Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    12767

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    To be honest, I have not seen it...
  2. Seto Kaiba
    No model of VF yet presented has the ability to space fold unassisted. Fold systems are, by necessity, somewhat large because they're using gravitational force to tie space-time in knots. VFs can, however, ride along inside of a larger vessel's fold effect without having to actually be physically inside of the larger ship due to the way folding works as has been seen on a number of occasions in Macross II, Macross Frontier, etc. Messer used a fold booster, which he's shown jettisoning during reentry (seen here):
  3. Seto Kaiba
    I thought Inspector Gadget was pretty good... for a family movie, anyway. But Netflix's Gundam project is a western live-action adaptation of an anime series, and that's a very different animal because a painfully small number of western writers and directors understand the little things like subtlety and pacing. Is it really going to feel like a proper Gundam series if the main character is Tommy Testosterone-Tits and the writers send him on your standard action movie killing spree intent on causing as much CG property damage as the budget can sustain with only the barest suggestion of a plot under the carnage? Giant robots tend to inspire Hollywood writers to "mindless violence" screenplays rather than the kind of anti-war character drama that is usually Gundam's stock in trade. Granted, anime movie adaptations have also come a long way from the "let us never speak of this again" era of Speed Racer and Dragonball Evolution and are now on the level where reviews can focus on specific poor decisions like wasting half a film justifying white-washing explicitly Japanese characters rather than just "Why have you done this terrible thing?".
  4. Seto Kaiba
    The original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series had some issues when it came to accurately depicting the size of the Zentradi... no doubt in part due to the show's very limited budget and tight production schedule. They were often animated as being as tall or nearly as tall as a Battroid when in reality the Battroid should be much taller than the average for a Zentradi at 12.68m. It's also worth noting that there's a pretty significant disparity in average height among Zentradi based on their actual rank/role by design. Your average Zentradi soldier is between 9m (29.5ft) and 10m (32.8ft) tall... five times the height of a tall man (5'11"-6'7" in scale). There are also plenty of examples who are below the average height like Roli Dosel. Command types are built bigger. In human scale, Quamzin would be a whopping 2.37m (7'9"!). Vrlitwhai would be a whopping 270.8cm (8'11"!). Boddole Zer was even taller than they are. The Protoculture didn't really give a damn about making their mecha ergonomically sound, so you can safely assume some uncomfortable bending is involved.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    As was Arad, yes... though it's worth remembering that both Delta Flight and Walkure are very recent developments in 2067. They've only been active for about two years. One thing that a lot of people aren't aware of is that it's actually perfectly possible to enlist in the military while underage even in the real world... with permission of a parent or legal guardian, of course. Underage recruitment is, of course, heavily scrutinized under international law and as such these arrangements tend to be deliberately set up to ensure that any underage recruits will have reached the age of majority before their training is completed or that they will otherwise be barred from direct participation in hostilities until they come of age. The US military recruits over 15,000 17 year olds every year under provisions like this. We know the New UN Forces have an arrangement like this as well thanks to the backstory of Macross 7's Gamlin Kizaki. He joined the New UN Forces Air Force School at age 15 (in 2041) by special entry, and his prodigious skill led him to complete the three year training program in two years and graduate to his posting in Diamond Force in 2043 at age 17. He had already achieved the rank of First Lieutenant at age 19 when Macross 7 started in 2045 and would later be promoted to Captain. That can make the dates work out. Valkyries also have a lot of convenience features like the Airframe Control AI that take the burden of the nitty-gritty details off the pilot's hands, and current-gen VFs are supposedly even easier to learn how to fly thanks to EX-Gear. Though, even with that, Hayate's training is so accelerated that it's hard to credit unless his long experience with Destroids was a transferrable skill (as it appeared to be given episode 1's outing in the VF-171).
