Radd

I recommend taking a basic course on history. Seriously. You cannot keep two sides at war unless they have a reason to remain at war. You cannot keep a populace supportive of a war effort just because. This whole "inspiring hate" thing isn't some convoluted sci-fi silliness as you put it earlier, it's right there in human history. They want to keep Frontier and the Vajra at war. As we've seen so far, there is no reason for these two sides to be at war without Galaxy's influence. It's been Galaxy that's been riling the Vajra up and leading them to Frontier, and visa-versa.

Remember when the first episode of Frontier was proof positive that the Macross timeline had been retconned so that the Megaroad 01 and Macross 7 fleets, and dozens of others all left Earth at the same time, in 2012? Or that Ranka had something growing out of her belly, when she was scrunching up the cloth there, in the concert from episode 7? Really, the fan speculation on the forums here is just incredible. Someone has already suggested that Alto is the real Nome relative, it won't be long before Sheryl is revealed to be Hikaru in drag, and Ranka gets her memories back only to realize that she's Basara and Roy Focker's lovechild from a secret mission involving time travel that went horribly wrong.

Er, has anyone else noticed the reused character designs popping up throughout the series? Most recently, the taxi driver who bears an uncanny resemblance to Howard Glass, and the street vendor who could be Leon's more congenial brother? I believe these little touches are intentional, a reminder that this story takes place not all that long after a period of large scale human cloning to beef up the population. Cloning didn't end until the very end of 2030, 29 years before Frontier begins. I also agree with VF-25, that Sheryl and Ranshe do not look all that much alike. Most of their similarity seems to boil down to hair style, which as far as I know is not genetic. As for where Sheryl got her last name, at this point I'd say that Kronnang Dunn's suggestion that she got it from Grace is likely. We do not know for certain, but given what we do know, it is currently the most likely scenario.

I'm still entirely against reading much at all into that opening colonization graphic from Frontier. It's clearly meant to look awesome, not to accurately depict a timeline of events.

Well, for one thing, I never stated that I disliked anything about Robotech. All I was saying was that no one said anything to suggest that they believed that HG should have brought "Macross over to America, release it AS IS, with every kid reading subtitles". That's what I meant by a "scarecrow argument", misdirecting the discussion with a statement like that. Second, this thread is about the music. I'm pretty certain there's a section of the forums for Robotech, and Robotech/Macross discussion in general, and it's probably best to avoid derailing this thread any further.

Er... I mean...seriously. Dude.

There are few things I dislike more than strawman arguments. Now, I'm fairly certain this wasn't intentional, and just poor reasoning, but let's not put words into people's mouths.

Oh ja, the more the merrier. I'm not convinced Galaxy has a New Macross class ship in it. I'm wondering if the large purple ship is the Macross Galaxy itself? Which would make it an entirely different class of Macross type ship.

I don't dislike the designs of the bridge towers, but I dislike the size of the bridge tower for Battle Frontier. It looks too oversized, given the size of the ship itself. It's like, why is the bridge tower so big? Did they install an Imax in the tower? Maybe one of those huge healthclubs with multiple floors and several large pools? It's like twice the size it looks like it should be. Not that this bothers me all that much. It still looks freakin' sweet. I really want Bandai to release a series of Macross ship toys. The Macross, the Global, Battle 7, Battle Frontier, and the Quarter. All in scale to each other.

"Battle Frontier, ready main batteries! FIRE!" What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?

The Captain Herlock: Endless Odyssey score is all kinds of fantastic. So was Kevin Manthei's work for Invader Zim, and a lot of music created specifically for each episode. The recent Tetsujin 28 series had a great soundtrack, too. The latter two aren't space opera, but dunno why that should matter if we're just talking about tv series bgm and the quality thereof.

Well...

Anyone want to guess the four words I'm thinking right now?

I certainly wouldn't be surprised if SMS was originally all Zentradi. We know it's run by a Zentradi. We know there were a LOT of Zentradi post-SW1. They may have outnumbered the humans until the human cloning program was in high-gear. The second reason, however, is a bit...er...specious. First, Japanese culture is pretty sexist in and of itself. Second, I've heard plenty of American military cadence songs like polidread posted. Hell, I've heard plenty of American popular music that was at least as sexist as the SMS theme. The third reason is entirely plausible, just given the context of the show itself. Yellow on black symbol within a show that's already had one prominent yellow on black symbol, the latter belonging to the group that the owner of the former is a part of? Sure. I can see that. Even so, yellow on black symbols are not the sole domain of the Zentradi, and the colours are really the start and end of the similarity, beyond that is reaching.

