Bite-sized Backstory 53: Child of Light
Destiny has a lot of lore. There are so many good stories that you can pursue and so many different types to read. Sci-fi, drama, epic fantasy, political intrigue, you can find all these and more, you just gotta pull on the right thread. But one of my favorite stories, and one of Destiny’s oldest and longest, has all of the above. I want to tell you the story of The Last Word, an iconic exotic hand cannon that itself has been a huge part of Destiny’s gameplay and was, at least at one point, at the top of Destiny’s multiplayer meta game. The story of The Last Word begins with a ravaged Earth and a new wave of alien invaders.
In the Dark Age, that time period after the Darkness was driven away by the Traveler but before The City was well and truly established by the victory at the Battle of Six Fronts, much of Humanity was spread across the remains of our world. Some cities, like London, apparently survived the Collapse. Probably they weren’t well off, but they were still places people could live. Then the Eliksni came. These “Fallen” aliens were fleeing their own equivalent of our Collapse. They too had barely survived an encounter with The Darkness. They were beaten and bloodied and desperate from decades or centuries of fleeing from their homeworlds all the way to our star system. They were looking for the Traveler which had abandoned them and they were looking for any advantage they could give themselves. No matter the cost. Sentient lives? Plundering the ruins of a civilization in need? The Fallen were far too desperate to give such concerns any attention. We even have some references and reports saying that the Fallen would eat humans when food ran short!
What was left of Humanity was furthered scattered by the Fallen. Cities like London fell to an enemy that still had ready access to starships and high technology. Smaller towns lived in fear, and were often forced to run for their lives when the Fallen found them. But, over time, Ghosts began searching the world for their Guardians. As decades passed, Ghost who had yet to find their Guardians took it upon themselves to help the pockets of humanity they could. A Ghost can fabricate. It can scout. It can deliver food to the hungry. We find one such Ghost assisting a small group of humans on the run.
When this group first sees this Ghost they are wary. To them, it is another alien. But, in time, they come to see it as a helper. They name the Ghost Tiānshǐ, which is Mandarin for Heaven’s Messenger. Some even think the Ghost is an actual angel! The Ghost is quick to deny this, but it keeps the name, nonetheless. Along with this small group of Humans, living presumably somewhere in or near China, is a single very young child. The child’s mother and father, and the groups as a whole, did their best to care for this baby despite the tough times they found themselves in. And the baby? It had a fascination with the Ghost. After gaining their trust, Tiānshǐ began the long task of leading the group in the directon of the The City, but one day, while hiding in a cave in order to avoid a Fallen Skiff, the worst happened. The group, some thirty strong, had lost two thirds of its members in a recent Fallen attack. And then they lost one more. We’re not told if the baby was sick, or malnourished, or injured, but it died there in that cave in his mother’s arms.
Tiānshǐ, who was outside keeping lookout, heard the mother’s and father’s cries and turned back and saw something new. This Ghost had been sad for a long time. It had given up fining its Guardian and had turned to help this struggling group of Humans in an effort to do at least some small amount of good. This Ghost had never seen even a hint of the Light it was looking for… until now. Back in the cave, held tightly in the grieving mother’s arms, was the Spark Tiānshǐ had never been able to find! This makes sense. Ghost only revive the dead. This child could have been the Ghost’s companion all this time but the Tiānshǐ would never have known it.
The Ghost approaches, but hesitates at first. Tiānshǐ wonders what kind of life it will be imposing on a child that was not even old enough to talk. But, quickly, Tiānshǐ remembers that its true purpose is to deliver hope, and almost as a reflex it ignites the dead child’s Light. The baby that was lifeless moments before begins crying once more stunning the eight others huddling in the cave. Tiānshǐ is proud of what it did, but the small… enormous… act of reviving the child is not something that will save this group of humans. Not all of them.
Just a few months later Tiānshǐ’s group is on the run from the Fallen again. They’d been spotted and soon they were chased down and began to take losses. The reborn child’s mother is killed. Then his father. We’re told this group had developed a bond tighter than that of a family after having shared so many close encounters, so as a matter of course, others in the group pick up the child as they continue to flee. Tiānshǐ flees with them, but it soon makes a choice. It is all but programmed to protect the child any way it can, so, when there is no other option, Tiānshǐ veers away from the group it had been guiding the last few months and makes itself a target. It successfully leads the Fallen away, but is unable to escape them. Tiānshǐ notes in its final transmission that by this point the Fallen have long learned that killing a Ghost can save many, many of their own lives in the future, so they hunt Tiānshǐ relentlessly!
In Tiānshǐ last moments, it notes that no matter what happens the child will be safe. That he has been adopted by a brave but careful man and woman who will look after him. Tiānshǐ final message, apparently picked up and archived by some other Ghost nearby, is joyous and heartbreaking:
I am not sorry for the choice I made. The child gave hope, though fleeting. What comes next for him is unknown. But there is promise in him, should he find sanctuary. Should he find guidance.
This is not a confession. This is my hope. This is my—
The next time we see this child he is now a boy named Shin Malphur who survived that fateful encounter with the Fallen and who has grown up in a small settlement called Palamon. It’s there that he meets two men, one Light, one Dark, who change the destiny of his life.
The story of The Last Word is tied to these two men at least as much as it is tied to Shin. To understand this story we need to take a look at both of these men. So that’s what we’ll do next time.
References:
Confession of Hope | Part One
Confession of Hope | Part Two
Ghost Fragment: The Last Word
Bite-sized Backstory 52: A Power Unknown
Once the dust settled and the fires of the Fallen attack were put out, Mara takes stock of her Awoken. One in three of them are gone, either killed in the Fallen’s attack or else they left and have gone to try and aid the Humans on earth.
For the Awoken that remain on their ships with Mara near the large asteroid Vesta, new work begins. As Mara says to Uldren,
…never again can I allow my people to be divided. We must offer them more than shielding ice and cold habitat cylinders and the warrens of Vesta. We must make a culture, a thread that binds us all in pride and wonder at the mystery of ourselves. Nowhere does culture flourish better than in a city.
But do the Awoken have the population or spare resources to build a city? Perhaps not. Even before the mutiny, Mara was insistent that the Awoken’s first goals were to restart their industry and grow their population. Now, with a third of her people gone and their fleet even more smashed by the Fallen attack, the Mara’s Awoken are stuck in a venerable position. Uldren is quick to voice this, nothing that gathering in one place, like a city, will just make them a target.
That when Mara gives one of her most fateful orders of all time. An order that will lead to her own death and the death of her brother. An order that will trap her Awoken in an endlessly repeating cycle of heartbreak and carnage. An order that we still have not yet seen all the implications of. She says:
Go forth and find me a power unknown to all the other powers of this world. Return it to me, and I shall make of it the cornerstone of my new city, where the Awoken shall dream of all they have been and all that is yet to come.
Uldren does so, and when he returns, he has with him a tiny lizard-like creature barely bigger than his hand. He say to his sister:
Behold, Sister, the lie that makes itself true. This is an Ahamkara.
The Awoken continue on from this point. They build a great network of cities and stations spread among the asteroid belt. At Mara’s command, they put themselves in harms way not once, but twice, in order to save Humanity. And, of course, Mara Sov, Uldren Sov, Sjur Eido, Petra Venj, and Mara’s Techeuns continue all the way up to Destiny’s present day.
There are still some great stories to tell about the Awoken, but next I’d like to tell perhaps the greatest Destiny story of all. Next I’d like to lead you through the great twists and turns of The Last Word.
Chapters Referenced:
Meet Magma
“I think they know we left…” Magma hears one of her companions say. A quick glance at the three rock-walled tunnels behind shows that to be one fabulous understatement. Coming down each tunnel are elite guards with weapons drawn and torches in hand. And ahead of them, backlit by the flickering flames? Spiders! Thousands of them! Maybe tens of thousands all spilling forward down each tunnel like three dark waves.
“Just how are we supposed to fight that?” One of her companion asks.
“Well, what else can we do? I can just see the exit, but no way we’re makin’ it…” another says.
“Yeah… but… but, uh…” a third trails off fearfully.
“No worries. This is why I never let the rest of you make me take a night watch. Being well rested has its advantages!” Magma says cheerfully to the others.
“Mag… what could you possibly…”
“No… she’s got this… but we may want to all step back. And cover our ears.”
“Yes. Thank you,” Magma says with a hint of sarcasm. “I know I’m talented and you all think the world of me, but I’ve got one shot at this, so no distractions or we’re all spider food…”
Having said her warning, Magma slowly walks towards the approaching threats. The distance, where the three tunnels merge into her group’s one, is just about right. And she is well rested, despite her companions goads and complaints about her needing a “beauty sleep.” And… she’s tried this before. Several times. Was even successful a few of them…
With a few seconds to go, Magma works to control her breathing. On each inhale, her dark Genasi skin glows a brighter, more fiery red, and on each exhale it dims again down to its usual darker brown. Then, when the time is right, when the spiders and their few handlers are the correct distance, she springs forward, yelling an incantation as she goes. Twin bright orange pinpoints of light form in her hands. After two or maybe three steps, Magma plants her front foot and let’s her momentum carry her into a fast, artful twirl. As she spins she releases one pinpoint of light towards the first tunnel and another towards the second. Halfway through her 360 degree turn she yells out with effort and no small amount of pain as she manifests a third point of fiery light which she releases towards the remaining tunnel as she spins back around.
The massive expenditure of energy and magic sees her collapse forward onto her hands and knees with not even enough strength to look up to the results. But then, she doesn’t need to. The three bright points streak to their destinations at the mouths of the three tunnels before exploding into searing fireballs that light walls and shake the ground. Spiders and men are consumed in the triple blasts, and any who aren’t are soon crushed or trapped as the three narrower tunnels cave in on themselves.
It takes almost a minute for Magma to open her eyes and notice a friendly hand being offered to her. The fingers that wrap around her’s as she’s pulled to her feat are warm to the touch. That’s something she hasn’t felt in… well… ever. There’s never been a case where she hasn’t been the more warm-blooded one out of her companions.
“I think maybe… I overdid it…” she says weakly as a chilled shiver passes through her body. But she still manages to crack a smile. “I feel like I’ll need another beauty sleep ‘fore trying that again.”
That earns her laughter and smiles all around as she and her companions make their way out of the secret tunnel and head back towards their rewards of wealth and glory.
Magma is a 5th level Fire Genasi for D&D 5th edition. She is brash, charming, quick to anger, loyal, and dangerous. There is little that can stand in her way when she sets out to do something, though she does, on occasion, overextend herself, which is why it’s good that she travels the world adventuring with an diverse oddball collection of friends. Here character sheet can be found here, and her triple lutz fireball attack is legal… once per day. (Except for that pesky Cantrip rule.)
Landing Pictures
I found them. Or, what is probably most of them. So, these pictures are the “full rez” 1024×768 versions of the Aftermath landing pictures. One for each world the player could land on. I believe the actual in-game size was somewhat lower and more rectangular, but I’m happy these are the ones I have and not the smaller versions.
Each of these pictures was made in a program called Terragen. The first version. Not the current day version 4 that is used in just about every big name movie you’ve ever heard of. My process started by using the in app tools to randomly generate a height map. Sometimes I was looking for something specific, like a valley with mountains in the background, but most times I’d generate a map, then place the camera in a few different locations until I found one I liked.
From there, Terragen’s tools were fairly simple but fun to play with. It was all about laying different materials one over the other to get a desired look. You’d place limits on each layer to define where it appeared in a scene. Like, if you wanted grass that existed in a valley but not all the way up a mountain you could set a maximum height for your grass layer. You could also set limits based on maximum slope. So, maybe a darker brown dirt would give way to the lighter colored rock beneath it when a hillside or mountain got too vertical. Layers could have sublayers too, so you could have blue specks of flowers only able to appear in grassy areas without having to redefine exactly where the flowers could show up. So, yeah, simple tools but with some mixing and matching you could combine then to make some pretty stuff.
