Radd

I suspect you're over thinking the origins of the movie. SDF:M turned out to be a popular tv series, and so a movie was made to capitalize on that. Tatsunoko was involved in the production of the movie, and unless I'm mistaken there was no legal headbutting back in those halcyon days of yore. I suspect the fact that all subsequent Macross endeavours have taken their visual cues from the movie, rather than the tv series, has more to do with Kawamori and company seeing those designs as more visually appealing. I mean, if you made a popular movie, comic, or tv series, and later released a redux (either sequel, remake, whatever) and later continued within that same universe, you'd probably want to use the designs you think are better when showing the past, or bringing back old characters/mecha/what-have-you. As for Kawamori's "bluntness" on the fate of the original cast, the generally accepted idea, that he was simply done with their story, and rather tired of being pressed for more information and requests for sequels featuring those characters, and so made an offhand remark about them disappearing simply to shut people up, seems to make enough sense. More than the idea of avoiding the issue for legal reasons, especially seeing as how these legal issues, again, did not even exist at the time. If that were really an issue we would not have seen Hikaru, Misa, et all in the Frontier recap of SW1, or had Max and Millia playing such big roles in Macross 7. I would agree that the lack of the UNS kite logo is likely due to a desire to increase their chances of marketing the show internationally (as I recall, HG trademarked that logo in the U.S.).

I'm glad they're sticking to the MOSPEADA style ships, though on the other hand I wish they were a bit more creative with them. There's more room to expand within the MOSPEADA design elements than they seem to acknowledge, and so all the ship designs just look like fanfic retreads of existing designs rather than full evolutions or other classes within the fleet. I also kinda wish they'd drop the "shadow" motif. I wouldn't think their cloaking technology would be so dependent on the hull being painted purple, orange, and dark blue. The "shadow" enabled fleet at the end of Robotech was something special, as neither of the previous two fleets used those colours (unless I'm misremembering?). I don't know, maybe I'm being overly critical. I suppose it's just that I really liked the the MOSPEADA ship designs, but all the new stuff just seems less and less interesting to me. Like they're reusing the same basic design ideas but not really going anywhere with them. This colony ship looks like they cross the SDF-1 with the big battleship from the end of Invid Invasion (I believe they were calling that the SDF-7 last I heard?).

To be fair, there is no way to develop a weapon that you know with 100% certainty to be useful against all possible enemies. It would seem the VF-11 would be more than adequate against all known enemies, and there is no reason to spend more money than is absolutely necessary unless you're in the middle of a war. Macross 7 takes place during a period of relative peace and stability, hence the main variable fighter is the VF-11. Not as powerful a weapon as the VF-4 or the VF-14, but serviceable, cost effective, and better than the old VF-1 which had already proved a very capable fighter against Zentradi weapons, which were expected to be the biggest threat. Macross Frontier takes place shortly after a civil war, unless I'm mistaken. Hence the main fighter in use appears to be an upgraded (or downgraded for cost maybe?) version of the more powerful VF-17. Of course, it would seem the NUNS pilots behind the controls are inexperienced, and not used to a live combat environment. It's likely they'd never seen actual combat before. A machine's capabilities are limited by the capabilities of its pilot.

Ah, well if you are indeed just speculating and not making statements that's fine and there is no reason to argue, except to provide further information. However, Duke and others are reacting to statements you've posted that are written in a rather definitive manner. Such as the one I quoted, that you've gone back and forth with Duke over. You stated, in no uncertain terms, that the M0 incident had been declassified. The way you wrote it was not suggesting that the incident may have been declassified, but that it had been declassified prior to the events beginning in Frontier. Duke was merely pointing out, in his own way, that there is nothing to suggest that this is a certainty. Perhaps there is a miscommunication? From that post, Duke has mainly been criticizing that one single point, which was stated as a definitive as written, and his argument has been pretty much entirely to point out that this is not something we know as a definitive. After all, in a text based environment such as a web forum, how you write something is every bit as important as what you're trying to say. It would avoid further miscommunication to avoid definitive terms when speculating.

No, actually. Except he wasn't only concerned with his own personal gain or any such thing. Rather, he was an idealist that wanted everyone to get along and see the bigger picture. He was rather extreme in the pursuit of that ideal, which is why he needed characters like Ray and Max to temper him, and point him in the right direction where he'd do the most good towards those ends. He actually put up with quite a lot that went against his own personal interests to follow his ideals. He was against the whole idea of working with the military, Sound Force and all that. Single minded? Yes. Missing what's right in front of him while looking at the "bigger picture"? Certainly. Poor people skills? You bet. Selfish? I'm not so sure. As for the arguments about the events of M0 being declassified, all Duke is saying, Zinjo, is that you seem to be coming out of left field with these statements about things happening, such as: He pointed out that nowhere is it ever stated anywhere that this is the case. What you quoted in return only says that the events of Macross Zero remained classified for at least 50 years. Which means it could have been 100, or a thousand years for all we know.The only thing we know for certain is that it was not declassified within that 50 year span. Past that, we don't know. It does not say. So, to say definitively that events were declassified in 2058, the burden of proof lies on the person making that statement.

