Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13688

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    It would have been a pretty poor effort even if it were meant to be buried at the bottom of a programming schedule to fill time. It was Southern Cross all over again... an ill-conceived, poorly executed, sloppy mess of a mecha anime that was trying to succeed by blindly copying its contemporaries. They mainly ripped off Code Geass and Gundam, but there were Macross touches in there too. I'm not sure they stuck around that long. Tatsunoko's had relatively few standout original properties of their own, with most of their successes being coproductions (Macross, Megazone 23, Video Girl Ai, Neon Genesis Evangelion) or licensed properties (Mach GoGoGo, Fate/stay night, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Transformers shorts, etc.). Seems like a lot of their more creative members went and founded their own studios, like Ashi Productons, JC Staff, Production IG, Xebec, and TNK.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    To be entirely fair to them, they did do everything in their power to make the planet they sealed the Protodeviln on uninhabitable via the entropy control field and on Uroboros they enforced their "keep out" sign by putting artificial fold faults around the entire planet that were severe enough to cut it off from the rest of the galaxy (the Uroboros aurora), having additional fold fault barriers around the place where they sealed the Fold Evil, and then filling the facilities maintaining the seal on the Fold Evil with self-replicating bio-technological insectoid living weapons to violently remove any potential intruders. They may just not have had the resources to put something suitably nasty around the Sigur Berrentzs, given that they were supposedly at the very brink of extinction when they were withdrawing to the Brisingr cluster. They did bury the entire Delta Wave System in fold space where no idiot should've been able to just dig it up. All in all, I'd say they got progressively better about their Keep Out signs and precautions. Well, these ARE the same people whose answer to wanting an army to fight their wars for them was "GIANT CLONES!". The godzilla threshold is inherently meaningless to them.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Bringing the New UN Government to its knees probably wasn't in the original game plan. King Grammier VI's goal seems to have been to build his own New UN Government with blackjack and hookers in the form of Windermere's "Starwind Sector", encompassing the entire Brisingr globular cluster, and use that greater leverage in future treaty negotiations. Roid's delusions of manifest destiny don't seem to have actually included conquest either, but rather a less-evil version of Grace's instrumentality-esque plan to unify the minds of everyone in the galaxy to eliminate conflict. Given a few of the things he says, he also seems to have wanted to use it as a way to vicariously - or perhaps actually - lengthen the lives of the Windermereans. Barring actually using the Delta Wave System the way it was intended, I don't think there really was a realistic option for Windermere to defeat the New UN Forces. They don't have the manpower to handle even the relatively under-equipped and under-funded Brisingr Alliance local New UN Forces, never mind the ones that've already adopted 5th Gen VFs or that are better funded due to more active economies. Assuming, of course, that the ancient Protoculture technology didn't succumb to the expected failure mode of burning out a lot of brains across the galaxy. They've got some excellent dogfighting VFs, but they just DO NOT have the manpower to challenge the NUNS on a level footing when the average soldier's life expectancy for Windermere is 10 years or so vs. the 50 or so for a human. That's a pretty big difference in experience and training that we saw paying dividends when Draken IIIs were getting taken down by more experienced pilots in VF-171-II's. (That, I suppose, was one of the more satisfying moments from the New UN Spacy in Delta... they've finally reached the point where they take it as read that if the Protoculture had sealed and buried something, it's probably a stupidly dangerous thing they regret making and that the safest means of disposal are "crush it into a singularity and send it on a one way trip to another dimension". They're becoming genre savvy.) Yeah, it's probably not going to be great since King Grammier VI and King Heinz wasted a lot of manpower and resources on a futile attempt to conquer the Brisingr cluster, and in so doing got many of Windermere IV's brightest young soldiers killed and wrecked the planet's remaining interstellar trade relations. Kawamori being Kawamori we won't be subjected to seeing them face realistic consequences like being occupied by the New UN Government now that King Ketchup's one trick is not viable anymore, but they're not likely to be having a good time. They only had two marketable exports (fold quartz and food) and the market for one of them (food) dried up and died after it was discovered that was how they were triggering Var outbreaks and making the local New UN Spacy susceptible to mind control while the other is still heavily restricted by the New UN Government. Now that the Brisingr Alliance and New UN Government know the Epsilon Foundation was dealing with Windermere IV under the table, their ability to maintain their armed forces isn't likely to last all that long either since pulling out the Draken III's full performance seems to be rather damaging to the airframe. Since the little available material for Absolute Live has mentioned a new threat, I'm guessing Windermere will be Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Turns out I did recall correctly... the SVF--124 Moon Shooters were first mentioned as a VF-17 squadron in This is Animation Special: Macross Plus (OVA Ver.) on page 96. They were apparently split off from Apollo Base's Luna Guard and assigned to escort a long-distance emigrant fleet (but it doesn't say which).
