Renato

I downloaded this (the first one in the videos section, yeah?) but I couldn't see it, so I'll try some other time. In the meantime, I'll like to hear others' opinions too.

Agreed. I just don&t have the cash for what I&m sure is a finely-sculpted yet overpriced toy. No die-cast is also a turn-off. The lack of a figure (empty cockpits are just ugly to me) is the nail in the coffin.

On that link you posted it was interesting to see a BT Stepper custom... Though I wouldnt put it past Takara to release Stepper as the RX-9 recolour...

That's the brilliance of the show. Take a bunch of recognised characters, animate them poorly, throw in ridiculous stories, THEN "translate" it with a wacky script and re-dub it in broken English with the stupid voice-cast of Clash of the Bionoids, and there you have it -- THE BEST SHOW EVARR!! "How come you missed?" "This has been my way of doing things." Classic. ------------------ Edit -- By the way, this thread should really be a part of the pinned TF thread because otherwise the whole forum will be overrun with TF topics.

Nope. I don't even know Japan's reaction to Innocence or Steamboy. Let's face it, we're all subculture Otakus here, no-one has even heard of Macross... Actually, I'm gonna look into subculture and cult stuff in the next few months in detail, so I'll let you know then. I will say that I was lucky to rent the DVD when I did because it is constantly on rental now, along with Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop (even six years after release!!). So this is an interesting phenomenon nonetheless. According to Oricon's daily rankings, Episode 5 was #4 on the initial release date (remember, it's based on sales/rentals/money/etc) for animation releases. Gundam Seed and Ghost in the Shell TV 2nd season were ahead. It has since fallen to 7th behind Alladin and the previously mentioned GitS TV 2nd season and Gundam Seed. In less than a week, it's behind Alladdin, a mainstream, 2-disc, affordable Disney family movie, released about a month ago. I wouldn't call that a success, but then the target audience is otaku only.

Nope. I don't even know Japan's reaction to Innocence or Steamboy. Let's face it, we're all subculture Otakus here, no-one has even heard of Macross... Actually, I'm gonna look into subculture and cult stuff in the next few months in detail, so I'll let you know then. I will say that I was lucky to rent the DVD when I did because it is constantly on rental now, along with Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop (even six years after release!!). So this is an interesting phenomenon nonetheless.

yeah, it can carry two. The cassette door is not flushed with the chest anymore. It actually pops out more to carry the extra tape. Aahh. I KNEW there was a difference. They just both looked the same to me. So I suppose he'll come with two tapes. Lemme guess -- Ratbat (groan) and hopefully Ravage? No, wait, did Ravage come with the soundwave reissue, or was it Laserbeak? Ah, I wish they made some of the combiner tapes that they released during the Headmaster period, I think there was a monkey called Beatbox or something. EDIT -- Check it out, the tapedecks in "action": http://homepage.mac.com/thansson/headmaste...e4/episode4.htm

here's a graphic of the Hikaru-bootscroll: Thanks! Looks great! As for the pencil sharpeners, damn, I never knew the pilots wer in 1/48 scale. Had I known that I would have gotten a few when I had the chance...

Remember also that the Macross 7 fleet is still heading towards the center of the galaxy, too. Maybe it's time for a big Macross reunion. (I highly doubt it, though..)

I'm a bit more interested in that DYRL poster with Hikaru holding his helmet. Boy, that sounds random. Anyway, I'd like to see a bit more of that poster, if it isn't too much trouble. Thanks.

