Macross Delta – 26 (Fin)

Delta surely wasn’t going to end with Lloyd using Mikumo as the instrument to bring the entire humanoid population of the galaxy under his command; we just needed some clutch performances from our heroes—plus a confession or two—to turn things around.

Before heading out to the final battle (which is the final battle, in case you missed last week), neither Hayate nor Freyja can say “I love you”, merely mumble, while King Heinz essentially lets Lloyd do whatever he wants, even though he eventually wants peace talks with the UN, a far less ambitious (and less crazy) goal than Lloyd has planned.

Kaname, Reina, and Freyja do their thing shorthanded while Delta Platoon does theirs, but everyone is sent to the Naked World when Lloyd gets Mikumo singing the Song of the Stars. For a few minutes we see the future Lloyd has in mind for the galaxy, and, well…nobody on either side likes it very much.

Heinz realizes Lloyd is up to no good too late, but thanks to Freyja’s determined singing, he adds his own song to the mix to notify Keith, Bogue, and the other knights to assist Delta and Walkure in stopping Lloyd. When Freyja’s voice falters, Hayate finally gives her the “I Love You” she’s been waiting and hoping for.

The connection turns triangular when Freyja doesn’t immediately respond, leaving Mirage free to confess her love for Hayate and challenging Freyja to say something back already. She does, telling Hayate she loves him too. Everything turns pink, everyone is cast out of the Naked World, and Walkure is back on the stage, in new, Final Battle outfits.

A nominally-healed Makina adds her voice to the other three, and eventually not even Lloyd can keep Mikumo from singing along, donning her own Walkure outfit in Macross Giant Songstress Mode. At the same time, Delta blasts a hole in the Windermerean flagship, and with help from the Aerial Knights (someone called that), rescue Mikumo.

Keith ends up being the one to take out Lloyd, his own best friend, with an air of disappointment he strayed so far from reasonable ambition. While his stated goal is universal peace, Lloyd wanted to become no less than a god, with total control over every living soul at once…which just wasn’t going to, er, fly. 

This is a finale full of nicely-composed images, including the Chaos fleet’s daring entry into battle, the Giant Mikumo on Ragna, Keith and Lloyd’s last moments before the ship blows up, the reunion of Walkure, and the parting shot of Mirage, who unsurprisingly ends up being the loser in the triangle, despite the fact she’s going to probably end up living far longer than Freyja.

Freyja’s skin crystallization doesn’t simply vanish when Lloyd is dealt with. But Hayate chooses the possibility of far outliving the object of that love, rather than the alternative (the part-Zentradi Mirage far outliving him). The flame that burns half as long burns Twice as bright.

And so ends Macross Delta, surely not the strongest of Macrosses, but perhaps better than no Macross at all? For all its flaws (and the fact one of its meal tickets—its eye candy—was out-candied this Summer by Zestiria), it was a show with deep ties to the past, which marched to its own beat in a 2016 where so much can feel the same. It was a fun ride.

Macross Delta – 25

The predictable patterns of Macross Delta continue into the penultimate episode, where the action and daring of last week transitions into a relatively quiet, exposition-filled outing (well, quiet until the ending).

Berger Stone shows up again and again launches into a wordy infodump that includes references to other Macross shows. The Windermereans (mostly blindly) rally around Lloyd, including King Heinz, who shows his knights how little time he has left.

Stone basically lays out that if Lloyd uses the Star Singer to create an interconnected humanoid network, it will be very bad, but we already knew that. When Freyja hides her bandaged hand, she hides it way too obviously to not be noticed by Mirage and Hayate. Walkure is wounded and scattered, but Kaname intends to step up to the plate, and if she has to go down, she’ll be going down swinging for the fences.

Mirage once again gives way so that Hayate can hang out with Freyja. Though Freyja is literally marked for death, the events of the final episode will be instrumental in confirming whether her hand crystal will kill her, or if the limited age of Windermereans will continue to be a problem.

