Ali Sama

Yes, but the Japan of now, is not the Japan of the past leading up to WWII. By design, shame, and/or sheer ignorance, the Japanese of now have few connections to that era, and prefer to distance themselves from it. Most of the Japanese live in the now, so they may not know about abandoned conventions in the former army/air force of one of the preceeding governments of the country.

Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, and the anime cited may be one of them.

so the japanese defence forces listing their callsigns on the internet for everyone to see is a mere figment of my imagination. Yes, I am insane.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/wor...df_callsign.htm

here are callsigns in japanese. if you can read that.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/wor...df_callsign.htm

As Keith pointed out, Callsigns are an almost exclusively American trait, though some other western european countries use them too. However, callsigns are rarely, if ever, used in the tactical environment. Instead the mission as a whole has a callsign. If I am the leader of eagle fligth I am Eagle 1, if I am the fourth ship in that flight I am Eagle-4. Macross uses that almost exclusively, Roy is almost always referred to as Skull-1 or Skull Leader, that would be the radio designation. Even Hikaru was usually referred to as Vermillion lead (IIRC). Macross Plus did it even a little better, as the YF-21 always flew as Omega-1 and the YF-19 Eagle-1. But when Isamu was flying chase he was no longer eagle-1 he was Chaser-1, which would be correct of the mission.

please read the link i gave which was about an anime ova which reused old world war II japanese aces and their "callsigns" as charcters.

Ok, thank you for the list of callsigns (the disputed ones are fun reading too.)

Though, I did answer your question in my earlier post. To repost the answer in other terms: the KISS principle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle

The original Macross (which is what the original question appears to be directed at) is primarily a non-serious war show marketed at kids and teenagers. The KISS principle is very important when dealing with that demographic.

Or, as the original Gundam was mentioned - what is Amuro Rei's callsign in the original Gundam TV series?

And yes, viewers are stupid*. It's easier to create a succesful story for the lowest common denominator that way. An example of a show where the audience isn't treated as being stupid is Star Trek. But is that show really that popular? Compare the success of any one of it's movies to a movie like "Armaggedon", which does treat it's audience as stupid, and is, frankly, offensive to those who do understand a little bit about science and physics - yet the movie made $553,709,788**.

*To clarify, I don't mean that they really are stupid. I mean that when they watch the show, they turn off their brains. Entertainment is escapism. If you want to escape from a complicated life, you tend to seek out simple distractions. Japan = complicated life in spades.

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon_(film)#Box_office

Star Trek: First Contact $150,000,000 http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/StarTrek.php

even stupid low brow movies like wing commander and the one which shall not be named under penalty of death(done by me due to curtosy to my good friend roy) had callsigns. Gundam had a excuse. he wasn't military and most of the real military on board died. I wish more stories would feature more realisitc things. a nickname is the same as a callsign. It gives the character more personality.

roy is skull one i my mine. or skull leader. max kjea woudl be einstien max sterling would be silver. etc.

They just sound corny.

Number and colr reminds me of Star Wars.

Luke = Red 5

Works better for me than say

Luke = Wet Boy.

red 5 is a callsign.

he was just inlisted. It takes time to really get one.

usually they are puns on the name or actions they did.

luke "star killer" skywalker would work(refrence to the death star kill.

lots of other things would work.

callsigns are a part of the military. It is tradition.

it's like making a military drama. Not showing anyone in uniform, saluting anyone. refering to any ranks. ANd expecting it to be a military show. Becuase it woudl sound silly or confuse the watcher. No let;s not call him major roy focker, roy focker. skip that. call him roy. yeah. but doesn't hikaru call him sempai? that is too confusing. let's call him sempai in the entire show. yes. let;s. do that.

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.

why should it? are the viewers stupid? there are plety of showes with main chracters who have callsigns. None of their viewers are confused. Even Gijoe had callsigns. Gijoe had way more characters and is comparible. Exo-squad had callsigns. If i remeber correctly.

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."

it became his callsign as soon as zion forces started calling him that. Callsigns are nicknames. I am finding more examples. this might be a looser one. but the point of the topic was. why no callsigns.

BSG? Battlestar Galactica?

Top Gun? Movie?

Please provide another Japanese produced anime with callsigns. Let's not mix differing cultures when it comes to entertainment.

The red comet - gundam

Goh "Rocky" Mutsugi (Makoto Shinj - area 88

Sousuke Sagara - His call sign is Uruz 7 - full metal panic

the callsigns for the yf project in plus.

IN 0083, the zion forces have callsigns when trying to infitrate the federatio base and steal the gp units.

read or die

the paper, miss deep, the joker

here

Most characters' names (except the main character Joto Hiko Heiso (Senior Flight Sergeant) Yoshika "Mamefuji" Miyafuji) are after famous historical fighter aces:

* Oberleutnant Erica "Frau" Hartmann = Erich "Bubi" Hartmann, 352 victories, "ace of aces"

* Hauptmann Gertrud "Trude" Barkhorn = Gerhard Barkhorn, 301 victories

* Senior Lieutenant Sanya V. "Lilya" Litvyak = Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, 12 victories, one of two female aces in history

* Tenente Francesca "Gaddino" Lucchini = Franco Lucchini, 26+ victories

* Shoi Mio "Samurai" Sakamoto = Saburo Sakai (60+ victories) + Tetsuzo Iwamoto (80 victories)

* Oberstleutnant Minna-Dietlinde "Füllstein" Wilcke = Wolf-Dietrich Wil©ke, 162 victories

* Sergeant Lynette "Lynne" Bishop = Billy Bishop, ~72 victories

* Captain Charlotte E. "Charlie" Yeager = Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, 11.5 victories, first man to break the sound barrier in level flight

* Kadetti Eila Ilmatar "Il" Juutilainen = Ilmari Juutilainen, 94 victories

* Lieutenant Perrine-H. "Clostel" Clostermann = Pierre Clostermann, 23+ victories

i'll add more as i find them.

