Sage58

From everything I've seen, Negadon looks like an awesome kaiju movie. As for Negadon himself, he's a very bad kaiju -- invading Earth and everything. It's up to Dr. Narasaki and his robot Miroku to protect the planet from Negadon.

Have you been to NegadonAttacks.com? I was totally jazzed when I saw Negadon's Japanese trailers, and then when I learned the movie was coming to the US -- booyah! I bring this up because I just saw the US DVD is going to include a kaiju fanart gallery! If you draw an original kaiju and send it with your name (and the monster's name) to Kaiju@teamcpm.com before March 25, they'll put it on the DVD! While a Valk isn't a kaiju, I'm sure I can create my own henshin-ing mecha monster.

Booyah.

Morning all. To long time MWers, you may remember Sage58. I was very active in the old forums; however, I graduated from college right around the time the new BBS was created, and as much as I love "Macross," getting a job and the real world kept me away. I'm posting today because I'm oldschool mecha jazzed. Central Park Media's just announced they're releasing all of Armored Trooper VOTOMS in a big metal box and are taking pre-orders AnimEigo-style. Memories of the "Macross" preorder, anyone? But unlike having to count my pennies for "Macross," Central Park Media is making VOTOMS available for only $99. Having a job also helps not having to count change. All the details are here... http://www.centralparkmedia.com/votoms/preorderinfo.cfm "SDF-1 Macross" remains my favorite anime, but VOTOMS (and her beautifully utilitarian Scopedogs) has always ranked pretty high on my list. Any other VOTOMS fans out there?

I've been perpetually getting e-mails from those interested in "Johnny Robo" inquiring when the full series will be online. It was always my intent to get all of "JR" uploaded via BitTorrent once the school year was over; however, due to a series of fortunate events, all of "Johnny Robo" is currently online for direct download at http://homepage.mac.com/tatara/robo/downloads2.html . They won't be up forever, only until May, but if you're interested in being the first to have a low-res "Johnny Robo" collection on your hard drive, download away! Also, feel free to tell others that the full series is online. (Tell me if you have any problems watching them, too.)

I completely agree. For me, the whole strength of Roy's death was that it was unexpected. Sure, there could have been a big, heroic, banzai fight to the death where Roy did a hundred Zentradi before becoming overcome. I admit, such a fight would have been brutal and brilliant, and I'd love to see it, but looking at "Macross" as a whole, I'm glad that didn't happen. Subdued, the reaction is a lot more quiet and a lot more deep.

Agent One, huzzah!

The iPod Shuffle does play songs in a linear, pre-selected order as well. Apple, though, is hyping up the "shuffle" function. Personally, I think it's not the most sound move. When I started reading it, I almost stopped when I thought it could only play music in a random order. That's not true, though. From Apple's site... "With Play in Order mode, you manage the music. If things take a turn for the predictable, never fear. Turn iPod shuffle over, flip the slider to Shuffle and mix on the go."

Dude. You just blew my mind.

Exo, the novels aren't graphic novels. While there may be a few inserts, these things are full of words, not pictures. If text gets you all hot and bothered, though, I'll see what I can find.

A year or two ago, someone posted that they thought Isamu and Myung died at the end of "Macross Plus", that both were killed when Isamu slammed his plane into the SDF-1's computer core. Everything that happened after, according to the theorist, featured Isamu and Myung's ghosts coming to terms with their deaths. The theory got a lot of odd looks and was soundly stomped on. I'm not quite sure why that's not happening again. Just watching the end of "Macross Zero", it's pretty clear Shin and Sara, both alive, fly off into the stars far away.

Dark Horse Comics is releasing all the original "Vampire Hunter D" novels, translated by long-time "Vampire Hunter D" fan (and an associate of original author Hideyuki Kikuchi) Kevin Leahy ( http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-583 )! Huzzah!

I watched the first episode a few more times, and I've slightly warmed up. It's serviceable; however, any upgrade in my opinion's probably because of memories of "Xenogears". The first episode does too much. It tries to encompass so very much of the "Xenosaga" world that nothing comes off as deep. The different politics and players should be brought out slowly. Instead, we're give small capsules of all the protagonists and antagonists without any real worth assigned to them. "Here's this guy... He's here, too... This guy's a traitor, but don't tell anyone... Here's someone else for a few seconds... Look, boobies!" Instead of there being any drama, we're bombarded with meaningless introductions that do nothing to advance the plot. If the story was stripped down with the different tangents left for later, it would have had a lot more full feel. (However, the fanservice with the 14-year-old was unconscionably in bad taste -- poorly animated, too.)

Gui accidentally posted a link to a torrent of cutscenes from the game (available in the US), presuming it was the TV animation (not out in the US).

As I was watching the last episode of Zero, I was horrified, amazed, and impressed that Sara died. It was dark. Then, however, Shin's plane sprouts wings and was carried off into the galaxy. It's pretty clear both Shin and Sara are alive and living all by themselves somewhere in the stars. I've got no issues with the ending. The only part of the last episode I didn't care for was when Mao appeared in Shin's cockpit.