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Yes... which is understandable, given what the show's primary demographic is. Though it's worth noting one odd touch in the Macross setting is that the Age of Majority under the UN Government and New UN Government is apparently 17 not 18... so many of the characters who are nominally "high school age" are, in the context of their respective stories, legally adults. (For Macross Delta, the ages skewing young may be justified in that Windermereans only live for about 30 years on average and so their society has different standards with regard to age.) Macross Plus has the oldest main cast with none younger than 23, followed by Macross 7 where all but one are at least 19, and then Macross Zero where roughly half the main cast is in their mid-to-late 20's.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Not to mention all of the official publications in the 90's and 2000's... In hindsight, it's actually REALLY weird that anyone thought that Big West or Kawamori in any way disapproved of Macross II considering how often it got brought up.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    As far as I know, the 117th Research Fleet's home port is not identified. In the Macross Frontier novelization, Manfred Brando was a part of the board of inquiry that investigated its destruction. That could be taken as circumstantial evidence that its home port was Earth since Brando and his company Critical Path were supporters of the Earth supremacist group Latence in Macross VF-X2. No involvement from Macross Galaxy is mentioned, but some of its surviving researchers (e.g. Grace) and its financial backers (Manfred) did move on to supporting the Macross Galaxy fleet.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    No, it's not a question of semantics... it's a distinction that the people who rag on Macross II don't want to acknowledge because it's inconvenient to their trollish premise. Macross II and its tie-ins were classified as a "parallel world". An alternate universe. Like the alternate universe storylines in Star Trek, in Gundam, or in DC and Marvel's superhero comics, they're separate but coequal official settings. Even if they're no longer under active development they're acknowledged and treated as valid installments in the franchise's storylines and promoted alongside the rest of the franchise. To be "stricken from canon" means no longer being a part of ANY official setting the franchise might have. Like Star Wars's original Expanded Universe, Gundam's Gaia Gear, Star Trek's original animated series (under Roddenberry), or the majority of the Terminator sequels. At best, those works might be considered apocryphal but generally they're ignored completely despite still being considered (if only technically) legitimate. Being "disowned" or "disavowed" is "stricken from canon, with prejudice". That's when the creator or franchise owner is straight-up denying that a work is a legitimate part of their franchise/series. Like Eon Productions' stance on the 1967 Casino Royale movie and Never Say Never Again, Robotech's position on almost all licensee-created materials that are dated prior to 2001 (due to copyright issues), how Kawamori has been documented as seeing Robotech, Alan Moore's position on Doomsday Clock, etc. This is straight-up "I have no son!" territory, where the work is explicitly not considered a legitimate part of the franchise to the point of being "______ in name only". Macross II may not be in continuity with the titles that came after, but it's not ignored either. Macross 7 has a fair number of Macross II nods in it. There were Macross II-derived elements in Macross 7 Trash and Macross the First as well.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    The ink's barely dry on the deal... it was only signed back in March. It's gonna take time for individual licensees and distributors to digest the big news, reach out to Big West for a better picture of the legal implications, and examine the market to see where the money is. I'd expect Q4 2021 at the earliest.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, but he also doesn't say anywhere that it was disowned, disavowed, or "stricken from canon". Which, of course, it wasn't. It was merely an above average OVA that failed to live up to everyone's expectations that it'd set the world on fire. Nevertheless, Big West never disowned it, disavowed it, struck it from the canon Macross doesn't have, or in any way attempted to hide it... and it'll no doubt be prominently featured alongside its younger siblings when Macross goes to streaming and home video outside Japan in the near future.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Safe bet... streaming licenses. Harmony Gold's in bed with Funimation, which would make them landing on Funimation Now seem pretty likely.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    I'm amused that the "disowned" myth keeps going around WRT II... even after Kawamori himself publicly refuted it. I guess some parts of MW's toxic history simply aren't going to die easily. Really, no Macross sequel has been poorly received overall. II and Plus came the closest, being far better received outside Japan than in it. Too many folks in here generalizing from themselves when talking about how Macross shows were received tho.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Having read the light novel... this season is going even further over the top with the fanservice. They're adding two more characters to Diablo's harem (a grasswalker loli and a robot maid with a one-track mind), the local governor wants to jump his bones, and the first villain's evil plan is literally powered by public indecency. The only upsides are that you'll get to see Diablo's first real fight (as in, the first one that's not a curbstomp or interrupted) and watch him go absolutely apesh*t when the second villain brings his wives and they're all wearing that item that's his berserk button (wedding rings). I've started How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Omega myself, and wasn't impressed. I feel like the animation quality isn't as high as the first season's. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level is, thus far, kind of a cutesy feel-good sort of series. I enjoyed the first episode quite a bit. My Hero Academia Season 5 is pretty fillerific... not much more to say about that. Later I'm going to be starting 86 and Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro. Another one that landed on my watchlist that I haven't started yet is Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took In a High School Runaway.