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My first Macross Rewatch with my child!


arbit

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I finally rewatched Macross with my ten-year eleven-year old son.

Honestly, I was concerned whether he would bail after a few episodes, since he has been brought up on the best recent movies and cartoons, and he never shows interest in my toys and models.

The good news is that he seemed to love it, considering that he kept asking for more till we were done, and continued right on into DYRL subtitled. His comment on the recent Blu Ray was hilarious, "Why are the designs fuzzy?"

So all is good in the world, and it seems Macross will hold up for future generations.

I did introduce Macross to him in English, so it is still a good gateway after all.

Some funny observations from his little mind:

He had all the same questions I had when I first watched it in the 80's ("So who is Hikaru going to end up with, or is he going to keep going back and forth?").

"Is Misa coming back to the SDF-1, wouldn't want it to be left alone to Sammy and those three girls."

He even had a sharper eye than I did for the different mecha designs ("The Regults are the cannon fodder for the Zentraedi, right?")

He was definitely a Lisa fan, and had no patience for Minmay's attitude. Personally, I was always a Minmay fan.

("Why do you have so many Minmay figures?". "Uhhh, they're for your sister, son".

So there you go, the circle continues.

"Do you have a Max figure?"

And please post your experiences with your kids. It would be fun.

Edited by arbit
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"Why do you have so many Minmay figures?". "Uhhh, they're for your sister, son".

Macross Memorabilia collection: untold hundreds of Dollars

Macross on DVD to raise your 10-year-old son correctly: ~$60-$100

Getting called out on your Minmay figure collection by same 10-year-old son: Priceless!! :D

Edited by slide
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My 4 years old show interest in my Macross toys collection (locked behind the display case)

He would ask me what's the big tank with 4 cannons? (Monster), and who pilot the YF-19.

I showed him some clips of Monster (form Zero) and YF-19 air dance (Plus), he seems to enjoy it.

He is still too young to watch the TV series.

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He's only 10 but knows/uses the term "cannon fodder"? I'm going to assume you have a brownie VF-1A and frequently refer to it as such.

Of course! Valk names are all part of a healthy upbringing.

And my bad, he is eleven now.

Edited by arbit
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Ah yeah! I did post my experiences from time to time but never realized this should really be a thread.

So my 11yo son yesterday got a watch of both Frontier movies. He asked to skip over the raunchy part of Universal Bunny (his idea, not mine), so I guess if we get to the MF series he'll need to skip the panties episode.

He bombarded me with questions about who the real bad guys are - the Grace/Galaxy team or the Mishima/Frontier team. I was not sure what to answer though it seems to be "fanlore" that movie!Grace is somewhat better than series!Grace.

Lots of other questions too, I don't remember many of them. I'll ask him which ones I should find out for him on the Forum.

Previously, a couple of years earlier, he (then 9) and his brother (then 4) got to watch DYRL then SDFM then Macross 7 and enjoyed it all, especially Macross 7. That's when I understood that M7 was probably made *for* preteen boys - they were quite grand with all the stock footage and the repeated songs and the similar battles - and the BOMBA! They also liked the song Dynamite, but I had to keep them off the OVA because of the lesbian rape scene. I'll probably let the elder boy have that soon, in my presence.

He also started on Delta and likes it a lot. And Delta does not seem to have Frontier levels of raunch in it, so it will really suit them both - except the younger one (now 5 and a half) can't read subs, I'l have to get him a voiceover.

I never tried giving them Plus because even I have a hard time tracing stuff in Plus. The elder one should probably be ready for Plus soon enough, though.

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Ah yeah! I did post my experiences from time to time but never realized this should really be a thread.

So my 11yo son yesterday got a watch of both Frontier movies. He asked to skip over the raunchy part of Universal Bunny (his idea, not mine), so I guess if we get to the MF series he'll need to skip the panties episode.

Yeah, I don't see Frontier on our playlist any time soon!

Sheryl is definitely NSFKids.

Maybe Mac II and then Plus (Subs only in my house from here on!)

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Yeah, I don't see Frontier on our playlist any time soon!

Sheryl is definitely NSFKids.

Maybe Mac II and then Plus (Subs only in my house from here on!)

