Ranka has been scouted and hired by a promotions company, but that doesn’t mean life is suddenly easy for her. Right now, it looks like she is stuck doing small gigs in malls. She sings one song at Folmo mall about carrots, but it looks like most people ignore her. Even Ranka realizes that her first jobs aren’t very glamorous, so she doesn’t really want to reveal to Alto the kind of work she is doing. It’s even a little sad that her big hope for the day is being a guest on a variety show that evening.
Still, some things are going well for Ranka. Elmo comes running up with big news. Ranka successfully passed her tests and has been admitted to Mihoshi Academy. She meets up with Alto and the others and actually cheers up when Michael notes that she’ll be the life of the party during her first day of classes… but then Galatic Fairy Sheryl Nome shows up, much to Ranka’s dismay. The rest of the school, the male portion at least, is beyond delighted, however.
With the fate of the Galaxy fleet somewhere between unknown and almost certainly destroyed, Sheryl has no place to go home to. She has come to Mihoshi as a visitor for the day, but the implication seems to be that she’ll be staying more permanently if things work out. Sheryl uses the fact that Alto failed to return her earring to her as leverage to force him to show her around the school. She picks flying with Ex-Gear as the first thing she wishes to do.
Operating Ex-Gear proves to be a bit harder than Sheryl anticipated. One common operating test is to try and pick up an egg without breaking it, something that Sheryl utterly fails at. As they wash up in the showers, Sheryl talks to Ranka about how her singing is going. Ranka tries to be optimistic even while Sheryl says she just leaves all her scheduling to Grace. Sheryl then offers Ranka a spot on an upcoming tv show, but once they are out of the showers and in the school’s laundry area, Ranka politely turns Sheryl down. It seems Ranka wants to achieve her success on her own.
Just then, a strange green creature that Ranka spotted earlier in the day inadvertently hops out the door with Sheryl’s underwear wrapped around it. Undeterred, Sheryl wraps her dress tight around herself and goes after the creature. Various hijinks ensue as Sheryl attempts to nab the creature. Eventually, she steals Luca’s Ex-Gear and jumps off the school’s roof in an effort to catch the creature. But Sheryl forgot to strap into her gear! Fortunately, Alto is there to catch her at the last second. Sheryl enjoys the terrific view of the sunset while in Alto’s arms and demands he keep flying her around since he lost her earring in the battle.
Meanwhile, Ranka is on her way to her tv shoot only to get a call from her manager telling her that her show was cancelled and that the one Sheryl mentioned earlier is taking its place. Saddened, Ranka returns to the Griffith Observatory hill where she encounters the small green creature again. She sings Aimo to herself to cheer herself up, only to hear someone play the same tune on a harmonica near the statue behind her. When she turns to see who it is, we see that it’s the pilot of the purple Valkyrie. The episode ends with Sheryl officially joining the pilot program at Mihoshi Academy.
Specific Scenes I Loved:
- The scene where Ranka gets the news that her tv appearance has been cancelled is pretty disheartening. Especially as she looks up to see all the Sheryl Nome signs floating around the buildings above her. All episode, Sheryl has been stealing her thunder, and now it has happened again.
- I did find it kinda amusing how Sheryl just tossed the entire box of detergent into the washing machine…
Episode Impressions:
To say this is not my favorite episode is to put it mildly. What I think must have happened is the Frontier staff thought we needed some humor after the two or three tense episodes that came before. What we got though was just way to wacky for my tastes.
Also, even though Sheryl didn’t really mean to do so, she basically ruined Ranka’s day and kept upstaging her at every turn. I can’t point to any vindictiveness, or jealousy, or ill intent on Sheryl’s part, but she did have a notable lack of awareness of what her presence would do to those around her.
In the end, while I think this episode was meant to be fun, I’d probably rate it as my least favorite Macross Frontier episode. I’d much rather go back to the subtle relationship clashes or the intense space battles we had been getting before.
I think the one real key moment to keep in mind from this episode is that Leon is still keeping close track of Ranka and that he knows about the existence of the purple Valkyrie.
0:24 – This is a scene from Macross Zero where the UN forces find the lower portion of the Bird Human bioweapon.
2:09 – These phone calls between Alto and Ranka are reminiscent of the calls between Hikaru and Lynn Minmay back in SDF Macross. Those two also shared several phone calls (though not on cellphones, everything was still wired phones and phone booths in Macross’ version of 2009!) and multiple missed calls from each other like Alto and Ranka do in this series.
2:56 – Remember, Alto was in the performing arts program up until he transferred to the pilot program when he entered high school. Cathy mentioned that when she first brought him in for questioning during the second episode.
7:04 – As expected from last episode, the fact that the Galaxy’s escort ships folded in without the rest of the Galaxy fleet still seems to be a very big deal. Right now, the rest of the Galaxy fleet is missing and perhaps even destroyed. Remember, that dire S.O.S. broadcast was already five days old when the Frontier fleet received it.
22:06 – Believe it or not, Sheryl will get the chance to be a pilot sooner or later!
The preview for the next episode looks intense. Apparently Michael is hiding some sort of secret and it involves a badly injured or possibly dead woman! Also, was that Alto with a bloody lip?