Macross Mega Marathon

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MrMarch
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

Hey, not fair! :)
I have to catch up anyway :)
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

Comments on episode 5--

One thing I noticed about this episode was how Hikaru had a scene that somewhat mirrored one in DYRL only this time its Hikaru getting awfully fatalistic. That seems to be a thing with SDF Macross and the 80s entries: Characters getting suddenly fatalistic. Also, I prefer the Macross The First's Gina Bartrow as the Macross's head science/engineering honcho whatever.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

Arbiter GUNDAM wrote:Comments on episode 5--

One thing I noticed about this episode was how Hikaru had a scene that somewhat mirrored one in DYRL only this time its Hikaru getting awfully fatalistic. That seems to be a thing with SDF Macross and the 80s entries: Characters getting suddenly fatalistic. Also, I prefer the Macross The First's Gina Bartrow as the Macross's head science/engineering honcho whatever.
Fatalism was big in the Eighties, but then fatalism has always been a thing in the East. Even so, the fatalism was not as pessimistic as it usually is in current drama. It was a sign of the times, since World War II was still in living memory beyond a few superannuated people, and the Cold War was a constant reminder that long life and prosperity were in the hands of forces beyond an individual's control. It gave the character introspection some edge, and gave the mecha anime some gravitas beyond "ooo, shiny toys".

Macross the First is a delightful reminder of how fan tastes and expectations have changed over the years as well. In 1982 there was 0% chance that the Macross would have a female head engineer, let alone an attractive one. A lot of Hikaru's uncertain feelings about Minmay came from not being able to e-mail her on his telephone. She had her idol schedule, and he had his pilot schedule. (And like most young men, he was bad at writing letters. :D)
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 6: DAEDALUS ATTACK

Iconic Scene: GET READY FOR A SURPRISE!

Quotable Quotes: "How come I have to get bossed around by some old lady who's sitting somewhere nice and safe?"

Best Character: Misa, for coming up with this crazy plan. And for putting up with Hikaru's crap.

Best Death: Poor Zeril, never saw that Macross fist a-coming.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

I think what struck me the most in this episode was something that I loved through all the early episodes of Macross, i.e. How the crew had to come up with all-sorts of ad-hoc plans to deal with all the situations they found themselves in.

They didn't have to come up with an explanation for the bolting on of the Daedalus and Prometheus, for example. Those could have just been part of the Macross's structure.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 7: BYE-BYE MARS

Iconic Scene: A solemn farewell.

Quotable Quotes: "Riber..."

Best Character: Quamzin for his antics and coming up with an actual halfway decent plan this time. Too bad the Macross crew has the power of the Plot behind them, for his sake.

Best Death: Riber Fruhling because... reasons.

And so we come to one of the most famous episodes in the show. Here we get to see some of Misa's background and why she is the way she is. Like with Sheryl Nome in the sequel series Macross Frontier, I didn't particularly care one way or the other about Misa but after this look into her mind, I think this when I, and a lot of us, began to root for her.

That being said, like Minmay before her, Misa demonstrates a strange suicidal streak here that never shows up again, even when she and Hikaru are lost in the bowels of Vrlitwhai's flagship. Ishiguro's influence perhaps?
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 8: LONGEST BIRTHDAY

Iconic Scene: The Aftermath of Vermillion Team's first sortie.

Quotable Quotes: "Hey, lay off! It's hard being a team leader!"

Best Character: Maximillian Jenius. Because he's a BAMF and he knows it. :mrgreen:

Best Death: All the poor Regulds Max shot down. Poor buggers never knew who they were messing with.

