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「閃光のAXIA」 (Senko no Akushia)
“AXIA Flash”
As expected, the Aerial Knights’ scouting mission proves vital in allowing them to utilize multiple ruins to amplify their Song of the Wind, and the clashing of their song with Mikumo and Freyja leads to the incapacitation of all involved. The subsequent rout of a now Messer-less Squadron forces the latter to cancel his attempted reassignment in order rescue the Delta Platoon in its darkest hour, and Kaname takes center stage with her AXIS solo in an attempt to turn the tide. Contrary to previous episodes however, there would be no fairy tale ending this time around, and Messer takes the hit as the first member of the main cast to bite the dust—in tremendously bloody fashion no less.
In hindsight, the signs were certainly there, but it’s always surprising when a main cast member bites the dust in the Macross franchise given its rarity, and this was no exception. Given the assumption that the series should be a two-cour at least, the fact that it’s happening less than mid-way through makes it even more surprising, and it makes you wonder not only how many episodes they plan to have for this series, but whether or not it’ll air straight through or via split-cours. Curiously enough, the broadcast schedule doesn’t list anything after the series’ 12th episode aside from the release of the first blu-rays…
Either way, the significance of Messer’s death ultimately extends far beyond the event itself, and it’s important to consider where exactly this leaves the Delta Platoon. Not only have they now lost their best pilot, he was the sole reason they didn’t already all get shot down in the first place, and the one who supported him with her song seems far from able to sing again in the long-term, let along the short-term. It could very well be that Kaname finds the resolve to go on regardless, but that doesn’t change that Mirage and Hayate have both taken some hits, and there aren’t any non-mind controlled reinforcements available at the current time. Mikumo and Freyja rising back up from their Song of the Wind setback is certainly a possibility given how we see them slowly regaining consciousness toward the end, but for all the magic they’ve been able to conjure up so far, they’ll really need another level of surprises if they want to get the cast out of this jam.
Looking forward, I’m honestly not quite sure where things are going to go from here, and I’m both excited and anxious to see how things develop from here. Depending on how things go, it’ll determine whether or not Messer’s death has any real lasting impact, and the reactions from the various characters will be critical in their respective developments from this point forward. This is the turning point in more ways than one, and count me in as someone who hopes that Roid’s actions this week aren’t just a one and done deal. Given his obvious talent, this could very well be the moment for him to shine in the Walkure’s stead, and I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if he rides in as our cast’s surprising savior. It’d give him another moment to adjust his glasses in style, while simultaneously filling the gap that Messer’s disappearance has left us with. Hayate’s clear inability to fill in the role of the Reaper at the moment makes this a logical development as well, and I guess we’ll just have to see how things work out.
ED3 Sequence
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ED2: 「Axia ~ Daisuki de Daikirai ~」 (AXIA〜ダイスキでダイキライ〜) by Kaname Δ Yasuno Kiyono
Messer’s not dead. Anime rule is in effect until I see a body (as horrible as it may be). I’m holding out hope that he’ll live.
But seriously, was anyone else expect Delta to go like this when the first episodes aired? I’m looking forward to more.
I’m sorry to break your bubble but Messer’s really dead. Kawamori has always been unforgiving when it comes to killing off characters in Macross. There will be no asspulls like critically injured but still alive or miracle resurrections here I’m afraid.
Yep the giant blood splatter sort of gives it away…
yeap, this much blood must come from an “head shoot”
just rethink in how flight suits support the Pilots “brain” for not knockout of G forces
He’s dead. No pilot can survive an energy blast to the cockpit like that. There’s little in the way of protection there for the pilot, just the canopy. The “OMG NOOOO” facial reactions from the cast should have given this death away, they cut to everyone important too.
Messer got superheated by a energy blast and popped like a ripe berry. What a bad way to go. For some reason I was getting Show Spoiler ▼
(DEATH SPOILER FROM ORIGINAL MACROSS) vibe from Messer. The song Axia did not do his death justice really. I think they could have milked Messer a bit more like they did with Micheal in Frontier. Micheal death was so hard hitting that they had to retcon it in the movie.
The whole Kaname and Arad thing came out of left field. Not even much of a triangle if you think about it. The scene Hayate was scolding the girls that if htey like someone they should just say it was pretty funny.
Also I am gonna go ahead and pin Messer Death on Hyate. If he had killed Bouge two episode ago, there would not be that many ace in the airs for messer to deal with and would have relieved Delta Squadron.
