VFTF1

Or "bodily fluids" could mean something a bit different from what is normally in Sheryl's mouth. Pete

Ach...what can I say? I always wanted a poseable Sheryl doll... but this one just isn't up to crop....or speed...or whatever... doesn't look as good as it should. I think it has something to do with the bland expression on her face. Ranka looks even worse. But I DO appreciate the effort. Pete

Are you sure about that? I recall that it was Ozma who cited Leon's ambitions as the quality Cathy prefered over a man who lives for flying and his sister - those were Ozma's words - not Cathy's - in episode 17. I agree with this, but it goes hand in hand with my "character faults of beautiful women" line of thought... perhaps I should add "of self aware beautiful women" since Misa seemed not to be aware of her beauty and therefore had no vanity... Good point - although Misa's father was a politician as well; nevermind the "Admiral" rank. He sat on the "board" or whatever that thing was - it was pretty clear the high command of UN Spacey were running the show rather than suit-n-tie wearing politicians like the one we saw in episode 1. As far as I could understand it, UN Spacey's Military staged a coup and took power from the UN government as such - at least this much was clear looking at all the uniformed military men who Misa and Global reported too. Global said that they were "politicians" which to me meant that they were in power rather than being military men who answered to civilian leaders. But yeah - you do detect a greater nobility in Misa as opposed to Cathy and this could have something to do with the differences between an honorable military family upbringing and a presumably spoiled political family upbringing... Well - you state the obvious - but it's so seldom stated, and when it is stated it's often done as a complaint along the lines of "this is all just a rehash of what was" instead of seeing it as a virtue; a kind of feint game of "what if?" Still - I wouldn't go so totally far as to say that Cathy has Minmei's traits. If anything her story is a more tragic variation on Misa's - at least in terms of how she starts off. Plus - Cathy didn't have the equivalent of Claudia around to help out in the men department Pete

The exact same thing happened to my uncle Marty. We gave it some thought and googled around a bit, and you can actually screw the antenna directly into your skull using .02 mm "wignut bolt" screws which are available at Walmart for only 99 cents a pack (one pack of these things contains 100 such screws wrapped in a plastic foil bag - so if you happen to screw up (sorry about the pun) it's no big deal - you just start on another. The screws themselves ought to be dyed in the color of the person's hair. In uncle Marty's case - we did grey. Just stay away from vital portions of the brain and you'll be fine. Pete

Curse you and your logical ways! That's all a lot of sensible points.... Pete

I disagree. I think Cathy and Misa have the exact same character traits - it's just they are manifested differently: Both Cathy and Misa are ambitious and confident insofar as their professional life goes - most importantly; both of them push their femininity to the side in favor of their professional ambitions and have trouble as women, less so as officers. Cathy's affair with Leon is not, IMO, the result of her dumping her pilot boyfriend for a rising political star. Her father is the President of the Macross Frontier Colony. Leon has NO political clout AT ALL outside of being an aide to his father. Leon only gains political clout after his coup d'etate by speaking directly to the peoples' fear of the Vajra - but before his aims became clear; he was just Cathy's Dad's advisor. I think the only reason Cathy was with him is because Leon made her feel like he loved her by showering her with attention. Ozma DIDN'T. Ozma wasn't the kind of guy to fall all over Cathy, and he often let it be known that other things in life (like his job) mattered to him as well. In this sense, Cathy is a victim to her womanly weakness. Insofar as men can be blamed for being irrational when erotically aroused - so the same can be said for women; although it works a bit differently. Leon showers Cathy with the attention she needs - Leon is always around. Leon works for her dad so they probably get to see eachother everyday - and Leon doesn't have to go out on assignments or be far away from Cathy for long spans of time. I don't think the reasons for her dumping Ozma and being with Leon go any further than that. As for Leon - it's obvious he got close to Cathy to have another ace up his sleeze for his political ambitions - being with the President's daughter must guarantee some kind of lucrative future, coup or no coup. But this doesn't mean Cathy didn't have compassion. I mean - she's clearly devastated by her father's assasination. That she's jealous of Ozma being concerned over Ranka is not so much a sign of her lack of compassion as it is a sign of her pent up need for adoration - a trait inherent in most beautiful women. Misa dealt with the same problems - only somewhat different. First - she had the good fortune of being under the command of Captian Global who, while (IMO) very fond of her, never took advantage of her like Leon took advantage of Cathy. Second, while she loved her Dad and was loyal to her heritage, she had the intro-spection necessary to notice early on how similar she was to Zendradi culture and to tear up her dad's letter requesting she leave the Macross - because she was gallant. This is the same gallantry which led to her almost suicide on Mars - as an act of fealty towards the memory of her first (and at that point only) love - Riber. But Cathy does come around - once she discovers Leon's plot and once she realizes Ozma still has feelings for her - in other words - once she notices that the world doesn't revolve around her, and in that dangerous world there are men like Ozma who love her and do good and men like Leon who use her and do bad - she makes the right choice and does a lot to help everyone. Bobby even notices how sensitive she is - he's probably the only one who sees beneath the crusty exterior - thus when he places his hand on her shoulder and says "how you must have suffered" - Cathy's face goes very very melancholy and said - as if for a moment someone (Bobby) let her finally breathe and say "yes - I suffered too." - I think the difference you're seeing between Misa and Cathy is a surface difference largely caused by Cathy being a second string character in Frontier while Misa was clearly the main character in Macross - well - one of the mainest main characters Pete

