Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「一度だけの恋なら」 (Ichido dake no Koi nara) by ワルキューレ (Walkure)
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「覚悟のオーディション」 (Kakugo no Audition)
“Ready for the Audition”
Talk about starting things with a bang. Jenius comes out of nowhere to grab Hayate out of mid-air like it’s nothing, and with a punch here and a hilarious expression there, I think its safe to say that when we look back at this a few months from now, we could point to this as the unofficial start of our expected love triangle. It’s a rocky one, especially when you add in how Hayate screws up by touching her plane at the end, but I mean, there have been worse starts to a pairing haven’t there…? OK, so not really—am I the only one who thought Hayate was going to give her a middle finger here?—but hey at least they’re on a speaking relationship?
In the meanwhile though, the Freyja x Hayate pairing’s coming off as strong as it did the first episode, and if we’re talking about head starts, these two certainly have hit it off a lot better than the aforementioned. Playful teasing, priceless reactions, and city shenanigans highlight an obvious starting chemistry between the two, and the latter’s certainly turning out a lot more reminiscent of Ranka from Frontier than I ever expected her to. The new ending theme in particular hammers this in, and as Hayate slowly builds his way toward what should be a protective role as Freyja’s inevitable Delta Platoon guardian/pilot, there are certainly parallels to be drawn between them and Ranka + Alto’s respective rises from obscurity.
Seeing how well those two worked out though, this bodes well for the long-term, but at the moment they’re both exceptionally raw in terms of their development, and they’re going to need to truly rise to the occasion if they want to fill the shoes left to them by their franchise counterparts and the roles they’re expected to take in Δ. Freyja’s passing of the final audition is a good start, but one wonders if there won’t come a time where she’ll need to give her all without relying on the adrenaline rush of a near-death situation to get her going, and this could be a bumpy ride as she sorts through the inevitable hurdles that’ll come her way as the newest member of the Walkure.
With that said, I’m still not too sure whether or not to call the Walkure the flashiest gang in the universe given their constant usage of the “W” symbol (that’s clearly a gang sign more than anything at this point), but I guess it’s fitting considering how much influence the wind is having on our respective cast members (especially those on the other side of things). This second episode brings us a bit more information regarding our Draken piloting antagonists, and with the revelation that an yet to be seen “Lord Heinz” seems to be suffering from a condition that is causing him to run out of time, it makes you wonder if it isn’t something at least partially related to Vars Syndrome. Their impeccable timing last week hints at them being involved in the Syndrome cases we’ve seen so far, but it could very well be that they’re just hitting the areas afflicted by the Syndrome purely to obtain data on the Walkure as a potential treatment. Depending on how things work out here, they could very well end up on the same side before its all said and done (starting many cross-factional triangles while they’re at it), and I sure hope that Roid’s got enough glasses in his collection to last until then…
All things considered, nothing unexpected really happens this week, and Δ seems content following the general formula of prior series so far, with a little bit of differentiation to separate its cast and setting from the others. A few more scenes end up clearly taken from/influenced by AKB0048, but what’s more surprising are the many references they’ve littered here in various blink and you’ll miss it moments. It was a nostalgic touch seeing both Ranka’s cellphone in particular and the Macross Elysion was also positioned in a way that both references the original Macross and Macross Plus. I half expected something akin to Information High popping up, but I guess you can’t exactly expect those kind of fireworks to this early on.
Here’s looking forward to next week and more seal-cats/mer-cats? I want one.
Author’s Note: Just a extra tidbit, Ikenai Borderline and Love! Halation the War have already been released as Digital Singles.
ED2 Sequence
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ED2: 「ルンがピカッと光ったら」 (Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara) by ワルキューレ (Walkure)
Preview
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Look Nagisa(Jitsu wa) you have a fellow angler with the name of Freyja xD
Show Spoiler ▼
Looking forward for next week too. And more mercats! XD
Speaking of which, I think this series is the most diverse in terms of alien races, as aside from humans and zentradi, there are now new races such as the Ragna and Windemere. It’s nice how the universe building is shaping up.
Indeed. They said they were going to really focus more on actual planets since Frontier was mostly space-oriented, and it looks like one of the side benefits from this is they’re able to use the whole “remote area of the galaxy” setting to give us a couple new races while they’re at it. Certainly a plus.
I gotta admit, I really enjoyed this episode. I dunno if I’ll be watching the whole series, but I may stick around for a little while.
And apparently Mirage is the granddaughter of the original Jenius from the original Macross. I guess it was confirmed on Twitter.
