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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Unlikely, IMO... condensing ten-and-a-half hours of the Macross Delta series into a two-hour movie is not going to leave much room for new effects sequences. Especially given that the movie is almost certain to be as unbalanced as the series was in terms of its focus on Walkure vs. Delta Flight and the actual goddamn war. One has to wonder how many Macross Delta art assets will be reused for this new series, whenever it airs. Macross Delta itself had relatively few new CG models, mostly recycling ones from Macross Frontier. Assuming the new series is going forward in time, I'd bet against it. Kawamori has always liked to start fresh with an all-new place he can tailor to the story's whims when a new series is in the works. Plus I'm not sure any competition between SMS and Xaos could be anything but one-sided. Strategic Military Services is an elite, proposterously well-funded and well-equipped organization that recruits top aces out of the federal New UN Forces. Xaos is bush league by comparison, a financially-troubled PMC outfit with lax discipline and a troubled operational record that depends on their parent company's entertainment branch to keep the lights on and has to recruit washouts from local New UN Forces garrisons. A competition between Xaos and SMS would be rather like sending a platoon's worth of out-of-shape mall cops up against an outfit like Delta Force or Seal Team Six.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    As the originator of the art, and as someone who publicly claims that it's both an original work wholly owned by him AND has also admitted publicly that it's strongly derivative of the VF-1 and VF-0, it's a cert that he'd end up with a summons... whether he would be charged with copyright infringement on his own or would become a party to HG's defense is down to Big West's temperment and/or Harmony Gold's personal inclincation. Their saving grace is probably that Titan Comics jettisoned the artist's original VF-0B-style head and replaced it with heads that are taken right off the VF-1. The two designs are similar enough that it'd be down to a jury in court to decide if they were different enough to be considered a distinct design.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    We don't know how big Macross-29 is, though... probably not very, given that it abolished its own military contingent. That alone might account for the government's chief executive being a mayor rather than a president. What Chronicle was referring to was cases like Macross Galaxy, which doesn't even have a democratic government and is run as a corporation instead.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Eh, the amateur dramatics he indulged in when he tried (and failed) to market his fanart on various Macross Facebook groups did leave a distinct whiff of reality TV-esque bullsh*t drama on the wind. He took it rather poorly when people pointed out it was kind of legally and ethically dodgy to sell Macross-based fanart to Harmony Gold, equally dodgy to try to commercialize that fanart for profit when it was clearly derived from the VF-0 (doubly so after selling it to HG), and that said sale made his work Robotech by default and thus unwelcome on most Macross groups. He ragequit or got banned from half a dozen groups in two days. HG could probably make a case against him since it's similar enough to the VF-1 design to raise eyebrows and he incorporated VF-1 paintjobs into the CG model's collection of skins, which is a clear violation. If he did that, he'd be the first one Big West sued... or at the very least end up a codefendent with HG and Titan. Probably not, though it wouldn't help them any.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Your guess is as good as mine. Misa took Hikaru's name when they got married and their daughter's name is Miku, not Yoshi. (Yoshi being a man's given name makes it doubly odd... maybe they meant Yoshie?) Sort of. Though all indications are that it's going to end in the same place the TV series was supposed to... with the departure of Megaroad-01. It's pretty much a given that there won't be any kind of direct sequel to the original Macross series like the OP wants.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Offhand, I don't recall if its status is ever explicitly discussed in the context of the Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa film... the film's novelization, however, does confirm that it is a real, working VF-1 Valkyrie. It's described as being a VF-1X++, presumably it's something somone acquired from a military disposal sale since the VF-1X++ is a New UN Spacy Special Forces-issue variant that is actually meant to capitalize on the ubiquitousness of civilian market VF-1 derivatives to be as inconspicuous as a thirteen meter tall robot can be. (Another civilian owner of a VF-1X++ is Hakuna Aoba, one of the main characters from Macross the Ride, whose ride as a Vanquish League air racer was a custom VF-1X++ until it was destroyed and replaced by the VF-0 Custom "Zeak", which is essentially a YF-25 thinly disguised as a VF-0.) Exactly what the VF-1 on top of Mihoshi Academy's roof is varies from version to version. In the Macross Frontier animation it's a VF-1A-6 or later done up with the markings of Hikaru Ichijo's Skull 11 from Macross: Do You Remember Love?. In the manga where it's depicted as a still-functional fighter, it's a VF-1J-4 or VF-1J-5 like Hikaru's VF-1J from the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Gubaba and I had a chat with the artist behind this design on Facebook not too long ago, and what he told us seems to be quite a bit different from what he told you. What he told us was that his fanart was used without his knowledge or consent, and that he'd only learned of its use after Titan Comics had sent the first issue to print via a friend who was following the comic. He also made the claim that he contacted Titan Comics shortly thereafter, and that Titan Comics and Harmony Gold paid him for the continuing use of the fanart in question so that he wouldn't take them to court for using it without permission in the first issue and would not need to design a replacement on short notice. (Of course, after seeing him get kicked from several different groups for advertising his tissue paper-thin VF-0 knockoff without permission and/or as a 100% original design in true "original character, do not steal" fashion, I'd say he has a screw loose but I'm honestly not convinced he has one screw fully tightened. He doesn't seem to realize that the only thing stopping HG from suing HIM for commercializing a CG model that's obviously derivative of the VF-1 was that he sold the rights to it to them.)
