sketchley

Is this a question? I'd hold off making assumptions-disguised-as-statements-of-fact until after the issue is published.

Contents of #36 in detail: MF movie poster. Like a gallery sheet, but not labeled as such. Regaado Battle Pod - has recon, small and large missile varients on reverse briefly. I truly hope this doesn't mean that this is all that we'll see of the varients! SDF-1: SDFM B sheet. Transformation, pre- and post-affixing of the Daedalus and Prometheus. MBR-07-Mk II: gots the MBR-07-MkI as an extra report on the back. Glad that those rough designs have been made official. "Vehicles of Macross": DYRL. RC-4E Rabbit and Large Crane. I glanced over the Rabbit for references to it being able to extend it's legs... did see leg or foot written a number of times... need proper translation to be more conclusive on the "can it or can't it walk" debate. Destroids: MII. All 4. (Monster II, Phalanx (Kai), Defender EX, Tomahawk II). There's a bunch of lineart not in the TIA book, but I've seen it before in the Palladium MII RPG book before. Sheryl Nome: C sheet that looks like it's got all the TV series costumes. Zentraadi Soldiers: Ivano Gepurnich: "gender: male". Otherwise... no lineart or art of the Protodevlin... Krore [Klore]: nice, clean art of the costumes. Why couldn't DYRL be this easy on the eyes? Anyhows... always thought there was something retro and '70's about Meltraandi uniforms... Timeline: Operation Stargazer to the "death" of Basara. History: Omni-directional barrier overload... Tech: VF countermeasures - 2 pages. ISC gets mention on the 1st page in an extra report. Middle has: Energy Conversion Armour, Arm Shield, Pinpoint Barrier, Anti-laser armour, Armour pack, Chaff/Flare/Smoke, and Stealth. Also an extra report on Vajra countermeasures (energy conversion armour, "Depth Charge" anti-missile net, etc.). And the reverse of the 2nd page is on ship and destroid countermeasures, with an extra report on emigrant fleet countermeasures (New Macross Class and Environment Ship being singled out). Glossary: non-animated series content - the Jamming Sound System from VF-X2. Woot. Images of next issue: Tenjin Hidetaka painted VF-171EX FTW! Grace O'conner. VF-1D Kai "Jamming Bird" (as it's the mecha, me thinks that's what the VF-11 Thunderbolt mechanic sheet is going to be).

5 mechanic?! 2 history?! We must be getting close to the end.

Correct. Only the "Flashback" at the very start is in colour. The 2nd colour section from Vol. 2 is in B&W. There is some additional content, as well as changes. Changes: All of the content from Macross Ace Vol. 1 is referred to as chapter 1, and all of the content from Vol. 2 is chapter 2. Additional content: line-art/test colouring (sadly, in B&W only) of Minmei and her ferret (the text is more nebulous: ferret-like animal.)* Gag manga: "Macross The First: workplace report" by Yuzuka Masanari. Interview with Tenjin Hidetaka who collaborated in the VF-1D arrangement. * It's mentioned that the ferret is designed by Yuzuka Masanari, and Yuzuka also designed the Chinese dress.

Erm... Gundam 0080 anyone? Anyhow, if we're talking about anime "heroes" with sniper rifles - why hasn't Golgo 13 been mentioned? He predates any of the other anime mentioned by a long shot (heh, pun not intended). So yeah, the problem isn't that there's a mecha using a sniper rifle and that idea has been taken from someone else, it's that a mecha using a sniper rifle is being using in an unfactual way. But as Itano was saying it in a non-mean spiritied (which was mistranslated as mean spiritied) about the state of anime in general, it's all moot. Especially until we get a translation of the entire article.

And yet Basara shows up (or at least someone who looks like him drawn by that artist)... didn't Basara leave the fleet? ... hmmm... anyhow, custom VFs isn't new to Macross 7. And as the VFs popping up in that manga were all made in the decade or two before the events of M7, it's not a big stretch if they are modified.

