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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Just finished episode 31 of New Mobile Report Gundam Wing over lunch. I've been forcibly reminded of my original reaction to the series when I watched it for the first time... the unshakeable feeling that the writers had a complexity addiction. I'm barely halfway into it, and I have completely lost track of which side I'm supposed to be rooting for. Who were the bad guys? Is it the Alliance? OZ? Other OZ? The do-nothing stuffed shirts in the Romefeller Foundation? All five Gundam pilots? The five scientists who created the Gundams and trained them? It's like watching a slow-motion game of pass the parcel where the parcel is a villain ball. And I KNOW that isn't all the factions who'll poke their oar into this one by the end... there's still White Fang, the Bartons and the Marimaia faction, the Preventers... I really, REALLY want to see an Abridged version of this where Heero is voiced by the guy who does Alucard for TFS's Hellsing Ultimate Abridged. "HEERO! COME AND KILL MEEEEE!" "B*TCH I MIGHT!".
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Safe bet they're not... the Robotech franchise never had many women in its fanbase from the word "go", considering mecha wasn't exactly a genre with a strong female following to begin with and its middle installment's main character was a misogynist's caricature of strong women. Probably didn't help any that Macek subsequently chickified the few surviving female characters in Sentinels1, and a host of authors from the comics and novels took that as Macek starting as he meant to go on.2 One of the few nice things I can actually say about this comic is that it isn't nearly as abusive of its female cast as most other Robotech works are. The female cast in Titan's Robotech are only badly drawn and awkwardly scripted. 1. Like Misa/Lisa being Demoted to Extra after her wedding to Rick and eventually ending up on the receiving end of a "get back in the kitchen" courtesy of Macek and Yune to address a plot hole in the animated series by letting Rick take over the Expeditionary Forces. Milia/Miriya caught a nasty case of Chuck Cunningham syndrome and straight up vanished from the story most of the time. Every other female character was there simply to be someone's love interest or wife. 2. I have neither forgiven nor forgotten the Waltrips for taking the already butchered Robotech version of Minmay and apparently deciding she wasn't unlikeable enough already, gave her a massive boob job, and turned her into an obsessed stalker and then a homewrecking village bicycle.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    At least since it's in comic book form this time, the audience won't be subjected to a noise uncannily close to a choir of cockatiels passing kidney stones the size of golf balls.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    That's where the Harmony Gold sycophants go... so, again, not really the best barometer of how fans actually regard the comic because unfavorable opinions are literally VERBOTEN on HG's own official site. You forgot the best part! She's going to sing, all right... and because it's Robotech, they'll have to use the her repertoire from Robotech's animated series. She won't be taking the stage to something dignified like Do You Remember Love? or Love Drifts Away... this bullshit tryhard comic is going to go completely to pieces with her singing Stage Fright or My Time to be a Star. It's going to be hilariously out of place in the story they've created... like having the xenomorphs in Aliens drop everything and spend five minutes doing the Macarena while Hicks and co. try to escape the colony.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    That there are a few out there saying they love it doesn't make my statement untrue though... the few surviving Robotech boards have been virtual ghost towns for over a decade, populated by only the most devoted, die-hard Robotech fans. You know, the kind of complete nutters who'd declare Harmony Gold were set to dethrone Hershey and Mars and become the leading chocolatiers in the world if Tommy Yune sold them an old Whitman's Sampler box full of dog turds as long as he first scribbled "ROBOTECH" on the box and told them it was Carl Macek's vision. The official Robotech boards in particular are a terrible barometer of the fandom's actual opinion... they're not just a ghost town haunted by a few sycophants, they ended up that way because mods there only permit users to post gushing, effusive praise of Robotech products. The rather more populous and active Robotech Facebook groups are a better indicator of how the comics are perceived by fans. On those, the vast majority of fans make no secret of finding Titan Comics' Robotech cringeworthy at best. Very few of them will actually admit to buying it, and the few well-known habitual HG brown-nosers are struggling to find something nice to say about it in the face of overwhelmingly negative reactions to it. Most topics posted about it are the same as the posts in this thread: "Gather round! Gather round! Let's all look at the freak!" every time a few pages from the latest issue are released.