Tochiro

True, thats a good point. Since another artist was involved though I pretty much presumed those songs werent in the running to be on the setlist. Was listening to an audio rip I made from the Fukujin Tengoku live DVD this morning - while it suffers from a lack of Kajiura, Canna (sic) and Fukuyama rocked out so hard at that concert. Double Basara Dynamite Explosion is sooooo good! :-) I'm hoping that Fukuyama does a few more small gigs this year after his Okinawa concert is over. Then again, he has the JAM Project 10th anniversary world tour to do too... Am quite the fan of the new single (Maximise) - nice to hear them do something that isnt from Super Robot Wars from a change.

Vespaeda - sounds like you had a really good time! I'm glad that someone else on the boards has managed not only to see it but see it at the actual cinema. I COMPLETELY know what you mean about it feeling epic on the big screen. Its a shame that more people cant experience it like this and is the reason I catch as much anime at the cinema in Japan as possible (saw Eva 1.0 twice, 2.0 three times, Mac F twice, Summer Wars, and recently caught Trigun Badlands Rumble, etc). Its one of those experiences which is harder to get outside of Japan. As for people playing with cam rips - is patience really that rare among todays fans. I mean, does anyone else remember the wait we had between the VHS volumes of Macross Plus 3 and 4 while Manga Ent. got their legal issues sorted? Seemed like an eternity sure, but I didnt touch the crappy quality Hong Kong VHS bootlegs because I loved the show and knew the wait would be worth it. The Mac F DVD/Blu will be out soon enough people, the wait wont kill you. And unlike those of us who actually buy the thing to support the show, most of you will be downloading a rip in some form for free (cant say I blame people for this since there never will be an official English version for the Japanese impaired). Why ruin the experience with shaky camrips? Doesnt the show we love deserve better than that?

Sorry if I wasnt clear. He didnt say he would be doing Hummingbird songs he said he would be doing stuff with Hummingbird. As in, with the band. Got quite a bit of cheering from the audience. Im presuming that this new song is what he was referring to, although if they do a concert I will definately be there! (PM me if you hear anything). Expensive? Im not sure where you usually see live gigs, but 5000 yen (4500 entry + 500 drink ticket) for someone who does solo performances as rarely as Kajiura does is a steal imo. By comparison, May'n tics are usually almost twice that 'granted she does play at larger venues) and due to the high demand I ended up paying 27,000 to get good seats at Maaya Sakamoto recently. 5000yen is an absolute bargain! She hasnt done any new stuff to my knowledge. Weighing her 2 solo albums from the mid 90's against the mass of Macross 7 song she has done - Im hoping for at least a 50-50 ratio (or possibly slightly weighted in favour of Mac 7 songs). I mean, between the Crossover Live and the Firebomber Reunion (damn that was a good concert! Wheres the DVD Flying Dog?!?) she has definately been getting some practice in!

Well, Fukuyama did mention during his Shibuya gig late last year that he would be doing some Hummingbird stuff this year. Now I just wish he would hurry up and announce another small Tokyo gig. I love those things. Speaking of small gigs, is anyone else going to see Chie Kajiura in July? The venue is freaking TINY!!! According to an email she sent out yesterday she will have randomly signed some of the shirts that are for sale too - of course, you wont know if you got one or not until you open the darn thing....

While I wish there was such announcement, there hasnt been and I doubt that there will be. The concert hall wasnt set up with the number of cameras necessary for a proper DVD release imo. Just 2 or 3 cams for basic footage on the big screens for the cord at the back. Compare that to, for example, the Maaya Sakamoto concert a few weeks back where it was really obvious from the number of cameras and quality of the footage being played on the big screens that a DVD will be made (even though it hasnt officially been announced yet). I could be wrong, but I checked on both days of the Crossover concert and, just like the Firebomber reunion, I cant see there being a DVD made. A CD on the other hand might happen I suppose (I SO want one from the Soul G Gundam Anniversary concert too!). Fingers crossed?

As was noted previously in the scoop thread ;-) Beat ya for once mate! lol

Well info on the second movie is coming ... but only if you attend the GIRASAMA CARNIVAL! http://ftama.com/girasama/ Held at Yokohama Pacifico, the event will feature the cast of Macross F on stage, as well as news regarding the upcoming theatrical release (news? as in a release date? heres hoping!) There will also be Macross cosplay and a karaoke corner. Wow... this is the same venue I saw the Final Galaxy Tour at (Mayn, Megumi and Yoko Kanno). A couple of years on and it looks like Im going there again, lol.

Wow! Is that magazine actually on sale? Because I havent been able to find any information on it anywhere...

