Macross Frontier

[Ryllharu]

What's with the recent resurgence of the "All Will Be One" versus Individuality theme in anime? This is like the 5th series in the past year, and the second this season. Not that I don't enjoy the allusion of a fight against socialism, Nanny-states, and possibly even as an affront to Buddhism...

At least this time Grace is trying to become the ultimate Queen Bitch of the Universe and it's not some delusional "everyone's equal" non-corporeal utopia.

I definitely echo the hate-Ranka-more now sentiment. For me, a lot of that came from the Sharon Apple projection she put up in space. This whole thing screams references to that last fight in Macross Plus, only it's Vajra instead of humans.

I was not pleased to see Sheryl's short monologue before she descended to the stage. She knows she will die, perhaps as a result of singing in this very battle, and she's just giving up. She doesn't even want to fight against Ranka, she's just pushing Alto into her arms by telling him to save her. I don't mind endings where the hero inevitably must kill the one he loves to save the world/universe/city. I miss those series from the late 90s, they had impact, like Gurren-Lagaan did.

I also agree with David here. Grace is way more powerful than we could have possibly suspected. She's spent the last decade learning exactly how to accomplish what she's attempted to do now. She's practiced plenty messing inside Brera's head too, now she's made him into a total slave. I had thought she was just wiping his memories again, but it looks like that is not the case.

[Buffalobiian]

Did anybody get screwed up video when the battle starts and at the credits?

I don't get why Grace is preserving the Vajra like that though. She wants to be Queen of the galaxy, and its humans/Zentrans rather than simply the Queen of the Hive, right? Shouldn't she be studying how the Mind rules the others like she's observed everything so far, so they can destroy the Vajra, take the fold quartz, build the network, and then she becomes the human's Hive Mind? This is assuming, of course, that Frontier knows she's on the Vajra's side, but the info seems to be confined to the Quarter.

[Ryllharu]

I don't get why Grace is preserving the Vajra like that though. She wants to be Queen of the galaxy, and its humans/Zentrans rather than simply the Queen of the Hive, right? Shouldn't she be studying how the Mind rules the others like she's observed everything so far, so they can destroy the Vajra, take the fold quartz, build the network, and then she becomes the human's Hive Mind? This is assuming, of course, that Frontier knows she's on the Vajra's side, but the info seems to be confined to the Quarter.

Ozma and the rest of the Quarter crew explained that. Grace's plan would have all forms of life interconnected in a fold quartz powered galatic network, with her right at the top as the central node.

However, her plan only works on people like her and Brera who have cranial implants. Those let humans/Zentran connect to a similar network like she does. However...how do you convince those who don't want cybernetic implants in their heads? You use an utterly loyal, completely unstoppable alien force to either kill or subdue those who resist.

[xtallography]

This series is just always amazing. While Klan is adorable in her micronian form... she is just so kick ass as a zentradi. Definitely my dark horse favorite character.

A couple things...

Why not try jamming communication between the varja in this battle? If anything that seems like a good way to keep them from hearing Ranka's song.

Also, did the queen look like a possible macross ship to anyone else? If so, then I wonder who the queen is... Ranka's mother?
Pic of the queen:

[David75]

Ozma and the rest of the Quarter crew explained that. Grace's plan would have all forms of life interconnected in a fold quartz powered galatic network, with her right at the top as the central node.

However, her plan only works on people like her and Brera who have cranial implants. Those let humans/Zentran connect to a similar network like she does. However...how do you convince those who don't want cybernetic implants in their heads? You use an utterly loyal, completely unstoppable alien force to either kill or subdue those who resist.

there's the implants and probably the V-type infection almost no one knows about that she studied for years.

This series is just always amazing. While Klan is adorable in her micronian form... she is just so kick ass as a zentradi. Definitely my dark horse favorite character.

A couple things...

Why not try jamming communication between the varja in this battle? If anything that seems like a good way to keep them from hearing Ranka's song.

Also, did the queen look like a possible macross ship to anyone else? If so, then I wonder who the queen is... Ranka's mother?
Pic of the queen:

Yes Klan is a nice side character.

