Seto Kaiba

Harmony Gold already lost the appeal. Big West's Class 41 trademark on Macross is registered. Registration of a trademark is only granted after the trademark application has been reviewed, approved, published, and is not successfully appealed during the appeal period. Unless they're region-coded... the Americas, Japan, and Southeast Asia are Region A, while Western Europe (including the UK) are Region B.

From what I've heard, "growing market" doesn't quite cover it... I've heard South America has proven to be an unusually receptive market for anime and manga in general. It'd probably be an especially fertile ground for Macross eventually, given that it's basically the last bastion of the Robotech franchise currently. I wonder what implications Big West's new trademark are going to have for Titan Publishing Group and their current (awful) Robotech comic. They're based in the UK, and that comic is making fairly liberal use of the Macross name.

That'd be one way to do it, yeah... though that's an avenue that's only become available recently and doesn't seem to be the kind of thing a lot of the larger publishers and distributors are considering. (Kickstarter is, after all, mostly seen as a place for new companies and indie outfits to launch products.)

Home video, toys, and kits are probably going to be most of what we'll see in the first few years once Harmony Gold's stranglehold is finally broken. Art books and other print media like that are a much harder sell in the West because they require a non-trivial investment of money to translate into English and are guaranteed to not be as widely consumed as the series itself. I've seen a few translated art books make their way to US booksellers in the last decade or so, but they're mostly more literal applications of "art book" in the form of manga illustration collections from the various high-profile shonen manga like Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece. Some are just the Japanese books reprinted for sale in the west like the Bleach art book All Colour but the Black, while others are condensations of multiple illustration collections. I've only seen two that really buck the trend. One is the The Complete Art of Fullmetal Alchemist book that Viz Media published, which is mostly (but not entirely) a condensation of several illustration collection books garnished with the contents of one of the concept art books. The other is a Neon Genesis Evangelion art book that is an illustration collection... of original illustrations made for Evangelion Chronicle. The kind of book we think of when we think "art book" is a much tougher sell, in part because there's not as much call for it among casual fans and also because there's a lot more text that needs translating. Out of curiosity, I actually went and had several different professional translation services put together quotes on what it would cost to do a professional translation of Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1 a while back. The lowballed estimates based on page count rather than word count fell around $25K and three to four months. You'd have to move at least a thousand copies after you'd broke even on printing costs just to break even on the cost of translation. (My group is working on full translations of the Master File books and other publications for the site we're building, but those books are long enough that we're looking at more like six months to a year apiece.)

That year, I'll throw a freaking party the night before (or maybe of) Super Dimension Con so we can drink to the downfall of HG.

... and then some. Kinema Citrus is adapting the first five volumes of the light novel for their The Rising of the Shield Hero anime series. The light novel series adapting Aneko Yusagi's original web novel currently stands at 21 volumes with a 22nd coming out at the end of this month. The web novel was over 900 chapters long, so odds are the light novel has quite a bit of run left to it after volume 22. Don't expect her to be taking her leave of the story anytime soon... she's in this one for the long haul (in one form or another). They did leave out the bit in the light novel and manga where they made her eat the food she'd poisoned after she vehemently denied that it was poisoned. She never does learn her lesson, and eventually it gets her punished in such a horrific manner that even the people who wanted her executed couldn't bear to watch.

If I had the cash to spare, I'd totally jump on that cel myself.

Well, with a title like Absolute Live!!!!!! creating snarky titles for reviews is on Easy Mode... (especially since almost anything sounds like an insult if you stick the word "absolute" in front of it and say it with contempt). Depending on which source you want to trust, we've technically already seen the prototype version... either as the YF-30 Chronos from Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy, or the unit Arad was flying in the flashback episode. (If they wanna give us a renewal YF-30, I'll pronounce it a wonderfully fine idea... and another VF-31A wouldn't be unwelcome either.) Seems unlikely, Earth is about as far from the Brisingr cluster as you can get.

So, I caught the latest episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero over lunch today... and I gotta admit my assessment of the show's future prospects might've been unduly pessimistic. After reading the light novels, I was sure the anime was going to bog down in spreadsheet hell the same way the novels did once it reached the point in the story where Naofumi finds out he can use all three of the weapon level-up systems the other cardinal heroes thought were the one and only. Some wise soul among the show's directors cut almost all of it. The class-up ceremony is over and done with in about 45 seconds, the summit lasts maybe four minutes, and if you don't count Naofumi tormenting the weapon shopkeeper by copying every shield in the joint the level-up mechanics are given less than a minute. They focused on character development with Raphtalia, Filo, the Queen, and Itsuki's party. If the show's staff exercise similar discretion with the material they adapt, they might manage to make the Spirit Tortoise arc watchable... which I'd count as a miracle given what a slog it was as a light novel.

