Macross Frontier 22 – Northern Cross

Excellent, that chair from Ikea should collapse on him any second now.

The magnificently evil Grace plays nicey nice with Leon and tells him she as surprised as he was that Brera took off on his own and ignored orders. I’m not sure if Leon believes her or not but he has more pressing matters such as finding a replacement for Ranka.

Although that doesn’t stop him from sending an assassination squad after Grace because he believes there is only room for one ruler of the galaxy. She agrees with him on that score, funny that, I don’t see it being you though Leon. Grace is a magnificent bastard while you are but a Captain of Douchery, therefore she is way above you when it comes to being gloriously evil.

While I’m pretty sure the good guys will win in the end, she’ll probably come closer to ruling the galaxy than he will. He is but a little pawn in her game and its kind of sad that he doesn’t seem to realize that. Cathy remarked at one point that he was ambitious, though she never said anything about him being smart…

“Those magnificent men in their flying machines..” Okay well only one of them is really magnificent…

After helping to test out the VF-171 EX’s outfitted with the new MDE’s Alto remarks to Luca in the hanger how well they are working out. Luca isn’t surprised considering they utilize fold ore particles taken from Varja corpses.

He’s only sorry they didn’t perfect them sooner prompting Alto to inquire about Nanase’s condition. Luca tells him that she still hasn’t woken up and perhaps for the time being its better that way since he wouldn’t know what to tell her about Ranka. He doesn’t know how he could tell her that the person she liked so much had betrayed them and allowed Varja to escape.

Alto’s solution is to bring Ranka back before Nanase wakes up and Luca beams at the prospect of beating the Varja.

This leave sucks!

The bridge bunnies are chatting away as usual and remark on the new style Sheryl who seems to be THE topic of discussion these days. The new improved Sheryl gets the thumbs up from the girls as well as Klan and Alto.
They aren’t the only people taking notice however as Luca’s subordinates (yes the shouta has subordinates) discover that Sheryl is producing fold waves just like Ranka did!

We are family I got all my sisters with me. Well Cathy and Bobby would be sisters, I’m not sure I’d call Ozma girly…

Bobby finds the ‘missing’ Cathy and Ozma and is overjoyed to see them both. One other thing of note in this scene is the little hydra running around amongst the rubbish wasn’t the virus supposed to have wiped them out? I wonder how it managed to survive then…

Elmo is also in a joyous mood as he tells Sheryl her performance was great. But she says she is sorry for dragging him into her selfishness, since it was just for charity and they didn’t make a penny.
But Elmo shows what a fantastic manager he is and tells her that songs are culture and culture is love, he says there is love in her songs now and that is enough for him! The moment is spoiled however when men in suits turn up saying they have come to take Sheryl to see President Mishima, looks like Leon found his replacement!

If only you’d have had enough guts to keep him as your manager Ranka, then you might not have felt like such a little pawn. But then again thinking for yourself isn’t one of your strong points now is it?

Listen to Klan Alto, LISTEN!

Meanwhile Klan is still with Alto and she tells him it would have been better if they were honest earlier, both her and Mikhail, but they couldn’t take that step sooner. She tells him that she doesn’t want Sheryl and he to end up like them…

Bobby has taken Ozma and Cathy to the Quarter where they inform Wilder and crew that Leon is the real murderer of President Glass. Cathy swears on her fathers grave that she too saw the data that proves it, but it has been erased. Bobby comforts her as she cries understanding that they hid it so long because they knew Leon and his cronies would try to silence them.

Canaria gives Ozma Ranka’s letter, telling him she’s sorry but she read it. She tells him that Ranka has apparently regained her memories and has gone off in search of the truth about what happened 11 years previously. Ozma seems to take it in his stride, saying that she took her own path.

At least some of us remember you Michel-kun

Wilder then informs everyone of an unofficial communiqué from Bilrer saying that SMS is to be disbanded and absorbed into NUNS and tells everyone that they too must find their own paths. Leading to Cathy and Ozma sending a coded message out to the rest of the SMS as their only option for finding out who their enemies are.

Back in President (I desperately need a hairstylist’s) office Luca is going over Sheryl’s condition with her. Sheryl calmly asks Luca if its fun explaining “you’re going to die” in complicated words. It seems that the type V virus is caused by a bacteria that they recently discovered in Varja fluids. Its a blood and body fluid infection so has a low rate of infection and if caught early can be cured with serum produced from the Varja. Once past that period however as in Sheryl’s case where she’s been a carrier for ten years, the bacteria takes root in the brain. Once there it produces a toxin and nothing can be done.

Luca says however that it does open up new possibilities and tells Sheryl she is now able to produce fold waves. Leon explains they are the same as the ‘traitor’ Ranka Lee although hers are weaker. But Luca says the earring may be able to amplify the effect. Leon asks Sheryl to sing for the sake of humanity! Sheryl is concerned about Ranka having the virus too but Luca assures her it isn’t the same and they have no clue as to the source of Ranka’s power.

After her pow wow with Leon Sheryl heads back to the Saotome household to find that Alto is waiting for her and he continues to stay with her after she collapses. Alto receives the message from SMS but doesn’t read it as Sheryl wakes up.

Comfort her man!

He asks her if she is alright and Sheryl says even though she had given up singing, she guesses she doesn’t have anything other than her songs. After hearing that and knowing the truth of the situation an emotional Alto tells Sheryl to stop. He tells her that its enough, that she has done enough.

Realizing that he knows about his illness Sheryl stops trying to hide it and tells him of all people she didn’t want him to know. When she first thought of her illness she thought Why?

