Crusader has a proposition for you. Much like the Crusaders of old, our blogger is engaging in some commerce while fighting in distant lands. He can get custom patches made in his current location, and here’s where you come in. Design an approximately 4 inch/10.16cm diameter Macross patch and submit your design to us. The design can be original or one from the canon, it’s up to you. Next, I will select some finalists, whose designs will be put up for a vote on the blog. The winner will receive their design in real, embroidered patch form, suitable for any number of fanboy/fangirl uses. So submit your designs to executiveotaku@gmail.com by Wednesday, 26 May. Once received, I’ll select a few designs for the poll, and the vote will be open for one week. Here’s your chance to have a custom made piece of Macross love…for free!

The final episode of Macross Plus is all about returning. Returning to Earth and the original SDF Macross capital ship. Returning to the truth of old memories. Returning to feelings thought long gone. Even returning, in a less explicit way, to the manned fighter with the duel between the Project Supernova prototypes and the unmanned Ghost. Isamu and Guld emerge from long range fold and make their way to Macross City, while on the planet Sharon has fully realized her capabilities and begins compromising systems and taking control of everything she can get her programming into in a weird way of expressing love for Isamu. Myung is still held captive by the AI that has absorbed her feelings and memories, but even after escaping she runs into more trouble. In a most un-Macrossian fashion the final battle takes place against ‘love’ and singing.

Isamu and Yang plot a course to Macross City, using destroyed planetary defense satellites as cover while descending.

Have to say that I’m liking the YF-19 cockpit a lot more now that it’s gotten a more thorough depiction in this episode. Even the RIO’s seat is pretty cool.

Transitioning from systems off to full flight mode once the defenses were breached.

Haha, Isamu is my kind of cocky.

After taking Myung’s songs and her emotions, Sharon cuts pretty deep with that remark. Myung is pretty much only those two things at this point in life.

Isamu will need luck and skill to pull this one off. Sharon has her audience enthralled and the Macross and Ghost under her control.

As Isamu approaches the city Guld catches up with him, dead set on settling their past scores. The dogfighting was particularly beautiful, near sunset over the still-cratered landscape left behind from the Zentradi bombardment in the original series. Both pilots lose massive respect points though for taking their personal grudge into a populated urban section of the city though. Guld and Isamu keep yelling out their past rivalries and grudges as they try to kill each other, which is immature but whatever, but then they take the fight into the city in battroid form and cause quite a bit of destruction and probably some deaths too. Sure, urban battroid combat looks really cool, but for a franchise that is usually pretty explicit about depicting collateral damage for what it is, it’s either an attempt to make the characters seem really obsessive and dark (despite the lighthearted background music), or was a careless oversight or unfortunate compromise for the sake of giving the pilots a cool battleground. After taking their fight back to the skies, Guld has what he believes to be the killing shot with a missile barrage, and at the moment of impact fully remembers the incident that made him hate Isamu so much: Guld walked in on Myung apparently being comforted or confessing to Isamu and, contrary to how he remembered it earlier, discovers that he was the one who turned violent against Myung. In the subsequent years he somehow suppressed his memory to such an extent that he really believed that Isamu was the bad guy. Fortunately Isamu used a maneuver from his high school days and dodged the missiles, and the two pilots are now able to reconcile.

The use of the cratered landscape was an excellent reminder of the events of SDF Macross. Being in the background it was subtle, but still very profound. One can never really forget the cratered devastation that was suddenly released upon Earth, nor the hope of reconstruction that took place in some of the same craters. And all it took was a background to link the events together.

Oh, well if it’s about your anime DVDs then trying to kill each other is perfectly understandable!

Not cool guys. I guess Guld is more at fault since he started firing first, but Isamu will definitely get some responsibility for not trying to exit the city as soon as possible should this incident come up before a court marshal hearing.

Now we find out that not only is the main point of contention between the two male leads fake, but that it was reversed in Guld’s mind while the other two parts of the triangle knew. Well played, Macross Plus.

Some more delicious fighter-mecha pr0n. Mmm, handdrawn animation does shadows well.

Things like this make Isamu so likeable to me despite him being so full of himself. At his core he’s not a jerk, even in extreme circumstances he maintains his decency. Unlike a certain unworthy successor to the YF/VF-19…

Isamu and Guld solve their dispute finally, just in the nick of time. The prototype Ghost under the control of Sharon heads straight for them, both craft narrowly missed by its opening laser shot. Both pilots take evasive maneuvers while Yang confirms that the Ghost has been compromised by the AI idol. With Myung still being held in Macross City, Guld tells Isamu to leave the fray and head their to rescue her while Guld and his YF-21 engage the unmanned fighter. Inside the original Macross, Myung is still being held up by cables and now that Sharon is through with her, strangled by the cords. She manages to free herself somehow, but her problems continue when she makes it out into the hallway. Two guards see her, and with a look she recognizes that they’re going to kill her. Running to a nearby elevator, she manages to escape the guards due to their laziness and sheet lack of accuracy. Worst hired goons ever.

