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    Alto Saotome 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d8fb4f5b63a8d0131cd4d95bc5de685f.jpg
Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura

The main protagonist of Macross Frontier, Alto's a pilot in the Mihoshi Academy in its "Pilot Training" course. As a result of his fine, feminine features and long hair, he's often mistaken for a girl at first glance, even receiving the In-Series Nickname "Princess". Otherwise, Alto's your Ordinary High-School Student, though somewhat aloof and standoff-ish. Born into a well-known Kabuki family, his persistent yearning for the skies has made a thorny relationship with his father Ranzou Saotome. He constantly frets having to live aboard the Macross Frontier fleet, due to the lack of a "true sky". After getting the chance to pilot a VF-25 Messiah variable fighter (due to its original pilot, Henry Gilliam, being killed by a Vajra space mecha-drone) and seeing the destruction brought upon by the Vajra, he makes it a point to serve the S.M.S., a private military corporation, to protect those around him and fulfill his dreams of taking to the skies. Under the designation "Skull-4", Alto serves under Major Ozma Lee of the S.M.S. Skull Squadron.

Throughout the series, Alto balances both school and military life, being called into service when the Vajra attack. He also develops emotional bonds with Ranka Lee, a young girl who aspires to be a singer and shares Alto's similar drive to achieve his dreams, and Sheryl Nome, the famed Idol Singer from the Macross Galaxy fleet.


  • Accidental Pervert: Happens in episode 2 when he accidentally gropes Ranka's (non-existent) rack. A few episodes later, he inadvertantley catches a glimpse at Sheryl topless. Then, there's that locker room scene in episode 5...
  • I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: He really didn't: his cellphone was on vibrate.
  • I Just Want to Be Badass: And boy does he become one.
  • In-Series Nickname: Alto-hime (Princess Alto).
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alto's at a rough patch in his life, and this tends to make him irritable. Underneath it all he cares deeply for his friends, and is one of the few arguing for peace with the Vajra over extermination at the very end.
  • Jumped at the Call: Right into the cockpit.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Alto has a bad habit of going off half-cocked and without a plan. He's a good enough pilot that he can often make up for it, but not all the time.
  • Loss of Identity: Alto's backstory. Finding his identity is his personal plot. Central to this is a theme of decision-making, and whether Alto ever really made a decision for himself or if it was the role deciding for him. Arguably this was never resolved in the series, but it was in the movies.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: A rare anime example. One of Alto's defining features is his long, silky hair. Justified by backstory since he was originally meant to play female characters in kabuki, much to his chagrin.
  • Love Triangle: The main point of it, with Ranka and Sheryl competing at the other ends. Resolved in the second movie: He chose Sheryl.
  • Meaningful Name: Possibly named after Taichi Saotome, an onna-gata from the Kabuki theater, and just like his fictitious counterpart, he's also trying to play against type as he's tired of playing feminine roles.
  • Meido: Dressed up as one in the 2nd movie during a concert staged as a cover to help break Sheryl out of prison. The fact that he also does the actual sneaking in and breaking out while dressed as a maid may qualify him for Ninja Maid status.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: In the TV series, it's actually a downgrade from the VF-25 Messiah to the VF-171EX, though by the end he gets a special full-armor pack for the final battle. Played straight in the movie where he goes from the VF-25 Messiah to the YF-29 Durandal, which is an incredibly powerful Super Prototype.
  • Put on a Bus: He's not in the upcoming crossover movie Macross FB7: Listen to My Song! despite the fact the movie is set during the TV show's events.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: A fair actor, many people find him beautiful, and then of course it's almost literal with his Mid-Season Upgrade in the movie, the very pink yet very powerful YF-29 Durandal.
  • Samurai Ponytail: He ties his hair back in this style to emphasize his masculinity (a fact that is sometimes lost on Western viewers).
  • Sex for Solace: What is heavily implied to happen with Sheryl when she's on the brink of despair and he confesses to her, following by asking him to "give her courage". There's a slow-pan away from them making out, and a heavily symbolic scene follows of Ranka discovering what outer space looks like, connected to Brere's Lucifer with an umbillical cord, and in a compromising position. When it cuts back to them, he's outside the door in a new shirt.
  • So Beautiful, It's a Curse: He seems to be the only feminine male character ever to be dissatisfied with looking so feminine, an indulges in manly hobbies like piloting partially to prove how macho he is.
  • Training from Hell: Which includes firearm training, close-quarters combat, running laps around the Macross Quarter's hangar bay wearing the EX-Gear suit on without its power turned on and general hazing by the S.M.S. on New Meat.
  • Tsundere: A moderate case of Type A.

