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It has been a pretty fun ride and the end was nothing different. I have been seeing some criticism of the end but honestly this is Aquarion Evol if you expected something that was completely sound in plot I don’t know what you have been watching all this time. This show was always about having fun, it truly was exactly what I wished Macross F had been like and more. But then again episode 25 of Macross F was also pretty fun too and certain people complained up a storm about it (fair warning if you are not a Ranka fan I suggest you just stop reading right now).
———-WARNING SHIPPY RANKA FANBOY STUFF DEAD AHEAD >_<——————-
So these next few paragraph I suggest you skip if you don’t want to hear me say I told you so and talk about shippy Macross F stuff I would have left alone if not that I completely called this way back in the beginning. Although I haven’t mentioned this on my blog before I’ve felt like the love triangle(s) in this show had been showing amazing similarities to Macross F TV in structure and characters having the same generic personalities. I’ve said from episode one I felt Mikono was like Ranka in a few ways (cute, shy, lacked confidence) and I viewed the rest similarly with Alto as Amata (generic good guy), Zessica as Sheryl (strong girl but weak on the inside) and Kagura as Brera (cool bad boy). Keep in mind this is at a very basic level since anime characters generally are not that complex that they can’t be defined in a sentence or two about how they will generally act.
I figured if they had Mikono separated from Amata for a while towards the end while hanging out with Kagura and then having Amata go save her this would be almost a smoking gun with as to how Kawamori thinks. This is because although the stories are completely different I think with the basics so similar its a good read into the mind of Kawamori. Not only did they follow that in such an amazingly similar way but they had so many other similar events I never even expected them to follow such as the goodbye kiss I mentioned in episode 21. It worked out so well I could practically add Aquarion Evol into my Macross F screenshot comparison post if I wanted to do such a thing.
So in the end this story’s love triangle follow the exact same path as Macross F from initial contact to slowly building up steam to the sudden deflating and separation to the final rescue and confession. Yes I know there is much different in the details and feelings but this is about structure. Only after you get the basics correctly analyzed can you even go into the details. Obviously Amata was more open about liking Mikono the whole time for example but this is not what I am comparing I am comparing the basic path of the story. It’s why I said Ranka being saved in episode 25 was pretty obvious she was meant to be the one because that is how these stories go. It’s amazing how people didn’t see this stuff and instead focused on aspects that are easy to take out of context. Anyways I don’t think anyone will believe me about this so enough of that for now, on with the show.
——————————END OF SHIPPY MACROSS F STUFF >_<————————-
Who else thought “BURRRNNNNINGGGGGGG FINNGGGEERRRRRRRRR” (from G Gundam).
This was definitely my favorite move of the episode. Even if the two lost the love triangles they gave us hope for both of them by implying a Kagura x Zessica eventual ending. This would have been great in Macross F too if he had done this with Sheryl x Brera. Everyone wins and we end on hope and not tears, who cares if it feels a little forced it’s not like they were already dating it was more on hope and it’s way better than what we got in Sayonara no Tsubasa that is for sure.
MIKONNOOOOOOOOOOO (aka RANKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA from episode 25) this just felt like that scene right here.
Ok so it does feel a little pushing it to have Kagura give up on Mikono so easily but I don’t think it’s that bad since he saw Amata’s feelings were for the current Mikono and not a past love Kagura had been holding on it. In a way they broke fate because of this. I suppose the only thing left alone is what happen to Amata hating Kagura over killing his parents, did I miss the make up?
EVOL = LOVE of course, I suppose if I had been reading forums I would have known this but this really amused me.
A mecha’s tears filling the seas and uniting the worlds. This is Aquarion Evol at its finest. Great stuff.
Zero time for Sazanka again, almost everyone else got a line or two, it makes me sad. Also sad not to see the song that was reported to be made for this show not be used in the end but at least the song is real. It’s a very good song too it needs to be in an anime somewhere.
Obligatory Donut shot (why haven’t they attached a sponsor to this yet like Pizza Hut and Code Geass)? Also how old is she? Don’t just tease us with the I’m too old for this line and not follow through.
