sketchley

I don't believe we are every shown the Chinese characters (kanji) for her name. It's simply リン・ミンメイ. In Modified Hepburn, that's romanized as Rin Minmei. Agreed that the romanization falls to a matter of preference. (In this case, unless she chronically misunderstands and misuses roman letters, she is deliberately choosing to use two alternative romanizations.) Also agreed that she would most likely have her name registered in katakana, especially if the Chinse characters (kanji) used in her name are not one of the (currently 983) kanji on the Jinmeiyo list.

Where is this plural coming from? If there was more than one group or organization, it would be stated in Japanese*. It's not. There is only one force. Small or big, we will find out. You may be inclined to joke and misuse the terms, but keep in mind that using the wrong term results in the wrong meaning, and your point and message not being understood. When I read defence contractor, I think of the people who make toys for the military, such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, or Colt Firearms. Defence Contractor is different from Private Military Company (sic. Contractor), which are both very, very different from 民間軍事部隊. So far, what we can ascertain from the images, is that SMS is part of the Private Military Force (民間軍事部隊), and that General Galaxy is a Defence Contractor for the Frontier Fleet (possibly "the only" Defence Contractor, pending the Defence Contractor responsible for the production of the VF-25 and it's additional parts and munitions.) * Quickie Japanese lesson: all Japanese words are uncountable and require a quantifier of some kind. In this case, there is no quantifier, thus we arrive at the default of one (1).

He's being macho, and/or under anticipating the damage from the injury ("it's just a flesh wound.") It's akin to the ending of "Shane". (I'm shot, but I'm not going to show my pain.)

What Private Contractors? Are you referring to Statelight? Or in-universe, such as Stonewell, Bellcom, General Galaxy, or Shinsei Industry?

Not trying to continue the discussion with this post. Just posting the links that I was referring to. They contain links as well, that are well worth following. That said, Azrael's right - continue this discussion in the right thread, please. The links: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2003-...ight-to-macross http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2004-...macross-lawsuit The Japanese copyright law is very interesting, because, among many things, it allows for Doujinshi.

What we have seen may just be the familiar "oh crap, send as much stuff as you can up against whatever is attacking us." Stealth is usually used for sneaking around undetected. If you're in the middle of a battle, and the enemy knows you're coming and where you're launching from; stealth is pretty much moot.

Do a search on it in google. You may be surprised while reading the results. Surprised specifically how Japanese law works in regards to enshrining the worker's right when it comes to copyright. Blaming the judges is wrong, as they are interpreting and enforcing the law as it is written. If you don't like the law, then elect new politicians and have the law changed.

Aah... so it's only assumption. Which leads to another point oft repeated when talking about Macross: don't assume. The creators of Macross use terms intentionally, and at times are really, really vague or simply don't provide some detail which we non-Japanese fans believe is important. We can assume and fill in the blanks, but there is a huge chance that the creators of Macross will later fill in those blanks with something entirely different from what has been assumed or expected. Therefore, in the interest of keeping the information accurate, please don't assume. Speculation is ok, but assuming that a term means something different is out of the question. I agree that there are mercenaries active in Iraq. I do not agree that the Private Military Force in Macross is composed of mercenaries. For the simple reason that the term has not been used to describe the organization nor the character pilots that are part of it. The same is true of Defense Contractor and Paramilitary Force. (I've added this line so readers are aware that I am not arguing semantics herein.) Yes, if I come across a better description of what Private Military Force is or of the pilots who compose it, I will endevour to publish it in MW or post a link to it as soon as possible. Deadghost - go do something else. You are bound to burn out, and will most likely be disappointed. Also, don't expect instant availability of Macross F. If you want that, come and live in Japan. If you don't want instant, you'll have to wait until someone breaks the law. And I doubt that the law breaker is going to advertise their crime.

Yes, I understand that. What I am wondering is where that information is coming from? Where has it been stated that "Private Military Force" = defence contractor akin to what is in Iraq?

I'm just curious, where does "independent contractor" come from? I've seen it being used in the last few pages, and would like to know the source. I ask, because my information (published articles in Japanese) has "Private Military Force" and/or "Civilian Military Unit", with no further clarification of what that is.

