Renato

I'm guessing they're not revealing the Battroid mode until after the movie comes out, that would explain the cheap fighter-only kit they are bringing out at the same time as the movie. Anyway, as for the game itself, I just jumped off the fence and pre-ordered it. Argh, here we go again!

Me too. I would say that despite my frustration at the way that the 21st Century has not developed in the way cartoons of old told me it would, overall, 2010 was a great year personally -- in particular the action-packed first half, what with the big move, new job, and all the running around. The latter half seemed to fly by with a click of the fingers, though, and I am wondering if I didn't let a few opportunities get away in the last few months. I do resolve to make 2011 even better, though. As for Tron, I have to admit that film bored the hell out of me as a kid. I can't even remember much about it, probably never saw it to the end. I always preferred "Flight of the Navigator".

The Phalanx appeared in the DYRL PS1 and Saturn game, so there's little reason to rule it out of appearing later on. I have to stress yet again that this entire episode was just pure awe. Made me want to get my 1/60 Tomahawk out and spin it around! As for the Destroids in the PSP games -- yeah, they are extremely maneouverable, with plenty of kicking and punching actions.

:lol: Love that Cosby quote. I was actually using it just a couple of days ago! I was going to chime in when I saw this thread the other day, but I felt too embarrassed to admit that I had spent ten years of my life (one third of it) on this forum... Then again, I spent even longer clearing out junk from Hotmail for (15 years!!!), so I guess it's not so bad. EDITED for grammar, spelling, and overall making sense. Age really shows lately.

Did anyone else spot the Kawamori-autographed shikiji with a little VF-19 sketch there? Very nice!

LOL. Sorry, dude! I guess it is Asylum material after all?

I think not only is Itano Ichiro a living legend, he's like pure rage contained in a human body. Did you know that he only became an animator after seeing a classified ad in a newspaper on the street in Ueno, as he was walking around in Tokyo looking to buy a motorcycle, while his parents thought he was at after-school activities, even though he was actually suspended from school? He turned up at the studio, they asked him "Do you have a CV?" And he says "No. I just saw the ad. I actually don't know the first thing about TV manga". He sat down, did some drawings, and they told him "yeah, not bad, but could better". He then asked if he could stay till the evening and keep working on his drawing, saying "I want to be satisfied with my drawing". Hours and many drawings later, he left. He then got a phone call inviting him to do some training sessions at the studio. When he asked why, they answered "Nobody ever stayed and just drew 'until they were satisfied' with their drawing"! The man EMBODIES THE SPIRIT OF ANIME!! I was wondering when someone was going to make an anime/manga of his life and I see it's already been done. But why stop there, the potential is there for a big-budget Hollywood epic. I think there are already a couple of threads on him, but if enough people are interested I can post some translations of interviews with him since I have accumulated quite a few by now. Hopefully most of it will be new material for some.

So, I was in the rental store earlier today looking around and I found a CG movie called "Planzet" which apparently had one of those theatrical releases which goes unnoticed. It seemed to be a cheap Asylum-type affair, but I spotted an interesting looking robot which reminded me of Kawamori's White Glint from Armored Core. The CG characters look good, too. I didn't rent it, instead opting for some Lupin III But I did do a bit of searching for more info, and found these trailers/clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS-jto8v68M&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GETDt37PRzg The director is Jun Awazu, who also made this Showa-style short movie thing which also went by unnoticed: Has anyone seen it or heard of it? I might check it out.

Thanks for the review, Graham. I don't think I'll get one until the price drops, though. Also, I'm really low on space, especially now that I have the enormous Akira bike reissue. That one I wouldn't have bought if it hadn't been largely reduced either.

Really? I can't say I've noticed. I think I saw about one TV spot and a couple of posters in a train station, but that's it for Tron as far as I can tell. Yamato on the other hand, has been on TV constantly, in both commercial breaks and on TV programmes, with Kimura Takuya plugging it on every show he's on (and he's pretty much on EVERY SHOW anyway).

The SF Revos actually have really nice paintjobs, so I'm quite optimistic about this Iron Man. In fact, the Gunbuster is featured on the very next page in Figure Oh magazine, and if you compare the two the poor Gunbuster looks like a greasy PVC POS in comparison. I think I might just end up getting both. Actually, the combination/transformation for the Gunbuster looks to be pretty complex and involved... Not sure if that's a good thing or not yet. Meanwhile, the only thing missing from Ironman is a Robert Downey Jr. face.

Yeah, I might be up for that. I saw an OVA movie ages ago and liked it, and I actually saw the first three episodes recently, but never got round to pursuing it further. I know it's one of the classic masterpieces of anime but I never made the commitment.

Macross Ace has a feature on the game showing new Mikimoto illustrations of the game-only characters, apparently you can enroll them into Mihoshi Academy, although some of them seem a little old to be hanging out in school and giggling behind the bike sheds. Also, there is apparently a new all-red VF-25S piloted by Klan? Wonder if that's from the movie. EDIT -- I just remembered they're not including the second movie. So that red 25 is just made up for the game.

Or Bobby?

