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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    I'm more weirded out that giving something a name in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime takes magical power, to the extent that you can hurt yourself doing it. The sacrifices you have to make so a single-minded Silver-rank adventurer can get his occasional "I AM BATMAN" moments... I got through the first episode of this one and decided to give it a miss. I got the same Haruhi vibe from it, and decided that was a tall glass of Nope. (I can't stand the Haruhi Suzumiya stuff, esp. the titular protagonist, who I find irrationally annoying.) I'll say this for Goblin Slayer... it intrigued me enough to actually look up the original light novels to read. At time of writing, I'm 3/4 of the way through the fourth volume of Yen Press's translation of the light novels. (This is the third series this year to do that... a new personal best for the industry.) Quite frankly, if the anime opts to leave the blatant torture porn, excessive fanservice, and the wink-wink-nudge-nudge tabletop gaming references on the cutting room floor I will consider it to be an enormous improvement. It's not often I read a book that prompts me to start judging the author's lifestyle choices, but I can't help coming away from Goblin Slayer with a sneaking suspicion that its author is that one guy every game store seems to have who talks a lot of misogynistic crap when no women are around, has never had a girlfriend, and exclusively plays armies like WHFB Dark Elves or WH40K Slaaneshi Daemons because of the "sexy" miniatures and their memetic rapey-ness. All the women in Goblin Slayer seem to fall into one of two categories: the one-sided love interests which Kumo Kagyu can't resist describing in fits of sexually-charged purple prose, and the women who've been assaulted by goblins. The prequel manga is a bit more even-handed in dispensing abuse, but only a bit. It's overwhelmingly the women who are the victims in Goblin Slayer, despite there being roughly equal numbers of male and female adventurers. It's enough to make you suspect that the author has something against women. Goblin Slayer himself is an interesting Byronic hero with a lot of potential... but it keeps getting lost amidst the fanservice and torture porn. If the anime wants to cut as much of that crap out as it can and focus on the titular character, I am 200% behind it. It's cute, but that's about all it has to recommend it... my girlfriend seems to like it though. Does it ever get past this and develop something resembling a plot? The OP gives one such hope that there's an epic story in the offing, but so far it's Faffing About as a Slime. I gave up on this one a while ago... Fate is, IMO, a played-out property that only ever really had two or three good character designs. This feels like they're trying to inject novelty by copying whatever was popular at the time. Namely, Shokugeki no Soma. Honestly, the insanity of it all reminds me a bit of Wandaba Style... which never really stopped being about the weird. Looking at the new offerings on Crunchyroll, there are one of two that I'm thinking of giving a go. One is Skeleton Bookseller Honda-san, which just looks so incredibly bizarre I can't help but be a bit curious. The other is Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary, which I've heard almost nothing about except that it's based on a Taiwanese game, which sounds novel enough.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    She elevates the orbital defense network's readiness level, but it isn't until well after Isamu's reentry starts that she obtained control of the people... who could have reacted to the YF-19's approach via all manner of unpleasantness like gun turrets, missile launchers, fighters... Weapons fire is often surprisingly difficult to see at a distance... so that's arguably a spot of Truth in Television. Unless someone were looking in precisely the right direction at the time, it's unlikely the fight would've been spotted (or heard, as long as it remained at high altitudes). Also, remember that all of this went down during the 30th Anniversary celebration for the armistice that ended the First Space War. A fair chunk of Earth's sparse population was likely in Macross City for the event, and it would have taken some time for word of the fight to reach the military via law enforcement. (Assuming anyone was still in possession of their faculties enough to actually place a call...) That the VF-19's excessive maneuverability puts an enormous strain on even experienced pilots does come up in Macross 7, which ran concurrently with Macross Plus. It ended up the focus of an episode devoted to Gamlin's one-sided rivalry with Basara. No, it isn't... The line about the New UN Government withholding the best tech from the emigrant forces was a factoid that was originally applied only to the YF-24, as a justification for individual emigrant fleets developing their own related fighters based on its redacted specs. That arms export restriction bit wasn't retroactively applied to the VF-19 until over two years after Macross Frontier's TV series was over. (Via Macross R's first chapter in January 2011.) The contemporary explanation for the VF-171 having beaten out the VF-19 for next main fighter in the 4th Generation was that it was an inexpensive fighter with excellent cost performance that was easy for even average pilots to get the most out of... where the VF-19 was a money pit with cruelly unforgiving handling that put it beyond the reach of the average pilot.