Freiflug88

There could have an interesting story without Alto, it just wouldn't be the typical Macross storyline. Where Macross really diverges from Gundam and Robotech is that the love battle is really the center of attention, not the space war for humanity's survival. The main charater is always the average dude weighted by personal issues, and not the unstoppable ace who singlehandly saves the day. In every single Macross the hero is the winner of love, not the battlefield. Of course Alto will always get a beaten down by Brera and Ozma cause a 17 year old flight student would never stand a chance against a cyborg immune to high Gs or an ace squad leader, but Alto's triumph is with his relationship with Sheryl. I don't know about you guys, but I would rather be the loner who seduces the idol then the cyborg with no hope of finding love or the guy whose sole source of masculinity is protecting a pair of women who can take care of themselves.

Are you kidding me? That would be a ton of work for the fatcats over at ADV and Manga, as if working with HG wasn't hard enough for them. Joking aside ads like that have worked plenty of times in the past such as when Alex Ross worked with Wizard magazine on finding the Gatchaman copyright owners in the US. Thttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhGYL0xlrM4.

I have been hoping for the same thing more or less. Since WB has been given full creative control for the movie according to Tommy Yune, I can only hope that some how they make a case to Big West to film the Robotech movie as a kind of live action DYRL only with Robotech's names. It would be great if they used the original Japanese songs or made English versions of them. As far as Protoculture goes I honestly, believe that could be scrapped. In Macross and Robotech the actual drama is much more important then the fuel or ancient civilization. I have seen HG selling Macross DYRL figures on Robotech.com for several months now, so they do have merchandising rights for toys. Hopefully this could lead to an American release of DYRL.

I have heard bits and pieces about what was in the script, and I have to say that personally I while I am not expecting Shadow Rising to be great you can't judge a movie by some leaked script. I made amateur films in college that were directed and written by friends who now go to Professional Film Schools and trust me reading and actually seeing it come to live in a movie can be totally different experiences. The recent Watchmen movie is the best example I can think of to relate to. I for one loved reading the graphic novel over a weekend, but watching a three movie with people narrating about their sad lives as superheros almost made me leave the theater. Besides, its not really fair to label bad writing as fan writing. Great writers write about what they feel passionate about whether they are backed by a paycheck and editor or not. Because deep down even the most Robotech fans know that no matter what HG produces it will never EVER live it up to the Original 85. That despite Macek's editing their was still plenty of the spirit and feeling of the original that shined through and captivated them. Honestly, I think Robotech's new theme song may as well be "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" because that is how nostalgic robotechfans feel with the new stuff and Robotech doesn't deserve an original theme song made for it anyway. That is THE PROBELM with Robotech. The original 85 were good enough for kids back in 1985, but to continue this hack job continuity built upon 3 unrelated series is absurd. At the very least you would think HG would consider rebooting the franchise like the Superhero comics and shows so that a more natural and believable story could be made from transforming jets and alien bio fuel.

That would be great, without Media Play its a pain waiting for local cons and their dealers' rooms. Now if only the Robotech Master Piece Collection, did a remake of the best toy ever, the Original G-1 Jetfire that was a VF and Transformer in one. Heck, why not market models of the "Lost Mechs of BattleTech" for Mech Warrior fans as well. Mr Pieman Khyron? Was he the one who leaked the supposed script for Shadow Rising about two years back.

Either he is a Robotard fanboy who agreed to receive free Robotech junk in compensation or he gets paid for spreading lies about Robotech marketing 24/7. I also think its sad how they hire Tommy Yune to do EVERYTHING. He was originally hired to do some artwork for Robotech.com, but ended up writing and directing Shadow Chronicles. Its no wonder there is nothing to show for Shadow Rising when Tommy is probably doing most of the work himself. Considering its their biggest franchise and only Tommy is doing the work, they would be much better off if they worked with WB on their upcoming Live Action and Animated movies. I for one bet that Bruce Timm and company would be the best guys for animating Robotech bar none. ADV was clever in marketing SDF:M, Southern Cross, and Mospeada as the source material of Robotech for fans, but I think they unfortunately did the release at the wrong time. Had the DVDs been released way back when Robotech was shown on Toonami and the Midnight run on Cartoon Network I bet sales would be much better. Come to think of it I wonder if anyone at Cartoon Network has considered airing the English Dubs of Macross and Gatchaman instead of the new garbage they show like Total Drama island. BTW Jasonc did you make that hilarious Sourpuss avatar yourself?