I hope that Mirage is Kieth next rival and not Hayate. It’s about time she did somethign while Hayate need to battle Bouge.
Again they show the Frontier Vajra Fold wave super upgrade. Var virus might be an offshoot of the Vajara virus Sheryl had in TV frontier.
Yeah, the two of them ultimately had similar situations in the sense that they didn’t go out in the way that one would expect them to given their abilities and accomplishments.
And also, it’s interesting because the series itself never confirmed that Kaname and Arad were a thing per se. You could assume they are based on how much you saw them together and the characters sitting there this week saying they were an item, but they never really seemed anything more than very friendly with each other, and Kaname herself ultimately acted very similar with Messer as well when it was all said and done. It was almost as if Kaname was intentionally restricting herself from going any further, or was just unable to find any feelings for the two of them because she’s unable to reconcile the fact that she’s been overshadowed by Mikumo (and now Freyja) too.
Technically it’s still a triangle per se, but more of the tragic variety rather than a romantic one.
Eee? I think Mihael’s death in Frontier TV was really stupid move like the most of the latter half of the series. This is one of the reasons I will always ignore Frontier TV and dim movies kanon.
So.. how much ammo did Messer have before shooting the drone that shielded the white knight? I would’ve imagined him unloading ALL the ammo he has on him instead of a burst.
Yeah no reason why he didn’t shoot thru the explosion, might not kill the White knight but would be enough to throw off his aim. IMO it was done poorly like Messer was looking blanky like a rookie and not a veteran.
Would been better if Messer’s gun malfunctioned from the earlier hit or that the White Knight shot thru his own Ghost drone to hit Messer
That’s certainly an interesting point to make, but there’s a lot of potential arguments for why that happened.
One could make an argument for limited ammunition, the Var Syndrome affecting his judgment, Kaname’s return to center stage causing him to drop his guard on the thought that he can rest comfortably knowing he “successfully” protected her/got her to sing for him one last time, etc. etc.
damn…kaname was already feeling like she didnt have the talent to rival mikumo so imagine how she may take this. She’ll probably think that her singing wasnt good enough to guide messer properly and that had mikumo and freyja been conscious, they would have done a better job at guiding him. And for people who think that the whole Kaname and arad thing came out of nowhere; no it didnt. There have been hints of this as early as ep 2 (like how there have been hints that pink and green haired girl are “very close” since around the same ep). And this is what i meant last week when i said that a lot of the character fleshing happens on the low aka real subtle-like; the show doesnt feel the need to shove it in your face but rather makes you infer it. That is one of the strengths of this show
Kaname, I love you, but your song is literally “death flags the song”. Poor Kaname… she can’t do anything right.
Whats this feeling of unspeakable rage I’m feeling?? Feels like all these “Knights” all deserve a good melee cockpit destruction kill.
Upon further reflection I think its their smugness, Var on demand, and that 1v1v2 drone tactics that gets my blood boiling, sucks that Delta always fights them at a disadvantage. I’m wishing Delta gets some V-9 Ghost to even the odds.
It may be the sense of “unfairness”. Although the NUG is supposedly the biggest power in the known galaxy, so far in this war Windermere has better planes, better pilots, better technology, better defenses, better understanding of Protoculture ruins and superiority in numbers thanks to their zombie armies. No matter what the heroes do, it seems that it’s never enough.
Then add the suspicion that Windermereans may get away with their war crimes and their superiority imperialistic police because “it was all a misunderstanding” or “the power of song will make us all friends”, and suddenly the idea of the Aerial Knights kicking the bucket as soon as possible becomes very appealing.
They already have cutting edge multi purpose [ energy shield, holographic projector, song amplifier ] drones. It will be a piece of cake for them to utilize some of ghost drone stuff and somehow I’m sure they will get it soon.
Honestly sad Messer bit the dust but how it was portrayed was kinda dumb.
Sure he was surprised that the white Knight used his Ghost Drone as a shield, but is that any reason to stop firing thru the explosion? I’d be more fitting if the White used his Ghost as a Shield then shot thru it to hit Messer right in the cockpit
I would also like to question why none of the debris from the drone pelted and damaged Keith’s Draken when he flew THROUGH the explosion. Messer death was as stupid as it was forced.
You don’t know you’re talking about. Remenber in Macross 0 their armor as hard as tank and light so obviously in Delta timeline their armor already much stronger. So obviously it can withstand the shrapnel
To be honest, I really hated Messer death. To me, if a character has to die, it needs to be be grand spectacle worthy of a character. Here it just feels cheap, for short-term shock value. Messer only started getting developed and just when he is getting interesting they just pile the death flags on him then ax him just to make Kaname cry. Its a waste of a character when you could tell more stories with him.
