Dynaman

Yup - lack of funding is a real pain in the arse

He is sort of at fault, but only since he showed the way forward in regards to how merchandising could make money. But I remember what Hollywood productions were like before Star Wars, and saying it was better then is really a case of wearing rose tinted glasses... (not arguing with you, just with those that think Hollywood was corrupted by Lucas, it was corrupted long long long before him)

Unless I have my facts totally wrong, GL has so much money he had a free hand to make the prequals however he wanted. So he IS to blame for them being soulless crap. Sadly, George had great vision, but his ability to craft all the details was sorely lacking.

It's pathetic. These people have to get a life. Only thing worse are the people who make Star Trek fan productions - use that talent to get a paying gig! (And I say this personally knowing a couple people that are involved in doing the Star Trek fan shows) Yes George is a licensing nut, yes everything after Empire Strikes back stunk like fresh guano, and yes (never mind, the other two thoughts cover it all), but nobody is forcing people to watch any more Star Wars.

I've been wondering what the expected audience age was for animated shows in Japan. It's hard to guess from the content of the original shows since I'm hardly familiar with what passes for acceptable for children's viewing over there. (I'm a little better off then the average US citizen, but not by much) I'm guessing that Macross was originally intended for a young teenage male audience, but it had a major crossover to mainstream. So, does anyone know what age bracket all the following were intended for? Yamato series 1 Farewell to Yamato movie Mobile Suit Gundam Macross series DYRL Macross Plus (the subject matter in this would have made it a possible R movie in the US, PG-13 certainly) Macross 7 (hard one to pin down, partly since I just didn't get it personally, looks like the young male teenage audience again) Macross zero (I don't even have a guess here) Macross Frontier (I heard it was on later at night in Japan, but at least one episode seemed to be geared more toward a teenage audience)

Every idea has two sides, at least, arguing the merits. There have been 55 (?) emigration fleets, setting out in massive vessels that would take a very large portion of the Earth's remaining resources to build. Some (not all, not the majority, but a significant minority) would be arguing against such a plan. So, does it seem impossible that such a situation could occur?

I always like to think that is what really happened to the Megaroad-01, bad Jump calculation and ooops, there went 50+ years. (Which if I'm calculating right means it's 76 days or so for those doing the fold) Yeah, yeah, no cookie for me...

Pardon me, I read your response all wrong, my apologies.

It sure is. but a great many people in the franchise don't manage to do so, Grace and Leon rising right to the top of the list. So the idea that some power made and bitter people are left on Earth is not what I would consider far fetched.

I thought the second half of sentence said what they would be bitter about. As for Humans having left their emotional frailties behind - Frontier and Plus certainly shows they have not. (I'm only leaving 7 out since I didn't pay much attention to it...)

Quite a few possabilities there. With all the best and brightest (I assume) heading out on the colonization fleets the people left behind could be rather bitter - resentful of all the resources being plowed into colonization rather then rebuilding.

Too be fair, Star Trek has had Many Many more oppurtunities to mess with the FTL continuity. To be fair, the MOST Plot Device driven FTL in SciFi is from Babylon 5, JMS flatly states that the ships go "Speed of Plot" and asks for no forgiveness on the point.

At one point he want to kill every Invid he sees. But it doesn't last more then a paragraph or two, with no reason why he reverts back. It's almost like the author thought of going somewhere, stopped writing for the day, and forgot about it the next day...

Rick eventually comes into his own, in the novels Lisa is the one who goes through the bigger change. I've been rereading the novels, almost to the end of book 4, one glaring problem was at one point Rick was seriously acting aggresive - understandably considering what happened in the story, but then he went right back to his old self without any good reason why. That bugged me. Overall I liked the novels and would recommend them though, they don't seem to get quite as weird as I remember them doing either - but maybe that is mainly from "The End of the Circle". (or it could be the "videogame formation" that Edwards puts his forces in)

Yup - but when he calls Misa before her going to the cafe, she would answer it. Of course he could still show up later with the blasted scarf...

Funny enough, After watching each DVD I'm loaning them to a guy at work, He just watched that episode and said the exact same thing. I guess having watched RT first I got thrown. (this might also explain some of the bridge banter in the first episode, where Misa points out that Claudia and Fokker came in late together) Now I'm dying to get home and listen to the commentaries...

