VFTF1

Oh that. But that was like a loving lesbian slap. It was no different from the one Sheryl gave her earlier on. It's just how beautiful women motivate eachother - by slapping themselves from time to time. No reason to hate on Ranka for it. Plus it was a sign of maturity. She was like - see. I'm not a kid anymore. I can sing, hit on Alto, and bitch slap like the best of 'em. As for her breasts - I don't think they're that small at all. I think they're proportional to the rest of her body. I mean, that's really what's most important IMO. If you imagined Sheryl's boobs on Ranka - it just wouldn't work because Ranka has a different figure. Besides, it would be like complaining that Sheryl's breasts are small compared to Nanase. Again - different figure. I actually like that about Macross - they are very alert to the subtle physical differences between girls and they are able to show a variety of different beautiful women with interesting personalities. The thing about Ranka that might get to some people is that she goes fairly rapidly from being shy, unsure of herself and in admiration of others (but always doubting herself) to being a woman with some strong convinctions about the Vajra, the war, and her role in all of it. And at the time, before knowing how things would end up - some of those decisions were indeed...odd, to say the least. It's almost as though she even gave up her love for Alto on principle, to journey with Brera to the Vajra home world and seek out a peaceful solution... She became what Sheryl only marketed herself as - the true Songstress of the Galaxy... like Nekki Basara... but... this is supposed to be the hate thread...and there I go praising people again Pete oh.... and will the person who voted to dislike Misa ppllleeeaaaassseee step forward? I'm just curious to hear why? It's not like I'm gonna pour hot lead over your head for it But honestly I can't think of even one reason to dislike her... not even any mild reasons...

Didn't...Sheryl slap Ranka...not Ranka slap...Sheryl? I mean... I remember Sheryl slaps Ranka when Ranka refuses to use her song power to try to stop the Vajra attack but... When...when did Ranka slap ANYBODY? I honestly can't remember that. If I'm wrong - so be it...apparently my memory is playing tricks on me but...who did Ranka slap that was sick and dying? Mylene is beautiful; yes. I really do like her songs and I think she's a fine character. However... That get up she wears in concert looks HORRIBLE. And I do mean horrible. I didn't vote for Mylene - thought never crossed my mind - but I think that people who haven't patiently watched her and admired her in Macross 7 might vote for her in the poll just because she LOOKS like cack in that concert get up. Yeah but at crucial moments in the plot she says seemingly mundane yet earth shatteringly important things. Well...technically "good protagonist" doesn't literally need to mean "good" protagonist... But point taken Still... I find this discussion amusing because we all seem to generally LIKE all of the Macross characters enough to make it hard to DISLIKE them. In fact -I would suggest that people aren't voting based on dislike, but based on an inverted "like" scale. That is...they look and say...well...I like Y the most, X as well, oh and I can't not like W and hey Z is awesome...so I guess that leaves A who's cool in some respects but...whatever - gotta vote for somebody. But I wonder: OTHER THAN Nekki Basara - who constantly gets his own HATE threads even on Macross World, which is home to so many Macross lovers (I'd hate to see how viral the hatred for Basara would be in casual anime fans )... Are there any characters that you really really disliked? I'm getting the sense that Ranka registers really badly for some people... but I wonder whether that's just because they love Sheryl so much and it isn't related to some kind of shipping thing? Kaifun on the other hand... I dunno... I don't think people dislike him as much as they like Hikaru enough to hate it when a guy like Kaifun commands not only Minmey's sympathy but then has all the girls falling in love with him too and ends up knowing Kung Fu... Truly a good thread - because it's difficult to hate. Easier to gush Pete

