(Summary) Macross Frontier Episode 7 Staff/Cast Commentary

EPISODE 7
with Nakamura Yuuichi (Alto), Kamiya Hiroshi (Michel) and Fukuyama Jun (Luca)

Note 1: This summary-translation is completely my own work. Please DO NOT reproduce it anywhere else, though you are quite welcome to link to it if you wish.

Note 2: Don’t take these as translations, but as paraphrases of what the commentators say. I simply don’t have the time to note down everything that they say. Furthermore, I’ve probably misheard or mistyped something somewhere, but well, sue me. (^_^)

Note 3: New nicknames for this commentary

HiroC = Kamiya Hiroshi (also known to some as Kamiyan)
JunJun = Fukuyama Jun (also known as FukuJun)

Overall impressions:
they make fun of Alto throughout
Then they fanboy about the mecha
and everyone loves Bobby / Miyake Kenta

[This one opens with a discussion of “what does one do in an audio commentary?” Nakamura says that he doesn’t really know what to do, even though he’s done one before, to which JunJun notes: how can you not know after having done one?]
Kamiya: Whilst looking at the screen, talk about what happened during the recording, perhaps? Though I don’t remember

[Frontier’s recording was always carried out very early. e.g. for #7, they recorded it before the show started screening on TV! Also, this ep. was recorded during winter, when the studio’s AC units were out-of-operation. Thus, it was freezing in the studio: the room was the same as it was outside, and their breath came out white!]

1:30
the König Monster is the special feature of this episode (and JunJun‘s favourite unit). It first appeared in the PS2 game Macross VF-X2. In the first Macross, there was a different “Monster” (can’t remember its name), but it didn’t transform.

2:30 OP, staff names on screen
Kamiya: it’s pretty cool that we’re now working with people we saw on TV when we were kids
Fukuyama: “And it’s interesting to see how some people’s names change when you haven’t worked with them for a while”.
(HiroC and JunJun laugh / You-kyan: ah, that so?)
Nakamura: Well, but that happens, doesn’t it?
Fukuyama: yeah

[They talk about the names of the various valkyries, which Nakamura seems to be the most knowledgeable about. The name by which we now call all variable fighters, Valkyrie, was actually just what the VF-1 was christened – e.g. like we have the F-14 Tomcat. Alto’s love, the VF-25, was christened “Messiah” by a public naming competition/appeal about 2 months before recording started.]

4:25 Sheryl’s transformation
Nakamura: it’s as if she’s a “magical girl” (mahou shoujo)
The clothes are CG, as is the stage setting.
Kamiya: It’s a full body suit
Nakamura: it was interesting in the first ep, her standing there in the suit when the electricity went out
Fukuyama: but isn’t it a good thing? She doesn’t have to get changed.

5:00
Kamiya: But this kind of thing, let’s go get them, with music and dogfights, doesn’t it just make you go “moe”?
Fukuyma: Well, for me, I go “moe” over using ghosts – ‘cos I really like Plus.

5:20
Nakamura: It’s interesting to see how everyone has different fighting styles. (JunJun: true true) E.g. Luca uses reconnaissance units, Michel is a sniper, so what does Alto do?
Fukuyama: he barges in. Like, in a shooting game, he wouldn’t use beams (because that’s Mihael) but just keeps shooting single shots in quick succession.
Kamiya: close-combat, he plunges in with a knife
Nakamura: because he runs out of bullets so quickly, what with his random shooting
Fukuyama: Well, he’s serious about it, but he really does go through his bullets quickly
Nakamura: And Ozma’s a balanced fighter – everyone has their role, so it’s really interesting to watch.

6:10
At this point, we’re all a bit nervous about who’s going to die – everyone thought it’d be either the yellow one (Ozma) or the green one (Luca)…
Nakamura: After all, didn’t (Ray) Focker die around here? or was it later, like after episode 10?
Fukuyama: It was quite a bit later, I think
Nakamura: well, he died, like it was a battle death [well, died from injuries sustained]. If we think about it, this was the first large fight, so I thought it might be dangerous for Ozma.

6:48
Kamiya: This is so damn cool.
[NB: about that Itano Circus… HiroC notes how it’s a surreal feeling, when they’re recording their lines, to fully realise “I’m doing Macross”. The commentary is where they can really fanboy that “ah, this is Macross!”, except for…]
Fukuyama: but Luca doesn’t really have that many lines, so I’m like “wow cool!” anyway (during the recording sessions).

7:30

Nakamura: And at this point, the coolest person is Kuwashima (Houko – Kanaria).
[And Alto is like a viewer, going “wow” all the time. Because he hasn’t matured as a fighter, it still takes everything he’s got just to keep up with everyone.]