Makes sense. Got some piloting skills to boot too, so generally fitting.
Sea-kittens! So adorbs! (Also seems to be a nod to the “Cat Islands” of Tashirojima and Aoshima.)
Also, the trend of an anime character in a real-life background continues, though this is more…animated compared to Netoge no Yome‘s eyecatch.
And LOL, Mirage treats her fighter like a companion cube. If the show has any crack pairings in the tradition of “Alto x the sky” in Frontier (though Hayate might NTR the sky later on), that might be it. Speaking of Mirage, according to this tweet, she’s the daughter of Max and Millia’s sixth child, Miranda Jenius. (Which makes Mylene an auntie of Mirage.) That’s one question answered.
Lol, Max was hitting that like it was going out of style! That family photo!
Poor, poor Jenius.
The OP makes it clear that she’ll be a romantic interest to Hayate, but she clearly has no chance, as it’s so obvious that he’ll end up with Freyja.
Poor, poor Jenius.
lol
Its the opposite actually. In the tradition of the Macross love triangles, the older, more mature love interests are the ones who come out on top. Freyja is the one who has the uphill climb.
Not according to Frontier they aren’t
Sheryl clearly won in the Frontier movie. And even in the series she had far more development with Alto than Ranka, who never really developed from her puppy love. It was clear who the cards were stacked for.
This. You can almost immediately write off Frejya end with the original macross creator on lead writing. Extra unlikely if Genius is really Max’s grand child. She has a while legacy backing her up.
I preferred the Macross Frontier movie ending too. It felt more conclusive and had more in the way of meaning to it.
Not to mention that her grandparents Milia and Maximilian met in far worse terms, literally trying to kill each other and all that.
Truly, Macross tradition gives Mirage’s an advantage. Time will tell, but given the comments here, it seems that the intended effect of making people interested in their potential relationshio has been achieved.
In two occasions, the girl who’s grabbed by the MC’s Vakyrie in a combat situation loses in the end. 😛
1. Minmei
2. Ranka
I think the horrible start of their relationship is what gives Mirage the advantage to win Hayate´s heart, I mean they are in such a bad terms that it couldn´t possibly get any worse, it can only inmprove.
Either Freyja wins because it’s something new in the series xD or Mirage wins because it’s tradition or the show is trying to say that “idols” should not get into relationship while in their career. Then again we have Sheryl from Frontier but she’s more of a celebrity??
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%20OP%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
The OP seems to promise some sort of Max/Millia dynamic. Though judging from that massive stick up Mirage’s ass, its probably going to be more of Hikaru/Misa relationship. I can already feel the UST bleeding out from this episode.
Pretty messed final audition for Freya though. At least its understandable, since Walkure is required to thing in the battlefield. I can think of worse idol auditions to be in. Like that one series where aspiring idols were forced to fight giant robots on foot.
To be honest I truly loved how the relationship of Hikaru and Misa developed in the original Macross, at first it was not only that they disliked each other, they hated each other for real, I though Misa was going to kill him sooner or later but them they grew close in a really sweet way, I hope we get to see something like that in this new installment.
They did. But the last 3 or 4 episodes took all of that development and throw it in to the trash.
Just for reference, the gesture that Hayate did basically *is* the equivalent of the middle finger in Europe.
Oh I thought she was throwing the Westside sign in respect to Tupac.
one of famous examples of its usage was on 1980 Olympics in Moscow after Polish sportsman got gold in pole vaulting and gave it to the Russian public on tribunes in response to whistles of diasappointment…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras_d%27honneur
Thanks for that! I knew I’ve seen it somewhere in real life. Just can’t put my finger on where.
mostly Italians like this gesture, combine it with “Afangulo” and you get the gist. But yeah, its an “Fuck You!” gesture
Haha. That makes sense. It certainly felt like a middle finger even though I didn’t know it was an actual gesture.
All of the enemies seem to have those same weird little things at the end of their hair, that Freyja does. I’m sure that her and them will end up being related somehow in due time.
Those little things are Runes. They are basically organic fold crystals.
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
incidentally, the character that picqued most of my interest was leader of the Draken wing, prince Roid…
he is calm and collected, doesnt use more violence than needed for whatever his goals are, and keeps his hotheaded pilots with iron dicipline. He also seems quite an intellectual mind…
My character vibe: Faramir.
I’m wondering if he’s going to change his glasses every episode, haha.
It’s not a Macross series without a love triangle…huh?
that hair boner really bugs me
Mikoumo’s W hand sign looks akward. Tried it with my own hand and it is just as akward.
