Pterobat

Well, one'd just assume not having glasses would interfere with Max's piloting abilities, even if he's a "genius". If he can discard 'em so easily, then boom, they're probably just cool shades. Max is just the type to wear cool shades. I'm not saying all of his kids would have glasses, either, but it's reasonable to think at least some of them would if Dad needed them. Milia is only half the equation, there.

He's up there partrying with his buddy Ray Bradbury. I know he is. R.I.P.

I prefer SDFM instinctively it's a) SDFM and b) The Q-Rau looks better c) It's part of a larger, longer development than the film version. One that I don't exactly care for, but I prefer spending more time with it. I guess DYRL, being simpler, doesn't have that subext of Max "taming" Milia, but that's just shy of enough to put it above for me. Er, anyway, I've always assumed, after seeing DYRL that Max's glasses weren't "real" glasses, but just cool shades. Maybe in the flexible interpretation of the military found in Macross, an ace pilot with glasses isn't so far-fetched, but his ability to function without them in the climax of DYRL cemented in my mind the idea that they were not real glasses. That, and none of his kids have glasses, either, though HAL and others could have just forgotten to add them. Also, I don't think the information about DNA manipulation in the Macross Chronicle really solves the Exsedol Question, 'cause there's all that other stuff involved like the overall design continuity and all that. I don't think it was ever intended to be that he "turned into" the DYRL version but that Exsedol's new design was simply treated as what he had always been, with both interpretations of the character regardless being official.

In EoE, Yui Ikari (or whatever she now was) told Shinji that anyone can come back, as long as they can imagine themselves existing. The exact details are left up to the viewer, but it's definitely true that at least some people had the potential to come back, and Shinji and Asuka are not the last people alive, merely the first to return. Q..., now... I'm a huge fan of the original series, and I tried very hard to like the first two films, but they just didn't do it for me. That's okay: sometimes something just leaves such a mark on your mind that you've got nothing left for any other iteration. I don't think the other Rebuild films were bad, or that they were *that* radical a departure from the TV series. Shinji was pretty in-character to me, and I could believe the Shinji of the TV series would reach through the void to rescue Rei if he had the opportunity. I wanted to like him as much as I did before, but I couldn't. I think Shinji's a great character, one of my personal favourites, and he doesn't need to be changed to make him more palatable to others who disliked him the first time around. And Q was just amazing. I connected with it more than I ever had with the first two movies, and felt as though I found my groove with Evangelion again. I know others had problems with the pacing, but I easily adjusted to the new setting, and am just patiently waiting for more answers. What we got was already compelling enough to carry me through, even though not all the questions were answered to their fullest. I liked Shinji's new conflicted state, and was was excited by the new setting and new visuals. The Angel redesigns had always been a highlight, but the designs of everything were wonderful. I also enjoyed the way that "beats" from the TV series and EoE were translated into lines and motifs in this film.

Aw, poor Warera. Anyway, only one thing to go with: Comedy gold.

Nobody knows why. In a nutshell, both versions of Space War 1 are considered official and can be used at any time or any point to influence the design work of future series. There is no explanation of how it all would fit together into a single timeline, and trying to figure it out only creates headaches. And yes, at the same time, DYRL is considered an in-story movie as well as being a possible source for future designs. I don't like 7 at all, and it took until the movies for me to love Frontier, but I don't make a big Thing out of either of these. Because of the movies, I would say I preferred Frontier, but the TV series didn't engage me all that much.

Ehhh...I hope something does come down to address it, because I've still got a bee in my bonnet about the whole disappearance thing. It's a ridiculous way to end a story. That doesn't mean I want more SDFM character stories. It's a false division between thinking they should have a good ending, and wanting to see more of them. I don't want characters with a completed story to be run into the ground in that way. Just...there are other ways to ensure that.

Hm. I've never been able to understand why some other Robotech fans can't just accept a continuity error or bad ass-covering for what they are. I know that nerds like to gnaw over small topics endlessly, and I'm guilty of that, too, but I don't see the fun in this particular bone-gnawing. The SDF-2 isn't in the original animation, etc. I don't have even a grain of faith or interest in seeing this film made, and can't help but think if it did, it would be "Hollywood-ized" and leave out the sweeter, more idealistic aspects of the parent anime. I'm trying *not* to pre-judge mainstream science fiction movie-making in the US, but it's hard.

Yeah, your story is pretty much standard for a lot of English-speaking Macross fans. I recommend you watch everything in Macross, as you would with any other media franchise. You never know what you'll grow to like. I started my Macross "journey" in 2008, and have seen everything except FB 7 (there doesn't seem to be a point). Sadly, the only works I call myself a fan of are SDFM and the Frontier movies, but I don't worry over that anymore. What I love, I love a hell of a lot.