The queen probably is Ranshe, because at some point the first clear communication Ranka had with the Vajra network showed her her mother in the same fashion we see Ranka in the battle.

Jamming Vajra communication is almost impossible for Frontier/SMS/Nuns since they can't hack the protocol as Grace did.
You'd answer me back that you don't need to know the protocol to jam a connection, well that connection is particular. The only way we know is the conceal it with that weapon that sucks everything into oblivion.
That point is important when linked with the nodes hiearchy... If such a bomb was to explode near the queen, the Vajra network would be paralized for a while, until a new queen/supernode emerges. So that explosion has to kill Grace and possibly Ranka at the same time to be efficient for a long enough time.

[Illrenmazou]

Battle Galaxy?
I thought it's the head of Brera's VF 27 but I noticed the turrets.

[xtallography]

They were able to jam fold wave communication an ep or two ago to try out their new weapons and prevent the varja from communicating back (so they don't evolve defenses against them etc etc). I thought the protocol was needed only to actually communicate to the varja. I'm not suggesting talking to them, I just mean to drown out all fold wave communication. Even if it is in just a limited range I would think it would still help against organization but maybe the range is too small for use in actual large scale battle conditions for it to be effective.

[NeoCybercoin]

Hmmm correct me if I am wrong but wasn't Sheryll's V-type infection contagious? Through like..body fluids? If she just kissed him doesn't that make him infected too? ._.;

[Ryllharu]

I don't think saliva was one of the "body fluids" they were referring to. More like blood and...the more intimate kind.

[KrayZ33]

I don't understand what the Vajra are and why this quartz thing is able to control minds or whatever....

but that aside, I liked this ep (even though GG's version was screwed at the beginning of the fight and the credits)

Could someone explain to me what grace and that zentradi guy is trying to accomplish?
This is so irritating... actually I don't even know what is going on since it was mentioned for the first time.

Why is it possible for grace to control the vajra? All the time I thought that Ranka's singing did somehow irritate the foldwave communications of them and thats why they start to act like brainless beeings, since the "Overmind" can't send them orders anymore (much like Starcraft and the zerg.)

[David75]

I don't understand what the Vajra are and why this quartz thing is able to control minds or whatever....

but that aside, I liked this ep (even though GG's version was screwed at the beginning of the fight and the credits)

Could someone explain to me what grace and that zentradi guy is trying to accomplish?
This is so irritating... actually I don't even know what is going on since it was mentioned for the first time.

Why is it possible for grace to control the vajra? All the time I thought that Ranka's singing did somehow irritate the foldwave communications of them and thats why they start to act like brainless beeings, since the "Overmind" can't send them orders anymore (much like Starcraft and the zerg.)

That quartz enable long distance and no delay communication.
It's also a base for supra-luminous speed travelling.

The Vajra works almost as a unique being thanks to the way they communicate, since the range is huge and there's no delay (like minutes from earth to mars for each input you have on the robots there), it works very effectively.

Why is Grace able to control that?
that's because she cracked the protocol used for the communication.
Just like she would be able to crack an encrypted communication from two PCs.
As she cracked that, she is able to be seen by the network as a Vajra, thus isn't targeted by them. Now she's trying to hack the core of the system: the Queen.

Why was she able to crack the communication protocol?
Thanks to Ranka.
Before that, Grace accumulated tons of data, but since Vajra are so different from any other race, she wasn't able to grasp how that worked.
Ranka being a symbiotic Vajra/human-zentran, she was some kind of Dictionnary or I should say a Rosetta stone. In Ranka, everything Vajra from the protocol had a counterpart in human-zentran. On the latter part, Grace probably has extensive knowledge, so it was a key to understand the protocol.

Remember that Ranka is partly Vajra, once Grace cracks the protocol, she is able to control anyone on the network... like Ranka.
For Brera it's because he is a bio-robot and Grace is her chief in that matter.

For their aim?
Well they want total control over the galaxy. The Vajra are a huge power that can enforce anything on any living being in the Galaxy. Go figure why being so omnipotent is important.
So what, you're the God of your Galaxy, then what do you do next?

Regarding the problems you have with that ep, update ffdsho to 2110 and it will disapear.

