Final Vegeta

I am Italian. I know it is a declining nation peoples don't care about, but whoo our premier is friend of your president! IIRC the last case of violence blamed on movies was a (former?) policeman who shot his divorced wife years ago. They said there were posters of Rambo in his house (although I had the impression journalists were just trying to impress the public). Anyway, he was an adult, and he got a gun because he was a policeman. Aside from hunters I think in Italy people aren't generally interested in guns; owing a weapon in itself may not be bad, but I mantain that proliferation of weapons may cause a rise in certain types of incident (*). This doesn't mean we don't have killing done with other means. The story that shocked the most was that of the two teens Erika and Omar. With the assistance of her fiancé Omar Erika killed her mother repeatedly stabbing her with a knife and then drowned in the bath her little brother because it was a witness. It seems Erika also wanted to kill her father. To the police she told her mother and her brother were killed by two Albanese, but after a while the police discovered the truth. It deeply shaken Italian beliefs about mothers and their children. Conversely, there were cases of mothers killing their children - we got a famous one in those years. It happened in a small mountain town called Cogne. It became famous namely because the outcome is still unclear: the mother was found guilty and sentenced as such in a first rate trial (I don't know the correct translations, but our judicial system is different from the anglo-saxon one; after the first rate trial there are three other rates of trial, I think), but the defense is still insisting she was framed despite every evidence they offered was proven to be manipulated. Honestly I think she is guilty - but kids killing their parents seem just a tad off. Now they don't know what was to be blamed, it could be either Titanic or Lunapop (an Italian pop group with lyrics like "how beautiful driving a Vespa". Marilyn Manson, eat your heart out!), but there was no explanation for what Erika and Omar did. (*) In Italy we have laws about "excess of defense". You can't defend yourselves with a weapon more powerful than those of your aggressors. There was a case of a shopkeeper who was already robbed several times, so he bought a gun and shot the next robber. It turned out that the robber's gun was a fake, se he technically did commit a crime. Now, obviously there are attenuating conditions so judges won't sentence him guilty, but in Italian culture this is still a serious matter. While luckily no-one ever found a direct correlation between anime and violent crimes in Italy, there has always been a fuss on them; they said they were violent, diseducative, all made with computers, they will turn all children into robots because of their very repetitive action, watch Sailor Moon and you will grow as a gay... anyway Italian kids like them. We had Goldrake (Grendizer) that, since it was the first mecha anime shown, remained an all time favorite, Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger (aired later than Grendizer), other Nagai's shows including Devilman, Tigerman, Hokuto no Ken, Saint Seiya... Saint Seiya is another all time favorite because of its dubbing. It was not a faithful dubbing, but characters spoke lines that were quotations of italian poets. It gives an incredible epic feeling that can't be described. Then one day in the 80ies we were told Japanese robot anime were too violent (well, it was true) so the editorial line of Italian TV (it was Fininvest, owned by Berlusconi) chose to stop both buying new robot anime and showing old ones. Old robot anime kind of disappear except in some lucky local TV that probably aired them illegally; the last ones we saw was Gundam, if you don't count Robotech which is still considered OK. Saint Seiya and Hokuto no Ken are still rerun frequently, though, although some run had censorship of bloody scenes (we did have cases of anime censorship that were so "artsy" they were ludicrous. There was a shoujo anime where in an episode a character was about to experience her first menstruations; the episode wasn't cut, just the lines were all invented; weird, that episode in Japan was supposed to be educative ). Luckily Italian MTV started airing recent anime; aside from music MTV is not all that bad. Anyway, I suggest playing soccer. What Americans call football involves a wrong kind of competition heavy on physical confrontation, and besides I think it's easier to find a soccer field, you just need something that delimitates the goals (sometimes even the penalty kick mark) and it's done, you don't even need protective gears. I think the advantage of soccer over games like cowboys and American natives is that you aren't thinking of killing your opponents. It's not that I didn't played these kind of games (I made guns with Lego and elastics), but balls are still a must. Another advantage of soccer is that you play better the more people you have, it's an inclusive game that makes you happy there are other guys around. Now, I didn't actually play soccer that much because I have asthma, but other kids did, so at the end it became a stereotype associated with Italians, despite we haven't won a world cup for ages. There is a show called "Tourists by chance" where an Italian couple and their friends goes around the globe to visit other countries and comment their experiences. They once were in Yemen, and they were approached by Yemenite soldiers (there is piracy on their coasts, they need guards to protect people). Do you know what? When the Yemenite heard they were Italians they wanted a soccer match. Reportedly the Italians won, although I noticed the Yemenite had a trained body and the Italians seemed to eat well Now, I don't guarantee soccer is the cure for all evils, but maybe it can help. Last thing: my mother sometimes beat me with wood spoons. One of my childhood's joy was when my body broke one of those. I felt that for the rest of the day mother couldn't punish me no more, I felt that I had won on her. My family laughed at that scene. Anyway, I was seldom beaten (and that wood spoon was already half-broken), but it had its purpose. FV

