Renato

Double post, cos it kept saying server not found.

I never knew about that Max colouring mistake. Anyway, I got my set a few days ago, just watched it last night, and while I must say I am really glad I got it because all the tiny details are so much clearer that I've made a few more discoveries (and the backgrounds are just breathtaking), I must say there are a few drag-points which make this less than perfect. First of all: the storyboard does not include the full sequence of the deleted scene in which Max and Millia stage a wedding to trick Bodolza's troops into laying down their arms. A few frames from the storyboard of this sequence and the dialogue for the scene can be found in the DYRL Storyboard book, published in 1984 (more info in the books section on the MW main site). I was looking forward to finally owning the full storyboard for the movie to see how the entire scene was storyboarded... alas. Now on to the DVDs: As previously mentioned, the visuals are very grainy. That really surprised and depressed me, but a little bit of monitor fiddling makes it tolerable. No 5.1. I have to say, Even though I owned the original R2 DVD release I never saw it the whole way through because of that crappy interlacing. So watching this in Dolby Surround was kind of the first time for me, and I am impressed. There's no need for 5.1 really. The second DVD is just the monaural version with the ending concert taken out. It is still using the same remastered source. No commentaries, no extras, no nothing. Disc 3: Not enough stuff. Yes, we haven't seen those skylark commercials, and the Saturn game opening looks cool as ever, but come on. No interviews, no reminiscences, not even an insight onto the remastering process (a side by side comparison a la animeigo woudl've been nice). And finally, the geek-out thing which annoyed me the most: there is a scene right before Bodolza's ship completely explodes, where there are lots of things inside the ship turning from red to white, etc, you all know the one I mean. Anyway, just before the wide shot of the outside of the ship before it blows up, there is a scene where you see the macross floating near the center of Bodolza's lair, and the white thing is decreasing in size... I dunno how to explain it. Just then there is one frame of film taken from another shot of the same location earlier in the film (when it was still red) for a brief moment -- when I saw this, I went "huh?? I've never noticed that before" and lo and behold, after checking my older R2 release and my VHS version, that frame of film just is not there. What the hell happened?? I'm guessing only people like me who have seen the film a thousand times will give a damn, but hell, that's tampering with the flow of the movie, and at literally the most climactic point in the film. Phew. Anyway, two thumbs up, not just because I can now actually tolerate a DVD version of DYRL, but because of the two awesome books and the remastering work which brings out a lot of detail which had been lost till now. The jigsaw puzzle and lack of actually useful extra stuff (other than the books) is a bit lame though. The "intro movie" for the DYRL MSX console game is just so beyond a joke I don't know whether to laugh, cry or commit murder.

Yeah, I proposed splicing the audio with flash animation many years back. The general consensus was that it would end up as being one of those never-ending projects which remain unfinished forever. We would at least have been 5 or 6 years into it by now, though.

Thanks for remembering, man. CLICK HERE! Synopsis... from my younger days. Don't laugh! Ah, those naive days of geocities. Boy, do I feel like I'm typing this in 1998. Edit-- that's a link to a REALLY OLD version of the page WITHOUT Macross Classic on it... it should come after Ai wa nagareru. Aw, crap, I'll just find the right file and post it later... might be a couple of days later though.

The credits seem to show Junya Ishigaki and Takeshi Takakura as mechanical designers. No Kawamori or Miyatake?

Yes, this is pretty exciting... if they are truly transformable. I don't see how that YF-19 is going to work at that scale, though. Ah well, I'll get them anyway, where else can you get a VA-3? EDIT -- I just re-read the post and did the maths. 9 figures in the first wave -- three valks, three modes for each. That means we're talking non-transformable figures. Aw. So much for that.

The ad is on during the re-run of SDF Macross. It's not too bad. Also you get a glimpse of both the tan and Nora SV-51 at the end. I remember the old ads Yamato used to show last time SDF Macross was shown on TV, back in 2001 or 2002. At the time they advertised the 1/72 VF-11C and the 1/60 VF-1A. Some people on here said the 11C ad was cheesy cos it showed stop-motion animation over a background of New Edwards base, but I liked it and the Macross Plus music was used to good effect. I think you can find them on the 20th anniversary DVD but I haven't seen them on Youtube.

Who ordered the Olson Special? Sweeeeeet.

Saw the new show. Not liking it so far. It's pretty boring and slow, lacking focus. It feels like it's going nowhere. Things start to pick up near the end of the second episode, but the whole set-up is a mess from the beginning. I felt the same when I saw the first episode of Flag (good premise, shallow lacklustre execution), the other recent Takahashi OVA anime. I love the original Votoms, but this is so far what Macross Zero is to SDF Mac: A nice-looking, empty shadow of a great show. That said I will be watching the rest to see if it gets good, unlike Flag.

