Radd

Also known as "The Shiney Things Network"!

"A simple show for simple children" is closer to the truth, then. I should note I'm not speaking of Barney specifically, as I've never seen that show and therefore refrain from commenting on it, but I am talking about poorly made "children's" programming in general. I need only point to the state of the animation industry in America to reply to this.

My feeling on spiritua is that it was simply giving a name to the basic theme of Macross since the beginning, the power of the human spirit, will, and determination. The lights and glitter associated with spiritua in Macross 7 seems to me to be the visual equivelant of hearing sound in space. In that respect, the themes present in Macross 7 were very much central to SDF Macross, if the ideas if mystical powers and whatnot were not so ingrained in the story that was told. Regardless, "spiritua" as seen in Macross 7 never made rocks float. I'm still inclined to believe this has more to do with AIPHOS (or however it's spelled), or the Protoculture, than magic until the show proves otherwise. I'm inclined to agree with those who stated that mystical trappings do not mean magic is truly at work.

You got Returner from Best Buy? Woah, I'll have to look into this. Still, this isn't a new movie. I remember seeing trailers for Returner back in 2001. On a somewhat related note, anyone seen the Japanese movie Mikazuki? Looks kinda like a big budget live action version of Giant Robo meets Go Ranger meets Godzilla? Directed by the same guy that did the live action Iriam movie?

Dude... They picked a heavy metal soundtrack! Thats for skateboard movies. This thing will suck the cum out of a dead hooker's ass. The trailer usually isn't made by the people making the movie, the editing tem usually just gets a few minutes of footage and tosses something together. At least, that's my understanding. At any rate, I doubt the Skater rock music will be in the actual film. I still think the movie will suck, one look at the X-TREME designs will tell you that. Also, does this take place on modern day earth? The hell? Why? Another thing, you can already see the terrible directing in the composition of the shots, and the brightly lit scenes. Even the dark looking parts of the trailer look bright, shiney and saturated with colour compared to the the first two Alien movies and the first Predator movie. No space marines, no Arnold = Not a good movie!

I disagree. Has this Paul Anderson fellow ever actually seen the movie Alien, or the movie Predator?

For the sake of animators everywhere, I hope there's plenty of 7 year olds who agree.

Wait, there is one good thing. Warner Brothers doing animation again. I just wish they'd gone with a stronger idea than this. I think they probably wanted something they could cheese out on the animation with, aiming it at very little kids. Meh, but hopefully we'll see better stuff soon after.

Depends. I think there's a number of people who will bitch no matter what HG does, but the AnimEigo DVD set went over pretty well. I hope that if they did get the rights to DYRL?, then they let AnimEigo do the honours again. That would make a lot of people happy, and gaurantee the release won't get screwed up. AnimEigo does good work.

Cool, I'm in. Ok, I've got 3 dollars in change, and a toothpick. Anyone else?

I don't think it looks terrible taken as it's own entity, but as a Batmobile, it completely goes against the grain. The Batmobile has always been sleek, sexy, and filled with gadgets, not a futuristic tank. Still, it does look kinda retro compared to what Bruce Wayne might be driving a few years later. Maybe that was the intent? I don't like it, but by itself it won't ruin this new Batman for me. I'll give it a look and see what I think.

Nifty retro look, there. But still, I highly doubt any good will come of this.

I was wondering the same thing.

If you must make a Star Wars comparison, the medichlorians seem to fit the bill. Something that, in retrospect, could be argued was always there, but was not mentioned until recently in a new show.

thats my opinion too. an analogy could be like with starwars. at first it was the rebels vs the evil empire. cool now its someone.. and jedi, vs trade federations and.. something... there is a senate involved and... a chancellor... and... diplomats.. a queen, a FAKE queen... 100,000's of boba fetts'...and... storm troopers are good guys... in both cases they took simple, relatively tight storylines and in my opinion added a bunch of wishy washy crap. . Dude, that's kinda twisting words. I could easily say: In the prequels it was the Jedi versus a mysterious Sith Lord. In the OT now it's the Mon Calamari, some ex Senators, a farmboy, and smugglers vs the empire and something... there is a senate involved, an emperor, and bounty hunters, a princess, 100, 000 Tie Fighters,...and Clone troopers are bad guys. There's many other, valid, reasons to dislike the Star Wars movies.

Okay, just did. Maybe I'm suffering from tunnel vision, but the definitions seem to confirm my notion of "mystical" as having to do with understanding the world, as opposed to doing things like make rocks levitate or read peoples' minds. [bTW, thanks for saving me the trouble imode.] Granted there isn't a bright line separating these concepts. I'm still not sure why the word "magic" bothers you, treatment, but I think we can both agree that it's not worth getting sidetracked. So, to shift gears... Regardless of whether it's seen as "magical/mystical", I do think there's a shift from SDF Macross to M0, and I can understand why it might bother people. Basically, even if it's all just handwaving and pseudoscience, the rules of the universe changed. I'll posit a metarule of science fiction and fantasy: while there are some fantastic elements to the story, everything else must be implicitly "normal". Otherwise, the story and background becomes incomprehensible since there's no way to control expectations. SDF Macross laid down the rules and stuck to them. There wasn't any telekinesis or ESP in SDF Macross. If the viewer goes into M0 hoping for a prequel that's tied closely to the original series, the introduction of the new elements is jarring. On the other hand, if M0 is seen more as an independent work, then the "baseline" Macross stuff is taken as a given and the new ("magical") stuff is part of a new premise. "Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from science." I think both sides are, at this time, quite correct in their perceptions. First, there is a shift in the feel of the story from easily explained science, to something more beyond our reach. While it is well within the realm of belief that this is simply Protoculture technology at work, that is simply fan conjecture a this point. On top of that, all the "mystical" aspects are shown in a very mystical light, due to the nature of the story and the island inhabitants. Whether or not it is magic or technology is not the point, it's the context it's presented in. This could be resolved in a way that confirms the Protoculture technological influence, or it would end with the mystical left unexplained. Either way, I'm enjoying the ride.