It would confuse the heck out of the viewer. 1 less-than thirty minute episode once every seven days in a very busy life - it's demanding enough to ask the viewer to remember the names and the events that happened in the preceeding week! It is also one of the reasons why every hero has their unique vehicle and colours. Did Hikaru deserve a VF-1J when he joined? No. But it made him unique and visibly distinct from the legions of brownie VF-1A, and the yellow-black VF-1S. Later, Jenius in his blue trimmed VF-1A...

not really. there are other sereis with callsigns. callsigns is a tradtition. considering the small cast. Having callsigns is not really an issue. Look at bsg and other shows. top gun. etc.

Being unable to repair their own technology was more of a Robotech thing, otherwise Kamjin would never have gotten that gunship off of the ground, they probably didn't know all the intricacy of repair and retrofit but could still do some stuff but for the major stuff relied heavily on the factory satellites.

they had deserters who had learned things from the human population.

Why arn't there any callsigns?

Considering the pilots are airforce. They should have call signs. the only ones we get are. Skull leader, vermilian 1 etc. they arn't real call signs. Call signs, historically tend to represent personality, a pun on the last name, or an act they did(usually embarresing).

Max Jenus would be max 'Jenius' jenus or max 'einstien' jenus. stuff like that.

Any thoughts?

I will get this sucker eventually. I got a wave to of the 0s and it;s pretty good. I belive they fixed the qc control inthe secodn wave. everything is tight. i don't have the issues other people seem to have. i am going to use this sucker for the *hopefully* evntual reactiv earmor release. I need to get a gpb for the 1/48 roy i have. i think i'll get that next month.

^please do!^

its funny how a handful of people got decent ones(only graham that i know of) and others got the crappy ones(the rest of the freakin planet). i've been waiting to buy this since god knows how long but i just don't want to get a lemon and be out $150 bones...

I got the secodn release. its annoying. considering the original add sais second edtion not release. oh well.

I could think of worse places to be.

they are getting the new nintendo later then us. I remember when we got metal gear solid 2 first. i was at a japanese book store. boy where they pissed off.

Hello All,

I have gotten a few PM's and E-Mails regarding the release of this.

Here is the news I got from my wholeseller.

The VF-0A has been delayed in being released in JAPAN by one week. It was due out last Friday. I was told I will receive them this week. Once I do get them in aI will be mailing them out.

Thanks again and sorry for the delay.

Rob

my friend in hk has it already. sucks to be in japan.

Hmm....PICTURESS haha...

Well, if its for real, would you care to give a report about the "improved" toy?

sure. He should be shipping it this week. So. Once i get it I'll post pics

My good friend is selling them on his store.

good prices. IMHO.

eva unit 01 $20.25

Eva unit 00 $20.25

Fang of the Sun: Dougram Figure 17.75

I believe youre confused with what theyre selling (and thus what they said in their 'for sale' thread respectively) Those are the 2nd RUN of the VF-0S; NOT the 2nd EDITION.

this is what rob had.

VF-0S - 1/60 - MIB - 2nd Edition - $160.00 Shipped

Correcto - both Rob an Kevin have confirmed that what they have is the 2nd run of the first edition.

read above. the for sale add said second edition not Restock etc.

i'm pretty sure it was a restock, and not the 2nd edition release.

according to my source, there hasn't been a 2nd production release(with all the fixes) as of yet.

its supposedly due out sometime this month as i've been eagerly awaiting for some time now.

unless my source was wrong but i highly doubt that.

I trust rob. Also kevin. Who are selling it.

If you don't need one right now you should seriously wait. Word on the street is that now that the 0A is out Yamato is going to release the 0S second edition with all the fixes they applied to the 0A. No froppy joints, backward shoulders, broken tail spikes, or feet that don't lock.

second edition is out. I got one.

ali

The sculpt looks pretty cool, if a bit small. The colors are way wacked. Depends on the price, but I'll probably wait for the US version.

more chance of elvise announcing that he is alive

This Sale ends this Saturday.

have a safe trip

we should have an offical mw list of everyon's live account. that would be pretty fun. Especially if we get a few of us yapping on it.

ali

My Live card

Yes I did use two "!" to purposely correspond and mirror the two i's in Wii.

Anyway, lots of news and developments for the Big N's next system. Here in the US it will retail for $249.95/.99, but it will be coming with a sports compilation game which will put the Wii-mote to good use. Japan will be getting it closer to $200, but no pack in.

Here are some of the developments posted at Gamespot:

Wii released in Japan on December 2nd for $213.

Wii released in the US on November 19th for right at $250. (Again, with a game pack in).

Nintendo's Wii press event today.

So who's thinking of getting a Wii as their main or secondary system (otherwise the whole Wii60 phenomenom)?

I will get it. btw. it will be REGION FREE!

Seriously, how fast are the valks flying during ACM w/ Zentradi? With their weight and tiny wings, they would stall and drop like a a rock (ok, maybe a pumice stone).

I guess the quick answer is, yes they could maybe fly on Mars with engines full throttle on a straightaway. Thanks all for the responses  .

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their engines won't stall.

mars as an Atmosphere.

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I know, please re-read 1st post.

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ghostryder's problem with valks on mars is pretty much spot on... the atmosphere is way thin and a valks wings are have insufficient surface area to achieve lift.

IMO, they would be restricted to gerwalk and battroid more moving around.

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all you need is adequate thrust. Which the vfs have plenty of.