SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS
EPISODE 23: DROP OUT
ICONIC SCENE: Sheepish grins all around…
STORY DATE: January 2010
SCENARIO TITLE: FIRE STORM
BROADCAST DATE: March 27, 1983
1. Second Star Pro episode in a row… which is a shame, since seeing the VF-1S tumble, roll, and basically act like a young John McClane would be something to see if Itano were doing it.
2. And Kamujin is WAY out of his element now, as his men want to desert… so, naturally, he starts killing them. He doesn’t understand, and he doesn’t WANT to understand.
Admittedly, Britai is pretty nonplussed as well, and Exsedol even throws in a little “I told you so.” However, unlike Kamujin, they’ll learn to respect this power of culture.
3. And Hikaru sees Kaifun kissing Minmay, but misses her push Kaifun away. And of course, it hits Hikaru pretty hard. Although, really… two episodes ago, you saw them go into a hotel together, and you assumed they were going to have sex… this shouldn’t be THAT shocking…
4. Hikaru’s immediate reaction upon being asked if the Zentradi defectors should be allowed to stay on the Macross is a pretty resolute no. Again, Hikaru’s just not the progressive type… Thankfully, he sees the error of his ways quickly enough.
5. And of course, it turns out that Zentradi are pretty much EXACTLY the same as humans. This, uh, won’t get explained for a while.
6. Hikaru and Misa get to spend a tender moment together, cleaning up Nyan-Nyan. Luckily (FINALLY), Misa realizes that her infatuation with Kaifun was pretty silly. It’s a pity Hikaru isn’t as smart as Misa is.
She even brings it up, and is surprised he hasn’t told her that he likes her. Hikaru blows it off, but that really IS the main problem, isn’t it?
7. For the second time, Misa draws a comparison between herself and the Zentradi. I don’t have anything to say about that, I just thought it was interesting.
8. (The fact that they’re having this conversation in Minmay’s aunt and uncle’s restaurant, under a framed, signed photo of Minmay is kind of telling… even the writers want him to move on!)
9. So Misa decides that she must leave and go to High Command to plead their case for peace talks, and finally convinces Global. And then, in an episode, again, mostly done by Star Pro, there’s an absolutely brilliant ending shot, with Hikaru and Misa just missing each other at an elevator. Both of them still kind of look off-model, but the camera rotation is perfectly done, and the scene is well-directed. I get the feeling, though, that this scene, while not done by the A-team, isn’t the work of Star Pro…
And yes, now we know that the staff knows that we know that Hikaru and Misa are meant for each other. Too bad Hikaru doesn’t realize it.
10. Another episode that I tend to forget, or at least conflate with the previous one, but I’m not sure why, because a lot of important stuff happens here.
I *do* wonder how much of these episodes were scripted before the series got extended, since, without the post-war episodes, we’d have no clue as to WHY the Zentradis’ genetic makeup is the same as the humans’. And that, as far as I can tell, it pretty much the ONLY loose end left by Episode 27. But I’ll rant about that later.
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