Macross Δ (Delta) - NYE Special Talkback - READ 1st POST

[Renato]

Several people here are calling the song "Ikenai Overdrive". It's actually "Ikenai Borderline" -- Uncrossable Borderline

[Zinjo]

Man, you guys are killing me.

I'm praying for a sub to come down the lines soon, but then it's months for real!

Watch the Raw and then listen to the podcast. You won't get the dialogue but you will get the gist of what is going on....

[Bryan Cranston]

Macross Delta... very cool

[Renato]

Watched the sub. As emigration fleets spread throughout the galaxy they encounter alien races, traces left behind by the Protoculture.

One of those races are Findimians from the planet Findimia. Freyja and the Aerial Knights come from this planet.

I think that's "Windermere", isn't it?

It feels like a mess to me.

Before the big action scene it seemed like your typical cutesy anime that Macross Frontier often was. Then they started fighting I'm sorry I meant singing. Oh so this is Sailor moon or something? Then in the final 5 minutes they start having serious mecha duels. If it wasn't for the appearance of Zentradi mecha and Valkyries I wouldn't be able to identify this as Macross.

They're obviously smart in trying to make the most mass marketable product that they can but I wonder why keep calling it Macross at all? Can't they just call these new series generic cutie pie singing group the series? Calling it Macross I guess allows them to sale mecha toys.

But if they had 25 minutes of "serious mecha duels", they wouldn't call it Macross, they would call it Gundam, or Sidonia. At this point, Macross needs to be this to remain distinctive.

[Duke Togo]

It feels like a mess to me.

Before the big action scene it seemed like your typical cutesy anime that Macross Frontier often was. Then they started fighting I'm sorry I meant singing. Oh so this is Sailor moon or something? Then in the final 5 minutes they start having serious mecha duels. If it wasn't for the appearance of Zentradi mecha and Valkyries I wouldn't be able to identify this as Macross.

They're obviously smart in trying to make the most mass marketable product that they can but I wonder why keep calling it Macross at all? Can't they just call these new series generic cutie pie singing group the series? Calling it Macross I guess allows them to sale mecha toys.

Yes

[Renato]

Good idea, we need to balance out the shots of beautiful girls in frilly dresses with hunky men in tight briefs. Equality for all!

Edit -- Hey, where did the image go?? I've been censored!

Edited January 1, 2016 by Renato

[abbadon]

Valkyries. Idols. Love triangle(s). Looks very Macross to me.

[Heron]

Eh, I am getting AKB0048 vibes but hey I enjoyed it. As always I am interested in the direction they take Macross. Magical girls aside, I can dig it. Now was it me or were the scenes of the Var Syndrome similar to what we have been seeing on TV in real life in regards to terrorism. Is NUNS trying to take over Windemere? Is it Occupied?

Edited January 1, 2016 by Heron

[Gerli]

Oh Freyja has synesthesia perceiving music as colors.

Really? That is so cool... a fascinating condition

[Duke Togo]

Good idea, we need to balance out the shots of beautiful girls in frilly dresses with hunky men in tight briefs. Equality for all!

Edit -- Hey, where did the image go?? I've been censored!

You can only put so much of Duke Togo's manliness in one thread. Though, given we're talking about Delta, I'd argue we may need more than usual. Edited January 1, 2016 by Duke Togo

[Zinjo]

Saw the raw, listened to the podcast, I think I am up to speed enough to comment. Will have more to say when I see the fansub.

Very frenetic. The producers should be worried and even consider trimming down non essential introductions for later when they are more relevant to tighten up the focus of the episode. Stick to the most important characters first and add the supporting later when necessary. Definitely had a '90's vibe with all the implications that brings with it.

This is definitely a preview piece as much of the animation has yet to be polished. I am hoping they re-work some of the editing to better lay out the narrative for the first episode. As I said before, you don't have to introduce all the characters at once, only the principle characters that will be the focus of the story.

The male protagonist having natural mecha piloting skills. It can't be easy to make a mecha loader dance...

Definite overt references to M2. The Var virus being triggered by a song and then being combated by another song. The SV-262 fighters having what amounted to Auto Attack Bit Super Packs, but with holographic projectors. I wouldn't characterize these as "ghosts" since the ghosts used in MF had a centralized control node, be that an RVF or a battleship.

The SV-262 has folding wing tips (see when one skims the water at the harbour during the attack) gave some hint to a transformation aspect.

I liked the character designs and they do animate much better than they look as a static character drawing. I found they meshed much better with the CG, than they did in both Zero and Frontier.

The Zentradi upgraded mecha looked very cool, especially the Regult /Q-Rau hybrid.

I very much liked the VF-31 Katana blade replacing the VF-25 knife! The VF-171 appears to remain the CF fighter in 2067.

