Renato

I watched the movie just yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. Yeah, there were a number of plotholes, but there have been since even the very first movie what with paradoxes and everything (also, trying to prevent Cyberdyne from continuing research to create Skynet in the second movie would endanger the very existence of John). I enjoyed it much more than bloody Avatar (BECAUSE I DIDN'T SEE EVERY BLOODY THING THAT WOULD HAPPEN A MILE OFF), and about the same as Star Trek. I expected to hate it judging from bad reviews and also because of the dungpile that was T3, but it was good. Marcus Wright is an interesting character. Secondly, I wanted to point out something. I mentioned a while back, I cannot remember in which thread, that I was surprised to hear from all of you that Sarah Connor Chronicles takes place in a different timeline to T3 and T4 as I had thought that the Sarah Connor Chronicles were "canon" according to promotional material in Japan. I never found the leaflet that I had picked up which had this information, but never mind -- the chart was on the official website all along. Just go here: http://wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/sarahconnor/ and click on TIMELINE, at the top. The chart you see has the "official" canon timeline with T1, T2, SCC and T4 set pretty much in stone, and Terminator 3: Lovers Again was apparently given the "alternate timeline" treatment. Noteworthy is the date of Judgement Day. It is in 1997 originally, of course, but according to this chart it changed to 2011 in SCC due to the events of T2. In the T3 universe, it takes place in 2004. Also, John dies in 2032 in the T3 timeline. I guess they wanted to retcon this stuff. So, my (first) question is: is there an official source that contradicts this Japanese information? Where did the timeline set-up of "[T1+T2], [T3+T4], [sCC]" come from in the first place (if I'm even understanding it correctly)?

Yeah, you don't even get a grade when you complete a mission, just a star. Like, "good boy".

Right, yeah, but -- "the beauty of romping" notwithstanding -- it could just be the angle of Glavil's wrist: a couple of degrees anti-clockwise and hey presto, it's an upside-down pentagram. Besides, that is not the only "demon" symbol in the show, notice the pentagram (this time clearly pointing down) on Valgo's abdomen, plus a myriad other such symbols as well as the fact that they are described as demons of legend, who possess other beings. The implication is clear in the "ruins" episode that these are the same devils that have been possessing people throughout the ages (though that would clash with the whole concept of them being imprisoned for tens of thousands of years). As for its origins, I think you're thinking of the star of David, which has six points. That's something else. If I recall correctly, the pentagram was a pagan symbol which was demonized by the Christians -- along with the image of Pan into that of Satan, among many others -- so that people would leave those practices and take up the Judaeochristian traditions. That said, let us tread carefully along this ground and discuss the history and significance of these symbols by all means, but as soon as we get into judging the faiths we can say goodbye to this thread so I think we should stick to discussing the cartoon. Just a disclaimer I can't remember... please enlighten! Preferably with images

Oh yeah, as far as the crosswalk is concerned, I also have always thought it was the one right outside Shibuya station, simply judging by how tiny the people look in the credits. The Shibuya station crossing is really big, and I would say significantly larger than the one in front of 109, which is just a couple of minutes up the road anyway. I was over there just a few weeks ago, by coincidence Of course we could all be wrong and it might be some random crossing in Fukuoka or somewhere ..But I doubt it

Well... I watched it! I guess I'll put stuff in spoiler tags for now, then. Even though it's weird to be using these 15 years after the fact... Well, those were my impressions for now.

Gubaba, thanks for this, I downloaded it last night. I haven't read the translations, but it was nice to hear that great Haneda music once again. I own the CD but it's in the UK and it's been years since I heard it.

