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sketchley

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  1. sketchley
    Both questions can be answered by looking at real world fighter aircraft. The advantage of completely internalized weapons is an increase in stealthiness (as can be seen with the F-22 et al), and the true aerodynamic performance of the fuselage - all the doodads strapped to the bottom of the aircraft and its wings increases drag (F-18 pilots, among others, are on record for preferring the fighter in a 'clean' (unequipped) form, as it performs much better). Forward swept wings are not only aerodynamic, but they give the aircraft much more manoeuvrable than rear-swept wings. However, without some serious computer processing in the avionics for fine tuning the control surfaces, the aircraft cannot fly as effectively - as the wings are inherently unstable. But the same holds true for pretty much every aircraft after the F-16... (see X-29, Su-47). ManhattanProject972 beat me to the punch explaining why they are so rare in the real world.
  2. sketchley
    I've collated what little official setting info there is on it here: http://monkeybacon.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/ARMD/ARMDalt.php#front While it doesn't exactly say one way or the other, the gist of the passage I understood when translating is that it's based on the ARMD class. Now is that creatively based on it (implying that we can consider it a prototype), or merely being used for illustrative purposes? I'm tempted to go with the prototype angle, because the mass production of equipment is the one thing that the original SDF Macross has consistently portrayed. As for the ARMD-00 Constitution... it's entirely possible that it is a rebuild of that space platform - as the L5 station survived the war. And based on the precedent of the SDF-2 becoming the Megaroad-01 (among other things), it's consistent that it was given a conversion into a full-blown ARMD while it was being repaired. In that situation, it's still a prototype of sorts, but not the first of its class (unless if it turned into the DYRL version. In that case, it just gets really confusing! )
  3. sketchley
    You have a much better memory than I do of that movie! Nevertheless, "Soldier" cemented itself as my low bar - when it comes to what's depicted in a movie trailer, and what isn't in the film. While the trailer for "Rogue One" had differing shots, the epic battle on a tropical island that the trailer promised was still in the film.
  4. sketchley
    Thanks. Off to do that right now (it's still winter holiday for most of us in Japan).
  5. sketchley
    (throws hands up in air) Personally I think you guys are reading too much into a line of dialogue... Now, I won't mention such things like living in Japan and personally trying to teach English to a few of the Japanese anime otaku consumers. Nope. just going to stick to the nationally broadcast news show. How can one explain a major mistake in English there? Well, aside from the average viewer in Japan being a non-speaker, and most remembering only a smattering of words from public education. It's definitely not a show run by otaku, using NATO code words.
  6. sketchley
    I wouldn't quite call that a fiasco. It's nothing like, say, the epic space Battle Of Tannhauser Gate, which briefly appears in the TV spots for "Soldier", and doesn't appear at all in the theatrical release (I don't think it was even mentioned in dialogue...). I give Rogue One a pass on the differences simply because they filmed two alternate endings (something that's not uncommon with movies): the happy ending (everyone lives, what we saw in the trailer), and the unhappy ending (what we saw in the theatrical release).
  7. sketchley
    Yes, but there are a couple of things to consider: - still in the release cycle of SW8 - the troubled development of the film
  8. sketchley
    Yes, with the aforementioned 'Engrish' nod to make it more accessible to the lowest common denominator. :wink:
  9. sketchley
    It's been a busy year, and in cleaning up my desk, I found I haven't provided pocket reviews of the following! Great Mechanics G: 2017 Summer Released: 2017.06.17 In short, no Macross coverage. Though, there is a big article on Yamato 2202. Alas, there isn't even any 'Macross-y' news! Great Mechanics G: 2017 Summer Released: 2017.06.17 In short, no Macross coverage. Faintly 'Macross-y', the article "The Setting" features some of Kawamori san's designs for Eurika 7.
  10. sketchley
    http://www.tbs.co.jp/news23/
  11. sketchley
    I'm not disagreeing about the creators. My point is about the ultimate consumer. ... and Kawamori-san has made a point of deliberately avoiding anything that can confuse the casual viewer. E.g.: the portrayal of Zentradi ships after the conclusion of the First Interstellar War, or the unexpected appearance of the VF-171 as the main fighter - a visual design choice that necessitated a lot of retcon changes.
  12. sketchley
    Nah. It happens too consistently in things that are NOT related (E.g: the aforementioned "News 23 (Two-three)"). One must keep in mind that most people who consume anime in Japan (the target audience), are not English majors (let alone military nuts), and the content is geared for them (dare I say it? The lowest common denominator). Us English speaking fans of Macross are quite the polar opposite, as many of us have both a deep interest in learning Japanese, as well as being military nuts!
  13. sketchley
    Another thing to consider is how it's sent: 3. surface mail - how often the boat leaves I don't know the specifics in this case, but when I was living in Vancouver (the main port of entry for Canada), surface mail generally took 30 days between Vancouver and Japan, and if you (literally) missed the boat, it can take up to an additional 30 days. Adding to the seasonal traffic, my parents (again, in Western Canada), sent 3 packages to me (in Japan) AT THE SAME TIME for Christmas last year. The first arrived in Jan., the second in Feb., and the last, in Mar.! Weird, but true. (In that case, it would have had to have been on the Canada Post side, as the Japanese side is very efficient and prompt. E.g.: we get mail delivered twice a day!)
  14. sketchley
    No, it doesn't. In fact, 29 being mispronounced as two-nine is simply because someone (or some people) on the production side hasn't learned English numbers correctly. E.g.: "News 23" is spoken as "News Two-Three", yet it airs daily at 23:00.
