Anime

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 117^th 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. 

Next: Labyrinth of Time

Ranka discovers a possible way to recontact the long missing Alto and reawaken the long slumbering Sheryl.

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 3^rd 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. 

Next: Wings of Goodbye

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.

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. 

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.

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 117^th 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 117^th 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 117^th 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 117^th 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 177^th 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? 

Next Episode: Your Sound

We didn’t see the next episode. Instead we saw the delightfully silly callback to SDF Macross’ picture book credits sequence.

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 117^th 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. 

Next Episode: Last Frontier

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!

Grace and Leon are still in communication, but I get the feeling that Leon doesn’t really trust Grace anymore. We learn that Frontier is all but dying due to the damage sustained by the Vajra in their last attack. Leon, however, thinks the three month estimate until Frontier is out of resources is more than enough time for his plan. 

Out on patrol, it looks like Luca’s L.A.I. has once again implemented better weapons to fight against the Vajra. Alto and his two new subordinates are able to take out a trio of red Vajra with hardly any troubles. It looks like Luca and Alto are developing a closer friendship in their combined desire to destroy the Vajra threat and rescue Ranka. 

We see that Sheryl is singing again, though this time her concert is a more intimate affair with a slow, weighty song instead of the more upbeat pop presence she had before. Sheryl is singing for charity these days, and has taken on Elmo as her manager. And there’s something else about Sheryl’s singing: She is now creating fold waves when she sings! Soon, Leon and Luca send for her.

Bobby finds Ozma and Cathy still hiding out in the ruins of Frontier. Back on Macross Quarter, they reveal what they know about Leon and his assassination of Cathy’s father. Ozma learns that Ranka has run away with the Vajra, while Captain Wilder tells of how the SMS is to be disbanded and merged into the New UN Spacey. 

At Leon’s office, Luca explains the science of the V-type infection to Sheryl. Fold microbes living in her brain are slowly poisoning her. Sheryl more or less knows this already from what Grace told her back at the hospital, so she asks if Luca is having fun using big words to tell her that she is going to die. Leon breaks it to Sheryl that because of the late stage of her infection, her voice can now disrupt the Vajra like Ranka’s has been able to!

Later, across Frontier, we see that Cathy and Ozma have sent messages to all of the remaining SMS staff. Apparently, something big is happening. Alto gets the message too, but he is more concerned about Sheryl’s wellbeing at the moment. Sheryl is still trying to put on a strong face for Alto, and is still acting as if she is going to be ok, but Alto knows the truth now thanks to Klan. He encourages Sheryl to stop singing, but now that Sheryl has realized that singing is all she has, she insists on doing it. But, she also admits that she is scared and lonely. In response, Alto promises to stay by her side until her final moments.

Somewhere out in space, Ranka and Brera are still searching for other Vajra. Ranka implies that she felt Alto and Sheryl’s feelings all the way back on Frontier. She then tells Brera that Ai-kun has told her the final step to get back to its world. 

Back on Frontier, Leon is giving his official inauguration speech as the 5^th president of the Frontier fleet. Remember, up until now he had just been acting as Frontier’s president. Here he actually, officially accepts the role. He talks about fulfilling Frontier’s mission to find a new habitable world. As he is doing so, he sends his security team to eliminate Grace, which they do in a hail of gunfire! Leon continues to lay out his plan, that for Frontier to find a planet and find peace, the Vajra must be eliminated. Frighteningly, the crowds watching Leon’s speech cheer in agreement. Leon concludes his speech by introducing Sheryl as Frontier’s new hope of defeating the Vajra. 

On Macross Quarter, around 70% of the ship’s crew joins with Captain Wilder in order to go pirate. They steal the Quarter to oppose Leon’s violent plans. Leon sends a group of N.U.N.S fighters with orders to bring them back. The group includes Alto and Luca. A tense battle breaks out between N.U.N.S. and SMS, where Luca is nearly shot down. Alto and Ozma square off in a one on one dogfight where Alto demands to know why Ozma and SMS are abandoning Frontier. The two exchange nearly deadly fire, but ultimately Ozma comes out on top by disabling Alto’s Valkyrie. Ozma tells Alto that he and Ranka have chosen their own paths before asking Alto what path he plans to choose. 

