Seto Kaiba

Nah, too western... this is anime, so you'll be boiled alive in the giant rice cooker. It's dead from a production standpoint... but they don't need to produce new shows to hold onto those trademarks that they're using to keep Macross out of the US. So I'm still gonna judge the crap out people who still buy their sh*t because they're directly financing Harmony Gold's legal effort to stop Macross's expansion into the global market.

We can expect the unexpected. Kawamori hates retreading old ground.

To be fair, the amount of content the VF-31 book copies from the VF-25 book is pretty well justified by the amount of hardware the VF-31 shares in common with the VF-25 in-universe.

That is such a little thing and yet makes such a huge improvement... Relics? My good chap, the oldest starship class in this shot hasn't even been in Starfleet service for forty years at the time of Star Trek: Picard's events in 2399. The Nebula-class ships spotted at the back of the formation are from the early 2360s, making the class around 37 years old given the oldest vessel of class's commission date. The Runabouts in the foreground are either the Danube-class that entered service in 2368 (31yo) or Yellowstone-class from a decade later (~21yo). The Intrepid, Sovereign, and Akira-class ships seen in this shot are less than thirty years old since their respective classes entered service in the early 2370s. Even the Galaxy-class would only be pushing forty at that point in time... the Enterprise-D would've been 37. Compare that to the service lives of previous mainstay Starfleet ship classes like the Saratoga or Excelsior, that were still pulling their weight a century and a half after being introduced.

... 2020 is a weird year. Who thought bringing this back was a good idea?

Why not just buy a copy? It's not hard to get on any of a dozen websites. My group is working on translating the Master File books, but it's slow going and we're not likely to get to the VF-31 book for years. (Admittedly we're also not very enthused for that particular volume either, as it's heavily derivative of the earlier VF-25 book.)

You won't find anything about that in there... lol All it brings to the table on that note is an unverifiable rumor from a character who spends the entire series jerking people around.

It's pretty inaccurate, all told... though some of its mistranslations can be awfully entertaining.

Monster Girl Doctor's second episode is up on Crunchyroll... missed that it got posted because the new app surprisingly doesn't seem to want to display it in my bookmarks. Still not over the fact that the lamia's name is, for all practical intents and purposes, "S. Nakes"... and the anime's opening isn't doing much to dissuade me from thinking the author of the light novel ran more than a cursory eye over Okayado's Daily Life with Monster Girls when they were writing this. Admittedly, this one is shaping up to be a lot less ecchi, and that would be a significant point in its favor. (I'll admit that the at-least moderate case of showing their work WRT albinism in snakes scored them a few points too.)

Your previous post on this topic was merged into the Newbie and Short Questions thread. (You have an answer waiting for you in there.)

Since this season's proving to be kinda weak, I've started some more old shows including KyoAni's Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. It's not quite what I was expecting, but in a good way. I was expecting something a bit more comedy-heavy, but this is more a surprisingly pure slice of life story. That kind of light and innocent story is right up my alley right now, given how stressful the world has gotten. I'm three episodes in and enjoying it immensely, though I'm a bit perplexed that Crunchyroll put the French dub as the default start position instead of the original Japanese audio. My weekly work watch parties are going smoothly in isolation too. My team's halfway through Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and they all seem to be loving it. They want to tackle Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood once they finish Golden Wind.

They're strongly implied to be the descendants of a surviving group of Protoculture, but it's never stated outright.

It's a bit more accurate to how it's written in katakana (ゼントラーディ, Ze-n-to-raa-di). Admittedly, there have been several different official romanizations floating around for almost as long as Macross has been a thing, including Zentradi, Zentraadi, Zentrady, and the downright impossible to spell correctly Zjentohlauedy. Most people just write "Zentradi" because it's easiest.

Kinda, yeah... humanity has only colonized a few dozen planets, they don't have a very good grasp of terraforming yet, and they've only been at it for about half a century so far. It took almost five hundred years of space colonization for the Protoculture's internal schisms to boil over into a civil war.