I’ve been enjoying Delta so far, but I find this to be its first major misstep.
Ultimately you could draw ties between Messer and Show Spoiler ▼
Doesn’t change the fact that his death was anticlimactic given his abilities and the backdrop, but there’s certainly precedent for it, and one could make a case for it being a tough lesson about the cruel side of being a pilot.
Next victim
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If she is really the next victim, then they can close macross delta here for good. She has the most experience on battlefields of the walküries. there are no one to fill her place
why? She is the mother, sometimes even your mother was strict with you and you got agree at her, but then when you become older you see that “perhaps” it was the right thing to do at that time. She has similarities with All Mighty, except the muscle power. She is Walküries mentor/spearhead and guardian, all in one person
I’ve long since thought that Hayate would end up having to rescue Freyja from Windermere somehow(For dramatic effect, probably near the end of the series..). If anyone was going to die by this point, there are less notable members of Walkure to kill off. Such a scenario would probably require Mikumos singing to counter the Var..
I can see Mikumo surviving the series. She’s the most notable character in Walkure(If you don’t include Freyja, as she has main character status anyways…).
I am actually utterly confused why people are complaining Messer’s death is stupid. How…is that stupid? What’s wrong with not shooting when a pile of smoke and debris is in front of you? Would a veteran pilot shoot randomly when he doesn’t have a clear fix of where his enemy is? In the world of Macross where planes have super powerful engines able to maneuver like crazy, I see Messer’s thought to be justified. In that split second Keith could’ve went above him and shoot him. Messer, alongside of the Var he’s controlling, was waiting for surprises and what a surprise he got.
Don’t listen them as they don’t know what they’re talking about. There was much build up to Messer’s eventual death towards the end of episode 8 when his Var symptoms were flaring up. The guy was already getting a lot deathflags left and right and this episode just sealed the deal. His final duel with Keith was simply epic and well played.
MAin problem here is not Messer dying it’s how he died like a rookie scrub pilot and not a cool death like a veteran of his caliber should.
Even factoring in being surprised by Kieth flying out of the Ghost drone explosion him not even managing to fire off a few rounds to even clip Kieth’s Draken. (esp if you compare it to how Hayate shot down BOurges (the Red head’s) Draken a couple episodes back. I mean Hayate’s VF was literally fighting with one arm against him.
as an addendum
It harkens back to the stupid way (Macross Original Franchise Spoilers) Show Spoiler ▼
.
His movie Death was way better
1) do the cannons of the variable fighters have unlimited ammo? if yes: i dont see a reason to not stop shooting.
the factors of the dogfight are unknown, how far apart were both of them when they did a head on? it cant be too far since Messer would’ve seen the drone dive from a distance. Even then the drone fighter that shielded Keith dove to intercept the shots and exposed the top frame meaning the entire top of the plane was visible for Messer to see which is more visible than looking at the front of the aircraft, Messer must’ve had a chance to distinguish that he destroyed the drone instead.
Also, theres no gun convergence in those dogfights,those arent nose mounted guns. Which might explain why their dogfighting distance is so damn short.
Plus, Messer might’ve planned on dying on the first place, theres little sense to continually go on a straight line after you fired your burst because there is a risk of getting caught in your enemy’s shots too or going into debris is bad for the intake for jets, or even crashing into your (dead) enemy’s aircraft.
But what do i know? I just play ww2 dogfighting simulators.
I’ve generally assumed the VF-31s arm guns are shell firing weapons. The primary gun armament on “hero” valkyries is generally a shell firing weapon (granted that shell firing weapon had traditionally been an external gunpod).
Even if the arm guns didn’t have limited ammo, their shots are clearly visible, so firing through the cloud would have given Messer’s opponent an approximate idea of his position.
I do have to admit, Keith was pretty fast on the draw coming out of that cloud. Maybe we’re supposed to presume his flying through it was insane enough to catch Messer off guard. (Though valkyries have been shown in the past to be rather durable machines.)