Yeah well... on a more serious note... I totally don't want to believe the line about Mikuru-chan just leading Kyon on and it all being an act. I mean, I guess it's possible... and it's kind of impossible for a guy to ever be sure with a girl like that because girls like that could be ... I dunno...jumping at you with a knife ...and it would still take a while before you threw a chair at them, only to discover it was too late anyways because she'd isolated the segment of space you were in and taken control of it...er... but...the point is...girls like that can be annoying and bad, but if they're cute, then even when they're annoying and bad they're still lovable... Besides, Kyon is a cool headed guy. And also - when Asahina was giving him the "don't trust Koyzumi" line..Tsyurya-san was standing right behind her...almost as though she were there to "make sure" Kyon got the message... In the end though, I guess Yuki put it best - Kyon can't trus any of the "truths" because all of the "truths" are just interpretations...It's ultimately a bit like religion or even philosophy as such. You really won't find any definitive 100% "truth" in any of the sides... you just have to follow your heart. I wonder...was Kyon emboldened to tell Haruhi the truth because, seeing that the other members of SOS, who up to then he had considered "experts" on the matter, were actually powerless and he at least held sway over Haruhi? In any event... now I'm starting to wonder that perhaps chronology is important because... am I to understand that Haruhi "knew" about the others in all the episodes following the culture festival? And was the kiss really the final episode? Does this story only cover one school year - or beyond? And will Mikuru end up with Kyon in the future? What is the future she's defending? Is it worth defending? Or maybe she's out to change it into something better? Personally, as I've said before, if I were Kyon, I'd totally want to be with Yuki... But for some reason - he's stuck with Haruhi. Haruhi has a fine ass and a great imagination. But I guess I'm more predisposed to Yuki's temperment. She's quiet and unasuming, yet so amazingly intelligent and interesting (and beautiful). With Haruhi - it's only in retrospect that you know whether any one of her zanny ideas was interesting and fun or not. And more often than not, part of what makes her appealing is the SOS brigade itself - alone, she's not much fun... just eye candy really.... She needs stimulus to make her lively... Yuki on the other hand is very polite, has great poise, makes tea, is straight to the point and takes seriously all suggestions about what to wear to please a guy (or what not to wear in Kyon's case)... The one girl I can't find myself liking is Tsyuru.... mainly because of her amazingly long hair. I like long hair on a girl...in fact I prefer girls with long hair (so why do I like Yuki so much? Because she has a full hair-do. It's short, but it's very very full - alive...like something out of a shampoo commercial)... but Tsyuru's (I'm spelling that wrong) hair is...just...impossible Although naturally I wouldn't complain if I ended up with a girl like that either And finally... I truly do wonder what the next eposide will be about now? We've covered summer vacation and the making of the Adventures of Asahina Mikuru...what's next? Pete

Sorry for the double post, but I must share my impressions of Sighs V: 1. This episode confirms something I've only now begun to discover at the old age of 30: if you want a girl to fall in love with you and stay in love - lie to her so that she may be amused. If you ever tell her the truth - she'll walk out on you. 2. I still say that cat is made of a balloon. Pete

Well, I need a lesson in courtesy from you guys because every time I see a new episode of anything I run like a kid in a candy shop to the internet to gush about it on MW ... thankfully, I'm usually the last person to see whatever it is that is being talked about, so by the time I unload with all the "spoilers" everybody's seen it anyways... I hope Pete 85%...15 to go... That's one thing about this country...depending on where you are, your mobile internet works better or worse. When I'm in the city, it takes me about 1 minute to download something like this... but as soon as I go back to the farm...it's more like 1 day... grumble grumble Bad telecommunications infrastructure to match the crappy roads at least the girls are hot (I have to keep telling myself that to stay sane )

You're probably right... I might be getting confused because I remember that in Robotech there were two of them. One was the beedy eyed guy, and the other was a younger scientist... I always thought Grant was the beedy eyed one and Lang was the other dude... I really need to stop wasting my time with Macross and get back into Robotech Pete

I'm only 75% downloaded Slow connection... Hopefully I will be gleeful shortly Pete

And James Earl Jones WAS "the guy from Dr. Strangelovee" - he played the token black dude on the strategic bomber :-) (a role later "re-cast", albeit in more "serious" hues in the nuclear war movie "By Dawn's Early Light") As for Protoculture - If I recall correctly, they made a big deal out of that one "Doctor's" eyes being all black in SDFM TV. I think Robotech called him Dr. Grant, even though the dude was just "superfluous technician number 1" in SDFM TV and made two key appearances (first to inform Global that the superdimmensional drive had been replaced by fairy dust, and later to debate human nature in "Satan's Ninios"). He always had these beedy black eyes in contradistinction to everybody else who have wide anime eyes. The Robotech novels specifically describe that when you get high on Protoculture, your eyes get all beady. And Dr. Grant's eyes would be all beady because he made contact with Protoculture in the form of Fairy Dust. The thing I don't get is...why the elaborate plot? Why couldn't they just be more literal in their translations and - given that they had to syndicate 85 episodes - they could have made "Robotech" a kind of general name for "Anime time" - and "Robotech" would then have just been an umbrella name for three seperate anime brought over from Japan. I guess they must have just really wanted to tinker with it and "westernize" it. Though I'm not exactly sure why... Pete Pete

God I miss those. I use an electric razor now. It's easy, but sometimes I miss a clean shave that only the old handheld razors could give you. But yeah...I always wanted to go to a barber shop and get a shave (like something out of the 30s) where they'd still use those. Pete

