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「ためらい バースデイ」 (Tamerai Basudei)
“Uncertain Birthday”
Given all the uncertainty surrounding the Delta Platoon and the general state of the galaxy, one would be forgiven for forgetting about things such as birthdays and the like. Yet, it’s precisely times like these where the little things matter, and while Freyja herself might’ve forgotten her birthday, the rest of the Platoon made sure to do nothing of the sort. It might be another calm before the storm, but it’s a valuable episode in regards to what it emphasizes and the small hints it gives in regards Mikumo and Hayate’s respective pasts.
First and foremost, we’re given the not so subtle reminder that Freyja’s 15th birthday is more than just that. As a Windermere, she’s now halfway through her lifespan, and it’s something that gets easily forgotten in the grand scheme of things—or at least, it was for me. I will be the first to admit that through all the takeovers and declarations of war, this was certainly something that slipped my mind more than once, and the fact that it’s emphasized here makes you realize how much of her overall lifespan she’s spent (and will likely continue to spend) away from her home planet when it’s all said and done. In this sense, there’s a tragic nature to the whole affair despite the positive vibes of the celebrations we get here, and one starts wonder if this could be the moment where we realize that she may not ever return home at all.
Either way, Freyja remains the center of the party for now—with even Mikumo showing up despite the revelation that no one has ever celebrated her birthday before—and as expected, Hayate’s gift ends up being the best of them all. Just one look tells you everything you need to know at this point, and although there’s the feeling that it’ll never advance farther than this, there was a magical quality to their interactions this time around, and I’ll be sure to savor it while it lasts. With that said, it’s hard to not feel a bit of sadness for Mirage’s side of things given how things have developed so far, and the fact that Kaname’s still staring at Arad with longing eyes makes you wonder whether they’ll continue their pursuit or ultimately choose to move on.
In the meanwhile, the major question remains who Hayate’s father was and what he did, although this week does reaffirm his origins as a pilot. Given the negative connotations of his mentions so far, it’d make sense that he was the pilot that dropped the dimensional weapon on Windermere (whether intentionally or while afflicted by Var Syndrome), but Arad’s comments about him being “too kind for his own good” throw an interesting wrench in that theory, and it could very well end up being the opposite case instead. Given what we know so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was so against the usage of the dimensional weapon that he turned sides to try and stop its usage, ultimately sparking a bigger conflict in the meanwhile, and dying to that same weapon…?
Guess we’ll see—possibly as soon as next episode. Hayate’s shocked reaction in the preview is a telling one, and it’s certainly a secret that’ll need to come out sooner rather than later to have the proper impact. In the meanwhile, here’s hoping that the arrival of Wonfes this weekend comes with release dates for these beauties…
ED7 Sequence
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ED7: 「God Bless You」 by Walkure
Preview
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I think one of the setups from this episode that we (the audience) should keep an eye on the Freyja’s singing. I think Hayate’s looks in the preview shot might be a severe case of whatever happened to him this episode which would be really bad if he was in fighter when this happens. Hopefully it isn’t Var but if it is, it might explain why Windmere doesn’t like music.
Also from this week’s episode, surprisingly good English from the cast singing Happy Birthday and “God Bless You” is another song I am looking forward to hearing the CD version of.
Interestingly enough, they haven’t announced any additional soundtracks at the moment. Might be a long wait, sadly.
My guess on Hayate’s dad is he was the pilot that dropped the bomb but disobeyed orders to drop it on some major population center or even the capital and died in the explosion because he took too long while trying to minimize casualties.
That would give that pilot good reason to have that reaction since the guy disobeyed orders during a war to spare an enemy that’s now threatening to take over the galaxy while still making him “too kind for his own good”.
An interesting angle, which would fit the WWII parallelisms in the series and the message that nukes are bad. Also, it was said that the NUNS also suffered heavy casualties from the bomb, an action which would have made him the target of hate even before Windermere started their Blitzkrieg.
Ironically, in that case the series would give the unintended message that, in hindsight, nuking authoritarian racial supremacists into unconditional surrender might have avoided more pain and bloodshed in the long run.
Am I the only one who cannot feel any sympathy for the Windermeerians? On one hand, they keep lamenting at every step of the way how much they hate this war and they wish it would end, but then, they keep going to war with everyone. Oh, you threw the incompetent NUNS off of your planet? Time to go to war with the local cluster! Success, you took over the local cluster and the NUNS are incapable of handling your firepower. Better declare war on the entire galaxy.
I know these assholes are going to get some sort of redeeming story, and we’re going to be expected to feel bad for them or root for them to fight against some common enemy, but in reality, I just want them all to die. They are literal space nazis.
