Radd

Heh, was distracted by the metaverse article linked from the page. But ja, Yamato heal thyself? My brother-in-law goes to school there.

I rather like Battle 7 and Battle 13 myself. I would say it's rather early to start making assumptions, especially assumptions like this. Or that a cat will pilot a bright red Valkyrie and shoot magical music beams from its robo-cat-boobs before explaining how we need to recycle to save the universe.

I'm not keen on the removeable parts, even if they are held on with wires. That one also looked like it had trouble keeping parts connected, but maybe it's a display piece and the production versions will hold together better? Also, did it speak at the end? I thought Bumblebee was mute in the movie? Maybe that's just the beginning.

Agreed, basically, what Hollywood does these days is to make their films appeal to the broadest audience possible. That means both an appeal to the lowest common denominator, and making their films a sort of generic catch-all mush that has "something for everybody". The saying "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. Different people have different tastes, and if you craft a really solid movie designed along specific tastes and ideas, it will be wildly successful...with the group it's targeted at. As studio executives who've backed Terry Gilliam movies could tell you, that's not where the money is. Of course, on the other hand Hollywood's dominance of the industry seems to slowly, but surely, be on something of a decline, while independent films seem to be gaining popularity. Possibly because of too many AvP and Starship Troopers clunkers? Specifically regarding PG-13 versus R ratings, I personally do not believe a movie needs to be R rated to be good, however, I would rather the creative side of movie makers stick to their guns and make the movie they have in mind, rather than fearing the almighty ratings board. Yes, abuse of language, violence, and sex to appeal to the lowest common denominator is bad. On the other hand, judicious and creative use of shocking language and imagery can make a movie better because of how it affects the audience.

Thanks much, I see it now.

Maybe I'm just haven't gotten enough sleep, but were there more character sketches? I'm not seeing the one with the cat.

I heard someone say Galactus will be a giant gas cloud or something in the Silver Surfer movie. Ja, seriously doubt there's any danger of that. They may be making lots of choices I dislike with the TF movie, but at least they're still robots that transform into other things. I'm sure I'll piss and moan at his design (I hate these movie designs) if they do have him in one of the future movies, but so long as the movie is fun to watch otherwise I'll be mostly alright with it.

So if they're already dead set on three movies, I wonder what the chances are of Unicron making an appearance somewhere in there?

I hope you're kidding, if not then you're looking for things to be worried about. The "school story" comment I can see as being cause for concern (reigned in by the fact that this hasn't really told us anything), but a character may have a cat? Not really rating very high up there as far as warning signs go. I'd also like to see these drawings. Even if they are rough, I'm mainly interested in seeing what direction the character design style is going.

I used ZoomPlayer to play it, and it worked just fine. I avoid codec packs for the most part.

Anime Sky Scraper? They just use HK bootleg subs, don't they? They don't do any actual subtitling themselves as far as I know. Take their subtitles with a huge grain of salt, or better yet grab the Central Anime version with some actual well done fansubbing.

No one is arguing that. They're making a Sims movie, after all.

They're raping me....wait, no, scratch that. I never liked Thundercats to begin with. I remember when it was announced WB was doing a Wonder Twins movie. I feel about the same way. It just seems like such a bad idea.

Just finished 10, and started downloading 11. I've watched the entire series so far in two sittings, and the only reason it took two sittings is because I'd only downloaded 3 episodes to see if the show was any good. Gotta say I'm with the others, Kamina needed to die. Kamina was already awesome, he knew who he was and what he wanted. The story is about Simon, that's where the character development needs to take place. Been quite a ride so far, I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

I so want to be onboard for this. I loved the tv series, however.... ...is exactly what I'm worried about. The movies were bad enough at dumbing Eva down for an audience that wanted a slam-bang action extravaganza rather than a complex character deconstruction. (And no, I don't buy in to the whole "Well, the tv series was in Shinji's head, and the movie ending was what really happened". What happened was the audience was expecting X-Men and got The Watchmen, so for the movie they wrote out Ozymandias and wrote in Magneto, took all the subtlety, the thought provoking and even uplifting bits out of the end, and cashed in on the action sequence showdown with all of the style but none of the substance.) On the other hand, if this does turn out to be good, I was never a fan of the actual Eva designs, so the changes in that department don't really bother me. I'll give it a shot. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be as promethuem5 suggests.

