Macross Delta vs Frontier: Why Delta Got Overshadowed by Frontier's Scale

Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 387)

• Wait… WHAT?!

  なん…だと！？

  — @達郎大石-l1k1 likes

• Honestly I thought the franchise was finished. Everyone kind of did, so maybe the staff panicked and pulled the reckless move of aping idol-anime stuff — or the director just recycled something he'd worked on before.

  正直シリーズ終了かと思った 皆もそう思っていたのでスタッフが 焦ってアイマスパクるという暴挙に 出たのかもしれない もしくは監督が過去に手掛けた 作品を流用したのかも

  — @青木伸一-o2e4 likes

• Delta is a good show too, but in Frontier the love triangle clicks into the songs in this perfect way.

  Δもよい作品だけどフロンティアの三角関係が良い感じで歌とつながるのよ

  — @保田昭三73 likes

• Right from the OP "Triangler," it's already pushing the love-triangle hard, and that was great.

  オープニングのトライアングラーの時点でめちゃくちゃ三角関係激推しでよかった

  — @ヒロ-j3c2 likes

• Delta's bland lead makes it worse. Frontier's Alto had that kabuki-actor backstory giving him a boost, and in the movies the young-Sheryl-and-Alto relationship was just too good.

  主人公の地味さが拍車を掛けてる。 Fのアルトの歌舞伎設定がブースト掛けてたから、劇場版での幼シェリルとアルトの関係が良すぎた。

  — @武さん将さん-u3r16 likes

• Frontier hit so hard that Delta feels faint by comparison. To this day I'm a Sheryl stan.

  Ｆがインパクト有りすぎたからΔが印象が相対的薄くなっている,今だにシェリル推し

  — @龍カルチャーパーク2世-x5w44 likes

• Going from galaxy-scale enemies like the Protodeviln and the Vajra down to one local planet's humanoid race fighting a single corporation — yeah, that's just not going to hype anyone up.

  プロトデビルン、バジュラといった宇宙の壮大な敵から、地方惑星の人型種族と一企業の戦闘じゃ盛り上がらんよな

  — @音速丸-y4g46 likes

• With the whole "what the Vajra left behind became the new threat" premise, Delta actually did fine as a sequel. I was happy it had so much respect for Macross Zero and the original Macross too.

  「バジュラの残したものが脅威となってしまった」って設定も相まってΔは続編としてよくやったよ マクロスゼロや初代マクロスリスペクトが多かったのも嬉しかった

  — @shinzi41018 likes

• So basically Basara Nekki is the strongest. Got it.

  つまり熱気バサラが最強ってわけ

  — @らいか-f1o116 likes

• Both of those epic enemies got turned into allies by the power of song — by "one music idiot" and "two divas." No matter how many you add, there's no winning. And the music idiot sources his own Valkyrie, flies it, AND sings, all solo. At one point he's literally doing it with nothing but his bare body. Makes no sense.

  その壮大な敵を両方とも歌の力で仲間にしちゃってる「一人の歌バカ」と「二人の歌姫」。 何人増えても勝ち目無いって。(汗) ………歌バカに関してはバルキリー調達から操縦、歌まで全部一人でやってのけるし。 途中とか、「生身一つ」だし意味わからん。

  — @zozo647412 likes

• People literally say that if Basara were around, both Frontier AND Delta would wrap up instantly 🎸

  FもΔもバサラが居たらすぐ話終わっちゃうって言われてるくらいですからね🎸

  — @supaoka9213 likes

• People say he'd sing for two seconds and instantly understand what the Vajra even want — you really feel the gap in class lol.

  ​@supaoka92ちょっと歌ったらバジュラのやりたいこと察しちゃう とか言われてて格の違いを感じたｗ

  — @age-s21245 likes

• The way Basara just casually slips into the lineup whenever they do a "divas through history" montage — that's cheating!

  歴代「歌姫」紹介の時にもシレッと混ざってくるバサラさんは反則っす！

  — @bonmiso22 likes

• Honestly what Walküre does… Macross 7 already did something close to it, with the Jamming Birds unit. But Basara flying out solo to sing — a straight upgrade at both piloting and singing — was the only one that won. Ever since Basara, if your answer is just "well, call Basara," then that's that.

