Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    12922

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    So... I did a little digging and found the answer in Entertainment Archive #8: MOSPEADA Complete Art Works. This missile pod wasn't designed for the Genesis Climber MOSPEADA anime... it was specifically developed for the show's merchandise lines. To be precise, this missile pod and those "first strike" missiles mounted under the intake were created by Artmic for Imai's line of transforming Legioss plamodels. I've heard the missile pod was at least partly intended to be a structural cheat to make the Imai kit's armo-fighter mode more stable, though the book doesn't say anything about the reason Imai wanted it. They may have just wanted a gimmick Gakken's toys didn't have. This one, on the other hand... ... was used in episode 20, though only to launch fireworks for Mint's birthday.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Well... that was a waste of time. Love Tyrant tried to grow a plot in its last two episodes, and it's pretty much complete crap. Easily one of the worst shows I've watched this year. Guri just arbitrarily disappears for most of an episode and turns into a demon for some contrived reason the show forgets to actually explain, and somehow it's all Seiji's fault? It comes out of nowhere, has virtually no impact on the characters, and even the main cast don't really seem all that invested in it as a plot device. You can't even relate to the show's antagonist, who they literally devote a flashback to explaining has no actual motive for being evil... she's just like that. Even the literal devil thinks she's pointlessly over-the-top. There's not even any resistance when the characters go to hell to bring Guri back... they just walk right in and literally nobody attempts to stop them. There's no drama, or intrigue, or even a bad joke to go out on... the whole thing is sorted out in the space of half an episode and that's it. (I do appreciate that Hell in Love Tyrant is apparently an extradimensional metropolitan Tokyo office district full of burned out demon salarymen lamenting the constant long hours and late nights they're forced to work by their humorless, married-to-the-job, workaholic boss.) Glad I'm done with it, and equally glad I'll never have to watch it again.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... nah, most of that stuff wouldn't be "done" if you're talking a higher-quality remake of the original show, even if it's shot-for-shot. Higher quality modern animation means the production committee and studio are going to want to modernize the character, mechanical, background, and prop designs to make it look more appealing to modern audiences. Likewise, they're going to want to either re-record the original BGM in higher fidelity or outright replace it with new arrangements of those songs more suited to modern tastes. Minmay's songs would likely get the same treatment, either re-recorded with new arrangements or at least re-mixed to sound more modern. They'd also likely subject the original dialog tracks to another round of remastering and digital cleanup to bring them up to modern standards too. The refined designs would mean new, more detailed designs for model kits, toys, statues, etc. so the merchandising would have to update. That said, I doubt anyone would approve a shot-for-shot remake... they'd want to throw in continuity nods and so on, like when Zero was re-released and they digitally added Sheryl's earrings to a scene or two to connect it up to Frontier.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... it's not really a connotation issue, it's more a question of certain sources like that Wikipedia article using the term loosely or incorrectly. The actual definition of a red light district is a part of an urban area (city, town, etc.) with a high concentration of brothels and other sex-related businesses... either by natural pressure or by an official classification of the area as an effort to contain that kind of business away from more respectable neighborhoods. Kabukichō did at one point honestly deserve to be called a red light district, but it hasn't really fit the bill since the so-called Kabukichō Renaissance that started back in 2004. Tokyo's governor, the National Police Agency, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police made a big push to shut down whole categories of businesses allegedly connected to organized crime as an opening move in the redevelopment of the area. The various flavors of not-technically-a-brothel sex shops that skirted the limits of Japan's ban on prostitution were the main targets of that purge. So it's not really a red light district anymore because what remains of that activity has largely gone underground. Admittedly in the cases of a number of types of businesses like soaplands and pink salons, this is kind of a case of exact words rules lawyer-ing... Yeah, but good luck getting it past the broadcast standards people with that argument. That's why the ONLY mentions of anything even remotely close are confined to passing references in My Fair Minmay and Perfect Memory. Well, the real-world UN doesn't exist in Macross after 2001... it drafted the constitution for the Earth Unification Government and acted as the provisional Unification Government until the formal start-of-business for it... Mind you, five of the six major powers behind the formation of the UN Government have outright bans on prostitution and the sixth has a ban on organized prostitution. It's not the French who are the liberal ones there, it's the Brits weirdly enough.