Renato

His actual homepage is pure-records.com I heard the news from his son, actually, back in February. It came as a big shock. I'm not trying to brag or anything like that, but I knew him fairly well and I want to say that he was one of the most honest, genuinely good people I've ever met. As an artist, and as a human being, he was a perfect role-model and I would even go as far as saying mentor. He has been through a lot, and he did not deserve to go so young. I'd like to share a few minor anecdotes (yeah, alright, they're not hilarious, but they are very vivid memories of his humour and warmth): We had dinner once at a restaurant in Shibuya just before one of his gigs, and we ate real crocodile meat. He described it as "a fishy chicken". He once said to me "Anytime you're in town, drop by the house whenever you like. Oh, it helps if I'm here, though." I got the feeling that he had an idea of what an ideal world/society should and could be (one based on mutual understanding, simple but true), but felt frustrated that instead we have a world full of apathy and mistrust. It's almost as if he had made it his mission to promote a message of goodwill, when nobody is around to listen anymore. To think he lost the battle was heartbreaking for me, and I felt very angry for a while, I considered it a great injustice that he should have been taken away from us. Alas, his spirit and message lives on and we ought to do our best to live our lives according to what really matters and not stupid ideology. RIP Casey EDIT -- It is an eerie coincidence that I was browsing that very myspace page on the date Einherjar posted. I hadn't looked at it in months and I'm not sure what compelled me to, but I found myself there.

Yeah, celebrities and idols like SMAP and Wada Akiko, etc. A good example of your point is Beat Takeshi. In the West he is known as an award-winning filmmaker, but in Japan nobody has really seen his movies, they all know him dressing up as a clown on TV. And yes, he is still doing that on regular prime time most weekdays. I have no idea how he manages to find time to make any movies.

"Popularity in Japan" has always been difficult to define. Society is extremely segregated. Good luck finding someone who has seen Macross 7. I have lived in Japan for several years and found maybe only a handful of people who have seen it (and I mean like five or six), most people think Basara is annoying, only one person said "oh, I remember this show" when I sang a Fire Bomber song at karaoke. I read somewhere that even Ichiro Itano did not want to work on M7 because once he saw faces on the valks he said, "the hell with this". On the other hand, if I were to point out CD sales, it's another story: I remember that many M7 albums were in the top 10 anime charts for a couple of years, even well after the show ended. Galaxy Network Chart vol.2 and a load of drama albums were released in 1996, when there was no new M7 anime. Then 1997 came and Dynamite 7 came out. Plus the show itself ran for an entire year. I don't know how to gauge popularity in Japan. Supposedly the Beatles were popular, but you wouldn't know it. Supposedly Evangelion and GiTS are popular, but you'd be hard-pressed to meet anyone who has seen them. It's just a society of subcultures. There is hardly any mainstream left. A lot of young people do not even have a TV. I was talking about Ted Hughes's "The Iron Man" with a university student and I said "Do not confuse it with the Marvel character IronMan, though!" And she didn't know what I was talking about. "You know... red and gold... they made a huge movie recently..?" "No. Don't know." The only thing I can say with certainty is that Ghibli films are popular.

Yeah, I remembered that after I posted. But then, that begs an obvious question:

Heh, that, coupled with you avatar, just made MY day! As for the HUD, I'm guessing you can turn it off, so I don't mind. The less crap on my screen the better. I'm a little concerned that there is quite a bit more information onscreen this time round, like an extremely useful BGF indicator showing what mode you're in, and the design of all the stuff in the bottom right corner looks much bigger. I really hope none of this obstructs the player's vision. But seriously, we all know this is gonna be the best Macross game ever, so ONE MILLION POINTS TO NAMCO/BANDAI and ARTDINK.

Huh? I coulda sworn I wrote "1986 movie". Sorry. Still, let's face it, even if he had it wouldn't have been the biggest plothole...

