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Saruta

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Everything posted by Saruta

  1. Saruta
    What's the problem with Frontier's pacing at the end? I think it's the early middle that does have a pacing problem. Ep1 is nice, Ep5 is nice, Ep12ff actually get into the action, but it's a drag through most of the other early stuff if you ask me (and a friend who is currently watching at my request, too - and that friend is a 18 yo lady...). This may be, however, because they try to balance target audiences. So they feel they have to provide a series of battles, AND a lot of fanservice, AND character and plot development. but these don't work very well together before the main arc really gets into force - so they alternate. Both I and my friend only really care about character and plot development. so we find the early part a drag. EDIT: Well, I suppose in Macross 7 the hero doesn't get the girl... because he's an asexual twit who's more into his guitar than any flesh and blood person. The key words here being "flesh and blood". There is also the one who consists of, well, whatever demons consist of, definitely not flesh and blood. And she leaves him and flies off in an unknown direction. While she has a good reason to do so, it's still not an unreservedly happy end I think, though. of course nowhere near Sayonara no Tsubasa.
  2. Saruta
    Basara may be a bit of a munchkin/"god mode pilot". But it does not go as well for him in other areas of life, and also, he's an outright jerk. And unlike Guld he does not have an excuse in his blood. But yeah, happy and light (with tragedy lurking behind but hidden). Quite possibly explained by trying to reach a younger audience. As discussed on another thread, I have a nearly-9 year old son who loved DYRL and SDFM (in this order) and wants more; Frontier is blocked by adult type material, and Plus is both too dark and too fast, but 7 appears perfect. I just don't see why you care so much about M7. It's the least successful of the franchise apparently. It's very nearly "the dead past" - despite the plugging in FB7, just how many of the new Frontier fans will EVER find the time to watch the actual 49 episodes? M7 is gone, and with Frontier going much more in the young adult direction (night slot, etc) I really doubt there is a danger of the M7 style coming back in the new show. .
  3. Saruta
    American Blacks are a special case. Their ancestors were often slaves. When freed, some would take the last names of their former masters. This is likely how the ancestors of Shaq's mother, Lucille O'Neal, got their last name. (And of course, to go back to Macross, Claudia LaSalle's ancestors likely got their last name in the same way, from owners with some Freench background). Grace is white, so she does appear to have some Irish (or Scottish Gaelic) background. She still appears to speak fluent Japanese, but it might not be so hard for a cyborg to learn a language, what with all these brain extensions she has. Unless it's a case of translation convention... Really, I do wonder in what language Minmay, Sharon Apple, Sheryl, and Ranka are supposed to be singing "inworld". The question does not seem to arise with Basara, who does sing in Japanese. Sara and Mao would presumably be singing in Mayan? (As an adult Dr. Mao Nome probably spoke several languages fluently, but she may have dropped singing entirely by that time).
  4. Saruta
    I thought there was to be more information on the reasons after her final concert in March 20? That was over a month ago so is anything known now? (Honestly I thought it was a boyfriend/fiancee, or perhaps girlfriend if she swings that-a-way, But wouldn't it be known by this time who the "lucky" person is?)
  5. Saruta
    Wait - Sheryl's prison bio was in English too. And that under Leon Mishima who''s Japanese, though Howard Glass is not. Actually is there ANY kanji shown in Macross past SDFM? I'm starting to think that they just adopted English as the formal written language, whatever the spoken language of the particular fleet (and then we are shown the Japanese speaking fleets, for the obvious reason that it's a Japanese show). edit; while I was writing this Seto's comment appeared and it does seem likely that English is the government language throughout, explaining why all official notices must be in English too. I did forget abut the kanji in Frontier. On the other hand, there also is the English writing of lyrics in DYRL where Minmay sings in Japanese. This stops making sense to me as how would Minmay even know enough English? Misa would, she didn't spend these years in the military academy for nothing. Then again - Minmay lived on a cosmopolitan island where she had to serve food to a lot of scientists and workers from around the world, and wait, in SDFM she got an audition leter in English too, right? So is it supposed that Minmay sings in English and what we see is translation convention?.. But it would NOT be possible with Fire Bomber as there was a separate American group and also Basara is explicitly Japanese... NOW I'm confused! (Funnily, Minmay's voice actress actually sings rather pleasantly in English. Not sure if she could do it in 1982 and 1984, though).