You the one who knows nothing on gun mechanic. Do you even know whats Gun barrel overheat. Even infinite ammo like laser , it can overheat the gun barrel and can cause damage to the gun which led to Gun barrel explosion. That’s why today military don’t shoot their gun continuously even they have large amount of ammo as it could cause gun barrel overheat led to damage to the gun
You the one who knows nothing about gun mechanic. Do you even know whats Gun barrel overheat. Even infinite ammo like laser , it can overheat the gun barrel and can cause damage to the gun which led to Gun barrel explosion. That’s why today military don’t shoot their gun continuously even they have large amount of ammo as it could cause gun barrel overheat led to damage to the gun
@Charleston
Today’s military aircraft don’t actually have alot of ammo due to the high rate of fire of the guns (if the even have one) for example the f22 has a Vulcan gatling that shoots 6000 rounds per minute but only has a load of around 480 rounds, that’s like 5 seconds of sustained fire, or like the F35 which has 180 rounds with a 3300 rpm gun which is like 4 seconds of fire.
Also while you are correct that there is gun overheat, we cannot fully know the whether the variable fighters have automated safety for cooldowns like in sci fi or video games, plus I think I’ve seen the pilots shoot much longer than Messer’s last shot. Plus a pilot of Messer’s calibre would likely know how long he can hold the trigger before it jams or overheat (if it even does) in his aircraft. And EVEN then he could repeatedly squeeze the trigger in multiple burst so you can shoot longer but in longer intervals like today’s pilots.
Which brings back to the question, did he run out of ammo and why did he stop shooting. Because even thematically it doesn’t make sense since this is a perfect time to show the pilot holding the trigger until the baddie is gone or until the pilot goes down guns blazing like a cliché. Why am I so hung up on this is also annoying me
Guys, not only the Heat the Guns create, also the Recoil. This is like an full Air brake, if they let the gun run for a long time, they lose speed and “STALL” warning is around the corner
If the cannon that Messer used but ejected during the fight didn’t stall him, I doubt holding the trigger for more than four seconds would stall him.and I assume that Messer was in a dive, so he was picking up speed so a stall is even less likely.
One plausible explanation that I can think of is that the amount of slow motion used during the sequence where the ghost was destroyed and Keith shooting Messer. I’d say there’s a high probability that Messer thought he would have shot Keith down when he saw “the wind” and fired the ammo needed accordingly, at which Keith surprisingly let a ghost pass by so he could just fire a single shot straight to the cockpit were happening in a split of a second. We view it as something that happened in around 5 seconds but for them it could just be less than a second. And yes they were very close to each other when Messer was shot, coupled with how fast they are flying, it’s highlynpossible Messer was outplayed.
Also looking at their dogfight tendency to pass each other head on, Messer flying straight shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe he didn’t realize the nose of the Draken contained two barrels?
Can’t honestly say I cared. I know Macross likes killing the supposedly “mentor” figures (except for, unfortunately, that dick Ozma) but Messer never feels like a mentor figure at all, not even in the traditional “Well, I guess you don’t suck too much, now” hard-to-appease types.
He was the Mentor ace Pilot kind, did these two not wanted to “surpass” him in flight?
Ace Pilot, sure. Mentor? Eeeh…never really gave that impression.
I’m not really sure how to describe my feelings about Messer’s death beyond the fact that I’m morbidly curious about how screwed Delta Platoon is next week without their ace. I’ll honestly be a little disappointed if Hayate suddenly becomes an ace pilot just because of this.
How about this scenario? Have Bogue and the twins try to HIT Hayate and then you have a slightly even match-up of a 3 vs 3. Needs Arad to take on Kieth to have any sort of success for Delta though.
Now the really tricky part is how to get that scenario going. Since the Knights are probably smart enough to avoid such a situation.
First Nanatsu no Taizai, then Fairy Tail and now Macross Delta, this week sure sucks for important anime characters.
Just realized two things. Kaname was resonating with Messer and she felt Messer’s death. Which makes it 10 time worse she not only saw hit and fall from the sky but felt the moment his life is snuffed out.
That song at the start by Freyja was very cute… Not Ranka ‘Nyan Nyan’ Lee levels, but still very kawai!
Only Mikumo and Freya do not need the boosters to take effect, but the other Walküre members need them. So if you want to critical hit the Walküries then take Mikumo and Freya out and sabotage the boosters of the others. So this silence nearly them. Looks like they done this here
looks like the White Knights got the big sledgehammer out this time
as an emergency solution, if these 3 normal Singer do an tripple Sync Music force, then perhaps this combine of their 3 voice and songs can reach Mikumo’s level of force or go beyond a bit. but it is not easy to do this right from the start. 3 Singers that are not used to sing at the same speed
But, well. this is the directors choice
I don’t like it. Not the episode itself, but Messer’s death in this episode. From episode 8 i already suspected that he’d bite the dust in the future, but to do it in this episode? It just felt to me like the creators simply don’t want to deal with possible 2 love triangle scenarios (Mirage/Hayate/Freyja and messer/Kaname/Arad). it just me, though.
