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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    There's some quality irony to be had there... given Walkure's evident popularity in Japan and abroad, it's highly probable that they'll be the only part of Macross Delta anyone remembers (in-universe or out) in the future. Kind of like how Isamu and Guld get swept under the rug and the only part of Macross Plus that usually gets referenced is Sharon Apple. Honestly, no... there are some superficial similarities there, I guess, but probably purely coincidental. Hayate's nothing like Van Fanel, that's for sure. Van did his level best to convince the audience that he'd had his sense of humor amputated at the neck, breakfasted on iron filings, and sat down abruptly on a broom handle. Keith and Alan are arguably only alike in that they're both blonde-haired prettyboys. Alan had an illegitimate child, Keith was the illegitimate child. Never mind that Alan was into girls and both of Keith's implied love interests are men. Alan also had a sense of humor, where Keith smoulders with generic rage 24/7. Bogue and Dilandau were both hotheads, for sure... but Dilandau was in charge and a badass, while Bogue is the youngest Aerial Knight and treated like a junior even by people who joined the Knights after he did (Qasim and the twins). There isn't a sniff of a distressed damsel in Bogue's backstory either, where Dilandau WAS the distressed damsel. The Aerial Knights also don't really cut it as elite mooks either. They're a prettyboy platoon like Dilandau's Dragon Slayers, but the similarity pretty much ends there since they're not sneaky or genre savvy. Most of them are honor-before-reason idiots who were entirely dependent on the edge given to them by the Song of the Wind and their more advanced fighter, and couldn't hold their own against skilled troops on a level footing. One thing you can say for Dilandau's troops... it took someone with plot armor to actually start killing them, and even then it took a lot of work, justifying their role as The Dreaded. Everyone was kind of betting, going into Delta, that we'd be getting Der Ring des Nibelung in space... boy were WE wrong. Which is kind of a shame, since Macross Delta only superficially built on the Protoculture-Norse theme that was going on in Macross 30. All things considered, I suspect they'd wonder why the show has a character whose only role is to show enough cleavage to hide a small armored cavalry squadron in. (Theres nothing wrong with a bit of fanservice, but it does get a bit jarring when a character exists for that reason only... Klan Klan was arguably Frontier's Ms. Fanservice, and she managed to have an interesting character arc and a lot of development. In such a character-driven series as Macross, there really is no excuse for a flat character.)
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, the VF-22's legs are totally disposable sub-nozzles for the main engines. Thrust for flight or hovering in battroid mode is from the main nozzles on the back, and GERWALK mode takes some very unique levels in weird by having main engine thrust diverted into the sub-nozzles in the feet and bypass air from the outside of the turbine vented through a series of shutters in the bay that holds the limbs (and bombs) in fighter mode. For all practical intents and purposes the Sv-154 is a reuse of the LV-7 Valorous Rapier from Shoji Kawamori's Air Cavalry Chronicles concept... the engines were in the legs there too. The tail's set up a bit like the F-4 Phantom, with two nozzles side by side separated only by some structural elements from the tail. Thus far, all 5th Generation VFs save possibly one (the Sv-262) are derived from a common source: the specs for the "monkey model" version of the YF-24 Evolution that the New UN Government had circulated to its member nations in 2057. It's reasonably likely the Sv-262 is also derived from the YF-24 Evolution spec, but strictly in terms of new technologies. YF-24 Evolution → VF-24 Evolution (Earth/Full Spec) YF-24 Evolution → VF-24 Evolution (Monkey Model) YF-24 Evolution → YF-25 Prophecy → VF-25 Messiah YF-24 Evolution → YF-26 → Canceled YF-24 Evolution → YF-27 Shahar + Stolen YF-29 data → VF-27 Lucifer YF-24 Evolution → YF-28 (Rumored rival program to YF-29) YF-24 Evolution → YF-29 Durandal → YF-29B Percival YF-24 Evolution + YF-29 Durandal → YF-30 Chronos → YF-30B Chronos → VF-30 Chronos YF-24 Evolution + YF-29 Durandal → YF-30 Chronos → YF-31 Kairos → VF-31 Kairos (Units colored Orange are, at present, exclusive to Variable Fighter Master File.) When there's a common ancestor to pretty much every current-gen VF, it does seem a bit unlikely we'll see any really radical designs cropping up... unless Fasces or one of Latence's other surviving splinter groups from the Second Unification War manage to develop something new based on the Queadluun-Alma or the Elgersoln, Panzersoln, and Zaubergern units that Fasces went to so much trouble to recreate in Macross the Ride.