Oh… hover over the pics for the planet names. Most of them have one. 🙂
Aftermath, Just A Few Years Later
What feels like a long, long time ago, I hung out on the message boards of the Mac shareware company Ambrosia Software. I talked with like minded kids about things like games and movies and tech. The Ambrosia forums must have been my first real push out into the world of internet friends.
Along the way I did my first coding/hacking/game design by making levels and missions and even an interesting Star Trek themed total conversion for the hybrid space action / real time strategy game Ares.
Later, as I got sucked into the world of the space action RPG Escape Velocity: Override, I began my earliest fray into writing and fan fiction. You can still find my series of short stories of Captain Ragashingo and the crew of the heavily armed cargo transport the Indigo Star over at fanfiction.net. I still write to this day because of those early stories I shared with others on the Ambrosia boards.
A few years later, the third game in the Escape Velocity series, Escape Velocity: Nova, came out and a year or two after that, this secretive group of mission editors, 3d graphics experts, and storyline writers in our little Ambrosia community started posting the smallest teases of something they called Aftermath. It’s wasn’t quite a Total Conversion where the ships and planets and universe were replaced by a different one. Instead, it was a surprisingly high quality continuation of the 3rd game’s universe set some decades later. It was one of the most anticipated EV:N project going, but very few people knew anything about it.
Around that time I had gotten into making landscapes with a free program called Terragen. It had a Mac version and I got somewhat decent at it. Even won a weekly challenge over at the company’s web boards for best landscape created without all the fancy add-ons the PC version supported! Then, one day, out of the blue, someone from this hush hush Aftermath team approached me. They’d seen my work on the Ambrosia boards (we had a Just Graphics sub forum where some in our community posted cool art they made) and they invited me to join.
Aftermath was even cooler than it seemed. We had so many ship and planet graphics that we were pushing the limits of what the Escape Velocity engine could handle. We had so much story and so many complex missions planned that we were far and away past the limits the engine could support. We got the engine changed and updated to support some of the stuff we wanted to do, but our project was still so big that we figured we’d need to split the experience up into several different parts based on which storyline and faction a player wanted to play. You’d drop in the Pirate storyline, or the Neo Federation, or Sigma Shipyards storyline and be locked into those missions along with a core set of the typical trading missions that would be common to all the storylines.
My poor 400Mhz Indigo iMac DV and later iBook G4 spent night after night rendering for upwards of 24 hours for each individual landing picture. I completed hundreds of them, one for each planet you could land on. I also convinced the other Aftermath team members that I could be a story / mission writer, too. I had a neat plot line called Detective Story in mind where the player could become something of a upstanding bounty hunter and could, with a bunch of tricky behind the scenes scripting, build their own fleet of allies that they could send on missions to help them hunt targets. You can do a lot of neat stuff by causing missions to auto complete with a percent chance to complete successfully or unsuccessfully! It would have featured a lot of writing, a strong plot, and, my favorite part, you could also play the same story from the point of view of the bad guys. And you’d essentially fight the other you from the other version of the storyline. You’d have to play the storyline twice, once from each point of view, to truly understand everything!
The Aftermath team was spread out across the US with at least a couple of us even further away. We chatted on IRC and AOL Instant Messenger and on our own private boards. We encouraged each other and nagged each other and sometimes had little arguments about the direction of the project. We even once got social engineered into accidentally letting someone into our hidden forums where they stole some of our in-progress work and tried to show it to the Escape Velocity community! Fortunately we had some friends in high(er) places who helped shut that down.
Eventually, the Aftermath project died out. Honestly, most of us were just high school students making our way toward college. Lots of other things became more important. That, and the scope of the project was legitimately quite large, at least as large as any of the Escape Velocity games that sold for $20 or $30 back in the day, and few of us had any real experience managing something that big.
Still, we produced a bunch of cool stuff that never really saw the light of day, and we hand some grand plans to produce even more. A couple of the other team members have revisited their memories of Aftermath in the past few weeks, so I thought it would be fun to join in. Check out my gallery of landing pictures I made for the project, here.
I also have some of the world building short stories and some of the early missions of Detective Story. I’d love to share those and some of the larger concepts of what I was wanting to do with my slice of Aftermath’s very ambitious narrative and gameplay goals.
Aftermath may have fizzled, but it was a fun time, and if just a few more things had gone right or even if the internet was a more common medium like it is today, we might have all been paid game developers back then! We certainly generated a lot of interest and respect from our peers in our community. So, here’s to Aftermath, by far the biggest and most ambitious of the EVN community led projects!
Macross Frontier Episode Guide 27: Wings of Farewell
Like the first movie, we start this movie with a voiceover while looking at a purple star field. This time though, we quickly move to a new Sheryl Nome production of the song “Forbidden Elixir.” Last time, Sheryl played the parts of white and black bunnies in her big opening number. This time, she plays both wife and husband! At the end of all the amazing, over the top special effects, Sheryl collapses on stage… and it isn’t part of the show.
The recap that follows the concert does a pretty good job of summing up the first movie and brings us to the aftermath of Sheryl’s collapse. She is playing it off as nothing big and even goes so far to tell Ranka that she is fine. It is amusing to see Alto roped into playing the role of her escort. I like here how Alto and Ranka get along and are able to share little secrets like the friends (best friends?) that they’ve been set up to be by the first movie. It’s also amusing that Sheryl is still at least partially funding the SMS!
The next scene with Grace in her virtual space talking to her co-conspirators makes it pretty clear that the Galaxy’s plot to rule the universe is very much alive and well. This time, they are even talking about some sort of operation or transplant to combine Sheryl and Ranka’s powers, but some of the intelligences are unsure about it because the procedure might kill both Sheryl and Ranka. That’s a pretty big change from the series where Grace basically only wanted Ranka and all but left Sheryl to die cold and alone. The end goal still seems to be to using singing and perhaps fold quartz to analyze the Vajra’s control protocol, however. This time, we get a clearer indication that Leon is aware of the Galaxy’s plot as he is listening in on their conversation.
Next up we have… huh… a beach episode! Seems about time. Macross 7 had a tropical ship of a different shape but similar interior to this one in the Frontier fleet. Macross Zero was one long beach episode, sorta, I guess. (It was set on a tropical island, at least.) Macross Plus never went down to a beach but there was a scenic overlook. Macross Delta is largely set on a tropical planet and there are scenes of beaches. Probably SDF: Macross and Do You Remember Love? are the only shows in Macross’ long history to not have anything resembling a beach episode. That said, despite the volleyball, and surfing, and scuba diving, and sun reflecting off the ocean, this part of the movie actually has a good bit of foreshadowing and importance. The question of whether the Vajra can feel is a part of that, but there’s also smaller hints at some fun thing to come.
In the next scene, partially overlapping with the beach episode scenes, we see that Sheryl really is sick. She is dying perhaps even more obviously than in the series where she mainly just fainted. It seems one option for Sheryl is to become a full body cyborg like Grace. But this would apparently put an end to her singing career, though we’re not told exactly how. Here, for the first time, Grace brings up the “kill Ranka and transplant her organs” option. The translation I have talks about transplanting Ranka’s blood, but every other mention fully implies that Ranka will not be alive at the end of the procedure. Even what Grace says in the car trip to Ranka’s concert had that implication.
Ranka’s opening number, “Rainbow Colored Bear” is amazingly well done, but Sheryl looks so sad during most of it. Is it because she knows that the plan is to kill Ranka soon afterwards?
Out ahead of the Frontier fleet, SMS is conducting an operation to clear out a Vajra nest. Ranka’s thoughts about the Vajra having emotions return to Alto as he is trying to find a way to kill the queen controlling the local swarm. Alto is badly injured when the queen stabs through the center of his Valkyrie, but before he ejects he notices that the Vajra are helping their wounded out of harms way. Note that in this version, Alto does manage to grab Sheryl’s earring before ejecting.
Later, Sheryl races to Alto’s bedside on the news that he was wounded only to find him well on the road to recovery. As Sheryl and Alto are having moment, both indoors and later outdoors, Grace is carrying out her plot to take over Frontier. Apparently the refugees that SMS rescued, the one that Sheryl personally paid at least 150 million credits to save, were in actuality cyborgs from the Galaxy fleet whose job it is to infiltrate and kill their way into control of the Frontier fleet!
The moment with Sheryl and Alto is interesting, because while Sheryl knew about Alto’s past like in the series, this time around she pleads with him to go back to acting and stop risking his life as a pilot. Unfortunately, Ranka finds the two of them together, though the moment doesn’t seem quite as dramatic or spirit breaking for Ranka as it was in the series.
What happens next, though, is very different. Grace’s plans that had been going so smoothly are suddenly and violently ended as Frontier’s covert forces under Leon’s command kill most of the Galaxy infiltrators. They even open fire on Grace herself as she tries to surrender! Leon shows up personally to apprehend Sheryl, and calls her out specifically for using her fold quartz earrings to lure the Vajra to Frontier! And, by the way Sheryl turns her head in shame when Alto declares that it isn’t true, Leon may even be right about that! Sheryl is immediately booked into prison and, according to wartime law, she is to be executed without even a trial.
Alto takes Sheryl’s acts as something of a betrayal. He nearly throws away her earring, but for some reason can’t do it. Ranka, however, heads to the island prison, the one we’ve seen in the distance in several shots even in the first movie, to learn more about Sheryl’s true feelings. In the end, Sheryl admits that she loves Alto at least as much as Ranka does.
Later, when Luca complains about Sheryl’s treatment, Leon threatens him and his sister, a sister that never existed in the TV series that we know of, and later has one of his men cut Luca’s lifeline during a spacewalk and shove him to his doom. Fortunately, Luca’s actions were backed by the SMS and he is quickly rescued. We also get a brief moment between Ranka and Brera where Brera reveals Leon’s plot to take over the Vajra. And that he is Ranka’s brother. That fact felt a bit shoved in this time around. There’s also a great scene between Alto and Ozma where Ozma explains how everyone, not just Alto, is always playing roles.
With all these little pieces coming together, SMS goes rogue similar to how it did in the series, and they start by enacting a crazy plan to rescue Sheryl. A plan that involves several SMS members dressing up as a knockoff band called the Lovely Bombers that looks an awful lot like the band Fire Bomber from the Macross 7 anime series. While Ranka and the Lovely Bombers distract the guards and inmates, Luca hacks the prison’s security systems and Alto, dressed up as a girl, goes to break Sheryl out of her jail cell.
Ranka, Alto, and Sheryl make their escape from the prison but are met by Brera who intends to continue with Galaxy’s plan to kill Ranka to empower Sheryl. A tense running battle ensues between Brera and Ozma, the latter who shows up at the last second to save the day. Then, when things look to be at their worst, a hit from the battle with the Vajra outside tears open a hole in the hull and threatens to suck most of the main characters out into space. In a great moment, Sheryl purposely sacrifices herself to push Ranka to safety!
Meanwhile, President Glass’ decision to go with Leon’s plan to take control of the Vajra appears to be successful. This time, instead of battling impossible odds, Leon’s forces reach the Vajra homeworld while in control of an increasingly sizable force of Vajra as brainwashed escorts. Or, the plan would have been successful for Leon’s forces if Brera had not single-handedly taken out everyone on Battle Frontier’s bridge. It seems that that masterminds behind the Galaxy’s infiltration of Frontier were just a bit more prepared than we were led to believe.