Seven might work well, too (sans Dynamite; I think Sivil is safe enough for modern kids). And yes, Delta!

Edited by Saruta
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My ears are still ringing from 7. He can watch that on his own!

If he can, he likely will, and his ears are gonna love it if he is like certain other boys :) Totsugeki love HEAAART!

(I actually like the music in 7 too, but not the animation and the length, so my kids watched that one on their own. Even though I still theoretically want to, it's just too big. Perhaps I should get to it but skip over the battles?)

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awwwww, i think this is all shades of cool :)

ever thought of getting your daughter into it too? as a fangirl who got into it in the 80s (while still in the single number age demography), my first viewing of SDFM had me really stoked cause the female characters were just awesome. you can do worse with animated role models than Misa, Claudia & Milia. i've never liked Minmay (sorry, bro!) but watching SDFM again years later as an adult, i at least appreciate that her character is driven and focused, & pretty well-written (still don't like her though).

for an anime which was supposedly targeted at mecha head fanboys, it was a positive experience for this mecha head fangirl... and made me a fan for life (regardless how i wish certain character in Delta would just choke on an apple & die, evil laughter) :p

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I rock out to Basara and I'm 40...(runs and hides under desk) :ph34r::lol:

I too rock out to Basara. There is better Fire Bomber music than was shown in the series itself, which painfully replayed the same hero song over and over. Fact is the lead singer has one of the best set of set of Rock vocal chords ever. I'm sure he can do a mean AC/DC cover.

awwwww, i think this is all shades of cool :)

ever thought of getting your daughter into it too? as a fangirl who got into it in the 80s (while still in the single number age demography), my first viewing of SDFM had me really stoked cause the female characters were just awesome. you can do worse with animated role models than Misa, Claudia & Milia. i've never liked Minmay (sorry, bro!) but watching SDFM again years later as an adult, i at least appreciate that her character is driven and focused, & pretty well-written (still don't like her though).

for an anime which was supposedly targeted at mecha head fanboys, it was a positive experience for this mecha head fangirl... and made me a fan for life (regardless how i wish certain character in Delta would just choke on an apple & die, evil laughter) :p

Nice to see the ladies represented. Makes me optimistic Macross would be great for my young daughter in a couple years.

He's only 10 but knows/uses the term "cannon fodder"? I'm going to assume you have a brownie VF-1A and frequently refer to it as such.

Kids are always smarter than we think they are, and they pick up on the smallest things and remind you about it weeks later.

Ah yeah! I did post my experiences from time to time but never realized this should really be a thread.

So my 11yo son yesterday got a watch of both Frontier movies. He asked to skip over the raunchy part of Universal Bunny (his idea, not mine), so I guess if we get to the MF series he'll need to skip the panties episode.

He bombarded me with questions about who the real bad guys are - the Grace/Galaxy team or the Mishima/Frontier team. I was not sure what to answer though it seems to be "fanlore" that movie!Grace is somewhat better than series!Grace.

Lots of other questions too, I don't remember many of them. I'll ask him which ones I should find out for him on the Forum.

Previously, a couple of years earlier, he (then 9) and his brother (then 4) got to watch DYRL then SDFM then Macross 7 and enjoyed it all, especially Macross 7. That's when I understood that M7 was probably made *for* preteen boys - they were quite grand with all the stock footage and the repeated songs and the similar battles - and the BOMBA! They also liked the song Dynamite, but I had to keep them off the OVA because of the lesbian rape scene. I'll probably let the elder boy have that soon, in my presence.

He also started on Delta and likes it a lot. And Delta does not seem to have Frontier levels of raunch in it, so it will really suit them both - except the younger one (now 5 and a half) can't read subs, I'l have to get him a voiceover.

I never tried giving them Plus because even I have a hard time tracing stuff in Plus. The elder one should probably be ready for Plus soon enough, though.

I'm struggling with how to explain the obligatory "shower scenes" in even tame fare like Macross, Southern Cross and Gundam.

Edited by arbit
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I can just see little kids rocking out to Basara.

You can see them animated in Delta, too, so it looks like this is a well known phenomenon :)

I'm struggling with how to explain the obligatory "shower scenes" in even tame fare like Macross, Southern Cross and Gundam.