The podcast mentions that this series will be a mashup of M7 and M+, but I see some borrowing from M2 as well (why not? It is a BW property and M7 took a song from M2 already). So the mash up will make for some interesting story opportunities. Apparently the episodes will shift in tone one from the other, which is going to be fascinating to see if and how they pull that off. This episode has heavy M7 influences to it, we'll see what episode 2 brings when the show actually airs.

I wonder if the virus is a virus at all as it only appears to affect Zentradi? Perhaps it is a genetically engineered aspect to the agressive Zentradi make up that is triggered by the song that is heard. I also wonder how they Aerial Knights and the Kingdom of the Wind are involved as the implications is that they exploit this activity, perhaps by triggering it. With fold quartz making long distance communication nearly immediate, they could trigger this activity anywhere in the Galaxy Network.

The sailor moon transformations are worrisome though. Much of the Walkuri's abilities can be explained by technologies revealed in previous productions, but not all of it.

I am not writing this series off, but it has lots of 'splaining to do....

Edited January 1, 2016 by Zinjo

[jvmacross]

[Renato]

You can only put so much of Duke Togo's manliness in one thread. Though, given we're talking about Delta, I'd argue we may need more than usual.

More than usual:

[akt_m]

Wow, I really liked this first episode.

[UN Spacy]

Regarding the

Galaxy map at the beginning

.

Anyone see Planet Eden or the Frontier/Galaxy fleets on it?

[RedWolf]

I think that's "Windermere", isn't it?

Listening to it, yes it is.

I think the implication is that the Windermere fleet integrated with this new race.

[Gubaba]

Regarding the

Galaxy map at the beginning

.

Anyone see Planet Eden or the Frontier/Galaxy fleets on it?

If it's anything like the Frontier map, it's "metaphorical," at best...

[Roy Focker]

Maybe you have to be either a fanatic about mecha or a fanatic about cutie girl anime to enjoy it. Your casual I'm just in it for Macross isn't likely to be all over it. I couldn't even appreciate the animation. It looks low in quality compared to Frontier. I wasn't a fan of Frontier but it did look fabulous.

[MacrossJunkie]

Just finished watching the episode on BigWest's Youtube channel. I kept my exposure to what the show was about to a bare minimum and only really knew about the valkyries so I effectively went in blind. Since there were no subtitles, I can only try to makes sense of things from the visual context.

I have to say that the whole mahou shoujo vibe was a bit jarring or surprising to me and I can't say I cared for it. Those boomerang drones are interesting though.

At least the valkyrie battles didn't disappoint.

Regarding the

Galaxy map at the beginning

.

Anyone see Planet Eden or the Frontier/Galaxy fleets on it?

I was looking for that too, but the max 480p resolution left the words still too blurry to read.

[JB0]

I'm gonna buck the trend and say something that will likely upset some peoplee.

*deep breath*

I thought the "magical girl" segment was actually REALLY FRIGGIN' AWESOME.

I mean, not the obvious theme so much, but the technology on demonstration is utterly fascinating.

While the podcast noted the boomerangs appeared to do whatever they wanted to, it looked to me like they only do TWO things. They project holograms, and they project forcefields.

It's just that those two technologies happen to lend themselves to a lot of creative reapplication.

And with micro-forcefield projectors being a thing, it seems safe to assume their glowing "auras" are a personal protective field(Maybe powered by song energy? Is Dr. Chiba getting royalties for this?).

I'm not going to question the skirt rockets yet. I reserve the right to reconsider this at a future point, as it seems dangerous to any legs present in said skirts. Though I guess forcefield auras would mitigate that problem.

So yeah, I really enjoyed the part with Walkure.

[David Hingtgen]

I couldn't even appreciate the animation. It looks low in quality compared to Frontier.

That's one of the biggest things I noticed---the 2D and CG do NOT mesh well, not nearly as well as Frontier did it.

[Heron]

Another note is the planet the action takes place on is called Al Shahal, which is Arabic, I think. And from the crowd shots it seems to be a Muslim settled planet. ^^ VERY COOL!

Edited January 1, 2016 by Heron

[UN Spacy]

Regarding English subtiltes...

A certain group is done with their fansubs. If you know where to get it.

[Nazareno2012]

Another note is the planet the action takes place on is called Al Shahal, which is Arabic, I think. And from the crowd shots it seems to be a Muslim settled planet. ^^ VERY COOL!

Well as I saw it is more "Arab" than "Muslim" as the surroundings and architecture have a "West Asia" feel compared to other Muslim places.

[seti88]

havent seen any fansubs yet, so i dont know who this is...I dont recall him being in the group introduced but since he is one of the draken pilots he must be important?

[VF-15 Banshee]

Well it seems it bears repeating that this is an early version of the episode, It'll probably be more polished when it rebroadcasts in April.

