Zoroastres

Just googling "Macross 30 translation guide" would have got you there. First four hits are all for the guide. I've done my best to make it "visible," what with the web-version and sig-linking and all.

When I first heard about this new release, I questioned the wisdom of doing "deluxe" editions of a manga that has already failed to sell well outside of the United States, particularly when the intended market would A) either have already purchased the original publications and/or B) been forced to settle for low-quality fan-scanlations.

I dearly hope The Origin sells well. While it's a nice-quality book, I'm not too impressed by it. After the phenomenal Nausicaa boxset released a few months ago... well, let's just say it's hard for anything to equal that. I've done my part to support it (bought 2 copies of the first volume; pre-ordered two copies of the second volume); I can only hope my fellow Gundam fans follow suit.

The Origin is really a fantastic re-telling of the story. It's written by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, who is sort of the "unsung Author" of the original TV series--I think you can largely credit him with the core of the MSG story, and the more grounded elements of the setting, whereas Tomino was responsible for the more fantastical elements. I guess you could call him an un-credited co-writer. The end result is that The Origin ends up being the best, most perfect version of the story... Gundam as hard sci-fi. I really can't recommend it enough--so, you guys, buy some copies, too!

Hello.

I was under the impression they were bought out by a different company, and that they would continue to exist under a different name, but then I've gotten the impression that they're "gone forever" from several users here....

Having an opinion is fine. Everyone has opinions. But there's a difference between an opinion, and a valid opinion.

Currently up to ep 10 of Trigun.......... Kind of boring. I thought I was getting a sci-fi western with action, but all I am getting is badly executed comedy set in the old west with a sci-fi element here and there and the occasional gun battle just to remind the audience that it wants their attention. I liked the sci-fi western anime when it was called Xabungle, I liked the refined version when it was called Ryu Knight, and I liked the modern CGI enhanced version when it was called Gun X Sword.

It's called characterization. Keep watching; it pays off.

Hey, folks. I feel like discussing Firefly.

Do you guys know about it? Did you watch it?

Apparently it was kind of a "big thing." I never actually saw it while it was airing on TV, and didn't even here about it until after its cancellation. I remember trying to watch the pilot episode a long while back and not really liking it (mostly, I think, due to the fact that most of the hype/praise I saw for the show was aimed at the setting--i.e. it's so very unique--which seemed very cliched to me). These past two weeks, I gave the series another a shot--and found that beyond the archetypal "space cowboy" setting, there were some really great characters. So, yeah: I fell in love with Firefly, about eight years late.

In the past week, I've bought the series & movie on blu-ray, and last night I finished watching the movie, Serenity.

...and I'm not sure I really liked it. It had some good moments, some great moments, to be sure. I particularly liked the continuous shot of the Serenity early on, where you move from the cockpit at the front all the way to the engine room at the back. Really gave me a good feel for the size and shape of the ship that I did not quite get in the series proper. But it felt like the stakes were too high. Like, you know, it might have fitted as a conclusion for the series had it come after 5 or 7 seasons of slow-build up.... I don't know. It just left kind of a bad taste in my mouth. Anyway, now that I'm done with the show there are two things I'd kind of like to comment on:

1.) WHY DID THEY HAVE TO KILL SO MANY CHARACTERS! That was just cruel. It's bad enough the series got canceled after 1 season, but then to straight-up murder two of the main cast in the movie sequel... that was just horrible. I feel like it was done mainly for shock value. Really didn't like that at all.

2.) Good God, Reavers. I think they're the only zombie-type monster I've ever seen that is genuinely frightening. Hell, I'd say they're easily the most frightening alien I've seen in any science fiction, aside from possibly the Drakh in B5 (but I think they were mostly frightening due not to their inherent qualities, but rather what they did to Londo). It's so rare, particularly in science-fiction, to have an enemy to whom the -only- valid response is, "run like hell." I loved that. And I'm glad that the ending of the movie was able to maintain the scariness and threat of the Reavers, even though they served a much more "cannon-fodder" style role. And the whole "oh, crap" scene when the fleets collide... goddamn. Sooooo cool.

What do you all think?

Are these... user ratings? Like we're Amazon products?

I ask because I was editing some crap in my profile just now, and noticed I had a one-star rating, which seems really bad. And considering I've barely posted at all here, I'm wondering who I managed to piss off, and why. Anonymous insults make me sad.

