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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Nope... that's a bio-technological construct the ancient Protoculture left behind on Earth to monitor humanity's development in their absence, and destroy them in the event that they developed into a warlike race and acquired the technology for space travel. It's been said that the Protoculture based its design on the Vajra Queen's form. It had an onboard AI, but was dependent on the engineered fold song abilities of the Mayan islander priestesses for maintenance and needed a pilot in order to operate. That and the Fold Evil in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy seem to be further developments of the same organic technology that went into the Evil-series bioweapons that became the Protodeviln. (One of the lessons learned seems to have been "make sure that thing requires a pilot to operate".)
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... that'd be up to the writers of future Macross works. Defining "extinct" kind of changes the answer a bit when it comes to the Protoculture. Super Dimension Fortress Macross presented the Protoculture only in vague terms, as the Zentradi's long-vanished creators who had probably also created humanity. Macross: Do You Remember Love? put a different spin on things by revealing that the Zentradi (and Meltrandi) were Protoculture clones who had been genetically modified for use as a giant clone army. That would technically mean the Protoculture are arguably the most populous species in the galaxy in purely genetic terms, though their culture and society's long-since extinct since that stuff was all forbidden to the Zentradi. (Macross Chronicle's Protoculture worldguide sheet broadly supports the Zentradi's genetic template as being derived from the Protoculture's.) Macross 7 kind of drew a line under the idea that the Protoculture were largely wiped out in their civil war, and slowly went extinct hundreds of thousands of years before humanity emerged on the interstellar stage. Macross Frontier and Macross Delta have both generally supported that line, with the Brisingr globular cluster supposedly being the Protoculture's last enclave before they died out in the distant past. The Supervision Army is also still around, though it is not clear if that force still contains brainwashed Protoculture or is now made up exclusively of brainwashed Zentradi. Macross II: Lovers Again was the only story that toyed with the idea they might still be around in some fashion. The Mardook were strongly implied, but never explicitly stated, to be the descendants of a group of Protoculture who fled the collapse of their civilization like the ones who'd settled on Earth in the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie. Unlike the Protoculture in the main Macross timeline who seem to have generally regretted their actions in destroying galactic civilization and turning loose two unstoppable clone armies and being content to hide out in increasingly remote places to avoid the wrath of their creations, the Mardook decided to be a bit more proactive about protecting their culture by destroying anything that would threaten it... including other cultures that might contaminate it (hence their war on Earth).
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, I hadn't heard they were going back to finish up adapting the manga. I guess ending on "Welcome to our Xcution" was kind of a weird story arc to finish on... though I'm not sure adapting the "Thousand Year Blood War" arc is necessarily a kindness since that was Tite Kubo trying to kill off the manga in a way that prevented sequels so he could move on from it. He became a big fan of the audience punch in that part. I'm about halfway into Mob Psycho 100's second season. It's still not great, IMO, but it's pretty good. Feels a bit scattered, changing gears twice already from their usual exorcisms to hunting urban legends to dealing with problematic psychics again.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Well, I finished the first season of Mob Psycho 100 a moment ago... kind of a weird genre shift it goes through, from a sort of slice of life about painfully introverted Mob to fighting a frankly ridiculous organization of evil psychics who never grew out of their 2nd year middle school syndrome. Not a bad show, overall, but IMO not as good or as compelling as One Punch Man. A solid 7/10 at the very least.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    I recall reading something to that effect, yeah. That kind of thing is fairly typical in cases like this, though. Like how FASA ignored YEARS of cease and desist notices before things finally boiled over in a lawsuit that nearly cost them their entire BattleTech franchise.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Too late, they already did... the Robotech Masters chucked the Southern Cross designs completely for something that looks like the Great Value version of Mardook or DYRL Zentradi gear. The thirst is real. You can't deny, that was a weapons-grade outfit... the Mardook probably had a high incidence of neck-strain injuries from heads turning all the time.