SDF Macross Episodes 09 and 10 – The Society for the Study of Modern Miclone Visual Culture
September 18th, 2009
Now that the Macross is out of immediate physical danger, the crew and refugees’ attention turns to other things. The ship’s engineers have managed to project a fake sky on the ceiling of the town area to provide a sense of normalcy and a Macross Broadcast System is established to provide a venue for entertainment and news. The first broadcast of MBS is a planned ‘Miss Macross’ competition where a variety of candidates will be judged and the final winner selected by audience vote. Meanwhile the Zentradi have dropped their jamming and are beginning to pick up some of the MBS signals. Curious, Commander Britai hatches a dastardly plan to steal the Macross’s cable and get their premium channels.
A little early to be hitting the whiskey, isn’t it Minmay?
Max, a genius and a poet. Even the other pilots are getting excited for the competition.
In Lo-def where available.
The Zentradi military is too cheap to spring for more than basic cable.
We’ll install the splitter on their cable line and run the wire back to our ship.
After much anticipation the Miss Macross competition takes place in an amphitheater in the residential section of the ship and broadcast on MBS. To narrow down the large field of contestants, several judges are chosen to form a panel, Captain Global among them. Then the prize is announced, a custom built stunt plane similar to Hikaru’s old one, which is an odd choice considering that most girls who would participate in a beauty contest wouldn’t have a clue how to pilot it. As the show begins, everyone on board seems to be watching it, even the bridge crew while they’re on duty. Claudia even remarks to Misa that she should have entered, but the Lieutenant has much more important things to do.
The Macross’s team of elite UN AV special forces.
There can be only one.
Even the bridge bunnies have tuned in.
Could you imagine other sci-fi captains having to judge something like this?
No, I didn’t think so either.
But as things are getting underway with the competition the Zentradi recon craft comes into range of the Macross’s sensors, alerting the bridge crew. The standby flight is called to intercept, which would be Hikaru if he hadn’t left to go watch Minmay at the competition and given his subordinates the night off as well. The bridge crew tries to contact Hikaru while backstage at the show Minmay meets Jamis Merin, a famous singer who happened to be on South Ataria Island when the Macross lifted off. A big fan of hers, Minmay asks for an autograph, but Jamis walks away while her manager, predecessor to the similarly unkind Grace O’Connor, tells her to line up for an autograph like everyone else. Just as Minmay goes out onto the stage, Hikaru is called up over the ship-wide PA system, ordering him to contact the bridge immediately. Misa reprimands him for not being ready to launch while on duty, and Roy teases him a bit as Hikaru dashes off for the nearest taxi. Entering the hangar, Hikaru launches to intercept the recon craft.
Cue to straight from Gundam sound effects. Like, EXACTLY the same. While I can’t pinpoint the times in the show it played, the same sound is played right as you launch your mobile suit in Encounters in Space for the PS2.
Have fun watching MBS from the brig Hikaru, right after Misa and Claudia give you some Bright Slaps for not being at his post.
When I was still young, one day riding the green bike I always used to ride, I thought “how far can I go without GETTING BUSTED FOR DERELICTION OF DUTY?”
No Sheryl and Grace, that’s for sure.
Minmay’s debut.
Hikaru-kun, denwa…
Launching in a new model, up-armored VF-1 (that wasn’t approved for this mission), Hikaru heads out to confront the snooping Zentradi craft. But while flying he keeps tuning into the Miss Macross competition and tunes Misa out, claiming interference. At the same time the Zentradi AV Club onboard their recon craft are both puzzled and engrossed by the broadcast they’re intercepting. Analyzing and debating the broadcast, the three Zentradi otaku are most surprised when Hikaru almost rams their ship, he also being distracted by the swimsuit competition.
Pretty sweet looking.
Shortly afterwards Hikaru was pulled over and arrested for piloting under the influence of hormones.
I prefer the Misa Channel myself.
Tivo: engaged!
Hikaru after almost crashing into the Zentradi.
You obviously haven’t watched enough anime.
The fat otaku Zentradi is getting all doki-doki.
Snapping back to their senses, the Hikaru and the Zentradi begin to engage each other. At first Hikaru launches a large amount of missiles from the up-armored VF-1, which deal little damage to the Zentradi craft. After taking fire from the ship, he jettisons the outer armor and weapons pieces and engages the craft with his main guns. Doing significantly more damage this time around, the Zentradi craft is crippled and the crew rushes to the escape pod. Hikaru then punches a hole through the hull to investigate, but by this time the crew had already evacuated the ship and all he notices before it explodes and nearly takes him with it is that the Zentradi where monitoring the MBS.
Cool looking, but ineffective against this target.
Removable armor over most of the body. This predates the RX-78 NT1, though it doesn’t include the sweet wrist-box mounted machine guns.
Run, the cable company’s on to us!
Not the greatest idea to enter a ship you just thoroughly shot into.
The recon ship destroyed, everyone on the bridge immediately switches back to the Miss Macross competition, putting Hikaru’s lack of contact down to him watching the competition. While Hikaru’s VF-1 floats in space badly torn up from the exploding Zentradi recon craft, the competition has eliminated all but the final contestants and the audience voting is about to begin. Roy observes to Max and Kakizaki that the whole thing was a set up to increase Jamis Merin’s popularity. But as the final voting is up to the audience, Minmay is picked as the winner, her strategically timed ‘accidental’ fall on stage having helped to win them over via sympathy. Hikaru regains consciousness just in time to watch Minmay being crowned over his MBS feed in the cockpit of his Valkyrie.