As far as I know, there's only been one Tetsujin 28 manga. Some might argue that Giant Robo is much the same, and on a superficial level they'd be quite correct in this assumption, however the writer does tackle different themes, with different characters. Little boy entrusted with father's robot is the extent of their similarities. Again, there is only one Tetsuwan Atom manga. Correct me if I'm wrong. Never been a Getter fan, so I can't really comment on that series.

Both are well worth your time. I think it's a matter of, "Which would you prefere? Recieving a million dollars in 20 dollar bills, or 50 dollar bills?" I've come to the conclusion that I don't believe the length of the OVA version really adds anything to the story, the same amount of plot and character developement is arrived at in both. So the only bonuses to either is that the OVA is longer, and the movie has some better animation, and the addition of a couple better songs, but it is shorter.

This is the sort of response that gives weight to an argument. I'm very glad to hear it, too. I'd love to see the industry make a rebound.

I agree, there are some quality titles out there, but the titles that are as close to comics get as 'Mainstream' seem to be the endlessly recycled stories that never develope beyond anything given to us before. I'm a huge Moore fan myself, and I do like me that there Transmet. Sandman is another great title, a pity about the movie. I'm not just critisizing the selection that's being produced right now, but the idea that the comics industry is doing just fine economically. I go out looking for comics, and I see my favourite shops closing until there's few left, and those susually run by someone who works another job to actually pay their bills and just does the comics gig as a hobby. I see comic sales losing numbers, not gaining them. I see the major industry players switching their primary focus from comics to merchandising.

I wonder where you live where Comic shops are still in abundance? Everywhere I look, comic shops across the country are folding. Marvel is digging heavily into the movie industry, and has stated themselves that comics aren't going to be their focus in the future. DC has gotten smarter, with their Virtigo label, letting the creators retain the rights to their characters and whatnot (too bad this move was too late for Sandman). True, the comic book industry isn't as bad off as it was 10 years ago, but it's not a very promising industry at the moment. My comment was an exaggeration. Saying that those endlessly recycled stories are for a new audience is a cop out, the fact remains that the majority comics are the same recycled characters and stories instead of even trying to bring us new, fresh characters and stories. There are exceptions of course, I've stated that repeatedly. Now what you people are telling me is that the American comic industry is doing just fine, and that it is in fact doing better than the industry is in Japan. In Japan, where comics are sold everywhere, in large anthologies. Flying right in the face of the fact that over here comic book stores are still closing right and left, and it's getting harder and harder to find comics outside of comic book stores, aside from subscribing to them or ordering from a Diamond catalogue. Maybe, just maybe, you guys happen to live in an area where this isn't happening, but I've bounced from western Ney York, to Pittsburgh, to Wisconsin and see the same thing everywhere.

What is retarded is any claims that the current US comic market is anywhere near as successful as it was back in it's heyday, when comic stores thrived, comics could be found in bookstores, convinience stores, grocery stores, and everywhere else, when lesser titles then still sold more than major titles do now. I suppose next someone is going to tell me that America has a thriving and prosperous animation industry as well?

Let me clarify here. In Japan, books like Shonen Jump are relatively inexpensive, cheaply printed in black and white, and contain a dozen or so stories. In America, comic books can get pretty expensive for a 20 page story, they're printed on expensive paper, have expensive foil embossed titles. multiple covers for the collectors, early issues rarely see reprint and so wind up inflating in price in the unchecked collector's market, characters are recycled and reused endlessly, though even the most serious plot events are meaningless, since down the road it will all be undone. Titles are handled by multiple authors and artists, so there is little to no continuity. The best stories and most memorable characters have a beginning and an end, DC, Marvel, and the rest almost always refuse to put their creations to rest when their stories are finished. And no, it is not ignorant to say that stories and characters wind up recycled endlessly in American comics. How many times has the Marvel universe had to go chasing after some mystical knicknack to reset the universe? How many times has Optimus Prime died, and come back (the comics were far worse about this than the tv series), how many times do we see revisions of characters origin stories? I'm speaking of someone who used to follow comics, and got sick of them because of this crap. Now, I'm not saying the Japanese industry is perfect here, I've got plenty of complaints about them but I think their general handling of the comic/manga market makes a lot more sense than our own. Especially Japanese law concerning author's rights.

Uhm, no. That's a pretty ignorant thing to say. I'm sure many people who collect both can say the say the same about manga considering the # of US comics to manga released worldwide every month. Don't get me wrong, I love manga, but you have to look at both sides. Also, I'm pretty bitter X (/1999) isn't even finished yet in Japan..... Wich comic book industry is thriving, and wich is on life support?

Exactly, creators rights are very important to the integrity of any comic book, animated show, live action show, or movies. To this day, the American entertainment industry is choking the life out of itself by taking away creator rights. Another hundred years or so and America will be importing all it's entertainment, instead of exporting it. This is already the case with animation, and is getting bigger and bigger with comic books. Foreign movies are starting to look more promising than Hollywood fare was well.