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Seto Kaiba

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Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    Six out, with a seventh pending whenever SoftBank finally kicks it out the door... there's the two VF-1 Valkyrie Master Files, plus one book each (so far) for the VF-0 Phoenix, VF-19 Excalibur, and VF-25 Messiah, and the one "Squadrons of the SDF-1" book that isn't technically a third VF-1 volume but in practice totally is. Then there's the VF-22 book that's still pending.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Unless there was a time machine involved, I don't think so... the VF-XS Valkyrie II concept was published in Animage in 1991. The VF-X3/VF-3 design didn't appear until Macross: Remember Me, Skull Leader, and Love Stories, which were published in Autumn 1993 and Summer/Autumn 1994.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    ... and the to-scan queue gets a little longer.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    It's from an old issue of Animage, IIRC, which touted a bunch of promotional art for Macross II when it was still in development. A few of the art pieces were printed in other places as well. I'm pretty sure I have all the publications that covered it. This was the original concept for what became the VF-2SS, back when it was an all-regime fighter with a more traditional Super Pack. The design was polished into the VF-2SS, and the basic concept entered into the lore as the original VF-2, the all-regime fighter whose -S variant was modified for maximum space performance to create the VF-2SS in 2081. It's worth noting that "VF-XS" was also applied to the design that became the VF-2JA after they settled on a name for the VF-2SS.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Or those of us who have the skills don't have the time to tackle it... or the resources to tackle it alone. Never encountered that bug myself tho... I've only ever found one, where two cutscene portraits briefly overlap for one sentence.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Meh... it's an ass-covering maneuver. Some management flunky probably realized that if Harmony Gold was officially endorsing a Macross-based Robotech fan film, it could possibly be viewed as an attempt by them to do an end run around Studio Nue and Big West's copyrights, and decided to kill the film project to protect themselves from a possible lawsuit. The only tragedy here is that so many creative people wasted their time, money, and energy on a creatively bankrupt franchise like Robotech because their pattern recognition skills suck. As Radiohead once opined... "You do it to yourself, and that's what really hurts."... and boy did they ever.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    My reaction in two words: "DO WANT".
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Do I even need to say it? No, I probably don't...
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Just curious, and I know there probably isn't an answer (yet)... but has there been any word (yea or nay) that Macross the First will still be released in print by volume?
  10. Seto Kaiba
    I don't put any in the novelizations... but it seemed worth mentioning, as it's the only time I'm aware of that a Macross title made any reference to Ozma having met Grace at all during his service with the 117th Research Fleet. I work in a research center with a staff of 14,000 and let me tell you, keeping track of more than a couple dozen people? Just about impossible. Wasn't there a piece in one of the art books that showed Alto reuniting with Sheryl?
  11. Seto Kaiba
    's it really realistic to expect that Ozma Lee, a relatively young soldier assigned to the fleet's escort/protection detail would know all 10,000+ people living and working in the 117th Research Fleet? Grace was there as Dr. Mao Nome's assistant, while Ozma was just a normal soldier. Even the novelization only has Ozma meet Grace once while serving with the 117th Research Fleet, and that was right before the Vajra attack began... so it's understandable it might not have stuck in his memory considering all the traumatic events he endured that day.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... no. Ozma Lee was, according to his Macross Chronicle character sheet, serving in the escort/protection detail for the 117th Research Fleet when things went to pot and the Vajra attacked. He rescued Ranka, but adopted her because he was dogged by feelings of guilt over having failed to save her family too. Macross Chronicle also asserts that he didn't so much leave the military as get kicked out for assaulting a VIP (IIRC, during a debriefing in the novelization) who'd sponsored/backed the fleet. (The novel asserts that Ozma's last assignment in the military was to the NUNS SVF-41 Black Aces, aboard the SDFN-4 Bruno J. Global.) Why are you assuming there were two different rescue teams?
  13. Seto Kaiba
    I don't believe so... it's jpop, so it's very niche.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... the last edition did a similar thing, to a chorus of "are we done yet?" here on MW.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    You have my axe.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    I dunno, man... people didn't seem to have much difficulty accepting the sudden step WAY backwards to the VF-0 and its regular turbine engines in Macross Zero, despite the fact that the previous Macross title had been Macross Dynamite 7. Likewise, I have yet to encounter anyone who's seriously put off by the step way backwards Gundam is doing with Gundam the Origin or Macross did with Macross the First. Or, for that matter, the 20+ year backwards step Macross M3 made to the days before the VF-11 was even completed... Actually, the one that was about air racing was Macross the Ride, a serialized novel in Dengeki Hobby magazine. Macross 30 is set on the colony world of Ouroboros, a former Protoculture world, where a SMS pilot named Leon Sakaki is stranded when he's shot down by a rogue New UN Forces Independent Special Command unit that's trying to use a Protoculture bio-mecha (an 8th Ehvil series unit) and the planet's unique characteristics to alter history. Macross 30 was a PS3 game, and every level but the opening "supposed-to-lose" fight is set planetside and features VFs from across 50 years of timeline (from the VF-0 to the YF-30.)
