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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    That would depend on what else Big West successfully trademarks there. The UKIPO shows that Harmony Gold's trademark filings in the European Union are currently being challenged by Big West as well... not just the ones on the Macross name, but what appears to be practically every related mark that Harmony Gold uses to stop Macross licensing in the west. If memory serves, EU trademark law preferences the owner of the material over the first user. Should Big West successfully win those challenges, they would have the power to effectively lock Robotech out of the entire European Union by forbidding them to use the name and logo of Macross, the UN Spacy and Zentradi emblems, the term "UN Spacy", and the key art of the main characters and mecha.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Granted, he's basically there for The Worf Effect anytime he actually fights but there are One Episode Wonder villains who go out with more fanfare than he did. Even his own fake death got more attention. Kakyoin went out with way more dignity and he was even less effective than Avdol, with his only wins being against a baby and an insect.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    I was talking more about the line of pool cleaners, but the sex toy was just too good to not throw in there given how often I've said the Robotech creative team's business plan is "just jerking off". I'll never stop, until someone founds the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Metaphors.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Well, that answers a question I had. I was a bit confused when I set up my first new gaming rig in years and every peripheral that I'd bought for it treated me to a technicolor light show on startup. (They're all Logitech G w/ Lightsync hardware.)
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Well, I've finished Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part III: Stardust Crusaders. I'm kinda disappointed in the ending, TBH. 48 episodes and DIO only really shows up in the last four or so, and the Jotaro realizing that his Stand had more powers than just "punch all the things" felt weirdly late to the party. Vanilla Ice got more buildup than DIO did and he was the entire objective of the plot. I went in largely spoiler free, so I was kinda surprised at who all survived the end of the story. Polnareff was the most developed of the supporting characters so I figured he was a cert to die as the dead best friend who motivates the hero's roaring rampage of revenge, like the Zeppeli family was. Avdol's death came out of freaking nowhere, it was really shockingly unceremonious. Iggy got more of a dignified exit than he did. Even DIO's demise felt kind of rushed. He only gets hurt a few times, and he just explodes like he'd been eating a box of live grenades when his Stand is broken. The second D'Arby brother's fight was drawn out way too freaking long, but the ending was pretty satisfying at least. Iggy's fight with Pet Shop was just tedious.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, that's the point. If Sony decides to make the film, they'll basically have to create an all-new, all-original SF mecha action film from scratch. What does Sony have to gain by surrendering partial ownership of their creation to a LA-based rental property firm and paying royalties to them for the use of a name that's far more readily associated with a brand of pool cleaning machines or a dangerous-looking mechanized male masturbation aid from Japan? That'd be like creating an all-original superhero movie on the company's own dime, then unnecessarily paying royalties to Proctor & Gamble because they just couldn't live without calling him Mr. Clean. OR... if Sony decides to make the movie but NOT call it Robotech and NOT use the handful of key terms that are all that come with the license in their essentially all-original film, they can do all of that AND keep all the money for themselves! Y'see, there's a reason the movie hasn't been made... and it makes good (dollars and) sense. They have literally no incentive to make a Robotech movie because the Robotech license is basically worthless. The only reason it got picked up in the first place was because Paramount was making bank on Transformers and it just happened to be a giant robot show that was on the air around the same time back in the 80's. When a title makes it big, studios buy up rights to similar stories just to deny them to each other in the event that that genre becomes the next big thing. Good man.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Probably for the best. I mean, an eagle's not that uncommon a sight... whereas I doubt anyone in the Chinese Empire's army would care much that she was a woman once they noticed she brought an actual goddamn dragon with her. That's one step short of having a permission slip signed and sealed by the Jade Emperor himself.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Not likely, it's not like this made all the legal problems associated with a film like that go away... and it didn't magically make their brand any less unpopular either. I don't think Sony will move forward with it, just like Warner Bros didn't do anything with it... and the brand is even less popular now than it was then. They will bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate the truth to make mountains out of molehills to give the illusion that someone at Sony gives a crap about the property but nothing will happen because Sony isn't stupid enough to schedule a tap dance recital in a field of antipersonnel mines. It's the same as Harmony Gold's endless routine about cancelled projects. They'll hem and haw about how, no, they're really just on indefinite hiatus which totally isn't the same thing as cancellation and then after a few years of pretending they're still working on it they quietly stop mentioning it unless someone brings it up and eventually people just stop asking... then they reveal it was really cancelled all along. They spent seven years pretending they were still working on Shadow Chronicles Part II only to eventually give up and admit Part II was cancelled mere months after Part I came out. They tried the same stunt with Robotech Academy and the studio they'd partnered with called them on it, but that didn't stop them... the fandom hatred for the idea did.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    In the UK, yes.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Let's just hope they don't go for the more authentic ending... it's kind of a total downer.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    The way anime distribution in the west is set up, releases usually flow through US distributors to their partners, affiliates, and local subsidiaries in other countries. Ordinarily, a UK home video release would probably be dubbed in the US... hence the problem.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    You still have us fan translators plodding our way through books and magazines, and our boys from SpeakerPodCast reporting from Japan and working on official subs. It's inconvenient and frustrating, but not the end of the world.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    This talk of Disney erasing gingers just brings to mind that wonderful faux protest sign "Stop Killing Gingers to make Ginger Ale".