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Outside of its very small, but devoted, fanbase... does anybody care about Robotech besides fans of either Macross or BattleTech wishing it'd hurry up and put the other foot in the grave? We know Harmony Gold doesn't. History suggests the Agramas are much more interested in using the franchise's distribution rights to launder money in tax havens than actually developing anything new. Quite the contrary, I say you didn't go too far enough! This is some straight-up uncanny valley nonsense most of the time, with poses and facial expressions that don't line up with what's actually going on.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, all sorts. Macross II: Lovers Again was the first title to introduce the notion of a commercially-available VF for civilian use. The series materials describe the introduction of the first civilian market VF, the VC-051, as a multipurpose vehicle meant for government and private sector use as a VTOL jumpjet with high endurance for things like natural resource management, search and rescue, mapping, etc. It found its way into the leisure craft market soon after, and became enormously popular. Its successor, the VC-079, is seen in the Macross II OVA outfitted with high-powered camera systems for use as what you might call a space-capable news helicopter analogue. Civilian market VFs later appeared in Macross 7 and Macross Dynamite 7, though those were a mix of decommissioned and disarmed military models and models actually built for civilian use. They're depicted in a variety of roles. The ones in Macross 7 were leisure craft. The ones seen in Macross Dynamite 7 were working craft outfitted for wildlife management use, and one was later seen with space welding equipment working on the construction of a new Battle-class to replace Battle-7. In the Macross the Ride light novel, civilian market VFs are shown used as leisure craft for air racing, while the Macross Frontier novelization has some that are used as training aircraft for the students from the space navigation major at Mihoshi Academy. Macross 30 depicted civilian-use VFs as an easy way for civilians to get around on planets like Uroboros where the local geography isn't very cooperative (and sometimes airborne and highly mobile), as well as convenient tools for wildlife and natural resource management, law enforcement, and even for archaeological study of Protoculture ruins (which are not the safest place to be). Virtually all of the civilian market VFs in the main Macross chronology fall into one of three categories: Old, disarmed VFs that were previously operated by the New UN Forces and were sold off to civilians after being phased out and finally retired by the military. Most of the VFs from the light novel Macross the Ride are in this category, incl. Chelsea Scarlett's VF-11B Nothung II custom, which was made by combining parts from three incomplete airframes the New UN Forces sold off in 2058. Many of the civilian VFs in Macross 7 are also this type, with Milia's being the noteworthy exception. Derivatives of military training aircraft that were specifically produced as unarmed, detuned versions meant specifically for civilian use. The best example of this is the VT-1C first seen operated by civilians on Zola in Macross Dynamite 7. Unarmed versions of current military spec VFs that were produced for PR-friendly activities like company-sponsored air racing teams. Several of these appear in Macross the Ride, like Oscar Brauhitsch's VF-19A Custom that he pilots for Team Shinsei, the VF-17 Song Cuu Long, or the VF-19ACTIVE Nothung that Chelsea Scarlett operates for Team SMS (which is covertly a test aircraft for the VF-25 program). There are a few exceptions to those rules, like Magdalena Zielonaska's Sv-52 Oryol, which she claims is a disarmed Sv-51 that's been extensively retrofitted with modern technology, or Milia Jenius's VF-1J, which was somehow allowed out of the military's sight while still outfitted for combat use complete with Super Packs. Many civilians in Macross 30 are operating replicas of military-issue VFs that have been outfitted with weaponry due to the dangerous local wildlife. Macross II's VC-051 and VC-079 are the only ones I recall offhand that were actually designed from the ground up for civilian use. Destroids don't do so good in space, or environments where the ground isn't stable, or in working environments where being highly mobile is an asset... it's there where the civilian utility VF shines. The utility of a fighter jet is a LOT lower... when someone buys an old military jet for personal use it's a pleasure craft or a museum display piece.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    There were a few in the Pocket Books Star Trek: the Next Generation line that I remember enjoying, in no small part because they were treated as stand-alone "episodes" set during the series. I rather enjoyed Masks and Gulliver's Fugitives from that series. Q-Squared would've been enjoyable if they hadn't spent so goddamn much time on "Trelane is insane now". The Star Trek: Enterprise relaunch has its moments, if you ignore all that rot with the Caeliar which tied into Star Trek Destiny. I'd rate the Archer/Reed/T'Pol A-plot in the Rise of the Federation story arc as probably the best material the various relaunches have produced... provided you exclude the novel Uncertain Logic, which boasted an idiot plot that requires every living Vulcan to be a drooling moron with the attention span and memory of a goldfish. The ongoing B-plot of "Trip Tucker is an agent of Section 31" sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of it though, since he's arguably the galaxy's most inept spy and is constantly being captured and manipulated by his captors. It also lost a few points for having what may be the most cringeworthy and forced attempt to be transgender-inclusive that I've ever seen. