1/1 LowViz Lurker

I would argue that the holograms themselves help enhance the mind persuasion. Yang didn't care about the music, and didn't seem to be that much a sharon apple fan compared to the rest of the audience at the concert who were focused on her (choosing instead to try to hack her). It was more the cute holographic girl from my memory. It was only after the holograms started going inside the cockpit in the last episode that he had to be ejected, so maybe certain types of things work more effectively on some people than other things? Also sometimes dark blue in anime represents black. Just like how batman in comics might have a greyish bluish suit instead of black in the movies. I'm willing to think it is more blue now. About loss of life: that might be what they say but could there also be that desire to cut out pilots and replace them like they do the street cleaners which are now robots and would mean no need to pay someone to do that mundane work? Just as doing your banking through phone or internet banking instead of face to face with a person saves banks from having to pay to have a bankteller there every working day? It's not out of the ordinary to think this as it is a theme in pretty much every science fiction show imo. (from drivers of cars, to shop assistants, to military weapons (ie star wars battledroids). After all the mayor of macross city was complaining in SDF:macross how much money they spent on the ship when global had doubts it was ready yet to launch into space, so there could also be a money factor in it too. Everything costs money even in fictional universe. In the instance where drones appeared to be "good enough" they probably looked at how much *cheaper it would be too, and were persuaded to go with the cost saving option. (just my opinion here) I still don't see a drone being superior to a thinking human in a sensitive mission where so many things could go wrong. Speed isn't everything. The ghost in macross plus fought Dyson and Guld after they had used up all their ammo fighting each other. So just because it appeared threatening and quick doesn't mean its superior as that wasn't a fair fight. Part of the deadliness was due to sharon apple having controlled it too which adds another factor. (maybe it was *"smarter" due to sharon being a more humanlike-AI than a normal drone?) *assuming for a sec that a non-transforming vehicle with less moving parts is going to be less costly and complex to mass produce than valks. **the mad scientist used a banned technology to get her to feel more realistic and emotional which might have enhanced its thinking in some way

Ah but didn't lucas added on the "worms in your body" idea later on in the prequel trilogy for the origin of those psychic powers which explains why jedi's appear to have such good reflexes? Whereas in the Original Trilogy it was more about training your mind like a martial artist, and focusing. That to me = change. People with higher worm count are going to have unfair advantages to people who train hard with low worm count which is why the royal bloodline of noble knights is so important. Darth vader loses some worms when he turns cyborg after loss of limbs so he can't fight as well. I don't see too much difference. Adding the "Worms in your body makes you special" idea later on in star wars = adding the "Anima Spiritua makes you special" idea in macross 7. For me it's how it was presented. They wanted monsters but the monsters appeared too non-threatening so it spoiled the mood and seriousness of the show. They took a more "ghost busters" approach to it. Ghosts themselves can be really scary when seen in a horror movie, so you can't blame them, but that the movie was set as a comedy. Contrast it to say "final fantasy spirits within" where the ghosts are threatening and dangerous killers, and you can see my point: the presentation is more at fault. You could proabably remake M7 to be more appealing to the original fans of macross, had they just taken a serious approach. The ghosts that possessed people in macross 7 just didn't appear scary is all.

Ah but how? People saw him crash into the water and wouldn't that mean he died? Then suddenly he rises out and magically the fighter is lifted weightless into the sky? Was he baptised from his sins and clean enough to go to heaven where the stars are, unlike us filthy humans, or is it a joke ending? People prefer the scientific logical explanations that confirm one way or the other rather than magic ones. This way you can say for sure "he is physically alive" still rather than assume it was a ghost and just symbolic of joining his lover in heaven so she wouldn't be lonely. Mao? Did she end up protecting the village in Sara's abscence or did they put a mcdonald's fast food restaurant there? I thought shin was supposed to do that which is why sara wanted him to stay behind? Priestesses must be pretty pissed? Did they become civilised and no longer use magic? What about their religion? Did the islanders who witnessed this event become stronger believers now? Or just say: "stuff this I'm moving to the city because I like trains. Magic is inferior! Technology FTW"? Explanations > abrupt ending. I think the mystery is what turned people off because they can't really say for sure what the hell happened because it is cryptic.