Yup.

I can hardly wait for 2021, when I might be able to walk into my local Barnes and Noble and pick up a Bandai Macross kit as easily as I could walk in there and buy gunpla right now.

Kind of surprised to hear he's talked about Macross... all I've ever seen from him is a great deal of grumbling about the handling of the Star Trek, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and MCU franchises. Some of it justified, some of it not, and some of it just plain factually inaccurate. I'm not sure I would recommend him for a summary or analysis of a complex legal situation given the way he's handled talking about the situation between CBS and Anas Abdin, which has contained some... interesting... conclusions.

I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen a VF-31A Arad Molders type from the flashback episode... easiest variant ever, just one tampo printed section is different.

Probably laying the groundwork for 2021. Mind you, as much of a coup as it is, the actual impact of obtaining the trademark over Harmony Gold's objections is fairly minimal given that most of the distributors producing English translations of anime and manga are based in the United States and distribute in Europe and Australia through partners and affiliates.

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory adapted volumes 7, 8, and 9 of the light novel... which are some of its darkest moments thanks to It actually gets a bit darker in volumes 10, 11, and 12 before the story ends on a high note and a terrible Knight Rider joke.

This is a big win for Big West and Macross... and further proof that the end is in sight for Harmony Gold and Robotech.

There's the dress code thing, yeah... but fictional militaries are famously loose on that sort of thing anyway. The writers cheated a little on the age thing by setting the age of majority under the New UN Gov't at 17, so almost every Macross character who joined the military was an adult when they did. The PMC thing is just a thing lazy writers do to justify the main characters doing everything. It's novel once, but then it just gets dumb. Like in Frontier it was justified by SMS's parent company being a megacorp so flush with cash that it paid for the fleet the show is set in and has tons of pull with the government. In Delta, they dont have that... they're supposed to be the heroes but for pretty much the entire series they suck at their jobs. We're supposed to root for Xaos over the NUNS because the NUNS is "The Man", but it gets a little silly when Xaos is doing stuff like slowing down a NUNS-led evacuation and almost getting Chuck's own family killed in the process. It's damn near impossible to take Walkure seriously as "heroes" for the same reason. They spent 24 episodes f*cking up at every turn, getting captured repeatedly, with every move they make playing into Windermere's hands, and generally failing at the one job they actually have... and the threat they save the galaxy from at the very end would literally not have been possible if not for their intervention. Mikumo was created for Walkure. Walkure's dicking around with the ruins tuned them to make them more suitable for Roid's purpose. Walkure kept going undercover behind enemy lines and got Mikumo captured. Walkure's leader supported a plan by Lady M to delay evacuation of the blast zone of a thermonuclear demolition charge. Walkure's refusal to work with the NUNS led to the entire Brisingr cluster being occupied by a hostile power using mind control. Literally the only useful thing they achieve in the series prior to the finale is discovering that Windermere was using a combination of apples and bottled water as a vector to increase susceptibility to Var syndrome. When "f*ck the police" almost leads to the extinction of sentient life in the galaxy, is defying authority for the sake of it really still "heroic"?

Some of it is, as @Marzan indicated, just that people really don't want to type out Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari or The Rising of the Shield Hero every time they talk about the series. There's also a two-sided sort of situation where some of the audience empathize or sympathize with the raw deal Naofumi got thanks to the false rape accusations leveled at him by Myne/Malty, and the slightly sardonic use of the nickname by audience members who (wrongly) perceived the story as having an unsubtle anti-feminist/anti-#metoo agenda with its protagonist having his life destroyed because a false rape accusation was believed without question.