Yeahhh I think most of us tried to do it immediately after. Could swear I almost dislocated something doing it. -_-
Not that awkward, tbh (though Mikumo-san’s fingers looks to be really flexible). It would be worse if you overlap the wrong fingers.
Maybe you’ve got to sing before doing it 😉
That sure was a DECULTURE and a half episode. 😀
Anybody else notice the scene where the commander looked like he was two times taller than Hayate? It occurs at around 16:33 of the episode. Warning, you probably can’t unsee it… but it’s just the camera perpective. Got me giggling anyways.
Haha… I noticed that too, kind of took me awhile to notice and finally accept the fact that they just poorly showcased depth of field (I think that is the right term…)
Inserting image below
16:33
What an optical illusion.
If only they move Hayate further to the right and make his shoulder/parts of his body covered/blocked from view by the captain in the front it won’t look that awkward, and overlapping objects is a very basic technique to create a proper illusion of depth… I guess even pro can make mistakes sometimes
With many harem animes these days, it would be nice to see Hayate ending up with both of them.
That would be a first for a Macross series and completed unexpected.
Surprised that Hayate never flew anything before. He’s actually more of a battroid/destroid pilot. Is that first for the Macross series? Anyway, it would be funny if one of the first things he has to learn is the Immelman maneuver.
Hikaru Ichijo didn’t know what a Valkyrie was on the original, so Hayate at least have experience with mechs. On the other hand, only Max Jenius (yes, THE MAN himself) was a better warrior in Battroid mode than in Gerwalk or Fighter. I could picture Mirage’s face if she ever know that Hayate is as good as her grandfather (which means way better than her) in a Battroid
Hikaru was a sports plane pilot. He knew how to fly the VF-1 in fighter mode. IIRC Gerwalk mode has similar flight controls to fighter mode. That was why he was told to change to that form when it got damaged. Knowing how to fly normal planes gave him about 60% of the knowledge needed to operate Variable Fighters. Battroid controls apparently has more similarities with construction mechs.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Hayate’s surprising skill with a Valkyrie ends up being a major thing that draws Jenius and him together in the future.
That reminds me, the gesture Hayate does with his hands is similar to what what Alto Saotome doe sin Macross Frontier when he operates his Valkyrie.
That gesture was first introduced in Macross Plus via Isamu.
I was kinda worried about the whole idol-maho shoujo with their fluttery costumes in the middle of frickin’ giant robot fight, but eh the VF pilots from bad guys’ side are outrageously shining bishounens, so it kinda evened out
Sick of all these macross shipper fans calling the end girl already based on this “formula” from the previous series. More than knowing which girl wins the triangle in the end, I am more interested in seeing them heads getting mindblown if Freyja, the “less mature girl”, nabs the main character. Go Kawamori, show them your trolling powers lol
On a more important note, MERCATS! I would like to point out that the little animal with Mirage in the OP is a merkitty! Merkitty = WIN <3
There’s a high probability that will happen to break traditions xD and I like it despite that I’m rooting for Mirage. Damn it I’m too early to judge >_<
Every time a new Macross comes along a ship war is going to happen no matter what , the love triangle is one of the main charms of the franchise after all. That being said, this new love triangle has yet to stablish its propper form so it´s too early to judge but for some reason Mirage is a far more likeable character to me than Freyja so I´m rotting for her all the way to the end and I think it´s going to be her victory.
End game is so strong already. Rooting for Frejya though.
That mercat….is the sign that a Macross ship has finally landed on the right planet. 😛
Good job Elysion.
A vast improvement from the cringe worthy first episode (though I still found myself cringing a few times on this one).
Seriously, Idols in warzones is still beyond me.
I also dont understand why that captain dude allows the main protagonist to do what he wants. Arent they suppose to be military? Isnt taking orders mandatory?
The one last thing that I found pleasing was one of our heroines is NOT an Idol. This is probably just me but I simply cant stand damsel-in-distress heroines.
All in all, I have moderate hopes that Delta would turn my initial disgust around
They haven’t quite explained what exactly the Delta Platoon if I remember correctly. It’s certainly military in nature, but they could very well be a PMC or specialized group like the SMS was in Frontier. Basically armed with some of the newest weapons, military in nature, but with more leeway in regards to who they can recruit and the freedom they give their respective pilots.
I’m sure though that it’s not exactly “anything he wants,” but more so he can fight and fly the way he wants within the confines of their general mission. There’s definitely going to be orders he’ll have to follow at some point.