What? Nah, I didn't refuse, I was just busy this weekend, and then I forgot about this thread when I posted an epic huge-ass spoiler of "Macross Zero-Five". Which no-one probably read anyway. Where were we...? "Enter Howard"? Ah, yes. Hmm. You must excuse my memory, but I can't recall it perfectly. Anyway, we went through a complicated (for them, apparently, yet ultimately simple to us) procedure of explaining the situation -- Rob had been buying from that shop every week since it opened. Now, you'd think that a MAN in a place like that would stand out, but this is a GAIJIN MAN we are talking about, so everybody should have recognised his face by that point. Alas, all the members of staff that day happened to be new to Rob. So despite the fact that he had amassed a ridiculous amount on his point card they couldn't get it in their heads that he had always used the credit card to pay, always in accordance to their Y3000 limit, as he had been told. Howard tried to explain it a different way, and allegedly "slammed" (Rob's words!) his hands down on the table in desperation whilst explaining in as many different ways as possible. Rob later on in retrospect remarked on Howard's rage, while Howard denied particularly getting angry. It was probably all tame by Western standards, but to the Japanese this could have been close to crucifixion. "You sure weren't using -desu and -masu, man." was my comment, if I recall. Then it was Rob's turn to get pissed off, when he was asked if he had receipts, to which he said "Yeah, but I live an hour away. You pay my train fare I'll go get 'em right now". Tears welled up in the assistant's eyes. Rob later revealed his sweet monkey side and said "I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the system". But he made it clear that he was never returning to K-Books, also he would run the name of K-Books down to the ground. So basically it was half an hour of us three taking turns to repeat the same thing, and we'd all had enough so Rob just split the pile of books and said, "Right, forget these, I'll just take these ones here." Whilst apologising a million times, the cashier girl did her thing and one of us, I think it was Rob, asked if the Y5000 was written anywhere in print", to which one of the staff pointed to my right leg. Just in front of it, underneath the till it was written in crystal-clear Engrish. To which of course we all said "Holy crap, if you'd just said that from the beginning....!!" More apologies ensue. At this point, Cashier Girl sheepishly asks if Rob wants to use his points. Well, since he was never going to come back, he said yeah, of course. As we head off, the girl follows us cos Rob had forgotten his card, and it was like 73 points on it. We asked if there was anything in the store that we could buy with 73 yen, I'm betting we could have bought all the customer service trading classes these people took and still have change for the braincells of whoever put that Y5000 rule sign at the bottom of the cashier, but I do not mention this. Rob tells her to keep it, "No, I cannot do that", to give it to a friend or something, "No, I cannot do that", so Rob just places it on top of a display case or something and we all leave. Apparently she follows us all the way to the exit, but I dare not look back. Phew! There are more adventures, involving porn, I believe, but I won't go into that now. Now I'm starving so I'm gonna fry some rice, baby! If I printed out everything I posted today it might amount to 20 pages of crap or so!! Well, feels that way anyway....

REALLY slowly uncovered. There is a lot more character and plot development in Escaflowne using half the number of episodes than Macross 7. But hey, Shadow force is to be a 90 minute thing. It's like, you've got WAY too much on the one hand (M7) and next to nothing on the other (ShaFo).

For the third one, I know the one you mean there. It's when Exedore and Britai are watching the monitor and first realise that they are fighting Miclones. As for Escaflowne battle pod, no clue there. And there are plenty of "bloody" scenes from DYRL, so state more specifically which ones you need, please.

I'm starting to like the look of the Perfect Guide. Hmm. I wish I hadn't thrown away all the info I had about the DVD... I may get it now. What's on it again..? Just interviews...?

But apart from that it's great, right?

Because we already know that pleasing images, and images not-so-pleasing, have a noticable effect on the brainwaves and other biological signs of people. We also know that music that is pleasing to the ear can also affect brainwaves, not to mention the mood of the listener. We also know that hypnotism, while not "scientific" in nature, can and does work and its primary medium is sound. While its application in Macross Plus is definitily the realm of science fiction, it's not too much of leap of imagination to see something like that happening in the real world. Blah-blah. This argument appeared to disprove Spiritia as magic and prove Sharon's music as non-magic. Remember that spiritia and song energy were also scientifically explained in the show (M7). A tiny Mao in Shin's cockpit is just way out there, though.

So, the Aphos activates the ship anti grav generators, then later asks Sara if the people of this planet have advanced technology? Uh, shouldn't it already know this? Hehehe. I was thiking about this a bit earlier. And when it asks if the humans have ended their wars, doesn't the very fact that the Birdman has awoken mean that they obviously have not?? That is one stupid birdbrain.

