Windermere now controls the entire Globular Cluster but
it refuses to stop there. Now the entire
galaxy is in its crosshairs and they will not stop until Humanity is wiped out
and they’ve claimed the mantle of true heirs to the Protoculture. Outgunned, outnumbered and low on resources,
the Macross Elysium and her crew seek a way to end the conflict before it gets
worse. On the planet Voldor, Walkure
faces off with Heinz and the Aerial Knights in a performance that rocks the
cluster to its core. And Hayate
discovers a startling revelation about his father that could change his life
forever.
Last week’s set of Macross Delta episodes closed out its
first half pretty strongly with an Empire Strikes Back influenced outcome for
our heroes.
The second half didn’t get
off to the strongest start, lingering in place even though it set a bold new
(and kind of dumb) path for Windermere going forward.
Today we get into the more nitty gritty of
Delta’s back half of episodes and I have to say, despite some genuine good
moments, I’m kind of worried about the show.
I mean when you have epic sing-offs followed by a Macross Historical
power point to try and prove one of the most farfetched theories that spans the
entire franchise, even by Macross standards I think Macross Delta might by try
to exceed its reach much like Windermere.
Anyway, onto the episodes.
I’ll admit, it’s nice that despite the situation the
Macross Elysium finds itself in, the show still finds time to fit in a slice of
life episode. Freya’s birthday episode feels like classic Macross.
Yes there’s a dire situation going on beyond
the hull of the vessel.
But there’s a
city and a populace inside and with things stabilized for the time being, life
goes on.
And you know what, the good
guys deserve some time to be happy with all they’ve been through.
Hayate coming up with the idea to produce snow
to simulate Windermere’s climate as Freya’s birthday gift was inspired and the
best thing his character has done to date.
Such an amazing act is probably what got Freya to realize how in love
with Hayate she truly is but we’ll get back to that.
It’s also a sigh of relief to know that not every
Windermere Aerial Knight is on board with Roid’s “let’s conquer the galaxy”
plan.
Kassim, the Knight whose design
looks very inspired by Guld from Macross Plus, had a nice sit down with Freya
and Hayate and shared some roasted apples with them.
The dudes a farmer and wants to go back to
those times but feels that the more Windermere gets into galactic conquest the
further they get away from that possibility.
And while he may go and fight where his King/Brother commands, even
Keith is starting to wisen up to the idea that something isn’t right with Roid
and his plans for Heinz.
The guy with a
million glasses dropped his advocacy for peace act a while ago and is looking
more and more sketchy with each passing episode.
Heinz may be blind to his duty but I doubt
even Keith has his limits before he decides to fight for his little bothers
safety rather than the Kings.
Ok, let’s get into the numerous issues I’m having now,
starting with Hayate.
It’s not his
character, it’s the newfound importance he now has to the plot.
I was fine with Hayate being a drifter
finding family and purpose with Delta Flight and Walkure.
But now he’s suddenly the son of the man who
dropped that Dimension Eater on Windermere?
Why?
Why does he need to be
related to the guy?
Were the writers
finding themselves running out of ideas to make Hayate more interesting and
relevant to the series?
Hikaru and Alto
didn’t have that kind of substantial burden hoisted upon them in there shows
(I’m gonna rag on Basara in a moment, don’t worry).
It’s so unnecessary and only raises more
questions about why Hayate’s old man did the deed.
Oh and, naturally, Arad knew Hayate’s
Dad…that doesn’t make him anymore interesting either.
BTW Arad may have been positioned as this
shows Roy Focker but my God is he boring.
Outside of being a pilot all he does is stand around and exposit.
Why is Kaname in love with him?
Then we have the big event and honestly given the greater
emphasis on idols and operatic singers, this was inevitable: the Sing-Off
between Heinz and Walkure.
The two
groups traded musical blows like it was that Amp vs. Amp scene from Scott
Pilgrim.
