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Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 277 - Macross Frontier The Movie: The Wings of Farewell

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5 comments posted
podcat

the podcat is a lie, there is no podcat

geedeck's picture
Posted by geedeck on 26 March, 2013 - 07:31
Glad to Have You Guys Back

I love this podcast, so it's good to see that you're back from hiatus; I hope you're feeling better.

You captured a lot of what I enjoyed about this film--the way that it, surprisingly, improved on Macross Frontier, enough to make it likeable.

The original Macross Frontier became a big blur to me after I finished watching it: most of what I could remember were the things I'd rather not: the fanservice, the alien panty chase, and Ranka's disturbing mix of being sexualized and innocent.

(I'm well aware of the current anime fan culture that finds this appealing, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.)

"Wings of Farewell" toned down the fanservice and made the characters seem more organic. Alto developed more, as you said, and Ranka's innocence seemed natural rather than calculated.

I loved the heck out of Sheryl, who is so hardcore that she'll write song lyrics on a wall in her own blood...and not have it seem melodramatic.

The concert sequences that opened this film were also something else. Sheryl took the cliched "sexy nurse" and turned it into something creepy and bizarre, and then added more costumes and more and more...it was pure joy to watch. Ranka's fairy tale "Kuma" concert was almost as fun, and I loved her main outfit.

The open ending didn't bother me as much as I would have expected if I'd known about it beforehand. My natural assumption is that the characters won't end up dead, comatose, or separated forever, because that's not how Macross does things.

Pterobat's picture
Posted by Pterobat on 26 March, 2013 - 09:46
Great to see you guys finally

Great to see you guys finally get to this movie. I totally agree with Jeremy, this movie fixed most of what was wrong with the original Mac F series most notably the fact that this had nice animation when the series sometimes cheaped out on the animation (look at Ozma face when he's in the hospital bed or how sheryl looks in her goodbye scene with Alto)

I really want to spoil the hell out of this movie so I can talk about the ending, but lets just say that it is total sequel bait (or more precisely sequel requiring)

You guys should review the Space Battleship Yamato live action movie.

RDClip's picture
Posted by RDClip on 26 March, 2013 - 14:20
ARMORED SPOILERS

A couple of after-the-fact thoughts.

I think that the ending space battle sequence in the movie is less impressive and less dramatic, as a fight scene, than what's in the TV show. But that's because in the movie, the space battle isn't actually the *point*. I mean, sure, there's lasers and missiles and dogfighting, but that isn't what the scene is really about. It's about the characters, not the combat.

******

You could make a drinking game out of this movie. Drink every time one of those triangular space-carrier things gets blown up. (Seriously, has it *ever* been a good idea to be on an ARMD platform in Macross?)

******

AND HERE ARE THE SPOILERS DON'T READ THIS SPOILS LIKE ALL OF MACROSS

At the end of Macross Zero, Shin and Sara fly off into space together. At the end of Macross, Hikaru and Misa fly off into space together. At the end of Macross Frontier, Alto flies off into space...alone. So maybe that's yet another subversion of the gender paradigm; Alto is, in a way, both male and female at once, and so he doesn't need to be eternally defined by his relationship to a woman. To the extent that there's an "ending couple" in MacF, it's Ranka and Sheryl.

OKAY GUYS THAT'S THE SPOILERS GO BACK TO READING ABOUT ROBOTS

RobotBastard's picture
Posted by RobotBastard on 27 March, 2013 - 13:29
Thanks!

Thank you Robot Bastard (and I'm not being sarcastic here)!

Chris@StudioToledo's picture
Posted by Chris@StudioToledo on 30 March, 2013 - 12:48