The show takes the effort to bring Hayate and Freyja closer together by revealing that his Dad once visited Windermere and gave lil’ Freyja the little device she still carries with her, and ends with the classic Macross theme “Do You Remember Love?”, once sung by Lyn Minmey and other singers.

But it’s telling that it’s Freyja’s laugh, not her song, that helps ease his heart. After all, Stone just told everyone songs are a weapon.

 

 

Not just a weapon, but the weapon. After some peaceful space credits, the episode upshifts, raising the stakes for the endgame, as the giant NUNS fleet I initially thought Chaos would have to somehow stop, falls under the spell of Mikumo’s Song of the Stars (sung under duress/hypnosis).

Thus brainwashed, the captains and crew of the ships activate the dimensional weapons in their weapons bays, utterly destroying the fleet in a matter of moments. Thousands of souls cry out, and Lloyd looks on approvingly, apparently that much closer to his ultimate goal of galactic domination.

The remnants of Walkure, and Chaos’ handful of ships and fighters now seem hopelessly outmatched against the terrifying might of Lloyd’s newest and most powerful weapon: their friend and comrade.

We’ll see if and how they manage to defeat him, and who will join their cause, and who among those we’ve come to know will be sacrificed in the name of galactic peace.

Macross Delta – 24

Hayate, Mirage and Freyja are in custody for a good part of this episode, and what with the restraints and show trial and general passivity of Heinz (the only one who can pardon them), things certainly looked pretty bad for our triangle…in a vacuum.

But Arad, Kaname, Makina and Reina were still free, thanks in part to Mikumo and in part to their own competence. While pondering their next move, the still-free members of Chaos are approached by Berger (sporting a new voice actor, as the original is in poor health), who promptly leads them to Chekhov’s Still-working VF-22.

Lloyd’s courtship of Mikumo continues, as he tells her she’s not only an artificial life form, but also the legendary Star Singer, descended from the Protoculture. Hard to argue with him considering what she’s managed to do.

Furthermore, he believes Walkure was created to provide cover for her. She was once Lady M’s, but now she’s Lloyd’s, and he intends to use her; her own desires are irrelevant to the equation.

After the show trial (which is a bit dull), we get to the execution, which consists of the three condemned taking flying leaps off the edge of a huge sheer cliff. Hayate stalls as much as he can, assuring both himself and the girls that this isn’t the end.

Sure enough, the VF-22 streaks through the sky and causes a big ol’ ruckus, allowing Hayate and Mirage’s remote-controlled planes to catch them when they jump. It’s a neat stunt, though the whole exercise makes the Windermereans look a bit dumb.

A huge aerial battle ensues between Delta and the Aerial Knights as Walkure attempts to destroy the protoculture system without Mikumo’s help. It doesn’t go well: Makina takes a sniper’s bullet for Freyja, and while they try to keep it together, Lloyd repeats a mantra enough times to awaken the Star Singer within Mikumo, and her song starts overpowering everyone.

So Walkure/Delta has no choice but to retreat, having left Windermere in much worse shape than when they arrived. Makina may heal, but now Lloyd has perhaps the Ultimate Trump Card in an awakened Star Singer, while an ice crystal appears on Freyja for the first time; it would seem her singing has shortened her already-short life.

Macross Delta – 23

Now that everyone is on Windermere, the this episode has a strong “this is it”, “last-level” feeling to it, where things are going to end one way or another, but hopefully in favor of Walkure and Delta. If they reach the capital and have a tactical show, they’ll win.

But there are serious obstacles, and they make that outcome still feel distant: everyone is scattered across the region, and everyone is constantly on the run from Winderemeran pursuers, including the Aerial Knights.

There are still some welcome moments of peace, however, such as when Freyja leads Hayate and Mirage through caves she used to play in as a child (yikes), and the surroundings and proximity to her home village dredges up memories of singing Ranke Lee songs as a young child.

We also, somewhat amazingly, see Mikumo eat with others for the first time, with Maki and Reina teasing her and bringing out some more human reactions in her. They think she’ll only become a better singer once she actually starts having more human experiences.