Alto, Ranka, and the other SMS survivors follow Island 1 and Battle Frontier to the Vajra homeward onboard the Macross Quarter. Ranka finally confesses her love to Alto. In this movie timeline, she plays Sheryl’s role from the series where she asks Alto not to respond because she is unsure she’d be able to sing if she knew his answer either way. Afterwards, Alto engages the Vajra in a terrific high speed, mostly bloodless dogfight set to Ranka’s new song “Houkago Overflow” (After School Overflow). The animation here is great, especially as Macross Quarter itself dives down into the atmosphere using a large chunk of Island 1’s damaged shell as first a heat shield and then a sky surf board! Remember Captain Wilder surfing during the beach episode segment? Alto finally realizes that the Vajra are being controlled through the implant missiles that Frontier’s forces hit them with, but his fighter takes a hard hit moments before he can tell the others.
Alto fades to black and in his place we see a memory that we first think is from Alto’s point of view but soon we learn that it is actually from Sheryl’s. Both she and Ozma survived their spacing thanks to a quick intervention by Ai-kun. What’s more, Grace somehow escaped too and comes to Sheryl’s rescue as best she can. Most notably, she retrieved the fold quartz earring that Leon had under research directly off to the side of her containment tank. With her earring back, Sheryl begins to sing and her song is able to revive Alto who mounts a rescue. For the first time, Alto recognizes that Sheryl is that same little girl as the one who was at one of his kabuki plays and who promised that she would someday shake the galaxy.
Alto is finally able to relay his report about the Vajra implants and SMS is able to start cutting or shooting the key bits off the mind-controlled Vajra, freeing them from Galaxy’s control. Thus begins a fantastic repeat of the Nyan Nyan service melody from the series (now called Nyan Nyan Final Attack) where many of the same things happen like where the freed Vajra gather to protect Island 1 and Macross Quarter from a blast fired by the enemy Vajra/Galaxy hybrid. Macross Quarter looks to be dead in the Vajra’s sights, but fortunately, SMS and NUNS received their distress call in time and sent a fleet to help stop the enslavement of the Vajra.
Sheryl and Ranka are reunited and begin the final battle song of the movie. Alto and Brera have a spectacular dogfight as Alto helps spread Sheryl and Ranka’s song to the Vajra and their captive queen. Between Ranka, Alto, and Sheryl, they are able to free Brera from his own implant. Afterwards, Brera makes the ultimate sacrifice to kill the grotesque bodies of the Galaxy plot’s masterminds. The Vajra queen catches Alto as friendly forces fire multiple Macross cannons in its direction. It should be the end of Alto and the queen, but the queen uses its immense fold distortion powers to allow Alto a final few seconds to say goodbye to Ranka and let him almost express his love for Sheryl before it folds him and itself safely out of harm’s way. The rest of the Vajra soon follow, leaving the planet to humanity.
Unfortunately, as the battle ends, Sheryl’s body finally succumbs to her V-Type infection and she collapses. In an aftermath recap, Ranka narrates the situation a month after the final battle. Alto is still missing. Sheryl looks to have had some surgery and a blood transfusion from Ranka, but is still in a coma. The survivors of the Frontier fleet are beginning their colonization of the Vajra homeworld.
Macross Frontier ends with several scenes from both the first movie and this one played alongside the credits. It seems to be a very somber ending, except for two things:
First, the final animated scene of the movie shows Sheryl singing in her sleep and in the final moments has her earring sparkle.
Second, Sheryl and Ranka share a fun, fast paced duet together as the credits come to an end. This song was confirmed to be set after Sheryl wakes up.
Whether this means Alto came back like Ranka was sure would happen has no solid confirmation, even as I write this closing in on ten years after the end of Macross Frontier. I like to think he did, though.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
Ranka’s singing of Aimo on the beach. The whole scene was very pretty and had some great camera angles that made it feel larger / movie sized.
Rainbow Colored Bear, Ranka’s bright, oversaturated opening song is one of my favorite songs / visuals in all of Macross. It is more cartoonish than most of my other favorites, but the visuals are extremely well animated and the lyrics fit those visuals so perfectly! Plus, there are so many cute things going on you almost need to go back and watch it frame by frame to see the little transformation generated by Ranka’s magics. Whereas many of Sheryl’s songs are about lost love, it’s nice to have a contrast by Ranka that is all about perseverance and obtaining one’s dreams.
Sheryl’s explanation of what it means to her to sing. It’s interesting that Alto has at least some fond memory of his time on stage, as well. Or, at least, he understands exactly what Sheryl means because of his own experiences.
Ranka and Sheryl in prison. Sheryl’s outburst about being a normal person and not the Galactic Fairy that everyone makes her out to be was a neat touch.
Sheryl’s ultimate sacrifice. I did not expect this at all, and I love how much emotion they conveyed between Sheryl and Alto with just a look and a tear drop.
That *squish* that the hook makes when Grace causes it to hit that poor researcher’s face.
The scene where Alto is grieving for Sheryl and Ozma but also knows that there is nothing wrong with being sad and using that sadness to save others.
Movie Impressions
To me, this movie feels like the most correct version of Macross Frontier’s story. I never really liked the Vajra being the unstoppable, unlimitedly adaptable enemy they were in the series, so just having them as a powerful enemy that could ultimately be hijacked for nefarious purposes felt better to me.
The Galaxy fleet’s plot felt better too. In the series, we never really learned the fate of the Macross Galaxy fleet. I guess it was destroyed when Grace and company hijacked Battle Galaxy and left the civilians to die? In this version, the destruction of the Galaxy fleet is far more confirmed. But, more than that, Grace even used the SMS rescue mission to further her plans by making sure her people were among those being rescued.
Ultimately, if you combine Grace’s actions with what Leon says in this movie, it seems that both the Galaxy and Frontier fleets started to realize the power of fold quartz at the same time and made overt and covert moves against each other until one of them beat the other to the prize. It’s a pretty interesting backdrop and a pretty big change from the series where it mostly appeared that Grace went crazy when the Vajra attacked the 117th research fleet, and she got a few members of the Galaxy fleet to go along with her crazy plans.
Of course, we still had that research fleet destroyed. It’s interesting how this time the research fleet’s demise was due to Mao Nome overreaching in her efforts to use songs to communicate with the Vajra. From Sheryl’s description in this movie and in the previous one, it sounded like Mao was trying to adapt the Mayan “song of the wind” to reach the Vajra. But, instead of communicating with humanity, they attacked in an effort to save Ranka from being held captive by humans. In some ways, it’s still a sad fate for Mao Nome, but I also kind of like it because it give the Macross universe this sort of feeling that maybe sometimes the heroes of one show won’t always be the heroes of the next one. Sometimes they get wiped out instead!
I think one of the most interesting things this movie did was make Sheryl Nome one of the bad guys. Ok… it didn’t really do that, but it kinda did. Sheryl knew about the search for Ranka even in the first movie. She knew that her home fleet was actively in competition with the Frontier fleet. In this movie, specifically, she very nearly agreed with or at least reluctantly went along with killing Ranka to preserve her own life. And, when it finally came down to it, she accepted and confirmed the accusations made against her. Accusations that included knowingly leading the Vajra to attack the Frontier fleet which must have resulted in tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of deaths. Sheryl was ready to die for her crimes and she even sacrificed herself to save Ranka. The only reason Sheryl was not really considered a villain by Alto and the SMS was that both Grace and the Galaxy as well as Leon and the Frontier were far worse. Both wanted to at least enslave another sentient species and were willing to spend many, many lives to reach their goals. Realistically, Sheryl is the one thing that has lived on well after the end of Macross Frontier, so there was no way they’d let her be seen as evil.
One questions I’ve always struggled with is whether these two movies are a good substitute to watching the Macross Frontier tv series. In many ways, the movies have better plots. They better define many of the characters and certainly do a better job at making the Galaxy fleet’s intentions and wrongs known to the audience. Ranka also gets a good bit better treatment in the movies than she did in the tv show. Instead of running away and abandoning a fleet of millions of people, she helped save both humanity and the Vajra from the Galaxy fleet’s evil plots! The songs are bigger. The animation is more consistent. The movies have a more definite end than the series which kinda reset to zero, especially as far as the love triangle was concerned.
On the other hand, the movies cut out a lot of the callbacks and references to past Macross works that made the Macross Frontier Series kinda special. We also got a good few less cool dogfights. No Alto vs Pixie Squadron. No Klan vs Brera. No Alto vs that Zentradi commander at Gallia 4. And, some of the scenes that were changed, like Ranka meeting Sheryl for the first time, or Ranka’s shock at seeing Alto and Sheryl together after her big performance just weren’t as impactful as they were in the series.
Ultimately, I think the movies are strong enough to stand on their own, but, I would tell anyone skipping to the movies that they will be missing some great moment, especially if they are fans of past Macross works.
Normally, I use this spot to note key things that first time viewers might not have picked up on that would come back up in the future… but there is no future. This is the end of Macross Frontier. Except for two things. If you are looking for just a little bit more Frontier, I’d suggest the following:
1. Track down the music clip show. It tends to be listed as something like “Macross F Music Clip Collection”. It’s about 30 minutes of new and updated animation for around seven of Frontier’s main songs. There’s also fun little Q&A segments with Sheryl and Ranka that are very short but pretty well done in terms of character and content. There’s no real plot, but if you liked Frontier’s music and its songstresses, you’ll like this.
2. Go find Macross FB7. This one is a bit more out there, because FB7 is actually a strange movie-length retelling of the Macross 7 tv series, but with little Macross Frontier segments in between. Basically, Ozma finds a VHS tape of Macross 7 and he and several of the other characters from Frontier gather in his apartment to watch the older series as if they were watching long lost historical footage or something. I don’t really like Macross 7 as a show, but if you had to watch it, condensed down into movie form with frequent breaks with Frontier’s characters is about the best way to watch it. There’s also a great musical number with Sheryl and Ranka at the end where they play tributes to a series of Fire Bomber songs. That part is pretty cool and I believe it is the last substantial bit of Macross Frontier animation ever produced.
Moment to Moment Notes:
0:45 – That cross Sheryl is praying at looks remarkably like a Mayan Island bird human totem as seen in Macross Zero.
3:16 – See the MBS building in the background? That stands for Macross Broadcasting System and is a reference to the tv transmission system the civilians aboard the original Macross set up in the middle part of SDF: Macross.
3:34 – In this movie, Sheryl’s voice already has the power to generate fold waves.
4:30 – At first, I was not sure if Sheryl’s collapse was part of the production or not.
7:57 – In the upper right holoscreen is an advertisement for Ranka’s model of cellphone! Later those screens show some very old Astro Boy clips… not all of which are child friendly…
10:32 – I like how Ranka and Alto are friends in this version of the story. I think maybe it adds a little something that was missing from the original story. It gives Ranka a better reason to be hanging around with the rest of the cast, at the very least.
11:18 – Keep the word “transplant” in mind for later scenes. I believe the Galaxy group’s intentions may be slightly mistranslated later to things like “transfusion” where the idea of a full on organ transplant is what the plot and original language intend to convey.
11:41 – Again, I think this version of the story is slightly improved by the Galaxy refuge fleet having more of a point than it did in the tv show.
13:53 – Sheryl has two different voice actresses, one for normal talking and one for singing. Ranka, however, was voiced by one novice actress who was chosen for Frontier from a Japan-wide search. It is likely that she had / was personally experiencing all the hardships of being a singer and actress that she talks about in this voice over.
14:47 – Beautiful.
15:56 – I always appreciate a good scene where one character talks over and cuts off the other. The voice work / editing was done really well here.
18:09 – Sheryl’s illness gets a better arc as well in the movie.
