The Official Macross Delta Anime Thread Mk I

[MrMarch]

I think the colors of the red Saab Draken-like craft make it feel like an enemy craft. Also, the lack of a transparent cockpit is often the type of design associated with the antagonist craft in the many Macross series.

[latenlazy]

LOVE that a design uses the Draken as a template. Also is that a bump inlet I spy on the Draken?

[Henyo]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... led/.93355

It's a TV anime!!! only question now is how it will run. straight 20+ episodes or be split into two seasons.

the designs made me think of Yukikaze.

[MrMarch]

latenlazy
Good catch! yeah, they could very well be bump inlets. Gotta see more of this design. So awesome that such a old design has been modernized into a valkyrie. It looks so different.

Henyo
I think there was little doubt it was going to be a TV series, especially given the incredibly successful popularity of the last series, Frontier.

I actually get very little Yukikaze from these designs. If anything, that Saab Draken-inspired design is going WAY back in terms of design inspiration. Naturally, it's a much more modern version of a Draken, but it's clearly what inspired the design.

[LightningCount]

Very cool promo pic. I hope this goes with a different approach than Frontier, but I think they already said a long time ago that it's going to have the pop idol angle, I believe. I suppose that generally comes with the Macross package, but I'd like to at least see a more subdued approach, if possible.

Regardless, the designs look fantastic. While not the same, I do get a bit of a Yukikaze vibe, as well. However, there always felt like a vague bit of crossover in the design sensibilities between those two, anyway. (And speaking of Yukikaze, it doesn't get enough credit. It was a great anime, and with time, I see how unique of a production it was. The books are really good, too--even better in some respects.)

[MrMarch]

What aspect of the design is evoking any kind of Yukikaze vibe? I'm not seeing it. The Macross designs, including these for Macross Delta, have always paid homage to grounded, real world aircraft in order to maintain aerodynamic plausibility. Yukikaze, as per the creators themselves, abandonded any semblance of aerodynamics and took the designs as far as the imagination could go. The two are about as far apart as is possible for wing-styled anime fighters to be. I'm curious what specific design detail is reminding some folks of Yukikaze?

[LightningCount]

What aspect of the design is evoking any kind of Yukikaze vibe? I'm not seeing it. The Macross designs, including these for Macross Delta, have always paid homage to grounded, real world aircraft in order to maintain aerodynamic plausibility. Yukikaze, as per the creators themselves, abandonded any semblance of aerodynamics and took the designs as far as the imagination could go. The two are about as far apart as is possible for wing-styled anime fighters to be. I'm curious what specific design detail is reminding some folks of Yukikaze?

It's a vague impression more than anything--like when one looks at an impressionistic painting. It's not meant to be a technical response; it's a subjective gut response, like deja vu. But if you're going to ask for a specific design feature, I suppose for me it could be the mix of wavy/ rounded and sharp edges with extra fins, and those protruding, rounded boosters (for the "boosters" in question, see Yukikaze NA DVD 2 cover). Also, there's not the "variable wing" Macross fighter designs one generally thinks of first. More so than that, though, is the layout and tone of the promo art piece, I think. We've got subdued colors, especially green, which was used heavily in the Yukikaze anime (and it had an otherworldly sparkling green background construct in its opening credits, as well). And we have this serious, very mechanical encounter between two planes with no character art, reminiscent of covers for the North American DVD single or collection releases.

I had just glanced at the promo art; I didn't study it like you had until later, so it's not like I can't see differences in details. It was about a feeling and impression from the brain (forest from the trees-style), which was explained above. Also, I wasn't ever saying we're seeing wild FAND-II designs and the like with this; I was feeling more of the vibe of Yukikaze's Sylph, JP Navy Fighter, and early-model Super Sylph. But even those feelings are skewed one way or another by the angle of the given artwork from either series' promotional art. Right now, we don't have any other poses of the Macross Delta fighters that I know of. So, hopefully that clears things up for you. Henyo may have a different feeling on the matter.

Anyway, with that kind of promo art, I expect to see more adult characters in line with Macross Zero or Yukikaze, honestly.

[MrMarch]

That's absolutely okay. I hope I didn't come across as being overly critical. I am genuinely curious, because I'm not able to see much of a connection like you can. As I wrote, the two production designs go in completely opposite directions as far as sensibility (which is why both are equally so creative and interesting, and mostly importantly, unique), so I've never seen much commonality in the two franchises aesthetics, even now with promotional art from Delta.

After reading your post, I think maybe...the colors I can see. Yukikaze does use a lot of muted, low-visibility style greys, green-greys, and blue-greys. And the blue valkyrie in the Macross Delta promo art does use a similar low-visibility blue-grey color that hasn't quite been seen before (though Macross Zero is close).