8:20
Fukuyama: and after this, the Macross Quarter joins in too, right?
Nakamura: yeah
Fukuyama: I never expected that, so it really surprised me when I read the script
Nakamura: that was really cool, wasn’t it? (JunJun: yeah) like the Daedalus Attack-type bit

8:40
Nakamura: And the exposure increases a little
[You-kyan! you just had to comment on that, didn’t you!]
[And why is her ‘dressing room’ a ‘PA room’?]
Fukuyama: well, in this kind of venue, maybe she feels a bit uncomfortable in the dressing room, so she gets out and wanders elsewhere.
Nakamura: even though everyone is calling for her?

Fukuyama: this girl…she didn’t turn off her mobile – what bad manners!
[And they start talking about Ranka’s mobile, which really draws one’s attention. HiroC notes that she’s the only person with such a mobile, and wonders if it might (not) be popular. But Ranka has all kinds of weirdly shaped things, like soft toys and stuff, so perhaps she just likes them? In all kinds of sci-fi media on TV, communications and small appliances are generally similar to the time of production. Even in the first Macross, they had a black wired telephone – you can really recognise the era that a show is produced in. Ranka’s phone is like a living thing (the novel calls it a Bio-Cellular) Is it really new or somethign? I mean, you can see that Alto’s and Ozma’s are extensions of what we currently have, it’s just that they’ve added holograms.]

10:50
Fukuyama: One question I have about the Quaedluuns – just how far does the inner compartment extend?
Kamiya: Good question. Hm…no idea.
Nakamura: absolutely no idea
Fukuyama: It’s around the size of Klan and the others when they macronise – so it’s something like a powered suit, maybe?So just how far do their actual arms and legs extend?
Nakamura: it seems like they sit in it, doesn’t it?
Fukuyama: yeah, it’s not like their arms and legs stick out. (yeah…) Well, it’s just something I’m curious about.
Kamiya: it’s like a powered suit but not, huh?
Nakamura: when they release a toy, if we buy it, perhaps we’ll find out!
Kamiya: true true, it happens a lot, you find out how something works when you buy the toy.

11:40
Fukuyama: hm…looks like I’ll die pretty quickly.
Nakamura: ah, so the green one only lasts until here, huh?
Fukuyama: and everyone’s talking quite calmly!
Kamiya: “The enemy ate Luca!” he says
Nakamura: and it’s the yellow one who said it!
(laughter)
Nakamura: the yellow one is quite a suspicious character too…
(laughter again)
Nakamura: When we do a normal ‘school-based story’, we never even consider the possibility of our character dying, but since this is a war, it’s not (unexpected, huh?)

12:17 “It’s finally our last number”
Fukuyama: “Number” – we don’t really hear that used anymore, it has an 80’s ring to it.
Nakayama: It seems like (you?) really like that era, huh?
Fukuyama: Well, what’s popular comes and goes in cycles

12:45
[You can hear Miyake Kenta quite clearly here. Yeah, he’s always quite OTT in his additional roles
[speaking of which, anyone else think Hoshi (i.e. Brera) was one of the two guys doing the announcements ~8:08?]]

13:20
[Earring – making it obvious by having her ears face the audience]

14:00 “Infinity”
[First time we’ve ever had a duet by two Songstresses in the Macross universe]

14:38
[here he is, charging in, as expected. He’s like that with everything. Something he can do probably because he’s so young, so he doesn’t fear anything.]

15:15
[And Hoshi (Souichirou) makes his appearance, his first appearance in the VF-27.]
Kamiya: the VF-27, damn cool!

15:30
[They’re back to making fun of Alto charging in again [er…it’s a bit hard to translate, but they’re using the verb tsukkondekuru to describe what Alto does, which suggests that they’re tsukkomi-ing him, as in the boke and tsukkomi of manzai]]
Kamiya: How reckless, infiltrating the enemy ship in his first battle (laughter) it is his first battle, right?
Nakamura: Yeah, it is
Fukuyama: if this were a game, it’d be a whole different level
Nakamura: And he managed to do it.
Kamiya: yeah, he managed it. As expected of the main character
Nakamura: But he had to, Luca’s been eaten!
Kamiya: Ah, I forgot!
Fukuyama: yes, it’s certainly quite forgettable, but he was eaten.

