Gubaba

Pretty basic '70s robot stuff. Aliens attack. Kids get a giant robot to fight them off. Every episode, the aliens send another monster to try to destroy the robot (and earth). Robot fights the monster and wins. There's nothing extraordinary about the plot; the mecha designs are fine, but not spectacular; the character designs are good but not especially memorable (even though they're by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko). What sets it apart is the utter ruthlessness of the villains. The whole thing really looks and feels like a kids' show, but innocent bystanders are being slaughtered all over the place. And, just when I thought I knew exactly where the story was going, there was a big twist that floored me. I really can't say any more about that, but check it out. Shin-Getter fansubs has done a really nice version. Now if I could only find Daitarn 3 somewhere...

Yes, they are. i believe they're focussing on Yawara right now. But even their macross set had a big ol' HG logo on it... HG does indisputably have the rights to the original Macross, so as much as we don't want to give them money, if you're going to buy the series legally, we kind of have to, alas.

日本語を勉強するべきがいいだと思う... Otherwise...yeah, I hear ya. You'd think fansub groups would be crawling all over this, wouldn't you?

I agree! I agree! Please just stop!!

I just finished watching it, and... DAMN! Now THAT's an ending!

"Illogical fanboyism"...? What am I a fanboy of? What what is illogical about thinking that technology would prgress, given a fifty-year time frame? And anyway, as I said, I've more or less seen the light, so why start name-calling now?

Oh no, you're not. Have you ever been watching SDF M, and you find yourself thinking, "Gosh, the animation is horrible in this episode"? You notice a VF-1A with a 1S head...Minmay looking EXTREMELY ugly...Max and Miria having a knife fight that features sparks coming from the knives... Then you have felt the dire, eldritch hand of the dreaded Anime Friend, whose name is spoken only in whispers by the brave, and not at all by the wise...

I highly recommend the newer 1/100 scale Master Grade models. The older ones ('96-'99) can be a little iffy. (RX-78GP02, I'm a-lookin' at you!) Try http://www.gundam.channel.or.jp/pramodel/ It's Japanese only, and they haven't updated it in a while, but it should give you a good idea of what's available. And, uh...best of luck to you getting into Gundam. When I was intorduced to it, there was a grand total of three TV series and three movies (which themselves were just a compilation of the first series), so it was easy to keep track of. It's become horrendously confusing since that idyllic time... And yeah, as dizman said, watch the original Universal Century series. They're the most popular and rewarding Gundam stories out there, if a little old-fashioned.

Small hands!! SMALL HANDS!!! SMALL HANDS!!!

Because I have no idea how to do that. You can reencode h.264 to DivX...? Really? How?

Yes, and the Valkyries should be able to talk, too. And have endearing and/or cool nicknames.

Yes, but my Mac is 10.2.8. Mplayer seems to need 10.3 or above. So until I get a new computer (I'm not going to update...my Mac also can't play DVDs), I'm SOL unless someone releases an XviD version.

I believe it's the first robot show that he wrote AND directed.

Okay...I'm still not COMPLETELY convinced, but I can now accept PPBs in 2059 without TOO much eye-rolling... But if they're STILL using them in "Macross 3000" or whatever, I'll be annoyed again.

I bet it's a Fold Phone! (Folne...?) Dude...you should make an OVA about that!

Really? It's still listed in the ongoing projects forum (or, at least, it was yesterday). If they don't do it, I hope SOMEONE comes out with a sub that ISN'T h.264...because, as it stands, there's no sub that I can watch.

...which brings up an interesting question...is it really a living thing? Can it feel pain? If so...man, I feel sorry for it! Also...is it just me, or is the first time cell phones have made an appearance in a Macross series? The scens in the original SDFM of everyone missing each others' phone calls seem quaint now; but even in 1994, when cell phones existed, we saw Guld using a car phone; Isamu had to be paged; Mylene used her TV; no one on Zola had a cell phone...even in Mac Zero, they just used walkie-talkies.