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, that came to light relatively recently with their latest bout of legal threats... though they can renew that license, so I'd not make any long-term plans for partying. I do. I read every translation you post.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Read it again, friend... I said that the Protodeviln in the series are Protoculture-created bio-tech mecha inhabited by energy beings from another dimension. That's not a false statement. As we see them in the series, that's what they are. A Protoculture-designed body with an extradimensional "soul". In my experience, it's not been a good idea... it makes the reused animation and limited musical variety of the show's first half all the more obvious. It's a big part of what put me off the series the first time I tried to watch it. The subtitle quality was kind of awful too, but now that my Japanese is decent enough that there aren't many moments where I need subs, and I'm watching the remastered release on legit media, it's not bad in small doses. Marathoning Macross 7 is definitely a bad idea if it's already not the type of show you were expecting (an issue exacerbated by Macross Plus), and especially so if it's your first time watching it. Not gonna happen... unless Harmony Gold goes under, or does something to get themselves sued into oblivion. Their license doesn't expire until 2022.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Compilation movies are clip shows intended for consumption by people who are already fans of the series, and therefore wouldn't need to do said googling.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Considering attitudes towards women at the time, I'd question calling Uhura "strong"... most of the time she's depicted as little more than a secretary. Claudia, as the Macross's chief weapons officer and its navigator, definitely fits the bill. Other than the fact that they're both black women on the bridge, the two have nothing in common. Which is completely at odds with her depiction in the series... but that's fine, since Robotech never let a little thing like accuracy to the series stop them from posting random gibberish on their website.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    As a general rule, don't start newbies on the movie version of anything... the movie is for people who are already fans. You'd run into similar problems if you showed someone who's never seen Escaflowne the Escaflowne movie, or someone who's never seen Zeta Gundam the Zeta Gundam movies. You'll get the same kind of abject confusion if you show DYRL to someone who's never seen the original series. IMO, the movies did fix a few issues with the series in that they gave Ranka a better run at the love triangle... the series version always felt a little lopsided, with her not getting nearly as much attention or interest as Sheryl. That, I think, is one of the chief problems with western fans and Macross 7. Because of that soul-crushing, mind-numbing reuse of footage, the repetitious music, and the slow start, you absolutely CANNOT marathon the show without feeling like you're being punished for some imagined sin. It's a show you have to watch here and there in small pieces, and because so many fans have had to resort to fansubs, they succumb to the temptation to marathon it... which is the worst possible thing to do with a series like that.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Er... would now be a bad time to point out that I said pretty much exactly that. However, because they can't actually separate themselves from those bodies, they are effectively flesh-and-blood beings.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    The build-up to the series climactic battle is very abrupt... in the opinion of many viewers, including many who are very fond of Macross Frontier (myself included). What are you talking about? There are no demons in Macross. The Protodeviln are bio-technological weapons developed by the Protoculture that were accidentally inhabited by extradimensional energy beings. She's as much a corporeal being of flesh as the idiot she obsesses over and the other idiot who obsesses over her. If Macross 30 is any fair indication, the same sort of bio-tech weapons were probably the forerunners of the Birdhuman-type mecha seen in Macross Zero.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Uh... Claudia doesn't really resemble Uhura in any way, except that they're both black women. The Star Trek references, however, are very real. They're mostly text on displays around the Macross's bridge, which include things like a cast list for the original Star Trek series, or screens from an old text-based Star Trek computer game. There's some reciprocity there... there are a few Macross references in Star Trek, including the use of some parts from Macross model kits in various Star Trek props and studio models, including the Constellation-class starships from TNG and the piece of shrapnel that kills Captain Garrett in "Yesterday's Enterprise".
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Er... you sure you watched the show? The original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series (and its sequels) are about love stories set against the backdrop of interstellar war. Even Kawamori says so. Yes, we see humanity dodges the extinction bullet and they off a couple supporting characters to drive home that war is serious business, but those are small pieces of the whole story, which cares more for the trials and tribulations of the heart as an indecisive teenage boy tries to decide which of the two girls in his life he really loves. The war is a backdrop for the love story, not vice versa. It seems that you may have completely missed the point of Macross as a whole. At the end of the day, almost the entire main cast is alive and well. Love conquers all, even Kamjin finds it before the end. The human race took one for the team, but at the end there's the promise of a brighter future as humanity moves out into the galaxy with the help of their new Zentradi allies. The warlike Zentradi learn the value of peace and discover a new life. You don't get a downer ending in Macross... unless you're watching Sayonara no Tsubasa. The hero gets the girl, love conquers all, peace is restored, and the world moves on a little wiser for having acknowledged the mistakes that led to hostility. How is Macross 7 different? It's simply the most lighthearted and exuberant series in a metaseries that specializes in being far "lighter and softer" than Gundam. It takes the themes of music and emotion as a vehicle for communication to some comically exaggerated lengths. Macross has never been, and hopefully will never be, a dark, gritty, and realistic series. 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. But hey, he still lives his dream in the end. Er... Macross 7 wasn't the "least successful" title in the Macross metaseries. It's not as well-regarded in America as it was in its native Japan, but Macross 7 did better than Macross II and Macross Plus. Until Macross Frontier, no Macross title had given rise to as much material as Macross 7. The Macross 7 series may have ended in 1995, but we were still getting new Macross 7 story material well into 2001! It's also hardly the "dead past", considering that Basara and Fire Bomber were practically as big as Minmay... a fact referenced both in Macross Frontier's series and movies. It had a lasting influence in-universe, both musically and technologically. Even Macross 30 isn't shy about pointing out Fire Bomber had a lasting musical impact akin to Minmay's, one that even huge megastars like Sheryl respect.
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