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For anyone who wants to see what I believe may be the most complete accounting of who was assigned what rights among the various companies which made DYRL, here is the judgment of 11/11/2003: http://www.translan.com/jucc/precedent-2003-11-11.html It's in Japanese. The key section is the fourth subsection of the finding of fact. I wrote my interpretation on Feb. 20 in the license debate thread and concluded that TP's rights in regard to DYRL consist of a share of the overall profits, getting their name in the credits, and possibly ownership of the master print (though not the right to copy/distribute the movie). I can't be entirely sure since I don't know Japanese and had to rely on a machine translation. I'm posting this basically to help out people who don't want to wade through the legal thread. Questions about the court case or arguments about the translation and legal details should probably be posted there.

Keith--thanks, I'll check on that. Pat Payne--you're making a common mistake when you say that HG's admission that they don't own DYRL conflicts with what they previously said about M+. As far as I can tell, outside Japan, HG claims to own the right to distribute and merchandise SDF Macross stuff (and now DYRL merchandise) as well as the exclusive right to distribute any other "Macross derivatives". The exclusivity part means that other people can't sell "Macross derivatives" without their permission. It does not mean that they have the "positive right" to use any and all Macross intellectual property which may exist. Renato--you've got me all wrong. Look in the legal thread and you'll see that I've found a court case (11/11/2003) which was decided this year regarding TP suing Bandai and BW for selling products with "Macross" in the title (such as Macross Zero). The judgment includes a description of the roles various parties played in the making of DYRL and their respective rights. I'm aware that TP worked on DYRL. What I'm not so sure about is whether TP owns or owned the right to allow third parties to translate/distribute it. My reading of a machine translation is that the answer is "no, TP doesn't have the right". If you'd like to look at the text, I'd appreciate seeing your opinion of what it says. (My comments on the case and a link were around Feb. 20 '04.)

Hey, Keith, where do you get your info that Tatsunoko was responsible for those versions?

I believe I have read that in fact this version of King Arthur is based on Lucius Artorius Castus....who was a member of the Roman Equestrian class. That means the Knights are in fact Roman Equestrians. Guinevere is probably based on Boadicea. Since this is the case, the use of Lorica Segmentata isnt necessarily wrong...but I don't believe that cavalrmen wore that. I think they wore Lorica Squamata (metal scale/jazzeraint). Like I said, the armor is wrong for cavalry. You may have read about the Artorius connection at this Filmforce page or this one. Leaving aside the fact that the connection between Arthur and Artorius is tenuous, the fact is that Artorius lived in the 2nd century. Boadicea was a 1st century figure. Meanwhile, the film portrays a struggle against the Saxon invaders of Britain, a 5th-6th century phenomenon. It can't be a sincere attempt at reconstructing the history behind the legend if all it does is take bits and pieces of history and throw them into a blender.

The question is, why attach them physically to the SDF-1? They might as well just hang out near it. Several ideas here: 1) SDF-1 is faster than the ARMD's. 2) SDF-1 has fold, ARMD's don't. 3) SDF-1 has pinpoint and/or omnidirectional barrier, ARMD's don't. (Except that, in the series at least, the barriers aren't developed until after it's already shown that the ARMD's are designed to dock with SDF-1.)

This is the argument I was attempting to anticipate in my previous post. I was trying to say the same thing as Sundown--there's a difference between mystery as narrative device, on the one hand, and lack of exposition on the other. Both of them involve missing information, but one of them gets the viewer's interest while the other just confuses him. This is especially the case when not only the Zentradi/Meltrandi are mysteries, but the "good guys" as well. SDF Macross shows us a lot about the Zentradi early on that could possibly have been excluded in the interest of enhancing the mystery from the perspective of the protagonists. But DYRL leaves out a lot of information about both sides. I don't even think we're ever told how the civilians ended up on the Macross. Now, I can understand if you say that some of the missing exposition in DYRL is really just a kind of "quick sketch", where the viewer is supposed to just accept the general situation and not ask too many questions. That's more or less how I take your point-by-point response to Hurin earlier in the thread. But, it doesn't work for me.

I liked Excalibur and I wasn't bothered by the anachronistic armor; as others have said, the movie is an adaptation of Mallory, not a reconstruction of history. This new film, on the other hand, seems to use the "reconstruction of the real Arthur" concept as part of its premise, and if that's the standard to judge it by, it doesn't look good. For whatever reason, the armor is indeed wrong for the period (5th-6th century AD) and type of troops (cavalry not legionnaires), and turning Guinevere into a warrior maiden has nothing to do with history or legend. (I'm sure they'll trot out a weak excuse regarding female Celtic warriors.) Add in the modern cliches in the dialog and music, and it gives every evidence of being just another crappy Bruckheimer film. The presence of Keira Kneightly and written by David Franzoni (Gladiator) don't help matters.

