Killer Robot

I'm not sure what source it was originally published in, I was using Macross Compendium's timeline for reference, which I understand to be generally accurate. Anyone know the matter better than me? As for how humanity continued to expand, once the combined Human/Zentradi population reached a high enough level, it would be possible to sustain rapid colonization simply by maintaining high reproductive rates on the worlds sending out colonies. If, for example, the combined population of Earth and Eden was 500 million by 2030 and had an annual growth rate of at least 2%(about what a lot of expanding populations in the modern era have had), a fleet Frontier's size could be launched once a year, on an ultimately sustainable basis. So far as I know though, no data exists on the actual numbers involved and further speculation doesn't belong here: I just mean that a significantly rebounded population wouldn't need cloning to crank out the fleets.

That's the odd thing, since at the time of Macross Plus the VF-11 was only a ten year old design and the current front line fighter. If they were raiding the scrap heap like real practices, or like the destroids and Zentradi mecha being used, I would have expected VF-1s and VF-4s. Speculation or not, that's more or less what I'd assumed was the case.

If you mean uncultured Zentradi, what Gubaba said. If you mean human-allied Zentradi, not any more. Presumably it would have been ended when the mass cloning project for humans and other Earth life was ended in 2030 due to the drawbacks (increasing genetic diseases) coming to outweigh the benefits (the by then mostly accomplished rapid restoration of Earth and human culture's viability).

Water being dense is exactly the point. Denser fuel means smaller tanks means less container weight. Even more so since compressed hydrogen tanks need to stand up to far more pressure than water tanks. Further, the hydrogen and oxygen disassociate at high temperatures, and really there's no reason in theory they need to be separated at all: the resulting plasma would be 66% hydrogen ( for such interactions, number of particles matter, not mass) and if that fuel purity is enough for fusion then it shouldn't need extra separation. The oxygen doesn't need to be stored: it's there to be expelled out the thrusters as reaction mass.

Assuming this engine isn't going to be fusing all of its fuel but rather fusing some and using the rest as propellant, as would be indicated by the effects and range of Valkyries outside of atmosphere, I would assume it uses water instead. You want mass and density for such a use as opposed to 100% fusable atoms: water is both easier to handle and much denser than even liquid deuterium, meaning more fuel in smaller tanks. If the technology of the thermonuclear engines requires deuterium rather than protium, then use heavy water, obviously. As for explosions: ammunition explains it, and engine damage could vent large amounts of superheated plasma into delicate components or fuel tanks and lines - even water will make an enormous steam explosion if enough heat hits it.

Am I the only one who looks at the middle one and thinks, "Okay Alto, which do you catch?" Shippers, please don't answer that.

I'll qualify I was using "psychic powers" as shorthand for "spiritual energy with literally mind/soul/extradimensional entity affecting powers focused by specially trained and talented people and amplified by technological means", as a middle ground between incorrectly implying that it's a "power of culture" thing like in SDFM, and the long explanation of spiritia, Protodeviln and Sound Boosters. Yeah, I'll give the disclaimer that it's not a mind-reading, spoon-bending flavor of same, if anyone is confused. Actually, the in-universe explanation is more of a chi flavor, but talk of that in anime and people expect fireballs to be thrown, so that's misleading too.

