Short Synopsis: Some sort of outside jamming crashed Ranka and Alto’s craft in the previous episode. In this episode, Ranka gets taken by the Varja.
Highlights: A couple of very intriguing plot-twists.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Now this is what I’ve been waiting for! Finally the plot is turning into something interesting. The Macross that was discovered in the previous episode turns out to be some kind of disguised Varja-spaceship, and Sheryl’s manager reveals herself as a party of the bad guys. It also makes me wonder why Ranka’s photos were in that space-ship, and what the relation is between the Varja and these bad guys.
There was also some sweet romance in this episode, and the love-triangle also got some interesting development. This episode seems to suggest that the second half is going to be much more interesting than the first one, which was exactly what I was hoping for when I first decided to keep watching this series.
I wouldn’t call Grace a villain exactly (the real villains being the Vajra?), just very ruthless in how she’s carrying out her plan (to eradicate the Vajra and anyone who stands in her way?). I doubt Grace is dead; being a cyborg or even an android, she might have uploaded herself to another body and/or location before setting off her doomsday device. She also mentions giving further orders to Brera before it happens too.
As for Ranka’s connection with the old Macross fleet, her family once lived there and she was the only survivor of the attack that sunk it and killed her entire family (with the exception of Brera, of course; there’s little doubt now that he’s Ranka’s brother judging by the flashbacks and the harmonica in his hand as a boy).
The whole thing with the Vajra and the samples and all that reminds me of the Aliens movies. What did surprise me is Luca working for that scheming Lt. guy with the bad haircut; no doubt he and the military/corporation represent the Weyland Co. from the Aliens movies who want to study and somehow weaponize the Vajra for their own greedy purposes; while Grace and Brera seem to be the direct opposite and only want to destroy the Vajra by any means necessary (even risking war with the Zentradi to do it by sabotaging Sheryl’s performance; as to why she’d do this, who can say).
As for Ranka, her connection with the Vajra seems more mysterious now. Makes me wonder if she’s not a tool of the Vajra themselves to somehow infiltrate humanity and the Macross fleets. Or the show is trying to pull a Eureka Seven and Ranka was somehow altered by the Vajra to somehow study and communicate with humans in a more peaceful way?
hah i wouldnt be suprised if that were the case about ranka, Kamina :x. anyways, it seems this is gonna get much much better :)~
Well, as far as I have seen this series, it really can’t be compared to the Macross movie: Do You Remember Love? But it was a movie, so it isn’t really fare to compare the new series to it.
If you haven’t seen the movie I would suggest for you to watch it.
But we will see where this series will go.
Ranka sure is a mysterie. The way her stomac has gloved two times in the series makes me think that she is carrying something related to the Vajra in her stomach or something. :/
Hmm…
Are we so sure that Luca was actually ‘working’ for that Lt. guy? It seemed more like he was simply called in to explain hisself for using a dangerous experimental device that had not been completely tested yet. Even though as a PMC, they are not officially part of the military, they are being employed by the military, so the military still has a stake in what they do.
As for Grace and Brera, I have yet to see anything that shows what their true motives are except that they SEEM to have some ties to the military. So I wouldn’t claim that they simply want to destroy the Vajra just yet, at least not until we actually see them doing something to help in the war-effort against the Vajra.
I mean, come on, destroying an entire planet seemed a little extreme especially since, if she simply wanted to destroy them, she actually waited for them to awaken before activating the device. Furthermore, we don’t actually know why she went so far as destroying the entire planet since it was obvious that the Vajra were already leaving.