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Very probably, yeah... given that CBS did at one point admit to access and copying in some of their filings. They argued that it was de minimis access and copying, though (i.e. too trivial an amount to merit consideration). I gave the game in question a whirl, and in my estimation they're not as similar as some of the articles make it out to be. There are a number of superficial/aesthetic similarities in terms of character art and the bare fact of a giant blue tardigrade that travels instantly through time and space, but it's mostly just at that superficial level. So, in all fairness, I can kind of see the case for arguing de minimis access and copying. They didn't have anything about an extradimensional plane of fungal life in Tardigrades the way they do in Star Trek: Discovery... the tardigrade in Discovery's more like a Navigator from Dune than the tardigrade in Tardigrades in terms of how it's used. Since there is at least some evidence to suggest Tardigrades may have inspired Discovery's first season, it would've been polite to throw him a bone and maybe a modest royalty check... but corporations seldom concern themselves with that kind of thing when IP rights are involved.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Six episodes into Mob Psycho 100 and I'm still undecided about the series. Mob really feels like basically the same character as Saitama, except he's afraid of his overwhelming power instead of annoyed by the lack of challenge it confers. I definitely don't like Reigen. He's kind of an objectively awful person.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    To say nothing of hanging onto an average viewership of over 10 million the whole time... Discovery's third season is supposed to hit CBS All Access two weeks from Thursday. I've got no intention of reactivating my CBS All Access subscription for it, but it'll be interesting to see if there's any meat on the bones of the widely circulated theory that Discovery's third season developed its core premise from the unproduced Star Trek: Final Frontier animated series that was pitched back in 2006. That series pitch by David Rossi, Doug Mirabello, and José Muñoz featured a future Federation that was well into its decline after someone destroyed most of subspace with omega particle detonations. The promo materials for DSC's third season talk about an event called "the Burn" that apparently left most of the Federation's worlds cut off from each other and the USS Discovery's indicated to be a ship that isn't hindered by "the Burn" (due to its spore drive?) and can act more freely than what's left of Starfleet.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    As noted here and elsewhere, it was CBS themselves who promoted Discovery's introduction to their broadcast schedule as a series premiere and had it listed as a new episode in the TV listings. That would, at least in terms of how they chose to classify it, make it an apples-to-apples comparison with the first-run broadcast ratings for previous Star Trek titles. That it is technically a rerun is a fair point, albeit I would argue that its rerun status is largely negated by four key factors: Star Trek has, historically, seen consistently strong ratings performance in reruns due to the strength of its fanbase and broad appeal. Star Trek: Discovery has never actually had a run on network television... it was exclusive to a streaming service. Star Trek: Discovery was previously locked behind the CBS All Access paywall in its primary market (North America), with no "Free" option, leaving a lot of potential viewers who were interested in the series but were unwilling to shell out for another streaming service for just one show with no way to follow it. This was, for a nontrivial percentage of the show's target audience, a genuine premiere in the sense that it was their first actual opportunity to watch it. CBS has an almost literal captive audience due to various states of lovkdown or quarantine in the US. Folks are staying in and watching more TV, which should have been extremely favorable conditions to launch a broadcast run of a "new" series. It was, in all honesty, the kind of "I told you so" that nobody is happy to deliver. It was obviously a bad idea, but they did it anyway. I'm far from happy about it. Rolling out the most expensive Star Trek series ever produced for a broadcast debut only to have it outperformed by gameshow and crime drama reruns is BAD for the long-term health of the franchise. Investor confidence in Star Trek is already suffering due to Netflix and Amazon's disappointment with their respective Star Trek licenses and the lack of merchandising support for either new series. The more they double down on their mistakes, the harder it'll be to get new Star Trek approved and funded. We've seen some of the damage already, like CBS being unable to secure funding for the Section 31 series, Star Trek: Picard getting a much smaller budget than CBS hoped for from Amazon, and the still-in-limbo Strange New Worlds. I want there to still be a Star Trek franchise after Kurtzman and Chabon's contracts expire in a few years.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    I have to wonder, because it kind of fell by the wayside once Seifreit was captured and "rehabilitated" by the Southern Cross Army. IIRC he was just some guy from one of the space stations the Zor attacked. Nobody special.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Whatever, man. I've got not stake in your discontent. The reason I felt the article from Variety might be of interest here was because there's been a fair amount of curiosity in the Star Trek fandom on Facebook and elsewhere about how the show is doing in purely objective terms, given CBS is oddly reluctant to discuss it even with their own shareholders. Nothing gets people talking like an unanswered question, y'know? When there is something to be positive about, you will no doubt see positivity. Until then... well... best of luck? (Incidentally, the word of the week from my calendar is "phlogiston"... not one I'll get a chance to use in conversation unless I talk to someone researching alchemy.)