The vibe I get is he is a girlish guy, but serious about proving himself to his parents. Maybe how like minmay had to fight with her own parents in SDF:M to prove her singing career was a serious thing. So possibly this alto guy needs to quickly prove to everyone (not just himself) that his path to be a fighter pilot is serious. He is the second best, so he has to live in the shadow of some other guy. (just like hikaru always being left behind by roy) So that's why he's pissed. Until they give him a chance to pilot a real machine (bits of dyson here where he is bored like hell with the slow-ass vf-11 cannon fodder in the opening rogue zentradi fights) he can't rise up and show his true self. He is interesting: whereas hikaru is conflicted by his anti-war attitude to flying fighters and wants nothing to do with it, but torn apart by his need to show minmay he is superior to his sempai, this alto guy is like a reverse of that: wanting to fly, knowing the valk is his dream, but then sees the military not helping the non-vip civilians so is digusted by that part. (just a reverse of hikaru: rather than being insecure at first then confident later, he will probably be sure of himself like gamlin, then maybe rethink the choices and predjudices he has later and being less of a "try-too-hard" like misa was in the original and maybe learn to relax a bit) In sdf macross most of the soldiers hate war too but were forced to fight, whereas here it's like war = "giving meaning to my life", freedom to fly higher with less restrictions, so it's a selfish reason to cure boredom. Hopefully they show the horror of fighting though and instead of do what they did in SDF:macross by having cannon fodder just die as background soldiers, show closer characters dying in gruesome ways to make the characters get darker in mood and more serious and less selfish quickly. (ie bitchslap scene in DYRL for example) That would be faithful to macross (how the characters change from one attitude to another one) without being a complete clone. (all the people are just new versions of the old ones with no surprise twists for the older fans who've seen SDF:macross and want something new) Now I know basara might have been popular as a character to fans of macross 7 but honestly having a character who is so sure of himself throughout the whole series is not a realistic thing. It's one dimensional cardboard cut out characters from super hero shows that are like that. Adults wants drama and depth like the macross of old where it's more like a space opera. You can still make macross a vehicle to sell merchandise without sacrificing what made it a good-to-watch series for people of all ages and timeless classic. The key is to not just aim at "fans", but everyone without sacrificing what those existing fans like to see. (for example for me I'm glad there is more ships about in F. You never got the feeling there was anything major happening outside the main characters of basara and mylene in macross 7, whereas in SDF: macross there was more secondary characters involvement too. Sure the love triangle is going to be important but it shouldn't be the only thing going on)

The americans can accept telekineses powers in superhero shows like the x-men and starwars (in the form of force powers from jedi and sith) just not in the robot show. I think most people on this board are "realism" fanboys so that is why macross 7 and zero gets bashed all the time. Mutant spider men with spider sense, and super powers is fine due to radioactive exposure, but hell if they will accept a bunch of monsters from space with greater, more-ancient, intelligences and supernatural mind powers than earth people. It just seems too weird for them. I'm not so hung up on the floaty rocks any more than super powers in comic books, alien ghosts in the final fantasy movie, or atlantean myths from another age (this is your stock standard japanese RPG backstory) but my beef is just how the ending does not want to explain much. What happened to the anus-fingering Mao, what happened to shin's injured friend with the broken limb? Did sara and shin die? Or was it just an imagined event? What about the anti-un? Just because two ace pilots are dead, that doesn't mean they are defeated does it? And what about the burnt forest? Shouldn't the villagers get some compensation or does the evil UN who wants to experiment on people for military research without thinking about what the islanders want, just going to keep those PC descendants locked in a prison for fear the anti-un use them as a weapon against them? Just seemed like they stopped in the middle abruptly leaving you hanging. There was so much potential to explain stuff, maybe link it to how basara has special powers through his music to tie it all together, but it never happened.

