Nyan-Nyan, Nyan-Nyan, Nihao-Nyan!

“In the past, there was a war with a race of giants called the Zentradi. Having faced obliteration in their first battle with extraterrestrial life, entrusted their future to the stars and launched ships into space. Seeking new worlds, they journeyed to every corner of the galaxy. In the year 2059 AD, the 25^th emigration fleet, called the Macross Frontier, journeyed towards the center of the galaxy, continuing the age of exploration.”

Taken directly from the fansub of Anime-in-Action & Infinite-Zero.

Summary:

While all eyes are on the arrival of Sheryl the most successful galactic songstress of the Macross galaxy who pays a visit to the 25^th emigration fleet: the Macross Frontier, a mysterious dark force approaches the nothing suspecting fleet. Altho, who is obsessed by flying and whose biggest dream is to pilot a Valkyrie someday, and four of his friends are testing and programming a suit called ‘X-Gear’ which is going to be used in Sheryl’s concert. Meanwhile a green-haired girl Ranka, who’s a big fan of Sheryl, has received a ticket for the famous concert of Sheryl from her brother and is in full ecstasy. A bit later, an excited Ranka tries to find her way to the concert but only succeeds in getting miserably lost. Luckily for Ranka, she meets Altho who dries her wet cloths and guides her to the concert.

Because an unmanned attack squadron, which was heading for an asteroid belt, was completely wiped out by an unknown force, the military sends out a manned squadron of Valkyries armed with missiles to deal with the unknown threat. Arriving at the asteroid belt where the unmanned squadron was shot down, the pilots immediately understand that they are no match at all against the unknown enemy which uses weapons that have the looks of a bugs. Knowing that the entire fleet is in grave danger, the president issues an evacuation order and declares mission code: Victor 3.

Because of the evacuation order, the concert of Sheryl is abruptly stopped in the middle of a song. As the star of the evening Sheryl is quickly escorted to an exit, a confused audience (containing Ranka, Altho and his friends) receive the message that they should evacuate to the nearest shelters as soon as possible. Meanwhile the manned squadron of Valkyries are still losing against the bugs but luckily they get assistance from the top aces from the fleet which carry new and stronger Valkyries and under who (I suppose) is Ranka’s brother. Due to the strong reinforcements the tides are suddenly turned. Even though the bugs face a strong defence line of the Macross Frontier fleet, one big red bug believed to be the leader and which is under constant fire from Gilliam penetrates the defense line while taking out a big ship with one devastating shot.

Breaking through the shields of a civilian vessel, the large alien suddenly finds itself in a large city. As it keeps on destroying everything that moves from military tanks to humans, it suddenly encounters Altho who’s observing the alien in mid-air by the use of his ‘X-Gear’-suit. Miraculously Altho dodges most gunfire of the big enemy but as one of the X-Gear’s wings is damaged, he can only try to make an emergency landing. As Gilliam, who has also entered the city with his upgraded Valkyrie, opens fire, the large enemy is forced to let Altho go. Unfortunately Gilliam, who jumps out of his Valkyrie because it’s held down by the alien, is captured and killed. Because Ranka, who is once again lost and in the wrong place, appears to be the next casualty of the gigantic bug, Altho jumps into the damaged plane of the dead Gilliam and opens fire in order to save Ranka…

Thoughts:

I was simply blown away by the visual effects that this Anime serie offers. I was always a big fan of the Macross serie and I’m pleased that there’s (finally) a new one. As I mentioned before, the animation of Macross Frontier is very smooth and especially overwhelming when the fighting begins. The character designs are beautiful drawn but aren’t very unique. As an example: the looks and the profession of Sheryl (who’s the famous songstress) reminds me of Lacus Clyne from Gundam Seed.

I think Altho is going to be the typically protagonist in the story: his biggest dream is to fly with a Valkyrie, he’s good looking, feels that he’s being limited by his surroundings but the only thing that is still missing to make him the stereotyped hero is the fact that his family died in a ruthless attack by the Zentradi. But maybe (I really hope so!) I’m totally wrong and is Altho going to be a new and refreshing protagonist! The little green-haired Ranka is very cute and I think she’s going to evolve a brother-sister bond with Altho as he’ll probably save her and defend her throughout the serie.

Was the first episode of Macross Frontier bad? No!!! Far from bad, I enjoyed it very much. But its weak point is going to be in its story in my opinion and I really want to see a good story backing up the action! There are some positive points about the story like first of all it’s really fast paced in this episode, there are no dragging scenes at all. We were just introduced to the characters and immediately something drastic happens and that’s my kind of thing! Second positive remark: Even though we are simply thrown into the life aboard of the Macross Frontier fleet, everything is explained properly so that non-macross fans can pick up the Anime quite easily.

My last and maybe my most important remark: it’s still an action Anime so it’s kinda logical that the accent is on fighting and to be honest the action scenes are marvelous. Macross Frontier is really enjoyable to watch because be honest who doesn’t like to watch some crazy and thrilling combats? I can’t wait for the second episode!