Radd

Why interject real life at all? Why not have the human characters flying around under their own power, and breathing in space, and reading minds! Saying that because some aspects of the show are unrealistic makes it unnecessary for any realism whatsoever has never been a good argument, and there are entire books on storytelling explaining why. Besides, I'd say there was a certain element of realism in the character development throughout the entire M7 series, particularly in the way people around Basara responded to him as a character. Real world reactions of people on this very forum pretty well mirrored the in-show reactions of many characters, across the spectrum. Gamlin's slow growth as a character throughout the series, and the relationship between Basara, Mylene, and Gamlin I'd also say fall into that, and were pretty consistent throughout the series So it wasn't really something that popped up just at the end.

Actually, I was pretty happy with how the love story was handled. Like much about the series, it seemed very unusual for an anime.

I thought it was a great ending. There were certainly some things I thought were mishandled, but those had less to do with the ending than how certain characters had been presented during the course of the series. Docker, Physicaa, and Kinryu all should have had a much bigger presence in the show, which would have made the ending all the more satisfying. Aside from Gigil, I think the writers also missed a lot of opportunities with the Protodevlin, which also restrained how good the series overall could be, but all things considered I loved the ending, from the moment Gamlin marched into the hospital, to the final notes fading out in the end song, I can watch that over and over again. To me, a lot of the anime I watch seems to fall flat at the end, but I thought the end of M7 was one of it's high points, along with Gigil's death and the Operation Stargazer episodes, where all of the best parts of the show came together really well.

I agree that it's too early to start making up theories, I was just thinking that I heard this "timespace anomaly" thing appearing in the chronology before the first episode of Zero, or at least when the OVA was still in production. If I'm remembering correctly, then I'd take that as a sign that it's not something that relates to Frontier specifically.

I don't know, I seem to recall people speculating that Zero was an alternate timeline because it was still in production, or not yet out, at the time this talk of a 1995 timespace anomaly first came up. I'm fairly certain it was longer ago than earlier this year.

Wasn't the timespace anomaly thing added around the time Zero was released?

Quoted for emphasis. The Wii is unlikely to drop in price until sales begin to slack, and the competition begins to catch up. This is also why the DS has not seen a significant price drop. The PS2 didn't see much in the way of price drops for a long time, and even now costs more than a Gamecube did several years ago. Why drop the price when you're outselling everyone else? On the other hand, this is also why the Gamecube dropped so drastically in price. It was so far behind everyone else, that Nintendo had to make it as appealing as possible. This isn't as painful for Nintendo to do as it is for other companies, as Nintendo always seems to manage to drop their price while still selling for a profit, whereas Sony and Microsoft always sell at a loss until very late in the game. That last part is very important, this is why we're unlikely to see the PS3 come down in price very quickly. Sony is already selling it for as much of a loss as they can afford.

You also have to understand that when designing characters/mecha/whatever for a show, you have to create basically what the suits with the money want you to create. Miyatake did a fantastic job with the technorganic Zentradi ships and designs for both the original tv series and movie, there no reason he shouldn't be able to do a similar job with something like the Protodevlin, or the these new organic enemies. Individual designers, or even creators, do not have 100% control over what they're doing. They've got bosses whom they answer to. Design requirements they must work within.

"Honey, honey! The insurance papers!" "Oh, I'll sign those when I get back. What could go wrong?"

Heh, I kinda find it funny you have both these questions here. They killed Gigil for the same reason you suggest they ought to have killed Gamlin. Personally, I thought that episode was one of the best in the series for that very reason, and Gigil became one of my favourite characters. I think the big flaw with "death" in the show was not how they brought back Gamlin, though I do see and even agree with what you're saying, but how they handled the characters that did die, other than Gigil. People tend to forget Physicaa and Kinryu, and I think that is due more to how they were handled when they were alive, than their death sequences. Kinryu spent a good deal of time comatose in a hospital bed, and didn't make a particularly strong impression when he was up and about before that, like if Fokker had never gotten any screen time or had been shown to have strong relationships with Hikaru and Claudia. He never seemed like a part of the main cast, nor given the ties to them. Physicaa was even more of a wall flower, which is a shame because his death, and the epilogue to it, were executed extremely well and made him an interesting character post-mortem. There was also the issue with Docker getting a death sequence but then getting shown being pulled alive from his downed 19. I suspect people don't complain about that because he was on the same level as Kinryu and Physicaa on the character totem pole. His death would have made very little impact. This is why, as Kelsain put it, Gamlin's death would have been more powerful. He was established, and like Gigil he had grown as a character. In fact, he'd grown and matured a lot more, more than anyone else in the series, really. Of course, that's also why killing him would have been detrimental to the series. No one else had come so far since the beginning, and I believe it was after that not-quite-death-scene where they really drive that point home, and show just how far he's come.