  まぁ、ワルキューレのやってること… 近いことマクロス7でやっとるんよな　ジャミングバーズてユニットを作ってよ でも、単騎で飛んでって歌って　操縦も歌も上位交換のバサラしか勝たんかったんや バサラ以降は……もうバサラ呼んだらええやん。と言われたらそれまでなんよ

  — @sumahotanuki147118 likes

• I love 7 (and I wasn't even born when it aired).

  7が好きです(当時生まれてない勢)

  — @xxxg00vv0ew9244 likes

• I do prefer Frontier, but Delta's Walküre are flashy and have their own different kind of charm, I think.

  Fの方が好きは好きだけど、デルタのワルキューレも華やかで、また違った良さがあると思うのよね。

  — @しろねこだま11 likes

• I think "Daisuki de Daikirai" is a great song though…

  ダイスキデダイキライは良いと思うんだけどな…

  — @ジェイ-x8u5 likes

• I love "Ikenai Borderline" for the record.

  いけないボーダーライン好きだよ

  — @yuki-w8z-m1z8 likes

• With the Delta TV series I kept thinking, do we really need this many heroines? Way too many women for the runtime — everyone's got great character designs but there's no screen time to actually dig into them. Also Walküre's songs are secretly really hard to sing. Frontier's tracks are the ones that pop off at karaoke.

  Δはテレビシリーズだとこんなにヒロイン必要か？って思った。尺に対して女性が多すぎて。みんなキャラデザインがいいのに掘り下げる尺が無かった。あと、ワルキューレの歌は実はかなり難しい。フロンティアの曲はカラオケで盛り上がるんんだよなぁ

  — @いちまつ4 likes

• With five of them, the audience's enthusiasm got spread thin and no breakout mega-popular character ever emerged. If it'd been three idols and one pilot, it might've gone differently.

  5人いたから視聴者の熱量の分散で超人気キャラが生まれなかった印象 アイドル3人とパイロット1人だったらまた変わったかも

  — @ryo_ku_ou5 likes

• Honestly there are too many characters. Walküre, plus Delta Squadron, plus the Windermere enemies — it's all such a jumble. They'd have been better off thinning the hero side, maybe going full Frontier-style and just having Walküre fight in Valkyries. As is, every character's episodes ended up weak.

  正直キャラが多すぎる。ワルキューレにデルタ小隊に敵のウィンダミアとキャラがゴチャゴチャし過ぎ 正直FB方式でワルキューレがバルキリーで戦うくらいにして主人公サイドの人数削った方が良かった そのせいでて各キャラのエピソードが弱くなったし

  — @tibetan-x4d10 likes

• The pilots were bland too — even the lead Hayate, everyone except Messer.

  パイロットもメッサー以外主役のハヤテも含めて地味だったと思う

  — @もやしライス-p9e11 likes

• Frontier had just the right amount of love triangle, and that worked. Delta has no central pillar you can point to and go "this is it!"

  Fは、ほどよい三角関係だったのが良かった。 Δは、これだ！という柱みたいのが無い。

  — @遠山陽介3 likes

• Delta's love triangle being weak is the real shame…

  Δは三角関係が弱かったのがなぁ…

  — @ko1ktmr3042 likes

• Of the classic Macross trinity — "songs, fighter jets, love triangle" — Delta only barely clears the bar on the songs.

  マクロスでよく言われる「歌・飛行機・三角関係」のうち歌だけかろうじてマシって所。

  — @mk-pe4dr6 likes

• Frontier wasn't just the characters — the Valkyries were great too. The Armored and Super Pack ideas built around transformation, and keeping the forward-swept-wing lineage on the number-9 machine.

  フロンティアはキャラもだけどバルキリーも良かった。可変前提のアーマードやスーパーパックのアイデアとナンバー9の機体が前進翼という系譜を守っていた。

  — @斎藤始-l5i2 likes

• Max's combat scenes were a genuine treat though…

  マックスの戦闘シーンはすごく嬉しかったけど…

  — @佑-f7s20 likes

• Suddenly mingling with aliens nonstop and skipping way too many rungs on the lore ladder is also a problem.

  急に異星人と交流しまくって色々と設定の梯子飛ばし過ぎてるのも問題がある

  — @今日は野心家のカイルくん17 likes

• I'm fuzzy on it, but didn't Delta retcon things so that "actually so-and-so from past series secretly had special power in their singing"? The whole emotional core was the Zentradi, who knew nothing but war, being moved by encountering the culture of "song." If you then bolt on "actually Minmay's voice had special powers!", it ruins all of that. It's good precisely because it was just an ordinary love song.