Then we have Freyja and Mirage, envying one another for being able to go so far for Hayate’s sake, before their talk is broken up by Hayate.

Mikumo unveils her criminally underused rocket petticoat and martial arts skills to allow Maki and Reina to flee, but Hayate, Freyja and Mirage are caught (and almost killed) by Bogue and the Knights, while Roid confronts Mikumo (in a kind of creepy stalker-y way) and says the trigger words that knock her unconscious. Looks like this mission isn’t going to be as easy as it looks on paper, which is as it should be.

For all of Bogue’s bluster, King Heinz wants the prisoners alive to stand trial before execution, so Lord Lloyd indulges Hayate’s desire to see what they accuse his father Wright of doing with his own eyes. Upon seeing the still seething crater that was once the city of Karlisle (where Bogue’s sister served), Freyja starts to sing a song to soothe the souls lost there, but Bogue knocks her down.

Neither she nor Mirage can change the Windermerans’ long-standing belief in what went down here, and when more evidence is sought, they bring them to a chamber where Wrights’ VF-22 is on display, where his body was found and from which the dimensional bomb was deployed.

That just about seals the deal, right? Wright totally did this horrible thing? Perhaps, but like Mirage, I wouldn’t rule out a heretofore unrevealed motivation…was the same weapon being developed in Karlisle, for instance, and did Wright save the rest of the planet by destroying it?

If there’s anything else there, there’s only a few episodes left to educate us and complete the picture that still seems to be missing some key strokes. As for Lloyd, it would seem his designs are to replace the ailing Heinz with Mikumo. Mikumo has said again and again that as long as she able to sing, that’s all that matters.

That philosophy will certainly be put to the test, as will her loyalties and human willpower, as Lloyd isn’t just going to let her sing, but make her sing to further his plans for galactic domination. Here’s hoping there’s enough humanity in her to resist. If not, she might soon be fighting against her former comrades in Walkure and Delta.

In any case…that’s way too many pairs of glasses.

Macross Delta – 22

Well, with a big battle coming up and the show deciding to check in once more on Cassim, it was pretty clear from the cold open that this was going to be the swan song for, to date, the most three-dimensional Windermeran on the show.

But first, a note about the shot that establishes the Chaos fleet the last two episodes: could it have killed them to zoom in a little more and let us get a nice look at that fleet? It’s a nitpick that expresses my desire for a big space/aerial battle after a string of episodes that were more about developing characters. And we got one.

After a quick chat between two of the simpler characters in Macross, Mikumo (who lives to sing) and Hayate (who lives to fly), everyone salutes Captain Johnson and the Elysion enters a fold gate. All of a sudden, we’re back in the shit, as Chaos teams up with the liberated Vordorian military to strike against Randall.

But that turns out to be only a means of diverting and splitting Lloyd’s forces, as Delta and Walkure’s true desination is Windermere itself, by way of a fold gate opened on Alfheim. The only way to open that gate is for Walkure to give the protoculture structure everything they have.

At first, Freyja doesn’t do that, because she’s still scared Hayate and/or Mirage will go nuts. But after a quick slap by Mikumo, combined with the urgings of Hayate and Mirage, Freyja is back in the game.

Turns out she was right to worry: the song does make Hayate go berserk, just when locked in a dogfight with Cassim (who is fighting like this is his last battle, because it is). Just as Hayate and Mirage helped snap Freyja out of her funk, Mirage and Freyja snap Hayate out of his Var before irreparable damage is done, and the battle resumes.

By the time Hayate has his senses back, the platoon has bought Walkure adequate time, the gate opens, and they fly through, emerging in Windermere’s atmo. Two Aerial Knights: one of the twins and Cassim, follow, and take out Walkure’s shuttle.

Remembering vividly what happened to Flay in Gundam SEED I naturally worried about the idols’ transport getting hit, but they all survive the attack, with Arad and Mirage catching Kaname and Freyja out of the sky.

All that’s left is for Hayate to stay alive long enough for Cassim to burn (or freeze) out, which is what happens. Interestingly, no other Windermerean defense is around, allowing Hayate and Mirage to land their planes so they, along with Freyja, can pay respect to their fallen adversary and acquaintance.