I don't remember Sheryl having that bow thing on that outfit... is that 1/8 ? Pete

Back to the love topic for a moment - something that is often lost is how Hikaru has been shaped by women. Prior to Minmey, he was just a guy who liked flying and could do acrobatic stunts pretty well. When he got stuck on the Macross, he hastily fixed up his fan jet and invited Minmey to go back to Earth with him - he wanted no part in the war, or in the insanity - he just wanted to go back to his regular civilian life. Even after that became impossible due to the Pluto-fold, Hikaru still "mopped" about, as Roy would put it. He was extremely jealous and upset overhearing Minmey talking to pilots and calling Hikaru a "friend" and denying that anything romantic had transpired between them, and later on, he yelled at her when Minmey countered his "I might die if I join the military" with "it's the same for all the other soldiers who come to the restaurant." Hikaru yelled "so I'm just like them to you?" In the end, he joined up - for all the wrong reasons as it turned out, and ended up finding new friends and becoming more acquainted with Misa. This is often the case in life - you choose a path because of reasons that very quickly prove to be illusory and wrong, but you get stuck on the path and suddenly are surprised to find something you didn't expect. What Hikaru didn't expect was to find a woman that would love him as he was. I think one of the best illustrations of Misa's love was when Hikaru was about to sorty (again) and made some whiny complaint to Misa (as usual) and she didn't respond at all. Claudia said something like "are you going to let him get away talking to an officer like that?" and Misa said, with a smile, "I've gotten used to it. I don't mind. I kind of like it." This was a very tender moment, in my view, because it showed how fond Misa was of Hikaru as a person - of how Hikaru acted, behaived and thought. I think she appreciated his gallantry - even though it was usually couched in complaints. On the other hand, Misa did NOTHING to awaken Hikaru's jalousy or to confuse his emotions - something Minmey constantly did. This included, on Misa's part, being able to forgive the scarf incident, wait for him all day, to not make a scene at his house when she overheard that Minmey was saying, and to gracefully come say goodbye to Hikaru upon being appointed to lead a new colony into the stars by Global. And then, as if to "solve" the love triangle for us, events AGAIN intervene - turning reason on its' head. Misa thought she would leave Earth and Hikaru and Minmei would stay together. But Kamjin attacks, and Hikaru must make a split second choice: is he a pilot or is he a civilian? In making his choice, he also chooses for Minmei - implicitly telling her: "you're the Songstress of the Galaxy" and denying to her the life of a domesticized woman. In the end, it's not at all clear that Hikaru "decided" to be with Misa as much as it is clear he had BECOME a pilot and would stay one, and that he was LOVED by Misa ALL THE TIME rather than SOMETIMES (as was the case with Minmei) - and ultimately what guy wouldn't stay with a girl who was good to him ALL THE TIME (Misa) in favor of a girl who was capable of getting him to quit the military, change his life ... and on the very next day might very well say "sorry, I changed my mind. I'm going back to Kaifun. Bye!" I don't see it as choice. Maybe I speak from my personal experience here - but I have a feeling us guys respond best to stability and continuity. When I think about my relationship to my girlfriend, who breaks up with me about once every two weeks and has done this for 5 years now, I come to realize two things: a) other than this strange fault, she is flawless and no new bad things about her ever emerged, b) considering how many times I cheated on her, got way too drunk, turned my back on her, was mean to her, yelled at her - she's done a fine job of being forgiving and really other than the completey predictable and systematic "I hate you! I don't want to be with you....no wait! Come back! I love you!" which takes place on average once every two weeks (the severity of this also varies) - all in all she is without a fault and even this minor pain is bearable because by now after five years it's just become so utterly predictable. My point here, though, is that I know for myself that I didn't really "choose" to be with my current girlfriend. We just kind of ended up together - and it's really odd when I think about it. There was lots going on in our lives when we met and lots of apprehension from both of us because we'd been burned in previous relationships - but things just kind of fell into place... mainly because there was stability and continuity in how we behaved towards one another. She got used to by flaws, I got used to hers. And the positive things in our daily lives way outstripped the negatives (after all - the time in between the break ups was always filled with lots of joy )... So - I'm kinda thinking this is what "won" Hikaru over to Misa - the fact that she did nothing to toy with his emotions, giving him a sense of stability that Minmei couldn't. This was because, ultimately, she was a mature woman who was able to internalize her own pain out of love for Hikaru. If Minmei could do that, then she might have had a shot at Hikaru - but she couldn't. Err... in either case - this has always struck me as one of the things that makes the love story so tender - it's not this simplified "take me!" "no, me!" - it's got lots of depth to it and a good understanding of male/female psychology. Pete