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Love Tyrant is... well, it's certainly a thing that exists. As a parody of the harem genre, it's fairly entertaining and there's some freaking weird cases of showing their work like Guri's boss being a Seraphim correctly drawn as a disembodied face with six wings, but I'm not sure I'm all that invested in the actual story, as there doesn't seem to really be a coherent plot thread.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I sincerely doubt that that claim is true. For starters, no translator with a brain is going to agree to work for a flat rate per episode. Episode lengths vary anywhere from eight minutes to nearly an hour, and depending on the show and its writers you could end up with almost no dialog or you could be emptying entire dustbins of exposition into the horrified faces of the audience like Hideo Kojima. They've got to be invoicing by the character or by the word, the same as any professional translator. Otherwise they wouldn't even be making the federal minimum wage. They could take the language proficiency they have any go to any of thousands of corporations and get exponentially superior pay. There's gotta be a zero or two missing there... the average rate for a professional translation of something like a novel can easily exceed $80 a page. At my day job, I've had to have a number of technical documents translated from Japanese, Chinese, or French into English or vice versa, and that usually runs around $200 a page... but I've had jobs quoted as high as twice that for complex or time-sensitive work. (On a lark, I had two different services I've done business with before write me quotes on what it'd cost to do a volume of Master File. 128 pages? About $25,000 just for translation of the text... no typesetting or anything. The translator's making around $35-$40/hr on that transaction once operating overhead is taken out.)
  7. Seto Kaiba
    On a per-variant basis, that's probably correct... the issue I'm getting at is the VF-25 has something like 2-3x the number of variants that usually in service concurrently in any one place. Unless they're in the middle of a transition/upgrade, you'd expect to see just two fighter-role variants at a time... a single-seater and tandem cockpit version of the same specification as we see in the real world on the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18. The VF-4 had the VF-4A/B, and VF-11 had the A/B/C and D types, the VF-19 had the A/B and C/D types, it's speculated the VF-17 had this with its A/B type, the VF-25 has it with its A/B (and in Master File C/D), the VF-31 has it with A/B, etc.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Finished My Wife is the Student Council President+ today... and honestly it's way better censored than non. This could've actually been entertaining if they cut out the nudity and sexual content and just ran with the incredibly screwed up love story. My Crunchyroll queue is growing thin now, at least... I started Love Tyrant today over dinner. So far, I'm thoroughly with Seiji given that his first reaction to supernatural bullsh*t was to slam the door in its face and his second reaction is to immediately accuse them of ripping off Death Note. If he can keep up this "done with this sh*t" attitude I think this might be a lot better than the last few shows I've seen.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    The problem isn't in the frequency of scheduled maintenance... it's in the logistics of stocking variant-specific parts when you're operating six different variants of the same aircraft from the same carrier. Logistically, minimizing the number of variants in concurrent operation is always the best idea. Exactly why the Frontier fleet thought it needed so many different variants is unclear... since most of them are little different from the base model. A Command variant seems like something done more out of tradition than actual necessity, since the VF-4, VF-11, and VF-171 all got along fine without it.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, no... there is not. I've looked up the thread and posts in question, and the poster you read that from is SEVERELY misinformed. I don't know why they would think that there would be a brothel in the show, given that prostitution is illegal in Japan. What Kakizaki is pointing out to Hikaru in Super Dimension Fortress Macross's 8th episode is a cabaret club, also known as a hostess club. There's nothing overtly sexual about it. It's an overpriced bar catering to men that serves overpriced drinks with the main appeal being that the hostesses are beautiful women who light your cigarettes, pour you drinks, occasionally make flirtatious remarks, and sing karaoke for the entertainment of the male patrons. That's all. It's no more explicit than a Hooters, and arguably in far better taste. If you've ever seen Soul Eater, the bar that Maka's dad hangs out in is a cabaret club. Nothing overtly sexual about it. Likewise, what that misinformed poster is thinking of in Macross: Do You Remember Love? is a love hotel. There's no connection to the sex industry there either. It's just a branch of the hotel industry that caters specifically to couples who are looking for a more private place to hook up. That's why Minmay shoots Hikaru a dirty look and then forcibly steers him away... he unsubtly attempted to score on the first date and she was having none of that sh*t. EDIT: It's worth noting that the script-style short story collection My Fair Minmay does make reference to a "pleasure district" inside the Macross, but that's not quite the same thing as an actual red light district... the businesses congregated there are things like bars, cabaret clubs, massage parlors, and some varieties of establishment that skirt the limits of Japan's ban on prostitution like soaplands (referred therein by their old name as toruko-buro) and pink salons. Nothing of that nature ever made it into the show, though...
