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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Granted, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt doesn't actually manage to achieve Hellsing Ultimate's level of gratuitous hardcore violence... but, like I said, it's the fact that it's blatantly trying so very hard to reach that level of dark and edgy that makes it impossible to take seriously to the extent that the effort itself almost crosses the line into comedy. Mobile Suit Gundam's Universal Century was already plenty bleak and dark so the sudden effort to be gritty and hardcore comes across as both completely unnecessary and as a desperate plea for the audience to take it seriously. It's the cinematic equivalent of that one put-upon kid every school seems to have these days, who starts dressing all in black and posts selfies with replica anime katanas captioned with crap like "*teleports behind you* nothing personal kid" because they think that's edgy and will make them look like a badass. (So, guys like Ben Solo c. The Force Awakens.) Put simply, the series is a poseur. It's putting on airs of gritty grimdarkness in the hopes of covering up its weak, directionless mess of a plot and to distract the audience from the characters all being completely, hopelessly unlikeable. It's all flash and no substance. Nobody seems to have told Ohtagaki-san that a character who's a complete monster is only workable on a narrative level if those kinds of characters are few and far between. If every character's a complete monster, that stops being intimidating or impressive and thus a complete monster is just the new normal. Got thru another episode of Gundam SEED Destiny over dinner. The new normal there seems to be the Minerva getting its sh*t wrecked because the Archangel and Kira intervene while they're defending themselves from Orb's forces, saying they'll attack anyone who fights and then ONLY attacking the already outnumbered ZAFT side who are just defending themselves rather than going on the offensive. Kira and Cagalli are kinda laying on the hypocrisy with a frontloader at this point... and Shinn earned himself more than a bit of my respect for having the stones to take a couple of shots at her with genuine killing intent while Kira was around. Seeing him work out his issues with the Athha family on those Orb ships with a colossal sword is surprisingly cathartic, especially since Orb's leadership is so genuinely unlikeable. It's like the therapist handling all of the grief counseling and anger management cases on the Minerva is Bruce Banner. If Shinn'd actually managed to shoot her down or taken a swing at Kira, he might've effected a promotion for himself to the ranks of my favorite Gundam characters.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Given that the Macross Elysion was the flagship and sector headquarters of Xaos for the Brisingr Alliance, my money's on those other Elysion-types being from other branches outside the Brisingr cluster... reinforcements called in to support the retaking of Ragna.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, we picked up on that one early on... we've been calling her "More Murasume" ever since Shinn rescued her from falling off that cliff while imitating Four's carefree little spinning dance. At least he has Talia Gladys to prove that Meer Campbell isn't reflective of his own personal tastes...
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, I'm definitely getting a bit of that myself... it feels like only the names have been changed to protect those involved. Like Shinn and Stella having basically the exact same castaway scene together as Athrun and Cagalli did in SEED, or the useless effeminate ZAFT officer pal of Athrun's getting sliced in half by a beam saber graphically... the only difference between how Nicol bought it and how Heine did is one got it from the front and the other from behind. I'm 27 episodes in, and with all the recycled launch sequences for the Impulse I'm starting to wonder if Destiny was done by the same team that wrote the Freeza Saga for Dragonball Z. Every time she appears, I'm struck with the distinct impression that Durandal is quietly screaming inside because she's doing the Earth Sphere's worst impression of Lacus Clyne. It seems like the only reason nobody notices is because they've never looked at any part of her above her collarbone thanks to that skintight outfit. Well then, that's a good reason for it to feel that way I guess. I confess that thus far I've found most of the characters bland and inoffensive apart from Ramba Rommel... er... "Andrew Waltfeld", and that downright Shatnerian scenery-devourer Rau le Creuset. Cagalli Yula Athha is rapidly becoming an exception to that in SEED Destiny. She was a useless gung-ho idiot in Gundam SEED, but she at least kept the whining to a minimum and was more than willing to go bust heads when circumstances dictated. Now she's basically Relina Peacecraft with a mobile suit, which I guess makes her Rule 63 Saji Crossroad. She seems to have replaced Yzak Joule as the tantrum thrower-in-chief, having screaming and sobbing fits when the world refuses to conform to her naive ideal... even in the middle of the battlefield. Read the manga, and I've seen the first episode of the series. I wasn't impressed. It's a Universal Century Gundam sidestory for this guy, in which abso-bloody-lutely everybody is a complete and utter psychopath and it's trying SO HARD to be dark, gritty, and Hellsing Ultimate levels of hardcore that it feels incredibly forced, almost to the point of becoming a self-parody. (This is not helped one jot by the art style, which makes it look like the cast were rejected background characters from Charge! Cromartie High School and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The music doubles down on the weirdness, making the whole affair feel like they're trying to ape Cowboy Bebop as well.)
