Kelsain

I guess we'll just have to wait to see what the control requirements of giant battle robots really are. In reference to your statement about the buttons, have seen this before. I was just speculating about the guitar. Actually, I think the best example I've seen in anime was Gunbuster. It's been a LOOOOONG time since I watched it, but the controls looked suitably complex and also fairly ergonomic. If you cosider that the shouting of attack names might actually be part of the combat interface, it works pretty well for the action. Back to topic (kinda), I do recall that the YF-19's flightstick buttons were green & glowy - perhaps that's some OTEC multi-function thing. As for guitar-stick injury, perhaps that's why every time a member of Sound Force got really nailed, they bled from the forehead. Course, everybody seemed to bleed from the forehead... Back to Mylene's VF-11, lady-bots have definitely been a constant fixture in anime. The oldest one I can think of was in Manzinger-Z, with the boob-missiles. There was also "Sailor" Gundam. Most people, understandably, feel that it doesn't fit in the context of Macross, where the mecha had always been military before - with a realistic, clunky military look to it. I take some issue with it, sure, but I'm willing to look past it, because I enjoyed most other aspects of the show. (that's not a dig at people who really do have a problem with it, you like what you like)

Oh, I don't disagree with you there at all. If we're bringing that on board, we can really hang most of this discussion, anyway... To my knowledge, concept designs for movies don't often get past that stage anyway. If they do, it's usually from the production designers wanting to put some functionality or backstory into a design idea from on high. Even if they do put a lot of thought into it, it's usually lost when the sets get built, director tells actors to fiddle with it a little, or ends up on the cutting room floor - or the director just changes his mind. (I tend to read a lot of production design books) Sometimes you do get someone who gets actively involved and showcases the thought the designers put in (Peter Jackson is a good example). But, when the creator/director IS the designer, well, who knows if he thought it through? And I'd forgotten the early SDF episode about the different control sets. That's why Roy had Hikaru switch to Gerwalk, b/c the controls were more like a plane's... Perhaps I got that from the old RT:RPG book (the only source for good lineart in the late 80's) - before I knew better. Oh, and the YF-19 used the same controls for all modes - remember when Isamu was pushing very hard on the stick when fighting Guld with his gunpod/club, and that somehow translated into the 19 using both arms. Entering into speculation - think of how many control cambinations the guitar stick gives you. Basara launched his missiles by using "Slider 52," then pressing a certain button on the er, end of the guitar. (I know nothing about guitars). If there's 52+ sliders, x 8 or so button each, in addition to the greater variety of positions you can put it in; you have a alot more action capability than a 2 button joystick and a throttle. You'd spend a lot less time reaching away from the hand controls to hit buttons. Just thinkin...

To me, Mylene's VF-11 wasn't nearly as offensive as the VF-1 with the clown nose... Although, that scene with all the personally owned Valkyries kindof supported the Sound Force ones, in my mind. We see that with the technology of the 2040's, VFs are easily customizable. Really the SF valks aren't that crazy, they just have modifed head sensors. Hell, Basara's even had head and hip lasers. I guess most people really take issue w/ Mylene's. Personally, the crazy paint scheme, even the boobs, don't really bother me - it's more that the transformation sequence seems to be so different with the YF-21 style head shield and the skinny legs that somehow also hold missile bays. With the controls, I'm sure we've all had issues with the flight controls of Macross mecha. I mean, how can the battroid mode do all those things using a throttle, flight stick and a couple foot pedals? If it's all preprogrammed, is there a specific key sequence to flip your gunpod and smack somebody with it? Or to put on a giant adversary's uniform? The standard control layout was deigned for regular jet fighters. IIRC, they used it in the VF-1 to make it an easier transition for normal pilots. Maybe its possible that the guitar-stick (keytar-stick in Ray's case) or something similar might be better suited to battroid action. I'll grant that the idea of playing WHILE doing all this seems like a bit much - but if so, maybe that helps with Basara's "ace" piloting skills - his custom valk has an interface advantage over everyone else ('cept Guld in the 21 of course). Good thing Veffidas didn't have her own fighter, though.

