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Another Macross Rewatch


Gubaba

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Just a quick note on the bridge personnel talking in English, it was for realism - all air traffic control in the world is done in English. (well maybe not in third world air forces or the Russian air force but all commercial air traffic control and most military as well)

Huh... I've never come a source that says that's why they did it... Which are you taking from?

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I think he's being sarcastic. There is no Japanese version of Robotech.

Yeah, that's just me going along with the silliness. I don't even want to imagine the licensing nightmare a japanese Robotech adaptation would be. Edited by JB0
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I work in Air Traffic Control, I don't know that is why they did it but when I started working and re-watched it again the reason why clicked.

I also assumed it was for realism for the reason you mentioned when I first watched it way back in the 80s.

Edited by sharky
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I finished my rewatach a few weeks ago. I loved the series, especially episode 27. The movie I thought had some great moments but as a whole I definitely liked it less than the series.

And then for some reason Flashback 2012 was my favorite. I don't know why. I can't even explain it. It's so incredibly sad/bittersweet. It seems so hopeful but so depressing at the same time. Not cause "they get lost and never heard from again"....I'd have never known that without wikipedia. It's just so sad cause it's OVER. They are flying off into the sunset and we don't get any more stories, and it's maddening cause they're on the Megaroad! Hikaru has a badass new Valkyrie! Misa is a Captain! I want MORE!! But then...it's just over. I can't help but feel that same longing/sadness/nostalgia that Minmay is feeling.

I did find it confusing though...which scenes with Minmay were real, daydreams, memories? I had no idea. And also, isn't 2012 when the series ends? Why do they all look like 10 or more years older? When did the concert take place...and how long after is she walking through the empty stadium? First time I saw it I felt like she was re-visiting the stadium years later...but it's the next day? I don't know.

Despite the confusion, and the fact that there's only a few minutes of new footage...I love Flashback 2012. No Macross viewing is complete without it.

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I finished my rewatach a few weeks ago. I loved the series, especially episode 27. The movie I thought had some great moments but as a whole I definitely liked it less than the series.

And then for some reason Flashback 2012 was my favorite. I don't know why. I can't even explain it. It's so incredibly sad/bittersweet. It seems so hopeful but so depressing at the same time. Not cause "they get lost and never heard from again"....I'd have never known that without wikipedia. It's just so sad cause it's OVER. They are flying off into the sunset and we don't get any more stories, and it's maddening cause they're on the Megaroad! Hikaru has a badass new Valkyrie! Misa is a Captain! I want MORE!! But then...it's just over. I can't help but feel that same longing/sadness/nostalgia that Minmay is feeling.

I did find it confusing though...which scenes with Minmay were real, daydreams, memories? I had no idea. And also, isn't 2012 when the series ends? Why do they all look like 10 or more years older? When did the concert take place...and how long after is she walking through the empty stadium? First time I saw it I felt like she was re-visiting the stadium years later...but it's the next day? I don't know.

Despite the confusion, and the fact that there's only a few minutes of new footage...I love Flashback 2012. No Macross viewing is complete without it.

+1

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Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks for this link here. I'd heard of "White Reminiscences" before and had even had a passing interest in the story, a few years back when you first mentioned you were working on it. I thought it was a few simple stories about Misa and quickly forgot about pursuing it further.

Boy did I miss out!

Now, I know you covered a lot of material in that blog post and admittedly, this is the first one I've read. But wow! I'm so impressed with the richness of the story here. Both on its own, and also as a means of fleshing out who Misa was, beyond just the "uptight old lady" of Macross TV. Ha, old at 18...

At any rate, this story painted a very nice picture of life, not just for Misa and her family, but it had a very nice way of describing the world at that time as well. The translation work was very nicely done and whatever clunkiness there might have been to an English reader, simply isn't there now. I don't know much about translating from one language to another but I do know subtlety, mood, atmosphere, and the general "feel" of a peace can often get destroyed in the process of translating it. You have done the job so well, I felt like it was actually written in English from the start!

So again, a sincere thanks from a fan of Macross since the early '80s. I'm reminded again why I like it so much and why I did as a little kid. Great story, incredibly well thought out, right down to the childhoods of some of the central characters. Shame Roy wasn't the subject of one of these sorts of background efforts...

Any of you who haven't read some of this stuff, do yourself a favor and jump into it!

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Thank you, mickyg! I can't say the Misa book was fun to translate (it was WAY too frustrating for that), but I'm glad it's readable and enjoyable!

And now, the finale of Macross II...

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/the-great-macross-rewatch-44-station-break/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/the-great-macross-rewatch-45-sing-along/

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Thank for another interesting and very informative read. I new that Kawamori had gone to a flight school in the US and been allowed on a jet plane. I did not know that Itano had been there too and passed out though. I find it rather ironic considering the maneuvers he's know for drawing.

Your second piece has now answered the trivia question: What do Macross Plus and Thundercats have in common. Great find.

