Seto Kaiba

Eh... looking at it from a pure feasibility standpoint, I don't think the prospects of the proposed live action movie are affected by this. Given Harmony Gold's own comments on the matter, the proposed live action Robotech movie was always tipped to be a complete reimagining. A clean break from anything that had existed in Robotech up to that point. That effectively guaranteed that the movie would never be made, because why bother going to all the time and expense of developing an all-new IP on WB's or Sony's dime to unnecessarily fork over partial ownership to a company whose involvement was little more than licensing them the name of an obscure 80's TV cartoon? If Sony actually decides to pull the trigger, it feels like this opens the door for Sony to drop the obscure Robotech name in favor of the more noteworthy Macross one. To be honest, I don't expect to see anything new from Robotech going forward. We know Harmony Gold has been looking for a way out ever since Shadow Chronicles bombed. It was originally supposed to be the live action movie, where they'd just sit back and collect royalties while someone else did all the actual work. Now it looks like it's going to be functioning as Big West's distribution partner, sitting back and collecting royalties while Funimation or whoever does all the actual work.

It's nothing that any other potential Macross distribution partner wouldn't receive... it's not any kind of concession on Big West's part. It's just (quite literally) the cost of doing business. Will it, though? Harmony Gold quite literally gave up on Robotech's animated series almost fifteen years ago when Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles bombed. Robotech: Love Live Alive was a glorified DVD extra feature packaged with Shadow Chronicles to inflate sales numbers by getting fans to buy the failed OVA's only episode twice. Robotech Academy was a Hail Mary attempt to get someone to pay for a pilot because Harmony Gold wouldn't. The proposed live-action movie has been Coming Never since 2007. The last original Robotech development was cancelled in 2020, and that was the widely-panned Robotech Remix. They have effectively zero incentive to continue Robotech at this point. By supporting Macross instead, they can make the same (or better) money with less effort and investment on their part. They'll take the path of least resistance because they know Robotech was, and is, a functionally dead brand. They might still bluster a bit about Robotech and Carl Macek's alleged vision, but odds are they aren't going to bother attempting to develop Robotech any further.

While Lower Decks is absolutely the least repugnant of new Trek's offerings by a considerable margin, it's still pretty weak tea. Not enough to justify shelling out for Paramount+. I'd consider torrenting it, but it's not even really tempting enough to guarantee I'll do even that much.

Well, if any of our friends on the US east coast start talking about some bloke named "Dagon" or vacationing in R'lyeh, you'll know it's time to pack it in and find a new planet.

Your definition of victory is too narrow, my friend. Harmony Gold abandoned the field. They've signed the instrument of surrender. It just wasn't a completely unconditional surrender. Instead, true to the company's quasi-Italian roots, once they'd exhausted their bluster and their elaborate aggressive posturing failed to impress... they switched sides. They decided to knuckle under and learn to love the taste of Big West's boot leather rather than lose the farm on a slow and fundamentally unwinnable battle of attrition. Yeah, Harmony Gold will collect some small percentage of the take from Macross licensing... but that's all. Big West gave up NOTHING in this. NOTHING. And they got everything they wanted. Harmony Gold, on the other hand, effectively gave up almost everything it had for a few crumbs from Big West's table. They withdrew their opposition to Macross's global licensing. They'd already effectively abandoned Robotech and now apparently are giving Big West partial control over it as well. The only thing they can cling to is the hope that Sony will green-light a Robotech movie... which, from the outset, was never going to use Big West's IP anyway and is all but guaranteed to be a failure because failing is what American anime adaptations DO. It's not quite the complete annihilation that folks who utterly loathe Harmony Gold were hoping for, but it's INCREDIBLY close in the final analysis. Robotech is, for all practical intents and purposes, dead. Harmony Gold has bent the knee to Macross's owners without any significant concessions from Big West's side. That's a win by any standard. No, it's nothing like that. The statement about Harmony Gold's rights is basically just affirming that Harmony Gold's license agreement with Tatsunoko Production is still valid and in force... the one which only grants Harmony Gold the distribution and merchandising rights to the Super Dimension Fortress Macross animation outside Japan. They've never been able to use Big West's intellectual property in the proposed live action movie. (Indeed, they had announced the film with the intention of it being a "reimagining" with all-original design works.)

