Summary:
Well, it turns out the whole attack on the research fleet really was Ranka’s fault. The fleet had captured the first encountered Vajra, and after Ranshe Mei forgot to cook the Vajra thoroughly, she got bad Vajracteria and became the first patient with a V-type infection. This was passed on to Ranka, and is the source of Ranka’s super-powered intestines. Grace and Brera tell Ranka that the only way to atone for this crime is to help the Vajra fend off the human invasion, and so the karaoke battle is on.
At first Sheryl’s music is able to debuff the Vajra and give NUNS a fighting chance, but then giant Spirit-Ranka appears and rallies the bugs. The Vajra network amplifies Ranka’s song, and Brera zips in to stop Alto. Even with Klan Klein’s help, Alto is no match for Brera and too late Alto realizes that his ship is just a refurbished piece of junk. Brera easily knocks Klan Klein aside, and turns Alto’s ship into scrap metal.
Reaction:
At this point, I have decided that Ranka is just straight up stupid. So the only way to make up for the fact that you called alien bugs in and killed all your human friends and family is to help the murderous bugs and save their planet. How does that even make any sense? At least Grace’s plan of world domination computes, since the Vajra would definitely have forced Minamo to get a cyberbrain and connect to the Metal. Damn Grace wants to microchip all of us and force us to listen to the Aimo Grace-remix 24/7!!!
It looks like Alto is dead, but I am not convinced. If Alto dies, how will anyone’s voice reach Ranka and snap her out of it? I did finally figure out Alto’s fiendish plot, though. I now know Alto never lost that first earring, and his diabolical reason for sticking with Sheryl (Mao Nome’s granddaughter) was to scam her out of her second beautiful earring. Now that pretty pretty Alto-hime has the completed earring set, you can bet he’s going to dump Sheryl as soon as he miraculously shows up alive in the next episode.
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15 Comments
… Ranka wasn’t listening to Alto before. What makes you think he would snap her out of it by being ALIVE? It’s better that he’s dead, even if I will have to wait for a corpse to confirm his death.
Time for Sheryl to fly out and choke-slam some sense into Ranka. I was hoping the earring would snap Ranka out of it, but I see your point…
BTW, WTF happened to Ai-kun? It seemed like he was such a big part of the story before.
My Alto-hime is not dead, and no I don’t think hime is capable of saving Ranka now, unless he becomes Sakura-hime. I hope Ranka can save herself otherwise she will go down as the most pathetic female lead in Macross history. For most of the series Ranka was always being saved, now that she is the instrument of humanity’s demise, Ranka has to do something positive for a change given how all of her grand plans turned to shit.
Also Alto-hime is no thief. My Alto-hime was thick his confession went awry. Hime became more girly for Sheryl after spending the most of the series trying to assert his manliness; I think hime is making a grand gesture of his love for Sheryl. Sheryl always said she looked forward to seeing a legendary oyama, perhaps this is hime’s way of saying yes.
We all know Ranka could not force Alto-hime to be an oyama again…so at least Sheryl is a friend with benefits.
I don’t really want Ranka to suck up screen time as the mother of all battles is all but assured. Ranka better save herself other wise her complaining and angsting will rob us all of valuable Battle Frontier vs Battle Galaxy time.
The mysterious figure who appears next episode will be…
Alto as Sakura-hime!
That’ll inspire Frontier to VICTORY!!! Ozma will pwn Brera’s ass!
I loved that Grace had Ranka sing Ai Oboeteimaska to protect the planet. So ironic, given the “history” of the song. I also like the moral implications about war, invasion, human culpability, greed, etc.
Alto-hime does look good with his earring, maybe once the war is over he and Bobby can have a tryst. I can see Bobby wanting to tap that if he ever gets over Ozuma.
I love that Brera owned Alto and that Ranka muted out Sheryl.
As a side note, all her gal pals are supporting Monica’s love now, but just wait till Monica gets a huge raise and promotion after the Vajra battle. Sleeping with the boss FTW!
Crusader: Ranka better do something drastic, because at this point she is really ruining Macross Frontier for me. After Seikan Hikou, it is like everything about her went downhill and turned to crap. The production values haven’t really been that awesome either, so now I am not sure if the next episode will feature really good animation/choreography.
Di Gi Kazune: That will be funny if Ozma comes in and shows Alto how to do things right. Brera has been eating Alto’s lunch all series long, although it might be because of the difference in equipment.