  マクロスΔって確かうろ覚えだけど「実は歴代シリーズのあの人もこの人も歌に特別な力がありました」って事にされたんじゃなかったっけ。 戦うことしか知らなかったゼントラーディが「歌」っていう文化に触れて感動するのがエモかったのに「実はミンメイの歌声には特殊な力がありました！」って後付けでされたら今までの感動台無しじゃん。「当たり前のラブソング」だからこそ良いのに

  — @sio58120 likes

• With Delta the story just sort of… doesn't move. It felt like they were forever running infiltration missions. I swear there were episodes where the mecha barely showed up. Compared to Frontier it just lacks momentum. But the songs, I love.

  Δはどっちかっていうか、ストーリーがなんか進まないんだよなぁ。ずっと潜入とかの任務してた感じ。 機体出て来ない時もあったような気がするぜ……。 なんつーか、フロンティアと比べても盛り上がりに欠ける。 けど歌は好きだぜ。

  — @user-ir6ds1sj2i2 likes

• I heard Delta didn't really build out the scripts and instead decided things by committee on the fly, calling it "live feel." The result was a story that just loops: infiltrate, get spotted, battle, repeat.

  デルタはライブ感とか言って脚本を作り込まずに脚本会議でみんなで決めてたとかいう話を聞いたな その結果、潜入して見つかってバトル、を繰り返すだけのストーリーが出来上がってしまった

  — @AMDroid-w7u5 likes

• I'd heard Delta was supposed to be one cour and got suddenly stretched to two and dragged. I went "no way that's real" and watched it — then right when it felt like "oh, they're wrapping up?" it abruptly started dragging and I was like "you've gotta be kidding…"

  １クールで終わるはずが急遽２クールになって間延びしたとか聞いて「そんなわけあらへんやろ」で見たら、おっ畳始めた？から急に間延びし始めて「うそやろ……」ってなったなデルタは

  — @madoSMZ6 likes

• Part of me thinks it's the difference in TV airing back then. Frontier aired pretty much nationwide, but Delta felt limited.

  当時の地上波放送の差じゃないかと思うところもある。 フロンティアは割と全国で放送されたけど、デルタは限られてた気がする。

  — @midorikazekai24 likes

• I feel like Frontier also got a boost from being right in the Niconico golden age.

  ニコニコ動画全盛期のブーストもあった気がする

  — @Escudo-r1g8 likes

• I clearly remember how shockingly little buzz Delta had while it was actually airing.

  放送してた当時びっくりするほど話題になってなかったのはよく覚えてる

  — @やぬ-u8m1 likes

• Delta was so under-the-radar that by the time I even heard of it, it had long since ended…

  Δは知った時にはとうの昔に終わってたくらいには空気だった…

  — @ホウガン1 likes

• The fact that even if Freyja gets her happy ending she's still doomed to die young — that's just too sad.

  ルンピカがハッピーエンド迎えても早死に確定してんのが悲しすぎるんよ。

  — @sheep-me-f2i8 likes

• I remember Delta's ages being kind of busted: Freyja, being a short-lived species, is basically pushing 40 in human terms, and Mikumo, despite how she looks, is three years old.

  ∆は年齢設定がバグってるって記憶してる フレイア→短命種で地球人換算でアラフォー 美雲→ああ見えて3歳児

  — @中川幸洋-j7x0 likes

• Macross Delta's enemies and scope inevitably came out smaller than the previous work's, and that's the sticking point. But the follow-up Absolute Live was good, and I do love Walküre 🎤

  マクロスデルタはどうしても前作敵キャラより規模も話もしょぼくなっててそこがね 続編の絶対LIVEはよかったしワルキューレは好き🎤

  — @supaoka925 likes

• Quit fighting over F vs Delta… Want a crazy dogfight? Just go watch Isamu. Want fiery songs? Just go watch Basara.

  Fだの△だのと争うでないわ… すげードッグファイトが見たい？　イサムでええやろ 熱い歌が聞きたい？　バサラでええやろ

  — @sumahotanuki147112 likes

• A rough, thick-cut slice of the truth.

  ざっくり厚切りな真実

  — @青木伸一-o2e3 likes

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