VF5SS

I agree that M7 does grow on you after some time, but it was simply too long for the story that needed to be told.

Congratulations you have just discovered the pacing issues of every single 50 episode robot show.

have a cookie

Re: VF-O

I pronounce it "viffo". It's like "Veef" but without the 5SS...

Do not take my name in vain.

You make good counterpoints, but I still hate the idea of taking the concept of culture shock and making it a quantifiable energy.

Heck, I'd even be happy if they HAD sound energy but didn't try to draw a connection between it and what happened in SDFM. But the entire PREMISE of Dr. Chiba's research is that Minmay was uniquely special, her singing, specifically, was pivotal to the entire war, and someone ought to figure out why. And since his research produces visible results... well, it stands to reason that his foundation hypothesis was RIGHT.

But in the end the show only proved Dr. Chiba was right when it came to affecting the Protodeviln. When they met up with the Meltrandi fleet, the Sound Boosters did not work on them. Even when Mylene sang only a few Queadluun Raus launched without permission to meet her and that seemed to more just them liking her music. It took Basara sans Sound Boosters to actually achieve results and things happened in the expected DYRL way with the Meltrandi fleet going gaga over their new found love of culture. It makes sense that's how they wanted it to play out since the main writer and series composition guy for Macross 7 (Sukehiro Tomita) was the writer for DYRL and most of SDFM.

So what actually happened is Dr. Chiba's hypothesis was wrong but he managed to get results anyways. He just managed to be in the right place at the right time which is not unlike the idol he worshiped so much.

And in the end even spinoffs like the PSP games and Macross 30 only associate Song Energy with Fire Bomber members with other singers not having the same effect on enemies.

Although Plus and 7 are still pretty thematically linked when you think about it. Sharon has many of the same powers as the Protodeviln (mind control, control over technology), it's just that she's a big black box of [TECH] so no one questions it.

I'm starting to think it ill behooves us all to use reductionist terms like "failure" and "magic" but only to certain series. So many Macross series have had handwaved happenstance (quite literally like when Ranka cures Sheryl of her v-type infection) that pointing fingers at one for doing a particular thing but downplaying the same "magic" in another is being too dismissive.

Honestly looking back even DYRL has a lot of barely disguised magic in it but then again that's the nature of a fictional production made by human beings. Storytelling flaws happen even at the most key moments.

Except that in Macross 7, it's not love and culture that saves the day. It's "anima spiritia." Sound energy. Magic.

Except it is love and culture that save the day. Anime spiritia is just a mechanism for the action but it's the way characters like Gigil and Sivil learn about being more human that ultimately changes things. Basara sang all he wanted but even he realized there was more to it than just using the Sound Boosters and anima spiritia. He tried to understand the Protodeviln in many ways and nearly gave his life to save Gigil and Sivil from death on a few occasions.

The rest of your post seems to be misinterpreting Dr. Chiba honestly. You're treating this like it's the midichlorians from Star Wars run rampant.

Yeah but when the original band members are no longer apart of the group it makes going to see them in concert a little less special, wouldn't you agree? They wouldn't sound quite the same as you remembered when they were all together (either in concert or on new albums).

Well they often don't sound the same anyways just due to getting older. In the case of Journey, would you rather have an aging singer who is disinterested in his own work or the new talent who really puts on a show because he knows everyone is going to be comparing him to the other guy?

A new incarnation can't replace the achievements of the original, but the world does stop moving and trying to keep things as close to their origins just isn't realistic. It's better to maintain the spirit rather than the letter of the work because otherwise time will wear it down.

People likes old bands but they don't tend to like the old bands new albums.

Just my two cents.

Speak for yourself.

This guy just released an amazing new album and it's some of his best work yet!

Alienating old fans doesn't matter as much when new fans have taken their place ten times over.

It's like still hoping Steve Perry is going to get back together with Journey even after Arnel Pineda replaced him.