The episode ends with Macross Quarter folding away, but there is an important scene after the credits where Ranka and Brera find the Vajra homeward… and so does Grace O’ Connor! Apparently it was Leon’s security team, not Grace, that went down in that earlier blaze of gunfire!  

Specific Scenes I Loved: 

• That early look at the sheer state of devastation the Vajra attack left parts of Frontier in. 
• Sheryl’s new song “Yousei” which roughly translates to “Fairy”. 
• Bobby moving to comfort Cathy after she gives her report about her father’s assassination. 
• Sheryl’s scene where Luca and Leon tell her about her new ability to generate fold waves. She is so subdued at the beginning, and then leans back uncaringly/acceptingly as they explain to her that she is going to die. But then, she is intensely interested as Leon informs her that she is now Humanity’s last hope. 
• Alto and Sheryl’s night scene. These two have the best emotional conversations. 
• Sheryl appearing on the side of the building as she sings at Leon’s inauguration. 
• Ozma’s speech about being a man rather than an adult. 

Episode Impressions: 

I’ll make this section easy. I like this episode so much because it rewards Sheryl for completing her character transformation. She’s gone from an outwardly prissy intergalactic superstar, to a jealous, bed-ridden idol on the decline who found that someone else’s voice held power she could never have, to a crushed, discarded girl who knew she didn’t have long to live. But then, she began to rebuild her self worth as she lied to selflessly protect Alto from her fate. Later, as everything went to hell, she realized that there was still value in her singing even in the midst of despair. Now, after going through everything from having her home fleet destroyed, to having her career that she strongly believed in ripped away from her, she finds out that her singing, the thing she holds most dear, actually can make a real difference. 

The thing is, Sheryl is in such a different place than she was at the beginning of the series. If Sheryl Nome, the “Galatic Fairy” we saw in Episode 1, had found out her voice was the key to humanity’s survival she might have just taken it for granted. What’s the first thing that this Sheryl in Episode 22 says upon finding out that she actually is Frontier’s last hope? She worriedly asks if Ranka is on the verge of death like she is! Sure, part of her question is that she already knows she is going to die soon so there’s no point in worrying about herself, but I think there’s still a lot to be said that the first thing that Sheryl voices is concern for Ranka. 

I also love the scene between Alto and Sheryl that night. The best part is where Alto yells at her to stop from outside the room. Listen to Sheryl’s voice and inflection just before that. She is almost “Sheryl Nome” again. Her voice is sweet and upbeat as she thanks Alto for helping her find her singing, and then she lies about just hanging around the Saotome mansion until she gets better as if everything is just fine with her. But when Alto yells for her to stop, without saying exactly what it is he is asking her to stop, it’s telling that she immediately knows that he knows everything about her sickness. Any time two characters can communicate without using words like this says something about the strength of the relationship they’ve developed. And the strength of the many past scenes that set it all up.

It’s also interesting that, for a moment, Alto actually doesn’t get it. He’s still one step behind, almost as if he is still thinking about their last conversation by the koi pond. He’s telling her that it’s ok not to sing. Sheryl, though, has gone through a long journey that has taught her just how important her singing is to her. Fortunately, Alto catches up quickly. There was a lot of debate in the Macross community about who would win the love triangle between Sheryl, Alto, and Ranka. I think that contest, if it ever really existed, ends in this scene where Alto pledges to stay by Sheryl’s side until she dies. 

The last big set piece of this episode, the SMS crew abandoning Frontier, confused me the first time around. I got why Alto and Luca choose to stay with Frontier. The people they loved were there. But Captain Wilder and the crew of the Macross Quarter leaving felt like a bit too much of a betrayal to me. It was only later that I realized that they were leaving because the man who had lied and murdered his way to the top was now trying to bring them under his direct command. Ozma says as much to Alto during their duel, but I don’t think I really understood it on my first viewing. Are they completely justified? No… I don’t think so. We learn at the first of the episode that Frontier’s ecosystem is fatally damaged, and there must still be hundreds of thousands of people left that the SMS does abandon. I do think their reasoning is a lot better than Ranka’s however. 

Next Episode: True Begin

Hard to tell exactly what’s coming next. It does seem important that Brera is having to fight again. We don’t really see who or what he is fighting against, though.