Yay! Happy New Year and Merry belated Macrossmas! Tokyo in 2009 The Hot Summer of Fifteen Years Ago Shiro Sasaki (Flying Dog) When Big West approached me and said “Next year is the 15th anniversary of Macross 7”, I blurted out, “OK, shall we do a new album to celebrate the 15th anniversary?”, it was the end for me. I never imagined I would have to endure so much during the hot summer. It began in 2008. In planning for the Macross 25th Anniversary concert, I found Chie’s homepage on the net and sent her an email, after years of no contact. She immediately replied, and we began corresponding often and I went to her concerts. Meanwhile, I also got in touch with Mari Iijima in the US and got her acceptance to participate in the concert, as well as managing to convince the one actor who performed in all of “Macross”, “Macross Plus” and “Macross 7”, Shou Hayami, to join. All things considered, the 25th anniversary concert was a success, and it produced many offspring projects, like Chie releasing a self-cover Mylene album, and Fukuyama teaming up with Kanna to form the acoustic unit “Fukujin”. With all this going on, I thought it would be interesting to make one more Fire Bomber album. It was a very hot summer fifteen years ago. Where we would normally simply produce two or three tunes for a new show, in this case, since the main cast of the new show “Macross 7” was supposed to be a rock band, we needed to get over ten songs done by the end of August. We were in the studio until morning every day, and even when going back home to get a bit of rest it was too hot and sweaty to get any sleep, and then it was right back to the studio. Those days still come vividly back to me now. What’s more, we were in the situation where we had blown the entire year’s budget on recording those first ten songs, and if we were rejected extra funds, we would not be able to make any music for the second half of the series (well, it’s all my fault for being disorganized…). In the end, the show was a hit and so was the music, so we got our extra funding, but even now I break out in cold sweats just thinking about that time. It’s amazing that we were able to pull off such an irresponsible thing, but at the same time, that just shows how much we put into the work. Fifteen years later, I am now an old man. This time I tried my best to involve creators and partners of a new generation. I wanted to create a Fire Bomber which, through the sensibilities of the younger generation like Song [Rui] combined with that of the original generation like Fukuyama, Chie, Inojo and Kyo-chan [Kyoko Fukuyama], would be nostalgic yet new. Whether this experiment was a success or not I will leave up to you, our listeners, but for me, it was certainly an enjoyable time (although I struggled a lot right up until the deadline due, as ever, to me being disorganized). Fukuyama, Chie, thank you very much. And to all the poor creators whom this disorganized old man dragged on to this project (in particular Mr. Masuda from Speedstar Music, this album could not have been possible without you), I’m sorry for all your trouble. Thanks to you, this old man had a fun time. If I had a time machine, I would go fifteen years into the past to that hot summer, and tell myself to not give up, as there is a lovely reward waiting in fifteen years. I hope to do more of these in the future, there's some interesting Fukuyama material around.. EDIT -- I didn't check it before uploading it last night because I was going for a drink, but I just re-read this and I found a couple of typos so I fixed them.

Yarr!! City 7 in 2060 “Fifteen Years” Akiko Hojo (Akiko Lipps) Fifteen years. So long, yet so short. When Basara left to wander (the galaxy) we all told Mylene, who could not stop fretting, that as soon as he grows tired Basara will surely return. We never imagined he would still be travelling after so long… Every so often, as if remembering about us, he sends songs he wrote in his travels, so we always have the feeling that Basara is right here with us, but it has already been fifteen years. There was nothing like the shock when Ray first gave me the opportunity to hear Fire Bomber’s demo tape. Everything began from there. It’s amazing that only fifteen years have passed since then. In these fifteen years, many artists have come and gone. Recently, Sheryl Nome, the Galactic Fairy, has become a phenomenon that attracts the attention of even us on Macross 7, and little Ranka the Super Dimensional Cinderella who is closing in on Sheryl with all the momentum of a rising sun. This may seem presumptuous, but I can say that both of them have a similar “scent” to Fire Bomber (in fact, even Ranka’s older brother is a fervent Fire Bomber fan). They all seem to be “unable to not sing”. Perhaps even the legendary Lynn Minmay was like this. When Ray said that he was going to make a 15th anniversary album, I thought I had misheard: there was no way that would be possible. I never imagined Basara would participate (that said, he did not actually return to Macross 7, it was all done through sessions using the Galaxy Network). Maybe he felt an obligation towards the other members whom he left behind. With regards to the sessions held through the network connection, there were many technical issues concerning difficulties due to the time lag, but these hurdles were miraculously cleared due no less to the amazing fact that the song energy of Basara’s songs actually increases with each passing year. In any case, this is truly the first Fire Bomber album in thirteen years, and I believe it is the greatest gift to all the fans (thank you all very much for your love all this time!) Mylene is a solo singer now, Veffidas is a session drummer and Ray is a record producer, but despite them all travelling separate paths, as you hear on the record, there is absolutely nothing to make you assume there was any blank period at all. That is because Fire Bomber continues to live even now within the hearts of everyone. The reason they never disbanded is that they do not want to lose the place to which Basara can return to. As Basara sings in the final song, “Waiting for You”, these fifteen years I have been dreaming of the day when the answer everyone is searching for, and the answer Basara and the band are searching for finally meet, and will continue to do so. OK, I will do "Tokyo in 2009" tomorrow! Enjoy!

Yeah, that sounds about standard for Fukuyama concerts. Looking at the venues for this tour, it looks like the usual suspects, Osaka Muse, ELL Fits-All, etc.. I prefer these to the Fire Bomber concerts because considering Fukuyama's 20-year-spanning repertoire, you never know what you're gonna get. I'm looking forward to seeing the song list for these concerts. Sometimes he does some classic English rock songs during the encores (like Smoke on the Water, Imagine, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Stairway to Heaven, etc...) In other news, I'm taking a break from life for a little bit and I will get some translations up on here very soon because it's been far too long, dammit.