And when the Protoculture ruins
started going haywire, that’s when things really went off the deep end.
Now Freya’s music is pushing Hayate’s
piloting skills to levels that make him and his plane almost Super Saiyan (and
close to going full Var).
Meanwhile Mikumo
belted out music so hard she not only literally brought the house down but now
she’s haunting Heinz’s dreams.
It went
crazy to say the least and this is coming from a franchise that uses massive
holograms of idols to distract armies in space.
My mind was kind of fried afterwards, almost as fried as everyone elses.
Hell Mikumo sang herself into a coma while
Freya’s lost her voice.
Woof.
My dislike for Mikumo has been well established by now
and now she may or may not being some otherworldly musical being or even a
genetic experiment (more on that later).
It begs the question as to why Walkure was even formed in the first
place when she seems to have a power that dwarfs the entire group.
Her whole attitude has been how its her stage
and how singing is all that matters.
She’s so self centered in her skill and power level it’s ticks me off consistently.
Heck, there’s a moment where Makina and Reina
want to sneak into the medical ship Mikumo’s on so they can check on her and
note that they don’t know how Mikumo feels about any of them.
Frak, have those two even shared a line of
dialogue with her, much less a private scene?
Mikumo’s only major interactions with any of Walkure off stage have been
to “inspire” Freya (and by that I mean keep telling her how she cant hack it
cause she’s not her) or Kaname and that’s because Kaname tries and mostly fails
to have a full conversation with her.
I hate
to say it but while I originally feared Hayate would embody bits of Basara’s
personality, it’s Mikumo who has somehow inherited his legacy as the infallible
Musical Jesus figure…no wonder I haven’t ever liked her.
Things came to a head when Berger, a weapons merchant
working closely with Windermere, came to visit the Elysium to share his
theories about what happened at the Protoculture ruins.
This came with a full on visual recap of the
history of all of Macross including the Original Series, Macross Plus, Macross
7 and Macross Frontier.
All to basically
say that the Protoculture knew the importance of music (even referencing the
titular song from Do You Remember Love? Which was itself an ancient
Protoculture Pop Song) and aimed to have generations and descendants mold it
into the ultimate weapon.
Which ties
back to Mikumo’s importance as she may or may not be some genetically
engineered idol weapon based on research from the still unseen Lady M.
Let’s ignore why a guy who has always been
seen at Windermere’s side is sharing all this brain numbing intel for the
moment.
Tying all of this to the whole
of Macross history is very uncalled for.
Yes, Music is a major factor in the franchise but that’s it’s all been
connected?
That’s a stretch for me and
negates the relatively stand alone nature of each series and movie before
hand.
The visual historical montage
looks fine but its usage was poor, not like how Mirage had the visual history
of Max and Miria way back in the early episodes of the series which was much
better handled.
Frak this reviews gone on for a minute.
Ok, one last thing: The Love Triangle really
took off in this set.
As I said earlier,
Freya knows she’s in love with Hayate and now that love might be influencing
his flying negatively, hence the Super Saiyan flying.
That’s too cruel and I hate seeing Freya so
down.
Meanwhile Mirage confessed her
feelings for Hayate twice without him realizing it but is steeling herself to
help both him and Freya recover their confidence in their dreams and
abilities.
It’s a good bit of character
growth for Mirage and shows how far she’s come with Hayate since they met.
It’s still too close to call which lady will
win Hayate’s heart cause I wanna see them both happy.
Yikes, there was a lot in this set of Macross Delta
episodes and not all of it was great.
Things got crazy.
Things got
confusing.
Things got infuriating.
I feel like my “this should have only been 13
episodes” mindset is even stronger now cause I don’t think Delta, story wise,
is in as good a place as the first half was.
With only 6 episodes left, can it pull off a decisive recovery and
victory?
Or will I be sick of all the
singing by the end of Episode 26?
We’ll
find out Next Monday when we look at the Series Finale of Macross Delta right
here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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