1/1 LowViz Lurker

Well maybe in like 30 years when nobody remembers macross, toys companies no longer make enough money to release toys of macross, you will get your money's worth on ebay selling that as some rare collectible to some super rich guy who is new to macross and dosn't mind paying high prices for things because of thier paycheck and the time they can't spend watching prices. But for now let the misery flow, it helps to let it all out May as well just keep it. There are places here in australia (tiny import stores) that sell stuff 3 times and more thier worth. A chunky munky for $250($191USD as of this writing) for example or a banpresto for $60 ($46USD at the time of this writing) which to me is insane. I can't believe they even sell stuff though. But they do. Can you imagine a parent with thier kid going into one and seeing all the outrageous prices? haha

I think max's choice of battroid might have something to do with him just wanting to show off tricks and wanting to look stylish while killing things. eg: getting close to the poor zentradi in DYRL and shooting him right in the face at point blank range. Really, unecessary. Maybe it's to humiliate the pilot or something or to prove to himself he can save ammo? Or perhaps it's an artform. This is the way he expresses himself sort-of-thing by using unpredictable signature attack styles. He did a fighting combo: punch in the mech, block his attack and shoot face. Way harder then just shooting the gun at a safe distance. If you think about it, milia's style is to get in close, punch things with a fist and shoot as close as possible to do maximum damage too. When you've got enough speed and reflexes and skill to do this in battroid mode (probably the hardest mode to control I would assume) while making it look easy by dodging everything AND being outnumbered, then you've reached a high point. I think roy mentioned that gerwalk wasn't that hard to get used to, (almost the same as fighter mode) and hikaru mentioned how complex robot mode was (early episode where he is in the 1d in the tv series.) Actually he mentioned to kakizaki what he learned in flight academy or something before showing off his skills. Don't quote me on that though, my memory isn't flawless. So he wouldn't be completely noobish, just fast at learning imo.

Serious case of the munchies. The difference though is that the red-headed kid ate rats raw. (without even getting any disease or anything) Really disgusting. Maybe all the kids of the 70s who have now grown into adults miss those old shows and want to see them again? Japan is an aging population. Perhaps they figure by targeting older audience they can get them into buying toys again? I also like the look of those regular fighters. The cannon fodders of Aquarion. Too bad they are useless in the story. We haven't seen the true power of the main villain but he kicked the aquarion's ass. There's something about these that remind me of the protodevlin in macross 7. They suck lifeforce, they use mind control on masses of people, they are way too powerful that trying to kill them is near impossible. (especially when you see they can resurrect themselves), and of course like the PD they can disapear when they want to by escaping into a gate in the sky which they do often (similar to the PD folding out of the battlefield) The atlanteans lost the light and now they want it back. Similar to the PD, where they are awesome demonic beings with infinite power that threatens the existance of the human race, we will probably be forced to sympathises with the enemy in the end: "they are only dark angels cuz the light was stolen, we should pity them since they can't survive without feeding off others" I believe that there may be a dark side to the aquarion, when it turned all black it was tapping into all the negative emotions of the pilots (light was sapped) which forced a seperation. Just an observation. I believe it is the fear that made the ancient aquarion and the pilot lock his memory away to forget events of the past and this hampers the performance of the machine. By relearning the moves of the past MegamanX-Style it gets gradually stronger. I think the main weakness of the enemies might be light itself which is why solar is effective against them. They are essentially vampires.

Captain Crunch/nathan, I just recieved your PM. You might want to check it for response