  5. Seto Kaiba
    OK, now wave 'em around like you just don't care... Remember mate, I didn't say it was the explanation... just that it was a possible explanation given that we are in fact talking about a series/franchise created by a rabid military aviation otaku with a demonstrated fondness for American programs and some of the pals from his Gundam fanclub. Note that I even said that interpretation doesn't make sense in context, given that Macross 29 was bereft of a military component. (As a side note, anyone familiar with aviation in Japan would know the NATO alphabet... because, as I noted earlier, it's also the International Civil Aviation Organization's official phonetic alphabet used for civilian air traffic. Even domestic flights inside the boundaries of Japan use it. And we know Macross's creators are at least familiar with this, because it's some of the first spoken dialog in Macross Frontier's first episode if you don't count "Yak Deculture!"... in conspicuous English, no less, as the ICAO/IATA mandates. "This is G F S One Zero Eight, belong to galaxy starliner. Reply to me, Frontier Control.") EDIT: Actually, we also hear Makina do a variation of it in the first episode of Delta when she identifies the model of Regult the NUNS Marines are using... reading off the single digits rather than the whole number, albeit in Japanese.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Arguably more so, given that the ARMD-class ships that were docked to it were redesigned/modified versions of a UN Government space station design that was intended to serve as an airstrip in geosynchronous orbit.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Sometimes the creators do what the creators wanna do, and it's up to the audience to catch on... the creators of Macross did enough of that in the original series that the American DVDs from AnimEigo got a half-dozen pages out of just in-jokes and other references that wouldn't be immediately obvious to the casual viewer. Remember, Macross is an anime franchise created and run by otaku. Except when he doesn't... Did we forget about the Neo Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class ship in the Macross 5 fleet in Macross 7, the NUNS 33rd Marines in Macross Frontier, and NUNS Marine garrison on Al Shahal in the Macross Delta series? He hasn't been as blatant about reusing them as Macross II's creators were, but he's most assuredly not avoiding them. That one's a matter of opinion, and struck me as odd for two reasons: It's only the VF-19 Custom and VF-19A that look hero mecha-y no matter what. The 2nd production type, e.g. VF-19F, looks perfectly fodder-y in the standard coat of Kill Me Khaki (which may be why they're painted that color in Macross R). The VF-17 the VF-171's based on was also a hero mecha in Macross 7... it was Gamlin's main ride for pretty much the entire series. On the other hand, he's left in some really bewildering stuff like that Meltrandi fleet showing up out of the blue in "Fleet of the Strongest Women" despite DYRL? being an in-universe docu-drama, or a half-dozen different depictions of First Space War events in retrospective, leading to "whose aesthetic was it anyway?".
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Given the sheer extent of the rebuild/redesign which the wrecked [Supervision Army/Meltrandi Army] gun destroyer was subjected to after it crashed on South Ataria island, it usually isn't considered to be the same class of ship as its original configuration. OTEC modified it so extensively that its manufacturer probably wouldn't recognize it anymore... heck knows the guys who made a job out of blowing up ships just like it barely did. It'd become the basis for a new class of human warship, so it's generally counted as belonging to that class: the Macross-class Super Dimension Fortress.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Eh, if it were any other franchise... but Macross's creators are military nuts who operate on a level above even most of us. They're not shy about putting out reams of material about fighters and throwing all kinds of obscure military references into Macross shows...
  10. Seto Kaiba
    That's an eccentricity of the forum software's time display format when it rolls over to a new year. It'll straighten itself out once your time zone crosses midnight, IIRC.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    The only size metric that's been given for the SDF/C-108 Macross Elysion is that in Storming Attack mode it's approximately the same height as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (~828m). As such, it's approximately 2/3 the height of the standard Macross-class or Battle-class. It was a given that there would be multiple ships of the Macross Elysion-type... the military never builds just one of anything, barring some incredible administrative cockup like what happened with cost overruns on the real world1 Enterprise-class aircraft carriers that resulted in five of the planned six being canceled, leaving just CVN-65 USS Enterprise. Thus far, we've only seen a few cases where ships were one-of-a-kind at the time they appeared3: SDF-1 Macross, the first ship of a planned Macross-class. A second ship, SDF-2 Megalord, was under construction during the First Space War and was not completed in time to join the fight and was later converted into the first Megaroad-class ship. Twelve further Macross-class ships were built, starting with SDFN-1 General Takashi Hayase after the war ended. CVS-101 Prometheus, the first of her planned class of five Prometheus-class ships. SLV-111 Daedalus, the first of her planned class of five Daedalus-class ships. SMS Macross Quarter (series ver.) was a test article for the Macross Quarter-class to follow.2 Double helpings for Messer, Keith, and Roid! 1. An important distinction in this one very specific case, as the unofficial writeup for the Aether and Hemera's class in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried identifies them as Enterprise-class ships. 2. In the movie version, this was changed to it being a production level ship design already... having been developed at a shipyard on Eden and the specs shared over the Galaxy Network. 3. CVN-99 Asuka II from Macross Zero is often mistakenly put in this category, but she was actually one of two Asuka II-class ships built at Newport News... her sister ship, CVN-100 Graf Zeppelin II, has a cameo in Macross the First.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Less circuses, more bread! It's a remote possibility, but I doubt it... even the Macross Delta series showed that, in the seven years between Windermere IV's war of secession from the New UN Government and their second campaign's first offensive on Al Shahal in 2067, the Kingdom of the Wind's Aerial Knights had transitioned to the 5th Generation Sv-262 Draken III. (Arguably justified, since Windermere IV is a planet rich in the one material for which the scarcity is a limiting factor in adopting 5th Generation VFs: fold quartz.)
