First Impressions / Macross

Summary:

With Sheryl shooting a documentary at the school, Alto isn’t happy that his practice time was cut. He’s still not satisfied when Grace thanks him and the others for giving up their time, but Mikhail then steps in and turns on his charm. Grace ends up recognizing Mikhail’s name and surprises him by expressing her regret over what happened with his older sister. This stays on Mikhail’s mind until the S.M.S mission later that day when the group is alerted to a ship under attack by the Vajra. While Alto engages in a dogfight, Mikhail finds a sniper position and takes aim, but right as he gets a lock, he recalls what Grace said about his sister. This causes him to misfire, and the shot barely misses the head of Alto’s Valkyrie. The ensuing explosion lets the Vajra get away, and Alto is subsequently furious that Mikhail shot him. Back at the Macross Frontier colony ship, Leon reports of a small Vajra nest to President Glass and a bunch of other officials. Glass is worried that all this fighting is putting a strain on their resources, but Leon insists that they need to know more about the Vajra for the sake of all mankind.

When Alto returns to the S.M.S base, he confronts Mikhail about trying to kill him and cites how Mikhail had bragged about inheriting his sniper’s sense from his older sister. In doing so, he also questions if shooting someone by accident is in Mikhail’s blood as well. That really gets Mikhail angry, and he pins down Alto and repeatedly punches him in the face for it. As he gets patched up by Kanaria afterwards, Alto rants about Mikhail and says that Mikhail should fly passenger planes if all he cares about is money and women. Kanaria, however, questions if they need a reason to be there and suggests that everyone has their own, much like Alto himself. Mikhail meanwhile goes out for some target practice in his Valkyrie, and every shot he takes reminds him of his sister. Having witnessed the fight earlier between Mikhail and Alto, Kuran comes out now to remind Mikhail that it’s already bedtime, but he’s quick to tell her not to meddle in his business. She had been worried about him because of the topic of his sister Jessica, however Mikhail attributes not being able to sleep to the loneliness of sleeping alone. He then brings up how Kuran could be his companion for the night, but he immediately also says that he’d be caught for obscenity crimes if he did it with her micronized form. This earns his Valkyrie a slap from her, and she leaves in tears.

Alto learns later that Sheryl is promoting her joining the school as part of a campaign to keep people from forgetting about the Macross Galaxy. She had also just wanted to go to school for once, and she questions why Alto is attending and why he joined the S.M.S since she sees it as equivalent to the military. This gets Alto thinking because Mikhail had previously accused him of always running away, and he recalls a time when his father had punched him. Meanwhile, Ranka is trying to promote herself on a street corner by handing out packets of tissues with her name on them. She had gotten Bobby’s help with her make-up, but the promotion itself still goes poorly because none of the pedestrians pay any attention to her. During this, Ranka sees Brera again, but before she can call out to him, he disappears again. Brera then secretly launches in his Valkyrie from the Macross Frontier with orders to destroy a Vajra nest and stop some sample collecting. That sample collecting is actually the current mission of the S.M.S pilots who are already in the process of searching for the nest in one sector of space. Kuran eventually finds the derelict ship that’s serving as the nest, but as she’s fighting the Vajra guarding it, Brera’s Valkyrie enters the battle.

Although Brera fights the Vajra, he also shoots at Kuran’s Queadluun-Rea, and after a fierce battle, he disables it. Alto comes to Kuran’s aid, and as he engages Brera’s Valkyrie, he reveals to Mikhail that he heard about Jessica. Kuran had told him before the battle that Mikhail was raised by his sister Jessica after their parents died early on. Jessica had been an excellent sniper, but on one occasion, she accidentally shot an ally in a friendly fire incident. This ally had been her superior and also her lover, but the two were breaking up, and so what she did was seen as intentional. It led to her court-martial, and Jessica ended up committing suicide. Because of this, Kuran had felt that Mikhail had continued searching for the reality behind friendly fire. Back in the current battle, Kuran watches as Mikhail tries to line up a shot past her disabled Queadluun-Rea and at Brera’s Valkyrie. At Alto’s urging, he finally shoots, and this time, he narrowly misses blowing off the head of his target. Despite the damage to his Valkyrie, Brera goes through with his mission of destroying the nest and then escapes. In the aftermath, Mikhail visits his sister’s grave on the Frontier and thinks to himself that he still doesn’t understand what his sister was thinking when she pulled the trigger. However, after seeing Kuran secretly watching him and after making up with Alto, he feels that he’ll understand someday.