Hayate has a personality that will immediately clash with the military environment so I think the captain recognizes his great potential as a pilot but at the same time he will try to break that arrogance that will undoubtedly kill Hayate and other in the Delta Platoon if left unchecked.
Another thing that picked my interest was that both girls of the main love triangle are not human, Mirage is a Zentradi and Freyja is a Windemere, feels refreshing when the main heroines are from different races of the Macross universe.
Some things I am wondering about:
1. The way Macross Elysion is positioned implies it’s the flagship of the fleet that colonized planet Ragna. But aren’t the flagships of colonization fleets supposed to be Battle-classes by now (e.g. like Battle Frontier and Battle Galaxy from Macross Frontier). Does this mean full-sized Macross class ships are still used? Or is Elysion the same size as Macross Quarter, and it just looks bigger due to perspective?
2. Why is the VF171 Nightmare Plus still the UN Spacy’s Space Superiority Fighter? I thought they’d be using VF-25s as the mainstay, at least.
We still don’t know much about the Elysion. It could be a special retrofit of an original SDF-class or a totally different kind of ship. At first sight, it seems slightly larger than the Quarter, but smaller than a SDF and/or Battle-class.
As for the VF-171 being still there, the VF-25 Messiah is more a Frontier/LAI/SMS in-house design, so the NUNS cannot use it for the regular army unless they pay for it.
I speculate that the Macross Elysion is a class between the SDF Macross and the Battle Macross series. It looks too big to be a Macross Quarter and too blockish to be a Battle Macross.
Generally the VF-25 seemed like a big SMS developed and tested model, so could be that they either decided to keep it for themselves, the design didn’t quite make it far enough to some of the more remote areas, or a decision was made to use to VF-171 Plus (which has parts from the VF-25) instead. Alternatively they could be attempting to use that for now and skipping to see if the VF-31 Siegfried becomes a viable option.
At least, that would be possible in universe explanations.
I think it was mentioned somewhere that Kawamori felt the VF-25 was too much of a “hero unit” and wanted something clearly distinguishable or something for the others. Could be the same explanation here, using the recognizable VF-171 for the regulars while having the VF-31 as the “hero unit.”
Yeah the Macross Elysion fleet is probably a composed of various models. The Elysion itself seems closer to the SDF style while Delta Squads carrier (5:45) is more similar to the Battle Frontier/Galaxy design. It also looks like Delta Squad is using Ex-gear.
I’m loving the design for the SV-262s plus ghosts. I think this is the first time we’ve seen a quazi single engine valkyrie. As a fan of Macross’s mech design I can watch for that alone.
Apparently the space carrier that the Delta squad were housed in is part of an arm for the Elysion. Observe:
The said carrier
Macross Elysion – a SDF-1 look-alike, complete with
carrierarms holding on to carriers.The same(?) one here – Rather hard to ID the ship number, but it’s there.
images credit to this reddit post.
Also, @ jmikal – nice catch on the Ex-Gear, didn’t notice it until (another) re-watch after reading your comment.
I can’t (and am not bothering to) judge if Elysion is the same size as Battle 7 or closer to the original Macross.
@info600 [tips hat] indeed it is. Thanks for the link.
I really don’t understand the different classes of Macross(As I’ve only seen Frontier, and a few eps of Delta). I remember in the second Frontier movie, like dozens of them, maybe more.. appeared(S.M.S?) in the Vajra Planet battle in space. I kinda assumed that the Macross design is a standard transformable warship type design.
Let’s see if I remember this correctly:
1. The original SDF Macross = a battleship, spacecraft carrier, and city all in one http://www.macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/macross.htm
2. Battle-class (The big ships Battle Frontier and Battle Galaxy you see in M. Frontier) = Battleship, Carrier, and Flagship of colonization fleets, but connected to the New Macross-class ships in times of peace
http://www.macross2.net/m3/macross7/newmacross.htm
3. Macross Quarter class = only a quarter/25% size of a regular Macross class, but still packs a punch, primarily a spacecraft carrier
http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrossf/macross-quarter.htm
4. Macross Elysion = still waiting on the tech info on this one, but it looks like it’s not as big as the SDF-1 or the Battle Class, but bigger than the Macross Quarter class
Thanks for explaining. I was really impressed with the scale of the fleets out there. The best one was in the second Macross Frontier movie when several dozen if not more of those ships appeared. And on the planet when all of those Macross looking machines took aim at the Queen.