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    The YF-19's defold was detected, true... but we see Sharon Apple send the defense grid to its highest readiness level1, and it could easily be argued that the YF-19's possession of a valid friendly IFF code and prototype 3rd Generation active stealth system did a lot of the heavy lifting, preventing the grid from firing on him until he attacked it first and working with the debris he created to prevent missile stations and gun satellites from establishing a positive lock until he reached an altitude where their programming forbade firing. Sharon didn't have full control of Earth's defenses until well after Isamu's reentry started though... That wouldn't have been possible even if the pilots weren't hypnotized. Both the YF-19 and YF-21 were equipped with prototype 3rd Generation active stealth systems. As we saw when Isamu was flying a VF-11B as a chase plane during one of Guld's tests earlier on, that prototype system was capable of rendering the fighter equipped with it invisible to a previous-gen radar system even at a range of only a few dozen meters. If its capabilities were similar to its mass production spec, it was also effective against ground- and ship-based radar systems at range. The YF-19 and YF-21 were, for all practical intents and purposes, invisible to everything but each other and the orbit-based camera and LIDAR systems. Funnily enough, it's more like the coup de grace than the main reason. The same fundamental instability of control that made the YF-19 such an impressive specimen and had caused a number of crashes during testing (both simulated and actual), proved to be the most insurmountable obstacle to adopting the VF-19. When the NUNS started to introduce the VF-19A, they found out pretty fast that a fighter that sorely tests the abilities of the finest test pilots was an absolute nightmare for the rank-and-file to fly. There were a large number of incidents were pilots lost control of the VF-19, which combined with its high cost of operation, caused the NUNS to just throw up their hands and admit they needed something a bit less insane. Having the New UN Government waltz in and say "even if you fix this, we're still putting some very strict restrictions on exports" probably had Shinsei thinking "Et tu, Brute" awful loud. All the same, Shinsei invested a fair amount of time on trying to resolve the control problems, resulting in them developing the 2nd mass production type, starting from the VF-19F. (As an explanation for the VF-171, it meshes rather neatly with what we saw in Plus and 7 regarding the difficulties these fighters posed for even elite test pilots and special forces aces.) 1. In an acknowledged error, the readiness level is given as "DEFCON 5". Many writers mistake DEFCON 5 for the highest level because it has the biggest number, when in reality DEFCON 1 is the highest readiness level... particularly writers who aren't American.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Well, Priestess did wonder what a good goblin would be like... and Goblin Slayer's reaction to the goblins in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime would be an amazing thing in its own right. Three episodes into That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and I'll admit I have no clue where this is headed. The OP suggests we're in for some standard action/fantasy type stuff, but so far it's mostly just the titular slime (Rimiru?) dicking around. I am a bit surprised that Rimiru doesn't seem to have thought to question the RPG elements in the world yet... or the obviously computerized voice in his head.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    That's kind of the point, though... The Variable Fighter Master File books aren't written to be uber-detailed technical manuals, they're written as in-universe civilian mass market books about the development and service history of the featured model of variable fighter. They're basically the Macross universe's equivalent of the books Haynes publishes about modern fighter jets that any schmuck can buy at Barnes and Noble. That keeps them accessible to their actual intended audience, Macross fans who don't have backgrounds in aerospace engineering and nuclear physics.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Isamu's one-man air raid on Macross City had knock-on effects that are still being felt almost thirty years later. Sharon Apple going berserk (partly because of Isamu) caused the New UN Forces to reevaluate the stability and safety of the new artificial intelligence technology the Macross Concern developed for the AIF-9. In the short term, it basically killed the New UN Forces' plans to transition to unmanned fighters stone dead. It also resulted in the deliberate crippling of unmanned fighter AIs to ensure a similar berserk incident would never occur again, indirectly resulting in the AIF-7 Ghosts the NUNS was using in Macross Frontier. The political fallout of the YF-19 and YF-21 independently breaking through Earth's orbital defense network administered the coup de grace to the New UN Spacy's plans to adopt the VF-19, handing victory in Project Super Nova to General Galaxy for the VF-171 after trial production had begun on the VF-19. Arguably the New UN Government's refusal to share the full spec VF-24 could even be chalked up to that, resulting in the emigrant fleets having to develop their own new fighters using redacted versions of the specs or buying monkey models. "Nice job breaking it, hero" doesn't begin to cover it. We get a bit of a look at this kind of problem in Macross M3, Macross Digital Mission VF-X, Macross VF-X2, and Macross R when it comes to the kind of problems that can be caused when terrorists or anti-government forces get their hands on New UN Forces hardware. Macross Chronicle drops a hint/suggestion that Mariafokina Barnrose, the de facto leader of the pro-autonomy militarized group Vindirance, is actually Therese Jenius operating under an alias and with the covert assistance of her father. Vindirance is only nominally an anti-government group... in truth, the organization was more like a proxy the pro-autonomy faction was using to oppose governmental and military overreach by the Earth-supremacist faction Latence, who wanted to transfer more authority to the central gov't and military. A fair portion of Macross VF-X2's plot is the VF-X Ravens being manipulated by Latence's members in the NUNS brass to wipe out armed anti-Latence organizations like Black Rainbow and Vindirance. The pro-autonomy group didn't want to leave the New UN Government... they just wanted colonies to have