  6. Saruta
    Is that in the Chronicle? Also they possibly did not do research in 1982 apparently, as the name Kim (or Kimberley etc) is not used in Russian. She could be a Russian of Korean lineage (they exist) but in that case she somehow uses her last name instead of her given name. And also I think I understand why Mylene wore a kimono. It's about respecting the host culture. The M7 fleet is, as far as I understand, predominantly Japanese by culture and language. (Now I'm imagining poor Milia who has to learn kanji as an adult! She probably just got the spoken language in SDFM times, then went to whatever European language Max uses. But as she progressed to Mayor of M7 City she probably does need to use kanji)
  7. Saruta
    I actually am charitable indeed, I was not thinking "rose tinted memory" but rather "why not go darker for a change, as happened in Plus". And I'm not exactly sure I'd actually like to see this happening -I was just working with that proposition. I actually like the style of "tragedy masked as vaudeville", which seems to describe most of Macross. Factual correction - I don't think the hero got the girl in M7? She bolted into unknown regions of space, probably because intimacy would likely end in death for Basara in a matter of days to months, and she already know killing him is no fun for her (which is the only stuff she actually cares about, being a demon and all)? Or you mean a different hero and a different girl? (As for that one, it appears to be a general reference to antique tragedies re human-god love - deeply hidden under layers of racy music and stock footage battles).
  8. Saruta
    How does one know Myung is of mixed heritage? I just thought of her as "vanilla" Chinese.
  9. Saruta
    Why do we need homosexual characters? Why do they HAVE to be the lead? Wait, in what Macross animation was a homosexual character ever the lead? The closest I can think of is Sheryl Nome, who is apparently bisexual, but she is not the sole lead and her main love interest is a man. Alto has gender issues but is apparently heterosexual, and there is a hint of him actually having heterosexual intercourse (if we trust the Frontier TV series novels, it's confirmed). And Bobby Margot, the camp gay man, is just a supporting character. In 7 the lead is either Mylene (heterosexual) or Basara (who does have a confirmed interest in one woman, Sivil, and not in any man). In Plus both lead men are known to be in love with a woman... So where's the gay under the bed? So you can understand why people did not like M7 compared to Plus and SDFM. In those two other shows you have a lot more maturity. There's a lot more to be said for why 7 is not the favourite. But I do wonder why you bring it up. It's an old series that appears forgotten except by the hardcore franchise fandom; unlike SDFM and DYRL (and. to a degre,. Plus) it did not join the ranks of the "anime classics". OK, they made a movie to pitch it to the new Frontier fandom. They gotta make money, you know. When people say they would like something more gritty and realistic, they are reacting against the super robot format of macross 7. Er, too few people have watched 7 at all to justify this blanket statement. Those who "want something more gritty and realistic" are much more likely to be reacting to Frontier - or to the general tendency to downplay the tragic impact. This tendency seems to exist from SDFM up, with DYRL and Plus possible exceptions. Macross 7 didn't have that. It basically shoved its cock in your mouth and says that singing is the solution and if you don't like me, too bad you will have to suck my cock anyway and weapons are not of any use. "Weapons are not of any use on their own but singing will work" appears to be a major Macross theme pretty much everywhere. The reason being that humans constantly encounter enemies that are too advanced for their weapons. Yes, 7 had a situation where weapons just went totally useless at the very end; Frontier TV restores the balance, but it does so by swapping the enemy in the ending. Against the Vajra, weapons ARE ultimately useless. Then you have the Frontier movies where, again, singing alone does it in the end, and that big picturesque blast was all for nothing. And last, I think your binary "masculine/feminine" analysis just does not work in the world of Macross. This is the world that gave us bridge bunnies, after all. And the one original Misa Hayase (I do mean the SDFM one not the DYRL one).