Nice to see Andy got his big bangs back. ^_^
So first off awesome seeing another Kira~ before it’s over from Sazanka. Second the paper bag girl gets uncovered but only slightly. I don’t really know if I am supposed to recognize her from that or not though.
In the end I am pretty happy with how Zessica’s end went. She has hope for love and she has it good in every way even better than Ranka got it in Sayonara no Tsubasa. I really don’t see why fans need to rage over her unless you feel you have to win Amata or its a bad end, just having that hope for love is enough. I feel like this is exactly why Sheryl fans need Sheryl to win in the TV series so bad even though they got the canon end in the movies. Also in a way I can kind of maybe understand Ranka’s feeling in the movies end a little better watching them in this scene.
One last shot of Sazanka being awesome.
Perfect end, flawless victory. Why couldn’t you have given me this end in Macross F Kawamori oh why…
please please please make more Kawamori and Satelight.
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I found it strange the song wasn’t used as well. If they do use it for OVA/Movie I hope it’s not a retelling with bad end like Macross F just so more popular girl gets the guy. This ending is fine for the love aspect.
I kinda of guessed that Kagura and Zessica would end up together from 2nd opening lyrics. I was in part hoping it would happen in earlier episodes as well. Both have outer strength but inner weakness.
I don’t mind the whole Macross F comparisons because there are similarities with the two series. The part Mikono was trying to connect reminds me of the whole how singing was used in Macross F. That singing was how to connect/communicate emotions.
I don’t expect them to change the love triangle results since it was actually decided. But then again who knows maybe they will, I mean we never know for sure if it was always planned for Ranka in the TV and Sheryl in the movies.
True singing was used in that way, good point. I kind of wonder if Kawamori is having regrets over Macross F with this story being so similar to it in some ways. I hope so actually then he might do something about it in the future. How funny it would be if I looked back in 2 years and laughed at how silly I was for worrying about Ranka all this time. lol
Not sure about that. It’s not like that hasn’t happened before. I hope they won’t though. Part of the reason you would want other girl to win is because of bad ending but even then you don’t need other girl to win to get happy result. This is what Aquarion EVOL has shown me.
A lot of the newer series do have references to Macross F but is that just because Macross F has such a large fanbase or a general desire to redo the series? I don’t know. From what I heard he wanted to move on or was that someone else? At any rate at we can hope for another Macross series after Macross F with reference/s to Macross F. Although I have a feeling they will keep the triangle open.
Yeah I know Kawamori stated something along the lines that he was satisfied with Macross F and didn’t feel the need for more. However, people can say almost anything they want it doesn’t mean it’s true. Plus people can change their feelings over time with reflection. This is why I take most everything people like him say to the masses with a grain of salt. It depends on the statement though. I am still fairly certain we’ll never get any more Macross F I just think he may have some demons in his closet about the project and perhaps how Ranka got screwed over to please the shippers perhaps? It’s just a guess based on the little evidence I see here.
now that I think about it if he does make a movie and switches the girl to Zessica its even better evidence for us showing Kawamori does not have any issues switching up the girls. This actually kind of makes me hope he does it, it just helps the case for Ranka even more I think.
I’m sure there was a movie where Minmay won the triangle. I think remember hearing of a series where disc release had option of 2 endings for the triangle. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
rofl I wish they had done this with Macross F. I don’t care about canon just give me something and I’ll live with it happily.
I felt the need to share this. I find it odd and amusing but unsure if I should laugh or….
Anyway I sometimes go to a forum to nosey at screenshots and gifs of episodes. This particular forum is well known Sheryl fan hangout. I haven’t checked Aquarion EVOL topic in there for a bit because they tend to be very negative towards Mikono and Amata. Most of the series they pretty much labelled Mikono as Ranka and Zessica as the new Sheryl. So obviously all became Zessica fans and oddly enough ZessicaxAmata shippers. I haven’t been looking at the topic for last few episodes now so I decided against my better judgement to nosey at it. Not only weren’t they happy with ending but they are now comparing Zessica to Ranka all of a sudden. The best part the comparison is that bad stuff happened to both.
