Macross Zero OVA Episode 05
マクロスゼロ OVA Ep. 05 (OAV)
Macross Zero OVA 05 (finale)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The “birdman” head alien artifact comes alive as Sara and Aries are on it, the Anti-U.N. forces manage to fly it out. Shin and Focker are rescued by the U.N. Spacy as Sara and Aries are taken to an Anti-U.N. submarine. Professor Hasford attempts to convince Sara to make the birdman sing its song. Nora adds to this, revealing the U.N.’s secret plans to destroy the birdman if needed. Meanwhile on the Asuka II, Mao is on the birdman’s body, which also has reacted. She manages to cause it to show them where Sara and Aries are being held and what’s being said to them.

Focker and Shin decide to launch a rescue mission as the Asuka II and its battle group as well as the Anti-U.N. submarine are lifted out of the water to hover in the air. Edgar clears the two pilots for flight, their VF-0 fighters having been equipped with rocket boosters. Because of their launch, the Anti-U.N. sub launches its own fighters (also equipped with rocket boosters) piloted by Nora and Ivanov. Shin finds himself targeted by Nora, who then finds herself targeted by Focker, who then finds himself targeted by Ivanov.

Shin manages to make it to the sub and breach the hull to rescue Sara, only to have Nora shoot his fighter off the hull. Thinking Shin must be dead, Sara’s grief causes the birdman head and body to leave their respective ships and come together. Now regenerated, the birdman biomechanoid asks Sara some things, including if man has reached the stars and if they are still fighting. Sara confirms it, so the birdman begins to execute its programming to wipe out humanity to prevent them from infecting the stars. In doing so, much of Asuka II‘s support fleet is destroyed as Sara and the birdman sing the song of destruction.

Shin comes to just before crashing and returns to the skies. Nora tries to finish him off, but the birdman destroys her instead. Ivanov gets angry and tries to destroy the birdman, but is destroyed instead. Shin discovers Sara is inside the birdman, directing its destruction while Mao, still on the Asuka II, makes telepathic contact with Shin to stop him from making the same mistake as the Russians. Mao gets Shin to listen to the song and hear Sara’s sadness. So Shin flies in and jettisons his weapons as she attacks. She’s finally able to see Shin instead of a creature of evil and calls off her attack.

However, the U.N. Spacy has decided that the birdman is just too dangerous and on the deck of the Asuka II, a large mecha weapon launches four nuclear shells. Mao’s scream causes Sara to realize what is happening. She sends Shin back into his fighter, erects a shield, and after taking the attack, appears to fold away. Meanwhile, Focker has managed to rescue Aries, but she’s critically injured and dies on the beach. Back in the sky, Shin’s plane is damaged from the nuclear strike and he’s about to crash into the ocean. However, at the last moment, Mao’s hands seem to touch Shin’s and his fighter glows as she and the villagers sing. He crashes into the ocean, but rises again, heading into space and he too appears to fold out.

Thoughts/Review:

It is a shame that this series didn’t try to properly establish itself in conjunction to how things were with Macross, or at least they didn’t do a very good job of it IMO. Granted, this story appears to play a bit loose with the original Macross time-line so maybe they felt it was better this way.

Anyway, I wonder if Macross Zero will play more of a roll in Macross Frontier. We’ve already had the episode 10 tie-in with the movie being filmed depicting the events of Macross Zero. However, it seemed to me that the birdman was kinda like a Vajra. Both are biomechanoid units which are very powerful. That would be a neat tie-in.

As to the episode itself, I am only guessing that both Shin and Sara folded out somehow. Sara would have used the tech in the birdman. However, Shin’s fighter was still covered in the energy from Mao’s singing. Mao could have wished for Shin to be joined with her sister since she knew how much Sara loved Shin and vice versa.

It is unfortunate that so many things ended predictably. I figured Aries would die since Focker is single and swinging in Macross. Given how the two Russian pilots were, once the birdman was active and destroying, I figured that it would destroy them. I was wrong in that I figured Sara would get rescued by Shin and the birdman would be destroyed. However, how things ended actually works better I suppose, especially if it ties in with Macross Frontier.

Overall, this was a good series that was beautifully done on an art an animation front. The characters were interesting, as was the story, which fortunately didn’t get too preachy.