Shags no one is saying science is evil. Just that within a fictional world, there has to be some kind of unexplainable phenomenon to make that world interesting and entertaining to me. It has to be able to break or at least bend the rules a bit so we can't say: "look how unrealistic such and such is, the show is aimed for kids", because people have been accepting of unrealism in movies for ages! Example take the jedi knights in star wars, adults watch this and enjoy it because it is cool. Even though they have force powers, the ability to levitate crashed fighters out of the water, they still can't lift or levitate thier own bodies to save them from a fall. I think this is funny and unrealistic because for all that effort mastering the skills; like having lightning come out of your hands, they can't defend themselves from a trapdoor. But do I criticise it? No I just enjoy the cool light saber duels and soak in the atmoshpere because it is cooler to let the world apply its own rules rather than us applying ours. If we do apply our rules it is harder to like. Sound in space is another thing: imagine how boring it would be to not hear the explosions. Because it is a fantasy world it appeals to those who don't want realism. One of the things I wanted to say about comics is that in those worlds, people are allowed to use thier imagination more and create thier own rules. When something original comes along people tend dismiss it as a kids show, when they as adults like movies and comics that are aimed at the same childish audience. But to me so long as it stays consistant I can believe that world can exist, say if the technology we had was different from what we had in the real world. (instead of using lasers and blasters the main weapon was the mind - which to me is a cool theme - the idea that a godly character would not rely on a tool but perhaps on an ancient civiliation's weapons which were not reproducable for the time they were living in) This means things like realistic physics should not be applied to fantasy when half the time it is unexplainable magic anyway. eg spiderman's super powers should stay mysterious and unknown because it gives him more character, makes him cooler and keeps him stuck in the fictional world so he can do all those cool things that defy the rules we have in the real world: like spider agility, spider strength, spider sense etc This is what makes it entertaining because it is just escapism. Seeing a man flip, dodge, strafe, cling to walls, leap into the air and swing effortlessly and with unhuman speed and grace is what makes it fun to watch. If hulk can smash a tank and beat an army of people using brute strength that is cool, no need to be offended that it couldn't possibly happen, because that is the entertainment half of it. Because it coldn't possibly happen,that is why people read/watch it: as an escape. If you sit there trying to explain exactly how the powers came about (or criticising why banner's pants never rip during a change) you are only making it worse since there has to be some mystery (a bit of chaos with it's own order and displine) to make it cool. As adults people see things like that as cheesy and unrealistic, but then that's why kids and adult fans who are not ashamed to be fans (I call them closet fans who buy all the products and merchandise and read the material but won't admit they are fans of kid's stories with a lot of magic in them ) want to watch or read something to escape from reality. I was just pointing out the irony because people's attitudes change as they grow up:less imginative, more closed-minded, more easily offended, jaded and cranky because the image of the world didn't match the image in their head etc. So they can't relax.ie when someone says a small guy couldn't possibly lift a big guy because it would be way too heavy, ignoring that the person has supernatural powers or a way to telekineticaly lift objects to lessen the load - rules that wouldn't apply in the real world but are perfect excuses for characters' uncanny abilities for a fantasy one. Anyway I just wanted to comment that I like themes where there is a mixture of magic and technology and neither one is more useful than another, because too much realism (that is people relying on machines and being weak) can be boring. I can accept the characters in DBZ may be aimed towards kids but they can be cool and serious too. The intention wasn't to start a debate about scientists. (mad scientists are cooler ) Just to say that if we can have people in the real world able to condition thier mind body and spirit into cracking concrete blocks with thier hands we must go one step further and assume an angel with supernatural powers would be able to amplify that strength 100 fold. This is why the characters in macross 7 are acceptable to me: because the PC were waaaay ahead of humans in creating super powered mutants that were getting close to having godlike abilities due to thier wisdom and experiments. But what I was saying is that in order to "like it", we have to open our mind up to the possibility that other more advanced civilisations with more advanced scientists could exist in the universe though. Once you get over that step, the magic side of macross becomes less cheesy and you can kind of accept the more unrealistic side to it. As for the cheesy naming of moves: did anyone get offended when guld said "stealth" to his yf21 to make it invisible to radar in macross plus, or when batman (in the first movie) gave the command to "stop" to his batmobile? I don't see that voice-activated commands are cheesy anymore. The technology exists now, (maybe this is a way for the robot to identify the person piloting it and configure itself for that person?) and remember that it might be more efficient to "talk" the command to free your hands for other tasks.

I liked this idea that the sword was a more civilised way to fight. It conjures up images of warriors who would be polite and wait thier turn to fight like gentlemen and the winner had bragging rights as a superior swordsman when others would see thier champions fighting against each other. But nooo they use those swords in every situation, not just fighting other jedi. When you see a jedi opening its lightsaber it should have been for a rare occasion when 1 knight saw another knight and thought it worthy to fight them using the sword because they were both destined to fight that way. Up close, no spectators that would be allowed to interfere, and both trapped until one or the other was dead. However if you go in with a cynical attitude: you'd see in episode 2 those poor fools tried to fight robot armies with the things where grenades would have been more effective and quick and practical. What's the point of deflecting fire if the person has a blaster and can run away while shooting at you? It would take more energy to get within range and striking distance to kill something than to just blast them. Think how handy it would have been when baba fett's dad was running away? Han Solo's 'trust in the blaster' was equally valid in this situation as the jedi's trust in the saber and the force. It's just that one is less physically draining and practical while the other is not worth the time to use if you are outnumbered. Swords are cool when two elite warriors want to prove who is better. Long range weapons are more practical for general purpose use to dispatch several enemies at once. But in the end what was so entertaining was the sword fighting. The audience is all too ready to accept the knights as being used to kill using the light saber in masses and to rely on that weapon 100%. I liked it better when the jedi could just sneak thier way in, mind control the guards and kind of assasinate the important leader with the weapon silently. It wouldn't really be an assasination due to one knight able to sense another one nearby, but if you could kill the king and cut the head of the snake, it could result in the victory of one army over another or clear the way for the regular forces to fight off the empire themselves. Remember thier skills in the older trilogy were treated for special occasions where normal skills would not have sufficed. Eg when luke uses 'the force' to guide the shot to kill the death star in ep4 rather than rely on the normal method. When they show restraint in using the force it makes it that much more special and relevent to the situation. But as I said it would be over-critical to point this out since it is a fantasy world. Maybe thier minds are so aware to what is going to happen (sensing danger) they feel they must discipline themselves to trust the sword only, being true to thier outdated traditions by killing each person on a case by case basis, and only when necesary? Whereas the cynic in me can see the sillyness of using close range weapons, (the equivalant as to why guns seem so damn useless in a hong kong action movie )the more imaginative side can create reasons and explanations for why those fictional characters trust in that weapon to maintain some kind of integrity to thier philosophy and tradition. Thier kind was living during a more civilised period when people treated each other with fairness even in combat and didn't use shameful tactics because people didn't think to rely on "convenience" and saw doing things the hard way as somehow more noble whereas reliance on tools and machines was a sign of weakness.

