi. Previous to this, Macross was a pretty standard sci-fi space opera.

EPISODE 11: FIRST CONTACT

Iconic Scene: Miclone interrogation

Quotable Quotes: Show us what this "kiss" is!

Best Character: Once again, Max, for being the Macross James Bond.

Best Death: Nobody dies here but Bodolza does threaten Misa.

Objectively speaking this is the worst episode of the entire series. Mostly due to the fact that the animation quality here takes a sharp nose dive and then augers right into the ground. Not just that the quality is bad but there is tons of key frames and inbetweening missing that makes everything go herky-jerky all the time. According to some of my friends like Richard Clark, this episode was in fact so bad that it almost got Macross canceled. The staff then promised to make the finale of Macross, or what was supposed to be the finale and episode 27, look really really good in exchange. Other than that this episode starts developing a lot of things that will become important to the plot later on, mostly how the Zentradi are completely ignorant of any aspect of culture except for warfare. Now this is a point that I kind of missed on my first watch of the show but it should be understood that the Zentradi are not stupid. They obviously know how to use their technology, case in point being when they're able to translate the human language from just a few transmissions. The problem with the Zentradi is that they have been doing the same thing for so long , For so many hundreds of years that they have just simply forgotten everything else. That said their reactions to Misa and Hikaru's kiss is very, how shall I put it, Star Trek-ian. But it still feels very genuine and is starting to add a lot of depth to the Zentradi that wasn't there before.

EPISODE 12: BIG ESCAPE

Iconic Scene: Milia gets ready for her first sortie in her Queadluun-Rau (the first that we see anyway)

Quotable Quotes: "They're just miclones, I can more than handle them myself." (right up until you tangle with a certain blue-haired miclone)

Best Character: It's a tough call so I'll go with Milia for having a badass entrance.

Best Death: The brownies who were the first to suffer Milia's wrath.

And so our characters make their big escape while Loli, Conda and Warera are secreted aboard the Macross. Here we see Laplamiz and Milia for the first time. Milia's a fan favorite and I must admit, I'm a sucker for ladies with green hair (and/or green skin) but I think a lot of this is down to Mikimoto's design of her. Most of the Macross characters are not what you'd call deep or complex but Milia unfortunately tends to get the short end of the stick in this regard, especially in a certain later episode. Also, the short end of having her character look consistent between episodes. Also, a funny little thing to note: The Zentradi are unaware of culture, yes? So why does Milia always look like she's wearing lipstick?

Edited December 12, 2015 by VF-15 Banshee

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EPISODE 13: BLUE WIND

Iconic Scene: The Macross finally returns to Earth.

Quotable Quotes: "You're wearing a female uniform!"

Best Character: The Three Spies for being completely sincere in all that they do. colonthree emoticon

Best Death: No notables this time.

Not much to talk about in this episode. The Macross makes its return to Earth, despite more of Kamujin's plotting. The real show in this episode is Loli, Conda and Warera finally moving into the city section of the Macross. Most of the time, the old gag of man-dresses-as-woman usually results in some very low-brow comedy but here it works because the three spies are absolutely sincere in everything they do. I mean if you live in a society that has no casual clothes, how would you possibly be able to tell the difference between men's and women's clothes? Also, aren't the Prometheus and Daedalus on the wrong sides in this scene?

EPISODE 14: GLOBAL REPORT

Episode 14 is the first of two clip shows and isn't as... inventive as episode 17. So, not much to talk about here.

EPISODE 15: CHINATOWN

The waters are beginning to get even more choppy here. Misa and captain Global deliver their report about the Zentraedi fleet to the UN Spacy bigwigs, who seem remarkably reluctant to believe said report. Global and Misa also find out that the story the brass spun about the Macross's disappearance was that it was destroyed along with the city and all of South Ataria Island and now they won't let the civilians off the ship. This seems to be a very strange attitude to take because their explanation is that they didn't want to cause a panic by revealing the earth was under the attack of alien forces. But doesn't everyone already know that aliens exist? When the Macross crash landed back in 1999 it was not exactly subtle. As a final F you, Misa's father, who is also one of the admirals and one of the bigwigs, gives her a note telling her to get off of the Macross. On the one hand, I can understand why he wouldn't want his daughter in such a dangerous situation. On the other hand however it seems, again, cold-blooded of him to not give to damns about the tens of thousands of civilians on board Macross but want to make sure that his own daughter is safe. Newsflash genius: your daughter's in the military and if you didn't want her to be in danger you should never have let her join!

