Pat Payne

Actually, that's not far from my own idea of what happened: They somehow got ripped into another part of the galaxy, where a remnant of the PCs were still hanging on, and having learned their lesson (partly) with the Zentradi had built a robotic fleet to protect them. However, it's gone haywire, prompting the Megaroad crew to correct things... It'd be nice to see a big relaunch to Macross, definetly, but since we're already 3 months into 2007, boyhowdy are they playing it close to the wire...

Well, Still, I believe there could be a story for them...Hikaru and Misa's relationship being tested, for instance due to the fact that they're both in command (she of the ship, him of Skull Squadron -- "I'm sorry, darling, but I've got to order you to launch a near-suicide attack against that doomsday machine" "WHAT?") and Minmay's moving towards adulthood (a process that hadn't finished at the end of either SDFM or DYRL -- I always thought that she'd start out as a pop star, and SOMETHING BAD would happen to the Megaroad, prompting her to become first a nurse and by the end of the journey a doctor or something...). It doesn't have to be quite about their former love triangle, but there's still character development room for them, were that route to be taken.

One thing though: if they were just doing a straight animation remake, why audition for new vocal talent? The vocal and music tracks are just as valid today as in '82 or '84. It'd be like doing the remastered Startrek and recasting the entire Enterprise crew... Oh, and Zinjo...no worries (I was actually being a bit hyperbolic for humor's sake ), but I will admit that any time people talk about tinkering with designs (even if the original designer's involved) visions of Wing Gundam or Tekkaman Blade start to traipse through my head...

Up to here I agree with you, and heartily endorse your ideas, having not read anything past this portion of the sentence... And now to train my eyes further on what you've written... *kaff*--*sputter* *cleans spat-out tea off of monitor* HUH?!?

What rock have you been under? They played the Grammies, and the next day they held a press conference announcing their world tour. They're hitting LA in June. But, so this isn't a total thread hijack...as far as I could see on that press release, it WILL be a full-on series (whether TV or OAV, I'm not sure).

Who knows? Maybe there'll be a return to Misa, Minmay and Hikaru... (don't laugh: before February 2007, did you think there was a chance in hell of The Police reforming?)

Yeah. It's in "Perfect Memory," anc concerns, IINM, the incident in which the anti-UN destroyed the fleet carrying the evacuees from Mars Base Sara.

The one constant, though, is it'll take an act of God to allow it to be released officially here in the US.

Bloss, hat der junge knabe seinen medizin vergisst? Er musst einer Tablette nehmen... (forgive the horrendous German, Ich habe nur drei jahre im hochschule gelernt.)

I read a couple of chapters of the manga, and my entire response is: "meh. Pass me the Lupin, will ya?." I mean the manga, at least was just more of the same that we've seen before. Ninjas with super powers. Gee -- how many milliseconds did it take to come up with that one? I'd rather they translated more Urusei Yatsura, or Gundam the Origin (getting it right this time -- none of this magazine format two chapters every four months for damn near $8--WTF ), or branched out perhaps even to more literary manga like Zipang or even (if they feel REALLY ambitious) Kuni ga Moeru. But they wouldn't sell, and so we're stuck with Naruto.

That, and there's enough precedent out there that two companies, so long as they don't compete in the same business are free to use the same name (unless the name is so well known that there would be confusion no matter what -- like if I tried to make a "MicroSoft" soft drink). That was the crux of the legal problems between Apple Corps (The Beatles' label) and Apple Computers. Apple Corps sued due to the similarity of name and logo, but ended up not being able to do much of anything because of the separation in their business. So they decided to "live and let live" so long as Apple Computers stayed out of the music buisness. And so it was until iTunes emerged, and Apple Corps fired up the lawyers again. Regarding your example of Puffy, I remember that the band X(Japan) was originally known as X, but that they changed the name on their own when they hit it big outside of Japan more to prevent confusion between them and X, the LA punk band led by John Doe and Exene Cervenka than any actual legal threats.

What is this? Did Lucas and Peter Jackson get together and start a competition for who could put out the most different DVD editions of their respective movie trilogies?

The only problem I had with Mari Iijima's acting was that they really needed to get a voice director who had worked a bit more with foreign-born talent, as Iijima, while a good actress, was too often stumbling over the grammar and pacing in some lines (an unavoidable pitfall of going between Japanese and English). They really needed someone who could have smoothed that over a bit more, to help her lines sound more natural. But in all, she did a great job in the role.

Hikaru pilots a Spartan (I think...I keep wanting to call it by its BTech name "Archer") in Ep. 35, "Private Time."

That's exactly it. It's somewhat analogous to Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry created the frame and outline of the Trek universe, but it was not his baby only. DC Fontana and Theodore Sturgeon are responsible, for instance, for crafting much of the mystique and character of Mr. Spock. Trek's most enduring villain, Khan Noonien Singh, was created by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber, though Roddenberry supplied the name. In fact, Roddenberry, for a long while, had no creative control over Trek. After 1979 (and an embarrassing script he had penned in which the Enterprise crew had to make sure Kennedy was assassinated to keep history on track), he was kicked upstairs and the franchise was taken out of his hands until 1987 and TNG. Yet the years 1980-1987 were the years of the three best of the Trek movies IMHO. In the same way, so long as a Japanese equivalent of Berman and Braga isn't let in the back door, Macross could get along quite well without Kawamori in a hands-on active role.

