Macross Frontier 16 – Ranka Attack

Exhibit A in the case that Brera-nii is in fact Sasuke-kun with contacts and a dyed hair, check out that stoic face, its sheer Uchiha icy perfection!

The episode opens with a space battle in which it appears Alto is being reckless and getting too close to the enemy. Perhaps because his mind is still on the meeting he had with the owner of the SMS Richard Bilrer.

Asking Alto if he had any dreams, Bilrer had told Alto that his dream, was to join together the galaxy that is separated by dislocations. He wants to connect stars that are separated by hundreds of thousands of light years so it will be faster and closer, making the galaxy their world!

Bilrer said he could see Alto-hime was really surprised, he could see the deculture on his face. But says that this was the gospel the Varja had brought to them, children of the protoculture. Hmm so I guess he maybe isn’t really into killing them then…

So apparently, the current battle was a recovery mission since we see the fighters bringing in bodies. The bridge bunnies think the newly appointed 2nd Lieutenant Alto is amazing since they count his kills at four and they confirm that the mission was to collect Varja corpses. Probably for research or maybe for eating, I love Ram and Mina, they are just too funny!

Back at the Academy Michael-kun points out that Alto-hime has really been giving it his all lately, to which Alto says he’s just doing what should be done. Michael -kun says those are cool words from their newly appointed 2nd Lieutenant.

As they get to the gate they, notice Ranka-chan has arrived and Michael-kun points out that it’s rare to see the Cinderella there. She greets them excitedly, but her enthusiasm rapidly disappears as Brera-nii exits the car telling her to wait. Earning him coos of delight from the schoolgirls, and icy glares of death from Alto-hime.

Brera-nii continues to put a dampener on poor Ranka-chan’s day, refusing to stand outside the classroom during class, instead standing at the back being an imposing ice block that would make Sasuke-kun proud. Alto-hime gets pissed off and goes after him, only to be easily pinned to the floor, earning him further squeals of delight from all the schoolgirls and the continuing eternal hatred of our beloved Alto-hime.

People will talk…

Later outside Michael-kun tells Alto-hime that going after a cyborg is a bit much even for their new 2nd Lieutenant. Noting that Alto-hime has been out of his mind lately, he asks what the boss wanted. Alto-hime says as he told them before it was nothing… Nanase too wonders what is wrong with hime and Luca says it must just be a blue day.

Ranka-chan is riding in a car with Brera-nii and evil cyborg from hell Grace. She doesn’t seem very happy and thinks it would be best if she didn’t have a bodyguard and went back to her manager Elmo. The poor Elmo happens to be drowning his sorrows at the loss of his Ranka-chan.

Grace asks Ranka-chan to bear with it, since it is what the client wants, for Ranka-chan to become the light of hope for all the people. As for Elmo, Grace says she has already shown Ranka-chan the documents, saying that she is her manager now under the orders of the government.

Ranka-chan asks Grace about Sheryl-chan, to which Grace says that for the moment Sheryl is still in the hospital and that when she does recover it is no problem for her to manage both of them. She then hands Ranka-chan a disc saying it is a reworked version of the song she performed in her movie and that it will be Ranka’s second single.

Poor Sheryl is still stuck at in her hospital room and looking at the flowers notes that they aren’t really good substitutes for visiting her. As if that wasn’t enough, she has to see her manager with Ranka-chan on t.v as Ranka is about to give a mini live concert on island 14, which was heavily, damaged during the Varja attacks.

Later that night Grace tells Ranka what a good job she does, but later in the studio it seems like her heart really isn’t into singing Aimo. Brera-nii asks her later why she hesitates to sing the song, saying that usually when he hears her song he can feel space. He says not normal space, which feels like it, will reject, but space that will accept, he says that is how the current of space was formed. He tells her that he is sorry he couldn’t think of a better explanation and that stoic expression drops a little when Ranka smiles and tells him his words made her happy.

She says since she saw him at Griffth park she has wondered how he knows her song. Brera-nii tells her that it’s top secret.

Exhibit B in the case that Brera-nii is in fact Sasuke-kun, check out the chicken butt hair!

