Roger
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Everything posted by Roger
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Wait until the sequel (Southern Cross II: The Hovering) come out, you'll change your tune.
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Dude, don't try to excuse the inexcusable.
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http://history.cookiethievery.com/071904/
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More from Mr. Alt-o (who is, incidentally, the inspiration for the Macross Frontier character's name): The lolicon disgusts me. Good riddance to that show. ;p
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And something that Japanese robot scholar Matt Alt just pointed out to me: Southern Cross has too much damn hovering. Jeanne has a motorcycle that hovers, the bioroids have hovercraft. Touch the ground once in a while, fer crissakes. Did the creators have some dirt phobia or something? I now believe that the prime reason for the show's failure was the over-reliance on hovering. I'm going to update the Wikipedia article.
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In the early 1980s, kids were trampling each other to get Gundam kits. After that, the only enduring survivors of the subsequent mecha apocalypse were the shows with the designs kids found the coolest, the ones that truly upheld the mecha aesthetic. Exhibit A: http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/mecha/viewmecha.php?id=4 What makes the Valkyrie a cool mecha? First of all, it looks like something that was manufactured. Unlike a super robot's design, which is more of an assemblage of basic shapes to convey strength, this looks like something that humans actually built. There are vents and running lights all over it as well as those trademark "circle-slash" things. (I know that there's supposed to be some sort of function for these, like the rungs on a Scopedog, but I don't remember what it is.) Exhibit B: http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/mecha/viewmecha.php?id=19 What makes the Legioss cool? Again, it has a strong manufactured flavor, thanks to ingredients like the triangular details at the knees and shoulders, the little recessed squares in the knees, hips, and shoulders (which are supposed to be sub-cameras), and those big intake vents on the chest. The "ammo box" styling it has gives it an even stronger militaristic feel than the Valkyrie. This is what mecha is all about. Exhibit C: http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/mecha/viewmecha.php?id=44 What's different here? First of all, there are lots of curves in the design, many smooth, undetailed surfaces, and it's awfully short on greeblies aside from those circles on the knees. It's somewhat reminiscent of something you'd make with origami. It also seems somewhat muscular, looking a little bit like a man in a suit. There's a lot going on with the first two designs that this one just doesn't have, and the same can be said for the rest of the Southern Cross mecha. Some of this will seem subjective, and every person's concept of beauty (whether it's in a woman's face or a robot design) is always going to vary, but I do believe that if the Southern Cross designs had more of what other shows' robots did, and robot design counted for a lot in those days, then its legacy would have endured, and we'd be getting some sort of merchandise for it now. Japanese companies are making toys from MOSPEADA, Galient, Orguss, Megazone 23, even Dorvack fer crissakes, but nothing from Southern Cross. The robots were the main selling points of these shows, and I think the black hole left by this show says a lot. And I realize that there are reasons for the show being an "interesting failure" as Ginrai put it. The show started as a completely different concept (science fiction sengoku story), had the giant robots grafted onto it much later on, and the creators had to deal with this juggling act in a matter of weeks, coordinating everything with their sponsors and licensees, so it was almost destined to fall short of the mark.
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Matchbox made a toy of that for the Robotech line, too. I'm told that Tatsunoko still has the rights to license the animation, but Big West purchased the merchandising rights for Japan a few years ago. Harmony Gold still has the right to license merchandise outside of Japan, but nobody wants it. ;p
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Never heard this, either. The Imai material with the first draft of SC I have is super-serious. The arming doublets were originally concieved as equipment for heroes in a samurai war epic. (Imagine Iron Man filtered through Kurosawa.)
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No, and I never saw any line art for the sidecar, either.
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Here are some notes I made about unproduced MOSPEADA and Southern Cross model kits after digging through the Imai material:
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Ah, a subject that's near and dear to my heart. When I talk to Japanese anime fans about Southern Cross, aside from the time slot issue they cite a couple of things that made the show miss the mark: 1) The main character was a girl who was pining over a pretty boy purple hair. The target audience (teenage males) didn't connect with this too well. 2) The robot and armor designs were considered uninteresting and didn't have a strong enough "mecha" aesthetic when compared to other robot shows of the time. I agree with that assessment. Regarding the merchandise, there were no toys that I know of, and none of the robot models were produced aside from the 1/48 red Bioroid (not even Jeanne's hero mecha), but there is a smattering of odd items that surface from time to time including menko cards, coloring books, and (only seen these once) kids' rain boots. Odds and ends: If you're talking about the "bubble economy," you're off by a few years. It didn't pop until 1990. Southern Cross aired in 1984. I've never heard this. Got a source for this info? That list jibes with what I know of. Add the die-cast Inbit Gurab and Eager, they were supposed to be sold alongside the 1/20 motorcycles.
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US retailers don't pay Harmony Gold anything when they sell Yamato Macross products. Where did you get this idea?
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The "B" stands for "blade."
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New macross saga based movie (Robotech Genesis)
Roger replied to kamikaze_kamujin's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
LEARN FROM THE MASTER. http://rdfhqcommunicationscenter.yuku.com/topic/815?page=1 -
Panzer Angel Gabriel is a science fiction story involving powered suits that Studio Nue members Kazutaka Miyatake and Naoyuki Katoh concieved in the mid-1980s. They never found a sponsor for it, so the concept was mothballed. 20 years later, publisher Laputa convinced them to revisit it, re-presenting it in a new book. The book is 208 pages, about 1/3 of them featuring color artwork by Katoh and the rest heavily loaded with black and white design sketches. The book also features an interview with former Studio Nue member Shoji Kawamori and an essay by Mr. Katoh's about his powered suit design used on the cover of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. All of this is wrapped in a nifty translucent plastic cover. I strongly recommend this for those who appreciate the 80s mecha shows, powered suit junkies, and fans of Studio Nue's work. Get it, you won't be disappointed. The ISBN is 978-4-947752-84-0, the price is 2,900 yen and it's available at Amazon Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/機甲.../dp/494775284X/
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Official MW non-denominational winter gift thread
Roger replied to David Hingtgen's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I got this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogerharkavy/3153940207/ -
"It takes great intelligence to pilot a Valkyrion."
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"It is a grim future, with lots of explosions and partial nudity..."
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I had to email Aramaki-san about something so I figured I'd ask him about the connections between the series. Here are his unadulterated answers: And there you have it. Merry Christmas!
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Where was the interview?
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#1: Crayboth (see http://www.collectiondx.com/node/2195)
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I know that there's a sketch of the Garland standing next to the MOSPEADA ride armor in the Artmic Design Works book, but from what I've been told that was just there to show potential toy/model sponsors how big the robots were intended to be. RavenHawk, where was the original information?
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I don't believe any of those three had that kind of decision making ability, if it rested with anyone it was with their boss (who I believe was Alan Letz at that point), or his boss, Frank Agrama. JasonC could probably weigh in with his perspective.
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Why would Tommy be responsible? He's not part of HG's legal department. If you're going to indict him, then you'd have to add Tom Bateman and Kevin McKeever to that list.
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Welcome to Macrossworld, Astrobunny. Just to warn you: there's this silly inside joke about mustard that people here keep going back to. I don't get it, you probably won't either, so just ignore them.