They also did this in SDF:M. They had those black things when the airshow was on and they didn't seem to do much. robot drones will never be as smart as humans. The government just wanted to save money in macross plus since they wouldn't have to pay people to fly the planes, cheapasses. Good thing dyson beat the drone boss in plus even though it had mind control powers through the use of holograms of naked women to hypnotise and confuse you. This should be a tactic of future wars they could use against the bugs, so they can get close enough to shoot them in a weak spot (the nuts) like in many arcade shoot em ups. This is how yang managed to beat the sdf-1 with dyson's: aim for the brains.

Yeah but the high heels.. it's a knight in drag. VF-17 or 19 look like men with a strong presence. When a zentradi looks at one they would get scared by it's appearance. VF11 and vf-1 are too effeminate because they are too skinny and need the gbp.. Lacks fire power by itself Imo. yf-21 is more advanced but look how primitive the face is. Its so ugly that it knows it so the designer purposely hides it in a hoodie. Like the vf-11b head, it has no style. I understand robots are supposed to be functional, but a ball with an eyeball in the centre smack of laziness. Not one of the zentradi's best decisions if they want to impress the military.

I might get one. See I skipped the toynami alphas and feel a bit guilty for not buying anything mospeada yet. Durability though: will these things fall apart? I'm the guy who bought the horrible cheap banpresto valk toys and like them, but for the cost these are, not being able to stay together would be the straw that broke the camels back. If only we could just get a toy that has the detail of the toynami (minus the clown feet) combined with the durability of other company's toys. Maybe they'll do a yamato and reboot the legioss the way yamato did the vf-1 with it's new 1/60 vf-1 line? (scrap the old legios and design a alpha + beta two set that fixes all the probs of the first releases) Remember how they said: buy an alpha to get a beta? Well you bought the alpha but where's the beta? Now CMs is doing it too: buy this or no mospeada toys will ever be made again meaning you will have to wait 20 more years and you'd be dead by then.

Yeah but I think you'd be happier if the show was 2d like in the old days when they didn't have to worry about melding the cg objects with the 2d stuff. I liked those old detail infested parts in the original SDF:macross which although had little animation frames, showed the guts of the robots themselves and reminded you these things had stuff inside them for realism reasons. I want smooth animation with lots of details, and no reason to use cost saving cg effects just for business reasons. (saving $) You know how in the appleseed manga you can actually see so much vivid details on the machines themselves that it makes you believe they are really there? But in the cg movie it seems simplified and stuff? I wish there was a way to get all the detail without hit on smooth animation. This way you can rewatch an anime several times and pick up new things you didn't see on the first few times on a rewatching of a scene. The animefriend episodes in SDF:macross are why new anime watchers are frightened to watch old anime because they think old anime has to move choppy, and use limited animation. People should want good quality consistently for shows they are fans of. (just as people scrutinise poor writing, or bad mecha design, or music) Another example is say when you look at the Gundam in Stardust memory, you can see its guts and how things are working internally. I want all that in these new shows. More mech porn and detail.

Technically the monsters are also destroids so saying destroids are discontinued is wrong isn't it? Mini monsters could pop up in the future equipped with fold boosters, full barrier system, and portable macross buster canon on them since they are strong enough to generate the power needed to fire it. (yeah yeah the vf-11 had a giant gunpod in macross 7 but that is in space where the gravity isn't pulling it down) All the weaker robots would break if they fired the gun. But not the monster. The machine is really just a giant gun on legs. I bet given that they were responsible for shooing away the afos in macross zero they will probably do something similar in Macross F. Only problem is how slow they are. But who cares if you can shoot people from afar? Look at the Grand cannon for example: just a big gun that could fire at long range and kill groups of ships in one shot. The military can't afford to just rely on the valkyrie which takes a hit on speed for carrying heavy weapons. It's going to need bigger mecha generating larger amounts of power, and shooting from a safe distance where the enemy can't get you easily. (unless they have the same thing)