While out walking, Alto-hime comes across Sheryl-chan who despite being sick refuses to go back to being locked in her hospital room. She wakes up later in Alto-hime’s quarters and beats on him until she realizes he hasn’t done anything to untoward.

You had a bad day, your taking one down, you sing a sad song just to turn it around…

He tells Sheryl-chan he was worried about her and she looks really happy about that, asking him why he was worried. But Alto-hime gets distracted by the stone on her earring, grabbing her so he can get a closer look at it. He remembers seeing the same stone on Bilrer’s ring back when he met with him.

If he could find his man card, you might actually have gotten a chu Sheryl

Michael comes in and teases Alto-hime saying he’s told him before to put a handkerchief on the door when he’s entertaining women. To which Alto responds that he wouldn’t do anything with that woman which of course irritates Sheryl.

She gets even more irritated when Alto-hime hides her as Cathy contacts him and Michael on the vid screen to tell them about the mission involving Ranka-chan.

Gratuitous Michael shot, Klein-sama has good taste

A mission that Ozma is totally not happy about, something he has no trouble letting Leon know. Leon tells him that there is nothing he can do about it since Ranka gave her permission.

The SMS crew is dubious that Ranka’s music will affect the Varja, but Luca thinks it’s worth a try. Ozma asks Ranka if this is what she wants and Ranka-chan nods yes, so Ozma leaves her onboard the ship with Canelia.

Sheryl makes her way to the bridge of the quarter saying she wants to see things with her own eyes, and so Captain Wilder much to the surprise of the bridge crew allows her to stay.

And so operation Ranka begins, Ozma is teamed up with Brera and Alto gets irritated when Brera isn’t actually firing, stating that it wouldn’t be much of an experiment if he did. Ranka starts singing and it has a confirmed effect on the Varja making them easy pickings. Grace is keeping a check on things and notes the song produces a 3.2 fold.

Rabu Rabu Ranka-chan, sing along everyone! Aimo Aimo…

Distracted by a the fight getting a little bit close to the ship Ranka loses her concentration and her ship becomes a target of the enemy and Grace notes that the emotion value may still need adjusting.

Alto-hime flies off to save her but it beaten once again to the punch by Brera-nii (I think Brera’s shot might even clip Alto-hime’s ship). Alto-hime is understandably upset, but Brera-nii says once again that Alto is not suited for Ranka-chan and that he will be the one to protect her.

As if Ozma wasn’t bad enough, Brera is twice as protective. Ranka isn’t getting any lovin from her Ai Ai Alto-hime anytime soon. He can’t even get near her, never mind bump naughty parts with her!

Back on board the Quarter, poor Sheryl has to listen to everyone praise Ranka-chan, but Ranka wonders if everything is okay this way, as she thinks of Ozma and Alto-hime.

Next weeks episode is entitled Goodbye sister and we get shots of Chibi Klein and Chibi Ranka-chan!

Oh and we were also treated to a brand new ending song Northen Cross, I wasn’t sure I liked it at first but after a few listens it really grew on me. The mix of live action shots that went with it, interspersed with sketches of Sheryl was actually pretty cool. I always find concept sketches interesting.

Thoughts
And so it really isn’t looking good for Ozma in my opinion, for the last three eps he’s been featured a bit more and then with next week’s title an all. It could simply be metaphorical in the sense that Ozma is letting go of the sister he knew as Ranka is growing up and away from him. But how many of us really believe that.

Poor Bobby he’s going to be devastated, but it really looks like Ozma might get his pineapple salad next week…

Things I am wondering

So Sheryl noticed Grace in the background of Ranka’s mini live, will she confront Grace about this? Will she confront Ranka? So far those two have been very civil to one another, will Sheryl’s growing upset at Ranka’s rising popularity start to spill out?

What exactly is wrong with Sheryl, is she completely recovered now? Or is she suffering from a chronic problem that has something to do with project Carnival.

What is the significance of the damned stones?

Oh and time for some feed back people. Do you like the in-depth summary with some thoughts at the end, or would you prefer a more concise summary of the episode?