Almost certainly. It would be too game-breaking otherwise, wouldn't it?

But, again, this is just informed speculation. I haven't personally verified this, though I've been meaning to. I've also been meaning to double check how the player's level is determined (whether it's based on aircraft level, tuning amount, pilot level, and/or some combination of two or more of those factors).

Oh, yeah, really. Seriously, thank you. I'm not good with kanji, so every time I translate something I'm almost constantly referencing my Nelson's. I've got the vocabularly and the grammar down fairly well, so looking up kanji amounts to about 90% of the work.

Honestly, this feels like the first week after I got glasses, and realized I hadn't really been seeing the world properly until then.

I would have to (almost) agree with Graham. While mechanically, M30 is by far the best Macross game ever made... it's action/RPG structure can make it a little difficult to get into. If you're accustomed to things like third-person shooters or arcade fighters (like Budokai Tenkaichi), by all means, go ahead. But if you just want to get a feel for things, you might be better off getting a hybrid pack, even though they present much more shallow gameplay than what is found in M30.

I would go for the second or third one. You ought to be able to find 'em cheap(er) now that they've been out for a while. Hopefully. The third hybrid pack also comes with a voucher to d/l the PS1 DYRL game, IIRC. (Or maybe that was only first-printings of the game?)

Holy crap, I had no idea that was even an option! That's going to make things a lot easier!

Well, except for translating stuff from games, where the resolution of the characters is too small for me to make out stroke orders. Anyway, thanks.

I've just been selling stuff constantly in preparation for the massive amount of money I'll need in NG+, so I haven't really been playing with them much, but I'm 99.99% certain mushroom stat bonuses are temporary. They'll vanish the moment you return to Gefion.

Yeah, I'm quite OCD about Hunter's Guild quests, I have to complete them as soon as they show up. Explains why I'm at 32 hours play time, but only on story mission 4-2 (I think), as I spend most of my time doing Hunter's Guild quests and flying around wasting bandits Also, Zoroastres guide is invaluable, as it lists where and when quests become available. Graham

That's exactly how I'm playing. I had to reformat my HDD, and lost my original save, and when I started a new game I told myself, "just rush through it this time." But nope.

I've got a Japanese IME, but as far as I can tell there's no Kanji Dictionary function.

Nelson's Kanji Dictionary is for looking up kanji by its radical, stroke order, etc.

Wow... talk about ungrateful. I'm here trying to help you out in finding your long lost idol, and you b!tch about me giving you what you presume is "nothing"? I wasn't gonna post anything in this thread in the first place, but that jabroni renegadeleader1 left me no choice when he dragged my name into it.

The only bitching I see in this thread is right here. And you always have a choice, specifically when it comes to what you choose to respond to, and how you choose to respond to it.

A couple of pieces of advice:

1) figure out why are you doing translations and providing them for other people. If it's to get attention, lots of responses and earn money, then you're bound to be disappointed.

2) don't be afraid to use and/or experiment with translation resources available online - on the one hand, if you can speed up the process, you'll be more productive and probably a lot less frustrated. On the other hand, there's no point in reinventing the wheel.

Some resources:

Tools (at the bottom): http://sketchleystats.webatu.com/Trans/index.php

Glossary: http://sketchleystats.webatu.com/Trans/Glossary.php It's far from complete, but it should provide a guide to Macross specific terminology (as much as I'd like an agreed set of terms for translations, it's ultimately up to you what terms you used. Just be very, very wary of using fansubs as a terminology reference.)

I'm just translating to share cool stuff.

In terms of online tools... I really haven't found much. I could really use an online version of the Nelson kanji dictionary, as it can be quite tedious flipping through the book page-by-page, and I often miss the kanji I'm looking for... but I haven't found a decent alternative yet.

Well, that's no good.

If she were a JAV idol, I -really- think that would have popped up somewhere in the Internet. It hasn't.

And, AreaSeven, I've done Google searches. Did you even bother looking at that link you posted? It's got nothing in it.

Well, I've reached a conclusion. I'd like to thank those of you who weighed in on this in the thread here, via private message, or via email.

I have decided to go ahead and release very sloppy scanlations of what I already have scanned--I've taken the time to scan, crop, rotate, resize, filter, etc., so I may as well distribute that crap. But by "sloppy," I mean, "super-imposing giant black boxes over the image to post text, not bothering to double-check for errors, etc." After that, I will do text translations and only text translations.