No, I don't find it irritating. In fact, it's arguably more interesting to tell a markedly different version of the story than to just abbreviate the existing storyline into two hours. But I don't think it's a better story. And here I'm not talking about the continuity issues or lack of exposition--with a few exceptions, I prefer the version of events in SDF Macross.

BTW, what's all this Jupiter stuff? Both the opening battle in DYRL and the later capture sequence all happen around Saturn.

About the confusing elements which are cleared up later in the movie, you might compare this to other movies/stories which are confusing at first but which later reveal more of the background. In those cases, the mystery is deliberate, and often part of the "hook" designed to sustain interest. In DYRL, I don't think that's the case--the question of "who are the Zentradi?" is taken for granted by the story, even if it might not be known the viewer. In Japan, of course it would be known. Compare how SDF Macross handles the question. When the Zentradi are introduced, nothing about them is especially puzzling or mysterious--what's crucial to the plot is that they're a bunch of militaristic aliens and they're investigating the SDF-1. Other details, such as what they say about reaction weaponry, or how they comment on human technology/society, raise some minor question marks but do not interfere with basic understanding of events. We aren't told that they're giants, but that's irrelevant to the plot thus far. At the end of the first episode, though, we learn that Valkyries can transform into giant robots. Why? Good question. This sparks interest and gets the viewer's mind turning. The answer comes as a dramatic payoff when the Zentradi pilot climbs out of the battlepod at the end of episode 2. And so on. Various mysteries and/or problems are raised, creating tension and anticipation that carry on through arcs of varying length throughout the series. Among them: Hikaru's relationship to Minmay, later complicated by becoming a love triangle; deeper questions about the Zentradi's origins; the three Zentradi spies; hints of culture shock among the Zentradi; Millia's story; Hikaru's development as an officer and his attitudes toward the war; etc. Each is brought to the fore, allowed to percolate, and eventually resolved. What I would say, along the lines of Keith's post, is that if you're already familiar with SDF Macross, DYRL generates a lot of interest by mixing up many of the plot elements and juxtaposing them in new configurations. However, without knowledge of SDF Macross, you're not going to get anything out of that. Instead, you will probably be confused by things like Max's fate after his battle with Millia. The fleeting and matter-of-fact way in which that story element gets resolved is a dramatic dud, even though it will amuse viewers who are in the know from SDF.

I prefer SDF Macross for many of the reasons already mentioned. DYRL is great, but I feel that it largely depends on the TV series for emotional depth; many viewers who haven't been "primed" by the seeing SDF Macross may not understand why they should care about the characters. As well, for most of the TV series, the dramatic pacing and plot structure is superb. The movie has weaknesses in continuity and character motivation which (in my opinion) are subconsciously papered over by viewers who've seen SDF Macross. I also prefer the underlying story concepts in the TV show (such as the Supervision Army, the way that culture "infects" the Zentradi, and the way the final battle plays out). And I really dislike the truncation of Kamjin's character in DYRL. There are different ways of determining "preference"...which would I rather rewatch on any given day: DYRL, obviously. But if I had to go through life having seen only one of the two, I'd pick SDF Macross.

But...but...Minmay was "acting" in that scene. Her "come on" is preceded with some talk about how Hikaru was fooled by how she performed on screen, so she's doing a demo. Obviously she likes him, but she's not sincerely offering herself to him--she's toying with him and enjoys watching him get flustered. In my opinion, DYRL Minmay enjoys flirting with Hikaru, and unlike SDF Minmay, she doesn't engage in mind-messing ambiguity about the budding relationship (e.g., SDF Minmay's "just a friend" comments). She's also not so caught up in her career that she takes him for granted; in fact it's the other way around. But really, their relationship is only on the verge of getting serious when it's cut short by the Zentradi capturing them. So I agree that she has a straightforward attraction to Hikaru, which she doesn't hide, but whether she's ready to hop into the sack with him depends on other factors include the prevailing social norms and her experience. (Personally, I think both she and Hikaru are still pretty innocent in DYRL. You can certainly see it in the way he gets ribbed by his teammates, and for that matter in the fact that she hasn't completely broken out of the situation where her social life is managed by Kaifun.) Frankly, although I'm married (somehow), a lot of that stuff remains a mystery to me. In my world, if a young woman flirts and goes on a couple dates, that means there's a possibility that things could get serious, but how fast and with what probability? In the particular case of DYRL-Minmay, how you see it probably depends on when you were a teenager, whether you're Japanese or American, city or country, and personal psychology. But I definitely feel that the "seduction" scene in itself is not good indication of Minmay's intentions. It's just flirting, with the "meaning" of the flirting being up to viewer interpretation.

