Radd

I worry about that, too. Then again, I haven't seen episode 21 yet. I can see the series being wrapped up well in 5 episodes from where things leave off in 20. It's just that since Zero seemed to end in such a rushed fashion, I've been worrying about that for Frontier, wondering just how much is planned and scripted in advance.

If I recall correctly, according to Robotech, Rick and Lisa were then the highest ranking RDF officers left. With Rick clearly superseding Lisa because he's the man in the relationship, which is why afterwards everyone is waiting for Admiral Hunter, who heads the mission to confront the Robotech Masters, to return to Earth. Lisa gets to be captain of the ship, though.

Subtitles. I know dubs can be good, but so often they're just not. There's a number of reasons for this. There's even a lot of great english speaking voice actors, but the companies that license anime either cannot afford decent voice actors, are pretty much tone-deaf to what makes for quality voice acting, or feel that the bar is low enough that they don't have to pay for decent voice acting. When medicore, to downright poor, dubs are widely considered "great" just because the bar is set so low, why would any company waste money paying for better talent? On the other hand, there are still a decent number of american made shows with good voice acting, and sometimes you do see those actors doing dub work for anime as well, unfortunately they're often one or two good voice actors with dozens of poor voice actors. I'd like to see better dubbing of anime. There's a lot to overcome before that will happen. The way anime dubs are recorded. The way poor dubs are received by the public. Weird perceptions of how to translate voices (why is it that american studios take high pitched or fast speaking female voices and believe that translates to grating, screeching voices? And why must so many male leads, regardless of what their character is actually like, be dubbed with the Saturday morning cartoon hero voice? I swear, the way voices are assigned, if Family Guy was anime and dubbed for American audiences, they'd get the english voice actor for Spike Spiegel to do Peter Griffen's voice). Etcetera.

Wasn't Longhorn squadron's VF's painted purple? The squadron you fly in for the PS2 game?

People read a LOT into Frontier, and go off on huge arguments about stuff that isn't just there. The opening colonization graphic, which seemed to have some people convinced that the Macross timeline had been changed to the point where the Megaroad 1, Macross 7, and a host of other colonization fleets all left Earth at exactly the same time in 2012. Later, this same dramatization was used as conclusive evidence that the Megaroad-1 did not head towards the centre of the galaxy. The electrical effect of the VF-25's transformation somehow meaning that the VF-25 flies apart and recombines (when you clearly see in the same footage that this is not the case). Ranka's "protrusion" (showing that many are unfamiliar with the exotic properties of this strange technology known as "cloth"). Alto exclaiming, "Macross!" when he sees the Global, thus proving it's the one and only SDF-1 (when several episodes prior he exclaimed that very same word when the transformed Quarter appeared). I'm pretty certain I'm forgetting one or two of the other incredibly heated debates that have cropped up over absolutely nothing over the course of the series.

Look hard enough and you can make anything look like it's ripping off most anything else. Of course, it can be fun to just point out similarities.

We've seen like one zentradi manhandle a Valk like it was tinfoil, and that Zentradi was, by far, larger and stronger than the average zentradi. Also, a Frontier era Destroid might actually be more accurate, and less likely to cause collateral damage than a zentradi, while at the same time providing better defensive and offensive capabilities. All with less risk to the person piloting the thing. Zentradi place in human society is an interesting question, though. Think about it, there were only somewhere between several hundred-thousand, to maybe a million human survivors left (according to the Compendium) post SW1. How many Zentradi were there? Britai's fleet was a million ships strong. Bodlza's was four million. How many of those ships survived? Zentradi could have potentially outnumbered humans by that point. Also, consider, post SW1 zentradi cloning technology was used to beef up the human population for several decades. Most humans, by the time of Frontier were probably not alive during SW1. Any sort of anti-Zentradi racism might not actually exist in the numbers one might expect. Along with interbreeding between Zentradi and humans, one has to wonder just where the line is drawn.

Actually, I'm perfectly fine with the events of SW1 being in that kind of limbo. Sure, I'd love it if they went back and did a great job remaking the events of SW1 in some definitive version, but that's not gonna happen. Given the choice between SDF:M or DYRL I'd rather not choose, since there are things I greatly prefer from each. Also, it's not simply loyalty to an old statement, and I'd argue that "Not that any of the designers or animators pay attention to it, of course... " is incorrect. We see with our own eyes in Macross 7 and Macross Frontier ample evidence of a merged universe taking bits and pieces from both SDF:M and DYRL, as well as things that occur in neither as presented.