Somehow I feel bad for Mirage, she´s the grandaughter of two war heroes and that family incredibly strict as well if my memorie of Macross 7 serves me right, I can´t imagine the preassure of living under those shadows hence her attitude towards Hayate.
Is Mirage really Max’s Granddaughter? was thinking like She was one of Mylene’s older sisters? (I recall Max had 7 daughters with Mylene being the youngest)
It was confirmed by the creators of the series in twiter recently and I hope that it will become a major plot point in the future, being the grandaughter of a major galactic hero tends to put a lot of high expectations in a person.
Interesting that would go a long way to explain why she’s so wound up 😕
Count me in also as curious as to how Hayate and Mirage’s relationship will unfold given that first meeting of theirs. On Freyja, at first I was a little sorry for the other contestants that Walkure’s newest member was able to bypass procedures and went straight to the final auditions. In Freyja’s defense though they did give her a final test to prove if she’s got what it takes. Oh and mercats are cute!
I agree with you, Freyja pretty much cheated her way to the audition but we have to remember that Walkure is a military unit and not your average idol group so as long as they get a competent member I think it´s all good.
True. That’s why I said it was fair for Walkure to practically give Freyja the position, so long as she passed their test. If just in case she didn’t they can just go along with their original result that no one passed. And that was quite a test. Their Var outbreak scenario was pretty scary. I really wanted to believe it wasn’t real because the girl with glasses was too cute to be killed. Glad it wasn’t real after all.
I wouldn’t say she cheated, I think they just allowed her in because she’s very special. This will probably a lot like how Ranka Lee had that affinity with the Vajra. The power of her song is unlike anything they’ve seen before, they couldn’t not allow her in. You could argue that Frejya was the best there, and the best won.
Ultimately, I will say it was a little off putting how Freyja just by-passed a lot of things there, but clearly at that point they weren’t looking so much for singing ability as they were fold-wave potential, so it makes sense that given how rare it seems to be to have that and the ability to sing under pressure, they’d do whatever they needed to do to get her as a potential candidate.
Ok, now that I take a better look at the bad guys’ hairstyles (do they have runes in their hair?) and that mention of Windermere as a society hostile to ooutside interference, I wonder: does Freyja belong to the same people as the current villains of the series?
Could very well be, or at least it wouldn’t be surprising that someone else who left from her planet is using the ability in an opposite way. The restriction on travel to/from that planet makes it more likely its a singular person or a handful at the source rather than the race as a whole.
Wow… Didn’t notice that myself… this might as well be the storyline…
@Koji It’s already been confirmed by Kawamori before the show started that Mirage is the granddaughter of Max and Milia. Her mother is Miranda Jenius, their second youngest daughter.
Will just wait for this show to end to know the endgame so I won’t ship the wrong ship
By the way, I know this shows is just starting, but from the delta squadron and walkure, who do you guys think will die?
For some reason I think Mikumo is not going to make it to the end, also, the creator said this ne installment is going to focus on Valkyrie vs Valkyrie battles so I don´t think all the pilots are going to make it.
kept rewatching the part where Hayate was oogling at a sky-blue VF and am curious if the VF he was looking at is a YF-30 Chronos XD
I really hope we see a Macross Quarter sky surfing in Delta, like they did in the second Frontier movie. That was amazing.
WOOO HOOO finally another macross. THere are elements here that I like, the first is that Miku is definitely related to Sheryl Nome in some ways. I mean she’s like Sheryl Nome light really.
Secondly, There appear to be a civil war going on between that Britanna like family and the people of Ragna. I have no idea on the stakes but in the opening sequence it show the two macross expedition fleet were pretty damn close to one another.
I can’t help but think that Miku is trigging a death flag just by being so awesome. The Roy Fokker to whatever the new girl name is.
Another thing is that the Var Virus has something to do with the Vajira or fall out from the Frontier battle. The fact that they all had Ranka like abilities, in my opinion, lend credence to that theory of mine.
I hope that Hayate saying that he hates the Army doesn’t mean he’s was a pussy ass Pacifist like Basara. To date, I think the most awesome flyer for the MAcross series was Hikaru Ichijo (Rick HUnter U.S) and Gamlin of Macross 7 Fame. Alto was up there but he was pretty damn girly looking. Even his pony tail had no purpose.
Hayate remind anyone else of a male version of Hachiman (Oregaru) little sister minus the fangs.
Already the song is catchy. I can’t help but thing that the enemy so far is like a boy band version of Walkure.
Am I the only one who thought that parts of the ED sounded a lot like September from Earth, Wind, & Fire?