AJackBoy: I can kinda understand how human greed has really helped doom the race, especially with how Leon is trying to steal the planet. Still, the Vajra continually harassing humans is not justified, at least not in this case. Will the Vajra end up being our friends, opening up a mall on Macross Frontier, and buying tons of little Ranka dolls that sing Aimo all the time? Bobby x Alto makes a lot of sense in my book, and I was sad that Sheryl’s skanky Larry King outfit was defeated by giant spirit-Ranka.
I think the reason for the Vajira attacking the Frontier in the first place has to still be revealed. That’s the only way I can see co-existence, if they too were being manipulated by Grace somehow.
Ranka doll < Minmay doll.
@Kabitzin
Bilrer is the boss, Wilder is just a supervisor. :P
I thought that this episode was done pretty well and I cannot wait to see them blow the last of their budget on Battle Frontier vs Battle Galaxy. Yeah If Ranka doesn’t do something to save herself then she really will be nothing more than a tool. Ranka still has not got out of her rut since episode 12 right now the best she can hope for is to redeem herself a bit byt fighting back against Grace, otherwise not even Seikan Hikou can salvage Ranka’s reputation. Even if she were forgiven and let off the hook for aiding an enemy Ranka will never be able to be a star ever again.
AJackBoy: Seems like we just intruded in their territory and harvested some of their buddies for their gall bladders (or whatever part is used for fold quartz). I don’t get what they’re so pissed about.
Crusader: Actually, since Jeffie jacked Richard’s ship for some pirate action, Monica is/will be sleeping with the boss
. It’s amazing how Ranka was so awesome when she first performed Seikan Hikou and then she proceeded to completely suck afterwards.
Bilrer let Wilder borrow the keys, he will be taking back his ship though…
After episode 12 things have only gotten worse for Ranka’s character, it was not that she fell victim to circumstance, but rather Ranka never asserted herself and in the end failed because she was still a kid that could not cope with events. Heck the reason why I liked Sheryl as time went on was because she did adapt and fight her way out of her problems. If only Ranka could do the same.
Ranka is indeed a tool at the moment but it’s interesting to see things from the Vajra standpoint…Frontier is invading the Vajra planet just like the Zentradi invaded Earth in the first place. Maybe. I’d like to see her come to her senses and turn things around to resolve everything – it’s a bit of a tall order this late in the game but I hope it happens.
@AJackBoy: I knew I’d heard that song before. Cheers for pointing out the title!
I can’t believe Alto can die just yet though. He’ll survive somehow, riding the air currents Isamu-style and
take out sharon’s mainframerescue Ranka.The incidental scenes were fun though. Monica’s certainly secured a promotion (yarr!), Bobby was pure camp comic win but Sheryl’s military-style outfit was decidedly unflattering. At least she stole a kiss from Alto-hime before he (possibly) got himself KIA though. As an aside, there was a research project conducted years ago that proved men who get a goodbye kiss from their wives are less likely to have an accident when driving to work. Didn’t apply here though I guess.
I thought Brera recovered the lost earring? If anything he might still have it, and that’s how Alto (not dead, and floating in space with his spacesuit) reaches Ranka.
This is probably the least epic of all Macross series. In the past we’ve had the fate of the human race, the fate of UNSpacy and the fate of the galaxy… now it’s just the fate of the Frontier fleet as much as they want to make it more than that it’s not.
I see no direction other than Ranka having to finally think and act for herself, since being underconfident dead weight has gotten her to the point of atoning for almost killing humanity by… trying to kill them again.
@AJackboy – Totally agreed on the song. I thought it was one of Frontier’s finest moments, to turn the former “song that saved humanity” into its destroyer.
LET THE REBELLION COMMENCE!!! I’ve already sent my hail mail to her =3 I really do hope everything turns for the better for her. I still have a tiny bit of hope… but for now, its all Sheryl-fanboy-mode bay bay!
If Alto really is dead, wow, that would be awesome! I just don’t feel the series will end with a bang without some special event like this occurring. I mean, if he doesn’t die, it would end with Ranka snapping out of it, Sheryl and Ranka will recreate that OP scene where they are naked and start singing while placing a Yu-Gi-Oh! card in attack mode (well, thats what I think of whenever I see that particular OP scene)… and thats it. Oh, and of course, them saving the Universe/Frontier. Alto kicking the bucket is definitely the best way to go! And then Ranka will go all berserk-mode and stab her bro (keep forgetting his name damit! :()
Amen to that!… or should I say, “A-boy” to that! *ba dum psh* … cause ur name is AJackBoy… sorry for harassing the commenters again
Ranka’s version of Oboeteimasuka was great but it was hard for me to swallow it considering the fact that it was sang while the Vajras were shooting pew pew lasers at the humans.