Does a sigh of exasperated frustration count as a thought? Macross Delta had a painfully threadbare plot that all too often felt less like a story than a series of badly contrived excuses for Walkure to perform. The story felt weirdly segregated, as if the story about the idol group Walkure and the story about the Brisingr Alliance's war with the Kingdom of the Wind were being developed by different teams who weren't allowed to speak to each other. Until the last three episodes or so, there wasn't really any feeling that Walkure were actually doing anything to advance the plot... they were just bystanders. Being compressed into a two hour movie did that threadbare plot a few favors, but it was still so scattered that at times it felt more like a collection of quasi-related vignettes than a coherent narrative. It changed gears with the kind of audible clunk that would send most folks scurrying to the mechanic. Now we've got an announcement for Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!!. A title like that makes me think we're headed into another excuse plot to justify a two hour long animated "live" concert by Walkure. Macross Delta's TV series and first movie already had a threat that was essentially a potential galaxy-wise mass extinction event among sentient life forms. It's not exactly easy to do sequel escalation when you started with a threat that could wipe out most sentient life. I'm sick to death of this PMC hero kick that fiction's been on for a while now, so I'm still kind of hoping that the plot will be Xaos going on the run as the New UN Government comes after them and Lady M on charges of corruption, bribery, illegal cloning, harboring terrorists, and so on. I doubt we'd actually get that kind of Reality Ensues plot, so I'm expecting we get something else tying into the ancient Protoculture like some nutter digging up another Birdhuman or Fold Evil. Either that or maybe the Delta Wave System's activation did some unpleasant things to Windermereans by forcibly activating their runes and now Walkure's off to Windermere IV to prevent the extinction of the Windermereans with a massive live at Darwent Castle to de-age them with fold songs. (I kinda suspect that last one is actually it.) He's already done that one... it was called Macross VF-X2. Learning that the (New) UN Forces were the real baddies in the story was what separated the game's two endings. In the Bad Ending, the VF-X Ravens don't learn about Latence and dutifully carry out their orders to destroy the anti-government groups Black Rainbow and Vindirance. In the Good Ending, the VF-X Ravens learn that they've been manipulated by a fascist Earth supremacist faction in the New UN Government and New UN Forces called Latence that's been using the VF-X special forces to suppress armed opposition to its plan to give Earth absolute governmental authority over the emigrant planets and increase the military's already-considerable authority in the name of presenting a unified front against any internal and external threats. The Ravens side with Vindirance, the "anti-government" group that supports democracy and more autonomy for emigrant planets, and Latence's coup attempt is foiled by the destruction of Battle-13 in Earth orbit. Later stories call this conflict between pro-Earth and pro-autonomy forces the Second Unification War. (As is typical of Macross, the bad guys are largely presented more as well-meaning but misguided rather than actually evil. Except Manfred Brando, who's just an amoral arse.) They crop up in a few other stories like Macross the Ride and the Macross Delta novelization.

Yeah, the lineart for the destroids in Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross: Do You Remember Love? has Army markings in the style of the US Army's World War II-vintage AR-850-5 system. They have markings that go Δ#Δ_# scattered around the unit's body and a Army-style bumper number on the ankles opposite the UN Spacy marking. Normally there would be another number in front of the first Δ to denote which Armored Division it belonged to, but that touch appears to be absent from the Macross's destroids. The ADR-04-Mk.X Defender is Δ5ΔG3/D-108231, indicating its unique bumper code is D-108231 and that it's from the 5th Armored, 3rd vehicle of G Company, in an unspecified number Armored Division. The SDR-04-Mk.XII Phalanx is Δ10ΔS7/D-229194, indicating its unique bumper code is D-229194 and that it's the 10th Armored's 7th vehicle of S Company, in an unspecified number Armored Division. The MBR-04-Mk.VI Tomahawk is Δ3ΔD7/D-210194, indicating its unique bumper code is D-210194 and that it's the 3rd Armored's 7th vehicle of D Company, in an unspecified number Armored Division. The MBR-07-Mk.XII Spartan is Δ7ΔO2/D-330517, indicating its unique bumper code is D-330517 and that it's the 7th Armored's 2nd vehicle of O Company, in an unspecified number Armored Division. The HWR-00-Mk.II Monster is the only one without a visible formation marking, bearing only the number 02. How they'd be organized below company level is uncertain... since those formation markings only go down to the individual vehicle number within the company. Assuming they're copying the US organization with a moderate level of fidelity, there ought to be (on average) 14 destroids to a Company, an average of 3 companies + 2 command units in a Battalion (44 destroids total), any anywhere from 6-24 Battalions in a Division, though 12 for light and 18 for heavy is typical. With 587 Destroids, the Macross had enough for at least three Divisions.

