sketchley

Only because it was asked for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization It pretty much has all the basics needed. Kanji, being able to be written in hiragana, can also be romanized with the same system.

I agree with your point about ficticious names not being created with a thought about how they'd appear in another language. Nevertheless, when it comes to romanizing Japanese into English, Heburn is required by MOFA, and the de facto standard in Japan (that's government, as much, if not moreso than personal and commercial usage.) Why should overseas English speakers use a different system, when Heburn and it's variants are the most commonly used form of romanization by English native speakers AND Japanese native speakers?

You learned well. Me happy. (Though it's not a deliberate focus. Just like us English speakers don't deliberately focus on things like stress on our words. (is it BA-na-na, ba-NA-na, or ba-na-NA?) It's all stuff that no-one notices until it's not there, or pointed out.)

It all depends on what the game master and players want to do. I'm part of an online Macross PBP RPG community (see signature for links to it), and we're all basically playing in the post Macross 7/VF-X2 era. There are also some games taking place earlier (I think the UN Wars era) and possibly a remake of the SDF:M. Though as most people want to play with the latest VFs, the games tend to reflect that. I'm pretty sure that we'll start receiving requests for a Macross F era game sooner or later... (sweats about stats creation...)

In one of the translations I did of one of the earlier articles in Newtype on the series, I remembered getting the impression that SMS is in command of the Battle 25. Though, after having watched episode 2, I'm getting the feeling that they aren't, as their VFs are launching from a facility which appears to be inside (and under) City 25. They also have a rather large HQ building in the city as well.

When in doubt, go with the standard*: Ranka Rii. *Modified Hepburn romanization

Yeah, that's something that I'm really starting to like about the series - the characters. They (or at least Alto and Ranka) are everymen (or the otaku version of the everyman). Though, despite some really good moments, I'm still not liking the character designs. Mind you, the quality does seem to be a bit down from the first episode (though, I'm not sure if it's just my mind playing tricks, as the mecha and background stuff was up to par. My reason is some of my favourite anime have an impressive first episode or two, and then the quality drops off for a couple of episodes, before picking up again.) Nevertheless, grumbles about the character animation aside: see the pretty mecha. See the impressive backgrounds.

It does give that impression, but the reformed UN Spacy could just be the result of in-universe events. Specifically the events that occur in VF-X2.

Hmmm... to explain the images that Kresphy provided:

Actually no. It stems from my day job. Ie: little to no effort is required when talking linguistics.

I don't remember there being one (not sure if it makes a difference - saw the broadcast on MBS in the Kansai region.) The first half just cut to a CM. The only cutting back from a CM that I remember is the one right after the first CM after the opening credits. No warning - boom! VF gun fire. Man... I feel like it's 10 years ago. Right after Macross F ended, there was a CM for Evangelion!

I did NOT see the shot in Krespy's post above of Osama and SMS co looking at a Nya-Nya Chinese restuarant CM. In fact, the Nya-nya eyecatch is gone. I'm tempted to add more... but as I have a thing against spoilers (plus I'm having a bit of trouble sorting things out. It was a bit of Macross overload ) But I will say this, the highlight was seeing

Wow... where can I begin? Serious remembering of previous Macross moments. I was reminded of scenes in SDF:M, DYRL, M0, and Firebomber was even heard playing in the background at one point. From the images that Krespy's added, it should be apparent that they changed the ending animation - the song is also different from last weeks. The opening - it cuts straight into a brief recap right after the flyby of the M25 colony ship. Ergo, no more colony ships spreading across the galaxy shot.

Keep in mind that the opening sequence in Macross 7 had a similar shot - multiple Long Range Emmigration Fleets gearing up to launch (if you paid close enough attention, you'll notice that one or two of the New Macross ships don't have a shell covering for the city section!) Nevertheless, the one different between 7 and F's is that the colony ships in F have the o'neil cylinder like ships trailing behind them. Saving on animation resources (already have the CG models) or simply being more "current to the era in the storyline"?

Chalk it up to an animation error, laziness, or simply trying to pack as much info as possible in an easily understandable 10 second sequence that gives an audience with no background whatsoever in Macross a general idea of the background of the Macross Frontier Emmigration Fleet. In other words, it'd be impossible to be accurate within the time and visual requirements.

Literal translation results in some pretty garbled stuff. Subtlety is completely lost unless if all the potential meanings of a word and a word in combination with other words are included (which only turns a translation into an academic exercise - in this case, you're better off translating your own stuff. If you'd like an example on the possible variations on translating a single term, search for my discussions on the potential translation of the kanji that describes SMS in this forum.) Nevertheless, what you are mentioning is not translation per se, but translation into a colloquial dialect limited to a small region, territory or country. In this case, the problem is that the translator isn't translating into plain English. (The lack of use of plain English is something that the majority of us MW members are guilty of.) With the translation of Sheryl's line into "just do it", not only is it a colloquial dialect, but it's also a catch phrase from a Nike commercial, with plenty of other cultural baggage associated with it; pretty much all of which has nothing to do with what is said in the original. In this case, I agree that it is a less than good translation, because there is a bunch of added subtext and subtltly that isn't present in the original (Sheryl is a closet jock?). But, as this is referencing a phrase provided by someone without request for compensation and acquired for free, it's in the "what you see is what you get" or "you want a better translation, pay for it" categories. Sorry.

Good point. We may not know what the intended foreign name is until something like a TIA book is released. Which is why I prefer the straight Modified Hepburn* romanization, as opposed to trying to read Kawamori-san's mind. *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization

The chronology (at least the pre-wikipedia version of the Compendium) does have an extremely brief mention of VF-X and VF-X2. It's basically limited to the start and end dates (start date for only VF-X, and two potential ending dates for VF-X2 - due to the two different outcomes possible in the game.) Basically, IMHO, I think that the creator of the Compendium never played the game. Or else we'd see things like additional planets and their descriptions in the compendium; which only appear in the mission briefings (an almost completely covered water planet in the Eden system for starters...) Mind you, some people believe that what happens in the games are outside of the canon anime Macross. However, with the appearance of the VB-6 in Macross F, that may just change...

The first collection of the Macross F manga will be released 08.04.26. B6 size, 196 P, ￥567.