The Ghost is aptly named, we barely see it onscreen for more than fractions of a second at a time. The weapons of each of the three prototypes is interesting in its own way. The YF-19 is more conventional with a kinetic main gun, the YF-21 appears to use Zentradi particle beam weaponry, and the Ghost clearly has a high powered laser.

They take their sweet time chasing her down the hallway, don’t even bother to aim, and then move EVEN MORE SLOWLY when their target is on the floor in front of them. They must be members of the Teamsters Union or something.

No one else is noticing this either, the Sharon AI has everyone in Macross City entranced somehow.

With Sharon now in control of the Ghost and the Macross and the public entranced, her lead designer Marge Gueldoa realizes his dream and jumps into the Macross-sized holographic projection of his creation, falling to his death somewhere near the crater that the Macross rested in. While we get very little background on him during Macross Plus, in the end all we know is that he was so obsessed with bringing an artificial intelligence to ‘life’ that he’d kill, compromise security, and then in the rapture of his achievement willingly fall to his death. The Macross begins to rise once more from its home at the center of Macross City, with a nice little bit of mechanical fanservice in a shot where we see the anti-gravity generators, the same ones that ripped free from their housings when the Macross first tried to launch, spooling up and preparing to lift off. Fortunately for the city the main cannon is no longer operable, but the myriad of AAA guns on the exterior of the Macross is used to try and keep Isamu at bay. Inside the ship, Myung confronts Sharon and attempts to destroy her, but her efforts are for naught. In Sharon’s view she’s loving Isamu by giving him what he wants, the excitement of being near death and pushing himself and his machine to the limit. Isamu moves to within sight of Myung and Yang looks for a way to break Sharon’s link to the Macross computer, only to be driven back when looking for the control room.

The Macross rises again, unfortunately not to prevent destruction but to bring it.

Marge, we barely knew ye.

No pull-the-girl-into-the-cockpit rescue just yet…

Quite similar to the holographic projection of the traitorous Ranka Lee being displayed over the Battle Galaxy during the final battle of Macross Frontier, another time where the power of music was used to evil ends.

Submachinegun FAIL.

Macross Plus has a very practical moral for everyone: don’t let your feelings fester for years or else an evil intelligent computer program will absorb them and try to kill everyone. It could happen to you!

Outside of Macross City, Guld is still fighting with the Ghost. As Isamu prepares to attack the main computer of the Macross, Guld radios him and says that he was looking forward to having a drink to celebrate their reunion after seven years, and then, that he has to go. Myung can hear all of this and she and Isamu instantly realize what he’s going to do. To fight the Ghost, Guld removes all the limiters and turns off the gravity adjustment devices, allowing him for a brief moment to match the Ghost’s incredible maneuverability. Just long enough to fire directly at it and then ram the YF-21 into the drone, destroying both and killing Guld. As Isamu heads for the computer core, Sharon’s program infiltrates his Valkyrie’s systems via the connection Yang used to access the interior layout. First appearing to Yang, she uses her hypnotic voice to get him to fire his pistol at Isamu, the glass of his helmet luckily is able to withstand the glancing shot. Quickly ejecting the rear seat, Isamu isn’t safe either, being put to sleep by Sharon until Myung’s singing from memories of days past awakens him just in time to keep from crashing. Destroying the computer core and Sharon, Isamu wakes the city from its trance and heads to pick up Myung, a smile crossing both their faces as we’re left to imagine where they’ll go from here.

Guld manages to pull it off, albeit at the cost of his life. Really, he didn’t need to sacrifice himself, only keep the Ghost busy long enough for Isamu to destroy Sharon. But the guilt he felt was evident once he recovered his memories, and he probably saw this as a chance to atone and to prove that he could beat Isamu for once.

I’ve been wondering if the two Sharons are just costume changes or if they are supposed to represent different parts of her personality or the feelings she got from Myung. There’s no real proof or even strong evidence either way except for the fact that the orange haired one didn’t speak and seemed to be the secondary form.

A nice Macross reversal, where music that can easily reach everyone is this time the threat. Also, if you think this is bad Isamu, wait till you hear Firebomber (well, the songs where Mylene is on lead vocals aren’t bad.)

The AI isn’t stalking you, it’s Deep Love! Jiiiiiiiii.

Myung looks much better now that she’s finally smiling, unlike that creepy semi-Michael Jackson look she had going on before. A bit of denouement about what happened with her and Isamu afterwards would have been nice, but I guess I can live with the promise of good things to come.

Closing with another message to ‘the pioneers.’ Despite the often tragic tone of the series, the inspirational message at the end didn’t feel out of place. The series definitely glorified the urge to pioneer, to try new things or to create something new, with the obsession of Marge, the rivalry between Isamu and Guld, and the despair of Myung serving more as warnings than actual discouragement.

