I should start off this entry by saying it’s been about four months since I’ve see Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ in Japan, so my memories are pretty foggy. However, thanks to the movie pamphlet and the general story of the series I can still more or else give Macross F fans an idea of how awesome the movie is!

To be blunt, if you’ve been following the TV series the movie will not be that new to you. I would say the movie is roughly 50-70% straight TV footage and general storyline while everything else is movie specific. Specifically, I would say from the beginning of the TV series until the first major battle with the Vajra during Sheryl’s final Macross Frontier concert.

I’ll get into the movie specific plot in a bit but to continue like me run down the characters real quick. To cut some time on the love triangle, pretty much everyone (or specifically Alto) knows Sheryl and Ranka in the movie. They do show via quick flashback scenes how each met (pretty much the same in the TV series) but I did like how they saved audience’s time with such introductions.

Obviously with the movie only being like an 1 1/2 hours long, the majority of character development went to the three leads, i.e. Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka. I would say for Alto, he’s pretty much SERIOUS BUSINESS in the sense he’s not as undecided about his career and whatnot. Still uber girly looking, though ^^;; Sheryl actually has some development really being more, I guess, down to earth? Don’t know how to put it exactly, but I guess she shows more of her emotions openly versus Alto chipping away at them like in the TV series? Ranka, on the other hand, got to show more of her drive to become a singer/idol and it was great to see that determination a bit more drawn out versus how it was in the TV series.

Going back to the plot, and warning now but these are total spoilers, the movie specific add-ons definitely added a nice touch and overall improvement to the series. Just listing some off the top of my head, one of the biggest is Sheryl is in the know of Grace’s project/communicating with the Vajra… or at least knows Ranka’s “Aimo” song; something like that ^^;;

Also nice and an easy way to get his character involved at the start, Brera is Sheryl’s bodyguard. I don’t think him and Ranka being siblings was established in the movie although I think he knows… really forgot or I could be mixing this up from the TV series.

There’s probably a lot more I’ve forgotten about the movie but two more things I have to mention related to the plot before I forget. Even bigger than Sheryl knowing about the Vajra, MICHAEL FRICKING LIVES! Yes, during the final major battle where you just know he’s going to bite the dust, they pull the wool over our shoulders and have the man live! How crazy is that!?

Really the only thing that topped MICHAEL FRICKING LIVING was the epic, and I do mean epic, final battle during Sheryl’s pirateship live. The concert, fighting, singing… just everything was 100x better than anything the TV series gave us! Like if I wasn’t going to buy the DVD/Bluray of the movie prior to this scene, after the final battle, I would have been sold otherwise! That’s just how insane the final battle & concert scenes are!

I know I didn’t really give much of a review but rather “oh I vaguely remember this and that” free-flowing post, but if I had to say one thing about the movie it would be this: BUY IT!

Even if you’ve never watched Macross F, I believe the movie did a good job of setting up the characters and showed the plot in a way that anyone could enjoy. Heck, the friend I bought to watch the movie with me doesn’t understand Japanese and I could only give him a general rundown of the series, but still enjoyed the movie nonetheless (actually he liked it a lot more than One Piece: World’s Strongest which I thought he would have liked better since OP is pretty straight forward to watch). It may be the lack of sleep talking but I must admit I was pretty impressed with the Macross F movie never expecting it to make me like the series more after watching…

… though I do got to admit seeing Sheryl more dere dere didn’t hurt to improve my opinions either!

Oh, just in case you’re wondering all the images in this post are from the random scans I did from the movie pamphlet one could buy. Sorry if the scans aren’t that great but I’m way too tired to even try to re-do them.

And before I forget, btw this is another spoiler, I remember reading on some site when the movie initially came out, they thought Sheryl’s “Welcome to My Fan Club Night!” outfit’s (i.e. the cowgirl looking one) skirt was dynamite or something. Well to put people’s fear aside, they are in fact not dynamite but mini-rocket boosters that get put into good use to save her at one point ^^;;

… also, the iSlug gets a nice upgrade to orange which was weirdly one of the first things I noticed once the movie started.

Okay, I’ve definitely run out of anything useful at this point, so I’ll leave the rest of the post to the scanned images of the postcards one could also buy for the movie ^^

NEEDLESS is by far, the best brainless fighting comedy series of the season! Plus the seiyuu cast is A++ in my books! Minori Chihara making only grunts and breathing noises? I’m so there!

…Clannad ~After Story~ episode 18 made me tear up way more than it should have. Blast you Clannad, Key, and Kyoani for making me cry like a baby!