Well, I didn't mean to sound harsh, just that using the justification "he's acting just like a guy" is a boring way to address something in the storyline that's irritating. And yeah, I knew that the aftermath episodes were a hasty addition to SDFM, which is why I take their events and what they "mean" to the world of the series with a grain of salt. That is, I've seen some people use them to show that Macross really is a cynical universe, which I don't believe. It's just that when you're rushing things to production, sometimes the themes and tone will fall by the wayside. Hikaru still gets under my skin, but I guess that's not fair o' me.

Eh, but I don't think, in that case, it was just, "Ranka is so moe/sexy everybody would like her!" Along with the clones, it just seemed like a way to do a reference to the original series without much of what made that stuff work before. It's justifiable by the tiniest hair through the use of canon, but it doesn't make it any less lazy from a storytelling standpoint. Don't get me wrong, I love the Zentradi fanboyism of SDFM, but it doesn't work in "Fastest Delivery". As to the backstory of the Macross universe, I think we get enough to get by. The stories are about the present and the future, rather than the past that got them there. The Protoculture, in particular, seems more intriguing if they are left mysterious.

AH MAH GAHD

Eh, it's sad because the writers fall back on a Zentradi trope that should no longer apply to them--these guys were integrated enough to wear the insignia of humans, yet they act like low-rent versions of male Zentradi from the original series. It doesn't make much in-story sense, and adding clones of the older characters makes it even more repetitive. The Folmo mall is adorable, though. :3

Well, "thinking with the wrong head" isn't a justification for anything. The problem is amplified by the aftermath episodes re-opening a love triangle that, traditionally, would have been decisively solved in episode 27. The moment when HIkaru returns to the base to find Misa has such power that it's only natural to assume it would be the end of the whole mess. Re-opening the triangle alone would agitate viewers, but Hikaru also has to act like a cad to keep stretching the love triangle out that far. While he's made bad choices before, the entire thing, once you get past a knee-jerk dislike of Hikaru for his actions, feels just a tad unnatural, like this wasn't where the series was meant to go. Which is why I take the aftermath episodes with a huge grain of salt, while others imply that their events are perfectly in keeping with SDFM's former story, and reveal a fundamental negativity in the show's universe. It might go back to the conventional wisdom that a happy couple means a boring story, but I don't believe that's true. Hikaru and MIsa could have remained stable and there would still be stories for the aftermath arc to tell.

Fun stuff as always. I can't comment on the divide between western and eastern Macross fans when it comes to what they prefer, having not had much interaction with the latter. Personally, I'm torn on the SDFM "aftermath" episodes--no parts of them are truly necessary, but there's a value in having a story just take some time to explore things. Problem is, some parts of the aftermath episodes work, some parts don't, and they do feel VERY rushed. They also drove me to hate Hikaru, but that's no big problem. (It's also annoying when some fans use the events from these episodes as proof that SDFM really is a vicious, ironic show that elevated its characters only to tell us love and culture are useless, y'all.) I skipped past the EVA Q spoilers, since I haven't seen the movie yet, and what I've heard has actually got me excited again. I was neutral about the first two films, and sad to admit that fan reaction pushed me into knee-jerk dislike, but I'm hoping to be wrong this time. I've been fascinated by the story of "The Musicalture" ever since the summaries came down. I also thought a Macross musical would be goofy and awful, and was pleasantly surprised to hear how interesting it was. And somehow the storyline doesn't strike me as being all that derivative. There are common Macross elements, yes, but it sounded to me like it all shines as a distinct production while using Macross "beats". The other Macross materials are at least as derivative, but most of them felt less...satisfying to me than this story sounds. Unfortunately, I'll likely never know for sure if the actual performance would work for me. Alas.

Oh, these are so pretty. http://neldorwen.deviantart.com/gallery/32121180?offset=24#/d3c17fk -- I particularly like this one.

That's not what I mean. There's a difference between a character being of a lower rank in the story, and being a blank slate. One doesn't have to mean the other. Evangelion is actually a great example of characters who aren't part of the main cast who get great development. Or the original Macross. Mari isn't like that. She just isn't much of a character yet, and if the narrative now adds another new character to develop, it's going to be harder to develop a consistent whole. Likewise, the need for "background props" doesn't necessitate creating a new character. If you're going to the effort of introducing a new character to the EVA universe, you should develop them, because otherwise there's no point in adding a new character at all.

I don't like the idea of characters in a story as "blank slates" for the audience to project themselves onto/create their own image of. It just means the world isn't fully realized, or there's some mercenary reason for keeping the characters that simple. (like selling more PVC statues, eh?) Stories can't involve everyone. And 'cause this is a work of fiction, we have to ask what the new characters bring to the dynamics and plot.