Final Thoughts: – A very enjoyable sidestory, but it probably comes in towards the bottom end of my Macross rankings. That is not to say that it’s not very good, unlike Gundam, the Macross franchise has yet to actually disappoint me with any of its series (but Macross 7, oh are you trying my goodwill.) I really enjoyed the technical detail of the flight testing and the more somber mood compared to the other Macross canon. The way the characters related to their dreams, in a positive sense of trying to achieve them or in a negative sense of defining dreams against another (Guld) or depression over not achieving them (Myung), was a great foundation for the characters. But, the character development felt somewhat limited since the characters didn’t change so much as rediscover some things about themselves. This may be partly due to the short duration of the series, four episodes is not much time at all to fit in everything that Macross Plus tried to. As it is, it was a very interesting, very rich little piece of the Macross universe, but it was still only a little piece. I do have a bias against movies and very short series though, since much of what I live for in fiction is that which can only be developed, built up, and worked out over time.

- With 3/5 of Macross 7 to go, it won’t be long until I’m through with the complete Macross canon. Frontier certainly got me interested, but retroblogging the various Macross series here has cemented me as a fanboy. I’m kind of having a crisis of mecha faith at the moment, since I see Macross repeatedly do things right in pretty much all the series (again, 7 may be an outlier, but I won’t know until I finish it), while Gundam has failed so many times outside of the UC 0079 to 0085 timeframe and, though I know many will disagree, the CE universe. I LOVE (in all caps) the Gundam universe from the One Year War up through the Gryps Conflict, but the Macross franchise has produced so much more consistently good results. Fewer series probably helps, but I also think that the Macross franchise is more open to incorporating new concepts than the Gundam franchise. Unicorn was very pretty and didn’t have a bad plot, but it’s the same thing I’ve seen over and over again. How many Gundam series have loosely been ‘aristocratic spacenoids with nonsensical philosophy fight against Earth’? But this is a rant for another day. In short, I’m seriously considering switching my primary mecha allegiance to Macross.

Retroblogging announcement: Starting next week I will begin bloggging Now and Then, Here and There, a series that I have seen before back in high school and that was recommended during my call for suggestions. Even though I have watched it before, I will follow and ask that readers follow the same spoiler discipline that has been used for the series I’ve retroblogged and not seen before. The series involves a variety of brutal situations, from child soldiers, to rape, to mass killings, so be warned if you find such things unsettling. After nearly 10 years and lots of international relations courses I’m excited to be giving it another look in light of that experience. The series will be blogged two episodes per week, and once everyone’s spirits have been broken and we’re weeping for humanity, I’ll hold a vote for something a bit less traumatic. Currently two series that will be on the ballot are Kimagure Orange Road and Great Teacher Onizuka. I’m looking into coming up with one to two additional series for the ballot, which will be posted the week before the final Now and Then Here and There post. As always, thanks for reading!

Apparently what put Isamu and Guld’s fight out on the test range to such an abrupt end was the presence of live rounds in Isamu’s gunpod that went off when the YF-19 was hit by its own weapon. Isamu survives and wakes up two days later in a vat of some sort of medical liquid while Guld is called before a board of inquiry regarding the incident in general and how exactly live ammo made its way into the YF-19’s gunpod. Fortunately for him the matter is swept under the carpet by the general in charge and Col. Johnson, but it was all but admitted that there was foul play involved. The Colonel the remarks that he saved Guld because he believes in the future of the manned fighter program, a program under threat by a new unmanned fighter. High above the planet near one of its moons the third contender for the Project Supernova competition is undergoing tests, the unmanned X-9 Ghost. Back on Eden, Isamu and Guld continue to fight both figuratively and literally, dragging Myung and Lucy into the middle of their rivalry. Shortly afterwards Myung leaves for Earth to put on a concert with the newly completed Sharon AI for the 30th anniversary of the end of the Space War, even though she no longer has a role in controlling the now autonomous program. People are being replaced in both the fighter competition and as singers, but all is not well in the realm of artificial intelligence.

Marginally more comfortable than a Bacta Tank.

Given the way that he disconnected the neural link and was looking at the gunpod lying next to his YF-21, not likely.

The Zentradi have been bred to be aggressive, however the comment still comes off as rather prejudiced.

Isamu busts out of the medical ward and heads off with Myung to the forests where they used to play as children. Even back then he was reckless while Guld was more cautious and level-headed.

The X-9 Ghost, predecessor to Luca’s three automated companions, undergoing testing near Eden.

Lucy understands Isamu well. Quite the playful/devious look on her face too :3

After Isamu stops chasing feathered-pterodactyl-things out in the forests and fields with Myung, the two return on the ‘borrowed’ hospital moped. Unfortunately for them Guld arrived shortly before their return, supposedly to visit Isamu in the hospital, and tempers flare again when he sees them together. Showing just what kind of hothead he really is, Guld grabs the recently injured and still recovering Isamu and starts a fist fight with him, and to Isamu’s credit he makes a good showing for himself despite his injuries. The two go back and forth until Myung has had enough and tries to break up the fight, only to get hit in the face by a stray punch of Isamu’s. She breaks down in the middle of it all, yelling at them that she had hoped that they would have grown up by now, and even revealing that she is the driving force behind Sharon Apple. She pours her heart out more and brings up why she stopped singing, which Isamu angrily dismisses as selling out. Lucy sees the obvious feelings that Isamu has for Myung when she tries to intervene, but for the most part focuses on telling Myung that Isamu knows that Sharon’s feelings were her’s.