White and purple could be the new tawny. Or (and I think this is more likely) the preview clip that we saw truly was a pilot film, and the colours of the VFs in it were just temporary, or changed to better fit with existing Macross colours. I highly doubt that there are any additional pilot characters (beyond tawnies), given the character and voice actor information given so far.

Cool. The white, red and black one is referred to as: VF-25 (Aruto's aircraft) The grey, yellow and black one is referred to as: VF-25 (Ozama's aircraft)

Uhm... as interesting as the discussion of stealth is, and it is interesting, can we move it to another thread? This thread is supposed to be about Macross F, and a number of the posts in the last few pages are so far off on a tangent that I can't really call it speculation about Macross F any longer. Thank you.

It's easily explainable: 1) troops don't look each other in the eye and stare at the floor (saves them from any abuse from the officer class, etc.) 2) it's entirely unexpected and not anticipated. How could a weaker foe not only get inside of their ship, let alone walk around in it in their own uniforms? Max was presumed to have been blown out into space, and obviously Zentraedi ship sensors are not fine enough to have detected his VF either floating outside or having climbed back into the ship. Either way, it says a lot about the Zentraedi, their supperiority believes, and their technical limitations.

あんた？どんだけ～。丁寧語まだ分からん？パソコンの翻訳を使った？ 俺は日本人と違うよ。 By the way, by my post, it should be understood that your original post on the use of 新 in the term UNG and UN Spacy, hasn't been ignored. Re: VF-171: I think I can guess where that "flock of birds" comes from. I read somewhere that when they put a scale model out in the field to do some testing, the radar operators quickly spotted the model, because a bird had landed on it. Once the bird left, the model virtually disappeared from radar. Later tests required some type of beacon to be transmitted from or near the scale model (and possibly also test models of the plane) so that radar operators knew where to look. Logically, having something look like a flock of birds doesn't stand up, unless the object moves at the same speed and at the same altitude levels that a flock of birds moves at... If I remember correctly, the plane that the YF-21 was based off of, the YF-23, was more stealthy (and, I think, faster) than the YF-22/F-22. So, it's not much of a stretch of my imagination to believe that the YF-21 and VF-22 are passively stealthy.

新 could also be translated (in part) as remade, reformed, refreshed, renewed, and re- (the prefex.) It may seem strange to us, as English speakers tend not to use, in addition to it not being applied consistantly in Japanese. Therefore, I'm left with two interpretations: 1) It's a name, just like New York, or other cities, states, islands, and countries that include it. 2) It's being used specifically in this instant to denote that the UN Armed Forces (UN Spacy) has been remade anew; either directly because of the last cannon events that we saw (VF-X2) or something after that but before Macross Frontier.

Vancouver? Victoria? Pffft. Left both for the otaku promised land*, not looking back. *Maybe that should be "left for a place where the sky isn't overcast and it's constantly raining"?

Good point. Nevertheless, the point of the lawsuit was the international rights, which they never had ownership over.

That's the first time that I've heard either term. Where I come from, most people say multilingual; but that term doesn't include any hint of how the languages have been acquired. Though, the term I was thinking of was not so much about the person, but about the part of the brain present in polyglots, but lacking in other people.

If I remember correctly (tried looking for figures but couldn't find any in a limited search), dubs outsell subs. However, I fully agree that dubs are not needed in all cases. Looking at it from the Japanese entertainment market - a few shows are imported from overseas (Korea, Taiwan, USA, etc.). The vast majority of those, which are broadcast on TV, are subbed only. There are even cases of movies, which are usually broadcast with both a Japanese and original language soundtrack, being broadcast only in the native language with Japanese subtitles. In other cases, I have seen the main language dubbed into Japanese, with any secondary languages not dubbed, the original dub retained, and subtitles added. (CSI: Miami - all the English is dubbed into Japanese, the Spanish is not, and subtitled instead. Which leads for a bit of jarring voice changes for the actors!) So what's my point? I agree that companies should make subs available moreoften and quicker than dubs. But having said that, my stance on instant availability remains unchanged. For those arguing that releases should be concurrent, let's take a look at Kissdum. By rights that should have been a sure-fire hit. However, after 3 or 4 episodes, it all fell off a cliff into a deep abyss. Now, if an English distributor had invested heavily in the series, they would have lost big. Is the cautious approach of anime importers not validated by that?