The UN Navy, and presumably New UN Navy, seem to use the US Navy's aircraft squadron designation system pretty much as it is today. The UN Spacy and New UN Spacy literally just stick an S in front of the Navy designation for a Spacy squadron of the same type. It's one of the overt Navy touches in the Spacy's organization. The UN Marine Corps, and presumably New UN Marine Corps, use the US Marine Corps's aircraft squadron designation system as-is, while the Spacy Marine Corps just sticks an S in front of it. So, essentially, Navy squadron designations are V[Mission], Marine Corps are VM[Mission], Spacy squadrons are SV[Mission], and Spacy Marine Corps squadrons are SVM[Mission]. The mission letters in use include (and squadrons can have more than one as follows): A: Attacker AQ: Electronic Attacker AW: Airborne Early Warning C: Composite F: Fighter FA: Strike Fighter FC: Fighter Composite P: Patrol PU: Patrol (Special Unit) R: Logistical Support (Personnel) RC: Logistical Support (Cargo) RM: Logistical Support (Multimission) T: Training UP: Unmanned Patrol Q: Fleet Reconnaissance X: Air Test and Evaluation SVC would be a Spacy composite squadron, while SVFC would be a Spacy fighter composite squadron. SVMF would a Spacy Marine Corps fighter squadron. That's the hull classification symbol for an Aircraft Carrier. Contrary to popular belief, the CV doesn't stand for "Carrier Vessel" but for "Cruiser (Voler)" with "voler" being the French for "to fly". Early aircraft carriers were converted cruisers, and the designation stuck because if it ain't broke don't fix it. That'd be a Navy airborne early warning squadron. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah had that one Macross Frontier fleet NUNS composite squadron that the VF-25VJ was built for... how official those are, I can't say. "Composite squadron" has had a couple different meanings over the last century, but for most intents and purposes a composite squadron is an administrative catch-all for any unit that's operating a mixture of different types of aircraft for whatever role. Originally, composite squadrons were squadrons assigned to the smaller escort carriers and helped balance the ship's capabilities by operating a mixture of fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. Later on, it became "miscellaneous" in everything but literal name when the usage was changed to be an administrative designation for groups of detachments from various specialist units like photoreconnaissence aircraft, early warning planes, adversary training units, and so on. Fighter Composite squadrons (VFC/SVFC) are specialist units that assist in simulated air combat training exercises by standing in for hostiles. They're not designated as composite squadrons, but the protagonist unit from Macross Digital Mission VF-X and the Ravens from the sequel Macross VF-X2 are a lot like your classic (WW2-era) composite squadrons in that they operate a mix of fighters, fighter-bombers, and even a bomber from small aircraft carriers like the Valhalla III or Saratoga II. Exactly what interpretation of "composite squadron" Macross is using for the units designated SVC (if they officially exist at all) is unclear since the ones mentioned are First Space War-era units where there aren't a multitude of different models to fly. Fighter squadrons are responsible for conducting air-to-air combat. Attack squadrons are responsible for air-to-ground or air-to-surface combat, like close air support of ground troops, anti-submarine warfare, bombing runs on enemy ships, suppression of enemy air defenses, etc. Strike Fighter squadrons do both.

Yeah, that definitely feels like a missed opportunity. If they'd ended it on Naofumi's exoneration and the queen punishing the king and first princess for their various conspiracies, they would've been able to end the first season with the conclusion of the story arc that dominated the first four volumes of the light novel. As much as neatly dividing the anime's 25 episodes up so it adapts a volume of the light novel every five episodes appeals to my inner neat freak, ending the series with a breather arc feels like a bad idea. Especially since the next arc after that is the f***ing Spirit Tortoise mess that drags on for what feels like forever. I'm just going to hope that Isekai Quartet means we'll be seeing Overlord IV soon... if I'm going to watch isekai I'd like something that feels more like a story than the Microsoft Excel workshop for aspiring CPAs that The Rising of the Shield Hero devolves into and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was from the start.

Or, if you've read the light novels, "It's all downhill from here."

Finally finished Lupin III Part V... the ending felt a bit out of the blue, and is kind of a downer in hindsight with the recent passing of Monkey Punch. Started watching the TV series cut of Gundam: the Origin today. I'd forgotten quite how unbalanced Zeon Zum Deikun is in this version of the story... raving like a madman, threatening his wife, literally referring to himself as a messiah, and ranting about burning the Earth's population. Kind of a shock to realize that, for all his villainy, Casval Rem Deikun is actually still way less crazy than his old man...

To be entirely fair, they never actually confirm that the crews perished. They just jump to that conclusion based on neither of them responding over the radio. Mind you, even if they only lost 10% of their crews that's still almost 1,000 people accidentally killed by their improvised plan... which may also account for their radio silence. It's an interesting conundrum with a couple possible outcomes... If the bridge crews of the Daedalus and Prometheus survived the fold jump, I could see Bruno Global going in for treating the ship as a joint command environment where the UN Navy guys kept their affiliation and ranks while serving alongside the UN Spacy. That'd give him more support in the administrative side of things with a few more senior officers kicking around who could be relied upon to keep their troops in line. If the bridge crews perished, which might explain the radio silence, then I could see Bruno Global saying that since their command structure was essentially gone they'd be temporarily considered transferred to the Spacy pending a return to Earth. Either way, the UN Forces seem to have a less rigid separation of branches of service so it probably wasn't much of an issue. That they're all supposed to be speaking English in-universe could make things a bit hairy in the joint command environment though. It raises another interesting question as to how they'd handle it if members of one branch of service were stationed aboard another's ship, like a Spacy fighter squadron based aboard a Navy carrier. But then what will I do with the huge novelty syringe?