more authority to govern their own internal affairs. Think of it as the spacefuture version of that old "States rights vs. Federal rights" issue that US politics has been chewing over for nearly 250 years now. The problem, as Kawamori described it, was essentially that the mechanics of space fold being what they were, the New UN Government in its strong centralized government form just wasn't up to the challenge of micromanaging affairs of state on colony worlds that were ten years away by fold. The result was an ideological split: One faction (Latence) favored maintaining the strong central government and giving Earth and the New UN Forces more authority over the colonies. They argued that the only way humanity would survive would be to present a united front against threats like the Zentradi. The other faction (Vindirance) wanted to bow to practicality and have the central government devolve more authority to the individual colonial governments. They argued that it would be more effective for the local governments to make their own judgement calls on the little stuff because of the time lag in long-range communications with Earth. Macross VF-X2's conclusion was basically the centerpiece of the Second Unification War... when the forces loyal to the Latence faction launched a coup against the New UN Government using Macross 13 to seize power in the Sol system. The New UN Government's reorganization took it from being something like the US federal gov't to something more like the European Union. They also put more controls on the New UN Forces as a way to prevent the military from abusing its authority the way it had done under Latence. Alas, no... all we know of the VF-24 is that the YF-24 Evolution was approved for adoption as the 5th Generation VF of Earth and the federal New UN Forces in 2057. It must be pretty incredible, given it was deemed too awesome to share with the colonies, who got heavily redacted versions of its specs to build their own VFs from and the YF-29 is said to have been an effort to exceed its performance. Blame the Birdhuman... in hindsight, that was pretty obviously a zero-time fold effect, and humanity didn't have that technology until at least 2059, so it'd have to have been the Birdhuman. I actually cited the wrong block number there. Somehow, I always turn first to the page with the typo in This is Animation: Macross Plus. Mea culpa. Mea maxima f***ing culpa. That 5 should be a 6. I don't believe there's been an official canon statement as to the total number of production blocks the VF-1 had. Variable Fighter Master File says VF-1 mass production included 17 blocks. (AFAIK, the only other VF with officially-stated block numbers is the VF-171, which uses block numbers inspired by the F/A-18.) The only set of differences that's discussed in depth in an official source is the difference between Blocks 1-5 and Blocks 6 and later, AKA the TV and Movie versions. The most obvious change was they totally retooled the cockpit, consolidating the controls to a true HOTAS setup, replacing that three-panel main monitor with a single hexagonal display, replacing the conventional HUD with a holographic on-canopy projection system, and installing a new ejection seat. Other updates also included the new, squarer hand design and a higher maximum engine output of 240% maximum rated power (as visible on the throttle lever graphics). Block 6 and later were also where the VT-1 replaced the VF-1D and the VE-1 replaced the VEFR-1. Canonically, though not onscreen, Block 6 entered service before the ending of the First Space War and many of the VFs on the ARMDs that were up in Earth orbit when Boddole Zer razed the planet were Block 6. Variable Fighter Master File throws another unofficial one in there, asserting that Blocks 6-8 swapped the FF-2001 engines for a newer model designated FF-2006. (Master File has a rather long, non-canon list of block differences for all 17 blocks.) She literally ran away from the NUNS because she was only a mediocre pilot who couldn't stand the pressure of the expectations on her as a result of the family legacy. One of the first things we see of her is that she's not even as good as the other members of Delta Flight, missing the timing on their rehearsed airshow... which Hayate calls her on in episode 2. She gets called on her mediocre performance several times in the series by Messer, who even tells her flat-out she's not a good enough pilot to attempt non-lethal takedowns on Var-infected friendlies. Unfortunately we never get to see her measure her skills against an actual experienced pilot... she's only shown to be moderately effective against Var-infected local NUNS troops, and they're a bush league outfit flying decades-old fighters. The Aerial Knights were all combat virgins prior to their attack on Al Shahal in episode 1, so they're no fair indicator either. The question being... was she at some other organization trying to become a mechanic prior to that? That's one of the things I don't really buy about her character. She's allegedly the head mechanic on the Aether according to her bio... but we never see her actually do anything. The few things she allegedly created for Walkure are, to those who paid attention, just worse versions of off-the-shelf technology used by characters in previous shows (like Sheryl Nome). It's the same situation as Reina allegedly being a super-hacker despite being so bad at her job that she mostly only succeeds when the enemy lets her, and is foiled by a simple electronic door lock. A bio that writes a check the show can't cash.