If that's so, then the enemy has already infiltrated. Let's hope the cell phone rises against it's masters and fights off the Vajra menace! (Dude, that fight would be SWEET! )

You're not alone. I've got a Mac G4 (10.2., and AT BEST, h.264 files will play as audio only, no visuals at all. Shinsen Subs and Central Anime are good about giving people a choice of h.264 or XviD. I wish that were more common, especially with Macross F.

Again, I don't think it's any faster than what we've seen previously.

All good points (PINPOINTS!! Ha! A witty person is me!), but I'm still not convinced. I'm not sure why it's an either/or here...either it's the pinpoint barrier (which, circa 2009-10, was only partially effective) or the omnidirectional barrier (ditto). But, as Radd pointed out, perhaps the PPB has been tremendously improved in the last fifty years. You would think, though, that that would be enough time for some third option to be developed. I'm not talking about nanotechnology, tachyon particles, plasma warp fields, cosmic power deflector grids, or any other kind of babble you could come up with...I'm just saying there's got to be a better answer, and I thought they would have figured one out by now. But, they haven't...and I guess I should be grateful. If the Vajra had no chance of getting into the Macross 25, we wouldn't have a story for the new series. Um, actually, I thought I did at first, and then realized that I didn't. If I had, I wouldn't have asked.

Just you wait...I'm two episodes from the end, and...man. Brutal stuff. Around the middle, the series kind of sagged for me, and I started watching it more slowly. It gets pretty formulaic, and it's a formula we've all seen before. Mecha-Boost launches. Zambot fights it. Zambot's on the ropes. Zambot turns the tides. Mecha-Boost goes kablooey. The end. But then, at around episode 15 or 16, they start screwing with the formula a bit, and it becomes much better.

So the laws of physics state that any kind of barrier more effective than the PPB is impossible...? Wait...are you agreeing with me, or did you mean "if it AIN'T broke, don't fix it"...? I'm so confused...

Do we KNOW that's what happened, or is it merely an educated guess? IIRC, TokyoPop trumpeted the release of Mac7 Trash, HG mentioned something about it, and then suddenly, it disappeared, with no explanation. I'm not trying to be an HG apologist...I think they're reprehensible, but there's so little actually known about what kind of deal they have, that sorting fact from speculation becomes really difficult. I've read through the whole HG vs. Big West thread here, and ended up more confused than before...

Hmm...do people really trash it just for that reason? I don't hate it, but I don't like it much, either. After I saw Flashback 2012 in '87, I thought it was a prelude to a new series. So, five years later, Macross II came out. I picked up the comic, and quickly realized that it wasn't what I had hoped it would be. Then I rented the tape, and just found it kind of...boring. I did end up watching the whole thing (and, much later, buying the DVD), and, let's face it, in 1992, Kawamori hadn't become "Mr. Macross," so his non-involvement never crossed my mind. I just knew a sub-par OVA when I saw it. Hell, I almost didn't see Macross Plus, because II had been such a disappointing experience. Well, then...screw you, too. I tend to take a hard line on stuff like this. I enjoy a lot of the non-Tomino U.C. Gundam stuff, but Gundam is still Tomino's world. He created it, he should have final say. If something he created is retconned out of existence (like Gaiagear)...well, I just don't buy that. It would be like if Brain Herbert and New York Times Bestselling Author Kaven J. Anderson™ wrote something that contradicted the original Dune series, and said, "Well, ours is the OFFICIAL timeline, so forget about what Frank Herbert said." A George Lucas Star Wars story will, to my way of thinking, always supercede a non-Geroge Lucas Star Wars story, no matter how bad the Lucas story or how good the other one. Macross is a little different, since my understanding is that the original story was a group effort. So, if Kawamori weren't involved, but Ishiguro directed it, fine. If neither of them were involved, but Mikimoto did the character designs and Tomita did the script (like MacII), again, fine. As long as SOMEONE vital to the original production, who knows the Macross world inside and out, is working on the project, I'll give it a chance.