In the aftermath of Grace’s attack on Gallia 4, we catch up with multiple characters back on Frontier and learn how Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka’s absence is affecting them. Elmo is left trying to set up a live concert when his star is missing. Ozma is left pondering when his adopted little sister managed to grow into a young woman capable of making important choices for herself. We also get a fun bit of Bridge Bunny gossip before things turn deadly serious.
The Vajra fleet from Gallia 4 emerges from its fold directly within the path of the Frontier fleet and it’s all hands to battle stations! Island 1 goes shell down and the other Islands similarly raise protective armor. Everyone on Frontier knows this is going to be one hell of a fight.
Back at Gallia 4, Alto finds the prototype fold booster that Michael left for him in orbit. He races back to Frontier in time to rescue Sheryl, who didn’t do a terrible job of piloting all things considered, and Luca, who apparently sucks at his job. Where did Luca’s escort of Ghost fighters go, anyway?!
Onboard Battle Frontier, Leon, President Glass, and Frontier’s top military commanders are debating whether the situation is dire enough to break out the reaction weaponry. It apparently takes a special order from the president to declare total war upon an enemy. That order is eventually given when a second Vajra fleet emerges in a rear flanking position and Island 1 takes major damage from this rear fleet’s attack.
Alto rearms his fighter on Macross Quarter as it, and the rest of SMS, reverse course to engage the Vajra’s rear fleet. This time, though, Alto and the others are equipped with heavy reaction missiles and are able to do great damage to the Vajra forces. Alto recognizes the ship that Ranka is trapped on and he and Brera rush inside to rescue Ranka.
As all this is happening, some part of the Vajra intelligence is communicating with Ranka. It sings her a lullaby in the form of her mother and even seems to indicate that it does not wish to fight. Ranka and the Vajra begin singing Aimo together which causes at least some of the Vajra forces to hesitate or cease their attacks. Alto and Brera then arrive. Brera rescues Ranka while Alto unloads all his weaponry into the Vajra queen, even as Ranka yells at him not too.
Emerging from the Vajra command ship with Ranka, Brera finally indicates that he is a surviving member of the Galaxy fleet’s military and that from now on he will assist the Frontier. Meanwhile, Macross Quarter destroys the Vajra command ship with its Macross Cannon and the rest of Frontier’s forces annihilate the remaining Vajra as they attempt to retreat.
The final two scenes of this episode are disturbing in their implications for the future. First, we see what appears to be Grace awakening in a new identical body. She is surprised to find out that Ranka is a “little queen.” Second, we see Ranka’s stomach glowing in connection to the Vajra and we see Ranka crying as Frontier’s forces wipe out the remaining Vajra. It seems that Grace has discovered something important about Ranka and that Ranka has been deeply affected by her contact with the Vajra… maybe for the worse.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
- That huge chunk carved out of Gallia 4.
- Ozma and Bobby worrying over Ranka’s decision to save Alto and Sheryl. It was great to see Ozma realizing that Ranka actually is growing up and might no longer be the scared, traumatized girl he has had to protect the last several years.
- That opening missile attack that Frontier’s forces launch at the Vajra.
- The Quarter’s little radar ball and Bridge Bunnies getting their own mid-episode spotlight during the intermission.
- Sheryl’s power up music and attempt to fly herself and Michael to safety. Yeah, she bumped the Vajra ship and went for a tumble, but she also recovered and it looks like she would have been able to fly back to the Macross Quarter safely if the entire Frontier fleet hadn’t been in the middle in its largest battle ever.
- Those first few reaction missiles Alto fires. They look nasty and devastating in that reverse shot. Yay for Frontier’s forces finally giving as good as they get!
- The Vajra’s attempts to communicate with Ranka. Maybe there is some path to peace now? Or maybe not given the way Frontier’s spacey utterly destroyed the Vajra forces at the end of the battle?