An odd thing about this episode is that when Hikaru is called for his medal, he's referred to as a Sergeant then he gets promoted to First Lieutenant and is given his own air team. It's somewhat odd for him to be promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant without going to Officer Candidate School but then again this is sci-fi and stuff like that happens all the time. Technically speaking, Chief O'Brien from Star Trek TNG and DS9 sort of get demoted to non-com.
And so here is where Max and Kakizaki show up. Unlike Roy, who is the old veteran and Hikaru is the guy who the main character, Kakizaki is the lovable oaf and Max turns out to be an insanely good prodigy. Neither gets all that much depth to them though and I have to wonder if that's yet again a product of the series being cut down from 52 episodes to 48 then 39 then to 24+2 clips shows with an added 27. Of the two, I do like Max a bit better because Kakizaki seems like the kinda guy who talks a big game but doesn't have much to back it up. Still, he is far more tolerable and likable than a certain character that will be showing up soon.
I would also mention that Max seems a lot more cheeky here than he does in later episodes.
I also almost forgot to mention that it's in this episode that we get the first in a long-standing Macross tradition of having characters named after foreign actors. In this case it's Lieutenant Justin Borgnine, a reference to actor Ernest Borgnine. Those of you who grew up in the 80s might remember him from Airwolf but he's been in tons of stuff over a sixty year career.
Other characters in Macross named after actors include Timoshie Dahldanton (named after Timothy Dalton) and Aisha Blanchette (named after Cate Blanchette). Also Emma Granger from the Macross PS2 game.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 9: MISS MACROSS

Iconic Scene: the much beloved Armored Valkyrie... which only shows up twice in the TV series and once in the movie. And gets totally wrecked by Hikaru in this episode.

Quotable Quotes: "I don't think a flimsy uniform [read: swimsuit] like that would be much use in combat."

Best Character: Normally I'd say Minmay but this show isn't animated well enough for that, if you catch my drift... No, the award this time goes to Roy Focker, who shows much insight into the fact that the Miss Macross is rigged in Jamis Merin's favor... until Minmay wins of course. :3

Best Death: The Armored Valkyrie's dignity.

So you might think that having a beauty contest on a warship in deep space, under constant threat of attack is somewhat strange but remember, the Macross started out with 58,000 civilians that they didn’t plan on having onboard. Despite the amenities that have been rebuilt in the city, you have to do something to keep people’s minds off the war and why not district them with boobs? Even though a large likely part of the population is female? Eh, whatever it works well enough and Minmay has now started her path to stardom… and according to My Fair Minmay there is a LOT of shady stuff going on in the background to get her there (and behind the Miss Macross competition as Roy helpfully points out.) Hikaru is acting here much more like he would in the Reconstruction arc of the series i.e. being really dumb and dense. Seriously, if I was his commanding officer, I would have had him busted back down to flight cadet for wrecking the Armored Valk, not launching with any backup, Ghosts or Valkyries or whatever and watching the Miss Macross instead of doing what he was supposed to. (also, shoutouts to gubaba for translating My Fair Minmay.) :D
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MrMarch
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

One of my favorite episodes. Not only for the great mecha action, but also just the character moments and the story development. Lots of fun.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

The album (see previous links) has been updated with...

EPISODE 10: BLIND GAME
Iconic Scene: Klingon captain KLANG!
Quotable Quotes: "Hey, is she prettier than us?" (RED ALERT QUESTION! Bail out Vermillion 1! Bail out!!)
Best Character: Probably Max, for continuing to be awesome and fighting Britai hand to hand.
Best Death: The poor schmuck pilot of Misa's Cat's Eye.

Anyway, things that stood out about this episode: I think Hikaru's making meters out of microns here with Kakizaki's Valkyrie and arguing with Misa for the sake of arguing because that's pretty much their relationship right now. No wonder Roy had to step in.
Also, this is where the show will begin taking on more of its own identity. They started that with Minmay's first steps to stardom and will continue it with Misa and the Vermillion team's capture by the Zentradi. Previous to this, Macross was a pretty standard sci-fi space opera.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 11: FIRST CONTACT
Iconic Scene: Miclone interrogation
Quotable Quotes: Show us what this "kiss" is!
Best Character: Once again, Max, for being the Macross James Bond.
Best Death: Nobody dies here but Bodolza does threaten Misa.