18:53 – So, at least according to Grace, her group from the galaxy is just looking for Code Q1 (Ranka) who can fight the Vajra with her singing.
20:49 – I’m not sure how correct the translation here is. Sheryl is much to sad/conflicted about this plan for it to simply be a blood transfusion. Given everything else that is said, I think the plan is to kill Ranka and then harvest her for the blood/organs necessary to save Sheryl. Sheryl seems to say this exact thing in a later scene…
21:48 – A Boddole Zer Mobile Fortress is at the heart of any of the thousands of warlike Zentradi fleets that roam the galaxy. Humanity fought one of these in “Do You Remember Love?”. This appears to be another example of one.
24:14 – I love the use of holography to transform members of the audience!
26:26 – There’s that interceptor graphic whose like we first saw back in the “Do You Remember Love?” movie.
38:49 – The performance of Diamond Crevasse that is playing in the videos is actually a complete music video that was produced alongside a few others for a special 30+ minute musical clip show. The full version is very beautiful and touches on Sheryl’s time as an orphan on the Galaxy.
40:48 – See what they did there? With the triangle. On the ground. And in the relationship. :p
41:51 – So I guess Grace was going under a different name when interacting with the Galaxy and she really is Grace O’Connor of the 117th research fleet… Seems like maybe she should have changed her first name as well?
42:20 – Sheryl’s resigned look says that it’s true. That she really did lure the Vajra in! That’s a pretty shocking change for the character!
47:47 – So they introduced a sister for Luca and seemingly placed her somewhat in Cathy’s old role as a romantic interest of Leon’s…
50:54 – “What happened to your van again?” “Uh… some cyborg from the Galaxy fleet jumped on top of it while fleeing flying cloaked jetpack troopers…”
52:24 – It’s nice to see someone tell Alto to get over himself…
56:53 – So… that means the SMS maxed out Sheryl’s credit card?
58:23 – Note the water tower, “Ranka & Lovely Bomber”. This is a pretty direct reference to the Macross 7 band Fire Bomber and, in fact, the members of Ranka’ support team are dressed up and playing the roles of Fire Bomber members. Michael is dressed as Basara Nekki (stupid pointy hair and all!), Klan is dressed as Mylene Jenius and matches that character’s stature and clothing pretty closely. SMS’s medic Canaria Berstein is playing the drums dressed as Veffidas Feaze. Fire Bomber’s 4th member, Ray Lovelock, who was previously a tough looking fighter pilot, is not represented here. Mina Roshan, seems to be playing keyboard, but she is not dressed anything like Ray. Alto is dressed… as a random goth girl?? I guess Alto wasn’t muscle-y to pull off Ray so they didn’t try.
1:04:56 – Alto actually got the gas jet clusters to work!
1:08:14 – Remember, Sheryl’s grandmother is Mao Nome from Macross Zero. This was true in the original series as well, but I like how they tied in the Mayan Island song and Protoculture here. The missing sister is, of course, Sara.
1:10:01 – There. That’s pretty straight up about the Galaxy’s intentions for Ranka. It still seems like Sheryl might have reluctantly gone along with it before she was arrested!
1:10:55 – I want to know what was powering that little tram to have it explode from a gunshot!
1:13:39 – Looking at everything Sheryl did in this timeline, I think it makes a lot of sense for her to sacrifice herself. She is at least indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Frontier citizens.
1:17:04 – It’s nice that Leon didn’t risk the entire Frontier fleet this time… just its main city ship…
1:17:57 – It is such a Macross thing to have pilots readying for battle while also having singers doing the same thing in their own way.
1:19:46 – Yeah. He had that coming.
1:22:59 – The lighting here is pretty great.
1:23:16 – Bigger Macross nerds than I get all excited when new planes are used. The YF-29 Durandal, here, is one of the most advanced planes in all of Macross so far. It is far faster than the VF-25’s SMS has been combat testing while mounting far more firepower with its pop-out beam cannons. The VF-25 Messiahs can be hooked up to Fast/Armor/Tornado packs to sport similar firepower but are left with added weight and bulk that hampers combat maneuverability. Only the VF-31 Siegfrieds in Macross Delta some eight years later can match this prototype plane in speed + firepower.
1:25:31 – Big Wednesday is a reference to a 1978 surfing movie and is a hint at what the Macross Quarter is about to do.
1:29:40 – Oh. I guess they didn’t actually kill off the one character who managed to stay in Newtype magazine’s top 10 character polls for years after her tv series had ended. Imagine that. They actually did a pretty good job faking it though. There were zero hints that Sheryl was alive until this scene. (She was actually voted 3rd in 2010 two plus years after Frontier had ended…)
1:31:40 – Sheryl starts with a very slow version of the normally much more upbeat Northern Cross.
1:34:17 – Now we move into a variant of the tv show’s final melody. This version is called: Nyan Nyan Final Attack
1:36:59 – This random fighter appears to be the YF-19 from Macross Plus. The voice heard over the radio is the voice of Isamu Dyson, the hotheaded test pilot who was assigned to test the YF-19 in that miniseries. External sources confirm that this was Isamu who came to help rescue the Macross Quarter.
1:37:00 – In this continuity, the Macross Galaxy fleet was completely destroyed other than the few ships SMS rescued in the first movie. There is no Battle Galaxy in this movie, only a Battle Frontier controlled by the Galaxy’s evil leaders.
1:39:17 – This song is Sayonara no Tsubasa and is about a Norse Valkyrie coming for a dying warrior. Obviously, it’s a play on words with regards to Macross Valkyrie fighter jets.
1:39:52 – This dogfight is especially well animated and conforms to the styles of fighting we saw most clearly in Macross Zero. The fight here holds up very well even if you go frame by frame.
1:46:14 – We know from an interview with Alto’s voice actor that he said the full “I love you” to Sheryl and it was up to the director and sound teams to cut off his words where they wanted to.
1:51:18 – Sheryl singing along in her coma is very similar to Basara singing along after he had his life-force drained to the point of death in Macross 7. It is a very strong sign that Sheryl is recovering.
1:51:35 – This final song between Ranka and Sheryl is said by the director to be at some point in the future. He gave this answer in response to an interview question about why the ending of the movie was so depressing. He pointed out that it wasn’t a downer at all since we end by hearing Sheryl and Ranka singing in front of a happy and cheerful crowd. I’d like to think that Alto returns as well as per Ranka’s prediction… but I don’t believe that can be confirmed unless you jump into the wacky, all over the place video game timelines. This song was actually animated using computer animation for a special rerelease of Wings of Farewell.
Ranka discovers a possible way to recontact the long missing Alto and reawaken the long slumbering Sheryl.
Macross Frontier Episode Guide 26: The False Songstress
Usually when you hear that a tv series is getting a movie, it means one of two things: Either, the series is going to have its heart ripped out and be compressed from hours and hours of content down to just two. And maybe you’ll get an extra scene or some cleaned up animation. This is more or less what the first two Puella Magi Madoka Magica movies do. Or, you get a wholly new piece of work with a larger budget that extends the series sometimes for better sometimes for worse. Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s 3rd movie “Rebellion” did this. Macross Frontier’s movies, however take a middle path combining old footage with a bunch of new animation that tells a somewhat alternate story to the one we got in the main tv series.
Both Macross Frontier movies work together to provide an alternate telling of the Macross Frontier series. The first movie sticks a little closer to the first seven episodes of Frontier. But, it is by no means just a cut down version of the series. Instead, there are several minutes of new and significantly altered animation. Even more interestingly, even this first movie does a whole lot to change up and refine the narrative of the main series.
Sheryl and Grace arrive on Frontier similar to the series, but this time, Sheryl seems to have a good deal of knowledge about Grace’s mission. They are looking for a target which we can only assume is Ranka. Speaking of Ranka, she gets a fun new scene racing through Island 1’s city on her Segway-like scooter all set to Sheryl’s “What ‘bout My Star?” Ranka eventually arrives at the Mihoshi Academy roof where Alto, Michael, and Luca are all preparing their stunts for Sheryl’s concert. Surprisingly, Klan is there with them in a school girl uniform. When Ranka arrives, it becomes clear that she already knows everyone instead of meeting Alto and the others at Sheryl’s concert like she did in the series. Hijinks ensue, and then Ranka counts down for Alto’s takeoff.
Next, we cut to Sheryl’s opening concert starting with the entirely new music and animation for the song “Universal Bunny”. The animation here is very impressive with significant CGI elements. It’s also a bit more risqué than Sheryl’s work in the series. Interspaced with this song and the next is the initial Vajra attack that plays out much like it did in the series. This second song is also new for the movie and is titled “Welcome To My Fanclub’s Night SOS”. It, What ‘Bout My Star? And Sagittarius 9pm Don’t Be Late all have great “Sheryl On Stage” versions on the soundtrack that run back to back with each other as if they were recorded at a real concert.
During this song, Alto is forced to catch Sheryl, but unlike in the series, he does so not because of an accident, but because she throws herself off a jump. It turns out that she had integrated Alto’s flying into her act without telling him and had a backup of gas jet clusters if he wasn’t quick enough in coming to her aid. Before Sheryl can move on to her next song, the Vajra attack reaches Island 1 and everyone is forced to evacuate. Alto and Sheryl go to the roof of the concert hall where a stray shot from the Vajra blows them off into the air. Alto attempts to reach Sheryl, but ultimately she is forced to soften her fall with her jets. Alto rescues Sheryl from some attacking Vajra in spectacular fashion afterwards. From here, things play out similarly, with Alto climbing into Gilliam’s Valkyrie and being chased by the Vajra. The main difference is, Alto does not have to escape with Ranka, and Ozma is injured in this battle instead of in a second battle the next day. We also see that Sheryl already knows Brera and they both seem to be working in league with Grace.
Interestingly, President Glass seems to suspect Sheryl and Grace of plotting something on behalf of the Macross Galaxy fleet. Given Grace’s evil rooftop laugh as she reviews footage of Sheryl and Ranka, I’d say Howard Glass is right! Meanwhile, Alto is introduced to the concept of the SMS by Ozma much as he was in the series. Alto sulks off to Griffith Observatory to think about his decision where he meets Ranka. She has similar worries about the frailty of life as she did in the series and sings “Aimo” for Alto when he encourages her to pursue her dreams. This time, though, Sheryl appears and sings along with Ranka. Apparently, Sheryl also knows “Aimo” and she questions why Ranka knows the song. Before Ranka can answer, Sheryl is called away to attend a live show.
The next day, Sheryl tracks down Alto and forces him to explore Frontier with her as they look for her earring while Ranka gets mad at her brother for being cross with her for entering the Miss Macross contest. Apparently we don’t get to see the contest this time. We get a condensed version of the Star Date episode along with a new song “Pink Monsoon” and a few new scenes and revelations. For one, Sheryl claims her earring can convey feelings. Later, after Alto and Sheryl explore one of Frontier’s forests, Sheryl reveals more about “Aimo” and Ranka as she steps into a nearby lake. Apparently, the song came from Sheryl’s grandmother. Is that still Mao Nome?! Sheryl was somewhat surprised to encounter someone else who knew the song.
Ranka arrives at the Zentran mall like in the series and sings her version of “What ‘Bout My Star” and once again wakes up the captive Varja that Leon is showing off to Ozma, Cathy and others. This time, though, Leon seems convinced that the Vajra are remote bioweapons being controlled by the Galaxy. It seems like we’re getting the Galaxy plot a lot sooner and with a lot more certainty than we did in the series. This time, we get a better look at all the smaller jobs Ranka starts with on her way to fame. Some are silly, some are embarrassing, but she seems game to work her way up the ladder of success. During this same sequence, we see Alto training to be a part of SMS. It looks like having Ozma and Michael as teachers isn’t the safest or gentlest approach to training.