Neither, in point of fact. I'm simply pointing out that there are specific reasons why some kinds of infringement are grudgingly tolerated or ignored by the Japanese IP owners while others end up the subject of litigation... and that those are the same reasons that people on these forums don't have any real issue with garage kits or doujinshi but are unwilling to support or condone bootlegging operations. You're trying to misrepresent these distinctions as arbitrary or hypocritical, and they're very clearly not. I'm also looking at this specifically from the Japanese perspective, as Big West is a Japanese company. The Japanese market is somewhat more tolerant of selling fan works than other markets in the west are, as long as it stays within certain limits. The reason Calibre Wings is catching richly-deserved flak from Big West is that they're operating well outside of those established limits. Calibre Wings didn't create the problem between Big West and HG, HG did... but this isn't related to that and you know it. This is Calibre Wings throwing a very public hissy fit because Big West either didn't respond to their proposal fast enough or said no, and forging ahead with a product anyway out of a sense of entitlement.

Probably not for a very long time. The galaxy is a really, mind-bogglingly massive place and humanity has only just started to explore and colonize it. It's sparsely populated enough that there's more than enough space for anyone who doesn't want to get along to be left alone, and it's likely to stay that way for thousands of years to come. Humanity's grasp of fold technology is improving, but it's not so good that it's easy to get across the galaxy. Their farthest-flung settlements are said to be about ten years away from Earth by space fold. That's a long damn trip to pick a fight. It's also true that there are a fair number of outside threats to provide incentive to maintain a united front as well... nobody wants to repeat what happened on Earth in 2010. We've seen or at least heard about various small civil war-type affairs like the isolated conflicts of the Second Unification War, Windermere IV's secession from the New UN Government, and Kaname Buccaneer's home planet of Divide being basically Planet Northern Ireland.

Sort of... in the sense that it actually already happened. The period of increasing anti-government sentiment that occasionally erupted into armed conflicts in the 2040s and ended in 2051 with the Latence group's attempted coup d'etat on Earth in Macross VF-X2 has been dubbed the "Second Unification War" in-universe in subsequent works. That conflict loosely mirrors the Protoculture's, with one side being in favor of more centralized government and one side being in favor of decentralizing governmental authority. Latence, the Earth-supremacist group inside the New UN Gov't and military, were instrumental in manipulating the military into suppressing pro-autonomy movements on emigrant planets by branding them as terrorists. They were exposed by the efforts of "rebel" groups like Black Rainbow and Vindirance, with the assistance of the VF-X Ravens and when Latence's coup attempt was foiled in 2051 the Second Unification War ended in a de facto victory for the pro-decentralization side.

Fan works like garage kits and doujinshi are an industry-wide phenomenon in Japan... these types of fan works only exist in Japan because the IP owners deliberately turn a blind eye to the fact that they are unauthorized works as long as their creators keep it small, discreet, and for petty cash profit at most. Your self-serving misrepresentation of my post aside, what I've outlined is simply the reality of the situation and how what Calibre Wings has done differs from what IP owners in Japan consider "permissible" or at least "ignorable" copyright violations. Regardless of how many people there are behind the Calibre Wings brand, two things put this outside that grey area that fan works like garage kits occupy: Calibre Scale Models is a company. This is For Profit. Even if the owner/operator is a fan, it's still a professional outfit making and selling unauthorized Macross goods. There's no way Big West wouldn't condemn that. To do otherwise would make it harder to defend their brand in court later on. Either way, it's still a criminal act and we shouldn't be promoting counterfeit goods here.

Oh, it's a safe bet they do... anything that could expose them to potential liability or make them a party to litigation against Calibre Wings is going to rustle their jimmies SEVERELY. Potentially... but it would be a far more defensible case than what it is currently, unless HG got involved over unauthorized use of the UN Spacy roundel.