Didn’t really expect him to go that way. Just when I was starting to like him. Kinda hoped nothing’ll happen when he got transferred, but damn news travels quickly. So much for the second love triangle. Just when we found out how most of it stands too. Funny how I thought Chuck would go down first since he reminds me of Kakizaki.
What a way to go too. Right in the eyeball, can’t really expect him to survive that.
And Bogue still haven’t gotten a stroke yet….
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
What is he thinking?
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Adorable
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Confess already!
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2013.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
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Favourite scene
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
First sign of the series’s soon to be neutral character
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She has seen the future
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Someone has to steal that jet. It looks awesome
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….FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCK!!!!!!
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Her heart. It broke
On a side-note, looks like Windermere is being supported by a prominent third party (the Epsilon Foundation from the beginning of the episode). That might explain where they got their relatively advanced tech despite basically being Imperial Japan IN SPACE.
Also, regarding the discussion on Messer’s death, Keith did seem to use the cover from the drone to re-maneuver a tiny bit; the angle at which he shot Messer’s cockpit indicates that Messer might have missed even had he kept on firing; given that the scene was obviously slowed down for drama, he probably only stopped firing in “reality” for a fraction of a second to readjust his aim, but since Keith seems to have planned out the entirety of his final maneuver, blondy had probably already started to pull the trigger even before he was able to actually see where Messer was. Basically, once the drone showed up, Keith was simply able to re-maneuver first due to actually expecting it (with the whole scene probably happening in milliseconds in “reality”).
What would have made that scene better was they still showed Messer’s Siegfried still firing and just barely nicking Kieth’s Draken that way we can all say that Messer was simply out maneuvered by Kieth. Instead they showed Messer gawking as Keith took him out rather an anticlimactic end after the earlier awesome dogfight
I would be not in the least surprised if this epsilon foundation was behind Windermere getting nuked,erm, dimension-bombed to proveoke the outbreak of war and get them access to protoculture secrets and presumably, power…
or to open their wallets for War stuff they sell to them…
And no one noticed Keith riding on the same wind as Messer during that epic dogfight…
Even with the really tragic event taking the spot light I couldn´t but notice the little once agian: Hayate said that Messer should just confess and be done with it instead of keeping all bottle up and Mirage and Freyja had a reaction that is worth a millon words; during the festival Mirage looked depressed when Hayate was complementing Freyja and you can all guess where this is heading. It´s nice to see the love triangle is already making its way inside the main girl´s hearts, if only only I could say the same for Hayate…
Ahem, y’know what’s the most ironic thing about Messer going splat? It’s that just 2 days before episode 10 went up (UTC/GMT +8), Macross fans at a convention I attended (Visual Arts Expo [VAX] at Kuala Lumpur) were fangasming (ME included) at Ikenai Borderline being played, and apparently they also played that again after the end of the concert on day 2 too.
Who’da tunk that Messer would cease to exist right after that?
Anyways, I doubt Macross Delta is gonna pull a Macross 7, oh no. Macross Frontier pulled a Roy Focker only to subvert the whole thing, but in this case Messer went SPLAT, I repeat SPLAT, there’s just no way in hell that anybody’d survive that. Hell, even I wouldn’t survive that and I’m just a regular joe!
Also, Macross’s death flags are by now, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy too easy to spot from a parsec away and it just makes it so goddamned formulaic. Still, that don’t mean that I didn’t shed a tear or two when ****** went bust into space back in Frontier.
The guy got shot by a bullet powerful enough to go through millitary armor, even if the bullet just scratch him the shockwave will blow him to pieces. Kind of what happens when a humans gets shot by an anti-tank riffle, no matter where it hits the poor bastard is dead meat.
But is that really a solid weapon though? I dunno, but it all appears to me as energy shots from plasma-based weapons. Or heck, I could be dead wrong about that but every shot can’t be a tracer round and the energy beams come off as being too defined for that but then again, it might just be how they animated them. Bah, whatever the case is, Messer totally went splat alright!
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
GOODBYE BAYOT…YUP U GET REKT!! XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Predictable deaths such as this one fail to impress me.
Didn’t help that most of the episode had animation issues.