After several weeks of both Alto and Ranka adapting to their new jobs, they meet up and Ranka takes Alto to a small convenience store where she thanks him for giving her the courage to follow her dreams. As the clock strikes midnight, Ranka’s voice comes on singing an official song for the Family Mart store. On their way back, Alto confesses why he ran away from his acting career. He was losing his sense of self to the roles he was forced to play. Ranka, in turn, encourages Alto in a touching moment.
The next day, Ozma warns Alto of the supposed Galaxy plot and warns him to stay away from Sheryl. Alto happens to find Sheryl’s earring then gets a call from her asking him to come to Griffith Observatory. Meanwhile, Ranka is feeling nervous about her new singing career and her upcoming first concert so she separately heads to the park to be alone where she by chance meets up with Sheryl. They talk a little about Alto, then Sheryl leads Ranka in singing Aimo. Ai-kun, who Ranka found earlier that night, begins to glow in response to Ranka’s song. Sheryl questions/reveals to Ranka about her past living on Gallia 4. Ranka sees brief flashbacks of her past with her mother, her brother, and of Dr. Mao Nome nearby before Ai-kun runs off and Ranka and Sheryl give chase. Sheryl might have seen those memories too through her earring.
About this time, Alto arrives at the park and sees what looks to be Sheryl chasing and grappling with Ranka. He moves to protect Ranka and knocks Sheryl down in the process. Alto accuses Sheryl of being a spy from the Macross Galaxy fleet. As it beings to rain, Sheryl vents her anger at Alto and then leaves, but Grace and the other Macross Galaxy intelligences have apparently positively identified Ranka as the target they have been looking for. Sheryl is back at her hotel room and seems very depressed, but Grace tells her co-conspirators that the Sheryl she raised can use sadness and anger to fuel her songs just as well as joy. Ozma picks up Ranka and Alto and again warns them both to stay away from Sheryl. He has to chastise Ranka and asks her what’s more important, her new sining career or the human lives that the Galaxy’s plot may be putting at risk.
The next day, crowds are gathering for Sheryl’s next concert. But, apparently other things are happening behind the scenes. Captain Wilder senses that something big is about to take place. Elsewhere, Leon warns President Glass that they’ve received an SOS from the Galaxy fleet. Back at his apartment, Alto puts on Sheryl’s earring and feels/sees her loneliness through it. They really do transmit feelings and emotions in this version of events! Defying Ozma’s orders, he rushes to Sheryl to let her know that she is not alone. She acts offended, but really she is touched by his words, at least until Grace appears and calls out Ozma and Cathy for spying on Sheryl.
Grace outlines all the events that are happening. The Galaxy has come under heavy Vajra attack and has sent an official SOS, Frontier is suspicious of Galaxy’s motives and has chosen to ignore that SOS contrary to space law, and it does appear that Grace and Sheryl came to Frontier on somewhat false pretense, though Grace sorta glosses over that part. It seems that the Galaxy fleet will soon be destroyed and the Frontier fleet isn’t going to lift a finger to help, so Sheryl uses her vast wealth as the Galactic Fairy to hire SMS to run a rescue mission in part to save what’s left of the Galaxy fleet, but also in part so everyone can learn the truth about which side is playing the other. Ozma, on behalf of the SMS, accepts her offer and the Macross Quarter deploys thanks in large part to Sheryl’s funding!
What follows is an alternate version of the series’ episode 7. This time, there are more ships fleeing the destruction of the Galaxy fleet, and the Vajra have a full-sized battleship in addition to their normal fighters and carriers. There’s a lot of recycled music and animation in this battle, but everything is still pretty engaging. At Sheryl’s concert we see that she is going to be singing from a giant stage that looks like a sailing ship. It rises out of the lake in the middle of the outdoor stadium. As usual, the battle is a great mixture of songs and combat tactics. Macross Quarter delays the Vajra long enough for a majority of the refugee ships to fold away, but then the Vajra follows the ships and Sheryl and Ranka’s rendition of Diamond Crevasse to the Frontier fleet, just as Grace expected.
A second battle ensues where we see Battle Frontier respond immediately, but even its main gun cannot pierce the Vajra battleship’s shields. It’s up to Macross Quarter to execute a Macross Attack to make the battleship vulnerable. Meanwhile, Ranka who had snuck her way to Sheryl’s concert against her brother’s orders, is horrified at the loss of life she sees around her. This time, though, instead of shrinking and hiding from the danger, Ranka runs towards the Vajra offering herself up to try and stop the violence. A large Vajra grabs her and Alto gives chase as Sheryl sings a new song “Obelisk”. Alto is nearly shot down, but Sheryl’s singing saves him. Sheryl and Ranka share a duet of Lion as Alto, Michael, Ozma, Brera, and the others eliminate the remaining Vajra forces. In this version, though, it seems that Sheryl’s fold powers are much more prominent and her emotions for Alto and Ranka are all that it takes to awaken them.
Finally, after what must have been thousands or tens of thousands of casualties, the Vajra fleet is defeated. The movie ends with Alto reiterating to Sheryl that she is not alone which Sheryl now acknowledges. We pull up and away from Sheryl and the others as a snow falls on Island 1. In the background we hear one final new song titled “Sou Dayo” from Ranka.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
- Ranka’s new Segway scene. It’s the first moment we see The False Songstress’ movie-sized budget in play.
Sheryl’s “Universal Bunny” concert performance. Macross Frontier blew past all the previous Macross shows in terms of singing and concert animation. This over the top, risqué, CGI and hand drawn animation combo makes even the best of Frontier’s concerts seems small scale. - Alto and Sheryl in Frontier’s forest. It was kinda unexpected and a nice change of pace from racing across the grassy hills.
- The scenes between Ranka and Alto around the Family Mart. Ranka got to express her thanks and Alto had a much better explanation of why he quit acting than he ever did in the tv series.
- The scene between Alto, Sheryl, Ozma, Cathy, and Grace before Sheryl’s second concert. Seeing Sheryl’s uncertainty and vulnerability quickly contrasted by her determination and willingness to put her money where her mouth is was great. It was neat that they finally recognized just how wealthy a top performing songstress would be if she were immensely popular across a galaxy of colonies and colony fleets.
Ranka being willing to sacrifice her own life to distract the Vajra. While she did occasionally take an active role in the series, her big decisions to do so were almost always off camera. It was nice to see Ranka decide and carry out something selfless. - Battle Frontier rising above the Island 1 skyline as it prepared to counterattack the Vajra battleship.
- The concert sound/audio crew that agreed to stay behind and broadcast Sheryl’s singing as long as their was hope.
- The singing and battle scenes once Sheryl and Ranka began singing “Lion” on stage together.
- The almost penpal-letter feeling of Ranka’s new song “Sou Dayo” that plays over the credits.
Movie Impressions:
The first main change The False Songstress makes is that it clues in Sheryl to at least some of Grace’s and the Macross Galaxy fleet’s plot to find Ranka. In the Frontier series, Sheryl was merely a pawn and Grace was actually a sadistic mastermind trying to force humanity to evolve into a collective consciousness. In this first movie, we get some hints that the Galaxy’s plot may be intact, but the bulk of that plot is saved for the second movie. Here, with Sheryl actively looking for Q1, it remains to be seen just how deeply involved Sheryl really is. At the very least, though, Ozma, Cathy, and Alto do have some reason to be suspicious of Sheryl. I don’t think she’ll turn out evil like Grace in the series, but her comments about being surprised by how nice the people of Frontier were does hint that her motives go beyond simply singing this time around.
The second big change this movie made was to sorta wipe away most of the first introductions between characters. Most notably, Alto and Ranka start out as preexisting friends instead of first running into each other at Sheryl’s concert. Maybe it doesn’t come up as often as it could, but I still thought it worked well to give Alto some extra reason to care about protecting Ranka beyond her just being the strange girl he ran into earlier in the day.
One other change the movie makes is it seems to have removed the Vajra’s evolutionary invincibility. Either, it will only come up in the second movie, or it is gone, as beyond the battleship’s powerful fold fault shielding, our heroes never had much trouble dispatching individual Vajra. This movie also did a lot to clear up Alto’s reasons for leaving home. Based on the series, I’d almost say that Alto’s father was physically abusive. In the movie, it’s more that Alto was trying to keep his sense of self and his acting was interfering with that. I like the movie version better.
The movie does lose some good content that was present in the series. I miss Alto rescuing Ranka from the vacuum of space, for instance. That scene was iconic and nostalgic and now it’s gone. Sheryl singing along with Ranka was changed significantly and I liked the more pure version in the series better than Sheryl’s sing and run she did in this movie. We also didn’t get that lovely view of Island 1 from the observation section of the sky tram station, though the movie’s increased budget probably more than made up for that scene’s absence.
That said, for the most part, I think this movie somehow managed to keep the core pieces of the series intact while clarifying and firming up the Macross Frontier vs Macross Galaxy plot. Almost to the point that, in many ways, I’d almost rather start someone out on this movie than let them loose on the main series. It’s hard to try to retell a series but still have a movie be its own thing, and I think this movie managed to pull it off pretty brilliantly.
There is one other thing to consider: Which is the true timeline? The series or the movie? The answer is: Neither. Shōji Kawamori, one of the creators of Macross and the director of Macross Frontier, once gave an interview in 1995 where he said:
Consider real history. Many different stories have been created based on the same historical facts, haven’t they? For example, there are many stories about World War II. It’s the same thing with Macross. The real Macross is out there, somewhere. If I tell the story in the length of a TV series, it looks one way, and if I tell it as a movie-length story, it’s organized another way.
That quote was based on a question about whether SDF Macross or its retelling in the Do You Remember Love? movie was canon, but this philosophy has held true all the way to Macross Frontier and beyond. So, yes, as a fan I might prefer the movie or the series over the other, but official Macross policy is essentially that neither one is more official than the other.
Each time that Grace goes into her personal cyberspace and monitors Sheryl or Ranka is a reminder that she may still have sinister motives. She is even still in contact with the other members of her Macross Galaxy conspiracy. So far, she has played the role of an innocent, but that seems likely to change.
If Grace does indeed turn out some shade of evil once again, Sheryl is an actual co-conspirator this time instead of an innocent songstress that Grace discards. That might have implications if Fronter’s government finds out. They were already willing to break interstellar law by ignoring Galaxy’s SOS. What else might they do?
When Sheryl talks about Ranka singing Aimo more for the forest and the birds, it’s not that far from the truth, given that the song seems to have originated with Mao Nome. Mao’s older sister Sara was a priestess and did in fact use special powers that originated with her singing and her bloodline to help heal the forest and animals who were harmed when UN and anti-UN forces clashed over her people’s isolated island.
Moment to Moment Notes:
0:36 – We start this movie with a new shot of Alto drifting in space. Already this is a change from the series as Alto did not fly in space until after he joined SMS.
2:39 – This is the first of many shots from the TV series that has significant elements replaced and redone. In the tv show, the end of the entry tunnel was nothing more than some cute advertising holograms on a flat surface. Now, there is a brand new, impressively detailed piece of art depicting Frontier’s Island 1 city.
3:22 – The Frontier movies significantly change up the plot vs the tv show. Already, we’ve seen that Sheryl and Grace are looking for someone. Here, we see that Alto and Ranka know each other from the start instead of being introduced in the forest outside the concert hall.
3:55 – This sequence of Ranka riding her Segway is new animation and pretty impressive at that.
4:21 – That island in the distance will play a part in these movies… eventually. Keep an eye out for it, as it appears at least once more in another wide shot later on in this movie.
4:24 – There’s an uninfected Hydra. Remember when one attacked Ranka at the Bird Human filming in the main series? This is what they look like normally.
