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Seto Kaiba

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    Anime (duh), Antique Firearms, Cryptography, Mechanical Design

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Chronicle's History Sheet about the fall of the ASS-1 mentions, in passing, that the ship decelerated far more than should be possible after entering that atmosphere, which it presents as thought to have been an intentional braking maneuver. The ship was going over 10km/s when it entered the atmosphere and by the time it crashed it had slowed to only about 1km/s. Of course, something so massive hitting at "only" 1 kilometer per second still made a hell of a dent. Macross Chronicle asserts that the impact force was equivalent to a 670 megaton explosion, creating a crater 3km in diameter, with ejecta from the impact reaching altitudes over 10km and devastating an area of 100 square kilometers with the shockwave. It also notes that the impact reduced the size of the island somewhat to 16.9 square kilometers. (One of the more unusual points Macross Chronicle introduces is that the island was inhabited. A 16-man US military communications and satellite monitoring output on the island understandably did not survive the impact.) Yeah, a 670 megaton impact is likely to shake the Earth a bit different to a usual bay area earthquake. A bit, yeah... perhaps somewhat justified in the sense that the Earth Unification Government basically threw the entire global tech industry and planetary GDP at the problem for ten years, heedless of the economic consequences, and even then ended up taking a bunch of shortcuts by reverse-engineering the materials and applying that know-how to existing theoretical and practical tech instead of trying to perfectly reproduce the alien technology. (It may also have helped somewhat that what fell out of the sky was the Protoculture's lowest-bidder, ruggedized, keep-it-simple-stupid military hardware and not a more refined or advanced ship they might've used themselves. Figuring out how Gravity and Inertia Control works was basically the key to a lot of the rest too, so once they had that understanding the rest probably fell into place a lot faster.)
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Not specifically, no. South Ataria is a fictional island in the Ogasawara islands (the Bonin islands to westerners) south of Japan. The coordinates we're given put it about 90km south and slightly to the west of Iwo Jima and 54km to the west of South Iwo Jima. About 1,300km almost due south of Tokyo. It's not sourced on the Wiki because the Wiki got it from Egan's old site, but remarks similar to that are in a couple older artbooks. The course described there suggests the Alien Starship 1 was traveling northwest at a high rate of speed and must have completed almost an entire orbit before crashing given that it ends up east of where it entered the atmosphere. (Considering the course, it's likely New Zealand, New South Wales, Queensland, the Solomons, and New Guinea didn't have a great time either.) Macross Chronicle also supports the idea that the ship was moving generally northwest on reentry and crashed into South Ataria that way. Shin is a second-generation Japanese-American, so presumably he was living somewhere in the US when the ASS-1 came down. Practically all of the US cities and towns with large Japanese-American populations are in Hawaii or on the west coast, so in all likelihood Shin hails from either Hawaii, California, or Washington. (There's an outside chance he's from New Jersey, Michigan, New York, or Ohio, all of which are home to small but significant Japanese-American communities, but given Shin's not f***ing melting in the South Pacific weather on Mayan it seems unlikely he's a New Englander or a Midwesterner. I'll forego the almost obligatory joke about Ohio.) Kawamori seems to really like San Francisco, given how much time was taken recreating parts of it in Macross Frontier, so I'm guessing Shin's family are probably from the bay area.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    An uninspired attempt to coin a derisive nickname for isekai anime. It doesn't make sense if you think about it even a little, because TRON's "Grid" is just the software inside of a computer not an alternate reality and doesn't fit the definition of isekai even a little. Incidentally, I did a little more checking after supper. Of Crunchyroll's current Top 10 most-streamed titles on their service, the 5th and 9th places are isekai titles (Campfire Cooking in Another World and Tales of Wedding Rings). The top four spots on the top 10 are all shounen, being held by My Hero Academia, Gachiakuta, One Piece, and Tougen Anki. Top-selling manga is also predominantly shounen too... with My Hero Academia, One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Dan Da Dan topping charts in the west. Netflix's viewership metrics have shounen anime absolutely dominating their service's anime offerings too. The top-ranked anime title for I think three years running now on Netflix is Naruto. One Piece, Seven Deadly Sins, and Demon Slayer are all on that list too. Not a single isekai title broke the top 10 on Netflix. I'm not able to find any data for Hulu, but given the pattern established thus far... well... their website has a list of 22 strongly recommended anime titles based on their platform's streaming performance data. 0 are isekai. The titles that DID make the cut include Bleach, My Hero Academia, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Jujutsu Kaisen, Ishura, Mob Psycho 100, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and Demon Slayer. That's 9 of 22.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    The point is that shounen's dominance of the anime conversation and public perception of anime goes all the way back to when the current crop of child-raising parents (Gen X-ers and Millennials) were exposed to the stuff via cable. Yeah, most anime is streaming these days but the reality is that if you go to most streaming services that carry anime most of what they're advertising prominently is not isekai... it's those big-ticket shounen titles like One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia and a handful of dramas and non-isekai titles like Frieren, Spy x Family, and Oshi no Ko. Demonstrably false, I'm afraid. Most of what viewers are tuning in for when it comes to anime on streaming is shounen anime. It dominates the awards, it dominates the news, and it's also the stereotype of anime fans that's been dominant since the 2000s.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Zentradi in the original Macross series run the full gamut of Human skin tones and onwards into Amazing Technicolor Population territory with Vrlitwhai being a baby blue behemoth and Quamzin being a sort of light lavender. The beard is new, tho. I don't think we see a Zentradi with facial hair before Macross Digital Mission VF-X in '97. Also, is it just me or do these facial sculpts look... familiar? Like this one is just straight-up Arnold Schwarzenegger c. Terminator. That's literally the same face he's making on the Terminator poster, just without the sunglasses. And I wanna say this one looks like a young Laurence Fishburne...