I dunno. With me, the VF-25 design has really grown on me. The shoulders are fine. Much better than the VF-1 shoulders which need to be on stumpy ball joints. I like that Bandai made the VF-25 shoulders out of metal because that is a spot that could be prone to breakage. As for the wings lying on the canopy... well... yeah - technically I think in the "perfect" design, they would literally envelop the canopy which itself would, VF-11B style, rotate inward to let the pilot "sit" correctly in the Battroid. As such - that doesn' happen here. The design isn't perfect, but I really have come to appreciate it. I just wish there were Sheryl Nome decals for the 1/60s. I would sure love to deck out Alto with those:) As it is...gonna have to build my 72 Alto to put those on him... Pete

Speaking of on-screan wierdness.... I was just watching Star Wars A New Hope and... Ok - we all know that David Prowse initially spoke all of Darth Vader's dialogue (with a scotish accent IIRC?) and then later Lucas dubed over it with that guy from Dr. Strangelove. BUT... it appears that not all of the original dialogue was what we heard in the dub! Catch the scene where Governor Tarkin is told that the Rebel base isn't on Debbyland (or whatever that planet was called) and Darth Vader says something like "she may still be of some use to us" about Princess Lea. Now - ALMOST immedietely the scene changes over to the next act of the movie...ALMOST... but for a microsecond you see something very wierd... Namely - I swear to God - go check it out on your DVDs guys...Vader is gesticulating wildly! He suddenly throws his arm up like he's going to give Tarken the choke-hold, but the scene cuts to the next act. Now - I actually think - looking at it - that originally, Vader and Tarken were arguing, and Vader didn't say "she may yet be of some use to us" but probably something like "You fool! We can't kill Princess Lea! We need her alive! Are you brain dead signing her execution order!?" -- or something like that... In any event - it's pretty awesome because with the dub Vader sounds calm - but then gesticulates wildly for a microsecond... Wait. What is the subject of this thread? Pete

Yay! New Episode is out! Gonna be a fun Friday evening after all :-) Pete

As usual Agent 1 is right. I forgot about her. Excellent pick. Although, in all honesty, she just needed a guy to get her drunk, take her out dancing and then have a wild night with her. But I guess what makes her evil is that she didn't want to do any of those things and prefered torturing mental patients... Lesson? Girls who don't drink, dance and put out end up evil. Pete

I was about to say "obviously" since I can't imagine ANYBODY voting for Misa as "least liked" in ANY category. In fact, I think that love of Misa is perhaps the one and only thing that ALL Macross fans can agree on. But apparently I'm wrong So - who voted for Misa? I'm very curious to learn why someone who vote her least liked. The only plausible reason that comes to mind is that they just LOVE Sheryl, Ranka, Ishitar, and all the other girls that much more - while Misa can't sing. Hmm... Maybe that's it? Maybe it's because Misa is the only heroine in Macross who can't sing, doesn't sing, and isn't an idol? She's an "everywoman" in a way that Hikaru was an everyman...albeit her story a bit more fleshed out what with her military family history and the comparissons to the coldness of the Zendradi being a great spring board for some of the show's more thoughtful themes... Er.. yeah... So... who voted Misa and please tell us why ? Pete

Kaifun was killed by General Edwards during that fight over the gun where they were arguing about who was better at sex with Minmey. I know that because I have that particular novel. It also features Rick calling Lisa "pussy cat" or something to that tune. Speaking of which - this is one thing that is so superior in Robotech when comparred to Macross - namely the intellectual level of the dialogue and the things people discuss. In Macross, you usually get a lot of gushy-wushy mumbo-jumbo with big words that try to be all filosofical and stuff but it just means nothing. Or maybe it's like that Hinduism stuff they have in Asia or something. Anyways - in Robotech, the dialogue is always so realistic and cool. I could give examples, which I think I will soon. I've got three Robotech Novels (I had all of them, but I gave most away to charity and sold others on the net to pay for my car [they are pretty popular]) and will dig through them to give you guys some choice quotes. Hopefully this will help convince the naysayers and Macross drones about the genius of Robotech. Pete

Man - I have to give it to Yoshiki Fukayama - the guy is pure genius. I mean - the one thing about this kind of compilation is that you get an immediate, real time comparisson of all the singers. Now, I will admit that maybe this impression is tainted not so much by me being a huge Fire Bomber fan, but more by the fact that Yoshiki's is the only male voice in the choir and so necessarily it stands out and is more pronounced than the others...BUT...still... Whenever the guy chimes in, the energy just reaches screaming fever pitches. Although Sheryl is a close second. Pete