It is. And it just isn't right. I mean, the VB-6's point is over kill simply by it's giant size and relatively menancing look. Triple or quadruple the number of barrels, and it just looks silly. Of course, given that it's a spiritia warfare manga, it's forgiveable if all of the barrels are smaller and able to only fire speaker pods. But it still begs questions like: how does it transform? Does it even transform? Nevertheless, I 2nd Renato - it's hard to tell what's going on half the time. Seeing the VF-9 is great, but it also reminded me how less-than-cool it looks in battroid mode. I'd like to say that I hope the artist will provide us with some new, dynamic art of angles and poses of the VF-9 that we haven't seen so far; but as I doubt the artist will focus on anything but character art... Anyhow, did anyone notice the redesigned head on the VF-1D in Macross the First? I wasn't even aware of it until I saw the article at the back of the Macross the First #1 where they interview Tenjin Hidetaka, whom is the designer of the new head! Issue 3 of Macross Ace even has a joint Dengeki Hobby and Macross Ace sponsored kit bash of it made from a VF-1S!

Hmm... that would be why I haven't seen them in any books. They've been hiding in liner notes. Though, it raises another question: I have a faint memory of the liner notes being in contradiction with information published elsewhere or at a later date. I think there was even a brief debate about it in MW. Does anyone remember what that contradiction was, if it existed?

You know what? In all the books on Macross F that I've seen so far (and that's most of them), I've yet to come across any term for a Vajra ship other than "mother ship" and "carrier". Can someone please provide the source of those names?

And now for something completely different... Macross Ace #3 has some movie reveals: that is, in addition to the full CG tornado pack VF-25 (as opposed to the hand-painted one last month in Newtype): new Vajra ships: the big purple one, not only is confirmed as a Vajra ship, but as (choose your own adjective. All are used at various times in the magazine): Super Large/Giant/large Battleship. The yellow ships around it (pointed out by yours truly in another thread in MW) are Vajra Destroyers (that's the class of ship, if it's not clear.)7 The new Vajra class is described as atrocious/fiendish/brutal/villianous (in this case, it's one Japanese adjective, but multiple possible English translations)

Out today. Have it in hand. Alas only one chapter of Macross the First. But on the good side, it feels like it is a lot longer than a regular length chapter. And yes, there is a tuna. Seven Chord has VF-9 action. Which is great to see. Though the VB-6 Kai (for lack of something better) is a bit of a turn off. I thought 4 barrels was enough? Anyhow...

Don't go google. Go Nifty: http://honyaku.nifty.com/ Time and time again, it's provided the most accurate (maybe that should say: comprehensible English) translations from those out there. Of course there are times that it spits out gobblety-gook, and other times it goes for the less technical/military version of a term, but a thurough double-checking by Jim Breen never hurts: http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C Nevertheless, there are limits. The prime ones being the tendency of Japanese to reduce kanji clusters to smaller version... and I've had to hunt down a couple of terms for associated images. Luckily that's only been limited to only two or three terms. Oh, before I forget: don't feed the machine translators big sentences. They much those up darn good. Breaking them at commas is a good place. Clauses is another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori (Don't worry, I didn't know it either. It doesn't show up on the mass media radar to me as visibly as NEET, Freeter, and parasite single does).

