sketchley

Shouldn't that be THE Star Wars

Thank you. I have no plans. It was a one off gig. I do, however, write an ongoing play-by-post RPG game set in the Macross universe (see the link in my signature.)

Watch the opening animation of the VF-X game. It does a pretty good job of showing a pilot getting into, and launching a VF from that vessel. PS the name of the vessel is Valhalla III (VCV) Stealth Attack Variable Carrier Vessel. Sentinel is a class of surface carriers used during the UN Wars: http://macross.anime.net//mecha/united_nat...inel/index.html

Because none of those can be made into a jet shape without making a mess.

"I'm lost." "I'm at wits end." Basically he's over stressed, over tired, and in need of a Macross fix to get back to whatever pleasant place Macross takes us. The restaurant is pretty middle of the road, BTW. It's neither low class (tablecloth) nor high class (piss poor cutlery and plates.) Given the quality of food, and poor lighting, it looks like a high low class, or a low middle class restauarant. Please also keep in mind that North American food is foreign food. Thus, it is held in the same light as foreign food in your country (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, Italian, Mexican, Greek, etc..) Correction: the more exotic foreign foods in your country.

Yes. I think there should be a rule against crappy one-liners. Some type of feature that forces posters to read their post for bad grammar and mispelled words would also be appreciated (hopefully it'd make the posters realize how crappy their one-liners are.) How much bandwidth would be saved???

I've seen Macross listed under both the ã¾ and ã¡ã‚‡ sections in various bookstores. I think it relates to how "fan" the shop owner is. Most mainstream bookshops and videos have Macross titles in the ã¾ section, and most anime-fan dedicated shops have it in the ã¡ã‚‡ section. It's always good advice to check both sections, but don't expect to find many, if any, Macross songs. Macross hasn't been that popular for the last 20 years, and karaoke shops generally don't keep 25 year-old songs in their library unless if they still bring in the big bucks.

I think he was being sarcastic (maybe).

I have no new information, but I'm glad that the thread is being revived. It's been an interesting discussion so far.

It looks legit, however it is rare for a CM about anime to include live action/actors. Mind you, given the age of the actor, and his salaryman look, I'm guessing that this was aimed at the kids who saw the first run of SDF:M and have grown up. I have no inkling if this was a main stream CM or not, however what is note worthy is that on more than a couple dozen occasions, I have heard Macross Zero music clips being used in all manner of TV shows (especially in the all-pervasive Variety Shows.) EDIT: for those that don't know: I am in Japan, and this post refers to Japan.

If you bought the set that has the demo for VF-X2 and a Patlabor game, they come on a 3rd disc. The second disc is needed for the levels in the later half of the game. You don't need it to play the levels in the first half of the game.

Interesting... this line, from the Macross Plus link provided by dejr8bud: マクロス25周年ä¼ç”»!HDリマスターDVDボックス!! The Macross 25th Anniversary Plan! HD remaster DVD box!!

All new productions in Japan are High Vision (aka High Definition.) It's more likely that it will be released on Blue Ray (or that other HD media.) I wouldn't expect an announcement about a disc release for another couple of months.

DVD sales of DYRL didn't go so well. Macross 7 is probably being remastered into HD for it's rebroadcasting. If so, it's not too big of a leap to take the work and burn it on a disc. It is interesting that they decided to do Macross Plus. Perhaps a nod to the international audience?

Hmmm... I've come to the conclusion that messiah is not the best term to use. Limiting the Macross world view to that of humans, Anima Spiritia are unknown. Broadening that to include all that we, the observers, know of the Macross universe, one can surmise that Anima Spiritia are expected. Yes, Basara does becomes a saviour, and is expected to deliver feats by the end of the series. However, I am interpreting expected as in anticipated prior to meeting, and not the sense of doing a required action. Though the interpretation of the nuances of the word and it's definition may just be me... That said, IMHO, Bodhisatva would be a better descriptor. For me, the definition is someone who undertakes a personal spiritial journey at their own choosing, and at the completion of it and finding a hidden truth, they share the means of finding the hidden truth to others. Talk of descriptors aside, when looking at things in terms of Asian beliefs, one must keep in mind that philosophy and religion are generally combined, and should not be considered as seperate ideas (as is the case with Western religious and philosophical thinking.)* In other words, it may prove to be impossible to seperate the religious ideas from the philosophical ones in this discussion. *Buddhism is as much a philosophy for living, as it is a religion. Confucianism is as much a religion as it is a philosophy for living. The former has more concepts and ideas that Western observers associate with religion, whereas the later has some concepts and ideas that are both more philosophical, and also completely foreign (in terms of religious ideas) to Western observers. Ancestor Worship comes first and foremostly to mind.