Cassim’s time may be up, but Hayate, Freyja, and Mirage’s Windermerean adventure has just begun. Freyja is finally home. There’s still quite a bit left to do, and Lloyd probably isn’t going to roll over and let them destroy his life’s work. We’ll see whose wind prevails.

Macross Delta – 21

The HayMirFre triangle was set aside entirely this week; instead the episode focused on Kaname and the roots of Walkure, starting all the way at the beginning. It’s a long story, but the ladies are incarcerated until further notice, so there’s time to tell it. It’s a story that was only hinted at before, and digging deep into the group’s history mitigates the fizzling out of suspense from last week’s infiltration.

The last couple of episodes have been full of uncertainty for all, but the flashbacks this week are instrumental in showing that this has almost always been the case. When Kaname was first hired by Chaos, nobody knew what they were doing. Once idols with fold receptors were collected, their first “shows” were utter failures. Even Makina and Reina don’t get along for a long time. Two other Walkure members quit due to stress.

It’s also instructive to see just how ragtag Chaos was long before Hayate and Freyja joined it. Kaname was simply a survivor on a war-torn planet; Makina from a family of skilled mechanics and engineers; Reina is a genius hacker. None were born idols; they grew into it, as did the symbiotic relationship between Walkure and the Delta Platoon, leading to the rescue of a young pilot named Messer from a battle on Alfheim.

Of course, one member of Walkure was born an idol, with no other dream but to sing. That, of course, is Mikumo, who was introduced to the others quite suddenly after Claire quit, and has a powerful and immediate impact on them all.

Even Reina and Makina bond over her transformative power of song, which she uses to introduce her self rather than, you know, speaking to them. When Mikumo is suddenly singing in the brig where the others are being held, it’s a neat (if somewhat jarring) segue out of the flashback and back to the present.

Back on Windermere, Lloyd has Heinz use his newly amplified song to put thousands on Al Shahal in a coma to do research, but Heinz’s frail body can’t take the strain. When Keith discovers the Heinz is riddled with the same frozen malady that claimed his father, only far earlier in life, he is furious, and confronts Lloyd, who pretty much confesses to murdering King Gramia (to east his suffering), and that he and Keith cannot “fly in the same skies”.

Lloyd goals are about far more than preserving the fatherland and expanding the empire. As Berger finds out, he may be after the ability to join the minds of all mankind into a network; unlocking perhaps the most powerful ability of the protoculture. If Gramia, Heinz, and even Mikumo or Freyja are the eggs he has to break, so be it; he must have his omelette.

But he’s running out of time. Mikuno’s “issues” were fixed aboard the medical frigate, and while she now knows she has no childhood memories because she’s a genetically engineered clone, she’s no less committed to singing for the cause she was created to serve.

Delta and Walkure are headed to Windermere. Whatever anyone’s personal issues or doubts, there’s a galaxy out there that needs saving. Time to get to work.

Macross Delta – 20

I was wondering how Delta would follow up an episode that was 9/10ths an advertisement for other Macross series (some worse but most better than Delta), and 1/10th nice character work between Mirage and Hayate, which for me saved it from a 6 (not recommended).

Turns out this episode was a lot more like the last 1/10th of last week, only with a lot more action, which pleased me. For once, though, the action doesn’t predominantly serve the plot; the status of the war remains unchanged.

Instead, all the action is character-driven, not a bad way to go for a show whose characters have too often felt like little more than props (or shadows of aforementioned better shows). Forget the war, we’ve got more basic problems: Freyja can’t sing, Hayate can’t fly, and Mikumo is God-knows-where.

Everyone is full of doubt and uncertainty, even in Windermere, where Heinz is definitely spooked by the fact his song was overpowered by Mikumo’s. His brother Keith (who has had very little to do since losing an eye) seems to want to know more about Heinz’s specific medical problems, all while wondering what the heck is going on with Lloyd, who he thought he used to know well.

