Seto Kaiba

Poor choice of words on my part. I didn't mean to offend. By a "better" name for the boards, I meant a more thematically appropriate name. "Galaxy Network" works just fine for a main timeline-devoted site, but that's not what we're working on. Anyway... our target date for opening the main part of the site to the public is somewhere around May 9... I'll make a new thread for it then.

Whoops... cat's outta the bag... Since the site's currently down for a major overhaul, I wasn't planning to post a thread about it here until after we'd got the message boards finished and the site's main index up and running. Because of the economic downturn, three of our project team members moved out of the state in search of new jobs, and so we're WAY behind schedule for the site's construction, but that can't be helped since it's just me, Saori, Paul, and Greg working on it now, and all four of us have to keep up with our day jobs. Not to mention acquiring and translating the sources that're going into the site's Macross II encyclopedia (for want of a better name, I'm open to suggestions ) has set us back a ways... as has our work on the Macross II section of Mr. March's Macross Mecha Manual. Officially, the working title of the remodeled site is the "Macross II Universe"... likewise "Galaxy Network" is a working title for the boards... one that I agreed to under considerable duress from the other three members of the development team and several lewd cosplay-related promises from my girlfriend... we actually have a new, much better name for it that'll be applied once we finish construction on the system later next week (knock on wood). Anyhoo... I'd be grateful if we could go ahead and let this thread slip off the list for now. I'll post a new one once we've gotten ourselves caught back up to the production schedule and are ready to open.

I suppose having no communication at all is a failure to communicate too... Virtually all of the hype about the Robotech live-action movie is coming not from Harmony Gold or Warner Bros, but from the fans themselves. Specifically, that same small group of die-hards whose tenuous grip on reality and completely alien concepts of "fun" and "entertainment" lead them to protest that everything is ripping off Robotech and start petitions for things like the completion of Robotech II: the Sentinels and a DVD release of Robotech: the Untold Story. Those are the fans who are latching onto every piece of news about the movie, no matter how trivial, as though each one was a revelation from the mouth of God himself. It's those fans, the ones who are convinced Robotech hasn't been forgotten, that are making the live-action movie out to be some kind of great sci-fi opus that will eclipse even Star Trek and Star Wars. Fortunately, they are but a small minority. Amusingly, the general attitude about the live-action movie on Robotech.com can be essentially summed up as "I'll believe it when you show me some proof, Mr. McKeever". There's a lot of skepticism about whether or not the live-action movie is going to happen at all. The prospect of a "reimagining" doesn't seem to have gone over well, and there's a fair bit of worry that the reimagined end result will be something aggressively unlike Robotech... a valid concern in my opinion, given what Michael Bay did to Transformers. Some fans have voiced the concern that if the live-action movie sinks without a trace, it could also derail plans for Robotech: Shadow Rising. All in all, the fanbase seems to be approaching the prospect of the live-action movie with suspicion and skepticism, rather than unabashed enthusiasm. As far as "teasing the fans" goes, the guilty party is Harmony Gold, not Warner Bros or Maguire Entertainment. It's the guys at Robotech.com made that initial news post about how there was a rumor that Tobey Maguire was going to play Rick Hunter in a live-action Robotech movie that started it all... and they're the ones who've been keeping the few die-hards strung out by offering them tiny tidbits of information, and hiding behind the excuse of "you can tell we're working hard because we don't have anything to show for it yet".

Interested in what he'll earn if it becomes a cash cow like Transformers did, more like...

Yeah, I've been waitin' 21 issues for that. Once it comes out it's got top priority with my site's translators, though I doubt it'll have new information. By the time it comes out we oughta be finished with Animage #11 and the VF-XS Valkyrie II. Not gonna see scans of Chronicle though, since pretty much everybody importing it is onboard with sketchley's "no scans until the magazine goes out of print" plan.

I genuinely doubt that Tobey Maguire is actually a fan of Robotech, particularly in light of the fact that the "news" that he was a Robotech fan came from Harmony Gold. As we all know, Harmony Gold employees aren't exactly the most trustworthy sources of information, what with that almost Soviet-esque tendency to bury information that doesn't show them in a positive light, and occasionally "re-interpret" the facts to show themselves in a better light, like they've been doing with Shadow Chronicles. I'm much more inclined to believe the claims that former Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton is a Robotech fan, because he has no obvious ulterior motives for claiming to be one, and the news that he was came before the announcement that there would be a live-action Robotech movie.