Hey there guys. Well I dropped by the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TGIAF) yesterday. I do this every year. Its my 6th or 7th TGIAF this year and I wasnt expecting anything Mac F related since the first movie is still playing at selected cinemas and the release of the 2nd one has yet to be announced. To be honest I mainly went to see the trailer for the new CG Captain Harlock (which was 80% AWESOME and 20% wha?). I checked the Bandai booth for Macross stuff but found nothing. After a few hours I was just about to head out when I saw a crowd gathered around the Satellite booth. Then I heard someone mention Kawamori .... And there they were - Aya Endo (Sherryl) and Shoji Kawamori on stage discussing...the FIRST movie?!?!?! I managed to grab one shot before security jumped me. No photos apparently (sigh). It was also as noisy as hell thanks to the Hatsune Miku booth next door - I could hardly make out what was being said apart from a few comments on the popularity of the series and a request from Endo that people check out the movie in the cinema while they still can. Kawamori made a joke or two about the second movie and the mystery around it and showed the title onscreen for all of 3 seconds before telling people that there would be news in the future. If anyone finds any more information about what was said please posted here. It was seriously hard to hear anything. The back of the booth had some interesting stuff too. There were a couple of (what appeared to be) character line artbooks by Ebata up for sale. buying both got u a free Macross convention bag (empty). I was tempted, but Im saving my extra cash this month for the Maaya Sakamoto concert on Wednesday ;-) Would you accept Macross phone straps from THIS girl? Well, they were leftover pachinko promotional goods so Id probably take the girl instead .... Inside the booth was a corner of valks and figures - including a new second series of "Half Age Girls: Macross Heroines." The concept behind these is figures that arent realistically proportions but arent quite super deformed either. They are half way in between. Love the fact that theres a Minmay and Mylene figure now (last series was all Mac F movie 1 characters/costumes). Do want. A map on the wall outlined all the places Kawamori had travelled to while looking for locations and ideas for his animation. I"d heard him talk about this previously at an anime panel in Roppongi Hills but it was interesting to see everything on one map. Finally, there were some signed, framed art pieces on the wall. The Kawamori one was also from the Roppongi Hills talk. Anyways, thats about it. No major news (that I could hear anyway). Some nice looking valks and figs tho. Between the 2nd movie and the new CG Harlock, my merchandise spending for this year seems to be pretty much decided...lol.

Got mine yesterday. Ooh it comes with a free pencil board! Shiny!

Came across this at my local arcade on the way home from work yesterday ...

Just announced vis Chie Kajiura's email newsletter, the solo concert she hinted at at the Firebomber Reunion Live last year will be held on July 24! Location and ticket prices are TBA.

Having the whole series on blu I can tell you - its GORGEOUS. You'll want to watch it over and over. Which is just as well, since that disc has 3 versions of ep 1, lol.

Gubaba - damn that was a fast spot! They just aired that on the Net Meeting! For anyone who is interested, it was a light kindof event - fluffy but fun. It basically featured Yuichi Nakamura (alto), Aya Endo (Sherryl) and Megumi Nakajima (Ranka) on a couch, anwering questions from fans "live" from an online chatroom and just chatting about stuff. Of the more interesting questions - who would be best suited to play Altos singing voice? Nakamura: Glay! All three tried to guess what would happen in the next movie, and there was a spot where each guest had to deliver a line that was totally out of character (while wearing masks). Nakamura also introduced the new Macross F figures that come out (its a draw system - you buy a draw ticket and get one of them. See Gubabas link for details) by...playing with them and showing THE SECRET..RANKA PANTIES CLOSEUP!!!!!! ^^; Nakajima and Endo got their revenge by acting out a scene with figures where Sherryl punched Alto for staring at said panties, hehehe. Some cosplayers came on (on behalf of the toy manufacturer) to have "Sherryl" and "Ranka" sign some posters. Nakamura made snide comments about Michael being too popular (lol) and also discussed a recent conversation he had with Kawamori where Kawamori reportedly said "Well, THAT anime series got a YOU KNOW WHAT in Odaiba recently...surely its Macross" turn next?" Nakamura claimed that Kawamori had seriously thought about buying a second hand F14 to see if he could...."modify" it. (eegads!) A special birthday cake was brought out for Endo and Nakamura who both had birthdays in February. Not quite as cool as the giant taiyaki cake that Endo brought out on stage for May'n last year but pretty cool nonetheless. The event had some technical hitches - the site being overloaded, streaming hiccups, people unable to log onto the forums, but was still worth a watch overall. They also did a live (custom) re-recording of the trailer for the movie which I managed to get a bad camera recording of. Of particular note is Endo trying have Sherryl do some more Ranka lines, lol http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RZU00XHK Random pics follow! The opening to the second segment And here are the hosts! And it went pretty much like this... Saying it behind a masks makes it more REALZ! No Sir! I didnt see you playing with your dolls sir! Oh Nakamura...you HAD to go there didnt you? EXTREME CLOSEUP! Mamegu is NOT amused... Ok this is where it got a little weird... Do want! These too! These stickers are gifts for people who renew/sign up for the fanclub membership Awwwww....Cake!