Eh, I think that's more on you guys for failing to take into account the differences in scale and context involved... as well as whether or not the IP owner is OK with it. There's a world of difference between ultra-low volume amateur fanworks like doujinshi and garage kits and mass-produced, factory-made bootlegs. Fanworks like doujinshi or garage garage kits usually get an implicit pass from the IP owners because they're amateur fanworks made in extremely low quantities, with near-nonexistent profit margins, no marketing, and extremely limited (often single day) availability. People who make doujinshi or garage kits aren't doing it to get rich, they're barely making enough to cover the costs of the low-volume labor of love they produced. IP owners usually (but not always) give that kind of activity a pass on the grounds that nobody's making any real money on it, it encourages aspiring artists and model makers to hone their craft with an eye towards going pro, and in some cases it's been demonstrated to actually drive sales of legitimate product. Even then, there have been concerted efforts to legitimate that kind of thing with one-day licenses for events like Comiket. Bootleggers, by contrast, aren't in for the love of the game... they're specifically doing what they do to turn a significant profit and they're doing it on a rather different scale. These are nominal or actual professionals who set out to either copy an existing product with a specific goal of undercutting the legitimate product or are using an IP without permission to make a quick buck. They're not doing individual castings in their basement or running off a hundred thinbooks at their local FedEx Office, they're contracting factories in China to make their unauthorized products on a larger scale and intend to distribute them as widely as possible to make as much profit as they can from it. This kind of activity is explicitly and near-universally frowned upon by IP owners. That distinction is why there are plenty of members here who don't really have any issue with garage kits, but do take exception to bootlegs. It's all about intent and scale. That's why you see IP owners like Big West or Bandai/Sunrise turning a blind eye to things like character garage kits and doujinshi while pursuing toy and model kit bootleggers in court. Calibre Wings are professionals... their announcement of a Macross Zero F-14 was absolutely intended to misrepresent it as an official, licensed Macross product with a goal of making as much money on it as they could. This isn't one guy doing sculpts and resin castings in his basement or his flat's spare bedroom. This is a corporation that decided it was going to use a creator's intellectual property for profit without permission, and engaged the services of a factory to do so on a large scale. In all fairness, we don't actually know if that cancellation was prompted by legal issues or simply poor sales.

Several news articles from various sites have popped up in my newsfeeds over the last day or two alleging the same thing... that Amazon is dropping titles based on how much explicit content. The example title most of them used was the light novel series Isekai Maō to Shōkan Shōjo no Dorei Majutsu, which is admittedly not a good example of a marginal title given its massive quantities of fanservice. The third episode of Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha went up on Crunchyroll a few hours ago, so I'm watching that right now. So far, the only thing that really makes Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha stand out is its heavy use of Isekai tropes without actually being an Isekai story. Anos - and I am NEVER going to be able to take that name seriously - is a reincarnated protagonist who retained memories from his previous life, possesses immense magical power, and no matter what he does he ends up gaining status and power regardless of how many rules he breaks or who in power he offends. He's the standard Isekai protagonist in everything but the fact that he wasn't sent to another world. Admittedly, the fact that he has perfect recall of his past life has already started to make everyone's reluctance to believe he's the demon king reincarnated feel like it's arbitrary skepticism, and we're only three episodes in. All in all, I've revised my estimation of it up a bit in light of what appears to be the start of an actual plot thread worth following but it doesn't really feel like it's doing anything to stand out, y'know? The character design is very Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei and the plot feels like Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maō.

Eh... some of what you came up with is correct, but your conclusion is wrong. You've missed a couple really important key points here. You see, Big West's use of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat design in Macross Zero does not give them any copyright claim on the F-14's design itself, but this toy still uses Big West's copyrighted intellectual property. Calibre Wings is using the Macross Zero character designs for the pilot figures, as well as the names of Macross Zero characters in the toy's paintjob. THAT'S clear-cut infringement of Big West-owned copyrights. They also still used Macross Zero footage and the title Macross Zero to promote the toy. That's also something Big West can sue them for, btw, as Calibre Wings does not have their consent to use Macross Zero in a commercial context period. The real kicker is that Calibre Wings publicly stated that this was an unauthorized Macross Zero product in a public forum (on Twitter), meaning they have literally zero chance of getting a lawsuit from Big West dismissed because they confessed to the crime publicly and stated their intent to continue with their criminal activity Not being in Japan doesn't exempt Calibre Wings from international copyright law. The only thing I can think of is that they're hoping they're too small a target for Big West to bother suing, becuase they've done just about everything possible to ensure Big West could sue them and win on summary judgement from their own confession. Where this REALLY gets problematic is that, if they claim they're using the UN Forces roundel and "UN Spacy" markings under their license with Harmony Gold... now Harmony Gold is a party to this lawsuit, and Harmony Gold could also sue them. In the past, HG has filed lawsuits against other companies (e.g. Catalyst Game Labs) at the behest of Macross's Japanese owners. HG could sue them on Big West's behalf for infringing upon the UN Spacy logo and name to prevent itself from being blamed in court for having authorized this bootleg (which they almost certainly didn't... their lawyers would have shat out their own hearts if they'd known).