I just finished that particular marathon a week or so ago... watched everything except the original series (which I don't have) and the last episode of MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front (which isn't out yet). I think, of all the various gundam pilots, I liked Shiro Amada and Uso Ebbing the most, mainly because they didn't whine as much as Amuro, Kamille, Judau, and the others. To recover from the manic depression Tomino put me into, I'm gonna watch something with a lighter tone... I've been putting off watching Tenchi Muyo! GXP for a while now...

Yeah, but as I've said before, Macross Chronicle's writers are only referencing Entertainment Bible 51 and This is Animation Special #5. Since the PC Engine game mecha don't appear at all in This is Animation Special #5, and Entertainment Bible 51 only covers the VF-1 Kai (VF-1R), it's highly doubtful that any of the PC Engine game mecha will appear... and that unfortunately means we'll probably never see a mechanic sheet for the Daedalus II.

Something for which I am heartily grateful... While I'd love to see the Macross II timeline explored in more detail, I'd rather they went backwards and did OVA adaptations of the Neld Fleet Incident in 2036, the three-way war of 2037, and the 2054 Zentradi invasion. Like the main timeline's bizarre compulsion with turning every enemy into an ally by the end of the series, Macross II kind of wrote itself into a corner... there's nobody left to fight, unless they go with the whole "300 years in the future war with the colonies" thing that early rumors suggested Macross II would be about, but that might be a bit over-Gundam-y for my taste. I wouldn't turn up my nose at a Five Star Stories TV show either...

Well well well... those idiots at Chronicle had better not screw this one up... They really half-assed the Gigamesh and SNN Valkyrie mecha sheets... they'd better not do the same to my all-time favorite mecha, or there'll be hell to pay. I'll consider it a rousing success if they actually straighten out the contradictory mess of information revolving around the weapons of the VF-2SS SAP Valkyrie II... but given their tendency to blindly parrot from existing sources without adding something new... be prepared for the gunpods to be identified only as "Gunpod".

Close, but the Gigamesh is actually a proper mobile suit, not a powered armor. I doubt the Daedalus II-class space carrier will be featured in Macross Chronicle. The writers of the Chronicle don't seem to be paying any attention to mecha from the games, let alone the alternate universe ones. After translating the SNN Valkyrie mecha sheet a while back, it occurred to me that they're only referencing two sources for all of their Macross II information... Entertainment Bible #51, and This is Animation Special #5. The motherlode of information about the mecha of Macross II (B-Club Magazine) isn't being referenced. If it was, they would've known the SNN Valkyrie's designation (VC-079), its manufacturer (Tachikahoff Corp.), its predecessor (VC-051), and its year of introduction (2079), among other things. At that point, it's highly unlikely even the PC Engine mecha which appeared in EB51 (the VF-1 Kai) will get mecha sheets. It doesn't look like they're going to go beyond the mecha that appear in the animation, even for the main continuity. I was hoping the next mecha sheet would be the VF-2SS, and lucky me... it's the featured mecha for issue 21... I'd love for them to clear up the contradictions about the weapons the mecha uses, but since the last three Macross II mecha sheets can only be called "half-assed", I'm not holding my breath. EDIT: For some odd reason, Chronicle's website is calling it the YF-2SS... what's up with that? Typo?

In the past couple months, Kevin McKeever has repeatedly insisted that there is no truth in the reports that Robotech: Shadow Rising is on pre-production hiatus so Harmony Gold can focus on the live action movie. Presumably they'll be having DR Movie do the animation again, and be having FUNimation handle the DVD release. Of course, Harmony Gold refuses to announce any kind of release date (even an estimate) for either production, which has led more than a few people to suspect one or both projects have been suspended. Well, he IS monumentally stupid, even for a die-hard Robotech fan.

Nah, the U.N. Spacy takes the Neld and Burado fleets extremely seriously... and the unnamed 2054 fleet even more seriously... they considered that one a big enough threat to establish a permanent defensive perimeter at Pluto's orbit and commit most of their fleet to it for an entire year. (That's also the fleet that thrashed the U.N. Spacy and destroyed most of the former Adoclas fleet) It wasn't until the 2082 invasion where they started getting cocky... since that was the first overwhelming victory they'd had... due to a mixture of the Minmay Defense, the new VF-2SS, and their new ships. They were already dependent on the Minmay Defense before that, but the 2082 victory was what gave them the feeling that they couldn't be beaten.