Well, my kids did not have a problem with the SDFM shower scene. She is just washing, so what, we all do. The panties episode of MF series would be way too much, though. And as it turned out even Universal Bunny was too much.

Edited by Saruta
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I actually appreciate the discussion as I'm thoroughly in the midst of this.

I almost wish there was a "kids are in the room" button that would screen out gore and the sexual situations.

That's one thing I appreciate about Western shows like the current Voltron and Avatar, the latter of which still brought some deep plots and storylines.

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I almost wish there was a "kids are in the room" button that would screen out gore and the sexual situations.

Didn't they call that a V-chip? :D

Looking back... my Parents must've been odd ducks, I never got things shut off, or was ushered out of the room if something 'more mature' came on... then again, we never really watched anything too gory or sexual until I was pretty much old enough to deal with it and/or ask questions...

in fact my introduction to gore was Aliens when I was 6 [best friend's house]... that scene where the Dropship pilot gets it... never finished Aliens till I was 14 lol

We could basically call this thread, "How to raise your kids on anime."

What a handy book that would be: "How to raise your kids on anime"

followed by: "How to raise your kids on TV"

and to round out the trilogy: "How to raise your kids on films"

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As I mentioned, my 11 year old some skipped over most of Universal Bunny. Not my idea. His idea. I decided he was old enough for MF movies and rewatched them with him. And yes, most of the time he was just trying to understand who are the "real bad guys". But, he skipped over that...

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My kid is nine and it has been a tradition to watch the Christmas episodes of various 80s cartoons in December. So the only episode he'd been exposed to was that one.

Well we've started watching it from the beginning and we got up to episode 5 before Delta stole his attention away. So the original is on the backburner for now.

While we watched SDFM he really took a liking to Roy. But the other day after Messer died something clicked in his head and he's all-HEY WHY ISN'T ROY IN THE CHRISTMAS EPISODE?

There's a lot of dread in both of our heads.

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Tangentially related, crazysteve, have you watched the HeMan/SheRa Xmas special? That one gets weird....

Really? How come kids Xmas specials are all psychedelic? Thinking of Star Wars among others...

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Music to my ears, my kid said, "I want to watch the Macross movie again."

I can't recall him asking to rewatch another movie with me before.

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I haven't been on the board in a looooooooooong time. And it's funny because, I came back specifically to see if anyone had a kid recommendations for SDF Macross.

My kid LOVED the new Voltron on Netflix and so I wanted to see how she liked Macross and figure out where to buy/stream an English dub. She's a cool kid, but subs are probably asking too much of her attention span at this point in life.

Anyway, glad to see the community is still awesome and I'm sure this entire experiment will end up with me dusting off of my 1:48 Yamato collection again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There was a pretty good SDFM English dub, featuring Mari IIjima as Minmay. I gooogled a stream pretty easily a couple of years ago when I showed it to the children. Just make sure it's not Robotech, In fact a google for "super dimension fortress macross english dub" seems to yield ep1 of the right dub streamable right now.

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There was a pretty good SDFM English dub, featuring Mari IIjima as Minmay. I gooogled a stream pretty easily a couple of years ago when I showed it to the children. Just make sure it's not Robotech, In fact a google for "super dimension fortress macross english dub" seems to yield ep1 of the right dub streamable right now.

I hear its a bad dub, but I would watch it.

Edited by arbit
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I hear its a bad dub, but I would watch it.

you mean the one with Ed Elirch's [Full metal alchemist] voice actor as Hikaru?

I own it. It's great, no issues.

in fact I'm watching disc 2 right now...

Edited by slide
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Well, my son's first experience was with unedited Robotech, which was a great hit in our house.

I will let him determine if the ADV dub stands up!

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All I remember is people complaining that Ijima was the only one on the cast who could pronounce "Macross."

Funny, my whole life I pronounced Macross "Maaah-cross" because that was what I heard growing up with RT. I accepted hearing it pronounced "Muh-cross" in the Japanese version and never thought twice about it.

But then hearing "Muh-cross" in English makes me do a double take. My ears are still getting used to it.

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