Bri

Enjoy listening to actors with distinct voices regardsless of the quality of the movie like Morgan freeman Alan Rickman Whoopi Goldberg R. Lee Ermey Antony Hopkins Kevin Spacey As for movies, Resident Evil is a guilty pleasure: Eerie soundtrack by Marilyn Manson, Collin Salmons voice and Mila Jovovich as eye candy.

Think there was a similar discussion in another thread. Iirc the Zentradi automated production plants operate autonomously and update Zentran tech over time, so while the exterior may be similar, the mecha does improve over time. The automated production plants have some sort of learning capacity but Zentran tech will improve at a lower pace then the tech of humans and cultured Zentradi.

Valkyria Chronicles has been a very mixed bag. Sometimes I could not escape the feeling that I watched an animated videogame. The characters lack decent development and the animation got worse over time. Still it sometimes it did manage to pull me in. Squad seven is really lovable and Alicia pretty much stole the show.

Looks like some interesting projects coming up in the fall. I plan to try: Winter Sonata Romance of the three Kingdoms Blue literature Darker the Black Manhoromatic Shana A certain scientific railgun

The first disk of Endless eight is doing well in the sales so I'm sure the series will survive this. Even if you don't like E8, there is still new content. Sighs especially can hold it's own against the best of season 1. As an extention of season 1 I'm very happy with the new episodes. Only Haruhi can drive fans this insane I guess. A backlash by the fanbase going emo over E8 could have put a third season at risk, which would be a shame as the disapearance arc is described by the readers as the best in the series.

The Japanese DVD's will have english subs Just ordered the first and second Limited Edition. Hope this will be done more, can think of some particular anime with transforming mecha that could benefit from this...

VF-0D from Macross Zero A great looking valk but not a must buy for me. It's in the category of interesting two seaters like the VF1D, VF-1D VR, VE-1 and VT-1. Might pick one up someday, but with Yamato current pace of releases it won't be soon. VF-4 from Flash Back 2012 Gorgeous valk. Hikaru's bird and skull-one so a must buy for me. Same for the Max and Milia schemes with dancing skull markings. VF-17 from Macross 7 I don't like the looks of stealth aircraft and the F-117 is plain ugly. Not interested. VF-19 from Macross 7, including kai/F/S/P & possibly Super Packs & Sound Booster I'm not the biggest fan of the 19 but I'd definitly get the Basara ones. VF-2SS from Macross II, possibly including SAP Love it's sleek and 80's wave rider design. Definite buy. Of the Valks listed the VF-4 and VF-2SS stand out for me (by far).

Not much in Western Europe and North America: SDFM Do You Remember Love Macross II Macross Plus Maybe some more productions were released in other countries in South East Asia but this is all I know of.

The backlash against Robotech isn't really about the existence or acceptance of the show, but against the actions of it's owner Harmony Gold. Robotech fans hate HG for mismanaging the franchise and Macross fans hate HG for making it impossible to get Western releases for the Macross sequels, books and merchandise. True, some even see Maceks project from 1984 as an abomination and rape of the original content, but I am sure this thread would have just been a more relaxed discussion about the merrits of and issues with dubbing and Westernising Japanese animation, if it had not been for the mess created by HG and Tatsunoko.

I would agree with the statement that the Zentradi are a tragic group of characters. Iirc they are a symbolic for the returning veterans of WWII who had a hard time reajusting to a changed civilian society. The civilians inside the Macross don't live such a great life either. The civilians fate is determined by forces they cannot control, whether its the UN, the military or the Zentradi. Their reaction is to lose themselves in their work and consumerism. I would guess this represents the threat and reaction of civilians in the cold war. Even the heroes live tragic lives, the pilots and idol singers live for the thrill of the moment even if at the end of the line lies a death in combat or being replaced by younger, fresher competitors. This makes Macross a bitter sweet tale and it's to Kawamori and co's credit that they while they prefer peace over war, they do not idealise life in a peaceful modern civilian society. This theme comes foward in pretty much all Macross shows except that the threat changes from annihilation from a war between super powers (SDFM) to the threat of unscrupulous corporations and goverments in later instalments (Zero, Plus Frontier). The threat of man to the environment is present in all shows. Speculating: the current threat is terrorism so who knows the next Macross could be about a UN spacy unit on a peace keeping mission to a failed colony. The enemy uses guerilla tactics and older mecha. The idol singer could be a local girl trying to start a singing carreer against the background of a civil war.

RLAM = Robotech Live Action Movie, a live action movie that might be made by Warner Brothers.

It doesn't. This is about brand protection and the international regulations involved. If a company has a brand name in use in its home country and its well known with users worldwide then another company cannot simply trademark it and exploit the name. What is important in the McDonalds case is that McD wasn't able to excersise it's trademark in SA for a while so their old trademarks were useless. For Macross these regulations mean that if BW has an older claim on the use of the name Macross in Japan, for example in the form of trademarks, then it could protest against the trademarks of HG.

That's a very bold statement and not necessarily true. The Paris convention of the WIPO and the TRIPS agreement protect foreign brandnames from HG type hijacking. For example McDonalds won a court case based on article 6 of the Paris convention and article 16 of the TRIPS in South Africa where a local family restaurant had trademarked the name McDonalds. It gets even worse, if the trademark is found to be in bad faith the users are liable for the whole period of possesion. The catch is that these cases are complex and expensive. The load of providing evidence lies with the foreign brandholder and Macross is probably not worth the effort.