Oh, no, believe me, you are not the only one. In an effort to paint Windermereans as “misguided, but sympathetic”, the show ends up full of unfortunate implications:
Show Spoiler ▼
The series tries to say “Windermere did bad, but they had their reasons, deeps inside they aren’t bad people and didn’t deserve to be nuked”, in a not very subtle parallelism with Japan in WWII.
Despite the running time issues, it might have helped to have more perspectives from regular Windermerians; basically, the civilians who likely have no idea about the truth behind Var and whom are probably under the impression that the cluster’s other races welcome being “freed” from NUNS oppression, and the regular soldiers who are still in it largely because they have no way of individually backing out.
Also, Macross has never been shy about making comments on other anime (SDF began as a parody, after all), and I’m feeling like Windermere has been a deliberate Zeon parody (there’s even that whole parallel between “those who can’t feel the wind” and “those bound by Earth’s gravity” going on).
The problem with that though, is that in the end, we’re going to be expected to feel good about the knights’ eventual heel face turn. It’s going to happen. Something big bad is going to appear and the two sides will have to fight together to stop it. Probably that Arabian looking dude is the big bad. And that’s the problem. The knights are assholes. They are fully on board with this xenophobic purging. Why the hell should I want to root for a guy who has been actively trying to kill Valkyrie this entire time? Calling Freyja traitor scum. I’m supposed to suddenly think he’s an okay guy? Fuck that. I want his ass to be smeared across the ground.
It’s going to happen, and it’s lazy as fuck writing.
I believe it’s gonna depend on how well they can pull off the Knights being legit contrite about everything (and if Bogue ends up going on a suicide run to save Walkure). We’ve got like 10 episodes to see if they can somehow make that work.
Really can’t see Bogue doing that. I think there may be a possibility of Roid or Kieth doing something like that, but Bogue seem to be too far gone. Don’t think the Walkure will help him and he seems to be too well known for a secret encounter with a bridge bunny.
I don’t see how we’re expected to feel sorry for them. They’re showing how how misguided they are, how they’re justifying the atrocities to themselves (biological weapons), and the population is following their leaders like sheep.
It was pretty clear during Heinz’s coronation, the entire planet was heading down a war path dictated by one man (Roid), a naive King backing it up with authority, and a complacent population that just shrugged it off. The soldiers attitude? Just shut up and do your job. That’s how easily a war starts.
We’ve all been making Showa/Zeon/Nazi comparisons, but people have pointed out the potential commentary on the right tilt in modern Japanese politics (and anime?), since Kawamori seems to be on the left end of the spectrum back home (certainly can’t see him approving of something like Gate).
Really, this is one of the most botched attempts I’ve seen in a while for writing a gray vs. gray war.
Just to add whats already been said, there is another thing I can’t stand about the Aerial Knights: They they have NEVER lost a battle. Ever. The only thing that keeps them from being villain sues is that they haven’t pulled some BS plot device out of their ass.
At least with something like the Vajra, they were deliberately kept mysterious, silent and alien. This lent a certain mystique to their image of unstoppable monsters. The Aerial are constantly jockeying screen time from the Protagonists in an attempt to humanize then. And its the SAME thing every time. “Our nuking was horrible, we are the Protoculture Master Race, Wind this, Wind that, bla bla bla”. Its so boring! Just shut up you stupid waste of an awesome Valkyrie design and make a twitter #Wind already.
And since the dead horse has beaten badly already, I’ll just add one more point. We are never shown how badly affected Windermere was when they were nuked. This is supposed their impetus for being Space Nazis but all we have seen is an explosion and a crater with lightning. Where are the wrecked buildings and fields of bodies? Where are the refugee camps of survivors of the explosion? Was the ecosystem affected? Are the people starving or getting sick over this? Nothing, we only have to take the racist, mindslaving villains word for it. This is a really bad case of SHOW DON’T TELL because it only paints them as obnoxious rather than justified.
I think the thing to note is the pilots themselves seem torn between their own personal wishes and orders from people they revere, which leaves them in a pretty tight spot.
Furthermore, it’s been shown that at least some of the pilots and seemingly a large amount of the population assumed that the fight would be over after controlling the globular cluster, which makes you wonder whose will they’re even fighting for at this point. It could very well be that Roid’s twisting things to fit his own elitist agenda, and the fact that he has Heinz subscribing to it means that there’s almost nothing anyone else can do about it at the moment because of the latter’s status and significance to the Windermere people.
In this sense, I believe there’s some sympathy that could be offered to at least those fighting because they have to, rather than they want to. One could argue they can just not fight if they have such reservations about it, but given the backdrop, their origins, and everything they’ve been taught so far, it just isn’t that simple, and it’s even a bit tragic on their end as well.
