Seven

No no no, you all have it wrong. The AFOS is an Invid Inorganic! And it took Shin and Sara to go back to the Invid homeworld! Sheesh!

Angry much?

My question is... in the original SDF Macross, they explain that there are ties between the DNA of the Zentradi and humanity... and AFOS has the capability to create life. So who created and put the AFOS on Earth? The Protoculture? Is the AFOS supposed to be a mechanism for the protoculture to raise sentient life on other worlds using a primary DNA template (which would explain the DNA similarities between humans and Zentradi)? I'm a little jumbled up... since the Zentradi were created as biogenetic weapons by the protoculture to war against the Supervision Army... what was the purpose behind AFOS... to continue their way of life if the galactic war got out of hand? Thanks for any answers...

God, those replies had me thinking way back to the days of reading posts by Edo Andromedo C....

So is there any part in this episode where they "connect the dots" per say and explain any connections between the AFOS, people of Mayan, and the Supervision Army/Zentradi? Or is this left up in the air for everyone to draw their own conclusions from the previous episodes? All the talk of bird people and fish people has got me confused. I was really hoping Kawamori would use Zero as a opportunity to make a prelude story that ties into the original Macross, but alas it looks like it is more of a side story. I remember how Kawamori stated in an interview how everything will work out in Zero so that the general public and most of UN Spacy remains oblivious to the events... is that explained or shown in any way? You'd think the loss of an island, carrier, and several ships along with the deployment of a carrier group combined with major air/land/sea battles with the Anti-UN forces would be kind of hard to hide... that's alot of pilots, sailors, and marines they would have to keep quiet...

That'd be cool, but it would have to be bigger than every other robot in the line to really do Gunbuster justice. The bigger the better! Although it would probably have to be ten times the size of the SOC Mazinger Z to really keep to the scale, since Gunbuster is 200 meters tall! That would translate into a die cast toy the size of a small child!

I don't know, as of right now, I'm convinced that Neo IS Mwu. If it wasn't for the fact that Neo pilots a mobile armor that closely resembles the Mobius Zero, I might have overlooked Neo being played by the same voice actor and having the same hair color. I don't see how it could be, seeing how he took a full on mega particle beam salvo to his mobile suit and took the full brunt, seeing how he blocked any damage to the bridge of the ship (I forgot the name). Although, this IS anime and they could just say something like he used a ejection capsule or what not. Like everyone else may have been saying, it's probably more likely that Neo is a clone. It is funny how Gundams keep on getting stolen. You think eventually someone would wise up and deactivate it or drain the fuel or pull a major component of the reactor or lock the cockpit and/or disarm it like how the military stores their planes and tanks. I mean, who stores a secret weapon fully fueled and armed, moreso if it is a test vehicle?! I think it's laziness on the part of the writers to keep falling back on the stolen Gundam theme, even if it is a main part of the mythos.

On another thought, they should really come out with a Soul of Chogokin Gunbuster if they haven't already. Since they already have an EVA one, they ought to show love for the other Gainax super robot! God, I'm drooling just thinking of the potential of such a toy.

God, I can't stand Mikimoto's newer style! Everyone looks all disproportionate in their faces! I mean, look at Kashiwara, her head is shaped like a block of wood, and her forehead really exaggerated. That has to also be the worst representation of Kazumi I've ever seen. I don't know exactly when he started with his new style, but man I miss his original cleaner drawings. Sure, some artists evolve as time passes (like Sadamoto), but this almost looks like de-evolution.

I miss that, what happened? Generally speaking, he came in for a short month and basically was the same boring lazy wrestler he was in WCW. Fans booed him on a regular basis and I think he was in just one PPV before Vince cut him loose. This was during the whole WWE/WCW Invasion angle... Usually WWE takes a loooong time to cut someone loose... I mean, they kept that one big fat wrestler who carried around a Cartman doll, The Blue Meanie, Doink the Clown, and countless other questionable wrestlers for months on end, constantly trying to adjust their angles to build some heat with them. But with Buff, man, the audience hated him sooo much that Vince must've had his finger on the firing button the whole time since he came and went so fast!

Speaking of WCW rejects (although I don't feel that Benoit, Saturn, Malenko and Guerrero deserve that, since I think they quit collectively), does anyone remember when Buff Bagwell debuted in WWE? Or how about that crappy tag team, Kronik with Adam Bomb and Crush? They lasted what, ONE ppv?!

As far as I recall, most of Chris Benoit's matches. EXACTLY. And that's why Benoit has more respect as a champion. I was really hoping Benoit would go up for the World Championship at Taboo Tuesday, but I kinda suspected that the other prima donna HBK would get his way. There have been people that have put down Benoit in spite of his skills... wasn't it Nash that called him and Malenko the "Vanilla Midgets"? The other thing that bothers me is how WWE tends to overcompensate at times. Like people complain how the title has been on HHH too long, so they have the title switch 3 times in short succession! First Benoit beat HHH and was champ, then Orton, then HHH again. I'm for long champion reigns, but only on the right person with credibility like Benoit. You can't put it on a rookie like Orton or even Shelton Benjamin, and you can't put it on a prima donna like HHH or HBK.

double post

I can't understand why Vince or anyone else in the company realizes that HHH is one of the biggest reasons for fan disatisfaction with WWE? I mean, everyone ALWAYS expects that HHH will either win a match against anyone, or he'll win back the title in a few days, which just kills the interest in any match he's in. I about had a stroke when I was surpised that Benoit beat him last time to become champ... for a few months Another thing, when was the last time there was a Heavyweight Championship match where there WASN'T interference?! What ever happened to a good old fashioned one on one match where there were no catches or run ins? Oh wait, HHH is the champ and Evolution will always do run ins... BOOOORRIIINNGGG!!!