This episode also features the introduction of one of the most hated characters in all of Macross: Lynn Kaifun. But more on him in the next episode.

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EPISODE 16: KUNG-FU DANDY

Iconic Scene: Kaifun getting just a little bit of what he so richly deserves.

Quotable Quotes: "Wha! Wha! Wha! Wha! (seriously, that's what Kaifun sounds like to me.)

Best Character: Nobody really, just about everyone gets the short end of the stick in this episode.

Best Death: Once again, no deaths but Misa almost seals Hikaru's fate.

Personally, this episode is one of the worst, not in a general sense but just that it focuses so much on new character Lynn Kaifun. I hate Kaifun. I really, really, really, REALLY hate this guy. But then again, you’re supposed to hate him, even staff members hated this guy (I suspect that might be why his role in the franchise is continually reduced; they don’t even feature him in the pachinko footage at all). As other people have pointed out, the primary problem with Kaifun is his pacifism. Not that pacifism is inherently bad or anything (although thanks to Gundam Wing I can now spell pacifism backwards…) but Kaifun just spouts off some good-sounding ideas mixed with a bunch of complete bullcrap such as “soldiers only join the military because they like killing.” Which is then immediately undercut by Misa, Claudia and the bunnie's discussion on why they didn’t join the military for that reason. Everyone is just in a bad mood this episode, I suppose it’s because Kaifun spreads misery and ruin wherever he goes. Oh and to top it all off, why did even Misa have to get caught up with this guy and nearly kill Hikaru? And even though she admits to herself at the end of the episode that Kaifun is not Riber, she’s still going to be mooning over him for several episodes more. ARGH!

Lynn Kaifun: designed to be hated and succeeds spectacularly!

Edited January 12, 2016 by VF-15 Banshee

[Mr March]

I think what enraged me the most is that Misa was unfortunately attracted to Kaifun because he looked so much like Riber, her dead boyfriend. I think Kaifun was also so infuriating because the very nature of the SDF Macross series spoke about the horrors of war, the tragedy and how it traumatizes people, yet here comes a character that ignorantly dismisses all that pain and suffering our heros have been enduring to try to make things right. I can see how even the production staff could have been angered by the character: outside of the fictional world, it must have hit them personally, as if all the great story telling and character work they created for the SDFM series was being undermined by this one jackass

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EPISODE 17: PHANTASMS

Iconic Scene: We're flying, E.T.!! (insert John Williams score here)

Best Character: Britai/Kaifun for dying

Quotable Quotes: "Today, 1st Lieutenant Hikaru Ichijo, also known as the Crash King, tried to fly his bike into space."

Best death: No ACTUAL deaths but again, still fun to see Kaifun get the end he should have had in episode 34.

Back in 1989, as the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation wrapped up, they did a clipshow as the season finale called Shades of Grey. A somewhat appropriate title as the episode involved flashing back to a lot of the worst moments of seasons 1-2 of TNG (and there were a LOT of those). The flashbacks were presented as a kind of coma dream that they were giving Riker and the same sort of thing happens in this episode. Even though it comes just two episodes after the last clipshow, it's presented with new footage that makes for a surrealistic dream of Hikaru's. One thing to note is that in the dream, Dream Kaifun says that he won't let Minmay date anyone from the military. Hikaru doesn't hesitate in ripping off his flightsuit to reveal his old civilian flightsuit underneath. However, two years later when Minmay herself asks Hikaru to quit the military... he hesitates and ultimately doesn't go through with it.

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EPISODE 18: PINEAPPLE SALAD

Iconic Scene: The deadliest thing in the universe, an anti-plot armor equation.

Quotable Quotes: Hikaru's lucky, he's got a real ace on his team...

Best Character: C'mon, it's Roy. This is his going-away party and it's great.

Best Death: Do I even need to say?

What else can be said about this episode except that it likely had a bigger impact here in the west than it did back in Japan. Sempai characters dying is not something new to anime (just looks at Ryu Jose from Gundam) and indeed the trope of mentor characters dying so the hero can stand on his own feet is about as old as stories themselves. The one thing I do have to wonder about this episode is, why did Roy do what he did? Why go to Claudia's instead of the hospital? My theory is that he figured he was bad enough off that there was as much a chance of dying on the operating table as surviving and if this was his time to go, might as well spend it with his lady love than being cut open by Docs.

EPISODE 19: BURST POINT

Iconic Scene: So long, Kakizaki.