Hmmm, in these terms, it sounds actually very Buddhist. Specifically along the lines of a Bodhisatva (Bodhisatva's being a part of Mahayana Buddhism, the branch of Buddhism in Japan.) Bodhisatva's are quasi-devine, and not necessarily choosen. Bodhisatva's have attained enlightenment, but instead of entering Nirvana, they turn back, to help others to attain enlightenment. The terms being used to describe Basara sound extremely similar. It should be noted that Basara is the Japanized name for Vajra, one of the Juni-Shinsho (12 Generals of Yakushi Nyorai). This page http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-generals.shtml gives Basara the following description: Therefore, I am forming the opinion that Macross 7 is a lot more religious than has been given credit. Religious not in the sense of Judeo-Christian beliefs, but in East Asian, Buddhist and Shinto beliefs.

Maybe to clarify the events of the first episode?

Rock is different, and does take a little bit of getting used to, here in Japan. I encourage readers to do some research into the various musical acts, past and present, from Japan. It may help viewers towards the thinking of "it's not just Macross 7". The Protodevlin "twins" (for lack of a better name, I can't remember their actual names; the two with many arms) remind me of Indo-Buddhist gods. There is a rough design in Kazutaka Miyatake's Macross and Orguss Design works that reminds me of a Japanese mask; which are generally based off of Shinto mythological gods and spiritial beings. I'm not sure if that particular design made it into the final anime. Nevertheless, it does go to show that a healthy understanding of Japanese culture (and not pop or entertainment culture) will uncover some of the deeper meanings and intentions of the series. Again, I must stress that I interpret the show as one made for and marketed to teenagers. However, it is not as shallow as some of the Macross "fans" here pigeon-hole it as.

Agreed. In the last couple of pages, the debate has turned interesting and more or less relevant. That is not so much Eastern mysticism, but an actual teaching tool used in the classroom (at least here in Japan.) Teaching manuals* present a problem to the students, and notes for the teacher to give hints to the students to help them overcome the problem. However, by and large, the students are left to their own devices (usually in groups) to figure out not only the solution to the problem, but the means to reach the solution to the problem. It kind of flies in the face of the assumption that Asian students are unquestioning drones, IMHO... * This is mostly applicable to math related subjects (science, physics, etc..) Though with English lessons, we have a tendency to introduce the language, and at the end of the lesson, point out the page numbers with the actual grammatical-linguistic explanations.

Given the above cited blog post, I interpret eps. 4 as damage control, and buying time for the creative team to figure out the story.

VF-X had VFs vs. Zentraedi equippped with VFs and updated Zentraedi mecha VF-X2 had VFs vs. VFs M3 was the one with VFs vs. giant spider bugs PS Macross 7 already had a VF vs. a dinosaur.

Manga history: the manga was created in an attempt to break into the North American comic industry. It was sent to Academy Comics, at exactly the time that they lost the Robotech license. As the manga was written for inclusion into the Robotech comic universe, there are some aspects of that universe that are reflected in the story. As this is a “quick and dirty†scan & post, I’m not modifying it in any way aside from adding my e-mail address to it. It was drawn during November and December of 1996. At the time, I only had access to Macross line art from the Robotech Art books, the Palladium RPG books, and the TIA:DYRL? book. I'm somewhat amused that despite the manga being created for the Robotech universe, the mecha designs that were used fit extremely well into the image that Shouji Kawamori has stated about the post SWI era of Macross (DYRL designs, SDF:M story.) Specs: Various sized Rotring Isograph pens loaded with Rapid Graph Ultradraw (Black India) ink Letter sized laser printer paper* *Not the best stuff in the world to be doing inking on. Nevertheless, there were few to no smudges from the ink on it. After a decade of not having looked at it, I quite like the character developments in the first few pages. The last half becomes a bit choppy, and uneven. If I were to redraw it, I’d give more page space per panel in the action scenes, and there wouldn’t be as many close-ups of the enemy mecha. Nevertheless, I feel that it captures some of the energy of the combat scenes in Macross. Excuse my bad printing. One nice thing about doing manga digitally is not having to print and hand draw word balloons on the manga. Alas, this was created before the digital age. EDIT: Where did the manga go? Here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54317980/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54318157/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54318303/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54318453/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54318548/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54318766/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54318920/ http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54319175/

All of the above is good advice. As I have done something similar (recently retreved the originals from an overseas trip back to my original country), I may be posting them on the web (and here) in the near future (no promises.) My advice is: do it for yourself, and the love of doing it. Don't do it for other people nor what you think they expect of you (or a Macross manga produced by you.) Your love for the material will shine through, and make it much better. If and when you post the finished manga on these boards - be warned that the majority of posters (not necessarily members) are 13, or have the attitude of 13 year-olds. It may be best to show the finished work to your friends first, and ignore the more vicious/inane commentary that may result from showing the work in this forum.

I believe that this is a Japanese drawing from the creators of Macross. As I have yet to see it in any of the lineart books that I've purchased here, I suspect that it was published in either a magazine, hobby book, or a model kit.

Agreed.