I can't believe that aside from my heroes Basara and Ranka taking "first place" in this "worse character" poll... second place is occupied by two more characters who I find compelling and love - namely Shin and Sara I think Shin was a perfection of the Hikaru/Everyman archetype with a more compelling underpinning for his "pacifism" (Hikaru's was never really explained; with Shin, we get a very good understanding of where he's coming from, the memories that drove him to seek vengeance, and the subsequent change in his goal from vengeance to a world where "the ground does not shake). Shin is well written and on the mark. There are no excentricities in him; but this makes it easier for everyone to identify with him. As for Sara - she is a great character. I mean - what could possibly be wrong about her? She is torn between loyalty to her father and her traditions on the one hand AND love for a city dweller and the secret lie she lives with (that she was tempted by pearls/beads to give up her blood) on the other. She's a perfectly tragic character while also being perfectly romantic. And the love story in Macross Zero is the best one in the entire Macross universe. Sure, it's not as amusing, there aren't any panties to chase down, no butt-grabbing scenes and certainly very little (well pretty much zero) "love triangle tension" - but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not all Macross love stories have to follow the same template. This one is very straight forward and simple. I also do not find Sara to be a mouth piece for Kawamori's views - she's complex enough not to be labeled a propaganda billboard. We simply tend to forget that in her public role she IS the chief Priestess on the island. Chief Priestesses have this knack for spouting dogma - it's their job. But this doesn't mean Sara doesn't have private feelings and thoughts, and it doesn't mean she isn't a woman and doesn't feel love for Shin. The whole situation just makes for a better story. I dunno, I've probably written this somewhere - but Macross Zero is probably the best Macross story ever told. The only thing that is "bad" about it is that it is "short" - but then again - it can't be anything but short since it has a simple point in terms of what it is trying to accomplish, and it does that. Pete

I'm glad you're starting to see the light Gubaba. Pete

I hope so - for your sake It would be a pity if you went one more day in life without seeing Toppa Tengenn Gurren Lagann. And it would also be a major drag if you only watched one episode per night. The series is so full of adrenaline that to truly enjoy it you need to just watch it straight through You won't be bored or regret it for even a nano-second Pete

Guys - are you brain dead? The most unique thing about Robotech is - let me count the way: 1. Transforming airplanes which turn into robots (vehicles turning into robots NEVER was done before! It's the first!) 2. A mature story line where characters die (it's mature because they die - death = maturity) 3. An epic story line where all 85 episodes are perfectly connected by a linear well thought out plot (most cartoons couldn't even connect two episodes) 4. The first Space-based science fiction odyssey I could go on. In any case - suffice it to say that if it wasn't for the huge success of Robotech and its' massive impact on the imaginations of people everywhere, you guys wouldn't have any Macross to enjoy. Pete

Yeah, right. And Bob Budiansky didn't give serious deep thought to the development of the Transformers mythos, but just sort of fell into the job and wanted out as soon as he could. Riiight. The fact is that Jack McKinney was laying the conceptual groundwork for Robotech while he was still a research assistant at NASA. When the Apollo mission succeeded in landing on the moon, McKinney's imagination shot forward to Robotech - and he worked on that series for 20 years before technology and the market caught up with his genius. Instead of reading all those Japanese books and hanging around on the internet all day - go check out "The Lonely Soldier Boy: the McKinney Autobiography" and "Sentinel: Guarding the Flame of Truth" by Jack Baker (no relation to the Robotech character, who was based on McKinney's uncle, Jack Baker). The story is all there. Of course, if all you do is sit around watching Macross all day and pretending to understand what they are saying - you will never know this. But I am confident that Macross-drones will finally see the truth. When? Oh - just as soon as the new Robotech 46 EPISODE SERIES airs on Cartoon Network. Yeah - that's right. Hah hah. It's just around the corner. You guys just wait and see. Harmony Gold just needs to iron out the deal with the banks and the Koreans and it'll take off like a rocket! There's be Janice fans lining the streets and an Alpha Fighter in every happy meal! You guys are all gonna be soooo embarassed for watching this lolicon Macross stuff ! Pete

If you do figure it out, surprise her and make her a Boota as well Pete

If Dolza knew any better, he should have just shouted "EXO!" That's where the blame always is anyways. Pete

And you wonder why Holywood studios aren't falling over each other trying to get dibs on the Robotech live action movie with a plot like that? Pete

No, because my car runs on gas, as in Natural Gas - not gasoline...aka the vaporous stuff rather than the stuff from petrolium/oil or whatever (I don't know tech stuff so well). But Natural Gas is great. I just tanked up again for 3 USD after covering 275 Kilometers for 5 bucks - which is what I paid about a week and a half ago when I last filled her up with Natural Gas So, when I see people making out, I shout NATURAL GAS! Pete