By the way, are there any correct translations for the Cherubims' names yet? I understood there was a Blumenblatt (petals in German), a Lune (moon in French), something like an Iskuron (it seems it means "forceful thing" in Greek), and there were other enemies who were called Xibalba and Antichton, but what is the correct translation for "Shururukbera" (ep. 13)? FV

It happens in anime too, all aliens speak Japanese Kenji's Spring by Kawamori was a risky project too. I couldn't understand all the references to Miyazawa, though. Japanese compensated this with mass-slaughter By the way, these are the Japanese specific mental illnesses FV

Just look at the other breaking news of that site... ...Instead the US government called its trusty PR corporations (like Hill&Knowton (Iraq War©) and Ruder&Finn (Kosovo War©)) and asked them to overwhelm alternative news media with a flood of apocalyptic babblery so that no-one could find the real news. The only serious people that didn't give up luckily found out the truth in that site... but it turned out to be gibberish too. Screw it, you perfectly know they are meaning the people with more money. That tones down the entire story. There is no point in leeking a story where everyone is behaving in the noblest and more reasonable way; it started with the flavor of a conspiracy, after all, so it must end like a conspiracy. People like to know the dirty side, the "they are not telling me this", you must juice every detail of your story with it. I see poor sense of storytelling here. By the way, even black holes aren't still a certainty. FV

I enjoy Aquarion despite its "old style" flaws. I admit the story dragged a lot, and I was worried it could have become too much a "save the little children" show, as seen in some episode (although they were still fun to watch). I nevertheless appreciate Apollo as one of the best recent character; any comparison with famous angsty teen mecha pilots is a moot. It is comforting now that even people who were initially displeased by it view Aquarion more favourably. I saw in the official site Kawamori is credited in the last episode, so I have great hopes for the final (but I won't look for spoilers), since episode 13 has clearly shown Kawamori does still have the touch. (I am still pissed the subbing of Aquarion didn't progress further Learning Japanese is becoming appealing ) FV

Translators note that even words borrowed from English have different meanings in Japanese. "Feminist" refers to a chivalrous gentleman in Japan, Nadelman noted, and "smart" means stylish, not intelligent. Add this to the obvious lack of some western consonants and odds kanji compounds and all the signs here become really believable. FV

(for the mugen punch accessory there is always this) I am kinda unsatisfied in the anime Kawamori has so little role. According to the credits on the official site, he worked in episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 13, 17 and so on (he seems to do scriptwriting more than storyboarding). It's not a coincidence these are among the best episodes. Most other monster-of-the-week episodes lack Shadow Angels and even Rena. Now, if only someone subbed the remaining episodes... (by the way, I already sketched something about the chakras here in this thread, but I think the form wasn't very incisive. Now I wrote a complete article on the chakra system and Aquarion and posted it in Kabitzin's blog. Hope some may find it interesting.) FV

You just needed to ask. Look here. A better question would be what are these Elements they talk about, and there is an answer even fort that, looking in Hindu lore I think I've heard they should show something around mid series. Unfortunately I got stuck at 6th because of troubles with my friends with broad band By the way, I found a Japanese blog with Aquarion screenshots. Just look at the quality! Never knew Japanese got such good TV. Well, I'll try to watch even Eureka 7, just to be in-topic. FV

Sure, Macross Compendium. Look for September 2008. FV

There was a birdman cult in Easter Island. It was a title given to the winners of a dangerous race, but there are also carved images of men with bird's head. I think the name came from there. FV

We do?? really? Where did you heard or read that? I don't know if it's true, but I've heard there were peoples where man had a life expectance of around 30 years, and at 13 kids were already adults, I mean they had even the body of an adult. I think it is unlikely this would happen in the present world where general life expectance is around 70, though. FV