As I am less familiar with language learning pre-2 years of age, I will defer to what you said. But I have this to add - language learning begins pre-birth. The sound of the mother's and father's voices are heard inside of the womb, and at least when it comes to English, or other languages where content words are stressed more than function words, the infant will have learned to recognize content words by the time they are born. Of course, after birth the infant still has to learn how to react to those content words, but that's entirely different from language acquisition. What I did write about is post-2 years of age. And the rule of thumb is that if a child is not exposed to nor attempts to say a sound not in their native language by the time they hit that change, they will never be able to reproduce that sound perfectly later. Of course, with a lot of practice it is possible, and being exposed to the sound and saying it is said to be only once or for a limited duration, not for months or years. As for the language learning brain... there is a unique term for it, but I can remember it at the moment (Language Learning Device?) - I wish I had that. It'd make my life a lot easier. Mind you, I think it may only be applicable to spoken language, as written language takes on a whole new dimension; especially for languages that use different systems of writing than the one you natively speak!

I agree. It's faster, cheaper (don't have to hire a bunch of actors nor rent time in a studio), and the audience is less likely to complain about acting - which is entirely subjective, as the Japanese voice actors may or may not be skilled in the first place.

It's not learning languages per se that Sumdumgai is saying, it's learning sounds in another language that are not in your native language. The age is somewhere in the early onset of puberty (11 to 15 or thereabouts), and coincides roughly with the mind's analytical centers activated. After that, most people are aware of how much they must learn when studying a foreign language, and that in turn makes it that much more difficult because they start building mental walls. Youths younger then that age tend to think along lines like "my friend can say that word/phrase, I'm going to do it too," and are not really aware that they are learning a foreign language, let alone the scope of the language they are communicating in. As you speak Korean, Eugimon, I can provide a nice example from personal experience: 지 and 치. In English, they are romanized as ji and chi, but whenever I hear a native speaker say them, they sound like ch and ch. As you can probably guess, I started learning Korean long after that magic age where the brain pathways harden. However, harden doesn't mean unchangeable. When I lived in Korea, I could distinguish between the two sounds, however after not living in Korea for 6 years, I lost that ability. I'm pretty sure that if I go and live in Korea again, I'll relearn how to hear the difference in the two. Of course, another way to look at it is brain scans of multilingual people - those that were raised from birth in a multilingual environment tend to have a 95 to 99% overlap in the area of the brain used while speaking the different languages that they know. People who learn after the magic age tend to have only a 15 to 25% overlap, with the majority of the newly learned language outside of the main language(s) (tends to look like a C shape around the main language(s), with a larger clump in the middle; at least from what I've seen). Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. Practice, as in all things, makes perfect. The more you practice, the more your brain is rewired, and using that non-native language becomes easier. It just takes time.

Going by this information, http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2006/12/dvd_sales_expec.html , the total DVD sales were 23.4 to 23.6 billion USD expected for this year and next year. I'm not sure if this is only within the USA, or includes nearby areas such as Canada. (Though, it is about half of the total world sales, which I found at a couple of sites, mentioned to be at 50 billion USD in 2009.) Anime in North America is definitely niche. Niche generally means pricy. Nevertheless, there are some good points in the last few articles, and it looks like the concensious that we are getting is: in general, piracy (fansubbing), though promoting some anime sales in a few limited cases, is illegal. the (USA) distributors need to rethink their business strategy Japanese production companies probably should reconsider their licensing fee structure. anime fans should get satellites to view anime as they are aired in Japan Azrael, part of me would like to debate further on languages other than Japanese and English and their availability/use in Japan, but as your point is supporting the point I was trying to make, doing so would only dilute things further.

I wouldn't start expecting the appearance of a VF-24. It may be akin to the VF-16 (or whatever it was) mentioned in the background of the VF-11 MAXL Kai. Having taken a closer look at it, I believe it says "having left" or possibly "diverging from" the VF-24, it developed. The rest of it is similar to what I translated last month, plus what is expected: lots of extra attachments for use in space combat (AKA Super Parts, FAST packs, and Full Armour.)