    Ranka Lee 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0745b5a97e13592c0444c43f4750d806.jpg
Voiced by: Megumi Nakajima

One of the two female protagonists, Ranka is a lively quarter-Zentrant teenager with green hair. Her Zentradi ancestry gives her above-average resistance to the vacuum of space and hair that moves in accordance with her feelings. Ranka suffers a mild form of amnesia after having witnessed the destruction of the 117th Long Distance Research Fleet, where her biological family perished. As the adopted younger sister of Ozma Lee, she initially attends an all-girl's high school at the urging of her brother while working part-time at the Chinese restaurant "Nyan-Nyan". After her singing career takes off, she transfers to Mihoshi Academy. She develops a crush on Alto, especially after being rescued by him when the Vajra first attacked the Macross Frontier fleet.


  • Moe: Ranka is cuteness incarnate, especially when she does the KIRA☆~ pose while singing.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Her Japanese salamander mobile phone/MP3 player.
  • Nice Girl: Is generally a very sweet girl to anyone she meets.
  • Plucky Girl: While she has her downs due to past traumas, her plucky determination and continued perseverance towards her goal of becoming an idol were the biggest contributors that led her into becoming the big celebrity she turned into mid-story. It even helped her stop a war from happening.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: For Delta. Her unwittingly bringing in the Vajra was what causes the Vajra War. After the war concludes with the Vajra leaving the Milky Way Galaxy, they leave behind their Fold bacteria and said bacteria latches onto new hosts, infecting them with Vár Syndrome (leading to the events of Delta)
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: She doesn't remember anything of her early childhood. She's repressing it due to her home and her family being destroyed before her eyes. Not to mention it being her fault, so to speak, for the Vajra even attacking.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The whole plot ultimately kicked off because Ranka innocently sang the Aimo song when a child... which called the Vajra over, and they attacked the ship. It got worse from there.
  • Voice of the Legion: A very kindly one for the Vajra.
  • Where I Was Born and Razed: Ranka's song lured the Vajra to the 117th fleet where she lived with her family, leading to the destruction of said fleet, the death of her mother and the disappearance of her brother.

    Sheryl Nome 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sheryl_small_color_7109.jpg
Voiced by: Aya Endo, May Nakabayashi (singing voice)

The second of two female protagonists, Sheryl's known as the "Galactic Fairy", a pop idol from the Macross Galaxy fleet who constantly topped the music charts, leading people to say it was impossible not to hear her songs if you lived in the Milky Way. Her popularity was soaring just as high in the Galaxy's sister fleet, Macross Frontier. Due to her beauty and singing talent, she's a very proud and self-assured person. Sheryl recognizes Ranka's talent and often offers to help her "behind the scenes" realize her dream. Sheryl's first encounter with Alto was when he served as a backup stunt performer at her first concert in the Frontier, leading her into the series' archtypical Love Triangle.