I think the lack of variable geometry wings is a given now that "Delta" has been confirmed as the title and the first two valkyries we see are both delta wing aircraft

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Some hints dropped by Kawamori during today's panel.
(Going from memory and via my phone on-site):
-The Valkyrie in the key visual is indeed influenced by the Draken. Recent planes stat to look similar due to stealth tech/designs and a fight between two Valkyries based on modern stealth planes wouldn't be that interesting. Similarly, they would be difficult to differentiate between in animation/dogfights.
Kawamori liked the Draken when he was growing up, so he drew upon it for inspiration. Similarly, he referred to it as a Valkyrie so it does actually transform.
-The white and blue valk is a logical progression on Valkyries seen to date. The 'Draken' valk is an all original transformation and this posed more of a challenge.
-Different thruster colors - in-universe the Valkyries engine are made by different companies. The coloring also makes them easier to distinguish visually.
-The relatively bright coloring of the white and blue valk is also an attempt to go against the visual trend of stealth fighters.
-The Delta logo - it mainly represents the three main pillars of Macross. But the fact that the sides don't join indicates that the triangle is not a predetermined outcome. Some elements may or may not come together to necessarily form the triangle as expected.
-The planet in the background of the logo is a hint regarding the setting. Details to be revealed on Oct 29.
-Kawamori wanted to revisit valk vs valk combat in a TV series since he felt that this was something that hasn't been done in a TV iteration of Macross for a long time.
-Major details including characters and setting will happen during the live stream on Oct 29. The winner of the idol contest will also be present.

[Henyo]

my knowledge about real life planes is quite limited.(video games featuring them.) and the only series that is always on my mind when it comes to planes are Macross, Yukikaze and Area 88. since Yukikaze is also scifi i went there first. I'm going going to look at that old anime magazine of mine that featured Yukikaze to pinpoint my first impression about the Macross Delta VFS.

an idea popped into my mind while at work: maybe we'll have 33 episodes for Macross Delta. then 3 OVAs. then 3 Movies. or is that too much rubbing it in?

COME ON YURI LOVE TRIANGLE!

[MrMarch]

This is great news. I'm trying not to jump to too any conclusions or get too hyped, but this sounds like a major shift in both setting and scope for a Macross TV series. Which is only cause for celebration in my mind.

We may be mostly planet-side for this story and it might be less about war. Perhaps a side-story. Which makes more sense given the nearness of the time period of this new series to the last space-based Frontier series. Obviously Macross Plus comes immediately to mind when reading many of the details (planet-based, valkyrie-vs-valkyrie, two different aerospace design companies, etc) but fortunately I'm not getting any sense from Kawamori that he's going back to that well in any other way. So this should be something different entirely. Good reasons to be optimistic.

[Andvari]

I would actually love if they would go back to the original Macross and bring on Mari Ijima but that's highly unlikely they'll probably get someone young. Also I hope it's like Zero because Zero had a dark theme to it also a tribalistic feel it was fast paced and it had a good story I loved it.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Given that Frontier has had such a huge impact on the fanbase, I imagine that Delta will be at least mostly similar to Frontier.

[LightningCount]

Here's a story about the panel, which was already covered well by Arbiter GUNDAM: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... rds/.93436

I agree with MrMarch that everything sounds great. It sounds like it maybe has everything I would want from a new Macross series at this point in history. Looking forward to more news.

[Deus257]

Anyone else get a Max/Milia Vibe from the two Valkyries

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Anyone else get a Max/Milia Vibe from the two Valkyries

Other than the color schemes, that's about it.

[Deus257]

Anyone else get a Max/Milia Vibe from the two Valkyries

Other than the color schemes, that's about it.

Yeah that's what I meant, the color scheme. Given the info so far I'm less hopeful we find out what happened to hikaru, misa and minmay in this iteration.

[Seto Kaiba]

Given the info so far I'm less hopeful we find out what happened to hikaru, misa and minmay in this iteration.

Yeah, that's the one thing that gets brought up every time a Macross series gets announced... and it's never gonna happen.

Kawamori has been adamant for a long time that Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay's story is over... they have their closure, they've sailed off into the metaphorical sunset, and aren't coming back. We've just gotta let them go.

[Amion]

"Let'em go~, let'em go...don't call them back any~more...

[MrMarch]

I'm really happy the original SDF Macross characters still hold so much fascination for fans, but for me I prefer they be left alone. That way, they are forever young, forever known only at their finest momemts. Never ruined or exploited. Always existing at their best, because as their story remains thus far, they can't be remembered any other way.

Delta sounds like it's going in a bold new direction and I couldn't be happier to hear that. I hope it's daring enough to push the boundaries of whatever story it tells.