We do know that the tv series as we know it is not the actual events of SW1, remember that Kawamori stated that the "real" SW1 is somewhere between the movie and tv series, and in every series since we've see plenty of evidence of a merged version of those events, right up to and including Frontier.

Zolans appeared in Dynamite 7. They weren't really given an introduction in the animation, but we know they're another human/zentradi-like race created by the protoculture. Except, they're derived from marsupials instead of monkeys. In Dynamite 7 they're often depicted with two-tone hair, and fur on their forearms. However, unless I'm mistaken it was revealed in one of the early magazine articles that Mikhail in Frontier is a Zolan.

You're hung up on this folly that DYRL is simply "a movie within the Macross universe", not to mention there's all that other evidence. Call it speculation, but it's more solid than saying it can't be done, to which we have no evidence whatsoever, and evidence to the contrary. Logically, it's currently the most reasonable assumption that humans can be macronized.

It has been said that the actual events of Space War I are "somewhere between the tv series and the movie". The "visual canon" and "story canon" explanation for reconciling the movie and tv series is a simplification. Given numerous flashbacks to SW1 directed at the viewer, depicting DYRL events, it is safe to assume some of those events occurred. Dismissing DYRL outright, when we know it is in such a grey area and not entirely relegated to "movie within the series" status would be silly. Also, consider this, DYRL as the movie within the Macross universe is considered a historical movie, much like we'd look at Pearl Harbor. Now, if it is impossible for a human to get macronized in the Macross universe, that would be a pretty big (no pun intended) gaffe for the production crew to make. It would be akin to Ben Affleck strapping on a jet pack in the aforementioned Bay movie. As I said earlier, we've also seen zolans macronized (so to answer your question Cybergig1, it has been possible for Mikhail, who was revealed at some point to be a zolan, to be macronized), so even dismissing DYRL that's two of the three Protoculture races we know of that can be macronized. But wait, there's more! In 'The Galaxy is Calling Me!' we clearly see Emillia, a half-human/half-meltrandi has been macronized. It's been stated that humans and zentradi are almost identical, biologically, certainly close enough that the two races can interbreed. Zentradi cloning was used to beef up the human population for several decades after SW1. Now, if it is possible, why isn't everyone macronized, at least once for fun? The answer to that should be obvious. Economics. We've no idea how much the process costs, but considering the amount of mass added to a macronized individual it's probably significant. Also, living macronized like that has to be exponentially more expensive than living as a micron. Given all that, the safe assumption is that humans can be macronized just like zentradi and zolans.

Er....? You do realize that humans can be macronized, right? Zolans, too, for that matter.

Wow. I watched the episode the moment it came out, but I haven't been by the forum for a few days. Have to say I'm pretty shocked by some of the reactions here. For my own part, I thought the episode was fantastic. As always, I can't wait for the next episode, but more than that I'm also really hyped to see where the series is going. Leon's plot seems to be back on track, Grace seems to be plotting behind his back, Frontier is in ruins, SMS headquarters seems to be in ruins, and we've had two tragic deaths. The series is absolutely brilliant so far, and it looks like things are just going to get even more interesting as we head down the final stretch into the last 6 episodes.

I agree. I said as much some posts back. Still, there's no consensus on what exactly a "bad manager" means in this thread. Hance people voting Akiko, Grace, Marge, etcetera. My point was mostly directed at people who seem to be basing their opinion on what kind of person Kaifun was, and a few posts back someone making the claim that Kaifun somehow didn't fit into the plot of SDF:M. I would agree if the thread as focused on managerial skills, which it should be given title of the poll and everything, but with the poll itself not limited to managers, and people seeming to take it as some kind of "worst villain who happens to be maybe a manager" discussion, it's more difficult to say exactly what is and is not relevant.

I do kinda have to wonder if some people are thinking of Lynn Kyle, the Robotech version of Kaifun with all this talk of him being such a horrible person? One of the things that really struck me the first time I watched the unedited Macross was that, while still a hypocritical jerk, Kaifun was not nearly as bad as he was portrayed in the Americanized version of the show. In Robotech he just kinda got worse and worse, and then stumbled off into the sunset, as big of an ass as ever. In Macross, he was pretty integral to Minmay finally growing up and seeing further than the tip of her own nose. He was still a controlling, alcoholic hypocrite, but he did have a couple almost redeeming moments and was important to the story.