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Lurching awkwardly back in the general direction of the topic we were on... Given that economics has come up a number of times in recent-ish Macross stories, I'd really like to see some story actually delve a little into how interstellar commerce works in Macross. Windermere IV was apparently upset enough about its economy to declare war on the New UN Government, Macross-29's is in the toilet and hoping cultural exports can save the fleet, the Brisingr Alliance is stagnating thanks to its isolated location and desperate for exports. It seems odd, in hindsight, for these theoretically self-sufficient fleets to have this kind of trouble... though I guess it would be a bit difficult to find work for tens of millions of people in a pure self-sufficiency environment. I must've had a heck of a head start, given that I wrote that one on my phone. My WPM on that POS with autocorrect on feels like it's somewhere south of 1. I'm hoping to be at SDCon again this year. Haven't booked anything yet, but hopefully will soon. It's been a weird year.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Hailed as a piece of junk by almost everyone in Star Wars who isn't Han, yeah... but as with there, any port in a storm right? It's not like anyone else is putting out a Bioroid kit. Presumably the expert modelbuilders here and on Facebook could make it a little less rubbish-looking, though it'll never not be a bad copy of the Zaku II.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Or how The Price of Smiles got greenlit despite being an obvious trainwreck.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Chronicle did briefly cover it. "Canon" is, of course, still a vague, nebulous, and not especially accurate term for Macross's official setting since Kawamori tends to go in for a more broad strokes approach.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    There are currently three volumes, Valkyries, Second Sortie, and Third Sortie. IIRC they're mentioned briefly in the This is Animation: Macross Plus book.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    No.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    A short-lived Macross stage musical that ran for like a week back in October 2012. The reason it came up in connection with the topic of fleet economics was that the setting (Macross-29) is a fleet in the midst of a huge economic crash thanks to having adopted a pacifistic national policy and abolished its armed forces.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, that's Tenjin's... page 21 of his Second Sortie book. I don't believe they identify the emigrant ship in the background.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    None that I'm aware of. I just have the various magazine, archived web articles, and other publications about the musical and its setting, story, and characters, as well as summaries by my friends who were able to catch it. It'd be nice if they'd put a DVD out or something. That's why I'm only commenting on the setting as it's relevant to the question of fleet economics, I can't well get into the details of characterization with the material I've got.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I mean, you're right... but you're not actually contradicting what I said either. Regardless of his actual motives, Vigo was in a position where he had every reasonable expectation of being able to defeat Serge in the forthcoming election. He was primed to walk into the top job with the popular support necessary to address the underlying socio-economic problem that gave rise to the Neo-Zentran movement in the first place: the huge trade imbalance that caused the fleet's economy to collapse that resulted from the fleet's doormat approach to negotiations. He walks away from that, leaving the fleet in the hands of the same man whose leadership (or lack thereof) was the cause of the trade imbalance, economic collapse, the emergence of the Neo-Zentran movement, and the violent protests it engendered. It feels weirdly shortsighted for someone committed to curbing the movement's violent outbursts to stop so far short of tackling the actual problem. Yes, I know... see the previous posts WRT "Cultural Exports" as part of fleet economics. Superficially... it's actually kind of a really nasty downer ending if you stop and think about the implications. (Which, I know, we're not supposed to... but hey.) They resolve the hostage situation, but they don't actually do anything to resolve the status quo ante that caused the Neo-Zentran hardliners to take hostages or commit any of those other acts of violence. Serge's job is secure, the fleet's not going to be seeing any of the popular reforms that the Neo-Zentran movement sought as it transitioned to a legitimate political entity, and the whole plan to save the fleet's economy is pinned on the hope that cultural exports will get money flowing back into the colony despite it doing nothing to address the trade imbalance crippling every industry the fleet has. Yeah, that specific group of hardliners will not be hurting anyone else, but since the underlying problem hasn't been resolved more are going to emerge in the future. The fleet's still full of angry, unemployed people who aren't going to be distracted for very long by the Miss Macross Contest's attempt to be the circus in the metaphorical "bread and circuses". Now, I'd be happy to talk to you by phone or Skype as long as you'd like about the musical... but it feels more like what's actually got you frustrated is that I didn't take the Aesop at the ending at face value. That, as part of looking at the picture of fleet economics it plays a peripheral role in, I poked some holes in the happy ending and its message. I'm only looking at it in terms of what the setting shows about fleet economic relationships, so I'm not terribly surprised if distilling unfortunate implications into a single sentence doesn't capture the fullness of the story... summarizing the whole story was never on the agenda here.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Why would you DO that? I literally just told you he's a h-doujinshi author who specializes in lolicon porn! There is no part of that that's worksafe... or homesafe... or anywhere on this planetsafe.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    He's talking about Aki Uchiyama... the h-doujinshi artist who pitched the original series concept that eventually evolved into Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross to Tatsunoko Production. Uchiyama's niche as a h-doujinshi artist was lolicon porn and diaper fetish comic. Somehow, this failed to send up a massive red flag when he pitched a series concept about young teen girls based loosely on famous historical figures like Jeanne d'Arc and Cleopatra until AFTER he'd been brought on board and started turning out creepy creepy sh*t. (He's responsible for the creepy comic and lolicon art in This is Animation 10.) Fortunately, Tatsunoko realized their mistake and fired him fairly swiftly. The only parts of his series concept that survived into the final product were the protagonist's name (Jeanne) and that Jeanne and Lana's designs were further developments of his designs for Jeanne d'Arc and Cleopatra.
