I knew it!
There are only two things you need to know about this episode:
- Alto likes Michael—or Michelle.
- Klan also likes Michael.
And maybe one more:
- Michael likes Manager Grace.
Everything else—including the return of the kickass fight sequence—is just for show since Macross Frontier is really first a love drama then second a space mecha show.
So, we have two love triangles:
- Ranka x Alto x Sheryl, and
- Alto x Michael x Klan.
Now we truly have a Macross series in the making.
“Shall we shag now or la…” *SLAP*
As to the supposedly main story line with Michael’s sister’s friendly fire, I didn’t like it as much as other bloggers did.
First of all, it had no conclusion, but yet it really did. Michael’s own misfiring should’ve answered the question already that she was simply distracted by the recent breakup and had just momentarily lost concentration, which is a crucial prerequisite for successful sniping. The only difference is that Michael was lucky and had a second chance to do it right while she did not. Yet, Michael didn’t seem to see it, and simply walked away not in the least vindicating her in his mind.
Second, it really did nothing to add to the story overall. You can’t call it character development because Michael was the same by the end of the episode as he was at the beginning: he is still a womanizing, sarcastic four-eyes not knowing what his sister really did. You can’t call it character enrichment either because he didn’t give his reason of who he was today—a sniper in the SMS or otherwise—to be because of that event. By the beginning of next episode, it wouldn’t have mattered that he had a sister who had misfired on her ex-lover/teammate. This felt a lot like a filler episode.
On the other hand, the possibility of Alto having a deeper feeling than just male-bonding toward Michael is a character revelation that will have future repercussions. This is why I started this post saying that this is all you need to remember about this episode going forward. 
I hope you are joking.
Alto likes Michel AS A FRIEND. Alto is straight. Don’t let yourself be deceived by the fanart.
I’m not joking. Why else did you think the writers elaborated a scene where Alto was unable to respond to Klan’s question, “do you like Michelle?”
The actual japanese word used was suki. Almost 100% of the time, this word carries the connotation of romantic feeling when used in this context.
It gets even messier once you throw Brera into the mix.
Eh, Bobby has a better chance than Brera Yamato does… but Sheryl might be disappointed.
It would put the “I’m coming to save you Princess” speech of Bobby’s in episode 7 into a whole new context though.
@ jacobian, oh, is that the burgundy dude’s name? By the way, do you happen to be a math dude too? Your name reminds me of a certain quantity in vector calc.
@ Haesslich, amazing memory with a detail so minute!
bakaneko: Minute detail? It’s a pretty BIG detail, at least for Bobby, dubbed ‘GARBY’ by Crusader. He always seems to have appreciated Alto’s aesthetics, style, and appearance… so him referring to Alto as a princess (and going off to save
herhim in a rather spectacular manner) would be something that I’d hope would be memorable. ESPECIALLY with the way the Macross Frontier yanked open the Vajra ship’s jaw, then fired point-blank.I wonder if Bobby was referring to Ozma or to Alto when he said that Ranka was ‘very important to a loved one of his’… and then went into GARby mode again in Episode 9…
Sorry man, but when an episode is filled with things the characters kept screaming VAGANA and then the biggest Macross of them all pulled out a phallic looking gun and blew a big one into the mouth of the biggest VAGANA there was, I tend to lose out on subtle details such as an afro dude trying to confess his feelings to a purple hair dude.
Nevertheless, you must have photographic memory, dude. Or maybe you just have a thing for GARBY too. haha.
[...] He’s gonna be one of the dead weight side characters. His purpose in the story—to tease the viewers—is over. He will just hang around like a leech, get a happy ending, and become a mostly superfluous character like what they did to Michael in episode nine. [...]