5:45 – Klan is hanging out with the group in this version. We didn’t really see her until a few episodes into the series.
6:07 – That food actually looks pretty good!
8:29 – This is the first of a few new songs made just for the movies. Oh… and they turned the concerts up way past 11 for the movie. I figure this is less a live concert and more a stage production / movie / elaborate piece of performance art what with the dancing robots and two Sherly’s and all.
Oh… also note that the graphic right before the concert starts spelled Sharon Apple as Shalon Apple. Sharon is correct. This is one of those weird cases that Japanese doesn’t have an actual letter / differentiation between R and L sounds. For the first few episodes of the tv series, some fans weren’t sure if Ranka’s name wasn’t Lanka, for instance.
12:55 – This second song is also new to the series, though I believe it was on soundtracks a good while before this movie debuted.
17:22 – That shot of the battle in the sky is pretty neat.
17:32 – Sheryl wanting to not sneak away during the battle is a pretty big change from her being escorted away in the series.
17:44 – Welp! They’re dead! Show over.
19:19 – Someone got a movie sized budget for action sequences, it seems!
24:53 – I am sad that Alto fleeing with Ranka and catching her in midair was removed from this version. It was both great animation and a great homage to SDF Macross.
25:15 – In this version of the story, Sheryl also knows about Brera from the beginning.
27:02 – In this version of the story, the Macross Galaxy’s plot against the Frontier fleet is a bit more pronounced and less mysterious. It makes for a slightly better story overall, in my opinion.
35:46 – That’s significantly different. That Sheryl knows Aimo.
37:36 – The background music here was in the original soundtrack… I wonder if this scene was cut or planned but never shown in the series?
39:24 – Interesting that the entire Miss Macross concert was cut aside from Ranka’ one song. We also don’t get Alto’s fun duel with Pixie Squadron. 🙁
41:40 – Pink Monsoon is a new song for the movie.
43:43 – New scene. Riding those things down a hill like that seems really dangerous.
46:00 – I’m not sure how sucking out someone’s blood is more sanitary than them having a cut in a generally clean, controlled natural environment…
50:39 – So, in this version, Leon is assuming that the Vajra are being controlled by the Galaxy fleet.
55:32 – *Whistle*
57:52 – While most of this scene is hand animated, I like how they used 3d renders of valkyries and even a Macross to give that top row of models their full detail.
1:01:14 – FamilyMart is apparently a real chain of stores in Japan. Supposedly, the interior in the movie is very heavily based on the interior of an actual FamilyMart. I think it’s like Wallgreens or CVS here in the US.
1:09:07 – In both the TV show and the movie, little Sheryl would have known Dr. Mao Nome. The movie is just a bit more clear about it. It seems Sheryl might have also met Ranka when they were little, but we are never told that exactly.
1:16:38 – Um… boobies. For no reason.
1:17:13 – I like the water stains from Sheryl having come back soaked from the rain. It’s a nice little touch that not everyone would have thought to include.
1:17:58 – And the boobies are gone never to be seen again. Not sure why they did that. Didn’t seem to be much of a point.
1:22:31 – The first time I watched this movie I didn’t understand why Ranka was waiting at home even though the concert was starting. It’s because she was told by Ozma to stay away from Sheryl, but she disobeys her brother eventually and goes anyway but is late because of her delay.
1:23:48 – I cannot find any source to explain why Grace goes by Godunuwa in the movie. I didn’t find any important historical figures with that name either…
1:25:00 – So Sheryl really was/is a spy! At least in some capacity! As you might expect, Sheryl is too popular of a character to be recast as evil, but I find this an interesting little twist compared to the tv show where she was being heavily played and manipulated by Grace the entire time.
1:25:50 – I like this scene because it shows just how wealthy a galactically popular chart toping singer would be.
1:27:27 – No, we don’t get the fantastic sendoff for Macross Quarter. I guess that too was cut for time.
1:29:30 – M M Jenius refers to Max and Milia Jenius from SDF Macross and Macross 7. Those two were the top combat aces of the human and Zentradi fleets in SDF Macross and went on to fall in love, get married, and become the head military and civilian leaders of the Macross 7 fleet roughly a decade later.
1:30:39 – In the tv version of this battle I noted it was probably the first time that any Macross ship had its smaller “battleship” cannons animated. I believe this might be the first time we see any Macross ship’s smaller cannons actually hit and destroy anything.
133:20 – The sweeping animation of Alto’s approach to the enemy mothership is pretty neat.
133:43 – I like the water projection here because of how it is a “practical effect” in a time where holograms are common technology. Also, because it reminds me of the after dark show in Disney World’s Hollywood Studios where they do a similar mist projection.
1:36:39 – This is one of the best looks we ever get of the entire Frontier fleet.
1:37:44 – Battle Frontier rising behind the city is an awesome shot. It also reminds me a little of the Covenant Assault Carrier attacking New Mombasa in Halo: ODST.
1:39:18 – I’m always surprised by this unexpectedly gruesome scene.
1:40:49 – This brief look at just Ranka’s feet as she runs is really cool.
1:41:58 – Here’s the third new song for the movie, “Obelisk”.
1:43:22 – I always liked this sound board guy’s attitude. If there’s a chance to give hope, he and his team are on it!
1:44:22 – The gravity failing within the city is a callback to a similar happening in “Do You Remember Love?”
1:48:03 – Alto just tossed his glowing energy knife aside… while over a city. I sure hope that didn’t come down on anyone!
The preview doesn’t do a good job of showing what’s coming next. Just ignore it and go watch the second half of this story.
Macross Frontier Episode Guide 25: Your Sound
We start this episode a few seconds before the end of the previous one. We see Alto get shot down again and we see Sheryl’s shock as she loses the man she has come to love. It looks as though everything is lost when a shot from a Macross Cannon comes in from an unexpected direction and saves Sheryl and Battle Frontier. The SMS and Macross Quarter have returned and have joined the fight! Captain Wilder radios Battle Frontier and tells them that they have returned to stop Grace and the Galaxy’s plans. Leon tries to sidestep their accusations by demanding proof, but Alto and Cathy, both of whom Leon thought dead, chime in that they have plenty of proof against Grace and against Leon.
Alto, who survived by bailing out of his fighter and flying it on remote, relays what he saw when he passed through the hologram of Ranka. He has Macross Quarter fire upon it revealing the hologram to be a mask used to hide the existence of Battle Galaxy! Cathy then reveals Leon’s assassination plot to the officers on Battle Frontier who are all too happy to turn on their new president.
SMS’s entry into the fight only gives the Frontier fleet a short lived advantage since Grace still commands Battle Galaxy which releases a swarm of advanced Ghost fighters whose quick movements tear apart Frontier’s forces.
Alto gains a new fighter thanks in part to Luca and Klan, then asks Sheryl to reach Ranka with her songs. With Sheryl’s backing and Ozma and SMS’s renewed push, Alto manages to approach Battle Galaxy and awaken Ranka from her brainwashed slumber. Unfortunately, Grace has finally succeeded in gaining control over the Vajra queen. With it under her control, she seemingly no longer even needs Ranka’s connection to the Vajra. She takes full command of the Vajra and launches a devastating attack against the Frontier fleet. The power of Grace’s fold network is so strong it can block dimension eater attacks. It even knocks Sheryl off of her feet. With no hope of victory now, Sheryl gives up and resigns herself to giving into death.
All across the galaxy, Vajra under Grace’s control fold in to hold humanity hostage to her power. For a brief moment, there is an eerie silence following Grace’s full scale attack on the Frontier fleet. Almost everyone has lost hope of victory. But then, Ranka’s voice again fills the surrounding space. She is singing “Your Sound” and her voice reconnects her with her brother who has escaped Grace’s control, and with many of the nearby Vajra that Grace was controlling. The Vajra begin to support Frontier’s forces as Ranka forms a connection between herself and Sheryl.
Sheryl, near death, has completely given up hope. She asks for Ranka to leave her alone, saying she has nothing left to give. This earns her a satisfying virtual slap from Ranka who explains that she was only able to achieve so much thanks to Sheryl’s support. Ranka conferences in Alto who agrees, telling both girls that they are his wings. Ranka uses the power of the Vajra network to command the fold microbes poisoning Sheryl’s brain to move down to her stomach where they will safely grant her power. Sheryl, now apparently healed, kicks off perhaps one of the greatest battle sequences in all of Anime.
For the next eight minutes, Alto, the SMS, the Vajra Ranka has liberated, and what remains of the Frontier fleet’s forces do battle against Battle Galaxy and the Vajra Grace still has under her control. This sequences, which features most of Frontier’s songs back to back, is stuffed with action and with far too many callbacks to past Macross shows to mention in this summary. Highlights include:
- Alto rescuing Ranka from Battle Galaxy.
- Tens of thousands of Vajra sacrificing themselves to protect Island 1 from one of Grace’s largest attacks
- Ranka revealing that the Vajra kept attacking humanity in an effort to rescue her from them.
- Macross Quarter and Battle Frontier teaming up to defeat Battle Galaxy in the most spectacular and most Macross fashion ever.
- Alto using Michael’s sniper rifle to put an end to Grace and her plans of galactic domination.
With Grace dead, the Vajra retreat and leave their planet for humanity to colonize. We also learn the origin of Aimo. Even though the Vajra throughout our galaxy were effectively one giant organism with no need to communicate, there are apparently Vajra swarms in other galaxies, and our Vajra wrote Aimo as a love song for the mingling of galactic swarms.
We get a final look at the survivors of this giant battle and a promise from both Ranka and Sheryl to continue to compete for Alto’s heart. Then, Macross Frontier ends with Alto swooping by overhead with the song Trianguler playing over top the credits.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
- Macross Quarter coming to the rescue.
- The Nyan Nyan Service Medley. (Aka: The eight minutes of awesome set to music.)
- All the callbacks to past Macross shows. See the notes for what is probably an inexhaustive list of them.
- The inconclusive end to the Sheryl, Alto, Ranka love triangle that had Frontier fans howling for almost three years until Frontier’s second movie The Wings of Goodbye finally gave us a proper conclusion.
Episode Impressions:
Let’s start with the negatives. This episode was rushed. Too many plot points were dropped in the middle of the final battle. Too many scenes were previous battle scenes with reworked backgrounds. What should have been one of the most awesome scenes of ship to ship combat, one full sized Macross battleship punching the heck out of another one, was only on screen for a handful of seconds before the camera had to rush to chase after the show’s rapidly approaching conclusion.
But… then there’s the Nyan Nyan Service Medley. Stringing together Lion, Infinity, My Boyfriend is a Pilot, Diamond Crevasse, Interstellar Flight, What ‘Bout My Star?, Lion (again), Do You Remember Love?, and Aimo together with some great action and several classic Macross callbacks was exhilarating.
Even though it was rushed, this episode also did drop in most of the answers to lingering plot questions. Oh, and the villain got what was coming to her delivered by the gun of the popular secondary character that died because of her plots and schemes.
In some ways, Macross Frontier ends on a weak note with a rushed episode and a non-resolution to its love triangle. But, in others, the combination of Macross’ classic three pillars of awesome transforming robot space combat, songs and singers saving the day, and a love triangle, were more center stage and better done here than in anywhere else in the entire franchise’s 25 year history up to that point. And the more recent Macross Delta series released a few years later is widely agreed to not have topped Frontier in any of those three categories.
For a long time, I wondered where Grace managed to obtain Battle Galaxy. It seemed to just come out of nowhere. And, really, it probably did. I think it’s a battleship sized plot hole. More recently, I’ve chosen to believe the few images we got of a surviving, purple-colored ship belong to the Macross Galaxy fleet was, in fact, Battle Galaxy. I’ve sorta convinced myself or consoled myself that perhaps the bulk of the Galaxy fleet was destroyed when Grace and her cohort intelligences took control of Battle Galaxy and abandoned the Galaxy fleet. There’s nothing to prove or disprove that theory, but at least it gives me a plausible out to the final two episodes of Frontier.
