Astro Plan

File:Astro plan poster.jpg

Macross Frontier revisited?

Astro Plan is an Animesque Chinese series first released in January 2010. It is notorious for generating a lot of publicity not because of its plot, but rather because it is obviously copying popular Japanese anime series such as Macross Frontier, Gundam Seed, and Mobile Suit Gundam 00, and also because much of its initial promotional artwork consists of blatantly traced and copied artwork from other sources. See also promotional poster at the left.

The plot (shamelessly ripped from The Other Wiki, as seems appropriate for this series, and expanded with information from the Youtube trailer that actually manages to partially contradict the main plot synopsis provided by the production company):

In the distant future, mankind has begun to venture into space to find a new home after Earth's environment succumbs to a meteor rain causing massive destruction global warming. During their voyage, the Gundam Seed Archangel Macross space migration fleet encounters the Varja an alien race from the planet Iccus. As raiders of natural resources, the aliens are bent on galactic domination. To combat the threat, six young fighters are recruited into the Sentai Sky Arrow Flight Team and are equipped with transformable Macross Valkyries Type Yi Gundams fighter planes.

Alternatively, Astro Plan can be seen as a truly massive intentional unintentional Shout-Out to the other series mentioned on this page.

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Tropes used in Astro Plan include:

• Ace Pilot: Considering which series it rips off, these will be featured!
• All There in the Manual: That means In the manuals of the other series in this case.
• Bishonen: Averted due to the bland character designs.
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: the main characters and the mecha.
• Conspicuous CG: Yes.
• DMCA: The trailer on YouTube got censored because the company behind Astro Plan illegally used parts of Michael Bay's Transformers movie soundtracks.
• Homage Shot: According to the director.
• Impossibly Low Neckline: Mei Ling (aka Zi Jing) the YF-11 Super Fighter Girl.
  • Notable also in that the reception by Chinese fans seems to be mostly negative due to the obvious rip-offs.
• Shout-Out: Intentional, due to laziness and lack of original design and plot.
  • The color schemes of the Type Yi Valkyries fighters has obviously been copied from Macross Frontier, as is the aliens' character design.
  • Ship designs come from Gundam Seed, Vandread, Aquarion, etc.
  • The character designs seem to draw from Teen Titans, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Gendo Ikari, etc.
• Merchandise-Driven: Toys of the Yi Fighters.
• Transforming Mecha: the Valkyrie Type Yi fighters.