Headscratchers / Macross Frontier

• Why, when Ozma and Catherine were trying to prevent President Glass's assassination, didn't they call him? They knew he had a phone; he called Leon while they were in the room with him. And I find it hard to believe that his daughter wouldn't have his phone number.
  • At that point Leon would probably have blocked the call or was controlling Glass' phone. I doubt he would have chanced someone tipping him off about the assassination.
• Why did no one make the connection between Sheryl and Mao if Mao was famous enough to have her book turned into a movie and they have the same last name? Surely the paparazzi would have been able to dig up something on her or at least wonder, but no one seems to think about that.
  • Who knows how common the name Nome is.
  • Sheryl was wandering around the Galaxy main island as a vagrant and a kid (anyone's guess on how that happened), and colony fleets don't really have real-time contact with each other; it's unlikely that a reporter could have pulled up enough dirt to make the connection.
  • The only thing suggesting a link between Sheryl and Mao is one photograph and one surname. Grace probably gave her a famous surname in order to make it easier for her to become a star.
    • To further that point Grace says herself that she is taking her revenge on the Mao, and Nome family line, which is why she did what she did to Sheryl. Sheryl wasn't just some random kid on the streets that Grace picked up, Grace was looking for her because of her lineage.
  • Perhaps all the characters knew of Sheryl's lineage, it just didn't have plot relevance, and they never mention it because it was actually one of Kawamori's masterful trolls. In Legend of Zero, Sheryl had the theme song, but she never performs it, nor really should she even be on set for just that, that's all post production, yet there she is on set sunning the entire time. She was even on stage after the credits ran with the Director and the stars which seems quite overblown for Sheryl's part in it, to the point where even Grace successfully squeeze her in for publicity without using the fact that Sheryl is Mao's granddaughter. It just makes all this suddenly make sense, though it really becomes ironic that they didn't just let Sheryl write Mao's song (The Song of the Wind). Honestly, its surprising Sheryl didn't seem to know it, though remembering that that song causes flowers to bloom and rocks to float, if Sheryl did know it she probably had a good reason not to mention it.
    • Here's another way to think of it: Sheryl probably already knew both "Aimo" and "The Song of the Wind" however she never wanted to use them for the movie due to their significance to her. She probably didn't want to commercialize the song of her people, and Aimo was also probably taught to her by her grandmother, and or mother, but she may not have wanted to commercialize that either because it was personal to her.
• A sizable amount of the plot, especially towards the end of the series and dealing with the Vajra, seems to be lifted from Ender's Game. What's with that?
  • The Vajra are a lot like the Formics, especially in their whole "we don't understand individuality" but in the end they aren't the real villains of the story anyway, Grace and her co-conspirators from Galaxy are. I'm pretty sure the Formics never had a shadowy group of humans controlling events from behind the scenes as part of a plot to use them to take over the galaxy.
  • Details, schmetails. The ending was pretty much Ender's Game with J-Pop, but no Xenocide.
• In the last scene, why did Alto scuttle his Messiah? Heck, why was his Messiah a burning hunk of scrap, anyway? It didn't sustain any damage during the Nyan Nyan Service Medley battle, at least nothing visible (and Grace's shockwave, the only attack it received head-on, only broke his helmet's visor, but didn't damage the vehicle.) It couldn't have happened during reentry, because VFs are shielded for it (and damage during reentry wouldn't have ignited some flames on the Valkyrie, it would have made a fireball out of it.) But by the time Alto ejects, the poor VF-25 is on fire, has a multitude of scorch marks, and is pretty much breaking up. Maybe Rule of Cool, maybe because the all-powerful Director Kawamori wanted him to glide across the "endless skies," but one wants to exhaust all possibilities before relaxing.
  • The last shockwave probably caused some internal damage in addition to breaking his visor.
    • Alto wrecks every plane he ever gets into. He has to keep up his record.
  • Presumably he just got through flying that thing past the breaking point to get through Grace's Point Defenseless, and the final explosion just sealed the deal. Alternatively there might have been a breach in the fighter's armor, and reentry heat seeped into the engine and fried it, forcing him to bail out.
• So... Word of God is that Sheryl and Alto slept together, and even though Sheryl was all concerned about him coming into contact with her blood they then went and had sex? Maybe they used protection, and the V-type infection isn't spread that way but still...
  • The "V-type infection" is intelligent. It knows how to deal with humans now, thanks to Ranka; he'll be fine.
    • Well, now it does, but at the time they didn't know that and just knew that left alone it was fatal. Obviously they're young and therefore don't think with their heads, but still, seems like a pretty big lapse of logic right there.
  • It has to be very difficult to spread, as otherwise people coming down with a V-type infection after meeting the Galactic Fairy would have been noticed unless Grace did some very active trail covering. Notably the drama CD makes out that Sheryl had to get it by way of a very elaborate procedure, but perhaps it would only take one Doctor getting on their backs about it for them to cut it out, or for Sheryl to get protective. Maybe there are various types of V-type infections dependent on the carrier.
  • It is rather difficult to spread: it's only communicable by exchange of bodily fluids, which is true of many real-life diseases. Though this does call into question exactly how "Patient Zero" contracted it... what were they doing with the Vajra?
  • Luca had by then already told Sheryl that the V-type infection is curable in its early stages. It only becomes terminal when it reaches the brain.
• Alto's hair is irritating. Firstly, because if he really wanted to stop looking like a girl he should stop wearing his hair in a high pony with a ribbon. Secondly, does he have a special helmet to accommodate his hair, because normal helmets don't with fit with that kind of hair style?
  • NUNS space helmets are designed to accommodate long hair, since the future is unisex.
  • Alto's hairstyle is a masculine one in Japanese tradition. Lots of Japanese noblemen and samurai are depicted with it. If anything, his hairstyle is emphasizing masculinity. This just gets lost on Westerners because we tend to see long hair of any kind as feminine by default.
• Alto gets excited about an opportunity to fly in the "endless" skies of a planetary atmosphere — even though he's been flying in outer space for several episodes by that point.
  • Real skies in Macross are rendered MUCH more beautifully than outer space.
  • And then there's this thing called "air" and being able to feel it. Cant really do that with vacuum now, can we?
  • Alto himself mentions why he dislikes flying in space at the beginning of the Movie. "Space doesn't have a top or bottom. You can keep on floating endlessly. However, I want to fly by my own means."
• Does Luca have a degree? Judging how he was portrayed in the second movie he's ought to have at least several doctorates by 16.
  • Probably rather like Yang Neumann, who was himself barely older than Luca when he was heading the YF-19 project, age has little to do with recognizing talent and genius if one has it, but undoubtedly both studied hard to get where they are. Guess it's kind of a running theme.
• If Michael is not even quarter-zentraedi like Ranka then why are his ears pointed?
  • Why would they not be? Presumably one of his ancestors had pointed ears and he inherited that trait. Zentradi and humans are the same species, after all. With them mingling (and humanity using Protoculture technology to rapidly rebuild their population) it can be expected for traits like this to be popping up here and there, and nobody to think it unusual enough to mention.
• Why are there tanks on the ship's islands? They are utterly inferior, not just in case of Vajra threat, but in every case.
  • They're for fighting conventional forces within the city itself, particularly in street fighting situations where a Valkyrie or Destroid wouldn't be able to maneuver effectively without unacceptable amounts of collateral damage.
• Why is Ranka's phone like that?