Yes, I'm aware of that... but it's not what I was talking about. The PC Engine games and Macross II: Lovers Again OVA draw on a few themes and technologies from the Gundam franchise that previous Macross titles hadn't. The small-scale fleet battles are just the most obvious thematic device borrowed from Gundam. On the technological side, near the end of Macross: Eternal Love Song the VF-4ST is equipped with a beam rifle of similar size and appearance to the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam's hyper mega launcher from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and funnels similar to those seen in Char's Counterattack (though not psycommu-controlled). The gunpods of the 2nd Generation VFs (VF-2SS, VF-2JA, VA-1SS, VF-XX) are almost exclusively beam rifles, and the VF-2SS takes it one step farther by also using bits. There's also the fact that the Mardook Empire's Gigamesh is a mobile suit, and Feff's even goes so far as to sport a "commander horn" and a coat of bright red paint.

Yeah, that's the impression I've got from what little information B-Club #79, Entertainment Bible 51, and This is Animation Special #5 have had to say about it. They're more focused on its relationship to the 2nd Generation VFs.

You forgot Kazumi Fujita on your list there... but exactly who did the starship designs is something of a mystery, as all of the designers specialized in humanoid mecha in their later careers. A lot of the Gundam themes and technology that snuck into Macross II are likely the work of Koichi Ohata, who had worked on Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack several years earlier. (Kazumi Fujita had also worked on Gundam prior to working on Macross II... he did designs for Zeta Gundam, A New Translation, and Gundam ZZ)

He didn't. The mechanical designs for the PC Engine games were done by Koichi Ohata, Kazumi Fujita, Junichi Akutsu, and Jun Okuda, who did the mechanical designs for Macross II. Nope. Miyatake wasn't involved. The only notable returning staff members from the original series and DYRL were Haruhiko Mikimoto (character design) and Sukehiro Tomita (story).

This is a clear case of what I like to call Robotech syndrome... a strange and mysterious mental illness which causes those afflicted to enjoy horrible sequels just because they contain some familiar characters or mecha. For me, and many others, the experience of watching Macross 7 could be faithfully replicated by spending 18 hours pounding nails into your face while you clean out your ears with a baseball bat covered in 40-grit sandpaper. It would take a MASSIVE undertaking to shoehorn Macross II into the main continuity... the two backstories are fundamentally incompatible... something I'm immensely grateful for. The U.N. Spacy of the alternate continuity actually considers the Zentradi a serious threat right up until 2082, and there's no silly magical singing.

It's posts like this that make me fervently wish I had the power to smite people over TCP/IP. I have only one question for you... "Why would you want to do this terrible thing?" Seriously, why would you want to include a decent show like Macross II: Lovers Again in a continuity that contains pants-on-head retarded poo like Macross 7? Including Macross 7 in ANY Macross continuity is like having your breakfast with a nice tall plague rat smoothie... you're just going to regret it later. Macross II is much better off as a parallel universe that maybe one day Big West will return to and explore in more depth. Likewise, the main Macross timeline would be much better off if Macross 7 were written off as a long, particularly obnoxious nightmare Ozma had because of a morphine overdose while he was laid up in the hospital. Actually, there's more to it than that... there're also two canon prequel games, Macross 2036: the Neld Fleet Incident, and Macross: Eternal Love Song. Not to mention a couple novels.

For one, no source I'm aware of calls that a sensor on either aircraft. For two, that isn't exactly unique... every Gundam since the original has had a big red plate above the eyes, and it's not exactly uncommon outside of Gundam either. There are a literally hundreds of different mecha that particular cosmetic touch could have come from. You don't even have to go outside of Macross to find examples... just look at the Cheyenne I. That little indentation on the inside of the forearm is about the only link you're inferring between the VF-25 and VF-2SS that can't be disproved by simple examination. The design upper arms is not the same. Nor is the stripe pattern. A very similar paint pattern can be found on the YF-19, and several other VFs. It didn't necessarily come from the VF-2SS. The patterns you pointed to on the VF-25S Armored Messiah's forearm shield and stabilizers are nowhere near the same thing... on the VF-25 they're essentially flat cosmetic patterns in the armor plate... on the VF-2SS they're not cosmetic at all... they're raised at least several inches, because they're swing-out doors for mini-missile launchers. Like having a red plate above the eyes, having wheels in the feet of a mecha is hardly a unique trait... Macross II was one of the earlier examples, but by no means the only one. The Armor Shrikes in Blue Gender had feet set up similarly to the Cheyenne I, and the show coincidentally completed its run right around the time work started on Macross Zero. The similarity I'm surprised you missed is what's hanging underneath the Cheyenne I and Cheyenne II's gatling cannons... the shape of the magazine feeding the gatling cannon gives the arms a profile very similar to that of the Tomahawk II. The difference being that those aren't magazines on the Tomahawk II, they're railguns. It's pointless trying to find Macross II references in Frontier. Sure, Kawamori swiped some of the soundtrack for Macross 7, but that's about the extent of it. He's made it clear on a number of occasions that he really couldn't give a tinker's damn about Macross II. It's kind of like the Robotech fans who were convinced that Battlestar Galactica was crammed full of Robotech homages... imagining links that don't exist. Now I'm a huge Macross II fan, and I'd love to see some straight-up homages to my favorite OVA, but it's just not gonna happen so long as Kawamori's calling the shots.