Evidently it stuff like this that makes me happy I decided not to sign up to the forum. Even if it gets pretty decent news, screenshots and art the general populace of the forum can be very negative. I don’t mean silly little stuff. This is full on tear the character to shreds type stuff. Not even sure why I look at it at times.
I use to be the type that would go to these forums because I felt the only way to find the truth is to look at a topic from all angles. However, doing this with Macross F was extremely harmful to my emotional state to a really bad point and then I got some amazing advice and realized in the end you will be a whole lot happier in life if you just avoid the negative stuff. So now I just don’t read anything that is slightly associated with such people and I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything. So in the end just don’t read it if it is going to hurt you is my advice on such forums.
As for Ranka being Zessica this is just non-sense. I mean I’ve seen a few people who are Ranka fans who ship Zessica with Amata but I suppose that is just the individual tastes there. I think there are a few points I could relate to Zessica but did I ever think she was even close to Ranka, not even. There are two things that clearly showed Zessica was more like Sheryl even up to the end if you want to go that route. It was around episode 17 I believe she said the line that was something like “Guys in the end don’t go for strong girls like me they prefer the cute ones who need protection like you Mikono” which is pretty obvious this fits right in line with my ideas of how Kawamori thinks and who is who there. The second is the fact that Zessica was used by the enemy up until she was no longer needed and left for dead afterwards (well kind of, basically he didn’t ultimately need Zessica is my point) while Mikono was captured and used until she was rescued by Amata at the end. I don’t know how you can’t see this is basically what happen in Macross F with Sheryl being used by Grace until she was no longer needed and left for dead and then used Ranka until she was needed to be rescued. I know its not exactly the same but its closer than trying to find Ranka in Zessica that is for sure.
Anyways this is a good case of selective memory and poor analysis that is all too common.
Off topic I really do wish I could remember how the love triangle in SDF Macross was structured as to if it follows the same pattern I’ve discussed. I seem to recall Misa being rescued in the end. I never thought when I watched it so long ago I would want to know this stuff for such a topic. I don’t know if that would mean much though because it was made what 30 years ago now by Kawamori.
Which is why I don’t know if I should laugh. It feels to me like they are just changing it to fit their own desire regarding Sheryl. There are probably parts you could say are like Ranka but for most part the two characters are different.
Off topic: I can remember parts of it. Near the end I recall a part where Minmay was living with the guy. Then again at the start him and Minmay had a much closer relationship. Based on what I remember Macross F triangle is 50/50 using that series. However I would say most of the series Ranka had the advantage and it wasn’t until she left and Sheryl had hit rock bottom that SherylxAlto really started to develop. All it would have taken is for Alto to have gone with Ranka or for him to get Ranka to stay and SherylxAlto would have been out of the question.
Yeah I do the same with Ranka seeing her in everyone as I please but I don’t try to seriously sell my theories unless I think there is actually meat behind it.
I know there was a Ranka shipper I think her name is bleachod who liked to compare the original Macross to Macross F a lot to show how they changed it all up to give Minmay the win. I really am more concerned though about the basic structure though. Although it sounds like Sheryl becomes Minmay in the end from what you said. I am not sure the shows actually can be compared honestly. They say people completely change in the course of 10 years and this was almost 30 years ago so the Kawamori from back then is not the same as who created Macross F imo anyways.
Both share similarities to Minmay. Ranka is easiest to compare with Minmay at a glance because of a good few reasons I won’t go into. In a way that promotes her being the one not rejected in the series. You wouldn’t want to connect a girl so obviously with other rejected girls then have her rejected. Only time that would work is in a story like Aquarion with the whole reincarnated lovers.
I’ve seen people say that Ranka loses because she is Minmay (of course people can say anything doesn’t mean its true) but yeah your right. I find it silly to have Macross setup in such a way that you know who is going to win before hand just because of something like that.
Like the comparison of Macross Frontier and this. There are similarities but I’m gonna question your theory a bit. I mean, didn’t the guy choose Shelly and reject Ranka in one of the movies that followed the series?
Movies are not a retelling or based on other stuff happening during series but an alternate version. Because of changes they are completely separate to the series although some parts are shared between the two but even then they have been altered. A lot of those alterations mean that this comparison can not be done with the movies at all. The theory is valid for the series however.