I'm going to play Devil's advocate and say that I've long thought that Speed Racer could make a good live action production. (Maybe better as a WB TV show than as a theatrical movie.) I also don't mind terribly the idea of Vince Vaughn as Racer X--though the only film I've seen him in is Old School, and it's a much deeper role than his character in that one. I do mind the idea of playing down the racing. I don't have much faith in Hollywood's ability to make a good movie out of the concept. But then again, 99% of everything is crap.

Good eye, Azrael. We talked about this article over in the resurrected "adios F/A-22" thread, but I missed that detail.

Not bad enough to go to a "love hotel" with him on the first date. People are welcome to their interpretations but in my opinion, even though DYRL-Minmay is more grown up, she's not quite a 90's "Sex in the City" woman.

I agree with RichterX. Minmay had to start as a pop star, not as a naive teenager. Also, Hikaru really is quite different between the TV show and the movie. In the TV show he's more introspective and thoughtful; in the movie he's still no ladykiller, but he doesn't mope and worry about how to express his feelings. Given that they didn't have time to show either of the two characters "grow up", if they wanted to maintain the love triangle they had to truncate the teenage angst portion and go straight to the conflict. With all the other stuff going on, there's no time for Hikaru to have doubts about whether Minmay's interested in him--they need to develop a strong attachment quickly, which means getting to the point which in the TV show would correspond to episodes 34-35.

If it helps, the name is a reference to an ancient Babylonian god whose name is commonly rendered in English as "Marduk". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marduk

"Why keep Minuteman?" Yes, until Trident, SLBMs weren't as accurate as ICBMs. Minuteman and Peacekeeper (MX) are accurate enough to be used as "counterforce" weapons, i.e., they can knock out Soviet nuclear silos. Polaris/Poseidon (and if I'm not mistaken, early version of Trident) were not believed to be effective in that role. The whole concept of "counterforce" gets into the difficult logic of nuclear strategy, but to the extent it's needed, SLBM's couldn't provide it until recently. These days, I'd say the main argument for American ICBMs is insurance against a military/technological revolution in antisubmarine warfare. If our subs suddently become vulnerable, we'll still have the land-based missiles. I'm not sure that's a compelling argument, but it makes a certain amount of sense. Of course that begs the question of our overall nuclear needs as well. I'm sure another reason for retaining ICBMs is that the Air Force is loathe let the Navy be the only one holding the keys to The Bomb. * * * Mighty Gorgon--if you look upthread, I think you'll see that I've recognized China as a potential adversary, but regardless of the ability of individual airplanes, the PRC's air force isn't going to be a threat to American air dominance for quite some time. Please look back and see if I've missed something.

You may be right, but I wonder if Mislovrit agrees. In any case, the Minuteman modernization program (propulsion replacement and guidance replacement) is supposed to cost about $4.5 billion total, as far as I can tell, so it's ridiculous to compare it either to F-22 or the ongoing costs of the Iraq conflict in terms of budgetary impact.

Quite. In fact, I think I referenced the COPE India exercises earlier in this thread, and the fact that such an exercise was conducted strongly suggests that India is regarded as an ally. Whatever information actually comes out of that is likely to be strictly controlled by both countries. Note that no real data has been made available. The Air Force wants the F/A-22, they can see it's in trouble, and instead of actually justifying the program, they're simply telling the Congress and the American people "trust us". That's the whole point of this article. There was another article pointing to a supposed vulnerability whereby an F-15 could be ambushed by an Su which performed a complex maneuver. Of course, the scenario was completely artificial--but the Air Force has tried to hype it in order to promote the Raptor. (Here's a thread where we discussed it.)

This is how I make screen caps: Play the video file using Quicktime Player or VLC under Mac OS X. Pause the video. Hit shift-command-4 to bring up the "screen capture marquee tool". Drag the tool across the part of the video I want to capture. It gets saved as a PDF file which I then manipulate with Graphic Converter. I haven't tried this with actual DVD's, but I suspect it would work. Only minor Mac-vs.-PC needling intended. The point is, you may not need a special "screen capture" facility to grab stills out of video. Assuming Windows lets you do a regular screen grab (as needed for tutorials and bug reporting), maybe you can just use that. If it isn't built into the system, maybe this will help: http://www.traction-software.co.uk/screengrabpro/ It's free.

Hmm... What legend is that? Have any more information on this dude? He's in the Bible.

Even tall modern-day humans (over 6') are at a greater risk of lower back problems, and being overweight is often cited as a factor in joint deterioration.

If you shop around online (including eBay if you dare), you should be able to get the price down to the $150 range, including shipping. http://www.pricegrabber.com/ is a good resource. Edit: Also, you might find a rental store that carries it. In San Jose, there's a Japanese anime specialty store (Nikaku) that has it to rent.

http://www.mahq.net/animation/macross/series/toc.htm Not scripts, but summaries of the episodes.