We should make a point that the article pointed not only ST fans but also left-handed people. Sooner or later pedophilia will be linked to the shape of the nose, as in the old phrenology school. In fact I am not entirely sure that story wasn't a fake. Today when you say pedophilia you think internet. I don't think this connection is accidental. Even if internet as a medium lends itself well to piracy and other illicit things, all these events cast a shady image on internet and those who use it. Star Trek is full of technology, so it is easy to link it with internet. At the end those who are able to use technology, that have more hope in it, become nerds because society reject them fearing technology. Those who fears technology and science probably will get closer to a religious faith, becoming zealots, thus more controllable by religious authorities. It seems in psychology it is called a "slide" a spontaneous extreme reaction (of aversion, love, hate, etc.). There are a lot of slides around. For example, babies are good; politicians smile with them. Then they become teens, which it is almost a bad word, synonym of satanism and hard (satanic) rock. I think it should be worth make always a dinstinction between pedophilia and ephebephilia (it would be good to see what is the age most affected), but it is easy to see why a single word is used. Hitler himself specified that masses forget quickly unless you pound concepts over and over into them. By using pedophilia as an omnicomprehensive term, you will instill an easy reaction in masses, and then you can make it fit like an umbrella over what you like. What is the age more targeted by pedophiles? Do you really know it? It is less than 5 or around 10? Today manga, anime, sci-fi and the like - a new entertainment culture - is become quite common. So if you had a man who is charged with any accusation, police may easily find work of fictions in his house. The association in the minds of the listeners is quick: the man is a pedophile, so nobody should listen to what he says. Even other inmates will treat him bad. This is a way to defame quickly and powerfully a man; you could just slip drugs in his car, but this won't ruin his life to the same extent. There are people who have the power to pull something like that. There is a comical strip that illustrates the concept. After instructing peoples in the "signs of pedophilia" so much the danger could be that you need just the signs and not the fact itself to frame a person. Lure children in the church. It seem to have worked sometimes ago I recently read an article that banned RPGs, Magic the Gathering and even kung-fu as New Age and therefore satanic. Even a fantasy book of good and evil is not considered compatible with Christian since white magic is satanic too. FV

Until they order you to actually like Aquarion all is fine. FV

Uh-oh, I chose the wrong word. Correct "actual" with "present". Sorry. This is why there isn't a scientific approach to science nowadays. It's not limited just to science, it involves everything. The problem is not that. Also you think science is just physics, while it is a wide range of fields; medicine, for istance. Do you really think it took years for scientists to discover that Prozac induced suicides and negative results weren't falsifiable? The reality is that Eli Lilly made investments in SSRI, so they would go bankruptcy if Prozac failed. After some time other firms thought SSRIs were a good idea, so they tried it too. It seems Eli Lilly just chose the wrong inibitor. Maybe if it picked the right inibitor everything would be fine by now. The same for GMs. Monsanto finally discovered that GM corn could cause malformations (proven also in the case of Monsanto's potato). Well, Monsanto said its corn was a patent already approved worldwide. With its lobbying power is not amazing. The problem now is that Monsanto paid for its patents and it is not intentioned to withdraw them from market so easily. After all they are specially designed to resist RoundUp, Monsanto's pesticide. On a side note, Central Dogma of biotechnology upon which GMs are based was proven wrong, but Monsanto wasn't informed of this in these 40 years. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I've said in another thread that when someone loses it everything of that culture is seen as inferior. One example of this is agupunture. Is it scientific or not? It is a good question, because that would mean medicians would have to review some of their theories. Also there is this doctor Hamer who healed cancer and was jailed in Spain and France because of this; he stated that cancer and many other diseases are psycosomatic, he called it The New Medicine. Western medicine is aimed to heal symptoms, not the illness itself. It is funny how everything centers around money when people don't even know how money works. Those would be good scientists, but in reality most people just build their theories upon former theories. If it was just that, it would still be good, though, just as long the foundation consisted in the theories of good scientists. It is not. Medical newspapers are funded by medical firms who are not interested in bad reviews of their products. Also, it is easy to create a society with a good sounding name like "Public Health Eggheads" and send articles from there. After a while even good scientists take them as sound and spread them. Science propaganda makes as many victims as war propaganda. Propaganda is based on emotions, not facts. It is either white or black, it doesn't have shades of gray. So Hitler said. People subjected to propaganda react with the same attitude the propaganda was based on. I hope this reaction of yours was based on my vocabulary mistake. I acknowledge it every time, but the point is not that. If this world strictly followed scientific rules we, for example, would have car engines that work on a biodiesel made of hemp and ethanol instead of oil. Hemp is even replaceble. Rockefeller's Standard Oil understood its monopoly was at stake so it had to do something. Dupont foresaw his nylon wouldn't have a market with hemp ropes. William Rundolph Hearst was making investments in a kind of paper not made of hemp but of wood. They were powerful, Hearst had a widespread newspaper and Holliwood collaborated; there was no counterinformation at the time. Suddenly the dangerous drug known as marijuana (a Mexican name few had heard of in the US) was banned (most of the Congressmen didn't know marijuana was cannabis), and later alcohol was banned and then monopolized after the proibizionism. Standard Oil and GM also saw oil engine run better with a lead addictive. They chose lead because ordinary people would never think patenting a known poison would be profitable (someone else instead learned the lesson with the fluorides, which were a leaftover of Manhattan Project). After lead addictive was imposed there was decades of inertia to take it out. But the main point of this is that a lot of gullible highchairmen came to see world oil reserves as essential to their nations and started with coups to install dictators in strategic interest states. It is rather interesting since there is plenty of oil, gas and uranium in theWyoming desert, and that could lower oil price in the US, but maybe they won't drill it just for this. This unscientific approach at resolving the energy problem has been causing a lot of stirs the world has still to recover from. Now, where is science involved in all this? Well, you know, marijuana was one of the oldest medicine humanity ever knew (plus hemp seeds are very nutritional). There has to be a reason why it has been banned for all these decades. Some scientists investigated for themselves and discovered the truth, others are still desperate trying to split hairs to find something bad in marijuana. Sadly, the media chooses what is science and what is not. Well, since you are fond of physics, I would recommend you a reading of the Wave Theory of the Field. FV

