Panon

It's worth noting that Bandai have yet again dropped the ball.

Remember how F-91 was meant to be a two disk special edition? It's only going to be one disk, featureless. Non-anamorphic as well.

Still no Zeta...

And those are retail prices. As always the real prices will be lower.

(PS...The "Dreadnought Gundam" is actually a Dagger with Long Barrel)

You're looking at the wrong part of the page.

The Gunbarrel Dagger is in the middle, the Dreadnaught/X-Astray is on the bottom right.

Besides, the subtitles on the R3 set are quite good, far from bad.

Er, right. Maybe if you set your standards by Hong Kong bootleg trash they're good.

I personally prefer subtitles that don't have typos, Engrish and poor formatting (too many lines on screen, multiple characters lines appearing at once) - all problems which plague the R3 set.

The standard release and the special edition of volume 1 are both out October 26th.

Standard will probably end up being around $17 with the SE around $50.

They're also redubbing the show so that the horrific Manga dub is history.

I'm getting rid of the R3 box. It's subtitles are poor so there's very little reason to keep it when a better version will be available.

You should hope to one day understand the difference between supporting an opinion, & having an opinion. Just because you have an opinion, does not make that opinion valid.

Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black.

If V Gundam was such a failure, why did it last for its full 52 episode run? Wouldn't it have been slashed and condensed, like Southern Cross?

Tomino shows get more leeway. Turn-A which also fared very poorly received it's full run of episodes (although it appears to have deservedly become more appreciated with time).

That seems like a terrible stretch to me.  If there's any sort of proof that Evangelion impacted X's ratings, then fine, but to me it looks like you're really reaching.  It's not like people just stopped watching anime for a while after Eva ended.

I think his point has some validity to it.

While I don't think Evangelion was a major factor since they never competed, it very well may have played a smaller role - something does become clear when you compare the original Japanese names of the two shows - "Kidou Shin Seiki Gundam X" and "Shin Seiki Evangelion" - Coincidence? I'd say Sunrise tried to take a little ride on the success of Eva a little, and it didn't work.

I think a combination of a couple of other things were the more damaging factors:

It's plot - the series did not have one true overall story, but rather was a number of disjointed story arcs that at times suffered from questionable pacing. I know around the mid point, not far from where it's timeslot was shifted the show was bogged down in a five episode "monster of the week" stretch where Garrod had to fight a new insane potential Newtype with their own custom mobile suit each week.

It didn't have your stereotypical Gundam lead - while there was of course the "teenage boy comes into possession of a Gundam" factor, otherwise he was different. He wasn't wracked by moral difficulties and having the Gundam wasn't much of a burden - rather it was something he took with ease. Also, he was closer to an average, cheery person rather than the exceptional Newtypes of UC leads or the near superhumans of G/Wing/Seed.

It's setting was quite different from your typical Gundam, as it was Earth bound for almost the entire series up until the final 8 episodes of so and space didn't play a large role.

It carried a lot of UC baggage - as much as the show did explain it, I think to truely appreciate X a pre-knowledge of what Newtypes are helps.

If not those things, it's a victim of it's times. Eva was popular at the time, and the last Gundam series had been the very popular Wing. Gundam X wasn't the "more of the same" that people craved. I don't think we'll ever really know what the reason for it failing was other than fans being fickle.

Very interesting piece of news to come out of an anime convention panel in Australia recently... credit to the posters over at Madman's official board for this info:

Macross Zero

Hold onto your hats for show-stopping news. No, it's not licensed, but...

Tim told an anecdote about ADV's attempt to license Macross Zero. Seems that ADV went to Big West (in Japan) to seek out the license and were told they'd need to negotiate with Harmony Gold. Approaching Harmony Gold, they got the OK with Harmony Gold agreeing to take a small percentage or some other deal.

Returning to Big West, after they told them that this had occurred, Big West was so surprised that they had managed to get agreements with Harmony Gold so easily that they backed off believing something fishy was up.

It is likely that Macross Zero will be licensed by ADV and hence by Madman in the not-too-distant future.

The last bit is probably still speculation at this point, but would be the logical thing.

While ADV would certainly not be my first choice of who I'd want to get it, I'm honestly surprised it's that close, given how much of a mess the Macross licensing situation has been for some time.

Looks like ADV and Harmony Gold are ready to play, but the ball is in Big West's court now.

So that's when Bandai bought things. I was wondering that and it does point that they don't like UC if V Gundam was the last series

Gundam fans need to wake up from the "Bandai hates the UC and is out to screw us" delusion. It's got nothing to do with them "not liking" the UC and more that the UC had simply run it's course.

V being the last UC series isn't because they don't like the UC, it's because it was an *unmitigated failure*. It rated very poorly, it's merchandising bombed and to top it off Tomino loathes it and considers it the worst Gundam series there is.

The core of fans love for UC centred around a few important things - the one year war, and Amuro and Char. With Char's Counterattack this ended, and the fanbase lost interest.

F-91 was a failed attempt to 'reboot' the continuity, and V Gundam is an alternate universe series in all but name. The fanbase just wasn't interested anymore.

After that they saw that change was needed, and began the alternate universes. It's also no shock that the most UC like of the AU's (Gundam X) was also an complete failure with the fans.

I have a strong feeling that after Destiny is released they'll do another SEED series and it will become the new MAIN timeline while UC will be forgotten about or ignored.

They were saying as much even before SEED was released, and it's how it should be. The UC is a dead horse and should be laid to rest.

You miss the point. The merchandising blitz isn't due to fan demand. This is a case of Bandai forcing crap down people's throat.

