Renato

I bought a 1/48 Super Millia from TRU at Y7,500 just a couple of months ago. Most of the time TRU suck, but there are some god-send deals when you can find them.

DR Movie works on all sorts of anime. Loads of it, I see their name in the credits all the time (even in Macross Plus). I really doubt they have creative input on those two shows, though.

Who's to say that Aquerion will be stereotypical? Maybe it'll be the next big thing...redefining the combining mecha genre.... or one can hope..... Cheesiness. In the promo movie, they go "Let's combine!!" and "Aquarion, GO!!" They never did that in Macross. "Gotta transform! Battroid -- GO!" And they're all damn kids. Yet the show will be shown at like one in the morning. Ah, come back Macross Zero, all is forgiven. Well, almost all. (Yes, having said all that I'm still gonna watch it because of two reasons: 1) Yoko Kanno; 2) There's nothing good on TV these days.)

As long as we're doing phonetics... Pheyos sounds a lot like feo. Spanish for ugly. Nah, the VF-X2 names were Hollywood movie-related on purpose, Timothy Dalton and Marlon Brando etc. Remember all the mission codenames were movie titles, with the last one named "Do You Remember Love?"

Now here's a pic I never thought I'd see. Fukuyama and Mari. Now if only they'd perform together....

Didn't want to start another M7 thread (for obvious reasons) so I thought I'd just hijack this one to bring you this newsflash. http://www.threenine.co.jp/seesonic/index.html New CD, old songs (except for one). I've been following Fukuyama's stuff for years and always thought that his renditions of the Fire Bomber tunes kicked ass, much more so than the originals (well, he did compose half of them himself, after all). Now we can enjoy Fire Bomber, as it was meant to be heard. Live performances planned for June, as well, in Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya. It's cool, I don't think he's ever done a full-length "Basara-only" concert before. If anyone is interested and in the area, I suggest you go. He always puts on a damn good show (though I must say, I do prefer his own stuff to the Macross-related songs). www.fukuyama-yoshiki.net On his site he's also selling his DVD for overseas customers (complete with Engrish instructions and all). Check it out. EDIT -- This pic is of the Stairway To Heaven performance at the Dec 31 2004 Countdown concert in Osaka which I -- now, regrettably -- could not attend. Ahh.. MAAANN...

Duke Freid's guymelef. Here's an image. Who?? Wha?? I looked at the picture but I can't say I ever noticed it in the show, nor heard the name of that character. Wow, I have the entire show on video (including most of the "extended" episodes with the deleted scenes restored), but I obviously need to rewatch it!! Round about what part do they appear? Also, thanks for all the Arjuna info, man.

"The Cockpit" is pretty good. He's very nationalistic in his works, though, I believe. Doesn't seem to put off many gaijin, though.

I always get the impression, that BW doesn't really care about Macross, sort of like a bastard step child or something. Or perhaps it's just that they are actually quite incompetent and have no idea how to properly promote and market it. As far as I know, Macross is BW's only anime property, so you would think that they would be a bit more active in promoting it. There's always Orguss. Oh, wait. No, there isn't. Anyway, remember that it was Big West who wanted to capitalize more on Macross by releasing a sequel back in 1992 and, after years of begging, their "Well, we're gonna do it with or without you" attitude towards Kawamori ended up with Macross II as a result. Basically, if they've given up anything, it's trying to hassle Kawamori into doing stuff. At least that's how I see it.

I hadn't seen any of it until last year, either. Well, maybe I did when I was a kid, but I watched a ton of anime back then and I don't remember most of it now. Since this year is the 30th or 35th anniversary they're repeating all the old Yamato shows on TV but I haven't really been paying attention. It's just not that interesting to me... Any particular reccommendations (specific movies or episodes)?

Oh, dude. Thank god you reminded me, and thank god I still have the pic. Enjoy:

I guess it never mattered cuz it was KITT who drove most of the time. One of the (many) things that bugged me about Knight Rider 2000 is when they show Michael a fat box of junk and they say that's what's left of the original KITT. But you can clearly see in there a normal steering wheel peeking out. What, did the makers like, not see the original show?

