Renato

How about some of the concept weapons that Itano and Kawamori designed over the course of (and before) the show's run (some of which didn't make it into the show)? I remember several alternate incarnations of the gunpod, some extra missiles pods, and other funny stuff. Don't have pictures with me, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

Yeah, I kno.............wait.. WHAT??!

THANK YOU!!! I have been looking for high-res scans of these LD covers for over ten years!!! :) And they have all the inserts and everything! Yay

According to Macross Chronicle, "The Galaxy is Calling Me" takes place just after the destruction of Planet Lux (not sure the episode number). Unless I missed it, they do not address the issue of when to place "Fleet of the Strongest Women" in the timeline. Anyway.... EPISODE SIX Great episode, saw it on the train. I guess it will just sound like I'm echoing thoughts here, but I also believe Basara is having another hard day. He has to get through with his song, but when lives are in danger even he has to fight. And he gets angry not only with himself for that, but also with the enemy for not giving him any other option. "You made me shoot!!" In a way it is childish. "I'm trying to do something and you're ruining it!" I thought this outlook was interesting. He doesn't hate the enemy, he sees potential and hope in them, but is frustrated that they don't give him a chance. Some people mentioned that he seems more calm at the end, when he is strumming the guitar quietly. I'm not sure, I think he is still in deep thought, and a bit melancholic. I don't think he's pleased that he is basically powerless. VFTF1, you say we "know" that Basara took the missiles out, but I don't think he ever does. I think he leaves them in, just in case. One other thing worthy of note is how different Mylene acts around Gamlin. She didn't like the idea of the arranged marriage, but it's interesting to see that she is not irresponsible so that she would go and purposefully sabotage it, since the band's work is at stake. Thus she acts like a nice, educated, well-mannered young lady to give Gamlin a good impression. Of course, she is being a total phoney, but this shows the lengths she is willing to go for the success of the band. As for the acoustic version of My Soul For You.... OK, the "acoustic version" on Let's Fire, the version on "Acoustic Fire" and the guitar-only one that appears on TV are all different. It was only released ONCE on CD, and that was on the Ticke-MagaCD single that came with advance tickets for "Galaxy is Calling Me". But anyway, that is all discussion for the "Fire Bomber Music" thread. EDIT -- It's not just a BGM loop, btw..

I know this is much later in the show, but I remember an episode where Mylene or somebody takes their data-pad thing to some kind of outlet, pays in money, inserts the end of the pad into a slot and instantly the "data" is updated, and lo and behold, you have the new issue of the newspaper/magazine. I think that was a pretty cool idea.

I have not seen it uploaded on to youtube yet, and if I could I would, but I need tons more memory, etc. Anyway, you can see glimpses of it in my posts here running on the PSP, along with brief explanations. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...0338&st=560 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...0338&st=665

No, you misunderstood, I agree Shin might be the weaker character, see in my previous post that I'd forgotten all about him. What I wrote about Shin was literally all I could remember about him. I was just going to lump him together with Alto, but then I realized people might be offended by that, so I talked a bit about him separately, and then it looked like I'm putting him with the characters that have GOOD development. Trust me, I don't think so at ALL. I think you are confusing me with Yellowlightman, I know he said he didn't finish it. I taped it every week. Maybe I used an expression like "as far as I'm concerned the show ends at episode seven" or something, because of the big battle and also due to that stupid "Sheryl's panties" episode immediately after. Now I wish I HADN'T watched past it.... As for the fujoshi thing, trust me, I know, I know. It's really sad to see the situation come to this. But when you think about it, the only reason giant robots are in Macross in the first place is because you had to have them in an early 80s anime, so I guess the next TV show (whenever that may be) will also have pre-requisites based on contemporaneous fads some may adore and others will detest. Sorry, that's really all the time I have now, but if you want to discuss this in depth I'll be in Tokyo for a few days next week, possibly the 17th-19th (and on the 12th for one day, too, but that is just a quick "zip-in, zip-out" at Meiji University, so I doubt I will have time to do anything), so if you have time let's get together. -Renato

Quick Announcement: Patrick Galbraith, writer of The Otaku Encyclopedia and discussant in the podcast I introduced a couple of months ago on this thread: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...=Patrick+Macias ...will be speaking on Otaku and Moe at a conference in Ottawa in January. If you're in the area, pop on by. http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=573#comments