  6. Seto Kaiba
    As far as I can recall, we don't see any Zentradi with facial hair in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, or Macross II: Lovers Again. That said, they clearly can grow facial hair as we see several in later titles (predominantly in civilian life) who do have facial hair. The enemy Zentradi commander in Macross Digital Mission VF-X (1997) is, IINM, the first Zentradi character to be depicted with facial hair. In Macross Frontier, there are a few as well. Macross Frontier fleet sponsor and SMS owner Richard Bilra is a giant Zentradi rocking a big bushy mustache and beard, and Ranka's Zentradi manager Elmo Kridanik has a mustache. 's it just me or does that bootleg-tier Robotech figure bear an odd resemblance to a young Laurence Fishburne?
  7. Seto Kaiba
    > Australia > Spiders Of course it would be spiders. 😆 Now, we do know of at least one Macross design that IS apparently named for a specific genus of spiders. The Annabella Lasiodora mobile weapon from Macross VF-X2. Not sure what the "Annabella" part is in reference to, but Lasiodora is a genus of tarantulas native to Brazil. Huh, OK. That's a pretty solid description of the basic mechanics of a charged particle beam weapon hearkening back to Nikola Tesla's original design proposal in 1934. In principle, very similar technology to what's used in a lot of sci-fi including Macross. The description of turbolasers I remembered from long ago (which is apparently Legends now) was more in line with the gas-dynamic laser used by the VF-1's Strike Pack (using heat flows and pressure changes in a gas to generate a laser beam).
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, that's not even close to accurate. The genre that has absolutely dominated public perception of anime for like 20 years now has been shounen anime. If you turned on Cartoon Network in the late afternoons or early evenings you'd get the Shounen Jump Big Three (One Piece, Bleach, Naruto), reruns of older shounen anime like Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Ruroni Kenshin. Titles have come and gone, but shounen has basically ruled the airwaves and the conversation that entire time. So much so that the negative stereotype of anime fans - the weeaboo - is intrinsically associated with the Naruto's ninja headbands and its occasional bouts of untranslated Japanese words like "nakama". 😅 Isekai anime is trendy, but it's nowhere near that level. It's definitely the most numerous genre after shounen the last several years, but I think it seems more pervasive than it is that we're seeing a lot of isekai tropes leaking into non-isekai fantasy titles. Like The Banished Court Magician, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince, New Saga, Scooped Up By An S-Rank Adventurer, Welcome to The Outcast's Restaurant, etc. Particularly instances of fantasy worlds running on JRPG or MMORPG logic for no clear reason, and stories that start with the protagonist being reincarnated in the same world but in a much different position. I do think we're entering the dying days of the isekai genre's trendiness, though. Like any new genre, you get that first couple big hits, a double handful of less-appreciated "cult classics", and then a lot of low-effort copycats. For mecha anime, Gundam, Macross, and VOTOMS basically defined the genre, you had some successful by less appreciated follow-ups like MOSPEADA, Orguss, and L-Gaim, and then a lot of unsuccessful genre followers that don't do very well like Southern Cross or Dragonar. We're in that "unsuccessful genre follower" phase right now. I wonder if it'll just peter out or if it'll die out with a last big deconstruction. I suspect not, since the actually-successful titles in the genre are mainly ALREADY deconstructions.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    I don't think it's necessarily bad, but it's definitely very Japanese in its sensibilities and relies a lot on silliness and acknowledging absurdity. I would not advise holding your breath for that one. Zenitsu develops rather slowly as a character, since part of his role was to be comic relief and a heroic coward who has the reasonable man's reaction to the insane supernatural BS going on at any given moment. There are reasons he's this way, but they don't really come up properly until the Hashira training arc (S4) and Infinity Castle movie(s) near the end of the story. Of course, he gets his in the form of being full-on Crouching Moron Hidden Badass. He may be a one trick pony, but he is very good at that one trick.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    The YF-19/VF-19's wing folds backwards for storage, not up. The wing in this shot is no longer physically connected to the aircraft. That, combined with the fact that the leading edge slats are damaged and one section is straight-up missing, along with visible damage along the entire length of the wing, implies that this wing did not go gently... it hit something and was likely broken off. To be fair, that was hardly a problem unique to Isamu. The YF-19 had six prior test pilots before Isamu was assigned to Project Super Nova. Four of Isamu's six predecessors were hospitalized with injuries they'd sustained during testing and the other two died from injuries sustained in accidents during testing. The YF-19's performance was pushing the limit of what the human body could withstand in terms of g-forces thanks to its exceptional acceleration and maneuverability, and the previous-gen ANGIRAS airframe control AI used in the first two prototypes was absolutely not up to the job and as a result the prototype had extremely unforgiving handling. (That Isamu was able to not only handle the YF-19 in testing but draw out its full potential and even enjoy the experience is a testament to what an absolute goddamn MONSTER he is in the cockpit.)
