Articles with the Tag Macross

It’s the third episode and it’s time for a trainings montage. As well as mercat antics. Hayate Immelman gets the pleasure of having Mirage Farina Jenius as his tutor, while Freyja Wion is starting idol training with the Walkures. in between their respective training sequences there’s a bit of light hearted slice of life starring an evil mercat stealing fish from the restaurant/lodgings Hayate is staying at. This will turn out to be more important than it first seems.

Hayate is trained on the VF-1EX, the trainer variant of the venerable VF-1 from the original Macross. Which took place in 2009 while Delta is set almost sixty years later, in 2067, giving the VF-1 a time in service rivaling that of the real world B-52 which first flew in the fifties and is still used today. Of course the plane is upgraded somewhat from its first appearance, going full CGI here. It also looks a little bit less a blatant F-14 knockoff than the original.

Both Hayate and Freyja are not doing too hot up until the former is in his final exam, a mock dogfight against Mirage, watched by Freyja. She wants to help him in some way and the Walkures leader reminds her that she has her own fight. Freyja takes this to heart and starts to sing while stretching out her hand towards Hayate’s plane. Which begs the question: if Hayate can only fly well when Freyja sings and Freyja can only sing well if she sees him fly, what good are they on their own? I do love how well they fit together though; an even nicer couple than Frontier‘s Ranka Lee/Alto Saotome. Whether the oneside belligerent (sexual?) tension between Mirage and Hayate can cope is anybody’s guess. Focus here was very much on Hayate & Freyja this episode: need more Mirage next time.

In the end of course Hayate’s raw talent and instincs win it from Mirage’s experience and guile, as inspired by how that thieving mercat evaded attacks, he finally manages to shoot her. Freyja meanwhile sings her heart out and gets appreciative comments from the Walkure team members. Two of whom were casually established to live together earlier in the episode btw, which is irrelevant but still nice to see. in other news, I can actually do that Walkure hand gesture, which puts it one ahead of the Spock sign.

The opening of Macross Delta ends with the most important element of every iteration of Macross: the love triangle. This time it’s two pilots and an idol, as opposed to a pilot, a bridge bunny and an idol (Macrosss) or a pilot, an idol and a pilot/idol and all around jackass (Macross 7) or even two idols and a pilot (Frontier). We’ve had two pilots fighting over an idol before in Macross Plus but then they were both male and the idol was actually the understudy for the AI superstar she was the manager off. So straight off the bat Macross Delta offers something new. Also new: the male lead character is not a massive tool, though the female pilot is mildly tsundere. But then she’s a Farina Jenius, so it’s no more than expected. Gotta have one of those in there of course or it’s not Macross.

The two main elements of any Macross show are love triangles and mecha, with Delta not lacking in the latter. The good guys are flying the usual variations on what once started out as F-14s that could transform into giant robots, but the bad guys (relatively) for once have the cooler planes, a double delta inspired by the Swedish Saab Draken Cold War fighter plane. It looks absolutely gorgeous in the dog fights. The Viggen would’ve been even better though.

The three main elements of any Macross show are love triangles, mecha and music being able to stop wars. Or in this case, cure people possessed by Var Syndrome which makes them hyper violent and supernormally strong. The Walkure combined idol group/fighter squadron uses the power of love songs to fight the syndrome and our second heroine, Freyja Wion, wants to join them, proving her mettle during the first episode’s main battle and the second episode’s test.

Among main elements of any Macross show are love triangles, mecha, music being able to stop wars and cocky, obnoxious male leads. Hayate Immelman is rare in that he’s not a total douche, though he is somewhat confident in himself, shall we say? But he helps Freyja escape the police in the first episode, then rescues her from the enemy’s attack doing the time honoured “jump into a conveniently abandoned mecha and grab the girl in its hands, then blast off” Macross manoeuvre and for the most part is more a tease than a blowhard. There is some drama with Mirage Farina Jenius, especially since he lusts after her plane, starting the second love triangle of the series, but nothing on the level of Basara’s attitude in Macross 7, to name the worst example.