I treat the cheesiness of super moves similar to the cheesiness in DBZ. It can be both funny and serious at the same time. When Piccolo does his special beam cannon and shouts out the name before doing the move he is like summoning secret kung fu techiques that have been perfected for thousand of years and taps into another dimension to perform the move. Kind of like when people shout out Hai YaAAA! when they break a concrete block with thier heads There is a spiritual/occult side to the action too. Although the powers they tap into can't be explained scientifically because they are chaotic, there is still some order or disipline in making them work and it has more to do with the mind itself which is why the characters are able to be godlike in ability. (fighting faster than the eye can see, fighting in gravity much less forgiving than earth etc) Now the idea that not everything can be explained by science and that people who put too much faith in the weapons are inferior, is a theme I like. eg Jedi knights using swords, the super saiyan race using brute supernatural strength. I think its cool that fighter planes tanks and weapons in general become obsolete once the body of the hero itself becomes the weapon. Or the character in akira - merely using the mind to control the forces he can manipulate to destroy world. I think thats one of the reasons I like anime because it creates a different world and uses the imagination. All those people trying to say how unrealistic things are, are boring and obviously don't read comic books. So when robots are used to perform the moves I can imagine they are a combination of magic and technology put together. The pilot themselves have to attune themselves to mastering thier body before the robot can amplify thier strength. It's a fantasy world like the one in DBZ. Sure there is an earth, and planets and sun, religions, make-believe rulers, alien races, and knight in shining armour hero archetypes, but it went down an alternate path and people used different technology to solve the problems they have. Instead of shooting something with a laser, why not just ram your fist in its face and kill it in a single blow with these super powers? Far more efficient.. especially if the fist is hitting at a velocity faster than the human eye can see due to supernatural strength. What's that you say? Super powers don't exist? But that's WHY we are watching it on tv or reading it in a comic book. Because it would be cool if they were. Nobody asks why doesn't spiderman use a gun or how his powers really work but when they watch a robot show it has to suddenly follow all these rules we apply to our world, cuz robots mean science fiction. (I wonder what would happen if the aquarion was mass produced?) The fantasy world they live in is completely different. Their armies may not fight using tools alone but a combination of mind and body instead. It can be realistic within the world that was created which still entertains, and that's how my mind is able to think about it. You don't put your bias about the real world into the fantasy or you won't like it. (remember kids if you want to beat a jedi knight just chuck his body from a great height. They may seem near unstopable to troops with blasters, mass-produced droids with armor, but they can't float of all things. The ultimate defens is a trapdoor. Funny and serious at the same time - yet millions of fans treat it like a religion even when they were supposed to grow up when they became adults! *points to example of adults watching a kiddy make believe show with kiddy make-believe rules*) Same thing with super robots. When you were kids you liked them because they could kick everythings ass, but suddenly as adults we apply the bias we have with our world to the fantasy. Adults become boring and apply limits to the action thinking the rules of that world are the same as the ones here. You can have a high tech blaster in star wars, but at the same time have people who can sense the trajectory of the path of the shot moments too small to qauntify before it hits them to deflect it with thier fist. You watched and accepted that because it's just damn cool to see that done. No different with super robot shows. Macross is going down the path of magic now: Think of it this way: in DYRL an ancient atlantean culture discovers all the secrets of the mind, and this becomes the weapon of choice.(magic) Humans discover all this hidden technology from a much more advanced civilisation than thier own, which the government keeps surpressed from others due to wanting to keep it for themselves. (the secret government project like the one in akira, studying kids with psyi powers in the interest of making them weapons because you guessed it, people want power) Now to me the idea of mutants (that's what the protodevlin monsters were - genetically made and modified to fight without the need for a robotic exterior, ...makes a lot of sense if you are willing to believe that humans are not the only race that advanced and there are things like powers we may have that we just don't know about but which lay dormant. Beause we all came from the same 'spiritual soup' of the god who made us in his image - ie we might just be diluted versions. (I think they were alluding to this in akira when that girl talks about how we evolved from amoeba) Now the only thing getting in the way is whether the military can amplify this mind power to create psi soldiers. Unfortunately only a select few people have the strongest conection so they study the dna of people with the power (midi clorens in star wars) and voila we have charaters like basara and Sara who are super heros because they had the secrets from these atlantean cultures all along hidden from everyone else. Similar to yoda forbidding obi wan from allowing anakin to be trained as a jedi, the ancient power is forbidden to be controlled by those with evil intentions and it is this which brings a repeat of hitory. (earth is demolished and the knowledge is lost only to be found again by the civilisation that comes after us and the cycle repeats ad infinatum. The legend of how the previous civilisation got wiped out by an angry god is passed down from generation to genreation in order that people don;t repeat the mistakes and then eventually this "myth of the lost civilisation" - that is us- becomes a religion which nobody believes...magic becomes forbidden again until the next great cataclysm when the new civilisation creates a brave new world with nothing to fear. The myth of this "protoculture" is a "kids story" which could not be true and so scientists begin studying people with the special power upon recent archeaological finds of the remais of the protoculture...and the rest is (ancient) history

