Graham

It's difficult to speculate accurately without knowing more about the political situation in 2059. Certainly, in the real world there has been an erosion of personal privacy in many countries, due to fears of terrorism and/or increasing crime rates. Graham

Eh? Graham

I think colony ships in the Macross universe really need to upgrade their intruder detection systems as it seems really easy for enemy forces to sneak on board and hide out for long periods of time undetected. We have seen this happen in both the Macross 7 and Macross Frontier fleets. In Macross 7, Gigile manages to hide in City 7, together with many Varauta troops and even several Fz-109 Elgerzorene mecha. And of course there was also Sivil. In Macross Frontier A red Vajra and several smaller yellow Vajra hide out in a hole in the underside of one of the islands (Island 2 or 3 during episode 3 IIRC). Don’t the colony ships have damage detection systems? Wouldn’t a work crew have already been assigned to repair the damage and likely stubled accross the Vajra? And of course, we now have Brera Stern on Island 1. It wouldn’t surprise me if his VF-27 is also somewhere on board also. With today’s technology, it’s easy to have a city-wide network of surveillance cameras using facial recognition software. Such a system would automatically pick up an individual that wasn’t registered in the population database and report them to the law enforcement authorities. We are already moving that way in real life, with UK for example having 40 million surveillance cameras! Just surprised that after Macross 7, such a system wasn’t adopted as standard on colony fleets to guard against infiltration by hostile forces. Graham

I think it's more likely that Nanase has something for Ranka. Graham

Where's the pages of Nanase fanart then? Drums fingers impatiently. Graham

Just got the following reply back from Amazon Japan regarding the Macross Chronicals: Graham

Haven't tried Lunar's releases yet. I usually download Gattai, AiA and Shinsen. Gattai, cus' they're usually the fastest (although AiA beat them this week with ep , then AiA, cus' I like their subs, then Shisen, cus' I can burn them onto DVD and they will play on my stand alone DVD player and TV. I've had no problem getting Gattai's, AiA's or Shinsen's releases to play on my laptop using VLC and/or Media Player Classic. The only Frontier dub that has given my trouble, was G.G. ep 8 (first one of theirs I tried), which had the subs and audio completely out of sync and lagging behind the video. And yeah, this is the also the first time I've ever downloaded so many versions of the same anime. Somebody mentioned in another thread that Gattai are going to stop subbing Frontier. I hope it's not true as it would be a shame. Graham

Well, I've just sent an email to Amazon Japan's customer service, to ask if it will be possible to order the Macross Chronical. I'll let you all know what they reply. Graham

Anybody know of anywhere online offering the Macross Chronical for preorder? Amazon Japan doesn't list it yet. Graham

Ah OK, I somehow missed seeing that in the ep 7 thread. While it's not quite the same as the rough logo shown in the Animation Note magazine, it looks like it does say "Galaxy". Graham

Hmm…….OK, just checked the Animation Note thread. I wonder are those Galaxy & Frontier logos considered final, or are they just rough drafts? And do we see that Galaxy logo anywhere on the VF-27? Screen capture anybody? Can’t check now as I’m at work. Graham

Damn, that's a bummer. Despite the odd translation error, I liked Gattai's subs. GG's releases are just too twitchy on my machine. Oh well, will stick with AiA and Shinsen. Graham

Hang on, have we even seen the Galaxy logo before? We saw what looked like a NUNS logo on the VF-27 and there was another unknown logo on the nose of the VF-27, is that what you are talking about? Graham

Now using the eyecatch tune for my ringtone. Graham

After some consideration, I gave this episode a neutral vote. First time I've done that. My votes for eps 1-7 have all been positive. It wasn't terrible, but then it didn't blow my socks off either. It did raise several interesting questions though IMO (see my post # 442 a few posts up). It will be interesting to see the Japanese ratings for this episode. If it beats episode 7, I will well and truely give up in my efforts to understand the Japanese anime viewing public. Graham