The only problem is that actual science is not scientific. Scientists won't admit openly their own mistakes and especially the mistakes of past scientists who they worship as their masters. I started kinda that way, but then I understood that an average author know not much more than his reader what reality is. Informatics use the term "voodoo" to describe something you can use but you don't know how it works. Reality is voodoo. In real world all things have their drawbacks. Works of fiction that insert drawbacks are more interesting than others. I believe there was some kind of comic code act against excessive violence, sex scenes and bad language. I saw a movie called "The Core", and it was science fiction, but I don't think it followed the rules applied to our world. The clones will be weaker than the original The problem with super robots is not that they are super robots, it is just that they are sentai. Not to mention infamous and irrealistic use of "gun shoots the lock door" in American movies. Two istances come to my mind: Rambo II where it was a bamboo cage and The Eraser where it was a caveau with an electronic door lock. What mistakes? War can make some people richer, so just don't spoil the tricks up your sleeve. I don't have read it yet, but maybe you'll like "The Secret in the Bible - The lost history of the Giza Plateau and how Temple priests of the Great Pyramid preserved the evidence of life beyond death" by Tony Bushby. FV

I wasn't even referring to Bush, although American presidents are a special case since the US has been at war for a whole century, and there is no other time like during a war when lies flies so much - except before an election or after a hunt (Otto Von Bismark). More in general, when you read some famous quotes of past people, you find that often they are consistent, and they aren't dumb remark either. Wilde said that if you think present is the only thing that was present you won't understand the time you live in. In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk (During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.) All this was inspired by the principle – which is quite true in itself – that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (In 2004, it was discovered that Hitler had spent years evading taxes on income from sales of Mein Kampf. He owed the German government 405,000 Reichmarks (equivalent to $8 million at 2004 exchange rates) by the time he took power and the tax debt was forgiven.) FV

How came the fan-made kit looks better than Yamato's VF-0S? FV

The sad thing is that it works so well in the real world. Make someone think he is the best guy of the world and then give him an enemy. Make a point in the fact that you know more than they do. Lie big and shameless. A lot of leaders (let's say all leaders) followed this path. FV

Ah but it would be useful inside an enemy ship where there is limited space and flying will get you noticed in fighter mode if you are not careful. How can you expect long range combat inside an enemy ship? Do you think they house a "long range combat training area"? But the Zentradi inside can still fight, so it's unlikely the sniper would want anything but a kill. It's like the overlord that tells all his evil plan to the hero before killing him. FV