That final triumphant attack that we see Frontier’s forces pull off. Those last few reaction weapons detonating that one Vajra carrier is really impressive. I like the carrier’s few point defense beams shooting down some of the missiles before the others get to it. - Grace’s reawakening. If she had just died on Gallia 4 it might have mean a major plot thread would go unfinished. Now that we know she is still around, there’s at least a chance we’ll find out what in the world she did and why she did it.
- The music throughout. This is one of the few places in all of Frontier that singing is not really involved in a major battle, but the show’s instrumentals more than carried the day. Things were in turn dire and triumphant in part thanks to the amazing music backing each scene.
Episode Impressions:
Holy cow, this was one heck of a battle episode! There weren’t a lot of clever tactics or fancy maneuvers in this one. It was just a straight up, all out braw between Frontier and the Vajra. And humanity finally broke out some of their biggest guns to deal with the situation.
The question that remains, though, is why did the Vajra attack even though they seem to indicate to Ranka that they want peace? Is it because Grace disintegrated half of one of their planet nests into another dimension? Were the Vajra maybe responding in kind to a unprovoked attack? And what about the Vajra research that was taking place on the Global in the previous episode? Could all of the Vajra’s attacks be self defense and retaliation that we just haven’t understood so far?
In any case, this episode was terrific. Just a whole episode dedicated to a major battle. Now that it’s over, I hope we can start getting real answers to the various mysteries that have been set up.
If anything, it seems like the Vajra were lead to the Frontier fleet thanks to Grace’s actions. She said as much before she let her previous body be destroyed. I really do think that this battle was mostly the result of Grace’s meddling.
There’s also those strange microbes living within Ranka. Could Ranka somehow be infected by the Vajra? Given that Grace has now established that she is a “little queen”, could she be carrying Vajra eggs or… something? The Vajra have attacked the Frontier fleet multiple times and have almost never hesitated to shoot down a human fighter, but not only did they not harm Ranka, they even tried to communicate with her. That’s got to mean something.
Back during Star Date, that one captured Vajra seemed to react to Ranka’s singing and the Vajra in this battle did too. Could Ranka’s role as a little queen actually be able to communicate with or even control the Vajra? Heck, given the title of the episode… could the Vajra somehow be Ranka’s mother? Or could Ranka be the result of the mixing of Human and Vajra DNA?
Moment to Moment Notes:
9:19 – This wall of missiles is very similar to the opening attack that the original Macross’ forces launched against a large attacking Zentradi force early in “Do You Remember Love?”.
10:21 – Diamond Leader may refer to Diamond Force, a group of three or so elite pilots that helped defend the Macross 7 fleet. These guys from Frontier’s military didn’t instantly die like most unnamed pilots do in battle scenes so maybe they are the Frontier equivalents?
18:06 – Those look like cells and bacteria or viruses. Something biological for sure. Is Ranka infected with something Vajra related? And did it happen after she was captured?
20:09 – Did Alto just kill a Vajra or a Queen or some other sort of leader that was trying to make peace through Ranka? That motherly figure didn’t look evil… and yet the enemy ships surrounding the Frontier fleet were both attacking…
20:41 – That little smile from Leon seems to indicate that he knew Brera was from the Macross Galaxy fleet. More and more it looks like Leon was in league with Grace… but to do what? Surely they didn’t want to cause this kind of major attack on the Frontier fleet? Or is their some reason they did?
20:45 – Killing the queen certainly seemed to affect the Vajra fleet… maybe that’s how you defeat them?
21:40 – Oh crap, there’s Grace again! Is that a new body for her?
21:46 – In the previous episode, Grace told Brera to ignore Ranka because it wasn’t confirmed she was something they were looking for. Is that thing they were looking for this “little queen”? And does that mean little Vajra queen?
Certainly this next episode is going to be something of a breather after that tremendous, episode long battle we just got through. We do, however, see Grace near Sheryl. Does anybody even know that Grace was/should be dead? And what is that strange place Alto is standing in front of?