The thing I like about it is the fighters look cool as fighters and the robot looks cool as a robot. You wouldn't suspect that these things combine because the seperate peices transform enough to actually hide what they are when seperated. The extra stuff on the back doesn't worry me. I like "winged" mecha andit's supposed to look like an angel. Oh yeah saw ep6. The girl having the orgasms is always eating food for some reason. First chocolate sticks, now icecreams.

This is why I like to read reviews before buying stuff. I can't stand toys that break or have problems with limbs. (unless like the banrestos they are cheap and easy to solve problems) Toys are supposed to be robust and unbreakable not like models. Anyway what seems to be the thing holding people back from just buying vb11 w fast pack? Once these become scarce it will be harder to get a decent vf11 toy that doesn't fall apart. The other day I tried to get vf19a (light blue game one) off ebay and was outbid! damn. Wish I had the chance to get one of these. Anyone willing to sell me thiers in good condition-mint condition?

I'm not saying hikaru doesn't deserve credit for his skill, just highlighting that max's skills seem to come from nature. (like how some people are born with a gift and can't explain why they are so good at certain things.) Whereas it seems hikaru developed skill gradually and being a fan of flying, like roy, he gets better with experiene and reaches a plateau like every normal human being where they rise slowly and show limits. (Roy showed some limits getting his valk damaged for example. This is an indication he can't just dodge everything when matched against skilled adversaries of his level of skill or above. Unlike max who seemed to fly right through milia's (an elite zentradi ace - reknowned amoungst all zentradi like some legend) mini missiles and not get hit. Not even scratched or sign of stress. If max was about equal to milia (as oppsed to better) then he would be getting heavily damaged the way hikaru was against kamjin rather than consistantly dodging milia's attacks as if he could anticipate her every move and have the reflexes to respond close to 100% of the time to avoid damage. A better pilot should be able to demonstrate superiority in less total missed shots over attempts, and lower damage to you vs damage you done to the enemy. (the ideal would be to completely kill the pilot if you can't disable thier mech, and to not take any damage...oh and using as little ammo as possible - meaning you possess bloody good accuracy that you can even controll where your shot lands on the moving target, not just hitting it in a random spot by chance.) If you can show consistancy in maintaining a high ratio of shooting accuracy (barely any missed shots) as well as a high ratio of not getting hit(dodging everything they can throw at you), against someone very highly skilled...then I think you deserve to be described as being "better" instead of equal. From the point of view of average pilots they might both seem very very good and therefor I can see the average people wanting to describe them as "equals". But within that very very high level of skills there are distinctions within that level too. Milia had 3 chances to prove her superiority and lost all 3. That shows that max is consistantly able to fend off her attacks while she wasn't able to fend his off. If max wanted to end her life he may possibly have been able to do it on the first mech battle if milia didn't retreat and forfeit the duel. (shameful thing to do if this was a tournament and there were rules saying: "you must keep going on until one loses" to prove who is better) That would be like if you forfeited a VS Match in the middle of an online game against somebody you chose to challenge, and not having it counted as a loss in the records when you chose to conveniently call it off just because things weren't going your way. (no ammo left, damage mech needing repair, lack of environmental or psycological advantage) Oh and if hikaru gets credit for leading a team, so does roy and so does milia and so does kamjin. I don't think that should be used as an excuse because those people you have helping you, can be advantageous too in combat. (by acting as decoys and distractions sometimes ) Like in sport if you can't co-ordinate an effective strategy based on what you know of your own team's limits versus your enemies limits, you deserve the screw ups (for not having awareness and intelligence) and should take responsbility for them rather than blaming your own guys. Similarly if the opposing team screws up commanding thier guys, (underestimating or overestimating thier sklls) and creating thier strategy poorly and excuting it sloppily, then they have to take responsibility too. (you should be training them) With more experience than guys under your command, you have no excuse to not take the blame for failure as a team. People who fight without some strategy even if it is something one-on-one and simple like boxing or tennis, can't whinge to the opposition that "conditions are unfair", since those conditions apply to your opponent too. (And don't forget that bit in bye bye mars episode where kamjin has one of his own guys giving away thier position because he is too trigger-happy. That will probably go on his record and tarnish his reputation and this would only work against him in future for failing in missions. So the burden of "having crappy inexperienced pilots to babysit" goes both ways.)

