Pat Payne

This is terrible news. Terry Pratchett is such an amazingly talented writer. For God (or fate, or genetics, or what-have-you) to inflict him with Alzheimers' is as horrible a fate as if someone went and smashed his hands. It's a cruel robbing of his greatest gift, the abilty to take the rude material of language and make such wonderful works with them, as much as a sculptor does in clay. As a writer myself, my heart goes out to him. As a fan, I'm concerned for him. But, at least it's still early, and he's relatively young, and there is more and more news every day of a possible cure -- there's still bright hope for him! "Dum spiro, spero" should be everyone's motto! Personally, of his novels that I've read, my two favorites are "Interesting Times" ("The Hongs, Fangs, Sungs, Tongs and McSweeneys..." "McSweeneys?" "An old, established family..." ) and "Men at Arms" ("When the safety is off, Detritus, Mr. Crossbow is NOT your friend...").

What...the hell...was that? That was the most bizarre thing I've seen today. To be fair, though, I don't think Liefeld was going out of his way to make fun of religion, and personally, I'm not offended. It just looked bloody ridiculous, more than anything. (Though the flying pyramid idea is definetly cool...)

lol

To be fair, Isamu, there doesn't seem to be any cheap way of shipping merchandise to or from Japan. Looking at the DYRL set, which is let's call it circa 3-4 pounds, to ship it out of Japan using EMS, it costs $51.46 (gven the most recent exchange rate). That same package (or one of an equivalent weight), if it were being shipped the other way using the USPS, would cost $63 for the most rapid form of shipment, Global Express Guaranteed. Even the cheapest for of shipping out of Japan, Economy Air, is around $30. Going to Japan, you could get away with sending it First Class for around $27.50.

From what I can tell with my limited Japanese skills, the 1 ratings appear to be from people upset with Bandai Visual's business practices and pricing strategy in general (and with that, we in the States sympathize with you fully, minna-san! You get the torches ready, we'll send over the pitchforks! ) . I they're not criticising the movie directly, just the format and distributor. Most seem to be speaking glowingly about DYRL itself, going on about how they saw the movie as children and have had a love for it ever since. Some of them are also apparently pissed that it's not being released on their pet format of choice, either HDDVD or Blu-Ray, and are venting.

Actually, after looking at the Bandai Visual site -- wow. The paper extras clock in at over 800 pages with one 24-page booklet, 272 pages of what I take to be production designs (設定資料集), and the 576-page behemoth book that includes not only storyboards from the movie, but from the original series (!) and the Sega Saturn DYRL game (!) AND, it'll include a mouse pad, a puzzle and a replica of an original theatrical ticket for the film, if I'm reading the site correctly.

*whew* I was afraid there that I'd had to have bought a whole new player just to watch the disc!

Wait-- the new reelease of DYRL is on a normal DVD instead of a HD DVD, right?

Unless I'm reading it wrong on the Bandai site, does it say that the third extras disc is only 2 minutes, 36 seconds in legnth?

I just pre-ordered on CD Japan. May God (or Buddha, or Zeus or Boccob the Uncaring) and the Hoary Froating Head have mercy on my wallet. a 500-page booklet is not a booklet -- that's a novel. I couldn't resist! Besides, I'm really liking the cover better than the original Bandai Emotion DVD.

Awwww...that's cute. Be careful though, he may defect to Transformers and bring your optimism of a newly-minted Macross fan down in flames

All I know is he's the son of Robert "CHiPs" Pine (the guy who played the "by-the-book" captain).

Well, can't hit 'em all out of the park...

I think it's a lot of us old grognards, the same ones who for years kept saying "What's wrong with having William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley back for another go-round as Kirk, Spock and McCoy in a Star Trek series?" who are clamoring for more of H,M,and M. Because for us, they are the Kirk, Spock and McCoy of Macross.

Short answer: over the Holy Floating Head's dead body. Longer answer: If someone else wanted to do it, even without buying the material from Studio Nue, they PROBABLY could, as Kawamori has nothing more than the author's interest in the show. It's not like George Lucas who could (and did) impose an "because I own it" fiat (e.g. Jar Jar) on to the franchise. If Big West/Studio Nue wanted to, they probably could take control away from Kawamori and tell someone else "we want a Macross series about Hikaru, Minmay and Misa. No Spiritia, no controlling planes with guitars. Back to basics." There might be a lawsuit or two connected with that, but it could happen. But it just wouldn't be Shoji Kawamori doing it.

A bit late for this, but tanjyobi omoudetou, Macross-san! And here's to 25 more!

I can explain... It all started with us goofing around with that bottle of super glue...

"When in doubt, carry bigger missiles"

Stupid is one thing. Desperate is another. They might try it in the hopes that they can at least do a battle of attrition that they'd hope Bandai would think twice about engaging in. But soft -- let us say no more, lest we mention the name of the Scottish Play... I mean migrate into the topic of the Thread that Dare not Speak Its Name... Maybe it is. But then again, George Lucas said thesame thing about the prequel trilogy...and only was able to deliver on Ep. 3...

I'd love to see M25 here in the US too...providing it's a good series and not Macross Wing

And I will admit that with HD or Blu-Ray's recasting of regions, they can do it and have plausible deniablility.

Not to start anything either, but by looking over the list in the pics you supplied, Gunbuster, there's precious little Macross music outside of 7 and VFX-2 there at all -- it's pretty much the OP and ED from Macross TV and Ai Oboeteimasuka and Tenshi no E no Gu from DYRL,and the different versions of "Pilot" as you mentioned. There's nothing at all from Plus or II or Zero that I can see -- it seems to be geared to fans of 7 and the VF-X2 video game, with the bare minimum of older music thrown in as a sop to old-school fans. In short, I think I'll give this one a pass -- too many discs for too little content that I'd be interested in listening to or don't have already at least twice.

Although Mr. March is spot on about the photos in 1), I'd add that most look like they were taken of Misa when she was considerably younger (including at least one which looks like it was an Academy photo) and so would have to date from before she met Hikaru. Only the ones of her and the cat and Shammy, IIRC, are ones that could have been taken on board Macross during or after SW1.

Really, that's not a bad idea for everybody, only because you never know if somebody's going to try to zip through the intersection against the lights.

Not to ressurect a debate from the other 25th Anniversary thread, but I just have to say, after seeing this review for Patlabor the Movie from Bandai Visual Japan, I stand corrected about the likelihood of a hypothetical Japanese domestic Macross 25 DVD release carrying an English dub.