This morning is probably going to be the last time I will be able to write much on this forum until the end of the month. I have to travel back and forth from Kyoto to Tokyo four times in the next couple of weeks with conferences, interviews and whatnot, so I'm sorry I cannot get into too deep a discussion. I will say this, though: it is much harder to convince one of what is lacking in a character than of what is actually there, since you cannot prove a negative. It's not even about the characters being likeable or not. It's about depth. That said, let's see, very quickly. Hikaru: he got involved in a war he had no business with, he jus wanted to fly planes.. as soon as he realized there was nothing for him to do, he joined the army, also to impress Minmay. He was just a kid soldier, being cocky to superiors at first. But he grew into this role, and finally accepted the responsibilities in his duties, going so far as ignoring Minmay's pleas to quit. Basara: The concept for this character is so out there, that everyone will have a different reaction to his actions, and we see this in the show. This show is like clockwork, it's an ensemble piece, really, to make it all work into the climax. Everything he does is wrapped in mystery, and the whole story is about people playing catch-up, along with the audience. Isamu: Behind his devil-may-care, thrill-seeking attitude, he carries a heavy burden. And he keeps running from the past. He's been through so much for Guld and Myung, so much as to allow Guld to blame him for what happened in the past, but he still plays the young fool. The thing is, you only gradually realize this towards the end. Shin: His family was killed, so he joins the army. Hmm.. He meets some girls on an island. Good for him. He doesn't seem particularly worried the second time his partner gets shot down. He saves the girl by ejecting all his weapons. Alto: Kabuki actor.. OK, that's random, but it's fine. In the movie, In the series, he is constantly pestered by his "brother" who claims he is acting even when he gets in the cockpit to fight. This is interesting. Unfortunately, it is never addressed again. How does Alto deal with it? Is he acting, subconsciously? No resolution. Just for the hell of it: Katsuragi Kei from Orguss: He is an irresponsible brat, who throws the fate of the universe and the space-time continuum into peril just so he can get laid! But he eventually grows and accepts his responsibilities, making any sacrifice for the possibility of a future for his unborn child. Excellent. This is another ensemble piece. Lastly, I found another review here (I still haven't read one which says the movie is more than average): http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=561 PS Patrick Galbraith from the site sent me an email regarding a conference in Ottawa on the subject of Otaku, if anyone in the area is interested. I will make a separate thread for this. http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=573#comments

ARE... YOU.... TAKING THE BLOODY.... *Sigh.*

Kawamori co-directed DYRL, and storyboarded the entire movie, as well as several episodes of the show (and wrote the last one, IIRC). Ishiguro is there mostly as "insurance" for the producers, since they would not have funded an entire staff of high-school/college students without any substantial experience under their belts otherwise.

Sorry, Saturday might be the only time I get to watch episodes 5 and 6, while I'm on the train. Will give my opinions later. I do remember ep 5 being interesting with the biker stuff, although I don't recall why Basara went out into space with his scooter for a bit, and then disappeared. I thought he was going to challenge the girls, but nothing came out of that.

If we're talking about breaking common tropes, how about having a character that devotes himself to resolution of conflict through non-violent means? That, and the problems involved therein, are all in Macross 7. Anyway, I would like to point out just to make my stance clear that I do not watch a lot of anime these days and the robot shows I did watch and enjoy like Macross, Votoms and Orguss did not feature teenage whiny pilots having breakdowns. I guess Evangelion started that trend with Shinji? Maybe that's why I got sick and never finished watching that show. Thus even if Alto is an important protagonist by virtue of the fact that he stands out among the crowd of modern anime robot pilots, that is not the benchmark I used to measure his value. Rather, I critiqued him as a protagonist in a narrative in general. Having said that, I remembered that Shin Kudo might actually have been an even worse lead (even if the concept of "a boy who knows nothing but war meets a girl who knows nothing but peace" had potential). The fact that I forgot all about him says a lot, I guess.

My review was "vehemently negative"? Either you misunderstood me, or I misrepresented myself. Sorry I didn't like the movie as much as others, but I certainly didn't think it was absolutely terrible, either. I enjoyed it as much as I do an average movie. It was better than Revenge of Meine Fraulein (because it wasn't totally moronic, chaotic and nonsensical in premise and execution). It was about on par with Spiderman 3, and maybe Indy 4, overall (because you knew what you were getting before you went in, and there were no surprises. Flashy entertainment, done well). It was not as good as Jurassic Park (because there were few/no thematic arcs, no moments of genuine suspense, and nothing that makes you gasp, "oh my god, I've never seen that before!!"). As for Macross 7, as I say, everyone is welcome to Pete's "MW watches M7" thread. It's a breath of fresh air when civilized discussion is allowed to take place. Shame it took about ten years.

OK, don't worry, I'll try to get around to it at the end of this month sometime, not before then, though. I've been wanting to do it for a while, and actually I was planing to have a few translations of Fukuyama interviews etc for this thread anyway.

OK, I will try to find some. I didn't hate the movie, I just kept looking at my watch, thinking what else I have to do this week, etc. It didn't really suck me in at all. We need people like you on the "MW watches M7 together" thread. Some are seeing the show in a new light when we actually analyze it one episode at a time. You might enjoy it (at least the discussion). I honestly cannot remember very well, but I certainly felt Alto was the weakest lead in possibly any show I've seen. And I'm not alone: In the latest Macross Ace, Kawamori admitted that was a common complaint from the fans, and so has tried to fix that for the movie.