  • Ambiguously Bi: Her close friendship with Ranka is one thing, but she also "stares lewdly" at Nanase during a shower scene and comments on her figure. And the one man she's interested in is Alto-hime.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In Episode 18, Sheryl demands to know why Ranka can influence Vajra - and she cannot. Turns out she can, too - but she's dying because of it.
  • Betty and Veronica: The Veronica, being mature and experienced.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Alto.
  • Bifauxnen: Some of her costumes during her concerts in the movies have her as this.
  • Big-Breast Pride: She says her chest gives people hopes and dreams.
  • Break the Cutie: Oh dear sweet god, give this girl a hug...
  • Broken Base: In show example: only referenced in the liner notes of the first soundtrack to the series for Sheryl's song Sagittarius☆9pm Don't be late, mentioning that it was this song that threw Sheryl into the galactic spotlight. Naturally, her older fans thought It's Popular, Now It Sucks!.
  • Catch a Falling Star: The falling star every time: played straight twice in the series, while Sheryl invokes this during the movie once. The second time it happens in the movie the trope's subverted because she saves herself.
  • Character Catchphrase: "Because I'm Sheryl! Sheryl Nome!" She also likes to quote Nekki Basara in saying "Listen to my song!"
    • The scene where she hires the SMS to save galaxy using her credit card. "The Galactic Fairy becomes the Goddess of War."
  • Continuity Nod: She's not a Nome for no reason.
  • Cool Car: Her Ferrari California in Nyan Cli with a 6-speed manual. note 
  • Couldn't Find a Pen: In The Wings Of Goodbye, Sheryl ends up imprisoned without a pen. She writes the lyrics to a song with her own blood that she keeps coughing up from her V-type infection. What song, you ask? She called it The Wings Of Goodbye.
  • Cupid's Arrow: Or "Cupid's Revolver" in this case, a pink gun that shoots holographic hearts that she uses in the first movie to shoot Alto in the middle of one of her performances. It's subtle foreshadowing that she knows Alto and that she's set her sights on him.
  • Dark and Troubled Past - Spent much of her early childhood a homeless orphan on the streets of Galaxy before she became a celebrity. Her rise was made possible by Grace, who found her at age 7 and spent ten years making her a celebrity. Yes. Grace. The Big Bad of the series who played a hand in the death of Sheryl's entire family, secretly (and painfully) gave her her Incurable Cough of Death in the name of Galactic Domination and revenge against Mao Nome, and sadistically discards her to die when she finds out Ranka serves her plans better. Ouch.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Approached twice. In episode 18 she is left a sobbing wreck. In episode 25, her song fails to override Grace's control of the Vajra and the Fold Wave pushes her V-Type Infection to its end game (that is, killing her), and Sheryl, barely conscious on the ground, resigns herself to death. Ranka mentally slaps her, then goes and cures her illness, which has the side effect of multiplying Sheryl's power over the Vajra significantly.
  • Do Not Go Gentle: Luca and Leon give her the opportunity to save the Frontier, and basically use this as their argument. She takes it, even though she doesn't expect to live through the Final Battle either way.
    • Double so in the movie. What do you do when you are both In last stages of terminal illness and awaiting execution in a cold cell, without anything to write? Write the lyrics for a new song with blood, of course!
  • Falling into the Cockpit: Deconstructed with prejudice. She gets shot down immediately.
  • First Girl After All: Just read the trope page quote. The movies reveal that she and Alto met long before the series began. She's also the First Girl introduced in the TV series. Alto and her cross paths briefly before Ranka stumbles upon him.
  • First Girl Wins: Surprise case. Ranka appeared to be the first girl up until near the end of the second movie, when Alto has a flashback to his Kabuki years when an inspired fan girl met him and told him she'd become the greatest Idol Singer ever. It was Sheryl, and it's pretty clear from that moment who he's to choose.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Woman!: The deliverer and the recipient, both with Ranka.
  • Godiva Hair: A blink and you'll miss it in episode 3 and 7.
  • Groupie Brigade: Who stalks her when she goes to Mihoshi Academy and chases her panties.
  • Hartman Hips: Acknowledged by Sheryl herself in Universal Bunny complete with a Male Gaze camera angle.
    hippu na rain chiramise denjaa (I'll give you a dangerous glimpse of my hipline)
  • Heroic Willpower: Not the most obvious, because the only real skill she has to back it up is her singing, but she often tries very hard. And it takes a lot to break her down, namely the simultaneous multi-wham of her career spontaneously imploding, her up until then boss Grace turning out to be evil, and the revelation she is terminally ill with no cure and has only months, perhaps weeks, to live. Yet, she still gets through it, but with a little help. The only time it ever truly fails her is when she's literally at death's door from her "incurable" fatal disease.
  • Hidden Depths: She begins as a shallow Rich Bitch and a typical Idol Singer - "A Fabricated Icon". Only gradually we see that she is actually nice and has tons of Heroic Willpower as well as readiness to help other people. Note that she never show any contempt towards Ranka.
  • Hospital Hottie: Complete with Naughty Nurse Outfit.