  17. Seto Kaiba
  18. Seto Kaiba
    It's been reported by a number of different news venues... apparently she had considerable difficulty getting to grips with the new Seven of Nine, and admitted to "freaking out" and "bursting into tears".
  19. Seto Kaiba
    I've been getting them as ebooks... the occasional long test cycle at work means I can shoot through one in an afternoon and not die of boredom watching a 480V battery pack charge at 10 amps. I'm probably not going to spring for the Star Trek: Picard tie-ins though, I don't want to encourage CBS's bad behavior... especially as the news from the set gets worse and worse. Jeri Ryan having breakdowns and crying fits? Something is emphatically NOT RIGHT.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Kindly explode, at your earliest convenience.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    I'm not thrilled with it either... especially the number of shows that have shockingly poor quality like Isekai Cheat Magician.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    The worst part of the plot in Macross the Musiculture is that the protagonist - a political activist advocating fixing the problems actively hurting the fleet - ends up being dissuaded from taking any actual action because a group of hardliners in his political movement that were largely unrelated to him resorted to violence that didn't affect the actual election in any way. Well, Frontier is also only running at 10% of its nominal maximum capacity and the vast majority of what we see in the series is the most affluent neighborhood in the fleet... Island-1's topside. A lot more of the population lives in the Deep levels underneath that, which were seen in the movies as more of a downtown urban area full of highrises rather than the more suburban atmosphere directly under the dome. Of course, it's also partly a reflection on the government's attitude towards its constituents. Macross Frontier is a representative democracy that handles its population pretty well and gives a damn about their wellbeing, even allowing Zentradi to live at giant size if they want. Macross Galaxy is just as wealthy if not wealthier, and the fleet is basically one huge slum district because Macross Galaxy is run by a corporate monopoly that treats its citizens as employees and sees anything that doesn't earn them a profit as a waste, preferring to rely on augmented reality to create a pleasant place to live rather than actually making the fleet a nice place.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Not that I've seen... AFAIK the last time he's referred to by rank is as "Major Isamu Dyson of the New UN Spacy Reserve".
  24. Seto Kaiba
    No, that's just the peyote talking. Nothing like that ever happened. Ever.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Fleets are mostly designed to be self-sufficient but trade in natural resources, processed materials, technology, luxury goods, food, and various cultural exports (movies, music, etc.)... and some fleets like Frontier also have tourist industries. Frontier ended up as one of the wealthier emigrant fleets thanks to its tech sector and tourism. It's a fleet sponsored by one of the biggest interstellar shipping firms in the galaxy (Bilra Transport), it has major presences from Shinsei Industry and LAI (the latter of which has a presence not just in the defense industry but also in consumer electronics), and it's a bit of a tourist trap thanks to the fleet being a 5th Generation bioplant ship designed to resemble a mixture of several different prewar Earth cities including SF. The Macross Frontier novelizations and Master File both imply that the Macross Frontier fleet made serious bank on exporting the VF-25 to its allies as well... and sitting on the former Vajra planet they're going to get even wealthier thanks to possessing a huge cache of the rare and currently impossible-to-synthesize fold quartz. Macross-29, a fleet that adopted a policy of total pacifism and conflict avoidance, ended up in a state of economic collapse thanks to becoming a doormat in trade negotiations with neighboring fleets and planets. At the end of Macross the Musiculture, the fleet's leaders decided to attempt to revive the fleet's economy through cultural exports (entertainment). The YF-29's design requires some extremely sophisticated technology and, most importantly, rare natural resources which cannot be synthesized (fold quartz). The design is so massively overengineered that it's significantly more expensive than a regular VF in that respect alone... but it also requires four super-high purity fold quartz (1000ct class) chunks of fold quartz for its fold wave system and more super-high purity fold quartz for its fold wave amplifiers. Some are... fold navigation has only gotten "faster" and more reliable as time has gone on, so a "neighboring" fleet might be 500ly away and still involved in regular trade via cargo flights. Macross Frontier, Macross Galaxy, and Macross Olympia were partners in codevelopment of 5th Generation VFs (if you don't count Macross Galaxy's bad faith participation for espionage purposes), due to their close proximity to each other. Variable Fighter Master File had it that the VF-25 had some parts manufactured by Macross Olympia due to their ability to provide higher quality fold carbon composites for armor and structural material.
×
×
  • Create New...