マクロスF Episode 09
Macross F Ep. 09

SPOILER Summary: Sheryl is doing a video shoot on the academy’s roof with the support of the Pilot Course members. Alto is not happy to be wasting time on such an event that Michael approves of. Sheryl’s manager, Grace, thanks Alto and Michael starts flirting with her. Once Grace realizes who Michael is, she offers an apology about his older sister, which takes him aback. They are soon called away on an alert and get into an argument in flight with Alto sick of Michael’s various actions and Michael fighting back by mentioning Alto ran away from his own family and is playing war. During the fight with a Vajra, Michael sets up a sniper position to backup Alto, who’s not interested in help from Michael. Michael fires anyway and nearly takes out Alto in the possess as he remembers what Grace said about his sister.

Klan is with her fellow teammates from the SMS Pixie Squad (in micron size) at a restaurant discussing the recent uptick in mobilization when Michael, Alto, and Luca enter. Michael and Alto get into a fight over the events in the recent combat after Alto mentions Michael’s sister and her sniper skills. Michael gets the better of Alto, who is later patched up by medical officer Kanaria. Alto is still angry with Michael’s actions. Michael is doing sniper practice outside Macross Frontier when Klan (in normal form) pays him a visit, realizing he’s troubled about his sister Jessica. Micheal blows that idea off and makes a pass at Klan, but then irritates her when he remarks that sleeping with her when she’s in micron from would likely get him arrested for an obscenity crime. This angers Klan, who slaps Michael through his mecha suit.

Elsewhere, Sheryl has sent an unimpressed Alto a video she’s filmed where she tries to ensure the Macross Galaxy is not forgotten. As they talk on the phone, she talks of her desire to attend school on Frontier and of Alto’s joining the military (even if the SMS). Meanwhile, Ranka is working on her manager’s latest promotional by giving out tissues (?) with her name on it. Bobby Margot, the SMS Macross Quarter’s gay helmsman, has worked on Ranka’s makeup, leading Ranka’s manager to feel positive about things. Bobby warns the manager that he’d better do Ranka right since he’s close to her older brother.

Back at the SMS HQ, Klan talks with Alto about Michael. She explains that she’s known him for years and that they were childhood friends. Michael’s parents were killed and his older sister Jessica, who was still a kid herself, took over raising Michael. She became a skilled sniper and fell in love with her instructor. They eventually broke up and shortly after this, they were sent on a combat mission. Jessica fired from her sniper position and accidentally kills her former lover. While it was an accident, there was great suspicion that this may not have been an accident but rather a murder. Because of the negative backlash against her, she ended up committing suicide, leaving Michael alone.

The SMS are scrambled again with Ozama pairing the still-fighting Michael and Alto up. Their mission is to seek out a suspected Vajra nest. However, the mysterious alien-boy (young man) in his mecha has other orders, which are to prevent the SMS from obtaining any samples from the nest. A fight breaks out between the SMS and the mystery fighter with Klan having him in her sights. She eventually gets the “nail” shot but his mecha-fighter is unharmed, leading him to severely damage Klan’s mecha-fighter. Also comes to her aide and engages the mystery mecha-fighter, immediately recognizing it from the last major battle. Michael sets up a sniper position and Alto manages to get close enough to grapple with the mystery craft. He tells Michael to shoot, revealing he knows about Jessica. Michael takes the shot and scores a hit, but it only does minimal damage. Realizing he’s in danger, the mystery alien-boy destroys the Vajra nest and takes off.

The following day, Michael visits his sister’s grave, determined to find out once and for all the truth behind what happened with his sister. While a microned Klan observes from behind a tree, Alto and Luca join Michael. Micheal remarks he is amazed Alto didn’t run from combat and Alto remarks that he’s amazed Michael took the shot. The two have resolved the issue between them and the trio head off for school.

Thoughts: We have a nice mix of action and some character development for Micheal, which all in all is a good thing. However, who is alien-boy working for? If the Macross Frontier fleet already had a Vajra, why would the people alien-boy reports to not want the humans to get their hands on the Vajra nest? His mecha unit seems clearly more advanced than the S.M.S. stuff since Klan scored a hit on it with her Zentradi weapon and Michael scored a hit with his sniper weapon. Thinking back a couple of episodes, he single handedly took out a lot of Vajra (or so it seemed to me). Anyway, it almost seems like he’s the little critter that stole Sheryl’s panties two episodes back.

Speaking of Sheryl, I was surprised at the lack of her in this episode (though being an episode about Micheal, that is to be expected) based on how she basically decided she was entering the Pilot Course. Instead, it seemed that she really isn’t taking that serious but more as a marketing ploy. Still, her reminding us (and the people in the story) about the missing Macross Galaxy is interesting. Why? Because the writers seem to be telling us that there’s more to the Macross Galaxy story. I hope so. Maybe that’s were alien-boy comes from (somehow) when the Vajra take it over.

Ranka. Not a lot to say there as she had very little time on screen. I felt bad for her having to give away tissue packets with her name on them. I gather that promotional stuff in Japan is sometimes done this way, but man, that just has to suck.