Quotable Quotes: The barrier is going to overload!

Best Character: Hard to say in this one but I think we can award this one to Kakizaki's widow, 20 oz. Porterhouse. colonthree emoticon

Best Death: Kakizaki is going away this time, although his death here is not nearly as gruesome as it will be in DYRL.

Now THIS is a twist. Hot on the heels of Roy's death comes the death of Kakizaki and not JUST that but the final dashing of the hopes of getting the Macross's civilian population off the ship. This was a good place for this as we're nearing the end of the second third of the show and Macross was originally supposed to end eight episodes from now. It's time that the characters got kicked down and kicked again before they can rise back up. Hikaru has now lost not just his squadron leader but his sempai and now his wingman. Misa is depressed over various things, Minmay is being driven into exhaustion and generally there is an air of hopelessness. Certainly doesn't help that the UN Spacy brass has decided that a ship full of both thousands of their soldiers and thousands of civilians needs to be their sacrificial lamb.

[Mr March]

Yes, I remember this was a brutal one-two punch in the feels. I also really enjoyed how the original SDF Macross has a sequence which shows Hikaru struggling with the fallout of Kakizaki's death, something that was missing from the American edit of the show back in the 80's. It was a poignant way to show what Hikaru was going through and how he had no one but himself to rely upon, no one to help him cope. It really informed his character from this point forward and I believe was one of the reasons he was able to finally confront Minmay about his feelings just 8 episodes from now. THis episode also contributed to making Kamjin a more credible menace and less of a cartoonish non-threat.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Mr March

[JB0]

Also, Kakizaki's death is presented kind of horrifyingly. They don't just show his plane get smashed by the shockwave as we hear his radio cut out. They give us a nice slow shot of his terrified face disintegrating. It was kind of shocking to me and I knew it was coming.

For those not familar with the show, it was also very surprising having Kakizaki die right after Roy. Very few shows kill two regular characters in a row. Besides, Kakizaki's the plucky comic relief. He was supposed to be a safe character to like!

They've also made a point of showing Kakizaki's piloting skills gradually improve pilot after his disastrous early outings, and he makes a quite respectable show of things in Burst Point. And then he bites it because he just happened to be bringing up the rear when the barrier blew out. All his hard work overturned by a few seconds of bad luck.

Really, Burst Point and Pineapple Salad together send a solid message that the main characters are not special in any way. Combined with Hikaru's recent near-fatal dunk and extended hospital stay, It strongly undercuts the traditional concept of "plot armor". These people are just dudes, and in a war sometimes dudes die through no fault of their own.

On a non-fatal note... Burst Point is the only episode where Hikaru uses what I call "the badass switch" on his helmet, lowering the shades like in the opening sequence so he looks awesome while he's flying around. He retracts the shades right after Kakizaki's death, and never uses them again.

It's a minor detail, but I find it interesting. I feel like it sort of highlights the idea that just because Hikaru's flkying Skull One now doesn't mean he's suddenly a different person. He's a better pilot, and has enough experience and judgement to command a squadron, sure. But he's still the same awkward teenager he was before Focker died. He's just not cool enough to wear shades.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it's possible I'm reading way too much into a big coincidence and this is just the only episode where anyone remembered he had shades.

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EPISODE 20: PARADISE LOST

Iconic Scene: What is this? A rummage sale for ANTS?!

Quotable Quotes: I guess we're Macrossians now?

Best Character: Loli, Conda and Warera for being the secret purveyors of culture. smile emoticon

Best Death: None in this episode, as I recall

And another good build to the plot here. After the last episode where the characters are beat down with the hopelessness of their situation, it begins to spread to the civilians as well but they take a more optomistic view of it. With the Zentradi, Loli, Conda and Warera have begun the Heralds of Culture, spreading among the fleet. Global has to break the news to the Macross's civilian population and his heartfelt speech helps to deflect some of the anger that might come his way and the way of the military crew as well as Minmay's speech and song, probably more on Minmay's part more than Global. Incidentally, the scene where Kaifun pats Global on the back... considering his attitude before now, after and during the after war arc makes me consider this action to be wholly out of character. Must have been a hiccup on the part of the writers' minds or somesuch. wink emoticon

Also, I wonder what the different colored stripes on the three spies' uniforms mean? Likely nothing as you can see more than a dozen and a half variations on the UN Spacy uniform on just the Macross.

[JB0]

I don't consider Kaifun out of character there. I consider him under-developed.