  15. sketchley
    Hasn't Disney already been doing that? SW7 is essentially SW4. They fired the directors of both this Han Solo movie AND SW9, because the directors' visions didn't match with their own. I'd like to say that Rogue One is the exception, but even that is loaded with SW vanilla (in different words: SW nostalgia)...
  16. sketchley
    The other thing that most North Americans tend to overlook is that high school is not mandatory in Japan. As such, the high school experience is VERY different from the North American version. Seto is correct in identifying it as a vocational school. It's somewhere in between a 2 to 3 year technical college and a high school. So, while the protagonists are young, from the Japanese perspective, it is plausible.
  17. sketchley
    Please don't consider this overkill on my part... Out of curiosity (due to my work and language studies), I looked up the IPA for the kana in question. Interestingly, the IPA rendition of the sound is also with /r/. The Wikipedia article* goes a bit further, and describes it as a "liquid /r/", though the common pronunciation is a /ɾ/. Which may may explain why that consonant has always mainly sounded like a cross between an /r/ and an /l/ sound to my ears, but still enables some native speakers to pronounce it with something akin to a "rolled r". So, it's definitely not an /l/ sound, but not quite the hard /r/ sound in English, either. Learned something today. Thanks for the debate/discussion! * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology ** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental,_alveolar_and_postalveolar_flaps
  18. sketchley
    Yes, and no. The standard romanizations* all use "r". * Hepburn, Nihon-shiki, Kunrei-shiki (not that you'd ever, ever, ever want to use anything but Hepburn. ).
  19. sketchley
    The name, in all the Japanese sources I've come across, is literally "Vajra Homeworld". You could, of course, play with the terminology a lot to get such things as "the homeworld of the Vajra", "the Vajra's homeworld" and so on. But for the sake of brevity, and the lack of any other name, "Vajra Homeworld" works best.
  20. sketchley
    Good point. Perhaps it's a PAK FA weapon pallet inserted into a J-20 that's been split down the middle?
  21. sketchley
    Those two are inspired by the Su-57 (PAK FA). It's most noticeable in the between-engine-nacelle weapons container.
  22. sketchley
    If memory serves, that was in reference to the distance between the Frontier Fleet and Earth. The Frontier Fleet was in the vicinity of the center of the galaxy (again, if memory serves), making it a 10 year one-way trip. The Super Fold Booster reduces that to a tenth (thus: a 1 year one-way trip). Isn't Ragna located on the opposite side of the galaxy? If so, then it would be a 20 year one-way trip (normal Fold drive) or 2 year one-way trip (Super Fold Drive). It should also be stressed that Super Fold drives aren't common by any means, and due to the Fold Quartz requirements, are rather expensive to produce - perhaps impossible on a scale needed for the larger Emigrant Ships.
  23. sketchley
    Thanks for the heads-up, guys. Yes, a couple of days ago, the main page (and ONLY the main page) was spawning a 403. Turns out that it was due to a broken link in the 'Tools' section to another site. Sadly, the current host isn't good at providing documentation on why. So, it took a couple dozen minutes to troubleshoot, and remove the offending link. >.< The only thing that comes to mind is something said in passing about the Macross Frontier setting by Mr Kawamori: "It's like the Age Of Exploration, with e-mail". If we take that to mean the sailing ships of yore are synonymous with the Emigrant Fleets, then the communication between them and back home is nigh instantaneous. Of course, as the context was about the general setting of Macross F, we have to take that with a grain of salt.
  24. sketchley
    In truth, there are actually two schools of thought on that. There are some who believe that the English romanization should be used as-is in all translated materials - even though a healthy portion of it comes from, IMHO, dubious sources, like model kit boxes, which may or may not have been approved by the creators of Macross. But that is a debate for a different venue. (1) There are others (like me) who believe that as we are translating Japanese into English (and not Japanese into the fictitious Zentrādi language), we should not use the pain-and-suffering inducing allegedly correct romanization that the creators themselves don't even use in their native language! And let's not even get into the romanization errors that creep in from the vowel reduction in the spoken Tokyo dialect, which is not present in most other Japanese dialects! (2) Due to the confusion, over the years I've attempted to create a glossary of alternate romanizations. I hope you (and others) use it to, at the very least, sort out the confusion stemming from the sheer variety of alternative romanizations in the translations produced over the years by a variety of people from both schools of thought: http://monkeybacon.mywebcommunity.org/Glossary.php (It's an eternal work in progress. There's bound to be some errors - and any assistance or additional terminology would be much appreciated!) ======================== (1) some of them make a bit more sense if one includes the pronunciation rules of other European languages that use Latin script. However, it's still an atrocious hodgepodge of French, German, and American English pronunciation rules! (2) here's a link with just a glimpse of what I'm referring to (I can't find something more exhaustive): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_dialect#Vowels
  25. sketchley
    Short answer? Took a year in H/S, a couple of years in university, attended a Japanese university for a few months, and have been living in Japan for approx. 14+ years. If you are planning to take a stab on translating Macross, it helps to have a rudimentary background in the culture (for characters), and science or pseudo-science (for the mecha; if you can watch ST:TNG, DS9, etc. and get the gist of what they're saying when they speak in engineering jargon, you should have no problem with the Macross equivalent. ). Have you tried the Duolingo App? They've recently started rolling out language courses in Japanese and Korean (not sure if its all users, or just us in Japan). If you can, you may find it extremely helpful in re-balancing your vocabulary (it's currently geared for tourists coming for the Tokyo olympics. So, lots of everyday conversation. The stuff that doesn't tend to crop up much in mecha translations! ).
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