  • Idol Singer: Until the war erupts, whereupon she became a Glamorous Wartime Singer. Played with, however, as Sheryl stands out as the one singer in the entire franchise to be modeled after western pop stars rather than the traditional sweet and innocent image of a typical Japanese idol. It's most noticeable in Sheryl's outfits and overall approach being Hotter and Sexier.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Subverted, since it turns out to be curable.
  • In-Series Nickname: "The Galactic Fairy".
    • Also counts as a Red Baron of sorts, at least in the music industry, where people treat it less as a nickname and more as an epithet that she earned.
  • Intercourse with You: "Pink Monsoon". That is all.
  • The Lady's Favour: Sheryl gives Alto one of her earrings when he goes off to battle. He loses it after his fighter explodes; Sheryl gives him the second one before the Final Battle, and this time she puts it on his ear.
    • In the movie, he never loses the earring. He keeps it and becomes an important plot point in their connection.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Her commitment to Ranka ultimately saves her life. Twice. First she escapes the Dimension Eater because she wanted to help search for Ranka. The second time around she convinces Alto to save Ranka, and is cured of her sickness in return.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Complete subversion. Sheryl's attempts to do things beyond her position as Idol Singer results in complete disaster throughout the series, and her catchphrase tends to precede the low points of her life more often than the high. The straightest subversion is in Sheryl's infamous attempt to fly a Valkyrie. She says her catchphrase and even gets a Theme Music Power-Up and still she bungles it up.
    • Double Subverted in the final part, when her singing (combined with Ranka's) turns out a more powerful weapon than any single Valkyrie could ever be. The Power of Rock rules!
  • Like You Were Dying: Sheryl lives her (presumed) last days as if she had won Alto in the Love Triangle and actually sleeps with him. Later she gets drunk for no apparent reason other than living like she was dying. Played With since Sheryl had indeed won Alto, as a Love Confession Alto wants to make to her before the final battle gets interrupted by a passionate kiss.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Sheryl's attitude can sometimes be a bit off-putting, as she is very used to being rich and famous. Nonetheless, she is a very kind person.
  • Love Triangle: The third point, rivaling Alto's affections with Ranka.
  • Master of the Mixed Message: In Episode 10 she kisses Alto intensely, then plays it off likes it's not serious.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Seriously, there is an awful lot of Sheryl Fanservice.
    Alto Saotome: You exhibitionist.
    Sheryl Nome: What did you just call me?!
  • Music for Courage: Possibly the most triumphant example.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ultimately subverted: by helping Ranka, Sheryl cheats herself out of her fame and career, and gets a rival in Love Triangle, But it saves her life!
  • Not Quite Dead: Movies only. First she and Ozma are Thrown Out the Airlock, but Sheryl's connection to Vajra saves them. Then, this very connection puts her in a coma, but Ranka saves her with a transfusion. However, she is still in a coma at the end...
  • Official Couple: In the movie, with Alto. Sadly he gets teleported off to the edges of the universe shortly afterwards.
    • The TV series heavily implies this is the case as well, as a very strategically placed kiss in episode 24 shows that Sheryl seems to understand that Alto loves her. Made all the better by the fact she shuts up his Love Confession by that kiss - it's essentially a non-verbal "I know" answer to Alto's wish.
  • Ojou: Very rich and very glamurous, as beffiting the most popular singer in the galaxy. She also starts as a bit of a cold tease towards Alto before becoming much more friendy and romantic towards him.
  • Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Sheryl gets one at the end of episode 24.
  • Playing To The Fetishes: Her stage shows would border on striptease were it not all holographic. Sheryl is a professional. Sheryl knows who the show's target audience is.
  • Rags to Riches: Her backstory, from homeless street urchin to fabulously rich Idol Singer.
  • Red Herring: Sheryl's last name is the same as sisters Sara and Mao from Macross Zero, Mayan High Priestesses with a unique blood type that let them do crazy stuff like make rocks float and control Protoculture technology with song. Many fans assumed even before the first episode that Sheryl would turn out to be Mao's granddaughter and that this would become a major plot point. The first part turned out to be true, but the significance of this fact only goes as far as being one of the many Shout Outs to the other series.
    • Justified: Her actually being of that unique bloodline is only part of it, in order to use those powers, she would still need to adhere by a certain training regimen, which is taught by way of the culture of her people. But unfortunately both Sheryl's grandmother and mother died when she was young so she had no one to learn her the ways of the Mayan, and with no one to teach her it whatever powers she would have inherited from her bloodline would remain sleeping.
  • Rich Bitch: Comes off as this sometimes.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Frontier's government decides to ignore a distress call from Galaxy as sabotage, what's an Idol Singer to do to save people? Hire a Badass Army of mercenaries for a rescue mission. Later using the exact same action to deflect suspicion from Grace and herself of being spies.