At the end it becomes more a matter of punch than of long range precision. Gigile used his blaster to take down a spaceship, while Isamu tested YF-19's blaster on a Monster. While this kind of beam weapon can be useful in special cases (among which there is sniping), it doesn't have a good rate of fire for a frantic combat. I think it should be intended more for sniping of more armored targets. Another difference in mecha combat is that unlike humans a mecha can move very fast. Humans under fire need to move from cover to cover while trying to get near, whereas a mecha can try to use its sheer speed to evade fire. An example of this is in Macross Zero, where Roy could be easily pinpointed by Ivanov through IR vision. If you want reconnaisance then is best to use proper reconnaisance units with radome and such. Btw, while in anime is common, I don't think commanders and grunt units should be distinguished FV

For that within atmosphere I think you need an antigravity engine for valks. Or maybe it would be good as a last resort device, although chaff/flares come cheaper. I dunno. I don't think the sniper concept, while fascinating in itself, is that scalable to mecha (where it would be best described as "high precision artillery"). Mecha have guns that are already like tank guns, the range is already great within visual range and there are even missiles for good measure. Beside this, in Macross Valkyries use to travel very fast (Fighter mode) and have stealth capabilities, so long range combat is expected to be rare. Anyway, the idea of a mecha special force (for istance, Gundam Wing) sounds kinda silly to me. That way if they fought together everyone but one mecha would be always out of their field of combat. FV

Real Politik, at the end the only thing that matters is power Western powers conquered most of the world and called their force civilization; Western medicine was a science while acupunture was not, Westerners had gods while losing cultures worshipped demons, spirits and tribal idols. Even for a mecha the most important thing is to win. Few dare to associate themselves with signs of weakness. FV

I dunno. They are Japanese, they think different. Maybe they will think the pilot is bugged instead of the plane. The pilot has to iron out the imperfections in his mind first, so that there won't be any difference between the YF-19's cockpit and his living room. Japanese teachings seem to start in this way. In WWII all American bombings in Japanese cities were "expected". As such they still thought they were the master of their destiny, and so they didn't worry when they saw bombers coming because everything was foreseen. Safety mechanisms on planes were seen as a proof of cowardice on the American side. They nearly had troubles believing Americans got decorated for something as shameful as saving the life of their buddies. The eyes of the world were watching the Japanese, so they have do everything with the most dignity, even when they were fleeing a sinking ship with life boats. Journalists protested lack of freedom in press because everyone was too intimidated by the fascist government to talk, and so the Japanese couldn't work at their best for the war. Japanese mentality is too different to be understood. FV

I confirm. I am Italian and Gloval doesn't mean anything. FV

I don't know. I may find Getter violent, but no more militaristic than Mazinger Z. Well, honestly I saw TV series as a kid, so I don't remember much. I read later one of Getter Robot's manga and saw Getter The Last Day. TLD changed director after the first three episodes, and I felt it. I liked the robot VS robot action, but then it changed. It wasn't so awful, except for the fact that they went for all-tentacles monsters. You don't know when you hit something vital in an all-tentacle monster. You cut it a tentacle, and so? It still has dozens. It could have done better. If you take Star Wars, the clichè "hit it in the right spot and it will disappear with a bang" maybe was old even at the time, but it worked even for something as big as the Death Star. Evangelion did it right. I think in Aquarion having three pilots in the robot is more felt than in Getter Robot, where it doesn't really make a difference, but I do recognize that Getter could be severely damaged while Aquarion is CG and it can't (it just loses HPs). Getter is grittier than Aquarion, but Aquarion is born in a different time, and there is no reason not to be able to enojy both grittier and less gritty show. I do remember when this thread started everyone was disappointed because Aquarion smelled like angsty teens again. Frankly, I found the whole angst theme in Evangelion exagerated. Suddenly all characters were just grumbling. Kaji complains because Fuyutsuki is an old grumbler and Fuyutsuki complains because Seele is a group of even older grumblers. Maybe I am just cynical, but I don't find grumbling that deep. Found even in Aquarion. The berserk scene is actually in the second episode. The monster just dripped some green blood, but no so much. No more blood until several episodes later. Personally, I am more for character driven robots than deus ex machina driven robots. Compared to Aquarion, Evangelion and its clones often portray enemies without limbs. There is thus little movement involved. Even when they have limbs, they don't run. They shoot, they jump, they fall, but they don't run. Evas dance around them. In other anime things are not different. I gladly accepted Aquarion's take. True, you need more money to make even enemies run, but it looks more challenging for the characters defeating something that is not a lame duck. Also, there is something catchy in punching the enemy right in the face Was there an anime that did it before? I do recall superkids, combiner robots and mysterious superbeings individually, but not together. According to someone even Evangelion's pilots had psychic powers FV