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HG and Robotech Debates, ep. 8


azrael

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It's キャプテン・ハーロック but says on the cover of my Japanese artbook in English "Captain Herlock". Herlock is just a spelling, not a romanization. Harlock is apparently also used in Japan when his name appears in romaji.

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Another Robotech fan making crap up on the fly...

http://www.robotech.com/community/forum/read.php?id=2135575&forumid=24

The "Quarter" on the name comes from the...

acronymous for C.Q.B.:Close Quarters Battle,and is a ship intended for close range combat against other spaceships(and it proves very reliable)wrecking havok in between combat formations(an usual maneuver could be de-folding onto the enemy lines,shoot main gun and then folding back again to his own lines).

...which of course is nothing to do with what the Macross Quarter actually does or why it's named the "Macross Quarter." :lol:

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I get the feeling most Robotech fans can't even really use the internet..

Not can't, don't. Most of the level-headed fans have said "screw it, this is dumb" when they've realized it's become it 5-year self-reinforced circle jerk with no actual new product.

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Not can't, don't. Most of the level-headed fans have said "screw it, this is dumb" when they've realized it's become it 5-year self-reinforced circle jerk with no actual new product.

No, really...I was talking with a Robotech fan here a couple of years ago who DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT MACROSS PLUS WAS... For another Robotech fan, I uploaded something to Megaupload, and he said, "Uhhh...how do I download this...?"

And Wanzerfan, as I hinted, can't even use the web for fact-checking.

Thus, Robotech fans don't understand the internet.

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That's the pot calling the kettle.......

No, "Pot calling the kettle..." is suggesting hypocracy in the intended subject's statement. "Ignorance is ignorant", is simply stating the obvious.
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No, really...I was talking with a Robotech fan here a couple of years ago who DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT MACROSS PLUS WAS... For another Robotech fan, I uploaded something to Megaupload, and he said, "Uhhh...how do I download this...?"

And Wanzerfan, as I hinted, can't even use the web for fact-checking.

Thus, Robotech fans don't understand the internet.

dude, that's three examples. Most RT fans, the bulk of the audience, are the casual fans who don't give a crap about any online forums. Harcdocre fans tend to be the fringe. I was just in a Star Trek forum, and I uploaded a picture of my Nook that turned into an Android tablet and made it look like a PADD. The responses I got were "where'd you download it the grapchics, how'd you do that?" Even after I answered, I still got quesetions, like they hadn't heard of Google. Even then, I wouldn't say most Star Trek fans don't know how to use the net.

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dude, that's three examples. Most RT fans, the bulk of the audience, are the casual fans who don't give a crap about any online forums. Harcdocre fans tend to be the fringe. I was just in a Star Trek forum, and I uploaded a picture of my Nook that turned into an Android tablet and made it look like a PADD. The responses I got were "where'd you download it the grapchics, how'd you do that?" Even after I answered, I still got quesetions, like they hadn't heard of Google. Even then, I wouldn't say most Star Trek fans don't know how to use the net.

...no, you wouldn't. But you're fairer than I am.

I used to think that all Robotech fans were insane, thanks to idiots like the dude who accosted me in Books Nippan in 1987, demanding to know why the Armies of the Southern Cross were never even given A CHANCE against the Invid.

Then, thanks to JT, I changed my mind, and decided that some Robotech fans were okay.

More recently, I learned that, no, most of them are insane. I think of of only two (maybe three) with their heads screwed on straight. The rest? Ennnh....

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More recently, I learned that, no, most of them are insane. I think of of only two (maybe three) with their heads screwed on straight. The rest? Ennnh....

It all goes back to what I was saying before about when there's nothing going on, the only ones who are left are the ones putting on the self-reinforced circle-jerk. When I ran my blog, there things going on, stuff getting released, to actually talk about. A movie comes out, a new comic, then BAM, you get people wanting to be a part of the disccusssion. When there's nothing going on, they leave. Those who remain are the obsessed, the ones who are a little bit off. Like Bendo who can talk about the different kind of gun clips on Veritech cannons for six hours straight.

When stuff comes out, level-headed people will be drawn to it and say "cool, let's see what else they put out" and leave when there's nothing. It's that lunatic fringe who keeps saying "OMG THIS IS THE BEST AND WE'LL GET A MOVIE AND A SERIES AND TOYS AND IT'LL NEVER STOP!" even after it's clear things are done and washed up.

Even the last issue of Protoculture Addicts, when it was still an all RT-fanzine, said something to the effect of "Let's be realistic - The Sentinels was bad, the Movie was bad, let's move onto other things"

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More recently, I learned that, no, most of them are insane. I think of of only two (maybe three) with their heads screwed on straight. The rest? Ennnh....

I'm a Robotech fan and yet, I don't have Tommy on speed dial on my phone :p

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Okay guys, here's a little secret:

Harmony Gold isn't what you'd call a "real" production company by any Hollywood standards. I say this as a true Hollywood professional of over 12 years. And I don't say that to brag, but rather drive home the point that HG is literally nothing in Hollywood.

In the 1980's, Frank Agrama was an entrepreneurial businessman who saw the value of buying international rights to American TV Shows and movies and then sell them overseas. And he also imported, like Anime, which many other companies had started doing. He wanted Macross, it was too short for the American syndication market, thus Robotech is born.