How to rate Macross 7 is hard to say. It's not just a quality issue, it's that it's a different sort of series than the other Macross installments and the parts of it some people hate are the same that other people love. 7 isn't my favorite of the bunch, but once I muscled through and watched past the early parts I got to like it. While a lot of what makes people love or hate it is the subject of debate that goes well past what belongs in the newbie thread, I think I can say some fairly objective things that can tell the prospective viewer what to expect: 1. It's aimed at a younger sort of audience than most other Macross, so has more of a bright "Saturday morning cartoon" feel. Easily recognizable hero mechs in highly customized designs as well as flashy colors, plenty of explanation, entertainment ships shaped like giant riverboats, confrontations against giant space monsters moreso than just alien fleets, and the near surety of having a mecha combat at the end of every single episode. If you find shows like this a turnoff you might have problems with Macross 7, if you like them then go right ahead. 2. Low lethality, tying to the first. Or actually, lots of people die but it's usually offscreen and low key. Expect to see lots of VF-11 pilots safely eject only to just be brain-drained by aliens into (eventually treatable) catatonia, ships blown up but none of the SDFM signature "cut to inside the ship and the poor fools being caught in the explosion". A couple of named non-villains die over the run, but no one that has the screentime or development of a Roy or Kakizaki. Not that it's the old GI Joe cartoon, but it's the least gritty war in Macross animation so if that's something that's a plus or minus to you be aware. 3 BOMBA! This is a show about a band, and takes this far beyond SDFM or even Frontier. A band developing psychic powers focused through singing. There's more of that band singing than there is mecha fighting, in part because most mecha combats include one or more of that band out in their custom Valkyries with guitar-shaped controls, trying to reach the foe through music. On the up side, they're a good band; on the down side their playlist in the early series especially is pretty limited. Suffice to say, your enjoyment of Macross 7 is going to be strongly tied to how much you like Fire Bomber in general, and a few of their signature songs in particular. 4. Pacing. Macross 7 is long, and its plotline is a slow build rather than a frantic roller coaster. Counting the Encore episodes, it's twice as long as Frontier, and almost half again as long as SDFM. Of these, the first 15 episodes or so are very episodic with just gradual bits of character exposition and plot development: after that things get moving well enough. Some people don't mind it, and some get impatient.

Not exactly the same number. Velocity of an orbiting object gets lower with increasing altitude, but when launching a spacecraft or switching from one orbit to another the operative figure is delta-v, how much change in velocity you can apply. Much of that velocity is lost into gravitational potential energy - the pull of gravity slowing an object as it ascends. Objects in higher orbits are moving more slowly, but it took more change in velocity to get them there from the surface. Orbit is sort of a state of moving horizontally just fast enough that the horizon of the Earth drops off just as fast as gravity pulls you down toward it, so that it becomes a fall where you keep the same average speed and the same average distance from Earth. Too little and you fall: too much and you keep going forever. The further you are from Earth's center of gravity, the less horizontal velocity you need, but the velocity change you need to launch that high in the first place is even greater: otherwise it would be easier to launch something to the moon than it is to LEO.

Not as fuel, but as propellant: In atmosphere, the thermonuclear engines on the VF-1 and all subsequent variable fighters operate in an air-ram mode where air from the engine intakes is superheated by the nuclear powerplant to expand it and generate thrust, consuming only the relatively tiny amount of whatever fuel(hydrogen?) the reactor uses. In space, the jet intakes are covered and it functions as a nuclear-powered rocket: the engines operate in the same way, but instead of using air they heat propellant(which could be anything in theory, it just needs to have mass) from an onboard tank, and this is limited. A qualifier to note is that vernier thrusters require propellant even in atmosphere, but IIRC the only VF designs that require vernier use in fighter mode are designed primarily as space fighters anyway. Macross Compendium VF-1 article Orbital flight requires making a complete orbit around the planet/larger body. A flight that reaches space but doesn't go all the way around the Earth, like that of a spaceplane or ICBM, is described as suborbital regardless of altitude. The boundary of space is typically defined as 100km, not 100 miles: this is specifically the definition used by the FAI to distinguish between aeronautic and astronautic activities, but is used less formally to generally distingush where space begins. Important, since the atmosphere goes up some 10,000km, far above Low Earth Orbit - it just gets progessively thinner. Past roughly 100km, aerodynamic flight no longer possible so for purposes of flight you're out of the atmosphere, though orbits very close to that boundary still have enough atmospheric friction that they decay rapidly. In the US, you get gold astronaut's pins if you go higher than 50 miles, or 80 kilometers.