Grace at one point shows the power of the Vajra by blocking multiple dimension eater missiles by using the Vajra queen to spontaneously generate fold faults. The Vajra’s natural control over fold space seems to be one of the things that made them so powerful and so revered by the Protoculture. Note that the Protoculture’s Bird Human from Macross Zero was heavily shaped after the Vajra queen.
Moment to Moment Notes:
0:27 – Notice Brera’s fighter in the upper left. His proximity to the approaching carrier is why his fighter is hit by the explosion a few moments later
1:44 – Wait… was Alto just like in their group chat or something? I find it funny he’s the one to answer here.
2:50 – Are those three scrolling text files the evidence? Maybe we’ll just pretend they sent some actual evidence over… off screen.
3:19 – I think this is the first we’ve heard of versions of Ghost fighters. We’ll just assume the V9’s are better than whatever the Frontier fleet was sporting. Watching that one V9 quickly take out the two Frontier fighters kinda proves that…
4:03 – Yes, your song. This is Macross. Of course you are the key to winning.
5:07 – “Charge, Love Heart” is the name of one of the more popular Fire Bomber songs from Macross 7.
5:36 – Luca is referring to the time that during Macross Plus the Sharon Apple virtualoid idol got fitted with an experimental biological AI chip and went crazy taking control of the 1st prototype Ghost fighter and mind controlling everyone in Macross City (or everyone on earth if you watch the remastered movie edition…) with her singing. Apparently Luca has access to that same level of combat AI that he’s been holding back… for some reason?
8:16 – The Vajra do have that same spiral pattern and the Vajra queens to kinda look like the Macross Zero bird human… The implication here is that the Protoculture revered and even worshiped the Vajra to the extent that much of what they left behind was modeled after the Vajra…
9:05 – I don’t recall anything about Macross 11, but Planet Eden is the main setting of Macross Plus and where both the Frontier and Galaxy fleets originated from. Macross City, Alaska is where the original Macross landed at the end of Space War I.
13:43 – And thus starts the Nyan Nyan Service Medley, a 7 and a half minute play of most of Macross Frontier’s songs. I especially love the combination of Lion and What ‘Bout My Star as Macross Quarter goes in for the attack.
14:46 – Having Cathy call for the pinpoint barrier shields to be concentrated along the tip of the main gun is very similar to an order Misa Hayase gave during Space War 1. Hold that thought though, there’s some related nostalgia coming up regarding that kind of melee attack.
16:18 – Seeing the Varja take their place along side the human fleet feels somewhat similar to when more and more Zentradi ships turned around, switched side mid battle, and ran escort for the original Macross in “Do You Remember Love?”.
18:39 – The “Macross Attack” here is almost a shot for shot recreation of SDF Macross’ “Daedalus Attack”. The original Macross concentrated its pinpoint barriers around the front of the Daedalus, a traditional aircraft carrier it was using as its right arm. It punched straight into a closing Zentradi warship then unleashed a bunch of missiles from the inside. (The aircraft carrier had been sucked out to Pluto orbit when the Macross had done an emergency fold away from Earth…) Here, they use Macross Quarter’s flight deck and are only punching Battle Galaxy’s gun, but just about everything else is almost the same down to the missiles streaking out in a bunch of straight lines and the enemy puffing up with internal explosions before detonating!
19:06 – Battle Frontier punching the heck out of Battle Galaxy is just awesome. A shame it was only on screen for about a second…
20:43 – This kind of back to back fighting was first seen in SDF Macross as the two best pilots, Max (a human fighter from the Macross) and Milia Fallyna Jenius (a Zentradi who switched sides after being defeated by Max one on one in three separate battles) covered each other during one of the larger battles. The synchronized movements have been repeated by other pilots in Macross, but Alto and Brera are the most notable.
21:59 – An Island city ship and its accompanying Macross entering the atmosphere like this was first seen in Macross 7. That fleet was forced planet side by an enemy fleet that folded in above them. The Macross 7 fleet only had one Macross, but the poses and arrangements are fairly similar.
22:56 – We now can clearly see that the girl in Richard Birler’s ring is Lynn Minmay. I guess he was still hoping for universal enslavement to provide him a chance to meet her? Or, we could just acknowledge that this plot thread went virtually nowhere and move on…
23:41 – Mr. “I want to fly in a real sky” need to learn how to not cook his fighter on the way down, I guess…
24:45 – It’s nice seeing all the characters at the end. Looks like Nene (the pink haired Zentradi female pilot) survived despite it looking like her Queadluun-Rhea was shown getting hit near the end of the final battle.
26:20 – The triangle shaped lens flares in the final shot are a nice touch!
Next: The False Songstress
Macross Frontier’s first movie is an alternate retelling for the series’ story done the right way. New animation and a better plot await those willing to dip in for a bit more Frontier.
Macross Frontier Episode Guide 24: Last Frontier
Like last episode, we start with another flashback from Ranka’s past. This time, we see how her singing Aimo brought the Vajra down on the 117th research fleet. In the present day, though, Ranka is being held in what looks like Grace’s virtual space and is either being mind probed or brainwashed (or both) by Grace.
We cut to Macross Quarter which has returned to the ruins of Gallia 4. Ozma and Cathy are exploring what remains of the Macross Global and we learn a little more about what happened to it and the fleet it lead. It seems that humanity encountered the Vajra and sent the research fleet to study them eight years later. Grace was one of the members of that fleet. As were Ranka’s mother, Ranshe Mei, and Sheryl’s grandmother, Mao Nome. We also learn more about Grace’s theories on using the Vajra’s network to connect and possibly control all of humanity through the use of cybernetic implants. The key to making Grace’s plan possible seem to be Ranka’s connection to the Vajra.
We head back to Ranka where Grace and Brera are continuing to use her to analyze the Vajra’s communication / control protocol. Grace mentions how easy it has been to decipher the protocol once they added Ranka into the network. Also, it looks like the Vajra attack that killed Ranshe and Mao might have injured / burned Grace and driven her insane with a need to prove her fold network theories correct.
Back on Macross Quarter, Monica sends their findings about Grace and the Vajra on to earth, but between the fold lag and government needing to deliberate on a decision, it looks like it will be up to SMS to save the day alone. We also see that Ozma and Cathy have gone through some personal items left behind by the members of the 117th fleet and they found a letter from Mao Nome to her daughter. Mao says she is sending her earrings as a gift. We also see a postcard that was to be sent back to Mao informing her of the birth of her granddaughter, Sheryl. With that, we finally have conclusive proof that Sheryl really is Sheryl Nome, a descendent of the same line as Sara and Mao Nome!
Next, the Frontier fleet folds in above the Vajra homeworld and makes preparations to attack and defeat the Vajra’s queen. As various parties complete their preparations, Alto goes to meet with Sheryl. She is getting ready for her part of this final attack and worrying about what Alto said about possibly having to kill Ranka. But, when Alto comes to meet her, he tells her that he will come back to her and that he has realized he can’t fly alone. That he needs someone to come back to. Sheryl teases him briefly but then kisses him and tells him not to finish whatever it was he was going to tell her. Instead, she’ll hear what the has to say after he rescues Ranka and comes back alive. She finishes by again teasing him, saying that it is hard to find a girl as good as her.
As the Frontier fleet approaches the Vajra homeworld, Sheryl literally leaps onto her stage and begins singing to disrupt the Vajra’s defense fleets. As she does so, she commits to giving her performance her all. There is at least some connotation that she is preparing to burn herself out and die in this final performance, but that it’s ok because she has no more regrets.
As Sheryl begins singing, Alto, Klan, and the rest of Frontier’s military begin the assault on the Vajra homeworld. Though the battle starts out roughly even, Sheryl’s singing soon begins having an effect, and Frontier’s forces begin rapidly advancing as the Vajra’s defense lines buckle slowed and disorganized. Frontier’s forces also unleash missile version of the dimension eater bombs that do heavy damage to the Vajra’s defense fleets.
Unfortunately, as the Frontier Fleet near’s its goal, Grace is there with Ranka to stop them. She suggest that Ranka sing and help the Vajra to make up for calling the Vajra down on the 117th research fleet. As Island 1 begins its descent, a chilling version of the song “Do You Remember Love?” begins playing for all to hear. Through Ranka’s singing, the Vajra begin to reform their defense lines and start to overwhelm the Frontier fleet. Soon, a giant hologram of Ranka appears in space above the Vajra homeworld letting everyone know just who is giving the Vajra back their strength and coordination. As powerful as Sheryl has become in the last few days or weeks, Ranka’s natural born connection to the Vajra is far stronger, rendering Sheryl ineffective.
Alto watches as one of Frontier’s smaller islands is shot down by the Vajra’s renewed defense of their homeworld. He files to investigate the Ranka hologram after seeing one of the Galaxy fleet’s remaining warships taking cover near it unopposed by the Vajra. It seems that Grace is on this ship or launched her personal Valkyrie from this ship and is moving to take over the Vajra for herself. When Alto flies into the hologram he sees both an image of Ranka imprisoned… and something else. He sees what appears to be the head of a purple Macross class battleship!
Before Alto can report his findings, Brera engages both him and Klan, badly damaging both of their fighters. He insists that he and Ranka are merely defending the Vajra against the human invaders. Then, he shoots Alto down. Alto’s fighter flies near Ranka’s hologram and explodes as it flies between her outstretched arms. Back on the bow of Battle Frontier, Sheryl sees and maybe senses what has happened and collapses while screaming Alto’s name.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
- Grace’s transition to madness as she burned alive during the Vajra attack on the 117th research fleet.
- The Macross Quarter’s bridge crew fawning over Monica and Captain Wilder.
Sheryl and Alto’s final scene together and their kiss with the Frontier fleet behind them. - The way Grace manipulates Ranka by using her knowledge about what caused the destruction of the 177th research fleet.
- The Vajra firing their big counterattack as holographic Ranka stretches out her hands towards the Frontier fleet.
- The live action photo album in the next episode segment after the credits. It’s a direct callback to the way every episode of SDF Macross ended.
Episode Impressions:
Ok, that’s more like it! Even though this episode starts out a bit exposition heavy with SMS discovering Grace’s plans with a lot of dialogue, it moves on and we get another good Alto and Sheryl scene as well as a big battle as the Frontier fleet bears down on the Vajra homeworld.
I like that Alto seems to have pushed Sheryl past worrying about what he thought about Ranka. To me, Alto makes it clear that he can’t fly without Sheryl. It seems these two need each other to complete their missions.
The battle itself, and Sheryl’s singing, is a lot of reused footage, but some of the reuse is really good. Sheryl’s singing on the bow of Battle Frontier is largely shots from her opening concert, but the shots still look awesome with the way they replaced the stage with Battle Frontier’s bridge.
The giant hologram of Ranka and the new version of the song “Do You Remember Love?” are great callbacks to SDF Macross and the “Do You Remember Love?” movie. And, they are a chilling reversal of singing winning the day. Here, singing is still winning the day, but it is winning it for the Vajra.
There’s also something to be said and some thought that need to be given to the righteousness of Frontier’s fight against the Vajra in this episode. At one point, one of the Frontier pilots mentions something about their attack being out of revenge. That’s certainly true. Frontier has surely suffered thousands if not millions of casualties thanks to the Vajra’s repeated attacks. The Vajra did not leave Frontier alone or explore other ways to contact Ranka. They attacked over and over again. At the same time, Humanity captured Vajra, experimented on Vajra and eventually discovered ways to disrupt and control the Vajra’s fold network. If the Vajra exist as something similar to a single distributed organism, might Ranka’s and Sheryl’s singing be like damaging or disrupting a part of the Vajra consciousness? Is it possible that the Vajra have largely been defending themselves and seeking to destroy the evil humans who repeatedly attacked them?