16:20
Fukuyama: And the captain, he’s meant to have quite a battle history, right? I’m a bit curious about it.
Nakamura: yeah, at this point, we’ve had no info, we haven’t delved into his history. If we think about it, Macross goes all the way back to the first series, right? From the captain’s age, perhaps he would have been around in Macross 7.
Kamiya: Ah…you’re right.
Nakamura: Perhaps he was in the army, and went through a lot. If we ask Kawamori, he’d probably say he’s got such-and-such a background, as he did many times at drinking parties. Like, ‘we won’t depict it, but there’s this bit or that bit of background’.
Kamiya: Oh, really?
Nakamura: He even mentioned that thing about Sheryl, though he said it won’t be covered in the anime.
Kamiya: It won’t!?
Nakamura: though he might, if he changes his mind.
[damn…now I’m curious!]
Fukuyama: and when this volume goes on sale, and people listen to this, someone will probably ask, like they’d write a letter or something.
Nakamura: like ‘what was that about, exactly?’

18:17 Fanboying over “Bobby’s Awakening”
Kamiya: It’s here
Fukuyama: It’s here
Kamiya: This is why he’s an honoured okama
Nakamura: He’s completely become Bobo? Bobu
Kamiya: Ah, Bobu?
Fukuyama: into someone who’s younger than us.
Kamiya: since “my boyfriend is a pilot”
(laughter)
Nakamura: Ozma, perhaps? I laughed when I first received the character data. Like, we’d have a description for Michel as Alto’s rival – for Bobby, it’s that he had a crush on Ozma, so I was like “huh!?, Really, this guy?!” but when you look at Ozma’s blurb, there’s nothing about Bobby. That was really interesting.
(laughter)
Kamiya: so we should draw an arrow for him.
Nakamura: saying ‘is afraid of’ or something.
(laughter)
[and JunJun says ST I can’t catch]
Nakamura: but it wasn’t actually depicted, was it? That Bobby likes Ozma?
Kamiya: he said once “my precious person’s little sister”, well, not clearly/explicitly but he said it.

19:40
[And he loses his VF-25. In his first battle.]
Nakamura: that’s about 10 billion yen
Kamiya/Fukuyama: more than that, right?

19:52 Hoshi-kun enters
Nakamura: he came to get in the way
Kamiya: Yeah, what did he come for?

20:00
Nakamura: and we have the okama, with the Macross Gerwalk.
Kamiya: yeah, the Macross Gerwalk, that’s fantastic, huh? Well, since he’s an okama, it has to be something like that.
Fukuyama: It’s like 400 metres long, right?
Nakamura: that so?
Kamiya: but even then
Nakamura: it’s apparently a relatively small one!
Kamiya: An okama can do it!
(laughter)
Kamiya: no rhyme or reason to it.
Nakamura: there’s not rhyme or reason to an okama after all.
Fukuyama: that’s true, there really isn’t, huh?
Nakamura: yup yup
(and Bobby yells out again)
Kamiya: he’s standing out a lot more than our main character.
Nakamura: That main character is also stunned (at the Macross).
Kamiya: well, it’s his first battle after all
Fukuyama: he’s surprised throughout it
Nakamura: well, he’s experiencing everything for the first time, so he’s like “that transforms?!”
Kamiya: he’s all over the shop.

21:10 Everyone really loves Bobby/Kenta
Kamiya: He’s fantastic huh, Kenta (Bobby) that is. So cool…
Fukuyama: here, Bobby’s like, the epitome of man, but normally, he records whilst swaying his back.
Kamiya: Ah, you mean Kenta himself. True true. His back is rather soft and bendy

22:00
[Alto’s punishment for disobeying orders probably won’t be as bad as in the military – he’d probably get off with just a reduced salary or something like that. How much do they earn anyway? And where do they get their funding from?]
Nakamura: From that (person) right?
Kamiya: Bilrer?
Nakamura: Ah, but we can’t say that yet.
Kamiya: oops, it’s slipped out
Nakamura: yeah, it’s Bilrer.
Kamiya: quite a surprise, huh?
Nakamura: though it’s quite a while away.

23:00
[They then talk about how the ending sequence keeps changing – sometimes the episode segues right into it etc etc. The changes keep it interesting, “but it must be rough for the staff looking over it”. And in this episode, the earring was key so they focused on it.]
Kamiya: And he lost it so carelessly in the explosion. So what will happen from here? (yeah) Who would have thought it’d lead to that…?
Nakamura: and we’re almost out of time.
Fukuyama: In these remaining 20 seconds or so, any last words?
Nakamura: ah, nope.
Fukuyama: then til next time. I wonder who it’ll be?
Nakamura: yeah, who’s next?
Fukuyama: well, but you’ll be here, right?
Nakamura: don’t know about that, this is my second time already
Kamiya: everyone, next week is going to be rather silly, it’s the one crazy episode.
Fukuyama: and with that (they quickly sign off)…