Objectively speaking this is the worst episode of the entire series. Mostly due to the fact that the animation quality here takes a sharp nose dive and then augers right into the ground. Not just that the quality is bad but there is tons of key frames and inbetweening missing that makes everything go herky-jerky all the time. According to some of my friends like Richard Clark, this episode was in fact so bad that it almost got Macross canceled. The staff then promised to make the finale of Macross, or what was supposed to be the finale and episode 27, look really really good in exchange. Other than that this episode starts developing a lot of things that will become important to the plot later on, mostly how the Zentradi are completely ignorant of any aspect of culture except for warfare. Now this is a point that I kind of missed on my first watch of the show but it should be understood that the Zentradi are not stupid. They obviously know how to use their technology, case in point being when they're able to translate the human language from just a few transmissions. The problem with the Zentradi is that they have been doing the same thing for so long , For so many hundreds of years that they have just simply forgotten everything else. That said their reactions to Misa and Hikaru's kiss is very, how shall I put it, Star Trek-ian. But it still feels very genuine and is starting to add a lot of depth to the Zentradi that wasn't there before.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

Arbiter GUNDAM wrote:I think what struck me the most in this episode was something that I loved through all the early episodes of Macross, i.e. How the crew had to come up with all-sorts of ad-hoc plans to deal with all the situations they found themselves in.

They didn't have to come up with an explanation for the bolting on of the Daedalus and Prometheus, for example. Those could have just been part of the Macross's structure.
This is true, there was a lot of emergency adaptations and the ongoing struggle to handle all sorts of new challenges ans situations. It sold a realistic situation with a lot of innovation and adaptation that made the Macross crew seem competent and resourceful as well as lucky. And a lot of explanations were given, both in-story and as supplemental material. For instance, the two "arms" were supposed to be ARMD carriers, but without them the functional but hapless blue-water navy ships were used instead. Go with what you got, and they made it work. I was more impressed by the construction (and re-construction) of a fully functioning city inside the main hull. Screw the Enterprise-D, on board the Macross you could go to the mall!! :D

EDIT: For me the best quote of Episode 11 is "I am not as weakly made as you."
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

episode 11 is where Max got his VF into a Zentraedi uniform right? gotta love that one. no one has yet to do something similar, in the sequels and other real robot series AFAIK. maybe M Delta will do it as a nod to the Jenius.(heck, maybe Max himself will do it again.)
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

Upon reflection, you are quite correct. "Miss Macross" is where the series establishes its own identity and moves on from there in increasing strength. Why didn't I even notice that? (Because you were in love with it from the first, Uncle Zeo! :lol: ) Minmay wins a supposedly rigged pageant with her own charm and girl-next-door appeal. She will go one to become a key player in the story in that role, and establish the defining role of idoru in anime. (And sell a ton of merch in the bargain, also very helpful! ;) )

Episodes 9-11 also gave the Zentraedi an identity they didn't have before. They go from the mecha anime version of the steppe horde bent on grabbing the Macross because it's there, to a somewhat pitiable space military with no nation, no employer, and no motive beyond existence. In fact, they were rather hoping the Visitor could help them. What a turn-around! It also changes the military aspect from "We must defend Earth agains evil space horde!" to "We must defend Earth long enough for the Zentraedi and UEG to reach a common level of understanding and end hostilities."
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

I agree about the Zentradi. I think one of the reasons the Zentradi arc works so well in the SDF Macross series is because we spent so much time with them early in the show and kept up with their perspective as the series went on. Their curiosity about the technology and culture of the humans (miclones) really draws us into their own story even as we all know they are the primary antagonist of the story. When it comes time for the Zentradi to side with the humans, it's not a leap, but a natural transition that totally believable given their motivations that we've been privy to for so long.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 12: BIG ESCAPE

Iconic Scene: Milia gets ready for her first sortie in her Queadluun-Rau (the first that we see anyway)

Quotable Quotes: "They're just miclones, I can more than handle them myself." (right up until you tangle with a certain blue-haired miclone)

Best Character: It's a tough call so I'll go with Milia for having a badass entrance.

Best Death: The brownies who were the first to suffer Milia's wrath.