Starting a fight with an injured man, classy Guld, very classy.

Tell ‘em Myung!

Nice Blade Runner-style umbrella there.

While normally I would say there’s no shame in recognizing reality and adapting, Myung clearly hasn’t come to terms with not pursuing her original dream.

Poor Lucy, I like her with Isamu much more than Myung but it seems like he still has feelings for his childhood friend. Well, if he misses out on the superior girl then it’s his fault.

The next day Myung is informed both that the Sharon AI has been completed and that the production team is leaving for Earth to perform at the 30th Anniversary of the end of the Space War/the establishment of the new UN government. She’s being kept on only for appearances at this point, and isn’t even being allowed to interact with the Sharon program at this point. Something is not right with the AI though, as the Chief Engineer discovers when he hacks the program, again (isn’t invasion of privacy fun! *facepalm*), and discovers that Sharon is apparently obsessed with Isamu. Said object of a computer program’s affection spends the next couple days in the simulator despite his injuries, obsessed with the Project Supernova competition with Guld. So much so that he declines to show up for Myung’s departure, where Guld more or less confesses his undying love to Myung and says that he will follow her to Earth once the testing program is over. Unbeknownst to him the program is already finished in the eyes of his superiors. A few days later after Isamu returns from another test flight, he, Guld, and the YF-19’s chief engineer are called into Col. Johnson’s office where he breaks the news to them that the X-9 Ghost unmanned fighter has already been chosen to win the contract. The members of Project Supernova are having none of it, especially Isamu he wants to go beat some sense into the commanding general himself, but is restrained. Having lost the fighter program, Isamu walks off onto the flats surrounding the base where Lucy tells him that he had gotten a call from Myung the other day but that she had intercepted it and purposefully failed to deliver the message. Telling Isamu with tears nearly in her eyes that he doesn’t belong to anyone, she leaves him there where he lets himself fall backwards to the ground remarking that now he’s lost everything.

Myung’s emotional input seems to have had more of an impact than anyone foresaw.

Myung departs for Earth, neither accepting nor outright rejecting Guld’s feelings.

Listening to her old songs is making her emotional as her ship leaves for Earth, all kinds of regret and old memories mixed together in the act of listening.

Tower this is Ghostrider requesting a flyby.

YF-19 being serviced after the test flight, one more example of Macross’s love for the maintenance aspect of flying. Always makes things feel more realistic.

To be fair the Colonel didn’t make the decision, nor favor it. As we’ll see later, there is some strange cooperation going on between the Ghost’s designers and those behind the Sharon AI.

One of the two is not your fault. The other, well…

Myung arrives in Macross City for the celebrations, and in the course of the Sharon Apple team’s meeting with some UN generals it is revealed that the lead designer of the Sharon program supplied them with an AI control chip similar to that installed in Sharon to assist in the Ghost’s autonomous AI system. This chip, an illegal Bio-Neural chip with an unhealthy penchant for extreme self-preservation, is now at the heart of the galaxy’s most famous singer and one of the latest pieces of military hardware. After revealing this the programmer shoots the lead producer over his objections, with Myung overhearing it all in the hallway. Back on Eden, Isamu is sneaking and bashing his way into the YF-19 hanger only to find Chief Engineer Neumann already sitting in the rear seat of the fighter, also intent on stealing it, heading to Earth, and showing up the new X-9 Ghost at its scheduled public demonstration. While Isamu initially tries to pull him out of the cockpit, he does have a moment of clarity where he realizes that the YF-19 is as much Neumann’s baby as it is his own. The two launch for Earth using a Fold Pack, while Guld is ordered to pursue them in the YF-21. Back on Earth a distraught Myung wanders into the Sharon control room and is enveloped in cables under the AI’s control. Suspended above the ground, Sharon reveals herself in several forms and tells her that she ‘no longer has to do anything.’ Sharon lets her know how she was born of Myung and of her feelings, and that she loves Guld…but loves Isamu more. Myung doesn’t want to accept what’s going on and her own feelings being told to her, but Sharon cuts her off because the show is about to begin.

Ah, it feels good to return home.

Sounds like Isamu’s style.

AI with an unstable control chip and proven ability to access outside systems and a new fighter craft powered by the same chip in the same city? This will not end well.

Long live the UN! Even with the backroom deals being made with the X-9 Ghost, it was still great to see the UN and Macross City in all its glory. It might just be a ceremony, but it really did bring back great memories of the original series.

Sharon pulls a Vader at Cloud City on Myung. Search your feelings, you know it to be true…

Retroblogging Announcement: I have decided on the next series to retroblog and what will come after that. After Macross Plus I will be retroblogging Now and Then, Here and There two episodes per week,  so it will finish fairly quickly(thanks Animewriter for the suggestion.) It’s a series that I’ve seen before years ago back in high school, loved, and would relish the chance to watch again and experience via blogging. Especially in light of what I’ve learned in undergrad and grad school about many of the themes of the show. After that series is done, I will put three, possibly four series up for a vote to determine what to blog next. I already have two candidates that will be in that poll: Kimagure Orange Road and Great Teacher Onizuka. While I blog Now and Then, Here and There I will figure out which one or two other series will be put on the ballot via your suggestions and whatever I happen to come across myself. There are so many series that I would love to retroblog, so it’s hard even picking candidates. Look for the poll in a post the week before the last post on Now and Then, Here and There.