Let's see...as far as I remember... Goliath hurt KITT pretty bad. MK did some trash work to get KITT running so he could get it fixed. Then there was the episode where KITT got destroyed by acid and they had to rebuild him. There was the episode where KITT got destroyed by some missiles and they rebuilt him with the super pursuit crap. I don't remember KARR ever destroying KITT though. The two times that I remember them meeting, once, KITT used a grappling hook from the rear that sent KARR off the cliff. They thought KARR got destroyed, but then some dude uncovered KARR from the sand. And then KITT had to use this deflecting windshield to repel the laser that shot back at KARR and then he was hurt. Then KITT finished him off when they did a joust using turbo boosts. Jesus Christ, the Goliath episode, how the hell did I manage to repel those memories??! Yeah, and Michael Knight's evil twin shows up or something, and it's -- you guessed it -- David Hasselhoff with a goatee. I also remember his name. It's "Garth". "Garth & Goliath". Holy Mary Magdalen.

I still think it is a foolish idea. The "chapter" Kawamori is living in is not finished. First of all, you don't have identified what is fascinating Kawamori: Hindu culture. Look at this Gabil. It began with Hindu-inspired designs. There was one of them in Escaflowne too (the Chafaris), Which one is the Chafaris? And general OT question: Is Arjuna good?

Good points, LV, but I doubt Guld had any intention of showing how superior Zentran are. Especially when you consider that HIS reason for going to Earth (aside from being ordered to by Millard) was to stop Isamu from getting anywhere near Myung. Purely personal (just like Isamu).

LV Lurker, you're a genius. You found a use for Macross II!!

Yeah. I have put a review of the Australian DVDs in the Review section.

The one I went to was in the Chadstone Shopping Centre, which I was told was the largest mall in the Southern Hemisphere (quite a claim, but I have little frame of reference so I cannot personally disprove this...). Hmm. Yeah, they had one on the shelf, and at least one more in the "stock box" under the shelves. Being me, I just took the one at the bottom. It's this right? http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/item.php?catalogue=MMB066 Yeah, this is what I got. It was still priced a little cheaper than the price on this site. I don't mind paying that since I'm still saving a frickin' fortune over the Japanese release (which is hard enough to track down, let alone save up for). Thanks again!