Got the mag yesterday afternoon, quick overview: Macross DaFirst: Bloody excellent. Lots of Destroid love, Minmay is useful, Max kicks ass, Hikaru reminds everyone of his existence in a wonderful way, and overall a very original twist on the Kamjin introduction. THIS is what I want The First to be like all the time. It's a whole new adventure, with familiar faces. Excellent, my favourite chapter so far. I might go talk about it in the proper thread. Macross Plus: Awful. God, I still don't see the point of this series and I don't think I ever will. We've all seen the OVA, we all know what happens, who wants to see it with terrible art and cheesy truncated dialogue? Macross Triangle Frontier (PSP) feature: Interesting, first showing of all the original pilots in their "normal" clothes. Seems that you can choose any of those characters to be enrolled at Mihoshi Academy... That latino fellow is supposed to be 31 years old, so the magazine itself promptly points out that there he may have issues socializing with his classmates. Macross 7th Code: Basara and Gamlin apparently start to get more involvement in the story... still not sure where this is all going... Lastly, the short SDF comic strips are the usual fun stuff. Haven't read anything else yet, but it seems my favourite columns with Ohara Noriko and Ishiguro Noboru are back from hiatus along with the usual Itano, Miyatake and Hikawa columns so I'll check those out next. I didn't notice a Mechatronix column this time round, though. There's plenty of Frontier content to build up interest in the movie in terms of interviews and stuff, aside from the usual manga and stories. Overall not a bad issue, the Tenjin calendar is great, and once again "The First" is nothing short of amazing.

Sheryl and Alto both die and Ranka hooks up with Brera in an incestuous bond which is Kawamori's big fat middle finger to both the shippers and Tokyo's recent amendments to youth ordinance regulations severely limiting freedom of expression in manga and anime, all in one fell swoop! Seriously, though, the other things I noticed which intrigued me is that Grace's body gets all shot-up like, and also Sheryl is seen standing on a field with someone in a wheelchair, whom I can only assume is (Chairwoman) Mao Nome.

I watched Mamo with this recently: http://www.myvideo.de/watch/6535115/J_Lupin_III_Secret_of_Mamo_Part_1 I spotted an English dub on Megavideo too. Not sure about Babylon, but I'm sure there are Rapidshares and stuff around. Or you could track down the DVD.

Those are technically animation errors. The episode was outsourced to Korea and they read the storyboards wrong.

I already posted this on another thread, but here are a couple of relatively recent acquisitions for me.

Yeah, I agree with this. Cagliostro is definitely a very good and beautiful film, but for me it's the weakest of the Lupin productions by virtue of how its style jars with the others, which are wackier and frantic. Plus the characters in it are all lovey-dovey, when they have already been established and more widely recognized as hard-liquor-drinking, chain-smoking mutual backstabbers. The only other Lupin that I can think of which is similar to Cagliostro in terms of style and characterization is probably "The Fuma Conspiracy" or "Plot of the Fuma Clan", so check it out if you liked Cagliostro. It's set in Japan, so there's some really cool Goemon action in that one, too, to make up for the lack of it in Cagliostro. For some reason, they decided to change the entire voice cast for that one, though. My favourite is probably "Gold of Babylon", just because of the memories I have of it back in the mid-nineties. I watched the hell out of that tape, crappy subtitles and all. I listened to the soundtrack yesterday and it is fantastic, like all of Yuji Ono's jazz funk stuff. Oh yeah, Green vs. Red. I remember there is actually a thread on that in this forum, but no replies. I understand what they were trying to do with the whole "deconstruction" of Lupin thing, but at the end of the day it just wasn't entertaining for me. Bleah.

Open question: How well does the canopy cover hold in the open position when in fighter mode? Mine doesn't at all. I think at first it was quite tight but now it is really loose, it does not stay open at all, just plops right down.

Does anyone here like "Lupin III"? It was one of my favourite shows but I only recently started re-watching it now after many, many years. Anyone have favourite movies, specials, episodes they would like to share opinions on? For anyone who has never seen it, you owe it to yourselves as aficionados of Japanese animation to at least check out the first three movies: "Lupin vs. Clone" aka "The Secret of Mamo" (1979) "The Castle of Cagliostro" (1980) "The Legend of the Gold of Babylon" (1985) They are all quite different in style and mood, so check them all out, I guarantee you'll like at least one.

As I mentioned to Save over the weekend, I may be on the right path in terms of tracking down Ohata himself. However, I heard that he had some sort of serious illness relatively recently and may still be recovering. I was under the impression Fujita designed the valks and Ohata refined them, with the Gigamesh and other Marduk stuff being all Ohata's creations. The other designers then took care of the rest of the mecha. But do not take my word for it. (As for Kawamori, I interpret that paragraph from the vf-2ss website as an acknowledgment that he created the VF-1, upon which the VF-2 is heavily based, and that ends his "involvement".) On a side note, Save, are you going to Comiket on the 31st? I might just have to go; one, because I half-expect trouble brewing in the wake of the Met's passing of "that bill" (concerning manga/anime content) and two, because I feel I ought to pay that "Gimlet" guy a visit since he worked so hard on that Megazone 25th Anniversary doujinshi. EDIT-- I found the name of that OVA from the lat 80s with the "original" Gigamesh designs by Ohata that I mentioned to Save on Saturday night: "Dai Majuu Gekitou: Hagane no Oni"

Supertramp, actually!