  13. Seto Kaiba
    TBH, if I were going to compare Macross 7 to any Gundam title it'd have to be Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Macross 7 started airing pretty much right as G Gundam was hitting the middle of its story (between Ep26 and 27) and G Gundam ended when Macross 7 was about half done (between Ep23 and 24). Despite G Gundam being more of a super robot series, they had a very similar aesthetic and were very hotblooded and full of boisterous enthusiasm. Lots of grown men shouting about their burning emotions and such. For the record, I've seen most of what Gundam has produced animation-wise except for Gundam AGE, Build Fighters and its spinoffs, and the SD Gundam shows. I've not seen Narrative yet, but it's on my to-do list. Macross 7 has a pretty damned big following in Japan, and tie-ins to it are ALL OVER THE PLACE in Macross. The most blatant perhaps being Macross FB7, an entire OVA devoted to Frontier characters revisiting Macross 7. However, we've had Macross 7 characters feature prominently in SRW games, in Macross's own games (esp. Macross 30), the Macross Frontier prequel Macross the Ride is almost as much a Macross 7 spinoff as Macross Frontier prequel with all of the main characters having some tie to Macross 7, Macross Delta's gaiden manga Macross E ties into Macross Dynamite 7 fairly blatantly, and then of course there's all the different times they've acknowledged Fire Bomber was almost as culturally impactful in-universe as Minmay like in Macross Frontier and Macross Delta. It had its fair share of toys when it was new, to the point that I'm actually pretty surprised we haven't seen Bandai or Arcadia releasing the Fire Valkyrie, Super Thunderbolt, Nightmare, etc. It's actually really weird now that I think about it, given how beloved Macross 7 is in Japan. Macross Plus wasn't nearly as well-received as 7 when they were both coming out, and we've seen a lot more stuff from Plus for some reason. (WRT Gundam toys, I think a lot of those are just plain easier to make because they don't transform or like the Zeta and Double Zeta Gundams they're minimal transformations, so they get made in greater profusion.)
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Started Mob Psycho 100 over from the beginning so I could watch it through uninterrupted. The plot's hasn't really hooked me yet, but one scene really has gotten my attention. When they first introduce Mob's love interest, all the other girls have vegetables for heads. That's a visually striking way to make it clear Mob's got eyes for nobody else, and it's animated really REALLY well. Reigen's kind of a manipulative creep. Kinda hoping he becomes less of a creep as the series goes on, or this'll be hard to stomach given how trusting Mob seems to be. It definitely has a very different feel overall from One Punch Man.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Nice. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on Dirty Pair Flash. That one, IMO, has an undeservedly bad rap. Gundam SEED's one I'd advise against marathoning. It's not bad, but it's kinda got that Macross 7 problem going for it where it can feel a bit samey after a bit of you're watching it all back-to-back. (It is, admittedly, hilarious that SEED Destiny as a series gets gundamjacked halfway through.)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    This is slightly disingenuous, isn't it? What I'd posted when you started complaining wasn't bashing the series, it was a recent news piece from a highly credible source and a fact-based analysis that framed the data that news piece provided in a usable context for comparison. It's not really my fault if the objective and entirely impersonal data paints an unflattering picture. To be frank, I don't think I was being unfair or especially unkind when I pointed out that this was the expected result either. People didn't get (back) onto the tack of Discovery being a bad show until after you poked your oar in to complain about "negativity" in response to a factual analysis. Even then, all I said in response to you WRT the series itself was that it was badly written and its negativity about the future was its stumbling block in being accepted by its target audience. It was someone else who went a bit Klingon on you about it being a detriment to Star Trek as a whole. (Though I wouldn't be able to honestly say the poster who said it didn't have a pretty good point under all that anger.) Isn't this a tad hypocritical, given that you keep coming back to these threads to complain about the "negativity" that so offends you... even when you apparently admit it's actually well-founded? Perhaps take your own advice? All that happened here was I posted a very recent news piece relevant to the series and an analysis of its contents. You got triggered and started a fuss fit that got people back to arguing its merits or lack thereof. That, my friend, is on YOU.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    There's nothing to hear, I'm afraid... CBS won by outspending the guy who sued 'em.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, this has been kind of a disappointing season for me... but I have a good feeling about the next one. Gave Mob Psycho 100 a whirl over dinner... its first episode did not thrill me. I'm going to give it a few more episodes but this definitely isn't drawing me in the way One Punch Man did.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    No, those were not problems with the underlying concept of the Federation as a utopian society. The problem, as attested to by the people who created the show, was much the same problem experienced by Star Wars's sequel trilogy. They gave the property's creator direct and largely unrestricted creative control, and then were forcibly reminded he couldn't write for sh*t... compounded by his attorney's own, unauthorized and sometimes illegal, contributions to the writing process. The underlying concept was sound and remained a part of Star Trek for its entire successful history. It was Gene's bizarre insistence that the Enterprise's crew be too professional to even have different opinions that caused many of his writing problems. That's not part of the utopian premise, that's just a failure to develop characters or realize how drama works.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Well, yeah... there's no denying that. It didn't have anything to do with Star Trek's conception of the Federation as a utopian society, though. Much of that was brought about by the tyrannical and borderline (sometimes actually) illegal behavior of Gene Roddenberry's incredibly toxic and amoral personal attorney Leonard Maizlish. Maizlish forced a lot of things on TNG and even went so far as to unlawfully make edits, rewrites, and redactions to scripts himself. TNG didn't start to improve until after Maizlish was finally banned from the set and studio premises, and Rick Berman installed to oversee production and undo Maizlish's damage. Discovery, unfortunately, can't blame its faults on an overbearing attorney exceeding his authority. Its creators were able to realize their vision unhindered, to which the world said "gentlemen, perhaps it is time to consider corrective lenses".