...

On that note, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to go about doing a text translation of a manga? I'm thinking the easiest way, for me, would be to write the page number, and then the dialog like a script. Would that work well, or would it be confusing when referencing the manga itself to not know, exactly, which text belongs in which frame?

I've been trying to find out since 2006. I think maybe it's time to enlist some help.

If you don't know who I'm talking about,

Negishi Satori composed and performed two fantastic songs (Hoshi no Nobira & Mikatsuki no Puzzle) for the "Gundam Seed Destiny Stargazer" original net animation, or ONA. The former, in particular, is one of the most amazing, dynamic pieces of music I've ever heard. I don't know, maybe it's her voice, maybe it's the excellent violin work.

The only information I can find on her, on either side of the Internet, is a brief biography: she was born in 1982, has been practicing music since elementary school, and graduated from Sendai University. That's pretty much it.

Well, and the attached image.

And I can't find any information on her, whatsoever--which is a shame, because I really want to listen to more of her music. She's easily equal to, if not greater than, our favorite Macross divas in my honest opinion.

....

So, I need some help. Or direction. I really don't know what to do or try next. It seems unlikely to that she would have died, because that information would probably have made it to the Internet; it seems equally unlikely to me that she would have given up music, considering that singing the title songs for a Gundam show could well constitute a "big break." More likely, I think, is that "Negishi Satori" is not her real name, and was only ever used for the Stargazer music--in which case, who is she, really?

I've tried emailing Sunrise, no response; I've tried asking 2chan's gundam fans, they don't seem to know, either.

...So, yeah: can anyone help me out, or offer me some advice to further my own search? Every few years, I start looking, and I never find anything.

Collectibles. 50 for one trophy, all 100 for the other.

Not really... since I know what (for example) the Sgt. Pepper album cover looks like, it looks fine on my tiny iPod screen. If I wanted to scrutinize every detail, I'd just buy the LP again.

I still don't get the "Hey, let's make a NEW album cover instead of using the ACTUAL album cover" mentality.

Maybe I'm just dumb...

I see three reasons.

1. It's a way to customize, or personalize your collection.
2. It's a way to give uniformity to your collection (all images same resolution, can use variations of same image for variations on an album, etc.
3. It's a way to replace bad or illegible art. The images Kaldar posted, for example. I can barely make out the details viewing them at full resulion... but the tiny icon that would appear on my PC, in iTunes, or on an mp3 player would be even worse.

Seems pretty understandable to me.

Okay, so I'm in the middle of trying to digitize and sort all of my Macross music. I, uh, haven't exactly gotten very far (I've ripped 2 CDs) but I thought it might be a good idea to solicit some sharing before I waste too much time creating my own custom album covers for iTunes and the like.

So, basically, if you've got any spiffy, awesome album covers for your Macross music, share 'em!

Here are the two covers I've made so far, one for my general Macross 7 OST, and the other for the Dynamite Fire album. Dynamite Fire image is a customized version of the CD cover w/ my own text; the super-stupid-sexy-Sivil image is the A/B break image from the series, with a bunch of different filters applied (to cover up my minor photoshopping of the image) and a custom logo.

(If you can't tell, I really like Impact font).

Hmm........will try again tonight, but I flew around for hours last night and couldn't see anything to do.

Graham

IIRC, the mission structure is like so:

1. Go to Hunter's Guild in Vrlitwhal City (dialog scene).

2. Go to Faros Base (dialog scene).

3. Defeat the enemies outside Faros base

4. Go inside Faros Base & clear the dungeon (dialog scene)

5. Return to Gefion (dialog scene)

There is no ethical question to the production of translation guides or summaries, as there's no violation of copyright law and no infringement on intellectual property rights. The same cannot be said for direct translations of retail entertainment products.

As for clarification of my question... it is a twofold question: how do you define the ethics in general, and specifically with a case like Macross media--e.g. does the Macross' franchise' status overseas (re: Harmony Gold) make it an exception?

As I've stated, I've grown into the opinion that "scanlation = bad," but I'm uncertain as to whether or not this sentiment can be applied to something like Macross.

I'm organizing all of my music in general. Macross represents a bit of a hurdle for me, as there's just so much of it.

Do you guys organize your music by album, or by series?