I use VLC player for playing .AVI files and Media Player Classic for playing .MKV and .MP4 files. After installing the CCCP codec pack, I have no problem playing any of the Frontier fansub eps from Gattai, AiA I-Z, or Shinsen on my laptop. The only Frontier fansub episode that has given my problems was the episode 8 by G.G. The audio and subtitles were completely out of sync with the video. I just deleted it. More than happy with the three aforementioned fansub groups for Frontier. Graham

I'm guessing that since the Sharon Apple incident, Ghost A.I.s have been dumbed down some and while they don't require direct human control, they probably act under a fairly limited and ridged set of parameters and are not able to handle sudden changes in the situation that well, without new instructions from their human handler, e.g. Luca having to tell Peter to dodge. As to why only Luca has Ghosts, I'd imagine, that since the Sharon Apple incident there is probably a certain degree of distrust from human pilots about having a mixed formation of Ghosts and Valks operating together in a combat roll. Luca's Ghosts seemed to be there only in the recon and intelligence gathering role, not to get involved in direct combat. It could also just be due to SMS only having a limited quantity of Ghosts available, so it makes sense assigning them just to Luca as he is their tech and recon guy. From what we've seen so far in Frontier of both the NUNS and SMS Ghosts, they seem to be used more for recon use than any other type of role. Graham

On the surface, episode 8 was a light, comedic filler episode. However, under all the fluff, some serious questions were raised. Now it's time for me to don my tin-foil conspiracy hat, and present my latest round of theories. Previously, we've speculated, that the VF-27 and Brera Stern belong to either Macross Galaxy special forces (beacuse the VF-27 seems to use advanced technology that Galaxy is famous for). Or, as some members have suggested, they belong to some as yet unnamed organization (perhaps another PMC). However, what if the VF-27 and Brera Stern are actually from some secret black op group within the Macross Frontier NUNS, known only to Leon and a select few others? Leon definitely seems to know something about the VF-27 and his sentence "Nothing else has been leaked right?" to which the mystery voice on the other end of the line replies: "We've confiscated all the data", seems to imply that Leon is actively trying to cover up the existence of the VF-27. Now we know that cybernetic technology is illegal (or highly frowned upon) on the Frontier fleet, so this could be one reason why Leon is going to great lengths to cover up the existence of the VF-27. We know also that during the previous battle to save the Dulfim and Kaitos, Leon asked Cathy to obtain data on the Vajra. Perhaps Leon was also the one that sent Brera Stern to obtain additional data, once the Vajra carrier defolded. Other questions raised: What is the type-V Infection? Presumably 'V' is for Vajra, which raises all sorts of questions! Is the possiblity of the type-V infection why the Dulfim crew are still under quarantine? Alto and Ranka who also came into contact with the Vajra in episode 2 were tested and released with no quarantine, so why do the Dulfim crew need to remain in quarantine? Who is the mystery voice on the phone with Leon that asks "shall I continue observing her?" (refering to Ranka). - Could it possibly be Brera if he is working for Leon? And who was Ranka talking with on her phone after the carrot song? I'm guessing it's Alto, which would make sense, but the voice sounded more like Mikhail to me. Oh and............"Carrots love you, yeah!" (I'll never look at carrots in quite the same way again). Graham

Big props to AiA for geting their sub out so quickly. Graham

Yeah, that picture of the $399 SDF-1 is 100% the Wave 1/5000 scale movie color version toy. That price is a rip off. Graham

ha, love the SMS bikini top. Graham

Hmm.........sounds like eps # 11-13 are not going to feature much mecha pr0n. Graham

LOL! So true. Graham

If these sell well enough, a version with FAST packs later on is a possibility, as are other mecha from the Macross universe. Graham

We don't know that the VF-25 has any chaff or flares or whatever the 2059 equivalent counter-measures are. It probably does, but we don't know for certain. Anyway, I think Alto discarded the Super Packs in ep 7, as he realized he didn't have time to shoot down all the Vajra missiles and he probably thought there was a greater chance of decoying away the missiles with the Super Packs rather than chaff. Just my theory. Graham