"Madman" Region 4 DVD release of SDF Macross http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/item.php?catalogue=MMB066 I apologise: I would take pics, but my camera broke last week. Damn Sony Nazis. OK, very quick review: This is the Australian release of Animeigo's translation and restoration of SDF Macross. Please bear in mind I have never seen the US Animeigo release and everything I know about it is only what I have read on these boards. First of all, the packaging. A few people liked the "classic" look of the white-lineart-on-black-background design for the US release, while others expressed a slight dissatisfaction, if I recall correctly. This led then to the custom keepcases. The Madman packaging is mainly white and features a couple of juxtaposed images of Roy's VF-1S and a close up of Hikaru's face, taken directly from the anime, but cleaned up to make a nice cover design, with the old-school Macross logo in shiny blue. A very nice touch. The reverse side is identical, and the "spine" of the box features a large, again SHINY, Macross logo. The whole side of the box is red, so the Macross logo is without the background rectangle design on that part, which is also a nice detail. Inside the box there are three standard DVD cases, each carrying two discs, with each disc in turn containing 6 episodes. The design for these will get on some of our Lying Macross Purist nerves: They use the Row-Boat-Heck MPC artwork for the covers of each case. Botox Millia and all. Well, never mind. The cutest thing is that on the back of each case there is an illustration showing different stages of the "winning" animation of Battroid Attack, the game Max and Millia play in the arcade. Very, very cool. Onto the discs themselves: There is an old-school Miyatake painting of the SDF-1 on each disc. Anyone who wants a bigger print of this pic can find it here, by the way: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/books/mecha_illuf.jpg Content: Menus are fashioned to fit in with the style of the packaging, and so I imagine they too differ from the AnimEigo release. Anyway, you have what appears to be a stylised rendering of a VF-1 cockpit display against a white background, upon which thumbnails representing six episodes are displayed for selection. The cursor is a "target". Move it around for a while and you will see a mini UN Spacy logo pop up. Click on it to access the Easter eggs. There are Easter eggs on every one of the six discs. These include: alternate openings/ endings, lineart slideshows, before and after cleanup comparison showreels, Ishiguro audio interview, etc. I heard someone in another thread mention that the alternate opening and ending wasn't on the Animeigo release. Dunno about that, but it's on this one, anyway. Picture quality is 3C: crisp, clear and clean. I have also have the show on videotape and the images have been very nicely restored. But you all knew that. However, it seems to me that different teams worked on different episodes for the restoration process, since for example, the episode "Bye-Bye Mars" is considerably paler in terms of colouring than some other episodes (it's particularly noticeable when you skip to the next episode in the sequence, where the colours are very vibrant). In fact, some colours remain bolder even on my VHS version of that particular episode. One scene which stood out specifically was the part where a mass of Destroid Spartans are deployed from the Daedalus. The green is of a very weak hue on the DVDs, while it's considerably solid on the VHS version. This is one of the things I would like to be compared side by side with the US Animeigo release (since it SHOULD be identical), and if possible, the Japanese Emotion one (though I'm not too bothered for the latter as we are well aware of its interlacing and film problems). So much for "quick review". Jeez. Well, to round up: Best. DVD. Box. Set. EVARRR. (But, again, you all knew that anyway.) PS Little info on the distributors: Madman pretty much handle all anime in Australia, from what I've seen and heard. Very often (if not, all the time) they will take what's been released over in the US and bring it out down under. They even brought out Transformers the Movie, the series, the lot. And I was gonna say one last thing but I've got damn MSN messenger turned on and I can't concentrate so I forgot. Goodbye. EDIT -- Found this auction link with packaging photos: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6375958342&rd=1

Got back last weekend, thanks to everyone who helped. I visited Monash University's "Manga Library", anyone who's interested and in the area go and check it out. Thanks in particular to Kensei. In actual fact, I had minimal internet access for the entire time I was there so I couldn't double-check your post for the name of that store, but it just so happens that there was a JB Hi-fi in the area and indeed they had a couple of Macross sets in stock. The price range was way off, though, I got it for $140.00, not 60 or 80. Still, I'm not bothered because it's still a bargain compared to my only alternative which is the Japanese set. Thanks again.

I recently got hold of the Australian DVD release of the Animeigo set, and the alternate opening (no Battroid VF-1J pose) and ending (sunset-lit fanracer) are on there as easter eggs. I was a little annoyed when I first heard that they weren't gonna be included, but I found them by pure chance and now I'm happy. I think the menu screens are set up differently for this release compared to the US one (to match the packaging design) so I can't really help you as to how to access it. On this set, you move the target/cursor around until a mini- UN Spacy sign appears, then click on that. Might to a review on that later. Anyway, as for this videotape, the first time I heard of it was a few years ago as I saw it on the back of some Macross book (maybe Macross Graffitti). I was shocked at the huge price tag, but I suppose that at the time, rental was pretty much the only way to go.

Junya Ishigaki designed both the Octos and Cheyenne, so they will definitely not be in this book, which is about Miyatake's designs. Graham Wow, I didn't know they got a third mecha designer. Wonder why they did that?

Oh, man. They used the Macross: Skull Leader logo for them. They're insulting Macross by passing RT items off as the real thing. Then you get the Robofans saying, "See? I told you Macross was a bootleg of Row-boat-heck!"

How about a Sound Force version? More: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/m...ustoms-misc.htm

Like Physica in Macross7. Hehe, what a crappy death. The "shock" scene came after though, when Gamlin went over to tell his wife... I wasn't expecting that outcome. That scene, in contrast, was done well, and kind of legitimizes the "build up" to the death.