I think at that point he's just starting to recognize that some of the folks in the military might not be crazed murderfreaks, there might actually be some decent people. And by the end of the war he's actually participating in a military operation himself.

Post-war Kaifun... now that's a whole different kettle of fish.

[Mr March]

With all due respect, I think that is a misrepresentation of Kaifun's character as we're shown throughout the series. Kaifun's pat on the back to Global is not wildly out of character nor is it under-written insight telling the audience he's actually coming around. Kaifun is being opportunist and condescending, plain and simple. He patronizes Global with a token display of empathy, which we know he does not have, all while the two are on camera, of course. He does this for the same reason Kaifun does everything he does in the SDF Macross series: the opportunity to preach and influence/manipulate others to his fundamentalist pacifism. It's the same reason he leapt at the chance to "chaperone" Minmay aboard the SDF-1 Macross, against the wishes of Minmay's parents. It was the perfect chance to legitimately get aboard the ship where he could have the most opportunity to spread his word and undermine the military with the eyes of the entire world centered upon that stage. it's the same reason he became a b-movie action star, to use his popularity and money to achieve the same.

In Kaifun's mind, there's no way in hell he thinks of the Minmay Attack as a military operation (despite whatever the actual reality of the situation may be). Everything we know about Kaifun would almost guarantee that in his mind the whole situation is the ultimate pacifist victory, proving culture is more powerful than the despicable, war-mongering ways of the military. I can just imagine Kaifun being spectacularly thrilled at the idea of the Military NEEDING Minmay and her singing to save humanity. In his messed up world view, it vindicated him and validated everything he's stood for his entire life. The fact that the situation was also enormously public and incredibly high profile certainly didn't hurt his camera-mugging personality. It's also why post-war, Kaifun turns into an abusive mess. Minmay was given all the credit for this cultural victory rather than the pacifism that Kaifun felt she was supposed to represent. He also clearly resent's Minmay's failing popularity and blames her for the fact that she can no longer be used by him as a mouth piece for his own agenda (however ironic and pathetic that may be).

I think Kaifun is shown as incredibly consistent throughout the series, this episode in particular.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Mr March

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EPISODE 21: MICRO-COSMOS

Iconic Scene: THIS IS THE LEGENDARY POWER!!

Quotable Quotes: Did you guys do stuff like that [kissing] with Minmay?!

Best Character: Hard to call in this one, Nobody really stands out. Maybe I'll say it's the three spies again, for blatantly lying about making out with Minmay. grin emoticon

Best Death: Again, no actual deaths except for maybe the death of the imaginary relationship Hikaru had with Minmay.

Another link in the chain leading to what would have been the finale. Minmay and Kaifun's movie Shao-Pai-Long premieres... and somehow Britai and Exedol are able to watch it? What the heck? Last i checked, movies, especially in the 1980s, weren't broadcast. Maybe they are doing it on this occasion so all the crew of the Macross can see the premiere even if they're not actually there? Hikaru can't stomach the sight of Kaifun getting his incest on and runs into Misa (literally) and they get to have another moment. Given that Macross The First retconned in references to the Vajra, I'm actually not surprised that Britai and Exedol can believe that the miclones have the power supposedly demonstrated in the movie. They'll pass this along to Bodolza and it'll lead to his decision to attack Earth.

Incidentally, Shao Pai Long is my least favorite Minmay song, initially because it simply had something to do with Kaifun but now... I dunno I can't really point to anything specific, I just don't like it as much as some of her other songs like Silver Moon, Red Moon and My Boyfriend is a Pilot.

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EPISODE 22: LOVE CONCERT

Iconic Scene: Did she have some head trauma? Nope, just animation trauma.

Quotable Quotes: There he is! No doubt about it, that's the ace who beat me!

Best Character: Kaifun for getting konked on the head by a stage light. Pity it didn't kill him.

Best Death: All the poor buggers that likely get killed as the Zentradi start blowing up the city.

The thing that stood out to me the most about this episode was that this was the first of many, many stupid things that Kaifun will do. Since we're talking fiction I have no compunctions against saying that I kinda hope lots of people got their stupid selves killed listening to him. Oh who am I kidding, he'd just blame it on the military.

******

EPISODE 23: DROP OUT

Iconic Scene: Hikaru and Misa have a moment in the Nyan Nyan Cafe.

Quotable Quotes: Who knows? War is the only thing our enemy knows, right? But we'll put an end to it someday.

Best Character: Misa, for just being awesome this time around.

Best Death: Nobody notable.

