Quote:Kawamori confirmed that both fighters in the visual are "Valkyries" (transforming variable fighters), and he specifically cited the Swedish fighter Saab 35 Draken as an inspiration for the fighter in background. He added that he has been fan of Draken since he was a child.

He also acknowledged that the fighter in the foreground shares a design lineage with previous variable fighters in Macross anime and therefore was less of a challenge to design. By contrast, the background fighter will feature a relatively new transformation scheme that bears little similarity to those of previous Macross variable fighters.

The emcee also noted that the two fighters have exhausts in different colors, and Kawamori explained that this is because the fighters come from different manufacturers. Kawamori also noted that he has been deliberately avoiding more direct design inspirations from current real-life fighters, since stealth considerations have made real fighters look more similar and harder to distinguish from each other.

Kawamori added that this new series will emphasize "Valkyrie vs. Valkyrie," as opposed to previous television series. While video series such as Macross Plus and Macross Zero prominently featured variable fighters against each other, Kawamori has not done this in a Macross television series in a long time.

Quote:In 2016, a catastrophe occurs after a nuclear meltdown from the nearby Odaiba nuclear power plant, contaminating Tokyo, forcing the government to order its citizens to evacuate the city. 20 years later, the city has become a ghost town due to the high levels of radiation and the government has banned entry for anyone. When a distress signal is received from Tokyo, the Self-Defense Forces dispatch 3 girls from the special rescue unit Coppelion to search for survivors. Due to genetic engineering, the Coppelions are impervious to radiation while also possessing special skills.

Quote:Due to global warming and rising sea levels of the early 21st century, humanity lost much of the Earth's landmass. At the same time, fleets of powerful sentient ships of unknown origin armed with advanced technology and weapons, known collectively as the "Fleet of Fog", mysteriously appeared and easily vanquished the world's naval forces. The Fleet of Fog impose a worldwide naval and aerial blockade, and thus preventing humanity from traveling across the seas.
In the year 2039, 17 years after the blockade, Gunzō Chihaya is a former student of the Japanese National Marine Academy and Captain of his crew, the Blue Steel fleet. The Blue Steel are infamous for possessing the only Fog submarine to have defected to the human side, the I-401 along its avatar Iona. Gunzō and his crew are hired by a faction of the Japanese government to deliver plans of a powerful weapon that may allow mankind to fight back against the Fleet of Fog to the United States, the only country that did not suffer from the blockade, thus capable of mass-producing it. However, the Blue Steel fleet faces obstacles not only from the Fleet of Fog and their human allies, but from other factions of the government with their own agenda, while gaining allies from both sides to increase their chances against such overwhelming odds.