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    I meant more in the sense that dubs of music-heavy shows tend to be rather poorly received on the whole, since redoing songs usually isn't an option and it's pretty jarring to have characters suddenly switch voices. Macross 7 is one of the most music-heavy shows out there. That's been the rumor going around for ages... though I've never seen it actually attributed to any one individual or event. Something about, back in the 90's, JVC wanted potential licensees for the TV series to license Fire Bomber's entire discography instead of just the music that was actually in the Macross 7 series proper. With something like eight albums in the space of two years and four singles or so prior to Macross Dynamite 7, it would've been a monstrously expensive undertaking. You'll find relatively little disagreement... most of that filler being the first twenty or so episodes of the show's glacially slow run-up to the main plot, where Basara sings "Planet Dance" OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER until the audience goes quietly mad out of despair hoping for a new song.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Its first, last, and only sortie... as Alto abandoned it mid-flight, and apparently nobody bothered to recover or repair the most expensive aircraft in the entire fleet at the end of the movie. (One would assume the YF-29 Durandal [Alto Saotome type] in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy is a trial production YF-29 that's just been painted in Alto's colors, since the fighter that he comes to Uroboros in is a VF-25F.)
  5. Seto Kaiba
    ... I can only assume that toxic fumes or controlled substances were involved. You're being traced from a photo of a porn shoot, Minmei. That's what's happening to your face.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    ... y'know what, I'm just gonna come right out and say it. Johnny Depp's Gellert Grindelwald is one flame-patterned polo shirt away from looking like his evil master plan is to establish Flavortown USA rather than build Wizard Auschwitz.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    *cough* There are a couple VFs that don't have their main engine system in the legs/feet... the VF-22, VA-3, VAB-2, FBz-99, and Feios Valkyrie for instance. The VAB-2/FBz-99 is on the list of ones having four main engines too. It has large B-2 style intakes with two engines in each, which are built into its shoulders. The VB-6 has its main engines in the feet, but it has two thermonuclear reaction turbines in each foot. Arguably at least four of the six engines the VF-4 has constitute main engines too, and only two of those are in the legs. The other two are in the structural wing body between the shoulder and the neck. The Sv-262 is still a twin-engine VF. The two engines just happen to share one thrust-vectoring nozzle, same as on the VAB-2/FBz-99 with their 2x2 four-engine configuration. I'd imagine that, if it were built for space, it'd probably do away with GERWALK... several sources have indicated that GERWALK mode is largely useless in space.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Yup. That's what stopped me and Talos from doing a translation of Macross the First. I'm a decent-enough translator, but my Photoshop-fu is embarrassingly weak.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    One of the giants of academia, gone. He will surely be missed, and his work will doubtless continue to shape our perception of the universe for many years to come.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Bounced this one off my girlfriend, who is my resident Potterhead, and she pointed out that Newt says the Swooping Evil venom he used to erase New York's memories removes bad memories. If nothing else, it's a safe bet the time he spent with Queenie doesn't count as bad memories. The thing with the explody-rhino aside, he seemed to be quite enjoying himself. I've never been able to buy the argument that Snape is heroic. The guy was a first-class arsehole who verbally and emotionally abused the kids in his classes for at least a decade. He had basically zero problem with letting Voldemort kill Lily's husband and son if he could have her himself, until Dumbledore called him on it. He tried to have an innocent man sent back to wizard torture-prison over a childhood rivalry, and ruined another man's life when he was thwarted in the attempt . He spent six years making Harry's life horrible and taking evident pleasure in it because he reminded him of his schoolyard bully. On more than one occasion he tried to get Harry expelled. He all but admits to Dumbledore near the end that he doesn't give a crap about Harry, he's only in it for revenge for Lily. Harry suddenly going from "golly this guy's a prick" to "I'mma name my kid after him" is one of the worst What The Hell, Hero? moments in the books. He was 100% onboard with Wizard Hitler 2.0 until his childhood crush was threatened.