Who is "everyone else"? Sorry, I tried to avoid most of this thread, so I will go back and check, but so far I've only read Save's review and as with TF2:ROTF (the majority loved that film too, by the way, but I thought it was a stinking pile), I agree on most of his points. I deleted the line "This is just my opinion.." from my original post before I submitted it, maybe I should have left it in, I just thought it was redundant. Just to justify it, though... I'm very much of the opinion that Macross 7 is all about the characters and their interactions, and so it was really unfortunate that the battle scenes left so much to be desired in that show. With both Frontier TV and Movie, the situation is reversed. If you like mecha action at the expense of interesting characters/story, this is your movie. I know which I'd rather have. DYRL is still the perfect Macross movie in this respect. Sukehiro Tomita did a good job. I'd like to also point out that I did not go in with high expectations because I thought the TV show was OK at best and was not actually going to watch this film. As of last weekend the late showings were priced at Y1200 so I thought "might as well go for it". Also, as I said, I liked the depictions of the Macross Islands and the background artwork (like the forest scenes, etc). That was worth seeing on the big screen. That was really all I wanted from this film. Thus it wasn't as if I was crushed, nor do I think I need to rave or vent about it. It's just an OK movie. It's definitely "Macross Frontier: The Movie". I'm sure those of you who enjoyed the series will enjoy the movie, so rest assured, you guys are in for a treat.

Sorry... I'd really like to get both "City 7 in 2060" and "Tokyo in 2009" done, but this is the busiest time of the year for me, I'm not going to be able to tackle it. You can have a go if you want, otherwise somebody please pester me about it during the end of this month/beginning of next.

I miss the days of tight scripting and natural plot development, like in Back to the Future....

Itano, not Ishiguro.

OK, I just watched this movie last night. I thought about typing this up in "Chester A. Bum" style from Thatguywiththeglasses.com, like "OH MY GOD, THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!! There's this GUY, and she's called Alto.. wait.. there's this girl, and he's.... no, hang on.... anyway, ROBOTS and SPACE MONSTERS!! The best part was when the white robot defeats THE FALLEN!!!" etc... But I guess I'll just type normally. First, I will give my overall impressions, then I will wrap specific stuff in spoiler tags. OK, I will start off with my verdict, so the busier ones among you don't have to bother reading however long this post turns out to be. This is a fairly good popcorn flick. That said, this is not a good Macross movie. When the movie started, I actually felt exactly what I wanted to feel when I decided to come and see this movie, which was witnessing the Macross Frontier ships in all their glorius detail on the big screen. So I was pleased that I wasn't let down in that respect. The problem is that even though they say that 70% is new footage, 100% is old story. You know everything that is going to happen. I don't remember feeling this way with DYRL, but I guess DYRL was different enough what with the added Protoculture ruins angle, and the song being a relic of the people of the island thousands of years ago. Anyway, the first 20 minutes or so were great (even if I spotted what looked like an animation error in the first two minutes of the film). It looks like they put a hell of a lot of work on the CG for Sheryl's concert. Also, look out, it's time! And the new low angles from which the Valkyries are filmed really give an impression of the scale. Then the movie slows to snail's pace as nothing really happens for an entire hour, if you have seen the TV show. If you haven't, you will likely have no idea what is going on anyway. As you can imagine, I spent the most part of the movie wishing I was watching DYRL, or Plus, or even The Galaxy is Calling Me. In fact, "Up" was playing in the next screen, and I felt I'd made the wrong choice. Maybe it's hard to judge the film on its own because it is just part one of two, but really, as a watered-down version of an already vapid (mostly in terms of characters) TV series, there really is no substance left to work with. They cut out all the filler and now you're just left with the bare bones, which is really just mediocrity. Oh, and Family Mart product placement. Erm.. There's nothing else I can say! The final battle was done alright, I guess. I just felt like, yeah, seen it all before. OK, I'm gonna talk about specific points now.

I just saw the Frontier movie last night. While the CG and backgrounds were for the most part highly detailed, I spent most of the time thinking how ugly the character art was, and how jerkily they moved. DYRL's character animation was mostly handled by Mikimoto (and he even drew the genga, too -- these days I think that's pretty much all done overseas, not just the in-betweening), and he put a lot of love into those frames. The curves in the lines and the detail in the eyes of the characters all have slight nuances that only he could perfect or replicate. In fact, his style has changed so much now that there is no-one left who could ever draw keyframes for animation like that, including himself. You certainly won't see an animation movie with character art as beautiful as DYRL again.

If I recall correctly, the comparison pic can be found on the opposite page of the page CF18 posted. Sorry, I do not actually have the magazine. In any case, I would say the photo showed the new RT in battroid mode as being roughly one-third taller and wider than the old RT. (The hands might be the same, though!!)

Hey, I liked the Banprestos..... Yeah, they're a floppy mess (which can be fixed anyway), but at least they transform, come with interchangeable heads and look better than the new Revoltechs coming out (plus they were much cheaper). One big design problem was the swing hinge assembly connecting the front and rear halves of the fighter, which then form the chest and back plate of the battroid. The bar on the hinge is way too thin and snapped on my Max version. Until that point, it was the best 500 yen I had ever spent. They really have a tough time on these boards.

Can't tackle a full translation right now, but from what I remember, it's Akiko saying that Mylene is busy with her solo career, Ray is a record producer, and Basara is still roaming the galaxy... So they communicated with Basara through the Galaxy Network and put together this album as a gift to the fans. I'll take another look when I have a bit more time.