It indicates they are able to take on someone less skilled and experienced than them without much "effort". When you are confident you are better than someone else, and can prove it time and again with victories and stats, you don't treat the opposition as a threat and your reaction is to remain confident and certain that you will win. This indicates how much "in control" of things the person was when they won. "Being calm" can suggest you've experienced it before and don't sense the "danger" as others would because you are certain it's no big deal. Take the audience reaction to the crocodile hunter. It is a dangerous situation to people to initially be scared, but if you understand what is going on at all times and you know what you are doing, and in control, you would not be nervous. You've proven to yourself you can handle this from all your past experiences and demonstration of your skill handling it before. The threat level is lessened (things that were dnagerous to you and not dangerous if you have the skill, meaning there's no reason to get nervous) and you can monitor the person's heart rate etc to test for fear which, if you can detect it, makes them predictable in how they react. So if you are not cool under fire, this is an indication to others around you, that you are not in control. Kakizaki may in fact have had skills in sims and what not, but possibly what happened was he got scared and couldn't think straight. In his mind the situation was falling apart when he should have been focused and alert. This is similar to how a tournament player with hundreds of victories and a record of never being defeated can whoop your champion's ass living in your local neighborhood at a popular videogame. There are levels within levels. If you are trying to fight someone who is level with you, there is about 50/50 chance of you losing so you'll want to stay focused and be alert, this results in you sweating and struglging to survive, possibly not successful in avoiding your opponent's attacks and damage control. (roy got lots of damage when they brought his valkyrie in before he died from loss of blood indiciating roy was having trouble against the elite team. They were good enough marksmen to be able to injure him) Max beat milia three times suggesting he was in control at all times, wasn't going to let the enemy injure or seriously harm them (like the way kamjin almost got hikaru) and wasn't shocked or nervous by anything going around them. (like I mentioned if a leader or someone people look up to is killed it scares those below them and effects thier behaviour. Milia knew max was good after she fought him but before that, she was treating this challenge of kamjin's like a game, certain he was full of poo and kamjin was using his failings as an excuse for incompetence.) I don't think milia or hikaru even relaised max's potential until others commented on it. This includes misa, Roy (who tells claudia how lucky hikaru is to have such a great pilot on his team) kakizaki etc.. All I'm saying is that max didn't get injured in the knife fight, didn't look like he was breaking a sweat against milia (even perving at her) and milia was trying her hardest! She was trying to prove she was better than humans, and had so much to lose if kamjin was right and her relaxed attidue and contempt to even suggest there was a human better than her when she views humans as being retards and makes fun of kamjin for not even being able to beat them. Max on the other hand was just naturally very skilled and didn't seem like his whole focus was set on only winning. (he didn't start his entire life being an elite soldier the way milia did) Another thing to back this up is the fight in the resturant: max was kicking ass here too. It's not luck. He is supposed to be young and inexperienced so you can't fall back on this idea that only experience matters, some of that comes from him having a gift. (ie learns quickly, doesn't need to put in as much effort as other less gifted people need to, can think on his feet and react just as quickly etc)

But milia also challenged max to a knife fight and lost. 1.She lost in a one-on-one mech-to-mech duel with conditions that were fair. (milia wan't taking anyone hostage and had no interest in using that to her advantage like kamjin. Everyone knew she was not interested in attacking the sdf1, she was just there to prove she was better than max) 2. she lost in the arcade duel against max 3. she lost in the knife fight against max. That's a broad cross section of skills: mechs, arcade game, and knife fighting. Max has natural talents other's don't have: ie he is not normal like us. I don't think it was luck, nor because max was more trained in those skills or "tried harder" than everyone else to be good at them. Milia tried 3 times to prove she was superior to max and in the end she wanted to die because she found out she wasn't better. Even with all her experience being a clone that carries all the knowledge over from past zentradi battles, max still beat her. Keep in mind that there are supposed to be billions upon billions of hardered zentradi veteren clones out there and milia is the elite out of all these billions upon billions of the zentradi who are a "pure" warrior race, spending thier entire existance training to be good soldiers through history of honing fighting skill. ...and she was beaten 3 times by max who didn't look like he was injured or in a panic due to fear of loss. ...contrast this with hikaru who is single-minded like roy and only thinks about flying, spending his entire life doing that one thing and through experience being good over years of practice ....but who still shows limits (losing arm against kamjin) then it is fair to say hikaru vs max in a duel would result in hikaru losing all the time. (based on the assumption roy got his skills from ivanov and is slightly worse than ivanov, so hikaru must be slightly worse than roy due to less experience in combat. Sooo given that roy died at the hands of the grunts in milia's team, milia would outclass hikaru one-to-one no sweat. Ivanov can be considered one othe best pilots in the world at the time and is a good measure of earth skill. Hikaru can't be better than Ivanov was given Ivanov has more combat experience than roy, right?) Always remember that roy was killed by a grunt. In conclusion: If hikaru is less-experienced than roy (given his edge over hikaru is his age and experience, leaving hikaru behind in that flashback) who claims to have never been shot down, and milia is better than a grunt which was what killed roy, then I would say milia would have easily defeated hikaru without a sweat, since she is considered one of the "best of her race",(skill, experience, number of kills, total mission success, ability to command a team etc) and Hikaru and Roy can't be considered the best of thier race due to not being able to take on Ivanov; who is a good measure of earth's elite because he is in his prime and is old enough to have the wisdom. I base this on the idea that the grunts are better than or level with kamjin and kamjin never lost to hikaru in the one-on-one mech fight. (it was about even: they both had limbs blown off with neither of them feeling relaxed and calm like max was against milia) Result: Milia several levels better than hikaru imo. Enough levels to say that it would be more a game of survival more than a duel. Hikky almost "dying" from kamjin fight, "dying" to me meaning not a confirmed kill, but lots of damage being done indicates him reaching his limits. If Roy commented on how much better hikaru was getting, he was speaking from the point of view of someone with more combat experience. This wiser, more-experienced guy who died from fighting the qrau team, must then indicate that hikaru would struggle against the qraus the same way roy stuggled and therefore you can't say that the leader of that qrau team is about eqaul to hikaru. Roy's reaction to the speed of the qrau when they make thier first appearance was one of shock. The movie might be different but the events in that weren't canon.