Lloyds reassurances to Heinz that his voice is peerless, and to Keith that all will be well, aren’t received with enthusiasm by either Windermere. Cassim is also still walking around looking lost; the only ones who aren’t are content to blindly follow the most powerful authority.

Things can’t stay this way for the main players on both sides of the war, so it falls to the second tier of the cast to bring about some kind of change. Makino and Reina start prodding the medical frigate’s security for weaknesses, and when Kaname catches them, they convince her to join their cause, even if it’s against the rules, because they love Mikumo.

Hayate and Freyja actually manage to sit at a table together, but only to exchange unilateral life-altering/ruining decisions. Hayate wants to quit flying so Freyja can keep singing; Freyja wants to quit singing so Hayate can keep flying. Their affection for one another precludes doing anything that might hurt one another.

Enter Mirage, who does a far better job than Lloyd to, well, not so much reassure them as knock some sense into them with harsh words. She considers both their offers unacceptable; Hayate has to fly and Freyja has to sing; that’s what they were frikkin’ born to do.

And she’s not even going to give them the choice to give up on their dreams, because she loves them too much. There; she finally said it, only two both of them and not simply Hayate. Better than nothing, I guess. Mirage (and Seto Asami) do great work here.

While Mirage puts her heart on her sleeve to help the comrades—the friends—she loves, Kaname, Makino and Reina potentially put their careers, freedom, and lives on the line for their comrade Mikumo. Reina’s hacking isn’t pefect, but Kaname doesn’t give up when the other two are arrested, running through corridors and belting out song until she reaches Mikumo, who despite being in a stasis tank, sings along.

And that’s it for episode 20. With six episodes left, the sing-and-fly formula of earlier episodes has been immensely disrupted, and we’re left wondering what will become of the singers of Walkure, the pilots of Delta, and the overdressed tools of Windermere.

Macross Delta – 19

After making me care about the “bad guys” a bit last week, Delta continued to impress by suddenly having Freyja and Mikumo kinda go off the rails, resulting in the destruction of the Protoculture ruins—and thus a pillar of the Starwind Sector—on a large scale, and sending Hayate into superhuman berserk mode, from which he still hasn’t recovered when we check in this week. Mikumo has been secured aboard a medical frigate.

While both waiting outside the door to Hayate’s hospital room, Freyja and Mirage encounter the dude in the keffiyeh who was so dispassionately reporting on the status of the ruins and Protoculture structures back in Windermere. In a time of great doubt and apprehension, he’s arrived to complete an undisclosed business transaction with Chaos.

But…he goes into an incredibly long-winded and detailed bout of exposition that not only serves as a shout-out to all previous Macross series (of which I’ve only watched Frontier, back when it aired), but connects the events of all of those Macrosses to explain what’s happening with the Wind Singer, Walkure, Freyja, and Mikumo.

Long story short: the Var is a product of fold bacteria left behind by the Vajra, and there are people with immunity to the Var and fold receptors who generate powerful bio-fold waves when they sing while their lives are on the line.

Berger Stone surmises that the Protoculture inserted some code related to music in the he DNA of all humanoids, and that music is more than just culture shock, but a mind-controlling weapon.

He also brings up rumors of the mysterious “Lady M” who finances Chaos to be developing an “ultimate weapon” utilizing music, which sounds a hell of a lot like Mikumo, considering the flashes of her past we’ve seen.

I’m glad to be caught up on exactly what’s going on, but I can’t help but wonder if there could have been a more organic way to convey all this information. When you think about it, why is Berger Stone telling them all this to begin with? Frankly, the only reason I can think of is that the plot requires that he do so.

Sure, it’s a vehicle for a bunch of lovely nostalgia, but this is where my limited exposure to the Macross universe is exposed, since most of the shout outs failed to resonate simply because I haven’t watched everything. Thus, much of Berger’s story feels more like a quick cram session of everything that led up to the current situation.

It’s more than a little awkward and rushed, not to mention static. With a few excellently-executed exceptions, there’s usually something unsatisfying about watching people stand around and listen to a guy talk while watching what amounts to a fancy PowerPoint presentation behind him…for almost an entire episode.