Agreed - theres plenty of PS1 games to be found, you just have to know where to look. Naturally theres fewer than there used to be and theyre all 2nd hand but theres plenty to be had. Heck, even PS2 games are getting less space in the local Book Off these days - all the room is taken up by DS and PSP games! And speaking of games, please allow me to pimp my gaming podcast while Im here: http://www.theoutcastpodcast.blogspot.com/ :-)

Ive kept an eye out for it on youtube for a while now and its never come up. Maybe because non-game UMDs are region-locked? If theres a way of getting around the lock Id definately recommend importing the limited edition :-)

Actually a lot of the footage turned up in the bonus UMD that came with the Macross Ultimate Frontier PSP game. Its been retimed to Firebombers 'Burning Fire' and has a little bit of extra footage. Having said that its still under 3 mins.

As most of you may be aware, Maaya Sakamoto, long time Yoko Kanno collaborator and singer of TRAINGLER from Macross Frontier, will be holding a 15th anniversary concert at the Budokan on March 31. Since this is only Maaya's SECOND big public concert in her entire career, its almost up their with Yoko Kanno's Tanabata Sonic in terms of rarity (yes, tickets were a pain in the butt to get). I'm taking the entire day off work and a few of us are planning on getting together before the concert. Please drop us a line HERE if you are planning on going. Hope to see some of the Macross World crowd representin'!

Not to sound like a total douche, but when you buy bootlegs this is what you get. Dont expect quality control or consistency. Mac F is one of the few series Id recommend going with fansubs, since it will never get licensed outside of Japan and at least that way you arent putting money in the hands of peope who dont deserve it and leech off the industry. To answer your question, Karaoke subs are never a part of an official anime release. They are usually put there by fansubbers or are sometimes present in Japanese during broadcast versions (although this trend is not so common these days). They are not present on the Japanese blurays which are of awesome quality and highly recommended (keep in mind though that they are pricey and raw).

Macross F online event While details have yet to be fully revealed, F-tama has announced that there will be a real-time online event held with the cast of Macross F on February 26th. No word on who exactly will be online to interact with the fans as of yet. Just my luck, Ill probably be away on business that night. Heres hoping my hotel room has a decent net connection!