Pretty sure its just short... all of those extra games were pretty short. It'd be nice if they ported them alongside a sub/dub of the movies they originally came with. That's probably asking a bit much tho. Not in the city proper, but yeah I'm in the metropolitan area there. I'm not aware of too many Macross fans out our way, but for some reason the hobby shops always seemed to have a few Macross kits banging around. There's at least one or two other MWers in my area, I know... mainly because I've bought DX Chogokins from 'em. Considering how much time Macek and co. spend alternately badmouthing him and blocking his work from broader distribution, he must be feeling a real sense of vindication right now.

I know the Frontier movies had games on 'em. They were those weird "PS3 Combo Pack" editions.

Must be a local thing then. Here in the greater Detroit area, a lot of the shops near where I lived as a kid stocked Macross models without any indication that it was anything other than perfectly normal. I'll be headed back that way in a couple days on family business, I'll check and see if the usual suspects still stock 'em.

... and all I can think of is "so why aren't they bringing back Neelix, the patron saint of substances of questionable origin"? "Get that cheese to sickbay!"

TBH, I really doubt it. I've spoken one-on-one to every member of the HG Robotech staff over the years, and the only "true believer" among them is McKeever. I think Tommy and Steve will be thrilled to be off the hook for creating new Robotech IP and able to just do the convention circuit to talk about what exciting new Macross goods are coming out instead. Harmony Gold is probably thrilled that they can give up on Robotech and just focus on collecting a percentage on Macross. It's a lot less work for probably about the same money.

It might be fairer to say she got the Kirk treatment. Isamu Dyson only got set on a gradual course towards a supervisory desk job that took the better part of a decade. Kathryn Janeway, on the other hand, was booted from the center seat and reassigned to fly a desk at Starfleet Headquarters less than a year after returning to the Alpha Quadrant. The series finale of Voyager is set at some point after 5 April 2378 since one of the episodes set before it is set on the 315th anniversary of First Contact (5 April 2063). By Nemesis in 2379, Janeway had been an admiral working a desk job for long enough that Picard is not surprised to receive new orders from her. (Which actually raises the odd question why this Janeway hologram is a Captain not a Vice Admiral and wearing an outdated uniform for the period?)

Not sure if it's just a regional taste in my area or what, but out where I live there have been plenty of retailers carrying Hasegawa Macross kids since I was a kid... I never really thought to question it until nearly a decade later.

It'd be nice. I suspect our best bet are probably the Bandai plamodels, since various retailers here in the states like GameStop and Barnes & Noble already carry gunpla.

That must be quite a show. It's weird that anyone ever attempted to argue TCI ever had rights to the Macross designs in the first place. Twentieth Century Imports (TCI) was a import hobby retailer buying Macross and other anime kits at wholesale in Japan to sell via their catalog service in the states. It's like arguing that Best Buy owns the rights to the Tachikomas because they sell Ghost in the Shell DVDs.

The same limit applies to merchandise... not just distribution of the animation. Japan has always been off-limits to HG and Robotech because the rights Tatsunoko received from Big West were limited to outside of Japan.

Eh, it's worth remembering that the publisher got busted on at least one prior occasion for "borrowing" from works he didn't have permission to use. Mind you, I'm A-OK if they wanna Star Blazers 2199 this nonsense. As long as Macross proper gets into the hands of western audiences an artifact title is a tiny price to pay.

From the information given, it doesn't look like they can do that. They're just becoming a distribution partner for Macross outside Japan, since their license specifically prohibits them from distributing anything to do with the Robotech TV series or its sequels in Japan.

SAME. If DYRL? got a theatrical release in the US, I'd be downright giddy.

My apologies, too caught up in sharing the good news with our fellow fans I suppose.

As far as we know, they have a story treatment and that's it. No director, no script, no producers, no budget, nothing. Every piece of news alleging progress on the film has been later revealed to be (false) rumor reported as fact. This just means, I guess, that if Sony does decide to make a movie Big West won't lock them out of the Japanese market.

Sorry mate, but Kawamori's grubby fingerprints are all over Delta too. I know the head of Animeigo indicated some years back that it was unclear who owned the western distribution rights to DYRL?, but it's entirely possible that this breakthrough could lead to a proper US high-def release of either or both of those works. What a time to be alive.

This raises an interesting quandry... they're going to have to figure out who the hell actually has the distribution rights to DYRL? now.

Probably not... but then, he likely didn't have any input in this decision. Big West owns Macross, after all, not Kawamori.

Potentially? It's down to distribution licenses at this point, I suppose. You could very well see Macross plamodels cheek by jowl with gunpla in Barnes and Noble in the near future.