And while Berger is talking to Walkure and Delta, Lloyd is telling Keith basically the same story. So everyone on the show is simply standing around chilling. That lack of immediacy after so much action and upheaval was a bit deflating. It felt retconny. felt…recappy.

What earns this episode a 7 as opposed to a 6, then, is the very end, when it’s Mirage, not Freyja, who musters up the courage to go see Hayate. Since there’s every indication he’s out cold, Mirage is able to be honest with herself, if only briefly.

Admitting you don’t understand anything is the first step to rectifying that, and Mirage does so, while also admitting she likes having Hayate around and wants him to wake up and be with her again. Seto Asami does good work in Mirage’s small but significant scene. Naturally, it’s left up to interpretation how long Hayate was conscious and listening to her, but it’s not as if she confessed her love or anything.

That being said, it’s important that Mirage visited him and was there when he woke up, not Freyja, as Freyja’s fear her music is a weapon that can change and potentially hurt Hayate leads her to keep her distance. Mirage is just Hayate’s flying buddy; she has no such misplaced guilt to contend with.

Macross Delta – 18

I never thought it would happen, but Macross Delta actually made me care a little bit about one of the bad guys. A big part of why is because he’s unsure the direction his people are headed it. Cassim is on the wrong side of 25, and knows full well the king is now Lloyd’s puppet. Like Hayate and Freyja, whom he invites into a storehouse where he’s thinking things over, he’s not exactly sure what is the right thing to do.

I especially liked when Freyja showed up first and they just shot the Windermerean breeze, so to speak. When Hayate shows up, he’s not hostile, but sees that these two like each other and worries for them, as he worries for the future in general, which for him, is far shorter than he’d like. He also worries for his son back home. Lloyd may be hell-bent on galactic domination, but Cassim just wants to die happy, assured his family will be safe and prosperous when he’s gone.

It’s good to see Hayate and Freyja trying and largely succeeding in moving past the awkwardness of his father’s past, at least for now, and dedicating themselves to working to support one another, along with their respective teams, Delta and Walkure.

Freyja is back to her ebullient self when she joins her groupmates by the Protoculture structure for a tactical show kicked off by Mikumo, and the structure starts to react immediately. Interestingly, Lloyd lets them sing, which suggests…maybe they shouldn’t be doing something he’s okay with?

Freyja’s fold waves mesh with Hayate and make him a better wind-rider, able to keep up with Keith in the skies. But the song and aerial battle get progressively more intense and chaotic, with both Freyja and Hayate seemingly going out of control—perhaps the very reason Lloyd let them play on.

Even more troubling is that after Heinz sings his Song of the Wind, nearly causing Hayate to succumb to the Var, Freyja essentially shorts out after going into a trance. Then Mikumo goes into a trance of her own, recalling old, buried memories of being some kind of test subject (of course) before restarting a song so strong and assertive it even knocks out Heinz’s song—as well as his clothes— before she passes out.

The episode kinda leaves us hanging with her collapse, following it up with an ending sequence that looks for all the world like a Mikumo tribute. Is this it for Mikumo? What exactly did she and Walkure do that seemed to play right into Lloyd’s hands? Will Freyja, Hayate, and Cassim ever figure out what exactly is the right thing to do?

Macross Delta – 17

As the oldest Windermerean soldier smirks at the fact only Lord Lloyd heard Gramia’s last wish—to press their fight until all the galaxy is theirs—Lloyd becomes more interested in Freyja and Mikumo. Targets to take out, or backup weapons in case Heinz falls prematurely?

Whatever his plans, it’s back to work for Delta/Walkure, as Arad and Kaname announce a new plan to infiltrate Vordor (where Var-immune rebel forces are still holding out) and try to find a way to use the ruins to their advantage. Freyja, meanwhile, has totally fallen for Hayate, who sadly seems only a quarter-aware.