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Plenty. Assuming we're talking strictly about built-in engine systems rather than detachable ones like the VF-0's Ghost Booster or a Super Pack: The VF-4 Lightning III was the first to have multiple main engine systems. It had six engines in total: 2 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, 2 hybrid rocket motors inside the nacelles (shoulders), and 2 thermonuclear ramjet/scramjet systems built into the wing itself. The VF-2SS Valkyrie II was the first to have more than two thermonuclear reaction turbine engines. It had four: two main thermonuclear reaction turbine engines in the legs and two smaller sub-engines at the base of the stabilizers. It's not explicitly stated, but the VA-1SS Metal Siren appears to have an almost identical engine configuration. The VAB-2/FBz-99 has four thermonuclear reaction turbine engines mounted in pairs on its shoulders and two thermonuclear rocket motors in its legs. The VB-6 Konig Monster has four thermonuclear reaction turbine engines and four plasma rocket engines. The YF-29 Durandal has four Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines. The production model VF-27 Lucifer, which was completed based on stolen YF-29 data, has four Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, albeit not as powerful. If we throw the floor open to bolt-ons and Super Packs, that's basically any VF with a Super Pack, the VF-0 with its Ghost Booster, the VF-27 Super Lucifer with its Goblin Booster, the Sv-262 Draken III with its Lilldrakens, etc. ... well, I don't suppose there's anything stopping them from having wing binders and so on like in the Gundam franchise, or an extra arm kicking around like Scirocco's The O. The most Gundam-y of Macross's offerings did have at least one mecha that used its wings as an extra set of limbs and had a fourth mode that was more like a reverse-GERWALK (battroid with a jet bottom half) called Gundroid (the Metal Siren). There is that one weird proposed Super Pack in Macross the First (1st Ed.) that had a Tomahawk destroid arm sticking off one side. Whether those are "legs" is debatable... the Octos is, according to Junya Ishigaki's line art for it in his artbook Robo no Ishi, a mecha modeled on a gorilla. We've never seen it use those as arms, but it's not out of the question. A fair number of them have already been adopted into Macross in one form or another. The AF-49's older version, VA-X-3, was adopted into the technical continuity in Macross Chronicle. The Advanced Valkyrie Alpha and Beta's combined form is the VF-11 Thunderbolt. The Sturmsoln and Messergern were incorporated into the Varuata Forces as partial inspiration for the Fz-109 and Az-109. The top one in your last picture is the VAB-2, which was the New UN Forces bomber basis for the Varauta FBz-99. There are a number of others that were adopted too, like the V-BR-2, VF-T-11, etc.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Given the overwhelming abundance of music in the series... I suspect it probably wouldn't lend itself well to dubbing anyway.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    One can't help but admire the attention to detail that went into replicating 1920's New York on the studio backlot and in the script. They even went to the trouble of making sure the characters who are natives to the city are from the correct neighborhoods for the period by heritage. I'll definitely be hoping to see more of that thoroughness in The Crimes of Grindelwald. The only worry I have is Depp as Gellert Grindelwald. I've never felt he had a lot of range, and on those occasions where he snags a role that isn't either deliberately goofy or Tim Burton-esque, he comes across as in a permanent state of dull surprise like in From Hell. Didn't Dumbledore in the books admit he sat on his hands while Grindelwald went all Wizard Hitler because he was afraid he might learn whether he, his brother, or Grindelwald was the one who'd accidentally killed his sister?