There's hope now in the form of the Zentradi defectors... and that Misa has FINALLY given up on that douche-nozzle Kaifun... even though she did that back in episode 16... whatever.

*****

EPISODE 24: GOOD-BYE GIRL

Iconic Scene: Not a duck.

Quotable Quotes: Shammy! Launch the Booby Duck!

Best Character: Hikaru because not only does he fly the Super Valkyrie but he seems to finally be getting it that he and Misa have something much more tangible than emotional stress after being trapped for two weeks.

Best Death: Again, the poor Zentradi that messed with Max and his new VF-1J

The beloved Super Valkyrie makes its debut and Hikaru now has another woman walk out of his life, sort of. At least he sort of seems to be getting that he has a thing with Misa.

*****

And so the second third of the series ends.

This is where the series really came into its own with a unique story that took the real robot concepts made famous by Mobile Suit Gundam and puts their own twist on it. The only negative would be the appearance of Kaifun. As I said before, if he was designed to be hated, they succeeded in SPADES.

*****

EPISODE 25: VIRGIN ROAD

Iconic Scene: Ya think ya got enough cake there?

Quotable Quotes: Our love is strong enough to conquer all that!!

Best Character: Global for his speech that starts out sounding like a blistering indictment against aliens... and then becomes a call for peace so much better than Kaifuns bawling.

Best Death: Nobody notable

The various problems with this episode have been elaborated on at length by Richard Clark, so I'll just say that I really am not surprised Max and Milia have problems in their marriage in Macross 7 considering how "whirlwind" their romance is here.

*****

EPISODE 26: MESSENGER

ICONIC SCENE: The Macross and about 1,200 of Britai and Laplamiz's ships against 4,790,260 ships of the Bodol Main Fleet. Brown Trousers on standby.

QUOTABLE QUOTES: "What is the function of that flimsy garment? [lingerie]

BEST CHARACTER: Exedol, especially for his gloriously awful attempt at My Boyfriend Is A Pilot.

BEST DEATH: The Quamzin squad schmucks that Britai has to shoot down because Quamzin is himself a schmuck. smile emoticon

So here's where all the threads come together and we get the deep breath before the plunge. I'm going to elaborate about this elsewhere so I'm just going to mention that I love Exedol here, especially when he tries to do his Minmay impression.

And just because it gives me perverse pleasure, I'd also like to comment here on how much of a douche he is. Even when presented with the oppurtunity to work out a peaceful resolution to this conflict, he acts like a petulant child, likely because the military is in charge of this. He even immediately goes into one of his rants and thankfully Global tells him to SHUT UP. Seriously, why was this guy never ironically killed off?

*****

EPISODE 27: LOVE DRIFTS AWAY

Iconic Scene: Quite a few really. Just see the following photos.

Quotable Quotes: The entire surface! It's been annihilated!

Best Character: Hikaru for finally giving up on Minmay... for now at least.

Best Death: Bodolza, of course.

Edited January 30, 2016 by VF-15 Banshee

[hachi]

Are you also gonna do a Macross 7 marathon?

[VF-15 Banshee]

Are you also gonna do a Macross 7 marathon?

Eventually.

SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE? (1984)

Iconic Scene: A lot, just look at the following photos.

Quotable Quotes: "Just a simple love song that was popular in an alien city 10,000 years ago."

Best Character: Hard to say, everyone's pretty much their best self in this movie. I think I'll go with Hikaru because he doesn't devolve into an @$$hole in the movie.

Best Death: Lots but the one I like is a few photos over where the zentradi guy comes out of his pod to try and fight Max and Max just blasts him right in the face. Poor guy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

MACROSS: FLASHBACK 2012

Iconic Scene: Again, a whole series of them.

Quotable Quotes: None really, since this is a music video.

Best Character: Minmay, I would say, because she finally seems to have gotten it all together and everyone gets their happy endings. colonthree emoticon

Best Death: Not applicable

It's now late 2012 in the Macross timeline and the last bit of the story is about to wrap up. The Macross itself has been refitted and looks more like its movie counterpart and the colony ship which Captain Global spoke of is ready to launch into the new frontier.

And so these characters and places we've come to know, exit the stage. And now... we move on to Macross II and oh boy that's going to be fun.

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MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN

EPISODE 1: FIRST CONTACT

Iconic Scene: Faerie Squadron pilots Saori, Ami and Natasha, minus their leader Sylvie.

Quotable Quotes: Do you think Earth has the best culture? ZOINKS. You don't even know the meaning of the word.