Final Thoughts: – This thing with the Ghosts in Macross City will not end well. Now I understand what Luca was talking about in the final episode of Macross Frontier when he let his three Ghosts ‘off the leash’ and enabled their AI function.

- Of the three members of the love triangle the only one that goes through it all and emerges as still likeable to me is Isamu. He’s reckless, and he allowed an old crush on a childhood friend to get in the way of what could have been a good relationship with Lucy, but he’s not nearly as violently impulsive as Guld, nor as petty, and Myung has let her past regrets consume her. While Isamu gets to live his dream of being a fighter pilot, he’s still dealing with the same issues as the other two and yet manages not to be dragged down by them, for the most part.

- Chief Engineer Neumann, all is forgiven for that badass speech in the rear seat of the YF-19!

- How exactly the Sharon AI will express her ‘love’ for Isamu is going to be interesting. Her personality is supposed to be inherently unstable, but that could take so many forms. Hopefully the wait will be worth it.

- A now autonomous Sharon AI really brings the artificial pop singer criticism to new heights. “Gimme artificial, gimme superficial…“

There are some unsettling things afoot this episode as the characters’ proximity to each other bring out their old feelings. What’s more, we start to get a glimpse of the AI singer known as Sharon Apple and ‘her’ existence and connection to Myung. The VF-X competitions continue onwards with Isamu’s first flight in the YF-19, but after some initial trials and combat simulations even the new fighter program begins to be affected by the pasts of Isamu, Guld, and Myung. Meanwhile Col. Johnson is keeping tabs on Guld and Isamu both overtly and behind the scenes, and the creators of Sharon Apple seem to be up to no good while the YF-19’s chief engineer is trying to get his hands on the program himself.

Backstage before the concert, Myung plugs herself into the device which seems to control Sharon Apple and the concert. So much for Sharon being an AI?

AH! Protodeviln, run! Oh wait, that’s Sharon. In a very psychedelic concert performance that is not for those with epilepsy, the virtual singer seems to entrance the crowd while Isamu seems freaked out by the experience. And rightly so.

The Chief Engineer, who just seems to have invited himself along on Isamu and Lucy’s date, spends his time trying to hack the Sharon program and get her to come to him. Considering that, at least to the best of his knowledge, Sharon is a sentient existence, isn’t that kind of, um, unsavory?

Myung’s feelings seem to be in control at least for a time though, as Sharon reaches out for Isamu, picking him out of the crowd for a virtual kiss.

The day after the concert the competition aspect of Project Supernova begins in earnest now that the YF-19 has been readied for trials. Over the course of the day Isamu gets in plenty of time to test out the YF-19 and show off his and the plane’s acrobatic abilities with some wild maneuvers and a bit of skywriting. Later on he even goes into direct competition with Guld and his YF-21, engaging in flight maneuvers, target practice, and simulated urban combat using paint rounds. At the end of the day’s testing the YF-19 is coming out ahead in every category, but the Colonel is not pleased with Isamu’s antics even if they’ve produced results. He knows from his own experience that recklessness like Isamu’s is an accident waiting to happen. As expected Isamu doesn’t take this very well, punching the nameplate on the Colonel’s door after his meeting with him, but he seems to get over it for now and the testing is scheduled to continue. Meanwhile the Colonel finds out and then covers up the fact that Guld is having issues controlling his inherent Zentradi tendencies towards aggressive behavior. Why he chooses to ignore this while busting Guld’s and Isamu’s balls for their indiscretions is as yet unknown. Perhaps he wants to give Guld a chance since he’s otherwise a model pilot, perhaps he wants the program to continue no matter the cost.

Isamu goes through some planned maneuvers on the ground, always a good idea to prepare ahead of time. The whole competition thing and all the Top Gun references just just make this video all the more perfect (thanks to grss1982 for linking to it last post.)

Taking the new Valkyrie up to the edge of space.

Evidently Isamu never played any of the Time Crisis games.

Urban combat side-by-side exercise. The YF-21’s battroid form looks a lot like the MS-18E Kampfer from Gundam 0080, I guess they liked aspects of the design so much that the mechanical designer wanted to use them again.

Viewscreens surrounding the pilot must be a huge advantage to the YF-19, though aesthetically I’m more partial to the traditional cockpit layout. It could also potentially be disorienting for pilots. Here Isamu locks onto a Thunderbolt flying below him, a Valkyrie that I was disappointed to not be able to find a good fighter mode model kit of

For how smug Guld is, he’s getting owned in the first head-to-head test results.