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Well, this promises to be interesting. I enjoyed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them rather more than the Harry Potter movies, so this actually has my proper attention. It's half Harry Potter, half pre-WW2 period piece, which is a nice touch IMO. Not super thrilled with casting Johnny Depp as Grindelwald... or that his makeup for this looks like a graying version of Gary Oldman's Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    As far as we know, yes. Per Macross Chronicle, the YF-29 Durandal used by Alto Saotome during the final battle of the Vajra conflict was the initial prototype that Shinsei Industry and LAI had started building back in 2057 but were only able to complete in 2059 when the Vajra conflict provided the necessary fold quartz.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Yup, that's one of the two... the more polished version of the design done for Variable Fighter Master File VF-25 Messiah, called the VF-25WR Wyvern-2. The one in Macross Ace was more retro-looking, with the propellers up front over the top of the wing and the nose done with a bolt-on cover that made it look like a single-engine Cessna without the propeller. An upvote for you, good sir! Smashing job finding that custom model. Any idea who made it, so that we might give props where props are due for this model's excellent props? Non-canonically, but yeah... twice. Both based on the VF-25. Your memory serves you well. The Wyvern and Wyvern-2 conversions were (non-canonically) developed to permit exploration of regions around Vajra hives on the recently-colonized Vajra homeworld. By using conventional propeller engines and keeping the FF-3001A engines off, the GIC systems at the heart of the reactors wouldn't be producing any fold waves that might prompt the Vajra to investigate the fighter or see it as a threat. Per Master File, neither seems to have made it past the design proposal phase.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    The data's minimal, but there's sufficient information to answer your questions. So far, the most detailed source talking about the DAS-03k "Draken Fang" assault sword is Bandai's 1/72 scale Sv-262 Draken III model kit instruction booklet. Its specs section describes the DAS-03k assault sword as a folding sword composed of energy conversion armor material. Making the blade section from energy conversion armor was a structural concession meant to reduce its mass so that it wouldn't unbalance the fighter in flight, though as a result the blade is too fragile to use in a fight unpowered. The DAS-03k's energy conversion armor blade is normally powered by a connection to the Sv-262's main power system through the manipulator (hand) holding it. For backup power, the sword's hilt contains a high-energy capacitor with enough power for 3 minutes of continuous operation.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    ... that's actually been done once already. No, really. I'm not kidding. It was done for Macross Ace magazine. It was a biplane conversion of the VF-25 called the Wyvern, and Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah has a refined version called the Wyvern II.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Starting over.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Now THAT would be interesting, if literal. Up until Macross Frontier we weren't sure he was doing it intentionally, but the generations of VF in the Macross universe roughly parallels the traits of the most commonly-accepted definitions for real world jet fighter generations. I suspect, now that we've finally caught up to the real world with 5th generation fighter designs (touted, as in the real world, as the "Last Manned Fighter" generation) it might mean fewer new VFs for a while. There isn't an accepted real-world 6th Generation yet, so I would expect we'll probably see the 4th Gen VF-171-II and VF-171-III hang around for a while as a 5th Gen replacement is selected and adopted by all the various regions of the galaxy. It'd certainly be interesting to see what Kawamori would do for a 6th Generation, since his 5th has doubled engine power, added inertial damping, dimensional beam weapons, and other advanced tech. If he ever does, he's got a heir-apparent ready to take over in Tenjin Hidetaka. They've already collaborated on designs for at least one Macross project already (Macross the Ride).