It's important to remember that there's a pretty big difference between reaching space and reaching orbit. Space is traditionally defined as beginning 100km up, though satellites tend to be at least twice that high to lessen friction from the outer atmosphere. The atmosphere actually extends many times that high, but really by that point it's a technicality. So assuming we're talking "space" as in 100-200km, it really doesn't take too much energy to reach altitude, but that's just with a vertical climb, followed by a similarly vertical fall. Actually reaching orbit takes not just the energy needed to climb but also enough horizontal velocity to circle the Earth in a sustainable fashion without falling back to it, and this is far greater: reaching orbit takes a total velocity change on the order of 8km/s or greater (18,000+mph/Mach 25+). Reaching 100km requires 1.4km/s, by contrast. Both of these disregard atmospheric friction, but a variable fighter will be able to overcome much of this by virtue of being able to escape the thickest parts of the atmosphere with its engines in air ram mode, getting a good amount of altitude and velocity without using any significant amount of fuel: for a Valkyrie, the effective difference between reaching space and reaching orbit would thus be even greater. As for the VF-171 issue brought up a bit ago: basing the new main-line fighter on the older VF-17 rather than the newer-generation VF-19 seemed a bit strange at first (out of universe explanations about "hero mech" looks aside), but it makes some sense on examination, depending. As I understand the VF-19 was not far superior in space performance to the VF-17: it was however much better in atmosphere and incorporated new technologies like active stealth and the pinpoint barrier system. Certainly it's better all-around and as an elite fighter, but especially if it's expensive, challenging to pilot, or otherwise finicky that muddies the issue of using it to replace the whole force of aging VF-11s. For space fleet defense, atmospheric performance is a secondary concern, and even there the sleeker looks and reduced passive stealth features of the VF-171 look like design revisions to improve on the original VF-17 there. Lighter armor would help to increase space performance as well, with defensive concerns minimized by the new PPB addition. Add other incremental improvements and efficiencies, and you have something more broadly capable than the old Nightmare and less expensive/more managable than the Excalibur: not truly the best of both worlds, but a solid fighter you can comfortably outfit a fleet with. Unless it's been officially said otherwise, I would expect there are a lot of VF-19s and VF-22s in atmospheric defense and special operations units, but for deep space fleet defense and workhorse fighter purposes, I can believe that a revised-and-updated VF-17 would be more attractive than the newer generation.

Emilia Jenius is an example of a half-human that was macronized, but she's the only one I can think of. After her talking about how seeing DYRL as a kid totally changed her life, I have to wonder if that affected her decision to go the opposite way of most. That said, I could totally believe that a number of things could make this rare even where full-sized Zentradi are found. Cultural forces are one: when even most Zentradi micronize, why go the other way? Especially if there are any undercurrents of resentment/discrimination against Zentradi, why try to emulate that trait? Resource footprint might be a factor as well: it's one thing to tolerate humans' new partners keeping their historic stature if they so choose, but might it be more frowned upon for one born human to go the other way? On to the strictly medical: It might well be that many/most humans aren't genetically suited to do it safely especially after millennia of genetic drift from when the Protoculture last meddled with human genes, and so it's unreliable enough to make it even rarer than personal choice alone would dictate. Long-term effects especially might not be known: the long-term effects of Zentradi being micronized were still being felt out as of the 2040s, and that's with a much larger sample size. Having implants whether of the old-school Zentradi style or the modern Galaxy-type designs(which are common in much of the rest of the Galaxy by 2059, mind) might mess with things. It might also be unsafe for those not yet fully grown as well: with Zentradi cloned apparently directly to adult stature, making the process work for children wouldn't have been a priority. Weird cases like Klan's aside, mind.

It's not the way the antennae face, but the colors on them: with ships and aircraft, the left/port navigation lights will be red and the right/starboard lights will be green. Those consistent paired lights really make me wonder, though as you said, it's very strange if the other ships are all pointed the other direction.

I've got some level of cognitive dissonance with the Galaxy fleet screenshots because the escort ships are all facing to the left, and by the navigation lights Mainland is facing right. If that's the case, mind, we wouldn't be able to see where Battle Galaxy docks if it's in front.