But over the years, with the syndication market dying down, no one in Hollywood gave a crap or knew who Harmony Gold was. Frank Agrama continued to make his money from international sales, later in real estate, and a private theater he owned that was rented out for special events. And there's some shady dealing with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi that have been investigated, but I'll let you do your research on that.

But he always owned Robotech. It made money through some licensing deals like Comics in the early 90's, got a boost in the Chinese market around that time, and it continued collecting checks.

When it came time for them to try and make Robotech big again, it was headed by a number of people who hadn't worked in entertainment in years, or never really at all, but more importantly, it not really willing to learn.

When running my Shadow Chronicles blog, the one thing I was told by multiple professionals who dealt with HG was the sheer amount of ignorance that came from them. Well intentioned as they may be, they just really had no idea what they were doing, or how to go about things. This point was only driven home to me with the amount of question I personally was being asked by the HG staff on how to handle certain things.

And honestly, that's why I love reading and ranting about HG's lack of professionalism on obscure message boards, because most of it is right.

But what is Big West? They handle advertizing on anime related projects not create them. They own Macross but the don't create they farm back to the original creators...

No, "Pot calling the kettle..." is suggesting hypocracy in the intended subject's statement. "Ignorance is ignorant", is simply stating the obvious.

He's the guy that joked on Carl Macek's passing on the day it was announced. If that's not ignorance I don't know what it is..

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But what is Big West? They handle advertizing on anime related projects not create them. They own Macross but the don't create they farm back to the original creators...

I have no idea how Big West operates, nor do I have an idea on how the Japanese entertainment industry works. That post I made (back in October) was show how HG operated.

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Well a lot of anime is overseen and produced by companies that are not directly related to the act of animating a new show. We shouldn't single out either Big West or HG for that.

It's just Big West has someone they can actually trust to do something professional and competent each time they make a new show. Harmony Gold gave the keys to some really inexperienced people and hoped something good would come of it.

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More recently, I learned that, no, most of them are insane. I think of of only two (maybe three) with their heads screwed on straight. The rest? Ennnh....

I have to agree with Darkwater. For example, while it could be too early to tell, if a lot of fans were as insane as you say about Robotech, there should have been a whole lot of hype about Robotech Love Live Alive on the Internet since the announcement months ago. Just a title and a couple of seconds of new footage on a documentary should have been enough to start it, because OMG it's Robotech, the groundbreaking series that... (yadda yadda yadda). Unfortunately, after poking around for a long time on the Internet, aside from HG's website, sites operated by close associates, a couple of reviews of the A&E DVD release, talkshoe podcasters, and first hand accounts of people who were there at the documentary's premire, few people not heavily invested in Robotech as others care about it so far. It might pick up once more material surfaces, but for now I think either there are more level headed fans out there than we thought or far too many people have been screwed by previous Robotech material to care as much as before.

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... few people not heavily invested in Robotech as others care about it so far....but for now I think either there are more level headed fans out there than we thought or far too many people

Like many things, it's the vocal minority.

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Like many things, it's the vocal minority.

It's that vocal crazy minority that makes me not go to anime conventions.

It wasn't bad here, but on other forums for example people were celebrating when Macek died. That's just ****ed up man.

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I also agree with darkwater's theory. I'm a Robotech fan, but I don't post in RT.com because it's a commercial website and quite simply, there's nothing worth discussing anymore. All I see there is wishful thinking, fruitless discussions on vaporware (ie: the LAM) and the same discussions that I've had with friends years ago (ie: favorite episode, etc). If a new project were to be released that told a compelling story, then I'd probably go find a Robotech forum to post in, but not RT.com. I'd prefer to post in a forum that's not commercially driven.

Like many things, it's the vocal minority.

Quoted for truth!

Edited by TheLoneWolf
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He's the guy that joked on Carl Macek's passing on the day it was announced. If that's not ignorance I don't know what it is..

Not ignorance...maybe tasteless, but not ignorant.

As for the degrees of insanity amongst the RT fandom, I think the reason why they ALL seem a bit insane, is due to what we've come to understand. That is, all the "normal" fans just don't care, and don't need to express their orgasm for a made up piece of internet hearsay. The rt.com website has very much pushed the fandom into the current state of looking like a bunch of lunatics, by praising stupidity and blind faith, and shunning those that have a good valid opinion. I'm not saying anyone who has a positive look on anything Robotech is out there, but when rt.com has mass bans right after Shadow Chronicles, then right after the Carl Macek documentary, and usually after every release, there's a problem. That problem is on their end.

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But what is Big West? They handle advertizing on anime related projects not create them. They own Macross but the don't create they farm back to the original creators...

Yeah, in a nutshell, you're right. BigWest is part of an antiquated method of doing business in the anime industry where creators (Studio Nue, in the case of Macross) used to go to different agencies to sell their projects and get their material on the air. Nowadays there is the "production committee system" where creators team up with manufacturers, broadcasters and publishers etc, to get a cross-media IP up and running.

Both HG and BW have a stranglehold on their respective franchises.

The main difference is that HG tries to handle the creative stuff in-house, whereas they should really contract actual professional creative teams to plan their works, and then contract animation houses, etc. They skip the middle and most important part, and go straight from writing their own fanfics to getting them cheaply animated.

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He's the guy that joked on Carl Macek's passing on the day it was announced. If that's not ignorance I don't know what it is..

I'm the guy who doesn't pretend people deserve some kind of respect ofr dying. That's blunt, not ignorant.

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