Best Character: Dennis Lone. Too bad he had to die right in the first episode.

Best Death: Again, Dennis.

So, fast-forward to 1992, 10 years after the debut of the original series, 8 years from DYRL, and about 4.5 years after Flashback 2012.

Big West, the company that sponsors all of the Macross productions wanted a new sequel but Kawamori and many of the other Macross alumni didn't really want to get involved. BW went ahead anyway and thanks to a combination of not really knowing what they wanted out of this besides "a new Macross" and the fact that real robot genre had atrophied somewhat by the 90s led to it not being very popular in Japan... although it ended up having a measure of success in the USA probably due to a certain adaptation.

I chose this particular picture because the Faerie Squadron pilots are, as far as I know, the only human female pilots that have names and screentime in all of Macross. There might be a character in the VF-X games but I'll have to check that. And even then, if you strictly by the animated productions then yes, they are.

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MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN

EPISODE 2: ISHTAR

Iconic Scene: Ishtar discovers the Alus... which was actually the Macross? I guess? Certainly doesn't jive with later lore

Quotable Quotes: Rather abrupt!

Best Character: Ishtar because most of the rest of the characters are still a bit annoying and Hibiki's both creepy and still jerky.

Best Death: Nobody really. Maybe the Zentradi that Feff punched but that's iffy.

Not much to say about this episode that won't get said... well, I'll just say elsewhere. One thing to note is that this episode apes several elements of the 1953 movie Roman Holiday, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. An odd choice to say the least.

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MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN

EPISODE 3: FESTIVAL

Iconic Scene: The reveal of the Metal Siren... the fugliest Valkyrie in all of Macross.

Quotable Quotes: Take me to the moon, Hibiki! I'm sure I'll learn a lot!

Best Character: Wendy Rider, just because this is the only time that she ever gets any real screen time. The characters in this are just too bland for anything else.

Best Death: Again, nobody notable. Noticing a pattern here?

A large part of the episode revolves around the Lunar Festival but it ends up not being something particularly memorable or exciting. Not as flashy as Minmay's concert in DYRL, not surreal like Sharon or energetic like Sheryl and Ranka's shows. Wendy Rider is basically just... there. It probably didn't help that the first major Idol Boom was over by '92 and they already had Hiroko Kasahara doing Ishtar. Also the Metal Siren is introduced here and the best way I can describe it is that it's much more of a jumbled mish-mash of jagged lines and car fenders than many Gundams are accused of being.

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MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN

EPISODE 4: MARDUK DISORDER

Iconic Scene: Ingues The Dingus

Quotable Quotes: No one will ever know my shame... that I dared to love above my station.

Best Character: Sylvie because Ishtar gets to be Princess Peach in this episode and Hibiki is just sort of along for the ride as it were. Sylvie is the take-charge character this time around.

Best Death: Poor Lady Elenshe. If only you had listened to Ishtar and gone with her.

It's kind of odd that the dub for this show sounds better when they're speaking the Marduk language. By the way, did you know that Lord Feff was voiced in Japanese by Toru Furuya aka Amuro Ray?

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MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN

EPISODE 5: STATION BREAK

Iconic Scene: The warship class known as the Macross Cannon.

Quotable Quotes: We must not allow the enemy to get past the defence fleet!

Best Character: It's very hard to say. Not many of the characters get a standout moment here and that's because the story feels like it was getting on a good pace up through episode 4 but now has to rush to a conclusion because the next episode is the last.

It's definitely not Major Nexx, that's for damn sure.

I guess I'll say it's the commander of the defense fleet. I don't even know if he has a name. He tried his damnedest to hold back the Marduk lines but even with the Macross Cannon ships on his side, he just couldn't do it and went out in a blaze of glory.

Best Death: The crew of the flagship Gloria.

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MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN

EPISODE 6: SING ALONG

Iconic Scene: Just like the Enterprise in Star Trek III, the Macross in this series suffers an end that is not quite as awesome as you'd like it to be.

Quotable Quotes: MACROSS! Take off!

Best Character: Ishtar for bringing peace not only to her people but to Earth as well.

Best Death: I'd say Ingues but that would imply he is a character worth caring about. Which he isn't.

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You've probably also noticed from the FB album but I've posted a bunch of screenshots and thoughts from Macross Delta episodes 0.89 and 1-4. On to Macross Plus!!

[Mr March]

Whoa, going hard on these! That's a lot of Macross all at once. Be careful you don't hurt yourself