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Now, I'm no art major... but I'm pretty sure the only artistic movement this should be filed under is "bowel". That's a fairly grave insult to reality, which is consistently better-written than this shabby mess. This comic is so poorly composed it's more Misère-en-scène than mise-en-scène. I don't mean to say it's dreadful, but I'm pretty sure the cenobites would consider it an aperitif. From the reactions I've seen on various Robotech Facebook groups, it's not all that palatable for the hardcore Robotech fans either. Most seem to find the art style offensively off-putting, and even the most devoted and vocal Harmony Gold kiss-asses have been seen struggling to find anything nice to say about it. Sure, there are some people buying it... but it seems like an awful lot of them are buying it out of a morbid sense of obligation to the dying Robotech franchise than because they actually like it.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Does trying to strong-arm Dr. Neumann into illegally selling him a federal New UN Forces spec VF-19 under the table one piece at a time sound like mellowing to you? The New UN Forces kicked the man upstairs so he'd have fewer opportunities to cause trouble, FFS.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, those Japanese blu-rays are NOT cheap. Even when collected into box sets, Macross is averaging about $63.50 a disc.... at least Delta was only two cour, Macross 7 was almost a grand once shipping was factored in. Crunchyroll has it, IIRC.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    I don't recall him ever mentioning a Siegfried Platoon.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Are we talking actual cruising speed, or just maximum sustainable speed in level flight? The VF-19's faster in terms of maximum sustainable level flight speed at 10km, mostly because it's somewhat more streamlined than the VF-25. The VF-25 is going to be more efficient, and probably also have a faster cruising speed than the VF-19 thanks to the more advanced engines.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Somehow, I'd imagine having a highly capable, professional soldier like Isamu would probably take one look at Ernest Johnson and ask "You're so BAD at this! Why are you here?"
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Hayate's "Immelmann Dance" basically got forgotten after about episode 6, and he only really used it like twice. Once in that borrowed VF-171 and once when he took Freyja out in his new VF-31J when Messer came after him and threatened to shoot his ass down. Also, bioroid? Someone's got a bad case of Southern Cross. That's a terrible illness, we hope you make a speedy recovery by watching a mecha series that's actually good. Let's see... Mazinkaizer SKL has several gun kata sequences lifted right out of Equilibrium, which show up whenever Ryou has control of the SKL. (Made slightly goofy by the realization that he's miming that crap in the cockpit with a pair of arcade console light guns.) Lockon Stratos indulges in some gun kata-esque combat shenanigans when he's forced into close quarter combat in Gundam 00 since his fallback weapon for that sniper rifle was a matched pair of GN beam pistols on both of his Gundams. Macross II: Lovers Again had a brief sequence that was up that alley when Cpt. Nex upgrades to the Metal Siren during the last big space battle of the OVA. He starts out using a single gunpod but unlimbers the second shortly thereafter. It's a pretty short sequence tho. I'm trying to recall if there are any cases of the VF-22 using both gunpods at once in the Macross 7 series. Full Metal Panic! has some occasional sequences like that on the part of the real top-flight AS pilots, though I think the only one who goes two-handing is Mao and only when she's doing mecha paintball against Tessa in the first season. Most of their mecha combat is more acrobatic or actual mecha kung-fu tho. Stella, Sting, and Auel do some straight-up gun kata in Gundam SEED Destiny during their theft of the prototypes, but they don't do it in a mobile suit. Does Father Tres in Trinity Blood count? He's not doing it IN a mecha, but he IS a mecha... well, an android. ... I was thinking it, but I couldn't bring myself to actually say it. In other news, water is wet and the sun rises in the east. For these and other obvious facts, please like and subscribe. Video shows as unavailable in the US?
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Delta's dogfight scenes are only crap because they spend the whole goddamn budget on Walkure. A more balanced show is going to have better dogfights.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Well, the morons in LA are about as comically inept and in it "for teh evulz" as Lord Voldemort, so it just seemed appropriate for their handiwork to be The Show That Must Not Be Named... esp. since so many Macross fansites and Facebook groups want to avoid mentioning them because the piss people off. (It was my girlfriend's idea, originally, and she is a pretty big Potter fan.)