That made almost absolutely no sense...but seeing "makurosu" somewhere in that gibberish was heartening

Yeah...I second WolfX's sentiment. We weren't intending to denigrate ALL Korean animation, just this particular show. And if it came across as that, I for one apologize.

But I argue that it didn't. The first time we hear the name, it's Capt. Paolo --the Federation captain of the White Base -- who identifies him as "The Red Comet." Other Zeon officials such as Garma do refer to him by the name, but always in non-combat setings, and at no time during the show or compilation films IIRC do they actually call out something like "Red Comet, come in Red Comet, do you hear me". They always address him over the tactical radio by his name and rank. A beter example for the Gundam series would be one of his wingmen during the infiltration into Jaburo, who is called "Akahana" (Red nose), and who has, naturally, a big, red, WC Fieldsesque schnozz. That one could concievably be a callsign, as it's riffing on a decidedly comical feature to use as a codename. As for why no callsigns, as others have mentioned, it really comes down to suspension of disbelief and keeping the story as straight as possible. The more names you introduce for a character, unless absolutely necessary (a good example of this would be the 1963 Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn movie "Charade"), the more chance of confusing the viewer. To have Misa refer to Hikaru as "Ens. Ichijyo" and then, in a long shot of fighters as "Vermillion 23" could possibly throw viewers off.

The Red Comet was a nickname concocted by whatever propaganda department existed in the Principality of Zeon -- he was never called it explicitly by his wingmen as a callsign, who always adressed him as "(current rank) Char" (for instance "Char-Sousha" (Maj. Char)). Instead, it's more akin (indeed, explicitly meant to be a direct reference to) Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen's famed sobriquet "Der Rote Kampffleiger" (literally "the Red Battle Flier") more often rendered in English as "The Red Baron."

Sure, why not? 1. Macross: 'nuff said 2. Urusei Yatsura: One of the loopiest and funniest shows ever made 3. Lupin III: Particularly the Castle of Cagliostro and Dead or Alive, but really you can hardly go wrong with any Lupin 4. Project A-Ko: Hilarious blink-and-you'll-miss-it humor. 5. Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy: Sometimes, a director gets a second chance and doesn't screw it up (Lucas, I'm looking in YOUR direction...) 6. Excel Saga: Milk-out-your-nose funny, but beware if you don't have the right sense of humor 7. Cowboy Bebop: The best animated sci-fi to come out of the '90s 8.Space Battleship Yamato: Along with Gundam and Macross, one of the three classics that should be on any list. 9.Space Gundam--like hell... The REAL 9. Nausicaa: Miyazaki's triumph. If you see only one anime in your lifetime, it has to be this one, even over (and it pains me to say it) Macross DYRL. 10. Grave of the Fireflies: A gorgeous, if very sad film. Honorable Mention 11: The Daicon IV opening short. Honorable Mention 12: An Angel's Egg: A gorgeous film, utterly breathtaking in its animation -- yet storywise denser than a three-year-old fruitcake wrapped in gold foil. When even the writer/director throws up his hands on trying to explain what it means... but gosh, it's a gorgeous film. Honorable Mention 13: Last Exile. The best story of the 21st century, and the only time that CG and cel animation have ever played well together. Three most overrated: 1. Evangelion: Watching it makes my head hurt. It's like giving Soren Kierkegaard an unlimited budget and access to the vocal talents of Megumi Hayashibara. 2. Inuyasha: Rumiko Takahashi's better than this Dragonball retread. She's demonstrated that time and time again with innovative, fresh stories. 3. Gundam Wing: So, it's like Gundam, but with a more politically opaque and Byzantine plot, and five teenage male leads who look like they'd be the stuff of most girls' (and Michael Jackson's) dreams? Meh. Oh, and Char called. He wants his schtick back. And remember, he gets three times as angry as a normal person!

I think they kept it around expressly so they could point and laugh.

Two thoughts spring to mind watching these clips: 1. They manage to make Star Pro look like Studio Ghibli. 1.5. And that's horrible. 2. Hikaru really ought to think of suing for libel, as his non-union Korean equivalent doesn't even show the barest glimmer of competence.

Awww...If I knew she was going to be there, I would have made a bigger effort to have gone (I was planning to go anyway, but couldn't scedule it right--Weller Court's not all that from here)

Questions I must ask: How much is it, and will it be avaliable her in the States?

Not to mention that it was highly unlikely that the Red Baron (in the trailers that I've seen, the Dr.1s seem to have Richthofen's paint job) ever fought the Lafayette Escadrille, as he was posted usually on areas of the front facing the British. Of his 80 confirmed kills, only one was not a RFC/RAF plane -- a lone Belgian aircraft strayed in front of his sights. I'm also interested in seeing the film though, just for the novelty of a WW1 air-action film (something that hasn't really been done since, IIRC, 1968's "The Blue Max").