Yep. And that's the main point of the Macross Saga: Old Cougars are far preferable to little whiney girls. Pete

Well - in all fairness, regarding the Optimus Prime shoulders - the Transformers are not meant to be completely anthropomorphic in this movie, ergo the shoulders are acceptable...kind sorta... Pete

Yay. Good to see Viral getting some love - although naturally I would prefer Revoltechs for both of them... Pete

Thanks Mirya for clearing that up for me. I voted "keep it 1/2000." Ideally, it should be 1/60 to be in scale with the Destroids and Valks - but that's unlikely, to put it modestly... But a huge 1/2000 SDF-1 still has its' benefits. It would look great as a "far off" background Macross with all the 1/60 valkyrie in front of it and it just seems that something like this needs to be made. That said - I think it needs to be a play set and have tons of features on it. It can't be the WAVE - but just bigger because the price is too high to make it appealing unless it's also going to have lots more play value. Or it comes in TV colors with a blow-up Misa doll Pete

Thanks again for these most recent commentary translations. Always fun to read these. I personally like "Songstress of the Galaxy" because it is so "engRishy" and does indeed sound "boring" - but that's what makes it endearing... I don't know about "diva" - makes me think of black lace too much and Sheryl didn't really have that going for her... but it's all semantic and connotations... Still, I think the point is that in contradistinction to Mylene who was a young girl, Sheryl is an older woman who sings and flies valkyries...well... wiggles the stick in a valykrie for a few minutes and gets blown up.... I guess you could call it flying And yeah - I do agree that the work they put into the choreography in episode 12 showed very well - it was one of the best moments in the entire series - and one of the few very very overt Macross 7 nods sniff. ah - the sweet memories Pete

I have nothing against sexualizing anime. I think all life needs to be sexualized everywhere all the time. As for the pillows - I'd definitely get them if I could squeeze 'em into my budget As for character designs in Shadow Chronicles... I dunno... what can I say? Hmm... look - in SDF-M and DYRL, it was obvious that despite the series/movie being set in the "future" most of the clothing was inspired by 70s/80s fashion. Macross Frontier takes a lot of inspiration from our contemporary fashion. Just like the SDFM/DYRL political landscape was inspired by the politics of the time - so you see a lot of political commentary in MF - despite the series being way out into the "future." To show that I am not a blind "all that is Macross design is holy" person - I'll be the first to admit that while I very much enjoy the STORY of Macross 7, I think lots of the fashion wear is horrible, particularly Mylene's concert...suite?... But the problem with Shadow Chronicles is not that it's unenjoyable because the designs are bad - it's just unenjoyable period. There are no redeeming features - except maybe that it ends at some point. Pete

I ... don't undestand? Another SDF-1 besides the WAVE and the Yamato one is coming out in a different scale? Help. Pete

Yeah - if it was Shakespeare, John Connor and the entire Resistance would have ended up lying in a pool of blood at the end Pete

Excellent essay and great observations. I would add only that I always looked upon the relationship between Misa and Hikaru through the prism of Exodol's statement to Breetai early in the series: "It is said that when a man and a woman are together, tragedy follows." Part of the reason for the Zendradi's rejection of culture, and part of the reason for the failure of the Protoculture and its' decline into self-destructive warfare was precisely the fact that love amongst men and women is NOT easy and culture is not some fiat magical solution to the problems of the human condition. Misa, who lost Riber early on, and who - like the Zendradi - was reared in a military tradition - is a perfect example of the struggle that humans are faced with insofar as love goes; and her struggle with Hikaru is a kind of mini-exposition on the problems that the protoculture had in the most basic and private setting. So, in that sense, I always see the love story as complementing the overall political teaching of Macross. Pete