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Essentially, yes. Unlike The Show That Must Not Be Named where humanity was simply blindly imitating technology they found but had no real understanding of it, in Macross the human race actually took the time to understand how the alien technology that fate had dropped into their laps worked before trying to apply it. It probably helped that a fair amount of it was just more advanced versions of technologies we'd already had for decades like high-efficiency thermoelectric converters, ion thrusters, high-powered lasers, etc. Many of the truly alien technologies we'd never seen before worked on interrelated principles, so once the simpler examples were picked apart and understood that made sussing out the workings of the more complex ones easier. Gravity and Interia Control is basically the crux of most of those systems, and the physics involved carry over into fold systems, heavy quantum reaction weapons, thermonuclear reactors, and more. None that we're aware of. As far as we know, the ship was trashed badly enough to require them to reverse-engineer its various key systems. The UN Government almost bankrupted the entire world economy working on reverse-engineering and restoring the ship, but their application of the technology lagged behind their understanding of it by a considerable span... and their ability to replicate the tech definitely wasn't perfect from the outset. Look at some of the early examples, like the Oberth-class destroyers, which were more or less spacegoing ballistic missile submarines whose only concessions to overtechnology were crude thermonuclear reaction power and engine systems, artificial gravity, some equally crude beam weapons, and first-gen low yield thermonuclear reaction warheads. They didn't apply overtechnology to every facet of life so quickly, most of it remained in the military sector until after the First Space War. Stuff like the robot vending machines and fancy cars... those use little to no overtechnology, and could easily be built today. It isn't until decades later that you start seeing portable holographic displays, civilian-owned giant robots, and so on.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    The new mecha for Macross Delta: Gekijo no Walkure is pretty definitely going to be the VF-31 Armored Siegfried. I'm wondering/hoping this next series will not introduce another new main fighter. We're up to our eyebrows in 5th Gen already, and it's too early for a 6th since the fighter generations usually roughly parallel the real world ones. I'd like to see them actually show us these 5th Gen VFs that already exist in production level use. They could get the same marketing utility out of it, just with redecos of existing VFs and maybe a novel FAST pack or two.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Simply put, by applying the advancements in material science and technology gleaned from OTEC's study of the wrecked alien ship to the modern aerospace engineering and robotics industries. Once overtechnology made giant robots practical and the new Earth UN Forces started asking for giant robots to fight off a potential invasion by giant space aliens, it was only a matter of time before someone looked at the requirement for new fighters and new land warfare robots and wondered "Can we build one thing that'll do both?" Dialog in Macross Zero suggests the variable system was initially developed in Nora Polyansky's homeland and shared to the rest of the UN Government under mandated technology-sharing requirements. Quite a lot... but what it provided wasn't just technology to be imitated, one of OTEC's goals was to figure out HOW this stuff works so humanity could apply the same principles to other applications. So their analysis and reconstruction of the ship advanced a lot of different fields. As a result, overtechnology did at least as much to improve existing technologies as it did introducing new tech. Some of the alien overtechnology was already simply advanced versions of technologies humanity had already discovered, like thermoelectric converters and particle accelerators. Key technologies that were obtained directly from study of the ASS-1's overtechnology include Gravity and Inertia Control systems, Thermonuclear Reaction generators, Heavy Quantum Reaction Beam weaponry, Space Fold systems (for FTL travel, FTL comms, FTL radar), Energy Conversion Armor, super-alloys, etc. It's implied, but not explicitly stated, that a new form of computer tech got discovered that way as well. A lot of it is human technology that's been enhanced by overtechnology and overtechnology materials. For instance, the only "true" alien technologies that humanity didn't already possess in some form that made it into the VF-1 were the hypercarbon composite structural and armor materials, the energy conversion armor, the compact thermonuclear reactors in the engines, and the AI-based computer handling the airframe's movement. It's highly likely that, given a few thousand more years, humanity would've developed most or all of it on their own by studying the galaxy's native super dimension lifeforms like the Vajra and Vahla Ena. We've already started to defictionalize a fair amount of it today. NASA's been working out the practical aspects of thermonuclear fusion-powered jet turbines for aviation, carbon allotrope thermoelectrics, high-output fiber laser weaponry, carbon allotrope composite materials that are super-tough and super-light, and pure fusion warheads.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Well, it's certainly going to help them blend in with the official Macross Blu-rays... those are averaging like $63.50 a disc, and the box sets generally don't discount that.