  • Sex Sells: First ten seconds of Deculture and Yakh Deculture edition, and indeed it is very deculture.
    • Her concerts are even more egregious, but the concerts in the movies especially count. For gods' sake, when she performs "Universal Bunny", the centerpiece of her performance involves a French kiss between her and a Bifauxnen hologram copy of herself. Hot damn!
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Sheryl gets one with Alto.
  • Sex for Solace: What is heavily implied to happen with Alto when she's on the brink of despair and he confesses to her, following by asking him to "give her courage". There's a slow-pan away from them making out, and a heavily symbolic scene follows of Ranka discovering what outer space looks like, connected to Brere's Lucifer with an umbillical cord, and in a compromising position. When it cuts back to them, he's outside the door in a new shirt.
  • Sheryl Nome Is About To Shoot You: "The Galactic Fairy takes up arms for her homeland!" Comes with a Pistol Pose after.
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: Sheryl is more than OK with showing off her assets, but most of all her all natural Hopes and Dreams. Especially to Alto.
  • Shout-Out: "Listen to my song!"
    • She get's another Basara Shout-Out in the 2nd movie where during a flashback to her first meeting with Alto, she declares that "I'll shake the galaxy with my singing more than you ever did!" mirroring Basara's similar declaration of "moving the galaxy" during the final episode of Macross 7. That declaration later becomes instrumental and making Alto remember their earlier meeting.
    • Some of her costume choices may be one of these to an iconic and infamous scene of Charlotte Rampling in the film The Night Porter.
  • The Show Must Go On: She often continues her singing even as the fleet is in combat, in order to keep up morale.
  • Show Some Leg: How Sheryl gets onto the bridge of the Macross Quarter.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: Episode 24 to Alto. And he was going to spill his true feelings, too. This is the whole reason why the audience doesn't know how the Love Triangle ends. Well, that and an annoyingly placed The End.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Sheryl's glamorous, rich, has a great singing voice and is quite possibly the hottest woman in the entire Milky Way. As it turns out, however, she wants a kind soul to live with, and Alto is like a match made in heaven.
  • Spell My Name With An S: The Lion version of the opening title writes her name as "Sheryl Noam", a typo which persists to the brief shot of her album artwork. Early artwork also had a habit of writing her name as "Cheryl".
    • The Blu-Ray release of Macross Frontier actually fixed Sheryl's name in the Lion opening title, but not the CDs in Episode 18.
  • Stealth Mentor: To Ranka
  • Stripperific: Her stage outfits.
    • Stage outfits nothing; some of her regular attire are this.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: She closely resembles her great aunt Sara Nome.
  • Subspace Ansible: Sheryl's earrings.
  • The Tease: Especially with Alto, but she gives it to more than a few people.
  • 10-Minute Retirement: She loses her original reasons for singing (which are implied to have been largely self centered) when her career vanishes and she finds out she's terminally ill, announcing to Alto that she doesn't want to sing anymore and wants to try something else. She later decides that instead of singing for herself, she can sing for everyone else.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Subverted hilariously.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: From shittalking Alto's Ex-gear team in episode 1, to singing for everyone's sake at the end of the series. She made a big jump.
  • Try Not to Die: Sheryl gives a variation of this to Alto... Twice.
  • Tsundere: Tends to Type B, significantly intermixed with The Tease.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: Idol Singer, natch. Becomes a bit more limited after episode 18. In the world of art this is almost a meme, as official and fan art both frequently portray her in an enormous and fashionable variety of outfits, many original to the artwork in question. Often this is even while other members of the cast are wearing the same outfits they always do in the very same image as Sheryl's totally new one. Can also be taken literally, given that during performances, whatever she's wearing is done through special effects.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: Drops Alto's talisman down her shirt in as "insurance" that he'll look for her missing earring. Also used to carry her cell phone in the movies.
  • Whip of Dominance: Sheryl's stage mic is shaped like the handle of a whip, and can even be cracked like one, fitting her self-assured and domineering persona. This is even invoked further one time when she calls Alto her "slave" and Luca has an Imagine Spot of her Dressed Like a Dominatrix whipping a Bound and Gagged Alto.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: During one of her early performances in the second movie.
  • You Are Not Alone: Occasionally has to be reminded of this in both the movies and the series. Alto tells her those four very words in The False Songstress, and the very last four words of Diamond Crevasse are "You are not alone".
  • Your Days Are Numbered: V-Type Infection, which was thought during most of the series to be incurable.

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