I think they meant by comparison. Robotech was really mature and sophisticated for an animated series on American television, certainly, but it's still fairly watered down compared to the original material.

I believe this can certainly influence a person's opinion, but it doesn't always determine it. I started out with Robotech, even had the 2 CD soundtrack HG released in the mid-late 90's, but I enjoy the Macross music a whole lot more. Not saying the SDF:M soundtrack is on par with Bach or anything, just that between soundtracks for 80's animated series, the SDF:M soundtrack is much more to my liking than the Robotech soundtrack, which I find to be a lot cheesier overall.

It all comes down to opinion, unless you're looking at it from a technical composition standpoint. Macross soundtrack is longer, and so sees a lot less recycling. I'd have to sit down and listen to both for a while to compare, but it seems to me that the Macross compositions are also, in general, more complex. I really can't see anyone trying to argue that Reba West was somehow better. I skinned some of the thread, but I didn't see anyone suggesting otherwise. For the background, I can see personal preferences and nostalgia weighing in a lot. The Robotech BGM wasn't bad. I feel it comes across a lot more dated now than the Macross soundtrack, which more or less maintains that classical "timelessness" (though there are most certainly exceptions to that, like the main theme, which has a very definitive 70's/early 80's feel. And various bits throughout the soundtrack which reveal the influences of the time). I love classical music, and movie soundtracks that use large orchestras. Robotech strikes me as the Saturday Morning version of that, whereas SDF:M's BGM could be more of the movie BGM variety, if that makes any sense? I enjoy both, but to be honest, the Macross OSTs are constantly in my MP3 playlist, and I listen bits of the soundtrack on a regular basis along with all my other favourites. The Robotech OST, on the other hand, I never bothered to rip to my computer, and the CD was a bit dusty when I removed it from the shelf the other day to pack it away for my upcoming move into a new apartment.

Ja, there was a mistake on the banner over the contest, it read 20th, but the dialogue named it the 12th. It was later confirmed that it was supposed to be the 12th.

Remember how I said that bringing Battle 25 into the fray would be a perfect opportunity to illustrate, in dramatic fashion, the differences between Quarter and a full sized New Macross battleship? To paraphrase Brock Samson, "That's how it's done!" (Someone mentioned that we'd need to see how Battle Frontier's cannon works against a capital ship, rewatch the firing sequence, you see at least one of the motherships disintegrating in the blast.) I can also see why they put off the new intro by an episode. Great episode. Yet again, can't wait until next week.

Did the CIA attack this thread? Seriously.

I think you lack perspective.

I can't disagree more. I was entertained all the way through, and there was quite a bit that added to the story, here, and will likely come up again in future episodes. Ranka, with Alto's support, is now more wholeheartedly behind helping them fight the Vajra. Alto's sentiment that there's not enough room for humanoid life and the Vajra in the galaxy continues to be reinforced. We see now that Leon and company are attempting to position Brera's forces from Galaxy as the go-to people to protect the fleet. The relationship between all the major players has become yet murkier. We know some important new details about the Vajra, and the whole issue with the purple crystals has finally been laid out in plain terms. I really don't see all that as being simply for the sake of the pineapple prank.

That word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I suspect it's more a matter of budget than technology. Frontier probably has a significantly higher per-episode budget than SDF:M or Macross 7, and it definitely has better directing. Also, Macross 7 is only about 12 years newer than SDF:M. Frontier is 26 years newer than SDF:M, so 14 years newer than Macross 7. Looking at Macross 7 and other anime from around 94, Macross 7 isn't terrible, though it is very average. Not a very exciting series, visually. Direction and resource management can play heavily into that. Evangelion is from around that time, and has arguably worse animation. Entire scenes of nothing but still frames and pans. Sometimes not even the pans. But some good directing and clever use of animation makes it seem a whole lot better to most people. It comes off "artistic" rather than "low budget". Frontier is interesting, looking at the technical side of the animation. Like SDF:M, the 2D animation is very inconsistent. However, it is often covered up with effects to hide that fact. Also, the backgrounds are gorgeous, much higher than average quality. The CG is top notch for an animated tv series, the best I've probably seen. An incredibly well put together production.

Rewatching SDF:M/Flashback 2012. Yup, that's what we got. You do realize that the "they disappeared all mysterious like" explanation came up later, as I've always heard it at a time when Kawamori was getting lots of questions about what happened to them after he had moved on from Macross to other things. Again, I can't blame him. And, yes, it could have been worse.