Yet Hikaru's 1A is supposed to be Skull Eleven...

I have the Madman version as well, but I was always concerned about the quality of the visuals in the episode "Bye Bye Mars". It appears sub-par when compared to other episodes, and I have compared it with my old Japanese VHS tapes and they have much more vibrant colours in this one episode. I was wondering if the Animeigo release suffers the same problem. I know they SHOULD be the same, but apparently the menus and packaging are all different and stuff...

Nyaha! That's pretty funny. But they shouldn't have been chastised for editing Wikipedia on contents OTHER than agriculture -- notice that recently people directly involved in the topics they contribute to, e.g. politics etc have been creating biases on the site, so the Wikipedia org guys developed a special software to track the IP or something and invalidate updates of those who have too strong a connection to certain subjects they are editing.

I have the show in Stereo, both in VHS and DVD. I heard it with my own ears! (It is most noticeable in the ending song: Casey Rankin's howls and screams come at you from alternating channels).

Thanks for the link. As I had read earlier, this confirms that the audio track is mono. This is odd, since the original is in stereo (Macross was originally mono, though)...

I guess it's cos M7 is longer. It's been going on for quite a while now. SDF Mac is gonna be on at Wednesday late nights at 3am as of next week on TBS. The news concerning Macross 7 is that since that MBS is currently showing THAT at 3am, as of next week it will change to half an hour earlier so that Mac fans can see both shows. UNFORTUNATELY, that means that SDF is gonna be running directly against Galaxy Express 999, which is showing immediately after M7 on MBS!! So much for that....

Yeah, like 3:30 am or so. And then they show Galaxy Express 999 right after.

Good point. They still sell monaural TVs. I guess even though TV shows like GitS and of course OVAs like MacZero are mixed in 5.1 when released on DVD, they don't really bother to remix the sound for old anime. Shame, though, that they are going all out to remaster the visuals in HD but they neglect the audio, when it should be just as important.... For the record, I have a poor-man's 5.1 in my bedroom made out of old computer speakers and stuff. Nothing particularly hi-fi, but goes to show that you do not necessarily need to blow craploads of cash on a huge-ass home theatre system to take advantage of what ought to be standard on the DVD format.

They ARE actually showing M7 on late-night reruns right now.

Indeed. I have both the Japanese VHS and DVD releases of this thing and let me tell you, I would much rather watch the VHS than the headache-inducing interlacing on the DVD. No other DVD I have is that bad. This is a real shame and pretty much ruins the whole experience of the movie because the beautiful animation is totally wrecked. As for the extras, they have the same ads, trailers and stuff... I don't think they have much new stuff. The two-disc edition contains the original edition of the film as seen in theatres, i.e. MONOAURAL sound instead of Dolby Surround. No idea what the big deal is about that thing. What I want to know is why is there no 5.1 edition yet???

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but it caught my attention as I was checking BandaiVisual's site: The HD remaster box set of SDF Mac TV will be released in February. One of the extras is apparently the ORIGINAL CUT of episode 11. Now that is interesting, because ever since I looked at the section in the Perfect Memory book about it, I always wanted to know what that original version was like. From what I can gather, the opening battle with Britai that we have seen in Robotech and in subsequent home video, DVD etc releases of SDF have been the re-cut version used in re-runs in Japan, which differ from the original broadcast. I have the original broadcast versions of Boobytrap and Countdown on VHS as they were edited together for the original Macross Special broadcast, and separately on my DVD set, plus the alternate openings/endings, but this last piece of footage still eluded me. Then again, I do not want to pay 39,800 yen for 3 or so minutes of badly rushed editing. Just letting you guys know the most interesting thing content-wise in the new DVD sets.

"Turtle Wax on.... Turtle Wax off...." Shame Daniel-san wasn't in the movie.

I think this movie's credits are about as likely to mention BigWest as the Transformers movie mentioned Takara's Diaclone or Microman toylines. Actually, I am not aware that it mentioned Takara at all.

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/news/...ires_robot_role "Tobey Maguire is set to play a giant robot in his new movie." BWAHAHAHAH!! Nice research, guys.

I want at least Itano in this. His choreography is excellent. And the designs better be good. It's a shame that Kawamori's plans for a movie were shelved in 1996. And I wonder what they're gonna do for music?

No, he returned it and got a refund. I think it was like, the heart, or something.