VF-1 is puny and small. The helmet looks basic, and the gunpod has so little features. I think the yf-19 is the best: it has the shield, *two beam sabers, pinpoint barriers, the best looking gunpod, a surprised weapon in the form of the the wings concealing the lasers in battroid mode, and size. (it beat the skinny armed yf-21 in a close quarters fight, ripping its arms off) It's the man's VF. There is something about the 19 that to me screams, "I own the sky". It's wings mimmicking the flying dinosaur in the anime. VF-19 is cool too being based on it, but that would be like saying "I like the vf-0 the best cuz it looks like a vf-1." (very similar so it's pointless) Only weakness is how the uniboob sticks out too much, and it's obvious that whenever you see the robot mode in the anime they purposely show it in non-erect nipple mode to hide it. But otherwise it's the one VF I can proudly say looks good in both robot and fighter mode. (unlike say the vf-11 which seems a little weak in robot mode without GBP but kicks ass as a fighter) The broad angled shoulders, nice head turret, bulky but smooth leg and arm armor, and good feet. (never a big fan of the vf-1 high heels look) *i kid

Whenever some young anime nerd refuses to watch old anime because of the belief that the age of the anime means it has to be poor quality, mention DYRL. So many times I see "that's pretty good quality animation ....for anime back then" as if to say people had lower standards of acceptance a long time ago and skills were crappier. (and that lovers of classic anime are just nostalgiac with rose tinted glasses) Ah if only a movie could be done in the old school 2d animation style again (everything is handdrawn) like DYRL.

I agree. But remember roy has emotions too. He joined up to be a killer after the death of some friend didn't he? Everyone wants to get personal revenge accept for hikaru who only wanted to kill stuff because his girlfriend thought he's a loser for moping around on the ship wasting his life. Even the forest babe got angry after the sacred magic forest was burnt and she had no sympathy for the rest of the planet (using such a reckless and dangerous weapon) forcing us to have to shoot her floating flower with a monster lest she kill some innocent children who had nothing to do with the anti-un bombing. 1. Roy got angry so he joined the military instead of being a normal pilot. Was killed for drunken behaviour by underestimating grunts. 2. Ivanov got angry when his GF got beaten. Both emotional, so they are even. No excuse. Roy had ages to try to beat him but relied on the alien to do his killing. But to give him credit it was his teacher so he might have wanted to go easy on him, sorta like obi-wan against anakin skywalker but in reverse. (teacher turns to the darkside instead of the student) I think that if nora had not been raped and tortured by un soldiers (they were hinting that in the ova) she might not have been so reckless and careless by letting the memories/emotions of the past get to her. It's a bit like how miria lost her cool against max (after losing to him in the arcade which must have been a public humiliation to her even though its a kid's game) and therefore her attacks became too predictable with repeated fights causing her to lose easily.

Ultimate vf is the SDF-1. Without it you'd have nothing to fight the zentradi with. Originally it was controlled by a giant artificial brain and in ancient times was a voltron style combiner robot which is how the humans ripped the idea off of making it transform into a giant humanoid shaped battleship. The scientists were messaged telepathically through dreams while they took special PC drugs to create the transforming fighter. But because humans couldn't save the giant *brain inside which controlled the ship they decided to treat it like a micronised battleship instead of a fighter for a race of giants. (the main gun is tiny to these particular giants and the zentradi are only a little bit less puny) If you thought bodolza and britai was huge then you haven't seen the real giants. (designed to survive any hostile planets' climate - worshipped as creator gods by all the various alien races that witnessed them in ancient time. They were beaten by the Protodevils and were never seen again and the people who created them are at the centre of the galaxy) source: me *similar to the holy floating head in Macross zero. It's thoughts became reality so parts of the ASS-1 would react with instant speed using telekinesis to help move the limbs. A bit like sharon apple after she "possessed" the ship in macross plus but even more accurate because the movements were not robotic or mechanical. (the ultimate mind machine interface - a giant "cyborg" for long distance space travel) Humans will probably need to reverse engineer the biomechanical technology of the insects in Macross F if they want to be able to recreate the original ASS-1 technology. Oh and the firing of the main gun in the first episode of SDF:M which started SW I was not a booby trap set to go off. The ghost of the dead brain manipulated the computer to fire the shot. Nobody really confirmed it was actually set up by the former crew of the ship/giant transformable anti-gravity space fighter. Remember at the time people didn't believe in mind powers and ghosts until about the time of macross 7.