Since no-one has posted anything about May’ns BIG WAAAAAVE concert at the Budokan on Sunday night, I thought I would throw a couple of impressions up. Surely someone else from the Macross boards went as well? Someone? Anyone??? When the Budokan gig was announced last year, I initially decided not to go. After all, I’d seen May’n live plenty of times before (4 times in 12 months at that point) and the last solo concert she did – 2009 Summer Concert LOVE & JOY – showed that she was trying to move ahead and establish herself solo career apart from her fame for Kanno’s Macross Frontier songs. The song split at LOVE & JOY was approx. 60% May’n songs and 40% Macross F songs. Now, while I don’t mind some of May’ns original stuff, I vastly prefer her Macross songs, so at that point I decided not to go to any more of vher solo gigs. But then something happened – Universal Bunny came out. As a sheer Sherryl Nome experience, May’n and Kanno blew my socks off with Universal Bunny. I liked every damn song on the album and knew that…sigh… I had to see them performed live. The problem was that ticket sales had long since ended and only a handful of tickets were appearing for auction, most reaching the $100 mark or higher. After a few unsuccessful bids I managed to score some stage-side tickets for about $70. These are directly to the side of the stage meaning that you have a profile shot of the singer most of the time and the acoustics tend to be rather unbalanced at best. But due to this they were cheaper, so I grabbed them. And so, off I went to see May’n yet again. The announcement of the Budokan concert had caused a bit of a stir among the fan community. Performing there with Megumi Nakajima and Yoko Kanno for the Macross F Tour was one thing, but doing it alone? Only 2 years since her debut as May’n? And after the series broadcast had long since finished? Could she actually pull it off? You betcha she did. The BIG WAAAAVE Concert was possible the ultimate performance a May’n fan could hope for. In fact it was possibly too good, since this time I’m CONVINCED that I’ll never need to see a May’n concert again. First of all, I have to make one thing clear – stageside seating kinda sucks. The sound quality isn’t the greatest. Having said that, the wings of the stage came practically up to the railing in front of us and May’n went out of her way to make sure that people in the side seats didn’t feel left out. She ran up to say hello to each side at least 5 times during the concert, often mid-song, and at one point to do the 3-2-1 portion of ‘What ‘bout my Star?’ with us. Id say there were about 5 people between my seat and May’n during these instances. Heck, even people with center arena seats didn’t get that close. When May’n wasn’t visiting one of the wings, we often had dancers there as well. All in all, it definitely made for a more personal and somewhat different experience. I began to get some idea of how full the concert would be when I stopped by the merchandise shop on my way into the hall. Literally EVERYTHING was sold out – even the concert pamphlets! Upon entering the Budokan, it was clear that concerns of the fans were unwarranted – it was absolutely PACKED. The hall can hold approx 14000 people for sports events and while I’m not sure exactly how many can squeeze into it when configured for a concert, I’d say we easily had 8000~10000 people there. The only area with any seats was the family and guests reserved area on the 1st floor. Or as, I call it, the Dead Zone – since it’s usually comprised of record company executives who don’t really want to be there. And so, approx. 15 mins later than scheduled, the concert started….with one heck of a bang as May’n jumped out of a hole in the stage and launched immediately into Universal Bunny. The set list that followed (with Macross Frontier songs are in bold) was: 01.　Universal Bunny 02.　Get Ready 03.　What'bout my star? 04.　Lion 05.　h@e me? h@e you! 06.　standing bird 07.　Glorious Heart Acoustic Corner 08.　Aenai toki　 09.　my teens,my tears 10.　YOUR ROCK 11.　Pink Monsoon 12.　Let Me Be Myself 13.　Isolation 14.　Diamond Crevasse 15.　XYZ 16.　Paranoia 17.　May'n☆Space 18.　Obelisk 19.　Northern Cross 20.　Kimi shini tamou koto nakare Encore 1 21.　Welcome To My Fanclub's Night!!～Styles ver.～ 22.　Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't be late Encore 2 23.　Deep Breathing (10~12 piece string accompaniment) So in all, of 23 songs, 11 were Macross Frontier. May’n did the majority of Universal Bunny aand May’n Styles albums, as well as half of May’n Street. The only songs I was surprised to see missing in action were the Sherryl version of Aimo and Tenshi ni Nachatta from Universal Bunny/Pink Monsoon single as well as Why?, Blue and Kiss wo choudai from the May’n Street album. It was also a little steange that May’n chose to do my teens, my tears – a song she wrote to commemorate her last year of being 19 and sang at her final concert (LOVE & JOY) before turning 20. Overall it was a very good mix although, as a Macross fan, I would’ve liked it if the Macross songs were mixed a little more evenly with her original stuff. As far as the Macross songs go, Universal and Obelisk sounded terrific live, as did Pink Monsoon, although this is the fourth time May’n has performed Pink Monsoon live (twice at the Macross Crossover and once on tv) whereas it was the first time for all the other Univeral Bunny material. Older fan favourites such as What ‘bout my Star?, Lion and Northern Cross also got an enthusiastic response from the audience. From among her original songs I’d place XYZ and May’n Space at the top of the list; both being energetic poppy numbers that really got the crowd moving. I’m not sure that May’ns dancing has improved any, but she was a lot more active during BIG WAAAAVE than I’ve ever seen her on stage in the past. She really seems to have gotten used to performing live and is definitely more relaxed, if no less energetic. She had dancers on-stage with her during the majority of songs, with a grand total of 22 dancers at once (plus the band) for Welcome to My Fanclub’s Night!! The addition of some pretty loud (not to mention HOT from where I was sitting!) pyrotechnics here and there also kept the atmosphere pumping throughout most of the show. The final song, Deep Breathing, was somewhat of a departure from May’ns normal image and saw her dressed in a ball gown on an elevated podium with a string orchestra backing her (8 violins and 2 cellos from what I could count). The concert clocked in at approx. 2hrs and 45 minutes – pretty amazing for an artist as young in both career and age as May’n is. Personally I’d say it was indisputably the definitive May’n concert, covering the best of both her Macross and original songs. As such I was very happy I changed my mind and decided to go. But the best news for those who couldn’t make it is that the concert will be released on DVD on May 28th by Flying Dog Records. No word on whether a Bluray is in the works as well (considering the label, I’d say Bluray is unlikely), but keep an eye on Amazon for preorders soon!

Actually its also listed to address a lot of criticism that Eva Chronicles is getting. The 30 of the 40 issues are a reprint - the series originally finished just before Eva 1.0 hit cinemas but featured no information on either 1.0 or 2.0. Now they are reprinting it with 10 extra issues worth of information and newly (better) designed binders. This is seen as basically a money grubbing tactic by many (like myself) who collected the whole series the last time through.

Yup. Why do you ask?

Ah bugger - NHK removed it already... wow that was FAST....

Kresphy - awesome find! I love her comment 'I wont lose to Klan!' hehehehe These kindof events popup all over the place and its often impossible to know when and where they will be. I was walking home once and found out that I missed meeting Yuuko Miyamura (Asuka from Eva, the original Chun-li from SF2) at my local pachinko hall. Doh!