I'm worried about how the CG will look. Mostly the animation. On the other hand, it's showing at the Sundance Theatre in town, which has a bar right in the theatre, and midnight showings Friday and Saturday, so it might be a fun night out with some friends.

Is THAT why people were getting all uptight about the magnetic discharge when the VF-25 transforms? Wow.

I'm very worried if Bandai has the license. Macross 7 was apparently very popular in Japan, and look how horribly Bandai handled that. It's not like they're not capable of creating great toys, it just seems that when it comes to Macross they don't even try. On the other hand, if they did actually put a little effort into it, that could be great. I'd like to see them give Yamato a run for their money. I recently passed on ordering Shin's VF-0A with Ghost because I was certain it would be less important to me once Macross 25 toys started showing, but if Bandai drops the ball with the Macross toy license again...gah. It would be a shame, especially with how great the VF-25 and the VF-171 both look.

Bullshit? Hardly. I do see your point, GitS:SAC was hardly as clean looking as the Appleseed movie and so much of today's CG, a lot of the background art and whatnot was suitably gritty for the world they were depicting (as opposed to the overly clean CG backgrounds shown in the Appleseed movie), but that world was much closer to today's world than that depicted in your typical Shirow manga, which had many very organic designs in the building, mecha, outfits, etcetera. A lot of the workshops and maintenance areas had the look of a greasy, well used garage much moreso than a sterile medical environment as such places were depicted in GitS:SAC. Though a part of it is style and artistic direction, I have the same issue with a lot of digitally done 2D animation for the reason that no matter the scenes they'tr trying to depict, it often looks too clean simply due to the colours being so flat and perfect, as well as the American tendency to amp up sharpness and colour saturation for North American releases. Simply put, no one takes the time to add imperfections to digital work, whether it is 2D or 3D. This mostly applies to the characters and 3D CG work in GitS:SAC, as again the backgrounds had a rather painterly look much of the time, and looked suitably grungy for the more contemporary world the show's creators were aiming for.

Rehash of Mario 64? Kinda. In much the same way that Portal is just a rehash of Half Life 2.

Honestly? Wow, you're cutting yourself off from the bulk of great portable games that are coming out these days. Personally, I'd be hard pressed to even consider any future portables that don't include a touchscreen, many of my favourite DS games use it to great effect. Hmm, as for Phantom Hourglass, I did not experience any of the issues David describes. Link moved intuitively, never got stuck on any doors, and the only control issue I faced was doing his little roll move (which I don't believe I've encountered a place in the game where it's necessary) can be more difficult than necessary to pull off. Part of the problem may be that you don't draw paths for Link aside from a little dungeon puzzle where you draw a path for a floating platform across a chasm with a few very forgiving obstacles, so if you're treating the game as if you're drawing a path for Link, I can certainly see that causing issues as Link will turn the moment you "draw" a turn in his "path", since he's not following a path, just the stylus movements you make right then and there. It's more like using the stylus as an analogue stick, except that it's pulled off much better than the clumsy attempt to port Mario 64 to the DS way, way back. If there's a reason not to like Phantom Hourglass, the touch controls can hardly be justified after spending a bit of time with the game. Personally, the worst part of the game is that one dungeon you constantly have to go back to. That's the one thing in the game I could do without.

I got my MP Megatron at an anime convention. No plug to be removed.