They hardly put anything in Romaji, so I wouldn't count on it. As for him being half-Chinese, I was being serious about that! I thought the compendium was based on official info from the sourcebooks available at the time. I never imagined it also borrowed from Manga's liner notes or blurbs.... That's quite bizarre.

I thought he was half-Chinese! I'm sure I read that in the Compendium or something. OK, the VF-1J M&M valks look awful. Is there no official colour guide for them? Also, I have to say, it is funny looking at the timeline sheets up to now. Look how much they dragged out all of Macross Zero and SDF... and now they're effectively looking at their watches in sweats, just rushing right through Macross 7. I have no idea why they needed to devote entire pages to illustrations of the SV-51, the VF-0 and whatnot in those early sheets, nor what purpose describing at length Claudia's flashbacks.

Good question. I don't remember the episode, but I will watch it again soon. I am guessing two of those are Alice Holiday's agents, and the other one.... maybe a vampire? Maybe the record store guy, as you say?

Yeah, it's nice the variety in figures they had back then. This is basically the equivalent of the Destroid Conversion Kit, also by Takatoku. The oddball thing about this guy, though, is that the inner skeleton is clearly the same mold as the Orguss, which is quite different from what the Nickick is supposed to look like, particularly the feet. But I guess you can still make interesting Franken...roids? Actually, that sounds painful.

Check the previous page.

Jesus Christ, did Kresphy just post the whole movie in film-scan form? Where is this guy's custom title already?? He's gotta be "Scoopmeister Extraordinaire" or something!!

I don't know but you can use emulators for the PC, they play the same without region-blocking shenanigans, nor any faffing about with stupid memory cards. Apart from that another option is to transfer the data from the PS discs to the PSP and play them on there (you need special software, though, google it). DYRL is still fun but VF-X and MPlus are terrible if you've gotten used to the excellence of Ultimate Frontier.

It also says 「演出集」, though. 演出 literally means "performance", but often refers to cut-scenes, and 集 after stuff like this means "collection", so I believe this is actually a disc full of the new animated scenes. Thus, this DVD would be a great find if anyone can get a hold of it. It's likely an industry-insider promotion-only thing, though... If they release all this footage to the public too soon then nobody will want to go play the game.

Like I said in the dedicated thread, I don't really understand this. "Sold out"? I was under the impression they were made to order. I don't believe they have a whole stack of them in some warehouse just sitting there. They probably made two or three in advance, sold those off to the first brave customers and now they have to make the rest as they receive orders, which will apparently take a couple of months.

What does this mean? I thought they were made to order. It's not as if they have a huge stock somewhere.

The anime market in Japan, while extremely diverse within itself, is actually very small. Most of the animators in the industry work freelance at several studios at once, for the love of the craft. This is one very important factor in the survival of the anime industry. Yasuhiko Yoshikazu was saying a few months back at the　Japan Society for Animation Studies, that if we ever get to the stage where animators were all to be hired as proper employees of studios with proper salaries and benefits and all the rest, then the industry would collapse. Either that, or it would undergo an enormous change, perhaps transforming it into something totally unrecognisable. Looking at figures to measure commercial success is pretty meaningless for anime movies unless you take many, many other factors into account. The same goes for the discussion we had about television ratings when Frontier was on the air. A subculture show at 1:25am getting a 2% audience share... what do we make of that? We gotta hit the books and see how anime is consumed within Japan to make any sense of that.

Sorry, it's not a silk robe (you would at least need a belt for that). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinbei These days, jinbei is usually worn during summer, you would often see people wearing them at like matsuri and such. It is worn by tying together a couple of laces on the inside of the main body at the waist, that is why you do not need a belt. The bottoms are a pair of shorts with an adjustable waist string. Notice the typical way in which the sleeves are attached to the main body by a thin thread. You can see this on Ray's blue piece.

悪かったが、BurningFireのPVのリンク頼まれたから教えただけですよ OK, Mari-ja says we gotta keep on topic and talk about　possibilities for the sequel! I just want to see more Macross 7 with scenes animated like the new FEVER Macross Pachinko thing. Because the mecha action in the TV show was pretty lacking, to put it mildly. Mix in the hot-rockin' FB tunes with some high-speed visuals and I'm left with nothing more to ask for. Oh, except they should put it in the cinema, that would be much more entertaining than the Frontier movies. 例の「FEVERマクロス」のパチンコ用のＣＧと同じような感じで作れれば文句ないですね。

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking.

Not necessarily, remember we catch a glimpse of it in all three modes as a hologram projection during Millard's orientation in the first ep of MPlus.

I second EXO's augmented reality idea. That is like the most awesome thing ever. And they could use the CG models from the Fever Macross Pachinko game.