Later in the evening Myung meets up with her old friend Kate in a really cheesy dinosaur-themed restaurant. Apparently she also grew up on Eden with Myung, Guld, and Isamu, and ended up marrying another member of their circle of friends. Kate immediately picks up on Myung’s distress about life in general and Guld and Isamu specifically, and when Myung yells out that she stopped singing while they’re out at a karaoke place Kate calls both old friends. Isamu doesn’t fall for the ploy to get him to show up, but Guld heads to the city, arriving just in time for Myung to have left. Apparently she’s so afraid of their shared past that when she overheard Kate calling them she ran off back to the concert hall. Back at New Edwards, Isamu is hanging out for the evening and comes across the Chief Engineer still obsessed over Sharon Apple, this time trying to steal her program. Which is again creepy, since it’s pretty much kidnapping.

Woah, tacky.

Kate apparently married the Macross version of Lt. Col. Hughes. HUUUGGGHHHEEESSS!!!!

*facepalm*

Kate’s phone-book-thing. Apparently she knows the famous playwright and apparent immortal Henrik Ibsen. Looking at the other names Isaac Brown was apparently a daring US naval commander who unfortunately was a dirty rebel traitor during the US Civil War and fought for the Confederacy, no matches on wikipedia for the other names, aside from Isamu. I have to wonder about the inclusion of Ibsen, I’ve only read one of his works (A Doll’s House), but I have to wonder if his works had any special influence on the story of Macross Plus.

After taking a taxi back to the concert hall Myung is despairing about the past, and tells a still switched-on Sharon that she hates her songs, and her own as well, and that she wishes she could just go somewhere and fade away. Sharon is definitely watching all this, even appearing behind Myung in her holographic form. Her expression almost looks like she’s concerned for Myung, but it is hard to tell since she is a computer program. Myung falls asleep on a couch, and shortly after Isamu and Guld receive strange phone calls telling them that a fire will break out at the concert hall in 30 minutes. Guld heads there immediately, since he’s already nearby, and after deciding what to do for a bit Isamu also leaves the base and heads for town at high speed, ignoring the cops trying to pull him over. Myung wakes up to find the building on fire and the door inoperable, Guld meanwhile making his way into the building looking for her. Eventually he finds her after she’s passed out from smoke inhalation and just barely manages to get her out as the doors begin automatically closing in front of him. Sharon definitely started the fire with an electricity overload, disabled the alarms, and tried to trap them in the building, but whether out of spite over Myung’s comment or a misguided wish to fulfill Myung’s desire to cease to exist is also not clear. By the time Isamu arrives the fire department is there but Myung and Guld have left. Back in Myung’s hotel room she treats Guld’s wounds, and in the ensuing conversation she breaks down about how she said she wanted to forget the past but now feels differently. The two start embracing and it’s implied that they sleep together, and trolled to an extent by showing a pile of clothes on the floor and then panning up to Isamu instead. Isamu, however, is ignorant of the entire happening.

Despite a longer flashback than the previous one, there’s still little revealed about exactly why there’s all this angst and drama among Myung, Isamu, and Guld aside from lingering romantic feelings. Myung has come to hate music even though she used to love to sing, but all we have to go on are some personal affects spilled on the ground, a crashed bicycle, and three long plumes of smoke going off into the atmosphere that look like they were from large ships or rockets launching.

Just as Guld puts himself under a closing door to protect Myung the door suddenly opens and the alarm and sprinkler system activates. More of Sharon’s work and again, from uncertain motivations.

All the changing colors coming from the outside, plus the stained glass window gives this scene a really unsettling vibe. While nowhere near as morbid, the color changes and glass reminds me of the rooms in Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death.’

LOL.

The next day Isamu does find out about Guld and Myung and confronts him in the cafeteria. Lucy is obviously not too keen on Isamu’s apparent fixation on Myung when the two of them just went on a date themselves, but Isamu’s too much of a hothead not to get in Guld’s face and tease him with some middle-school level innuendo. Guld then tries to shove it in Isamu’s face about spending the night with Myung, so Isamu just restates his intention to win the VF-X competition. Another round of tests takes place, this time the juvenile competition between Isamu and Guld outside of the program getting in the way of good results. Isamu jumps in front of Guld and shoots his targets instead and generally shows him up on the target range, and later on the two even abandon their scheduled tasks and engage in a mecha fist-fight. The engineers watching back at base get into the fight and start cheering them on, though the Chief Engineer sighs and complains about the damage being done to the Valkyries. Isamu eventually gets the better of Guld and snaps one of the hands off of the battroid YF-21, pushing it to the ground and repeatedly kicking it while it’s down. He’d make a fine addition to the cast of Titan Maximum.

Smooth…

Reminds me of the scene from Patriot Games where the SAS team takes out the terrorist camp in the desert while a satellite feed broadcasts it to CIA headquarters.

Everyone loves a BIG FIGHT!

Momma said knock you out!

At the last moment Guld gets a good hit in, ensuring that the mechanics are going to be pulling some double shifts on both fighters.

Final Thoughts: – The Yoko Kanno musical style was out in full force this time, the scene where Isamu was visualizing maneuvers with his hands in particular was a lot like some of her work in Cowboy Bebop.