Hey, yesterday I checked out the issue of Famitsu with the original article in it (I didn't buy it, so no larger scans, sorry), and here is what I found out: 1) There will be many, many more campaigns this time round, M7 and Dynamite 7 are separate, DYRL and SDF TV are separate, MZero gets a full campaign... as does Flashback 2012!! And apparently M3 and VF-x2 will also "feature" somehow! Last but not least, there is a hint that "even 'THAT' show will make an appearance"... to which they could only be referring to Macross II, as far as I can see, I mean, what else is left?? 2) Battle Galaxy is seen in a screenshot. 3) Fast Packs and Sound Boosters can be fitted and discharged at will during the game. 4) There will be more cutscenes explaining the chronology of each story. 5) Special moves feature animations of the character's eyes. Yeah, didn't really need that one, I guess. 6) VF-0D and VA-3M etc. 7) You now have VF-X2-style indicators for incoming missiles. Dunno if that means you can shoot them down, though. You get to put a girl in the cockpit with you. Sheryl, Ranka, Minmay... I wonder if more random characters like Cathy, Vanessa or Sivil will appear too? The stuff about M3 is just great news though, because it has to mean VF-9, Variable Glaugs and whatnot. I'm sooo there.

If the definition is indeed "would get anything to get laid", then I agree, Kei gets my vote (it's Katsuragi Kei, though, not Kusaragi). He pretty much said, "screw the entire space-time continuum, I'm-ah gettin' me some tentacle-haired babe booty!" He EVEN tried to get it on with his OWN DAUGHTER, for hell's sake!!

Don't remember this...? Nor this..? I dunno, I couldn't make heads or tails out of any of that.

I saw the movie yesterday. Overall, quite enjoyable if you know what a Bayformer movie is comprised of. I am not sure why Save views the two movies as being so different. Hell, the first movie was shown on TV in Japan last night to coincide with the release of TF2 and I felt a lot of deja-vu.

Kresphy (or anybody), do you know what magazine these scans are from? Thanks!

Since I was scanning stuff, I took the opportunity to scan the pages in the Macross Graffiti book that feature that illustration. Here ya goes: EDIT -- Bonus: Nonamed2, thanks for the Minmay pics. Checking out that guy's website, look what I found: http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/sdf1/Image/cut_hukuro.jpg It looks like Narumi's signature (initial) on this envelope containing DYRL footage. It all comes full circle!

OH GOD YES. And even Graham Hoillie is in the game!! Does that mean you can control the Deep Space Diving Suit thing? Kickass! That must mean that the VF-5000 should be in there somewhere, too! Oh, man, I haven't even finished unlocking stuff (like the three operators) on the first game yet! I wonder what else they can put in to justify a new purchase though? Because they already did all the four main stories. What else can they do, except for Dynamite 7? Oh, and that vampire maid type operator? Gah. EDIT -- Just checked out the other pics, I posted too soon: The diving suit IS in there! That is just, so unexpected, and therefore GENIUS. I wonder if even Ai-kun will be controllable too, hehe. Still no VF-4..?

Yeah, I'm busy on the Friday but I'm planning to see it on the Saturday matinee. It's funny, because it was originally scheduled to open on the Saturday, but then when the UK pushed their opening date forward, Japan hurriedly changed it to Friday... Thus causing a lot of confusion. Now the people who bought advance tickets need to swap their tickets for an updated one if they want to see the film on the 19th, because otherwise they are not accepted, or something. I don't really get it. Anyway... nobody cares. Actually, I find it funny how movies tend to open on Saturday over here. Odd. But who am I to question Japan but an idiot gaijin.

I always wanted to play Vortex ever since it came out, just because it had a transforming robot, and god knows those things were rare in the early 90s. But I never bought it, for some reason (probably just coudn't afford it). I will check it out now, though. I remember at the time it came out people were not being too hard on it, but I did wonder why it never achieved the praise Starfox or even WildTrax got. Those first few Super FX games were all very interesting. As for Macross PS2... Am I the only one who didn't care for this game much? I have it, played it like twice and as Andrew said, once you finish it, there's not much else to keep you coming back. I cannot believe they took out the SV-51 and the VF-0 from it during development, since they did actually advertise those as being featured. I got sick of the VF-1 so I prefer VF-X2 etc. I only play AceFrontier now, it's the good things of the PS2 version, but much better, with more variety. However, I don't think I was aware that the VF-4 was in there! What do you have to do to unlock it?

