Macross general Thread

Welp, guys, it's finally happening.

Going to sit down and watch Macross Zero.

EP 1

...so, what's with Mao and Sara being Nomes? Are they legit related to Sheryl (as in, distant ancestors, since this seems to be set around the time of SDF-1's initial crash landing on Earth, although I thought that it had stopped the world wars going on, making the nations realize that they needed to band together in case future aliens would be hostile), or is it just an in-joke?

...aaaand there's a Fokker on board, too. Looks like he's even a Skull pilot. And unlike the Nomes, actually Roy's dad. I mean, IIRC this takes place in or around 1999, so that could actually totally line up...

Actually, seeing how Fokker acts, that might well be Roy...

...I like Mao. More than I like her sister, anyway. ...eh, I take it back, Sara's not that bad a gal after all.

...I don't terribly care for the vocals on this ending theme. Gets a little too high-pitched and hard to decipher at times.

Okay, so I can see that this came out around midway between 7 and Frontier, so Sheryl Nome would be more a reference to Sara and Mao, but I'm still curious if she's decended from them or if it's just coincidence.

Yes, she is.

And is the Fokker in Zero Roy Fokker, or his dad or uncle or something?

It's the same Roy Fokker.

"this seems to be set around the time of SDF-1's initial crash landing on Earth, although I thought that it had stopped the world wars going on, making the nations realize that they needed to band together in case future aliens would be hostile"

You're getting Macross's backstory confused with Robotech's.

In Macross, the ship's crash caused a world war when several superpowers decided that proof that a powerful alien military existed meant it was time to unite humanity and its resources and decided to institute the UN as a global government. Some other nations didn't like that idea and refused. The UN decided to not give them a choice in the matter.

By the time Macross Zero is happening, the UN Wars are almost over, and are beginning to slow down to a UN victory, but there are still some countries that are resisting them.

Ooohhhhh, okay, things make a lot more sense now.

Yeah, I've only seen the Robotech version of events, and then only up to... I think around the time SDF-1 made it back to Earth and was basically told to GTFO.

in the Blu-Ray version of Macross Zero,they actually added shots of Sheryl's earrings to reinforce that she inherited them from her grandmother.

I think this is part of where your confusion is coming from. The initial scenes are set during the crash there's a bit of a skip and most of the action takes place only a couple of years before the Macross (re)launches. So that is actually Roy Fokker, same character from the original Macross. The VF-0 and VF-1 are almost identical machines, differing mainly in the power plant and the carrier the UN forces are operating off is the Prometheus if I remember correctly (one of the one's that became the Macross's arms anyway).

As for ancestry, Mao and Sarah and Sheryl's grandmother and grand-aunt (but I ain't saying which is which, but if you go back and re-watch Frontier is actually says it outright).

Okay, thanks for helping to further clear things up. Yeah, the timeline definitely had be a bit confused.

After... however friggin' long it's been, time for more Macross Zero.

EP 2

Shin sucks at piloting a Valk, apparently. At least compared to the other Macross leads I've seen.

Aaaaaaand I'm starting to care less for Sara again. She's not a bad person, by any means, but her devotion to her spiritualism isn't something I can identify with, and honestly find to be kind of annoying.

Aaaaaaaand this show's magic song is in French for some reason. So, what's the excuse this time? Sound Force? Some bizarre viral infection? I'm tellin' ya right now, if it's because Religion is Magic, I'm calling bullshit.

edited 9th Feb '15 9:22:46 PM by EvaUnit01

The questions and comments you got are going to be a plot point for the OVA. That's all I'll say for now.

In the meantime, 8,000 people turned in auditions for the Macross Delta lead singer.

Hey, be fair to Shin: Valkyries are brand-new machines of a type nobody has ever seen before, and very very few people have any experience piloting. And most Macross leads suck at piloting until they go through training anyway (Basara is the exception; I don't think they ever explained where he learned to pilot).

edited 10th Feb '15 1:26:45 AM by DarkHunter

There's also Isamu and Guld who are arguably the best pilots of any Macross lead (since Roy may be important but is always playing second fiddle).