Oh, you say "girly" like it's a bad thing. Associated with weakness, even. I'm a little more rigid than Gubaba up there: Shinji in the original TV series and movie was one of my favourite characters ever, and in Rebuild, he's just...boring. He's boring because, yes, his fear and anguish are toned down, and that was what made him interesting. It was a portrayal that pulled no punches, and was poignant, heartfelt, and realistic. However, even though the belief of that Shinji has finally "manned up" has turned me off Rebuild, it's exaggerated. Shinji is toned down, but he's still recognizable as Shinji Ikari, and I don't get what everyone is so gung-ho about, what's converting the Evangelion haters after all this time. This is especially true of the scene when he rescues Rei from Zeruel. While it's different in the film, in the TV series, Shinji was totally willing to fight back against Zeruel, it's just that his power ran out. Had it continued to function, he would have been completely capable of reaching into a void to rescue Rei. Shinji came back to help them in the first place, after all. As for the trailer, I'm uncertain about how adding a new character is going to work, what with the burden of having to develop her as a character on top of the need to give Mari more substance. But I am hoping for more pain and anguish, something to make me enjoy Rebuild as much as everyone else does.

This sounds AWESOME. Cute to watch, and develops the Zentradi role a little bit more than what I've seen. I would love to see something fansubbed, is all I'm saying.

I haven't been a Macross fan for very long, but I already know SDFM is one of my favourite anime. It's got it all: able to mix different tones completely, a feel-good show that doesn't lose its realism, and a great cast of memorable characters. I'm going to try to watch as much SDFM as I can today, within reason.

It's unfortunately hard for me to find artwork of most of my favourite characters, namely Exsedol, Britai, Rori, Warera, and Konda, but there are a couple places that have a lot of what I'm looking for. http://irooha.blog121.fc2.com/ I don't know what this blog is called or how many people contribute; I just call it the "irooha" blog based on its URL. It's got SDFM and DYRL fanart and handicrafts, the former drawn in an almost shojou style. I've posted my most favourite ones here, but there's plenty of Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa art, as well as Kamjin, Max, Milia, etc. Actually, most of what the blog's been doing for a while is cute HikaruxMisa art, so check it. ^ Part of a sequence: http://irooha.blog12...-entry-316.html ^ Also part of a sequence: http://irooha.blog121.fc2.com/blog-entry-401.html ^ This last one was from a parody of an animated Japanese safety video, IIRC. And, from the same one: With the total sequence here: http://irooha.blog12...-entry-593.html The stacking dolls and the Pop-Up Pirate Britai also exist in craft form, along wih some walnuts painted to look like SDFM characters, and what look to be Britai cookies. Super-cute, and all that.

That picture will never not be awesome. I love tiny Max on the table, there.

Macross Frontier, Year of the Dragon. Shoulda sent a poet.... O_O

Reposted from the wrong thread: Cool stuff as always: it's lots of fun to see how the media franchise has grown and changed over the decades, as well as the sheer *breadth* of marketing for Macross. --Macross Zero was one of those things that you enjoy while you're watching it, and then just don't have much to say about it. What I remember the most are the beautiful underwater backgrounds. --As for myself, I really *wanted* to like Frontier, but somehow I ended up forgetting most of it. I want to rewatch it in the near future, since I really got into the movies, so I figured I'll give MF another shot soon. --I really don't get the impression that Kawamori was deliberately trying to subvert viewer expectations with events in <i>Macross Frontier</i>, just that he happened to produce something that seemed that way. Most creators of fiction have better things to do than "troll" an audience. It's like when people assume Gurren Lagann was deliberately concieved to be an atidote to Evangelion, instead of just the creators making what they wanted to. --I'm surprised more women prefer Ranka, because I'm a chica who prefers Sheryl and finds Ranka a little bit irritating. You could come up with reasons for either gender to prefer either character, though. --I had absolutely no idea <i>Macross 7</i> was supposed to have a Mylene/Basara/Gamlin love triangle. I honestly did not pick up on that, especially since Basara was rocking that "shounen hero beyond sex" thing. --When it comes to shipping, well, I just think it's aggravating if people get crazy obsessive over it, but the fact that it happens isn't surprising or weird especially the mild, "Will these characters whose relationship was a part of the official material get together or not?" version of shipping. --Speaking for myself, my very mild problem with "Universal Bunny" was the way Sheryl's stage performance suggested a virgin/whore split with her personas, though it's probably more the character playing to the crowd rather than expressing her view of herself. I've never thought of the character as truly self-centered, just that she's in control of herself. --The first time I started getting interested in "Wings of Farewell" when first hearing about Sheryl and Ranka's concert sequences earlier in the film. The costumes and art design looked amazing. --I thought "Bromance" was a way of saying "these guys are close, but it's totally not gay". --When it comes to the ending of Wings of Farewell I went with the same assumption I did at the end of the <i>Saint Seiya</i> manga: You don't *actually* know that the main characters made it through okay, but you just assume they did, based on the hints and the tone of the story, so you don't have to see everything. --"The Musiculture" sounds like something to see; no matter what the quality it's going to be a must-see for the sheer weird novelty of it. Having a completely new story and cast also increases the draw. I wouldn't miss the Valks, and also thought it was neat that one character has the last name "Dosel", though we're probably gonig to get nothing on whether or not she's Vanessa and Rori's granddaughter.