Nah, I am the type who takes things too seriously at times plus I like to rant on about Ripoff-tech. I recently replayed to their MII podcast and heard nothing about the budget issues so no doubt I heard about that rumor from somewhere else on the net. The guys at Destroy All Podcasts are die hard Macross fans who really do seem to know their stuff and they are also hilarious to listen to. They do spoil a lot of things unfortunately so I only listen to them after I have watched something.

You miss understand. Its not that we hate Robotech at all and many of us such as myself enjoy both Macross and Robotech. What we hate is the fact that we cannot buy beloved Macross stuff right here in America. Robotech stuff is easy to buy so why shouldn't Macross be easy to buy in America as well? I for one want to be able to drive to a local Target and find Macross stuff to buy and for the cash I spent to help finance the great guys at BW who created Macross while the Robotech stuff rots on the shelves with there little gold HG stickers. Yes, Harmony Gold gave us Robotech, but in the end it was just 3 series produced by Tatsunko edited together, yet somehow HG feels they should be credited for creating some brand new epic franchise. What if I took Indiana Jones and Star Wars and edited them together to create an epic mini-series for another Country, lets say Germany? Start with Inidana Jones saga then add a time jump and suddenly you have a saga focusing on Jone's distant ancestor Han Jones. Since they are both done by Harrison Ford and I have all these great ads about how "Ripoff Wars" is this huge multi-generational epic the stupid audience will play right along right? After I trademark 'Ripoff Wars: the Star Wars Saga" and deny any new Stars Wars stuff into the country, I should have Star Wars fans excited over the cheap knock-offs I market? Give me a break. Since, HG loves to rip-off the Japanese for their Robotech franchise they should go ahead and "follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide” next to AIG executives.

My mistake. I remembered hearing on the Destroy All Podcasts DX for Macross II that MII was subsized by a US company and assumed it to be Manga Entertainment considering they market MII and M+. I never heard about the Macross 7 trash case and yes the the fact that HG wants money for their trademark doesn't help distributors one bit. Of course companies will do everything they can to make a buck at the expense of being an absolute a$@. Just look at the lawsuit over Watchmen though. Fox's goal was never to take a dump on fans by denying them a Watchmen movie, they just wanted a piece of the pie like HG. Its just another cost of doing business that companies don't want to deal with so they go to franchises like Gundam that has fewer legal hassles to deal with. Personally though I would rather see BW and other anime companies ban together and take HG down in US Court. The more I hear about HG actions the more I realized that they are like Minmay, a whiny spoiled brat just begging for a big slap in the face. I am tempted to try praying to Alan Moore's snake god Glycon to put a curse upon HG. Anyone want to join me in putting a curse upon HG?

I am betting the entire Galaxy had a whole army of implant-controlled humans. In Episode 24 Ozma and company found some left ever research material from Grace and found out about her fold network plan. The plan was to take control of the Vajra and use them as a supervision army to enslave humanity through out the galaxy. Since according to Sheryl she was one of the few all natural people aboard Galaxy, Grace could have easily hacked and enslaved all the cyborgs on board while super idol Sheryl remains oblivious. As for the FV-27 pilots they are most likely the silhouettes you see surrounding Grace in the final episode after she plugs into the queen.

LMAO! Don't forget that its from the makers of Aquarian as well! You can never forget that show its just simply... orgasmic! That would be a funny ad indeed. The bit about the pretty VFs reminds of when I was at Media Play and some guys saw Macross Plus on the shelves and one yelled "Hey this movie is a complete ripoff of the variable fighters from Robotech BattleCry!" I couldn't help, but explain that it was the other way around after I LMAO. I personally loved Zero, but I know alot who don't. The battles and Itano's were good, but it did suffer visually some what in that the CG really stuck out because it wasn't cell shaded. The thing about it was that the final episode really felt rushed and I wished it was longer plus Zero just didn't really ever have that Macross feeling to me. BW originally planed to released M+ only in Japan, but after they showed it at an International Filmfest (the Cannes I believe) there were countless pleas by people in the industry and fans in general for an international release so they figured why not release it abroad. This was also at the right time too, when news traveled fast online, but before fansubs and pirating movies online became popular with broadband. Now MII believe it or not was subsidized by Manga Entertainment after its budget ran out. In exchange for enough money to quickly wrap the series up Manga of course was given the rights for MII overseas. I think that they just bought into Tatsunko claims that it would be better then the original series and so Manga ended up buying the rights before the show was even finished produced so of course they were going to market it as much as possible. SDFM in 1999? That had to have been the Animego release which was pulled by Harmony Gold after they trademarked "Macross." The Animego dvds were then sold only through Robotech.com. Considering that they are still for sale on the site (hoping to order some myself sometime) and that the page they are sold on is practically hidden in the tiny "click here for subbed anime" text I would say that not too many were sold. Sadly it wasn't until the 2006 ADV release that a true mainstream sold everywhere release of Macross was available.