Lisa does end up an Admiral as well, one level of Rank above Rick.

How many Easter Eggs are on the DVDs, and how do I get to them? (Just bought the whole series last week) (Never mind, looked up how to find them on the ANimeago Website) The idea of Misa and Global having a "thing" is kinda creepy, the guy is like her surrogate father...

I liked the novels myself, the novels and the comics do diverge radically at the end (Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles). I generally prefer novels though, for me a comic is taking the worst parts of movies and books and combining them into one - but that's a personal thing... The art in the comics is decent, unlike the Comico comics which went from Abysmal to excellent depending on who was doing the art. I was going to say that the comics are more "Cannon" then the novels are, but since RT cannon changes by the minute that should not be a concern - choose which story telling format you prefer and go with that.

That's what I thought, it's just one of those things that does not translate directly into english all that well. In order to make it sound like something natural it has to lose some part of it's meaning (or be turned into more then one sentence, which is not really an option). Thanks for the information!

I think the version I currently have is that one, sounds like the exact quote. I'd love to get the exact translation of the line, the one I had before just seems too, ungainly, to have been mistakenly done that way - but the translator may have gotten hung up on the Japanese way of phrasing things - I also think that particular version got translated into Chinese first and then to English...

My wife doesn't look anything like her, but shares many of her mental traits. Brusque at work, shy and retiring away from work, a stickler for doing things by the book... I may not have come off correctly, going on the Animeigo release it seems they are handling it well. My only idea in raising the point is that from my own experience EVERY show from that time (US, Europe, Japan) seemed to be handling it in too heavy handed a fashion. The whole thing can be a real pain for a translator, because if it is done wrong the dialog is stilted (a DYRL translation is a good example, when Hikaru ignores Misa's order and flies into the ship in the first battle Misa gave some line about why he doesn't follow her orders because she is a woman, a different version had her say something more along the lines of "How dare he disobey my orders!". For all I know the first version is the more exact translation, but it is not the way an english speaker would say the line. "Male Chauvinist!" might even be a good way to say it too. (and as a tacked on bit, I have no idea what things were like in Japan at this time) Well, I tend to ramble and I see I'm starting to do so here, and taking things off topic... My last 3 disc Macross set arrived yesterday, so I'll be plowing through the remainder of the series in the next few days (once I plop in a DVD I pretty much watch all four episodes straight through). Even though I've seen the show before, these characters grabbed my attention, I don't know if it was a happy accident or a plan that made them come to life the way they do, but I'm happy for it.

Ah, but to be chauvinstic or racist is to believe that one group of people can and should be allowed to do certain jobs while another group should not. I realize the time frame of Macross, and the world view that goes along with it, and I have to shake my head and realize they just don't know any better. My wife wouldn't even give him a second look - and mentally she is a lot like Misa (strange, looking back now I realize the girl I dated before that was raven haired and very vivacious. She dumped me of course, but a month before my wedding she called up wanting to get back together - that is a strange parellel).

That, and Misa's reply of "I can do those things too", which she says pretty impishly, with her inability to discuss her feelings later on she may be trying to show how she feels by doing the "womanly" stuff for Hikaru. (then again I may be reading WAY too much into this) (for the below, no offense taken or meant) In my family, my mother was ALWAYS the primary breadwinner, and never ever needed a man to save her. Since she was born in the depression and first got married in the fifties that made her something of an oddity. This colors my perception of any attempt at showing equality in fiction. usually I find it laughable at best. The problem for me is I'm ahead of the curve due to the examples in my own life. Before it sounds like I'm going totally off the deep end, HI does eventually accept that women are equal to men, and his attitude was a microcosm of how the western world's attitudes were changing at the time (and still are changing, Japan's as well). As for Misa looking pretty, she looks pretty no matter she is doing - even when she is ragging on people.

Back on topic. Just watched episode 12, and low and behold my kids decided to watch the show (subtitles and all)... Anyone know how accurate the translation is on the Animeigo release? If so this episode explains the dishwashing and cleaning bit in episode 28 a good bit. That and Mr Ichijo is a bit of a male chauvanist (ack - spelling), but growing out of it is part of his charm...