While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I feel like your fixation on Macross Plus is unintentionally belittling the innovation had in many of the other entries in the franchise. Macross 7 is easily an even more mold breaking show than Plus with its great music, fun characters, and a very unique premise that played well with the personal drama. Even Zero and Frontier continued to innovate with a new visual style and a greater emphasis on the show's female characters. The latter of the two became really popular because of that.

As fans we need to understand there is more to Macross than just a single entry, doing so may leave us all with too much tunnel vision and just a little...

You could argue that people should be allowed to live as they want even on a colony fleet. The Macross 7 fleet managed to survive having Milia The President as their mayor so I think Frontier can handle one small segment of Zentradi.

Verisimilitude.

Hey all serious sci-fi shows have animal mascots. Just look at Orguss with Jabby the friendly dinosaur.

This show is great and has a talking beaaaaaaaaaar!!

Much like all serious sci-fi.

oh no the design retconning on the book that was overseen by some jerk named Kawamori

Valkyries with underwing missiles? perish the thought

And shame on a company for trying to make their third (fifth really) take on a design be different than the last ones.

They shouldn't try to entice buyers with new features ever.

This is really just T-Rex capitalizing on easter eggs they put in the design of the toy anyways. Arcadia is much more restricted to what they can put on the toy by the license holders so it makes sense that what is essentially a Frontier add on is being sold as an extra kit for a Plus toy.

Butt thrusters? First Frontier is making the cockpit turn into a powered suit and now they're doing jump units.

Why you gots to copy Muv-Luv, Macross?

The PS2 and PSP ACE games are actually really good. It's just the PS3 one that was a terrible letdown. Just remember that ACE 1 doesn't have any Macross.

yeah it's from ACE R

they make great monitors

Why read trash?

Trash is on this very website d00d

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/translations/_translations_menu.htm

Mayuyu already had Queadluun-Rau armor so AKB0048 is just Macross in a future time.

We need more facts on that other than the wikipedia entry, which only says the first two volumes sold well in America. Antibiotictab mentioned on the Macross Speakerpodcast that no one in Japan was really paying attention to it at the time.

If it weren’t for SDF Macross none of us would be here right now. Be it new fans to the series, or whatever the Japanese fan base now seems to desire as you suggest, it’s not unreasonable to want something that is rooted in the original. Otherwise you might as well call the show something other than Macross. A new alternate universe could be just what we need, whether it is a success or a disappointment is all a matter of opinion.

A beginning is often just that: a beginning. Macross isn't like Gundam where trying to recapture the lightning in a bottle of the original required extreme fidelity like Gundam the Origin or outright rehashing like Gundam SEED. The fact that Macross hasn't done that in an animated production and has found much more (financial) success doing what it's been doing for decades now and at this point in time is popular because of stuff like Frontier makes me think they are not going to return to an SDF Macross style show. They will pay respect to SDF Macross just as every new series in the franchise has done, but Kawamori is clearly not tied down to the original in a strict sense.

As for Macross II, calling it a disappointment is, again, all a matter of opinion – there are many of us who adore the show.

It was enough of a disappointment for Big West.

Yeah, I get that Spacebrick is from a totally different show. That's why I absolutely do not get the love for him. Characters from the movie and seasons 3-4 had goofy, pseudo-future made-up alt modes instead of the real vehicles of the first two seasons. But at least they we watched the movie and seasons 3-4 as kids, and have the nostalgia factor. Spacebrick's a character a lot of American TF fans never even heard of until recently. He's got all the pseudo-future made-up crap without the benefit of nostalgia.

Here's a hint: Americans are not the target audience for Star Saber. The three Japanese G1 shows aired all around Asia (sometimes with that terrible dub) and there is a lot of nostalgia for them even outside of Japan. In fact, the first Transformers series to air in Russia was Victory.

It's all a matter of perspective.

you don't want to be creepy around Kajiura-san. She can out creepy you anytime.

the episode of Transformers called "Fight or Flee" has Air Raid doing gerwalk movies. Also there's a VF-1 in the crowd of Paradron Autobots.