Er, I'd agree that a lot of people moan and complain a bit too much, but I'm not at all certain that has anything to do with the direction Macross is going in (and I'm not even certain what direction that is, because it seems to me that the themes of the show seem to remain pretty constant, and the presentation varies and does not seem to have settled on any one way of approaching the franchise). Also, the fact that Zero was not all that profitable for them only proves one thing, that it was not profitable. Why was it not profitable? Well, that's debatable, but a quick survey would seem to indicate that it was not that profitable because not a whole of people liked it a whole lot. NOT because they're unwilling to spend money on something they like, but because they didn't like it and they are not willing to spend money on something they didn't like. That is a distinction studio executives seem to have a lot of trouble making. Of course, the western and eastern markets are different, and the opinions expressed on these boards do not necessarily reflect those of your average Japanese Macross fan. I will also agree, though, that it's far too early to get all up in arms about this new series. A teenage main character? Nothing new to Macross, since even the beginning the characters were primarily teenagers. Plus is actually the odd one out, Isamu and company being in the general area of 25 years old. School show? I doubt they're going to make it a shojou school drama, so why not wait until we have more information?

Actually, one of the trends I'm starting to see is games that blur the line between single player and multiplayer. Wish I could recall the names offhand, but I saw one game about an alternate history where the knights Templar never died out and the renaissance never took place. In single player mode you play through a typical single player experience, but the "NPCs" are can at times be actual players playing the online multiplayer which sets them into the single player world with goals of their own. There's also an RTS game with a similar idea behind it, or at least that's how it sounded from what I read. People predicted the end of single player games around the time of Quake 3 and the first Unreal Tournament. Hasn't actually happened, I don't see it ever happening. The market seems to be moving towards a broader appeal, not a narrower appeal. A Price drop for the PS3 will be a good thing, definitely, and certainly the smartest option for Sony if they can afford it. Still, I haven't heard that they plan to drop the price for the version with the gimped backwards compatibility. It sounded like they were going to do it to cut costs, but not drop the price. We'll see.

Ja, like others have mentioned, it was Kamjin what killed the Roy in DYRL (wasn't it?). I believe his TV series death was made so much more personal and tragic because of the slow, drawn out way he died, and in Claudia's own quarters no less. In DYRL it was a more heroic death (saving Hikaru and Misa while being taken out by none other than Kamjin) but it was a faster, more violent death. It wasn't given time to hit home quite so hard as the tv series scene. Personally, aside from Roy's SDF death, I think the most tragic death we see is poor Physica in M7. Not only does he get killed, but they really hit below the belt with that scene of Gamlin going to deliver the news to Physica's wife. It's like the writers were trying to atone for all the times they didn't kill a character in the series. Oh, you want to talk about someone getting shafted for a death scene, how about poor Kakizaki? I mean, in the TV series his death is pretty sad. but then in the movie it's just funny. "Hah-hah! You're afraid of gir*KABAMIRONICALLYBLOWNUPBYAGIRL* ..." Just goes to show, it's not the death itself that makes for a sad show, it's the presentation. Also, except for I believe Dynamite 7, every single Macross show has had some tear jerking death scenes (I think, it's been a long time since I saw Macross II, did that have any particularly sad death scenes?) so it's a safe bet that a new tv series will as well. Even Macross 7, considered the most light hearted part of Macross, has at least a couple. I think it's safe to assume that he died of old age. Go check out the chonology at the Macross Compendium some time.