And this clearly proves the point: "If you make it, they'll buy it."

Yeah you're so right, it sucks and nobody likes it, they just buy it because they have to.

Wake up.

SEED was another miss and SEED Destiny, based on the material that's been released so far, doesn't look like it's going to be any better than its predecessor.

SEED was a miss?

That's a funny one.

What a hypocrite.

What I found interesting though was a point in the AP article that IMDB didn't mention -

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in."

So when exactly did the old Lucas die and get replaced by the horrible one we have now?

3 episodes a disc for Full Metal Alchemist is something to complain about.

When is that coming out, anyways? I really, really hope Funimation isn't seriously planning to release it 3 eps to a disc.. that's just greedy now at days.

It will be on TV in November and the first dvd is expected around January 2005, I believe.

And it's confirmed that it will be three episodes per disk (or rather a 16 disk release, which means it will be 4/4/4/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3)

How much is each volume, out of curiousity?

10 volumes....that could be quite a lot of dough

About $18 each.

When did Yukikaze 5 get pushed back to March? I thought it was set for September.

Last month. The reason behind the delay is that episode 5 will be double length, and thus take much longer to make.

When you consider the stale level of developement shown in Macross II, definately. You also have to consider how Macross II ignores any & all forms of continuity which came before it.

Considering that the stagnation and complacency of the UN Spacy was an important point of the first episode, I'd wager it was completely deliberate, and it makes plenty of sense given the way M2 had chosen to portray post original/DYRL.

Btw: are there versions that have good English subs?

Nope. At least not anymore, a friend has a set with much more accurate subtitles but it doesn't seem to be common anymore.

Best suggestion would be to compare against more accurate scripts of the show that can be found here: http://www.chaoticempire.org/macross/eps/

Either that or download the fansubs available online.

-Yukikaze will definately only be  2 volumes, with the second of course pending release of the 5th episode.

Settle in for a wait on that one, as episode 5 won't be released in Japan until March 2005.

Any news about the release date for Zeta ?

No earlier than November, probably December.

Btw, I've a question for the local experts. In the episode where there is this 'Lin Minmei Story' movie thing (I belive it's episode11), Max and Mirya are discussing and he says this:

This is not confirmed yet, but we found a machine belonging to the enemies. It's the same machine used by the investigating team on the 4th planet in the Varauta 3198XE system

Is this 'Investigating team' supposed to be a bad translation for 'Supervision Army'?

The FX set is a poorly translated, as expected from bootlegs.

The line is more like: "We haven't confirmed anything yet, but we do know that the enemy's machines seem to be of the type sent on an investigative mission to the 4th planet in the Varauta 3198XE system."

What I think is strange is that Macross II is not considered canon.  When I watched it, IMHO nothing stranger happens in Mac II than happens in Mac 7 by a long shot!.

What does that have to do with anything?

Macross 2 isn't a canon part of the timeline because it was made by people other than the creators of Macross and thus didn't reflect their vision, not because of anything "strange" in it.

Sorry my internet is out at home and i only have it at work. In response to LOTR telling everyone they are making both sets still makes the hard core fans who wish to watch it over and over to buy the first and the second for the new material. Why couldn't it be done for the first release.

Why do the hardcore fans have to buy the initial release? Nobody 'has' to buy either version.

And the reason for not doing in all in the first release is simple, because it would make it too expensive and because most people don't WANT the extended release.

A lot of people find the movies long already, and especially don't want to watch four hours of them, or have to deal with flipping disks half way, or pay extra for 12 hours of audio commentary they'll never listen to, on top of however countless hours of other extras there are.

Has anyoen seen the other two in the raw version? Anyone know what changes there were if any?

The first one covers the beginning of the series through to the Desert arc and has a number of new scenes - some with Rusty (Asuran's friend, who was intended to be the pilot of Strike but was killed before getting to it), a couple of changes to the fight between Kira and Miguel, plus a bunch of other minor reanimations of scenes.

Oh, and some purely gratuitous added fanservice - such as added Cagalli nudity, extending of the Kira/Flay sex scene, showing the deaths of the people inside the shuttle that Yzak shoots down, etc.

All the voice acting has been newly redone.

The second special editions covers from the Sea arc through to the end of the Orb arc, and has almost no changes at all.

Other than again having had the voice acting redone, the only new scene I could clearly remember is a detailed version of the scene were Tolle is decapitated by the Aegis' shield, and a new set of ending credits. I think there may be some other new scenes of dialogue but I can't tell without subtitles.

The biggest change is definitely the Anakin spirit at the end of Jedi (which those who've seen it say isn't as bad as DVD file makes it seem).

I wouldn't agree. Christensen still looks like a creep compared to Sebastian Shaw's Anakin looking happy and finally at peace.

Make you own judgement I guess: ghost scene

Also, Boba Fett's voice being replaced in ESB is terrible.

Its on the 20th anniversary DVD? How come I didn't see this?

Selective memory loss perhaps?

The clip looked dreadful - the decision to not go forward was a mercy kill.

Of the three special editions two have aired on tv so far, both split into two parts.

The third will be R2 dvd only coming out in October.

Only the first half of the first special has been fansubbed.

Sure Plus doesn't have the level of character developement that a 49 episode TV series could pull off, but what developement it has it pulls off very well, and stacks up admirably against other OVAs and movies of similar length.

The way I look it at is they're different series with different stories and goals. Both do what they intend to do well. They're not closely comparable because they're not competing with each other.

Macross 7 is "gay".

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...ndpost&p=170019

Shut up.