Can I just chime in and say one thing? Here in Japan, as far as I can tell, no-one gives a son-of-a-mother's bumfluff about the new Transformer movie. Or the old one. It comes out this weekend, but they only just started showing TV spots last weekend. Seriously. You guys are talking about Transformers Slurpys and whatnot. You can't even FIND one person who has heard of Transformers around here. Yeah, you will hear stuff like "it did well in Japan" and all this stuff, but seriously, people who actually go to the movies over here are very few and far between. There are no M&M, MacDonalds, or whatever tie-ups, there are no "Transform your summer" soft-drink campaigns, no nothing. I think I saw one ad for motor oil or something, which featured Bumblebee. When the first movie came out I had the chance to be in the UK for a couple of weeks and experience total Transformer mayhem with the overkill hype machine. Every shop sold Transformer socks, Transformer pyjamas, Transformer backpacks, etc. Growing up in the UK, though, no-one gave a crap about TF. I used to buy the comic, but I think I was the only one. Then it got cancelled. So... is it me?? Is whatever country I am in, suddenly affected by a general hatred of whatever I am interested in at the time? The most bizarre thing is that the film is being released here on the 19th, earlier than anywhere else other than the UK and Ireland. Yet they really don't seem to be playing that up at all. EDIT -- OK, you may say, what's my point? Nothing, I just wanted people to be aware that they shouldn't believe everything they hear about the film being a huge success in Japan or something if and when that gets reported. You cannot find Transformers toys and magazines and greeting cards in any supermarket like you can in the UK, for example. It is NOT a household name. This is not supposed to be an attack on anybody, I just want to let it be known that there is another side to this "worldwide success story".

Three? I counted two. What were they?

What were the mispronounciations of Eureka? Which is the "correct" one? Remember, the show is called エウレカセブン, but the word Eureka is neither Japanese nor English. I don't find any problem using an English interpretation of an originally Ancient Greek word. Think about it, Max Jenius is actually pronounced "jiinasu" in Japanese, but it wouldn't make sense to keep it that way in the English dub. Thus it is pronounced as in the normal "Genius".

As Sketchley said, this has been discussed at length. I will sum it up for you here, because it's probably not the easiest thing in the world to search for: They write it both ways -- he has two names, essentially. His friends call him Michel (ミシェル), but his real name is Mikhael (ミハエル). Alto doesn't call him Michel because he is not "close" to him yet, until the episode Friendly Fire, when he calls him Michel at the climax of the episode so that he knows he trusts his aim. That is why Luca is so excited that the two of them are much closer now. Both are "correct".

OK... I see. Still, I think it would've been better to have just used your MW handle and avoided further confusion. I have no idea how this forum would have reacted if it turned out that this Elric character was trying to take credit for all your hard work. There would have been pandemonium; Macross World vs Macross Generation; cats and dogs, living together!

The interview later goes on to all the hate induced by Macross 7. The interviewer reasons that since the timeline is basically meaningless, you can just pretend it never existed, or was just a stupid TV show. Which is a real roundabout way of putting it all into perspective. None of this is real!!! Kawamori is a genius. By the way, I edited the post in a couple of places shortly after putting it up, you guys are really fast! I'm gonna leave it alone now.