Agreed. Agreed 100%. If the black streaks stay (I can handle a little, chalk it up to carbon scoring from battle, but that crap stain down the back of the jet has got to go) then the only way I'll get this version is if it has structural improvements that never see a Japanese SS release. Even then I'll be bitter.

I think Graham has the right idea. We should avoid irrational and ill fitting left/right diatribes (which, last I checked, were wisely considered verboten on this forum anyways), and concentrate on what we know or speculate of the upcoming show. Personally, I don't believe Macross' primary themes have ever, not from DYRL to M7 or Zero, strayed much from the main themes and ideas in SDF. Presentation is what has changed, and that's pretty much it. They've given more weight to some themes over others, but they're the same themes we grew up with Hikaru, Minmay, Misa, and all the rest. I don't expect this to change with the new series, but the question of presentation is certainly valid. As for the name? As far as I know there is no set name yet. Isn't that just a placeholder for the show given it's the 25th anniversary or somesuch? Until there's an official announcement of the series name I'm not going to jump to any conclusions.

Agreed, and as far as that goes we can hope he does the same with this new series no matter his level of inveolement otherwise. Again, I just hope the show is "good". The other details I'm far less concerned with.

No, I haven't watched Arjuna, so I can't comment there. Still, a lot of these complaints baffle me. "Contributed nothing to the chronology"? Not everything needs to be a major, history making event. One might very well be able to argue the point with Zero, though. Yes, the events were classified, but the series adds the VF-1 testbed plane to the chronology, and introduces aspects which could easily be expanded upon in a later series. Keith keeps bringing up how he'd like to see a series tie in humanity's first encounter with the Protoculture (In Zero!) with a big end all series and mankinds final "test". I can definitely see what he's getting at there. There's definitely enough there to set up a 'passing of the torch' between the galaxy's outgoing major civilization with the rising human civilization across the galaxy. "Oodles of nature loving"? I can understand it not being a theme one might be particularly interested in, but in Dynamite and Zero it was not really the central theme, and there was plenty of other things going on. Neither series was exactly "Captain Planet NATURE IN UR FACE YO!" And actually, while most of the characters IN Zero were never fleshed out all that much, I really appreciated that Shin broke out the stereotype he starts out as. Grim, humourless loner. Best at what he does, but too unfriendly to make friends. He busts out of that pretty quickly. From a writing perspective, I'd say he breaks out of the archetype mold more solidly than Guld or Isamu. Can't say I see M7 as whimsical satire. Seems more like a good story that just got bogged down with less than stellar writing and directing. Between the themes, characters, and overall story I find more than enough to enjoy it, but...well, I've stated my view on that already in this thread. I haven't seen Spring and Chaos in years, but I recall enjoying that aside from the terrible CG. I don't see why the anthro animal thing puts you off so much. Seemed a rather stylistic thing to me. But I digress. Even though we might not see eye to eye on the specific points, I can see why people might not want Kawamori involved beyond "OMGM7sucks!", which is usually what I see people saying, and I can certainly understand that. Kawamori did Aquarion too, didn't he? That didn't really hold my attention. It just seems to me that the absolute vehemence directed towards his storytelling capabilities is more than slightly exaggerated.

Heh, that was awesome. She looked so happy that she finally got the flowers to him, too. And the moment he hops into his 19? Tosses them to the side and forgets all about them.

I need to stop reading comments on other forums. "Those carbon streaks are incredibly realistic for this jet!" Ararararrarrraaraaraagh! *edit* Say, I don't suppose the rumour mill has cooked up any possibility of an Alternator's Frenzy to go with Rumble? I realize Rumble isn't the most popular Alternator.

I hope they're both on board. Beyond doing the tech designs, I'm not concerned with exactly how much Kawamori is involved so long as the show turns out decent. I'm not certain I understand the sentiment against him, though. He's only really made on OVA that people didn't fall all over with glee, and that was Zero. Macross 7, which seems to split the fanbase, is exactly what Terry suggest, Kawamori did the basic plot, and other writers handled the rest, and yet another person directed. At least, that's how I understand it.