Macross Frontier (2008)

[マクロスF (フロンティア)]

Volume 2

Author/Artist: Hayato Aoki
Publisher: Kadokawa Comics A

Synopsis:
While Ranka is scouted by a talent agent, President Glass declares a state of emergency.

Story/Characters:
As I started reading this series, I decided to revisit the original series and, oof, it holds up even worse on direct comparison. As I noted in the previous volume, this adaptation hits all the major story beats, but it's a fairly lifeless abridgement that really doesn't offer us anything we can't get better in the original series. If I wasn't making comparisons, I'd say this volume does a decent job of kicking off Ranka's career as an entertainer, having her clash with Sheryl and Alto being stuck in the middle.

Art:
The art has improved a little from the previous volume. Mech and creature art is solid and the character art is largely in the passable range. Sheryl's stage costumes have been simplified, which may or may not be something you care about.

Other:
Eriela gets a luxurious 4-page bonus comic to offset the fact that she's entirely pointless to the main story and only shoehorned in so we can see a familiar face getting owned by the Vajra until SMS shows up. We also get four one-page strips of a new mini-series called "Dekarucya Frontier" starring anthro versions of the VF-25 and VF-121.

Conclusion:
After the first volume, I didn't expect much and that's exactly what I got. Again, it's just competent enough that I have no reason to rate it any lower, but anyone who has access to the TV series has no reason to read this manga. I guess if you have nothing better to do, sure, give it a read, I guess.

Rating:
50/50