I thought this was an OVA? What's the deal with the fansubbed rips floating around? Were the raws obtained off of a rental only video?

Any news on when the second episode will be released?

There is so much back story and background in the period prior to the First Space War that they could make several anime series and OVAs about it all - about the overtechnology, transformation, protoculture, etc etc. But IMO, it just hasn't been Kawamori's style as a director to have large scale epic stories with smaller character driven plots with lots of details layered to reveal more of the world. He tends to drive towards more focused stories that spotlight the main characters and leaves supporting characters and other world details in much much less detail. Hideaki Anno is more along the lines of a director that really tends to lay down a ton of details to flesh out a world and back story. Noburo Ishiguro more prominently, being the director of the first Macross, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and the Yamato TV series. I just say this since if one were to expect Kawamori to flesh out the unification wars, you'd be disappointed that he wouldn't like to do so IMO. It'd be nice to get Ishiguro to direct another Macross feature, but he hasn't done much of anything in recent time.

Sweet! I remember it airing waaaaaay back in the day, along with Spiral Zone, Galaxy Rangers, and Macron-1 (Goshogun). Only thing was they would air them at odd hours, change the schedules, and hardly promote them, so no one I knew really got into them...

Why? Most of this stuff was already reasonably explained in the original. And if you aren't aware of it, the science lessons were in a fact a parody of the series itself, as the super deformed Noriko and Kazumi treated the show as a series they were actors in. They even answered 'fan mail' from kids who wanted to know how things worked. Hopefully Gainax will not retread over this and leave well enough alone. Why? Cause it was funny and was a nice little touch. I wasn't asking for a complete reading of Hawkings theories, I meant more in a little extra parody bit. Yes, the physics have been gone over before, but they could always go into other stuff about the Gunbuster universe. Haven't you ever wanted a little more out of something you like?

Yeah, it is sorta annoying. Although I can't pin down why, since the Gunbuster chorus sounded similar. It'd be nice if they had those physics lessons in between the episodes like the first one, explaining time dilation and stuff.

Naw, I clearly remember him deploying the missiles from an undercarriage launcher that popped out of the bottom of the copter. They weren't flares. Unless flares shoot out the front at a super high rate of speed and blow up other copters! Hawk should just get the auto aim helmet like in Blue Thunder complete with the Commodore 64 graphic targetting system.

I loved the original Top o Nerae back when I first watched the US Renditions release from 1990. Even then, there were things that I didn't get, like the Buster Cape and Homing Lasers, but everything else was so satisfying, the incorporation of time dilation, the high animation quality, Mikimoto designs, the Gunbuster, the increasingly awesome mecha designs as episodes went on. It just felt EPIC. I actually enjoyed the first episode of the new one too. Everything that I saw or heard about the new one made me cringe, but after watching it, I think I will trust Gainax to make another masterpiece. There are a few things that aren't to my taste, but I can live with it, since the animation quality just seemed so high in comparison to other stuff out right now. I'd prefer less 3D and more traditional cel animation, since great cel work will always stand out over great 3D efforts. It does seem at first to be more upbeat than the original, but this IS the first episode and I remember the first episode of the original was kinda goofy in its own way (cadets doing push ups in their training robots). I'm in the opinion that the Die Buster has yet to show itself and the Deux Neuf is more like a RX7 Machine Weapon or Sizzler. I hope that the show does start to work in more epic drama like the original as time goes on. Nono is funny as hell and the other girl is interesting if not the cliched badass girl. Nono surviving in space.... I can't even begin to explain it, but maybe its part of the story, with her splitting stuff all the time and being able to do a bare breasted Inazuma Kick? The music was awesome and fit in with the music of the original. The animation designs are definitely FLCL inspired, but hey, I'd rather take something that tries to go out on a limb to mix it up rather than get more of the same uninspired stuff like Gundam Seed. Sadamoto kicks ass. Anyways, just my opinions... I'm happy with it.

Didn't Kawamori conceive and direct Escaflowne? IMO that anime was a "hit" or at the very least a minor success. The music and animation were great and the story was really enjoyable. There was a love triangle as usual, a big brother mentor character (Folken), and even the lead Zaibach guy reminded me of Bodolza with his body consisting of huge machinery and being long lived.

Didn't Airwolf have nuclear missiles that glowed like lasers when they were launched? Funny enough, he always seemed to fire them at close range in a dogfight with another copter. I was probably 10 or something when that show came out and even then I couldn't buy into the cheesiness and suspend my disbelief.

That carrier is lookin awfully like a ghost town or the Mary Celeste if you know what I mean.