It is an End of Circle ending in spirit literally and figuratively. The cycles of violence between Cyclons and Humanity has ended. Plus, its probably the closest as we are going to see of something remotely like Macek's End of Circle idea of a 300 episode Robotech series that begins and ends with "Zor's Battle Fortress" *the Macross *cough flying past the moon and crash landing into the Earth. So I say get out there and exclaim that BSG is End of Circle! I do it for the heck of it and to make people scratch their frakin heads in confusion.

I should have said this earlier about the BSG ending but, ah well here goes: END OF CIRCLE!

Obviously Zero was not that big into music, but I think the problems is that when the OVAs were being released annually around 2001-2003 the legal dispute between BW and Tatsunko over derivative rights was still going on in court. By the time Japanese Supreme Court got the case and cleared up the derivative rights there probably just wasn't that big of an incentive to acquire Macross Zero for the states considering many fans already complained that it was bad after watching the fansubs. Also there was the fact that until recently the original Macross was not available in the states so it would be hard to market a five episode prequel for a series that was never shown officially in the states. Now that ADV has marketed "Macross as being the series that formed the core of Robotech," releasing Zero might be a remote possibility. According to Macross Zero's Wiki though Legal issuses are still cited, but Tommy Yune is quoted as saying HG would be "willing to let the deal go through" for a possible release by A.D. Vision. As for the music rights of Macross 7 I heard that the major concern wasn't just the "cost per song" in each episode, but the fact that no one individual company or artist owns all the music license. So who ever licenses Macross 7 would have to track down and workout a deal with each individual license holder.

I am curious how does the VF-0 compare to the SV-51 in size and weight? To me the SV-51 looks like it is bit longer, but lighter and sleeker then the VF-0. No doubt the the Anti-UN were better able to miniaturize the Overtechnology in terms of the transformation system, energy rifles over conventional lead ammo, and since the anti-UN seemed to rely on quick hit-and-run strikes over heavy frontal assaults they probably used smaller a fuel tanks.

True, Transformer did not have copyright issues, but I was pointing out the fact that if the mechanical designs are made from scratch which they no doubt will be then there will be no issue with the copyrights over the Macross mechanical designs. As for BW and HG not being on good terms that is mostly speculation. The reason why more Marcoss stuff has not been released stateside has nothing to do with disagreements with HG. The issue is that the rights to the music often make it too costly to license. With anime sales as marginal as it is no company is willing to invest in obtaining the expensive episode and music rights for a Macross series when countless fansubs have spread across to fans for years. ADV acquired the original Macross as part of their plan to release anime classics that are cheaper to buy and aren't as widely pirated as a recent series. Macross Frontier will no doubt suffer this problem as its episodes and music albums have topped the charts meaning that MF will be much more expensive to license then Code Geasse which is just about as popular, but is not nearly as music focused as Macross Frontier. My bad for labeling it the Robotech trademark. The trademark is actually just for "Macross" as in just the name Macross since Harmony Gold did not actually create Macross as we all know. So for instance Macross Frontier could be edited so that it has no mention of Macross and marketed in the US without paying HG, but that is unlikely to happen.

Bubastis was killed by the Intrinsic Field Remover machine, but then again he was a lynx not a person. Perhaps there really was a "God in the machine" that made all the difference. Still I allways though that Dr. Manhattan's "death wave," as I like to call it when he kills people with a wave of the hand, removed Intrinsic Fields thus exploding people atoms. Thats why I always felt that by killing people the very way he was granted godhood that sooner or later he would create an antichrist to strike him down in a kind of acension suicide similar to the fate of Stargate's ascended villian Anubis. That I believe would have been a better ending for Dr. Manhattan, as the overpowered hero archetype that is done in by the use of his own godlike power. . Well that is the thing about Jon he suffered from an External locus of control hence he would allow others to make decisions for him and then blame them. Those with external locus of control feel that fate, chance, and anybody but themselves decide their fate. Jon was written to be the polar opposite of Rorschach who always took his fate into his own hands.