[shinta|hikari]

It is not just about omnipotence for Grace. It is about pride, and trying to prove herself and her ideas correct. Pride or actions that arise from it are usually an end in itself, so she is not really moving with any logical goal in mind.

[Buffalobiian]

Final Frontier:

[gg]_Macross_Frontier_-_25_[A3CDD196].mkv

(It may be an hour special, but I haven't confirmed it yet. If not, 700MB is a tad overkill)

Edit: I take that back. 700MB is fine

[DDBen]

The final isn't a hour long special its pure awesome though as I watched the raw earlier.

The release is massive because they added 4 audiotracks.

Default Track: No songs. 2nd Track: w/songs. 3rd Track: Zentradi, no songs. 4th Track: Zentradi w/songs.

[David75]

The final isn't a hour long special its pure awesome though as I watched the raw earlier.

The release is massive because they added 4 audiotracks.

Default Track: No songs. 2nd Track: w/songs. 3rd Track: Zentradi, no songs. 4th Track: Zentradi w/songs.

No the size really is in the video. Because the tracks they mention only changes the subtitles and karaoke ie text... so not a great deal of data.
Maybe they did a better audio encoding, we even have 5.1 here... but I do not see that explain twice the size of a nice HD encode.

Regarding the ep, well the end sure was rushed

[Illrenmazou]

The epic Frontier vs Galaxy duel I'm anticipating didn't happen, worse Battle Frontier just stood there and it didn't even fire the main gun. The Quarter transforming while flipping and doing the classic Daedalus maneuver was awesome though, way to go Bobby.
That scene of Mr. Birler holding a locket with Minmei's photo was a bit surprising, an episode ago he said that he'll finally be able to see her again. Maybe the key to finding the lost Megaroad vessel is in that planet.
Alto saluting his trashed VF-25 reminded me of Zechs and Tallgeese, poor VF.

[Kraco]

The script of this episode, or what was visible of it under all the space battle, was somewhat dodgy. I don't know if it was rushed as such because logically thinking the humans were being wiped out and so it couldn't have take any longer. The fighting itself, which clearly is what this was all about in addition to the ever present singing, was good in my opinion.

I didn't really connect with this show at all at any point too deeply so I think this was a jolly good last ep, even if it still didn't resolve the bloody triangle...

[Yukimura]

Wow, that was the best musical, beam-spam-filled, missile-spam-filled, vibrantly colorful smorgasbord of awesome fluff I've seen in a LONG time. I don't even care about the plot at (which I think is how it's supposed to be). The bad guys are dead, music has saved the galaxy, and everyone is happy with their current situation (except maybe Luca since breasts girl could still reject him to try and break up the SherylxRankaxAltoxAi-kun quadrangle). I think this is how it had to end and while I think they could have tied up the plot a little better I really don't care. The final battle was highly enjoyable and had in it all the elements that drew me to this show in the first place. And now we can start forgetting about Macross for a while and move on to the next thing (Linebarrel anyone?)

[NeoBear]

visually this was mindblowing it was all so random and just over the top but i smiled the whole time. there was so much i was angry about in the middle of this series but i forgive it all it was truly an awsome ending all is forgiven ... even Macross 7 =)

well its over how many more years will i have to wait for another Macross anime this series truly started me down the path of loving anime years ago thank you Robotec (Macross)

[Buffalobiian]

I'm with Yuki on this one. Totally tops any mecha show I've seen for a long LONG time. The "lets keep the love-triangel going so no one gets left out" sure doesn't resolve anything, but it works for me. There's a lot of comments saying that the ending was rushed, but I didn't feel that way. They pretty much covered everything they had to, and in a manner that didn't drag and take the adrenalin from the main battle.

I particularly liked how they recycled the "war machines understanding humanity" theme. Quite fitting for a show celebrating the 25th anniversary of Original Macross.

All in all, this ended on a very good note for me, and I'm willing to put it down for my personal list as Best Anime 2008 (for now at least). What's more is the ending didn't leave me said it finished, despite how awesome I thought the show was, which is a first.

For those who weren't 100% satisfied with the ending, or simply Macross fans, there was an announcement at the end (but out by gg) for a movie version Macross Frontier.