Finally finished the series myself. Harking back to the origin of this post, I wasn't too disappointed, b/c I kindof already know what was coming. However, I'll concede that it was a little anticlimactic. I think the time between Operation Stargazer and the last 3 eps could have been better spent building up the climax and giving a little more time for things to happen. The whole plot got wrapped up in about 5 minutes. I think either a little more time for the actual climax, or some more to the denoument, rather than silent vingettes through the end credits would have made it better. I bought M+ as it was being released by Manga here - which was probably more-or-less concurrent with the broadcast of M7. I've had the TIA book since about then too. All in all, I've got 10 years of reading and seeing pics from M7 before ever watching it. Been a member here for a couple years and read of all the controversy, but finally decided to judge it myself. I was sad that it was coming to an end, but pretty surprised that BAM!, it was over like that. All in all, I liked it. Had a few issues with it (the whole permeable dome thing from a while back among others), but I think I'm with Keith that it was an overall succesful sequel in the franchise. I have Dynamite7 on deck, but decided to let M7 digest a little while first. Also, does anyone know of a good place to dl the Movie and/or M7Encore? All the torrents I've found are ancient and have only 3 or 4 seeds. Therefore, looking at like 25 hours to dl each. I'm also eager to watch M0 again, and revaluate how its piece fits in the puzzle.

Spectacular. The J has always been my favorite. This is like the epitome of all the colored pencil RT:RPG lineart and crappy model paint jobs I did as a kid. Just wow. Hope you don't mind if I borrow a couple ideas for my dk green/blue Hasegawa.

What about making the lateral edges black and leaving the front/back panels grey? (see attached) Love the scheme so far - has me rethinking my Hase 1A color scheme. How's it look in battroid?

Well, you're wrong. Kinryu, whether he's in a VF-17 or a VF-11 or what, rocks the house. And I'm not sure you can say Kinryu was a womanizer. It's not like one bridge bunny was his girlfriend and he was going out with another behind her back. He was LITERALLY sleeping with two bridge bunnies at once. Like one on each arm, you know? Go Kinryu. 421610[/snapback] It wasn't just Basara's song that elevated his spiritia (nudge nudge)

I'm working my way through Macross 7 now, and just got through the conclusion of the planet Lux/Rax story arc. It struck me as I watched Gigil, singing Basara's songs and sacrificing himself for Sivil - that he's not the only one-eyed fellow in Macross who's come around to the light. Breetai too, was seduced by the power of culture and turned against his Zentradei superiors. In both cases, it was not just the music that turned them around, but I think it was love. Clearly, Gigil loved Sivil, and saw Basara's music as a tool to revive her, he then became affected by Basara's persistence and ultimately came about, and expressed this through singing. If I recall, Breetai was not overly swayed by Minmei's music, but more the effect that culture had on his troops. I think he loved the Zentradei under his command - he respected them at least - setting him apart from leaders like Kamjin and Bodolza. It was the impending destruction of all his soldiers that led him to sign the truce with Gloval and fight against the Bodol Fleet. Is there a signifigance to to the fact that both of these guys had only one real eye and one cybernetic? Are there other such characters who make similar changes in other series or movies? Is there possibly a root in Japanese culture to a one-eyed turncoat who saved the day?

Whoa, my coworker just loaned that to me. I hadn't had much interest in watching it, but now I have to!!! Pretty much all of SciFi's original movies are pretty bad, especially that Mammoth movie they had a little while back (Oh, Summer Glau, I know you need to eat...) I nearly lost all espect for Bruce Campbell when I watched "The Man with the Screaming Brain," had to go watch Evil Dead 2 to make things better. There's one more that I might mention, although you might hate me forever. Let me dig up the link... *Woohoo 42nd post - I feel so connected to Life, the Universe & Everything...

it mentions the hatches being able to open, but it previously had shown Basara sitting on the dome of City 7. so it kinda makes you wonder, + why would you want to expose the agricultural sections to an alien enviroment? i could potentialy kill all the plants, or worse, even if the atmosphere was similar to earths, it doesn't mean the plant life and spores of such are. (makes ya wonder a bit more don't it? about them being on an alien world, and walking about without a care in the world before running extensive tests on the plant life/air/atmosphere/and so on ) 419404[/snapback] Isn't that SSOP? (Standard SciFi Operating Procedure) The only time I've seen people walking around an earth-like planet in environment suits was in Serenity. Even then, they took them off after everything was determined to be normal - of course in that case, Miranda (the planet) was terraformed, so it WOULD be ok. In M7, I just assume that the Macross 5 already ran all those extensive tests before they decided to set down.