It would be good if in future there was no region coding on the dvd players so the US fan can watch japanese releases with the official subs already in them and actually import those ones to sidestep the need to wait for a local release which will never come out. If I could get the version with the original music and sounds I would if they just put the eng subs in them. (I have all region player so region codes aren't a big deal)

It's not a rip of this remastered disc though is it? I recently downloaded the rip of the mangle version from a group called white_base. (I already own the movie and OVA dvds) Only a matter of time I reckon before someone rips this HQ one and then adds subs plus eng dub. Why does everyone hate the dub so much? Don't you like the improved sounds? The yf-21 makes guld sound like he has a god voice.

They were programmed to fear culture so it probably just turned into a general "I'm shocked" expression. So anything they don't understand or can't believe becomes "what the hell, I can't believe it, holy poo!" War is the only thing they get, so anything outside of that must be a shock to them. If they get contaminated they'll get executed. So it's like if you expose yourself, and the leaders find out you've been cultured, too bad, you gotta die. "deculture!" Once the minmay broadcast had confused them in SWI, the soldiers must have thought they were going to die of a disease or something so it bought the humans just enough time whilst they were scared to die from it. (if they were prgrammed to believe it was fatal of course. Eventually it wore off and they embraced it. Even kamjin couldn't be tricked later on when he kidnapped minmay. But old habits die hard)

Destroids will probably go the way of the regult and glaug. As toys people will buy VFs more because of the transformation gimmick and they are actually the hero mecha just like gundam is in its universe. There willl never be a hero destroid pilot. Even though in macross zero the monster saved the day and the pilot didn't get congratulated for his work aiming at the PC robot that was going to exterminate the human race. Kinda sad. But that's where transforming destroid come in. I don't see why they couldn't make more of stuff like the octos which hides in the sea like the regult did in SDF:macross and launch a surprise attack? (for times when they find a hostile native race competing for control on a planet they've already settled on?) The regult could float in the water and then leap into the air with the powerful legs and shoot stuff on the ground easily because of its height. I just think there are advantages to different mecha types that might be useful for certain things that VFs might not be. VFs for example can hover on the spot, but it wastes energy and the weapons point forwards making it harder to shoot stuff while in that mode. A more accurate way to kill things would be to have the gun up high but standing tall from the ground. This way you can crouch to avoid being an easy target, (say in the giant grass or in a forest) and then stand up to peek at what's ahead without being seen. You may not want to bomb the area because you want to capture it for yourself so as to preserve the culture, and study the aliens. I can think of all kinds of uses for the older tech, but I think the emphasis is always going to be on the hero mecha since it will sell the most toys. But having said that, even gundam has it's space use robots, ground use robots, robots used in the sea, and flying ones. The government is just more restricted in money in macross. Maybe because people have no money and robots have taken all their jobs so they are poor and can't be taxed as much? No more guy in the street cleaning up th mess when you can just get a robot to do it. Everyone just becomes a soldier. But even then, the zentradi are better suited to it because they love to kil stuff as that is their way of life.

The floating rocks and holy floating head had the most powerful weapons though. It's only a matter of time before humans get to have access to super robots and macross II won't seem so ridiculous anymore. heh The giant bug thing in macross f is probably the floating head's mother protecting its eggs/children explaining why the military was expecting some bad stuff to happen. They must have brought a few blood dscendants of the mayan islanders with them in hopes of getting them to comunicate and control one of them for study again. The bugs even pooed all over the VF in macross 25 as if to say "you aren't even worth my time!" They have to be some melding of organic and mecha technology which wouldn't surprise me since the zentradi had people's brains controlling a ship by thought and tentacled hands in DYRL. Imagine coming back into the ship for repairs with tentacled poo all over your VF. Pretty humiliating. When they get to the centre of the galaxy they will probably find lots of naked women controlling floating heads with thier minds and ordering them to kill all the power hungry races trying to get control of their weapons for study. I bet the mysteriously vanished fold drives from SDF:macross are there too. Also destroids will be useless and possibly only used after a post-apoc scenario (just like in SDF:Macross) when the humans become like the PC and go through an age of lost technology (holy floating heads destroy all human colonies). Maybe it will be like Turn A gundam and humans have branches of newtypes who can understand the machines better and their sensitive nature is what allows them to intuitively sense danger so they become like jedi pilots who can't die? This will then allow big west to reboot the whole franchise again and pretend there was no such thing as a VF-1 which looks older and less modern than the vf-0.