Also, for anyone who's interested, there is a big feature on Samurai Champloo in this month's Eyescream magazine. The webpage design is interesting but there's little to no content... http://eyescream.jp/

I forgot all about this. Anyway I happened to be in a shop yesterday but I didn't notice any.

Yeah, that's already been posted. The website doesn't make it clear if it means terrestrial channels, though. Hope so.

Wow! Thats nothing like MW!!

OK, Im back. Theres no apostrophe on this keyboard that I can see, sorry. Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, so the Birdman. Hasford and Aries, now covered in blood probably due to the "entrance" that idiot Shin made, speak about how many ancient civilizations prophesised the end of the world, and that ultimately it seems that the experiment known as mankind seems to have been unsuccessful, thus the terror unfolding now. Meanwhile on the Asuka, the Captain is like, "well now what??" So one of the other guys whispers something and he says, "This is hardly the time or place!!" But then he listens a bit more and says, "oh yeah, Operation Iconoclast... good thinking, strapping young soldier." "I aim to please". "Not half". Anywaaay... the Cap then orders for the reactive weapons to roll out. Shin rushes headlong into the APHOS, and jettisons all his weaponry, so Sara finally recognises him as Shin and not a Kadun. He reaches towards her but she is inside that bubble thing. The Birdman calms down and Mao looks up and smiles, but then the monster appears next to her and fires off its load. Sara says "kadun!" and pushes Shin away, back into his VF, and says "Thank you for believing me.." as the bombs hit the Birdman. Shin flies away, but the explosion engulfs the rear section of the VF. However, the explosion begins to "implode" and the birdman is seen charging up some energy and then "folds" away. Shin says "shes gone". Roy and Aries are then seen on the shore and Aries tells him she loves him. "There, that was easy, wasnt it?" and then she coughs blood and dies. Supposedly. Meanwhile Shins engines no longer work and he cant eject so hes a bit pissed freefalling to his doom. But then he hears Saras, and the Mayan islanders song (who are all on the deck of the Asuka now) and his VF magically begins to turn horizontally again. But he abruptly plummets to the sea anyway. So Mao is shocked, but then the flying fish jump out, and then so too does the VF-0. Mao says "I guess Shin is a bird-man after all", and as she says so the VF-0 grows feathered wings and flies off into the stars. The End *EXTRA FEATURE* .... Oh, baby. Four losers gather together and talk about what it was like working on Zero. In particular the Mao girl got on my nerves with her "er... I dunno... Hmm... I thought it was ... really.. er.. Macrossy". As she said that you could tell that "Shin" had really had enough of her, and sarcastically replied "Thank you for that. Best comment ever. Great". Really he was thinking "Damn you, Im trying to make the best of a sucky situation over here and you dont seem to be making any effort whatsoever. At least I didnt get the auction just cos I give great head.... err.. yeah." The Aries girl didnt even want to face the fact that she had died. "Nah, she isnt dead.. that was ketchup or something that she threw up." At the end, Shin really pleaded to the staff that they get more work by begging for a sequel or at least a movie edition (to which Aries says "yeah, where I dont throw up blood!") "Lets do a movie! Director?? Ah, hes not here. Anyway, lets do one." So, Ill be surprised if there isnt one later down the line.

Which part, in particular. There are very few instances where the dialogue is more substantial than "Im gonna get you!" EDIT- Just wanna let you know I am posting a fairly in-depth synopsis in the Spoiler thread.