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch had a few good installments. The Left Hand of Destiny's probably its finest hour, being essentially a Klingon version of the Arthurian mythos with Martok as Arthur. The only downside was it absolutely put Martok through the wringer and managed to take several one-note characters and make them extremely likeable before killing them off. (Especially Martok's aide-de-camp.) The Never-Ending Sacrifice was pretty good, like Martok's The Left Hand of Destiny duology, it's a more in-depth look at the geopolitical (astropolitical?) situation in an alien power (Cardassia) as seen through the eyes of someone who doesn't necessarily agree with all of their culture's views. (And boy did they ever make poor Rugal WORK for his happy ending.) Articles of the Federation was pretty good, for many of the same reasons above, being a more in-depth look into the running of the UFP's government via terribly snarky and sarcastic President Nanietta Bacco (fmr. councilor for Cestus III). Almost everything in the Star Trek: the Next Generation relaunch is rubbish, with a high turnover in characters as the authors try every lame cliche they can think of in the hopes of coming up with one that's actually likeable. Their worst so far seems to be a Vulcan genki girl, but the security officers trying a mutiny on Picard was just too much to believe. The Star Trek: Voyager relaunch less a dumpster fire and more an out-of-control dumpster inferno featuring some of the worst prose I've ever laid eyes on in ANY franchise EVER. The writers have Janeway live down to EVERY negative stereotype of "strong women" possible, and she achieves never-before-seen heights of Mary Suedom as a result. Its sole redeeming feature is the new ship's counselor, Hugh Cambridge, who is so utterly, transparently modeled on Hugh Laurie's titular character from House that it's astonishing they haven't been sued yet. (Did we mention Mr. Laurie attended Cambridge, just in case anyone was in any doubt where that name came from?) He's the one straight man who seems to realize how utterly crappy the books are and is resolved to punish the entire cast in the most ironic fashion possible, which is often hilarious... like locking Harry and Tom in the holodeck and torturing them both in the guise of Chaotica for several days. Outside that, I'm quite fond of How Much for Just the Planet?. It's campy enough that it feels like it really could be an episode of TOS or TAS with very little effort, and manages to be quite funny for a series that ostensibly doesn't do comedy. (Reading it, one might come down with the headcanon that Willy Wonka as portrayed by Gene Wilder is a native of Direidi, possibly one of their politicians.) It's ham and it REJOICES in it.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    So, being half the man he used to be has actually improved him? That's almost enough to make me watch the shows.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Ja.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Don't forget the Macross Cannon-class, and the Battle-class covers a multitude of sins since we've seen at least three major variations/subclasses1 and it's strongly implied that no two of them were truly identical. (The same is explicitly stated for the Macross-class SDFNs, that no two conform to precisely the same spec because a lot of their hardware was diverted from Zentradi warships.) If the Sayonara no Tsubasa movie is any indicator, the Macross Quarter-class has the same issue... Technically, the Battle-class, Quarter-class, and Elysion-type are all capable of that... independently operable modules has been explicitly described, including the ability of the Gunship to fire using its internal reactors, but never properly animated. Macross Elysion was the first to actually depict the freely-detachable modular components operating independently in the case of the Aether and her sister ship Hemera... sadly with no sign of the long-awaited Rocket Punch. 1. Respectively, the Initial Type of which the Battle 7 was a representative sample, the Next Generation Type that Macross 13 was, and what I'll call the Late Type that Battle Galaxy and Battle Frontier were. It could be argued, given that the distinction is made for the fleet-specific variant subclass of the Northampton-class stealth frigate that the Battle 5 represents a fourth major variation as a Zentradi Type.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    It isn't even being made by people who have any interest in or familiarity with Macross. Like most Robotech projects, this is a "do it quick, do it cheap, and to hell with the quality" project.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    That's almost always presented exactly as it's read: "Gubaba".
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Gosh, what gave it away? I can see it now. The first one to open the Star Wars: the Last Jedi BD box in his home will be visited by apparitions of the Disney board of directors, who will say "We have such sights to show you".