  14. Seto Kaiba
    That was my hypothesis as well.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    They were pretty open about not having one... they never bothered to even decide who she was when they were making the series.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    This season seems to have a number of atypically strong offerings.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, HG has trademarks on not just the title and certain key terms, but also certain pieces of key art like the characters from the original series and some of the mecha. The approach they're talking about here is not workable for that reason.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... "traitor" is a bit childish and hyperbolic, but I do think we as a community should actively discourage discussion and promotion of the imitation-brand Macross goods produced by Harmony Gold and its licensees here and on Facebook. It's not real Macross merchandise and not only does it not support Macross's creators and the creation of new Macross products, it actively hurts Macross fans worldwide by directly putting money in the pockets of the people working to keep Macross products out of the hands of fans. There's no reason for the community to condone financially supporting a company that is deliberately trying to undermine Macross. I think just making it clear that this kind of thing hurts the fandom should be enough. Solidarity with our fellow fans is important, especially when we can't get direct support from the owners of the property.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    The most logical approach would have been for Tatsunoko to pitch the idea of acting as international distributor for all Macross titles in exchange for clearing the legal obstacles... and there were some indications Tatsunoko was seeking a cordial relationship with Big West. Approximately 0.133 decades... and that's counting the delays in the appeals process and court scheduling. There was a grand total of one actual lawsuit filed over Macross rights between Big West and Tatsunoko... Tatsunoko's 2004 claim that, for its role in producing the original series, it was entitled to a share of the profits from subsequent exploitation of the IP in the various sequels. The court unilaterally rejected Tatsunoko's claim on 1 July 2004, and again on appeal on 27 October 2005. The cases most fans refer to when they think of "Macross lawsuit" are voluntary copyright confirmation hearings that weren't instigated by either party... but rather, by Harmony Gold's false claims to have rights to all Macross sequels back in 1999-2000. That wasn't acrimonious, as such, that was simply due dilligence after one side's business partner (Harmony Gold) made a claim that didn't tally with what the two had understood their contract to be. That there is a long, arduous, and ongoing history of lawsuits between Big West and Tatsunoko is a popular but entirely false myth perpetuated by Robotech fans and Harmony Gold. The whole shebang, from copyright confirmation hearings to Tatsunoko's one and only actual lawsuit, only lasted four years (2001-2005). Too many, but their partnership has been an acrimonious one over the last several years given that Tatsunoko accused HG of skimming from royalties owed for home video and streaming and was firm enough in their belief to not only go to court over it, but defy a court order when the arbitration didn't find in their favor.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Big West and Bandai just gotta keep doing what they're doing... putting English subs on Japanese domestic market DVDs and BDs and sell direct from Japan. HG can't do crap about it. For now, I guess the fan translators aren't getting a break.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-07-05/harmony-gold-renews-license-to-1st-macross-southern-cross-mospeada-anime-series/.148700 It was the subject of their AnimeExpo panel, apparently.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Bingo. This was the stupidest possible move they could've made. Let's hope it comes to naught, as Big West slowly gains ground in the trademark area worldwide. For lessons, I think appropriate ones might be that we shouldn't condone Macross fans supporting and promoting Robotech's toy lines, since they helped put the money in HG's pocket to pay for this travesty, and we shouldn't support any future works from the clown college at Tatsunoko either.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Ugh... Harmony Gold is claiming they've secured a renewal of their license agreement with Tatsunoko Production. What a waste.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Seems like almost every enemy in the second half of Stardust Crusaders gets a two-parter. The Oingo Boingo brothers are, in their own way, bizarrely compelling as possibly the most incompetent, and therefore most sympathetic, antagonists in the story thus far... and they actually survive their two-parter.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Hiring a professional vocalist for the lead role would seem a strange choice otherwise, given that her filmography is almost exclusively "choir member" in various films.
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