I'm actually really looking forward to the new Wii Sports that was announced with the Wii Motion Plus. Beyond that, I haven't been paying much attention to console games.

I'll have to rewatch, but I recall Akiko was introduced as a friend of Ray who was listening in, and picked up Fire Bomber when they were recording for a non-plussed Honey. I could be wrong, it's been a while. Reymond Marley was her manager. Rather, he was the director of Sharon's Management Team. Huh, unless my memory is really fuzzy, the Wiki page for Marge has changed from the description I posted earlier to "Assistant producer and lead scientist ... under Myung."

I don't know that I entirely agree. Just how do you define "effectiveness"? Bodolza commanded the "mass anonymous army" that is the Zentradi fleet. Earth was more or less wiped out (more crushingly so in the movie, where Earth is wiped out long before the final confrontation between the Zentradi, Meltrandi, and the Macross. Similarly so, Gepernitch commanded the Varauta army, how can it be an effective "villain" while then saying it's commander was not? I'd say that with few exceptions the villains managed to do well for themselves right up until the end, as far as their goals were concerned. Of course, their goals are usually not the clear-cut "villain" goals we tend to think of. Bodolza was not concerned with universal domination, or even wiping out humanity, until the very end. Gigil didn't die a villain, the "real damage" he inflicted wasn't directed at the Macross 7 fleet. He was a lot more "successful" as a villain up until then, when he was doing a decent job of gathering resources (spiritua) for the Protodevlin. He was held back from doing "real damage" as Gepernitch wanted a farm, not a quick fix. In Zero, who was "winning" kept going back and forth between the factions, right up until the end. I dunno, I find the "villains" in Macross to be pretty memorable, and unusually well developed for a children's show (though I do agree, that's what it is, or at least was for SDF and Macross 7, more teen/college crowd for much of the rest).

Assistant technical producer.

Mao, and all the other Mayans, were part of a top secret incident involving technology and revelations on intergalactic life that would not be made public for several years yet. They were likely kept on South Atari island, and many of them probably wound up on the Macross because of that.

I'm still at a loss as for the standards of comparison. Some people seem to vote based on how good or bad their managerial skills are. Some seem to be going by how big a villain the character turned out to be (regardless of whether or not the character was actually a manager, even!). Some people seem to be voting based on how much they disliked the show the character appeared in (only reason I can see anyone voting Akiko). If you go by managerial skills, I'd have to go with Lin Kaifun. He's the only one you really see making deliberately bad managerial choices, that I can recall. I mean, Earth didn't have a very big population, and Macross City seemed to be the largest Earth city...and he refused to go there? The other managers we see are either shown to be giving their talent good hook-ups and gigs, or not shown enough of to really make a judgement call on. If you go by how big a villain they turn out to be, well...Grace did destroy a planet, manufactured a war, and seems to be both generally evil and fairly successful at it. Even Marge was just a nutcase (also, not a manager!), and as flawed as they may be none of the other managers could really be considered "villains" (Then again, Keith makes a great point about Fire Bomber American). You know, actually there is one manager that stands out as the worst to me. Honey, from Macross 7. Or was he just a producer for some label? Well, he had Fire Bomber, and wrote them off as a lost cause, and handed them to Akiko while making snide remarks. Then they went on to become the biggest thing since Minmay. As the kids like to say, "Epic Fail".

Just how are we defining a "bad manager" in this poll? For that matter, how are we defining "manager"? Marge wasn't Sharon's manager, Reymond Marley was. Marge was an assistant producer.

Well, when the Vajra learn to protect themselves from Battle Frontier's Macross cannon, it still leaves them somewhat cooked. With the proper utensils, an island ship full of butter, and some motivated VF pilots, steaming hot Vajra will be served up in no time. Some fresh Vajra legs, or a steaming plate of delicious Vajra cakes, just place your order and head cook Ozma Lee will get to work in the kitchen. "Mr. President? You've still got a delicious dessert coming!"

After the Vajra learn to defend themselves from the Macross cannon, Alto and Sheryl, almost by accident, stumble upon the secret to defeating the Vajra once and for all.