  11. Seto Kaiba
    ... this is explained in the very first episode of the show. Vrlitwhai and Exsedol recognize almost immediately that the two ARMD-class ships that attacked their branch fleet as it approached Earth were not Supervision Army warships, and just as quickly they recognize that the SDF-1 Macross is one of the Supervision Army ships they've been pursuing... but modified extensively by the "primitive species" on the planet that had designed the ships that attacked them earlier using the long-lost thermonuclear reaction weaponry. That's 31 different flavors of impossible by Zentradi standards.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Nope... if that were the case, we'd expect to see them written up along similar lines to the Xaos Valkyrie Works VF-31 Custom Siegfrieds. The VF-25F, VF-25S, and RVF-25 are written up as production variants.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Well, that depends on what kind of mission profile you're talking about... However, in the VF-25's case we're looking at the opposite problem. The actual differences between its variants are so small that there's really no need to have most of the variants at all. Monitor turrets aside, they're functionally identical aircraft that differ only in some optional software, calibrations, and tuning. Install the S-type's command support software onto the VF-25A and you've eliminated the need for a dedicated command variant. Install the flight control and fire control calibrations and engine tunings from the F-type and there's no more need for a dedicated reconnaissance-in-force variant. We know from the two previous VF generations and one of the VF-25's competitors that ELINT/AWACS capabilities can be modularized to the extent that a normal VF can fill the role just fine with the addition of a FAST Pack or container. There's no need for a dedicated recon variant like the RVF-25. All in all, the only variant that justifies its existence is the VF-25G... which operates in a very narrow role and requires specialized camera systems and fire control system enhancements to do its job as a designated marksman unit. The VF-25F, VF-25S, and RVF-25 could all be eliminated and their functions covered by the VF-25A and VF-25B without difficulty... simplifying the logistics of maintaining a fleet of VFs and keeping costs down at the same time. The VF-31 is exactly like that... you have the VF-31A and VF-31B and that's it. There's a really narrow sort of niche where, if an aircraft can't fill a particular role, a new variant can be made to do so adequately instead of it being more efficient to have a dedicated model that does that job better right off the bat. For instance, the VF-4 was an excellent space fighter but the very design choices that made it such an excellent space fighter made it kind of a sub-par atmospheric fighter. The problem was significant enough and fundamentally tied to the VF-4's design such that it couldn't really be addressed with a new variant, so the VF-1 served alongside it, then the VF-5, and VF-5000, and several other atmospheric-focused 2nd Generation VFs. Contrast that and, say, the VF-19. The VF-19 was a good multi-role all-regime fighter but the NUNS wanted a space fighter... so since it was already a good multirole fighter in air and in space, the simplest approach was a new variant optimized to operate in space (the VF-19F/S type).