Well... I've got copies of all five novels, but we aren't planning to translate them ourselves (I can't stomach translating 5 ~200pg novels) so we're gonna take up a collection sometime later this year and farm the work out to a professional translation service. Yeah, there's that... the Jamming Birds sing "Riding in your Valkyrie". *cough* Yeah... I can see the similarities too... they start and end with the fact that both the VF-2SS and VF-25 are updated versions of the VF-1 with drastically improved technology... the difference being that the VF-2SS has a damn good reason for basing itself off the VF-1, and there's no good reason for the VF-25 to have such an anachronistic design.

Actually... I think they listened a little better than you're giving them credit for. One of the few facts that Harmony Gold staffers have released about the Robotech live-action project is that it's going to be a re-imagining of the original Robotech series. All the people I've talked to thus far have interpreted that as an announcement that they're going to a highly unfaithful adaptation of Macross with new mechanical designs (probably ala Bayformers) and a drastically revised story. It's looking to me like the live-action Robotech movie will be a Macross Saga one, re-imagined to avoid a legal battle, and dumbed down enough to appeal to the same lackwits who thought Michael Bay's Transformers movie was a cinematic masterpiece. I'd feel bad for them too... if only I'd met any. I think Warner is smart enough to know that the only way a Robotech movie will sell is if it's a Macross Saga one. Let's face it... finding out what happened to the Macross Saga characters was far and away the most popular reason for interest in Robotech II: the Sentinels and Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles. Without Macross to prop it up, the whole shoddily-built Robotech house comes tumbling down.

Quick piece of advice... get rid of the music. As much as I like the soundtrack of Macross II, the music is making the process of loading each page significantly slower, even on fast connections. If you're unwilling to axe the music, at least scale down the bitrate to around 160kbps instead of around 320kbps.

Yeah, there is a gunpod for the VF-171 Nightmare Plus, but I can only think of one scene where the fighter is actually depicted carrying it. The Macross Frontier Official Fan Book has art for it on page 114. There's also color art of the RVF-171EX holding it. By the look of things, it's virtually identical to the gunpod used by the VF-17, right down to the Gundam-style grip on the left side. It may or may not have originally been stored inside the leg like the VF-17 had, but in its one appearance (episode 23) it's shown being carried on a ventral hardpoint like most gunpods. (The particular scene is where Alto and his two hapless wingmen are flying by Island-1 in their new VF-171EX's, and Maruyama points out Sheryl and asks Alto if he can get him her autograph).

I've been trying to get Kevin McKeever to cough up those numbers for a while now... he's mysteriously reluctant to do so. Yeah, the context of "sold quite well" is the interesting thing. Shadow Chronicles was made on a budget that'd have to double before it could honestly be called "shoestring". Tommy Yune seems to classify it as a success because it earned back its initial investment through DVD sales, the theatrical run, etc. Gotta admit, at the price it was originally selling at, they wouldn't even have to sell 50,000 copies to classify it as a commercial success. I guess their strategy is to claim success by setting ridiculously easy goals for themselves. I gotta admit, I hate Doug Bendo with a passion... I was fortunate enough to be one of the people responsible for getting him permanently banned from Robotech.com. I agree with that assessment... It's surely no coincidence that Harmony Gold's release partner ADV Films wasted half the box blurb on Macross's original series gabbing on about how it was part of Robotech. Well, if you're a big Southern Cross fan, you're already a glutton for punishment, if not a full-blown masochist, so dealing with Harmony Gold is probably quite enjoyable for them.