Well, Roy taught him the booster climb thing he used in the airshow. (and there's a flashback of roy flying in an old plane with hikaru being left behind) Given that roy was pretty anti-war or at least neutral (gathered from macross zero with his conversation with Aries) his main flying skill must have been flying non military stuff at first and then I guess he honed it with ivanov to become a better killer since ivanov is supposed to be one of the best. (Roy never really beat ivanov and ivanov seemed like he was toying with him due to his experience) Hikaru's dodging skills must then have been his years from precision flying in compeititons whereas max is just natural like the elf from LOTR (who has better natural sensitivity, hearing things no one else can, more alert generally, accuracy in aim as a marksmen etc) Now I gather that when Hikaru said to "conserve ammo" what he really meant was "don't fire recklessly" which is what kakizaki was going to do. But max must have interpreted that to mean "increase the accuracy of your shots - don't miss" and so max demonstrates his uber accuracy by firing a single shot and scoring a hit from far away on the znetradi which is why I use the "elf has better natural aiming then human" analogy from LOTR. If max wasn't such a good shot, he would have waited to get closer to fire like the other guys right? What's easy for an elf in LOTR might be hard for a human given humans naturally don't have as sharp senses I don't think, as the elves. (My main point of all this to say that "some of it comes from practice and lots of experience, but some of the skill comes from nature too - that is: some people will be equiped by nature with gifts others don't have even if others tried thier whole life to be as good as the person with that gift using "experience and training from a reknowned, elite pilot" only.) Yeah but still I often wonder if hikaru would have survived against milia if milia went for him instead of max. See, whereas max is pretty calm under fire against miilia, hikaru was sweating against kamjin. One on one fighting with no distractions is important too. If you can wipe out thier best ace pilot you will destroy morale or may even turn the tide imo. (since the whole point of kamjin failing was because of a few elite pilots being good and successful in thier mission) I think the thing holding hikaru back was looking after kakizaki though.

What I mean was flying in general not the vf1 in particular. Although it must have helped to have been the winner of amatuer flying competitions and as a stunt flyer in a circus. ie hikaru being skilled was from all that previous experience. His dad died doing that, so he assumed he should follow in his footsteps as a daredevil pilot doing dangerous things. You don't do those dangerous things unless you know wtf you are doing before doing them - practice practice practice. I doubt like max, hikaru could just pick up skills really quickly, his abilities must have been honed from years of flying all sorts of planes. But right from the beginning we know max is better than hikaru from his shooting down more zentradi than him. And he's less experienced than hikaru which says something about his natural ability/intelligence/quick learning. If max was lucky he would not be consistantly avoiding attacks from another ace and dodging those attacks as if it were nothing. In many ways, the show makes clear that hikaru is more at the level of kamjin than milia. Because in his battle against kamjin they both blow each other's arms off in a mech battle. (remember he is sweating and really nervous here, uncertain if he will come out alive until kamjin is suddenly recalled) That to me says hikaru was struggling to take a less-skilled pilot than the one max was taking on. (milia) If milia could barely scratch max, and max is less experienced than hikaru; and hikaru had a whole arm blown off by kamjin, who is worse than milia, then we can assume that max's skills are in a different class altogether from hikaru, going by the logic that milia is way better than kamjin and she couldn't beat max. We can sa that max has sharper reflexs and being a genuis also a quicker mind then hikaru. But this is not necessarily attributed to how much effort and training max puts into it. It's not necessarily because he has trained as hard as hikaru and put in the same amount of hours as him, or because he had a good teacher, nor is it that he is just lucky. It is just that max seems to just have those skills naturally that to many people would take ages to develop. (more accurate aim, faster response, able to keep the mind focused on many things at once etc Things that some people struggle with in order to be good at, where others with a gift don't struggle)