But the original problem remains: only now they are having those reservations. No one in Windermere seemed to question the Greater
East AsiaBrisingr Cluster Co-Prosperity Sphere at all, as if they all bought the casus belli and the racial supremacist theories, as long as victories kept piling up and a prosperous peace (for them) was in sight.Continuing with the WWII parallelisms, it would be the equivalent of Imperial Japan’s military starting to have second doubts only after Pearl Harbor or German soldiers questioning the leadership when the country announced the invasion of Russia, while at the same time being pretty content with their previous actions in China and Western Europe. When you stop to think about it, is that really sympathetic or a sign of moral myopia?
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
Little Freyja is adorable
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
Hayate and Freyja shipping incoming. I admit, this scene was very nice and sweet
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%20ED7%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
She’s been my favourite since day 1, and I wanted Mirage to end up with Hayate. I just want Mirage to be loved. Why can’t she be loved? God dammit! T-T
If they show a flashback showing that Mirage had green hair but dyes it, I am flipping the table.
I don´t Mirage has lost yet, Macross makes good love triangles because the characters of the story have to make tough choices regarding their feelings, they struggle becuae they have genuine affection for each other and Hayate has yet to see Mirage in that light (Mirage is one push away from admiting her feeling for him) so the real love war is going to start when he sees her as something apart fro his comrade in arms and I suspect that the revelations in the next episode are going to help shorten the distance between Hayate and Mirage. Stay strong girl! You still have plenty of oportunity Mirage!.
Kawamori said he didn’t want a love triangle this time and the sponsors forced him to add it. Mirage was the last character he created too.
I can understand how you feel. From all the Macross series I have watched, I had this tendency to support the girl who eventually does not end up being the one. I remember supporting Ranka over Sheryl in Macross Frontier. I remember vividly it was also coincidentally also past the mid point of the season around episode 15 or 16 that the story started to shift towards Sheryl’s side. If I recall correctly, one of the episodes was about Ranka baking cookies for the guy, but he did not turn up, choosing instead to go to Sheryl. I remember my heart sank watching the episode. It was painful, but that is love. It is cruel, it knows no rules. Either you like or you do not. There is no chivalry, right or wrong behind it.
In any case, I am really supporting Mirage. Perhaps because I have matured since Macross Frontier, I find Mirage to be a more mature person and I prefer that. It is ironic because Frejya’s role is seemingly the equivalent of Ranka’s. Hopefully, this curse of supporting wrong girls end with this series.
Let´s just hope Hayate ends up with Mirage, that escene with Mirage watching those two playing in the snow made my heart ache, it was so sad for her, like she was left out completely.
I supported Ranka last time, and this time I’m team Freyja all the way. I actually think I’ve chosen the sinking ship because genki never seems to win in Macross, and because HayateFreyja are having too many honest, deep and sweet moments compared to Mirage.
With Alto when I took off my shipping goggles I noticed he has always been more inclined to Sheryl, so I hope this time Hayate does the same but with the genki idol.
I supported Ranka, and I felt really bad for her to go through something like that. Hope she finds happiness
Mirage doesn’t know what she wants. How is she more mature than a girl who lived alone since she was 7 years old and tried to lift her devastated people’s spirits with her songs despite her own sorrow? Don’t confuse being a serious and stick in the mud with ‘maturity’. Freyja is sad because of war while Mirage cries because a boy doesn’t like her. Mirage is really childish.
I just had a horrible thought that sorta makes sense…
What if Hayate’s father had relations with a Windermereian and she gave birth to Freyja. What if Hayate and Freyja are half siblings? Hayate hasn’t seen his dad in a long time, Freyja said her parents died, and Arad said his dad was ‘too kind for his own good…’
Plus the fact that Hayate couldn’t figure out how to classify Freyja. Not love, but not a friend…
They’re clearly on friendly terms with one another. That part is blatantly obvious.
Oh boy! That´s an interesting way to end the love triangle and give a clear victory to Mirage and it would very surprising but now that I think about that would explain how they are so in sync since the begining and the girls commented at the begining that Hayate and Freyja looked like sibilings separated after birth.
Delusional. Freyja remembers her family and her father died. Besides we all know Hayate papa gave her the player which links her through fate with Hayate. She didn’t say “My father gave me this.” Kaname and Walkure would also know because they have Freyja’s and Hayate’s biological stats, that’s why they know about the fold waves.
For those of you still following Kuromukuro, gg (Delta’s subbers) are unable to proceed further because its regular translator is on hiatus due to real life issues. The translator is an anonymous contributor to gg who is not directly affiliated with them, but drops them a translated script weekly.
15 years old is a coming of age for the Windermere
“Arad’s comments about him being “too kind for his own good” throw an interesting wrench in that theory, and it could very well end up being the opposite case instead. Given what we know so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was so against the usage of the dimensional weapon that he turned sides to try and stop its usage, ultimately sparking a bigger conflict in the meanwhile, and dying to that same weapon…?”
