マクロスF Episode 21
Macross F Ep. 21
Macross Frontier Anime

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Leon officially takes over the government on the bridge of Battle Frontier and he orders the ship to separate from Island 1 to help Macross Quarter and the other warships battle the Vajra. With Battle Frontier now separating, Cathy and Ozama are too late to stop Leon’s plans. Battle Frontier enters the fight and saves Macross Quarter from taking a hit from a Vajra battleship by destroying the enemy vessel. Since Battle Frontier‘s main cannon is still working and Leon knows what Luca is planning, Leon orders that they continue to fight the enemy out in space.

Back one of the Macross Frontier islands, a determined and angry Klan in her normal, giant form begins attacking the swarms of Vajra, allowing Luca, Alto, and Ranka to escape. Ranka dons an SMS flight suit and Luca takes them to a secret location where a fold bomb (named “Little Girl”) created by LAI resides. His plan is to have Ranka sing so that the Vajra inside Macross Frontier come to Island 3. Once this happens, the island ship will be detached from the Macross Frontier collective and the bomb detonated.

Alto doesn’t like this plan, but Ranka agrees to it, so Alto decides he’ll make sure she gets off the island alive. He takes off in his fighter and Brera arrives, telling Ranka she doesn’t have to do this since this song of hers is her heart. She has a small cry but assures Brera that she’s OK and will sing the song, so Brera also takes off in his fighter. She begins to sing and sure enough, the swarms of Vajra all over hear and leave whatever island they are on to come to Island 3. Sheryl, via her earring, also hears the singing in the shelter. Once the overwhelming majority of the Vajra are on Island 3, Alto gets Ranka out and Little Girl is detonated, causing the island ship to implode.

As Leon gives a speech at a public funeral, he asks Ranka to sing for the crowd and those watching on the other ships. Ranka refuses, saying she’ll never sing again before she flees the scene. This surprises Alto, who’s been watching this on TV. Ranka flees into the woods and when she stops, a much larger Ai-kun emerges, happy to see her. However, Ai-kun begins to molt and the next-stage Vajra appears. Ranka calls Alto, who races to see her. She wants him to show her how to make a paper airplane, which he does. After she launches it, she then has Ai-kun come out. Alto cannot see past the fact that it is a Vajra and the Vajra must be killed, so Brera emerges to stop Alto from killing Ai-kun. Ranka decides to leave with Brera to take Ai-kun back to his kind. As she leaves on Brera’s fighter, she tells Alto that she loves him and wanted to be with him forever.

As Brera, Ranka, Ai-kun, and fighter leave, their departure is noticed by Cathy and Ozama (who are in the ruined city) as well as Sheryl (who’s back at Alto’s family estate) via her earring. Alto screams out Ranka’s name as Brera has his fighter leave via one of Island 1‘s hatches in the “sky.” With that, they fold out.

Thoughts/Review: So, while we don’t have a resolution to the love-triangle, we do have Ranka out of the way for a while. Ranka’s decision not to sing seemed to surprise Leon so I can’t imagine that was part of his plans even if it is part of Grace’s. With Ai-kun not only having survived the recent fight but still like a big old friendly dog when it comes to Ranka, I wonder what role this will play in the Vajra and humans ultimately coming to peace. We’ll see how this plays out, however I couldn’t help but feel sad that Ranka’s leaving. I always liked her but it is time for Sheryl’s rise from the ashes. I think Ranka will be back and through Sheryl’s earring (with fold crystal), I still think it will be the two of them that ultimately resolve the Vajra problem.

Then there is Klan. I really wondered if the writers would kill her off this episode as she sought payback on Micheal’s death, but fortunately, the writers haven’t killed her…yet. I like Klan and seeing as how her other two Zentradi female friends are dead, I just hope that Klan can not only survive but become stronger in the end.

I liked finally seeing how Battle Frontier operated in conjunction with the main Macross Frontier island. One of the things I haven’t liked as much about this series is some of the murkiness surrounding certain things in the show. I think it would have been nice for there to have been little things to indicate which island they were on at a given time. Oh well. That’s what Google is for I guess.

I was thinking about Luca. The animators dropped his “cute,” innocent red marks on his cheeks, indicating he has grown up. Since Nanase hasn’t been killed yet, maybe the two of them can be a couple when the series is over.

See you for episode 22.