  10. Saruta
    I'd like to understand which of the characters in the anime franchise, obviously excluding aliens, are non-Japanese and what their backgrounds are. The ones I understood for now: - The Lynn family, including Minmay. Pretty obvious Chinese (but part of the family was living in Japan). - All Mayan characters obviously, including Sara and Mao Nome. - The Russian pilots in M0. - Roy Fokker. (German-American?) - Claudia LaSalle (African American? French-speaking African/Haitian?). Claudia and Roy speaking Japanese to each other is probably just "translation convention". - Grace O'Connor (Irish? Irish American?) The ones I'm not sure about: - Ozma Lee. "Lee" can be Chinese, as in Bruce Lee, or Dutch and then American, as in General Robert Lee. Which kind of Lee is he? - Mikhail Blanc. The name, spelled like that, actually sounds like a Russian-background Ashkenazi Jew. If spelled "Michel Blanc" he might be French. Any ideas? - Is anything known of Sheryl's ancestors apart from Mao, and of the father of Ranka and Brera? (Is Sterne their real last name? Sounds German or else Ashkenazi again!). Or about Ranshe too - was her father Zentran or her mother? - Speaking of Sheryl - how did she retain the last name of her maternal grandmother? Are the Mayan matrilineal, and how did both her maternal grandfather and her father agree to this, if they were known at all? Does "Kiss in the Galaxy" shed any light on the matter? - Who else is there? ("Shammy" does not sound very Japanese to me...) Also, Frontier appears mainly Japanese-speaking but not exclusively? There are English public notices (like "Emergency"). P.S. To Mods - could you fix the typo in the heading? It's "Macross" of course
  11. Saruta
    How old is Basara anyway?
  12. Saruta
    Before the Internet was much of a thing, there were Usenet and Fight-o-net (aka Fidonet. Yes, I was there, flaming away about politics). But I do get your point, especially about the episodes. After some thought (based on just FB7 for now, I am in the process of *ahem* getting access to 7) the Sivil story seems pretty tragic. I mean, she is into him, and he might well be into her, but there's that little problem where she was not in control of herself and very nearly did him in for good. And she can't be sure it won't happen again next time she's sleepy or tired or something. So she does the only honorable thing and disappears into the sunset. Kawamori's take on the ancient topic of star-crossed lovers? And that in the middle of a Big Happy Ending. UPD. After some googling - did FB7 actually replace the main triangle? In FB7 I got the impression that the obligatory triangle was Mylene-Basara-Sivil, while in 7, according to wikis etc, it's Gamlin-Mylene-Basara?
  13. Saruta
    Thanks! From the description here I see that 7 is quite appropriate - I don't see shower scenes as a problem (there is one in SDFM too), just explicit sexual stuff that actually has to be explained, where what is going on on-screen does not make sense without the fanservice. I think Frontier does cross the threshold. Apparently 7 does not (but Dynamite does). Still would like more information about that train. Also I wonder - were there any shipping wars back in 7 times? Did Sivil-haters and Mylene-haters exchange fire, like Misa and Minmay haters before or Ranka and Sheryl haters after? From what I saw in FB7 I tend to think Sivil was the only one who could actually get through to Basara (not that it is necessarily a point in his favour). But FB7 might be tilted compared to the original.
  14. Saruta
    Oh, and also - in the end credits for the movie we see Basara on a train. I hear it was mentioned somewhere else and someone met Basara on a train too? Enlightenment would be appreciated. Also - any idea what planet that train might be on?