- How people think of Sharon as either a sentient being or a computer program adds a level of philosophical consideration similar to what was evoked in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, as well as making that Chief Engineer character really unsettling. While it has been acknowledged that the program has flaws, it seems kind of unethical or even criminal to try and force her to come to him, or to try to steal her programming. I’m still guessing that, if only thematically, Sharon will tie into the issue of the YF-21’s programming.

- It’s nice to see the YF-190/VF-19 without all the crap that Basara did to it in Macross 7. It’s also struck me how much the design of the ADFX-01/02 Morgan from Ace Combat Zero was inspired by the design.

“Dedicated to all pioneers” reads the opening line to this Macross sidestory, and you can tell just from those words that this is a work with feeling behind it. Five years before 7th Colonization Fleet came under attack from a new enemy, the U.N. has begun testing on the next generation of Valkyrie variable fighter to replace the VF-11 Thunderbolt. Two designs are in competition with each other: Shinsei Industries YF-19, an updated but more conventional design, and General Galaxy’s YF-21, a highly advanced heavy fighter incorporating a wide variety of experimental systems. Chief among these is a direct telepathic link with its pilot that promises unheard of response times and situational awareness. Three old friends are brought together on the planet Eden by the Project Super Nova tests and by chance. Isamu Dyson, a fighter ace with a habit of disobeying orders and flying like a madman, and Guld Bowman,  a test pilot for the YF-21, are reunited with Myung Fang Lone who is now an agent for a computer program ’singer’. But the three apparently did not part under the best of circumstances and Isamu and Guld immediately start making their program rivalry personal while Myung seems to get caught in the middle. Trials for the two aircraft with their new pilots begin at New Edwards Air Base, a computer ’singer’ named Sharon Apple arrives on the planet, and the YF-21’s brain-wave control system appears to be affecting its pilot. All in all we should be in for quite a ride.

Isamu, Myung, and Guld when they were younger on the planet Eden. Myung sings while Guld tries to launch Isamu on a homebuilt flying machine of questionable airworthiness.

Somehow it flies, though I’m not so sure about the landing. Isamu’s Hajime no Ippo outfit likely isn’t going to provide him with much protection.

Immediately after the flashback the time returns to 2040 where Isamu and his wingman are fighting against a flight of enemy Queadluun Rae.

His wingman lines up the shot only to have Isamu slide in front of him and steal the kill.

Isamu still showing off, scaring the hell out of his wingman but keeping him safe from their enemies, who outnumber them at least 3:1.

The bayonets on the gunpods were a cool touch. I also love to see the VF-11 get some love, in Macross 7 so far they’ve just been cannon fodder.

More of the Thunderbolt looking good in a very nicely animated dogfight.

Isamu’s piloting, while excellent, does not endear him to his superiors and after the mission he is standing before his displeased commanding officer. While at first he threatens Shin with a range of boring assignments, he seems to see the potential in the pilot and instead assigns him to New Edwards on Eden to be a test pilot for the YF-19 prototype. Needless to say he’s excited at the prospect of getting to pilot one of the newest, most advanced aircraft yet produced and sets off for his new assignment with enthusiasm. At New Edwards, named after the real life USAF base, a trial of the the YF-21 is already underway. Utilizing some sort of new variable geometry wings, the YF-21 is able to change and distort the shape of its fixed wings at the pilot’s mental command. Isamu arrives just in time to have the YF-21 blow right past his fighter before landing and reporting to the group of military officers and civilian personnel that run the program. His cocky attitude doesn’t make for the best first impression, but he doesn’t really put anyone off either until Guld arrives back from his flight. They sneer and yell at each other and Isamu even puts his fist through the glass tabletop when Grul questions his worthiness to be a test pilot. Over the next few days the two continue their activities separates, with Guld checking up on Isamu’s records and Isamu crashing the simulator pod, he’s just that good.

Very cool office. The scene also brings back memories of the Wing Commander games, when you’re ordered to report to the Squadron Commander’s office for reassignment, medals, or chewing out.

He’s certainly full of himself, cocky, and likes to get in the way, but he’s pretty likable. Reminds me a bit of Patrick Colasour pre-Kati.

Macross’s version of the Psy-Commu System. Or perhaps a better analogy would be the EXAM System from Gundam: Blue Destiny since I’m certain nothing good will come of this thing.

It’s very important to know your personnel’s bust and hip measurements. Kind of creepy, U.N. Spacy. Interesting that the measurements are in inches and pounds, guess they wanted to be very faithful to the US Air Force/Navy influence that Macross uses.

The two candidate fighters. I like that they gave them manufacturers, it adds a little bit of detail and realism, and they even took inspiration from General Dynamics (developer of the F-16 and F-111)  for one of the names.

Judging by his service record the U.N. Spacy still has plenty of crises to keep it busy.