I suspect I'm probably the only person in the forum that's not a fan of the FAST packs for the VF-25. Well, the one on the "1J" style didn't bother me so much, need to see more of them before I make an opinion, but the "command" armour just seemed far too busy. Of course, I'm also not a fan of the Stampeed Valkyrie or the early roughs of the VF-3000 that this armour seems to be descended from.

Japanese Classics Megatron looks so much better than the American toy, though (and this is assuming the colours are more or less correct in those images) it seems as though safety-orange is used instead of red. Red would look much better. Also, I don't mind chrome, but the use of it on this toy seems odd. I dunno, minor nitpick. I might pick this up. I've only got a few Classics, and don't intend to get many more. Just my favourites.

A faceplate with holes in it, not even arranged in a similar pattern, isn't really enough to draw a connection from at this point. It's entirely possible that there's a connection between these insect-like mecha and rogue Zentradi, but at this early stage I'm not going to jump to any conclusions from something as small as this.

I've never understood the practice of going after people posting commercials and trailers. It's free advertising to a broad viewer base.

Except a couple minor problems with this reasoning. First, nothing has been shown that seriously shows any changes to the chronology. DYRL visuals have been used to recap history in previous Macross shows, and it's been pointed out that, and no offense, you're seriously reading far too much into a whole lot of nothing with a 5 second animation from a quick historical recap. Second, these supposed changes do not in any way make Macross more marketable outside of Japan, How does nonsensically having dozens of colony missions featuring varying generations worth of technology all leaving Earth at one time make it easier to sell Macross outside of Japan? Or are you implying that by retconning DYRL over SDF:M makes it more marketable? If that's the case, you're forgetting that HG has claimed they own DYRL and its designs as well, and once again that DYRL visuals have been used in place of SDF:M visuals in recaps already in M7. On top of that, hasn't it been stated by Kawamori that the "true" story of SW1 is "somewhere inbetween SDF:M and DYRL"? I recall this being stated ages ago, long before Macross Zero or any "timespace disturbance" were around. Seriously, the 1995 thing being either the date at which Macross and the real world timelines diverge, or some other plot element that has yet been revealed (The latter being less likely since it was introduced to the chronology when M0 was big news and there was no talk of a 25th anniversary series) are more plausible explanations at this point, unless something new is revealed.

Because it's a dramatized and sped up sequence meant at least as much to look visually impressive as to convey a general idea of what occurred over the past 49 years, wrapped up in about half a minute's worth of footage.

Absolutely brilliant first episode, loved all of the nods to previous Macross shows (both subtle and obvious). I'm not following the "this is obviously an alternate universe reboot" talk. Everything seems pretty solidly based in the established Macross universe. Using DYRL visuals for the historical recap is pretty standard for Macross now. Has been since...DYRL pretty much. In fact, isn't the general rule of thumb that the "true" SW1 was a mix of SDF's story and DYRL's visuals, while not strictly adhering to either? There was a whole thread devoted to that topic alone a long time ago. As for

I hope this series ups the chances of us seeing a New Macross class ship in toy form sometime. I know it's not universally popular among Macross fans, but I rather like it.

I remember seeing this like maybe a year ago? I forget. It was awesome then, and it's awesome now. I seriously would have bought a 360 by now if that had been released. When I first saw it I was posting "Michael Wilson for President" signs everywhere. XD

I like them. Slight improvement to what we got. Of course, I'm a fan of the more subdued as opposed to ricer Bumblebee and wacky surfer-dude Prime. I wouldn't re-buy these guys for the Japanese schemes, though if Megatron is along these lines, that I would certainly consider re-buying.

"Great Dimensional Waterfall"? "Team Gurren"? "We stick to our crazy guns, and kick reason to the curb?"

I haven't had time to go back and rewatch, but I recall rather enjoying the style of episode 4, and being rather put off by all the negative comments slung its way, and being incredibly put off by the drama that unfolded over in Japan because of it. Then again, I also rather liked the animation in Paradise Kiss so...

I do not understand any of these comparisons between Brazil's setting and Blade Runner's? Other than falling under the very broad moniker of "dystopian", they head off in pretty fundamentally different directions. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the comments, though.