Short attention spans.
If you act irresponsible people will assume you are…
…when in fact you’re floating helplessly in space.
Wow that guy looks creepy.
They just didn’t have time for her to change out of the swimsuit. Honest!
A few days later the Macross has given up on trying to shake the Zentradi and so decides to open communications with Earth. While the channel is not secure, UN HQ intimates that help in some form is on the way, but that the Macross will have to buy them a little more time. They also apparently overestimated the threat posed by the Zentradi, because while powerful, they weren’t expecting UN forces to stand up to them as well as they have. Another skirmish occurs, with Hikaru and Max downing a Zentradi each and Kakizaki once again having bad luck and getting hit. Hikaru wants to return to base to have his wingman’s Valkyrie repaired, though Misa is reluctant to let them return. After berating her for not understanding the risks they’re taking, Roy intervenes and orders Hikaru and his wingmen to RTB. The Zentradi are planning another attempt on the Macross, this time with the objective of taking prisoners for information, while Kamjim Kravshera makes plans of a different sort. During the warning shot that Britai plans, Kravshera’s ship will ‘miss’ and hit the Macross directly.
Proto-Gendo pose.
Chalk up another one for Max ‘the Blue Baron’ Jenius.
Better get that checked out, you never know when a small hit might ruin your day. Just ask Lt. Burning.
Bang.
Between attacks Hikaru has a date with Minmay and waits for her in a park. He wonders why she’s so late, when three of the bridge bunnies show up to mess with him. First they tease him about being stood up, then Shammy asks if the girl he’s waiting for is pretty, then if she’s prettier than they are. Hikaru dodges that trap by saying she’s about even with them, and then notices a robotic phone going around with a message for him. The bridge bunnies get behind him to watch the videophone conversation with Minmay, expecting something good. She’s at singing lessons, which I assume is foreshadowing the Macross singing scenes of legend, and won’t be able to make their date this time.
A better love interest than Minamy. At least that’s what I’m waiting for.
Vanessa sees where this is going.
Hikaru wisely sidestepped that one. With some more training he might make a good White House Press Secretary.
“Come on Shammy, this will be good.”
It might seem frivolous, but this is the Macross universe so that singing lesson will probably prove militarily useful later.
The Zentradi warning shot goes off as planned for the first volley, nearly hitting the Macross but causing no damage. But during the second volley Kravshera moves his ship forward and fires its main cannon at the Macross’s conning tower, burning through the pinpoint shields and shooting straight through to the other side. Several sensor and communication antenna are destroyed, and the radar room and its crew are no more. Compounding this, an asteroid was destroyed by the Zentradi fire sending fragments into the side of the Macross. Following the attack the Zentradi send a demand to surrender to the Macross, having learned enough of their language to speak to the humans. Captain Global wants a Cats Eye launched to make up for the lost sensors, but Misa at first hesitates remembering Hikaru’s words to her earlier. Then she volunteers to fly the mission herself, with Hikaru, Max, and Kakizaki as an escort.
A couple hundred shots across their bow.
Kravshera has a different concept of a warning shot however.
Misa is now reluctant to send others out on the recon mission, realizing the risks they face.
“Nutz!” would also be an appropriate response.
The recon flight launches to scout out the area around the Macross, playing into the Zentradi’s plan to obtain prisoners. After a Regult makes a few passes at the recon flight, Misa authorizes the Valkyries to engage despite Hikaru’s misgivings. While they leave formation to engage, Misa’s Cats Eye is attacked by several Regults and a recon craft, and is damaged heavily by an asteroid in an attempt to escape. The pilot is dead and Misa unconscious as the Cats Eyes is brought aboard. Hikaru then notices this and leads his team towards the ship, blasting their way into and through the ship.
Scouting out the debris field.
Or a plot device.
Stay on target.
To the rescue.
After securing Misa, Hikaru and his team end up in melee combat with Commander Britai, who is surprisingly and admirably good at fighting his own battles. Max eventually grabs a hold of him and restrains him, and has Kakizaki fire missiles to punch a hole in the hull. Then, in an act of badassery that is one of the things that’s quickly making Max a favorite character of mine, he FLIES BRITAI UP AND THROWS HIM INTO SPACE!!! If the Zentradi were as vulnerable to the vacuum as humans he would have just killed the commander of their fleet! Unfortunately for the pilots Britai manages to climb pack inside the ship. The three Valkyries take turns using their lasers to cut through a door, though why they didn’t just use the hole Kakizaki’s missiles made is beyond me (maybe they want to go deeper into the ship?) Then, as Kakizaki is cutting, Britain again flies down from above, landing a heavy blow to the top of the Valkyrie. We’re then left with the first real cliffhanger ending of the show.
Britai can fight his own battles it seems.
THIS. IS. MACROSS!
Too bad for the humans the Zentradi seem to have either evolved or been engineered to function in the vacuum for short periods.
Final Thoughts: – Britai just became a much cooler character in my eyes. I’m also generally impressed with how competent the antagonists are compared to many shows.
- That up-armored VF-1 was quite a nice design. I look forward to seeing more of it and other variants.
- While I like Roy, Max is getting so much screentime being awesome that he’s winning the race for coolest pilot.
- Episode 09 was just so goofy it was great. While I always enjoy the srs bsns episodes more, something fun like that is nice once in a while.
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