Short Synopsis: Sheryl finds out that her sickness… isn’t as innocent as we originally believed.
Highlights: Sheryl finally gets some good development.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Throughout the entire first half, I kept wondering why I kept watching this strange overbudgetted series. The characters were okay, but nothing really was remarkable outside of the sky-high production-values. Still, with this episode, I’m really glad that I kept watching and blogging this series. This episode was downright awesome, it first comes with an OP that’s ten times better than the original one (in my opinion, at least), then Sheryl’s character gets more development than the previous 17 episodes combined, and then the episode closes with an epic battle, where the soundtrack seems to surpass itself yet again.
Ah, to think that Sheryl was just a poor sick girl, plucked from the streets. It makes perfect sense now: it’s the same way that Ranka rose to her fame, although a bit more extreme, I guess. Now that it’s apparent that Sheryl’s singing abilities hardly have any effect when compared to Ranka, Grace has no reason anymore to take care of her, and basically just kills her off by letting the disease that got hold of her when she was young spread again. She’s really meant to be hated, having taken her business-like nature way too far out of control.
And I still remain convinced that Bobby should have gotten an episode of his own in the first half. His few scenes of manliness in this episode were awesome, and I feel that the creators could have done so much more with him if they spent a bit more attention to fleshing the guy out.
The thing I’m scared off the most right now is what Sheryl and Ranka will turn into. Sheryl will probably be fine once (or if) she recovers from her illness, but Ranka seems to be heading right down to the path of the damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued by the prince(ss) on the white horse (or mecha in this case). It’s not the cliché that gets me, but I want these characters to stand up on their own, and don’t sit around and wait for the inevitable like a bunch of potatoes.
Sheryl’s always been strong in the character development background. Her responses have always been more subtle than the usual “stimulus-response” personalities that we see in anime.
What changed in Ep.18 was that we got her backstory. That’s not really a character development point, but it might help some of the viewers relate with her.
Up until now, whenever Sheryl said “I’m Sheryl Nome,” unless you paid close attention, it was all too easy to write it off as arrogance on her part. With this episode, you were pretty much forced by the writers to see the other side to her, especially in that scene where she puts on a smile and tells Michael and Klan not to tell Alto.
If you go back and watch the earlier episodes with this in mind, perhaps it’ll all start to click. 🙂
If the series stays true to the Macross heritage, then Ranka will need to ‘hit rock bottom’ in her damzelness before finally taking control. At which point she will have lost ‘rick’ to ‘lisa’.
I just cant stop seeing Ranka as one of the Morning Musume girls, and Sheryl as Ayumi Hamazaki. I think it has something to do with their voices and characterizations (or at least Sheryl’s sun glasses).
it is not fair, Ranka got her brother the white hair guy and Alto are protecting her while Sheryl just act strong and have nobody protecting her. I have been Sheryl’s fan since episode 1, so I am pretty much upset that she got into this mess, but maybe this mess will help her character development. Maybe somehow she will become the key.
What i also caugth my atention was the statement from Klan that Shery’ls sicknes can be transfered to other people by exchange of body fluids. With this statement i direktly remembered episode 10 where Sheryl kissed Alto wo also kissed Ranka in the same episode. Is that enough vor an infektion? time will tell
maybe not, because her illness was still suppressed by that time (maybe my explanation just want to make the story perfect 😉