This is a transcript of an interview with Shoji Kawamori on September 24th, 1998. http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pn7m-szk/macro...aku/5000hit.HTM Macross 7 Fun Net is one of those dinosaur fan-sites. Seriously, it needs a cosmetic update. Still, I came across this gem of an article yesterday while reading a quote from it in the recently-published mook "Chaos Anime Taizen" (details on which can be found here: http://www.amazon.co.jp/カオ...520&sr=8-4). The book contains a long essay on the mind of the Floating Head himself, but a particular quote from this particular interview caught my eye, so I had to check out the full text. Basically, the first half of this page introduces an issue which will be recalled again and again throughout the three pages of text. We all know that Kawamori never likes to do the same thing twice, hence all the Macross series being so vastly different. Well, how Kawamori chooses to address this is by playing the "movie-within-a-movie" card, over and over. Yeah, we know about DYRL being made in 2031, and Macross Zero became "Bird Human" in 2059. But here's the jewel right here: QUOTE 　次は「愛・おぼえていますか」何ですけど、この時以降エキセドルのデザインが緑色になっていますね。 これは歴史の流れ上どういう風なことになっていますか。 　これがねぇ・・・よく雑誌とかで聞かれて説明しても理解してもらいにくいところなんだけど・・・。 　例えば、第次世界大戦があって、それをもとにした映画がたくさん作られてるわけじゃない。それぞれフィクションだよね。 ベースは本当にあった戦争だけども、それぞれ違うのがある。 　例えば、大河ドラマだと織田信長にしても徳川家康にしても、いろんな徳川家康がいたり、いろんな織田信長がいたりするわけだよね。 それは歴史をひもといて、推測してその作者の意図によって演じる役者も違えばキャラクターの えがき方もちがう。言ったセリフも違う。そういう感覚なんだわ。 　だから、一応年表で発表する時にはその時代に公開された映画という設定で 「愛・おぼえていますか」があるんだけども、じゃあシリーズが本当にあっ た事じゃないんですか、と。シリーズも本当にあったであろうが落ちてきて、 そこから何らかの歴史があったのをシリーズというストーリー化された物がオンエアさ れたシリーズと。で、映画と。 　で、また「マクロス」ような事件があった、のをもとにしたのが 「マクロス」っていうテレビ。そういう捉え方なんだな、全部。 　では、「マクロス」も「マクロス」の歴史の中で放映されたシリーズなんですか。 　そうそう、そういう解釈。だから、映画の「愛・おぼえていますか」 だけじゃなくて全部がフィクションって設定。 　どれも本当ではない、と。 どれも本当ではない、と。 「愛・おぼえていますか」の予告編で「今回の映画で主役をやらせていただきますリン・ミンメイです。 」って・・・。映画が大ヒットして、それで版も作られた、と。 　そうそう。それがなかなか理解してもらえない。どうしても本当のことは別にある、 って考え方をする。そういう歴史を研究して後から作られたとかさぁ。 そういうのを推理しながら、いろんな制約の中で・・・に限るとか、 おもちゃが出るとかそういう中で組み上げられた物語っていう考え方なんだよね。 だから、いろいろ違って全然いいんじゃないかって思う。 　 　「　」も同様ですか。 　同様、同様。だから、あれに類似した事件は何かあったんだろうと。 シャロンっていうようなバーチャルリアルティのキャラクターがいたのかも知れない。 おそらくいただろう、と。 Next, Id like to ask about DYRL The design for Exedore is green all throughout the rest of the Macross shows. How is this explained in terms of the timeline? You know This is something I have trouble getting people to understand in magazine interviews. For example, youve got World War II, and then you have lots of movies based on that event, right? They are all fictional. Theyre all based on a war that actually took place, but they are all different. For example, in period dramas you have Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, but there are so many Oda Nobunagas and Tokugawa Ieyasus. The producers look at the real event and adapt the character according to their wishes. The actors and lines also change, so the character changes. Its that kind of feeling. OK, so in the timeline you have a movie called DYRL that was released, does that mean that the TV series is the true story? Well, you have the SDF-1 that supposedly fell from the sky, and then a story was made about the subsequent history and was televised. Then that became a movie. Then later, there was a Macross 7 incident, and a TV series was made about that. Thats basically how I see it. So Macross 7 is also a TV series broadcast within the Macross timeline? Thats right, thats the interpretation. Its not just the movie, they are ALL works of fiction. None of them are real? None of them are real. In the teaser for DYRL, there is a line that goes, I am Lynn Minmay, I will be playing the lead in this movie. It does make you feel that there was a TV show which then became a movie. Exactly. Thats what I have trouble getting people to understand. The real truth is somewhere else. They studied the history and made the fiction after the fact. While reasoning the facts, they have to make many compromises, like the limitations of a TV format, like the fact they have to sell toys, and so they have to adapt the story that way. So, in that respect, it doesnt matter if all the productions differ. The same goes for Macross Plus, too? Yeah, that too. You have a similar incident that occurred. There may have been some virtual reality character like Sharon. Like, she probably did exist. So there you have it. The rest of the interview is very interesting too, but here is a very clear-as-crystal statement of how much Kawamori cares about continuity, or canon. Disclaimers: I'm not trying to push any agenda or anything, I just thought I'd share this. Secondly, since the whole Ohnogi embargo I wonder if people are weary of this kind of interview. Particularly because this one has not been published but on one fansite. Well, as I stated earlier, it was quoted in a book recently, and here is a little shred of proof that Kawamori at least did speak to the fansite admin: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pn7m-szk/macro...aku/3000hit.HTM EDIT -- I'm not sure why only the first line is blue. Never mind.

