TheLoneWolf

What Harmony Gold says nowadays is of no concern to me.

In one of his interviews, Macek said that he pitched that same idea to the networks, but they didn't like it. If he was going to use 3 different shows, then they wanted them to be stitched together, ala Voltron.

A lot of us used to joke around that no one would bother to hack the PS3 because it natively supported Linux. Now, shortly after the slim PS3 axes Linux support, the PS3 has been hacked. No, I don't believe Linux was the reason this guy hacked the PS3, but the timing sure is ironic. The possibility of running homebrew apps on the PS3 is staggering. The PS3 has so much hardware power that it could easily emulate the Dreamcast. A good enough coder might even be able to get it to emulate the Gamecube and Xbox1. As for me, I'd simply settle for the ability to finally play my import PS1/PS2 games on my 60GB PS3.

I'm not familiar with any of those games, but if they're games that were made but never published, then they're still assigned copyright protections in the USA. Copyrights are automatically assigned to any original work as soon as it's been created. And if the companies or authors that made those games no longer exist or are deceased, then they're still afforded copyright protections in the USA. The only games that you should be posting links to are open source games, games that have entered public domain, or games that have been designated by their authors as shareware/freeware.

Funny you should mention Orguss 02, I just saw it for the first time a few months ago. Being a fan of the original Orguss, I was surprised at how different 02 was from the orignial. Whereas the original Orguss was a playful action story with an energetic protagonist, 02 had a very somber atmosphere with an amiable protagonist. Notwithstanding a few minor plot holes, I thought 02's plot was ok. I think I was able to appreciate the plot because I was willing to accept it for what it was, and not try to shoehorn it into something that I thought it should've been. Unlike how a lot of Western Macross fans rejected Macross 7 when it first came out because they expected it to be like Macross Plus. On the techincal side, I thought the animation was very good for a 1990's OAV. Unfortunately the character and mecha designs didn't take advantage of that as both were as flat as the atmosphere. Perhaps that was an intentional decision by the director? One of my biggest gripes with the original Orguss was it's ending. Some think it was creative and clever, but I thought it was a cop out. So I was glad to see 02 take the initiative and provide the original Orguss the defined ending that I thought it lacked. Overall, I'd give Orguss 02 two and half stars out of four. It's slightly above average, but nothing great. Keep an open mind when watching it in order to get the most out of it. If you watch Orguss 02 expecting a carbon copy of the original Orguss, then you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Thanks for posting those. It's so refreshing to see Hikaru & Misa drawn in something other than what they wore in the anime.

To Roger and his unnamed source, thanks for releasing these pictures and translating the text! After Roger was flamed by some jackasses for his plans to release these images as part of a published book instead of posting them on the web, I didn't think he would ever consider releasing them on the Internet. Props to Roger for doing the community a service, even if it meant letting those d-bags have their cake and eat it too. Though it's a pity he wasn't able to publish the book, I was looking forward to adding it to my bookshelf.

Actually, I used to work in a store that specialized in anime and videogames. Our best selling DVDs, wallscrolls and toys were from martial arts anime such as Dragon Ball, Naruto and Bleach. Mecha DVDs barely moved. Mecha toys and model kits weren't much better, though Transformers toys (if you even consider them mecha) sold moderately well. Most of our mecha customers were in their late 20's or well into their mid 30's. A few were in college, and I can't recall any that were in high school. By contrast, all of our middle school and high school customers, and most college customers were crazy about martial arts anime and JRPG's. By looking at my store's sales receipts and demographics, I could easily say that mecha anime and its fans are an aging and dying breed. I don't know what the rest of the USA is like, but I wouldn't be surprised if this trend was spreading.

To the best of my knowledge, no design trademark has been filed in the USA for the UN Spacy "flying kite." I examined the most appropriate design codes and nothing turned up. It's possible that it could've been filed with an inappropriate design code, but I doubt that. I've never seen Harmony Gold market the "flying kite" in a way that would indicate to me that it's a design trademark.

One of my friends had a similar experience. Macross II was his first Macross experience and he absolutely loved it. He went on to watch the rest of the series and liked them too, but MII always had a special place with him. On it's own, I think Macross II is a decent anime. But if you've already seen SDF Macross or DYRL, then it can come off as simply more of the same. Actually, US Renditions / LA Hero released Macross II in theaters back in 1993. Manga Video didn't get the Macross II license until 1995.

For real, Robotech fans should be pissed that they're not allowed to buy Macross toys off of eBay, Hobby Link Japan, or Big Bad Toy Store. By comparison, we Macross fans have it good. I love going to Walmart and picking up discounted Yamatos! Oh wait...

It all depends on how the agreement for the vocal songs was written. Considering Yoko Kanno's status in Japan, my guess is that whoever would want to release Frontier in the West would probably have to pay a seperate licensing fee to her music label. Given how popular the Frontier vocal songs are, they probably won't come cheap.

You're right, Blu-ray video will always be compressed. I was thinking of the possibility of lossless video compression and should've said that from the start. With Triple and Quadruple Layer BD Discs on the horizen, Flashback 2012, Plus, and maybe even DYRL could be released using lossless video. Sorry boinger, didn't mean drag your thread off-topic.