  17. Seto Kaiba
    As @Sandman said, that's been done already. The fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise already gave us the explanation for the human-looking Klingons in Star Trek's original series in the two-parter "Afflication" and "Divergence". That was a result of an imperfect fix for a botched Klingon genetic engineering experiment to create augment Klingons using DNA obtained from the remains of the Eugenics Wars-era augments that Dr. Soong had "liberated". The augment DNA had been picked up by an alien flu virus and become a highly-contagious retrovirus that was lethally mangling Klingon DNA. Dr. Phlox's treatment could only do so much for the already-infected, and only stopped the virus in the early stages... resulting in their loss of cranial ridges, and biochemical changes that made them behaviorally more like humans. In the Star Trek: Enterprise relaunch novels, the victims of the virus are called QuchHa' (which is apparently Klingon for "unhappy ones") and were second-class citizens in the Empire until a cure was found over a century later. By the time Star Trek Discovery is set, the human-looking QuchHa' Klingons had already been a thing for over a century. (101 years, 5 months, and 14 days if we're counting the days between "Affliction" and "The Vulcan Hello".)
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Someone did... the CG art they stole and later got retroactive permission to use was transparently modeled on a VF-0, to the extent that the original model has the VF-0B/D head.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Tonight, I presume you'll be one-upping that experience by solving the Lament Configuration?
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Granted, but with panels from this cropping up here and on several Facebook groups showing the ongoing deterioration of the art I'm starting to suspect this is a clandestine project on Titan's part to build a summer house in the Uncanny Valley.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    ... why do people keep buying these comics? If they really want to make themselves suffer, couldn't they just do something more sensible like get a minimum-wage service industry job, eat a bucket of laundry detergent pods, or swallow barbed wire, pull the other end out of their rectums, and floss themselves to death? I swear the art is getting worse with every panel.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Nope. Disney paid a fortune for it, so they're going to milk it until its udders turn black and fall off. Extrapolating from my own experience with the "Legends" material, I suspect it'll take a VERY long time before Disney's near-pathological brand mismanagement diminishes the quality to the point a majority of Star Wars fans will no longer open their wallets. It was pretty, but it was all flash and no substance... and it loses many, MANY points for screwing up the opening of A New Hope retroactively. It reduced Vader's first scene from The Dreaded Enforcer hunting down suspected rebel sympathizers with incredible mystic powers and resources to a tired-as-hell traffic cop asking a young woman if she knows why he pulled her over and trying not to roll his eyes right out of his skull when she says "No".
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Harmony Gold is known to have obtained the merchandising rights to Macross: Do You Remember Love? from Tatsunoko in the early 2000s. Apart from reselling a few Macross-branded items from Japan pre-2008, IIRC the only thing they ever used those rights for was to do a single convention-exclusive "stealth" VF-1 w/ Strike Pack that a blatant knockoff of Yamato's 25th Anniversary VF-1S and include the Strike Pack in Toynami's short-lived 1:100 line. Mostly, they got the license to deny it to anyone else.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    I don't know if you've looked in the Star Trek: Discovery thread and seen my strictures on the Star Trek relaunch continuity... but really, that one sentence about them hiring the Star Trek EU's writers said all that needed to be said. Yowza, that must have been a dumpster fire you could see from Andromeda.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    The narm levels were off the charts there... most fan fiction is not THAT badly written. It makes The Last Jedi look like Oscarworthy material by comparison. IIRC, the "Diversity Alliance" was the moniker of a terrorist reactionary racist movement consisting entirely of aliens from species who were oppressed by the Empire and who were on a Bender-approved mission to Kill All Humans (via germ warfare). In true, terrible fan fiction-y expanded universe form, the original character running that terrorist organization was obligated to have some direct tie to the films so she was the sister or cousin of that dancing girl Jabba fed to the rancor. She would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids and their wookiee. Somebody get a mop! Unfortunately, my ridiculous memory for detail extends to way more than just Macross. I remember reading those books in like the 7th grade, just out of sheer boredom because there were several days a week I'd be obliged to bum around the library. I have very clear memories of finding the books painfully cliched, especially the spoiled rich kid and that girl who was a walking after-school special on the dangers of drug use. (Also have very clear memories of being amused by how anytime Lando appeared, Han or his kids would absolutely ruin whatever his latest business venture happened to be.) For me, I think it was either that Diversity Alliance sillybollucks runaround or that Dark Jedi who was trying an Oz gambit to set himself up as the Emperor-by-proxy that topped the charts in narm. (Of course, I was a cynical kid.) Apart from that crap about fuel pumps, the only hyperspace shenanigans were that big freaking gun on Starkiller Base and Han flying the Millennium Falcon through the Starkiller Base deflector shields by coming out of hyperspace a scant hundred meters or so above the surface. Personally, I thought the ship battle at the start of Revenge of the Sith was pretty awesome too... but then, being a big Warhammer 40,000 fan, that whole aesthetic of spaceships lining up to fire broadsides at each other and exploding into fiery conflagrations speaks to me on a deep, 8 year-old level. Wut?
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