Strictly speaking, it's actually worse than HG... what HG does is undeniably dickish, but just as undeniably within the letter of the law, if not its spirit. What Calibre Wings is doing is criminal in the most stringently literal sense of the word. If they keep doubling down on this, it will probably get them sued since they've made public statements that this is explicitly being done without the approval of Big West, who are defending the Macross IP with increasing vigilance as they expand the brand into the international marketplace. I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why Calibre Wings picked this hill to die on. They're not some East Asian toy bootlegging firm - or at least they weren't prior to this - these guys know how licensing works. They had to know that they were likely to get sued over this if they proceeded without a license, and that it could have long-term consequences for the survivability of their business since any lawsuit would almost certainly end in a ruling against them. It really doesn't matter... Big West is not obliged to grant licenses to anyone who asks. That doesn't change the fact that they own the Macross IP including Macross Zero, and are well within their rights to protect that IP through litigation if need be. Mind you, there are dozens of possibilities. Calibre Wings could've just not given them sufficient time to respond before going off half-cocked. Maybe Calibre Wings was unwilling to pay a suitable license fee. Maybe Big West couldn't grant their request due to their request conflicting with the terms of pre-existing licenses held by other licensees like Arcadia or Bandai. Maybe it's because Calibre Wings does business with Harmony Gold. We don't know, but they're not exactly obligated to explain their reasons to us either. If Calibre Wings doesn't back down and Big West sues, we'll at least find out from the court documents.

Eh... it hasn't really been much of an issue in the last ten years or so. Back in the 00's it was a bit of a problem, and there were a number of hasty corrections from people where some other poster thought they meant Kawamori when they referred to me as "SK". So... as you recall, the Galactic Whales in Macross Dynamite 7 were being hunted by a group of incredibly well-equipped poachers for the entirety of the OVA. Naturally, such a large and well-equipped organization isn't in it for sport. Some unspecified part of Galactic Whale carcasses is said to be highly sought-after because it can be used in the engines of spacecraft. There is licensed, regulated whale-hunting going on... but these guys are criminals looking to make a substantial amount of money in illegal whaling. As a lifeform, the Galactic Whale is somewhere between vegetable and mineral rather than animal. Their bodies are part crystal, and part plant. They travel the galaxy to absorb energy from stellar radiation and grow by absorbing gas and dust from interplanetary space. Exactly how their anatomy could be made to work in spaceship engines was never explained. The introduction of fold carbon and fold quartz in Macross VF-X2 and Macross Frontier offered one potential explanation. If special crystal resonators are necessary components in all of the various technologies that leverage higher-dimensional space-time and its physics like thermonuclear reactors, gravity control systems, fold navigation and communication systems, and so on, then it's odds-on the reason Galactic Whales are being hunted is because some part of their bodies contains biologically-produced fold carbon at a high level of purity. If those whales are producing purer, higher-quality fold carbon than the synthetic fold carbon that's widely available in Earth's civilian and military tech, that'd be a sound reason to hunt them (and an even sounder reason to regulate hunting of them... nobody wants to kill the golden goose, y'know?). Fold quartz, which is even better than high purity fold carbon, is probably going to kill the market for galactic whale hunting eventually... but it's also harder to get since you either have to mine it from Protoculture ruins (which is dangerous, given how often they buried Things Man Was Not Meant To Find) or hunt Vajra to get it. I can't imagine anyone being suicidal enough to rush into a Vajra-hunting industry... unlike the whales, the bugs shoot back and they're really f*cking good at it.

That's why I gently discourage people from abbreviating my username "SK"... it tends to give people entirely the wrong idea. Tried changing my handle on a few websites ten years or so ago, but people complained so I had to change it back. The perils of internet notoriety combined with an embarrassing screen name I chose on the spur of the moment when I was a freshman in high school. No, I don't think we've ever been in the same room... but I guarantee you'll have no trouble telling us apart given that I'm about twenty-five years younger, a bit taller, and rather more Scandinavian.