I would disagree that it looks 2D. I'm guessing they wanted the visual benefits of a more dynamic camera. At least, I'd assume they would take advantage of that somehow, and the screenshots I saw in EGM seem to point in that direction. I prefere the look of 2D sprites, however you're limited to that static side-on view at all times, unless you want to put in serious work animating sprites, and even then it the camera would only be able to move for brief, scripted segments. Actually, then you'd have to animate the background too, and unless the background were 3D that would just be too much work altogether. I'm willing to wait and see if they make the best use of the medium to make the game look fantastic in motion. As it is, in static shots I'd rather see 2D sprites, especially nice hi-res sprites that look good in hi-def. Somehow missed that. Well , I still expect little dynamic camera embellishments, like in replays or the slow motion end of the fight final hit.

Wow. Just, wow.

I've always been skeptical about this idea. I'm pretty certain Nintendo is making as many as they can to maximize their profits. What good is it for them to withhold supply to drive up demand? That doesn't create more customers, it creates fewer customers who are willing to pay more. However, Nintendo doesn't benefit from those customers paying more, since it's the scalpers, and the scalpers alone, who reap those profits. The idea that a console developer deliberately keeping supply down creates more customers seems kinda like the tail wagging the dog to me. The thing for console developers, all console developers, and especially early on in the life of a new console, is to get as many consoles as possible into as many homes as possible to create that install base that will lure developers to your camp. Console development and production is such that console makers are pretty much getting their shipments out of the factory as quickly as they can to make a launch date they'd announced much earlier. Add to this that said launch date is almost always near Christmas, and you're pretty much guaranteed that it will be difficult to have enough units on shelves for everyone. After a while, demand generally falls to a level that the console developer can more easily keep units on shelves. However, if demand doesn't die down, the console remains difficult to find. The Wii is still selling like hotcakes. As late as Wario Ware's release, at least, people were still willing to wait overnight outside a store because there was supposed to be a shipment that night. Now, one could argue that said console maker should simply open up new factories to produce more units, and depending on the level of sustained demand, that may be true, the tricky part is figuring out how long you can sustain that level of demand without spending too much on new production facilities. We've seen time and again that there is no guarantee that a successful console developer one night might not suddenly find themselves the least popular console developer the next.

But he specifically stated that he wasn't questioning you that the effects economies of scale exist, but questioning whether the costs anime distributers face really are justifiable cause the 100% markup anime DVDs sell for. I can think of several responses to that, posting a link to a wikipedia page about economies of scale isn't one of those responses. I probably would have conceded that the limited print run probably didn't affect the cost as much as the costs the distributer faces with the translating and dubbing, and then went on to explain that said translation and dubbing are the likely cause of the markup anime faces, a cost domestic releases, not matter how niche, do not have to deal with. That's not to say the extra cost of a limited print run doesn't exist, no one has questioned that, just that it's probably not so much a burden that it pushes the cost of the individual DVDs beyond what you would see for a similarly limited run of domestic DVDs. Unless I'm mistaken, that's the assertion he was speaking of. Or I may have tried to do a bit of research on just how what sort of numbers one can generally expect a print run of a niche domestic release, like Bubba Hotep, to be produced in, to see if it's truly comparable to the numbers an anime DVD is generally produced in. More than likely that would have been too much work, so I would have probably just brought that up to prod someone else into doing the actual work.

I doubt we're going to see eye to eye on this. Redeeming Vader wasn't exactly a tertiary thread to the Star Wars story until the prequels came about, it was a pretty central goal for Luke "There's good in him, I can feel it" Skywalker throughout Jedi. Whereas Mylene's love life coming to a nicely wrapped up conclusion was not at all necessary. No, the "redeeming Vader" aspect is much more closely analogous to Basara attempting to get people to understand his beliefs, or Gigil attempting to wake the sleeping Sivil. In fact, I'd argue that Gamlin's actions and feelings at the end of the show, with how the love triangle remains unresolved, do, in fact, show us something about him and how he's grown as a character. Others have mentioned that in M7 threads in the past. Also, resolving a love triangle is only one way to end a story arc, having the female lead decide she doesn't necessarily need to run to the arms of one or the other is another way to end a story arc (and I'd also argue that shows us something about her own character), and simply because it's uncommon in anime doesn't mean it's a poor way to do it. I'd also say it's less uncommon a way to end a story arc outside of anime, and that yes, anime does tend to have a very cliche way of handling romance.

That's a pretty poor analogy. Vader being Luke's dad was pretty central to the theme of the Star Wars trilogy from moment it was introduced. The love triangle in M7 didn't have any real impact on the central themes of the story at all. Suddenly dropping the Luke's Dad theme, or simply ignoring it at the end, would have been inconsistent with the characters as they were written and the story buildup throughout the movie series, whereas the way the love triangle in M7 is entirely consistent with those characters, and the way the series progressed it was never a given that the love triangle must be "resolved". That idea comes entirely from expectations and cliches so common in other shows.

You mean reverting to a more human form? You do realize that the Protodevlin had no real bodies, right?