I would think Max is probably a better marksman than hikaru. There was an episode he shot down more planes than hikaru and to me being inexperienced and still shooting down more planes can only make him look better. He even took out a zentradi pod from miles away with his first shot (came from the headlaser I think) when all the other guys could barely see them in the distance enough to launch thier missiles. "Is it ok to start shooting if its not a waste of ammo?" And don't forget the arcades, hikaru was hopeless at them. Hikaru's skills may be more as a result of the sheer amount of practice and effort he puts into flying (ever since he was a kid I assume? the more practice an effort you put into something the better you will come to a certain point) whereas max seems like the kind who has naturally very good reflexs and intelligence and also awareness. (unlike Kakizaki he didn't need any supervision from hikaru at all except for when hikarua gave specific orders) Almost like whenever he has to dodge or avoid danger it is no hassle to him and it didn't take years of practice: its just something innate. You'll note while he is doing all the fancy stunts he is completly calm rather than panicky like hikaru. Just some observations. Unlike roy (taught by ivanov) who maybe taught and passed on the flying addiction/fascination/plane fetish to Hikaru, which then resulted in him being good due to that being his interest, max is just plain good at it. (no indication he was mentored by some uber elite teacher which become the source of the skill) Hikaru's a great pilot but I think max's skills are in a different class just going by this idea that he can take on all the tasks as if they came naturally whereas in the tv series, Roy comments on how improved Hikaru becomes over time - so he must have been average at first. (obviously due to his training where he gets gradually better rather than rises so sharply like max) Max = Legolas from LOTR

The easy chics are great for parties, but you don't want them ruining your life. Always install hidden cameras in places where you can set them up to leverage them to behave. This way it doesn't matter if you have the moral high ground in telling them they've been bad, you just send the vids to whoever she knows that she is playing. (her 100 different BF for eg ) You can also make money out of it too. Any pics? "F" for f*q buddy?

I hope we get to see a pic of it holding the gunpod. If it can hold one that would be cool. Naturally I would want mine to be able to hold 3 gunpods. 1 slung over the sholder, 1 in the left hand and the other in the right hand just to make sure the trip is worth it.

AHA! So that was the plan all along wasn't it? To spread rumours that a line of LV valks would be coming so that owners would sell thiers cheap. Very sneaky!

laggy server

Would love to see a second version Koenig monster fixed. (BTW when are reviews of these toys going to be done by graham?) Maybe they could add the chest cannon? I want to see more game mecha released. As for limited and mass-produced versions of CF I would like that. Maybe they could give the LE version a different tone, and more printed-on details, (instead of crappy yamato stickers - soo stingy!). This would make it the ultimate version and the envy of the non-LE cf crowd. As for low vis no.2: make it black painted vf1s with glossy metallic finish to give it a diecast quality to it. (kind of similar to bandai vf17s)

Would love to see a second version Koenig monster fixed. (BTW when are reviews of these toys going to be done by graham?) Maybe they could add the chest cannon? I want to see more game mecha released. As for limited and mass-produced versions of CF I would like that. Maybe they could give the LE version a different tone, and more printed-on details, (instead of crappy yamato stickers - soo stingy!). This would make it the ultimate version and the envy of the non-LE cf crowd. As for low vis no.2: make it black painted vf1s with glossy metallic finish to give it a diecast quality to it. (kind of similar to bandai vf17s) ah.. on second thoughts make it a poo brown valk.

Well in the tv series misa had the hots for Kaifun. Maybe they themselves were on the ship to be alone and were just pretending to bust hikaru and Minmay after they discovered they weren't alone? jk

I would watch macross II for the mecha, and macross 7 for Gubaba. There is one episode where they have a robot convention and you get to see all these custom painted mechs. That might be an episode worth seeing and maybe the one with the Rebel zentradi Qraus actually getting to hit Basara (yay I cheered at this bit. Finally he gets hit!! )

I thought that the ASS ship was damaged and they needed to understand it all (reverse engineer) to get it working and to repair it? (they mentioned using "recycled parts" I think) The humans may not have understood how the stuff worked so they needed a working model for themselves to recreate the effects? Otherwise why were they so surprised that thier ships could float in the air in macross zero? Could it have been the first time both sides began to experience a working AG? I assumed it was that they may have theorised but not tested the ASS. The mayor I recall pleaded Global to lift off from earth because he was scared the aliens might attack earth instead of the ship only, but global mentioned it was an "untested ship" and inexperienced crew. (and shammy was talking about how they were really going to go into space for the first time or something, or maybe I recall wrong) To the zentradi none of it had to be understood because they were dumb, weren't they? If something got wrecked it was never repaired or maintained and I always thought they relied on factories just building new ones. As warriors, they didn't need to distract themselves with the workings of the machines (because war was all they could think of and they were uncultered, barbarian, philistines) so we didn't see any maintanenece/repair crew on enemy ships when a mech got damaged like we did with the macross. (i think - that is my assumption anyway ) The one exception I think was when kamjin learnt from humans (repairing?) and started to repair his own ship which would ultimately be used in the final attack on the sdf1 in the tv series. Ordinarily I would think the average zentradi grunt wouldn't have done that because fighting was more exciting.