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Surely there are healthier ways to inflict pain on yourself if you're determined to suffer. Like flagellation... or solving the Lament Configuration. It's subjective... in the sense that Robotech fans whose slavish devotion to the franchise has led them to ignore thirty-odd years of progress in anime, science fiction, and comic books could conceivably mistake it for quality, if only that the art is clearly more professional than the amateur-hour garbage that was the standard under Comico, Academy, Eternity, and Antarctic. Everyone else seems to be more or less on the same page when it comes to regarding the comic as singularly unlovely art coupled to cringeworthy writing in a sad attempt to do a gritty reboot of Harmony Gold's adaptation of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. There's a not-unreasonable suspicion that someone on the art staff has a dental fetish, going for a photorealistic art style was a huge mistake, and their stolen "original" VF design is pretty damned hideous. Harmony Gold shares your assessment... they actually publicly disowned all the old comics as low-quality garbage that resulted from their failing to exercise proper quality control over licensee works back in 2006. Art-wise? Yes... it's painful to look at. The writing is as cringe-inducingly bad as you'd expect from Robotech. All too often the dialog is painful in a "teenager watching your dad try to use modern slang and do it wrong" sort of way. Everything in the comic is pretty obviously derivative... and they've already more or less spoiled the ending by revealing that the SDF-1 is part of a bootstrap paradox and keeps going back in time, crashing on Earth, getting restored, launching, and going back in time.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    The biggest item on that list is the VF-XS Valkyrie II... a name/designation that was foisted on a few different designs for the OVA in the promotional materials that were published before Macross II's first episode was released. (I sacrificed a few books from my personal collection to fill out the M3 site's Macross II line art, and Mr March hired an artist to redraw some of the art.) http://www.macross2.net/m3/macross2/vf-xs.htm http://www.macross2.net/m3/macross2/vf-xs-super.htm The first design to receive that name/designation was Kazumi Fujita's original concept version of the VF-2SS, which had a more traditional-looking gunpod and set of FAST Packs. as well as a number of airbrakes. The name was later applied to the design that would later be called the VF-2JA Icarus and later the VF-XX Zentradi Valkyrie before their final names were revealed. Many moons ago I used to use a version of the VF-XS art crudely merged with the VF-2SS to create a new VF-2SS variant for an RPG I was running. I've also got art for some alternate color schemes for the VF-XX and VF-2JA that weren't used in the OVA, like this white and red scheme that was used for a Macross calendar. There's some art for the VF-2SS's landing gear as well, though that isn't undocumented so much as frequently-ignored by a host of official publications. There are also a few tidbits here and there like an unused design for a pistol that was supposed to be Sylvie's sidearm.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    The perils of a ruthlessly analytical mindset, I'm afraid... ^^; ... now that I think on it, you may be precisely right. It's not something the show or supplemental publications talk about, but close to half of Macross Delta's main cast on the Xaos side are working there because a promising career elsewhere died a messy death. Ernest Johnson ended up at Xaos after King Grammier VI let him go from his position as the Kingdom of the Wind's military advisor in 2060. IIRC, in the novelization he'd ended up as a mercenary in the first place because the military revoked his commission due to him being a member of Latence. Arad Molders ended up at Xaos after resigning his commission in the New UN Spacy over his guilt about the Windermere war of independence. Messer Ihlefeld ended up at Xaos after resigning his commission with the Aifheim NUNS over the trauma of realizing the destruction he'd caused after going Var during the Var riots there. Mirage Jenius ended up at Xaos after resigning her commission in the New UN Spacy over her difficulties coping with guilt after participating in the suppression of an anti-government group that hijacked a colony ship. Hayate Immelmann ended up at Xaos after being fired from his previous job on Al Shahal for skiving, because he had nowhere else to go. Kaname Buccaneer ended up at Xaos after her career as a solo idol failed to take off and she was picked up for her fold receptor factor. Reina Prowler ended up at Xaos because she's a "caged crook" who was given the choice of working there or going to prison after being caught hacking the company. Chuck may or may not belong on that list... his statements about his own background suggest he may have been a NUNS soldier who quit after having to fight humans. Mikumo's a clone who is more or less a slave, so she's not working there by choice. Makina's status is uncertain. Freyja is the only one we know of for whom Xaos was her #1 choice of employer.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Honestly, I doubt it. Xaos is a small, underfunded, and woefully understaffed PMC that operates out in the space boonies to avoid having to compete for business against more capable outfits like SMS. Even if they weren't also eyebrow-deep in red ink and likely in hot water after the government that contracted them as a supplement to its defence forces fell due to the very thing they were contracted to protect against, I don't see a lot of potential for upward mobility inside that (troubled) organization. As much as I like Mirage as a character, being leapfrogged by Hayate in skill literally means she's the worst pilot in Delta Flight. She doesn't have much in the way of prospects for advancement, even if she improves. Transferring out to lead one of the other three flights would arguably be a demotion, and she'd be back to the bottom of the barrel if she went back to the NUNS or joined another PMC like SMS. I think they'll stick to the idea that she's a subversion of the idea (in-universe and out) that being a Jenius automatically means you're an amazing pilot.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Hm... I wonder if someone in authority told them off for tracing from photos of Macross toys? Don't tell me you opened this dreadful tome expecting quality work. FFS, the One Word Warning of Crap Quality is right there on the cover: "ROBOTECH".