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Having freshly risen from a NyQuil coma in the middle of the freaking night, I shall now set about to delivering more knowledge! To be honest, I'm not sure I would characterize the YF-21 as fundamentally superior to the VF-22. The YF-21 was a bleeding-edge prototype, but as a result the (for the time) ultra-high performance it offered came at the expense of being incredibly unstable, the consequence of making half of the VF's computer the pilot's grey matter. Granted, the VF-22 axed some of the more groundbreaking design aspects of the YF-21 prototype like the active aeroelastic wing material and the Brainwave Control System, but what it lost in maneuverability and precision of control it gained back in terms of stability of control (or "pilot-friendliness") and improvements in both cost-performance and passive stealthiness thanks to a fully internalized set of weapons and the elimination of expensive material requirements. If I were to argue that any one member of the Sturmvogel II family were truly superior to the others, it'd have to be the VF-22HG Schwalbe Zwei. That achieved the performance the YF-21 was aiming for by incorporating the perfected Brain Direct Interface system using implants, though it did lose a bit of maximum engine output (like 25kN or so). I'm guessing this question was prompted by Isamu's attempt to "recapture" the YF-19's performance via the VF-19EF/A so-called "Isamu Special"? The answer is that, really, there's nothing about the YF-19 that was superior to the later models. It was a much more conventional design than the YF-21 and its development was closer to completion than the YF-21 at the time of the Sharon Apple incident, and was selected as winner of Project Super Nova on those grounds. Shinsei Industry's uphill battle after that victory was all about a lack of maneuverability control. The YF-19/VF-19A was approximately as stable as a biscuit raft, and as a result there were many accidents in training where pilots lost control of the aircraft due to its own ultra-high performance. That put the kibosh on it being next main fighter and leaving a smarting Shinsei Industry to spend the next two decades trying to find ways to improve the VF-19's handling without compromising its performance. The VF-19 2nd mass production type, most commonly associated with the VF-19F and VF-19S, was one attempt to make a VF-19 that was friendlier to the average pilot. The fuselage was redesigned to improve aerodynamic stability, the ARIEL airframe control AI was modified to improve handling and ease of control, and for the third or fourth time in the project switched to an engine that had more stable output. Its performance and handling were much improved over the YF-19/VF-19A. What Isamu was trying to achieve via the VF-19EF/A "Isamu Special", variously also known as the VF-19 SMS Type and the VF-19ADVANCE Excalibur Advance, was a very deliberate and carefully chosen set of downgrades to the VF-19EF Caliburn to make something that handled like the "untamed" YF-19-2 he piloted for Project Super Nova. A fighter that was monstrously unstable and dangerous to its pilot, but also quite fun for him to fly. (After all, this was basically the equivalent of a midlife crisis sportscar for him.)
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Almost certainly a legal issue involving the limitations on Harmony Gold's license. The Robotech brand can't legally market any merchandise based on the original three shows in Japan, because the Japanese domestic market is specifically excluded from the scope of their rights under license. It'd be treated as bootleg merchandise if sold in Japan.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    On occasion, Zentradi has been compared to Chinese in that it seems to be a tonal language where the meaning of a word can be changed depending on its inflection. Macross Chronicle, however, notes that its grammar and alphabet are very close to those of Latin-derived languages. Depending on how it's used, "deculture" can have either positive or negative meanings. If you'll forgive me for dating myself with some references to old slang, the usage is almost "sick" in which it could mean either "that's disgusting" or "that's awesome" in a different context. Used negatively, like the Zentradi in DYRL?'s opening do, "deculture" translates to something like "outrageous", "scandalous", "unthinkable", or "disturbing". Used positively, the way Ranka does in Macross Frontier, its meaning becomes more like "amazing", "incredible", "wonderful", or "awesome". "Yakk deculture!" is basically "How disturbing!" or "How amazing!". That is a LONG list. There's a reason Macross Chronicle's glossary is 27 double-sided pages.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    IIRC the artist confirmed back when Titan was teasing issue #1 that they had given permission for the comic to use the art. I know they also paid Artgerm to redraw an existing piece their of Macross fanart featuring DYRL? Minmay to put her in her dress from the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series instead, for one of the other variant covers.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Many times, yes... and, as @Master Dex indicated, if you cut out all the wordy explanations the Aesop at the end is that the YF-30 blows either version of the VF-31 into the weeds with little difficulty. Sorry it took so long to start writing this, I'm battling a bit of a cold. Structurally speaking, Shinsei Industry and L.A.I.'s YF-30 Chronos is as similar as you'd expect to the Surya Aerospace VF-31 given that the VF-31 was derived from it. The YF-30's airframe stands a little taller (4.02m vs 3.85m) and has a wider wingspan (15.62m vs 14.14m for the Kairos or 13.70m for the Siegfried), but the VF-31's airframe is slightly longer (18.84m vs 19.31m). The YF-30 is also marginally lighter than the Kairos and Siegfried customs, at 8,106kg (w/o ordnance container) vs 8,250kg (VF-31A) or 8,500kg+ for all the Siegfrieds. Performance-wise, the YF-30 blows any version of the VF-31 into the weeds. Its FF-3001/FC2 Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines boast an impressive maximum rated thrust of 2,110kN apiece, for a thrust-to-weight ratio of 53.085. The trial production spec for the VF-31A and -B Kairos is using a slightly uprated version of the VF-25's FF-3001A Stage II engines, at 1,645kN or a thrust-to-weight ratio of 40.664. The VF-31 Siegfried customs are all using derated FF-3001/FC2 engines spec'd at 1,875kN... as each variant is slightly different in mass there's no hard-and-fast number for all of them but the best of them is Hayate's VF-31J at 44.854. All of these numbers are without any improvement in performance conferred by a fold wave or fold dimensional resonance system, and are all without the ordnance container factored in. For reference, the VF-25A-1 Messiah's engine output was rated at 1,620kN for a thrust-to-weight ratio of 39.098, which makes the VF-25 seem slightly less capable but you have to remember the VF-25 doesn't have a sizable chunk of its airframe missing at that mass. Unboosted, the YF-30 is working with about 18.4% more engine power AND less weight. We can't say for certain how much bigger its advantage gets as a result of the fold dimensional resonance system being far superior to the Siegfried's fold wave system, but as the Siegfried's boost is only 15% (getting it to a respectable 50.984) it's not going to touch even an unboosted YF-30. A boosted YF-30 is at least comparable to a YF-29B, so that suggests 25% or more. In terms of armament, the YF-30 comes up a bit short in diversity of armament given that it's a technology demonstrator rather than a model produced for combat use. The VF-31 has the advantage of those railguns in the forearms to complement its less-powerful heavy quantum beam gunpod and it has built-in micro-missile launchers to compensate for the standard ordnance container being given over to Walkure support gear instead. I'd still rate the YF-30 higher, given that its standard ordnance container holds actual weapons and its heavy quantum beam gunpod has beam grenade mode AND an MDE option. The option of a MDE beam cannon turret for an ordnance container in the novel gives the YF-30 a commanding advantage, IMO. The real kicker is the YF-30 having that Fold Dimensional Resonance system that is explicitly superior to the YF-29's Fold Wave System. That gives the YF-30 the ability to cross a fold fault (including a fault fold barrier) and a technically-unlimited supply of power and the ability to run its energy conversion armor and pinpoint barrier at full power in all modes. The VF-31 Siegfried uses a fold wave system, the fold dimensional resonance system was a proprietary development by SMS Uroboros that the company went to considerable lengths to avoid disclosing. Master File suggests, though it isn't a reliable source, that the VF-31 Siegfried's fold wave system uses much less fold quartz than the YF-29's. The stock VF-31 Kairos has neither system, but Xaos's Kairos units are equipped with fold carbon-based fold amps to operate in support of Walkure. They're not as effective as those based on fold quartz that were used on the YF-29 and VF-31 Siegfried. It's not clear if the YF-30 had a fold amp or not, but it's possible the fold dimension resonance system can do that. The Sv-262 Draken III has a fold reheat system. I see my description of it as a poor man's fold wave system has caught on. Its only function is improving the maximum thrust of the FF-2999 Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines by 25% on the Ba variant and 30% on the Hs command variant. As far as we know, the VF-31 Kairos is essentially a bog-standard mass production 5th Generation VF of fair-to-middling performance. The one thing we can say is it's probably better at close air support given its less-powerful weaponry, and we know the Siegfried custom version is optimized for close air support of Walkure with its weapons even further derated.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    All things considered, isn't this a bit contradictory? I mean, internet drama is essentially the only "result" that the Robotech franchise can be counted on to produce and the franchise is run and represented by crazy people. The last twelve years or so have been marked by almost nothing but internet drama between the acrimony over Tommy Yune's reboot to the Robotech canon, the witch hunt over generally negative fan reviews of Shadow Chronicles, the stealth cancellation of Shadow Rising and lies about it still being in development, the acrimony over their adaptation of MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive, the massive backlash over the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter, the amusingly karmic self-destruction of the Robotech Academy Kickstarter, and Titan Comics' hat trick of controversies by engaging heavily in tracing, stealing the VF design, and having the comic written by a writer notoriously dogged by accusations of sexual harassment, plus Harmony Gold's standard lot of spurious and absurd lawsuits and legal demands... and that's just the highlights! Let's be honest here, none of us are following this comic thread out of any real interest in the comic itself. This thread is all about people going "Gather round! Gather round! Let's all look at the freak!" every time a new piece of increasingly terrible art is released online.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Delta episodes 10 and 11. In episode 10, in the pre-credits scene about 25 seconds into the episode Berger is depicted apologizing for the Epsilon Foundation falling behind schedule analyzing the systems on the Sigur Valens and reports that the analysis of the ship's systems is 45% done. In episode 11, about 6 minutes in Berger is present in a meeting with King Grammier where Roid's shocked to learn that Berger's analysis of the Sigur Valens has reached the point where the ship can be activated. Macross doesn't observe a One Steve Limit.
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