#35 review: Mechanic: VF-1A B sheet. Finally some attention is given to the AMM-1 missiles (though not enough...) 1/3 the reverse is the Zentraadi uniform disguised VF-1A. Macross 7 B sheet. Bridge (there's 4 levels?!) and the Diamond Force launch catapult. FBz-99G: feels like they've crammed the transformation sequence on in the last 1/3... ah well. Good news is that they've clarified the design of the VAB-2D: (fighter mode picture here: http://unsd.macrossroleplay.org/vab-2.html Presumably the following image is the correct battroid, too) Timeline #43: I was a bit surprised to see "The Galaxy is Calling" plopped in, but it makes sense. Reverse has something about the Fleet of Strongest Women as an extra report (technically it's about the the "gone astray" Zentraadi...) Maybe next sheet will have something about Fleet of Strongest Women? Tech sheet VF 01o: VF History 3: Focused mostly on the AVF plan and fighters, with a bit on their derivatives, as well as the Ghost X-9. The 2030s era VF development shows up as an extra report (dang... was looking forward to it... but as only the VF-17 and VB-06 are mentioned... probably not worth a whole page.) One more extra report on the post 2040's main craft: the VF-171 and AIF-7S Ghost. Worldguide 19A History: 2 pages! Starts with a kick-ass picture of a city in the shadow of a crashed Zentraadi ship. The timeline on it only goes up until 2010... but the reverse of the first page mentions something about the Earth as pictured in the in-series movie DYRL is how the Earth really looked in February, 2031, when the movie was released (if I'm reading it correctly). There's some interesting looking paragraphs on Eurasia, Africa, North and South America, and the Pacific... along with brief mentions of the moon, Mars, Pluto, and Space Colonies (pictured is the one orbiting Earth in the MF prologue. What, no space colony bunches??) Reverse of second page is about the known cities. Mostly from SDFM, but also an extra report on Macross city as seen in M+ and MF. Extra Sheet: production data: probably the most surprising sheet for me. It's continuing the same "all of one series on one page" format as with SDFM from #32. What surprised me is that the front is M+ and M+ Movie addition. The rear is M0! Hopefully with the reduction in pages needed for the series, we'll get a bunch more content... like non-animated series content? More Game content! More! The preview for #36 has the Mayor and his aide (?) from SDFM, yet no mention of either in the actual contents! The Spartan is pictured, but what the Destroid page is about, is not clarified. Gubaba, you've gotta translate more technical stuff. Your "SDF-1 Macross loading machines" should actually be "SDF-1 Macross Carrier-based aircraft". Lastly, the reverse cover has, in big English: "WELCOME! Macross Frontier Convoy The Formo Blanch* of famima.com" *Hee hee. Should be branch. Interesting how they choose the convoy translation of 船団.

Which is exactly what Mr. Yellow shirt is saying. That does make sense. A lot more than an MF Destroid* B page would. *FYI: the MF Destroid is called "Destroid". Cheyenne II appears to be a nickname, and not the official name.

The last one looks like Sento-kun: http://images.google.co.jp/images?hl=ja&am...sa=N&tab=wi Though... I'm not entirely certain how he makes anyone more otaku or not... as he's one of the two mascot characters of Nara City! (I learned that from the news. How otaku is that?)

There's only one response: I have no fear that there will be more Macross II content. Though I have a hunch that it'll be a whole bunch on one or two sheets. As for next, next issue - I wonder what the Destroid is about. A second sheet for the MF Destroid?

To be honest, I found the character parts of Macross F as the weaker link of the series (not the weakest. That falls to the (lack of effective) bad guys.) Sure, some where decent - and I really like how they handled the Ranka being discovered and becoming famous aspects, but overall... the characters are just not that memoriable for me. Of course, hands down, MF has the best action sequences. Hopefully they won't ruin it in the movie like was done with SDFM. Honestly, DYRL has waaaaaaay too much detail at times. To the point where it's difficult to follow the action, let alone comprehend where one thing stops, and another begins. Hmmm... DYRL is another case of good designs not translating well to animation. Though, in this case, it's not due to faithfully following the designs...

I actually liked that shot - hyper extended gun pod, et al. It brought a stylistic edge to the mecha that was kinda lacking (perhaps I should say the non-Kawamori style that was being applied up until then wasn't my cup of tea?) Don't get me wrong, I love the mecha designs in Macross 7. But for me, IMHO, it's the only part that wasn't translated well into animation in a bunch of places. Which is annoying, as the animators could produce some great looking stuff (in addition to the above mentioned, the battle inside the 3-Star comes to mind in the first handful of episodes).

Tornado. My bad. It's Typhoon - Hurricane - Cyclone which are synonymous with each other - and bloody confusing! (And don't get me started on the English habit of naming typhoons...) And for those asking about scans -> go and buy yourself a copy. In short - it supports Macross. You can't go wrong their. PS next person who asks for scans will be labeled a non-fan.