Preview

Did I miss something? When did Alto get his Valkyrie back? I thought it got blown to smithereens a couple of episodes ago during that Vajra battle. If it’s a new one, you’d think that by now they’d consider him a liability since he doesn’t exactly have a good record with machines – his insurance rates must be insane. I actually thought that they’d have made a bigger deal out of this before maybe eventually giving him some sort of upgrade (and it reminds me again of how the earring also didn’t turn out to be that important after all). I guess if this proves anything, it’s that Alto has good piloting skills regardless of how souped-up of a machine he flies – he even managed to blow off the leg of Brera’s superior Valkyrie. Speaking of Brera, it appears that he’s aligned with a third side not associated with either the Vajra or the S.M.S. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s connected to and/or working for Leon.

Overall, I thought this was another good episode with lots of exciting space battles (clearly where all the animation budget is going). If I had a complaint about this, it was that this was relatively standalone. Yes, Brera was in there and caused some trouble, but it felt like things were just back to normal/reset by the end of the episode. I just don’t see the Jessica stuff having much of a lasting impact on the story, so this felt like a one-shot character development episode. There’s technically nothing wrong with that, but it might have been better if they had woven it deeper with the overall plot. I also wish they had done more with the KuranXMikhail angle, but perhaps there’ll be more of that in the future. And on that note, I have to say that it was also kind of odd and amusing to see her slap Mikhail’s Valkyrie instead of him. She probably would have killed him if she had slapped his human body, but I guess that’s part of the problem of having an inter-species relationship.

As for next week, it looks like it’ll connect this series with the Macross Zero OVA from a few years ago via a movie that Ranka gets a part in. Something more to look forward to…

51 Comments

  6. Alto-hime need not concern his pretty little bangs with such thoughts, those are best left to the poor, he would much rather just go around with his megastarlet, green-puppy, giant-panchira harem.

    Also, they probably didint give the newby some special hax mech-fighter, but more of a standart cheap model. So even if he goes through 4 of them its no problem for the army.

    ( :

    Dularc
    Reply

  10. Yay for Brera! It seems like he’s stalking Ranka and Ranka doesn’t seem like she minds! Im totally shipping RankaxBrera and MikhailxKlanKlan. I was happy Brera got some screen time.

    Maya-san
    Reply

  11. “It was also kind of odd seeing her slap Mikhail’s Valkyrie instead of him.”

    Well, I suppose, with that much size difference, if she had actually slapped him, he might’ve died xD

    iEatedyou
    Reply

  19. I don’t wanna spoil all the mickelxklain w/e fans fun at this point but I think you’re jumping ahead of yourselves at this point in the show. All this episode did was prove what we already knew more or less, that the two are childhood friends. But uhhh, childhood friends doesn’t equal future lovers just like that.

    And it’d be hella odd since she has a loli body when made small, probably make the pedos happy but Macross isn’t that kinda show, so…. 😛

    Anyways, I’m not going to jump to any conclusions off of 9 episodes, the episode information up to 13 are all pretty alto/sheryl/ranka centric as one would expect, we’ll have to wait for ep14+ to see if we get more for these 2 or if it’s just left at this.

    GP
    Reply

  20. Watched the episode and as expected, understood only about half.

    I wonder, Is Brera evil or a show-off who likes to pick fights? Did he run away from Ranka last episode? One thing’s for sure: he enjoys being mysterious.

    @Algent
    Yep, Grace sure made some evil-looking eyes while hacking that conference. I think we can assume she knows all about the SMS up to the point of all the member’s profiles. Might as well put her as a candidate for the one giving Brera orders.

    Chibi-Klan and Klan in the last scene were very cute^_^!
    I didn’t understand the slap scene but I thought Mikhail in his valkyrie was kinda funny.

    Another random thought..
    I love the outer space battlefield and setting with lots of asteroids and debris. I wish there were more space stuff like black holes, nebulas, planets, stars, comets, magnetic fields and stuff. I wish they’d show us the bridge and ship interior of Frontier, and the space exploration and research parts. I’m starting to feel like Alto, the dome is becoming small and cramped, even for a story. Since the Macross world is so big, why don’t they make the story bigger too? Like when they showed all the Macross and Megaroad ships go all over the galaxy. Or maybe atleast start getting on with the points concerning Vajra and Galaxy.

    Yukiruchan
    Reply

  22. Hmmm, judging from the preview, the movie that Ranka and Sheryl will be starring in will be related to Macross Zero, yes? It’s been a while since I’ve watched the OVA.