Well I agree about most of this I think you can compare it with the movies. I mean with Sheryl you had the initial contact and then being saved situation (taken from Ranka) to build up feelings then even more with the date (which was actually about Sheryl this time and not a thin disguise for Alto to chase Ranka) and so on until she was arrested as a traitor. At which point they are separated for most of the rest of the movies, Alto goes and saves her (and then loses her again), they finally reunite at which point he realizes his feelings (just like Aquarion Evol) and the end.
Of course it doesn’t work out as nicely because the show was designed around Ranka being the center of the conflict as the little queen, this was more of a hack job to give the people the “new” content they wanted and the Sheryl end. Ranka is also sharing more traits with Zessica at this point because she is acting pretty strong throughout while Sheryl shows a lot weakness and need of protection (even Ranka had to go save her in a way in prison) so you can add in the character traits too if you wish. I still don’t believe its closer to what Kawamori really wanted though (I don’t care what he said, I think he was trying to sell the movie) so the TV series is way better to use.
Really thinking about this it gives me all sorts of thoughts about maybe in the end the reason Sheryl got it was just due to in the process of giving the audience what they wanted in regards to a “better” Ranka and new content he had to go with Sheryl to stick to his love triangle guidebook. Just a random thought because I really do want to know the honest truth behind all these changes Kawamori made to the movies.
I semi disagree. There are parts in the movies or maybe better to put there are parts only in the series that can compare to EVOL. The best example is ending. Where in both EVOL and MacrossF series the main male character is supported by his freinds to save love interest and love interest uses her power to put end to conflict with support from main male character. In Macross F movies it never happened that way. Only thing comes close to it is end of first movie. Even then comparison wouldn’t fit very well because it’s Ranka he was saving at end of first movie.
I agree, that is why I say the movie is a bit of a hack job for the following reason. You can see he still wanted this plot line the movies the problem is it just didn’t work with Sheryl. What he did was send her to her fake death and then mimicked what happened in the TV series in a very poor way. They had during the final fight this point where both Alto and Ranka suddenly gave up for some bizarre reason (because his plane got hit even though it was fine after sheryl sang I guess her song can fix planes now?) and then you have Sheryl suddenly bursting in with song to get them back to spirits again this is almost a copy of the TV series with Ranka singing Anata no Oto but it makes far less sense when you think about it. Of course this didn’t save the day but it was really obvious he was trying to do same thing he just couldn’t make it work because Sheryl was an unneeded character in regards to the conflict.
What is the good part about this is this was about when Alto remembered the childhood memory and found his feelings for Sheryl this is very similar to when Mikono and Amata found thiers Aquarion Evol and that is when I realized also the same as the TV series. After all there are three things to suggest this, one Ranka sang Anata no Oto which is her song of trying to reach Alto with her feelings, two when she sings the song his earring responses which means her song reached him and three I think the fact that episode is titled Anata no Oto is a big flag that this all means what I thought it means and what the movies by reserve story lines confirmed to me. Of course right after we get the Sheryl “I have nothing left” scene where Alto and Ranka side by side cheer her back up which just adds to it all. Not to mention as we know there really was no reason what so ever for Kawamori to put what happen between Sheryl’s fake death to the childhood memories in unless he really wanted to make it obvious to anyone with any kind of impartial judgement. I got a bit off track but I think we are both right in this anyways its not a good example because its a hack job of the true story but it still has the elements in it (which is good because its how we know what happen in the TV series).
Yup and while the Macross F movies are not as close in relationship to this theory (due to the limited time in a movie format) it still follows along with what I said basically but with Sheryl instead of Ranka. I’ve discussed the differences between the movies and TV series of Macross F before in my Macross F screen shot comparison post I made a while ago. In summary Sheryl got the basic elements of this storyline in the movies that Ranka had in the TV series so it all fits. I’d just rather talk about the TV series since its the one that people still disagree over the ending. My ramblings probably make less sense to people who are new to my theories I kind of work on the assumption the there are only a few people who read my stuff and all of whom know me well.