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Animation: Astro Plan

Macross Frontier revisited?

Astro Plan is an Animesque Chinese series first released in January 2010. It is notorious for generating a lot of publicity not because of its plot, but rather because it is obviously copying popular Japanese anime series such as Macross Frontier, Gundam SEED, and Gundam00, and also because much of its initial promotional artwork consists of blatantly traced

◊ and copied

◊ artwork from other sources. See also promotional poster at the right.

The plot (shamelessly ripped from The Other Wiki, as seems appropriate for this series, and expanded with information from the YouTube trailer

that actually manages to partially contradict the main plot synopsis provided by the production company):

In the distant future, mankind has begun to venture into space to find a new home after Earth's environment succumbs to ~~a meteor rain causing massive destruction~~ global warming. During their voyage, the ~~Gundam Seed Archangel~~ ~~Macross~~ space migration fleet encounters ~~the Varja~~ an alien race from the planet Iccus. As raiders of natural resources, the aliens are bent on galactic domination. To combat the threat, six young fighters are recruited into the ~~Sentai~~ Sky Arrow Flight Team and are equipped with transformable ~~Macross Valkyries~~ Type Yi ~~Gundams~~ fighter planes.

Alternatively, Astro Plan can be seen as a truly massive intentional unintentional Shout Out to the other series mentioned on this page.

Astro Plan provides examples of:

Ace Pilot: Considering which series it rips off, these will be featured!
All Thereinthe Manual: That means In the manuals of the other series in this case.
Bishōnen: Averted due to the bland character designs.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The main characters and the mecha.
Conspicuous CG: Yes.
DMCA: The trailer on YouTube got censored because the company behind Astro Plan illegally used parts of Michael Bay's Transformers movie soundtracks.
Homage Shot: According to the director.
Impossibly Low Neckline: Mei Ling (aka Zi Jing) the YF-11 Super Fighter Girl.
Shout Out: Intentional, due to laziness and lack of original design and plot.
- The color schemes of the Type Yi ~~Valkyries~~ fighters has obviously been copied from Macross Frontier, as is the aliens' character design.
- Ship designs come from Gundam SEED, Vandread, Aquarion, etc.
- The character designs seem to draw from Teen Titans, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Gendo Ikari, etc.
- The YF-10/11 Type Yi fighters are based on the People's Liberation Army Air Force's Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-11. Both of them are in active service with the PLAAF as of 2012. You can say that it's a Homage as well.
Merchandise Driven: Toys of the Yi Fighters.
Transforming Mecha: the ~~Valkyrie~~ Type Yi fighters.