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Thank for another interesting and very informative read. I new that Kawamori had gone to a flight school in the US and been allowed on a jet plane. I did not know that Itano had been there too and passed out though. I find it rather ironic considering the maneuvers he's know for drawing.

Your second piece has now answered the trivia question: What do Macross Plus and Thundercats have in common. Great find.

That last bit of info came courtesy of Renato. And he mentioned it, I think, two days ago...
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I'm loving your effort in doing the ultimate Flower Girl sighting guide.

seconded! one of these days, someone needs to explain what her character was really about. why is she so focused on giving Basara a bouquet? why doesn't she say anything? why does she dress like a 50 year old? so many questions!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I've been keeping up with 'em and enjoying the commentary. It's been a few years since my 7 marathon watch but it's bringing back a lot of memories.

Thank you!

And yeah... rightly or wrongly, I assume that fewer people have watched Seven recently (or at all), so I feel like I need to put a little more of a summary in there than I did for SDFM or Plus... My ideal audience for the Seven posts are people who stopped watching the series in the middle or never even started watching it, but I don't think anyone like that is reading the blog... :unsure:

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Thank you!

And yeah... rightly or wrongly, I assume that fewer people have watched Seven recently (or at all), so I feel like I need to put a little more of a summary in there than I did for SDFM or Plus... My ideal audience for the Seven posts are people who stopped watching the series in the middle or never even started watching it, but I don't think anyone like that is reading the blog... :unsure:

I watched the whole thing hoping it would get better but it never really did - but I'm still reading your blog!

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Thank you!

And yeah... rightly or wrongly, I assume that fewer people have watched Seven recently (or at all), so I feel like I need to put a little more of a summary in there than I did for SDFM or Plus... My ideal audience for the Seven posts are people who stopped watching the series in the middle or never even started watching it, but I don't think anyone like that is reading the blog... :unsure:

That's how it reads to me and it's nice to see in that regard. It's been probably 5 years since I watched it and for me, that was the first time I'd seen it. I had heard all the negative stuff about it and very little positive, and decided to see for myself, as unbiased as I could be. So I watched an ep or 2 on my lunch break for quite a few weeks. Sometimes this is a good thing because it speeds the story up. But other times, the suspense that keeps you wanting to see what's going to happen, well it gets totally ruined and can kill the pacing. I think I experienced both when watching this. And honestly, seeing some of your comments and insights, I'm reminded of how much I missed when I watched it.

I don't guess there's much of a way to gauge how much your 7 stuff is getting read? Do you have any sort of analytics on the site?

Edited by mickyg
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That doesn't surprise me at all...

Gubaba, thanks for the review. While I've seen in twice, it's nice to get the in between facts and data, as well as the linkage in the story. I like reading these. I haven't read all of them due to time and all, but I'm catching up.

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Gubaba, I'm way behind but just finished reading your SDFM and DYRL posts. I really enjoyed the detailed analysis of each episode. I recently bought a copy of volume 1 of SDFM and have volume 2 on the way. I've only watched episodes 1-3 so far - my first time seeing the real versions (dubbed in English) as opposed to Robotech. Some of the animation (Star Pro) is really bad, plus the crazy mistakes like the Daedelus and Prometheus (multiple copies) in the space fleet in Episode 3, but it's still fun to watch again. I don't know if I'll get around to the other series - I've only watched a couple episodes of Frontier - but I've really enjoyed your blog. Thanks for sharing it with us!

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Gubaba, I'm way behind but just finished reading your SDFM and DYRL posts. I really enjoyed the detailed analysis of each episode. I recently bought a copy of volume 1 of SDFM and have volume 2 on the way. I've only watched episodes 1-3 so far - my first time seeing the real versions (dubbed in English) as opposed to Robotech. Some of the animation (Star Pro) is really bad, plus the crazy mistakes like the Daedelus and Prometheus (multiple copies) in the space fleet in Episode 3, but it's still fun to watch again. I don't know if I'll get around to the other series - I've only watched a couple episodes of Frontier - but I've really enjoyed your blog. Thanks for sharing it with us!

My pleasure!

But... please... for the love of God and all that is holy, watch SDFM in Japanese! The English dub is nowhere near the same standard...

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I will eventually! I'm still just getting used to Hikaru and Misa again, which I grew up with during visits to Japan as a kid before I was corrupted by Rick and Lisa!

Rekindling my interesting in Macross during my first visit to Japan in 21 years may actually motivate me to start learning Japanese again, something my mother unfortunately wasn't able to get me to stick with.

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Ok, just watched Episode 1 again with subtitles. That's fairly shocking how much content they modified / left out in the dubbed version. Thanks for the tip! Just also received Volume 2 in the mail from an Amazon dealer - $2.41 + $3.99 shipping, brand new and sealed - not bad!

Edited by VF-1A Grunt
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  • 2 weeks later...

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