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    What little information has been made available for Absolute Live!!!!!! has indicated that the antagonist in the movie is a new threat rather than the return of an old one. The trailer suggests whoever it is, Windermere IV is willing to put aside its differences with the Brisingr Alliance and New UN Government to stop them. Insufficient information to make any determination at this time. Mind you, with Kawamori's loose attitude towards continuity in general the answer could well be "Both" or "Neither". (For instance, in the Macross Frontier side story light novel Macross the Ride, the setting is generally based on the Macross Frontier TV series but the movie-exclusive YF-29 is talked about briefly in connection with Macross Galaxy's YF-27 program.) Yes. As popular as Sheryl (and May'n) is with the fans, I think it's a safe bet she will. (Certain works outside the official setting mention her continuing her music career beyond the events of the Vajra War, including Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah.) He was a pretty minor character in the movie version, and spent most of the film nominally aligned with the "bad guys". Yes, with the exception of the first few Megaroad-class ships, all emigrant ships have been built in repurposed factory satellites. There has not been any explicit mention of new emigrant ships being built after the 2040s, but the answer is almost certainly "Yes". The New UN Government had multiple planets launching emigrant fleets in the 2040s and production was ramping up not down, so it's very likely that production of those ships is ongoing in the 2050s and 2060s, albeit with ever-more-modern designs.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    As in the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series, a portion of the Zentradi forces defected to the UN Forces while the remainder retreated as per standard practice when they lost their command ships either during or at the end of the battle. Many of the defectors and stranded Zentradi managed to live on Earth and integrated successfully into human society. Some tried and failed. One area where Macross II's timeline is different is that a small group of those who tried and failed were able to secure a ship and flee into deep space... resulting in the events of Macross 2036 and Macross: Eternal Love Song.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, but that's the difference between having days of advance warning vs. thousands or millions of years. A supernova's not something that sneaks up on you unannounced. Stars give a LOT of advance warning when they're about to blow even with today's technology. With the far more advanced technology of the 24th century, having a supernova detonation sneak up on you means someone (or in this case an entire interstellar civilization of billions and billions of someones) were asleep at the switch for literal centuries.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Fittingly, given that it was a stand-in for the Chernobyl disaster, an accident caused by unsafe operating conditions and insufficient safety measures. Millions, usually... but something that normally happens on a geological timescale somehow caught the Romulans completely by surprise without, at any point, being indicated to be in any way unnatural.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    So... is the actual question "Will a handful of butthurt fanboy gatekeepers fold their arms and refuse to accept a new Macross series from Kawamori's successor?" I'd bet on it. But who cares? It'll be like the droning of cicadas in summer. Inevitable, but trivial, background noise. Kawamori's been pretty clear about his view that Macross has no canon and that the Macross titles he didn't work on are as valid as his own. I doubt most Macross fans will really be at all bothered by it. Will the next Macross be the last Macross? No.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    *looks at G Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gundam X, Turn A Gundam, Gundam SEED, Gundam 00, Gundam AGE, Gundam Build Fighters, Reconguista in G, and Iron-Blooded Orphans* ... I'm pretty sure they'll be OK if they don't stick to the original Gundam timeline.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    No can do... Alien vs. Predator already trademarked the best tagline: "Whoever wins, we lose."
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Well, yeah... square peg, round hole? Macross II belongs to a radically different timeline that emphatically doesn't fit with Kawamori's later work. Like this? Yes, the UN Government and UN Forces in Macross II reuse old Zentradi ships for a lot of different purposes. Several that've been used as a foundation to build on in Macross City are visible in different establishing shots. Many others are refurbished for UN Forces use, and several were heavily reworked to become the Macross Cannon-class gunships. That's kind of Macross II's schtick, Earth has dealt with the Zentradi so many times that they've gotten incredibly good at it and their cup runneth over with secondhand Zentradi hardware. (For about the first forty years after the First Space War, they barely had to do any shipbuilding of their own because they had SO MANY leftover Zentradi ships. It wasn't until the 2054 Zentradi invasion depleted their fleet that they had to start seriously considering next-generation warships like the Gloria, Heracles, and the new model battleship in the OVA. By the time the Mardook roll up, the Spacy's technically gone 5-1-1 on main fleets. It has the explicit blessing of The Powers That Be... as an alternate universe story. Why it has to fit into the main Macross timeline is beyond me. Macross Ace included it on the timeline in error, after forgetting it was officially an AU.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Something something reverse the polarity something something tachyons something subspace field. Really, that nobody even attempts to explain is one of the more telling signs that they didn't think this one out even though it's plot-critical to Picard. It definitely doesn't give one any hope for the writing in season two.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Well, that was certainly a thing that I watched... I have no idea what any of it means, but I definitely watched it.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Not being a toy collector myself, I don't really have any strongly-held feelings about it... especially since I never bothered to buy any Robotech-branded stuff. But wow even the Wikipedia article for the company makes them sound like tools.
×
×
  • Create New...