Put simply, I am disappointed.
With the numerous plots, rivalries, and backgrounds of the characters on both sides I was hoping for a finale with more ‘punching power.’ Instead what we got was…serviceable(?). It wasn’t bad or terrible, it was okay.
Compared to the bombastic finale of Frontier, Delta’s is weaker.
Roid’s final plan boils down to Grace’s plan from Frontier (but on a bigger scale (kinda) with a dash of Human Instrumentality) it feels like we have been here before…only Frontier’s was done better. The biggest difference between the two is time—Frontier’s was spaced over 2 episodes. Delta’s finale was one and had way to much to do in that final episode. Something I will get into in a minute.
There are so many things, in light of this finale, that I question in terms of planning for Delta. Centrally, since both sides were just going to unite anyway, what was the point of that episode when Mirage, Hayate, and Freya were put on trial? That time could have been better spent on the final…or giving us an epilogue.
On that note, the final battle left only 4 minutes to deal with the epilogue. Frontier did exactly the same thing, it annoyed me then and it annoys me now. Only this is worse. What about the King? Will he really pursue peace (and THAT came out of nowhere or am I crazy?)? And thus is the war really over? Did the White Knight die? Is Mirage just giving up on Hayate? What about when Freya dies? How much time does Freya have left? Will the NUNs actually explain themselves to Windmere and make peace? Is the network shut down now that Kumo-Kumo is back? And these are just the OBVIOUS questions.
Are we getting a second season that I just don’t know about it?
Now for the series as a whole:
Delta put the focus far too much on the singers in an attempt to develop all of them. Regardless of if you think they succeeded or failed at developing all the members of Walkure, the fact that we had a complicated war with shades of grey, a love triangle, and an entire enemy faction with different pilots, backgrounds, and history to develop in 26 episodes shows to me—poor planning. That and since every episode they needed to do a musical number (regardless of if it made sense or not), sucked away a ton of time.
At times Delta seemed more like a vehicle to push the songs then actually tell a good story. There was this weird dichotomy, where the elements to tell a war story were there…but then we spent so much time on concerts. I hate to keep saying it, but Frontier had a better balance. It had fewer characters, less singers, and since the Vajra were a faceless enemy the only thing that needed to be explained about them was their history/background.
There were fewer songs as well; I remember episodes in Frontier were no one sang during a battle. It was just a straight dog-fight; Delta did not let that happen once. Oh no! Does that mean I just want action?!
The romance in Frontier had a larger focus. I am not saying it was done BETTER (because I don’t want to get into THAT argument), but for good or ill, the love-triangle in Frontier played a larger role. It wasn't until episode 23 of DELTA that Mirage and Freya realized they were competing against each other. Where with Ranka and Sheryl it happened almost instantly, which in turn, created more drama. Both series are different beasts, but I still prefer Frontier over Delta. In case you couldn’t tell by now.
Delta would have worked better as a 50 episode series. The characters could have been flushed out and developed, the romance could have had a larger focus and we could have done a few episodes with the more military side of things to keep those fans happy. But, just like Gundam G-Reco, saying it should have been longer does not fix the problems. And while I didn’t hate Delta, I didn’t love it either. It had good ideas, but time and execution were not the strongest.
While Frontier was messy and cliché at times, it was that mess that gave the series personality and why it is so memorable to me. That and it finished strong, Delta unfortunately didn’t. The sense of danger wasn’t there; maybe if the Windmere and Chaos actually had a dogfight instead of the threat being some abstract Human Mind Fusion and remote controlled Drones, I might have felt differently. However, this is what we got and perhaps I will view it differently when I rewatch it in a few years. Until then, better luck next anniversary.
Good points:
-Freya’s health problem wasn’t magically fixed like Sheryl’s.
-Hayate X Freya actually happened! Considering poor Mirage never really did anything except…learn how to fly? I am happy a romance that seemed to be getting focused on actually happened. It was as obvious as Sheryl X Alto and I’m so happy they didn’t go with the ambiguous ending like Frontier’s. But why didn’t you show them kissing Delta? Why?
-The scene where Roid’s plan was activated, with the song, and seeing it spread was well done. It gave me goosebumps. Unfortunately that was the high-point of the whole final episode.
Stay thoughts:
-What was the point of Makina getting shot? She was in pain for an episode, but came to sing anyway? Was it just to give her something to do during the finale? This goes back to the problem with far too many characters with not enough episodes…
-Hey Windmere never actually dealt with the NUN…their grudge is still there. Nothing was solved…You could argue with Roid gone things will change; however, Roid just used the conflict that was building anyway to get what he wanted. The deaths of thousands on Windmere is just not going to be forgotten. Plus does anyone really think NUNs is just going to be okay with an entire fleet of their soldiers (who have families back at home) getting wiped out in episode 25?
-Why give us all those hints about Lady M and never show her? Are they just trying to annoy me?
-Hey remember that arms dealer? What is he going to do now? Besides giving people history lessons, was his goal just to make money?
-Yellow pilot really had nothing to do this entire series; yes I don’t even remember his name. For about 10 episodes I completely forgot he was in the show…