  15. Saruta
    Thanks - I'll probably go for 7. As I understand dubs don't exist and he'll have to get used to reading subtitles. The problem with Frontier is that fanservice is so prominent it might be impossible to understand what is going on without it. As in "why is Sheryl so angry about PANTIES", etc. I don't want to end up explaining these things. The movies, of course, are a lot worse. I know a 17 year old lady who loved the series and flat out won't watch the movies because of the fanservice scenes, notably those Sheryl concerts. And she loves the songs in those, too, when she watches them sung live by May'n, but the animation... yeah, inworld Ranka was not very happy about that either - the parallel is obvious. One should *hear* that girl sing, so I hope Elmo Kridanik finds her soon
  16. Saruta
    OK, makes sense. So Luca Angeloni having something to do with an electronic antiquity shop is not canon either then? And a different question. How fanservice-y is Macross 7? After watching FB7, I thought that perhaps 7 might be the Macross sequel I could show to my nearly-9 year old son. Sivil's look is not a problem, but I need to know how much explicitly "young-adult" material is there - you know, like that panty chase and "mine bring people hopes and dreams" in Frontier. (FB7 itself is way too fast-paced for him to decode; I would not be able to decode it myself if not for quite some wiki-reading re 7).
  17. Saruta
    Has the Macross FB7 movie been placed on the timeline in the Frontier series and/or movie continuity? I'm having trouble fitting the ending (Sheryl and Ranka doing a Fire Bomber tribute concert) into either, as Sheryl seems to be ill by the time Ranka has her first public concert?
  18. Saruta
    Sherlock Holmes might surprise you...
  19. Saruta
    If they get Minmay in it at all, I think it would rock to get in a *significantly older* Minmay. With the original voice actress, of course. A young Minmay with present-day Mari Iijima won't sound right (the 2006 dub has that problem, I think - the girl on screen is 15, the voice, while beautiful, is decidedly middle-age). And a Minmay without Mari is not Minmay in my opinion - at best she's the Minmay character as played in an inworld movie by someone like Ranka Lee. But an older Minmay with Mari's voice would rock, in my view. (I imagine her when listening to some of Mari Iijima's more recent work).
  20. Saruta
    I'm not saying "remove the idol concept" I'm saying deconstruct it, as in "it seems it's cool from the outside but when you really become an idol you find out it sucks" or something like that. SDFM had interesting hints in that direction but I'd want it full blown. (Come to think of it, if a reboot happens it might do *just that* with the later part of Minmay's story. Kawamori may have meant it all along back then, but Frontier seems to have nearly nothing of the kind - there it only sucks for an idol when you get betrayed or used).
  21. Saruta
    Well, as people started mentioning what they would want... I would want a "deconstructor fleet" kind of show that finally blasts the idol concept to pieces and beyond, with valks to boot of course (aliens not really required, civil wars work just fine in shows, especially if you can have different mecha on the sides). But I know it's not likely, for much of the potential bashing hits the target audience too closely.