...Twitches...

Except it happened again in the same episode... Gigil captures Basara, they fly off in the hands of an Elgerzorine, and before Emerald Force shoots them down, he shoves Basara off right above the forest bubble of City 7. Next shot has Basara falling through the branches. Perhaps the smaller domes are barriers, or maybe they're retractable for settling on a planet. I dunno, I give up on that aspect. I'll just put a few more strings on my disbelief.

ahh keypoint there, i forgot bout the arms being up in that scene... its been to long and i never got to see it all (hell i never even watched roblowdrek) bah 418790[/snapback] Actually, Hikaru had his arms blown off by a missile strike in the middle of battle. (Well, his Valk's arms...) The blast knocked him out and when he came to, he was entering atmosphere. So he migh have been in "FULL" Gerwalk mode when he used the head lasers.

Like a fully armed and operational Monster? It's a good thing they hit the building... I agree that it looks like OTEC plexi, or Transparent alumnium, though the shield idea explained some things. Although, even if it only lets slow matter through (like the shields in SW:1), the molecules in the enclosed air are probably moving slower than Gigil's escape pod. Perhaps the Varuta get in through those big plot holes...

Yes, much like prisoners who've been tortured into capitulation. They are brought to a point where they "want" to help the bad guys... 417702[/snapback] or commit suicide, wichever comes first or fits into their morale honestly at first i thaught Basara was just giving everyone headaches, then it seemed like Sivil was getting off to his music... strange concept, but it sure looked that way after a bit with the way she began to react 417707[/snapback] That's what I was thinking. 1) She kept describing her reactions as "This... feeling" (on my sub anyway), not "the pain" or something like that. Perhaps its the equivalent of "He makes me feel funny down there..." 2) She keeps going back for more, her reaction is *squint, squint, gasp, tense-up, convulse, gasp, scream* 3) She keeps wanting to make out with Basara while in possessed humans. 4) She shouts "Ecstasy!" when she does finally kiss him. (again, on my sub) I'm on the Lux episode now, haven't been able to watch it for a few days. I actually didn't realize the City 7 dome was a barrier! Is there any documentation on this? This does make more sense in terms of the show. At first I though that infiltration group hit one of the docking bays, and there were just enough to occupy the next few shows worth of action. I thought it was weird b/c we see footage of Elgerzorines blasting through windows on the other ships, but they just show up all the time on the Macross. A big barrier bubble doesn't necessarily seem like a great idea, though - it better have a super-dang-stable, dedicated reactor. And again, if this keeps happening, shouldn't closing the shell be standard procedure whenever the bad guys fold in?

You mean, like a roundhouse kick? Imagine the horror of a macronized Chuck Norris.... To bring this post back OT, I'm about half-way through M7 and have had no problems yet, other than the fact that the City7 dome seems to be a soap bubble that the Varuta can pass through with ease. I can't get Fire Bomber's songs out of my head, though I haven't figured out if that's b/c I like them or I'm just oversaturated...