The CG looks much better. It appears they're dropping the "CG that tries to look like cel" angle and simply going in a nice, highly stylized unabashedly CG direction. There still appears to be some issues with animation, character moving with that clumsy, wooden marionette look. Speaking of wooden, the facial expressions still seem to be fairly rigid, but not nearly so awkward as in the first movie. Overall, huge visual improvement. Storywise...well, no use in trying to discern that much from a trailer. I have to admit, after just how awful the storytelling and plot in the first movie was, I do not have high hopes. I do agree with >EXO< on how everything looks too clean. I had the same issue with the first Appleseed movie, even GitS:SAC to be honest. Shirow's comic work has always had this gritty, organic feel to it that has been entirely absent from all of the animated versions of his work since at least the 80's. This isn't a technical limitation, either.

I've never regretted getting MP Megatron. Easily the best Megatron toy I've ever seen. He's a bit more awkward to pose, and possibly a bit more fragile than MP Prime, but that's kinda like saying a tank is a little more fragile than a bulldozer. MP Megatron survived a fall from my desk without even a scratch. Granted, the floor was carpeted, but if one of my Yamato VFs took a spill like that I would have had a fit. He stands eye to eye with MP Prime, possibly a bit taller. I've had no issue with weak joints on mine.

Not quite. Whether or not a person liked what the end product was is opinion, but when it gets right down to it, stating whether or not an artist can draw a straight line or not is entirely objective. Unless you're saying different people can have different opinions as to what constitutes a "straight line"? What I'm saying is you need to separate the opinion from the observation. *edit* Hmm, upon rereading your last post, I believe you're misunderstanding me. Take the animation team on Beowulf, I remember the thread, and I believe the discussion was how the realistic textures threw the models into uncanny valley in a rather hard way, and that this was further hurt by the awkward, marionette-looking animation. These statements are all observations. Whether or not it bothers any given viewer is subjective, but stating, "Well, I thought the animation was incredibly fluid and natural!" does not get a free pass to ride the, "That's my opinion" train. Back to how it relates to Appleseed, so Subject A might not care that the characters all had wooden, robotic facial expressions, but that's immaterial and irrelevant if the characters were indeed displaying wooden and awkward facial expressions that could be observed and compared. From there I suppose one could argue, "Well, it's only your opinion that they were awkward and wooden", and that's entirely correct in the, "Well it's my opinion that Groening can draw a more realistic human figure than DaVinci" camp of subjectivity.

That's why you ask the person to expand on the comment. Saying "it looks bad" may be subjective opinion, but it also may be based on some rather objective observations. Saying, "The characters looked awful!" is subjective opinion, but pointing out the issues the animators had with movement and facial expressions, or the plastic looking saran wrap look the shading engine gave everything and comparing it to the 2D shading it was attempting to emulate, then you've turned the corner at Subjective Opinion, and Artistic Criticism.

I think that statement misses the point. The problem usually isn't CG animation, but bad CG. I also suspect you may be a bit off base with that "way of the future" comment, but I'm not entirely certain how you mean? Of course we'll continue to see CG animation, though I imagine it's kinda peaked and we're due for a resurgence of 2D animation, in addition to more movies/tv shows making better use of both mediums to compliment and enhance each other. Not to mention, computer driven 2D animation, though that is also not so much "the way of the future" as "they way things are now and will likely continue to be until something better comes along....in the future."

Gah, I made the mistake of reading the comments. Someone actually complimented the animation, but couldn't see how it was related to Macross. But ja, I'm glad that never got made, and Frontier is looking so promising.

Wasn't able to post, but caught this last night while running a bit late for work. Since I was waiting on someone else, I was able to sit and watch it a few times through. It looks fantastic. The overall art style seems to still be very much in tune with Zero and 7, and I'm very happy about that. I'm pretty happy with the character designs, and I love the VF-25 design. Looks like a fantastic mesh of old and new, polished to a mirror shine. I'm also glad that the CG in the video looks so much better than those grainy photos we saw so long ago. Looking fantastic so far. Can't wait until it's finally here.

I just wish that the Japanese release would be different colours. I mean, ja, do the G1 colour scheme, but it's entirely possible to do it in a much better looking way than the Hasbro version. Kinda like how the original MP Prime and even the first Hasbro release of MP Prime both look so much better than the version currently clogging the shelves at Walmart.