Of course if Isamu wasn't as good as he thought he was he probably would have been dead well before the series started.

But Isamu and Guld had obviously gone through training in the military prior to the story, so they aren't exceptions.

Also, pretty bluntly, Isamu won because he thinks he's hot shit, and Guld died because he didn't think he'd make it. Sharon gave everyone what they ultimately thought they would get.

EP 3

Aaaand Sara also appears to be surprised that her song is magic. Sorta.

Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaah, not buying your religious explanation for a second, Sara. Now, if there's a legitimate scientific thingamajig that more-or-less coincides with what she's saying (like some kind of inverted gravitational field), then that would at least be acceptable.

...Apparently the island spacegod doesn't like PDA's in its presence? ....heh. No Hugging, No Kissing! One thousand years bad juju!

...yeah, I'm not really feeling this show.

EP 4

At least Shin knows what to do when taken as a prisoner.

Roy is absolutely the best thing about this series.

EP FINAL

IT'S AN ANGEL! ...but seriously, what the hell is the Birdman? I mean, I get that it's some kind of alien that came to Earth in the ancient past and accelerated the evolution of humanity, but still? And why does the magic song work? And why the hell was it in French of all languages? And what's with this 'Kadun' stuff? Is it supposed to be some kind or spirit or djinni or kami or something? And what's with Mao contacting Shin by method of psychic apparition? What, the Birdman's a Newtype and so is Mao after getting its blood, is that what's going on?

...I liked Macross better when it was Slice of Life meets Space Opera.

At least I suppose we know which Nome is Sheryl's ancestor, since one of them shot off into space and whatnot....

You've seen Macross 7, right?

The birdman is basically the same type of being as the Protodeviln. A Protoculture living superweapon. It isn't the thing that accelerated humanity's evolution: the Protoculture did that. The islanders' myths just conflated the two. Oral tradition is not a very effective way of preserving history, after all.

The "magic" songs work because Song Energy. The song's language is unimportant... perhaps the French were the first to discover the island in the past. The people of the island were specially altered by the Protoculture to be able to harness Song Energy and use it to connect to and activate the birdman. I think the rocks flew because there were traces of Fold Quartz in them that reacted to the Song Energy (would certainly explain where those earrings came from).

"Kaduns" are just the islanders' word for "demon", I think. I don't believe they really exist, Sara is just highly religious so she tends to interpret things as being the result of kaduns.

edited 10th Feb '15 1:07:30 PM by DarkHunter

Don't forget the part where the Protoculture deliberately left the birdman on Earth to wipe humanity out if we develop spaceflight before forsaking warfare, so that we won't make the same mistake (creating a Henchmen Race) the Protoculture did.

I've seen the Encore and Dynamite OV As, but the series proper? Only the first episode as of yet.

I'll try to explain. The Vajra from Frontier? The Protoculture ran into them way back in the day and tried to copy the Vajra queen; the resemblance between it and the birdman isn't just coincidence. While the birdman was successful, a later project went haywire and resulted in 7's bad guys who hit the Protoculture so badly they were forced to take the leash off the Zentradi^note the Zentradi had a Restraining Bolt preventing them from attacking Protoculture citizens; the Protodevlin used Demonic Possession to exploit that and hit the Zentradi with impunity... who then wiped out both sides. Or to be more exact, the Protodeviln went into hiding and with no one else left to fight, the Zentradi Turned Against Their Masters.

edited 10th Feb '15 4:50:09 PM by amitakartok

IIRC, the Protodeviln were defeated and sealed up, they didn't go to ground willingly.

It was one of the colonization fleets that found them and accidentally woke them up again.

edited 10th Feb '15 4:54:09 PM by DarkHunter

Question: which comes first: Lovers Again or Macross Plus?

Lovers Again is non-canon.

So, Macross Plus.

Got it. Thanks.

Okay guys, what's your favorite version of "Do You Remember Love?"

Granted, I only know this one and the version Ranka sang to coordinate the Vajra, but here goes:

This one is the best to me.

For the best song related to the franchise however you just can't beat this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4r7LcUs0ZM

edited 2nd Mar '15 7:48:27 PM by Jaustin89*