I just came back from Macross Generation to see the reaction over there. Doesn't look to me like those forums are as active as these, but never mind. I found something slightly odd. This is a post in the Mac Frontier thread there. Basically, "the info on Ohnogi is not true", "the novels don't exist", etc. But the last line is "(Yes, I am 'Gubaba' from Macrossworld)". .... Yet, this post was written by none other than Edward Elric, or エドワード・エルリック as he chooses to type it, which is also the name of a poster recently active here, too. So... that's not Gubaba, unless Gubaba got in touch with him and allowed him to post on his behalf. In which case, he should have said so explicitly. Or maybe he cannot speak Spanish and his translation got mixed up to mean "I am.."? I can't think of any reason why he would want to pose as Gubaba, but I would just like to get it out there that I found this quite strange. (EDIT -- OK, I can think of one. It is pretty obvious, but I just realised. Maybe I'm too naive. Anyway, I hope this is not the case.) Lastly, another round of appreciation for Gubaba and his exploits! I think the revelation that Shaloom got the bare bones of the interview not from the source but from Kresphy's summary and then injected bogus content is just genius. Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud.

It should be for kids! Swallowing parts?? The kid is eight years old, not a toddler! The only problem is that Macross toys are too expensive. I would think that the Bandai Macross 7 toys and the version 1 1/60 VF-1's are the best, and the 1/55s are no-brainers. Don't forget the "perfect transformation" Banpresto VF-1 toys, too. Or even the Toynami 1/100s. And they just re-released the Bandai Macross 7 and Macross II kits, so building those simple snap-together kits with him would be fun, too. I have no idea why the latest batch of 1/55s are so massively overpriced. Ditto the VF-25. Bandai really DON'T want to treat this as a kid's franchise, do they? That's a big shame, because they are the ones that would enjoy it the most. If they marketed the products to both kids and adults, they would not only stand to make a better profit, but also help in parental relations. Isn't Transformers helping in that way in recent years? I see on Youtube and other places that there are a lot of kids who play TFs with their dads. I think in Japan, too, the same happens sometimes with Kamen Rider, Gundam, etc.

I agree, it was a totally wasted opportunity. I was so disappointed to see all the actors screw every single line up, and only Mari could pronounce the word "Macross" properly! And why is everyone (again, except Mari) shouting their lungs out ALL OF THE TIME? Bizarre. But the worst thing has to be the language in the show. If they made the dialogue and acting cheesy to appeal to a younger demographic (which I have no problem with, that is the main reason I can justify a dub in the first place), then what's with all the swearing? And it's out of character, too. I never expected Claudia to say "That Minmay, she's a biaotch!" And those additional "pew pew" 80s laser sound effects they added to "enhance" the 5.1 mix... The final nail in the coffin is that you cannot even enjoy the original Japanese audio on the DVD because the version they have included is in such terrible condition. I heard they could not license the new remasters Animeigo did, or something, I dunno. Seriously, it's like they had to screw it up on purpose so that Robotech would remain the superior dub and they would still have product to sell. That's the only explanation!