List of Macross Frontier Terminology - Macross Universe Parallels

Macross Universe Parallels

The Macross Frontier anime TV series, apart from providing the audience an original story set in the Macross universe, also celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the franchise by repeating (often with inverted plot elements) several classic scenes from past productions as a tribute. Many elements from previous Macross television shows, movies and OVAs are showcased during certain episodes in the Frontier 25 episode run, giving the audience who have seen previous installments of Macross some Déjà vu moments. Examples of these are listed below.

• Alto Saotome and Hikaru Ichijyo (From SDF Macross) are both involved in acrobatic flying. In the first episode of each series the main character is introduced using his civilian flying equipment. Hikaru is shown coming in to land, while Alto is shown taking off. While Hikaru then proudly boasts to Roy Fockker of winning the amateur flying contest seven times, fellow flyer Michel Blanc scornfully refers to Alto as "Princess Alto, the perennial Number Two."
• The scene where Alto saves Ranka Lee for the first time is a nod to when Hikaru rescues Lynn Minmay in the original Macross. Unlike Hikaru, Alto explicitly chooses to go into battle, echoing the scene in 2003 OVA Macross Zero where Shin Kudou rescues Mao Nome.
• The setting of the pilot episode's space battle (an asteroid belt near a Gas Giant) is very similar to the classic battle at the Saturn rings from the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross series.
• The restaurant where Ranka worked as a waitress is called Nyan-Nyan. Coincidentally, the restaurant where Minmay worked before she became an idol goes by the same name in the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross.
• In episode 3, Alto becomes trapped in an airlock with Ranka and Sheryl Nome. This is loosely reminiscent of a scene in SDF Macross where Hikaru is similarly trapped with Minmay. In SDF Macross, they avoid starvation by eating some tuna they manage to bring in through the airlock. In Frontier, Ranka provides a meal to try and calm heated tensions between Alto and Sheryl: Nyan-Nyan tuna buns.
• Ranka's rise to fame as a singer parallels Minmay's similar rise, including a beauty contest, movie premiere, and a reference to Minmay's pop hit, "Watashi no Kare wa Pilot" or "My Boyfriend is a Pilot."
• On the roof of Mihoshi Academy which all of the main characters attend, there is a preserved VF-1 Valkyrie Fighter - and as seen in Episode 9, it is not just any VF-1 - it is in fact Hikaru's first mount (in red and black lines, which Alto now flies in with Skull 4).
• The scene where the flight school students (or stunt pilots, as their role in the concerts appears to be) raise their hands to the sky in imitation of a fighter jet flying, is a clear reference to a similar scene in Macross Plus where Isamu Alva Dyson is practicing, in his head, the test maneuvers he is going to use in his first flight of the YF-19.
• Sheryl's introduction phrase "Listen to my song!!" or "Watashi no uta wo kike!!" in Japanese (私の唄を聴け!!) during her concerts, is very similar to Basara Nekki's (Macross 7 protagonist) catch phrase "Ore no uta wo kike!!" (俺の唄を聴け!!) before he sings. The difference between the phrases is the first-person Japanese pronoun (the formal "watashi" versus the masculine "ore").
• The N.U.N.S. VF-171 is based on the U.N. Spacy's VF-17 Nightmare from Macross 7.
• While controlling his VF-25 in slave mode, Alto uses the same flying hand motion as Isamu Alva Dyson from Macross Plus.
• Alto's VF-25 (in battroid mode) saluting Ranka and Sheryl in the final episode is a nod to a similar scene in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? where Hikaru saluted his commanding officer/sweetheart Misa Hayase.
• In episode 4 "Miss Macross", Alto in the beginning of his flight training, was forced to wear a number of "Dead" signs for being killed 25 times in row. This nod to the 25th anniversary of Macross Frontier.
• The relationship of Captain Ozma Lee and 1st Lt. Catherine "Cathy" Glass is strikingly similar to the ill-fated relationship of Roy Focker and Claudia LaSalle from the original Macross. Unlike Roy and Claudia, however, Ozma and Cathy survive to be together at the end of the series.
• Elements missing from the Roy Focker equivalent Ozma Lee can be seen echoed in the character Michel Blanc. Both Roy and Michel are acrobatic flyers, both are ladies men, both act as a "big brother" to the main character, and both die, leaving their mantle to the main hero for the series end. Roy leaves Hikaru his Skull-1 Valkyrie while Alto wins the main battle using Michel's Sniper Rifle which was given by his surviving sweetheart Clan Clang.
• Cathy somewhat physically resembles Misa from the original Macross and occupies the same position as part of the Macross Quarter bridge crew. Her callsign as the Macross Quarter air controller, Delta-1, is the same as Misa's in Do You Remember Love?.
• The events of "Goodbye Sister" mimics many elements of episode 18 ("Pineapple Salad") of Macross. The name of the episode is similar to the American version adaptation TV episode "Farewell, Big Brother". It is, however, amusingly averted at the end, with Ozma hospitalized rather than dead, and the other characters standing around talking about how such a death scene would have been incredibly dramatic. This time it involves pineapple cake rather than pineapple salad.
• The VF-25 Messiah variable fighter (in fighter mode) strongly remembles the VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter.
• Captain Jeffrey Wilder strongly resembles SDF-1 Macross Captain/Colonel Bruno J. Global from the original Macross, including the habit of smoking with a pipe as well as wearing a similar military uniform. At least one other officer (the un-named Brigidier General of the Macross Frontier's N.U.N.S forces) is seen during the series who is also a Global clone.
• The scenes with Ranka and Sheryl singing on the bridges of both Macross Quarter and Battle Frontier during the final battle of the series is similar to the scene of Minmay singing on the bridge of the SDF-1 Macross during the final battle of Space War I in both the original Macross TV series and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? animated movie.
• When main antagonist Grace O'Connor was assimilated within the main Vajra queen's head it occurred in a similar way as it happened to Priestess Sara Nome while entering a Protoculture bio-mechanical mecha in the Macross Zero OVA series.
• In the very beginning of episode 25, a Vajra Battleship moves in front of Battle Frontier with its main cannon about to blast the Frontier ship while Sheryl is singing on its bridge, but is rescued by the arrival of Macross Quarter blasting the Vajra ship with its Heavy Quantum Cannon. This scene is very similar of a moment from Space War I shown in the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie where Vrlitwhai Kridanik rescued the SDF-1 Macross from a rogue Zentradi Standard Battleship that was about to fire its main cannon while Minmay was singing on its bridge.
• The "Bird Human" Protoculture biomecha that appeared at the end of the Macross Zero OVA was very similar to the main Vajra queen from Macross Frontier. It was explained in-universe that the Protoculture came to fear, adore and deify the power of the Vajra to the extent of imitating their form while creating the "Bird Human."
• Ozma is quite a fan of Fire Bomber music as he often plays songs in his car and at home. He even goes as far as naming battle formations after the songs such as "Planet Dance" and "Totsugeki Love Heart" which he yells out during battle.
• SDFN-04 Global descending on to the surface of Galia 4 (specifically into water) in a flash back seen in episode 24, "Last Frontier" resembles a scene which SDF-1 Macross descented into the lake after battle with main Zentradi fleet over Earth in episode 27, "Love Drifts Away".
• The scene in which Alto rescues Ranka from being sucked into space by grabbing her hand while flying mirrors a similar scene where Hikaru stops Minmay from falling to her death by opening his hatch and grabbing her.
• Episode 10 "Legend of Zero" has the characters making a movie "Bird Human" which is a telling of the events depicted in Macross Zero.
• Isamu's YF-19 made a brief cameo at the second movie.