I don't know if I remember everything, but here we go -- Opening -- Shin and Roy in a helicopter. The anti-UN picking up the Birdman's head (with Sara and Aries inside it, for some messed-up reason) from the craters of the bombings and Roy and Shin ducking from their fire are shown in flashback (poorly). Back on the Asuka, Mao uses the Birdman to magically project what's going on aboard the Anti-UN sub. Sara, Aries, Nora and gang are shown. Hasford is explaining (whilst imagining Sara naked, the old perv, I kid you not) how the Birdman will use the body of the priestess to sing the song of destruction, while Sara is angry because they destroyed the forest. Nora then says, "What if it had been the UN who bombed the island?" She then knowingly asks Aries what Operation Iconoclast was all about, to which Aries replies that had the UN not been able to get hold of the APHOS and it had fallen into enemy hands then the entire island was to be destroyed by the UN, without a trace left. This of course drives Sara crazy. Meanwhile, Shin says something like "Don't believe them, Sara!" But this doesn't make any sense either, since it is Aries who is saying this so it's obviously true (dumbass). Then Mao begs Shin to stop the Birdman from waking and Shin's like "screw the birdman, we gotta go get Sara" and Mao says "no, cos Sara is prepared to kill herself in order to not allow the birdman to make her sing the song of destruction, yada yada ..." So then Roy says, "once in a while ya gotta throw your life away for a woman" which is too cool so Shin says "Wow, I love ya, daddy". (Lie) Roy and Shin prapare for takeoff from the Asuka which is now flying for no reason whatsoever but some idiot on the deck still says no, you don't have permission. However, he gets knocked out by Edgar's crutch (though he should've been knocked out by Edgar's crotch). So Edgar launches them both off, asking Shin to sign his leg cast upon return. Yeah, right, pal. Roy and Shin then head off to the also-flying enemy sub, cant remember the name, whilst being chased by DD and Nora. Shin makes a hole in the side of the sub and sees Sara, but then his battroid head gets blasted off (to reappear later without a scratch, yay) which of course makes him plummet down to the sea (??). Sara thinks he's dead (I wish) so she lets out a scream, which is like the last straw for her "misery". Next.... Umm, I think the Bird man awakens. The body (in dildo form) shoots out from the asuka as the head -- with sara in it -- shoots out from the sub, and connect "mechanically", even though in episode two we were told that the head had been cut off from the body using some kinds of tools. The birdman asks Sara if Mankind has progressed to the point of building starships, she says yes. He asks if they have ended war -- she stops and flashes back to previous episodes scenes and says no. So the dildo transforms into a.... thing, and shoots off energy beams, blasting those flying ships to kingdom come. So now everybody's flying around in circles, and Nora, oblivious to the Birdman, while chasing Shin, dies a la TV Kakizaki, she gets in the path of the Birdman's blast. Then, Shin notices that Sara is inside the Birdman, so goes towards it, but there are lasers and poo coming towards him, so it's just as well that a crazed Ivanof gets right in front of him, shielding Shin as he is blown to minestrone soup by Sara in a pathetic attept at payback for Nora's death. Then, as Shin looks at Sara, he too has flashbacks of his family being killed and stuff and so shoots at her while flying away. Then, he is prepared to destroy the Birdman, but AND NOW FOR THE STUPIDEST MOMENT IN MACROSS HISTORY -- a tiny Mao appears in his cockpit like in those disney cartoons where a little angel and a little devil appear next to the character and say "go on, you know ya wanna" or "no, it's bad!" alternatively. So Mao says something like "you have to save her" And he says OK. Actually, I gotta go now, more later. Or not.

Aries, Ivanov and Nora are dead. Sara and Shin are 'gone', as they both appear to head out into space. Edgar lives but appears for about 15 seconds total. No direct lead in's to any of the other series. Probably what's going to hit people the hardest about the episode is that it certainly does appear to suffer from being accelerated to get things finished. Specifically, the cliffhanger of episode 4 is not addressed at all. I mean that literally - no explaination is given for how Shin and Sara survived the blast, and it jumps ahead an unknown amount of time as Shin, Sara, Focker and Aries are all together in front of an AIPHOS artifact, then suddenly SV-51s swoop in and grab it.. and Aries and Sara are captured because they were inside it (when a second ago they were outside it). This happens in the first MINUTE of the episode. I don't understand Japanese so I don't know whether Shin's narration is making anything clearer, but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. Agreed. Everything about the first few minutes just screams "last-second addition". How the hell is it that Shin, Roy, Aries and Sara were all together just then?? And the animation is terrible, the SV-51s weren't even animated, they just zoomed in and out and scrolled around the screen.