And so our characters make their big escape while Loli, Conda and Warera are secreted aboard the Macross. Here we see Laplamiz and Milia for the first time. Milia's a fan favorite and I must admit, I'm a sucker for ladies with green hair (and/or green skin) but I think a lot of this is down to Mikimoto's design of her. Most of the Macross characters are not what you'd call deep or complex but Milia unfortunately tends to get the short end of the stick in this regard, especially in a certain later episode. Also, the short end of having her character look consistent between episodes. Also, a funny little thing to note: The Zentradi are unaware of culture, yes? So why does Milia always look like she's wearing lipstick? 8) (Answer: Mikimoto)
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

Have no fear, Milia will get deeper as the series continues. As of #12 she is a green-haired amazon badass, and it will suffice. Characters like Milia are commonplace these days, but someone had to be first. And here is that someone in 1982, a most definite woman combat pilot who can kick ass and take names. And for good measure she is one of many, on a ship-nay, a fleet-comprised of such women.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 13: BLUE WIND

Iconic Scene: The Macross finally returns to Earth.

Quotable Quotes: "You're wearing a female uniform!"

Best Character: The Three Spies for being completely sincere in all that they do. colonthree emoticon

Best Death: No notables this time.

Not much to talk about in this episode. The Macross makes its return to Earth, despite more of Kamujin's plotting. The real show in this episode is Loli, Conda and Warera finally moving into the city section of the Macross. Most of the time, the old gag of man-dresses-as-woman usually results in some very low-brow comedy but here it works because the three spies are absolutely sincere in everything they do. I mean if you live in a society that has no casual clothes, how would you possibly be able to tell the difference between men's and women's clothes? Also, aren't the Prometheus and Daedalus on the wrong sides in this scene?
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

EPISODE 14: GLOBAL REPORT

Episode 14 is the first of two clip shows and isn't as... inventive as episode 17. So, not much to talk about here.

EPISODE 15: CHINATOWN

The waters are beginning to get even more choppy here. Misa and captain Global deliver their report about the Zentraedi fleet to the UN Spacy bigwigs, who seem remarkably reluctant to believe said report. Global and Misa also find out that the story the brass spun about the Macross's disappearance was that it was destroyed along with the city and all of South Ataria Island and now they won't let the civilians off the ship. This seems to be a very strange attitude to take because their explanation is that they didn't want to cause a panic by revealing the earth was under the attack of alien forces. But doesn't everyone already know that aliens exist? When the Macross crash landed back in 1999 it was not exactly subtle. As a final F you, Misa's father, who is also one of the admirals and one of the bigwigs, gives her a note telling her to get off of the Macross. On the one hand, I can understand why he wouldn't want his daughter in such a dangerous situation. On the other hand however it seems, again, cold-blooded of him to not give to damns about the tens of thousands of civilians on board Macross but want to make sure that his own daughter is safe. Newsflash genius: your daughter's in the military and if you didn't want her to be in danger you should never have let her join!
This episode also features the introduction of one of the most hated characters in all of Macross: Lynn Kaifun. But more on him in the next episode.
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Re: Macross Mega Marathon

The ship-arms were on the wrong side?!? :shock:

The three spies and Milia will do a great deal to humanize the Zentraedi in everyone's eyes, including the audience. The trio going through progressive waves of culture shock were both funny (Space nerds!) and pitiful. (So much out there their people never had...) UN SPACY High Command was also my introduction to the cynical attitude the Japanese had towards military leadership in the wake of World War II. "You know it was very inconsiderate to return alive after we reported you were all destroyed by the aliens." Gee thanks, sirs, way to congratulate us after we busted our asses in order to return to Earth! :? (Mega irony involved here in another 10 episodes...)

Oh yeah, and Mister Wonderful makes his debut here as the representative for every annoying long-haired pinko peacenik who ever lectured a soldier on a proper course of action. :roll: But yeah...more on him next time.
"I am fire. I am death. I am Hashmal."

"Discontent is the first step in the progress for a man or a nation." - Oscar Wilde
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