It were publishers Glénat and Panini who published M7 trash in Europe. This was in the late 90s before HG got round to aquire the trademarks in the diverse European countries. Tokyopop tried to publish it after HG got the US trademarks. Different situations.

As far as I can tell Seto's description of the situation is spot on. What puzzles me is why HG won the fight over the trademark. Both HG and BW filed for the US trademark but HG won it. Afaik a licensee being awarded the trademark over the IP holder is irregular. The laywer representing BW during that time, Cynthia Nishimoto, is now a Bandai Visual legal staff member. We rarely hear anything on this part of the legal fight over Macross, which is really the one thing that keeps Macross out of the west.

Doubt there are any "pure" super or real robot shows anymore. Even the later Gundams start to incorporate super robot elements. Don't know if its the lack of realism or maybe the lack of seriousness that turns some people of Macross 7. It's a good question to ask Also if Macross had been more real robot the focus would probably been on the mini skirt over the music to subjugate the aliens

I think part of the hate directed at Ranka and Basara is that they symbolize what people hate about Macross Frontier and Macross 7. Ranka is the cute clumsy character which is a cliche in many romantic comedy anime of the last decade. The dislike for introducing those popular "moe" like behaviour in Frontier turns part of the Macross fans off. Same with Basara, he is the prototype hotbooded Super Robot pilot. It's not so much his personality that is the problem but that he is a superrobot type character in a real robot universe. I'm sure that part of the people who hate Basara do not hate Kamina in Gurren Lagan. So don''t think its so surprising that miss Moe and mr Super robot top the charts.

This (Sigh V) should be the last episode of the new season. Heard some rumours they might add in some scenes in the next episodes to set up the next arc/season. Nagaru Tanigawa is in the proces of readying the 10th light novel of Haruhi according to Sankaku who have publised an announcement of The Sneaker on their site.

Going from the narative they can be either agents of one of the factions who are involved in the war in the shadows as described by Koizumi or just innocent bystanders. They are a visual representation of the distrust Kyon now has for the other 3 SOS-dan members. Clever way of showing why Kyon is now more foccused on Haruhi herself after the Movie. He can't fully trust the others and Haruhi is the only person he can be sure of that honestly likes him without ulterior motives.

Great to see tastes differ. Hard to make a choice. Isamu is the most self absorbed annoying jerk in Macross but he does live up to the role. Alto can't make up his mind (recurring theme) if he is a hotblooded character or not. Gamlin and Shin are bland. Gam's rather unsavory pursuit of Mylene does make him lose points. What is worse, loving to hate a character, or the absence of caring about them? Hmm, Isamu it is. The leading ladies: Ranka still seems to suffer from her moe-blob turned traitor image if the poll is any indication but she has grown on me. Wish the character design was less hideous. Myun is a tragic character but never comes to life . A singer who can't compete with the image of her virtual counterpart (cruel analogy to Mari Ijima?). She has a an even worse character design than Ranka. Can't say I feel strongly about Sara in neither a positive or negative way. Myun it is.

Mikuru is such a fun victim character. Wonder if Kyon realises that Mikuru is just as much of an object(be it to worship instead of abuse) to him as she is to Haruhi. Second the motion to bring some Denny's across the Atlantic. Alternatively wont say no to a Ruby Tuesdays. I'd kill for a real Smokehouse burger and Buffalo wings...

Episode 23 was for me easily the best of both seasons. Great to see the dark side of Haruhi. With great power must come great responsibility, but what if you dare not aware of them and the world is still your playground? Amzing Sci-fi in the most mundane way, in just one episode TMHS manages to do what Star Trek never could with the Q. Making a credible threat yet being hilariously funny.

I fully agree on your first point Pete. On the second, licenses for the american market are often already negotiated during the production proces in Japan so legal issues are not that big in terms of time lost. David Hingtgen mentioned that dubbing takes up most of the delay but is a necessity for DVD sales in the US. I don't believe demand for anime has gone down at all, if anything it's on the rise worldwide. However, anime distribution via licensing companies who produce localised DVDs is a dying business. This is not neccesarily a bad thing, just cutting out the middleman. As long as those who actually produce the original work will find ways to make money the future is safe. Who knows, maybe merchandise sales through internet vendors like HLJ are the future for anime.

Ah yes, your right, her powers can have negative side effects. It just seems to that f Haruhi wanted to get back at Kyon she'd do it directly. For a girl she is a very masculine character, direct and upfront. It was a very powerfull scene, the way she backed off when Kyon put her in line whout blowing a fuse was very well done.

No, I feel that Haruhi cares way to much for Kyon to wish him to be harmed, Mikuru is usually the subject of tension that both Haruhi and Kyon use for their dance. Whether Kyon and Haruhi are fully aware of the game they play with eachother is a different question. It's a sign of great characters in the show, all three girls have their fans. Personally I like Haruhi best, love the energy and total disregard for convention. Consider that she was about to recreate the world and the only person she wanted to keep was Kyon. That counts for something. I can see some resemblance between the shows, except that Haruhi is so hotblooded she doesn't need a Super Robot (assuming Yuki isn't one).