I have theory that it was actually Roid and Keith that dropped the bomb. Wright having a kid of his own can’t bear to kill a child. Roid said when he folded his wing while Keith opposed it that Keith understood what he did was to assure victory, on that day Keth’s white wings turned black.
I really dug this ep quite a bit. I think one of the elements of the storytelling that i really appreciated was the whole rune gag between hayate and freyja. Since the beginning, whenever hayate would comment on freyja’s rune or touch it, she could call him a pervert. However, if you took notice, you would see that every single time that occurred, Freyja’s pervert insult would seem softer and softer (aka more friendlier each time if that makes sense). It’s as if all those moments were building up to this one because when Hayate comments on her rune this time and is reaching to touch it, freyja does not flinch or call him names; she just stares deeply into his eyes, like a lover saying “I want you to see me, i want you to touch me”. It was if Freyja was laying her heart bare for Hayate to see (which i guess that was part of the “symbolism” in that scene). At that point, i dont blame hayate for his heart skipping a beat as it was in that moment that he truly began to notice the implications of his feelings for her and i really like how the storytelling used that method to effectively get us to this point. I honestly dont understand the complaining some people have about this series; macross delta is pretty good in a serviceable type of way. It doesnt do anything grand in scope nor does it plummet any depths with its writing, however it understands the basic elements of good storytelling and utilizes it very well in some places; and that’s more than i can say for a bunch of anime airing from last season as well as the current one
I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I did most macross delta episodes. This one felt like it came together really well and wasn’t as forced as other ones. ‘
My speculations:
1) Hayate’s father was on Windemere during the war; he is most likely dead.
2) He gave freya the music player she carries around with her. It has a piece of fold quartz in it. Hayate of course has the sister piece as a memento from his father. We’ve seen this emotional resonance effect before with Sheryl’s earrings, so this is not new ground. How it interacts with VAR is a more interesting question.
3) We don’t know what went down on windemere still; who used the bomb on what, and why. Any number of scenarios are possible, but Hayate’s father was definitely caught in the politics of the bomb. There is a possibility he may have taken part (accidentally) in the death of Freya’s parents. She likely met him while he was dying or just before he died on Windemere.
Been wondering about that tidbit about the Protoculture ruins that are connected to the planet’s core. Could the Windsinger be literally singing himself and the planets to death? (I’m guessing that the ruins are drawing energy from the core, but there is no other info besides they are just connected.)
It could very well backfire in this way. At the very least, it seems almost guaranteed to kill him at the current rate given his already poor health.
Mirage listen to your (grandmother) genes! Get a knife and try to to stab Hayate before he’s stolen.
Dawww puppy love!
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
ugh, that moment when Freyja said she’s halfway through the average lifespan of her species hit me with way too many feels. I kinda forgot about that little tidbit. This episode felt like a stockpile of photos for collages during Freyja’s eulogy.
Really thought both ships sank during the first half of this episode. Since it seems to confirm that Hayate has no thoughts on that. But after it was over, I’m not so sure. There seem to be something with Freyja. Though for some reason, I’m waiting for a Luke and Leia moment. There also seem to be a good contrast with Mirage. One is inadvertently going down the same path as his parent, while the other seem to be trying to do just that.
Got to wonder who the rest of the platoon are shipping.
https://randomc.net/image/Macross%20Delta/Macross%20Delta%20-%2016%20-%2008.jpg
Hayate sounds real cool during this scene. Good voice over work there.
They are treating Mirage really bad and disrespectfully.
I didn’t know Macross was this mediocre at handling multiple characters at the same time.
Should have stick to half the cast like previous series.
If Shepherd from Mass Effect 3 can throw a party, while the entire universe is literally burning all around him/her, I’m sure these guys can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiRDJLcYua0
No matter what scars you bear
Whatever uniform you wear
You can fight like a Krogan
Run like a leopard
But you’ll never be better than Commander Shepard!
Why I am reminded of this dialogue…
Luke Skywalker: No, my father didn’t fight in the Clone Wars. He was a navigator on a spice freighter.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: That’s what your uncle told you. He didn’t hold with your father’s ideals; he felt he should’ve stayed here and not gotten involved.
Luke Skywalker: You fought in the Clone Wars?
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: Yes. I was once a Jedi knight, the same as your father.
Luke Skywalker: I wish I’d known him.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: He was the best star pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. I understand that you’ve become quite a good pilot yourself.
[sorrowfully]
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: And he was a good friend.
Anyone noticed Freyja was practicing this song in the episode?
https://youtu.be/DdJqjUMlmkA