Macross Frontier - 23 | Random Curiosity
Macross Frontier 23 | Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
THAT Animeblog - Macross Frontier 23
Star Crossed Anime Blog :: Macross Frontier - 23
Macross Frontier 23 - True Begin
Macross Frontier - 24 | Random Curiosity
Macross Frontier 24 | Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
THAT Animeblog - Macross Frontier 24
Star Crossed Anime Blog :: Macross Frontier - 24
Macross Frontier 24 - Last Frontier « Calamitous Intent
Macross Frontier - Episode 24 « Kitsune’s Thoughts
Macross Frontier - 25 (END) | Random Curiosity
Macross Frontier 25 (Final) | Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
THAT Animeblog - Macross Frontier 25 (END)
Star Crossed Anime Blog :: Macross Frontier - 25
Macross Frontier 25 - Your Sound. « Calamitous Intent
Macross Frontier 25 (END) : Otaku Complex
Macross FRONTIER - 25 Final Battle - [FINAL IMPRESSIONS]
Macross Frontier - Episode 25 (End) « Kitsune’s Thoughts
The series finale of Macross Frontier certainly stayed faithful to the theme of love/music/culture being the source of humanity's strength. Once again, love triumphs over superior technology. This a theme of the other Macross stories to one degree or another, but perhaps the strongest comparison can be made with Macross Plus, with the AI of Sharon Apple representing technology, which is ultimately defeated by the 3 friends forming the love triangle of that OVA series. The cybernetic fleet of Macross Galaxy represents certain 'advances' in technology that have been made by humans since Macross Plus.
The love triangle of Macross Frontier wasn't resolved, but I think that's fine, given that Alto is still a teenager and has some growing up to do still. Why do so many fans expect so much out of what may be nothing more than a high school crush? (What reason do we have to think that there is anything deeper than some sort of superficial attraction? What do the characters really know about each other, and what do we know about the characters? Given the maturity level of anime fans in general, it may not be a surprise that they don't know much about what makes love work. Then again, we can also blame manga authors and anime creators for not knowing about what makes for a "successful match" and peddling instead romantic fantasy.)
Did the finale feel rushed? Not so much. (Though fans may have preferred more action sequences, especially dogfights between the VF-25 and the VF-27.) However, while the length of time allotted for the finale was sufficient, I would have preferred the series as a whole be longer, for the sake of character development and also more story in general--a lot of the relationships between the characters, and the characters themselves, were sketched rather lightly. While at first I dreaded another story about teenagers at a high school who happened to be mech drivers, Macross Frontier did not really use the high school that much. We are given some of the history and back story for the main characters, but very little for most of the minor characters. The Pixie Squadron was woefully neglected in my opinion as a fanboy; while I still don't care much for certain aspects of Klan Klan's character design, it would have been interesting to see more interaction between the Meltran pilots and the development of Meltran culture.
The series does leave more to the imagination, but I do not know if this is good for a story relying upon an audiovisual medium. In comparison to Macross Plus or Macross Zero, or most TV series or Hollywood movies, the amount of character development in Macross Frontier is average. But it doesn't provide much material, from which we can draw some moral. Be a decisive man?
The same complaints that were made about Macross Zero -- the final chapter being rushed, lack of sufficient details or explanations -- are probably applicable to Macross Frontier as well. It definitely could have been much better, but I don't think fans will not give up on Macross because the latest series didn't meet all their expectations.
I found what they did with the Vajra as having a hive mind and the ensuing cultural misunderstanding with the humans to be interesting. Naturally, it turns out that Ranka's song, "Aimo," is the Vajra mating song. I haven't seen the subtitles, so I don't know if they had encountered Protoculture or any of the other older sentient races in the galaxy before.
Pitting Macross Frontier against Macross Galaxy was another otaku fantasy put on the TV screen. While there were two colonization fleets engaging each other, very little of the other ships was actually shown in the episode, given time constraints. No grand fleet battles. And we didn't get a chance to see life aboard Macross Galaxy, though we do know that the Galaxy Fleet makes use of cybernetic implants. What sort of culture exists there? Do they too have a collective mind, once Grace takes over their minds through the implants (like the Borg of Star Trek)? What a contrast it would be with the more 'ecologically sensitive' and 'natural' Frontier fleet, where such implants have been banned.
There is a Macross Frontier movie in the works, but no news if it will be an original story taking place after the events of the series, or a re-telling of the series.
Bilrer turns out to be a Minmei fan and was hoping to meet her on the Vajra homeworld. The mystery of the disappearance of Megaroad 01 remains unsolved. (As many have pointed out in the Macross World Forums, Bilrer represents Macross otakus and their obsessions with Minmei and variable fighters.)
Macross Frontier Movie Announced - Anime News Network
Macross Compendium Memories: Shoji Kawamori, July 6, 2002
AICN review
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