Legal issues notwithstanding, this project seems very premature considering that none of us have seen what a Macross remaster on Blu-ray will look like. While it's true that Laserdiscs don't use compression, its video is actually composite analog with a low NTSC resolution of 560×480. A Macross Blu-ray disc may not use any compression either, and its video will be true digital with a possible resolution of 1280x720 or higher. Furthermore, the best audio that you'll find on any of the Macross LD's is uncompressed Dolby Surround. Macross on BD could also feature uncompressed audio, but in a Dolby Digital or DTS mix. I think it'd be a shame to spend thousands of dollars in fan money on expensive Laserdisc equipment, only to find out that Bandai Visual is releasing superior Macross Blu-ray discs at a fraction of the cost. From my understanding, the reason Star Wars fans are so hung up on the Star Wars Laserdiscs is that George Lucas treats original unedited Trilogy like a red-headed stepchild and gives the royal treatment to his Special Editions. To them, seeing the unedited Trilogy on Blu-ray may never happen. And even if it does, it could be an amateurish Laserdisc dump like the 2006 release. Fortunately, Macross fans don't have this problem. If you truly want to preserve Laserdiscs, just keep them in a cool & dry place. Well manufactered Laserdiscs (such as Bandai Visual's) will outlive standard hard drives as well as the dye used in DVD-R's.

Voted No. The original is fine. Why waste money retreading old ground when you could be covering new territory.

Absolutely stunning! Your 5 months of work was not in vain.

I never completely understood how ADV managed to mispronouce "Macross" as "Mucross" with a short 'u' vowel sound. Robotech, Clash of the Bionoids, Macross II and Macross Plus all correctly pronounced "Macross" with a short 'a' vowel. I say correctly because the Japanese pronounce "Macross" with a short 'a' that more closely resembles the English short 'a' than the English short 'u'. I don't think the ADV dub director can claim that they were ignorant of Macross' history because they went out and got Mari Iijima to reprise the role of Minmay. Like a kid carving his initials into a desk, I think ADV wanted to leave their own mark on Macross.

I agree that RT.com is "completely bland, uninteresting and (they) generally ban and censor anybody with anything interesting to post." But what I don't get is why people here continue to cry about the way the RT.com forums are run when there are other great Robotech sites out there, such as HappyPenguins' site.

*nods* You guys keep on thinking that RT.com is just a regular fansite. It's not. The RT.com forums are part of a business.

IIRC, Macek wrote that he tried releasing SDFM, SDCSC and GCM under the banner of Science Fiction Theater (I forgot the exact name) in order to keep each show seperate from each other, but some television stations didn't like the idea. As for Robotech helping GCM and SDCSC get recognition, I don't think it helped at all in Japan since Robotech is practically nonexistant there. GCM has always had a small but devoted Japanese fanbase. As far as Western recognition goes, if GCM weren't included in Robotech, I think it would've been released by some other US company in 80's and would've achieved a similar amount of success that it got with Robotech. But I don't think the same could be said for SDCSC. If you were to gage SDCSC's popularity by the amount of Japanese merchandise released this century, I think all that it got was a DVD box set. And going by the small amount of SDCSC stuff I see on Yahoo Japan auctions, I'd say that it's not even on the radar in Japan. Without Robotech, I doubt SDCSC would've gotten any official exposure in the West.

I doubt that Bobby's creation was inspired by Mash, the only thing that they have in common is feminine mannerisms. Kawamori hasn't seen Macross II, and I doubt that Risa Ebata was inspired by a minor character who only had 6 or 7 lines in Macross II. It's just a coincidence. edit: It's been a while since I've seen MII, but is Mash supposed to be a hairdresser? I thought he only accompanied Hibiki and Ishtar to the salon, but didn't actually work there.

Actually, Tatsunoko conducted business in the USA as if they owned all the Macross copyrights. If you read Harmony Gold et al v. FASA Corporation et al, you'll see that a federal judge reviewed Tatsunoko's contract with Harmony Gold and wrote "Harmony Gold...acquired co-ownership of the copyrights in both the original Macross designs and any derivative works." In a nutshell, Tatsunoko had given away designs that they never owned in the first place. If Tatsunoko was angry about being dragged into court because of Harmony Gold's actions, then they could have ordered Harmony Gold to stop. That's the authority that a license holder can wield over its licensee. That fact that Tatsunoko agreed to go to court, instead of settling out of court with Big West, tells me that Tatsunoko truly believed that they held all of the Macross copyrights.

If MEMO's statements are to be believed, Tatsunoko expects their licensee to play hardball with SDF Macross' film distribution rights, and they've found a willing licensee in Harmony Gold. While both parties are clearly complicit, it makes sense that Tatsunoko would be the one pulling the strings. Tatsunoko is the license holder and Harmony Gold merely the licensee. Looking at the numerous lawsuits filed, I'd say that there's an overwhelming amount of bad blood between Big West and Tatsunoko. Personally speaking, I'd say that Big West dislikes Tatsunoko even more than they do Harmony Gold. Tatsunoko is the one who tried to strip away SDF Macross from Big West, not Harmony Gold. Harmony Gold just cheered on Tatsunoko from the sideline. I do agree that if Harmony Gold ever folded, Tatsunoko would simply find another licensee who would aggresively protect their license. I think Tatsunoko would specifically look for a licensee that is not sympathetic to Big West.

I haven't read any interviews, but I always interpreted the two Minmays as metaphor to represent Minmay bidding her old self/life farewell and moving on with the Megaroad.

I pre-ordered it at full price way back. Yeah, the price eventually went down, but I don't regret it. It was totally worth every penny.