Work Comes First this week, however, and it comes in the form of an elaborate Walkure network and media saturation campaign spearheaded by Reina as a huge, dazzling cover for hacking the galactic network in order to facilitate their infiltration of Vordor.

It’s Walkure’s most aggressive “tour” yet, able to appear seemingly in every planet in the cluster, and they turn up the heat by, for one, exploiting their sexuality, Makina’s in particular.

While discussion of objectification may crop up in some circles, the fact is Walkure chose to go in this direction; the military didn’t make them. This was all Reina and Makina’s scheme, and it works,

While watching Freyja sing and glance at him with a bright rune, Hayate starts to maybe-kinda-sorta pick up on all the lovey-dovey vibes emanating from Freyja. He gives her an, ahem, glowing review of her singing, and Freyja is this close to confessing her feelings.

What stops them? An elderly couple waving to her, before walking off, hand-in-hand. At that crucial moment, Freyja saw a future she’d never enjoy with Hayate. It’s the opposite of the Arwen-Aragorn tragedy, with Freyja leaving Hayate by death before he even reaches the middle of his life.

Things get more awkward when Hayate brings up how he hasn’t seen his Mom in a while, but it’s “no big deal” because it’s “just a couple of years.” That stings Freyja to the core, and her rune goes out like a candle.

Still, her work continues, and with even Windermeran pilots (and Bogue) falling for their spell, Reina’s hidden virus reaches 100% saturation, clearing the way for the Vordor operation.

Before they set out, Hayate runs into the guy who knew his dad, and after getting nowhere answers-wise, Hayate storms the bridge and confronts Arad: He wants the truth, now.

He gets it, or at least more of it than he’s ever gotten, and it’s nothing good: Wright Immelmann stole a dimensional weapon and dropped it on the NUNs garrison in Windermere, killing all the forces, a good number of civilians, and leaving that scar on the landscape.

Now he knows: his father was, at least according to the facts at hand, a mass murderer and war criminal, a realization that makes Freyja’s rune go darker than ever. It’s not a great place for either of them to end up after she’d gotten so close to telling him how she felt; now the love window has closed for the time being.

Freyja has her job, and so does Hayate. As Mikumo’s voice seems to be changing (and possibly weakening, suggesting she may be a secret Windermerean, nearing 30), Walkure will support Freyja while Mirage and Chuck will support Hayate. Because as long as King Heinz can sing, Lloyd’s not going to stop his galactic conquest.

Macross Delta – 16

Aside from a brief (and fairly pointless) visit to Windermere and a scene with Mikumo proposing they use the ruins to counter the Song of the Wind, this episode was given over completely to celebrating Freyja’s fifteenth birthday with a surprise party. As it’s the middle of a Windermeran’s lifespan, Maki and Reina wanted to make it special.

In other words, there’s no action whatsoever, nor is there any movement on the galactic war front. The episode is carried only by the characters, so how much you enjoyed it depends on how much you like and/or care about said characters when they’re not fighting (or singing) to save the galaxy.

I went on record as saying I liked how desperate things had gotten a couple weeks back when the lights went off on the Island Ship, but now that Elysion is docked with it, there’s little difference between the ship and being on Ragna, which kind of undermines the peril.

That said, I did appreciate the efforts made to expound on the Freyja/Hayate/Mirage triangle in a less stressful environment. At the same time, Mirage’s shopping “date” makes it clear Hayate is “denser than a black hole”, as his stalkers put it.

He’s aware that he has a special bond with Freyja (and even hears her song from afar), but he doesn’t come right out an call it romance, nor is he even a little aware of Mirage’s burgeoning feelings for him. Mirage plays the good friend to both, though, when the night of the party comes.

The party is when Freyja and the episode shine, as her story about when she discovered Earth music and started singing for her villagewas actually very moving. Her surprise and elation at everyone coming together for her sake was also infectious.

Finally, Hayate is very late to the party, but for a good reason: after a lengthy but fruitless trip to the mall, he realized the best birthday gift he could give her was home, in the form of snow. And if he realized how close he was to Freyja before, their little moment in the snow was likely the final nail the coffin for poor Mirage and her unacknowledged, unrequited love.