The ship from the Macross Galaxy approaching the Vajra homeworld unopposed. It seems likely that Grace broke into the Vajra’s thought protocols before the Frontier fleet arrived and, through Ranka, she has at least limited or local control of nearby Vajra. That’s probably why they don’t attack her.
What Alto sees when he flies through the hologram of Ranka shows us a glimpse of the challenge the Frontier fleet faces.
The information SMS finds out about Grace’s intentions is all pretty much accurate. She’s not looking to shorten trade routes. She is looking to, at best, connect all of humanity, and, at worst, control all of humanity. And the Vajra, too.
Moment to Moment Notes:
3:37 – So, in 2040 mankind encountered the Vajra. In 2048 the 117th fleet managed to capture one or more of them but was eventually destroyed by the Vajra. Grace was one of those researchers.
6:50 – Analyzing the fold network that the Vajra use to communicate and control is what Grace has been after all along. If she can figure out the protocols, she can simply take control of all Vajra.
8:12 – Sheryl Nome is the grand daughter of Mao Nome. Sheryl was born to Sally and Able Nome abroad the Macross Galaxy, but was later orphaned when her parents, like many others, rebeled against the Galaxy leadership’s plan to force all citizens to accept cybernetic implants. Some time later, Grace, who was rescued by the Galaxy fleet after the destruction of the 117th research fleet, finds Sheryl living in the slums and infects her with the V-Type infection so as to continue her research. Grace and the Galaxy’s leadership (the other voices/personalities in Grace’s head) then proceed with a long term plan to attempt to analyze and decipher the Vajra’s fold network. Part of that plan involved attempting to harness Sheryl’s slowly progressing V-Type infection to mimic Ranka’s ability to communicate with the Vajra through song. While Sheryl did eventually become a very talented and driven songstress, at least some of her success almost certainly came about because she had the full weight of the Macross Galaxy’s corrupt leadership easing her way.
11:35 – The girl pictured in Mr. Bieler’s ring is Lynn Minmay. He seems to think that Grace’s fold implant network will let him meet her. At this point in Macross lore her whereabouts are unknown. She left earth after Space War I on one of the first colonization ships and that ship hasn’t been heard from in decades.
11:46 – That’s the mirror Ranka sits at in the opening.
15:19 – Sheryl’s position singing on/near the bow of Battle Frontier closely resembles Lynn Minmay singing to save humanity from the bow of the original Macross in the “Do You Remember Love?” movie. Several shots, especially the one from behind Sheryl looking out to the battle in front of her, are near recreations of scenes from DYRL.
17:59 – That Ranka inspires the Vajra with the song “Do You Remember Love?” is highly ironic as this same song was the one that saved humanity from extinction at the hands of the Zentradi during Space War I. Now, the same song is being used to defeat Frontier’s attack.
18:21 – The huge hologram of Ranka is similar to the hologram that the original Macross projected of Lynn Minmay during the final battle against the Zentradi and also similar to the hologram the rogue AI Sharon Apple projected of itself as it used its musical abilities to brainwash the people of Macross City during the Macross Plus miniseries. We also saw this version of Ranka over and over in Macross Frontier’s 1st opening at the beginning of each episode up to episode 18!
19:44 – That is one of the warships that escaped the destruction of the Galaxy fleet. Apparently it is under Grace’s control now. Grace has also apparently gained at least some control over the Varja swarm already even without taking over the Vajra queen…
23:37 – Haha! They did the stupid book thing! The ending sequence for every SDF Macross episode involved a similarly bad / awkward live action hand turning the pages of a photo album showing pictures of the lead pilot Hiakru and singer Lynn Minmay. I’d forgotten that Frontier does it once!
We didn’t see the next episode. Instead we saw the delightfully silly callback to SDF Macross’ picture book credits sequence.
Macross Frontier Episode Guide 23: True Begin
As we open this episode, we see a young Ranka watching her mother and Grace O’ Connor argue. Of note are the Vajra being kept in bubbling tanks near Ranka and near her mother. One of the Vajra is what looks to be a Vajra queen. It turns out, this is a dream Ranka is having. She recognizes the slightly older boy standing behind her in the dream, and as she awakes, his voice merges with that of Brera! The two finish their fold into the Vajra’s home system like we saw at the end of the previous episode.
Back on Frontier, the fleet freezes and jettisons another of the smaller islands and it is now clear that Frontier’s ecosystems are not going to be able to recover. Leon is heading up a government meeting and while other officials wish to end Frontier’s mission, Leon insists that they will soon find a planet to call their own.
Outside, Alto is flying a patrol with the two wingmen we saw last episode. One of them notes that there’s rumors that Alto is going out with Sheryl, the other prompts Alto for Sheryl’s autograph. Alto teases them in kind by telling them they will be shot down if they bother their fellow pilot about a woman while in flight. But just then, one of the wingmen spots Sheryl waiting for Alto in one of Frontier’s domed areas.
We see further evidence of Frontier’s worsening situation as now oxygen masks are needed for the general public to travel out in the open areas of Island 1. We transition to Alto and Sheryl having a fancy dinner where it seems that Alto is the better cook! Eventually, Sheryl has a bit too much to drink and Alto is forced to carry her to bed. In one of her final lucid moments before drifting off to sleep, Sheryl again asks Alto not to leave her.
Back in the Vajra’s home system, a Vajra defense fleet folds in and surrounds their home planet. Ranka sings to them, but unbeknownst to her, the fold waves of her singing are picked up by Grace, Macross Quarter, and the Frontier fleet. All three work to pinpoint Ranka’s location. Unfortunately for Ranka, the Vajra move to attack. Then, when she thinks she sees Ai-kun coming to her, it turns out to be some other Vajra that rips her away from Brera. Brera is almost cornered by the Vajra, but Valkyries commanded by Grace save him before Grace takes control of him once again after telling him that he is indeed Ranka’s brother.
Back on Frontier, Alto attends a meeting with Leon, with Richard Birler attending as well via hologram. The two ask for Alto’s support and explain that the Vajra operate as one giant fold wave connected organism and that they may be using Ranka as a tool to learn about and destroy humanity. Later, at Island 1’s hospital, Sheryl berates Luca for attempting to treat her V-type infection. As the infection worsens her power grows, so Sheryl insist that kindness is a crime because while it may help her, weakening her newfound powers would end up harming far more people.
Nearby, Alto meets his brother and the two watch as his father is being discharged from the hospital. Alto comments on how small or frail his father seems now. Yasaburō again tries to insist that Alto return to acting. He asks Alto if he would have become a pilot if there had been no enemy to fight. Alto checks in on Nanase and then steps outside with Klan. The two of them talk about why they joined the military and Alto reveals that even though he joined to protect Ranka, he now realizes that he might have to kill her in order to protect Frontier.
We return to Ranka who has been taken to the Vajra queen. Ranka is finally able to recall her memories of the day the Vajra attacked the 117th Research Fleet. She had been singing Aimo and it looks like she was the one who drew the Vajra to the fleet. Her brother gets her to an escape pod and she watches as the ship she was on is destroyed by the Vajra. Back in the present, Grace is monitoring Ranka through her VR sensor interface and seems excited as Ranka is overcome by her emotions. If anything, it looks like Grace is able to monitor the full extent of Ranka’s connection to the Vajra fold network.
At around the same time, a Ghost fighter from Frontier transmits back the first view of the Vajra homeward and Leon orders the Frontier fleet to execute an emergency 30 lightyear jump to the Vajra home system. He intends to finish his “holy war” and take the Vajra homeworld for humanity.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
- When Sheryl refuses treatment for her V-type infection so that her ability to disrupt the Vajra will continue to grow. She is shortening her own life in order to help the rest of Frontier.
- Alto and Klan on the hospital balcony looking over to Griffith Observatory while talking about Ranka. While Alto’s conclusion and Sheryl’s tears confuse me a bit, I do appreciate the symbolism of Alto talking about Ranka while gazing at the place they used to meet.
Episode Impressions:
Coming off a good run from, sheesh, Fastest Delivery to Northern Cross, this episode fell flat for me in a lot of ways.
We don’t get much insight into the argument between Grace and Ranshe Mei. There’s wasn’t much tension or meaning to Alto and Sheryl’s dinner other than they seem to be living together now. Or was one just visiting the other? It’s not really explained how Grace manages to infiltrate and stay within the Vajra’s home system in order to save Brera. Yasaburō’s final plea to Alto just sorta goes unanswered. Alto’s big speech where he concludes that he will kill Ranka if he has to borders on being powerful but doesn’t quite make it. And, finally, I did not really understand Sheryl’s words or tears as she overheard Alto and Klan’s conversation.
That last point is probably the most disappointing to me. I think maybe Sheryl has decided that she is just someone Alto is being kind to while she is still around, but that it is on Ranka’s behalf that Alto made all his key decisions? Sheryl throws her airplane which has been a symbol of “going for it” and doing something bold to try and achieve one’s dreams. Was that symbolism supposed to play more into Sheryl’s tears? For all the good back and forth Alto and Sheryl have had in this series, there just wasn’t enough here to draw a good conclusion.
But, if nothing else, this episode did something a little clever in that it let Ranka’s singing alert both the good guys and the bad guys to her location. Now, both sides will be drawn to a final battle, most likely. So, I guess this episode at least provided a reason for things to move forward.
Grace observing Ranka’s interactions with the Vajra fold network are super important. It is one of the last steps in Grace fulfilling her master plan. We only have two episodes left, so we’ll start to see fallout from this very quickly.
Moment to Moment Notes:
0:16 – This is the first we’ve heard of Grace’s implant network theory.
0:27 – Not only did the research fleet have young and red Vajra specimens, they also somehow captured a queen?!
3:43 – These two guys don’t so much resemble the two subordinates that Hikaru was given in the 2nd half of SDF Macross, but the hero being saddled with two rookies is callback to the original series. And the Valkyrie Jinx is more or less real as well.
4:20 – Things are so bad that the government is even passing out oxygen masks to school kids.
5:55 – In one translation, Alto says the wine is not alcoholic, in the other more literal translation I have, he just says that it’s not hard liquor. I prefer the second translation because both Sheryl and Alto are adults and shows pretending that alcohol doesn’t exist annoy me.
8:55 – It’s neat that it’s Ranka’s song that alerts both good and bad factions to her location.
12:24 – If the Vajra are just one big fold wave connected organism with no individuality… how does Ai-kun seem to have individuality?
14:16 – There it is. Brera is officially Ranka’s brother.
14:56 – We should have known this was Grace’s plan. To follow Brera and Ranka wherever they lead.
18:31 – It seems like Grace is analyzing Ranka and the Vajra network at the same time. Are the two linked?
19:19 – Look at where Klan and Alto are standing. Or rather, look at what they can see in the distance. It’s Griffith Observatory! And Alto looking at it from afar kinda fits with his worrying over Ranka.
20:44 – That’s a pretty profound statement from Alto. If anything he’s switched from protecting Ranka to protecting Frontier.
21:08 – Does Sheryl think that Alto loves something (Ranka? Frontier?) more than her and that he is only comforting her until she dies?
21:16 – Now a NUNS Ghost has found the Vajra homeworld.
Well, maybe that preview made up for this episode. We see a big battle, several dimension eaters going off at once, Sheryl singing, Sheryl emotional, and more big battle. I can’t wait!