  22. Saruta
    Hey kaldar5! This is me, "ramendik". And yes I had my fill of Ranka haters - even though I actually don't think she ended up with Alto. Someone spouting certain well known stuff is getting killed by Brera in my (w friends) next fic I do like Elmo Kridanik though. He's not so bad with the carrot stuff and all - in fact it's better that way, not only could he do a lot with limited resources, but by growing gradually, Ranka had less of a chance to catch "star syndrome" and become overconfident like Sheryl did. Also, he was getting around obstacles like Grace hacking his websites (I wonder why she bothered). Not his fault that she was whisked into a government project and that the manager was a big time crook while Mishima, formally the leader, was a complete idiot. (OK, it's established this girl's songs summon Vajra; at best they summon relatively tame Vajra. Now let's have her sing at this funeral! WHAT. She basically saved Frontier by not singing at the funeral *and nobody even noticed, including Alto*? Has the place gone totally insane or is it a plot hole?) What I'm worried about is somewhat different. This experience - basically everything from the moment she stopped being just an upcoming singer and became a weapon - probably impacted her emotionally a lot. And her reputation is tarnished; lots of people saw her holographic image singing and Vajra rallying and killing their friends and loved ones. (*We* know what she was through; *we* know how she broke out of it with Sheryl's help; most people on Frontier don't have these details). She may well end up feeling guilty for that part, too. I just see HUGE trouble coming her way as soon as the euphoria from the victory wears off in a few days. It's not really her fault - she did the best she could - but I really wonder how she got out of it. The love triangle is not the only thing that the TV series leaves unresolved. Oh, and not very seriously - perhaps some years later she, with Sheryl, got to produce a certain twin set of movies? Makes sense after the way we know DYRL was produced inworld. And the movies give Ranka a lot of time to explain her philosophy - something she was not great at in the TV series. "Adult Ranka wrote this" makes sense to me! And also... did she end up telepathically/emotionally linked to Sheryl at all times? Yuri shipping apart, it must actually be pretty uncanny for both, if not worse.
  23. Saruta
    Oh,and an embarassing qustion - where can I find the timeline of Macross Frontier (TV series) events? I think I saw it somewhere... like for example how much time passed between Ranka's start with Elmo and her planned first live concert, etc. EDIT: found. http://macross.anime.net/wiki/2059
  24. Saruta
    Thanks for the responses and changing the subject back to a suitable question Ranka has red eyes. I know she is quarter-Zentradi, but do we get to see any Zentradi with red eyes? I can't remember one offhand nor did Google help.
  25. Saruta
    Thanks Tochiro! For some reason I failed to get any answers between parts of a quote, so not using the official quote mechanism... I did hear about the business deal with Tezuka Productions. However as a longterm Tezuka fan I still notice that the timing is well chosen. That's just a bonus apparently. "Then again, DYRL had FULLY naked Minmei and a love hotel joke, while SDFMTV has Hikaru in a lingerie store, Fokker perving on Minmei's butt, and a bikini segment in the Miss Macross Contest." Yes but the movie stuff was, as far as I remember, "blink and you miss it", and the SDFM stuff was pretty tame. So tame that it has not triggered my "parent guard", which is admittedly rather lax. Episode 11 (the conversation of the captive team with Zentradi commanders) could in my view be read far more "viciously" but it is hidden behind innocent-sounding speech. You,re right aboiut this being a matter of standards evolution in Japan,. although the fact that F was aired in a night timeslot might also account for a part of it. Well, he'll just have to wait. "As far as the overall topic goes, I'm no fan of shipping wars, but the movies at least made BOTH Sheryl AND Ranka winners! Sheryl was the 'winner' when it came to romance, but ended up in a coma and with potentially no singing voice when/if she recovers. Ranka, on the other hand, 'wins' in music since she becomes the main idol in the galaxy as a result. Neither character could ever have both - by it's very definition, being an 'idol' means you cannot have a successful romance/relationship - but at least this way each of character 'wins' at something." This is an excellent point and I was thinking about it for the last few days. I read somewhere that Frontier is supposed to be, in part, a critical commentary on the idol industry. but I think Kawamori was way too tame on the part where an idol is not supposed to have a personal life. Indeed, even in the TV series version with no coma, realistically whoever wins the love triangle would have a major problem with her singing career. Or if we trust the novels, just imagine the sh*tstorm that would happen around Sheryl if her "courage-sharing" with Alto becomes public knowledge. I wish he would invite Gen Urobuchi to collaborate on the next Macross because that guy knows how to "pull no punches" and deconstruct mercilessly, and the idol industry seems to be asking for a good deconstruction. They're both trolls, and apparently both Osamu Tezuka fans, so they'd have a jolly good time in a collab. Though I guess a couple of fictional colonization fleets would get gruesomely destroyed on-screen in the process.
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