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, SMS's parent company Bilra Transport IS flush with cash... they sponsored the Macross Frontier fleet's mission into Vajra space. However, having random civilian corporations buying next-gen military hardware that the military itself doesn't have yet? That'd be a big NOPE for pretty much any government. Xaos is in the same boat WRT its VF-31's. They're on loan from the Brisingr Alliance New UN Forces for field testing under a similar contract. It's not clear how many of SMS's VFs are actually owned by SMS, since even Isamu's VF-19EF/A is privately owned, not SMS-owned.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Nope... because SMS doesn't actually own any of the VF-25's or YF-25's they're depicted as operating in Macross Frontier and its related materials (e.g. Macross the Ride). Those aircraft - and the aircraft carrier they're operating from - are property of the Macross Frontier fleet's New UN Forces on loan to SMS as part of SMS's contract to be expendable mooks testing the fleet's next-gen weapons in live combat.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    One thing about Macross that I've never been super fond of is the way the New UN Forces gets stuck operating a dozen different variants of one model of aircraft simultaneously... the kind of arrangement we saw with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Generation Main Variable Fighters is way more realistic. Don't get me wrong, I get that the goal is having multiple variants so a toy partner like Bandai or Arcadia can run out a dozen different variants of one master mold. I just like the more realistic take because, as an engineer, I cringe a little every time I think about what a maintenance nightmare it must be to have to stock or manufacture-on-demand replacement parts for a half dozen different variants all at once and sometimes all for just one unit. There was, at least, a reasonably good excuse for the VF-1J being an early block-only variant that was actually a competing proposal for the format of the standard VF-1 variant. I like the realism in that with the late block VF-1, the VF-4, the VF-11, VF-171, and VF-19 1st mass production type they had standard variants that were one aircraft fits all. Same as with the Macross II VFs. I guess you could make a bunch of variants like the VF-25's work if you had a big and wealthy government with a lot of money to burn... but something like there's one or two highly flexible variants instead of six or more specialized ones makes a lot more sense in terms of initial cost and operating cost. (TL;DR I've lost my mind thinking about the practical aspects of operating large numbers of giant robots.) Then @pengbuzz came along and blew us both away...
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Honestly, My Wife is the Student Council President is definitely a lot more enjoyable censored... the uncensored version stops just short of being actual hentai. It's like ToLoveRu in terms of blatantness, but instead of accidental gropings for mainly comedic effect it's mostly just "how can we make this as lewd as possible". All told, it's definitely not a show I'd consider rewatching or recommend.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    As much as I like the VF-25, I'm not sure I'd agree with the idea that it's the most versatile of the modern Macross VFs. Granted, it fills a lot of roles in the TO&E of an emigrant government defense force... but it achieves that by having a bunch of highly specialized variants on top of the standard type and the expected model conversion trainer. It has a dedicated command variant, a dedicated reconnaissance-in-force variant, a dedicated marksman variant, a dedicated ELINT and AWACS variant, and that's not touching on the other weird corner case variants in Master File like a variant specifically for deploying the Armored Pack, a dedicated aggressor variant, a dedicated planetary survey variant, etc. etc. etc. The VF-31 is, I think, a far more versatile aircraft since the same model can be easily converted to fill almost any role through hot-swappable modular equipment. Nah, this one goes up to 24.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    HLJ's only offering express/priority shipping these days, so shipping's still gonna hurt... but it's odds-on they'll be carrying this book.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    For a while, I was using HLJ almost exclusively... they're good, and their Private Warehouse buying option really helps save money on international shipping by giving you a month or more of leeway about when you ship things. That said, pretty much all their shipping options are Priority shipping of one flavor or another (FedEx, DHL, etc.) so shipping costs can get a bit steep.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    So this is what, 600 pages of rough sketches?
  22. Seto Kaiba
    ... that bad, huh?
  23. Seto Kaiba
    OK, that was just the tip of the iceberg... the uncensored version is basically softcore porn. Goin' back to the censored version. It was more watchable.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    So... I found out what "uncensored" meant within about twenty seconds of starting the first "uncensored" episode. Ui's talking about a VERY different kind of "liberating love" here... she's throwing condoms to the crowd during her speech.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Thanks for posting the larger image... the version of this I've seen is only like the size of a postcard. This ship looks oddly familiar... Specifically, it looks like the Helios-class tugboat seen on the far right of these shot. The CG model was kitbashed together out of parts of the Edison, Clarke, and Shenzhou for use in the Star Trek: Discovery series, in which they towed the USS Enterprise back to spacedock for repair. I guess you could say that ship looks like someone tried to kitbash a Helios-class together out of spare Galaxy-class parts. Like the Oberth-class before it, one has to wonder how the hell you actually get to the engineering section... do you have to walk through the warp nacelles while they're running? Is it transporter access only? Do they just shoot turbolifts across the gap?
×
×
  • Create New...