There's a dedicated thread for each seperate episode of Macross Frontier. No need for new threads on individual episodes. Here's the thread for episode 12: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...tier+Episode+12 There's also one for 21 and all the rest of them Just use the search function. Pete

I see Alto and his mother. Pete

Oh - but I will add one more thing - for all the complaining people do about Yamato costing so much, and even the cost of the VF-25s from Bandai - the fact that Leader class ROTF Megatron retails for 50 bucks on average is ridiculous IMO. I remember when I was in college and you could get something like Ultra Class Transmetals Rampage for 20 bucks. The Mega class Beast Wars were like 15 bucks and the deluxes could get up to 9,99 but also were sometimes like 6 bucks. Now - I totally understand inflation, the sinking dollar, the economy blah blah blah - but even Hasbro managed to put out a (admitably floppy and horribly painted) "MP" DVD Prime for 50 bucks and the Alternators cost 20 bucks. Now - your standard Alternator was better engineered and nicer looking than the ROTF leader Megatron. And again - just to underscore - I'm not dissing Bayformers designs here. I think they're fine for what they are - but the toy versions are lackluster in the extent to which they capture those designs - yet they're being sold at prices which suggest that the second coming of Primus is now on shelves... In other words - I could accept the comparatively "cheap" nature of Hasbro TFs and not compare them to SOC and Yamato and stuff IF they were actually..well... you know ... cheap. But they're not. They're actually fairly expensive as far as stuff like this goes. Pete

Hi! Well that's quite a way to make a name for yourself quickly The diorama looks like a great wip! Can you perhaps take a picture of the stuff in picture 5 - only from straight ahead rather than from above? It would make things look much better Great work! Pete

To be honest - I am so dissapointed in the Transformers that Hasbro is putting out that I'm just not getting ANY. I've got my eyes on more Encores (Bruticus and the Casssettes), more Masterpieces, the Device Label (particularly USB Blaster) - and that's it. I'm not gonna write a long winded post about the other toys sucking or anything like that because it wouldn't be fair to compare cheap toys to Yamato or SOC - but I guess I'm just at the point where I get less and less thrill from Hasbro's products. I still love the G1s - which arguably "suck" most of all for a variety of reasons - but only for nostalgia's sake - 'cause I grew up on it Oh and I still like Henkei too - so I guess I AM willing to accept "lower standards" than SOC etc - but as far as the movie toys go...I just don't like the aesthetic on the robot modes Also - no offense - but I couldn't stand the cars they chose either. I mean - it's almost no wonder GM went bankrupt when I looked at the butt ugly cars that the Autobots transformed into - maybe it's because I've been living in Europe for so long now and haven't seen what passed for "new and great" in the USA recently - and maybe also because Binaltech was mainly Mazda, Subaru... I mean really other than the (vintage and not-bankrupt anyways) Ford ... there wasn't a lot of modern contemporary American cars... But yeah - I just don't like 'em. And I don't like the Sting Ray on Sideswipe either... But that's neither here nor there - I guess I'm just not very excited about this line. Every time I look at them - I think "yeah..ok... but I still prefer the original" - that especially goes for Devastator. I'll still see and enjoy the movie - I'm sure - but until they give me Masterpice Movie toys I'm probably gonna pass on these guys. Pete

The way I understand his answer is that one needs to accept for a moment that this is an art form and you can't look at it with rigor that you usually apply to history - although Kawamori even makes the point that when looking at history you are also dealing with interpretations of events and the historical dispute is often not about the "fact" about about motives (not "did Napoleon go to X" but "why?" and "what effect did this have on Y?"). I think people need to be reasonable in their demands for precisin. Macross is super-ultra precise and very very careful not to mess too much with continuity when compared to other long runing animated series - so... I wouldn't be too hard on him. I don't take his view of Macross 7 being "just fiction" of "the Macross 7 events" literally - I don't know what he said in the original, but I don't think he meant that because that would sound kind of senseless. What does make sense, however, is that the events of Macross 7 were thought up and efforts were made to encorporate them into the Macross mythos and then those efforts collided with certain realities of making a show of this sort. ANd come on - really the only "difference" was Exodol having his DYRL appearance - but hasn't it been pretty well established that this is the prefered appearance? I dunno - too much drama on this subject. Pete

Well - I agree, but only if your 8 year old promises to destroy it...slowly... Pete

I'm of the opposite sensitivity After years and years of "getting by" without stands- I'm sick and tired of depriving myselfo f the really cool poses that are possible with modern figures and models and will soon have oodles of stands to use to my heart's content. Ergo - I won't be miffed if Ozma in his armored glory can't stand without er...a stand Pete