What do you think happens when you separate the males and the females for too long? 416032[/snapback]

Local color? Maybe the poor people can't afford the pain-killers for arthritis, that's why the only way in is through a stairway - keep 'em out of the fashionable parts of the city. Seriously, though, maybe it was an outreach project, like the FHA projects in Chicago, providing cheap, standardized housing for the poor; which then degenerated into the slums of the last decade. Still, M7's only been out for 5 years - even Cabrini didn't look that bad after 20 years. I say past decade, b/c I think Cabrini's been knocked down... More likely, maybe the district was impeding some development on Earth. The buildings might have been from one of those post-SWI settlements and the whole neighboorhood was transplanted. I guess Overtechnology brings a whole new dimension to Gentrification. As for ? 3, I guess maybe they've decided to stop and check out an interesting region of space, or possibly folding between episodes. It just seems that if they're constantly under attack, they might try moving to a different location. I think it was the traffic between ships that threw me off - although I do like the idea that it takes quite a while to go from ship to ship.

I've run a search of the board, and couldn't find anything on these topics, so here goes: I'm about 1/4 of the way through M7, and am ok with everything so far except for 3 issues that interfering with my suspension of disbelief: A) What's up with the Achisio District? It's not a registered part of the fleet, all the buildings inside are bombed out - or smashed somehow, seems to be like Cabrini Green of City 7. It almost looks like anothe ship tacked on to the Macross. Is there any explanation for all this? B) In the first episode, when the Varuta attack near City7, the people see the explosions, then there's a big shockwave. At first I figured this would be attributed to damage to the dome or an infiltration force, but several episodes later, the city is infiltrated by a different team - w/ no exposition of the infiltration. So... why bother with the shockwaves at all? C) Is the 7th Fleet actually going anywhere? I know it's supposedly headed for the Galactic Core, but is it stationary or traveling at sub-light speeds? It just seems like a big sitting duck to the Varuta - like the Macross in the original series, but it was established that the SDF-1 could not fold and had to travel at sub-light. Of course, it's silly to say that time dilation would make the trip nearly instantaneous to the colonists at high enough velocities, so all the resort & casino entertainment would be unecessary - I don't want to kill any catgirls. I would think that if you were headed half way across the galaxy, you'd probably use space-fold to do it. Or do I just need to wait it out and see later in the series?

I loved the first book, started to lose interest in the second, had little use for the third or the fourth - then Ender's Shadow came along, telling how Bean was the poop and totally stole Ender's thunder. I was never interested in reading the sequel to that. I agree it would make a better anime than live action film. I don't think the mainstream audience would accept the amount of violence between the kids in this post-columbine, zero-tolerance world.

Got to meet Bruce Campbell while he was on his "If Chins Could Kill" book tour a couple years ago. Great guy, fun actor, but I've been less and less impressed with his work since he sold his soul to the SciFi Channel. Oddly enough, he looked just like my dad. Got to hang out with Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson and Trace Beulieu from MST3k. Those guys are great. Ate dinner across the aisle from Clint Eastwood in Carmel. Worked extensively with Bob Bakker, rogue paleontologist - the guy who popularized the warm blooded dinosaur idea, was "eaten" in Jurassic Park 2. Had another field hand who looked just like Tim Curry from Muppets Treasure Island - but I don't think he counts. One of my really good friends was the shark expert on the Shark vs. Crocodile show on Discovery last year.

I'd been thinking about redrawing that VF in a more Macrossy - less flashy style. Alas, I went back to school and have no time. I love that design though, and we've seen other VFs from that become the VF9 and VF14.

The only instance I recall was in the dub of M+, where Millard says that Project Supernova is to desgin the "next series main tranformable fighter, to replace the *VF Thunderbolt*, currenlty in service." Or something very much like that... Having just met the VF-11 a few minutes earlier, then hearing that it had it's own name - and of course, this being the first Macross experience I'd had since Robotech reruns in high school - I just fell in love with it. The 11 is still my favorite VF. And yeah, it kinda bugs me when I hear it called a Valkyrie. Then again, I know I've participated in this discussion before... Back on track, I'd like to see an S-type variant of the 11, or the VF-19F w/o the stubby wings. [edit - oop, kinsei beat me to it!] 19F is in my top 5 fav's, it's like the direct production model of the YF-19.

Unless it a Star Wars Prequel poster!

I think it's fanart, personally. Note that it says Super Dimensinal fortress MACROSS. Those typos would never have made it to a real teaser poster - not is this era, anyway. It's pretty though, but I would have made it say 2009.