    Myssa Rei
    Reply

  23. @Myssa Rei

    Yeah, that’s basically what ep10 is about, a movie shoot. There’s some tidbits out there about the next up and also eps 11-13, but I won’t say anything. They’ll be interesting either way.

    GP
    Reply

  25. “https://randomc.net/image/Macross/Macross%20Frontier%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    He has SEED~! Beware~! xD”

    -I don’t think SEED works on Brera… for obvious reasons

    aeriolewinters
    Reply

  26. @MichJobert

    True, there is an option, but again, I think people are jumping the gun here. Mikhail and Klan aren’t Max and Millia. Yeah there are some similarities, but I think everyones just looking into it too much. Same with Ozma and Roy comparisons which leads everyone to believe that he’ll die later on when he very well might not.

    GP
    Reply

  27. “You’d think that by now they’d consider him a liability since he doesn’t exactly have a good record with machines – his insurance rates must be insane.”

    ^LMFAO!! :D. You’re awesome, Omni!!

    Nette
    Reply

  29. It looks like his older women complex is a “older sister” complex. That would kinda indicate why Kuran isn’t on the radar in her micron loli form lol. It also indicates that while Michel is a jerk to her, she does like him. Slapping the valkyrie would be kinda meaningless but to take things so personally for her shows she’s on him a bit.

    When she asked Alto if he liked Michel, it was more in the do you like him as a friend kinda question? You can know someone or serve with someone without having to like them, but she was wondering if they are truly friends or not before she reveals his past.

    Slade
    Reply

  31. Good episode.

    Damn, Alto is a weak, even Luca would have offered more resistance. I start to think that he is called princess not just because he looks like one, but because he’s as weak as a girl as well.

    The valkyre slap was awesome. If this goes on Klein just might become my favourite female character this season.

    I’m glad they didn’t overpower Brera’s valkyre too much. They can still take him down with teamwork.

    @JohnS I think that carrot costume last week was the absolute low down. Selling matches is an improvement compared to that.

    bearzerger
    Reply

  37. pretty cool ep..though i don’t really care about michael’s character too much…the animation was def better than last week…but kinda a boring ep overall..i agree with RC opinion of the ep overall..but i am excited to see how they tie in next ep with the macross zero ova’s, since i absolutely loved those…

    whatchamini
    Reply

  39. “Interspecies relationship” for Klan x Michael?

    I was figuring Michael was a Zentradi who just remained micronized, what with his pointed ears and all.

    Poor Klan, though, and all those rude loli jokes.

    Silvering
    Reply

  42. Mikhail should be kicked for being so mean to Klan Klein. And holy crap…Brera’s hair is really light greenish and has the same eye color as Ranka. Oniichan?? That carbuncle suddenly turned disgusting after I found it was a Vajra. And looks like Sheryl was home-schooled.

    Taken from Macross Compedium:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Noone is playing Sara Nome? Or there is no Sara Nome in the movie?

    diva
    Reply

  43. Isn’t Mikhail also of the Zentradi species? I’ve noticed throughout the episodes that he has the same pointy ears as the other Zentradi’s. Most noticeable in episode 5, 16:16. Obviously, he would have to be in his micronized form. Another ‘clue’ is when micro-Klan tells Mikhail not to make fun of her just because he “overshot [her] in height” from episode 4.

    Joe Stan
    Reply

  48. there’s probably some conspiracy going on with the government behind the scenes what with brera and grace looking evil-eyed and leon’s behavior off-duty. but right now i’m more interested in the connection to macross zero, even knowing that we’ll never find out what the hell happened to shin and sara.

    Tmoo
    Reply

  50. perhaps i’m wrong but can’t anyone be upped in size? i think they did it in DYRL with max so why cant they just up michael?

    i imagine there are quit a few accidents with zentradi children around, i.e. normal sized people getting sat on etc… could be quite a dangerous living arangement and letting two children play together like klan and michael used to could be very hazardous to yer health, if klan got pissed she could pick him up and throw him.

    arue
    Reply

  51. I just noticed something now on my 2nd viewing of this episode. At 16:16 when one of the Vajra eggs started hatching, it showed three eyes. At 16:25, the underwear-pest from last episode showed up and it too had 3 eyes in the same configuration as Vajra eggs.

    Vajra and underwear-pest are attracted to Ranka’s voice. Could the underwear-pest be Vajra larvae?

    briareos
    Reply

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