  12. Seto Kaiba
    ... well, that's a thing that happened. Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight's second episode is mostly no improvement on the first. It gets good for a few minutes near the end. Between all the fanservice-y shots of La Hire (oh the sentences I'd never thought I'd write) and Jeanne being an obnoxious twit, I'm not sure I want to keep following this series... but I'll give it a couple more episodes to see if it turns into something decent. It's pretty clearly headed for les yay territory, what with La Hire practically drooling over both Astaroth and Jeanne.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Caught the second episode of Gyakuten Saiban's second (third) season yesterday. They're following the game VERY closely... a little too closely, IMO, given that Yusuke Amasugi's voice is rapidly becoming THE MOST ANNOYING SOUND thanks to him ending almost every sentence with an upward inflection and shouting in his incredibly whiny voice. (Seeing him from behind, which the game sprites never did, makes his head look distressingly like a penis thanks to his stupid haircut. I'm going to choose to interpret that to mean the artists are hinting that he's a massive dickhead, because he totally was in the game.) Today it'll be the second episode of Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The first party isn't totally missing from that sequence... you can see what's left of at least one or two of its members, though it's pretty clear they're counting on the audience having read the light novel or manga there since broadcast standards won't let them show such graphic material. To be fair, at least one bystander also wagered he was an atypically large goblin himself. There was a LOT of wild mass guessing going on there in-series.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, granted... though I imagine rather a lot of people would have been happier if he hadn't taken an enormous chunk of the defense industry with him by screwing up adoption of the AIF-9, VF-19, and VF-22 and forcing the military to start over on 4th Gen VF development. No such animal... all emigrant fleets seen or mentioned thus far have been launched and governed under the auspices of the New UN Government. The New UN Government was understandably concerned about letting full spec versions of its new excessively high-spec 4th Generation VFs out into the wild for three main reasons: A fair amount of the fighting the New UN Forces were doing in that period was civil wars. As the New UN Government's sphere of influence grew, the logistical difficulties of governing an area as vast as it technically encompassed gave rise to movements seeking greater autonomy for the colonies, secessionists, and armed conflicts between colonies. With the federal NUNS periodically having to intervene and restore order, the last thing the brass wanted was to get there and have to fight a numerically superior force at technological parity with them. To be effective, they needed an edge. The discord in the colonies also frequently gave rise to armed anti-government and terrorist groups that were increasingly able to obtain military hardware via covert supporters or even outright theft. Restrictions on export variants made any fighters that fell into hostile hands somewhat less capable, and restrictions on the number that could be produced made it a little easier to spot when one went "missing". Some anti-government groups were able to develop their own advanced weapons based on stolen New UN Forces hardware with impressive results. Sequestering the most advanced technology to prevent its theft was also a way to maintain the New UN Forces' edge over those enemies. The New UN Government was arguably pretty much dead-on correct about the possibility of their own troops supplying arms and tech to anti-government groups... Macross Chronicle implies even Max may have been involved in covertly supporting the colonial autonomy movement. Even after the whole autonomy movement came to a head and won out over the Earth-supremacists in what recent books are calling the Second Unification War, there are still plenty of civil wars and so on in the New UN Government's territory. Kaname Buccaneer comes from a planet that is quite literally semi-perpetually at war with itself due to a strong Earth-supremacist movement there. "NUNS" is the New UN Spacy, the New UN Government's Space Army. Alas, no. Only a few specific examples where monkey models were prominently called out as such like the VF-19P and VF-19EF. Its engines were derated to increase its cruising range in space, limiters were imposed on some of its avionics, the modular ordnance bay in the legs was removed and replaced by a fixed pair of micro-missile launchers, and the target acquisition rate of its missile launchers was derated. It's theoretically possible, but it would be quite an undertaking and would likely require the support of the corporations who developed the hardware and software in the first place. Companies that've got a vested interest in staying on the right side of the law. There may be some pieces of tech that they simply can't replicate, either because they don't have its original spec or because they simply lack the technical know-how... like how the VF-24 is supposedly head and shoulders above the 5th Generation VFs based on its heavily redacted blueprints. The ending of Macross Frontier shows their Mainland module is still intact... the civilian population of cyborgs are all basically mind-controlled slaves of the galaxy executives though. General Galaxy itself doesn't seem to have been implicated in the Galaxy fleet's conspiracy, since the fleet was a semi-independent subsidiary. Shin and Sara pulled a Hikaru and Misa. They're gone, and we'll likely never hear from them again. I think she was more steamed off that it was her Valkyrie he destroyed... not for its historical value, but that it was hers. He basically trashed her classic car. Nope. Gamlin's discontent was understandable enough. Visual cues