  11. Seto Kaiba
    That seems to be the implication in his bio. He's not mentioned as having moved to the 37th fleet and it is explicitly mentioned he's not legally a citizen of the fleet... meaning he's only ever resided in that rundown unregistered district. Pretty much. Even in-universe Basara's background is said to be unknown even to the man himself. He doesn't know where he was born. Ray encountered him for the first time in 2031 when Basara was 7 years old, and he was just this mysterious urchin who would occasionally show up near where Ray lived with an acoustic guitar and attempt to (literally) move the nearby mountains with his songs. Somewhere along the way Ray became Basara's de facto (if not de jure) guardian. They would eventually team up with street fighter turned drummer Veffidas Feaze to form Fire Bomber in 2038, the same year the 37th fleet departed Earth. The one thing we can say with some confidence is that Basara has always been insufferable. Mylene was the band's fourth bassist in six years because of how infuriating and hard to work with Basara was, and even she frequently wants to go upside his head.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    "Exactly what it says on the tin" means it's probably me who said that, and I stand by it. That said, Demon Slayer does eventually veer slightly in the direction of shounen cliches like super modes or secret styles and techniques. It's handled in a much more grounded fashion than most shounen anime manage and never really detracts from the straightforward feel of the series. The lost original demon slayer breathing style is rediscovered by accident (more or less) and then spammed gratuitously by its rediscoverer, and there's a "barely there" super mode that nobody can activate consciously because it's basically a form of hysterical strength. It's all very earnest and grounded and straightforward. A lot more accessible and enjoyable than a lot of shounen titles that rely on power scaling. (The realization that its plot bears a very strong resemblance to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Parts 1 and 2 has me in stitches though. An ageless immortal who is fatally weakened by sunlight travels all over hell's half-acre looking for an ultra-rare red macguffin that is the key ingredient in a technique to remove all his weaknesses and become a perfect lifeform. He creates legions of nightwalking cannibalistic monsters to serve as his minions, and is opposed by a secretive organization of warrior monks who employ breathing techniques that imbue them with superhuman abilities in order to slay these monsters with attacks imbued with the power of the sun. I want so very badly to hear Tanjiro's VA shout "Sunlight Yellow Overdrive!" now.)
  13. Seto Kaiba
    The reason I think he managed to break the nose off the plane is that the camera/LIDAR modules are a part of that nose block and they're visibly still on the aircraft in that shot.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The Acshio/Akusho district is never given a proper official explanation. Officially (in-story), the district is an environment ship that isn't registered with the 37th large scale long-distance emigrant fleet's administration. It attached itself to one of City 7's portside docking ports and has accessed power, oxygen, and other resources from the City-class ship without authorization. Somehow, this state of affairs was either not noticed or not corrected before the fleet departed Earth and apparently nobody has bothered to do anything about it in the seven years since then. While there are surely laws prohibiting an emigrant fleet from simply abandoning an inhabited environment ship in deep space, that it seems like nobody has even tried to take any action on it gives it the distinct ring of a cover story. There's a neglected environment ship the fleet government has no jurisdiction over conveniently attached directly to the fleet's capital and flagship, with a hangar and airlocks capable of supporting next-generation VFs, and it just happens to be home to the unwitting subject of a secret military program? Macross 7 Trash at least makes it feel a little less implausible with the revelation that there are at least a few districts in the fleet that would count as "rough neighborhoods". It seems to work a little differently, series to series. When it comes to the Megaroad-class as seen in Macross: Flash Back 2012 and Macross M3, the artificial sky appears to be projected directly onto the ship's transparent hull sections. In Macross 7, City 7's sky is presented as being a hologram or other image projected from the interior of the shell onto the exterior of the dome. This is demonstrated in the show's first episode when one of the operators mistakenly begins powering down the shell's artificial sky projection instead of lowering the shell the way Max ordered. The Akushio district has an artificial sky too, though it isn't clear if that's projected from the shell or something projected locally. In Macross Frontier, the titular emigrant ship seems to be using both approaches simultaneously with the sky of Island 1 being a projection from the shell and the skies of the various Island modules seem to be projected directly onto their domes since they use retractable armored shutters instead of a shell and most of them are tens of kilometers away from the rear end of the Island-1's shell.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    That's at a bit after 31 minutes into the movie, after the test montage and the first Sharon Apple concert. The scene where Isamu finds Dr. Neumann hiding out in what looks to be a either a supply closet trying to "kidnap" Sharon Apple. There's no clear event that led to the YF-19-2 being in such a state in the movie version, due to events being reordered.
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