Good old Totali and Aroduc already have summaries up for Minami-ke Okaeri episode 2, so go to them first before reading my fanboy ranting of the it

And actually, it’s more like “selective screen-capping” than any real rant as Devil Chiaki easily made this episode awesome! Nice to know Chiaki will be growing into a very fine woman in the future! Of course, Hosaka’s curry (of love?) song (youtube video at the end of the post) is worth noting as well; never expected Hosaka to actually break out in a song, especially so early in the series. As others have mentioned, character songs/singles anyone? LOL can’t wait to hear the full version XD

The Tower of Druaga ~the Sword of Uruk~ continues to amazes me. Well, specifically the opening animation sequence; paired with a usually upbeat piece of music seeing the alternative universe of the anime is always fun to watch. And it seems for this season, the production staff went even further going the extra mile for hapless seiyuu fans like myself by tagging all the characters with their seiyuu’s names!

Done to a certain degree in the first season opening, this season all the characters in some shape or form have their relative seiyuu’s name branded on them. Heck, Yukana who plays the blue-haired Succubus even has her personal signature in the opening!

Fatina played by the usually reliable Yui Horie

Kai aka jailbait (in that form) voiced by Akiko Yajima

New character for the sequel, voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa. Seems like a total jerk based on the first episode.

Right girl played by Kana Hanazawa. Huh, I thought it may have been Ryou Hirohashi before looking this up.

I LOL’ed when seeing Utu (voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto) real face

Michiko Neya‘s onee-san voice rocks!

… not even going to try to name the characters to seiyuus on this, although it looks like Ahmey is alive?

Never can understand people with one word names like Kenn

Shot in the dark that the guy is voiced by Daisuke Endou based on the character knowing Jil & Fatina and looking at last season’s cast listings.

Girl on the left not introduced yet and no clue based only on “Hiwa”…

…Minori Chihara’s Coopa on the right although

Crap getting lazy to look up the two above’s seiyuus

Fumiko Orikasa, Tomokazu Seki, and Yukana from left to right.

And finally, everyone favorite backstabbing brother Neeba by Takahiro Sakurai

Surprisingly, both animation sequences give little in way of actual plot or characters.

Nana Mizuki’s “Shin Ai”!

Suara’s “Maiochiru Yuki no Youni”!

… now to wait for a good raw of the actual episode to come out >_>

Well if the above image isn’t Alto Saotome as a trap, I shouldn’t be in the anime biz at all

Anyway, while watching Macross Frontier episode 2 I noticed two things that some viewers may or may not have. Being the great good horrible old anime blogging guy I am, I figure I may as well post ‘em to help further folks’ enjoyment of the series! (read: I’m calling first on these two potential spoilers!)

As much as we all wish Alto is the playa Tomoya is, me thinks the real reason Sheryl is after his tail is simply for her missing left earring as noted above. For kicks, I went back to episode 1 to see if they covered their trail but much to my charging, I couldn’t find the earring although it seems gone already by the time they do the close up of Alto and Sheryl towards the end of the concert scene. I forgot to capture this one, but if you also look at the scene where Alto is brought into SMS’ hanger with that guy’s belongings on the toolbox, you’ll notice an earring shaped object on the bottom left that is most likely Sheryl’s.

But meh, maybe the earring will be a good lead way for the potential 3-way right?

It’s SDF-1′s future future future child! So yea, this one is pretty straight forward and makes a lot more sense in showing other than being a random cut scene before going back to Ranka and Sheryl. I just can’t wait to see how it’ll transform and how that blondie is part of it all!

Tis short but this concludes my quick “OMFG is this what I think it may be aka spoilers aka I have way too much free” post on Macross Frontier! Til next time (if there is one)!

I rarely talk about the anime I watch nowadays beside what DVD I may have bought, but when I do you know it has to be (probably) something worth watching. With that being said, I still cannot believe how entertaining Gintama is after 80+ episodes where as most other series of similar length would be in filler land by now. This previous week’s episode, episode 88, easily exemplifies what makes Gintama so great with the inclusion of the male Tower of Babel, rock-rapping, group dating, goth-lolita clothing, and more!

Update: Sorry, yet another blog entry that will never be completed due to laziness!

Best. EPISODE. EVER.

Mecha, fighting, yuri, cosplay, S&M, drunks, and yaoi are all jam packed in episode 8 of Moyashimon to make it one of the best episodes of anime this week, if not the season thus far! Screenshots after the jump… I’ll leave what actually happened up to your imagination.

OMAKE

1. Don’t ever piss off fat short Japanese women shopping.
2. Short people always have the most potential to learn kendo.
3. Don’t forget your father’s birthday or else you’ll break his heart.
4. Don’t let your mother make you a guinea pig for her TV shopping addiction.
5. Don’t ever piss off fat short Japanese women shopping.
6. Never give out your name to said pissed off person(s) when involved in accidents.
7. What goes around comes around so be prepared to get bitten on the ass. Multiple times.
8. What is mine is mine and what is yours is mine as well, including the kendo club when my arse is on the line.
9. Sex toys can be used as household cleaning items as well, you know.
10. Don’t ever piss off fat short Japanese women shopping.

Thus concludes a Bamboo Blade Life Lessons (episode 9) lecture by yours truly