Macross Frontier 23
マクロスF Episode 23
Macross F Ep. 23
Macross Frontier Anime

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

In a memory-dream, Ranka recalls a moment when her ill mother Ranshe is having a discussion with Grace about sacrificing “them” in order to change the world. The child Ranka talks about this with an older boy before waking up in Brera’s fighter as they approach the Vajra home world.

Back on Macross Frontier, Leon has a meeting with a group of men discussing the current situation (including the Macross Quarter leaving) as another island pod is jettisoned. This is observed by Alto and two other pilots, both of whom wonder if Alto is dating Sheryl. When they return to base, the other two pilots are all excited to see Sheryl waiting for them. Alto goes home with Sheryl and prepares her a meal. Sheryl is very happy as they have an fancy dinner with champagne. Sheryl gets drunk and when Alto carries her to bed, she asks him to stay with her always. He seems to agree with that.

Back in Brera’s fighter, Ranka thanks Brera for doing what he’s done. They talk about Ranka’s song, which is a sole memory within the cyborg’s self-described hollow self. The Vajra notice the fighter and come, so Ranka starts singing as she normally does. This halts the Vajra and Brera joins in the song with his harmonica, causing Ranka to remember a boy playing a harmonica when they were children. When the song is over, Brera gives Ranka the harmonica as a charm.

Brera’s fighter alerts them to an attack as the Vajra take Ai-kun. Brera maneuvers to elude the Vajra. Elsewhere, the Macross Quarter has detected the fold-waves that come from Ranka’s song and have pinpointed her location. Ozama is very keen on getting there.

Alto is summoned to see the President (Leon) and they are joined by a holographic Bilrer. Alto is told that they’ve detected fold-waves from Ranka. They believe that Ranka is being used by the Vajra as a tool for humanities destruction. Alto is told that the Vajra have a hive-mind with the individual Vajra having no brain. The microbes in the Vajra intestines help the Vajra form a massive communications network. However, those microbes in a human attack the brain, killing the host (Sheryl). Bilrer also confirms that they want to get fold-crystals in addition to stopping the Vajra threat.

Brera has managed to elude the Vajra, hiding in an asteroid field. Ai-kun finds them, so Ranka leaves the fighter to see her former pet. However, the normally peaceful Ai-kun suddenly turns against her and captures her, causing her to realize that Brera is her “oniichan.” Brera is attacked and cannot save Ranka. He is saved by two fighters, who are part of Grace’s team. Grace asks if Brera had fun with his little sister. He’s shocked by this, but Grace activates his programing, forcing Brera into slave mode.

At the medical facility on Macross Frontier, Sheryl gets told by Luca and another person about her condition. They want her to take her medication, though Sheryl feels better now that she’s stopped taking it. She’s not happy with their sin of kindness. Elsewhere in the facility, Alto is waiting when Yasaburo calls to him. Alto sees his father being wheeled down one of the walkways as Yasaburo comes over to talk with him.

They talk of Alto being a military pilot with Yasaburo wondering if Alto would have become a pilot under different circumstances. Yasaburo really wants Alto to make amends with his father and return to acting. After their conversation, Alto pays a quick visit to Nanase’s room, taking time to look at her painting of Ranka as an angel-like figure.

Inside of a Vajra craft, Ranka remembers the Vajra attack on SDF-4 Global and how Brera got her to a life pod, which is how she survived for Ozama to find her. As this is happening, the reaction inside of Ranka excite Grace, who’s observing the holographic form of Ranka, stating that this is the moment she’s been waiting for from the “Little Queen.” With this, Grace believes a doorway to a new reality is opening.

Outside the medical facility, a micronized Klan joins Alto, informing him she’d been briefed on their locating Ranka. Alto asks Klan why she joined the SMS. For Klan, being in a military unit was something her clan did, so she just did it without much thought. Alto compares her situation to his own with the kabuki theater acting — being born to do a role whether you want to or not. Alto wanted to fly and then he met Ranka. He joined SMS to protect Ranka and if Ranka is being used by the Vajra, Alto will kill Ranka.

Klan realizes that this is Alto speaking because he loves Ranka. Sheryl, who’d come into hearing range early but kept out of sight, hears the truth and knows that Alto never loved her, but she’d wanted the illusion to go on a bit longer. With a tear in her eye, she puts on her shades and leaves.

On Battle Frontier, Leon decides that they will fold to the Vajra home world and end the Vajra threat once and for all. He sees the Vajra home world as the final destination for humanity and is eager to begin the crusade to cleans said world. The announcement of the forthcoming fold is made to the entire Macross Frontier fleet. Sheryl hears this, takes the paper airplane she’d made, then throws it. The airplane soars upwards for a while before beginning its fall back to the ground.

Thoughts/Review:

OK, so now we see what Leon’s plan is — take over the Vajra planet and settle the humans there. We see what Grace’s plan is — opening the door to a new reality. For some reason, I just don’t care. I’ve become bored with the tediousness of all the plotting, scheming, and whatever else is going on for these fools to have their plans succeed. Bah!

I’m glad Ranka got her memories back but it is too bad that Ai-kun seems to have turned on her, leaving her a Vajra captive so that Grace can have her “iku” moment over all this. Ugh.

When I saw Alto preparing a meal for Sheryl and Sheryl acting all happy, my first thought was, “Well, at least they had Alto choose and I can live with that.” However, things just didn’t ring quite true and I couldn’t understand why until Alto’s conversation with Klan. OK, so he was just pretending to be interested in Alto but his heart was always with Ranka. That made sense to me.

Still, I’ve grown weary of this anime. I’m sure there are a lot of people who enjoy it, and visually, it looks very good. It is just that the story seems too clichéd to me and while the plot is moving forward, the more it does, the less I’m interested. I find that the only element I’m really interested in for some reason are the people on board Macross Quarter and Klan. Well, that happens I suppose. We’ll see how this thing ends in two more episodes.