When I went in to the local bookstore to pick-up the latest Newtype, I was pleasantly surprised at the Macross content: the covers of Newtype, Animedia and Animage all feature MF! On top of that, there was a shiny new MF book sitting on the shelf. "Theatrical Macross F: The False Diva" Roman Album On sale from: 2009/11/10 ISBN: 978- 4-19-720286-7 Size： A4 Cost： 900円（tax included) Sources: http://www.tokuma.jp/magazine/mook/5287583...e1-30a430c330af http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%8A%87%E5%A0%B4...4/dp/4197202865 Content: 2 pages introduction (series and movie content) 4 pages movie content 4 pages Kawamori san interview 4 pages movie character art (coloured lineart) 10 pages colour illustrations for both the TV series and movie (previously published in Animage) 13 pages TV series episode guide 1 page scenes/concepts linking MF to previous Macross series 7 pages TV series character art 2 pages TV series mecha art 5 pages History of Macross (including Macross II*! Described as a "parallel world") 4 pages "Galaxy Divas" (female singers of Macross) 3.5 pages Variable fighters 0.5 pages History of Macross Battleships (to clarify: that's ships that have been called Macross) 2 pages frontier keywords 1 page table of contents and credits Observations: *Newtype pretty much sums it up "the Macross Quarter, Vajra and so on designs have been refined!" (Newtype implores us to note the VF-25 with typhoon packs battling in GERWALK mode, but that's another topic altogether). *Looks like Aruto is grabbing Sheryl from the sky in the VF-25, not Ranka. *The city has been expanded upon significantly (night skyline, reminisciant of GitS: SAC) *Both Galaxy Fleet ships are shown, folding in a fleet - presumably to attack the Vajra? The big, nasty purple coloured vessel is shown in entirety. The caption next to it implies Vajra, and given the vehicles around it, I believe it is a new Vajra ship. Possibly replacing the Semi-Queen ship from the series (which was kinda butt-ugly and didn't quite fit the Vajra motif). I think the smaller Vajra motherships have also been replaced by a sleeker yellowish craft (or the big purple one is the replacement, and the yellow ones are a new Vajra stage.) *VB-6 shown landing in gerwalk mode on a grey coloured ship. Light blue sparks and a caption mentioning an increase in the quality of the animation for the battle scenes and live concernt scenes. *I don't want to seem like I'm focusing on it, thus this note: Macross II has not been forgotten by the publishers. I was quite surprised to see it mentioned in the history section. But it also showed up in the Galaxy Divas and Variable fighters sections, too.

IMHO, I disagree. First, there should be three camps: loved it, hated it, and don't care one way or the other. Secondly, I don't think those pro the series love Basara and accept him as the savior of the universe. Perhaps it's more like they put up with Basara and accept him for what he's doing in the series? Anyhow, the utra-simplified "loved it" or "hated it" pretty much covers the two extremes - as each person has their likes and dislikes. Anyhow, here are some of the reasons why I dig the series: - it takes the time to develop the characters. - by the time the metaphysical stuff really starts happening, it's been well developed in the preceeding two dozen episodes that it doesn't come as that much more of a suspension of disbelief. - the mecha designs (economy of line baby, yeah.) Probably the only part of the series that I dislike are: - the blocky and bloopy variable craft in the action sequences that should be sleek and aerodynamic. I can understand recycling footage. I can also appreciate the animators spending more time on the character animation (which is what M7 is all about). But bloopifying mecha?

Good point. The creators of Macross have a history of using similar names to real companies as names for ficticious companies. These range from the obvious to English-speakers Lockhee [Lockheed] to the not-so-obvious Itsutsubishi Heavy Industries [Mitsubishi Heavy Industries] (Itsutsubishi = 5 diamonds. Mitsubishi = 3 diamonds).

I think I read somewhere that they are an outgrowth of or are a future incarnate of the Otec company/organization. Which would explain why they have "a hand in every pie".

I did a research project on the known fleets. The results were: http://www.macrossroleplay.org/Sketchley/L...tions.htm#slref It will have to be updated with the latest info from Macross Chronicle (ie: the two Megaroad class ships that blew up during construction), but it's as accurate as can be. Macross 3 is from a radio-drama or something similar. If you search for the thread in Macross World where I was doing the research for the contents of the link, you'll be able to find the specific source.