Macross Zero OVA Episode 02 (Anime)
マクロスゼロ OVA Ep. 02 (OAV)
Macross Zero OVA 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

As Shin races to where Mao is up on the mountain, Sara and Nutuk recount the legend of the birdman to the villagers who’ve fled to a large cave while outside, Focker is engaged with the Anti-U.N. fighter. Focker recognizes his opponent, a Russian (Soviet?) instructor pilot named Ivanov. The two battle to a stalemate until Ivanov’s fuel forces him to leave. Ivanov’s wingman, a female pilot named Nora, comes under attack from another U.N. Spacy fighter who gets shot down. The fighter crashes as Shin reaches and protects Mao. When the pilot gets out of the fighter, Shin has a flashback to when his family was killed and goes nuts. He enters the fighter and and launches a rain of bullets up to Nora. She returns to take out her prey, but is run off when Focker arrives.

Shin is rescued and taken on board the Asuka II. He is on the hanger deck taking a good look at the new VF-0 fighters when Focker comes up, approving of not only his actions on the island, but also how he inspects the fighters. Shin doesn’t like the 2-seater model because he wants to fly alone, but when a mildly injured Edgar shows up, Shin changes his mind, glad his friend and partner is still alive. With that, Focker decides that the two of them are worthy of the Skull Squadron and will immediately begin to train. Training is tough, complete with leaning physical combat. Indeed, Shin gets an earful from the chief mechanic on how he’s treating the fighter but later learns from Focker that Shin is the only one of the trainees to put the fighter to its full potential.

Because Aries has been researching the alien technology pulled from the ocean (which looks like a bird mecha) Focker has a mission for Shin and Edgar, which is to escort Aries and some support people to Mayan. Sara rejects their presence, fearing the evil they will bring, so Aries states they will camp outside the village so as not to offend the villagers. Nutuk ends up making this happen, so Aries sets up shop. Shin returns to the hut with the generator to finish the repairs. Mao wonders why he returned to which Shin answers he wanted to keep his promise while at the same time following orders.

Meanwhile, Aries is wanting to take blood samples from the villagers which Sara strongly objects to, citing snakes in their blood. Shin arrives and is pressured by Aries to make this happen since he knows Sara. Instead, Shin asks the villagers what they want to do — have their blood checked for their health, or follow the rules of the village. They ponder this until Aries produces a large cooler of canned juice. The villagers give up their blood happily.

That night, shin returns to work on the generator. Sara asks him if he plans to steal the stars as they have had their blood stolen. She cites her father’s words about lights on Earth meaning less stars in the sky. He doesn’t follow her superstitious logic and finishes the work on the generator with the adding of fuel. When he throws the switch, all of the huts on the island light up. He tells Sara that if she doesn’t like it, she can close her eyes and be in darkness. She notes that darkness is where Shin’s heart lies.

Elsewhere, Aries makes a call to Focker as she can’t sleep. She questions why he joined the war when he’d been so opposed to it before. He tells her the reason was the killing of their mutual friend Michael during a bombing by Anti-U.N. forces.

The following morning, Shin awakens in his hammock under the camouflage that has been set up to hide their fighter as Edgar continues to sleep. Shin takes his weapon and goes on a patrol where he comes upon a naked Sara standing in the middle of the body of water (apparently on top of the water) that holds the birdman relics (alien artifacts). She begins singing and as Shin observes, the flowers all around begin to bloom and small artifacts begin to float up in the air. On the beach in her research module, Aries awakens to hear the song. She then observes that the blood cells in the samples are apparently reacting to the song, almost in a snake-like fashion.

Thoughts/Review:

Hearing the Japanese use the English “cherry boy” in a sentence as part of an insult just cracks me up.

OK, so Shin gets back to civilization and is on board the Asuka II. So, why didn’t he even ask about the Ilastria, which was his old ship? I think I would have at least asked. Regardless, I was surprised that Shin was rescued at all. I had the impression that he’d be stuck on the island for the series. However, the way the writers did this, he’ll still be on the island, only not as a crashed pilot.

Next on my list of questions, if the generator worked before and had been used, why is Sara afraid of it? Why would her father say something so daft about lights on Earth killing the stars? I mean, why have a generator in the first place if your beliefs are this way? Not only that, why have every stinking hut connected to it so that they have electric lights if technology is so evil? This made no sense to me at all. After all, someone had to bring the generator over, and the fuel, and then wire the island for electricity.

I was wondering when the singing would come into play since we can’t have a Macross anime without singing. Interesting that the Japanese had Sara sing in French (I think it was French). However, when I saw all the flowers start to bloom during the song, I couldn’t help but immediately think of Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess (since this is just the kind of thing she’d do — sing and the flowers would bloom). Still, the story takes a weird twist with Sara’s ability.

The battle between Roy’s U.N. Spacy squad and the two Russian (Soviet?) fighters was beautifully done. Having the wide shots from the island cave, which clearly saved money on animation, added to he scope, speed, and intensity of the fight in a way I didn’t expect. It was really nicely done.