I also got the feeling that it was only rebuilding his body from scratch for the first time that was difficult for him, but what bothers me about him reconstructing himself is the fact that Jon admittingly "never made a decision for himself." When his atoms were broken down anything left of his conscious had to be thinking "alright I am dead, off to heaven I go." Yet this indecisive guy is the only one to labor in rebuilding a human body from some lingering conscience for a month come on. I think out of all the countless criminals, Vietnamese soldiers, and Rorschach who were all blasted to atoms and all had more guts then Jon, at least one or more should have reconstructed themselves as well. Perhaps, not a complete human body, but in the very least a floating head or something. Come to think of it if Jon can resurrect himself twice from nothing into a big blue body, I think the only think that made the never compromising Rorschach accept death over struggling to become a godlike being like Dr Manhattan was the fact that he took off his mask so he would die as Walter Kovacks.

I bet that the one big issue on the guys involved with the Robotech movie is this: The fact that the original Robotech series has its roots in Macross and do we A. try to stay loyal to its roots or B. Use this as opportunity to reinvent the franchise. The copyright infringements and License aren't that big of issue considering that BW would likely be willing to settle with HG and WB over any gray areas between the Robotech and Macross storyline such as the Zentradi in exchange for money. As for the licensing debate over mechanical designs just look at Michael Bay's Transformers. All of the Transformers were brand new designs so there was not one copyright issue or even a line on the credits about the original Japanese toy designs the original 80s G1 transformers were adapted from. As long the transforming jets, spaceships, and mecha in the live action are made from scratch in Lightwave or whatever as redesigns Big West can't claim copyright infringement. The bigger issue is that HG and WB most likely want to reinvent the franchise. As Tommy Yune himself as stated WB has creative control over this movie. That means that WB gets to call the shots and they are probably going to reinvent the franchise like they did with Batman Begins and the Dark Knight which were absolute hits. The potential success of Watchmen could change things though, but that remains to be seen. WB planned to modernize Watchmen to the Iragi war etc, until Zach Synder stepped it and fought Executives to make it as loyal to the original in every way as possible. Unfortunately, since many new viewers were confused and turned off by a reinvention to cash in on new viewers is most likely going to be used. Also, if such a reinvention is different enough from Macross then Big West can not stake a claim in copyright infringement anyway. As for the Robotech trademarks expiring in 2012, HG will no doubt renew them as Robotech is no doubt there tentpole franchise. I am hoping the movie will come out in 2010 though to be in time with Robotech's 25th anniversary.

It turns out that Ron Moore was on a Navy ROTC scholarship and served a year onboard the USS W. S. Sims for a summer so you could indeed be correct Duke Togo, that Moore was influenced by the real Navy Jolly Rogers. I will admit Duke that some of them are a stretch on there own, but when you taken into things like the Piano player sequence that went out of their way to poke fun at the notion of a song being any help into a war it really looks they borrowed ideas from Macross to me. At least they didn't do what Top Gun did. Just look at Goose's death scene and how it is almost frame by frame the scene where Rick/Ichicjo is lying unconscious in the water with his parachute open at the end of episode 16. For the record Top Gun was filmed in 1985 the same year that Robotech premiered. I have never even heard of Gall Force, but it is interesting that you mention that Keith. I mentioned Macross, but I feeling Ron Moore may be a fan of sci-fi anime in general like the Wachowski brothers. I found his own webblog , but have had no luck in finding any comments that would suggest that yet.

I am surprised that only a few people have noted the obvious Macross/Robotech influence on BSG considering this is Macross World. I honestly only got into the show on Season 4, but I have noticed so many Macross throwbacks such as: -The headhunters squadron patch with the Jolly Rodgers is almost an exact copy of the Skull Squadren design. -Tigh resembles Breetai not only in appearance (after he loses righteye), but as the as a veteran enemy commander turned greatest ally. -The piano player at the bar is an obvious throwback to the piano player from Robotech Masters/Southern Cross who flirted with Dana in one episode. Whats more Kara even made the sarcastic remarks to him: “What good does a song do in a war? How many missiles has your song stopped so far?” -Water downed ruins on Cindered earth seem very much like the ruins on Macross DYRL - Daedalus maneuver as the Galatica rams into the colony to release marines I know for a fact the co-creator of Lost, Damon Lindelof has made the comment that “The Watchmen is the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced” and borrowed ideas from Watchmen for Lost. I am curious if anyone has heard RBM and company make a comment on any influence from Macross and/or Robotech? Now If only Calvin screamed something like “Frak you Protoculture!” Ronald Moore's love would Macross would be all to obvious and it would be amusing to see hordes of confused BSG viewers wondering what the Frak protoculutre means.