The team wouldn't have to use it inside but possibly outside when they are trying to escape from the enemy and have retrived the thing they came for, but there are people now chasing them so having one would be handier than gunpod. And if no long range combat is necessary they don't use a long range specialist. Simple. Team members are hand-picked and equiped with the weapons for the task depending on the mission requirment. I would think the government has enough money to fund the stuff due to needing specialists just based on the idea that they are now the leaders of the universe and have defeated the protodevlin. Thier main enemies would be anti-un and rebel zentradi. (some friendly zentradi might even protest the government to not kill them, pleading to "give them a chance and not be brutal and controlling. They are our zentradi brothers" Given your guys are far more skilled you wouldn't want to appear too mean and insensitive and unforgiving in front of your own people now, would you? ) In the instance where hiding and precision indoors is necessary: eg take a band of giant zentradi terrorists who have taken hostage a VIP (say a macronised captain global or one of max's daughters from macross 7 or something) the extra precision a sniper weapons has at medium to long distance makes DAMN SURE that not a single bullet hits Max's daughter in the head. The guy who has the hostage is using her body as cover and the valk with the sniper weapon is hiding somewhere waiting for a clear head shot at the giant terorrist. With a machine gun gunpod, it would be stupid to risk blowing off the innocent victim into little bits with you heavy machine gun fire, right? Not just that but what if you are in a sensitive area that risks blowing something up that needs to remain undamaged? There are many situations that could require a precision sniper weapon, use you imagination. This is why your team has to go in silently because once the enemy do know what your plan is, they will heighten thier alert status and send every soldier to search for you. You won't be able to fight your way out because it is heavily-guarded or it would make your task much more difficult. Also there could be political reasons for why some mission must go on in secret and you need to sneak. (maybe the terrorist knows something that the government want to keep secret and if the government announces the situation to thier own, it will look bad on them, thus they call on a team of elite soldiers who have a low failure rate to complete this in silence. The terrorist might have some piece of evidence that they want to use as leverage and until they are dead it is not safe to announce what you are planning to anyone.) Nah like I mention, there are many uses for a precision weapon over one that only sprays an area generally and it usually involves sensitive situations where there are specific mission objectives and explicit instructions on what you are NOT ALLOWED to do to fullfill the objective. For example you are to kill the leader, but don't kill the civilians or scientists who you might need alive which the leader keeps close by. That example was just one: to disable rather than kill the person inside. (maybe you are chasing an enemy who is very important that needs to be taken for questioning for more information? Thier death might mean you fail because of the information that person has that your side wants/needs) Remember that part in sdf:macross when milia was encouraging max to not hit the pods to kll the pilot's inside? (not all pilots have his accuracy and sharp-shooting ability) Why did max want to go to all the trouble to only hit the weak point? Because there might be a good reason to show that they don't necessarily want to kill people, just destroy the weapon to stop them. Also in a what-if scenario: a civilian might have been inside captured by enemies. In the tv series the zentradi played the game fair but that doesn't mean they couldn't have learned a few tricks from us humans in future. (hostage taking, hiding behind sensisitve targets which they know we wouldn't want to harm etc) In fact kamjin takes minmay hostage in one episode so his demands are met. In the real world you wouldn't want to announce that you've got guys heading into to rescue would you? You'd just do it silently. A computer may not distinguish between two closely held together targets, so a human may be necessary. And a ghost as I mentioned might be too clumsy and stupid to be able to make certain decisions. The target could be moving around constantly and keeping the hostage close to its body that it would be too risky to spray with maching gun fire. What if the machine gun fire alerts them and the enemy kills the innocents or destroys the secret project they were working on because they know your coming? You'd want the first shot to count because it is the one that will determine mission success and mission failure. Of course once you have fullfilled your objectives, your team can then let loose with full-on heavy weapons, machine guns, missiles and bombs to blow the place up, before leaving, but until then you must go in and aproach the mission with caution due to the sensitivity of the situation. In an outdoor situation: Remember when kamjin's team in the tv series was taken out by those monsters hiding on the cliff? (this was when he was lured out from his hiding spot) I often wonder what would it have been like if one of those mechs had minmay in it? Using monsters would risk killing people you don't want dead. But with a long range weapon that only hits a specific point it would make the job easier, disabling only the weapons of the enemy and not risk endangering the victim. Now just exchange "monsters in hiding" for "valks in hiding with a special weapon" and there's a use there. .....Aaaaaannnywaayy....., as UN SPACY has no more enemies to fight, I doubt advancing thier weapons anymore will make much difference since nobody can take them on which is probably why they don't need yf21 style improvments. They can become complacent like the government in macross II and rely on old tech and it wouldn't make much difference.