Alto tells her once again that its enough and that she doesn’t have to force herself to laugh. He tells her its fine if she doesn’t sing but this really upsets Sheryl. She tells him that she will sing, that she doesn’t have anything left but song, that its the only proof she ever lived.

YAY for Hime, he finally makes a decision!

Give the lady what she wants Hime!

Alto pulls her into an embrace and she tells him that she is scared and lonely. Clutching her tighter Alto tells her if she sings he will be by her side until that final moment and she asks him to give her the courage to keep on singing.

And so Alto finally makes a decision and even though he doesn’t explicitly say “Sheryl I love you” I think the fact he said he would stay with her makes his choice pretty clear. He isn’t staying with her out of pity either, I don’t see Alto as that kind of person and Sheryl isn’t an idiot and would tell him not to bother if she felt that he was. Bottom line, Alto is staying because he cares about Sheryl and he cares about what happens to her.

He hasn’t defended Ranka when she’s been called a traitor so I can only assume he agrees with that assessment. In fact he doesn’t appear to have much desire to do anything where Ranka is concerned, although I expect he’ll end up going after her in some way. It’ll be interesting to see how they play that out.

Because it would be really crappy of him to leave Sheryl all alone after just having pledged to stay with her through her illness and to go traipsing after Ranka. We all know its gotta happen though because this show is pretty close to its conclusion.

I’m actually not convinced, despite being told that her condition is terminal, that Sheryl will die. Remember that little hydra we saw earlier? If it managed to survive maybe there is hope for Sheryl yet…

Floaty Ai-kun is sort of cute

Out in space Ranka and Brera are taking a break and Ranka marvels on about her feelings and the universe while Ai-kun floats happily around. Ranka finishes her musings and they head off for the Varja homeworld.

Ahh how nice to not have a care in the world… I make it sound like I hate Ranka which I don’t. I understand why she behaves so juvenile after all she has been spoiled her whole life. She hasn’t had to work herself up from nothing like Sheryl has, she doesn’t understand responsibility. Maybe its also in part to her lost memories and maybe once she finally unravels her past she’ll mature a bit more. We can hope right?

Leon tells the people his hair in combination with Sheryl’s singing will lead to the ultimate destruction of the Varja.

Suck it Grace, SHERYL NOME IS BACK! Now with 100% more Hime!

Whilst Leon gives a rather loud speech, back on the Quarter, Wilder and 70% of the SMS have decided to become pirates and strike out on their own.

She fills out that suit nicely eh boys?

Klan decides to remain behind but it seems like she understands their decision since she waves them off.

Frontier sends out a pursuit squadron and Alto and Luca end up fighting against Ozma and their comrades. Luca at first asks them to reconsider as the Varja are their enemy, looks like Leon might have been telling fibs again… Ozma refuses and since Luca hates anything Varja related, IT’S ON!

Hey Maverick where’s the camera?

Considering Alto is flying an outfitted old fighter, as his pretty VF-25 is still on the Quarter, he flies brilliantly and holds his own very well against Ozma who seems happy that Alto has improved. They both get a hit in on each other, although Alto comes off worse. That doesn’t stop Ozma from running his mouth off during the battle though as he tells Alto that he refuses to spill his blood for a President he can’t stand.

Alto asks if that is what it means to be an adult and Ozma tells him sorry he’s not an adult, he’s a man! He says that this is what he needs to do to protect the women important to him. He tells Alto that Ranka found her own path and asks Alto what his wings are for, what will he do?

Maybe he’ll go back to Kabuki, since he can’t really help Sheryl by flying, but if he stays and goes back to the stage at least he can stay near Sheryl.

Ozma is only thinking of himself and what’s important to him and I guess in his own way he’s telling Alto to do the same. He isn’t very tactful about it, but then I don’t think it is in Ozma’s nature to act that way. He’s a pretty straight shooting kind of guy and cares little about hurting people’s feelings. I think Cathy had it right earlier, Ozma doesn’t really seem to care about much in general unless its Ranka.
Thankfully he seems to be coming out of that a little bit since Cathy is also included within his sphere of interest.

Also, considering he doesn’t know what is going on with Sheryl I don’t think his intention was to be cruel to Alto when pointing out how helpless Hime is right now.

He doesn’t really care about whats going on with Luca and Alto but then I’d say he hasn’t done so for a while. Really if you go back and look at the series it was Michel-kun who really spent the time getting Alto to think and was really more of a mentor to him. Sigh he had a target on his back from the beginning I guess.

I’m sure whatever is coming up will show that those who left with the Quarter were right in their decision. There has to be more to whatever Bilrer had to say to Wilder for the Captain to just up and decide to go the road of a deserter like that.

Maybe Bilrer will be how they end up finding Ranka, since I think he knows more about the Varja than we are aware of. It certainly seemed that way when he talked with Alto earlier on.

However by taking the Quarter they are leaving the Frontier without some major defense and considering the testing that went on with the VF -171 EX’s it looks like there are still some Varja in the near vicinity. But the MDE’s seem more than capable of taking them out, though of course it also requires that you have good pilots to launch them.

Grace strokes her balls of evil…

So it turns out Grace survived the assassination attempt and is rather happy at the fact that Ranka and Brera have seemingly found the Varja homeworld. Hmm wonder how she managed that? Oh my could it be she knew what Brera was doing all along? Who would have thunk it!

The rest of the colonial fleet won’t be too far behind them.

Hmm the Varja homeworld looks very earth like…

Michel-kun tribute picture of the week. Oh how we miss you. I wonder whose side he would have taken in the matter?