It rather strikes me that in atmosphere, any fighter of sufficient thrust is going to reach some serious cooling issues: not just with engines, but control surfaces and whatever else:just look at real theoretical hypersonic designs.. My assumption had been that the VF19/21 generation was the first to really reach that even with "modern" ECA and whatever other technologies had invented to compensate. And of course, even in space you're running into the limits of what the human pilot can take. I expect that if Macross goes further in the timeline past Frontier, the next advance we'll see is in-cockpit inertial compensators to let a human pilot get VF27+ performance, if only because I have trouble imagining Kawamori make a Macross where the heroic pilots are all cyborgs.

I have to agree there, though I wouldn't make claims of a "unique Japanese style" thing, so much as say that Frontier has managed to comfortably blend 3d and 2d animation to where they look like part of the same composition. Macross Zero by contrast felt more of the Blue Submarine No. 6 generation, where there was a 3d mecha animation and a 2d character animation, and the two just happened to be shown in the same half-hour episode. I don't think "Japanese", "Western", or any other such descriptor applied so much as an internal cognitive dissonance.

I hope that image isn't about the shipping. Not because of Sheryl, because of Ranka.

Mind that Japanese cup sizes are one above US/UK cup sizes(and possibly some other countries, less sure there). So presuming that's accurate, it would put her at a C for those more familiar with that scale. And Ranka about AA/A. For those who, you know, really care about such things.

I don't get it. Unless you're punning to quarts, and that just makes me wonder if the milk carton conversation is leaking into this thread. And that still would be 4 rather than 5 unless you're mixing US quarts and Imperial gallons, so maybe I'm the one reaching.

I believe it was actually mentioned when they sacrificed one of the Zentran islands, was that the inhabitants could be micronized and relocated with the general population. Another thing I recalled: Frontier's .750g gravity. Also how it kinda explained Sheryl's weights being a little bulkier than you might expect during her workout. Though I wonder if that last was intentional or just lucky chance of animation.

Where to even start? I liked lots of little details: The Zentran mall was what got me watching the show: seeing some screenshots of perfectly ordinary giant shoppers and Sheryl playing in giant shoes and housewares took me from "New Macross series? I'll have to watch it some time" to "Hey, you got a torrent link?" Second most questionable design element of the Frontier fleet: allowing little Zentran children where they can easily reach those fragile and doll-like tiny people. Most questionable design element of the Frontier fleet: allowing Zentran-scaled cats within reach of miclones. Really, what were they thinking? Other things: Ranka's cute squishy animal cell phone being controlled by beatings and abuse, Sheryl's amazing (lack of) skill with chopsticks and laundry detergent, super pack Klan, Leon in beach casuals, and Bilrer's enormous train set. A little less on the funny side, I also love Grace's harmless unease as presented in the Triangler OP. I liked Fire Bomber being in that awkward no-man's land of nostalgic music too old to be popular with the kids but to new to be rescpected as classic rock yet. I also enjoyed Luca showing the autonomous Ghosts aren't necessarily all bad. The stalker drink machines though, they're just biding their time before they strike.

That singoff is the second half of What 'bout My Star at Formo on OST1. Not saying it would be bad to see it on the vocal CDs, just saying it's already represented. I'm more looking forward to weird things like a full version of Sheryl's Aimo, or her version of Brother Spaceship or whatever it's called, that haven't seen CD release.

It's not a cliche or emotion-conveying animation trick in Ranka's case, it's been officially described as a known if uncommon Zentradi genetic trait. My question: is it actually prehensile and/or capable of moving via the hair itself, or does it just move via subdermal muscles like some animals can do with fur or whiskers? If it's like that it's at least less bizarre. Still, it's a weirder sort of thing to push into the Zentradi genome than the pointy ears were.

Fine, fine. The one image from that blog posting that I had neither seen before nor was frightened and disturbed by:

Isamu vs. Guld is hard to top. Other Macross series have dogfights, but and DYRL came a step past to making Max vs. Milia a real highlight, but only Plus goes the whole way into making the one on one dogfight the center of the combat experience and it shows. I want to give Hikaru vs. Britai an honorable mention since it was totally awesome, but I can't call a fight on the ground with only one aerospace vehicle involved a "dogfight." Best hand-to-hand fight in the franchise, though, and was what drove home the reason to have transforming fighters anyway.