OK, first impressions of this episode 0.89: I can't say I've ever been overfond of the magical girl genre and so those stylings for Walkure don't do much for me. That said, in a general sense, it's really no more outlandish than Universal Bunny or Niji Iro no Kuma-Kuma from Macross frontier or the surreal, mind-bending, what-the-hell-is-this from Sharon Apple's concerts. Everything else in the episode was pretty solid, except for the stuff that Gwyn,Adrian, and Renato mentioned in the podcast in there being a few too many characters to present. I'm almost certain that scarred-up Aerial Knight that has never been seen or mentioned before will die next episode. I also get the feeling that the marriage Freyja was running from might be to one of the Aerial Knights or their boss, whom I will, henceforth, refer to as GLASSES MAN! (bum bum bum)®

[Renato]

I don't really understand why people are saying the animation is worse than Frontier... Comparing the animation in the first episode of Frontier with this and I clearly see a vast, vast improvement here. Especially character animation in Frontier, if you look at the frames themselves, the line thicknesses hardly vary at all, whereas in Delta they do, which makes a world of difference. Many of the character shots in Frontier were drawn rather roughly, in my opinion, whereas they seem to take more care to draw them in Delta. The way that Frejya moves is also notably well done.

[Heron]

Well as I saw it is more "Arab" than "Muslim" as the surroundings and architecture have a "West Asia" feel compared to other Muslim places.

You're right, Nazareno. Better for me to say It seems to be an Arab settled world. (Most Arabs are muslim, though)....so Al Shahal is Macross Dubai then? Either way it is a great and smart acknowledgment by the Macross D team.

Edited January 1, 2016 by Heron

[Old_Nash]

Happy New Year^^

I liked the pilot, and the references with Macross II

The singers are too kawaii-desu (XD), but I don't understand one thing, the planet is where in the galaxy...

Thanks

Edited January 1, 2016 by Old_Nash

[Phobos]

Wow. I've never really disliked a Macross series until now. I even enjoyed 7, but this is too much. I may re-visit this when the series is complete, but I've seen nothing so far that changes my initial opinion about this addition to the Macross franchise.

Like Star Wars, apparently this is what the fans want, judging from the poll. Unfortunately, for those of us who were with the franchise since the beginning, it is no longer enough to have the valks+music+love triangle and expect us all to accept everything at face value. At its core, Macross has been about the survivors of humanity banding together in the face of impossible odds, and persevering. This installment seems like a shameless cash grab with none of the depth or soul that made the initial series so great. Magical girls, phoned in Valk designs and crappy j-pop does not make a Macross series. Try again, guys. Try harder.

[Heron]

Wow. I've never really disliked a Macross series until now. I even enjoyed 7, but this is too much. I may re-visit this when the series is complete, but I've seen nothing so far that changes my initial opinion about this addition to the Macross franchise.

Like Star Wars, apparently this is what the fans want, judging from the poll. Unfortunately, for those of us who were with the franchise since the beginning, it is no longer enough to have the valks+music+love triangle and expect us all to accept everything at face value. At its core, Macross has been about the survivors of humanity banding together in the face of impossible odds, and persevering. This installment seems like a shameless cash grab with none of the depth or soul that made the initial series so great. Magical girls, phoned in Valk designs and crappy j-pop does not make a Macross series. Try again, guys. Try harder.

While I agree with you that the original Macross embodied the Japanese spirit of bending in the face of adversity, the rest of the Macross series explored different themes. You mentioned Macross 7. While there were the Protodevelin, it really was about a rock-n-roll band who used music to end war. Nothing like the original. As for Delta, while it embraces the Moe/Idol/Magic Girl anime themes of today it also seems to be a natural evolution of Frontier with plenty of acknowledgements to Macross II. Anyway, I have been a fan since 1986 and I like Delta. But as you say each to his own.

[seti88]

You gotta believe in the kawamori magic touch!

Its still early in the game, so am keeping my feelings reserved till more is shown.

Am more of a valk head but i gotta admit even that girigiri song got me humming it!

i was even hoping that there would be walkure dancing amidst the NYE firework's

[Renato]

You're right, Nazareno. Better for me to say It seems to be an Arab settled world. (Most Arabs are muslim, though)....so Al Shahal is Macross Dubai then? Either way it is a great and smart acknowledgment by the Macross D team.

Yes, they did location hunting in Dubai.

[Einherjar]

Dr. Chiba's legacy lives on. The Walküre did what Basara took a dozen or so episodes to do in one battle. But now, Emulators might be returning to the franchise.

[UN Spacy]

I'm calling it now.

There's NO way a member of Walkure makes it outta this series without a death in the family. They way they carry themselves in heat of battle is bold, quite heroic, and a bit insane

.

I wonder if Kawamori and team will have the cojones to kill off an idol singer though. It's something they've never done in any of these shows. Mikumo could shape up to be a Roy figure for Freyja.