Then again, there were moments for both Ranka Lee and Sheryl Nome when one thought the other had won the Alto Sweepstakes, and it ended up being a triangle that was never broken in Frontier. But in terms of who made the most of this brief respite from intergalactic warfare, I’m inclined to place Freyja firmly in the winner’s column.

Macross Delta – 15

I enjoyed watching Chaos, Walkure, and Delta Platoon up against the wall last week, struggling more with staying alive and keeping their ships operable than anything else. This week’s focus on Windermere was, to be charitable, less successful and less engaging.

I’m all for putting “human” faces on the “bad guys” of the show, but…isn’t it a little late? I guess the point is to show that while Lord Roid, his puppet Heinz, and his loya, now one-eyed half-brother Keith, have become nothing more than dangerous fanatics who are going to lead their people off a cliff.

And not everyone is in lockstep with this direction. They have families they want to get back to. I wish I actually cared about these guys, but I don’t.

Heinz plays his part in Roid’s power grab, promising to carry on the good work of his father…but somehow I feel like King Gramia would have been fine if Windermere had simply conquered the globular cluster, which they’ve done.

Now Roid wants to take things further, using the ruins to resonate Heinz’s voice across the entire galaxy. And something tells me his golden goose’s crystal voice box is not long for this world, despite Heinz’s apparent heartiness this week. His dubious illness reminds me of the imouto from Hundred.

For an episode with a coronation broadcast galaxy-wide and a giant space battle, this episode felt oddly listless…a drag, even. Naturally, Keith’s brush with death, combined with…whatever Roid did to him, has made him able to read the space wind so well, he takes out an entire NUNS fleet by himself without taking a single hit from the enemy.

That’s pretty badass, but like everything with the short-lived, bulkily-dressed Windermereans, I wonder how in the galaxy they’re going to be able to sustain this. All I know is, Roid turned down peace. It’s galactic domination or bust. I wonder what Mikumo has in mind to get their worlds back.

P.S. I like the new OP, but not sure yet if I like it better than the first one. I think I just need to hear it more; preferably preceding better episodes than this one.

Macross Delta – 14

When Walkure, Delta, and Chaos retreated from Ragna, they did so with a ragtag fleet led by the reliable Macross Elysion, but lagging behind it is the Island Ship, a 30-year-old relic that didn’t get to properly warmed up and is now experiencing cascade power failure.

On top of air, food, and weapon shortages there are thousands of refugees who want to get back home ASAP, several of which wonder why they left in the first place.

Makina and Reina formulate a plan to shore up the Island Ship’s systems, but they have to accelerate their plans when an energy blow-out causes a hull breach right near where Hayate, Mirage and Freyja are hanging out.

For a second, I thought things would go from bad to worse, but Freyja has always been pretty lucky, and so is not sucked out into space when she’s separated from the other two by an emergency bulkhead.

While the plan to restore the ship unfolds, Walkure takes an impromptu stage to keep the refugees calm, hopeful, and entertained. Things get a little silly when Hayate and Mirage inexplicably strip down to their skivvies, ostensibly to get a better grip on a crucial power conduit.

Things get a little sillier (and worrying for Freyja, who can kinda hear what’s going on in fits and spurts but comes to the wrong conclusion) when Mirage has to embrace Hayate tightly like a lover in order to turn the dang valve over, and when the power, gravity, and lights come back on, they’re literally left hanging from that valve, looking to everyone watching like they’d just been up to something untoward.

With Elysion successfully docked and the Island Ship working more or less normally again, our heroes’ have cleared their first post-defeat hurdle: stay alive. Chaos also gains new sponsors (the old ones being occupied) in mining corporations who hire them to take the Globular Cluster back.

They’re still way outgunned, but at least they don’t have to worry about going broke, and they’ve staved off a more serious crisis with the refugees. Meanwhile, a power struggles seems to be afoot, with Keith in an apparent coma, Heinz poised to succeed his dead father, and Roid believing he possesses Gramia’s “will.”