in Macross 7 point to Milia's VF-1J being a Block 4... a true 1st Generation VF without the refinements that were introduced from Block 6 and later. The lowest performance fighter that Gamlin trained on was the VF-11C, fully two generations newer than the VF-1J-4 with much better performance and controls based on the refinements which were made in later VF-1 blocks. I expect you'd hear similar carping if you asked a F/A-18 pilot to go fly an old F-104. Promotional art for the Macross II OVA has a number of things which were not properly documented as they weren't actually used in the OVA itself. The few sources to depict the VF-2SS with a gunpod without its Super Armed Pack have always shown it with it mounted ventrally without any need for extra parts. That forearm piece looks for all the world like the back half of the VF-2JA's heavy railgun. The other two members of Sagittarius Platoon have their names given only as "Jun" and "Maruyama". Maruyama is the one with the Sheryl Nome paintjob on his VF-171EX, and even got a DX Chogokin because of it.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    We do... but not the entire thing. We get to see him both as a youth and an adult, but the way he's drawn the upper half of his face is perpetually in shadow even if all of his head is in the frame. We get to see him without his helmet for the first time near the end of the first light novel volume, when someone asks to see his face as repayment for a favor (spoilers, so I won't say any more than that) and he obliges. The manga also adapts a section of the light novel before that where he goes around town without his armor while it's in the shop and nobody in town recognizes him because he never takes it off normally. We also get a number of flashbacks to him as a kid before he became an adventurer. No, Goblin Slayer is most definitely a man. Cow Girl1, who is introduced in the second episode, was basically his girl-next-door childhood love interest... 1. She takes care of cows on the farm. She is not a beastman. The name is almost certainly also a none-too-polite reference to her great big... tracts of land... which the light novel goes well out of its way to talk about and show you, and the manga is even more blatant about.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Just finished episode two of Goblin Slayer, and on a lighter note the series seems to have opted to avoid the gory and exploitative bit that appeared in the light novel and manga with the all-female party of adventurers who met their end in the elven fortress overrun by goblins. Some good characterization for Goblin Slayer himself, and a few more staple characters introduced. Definitely a lighter episode than the first one... and we bloody well needed that.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Considering what their leader's like, they may well be Vader cultists... Which makes you wonder how they'll take Kylo Ren's sudden change of heart vis a vis finishing what Vader started.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Pretty much, yeah... Isamu had to foot the bill for the project, which wiped out his savings. There are easier ways to jump in front of a firing squad, but none quite so stylish as what he did. By all accounts, all emigrant fleet forces have been working with monkey models since the introduction of 4th Generation VFs... and possibly earlier. One of the unintended/unexpected consequences of Isamu stealing the YF-19 No.2 prototype and using it to break through Earth's orbital defenses was that it caused the New UN Government to seriously reconsider its policies on exporting the latest weapons technology to the emigrant fleets and colonies. There had been a sharp uptick in anti-government activity in the latter half of the 2030s, which Millard alluded to in the briefing where Isamu was introduced to the YF-19 and YF-21. With tensions on the rise over whether the New UN Government should be a strong central government or devolve more authority to the individual member fleets/worlds, the New UN Government was understandably a little bit leery about the prospect of providing advanced weapons that were able to penetrate Earth's own defenses to the colonies where they could potentially end up in the hands of the anti-government factions and be used against the federal New UN Forces. The solution the New UN Government hit on was to retain the full spec versions of new weapons for the federal forces and sell reduced capability versions to colony worlds and to emigrant fleets. That way, if the federal New UN Forces had to step in and knock heads together to restore order or put down a fight between colonies they would always have an edge. Other restrictions that were applied were mandated limits on the performance of locally-produced parts and limits on the numbers of certain VFs that could be produced in any one fleet or colonial defense force. This also gave rise to local specifications of various fighters. Various fleets would take the export variant specification they'd licensed and would make tweaks, adjustments, and an array of customizations to make it better suit their needs. For instance, the Macross Frontier fleet made an improved derivative of the VF-19E monkey model spec that included an EX-Gear cockpit and other refinements and designated it VF-19EF Caliburn. General Galaxy's subsidiary/sponsored fleet Macross Galaxy had its own enhanced VF-19C designated VF-19C/MG21 Excalibur. (Normally, the originating fleet for the custom spec is appended after the variant letter or block number with a forward slash and the fleet's identification code.) The VF-19s and VF-22s in Macross 7 were almost certainly monkey models, though the VF-19P used by the Zola Patrol is the only one for which the reductions in performance are explicitly identified. There are tons of local variations of the VF-171 Nightmare Plus, so it's likely that it is technically a monkey model in that the Earth/Federal NUNS's ones likely benefit enormously from Earth's superior technology. Sort