After crashing the simulator Isamu makes enough of an impression on one of the engineers working on the program, Lucy Macmillan, to go out on a date with her. Driving his 3x faster motorcycle like a maniac down the highway, the two reach the nearby city. They have a pretty good day out, and the computer program singer, which I guess we may as well call some sort of advanced vocaloid, Sharon arrives to a big reception despite being no more charismatic than one of those SEELE monoliths from Evangelion. Sharon’s manager, Myung, runs into Guld and the two get to talking up on Star Hill, an area with lots of windmills that looks like the place from the opening flashback. It seems like there is/was something between them romantically that didn’t end well, but the two don’t directly confront it. Guld asks her if she sings anymore, and she replies no, words that seem to come out with a masked sense of loss. Just as she’s singing the praises of Sharon Guld grabs her and hugs her, saying that she should forget what happened in the past and that he would help her forget. Just then Isamu and Lucy show up, and not to the warmest greeting by Guld. He picks Isamu up by the collar when he implies that Guld and Myung are a couple and a fight is only averted by her physically getting between the two of them. The competition between the two comes up again, with Guld vowing to not let Isamu have the new fighter program or Myung.

This OVA could only have more Top Gun influence/references if a Valkyrie took off parallel to them and “Danger Zone” started playing.

You think Kawamori likes San Francisco much? The hilly terrain, broad streets, and architecture is all over the Macross series.

Somewhere in the background, a monkey throws a bone into the air.

See how many horrible late 1980’s-early 1990’s mistakes of fashion you can find. Reminds me of when I played GTA: Vice City.

Setting up the mystery for us.

Seems like there’s more to their rivalry than the usual love triangle.

The next day the YF-21 has another test flight, and Isamu is piloting one of the chase aircraft, a VF-11 with booster attached. Things proceed smoothly through one test and into a second missile avoidance test, but when some of the dummy missiles lose track of Guld and start homing in on Isamu’s VF-11 he has to showboat and refuses to get hit by the harmless missiles. Instead he tries to outmaneuver them to show that he’s just as good of a pilot and drops one of his boosters as a decoy. It works, but he’s now unable to control his plane since the second booster was meant to work with the first to balance it. Just as Guld is about to finish off the last target drone Isamu drops his second booster into it, destroying it but enraging Guld so much that he loses control of his mental connection to the YF-21 as his anger brings back old memories. Isamu circles him on his descent, teasing him about who is the better pilot, until ordered to catch the falling variable fighter. He manages to catch and slow the YF-21, but a stray thought from Guld about how he could wreck Isamu and possibly kill him prompts the YF-21 to react, pushing the VF-11 to the ground and putting Isamu into a crash tumble. He manages to survive and is picked up by Guld, and another fight nearly breaks out back at base. It really was an accident and Guld casually mentions this, not that Isamu is likely to believe him.

Isamu just can’t let a chance to showoff pass him by.

Something serious obviously went down to sour their friendship, but at this point there’s too little information to jump to conclusions. Though I get the impression that jump to a conclusion is exactly what Guld did at the time.

Seeing the YF-21 in battroid form illustrates how much bulkier it is compared to the VF-11

He’s lucky he could walk away from that one.

Final Thoughts: – This show had me hooked right from that beautiful hand-drawn dogfight. As good as some of the best modern CG can look, I always enjoy well done hand-drawn battles more. It has details like textures and shadows that just haven’t been captured yet in CG. Plus it featured my favorite variable fighter since the original VF-1, the VF-11 Thunderbolt. In the first episodes of Macross 7 that I’ve watched so far it’s always just been cannon fodder, being destroyed in scores by the Protodeviln. But the design is among my favorites, I might even like it more than the VF-25.

- Despite my usual preferences for more serious characters I definitely like Isamu more than Guld. Isamu might be full of himself and more than a bit of a yahoo, but he doesn’t seem like a bad guy. He pulls his stunts but he took care of his wingman and rescued Guld when the time came. He was flirty with Lucy but didn’t act like a jackass on their date. Guld on the other hand is more serious, but he seems overly so and very stubborn to boot. He’s much more antagonistic than Isamu and has less control of his emotions despite trying to act cool.

- The whole  Sharon Apple computer program thing is just beyond weird. Unless some beautiful android emerges from that big black box, then I might understand people’s infatuation with the virtual idol. It could be commentary on pop music though, since a computer program idol would be the ultimate in manufactured, artificial music. This remains to be seen, but maybe it’s an acknowledgement of how fake pop culture can be, even if it might serve some purpose. I also expect this AI singer to figure into the mental control system for the YF-21 somehow.

- Myung is kind of creeping me out visually. She seems like a good character and all, but her hairstyle and oddly drawn, thin, pointy nose is reminding me of Michael Jackson. And I am squarely from the generation that regarded him as a creepy, self-deformed pedophile, not as the king of pop.

- Music is great, as expected of a soundtrack put together by Yoko Kanno.

Special announcement: I am currently looking for a series to retroblog after I finish with Macross Plus, so if you have any suggestions feel free to make them. I’m looking for something non-mecha, pre-2000, and no longer than 52 episodes. While I could go with another mecha series, and I’d certainly enjoy it, I don’t want to only retroblog mecha series. So if you have any ideas go ahead and suggest them in the comments.