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Assuming they're handling announcements the same was as the last two shows, I'd expect them to confirm they're working on something sometime this month, but we won't get any actual news until September or October, and no premiere until around Christmas.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    In hindsight, maybe that laughably halfhearted effort to memorialize Messer in Ep11 was a warning we all missed. Half an episode wasted trying to pretend a guy who did nothing but badmouth, and then avoid, his coworkers was a beloved friend and mentor figure strained believability well past its breaking point and left him hovering between Jerk Sue and Sympathetic Sue status. That sudden plummet in writing quality was just a sucker punch. Up to that point the show was so good I was thoroughly invested in all three main characters and was quite eager to see where they were going to take it. Then we got to Ep17, the bottom fell out, and watching the series became a chore. If he is getting burned out on Macross, I'd hope he has someone he can pass the torch to, if even only temporarily. Maybe Tenjin. As long as they don't use the same writers from Delta, he could probably do pretty well. The next series definitely needs a plot that can keep its momentum and avoid digressing into suspension-of-disbelief-puncturing BS like the "Walkure goes undercover" episodes. Maybe he was just giving the producers what they wanted - a platform to promote Walkure - and was just kinda halfassing the rest? (He didn't halfass the mechanical designs, for sure... the VF-31A's the most beautiful 5th Gen VF in my book. I'm hoping to see it come back as a NUNS VF in the future.)
  23. Seto Kaiba
    My apologies, I admit I'd quite forgotten Tochiro was one of the ones who worked on it. (Due to circumstances, I missed all but about the last six minutes of your SDCon panel.) That does raise an uncomfortable problem in that my defense of the series to a number of its vocal detractors on here is no longer valid. If Kawamori was carefully scrutinizing every aspect of Delta's development it would be fair to assign the blame for the various writing-related issues that plagued the show's second half to him after all. Oh well... Knowing he signed off on scripts full of serious plot holes and contradictions and approved dumping all the antagonist faction's character development into a gaiden manga doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about the quality of the forthcoming series either. Great music is all to the good, but it takes more than just great music to make Macross. Just as well, it's one of the best songs in the show. Hindsight makes its in-show debut a bit creepy...
  24. Seto Kaiba
    It's one possibility... there are a number of modern shape memory alloys and composites that will reverse any deformation they're subjected to (within limits) when subjected to electric current or heat. I was pretty disappointed with the Variable Fighter Master File explanation for the YF-21's variable camber wing. They depict it as a rigid central frame with a dozen or so finger-like actuators which connect to the edges of the wing surface and flex in different directions to adjust the camber of its flexible composite skin. Supposedly it's so expensive that it was only ever used twice: on the YF-21 and VF-19ACTIVE. Dunno! We've never seen a Zentradi child, apart from ones who are either explicitly indicated or implied to be natural born. We know Zentradi cloning and micloning systems are able to copy an individual right down to their memories (via Macross Chronicle, etc.), so it seems highly likely the standard practice would be for Zentradi to emerge from cloning in a state approximating physical maturity and combat-ready fitness, pre-loaded with at least basic knowledge like the language or basic combat training. Assuming their combat roles aren't set from inception, they might need to undergo training for whatever their assigned task is... at least based on the original series, where Boddole Zer promised the lolicon trio a promotion to a command position should their undercover operation be a success.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... while I don't doubt that Kawamori is exercising broad oversight over the Macross franchise, I just have a hard time believing he's micromanaging things to the extent you're implying here. I'm not saying I don't think he could pull it off, but the idea of him having approved and signed off on some of the stuff in Delta's second half just doesn't mesh with the commitment to originality or attention to detail that are practically his calling cards in Macross. You'd think if he were watching the development like a hawk he'd have noticed an exposition dump in episode 19 that reduces the show's core mechanic to a massive plot hole. It'd also be really out of character for him to OK the writers of Macross Delta blatantly copying Grace's endgame from Macross Frontier like that. Suspiciously convenient? Maj. Bartlow's got a nice character design and all, but what's convenient about her?
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