of? After the New UN Government and New UN Forces put the kibosh on large-scale adoption of the VF-19 Excalibur due to tightened arms export restrictions and problems with controllability that were discovered during model conversion training by the Earth NUNS, the New UN Forces submitted a new RFP for a replacement with the same advanced features but less over-the-top performance that could reasonably replace the VF-11 Thunderbolt. General Galaxy started with the proven VF-17 Nightmare design and tried to economize it for mass production while incorporating the advances in tech that were made for the 4th Generation VFs. They simplified the transformation, eliminated a few little-used options like the forearm beam guns, reworked its aerodynamics for better all-regime performance, and retooled it for better airframe versatility. The initial (Block I) VF-171 was not quite as good as the VF-17D or -S, but by the Block II version seen in Macross Frontier and Macross Delta, the VF-171's performance exceeded the original VF-17's thanks to improved active stealth and avionics. The VF-171 is noted to be incredibly versatile, able to easily be used for almost any role with minimal conversion work. The surviving ones, yeah. The Robotech II: the Sentinels novelization is generally regarded as being Star Wars Holiday Special levels of bad. "Jack McKinney" (Luceno and Daley) wrote all those books like off-brand Star Wars mockbusters, but it got especially bad when they adapted Sentinels. Nothing, AFAIK. Sharon Apple was destroyed by Isamu's final attack on the SDF-1 Macross, we see her "brain" explode when Isamu destroys the main computer. The New UN Government was understandably more than slightly put out by what Sharon did, and legislated her music off the shelves until all responsive subroutines were removed and banned self-aware virtuoids altogether. Sharon's music did make it back onto the shelves a while later with the responsive elements removed, but the damage was done and a fickle public had moved on. It'd take a LOT of work... some of the limiters are in software, some are hardware, some are simply local manufacturers not being able to produce parts at that full military spec. Dr. Neumann and Shinsei Industry improved the performance of the VF-19EF Caliburn they customized for Isamu mainly through selective downgrades... reconfiguring the airframe for the VF-19A's less stable aerodynamic profile, downgrading the integrated airframe management AI to the initial build used on the YF-19 No.3 prototype and in so doing taking out most of the stability and safety improvements, etc. Most of the fiddly stuff meant to make the VF-19 safer for average pilots was taken out so Isamu could leverage that insane lack of stability that caused the military to back down from adopting the VF-19 in the first place. I'm not getting nearly the number of boos and hisses I expected for such a dreadful joke.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    That, I think, was the idea... Isamu may have saved Earth from Sharon Apple, but he still caused a crapload of damage and broke a ton of regulations along the way. In the final analysis, he... Stole a next-generation prototype fighter from the New Edwards Test Flight Center Stole a fold booster from the New Edwards Test Flight Center Caused significant damage to the Shinsei Industry Project Super Nova hangar at New Edwards when he blew up the hangar doors Racked up quite a bill in terms of the munitions expended in the Eden NUNS's attempt to intercept him and the munitions he himself stole Destroyed several orbital weapons platforms in the Earth Defense Network Caused significant damage to a number of buildings on Earth Caused significant damage to the flying bridge of the SDF-1 Macross Caused an enormous scandal and panic when the YF-19 was demonstrated to be independently capable of penetrating the most secure NUNS defense net in the galaxy, that prompted the New UN Government to issue severe arms export restrictions on 4th Generation VFs (angering Shinsei and General Galaxy) Indirectly caused the total loss of the Sharon Apple system and AIF-X-9 Ghost prototype Indirectly caused the total loss of the YF-21 No.2 prototype and its pilot, Specialist Guld Goa Bowman Needless to say, the New UN Forces brass were NOT happy with Mr. Dyson... but were hard-pressed to punish him overtly for it since Col. Millard Johnson took responsibility for the entire incident and he had "saved the day". Chaining him to a desk under the auspices of a promotion was a way to punish him in a way that would make him sit up and take notice while dressing it up as a reward for a job well done. Arguably, yes... The New UN Government has arms export restrictions on the weapons that can be sold to, or locally built under license by, the emigrant fleets and colony planets. As a result, some of their versions of New UN Forces hardware are what are called "Monkey Models": export variants with inferior capabilities. The first example explicitly acknowledged as such is the VF-19P from Macross Dynamite 7, but the term has been used more commonly since Macross the Ride, which introduced the Macross Frontier fleet's VF-19 monkey model VF-19EF Caliburn. Yeah. The Protodeviln are energy beings inhabiting a line of prototype sentient biological superweapons... like autonomous early versions of the Birdhuman from Macross Zero. (The Evil-series bioweapons that were possessed were partially modeled on Zentradi.) They don't normally possess living beings... the seven energy beings who became the Protodeviln were accidentally drawn into the Evil-series bodies during a power test on a new form of dimensional energy conversion biotechnological reactor intended to power the Evil-series. They were, essentially victims of the Protoculture's weapons programs. Not that we know? They went for the energy that was most similar to their normal food... the mental/emotional energy (spiritia) in the minds of living beings. Ironically, Macross 7 showed that they actually learned a fair bit