After rewatching Macross Frontier in its entirety (spurred by the movie), a lot of things make more sense now compared to what I felt originally when the show was still airing.
For one, I ended up with a bigger empathy for Ranka’s feelings and choices now, and it gives a whole lot of perspective back on the dynamics of the love triangle surrounding Alto. Originally I just felt she was being a selfish kid, but after rewatching, now I felt that she did really get screwed over by a lot of things out of her control. Despite such, she still attempted to take back control of her life and choices, even though it inadvertently resulted in to opposing results. Or maybe I’ve just mellowed out after two years.
Frankly, the biggest realization I’ve had from rewatching the show is that the love triangle is a central part of the series identity and I guess will probably never be given a canon resolution i.e Alto’s final choice. While no doubt I’m still 100% in the Sheryl camp, I think that the allure behind Macross Frontier will always continue to be the Sheryl x Alto x Ranka love triangle and the embodiment of the friendly rivalry between the two ladies will be the legacy that marks this show in the Macross franchise ultimately.
Despite that, I’m still going to be ready for ‘surprises’ though, in the second Macross Frontier movie coming out early next year. Still, I think they’ll ultimately end it like the TV series, even if the character dynamics will be tweaked a little bit. We’ve already seen that in Itsuwari no Utahime anyways. Still, it’s going to be a looooooooooong wait for the Blu-Rays :(.
One big gripe I have about the Blu-Rays though…. why couldn’t they redo all the crappy budget episodes. I still cringed at Brera’s slicing of the Hydra in to half, and High School Queen feels quite painful now, being the Sheryl fan I am. Oh sigh…