The bright colour kinda reminds me of the fire valkyrie though. Like Nora is similar to basara and choosing to paint the thing in flashy colours, was asking to get schooled. "Nyah nyah you can't hit me!" Whereas Ivanov at least never got schooled by roy because he is just too good. He was just unlucky the birdman interfered.

You didn't think the ending was a bit rushed?

I like them a lot better than those hover boots in macross 7 trash. These ones make a lot more sense. Now it's more obvious when people are cheating in basketball.

Poor destroids. With antigravity technology they could try to create experimental combinable ones that hover on the skin of the ships and dock with each other like the alpha and beta fighter. The valks could concentrate on fancy flying and dogfighing while the destroids on guarding areas that don't require too much speed and movement. It was the monster after all that damaged the birdman in zero and not shin or roy. The transforming octos kicked ass. More of those surprise attack destroids would be cool. With the variable glaugs having flying abilities and the monster able to hover, I think a anti-grav hovertank (no treads just floats on the skin) would be pretty cool. Maybe we don't see it often like we don't see the ghost drones in SDF:macross that much, but have them there doing some fighting. Save the Destroids! They look cheaper to make than the valks and have better protection of the heads. Eventually the bugs will get aboard the ship and abduct people. And the Valkyrie destroys the environment with its harmful feet thrusters so it's not suitable for all places. But a few futuristic spartans with hand carried shotguns and melee weapons would be ideal for inside a city where they can't be allowed to destroy the insides. (sort of like the robots in patlabor) The destroids in SDF:M were shorter than the vf-1 (smaller than the newer valkyries) so I don't really see the problem with lack of space. Some of these destroids would be ideal for helping repair the cities too.

I'm sick of it, but not because I think it's a bad design. In fact I like it better than the vf-0 because it just has better features like the way the pilot ejects in battroid mode, or the things it does in space with the boosters and strike cannon against aliens in powered armor, and how generally it is about the size of a zentradi giant so it seems like it was suited for combat just for that purpose in close combat against a race which is numerically superior. (see the fight where max skillfully takes out the bigger and clumsier Qrau in DYRL inside the ship - it works well for confined spaces where quick sudden movement might be required, as much as out in the open where you will get hit at from long range) Just as the mecha in mospeada were small so they could fight the agile faster inbit swarm. VF-0 to me may look sexier in fighter mode to good ole vf-1 but the blocky arms of the vf-1 makes it look tougher in battroid mode in some ways. Aren't you all fans of 80s styled boxy mechas like me? Humans have that distinct 'boxes and rectangles' look while the aliens go for bulky rounded things. The reasons I'm sick of it is due more to how SDF:M and DYRL is the most milked franchise so stuff like variable glaug will never be made due to less exposure. They can just repaint the vf-1 and profit from the same thing without taking any risk.

Another good thing is if parts do break, or you feel something is beyond repair, because the toys are more common/numerous/cheaper, finding replacement pieces will be easier. With masterpieces/large expensive stuff, it's less common, so finding some spare part is going to be harder therefore it leads to you being more 'careful' playing around with it. People might want something smaller, less risky to handle, so even if you own a 1/48, having a 1/60 crammed with detail and easy to transform is still a good idea. You could probably feel safe doing more risky poses with smaller toys too. I never pose my 1/48 in anything but a standing battroid pose most of the time because of the heavy fast pack. You don't want to weaken or loosen a joint, or have some part (like missiles) fall off while handling it. And when it falls to the floor all these little micromissiles and stuff go everywhere. Just the stress of touching bigger stuff and getting it to stand in just the right pose without it crashing down, is what makes them unappealing to fans of smaller toys I think.