from their original panicky attempt to keep themselves alive by rampaging across the galaxy. Gepernich's goal was sustainable spiritia farming so they wouldn't need to attack huge swaths of the galaxy. Don't. Seriously. Macross the Ride, elsewise known as "Macross R", is a light novel that was serialized in twelve issues of Dengeki Hobby magazine in 2011. The magazine also featured custom model kits for the various VFs in the story. For all practical intents and purposes, Macross the Ride is a prequel-slash-side story to Macross Frontier. It's set in the Macross Frontier fleet a year before the events of the series (in 2058), and the plot revolves around two things: a VF air racing league called Vanquish that is a very popular sport throughout the New UN Government's sphere of influence, and an attempt by a remnant of the Earth-supremacist group Latence (the baddies in Macross VF-X2) called FASCES to hijack one of the venues. None of which I am aware. I would presume that, in typical Japanese fashion, he resigned from his post. That's what Jan said. The VF-19E was an intermediate variant between the VF-19C and VF-19F... the record is sketchy on whether the VF-19E was a VF-19 1st Mass Production-type like the VF-19A or 2nd Mass Production-type like the VF-19F and VF-19S. The only Macross title to directly feature a VF-19E is Macross 30, which showed it as a 1st Mass Production-type, though the -EF in the Macross the Ride light novel appears to be a 2nd Mass Production-type. The VF-19EF Caliburn was a customized, locally-built derivative of the VF-19E the Macross Frontier fleet built in limited quantities for its local special forces and SMS. It restored the canards and expanded the main wing, but had a number of built-in limiters on its performance. A popular theory is that Dr. Neumann has a bit of a stress disorder because of Isamu. I dunno. Probably sharing his emotions with the Vajra Queen and all. Or maybe... he likes big bugs and he cannot lie? (I'll show myself out.)
  21. Seto Kaiba
    @SkullLeaderVF-X, I found it. It's in the Macross Frontier Sheryl Nome Final Visual Collection:
  22. Seto Kaiba
    The energy beings that became known as the Protodeviln are from fold space... shooting off nukes at random into fold space is not likely to achieve any meaningful results, and they're basically harmless in their own realm anyway. The only reason they had to become predatory when they were trapped in the Evil-series bio-weapons was because the abundant energy they feed on in fold space doesn't exist in normal space. Let's never speak of this again... those novels are SO ABHORRENTLY BAD that even most Robotech fans refuse to defend them, and Harmony Gold publicly admits they're garbage. Imagine how bad something Robotech-branded would have to be for Harmony Gold to admit it was a terrible mistake... There is an artbook that has a picture of him greeting Sheryl upon returning... I'll see if I can find it for you. If Macross Delta is any indication, it's the usual mishmash of both... but between Macross the Ride and Macross Delta it seems to favor the TV series version over the movie. Berger Stone's historical presentation on "music as a weapon" shows the TV version's ending of the Vajra conflict but also shows Alto's YF-29. AFAIK, no data is available that would indicate what Sheryl, Ranka, and Alto were doing after the events of Macross Frontier, except in not-official-setting works like Variable Fighter Master File. Millard takes the blame for Isamu's little stunt in Macross Plus's climax, and Isamu is "rewarded" with a career trajectory towards a desk job in the New UN Forces because the brass can't openly punish him for saving the day even though he stole the YF-19-2 and intended to commit what amounted to a terrorist act out of sheer pigheaded stupidity. c.2057 he was a reservist who was summoned in to the New Edwards Test Flight Center to participate in the evaluation of the federal New UN Forces' latest prototype, the YF-24 Evolution. After the federal New UN Forces decided to adopt the YF-24 as its next main fighter (VF-24), Isamu seems to have taken his retirement at the rank of Major and joined Strategic Military Services to escape his impending consignment to a full-time desk job. The info is a brief blurb in Macross Chronicle focused not on him, but on the YF-24 program itself. The Mechanic Sheet for his fighter in Sayonara no Tsubasa, the VF-19EF/A "Isamu Special", indicates that he tried to illegally buy a VF-19 for his own personal use and was foiled by Dr. Jan Neumann of Shinsei Industry, who instead fobbed him off with a modded VF-19EF Caliburn (Macross Frontier's VF-19E monkey model specification) under the pretense of it being a service life extension test program in order to keep Isamu from doing anything stupid/illegal.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    You say he did it for no reason, but you gave the reason... to be more intimidating. Palpatine did the exact same thing in Empire Strikes Back, appearing as a giant hologram to Darth Vader. You have to admit they both kind of needed the help. Palpatine was an old man in a hooded robe whose face looked like a scrotum. Snoke was a deformed cripple who wore a gold glitter bathrobe everywhere. Neither was particularly intimidating in the flesh without knowing first-hand how powerful they were.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Well spotted. A +1 from me to you.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    So... I decided to give Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight a go over lunch today. The original light novel is by the same author (Mikage Kasuga) who did The Ambition of Oda Nobuna, so it being full of gender-flipped historical domain characters was practically a given. This time it's in the Hundred Years War instead of the Sengoku Period. All in all, it didn't really leave much of an impression. The first episode was so scattered that it didn't really tell a coherent story.
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