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Monster Girl Doctor's final episode dropped on Crunchyroll a bit ago. Kind of a nonevent episode, really. The ending of the previous episode would probably have been a much more solid series finale. Fetish-y fanservice aside, all this episode really does is offer one last inconsequential scene to the various patients from previous episodes before trying to go out on a harem note with the lamia, centaur, arachne, and dragon loli all fighting over the protagonist.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, Macross 7 makes some fairly extensive usage of stock footage in order to keep its production costs down. A lot of anime titles do that as a way to keep costs down, some more blatantly than others. Complicated transformation sequences and that kind of thing are great fodder for reuse like that. Gundam SEED Destiny is, if anything, even more blatant about it with every launch of the Impulse Gundam. Like two minutes of recycled footage every time that thing sets out. Being a music-heavy series even by Macross standards, Macross 7 can't have been cheap to produce given the cost of studio time to record the songs. Hoist by its own petard, as it were. To be frank, I think a lot of that has to do with *retch* "waifu" status. Basara's a dude, so he's kind of automatically at a massive disadvantage when it comes to things like figures/statues just in general. In my experience, that kind of collectible is mainly aimed at guys and therefore mainly figures/statues of girls. When a series does have a primary or periphery demographic of female viewers you tend to see figures/statues for pretty boys (e.g. Alto Saotome in Frontier). Basara's not exactly bishounen material.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    I have to admit, I was not expecting to enjoy Gasaraki as much as I am. This is some good old-school mecha. The ADV Films previews I remember seeing it advertised in did not do it justice. This season's starting to wrap up, and Crunchyroll is teasing shows it's licensed for its Fall lineup. I can't say I'll be sad to see Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time go... I feel like this 13 minute short series format is really more conducive to adapting something like a 4koma (e.g. Azumanga Daioh) rather than trying to do anything like storytelling. Doing a whole series where the one joke is the double standard about female-on-male sexual assault was just in spectacularly poor taste. After learning what I've learned about the adaptation of The Misfit of Demon King Academy, I feel a bit like I should be kinder to it. Most, if not all, of its issues were a result of the metaphorical attempt to fit ten pounds into the five pound bag. The ending's as rushed as the rest and lacks impact as a result, but the knowledge that it's not the story's fault helps a bit. The climactic fight between the reincarnated demon king and reincarnated hero who "killed" him would, I suspect, be pretty anticlimactic even in its light novel form. It's a curbstomp battle like every other one in the series, though killing the hero six times in a minute and change definitely has to be some kind of record. The attempt at drama with the main character "dying" fell pretty flat given the story's been pretty rife with casually abused resurrection magic. It's actually kind of unbelievable that anyone in the story took it seriously. The animation quality also took a pretty noticeable dive for the final battle, which is exactly when you don't want to have animation quality decreasing. Of Crunchyroll's Fall offerings, I think I'm most looking forward to Tonikawa... we could do with a bit of upbeat romcom nonsense in such a stressful season. I've got kind of a bad feeling about the final season of Attack on Titan. I wonder how badly it'll go over with the "moral guardian" types in Japan, since it's very heavily nationalist and its story kind of deteriorates into two equally evil fascist city-states pounding on each other. They also picked up the third season of Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?, and I see the sports/exercise anime thing is branching out. I'm actually mildly curious about what this rock climbing anime (Iwakakeru) they're advertising is about.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Hm... I don't know about official. It's not one of the three front/side/rear view pieces I've seen in official publications. Those were all Type I Bioroids, and this piece is a Type II. Official or not, this looks pretty accurate to me.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I don't think even he knew what his point was. TBH. Yeah, he doesn't like the negativity and I get that. The problem is that he's taking the same deeply disingenuous, gaslighting approach CBS uses by trying to argue about the "negativity" (read: "criticism and dissatisfaction") as though it somehow came into being independently rather than as a direct result of the show's content. Essentially, he's got his cause and effect backwards for his entire argument. The "negativity" isn't the cause of Discovery's problems and the lack of enthusiasm for it, it's a symptom of them. I did throw him a bone by making a point about how the negativity in the show is the leading cause of the "negativity" about the show... so, y'know, right for the wrong reasons. It felt more polite and professional to respond to his points individually than simply dismissing his post as white-knighting for CBS. As I've said on a number of previous occasions in this very thread, Anson Mount was an absolute treasure as Captain Christopher Pike. Straight-up stole the show for the first half of season two, which is probably why they tentatively offered him his own show.
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