  13. Seto Kaiba
    His legal name is "Michael", which is the commonly-used Hebrew-derived version of the name... though he's noted as answering to both the French and Russian equivalents of the name as well.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Hard to say, given that prior to Macross Frontier the only emigrant fleets whose designations were spoken aloud had single digit designations... e.g. Macross 1, Macross 5, Macross 7, Macross 9. I don't recall, offhand, whether they mentioned the Megaroad 13 fleet aloud in Macross 7. I'd expect that the "official" one is probably a matter of personal preference on the part of any given fleet's government and its constituents, but in all likelihood both would be in use in the fleet. The military would almost certainly be using the NATO/ICAO "Two Nine" call in radio communications to minimize the potential for confusion, while "Twenty-Nine" would likely be used in informal/non-operational conditions and by civilians. (The obvious exception being the Macross-13, for which the bridge crew of the CV-565 Saratoga II refer to with "Thirteen" rather than "One Three".) Admittedly the Macross 29 fleet's use of "Two Nine" is rather odd, given that the fleet in question abolished its military component some years before Macross the Musiculture's main story in 2062. Mind you, Macross 29 is also the only 4th or 5th Generation emigrant fleet we know of that doesn't have an actual name too... something that seems to have become the norm at some point after the Macross 11 fleet's hybrid of City-class with a Milky Road system and physically-connected Island-class departed.1 Or it's someone who's used to the NATO/ICAO phonetic alphabet and figure code... 1. One has to wonder if this bizarre design choice is sufficient to consider the City-11 to be a Generation 3.5 emigrant ship or something of that sort?
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, they had a really good one near the end of the series and a pretty good one about 2/3 of the way thru. They had a way to jam the Song of the Wind that was triggering Var syndrome outbreaks, and they got stopped partway into their permanent solution of blasting Windermere IV clean off the face of the galaxy. No wind singer, no song of the wind. No song of the wind, no Var syndrome. ;-)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    That'd be awful roundabout... softening up the New UN Government by waging a propaganda war against a corporation the New UN Forces think is an interfering pack of useless gits.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Smart money says that, as with the Macross Delta TV series, the writers have decided to copy Macross Frontier... in this case, Walkure will probably be accused of being spies or being behind the Var outbreaks they control.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Huh, a few mildly interesting things in the trailer... Χάος has multiple Macross Elysion-type ships, which I guess isn't surprising given that the Macross Frontier movies did the same thing to the Macross Quarter-class. Looks like we're also in for Walkure getting the same treatment Sheryl got in the Frontier movies. Messer's VF-31F Delta 2 equipped with Lilldrakens? (Odds on a Keith heel-face turn like fans thought would happen in the series?) Putting Hayate's battroid mode dance routine from the series' first episode in the movie with a VF-31 instead. Looking more like the twists in the Macross Delta movie will be the exact same twists from the Macross Frontier movies...
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, it goes back like 25 years... but he's never changed that stance. Like I said in my last post, the most recent indication that his position hasn't changed is from Mari Iijima just 2 months ago at Super Dimension Convention.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Yes and no. Kawamori-san's insistence that the story of the original Macross main trio is over and he will not revisit it is a stance that he has held for a long time now, and as far as we know he hasn't changed his mind any. At the Super Dimension Convention earlier this year, Mari Iijima herself noted that while she has somewhat recently changed her mind and is willing to return as Lynn Minmay, Kawamori isn't interested in revisiting the character or her story. As far as Kawamori has said, Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay's story is over. It ended with Macross: Flash Back 2012 when they sailed off into the metaphorical sunset together. There is no more story to tell where they are involved. He wants to move forward and tell new stories. Kawamori's only involvement with the anniversary commemorative events is attending them, and he doesn't have anything to do with the digital remastering of older Macross shows for home video release. Like I said, the story of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross cast is over... its epilogue was the 1987 Macross: Flash Back 2012 OVA, which was material that was originally storyboarded for Super Dimension Fortress Macross's 36th episode. There isn't really a story to tell with those characters from that point on. Thanks to titles like Macross 7 Docking Festival we know what most of the cast did after the war ended and Megaroad-01 launched and it's not exactly exciting stuff. Most of them quit the military and went back to civilian life. The only ones who had any real excitement in their lives after were Max and Milia, who kept their commissions and went into the New UN Spacy Special Forces before being assigned to the Macross-7 fleet, and that's well-documented already in Macross M3 and Macross 7. The rest is not particularly exciting: General Global retired from the military in 2016 to go into government, Britai got Global's old job, Shammy got married and had 11 kids, Vanessa got married and has a club in Macross City that she and her husband run, Kim never married and works a desk job in the New UN Forces, the lolicon trio kept working odd jobs and at least one ended up as an alcoholic, etc. Having been MIA for half a century at this point, even the fate of the main trio isn't likely to be good material for a series either. If they aren't long-dead, then they've been living peacefully on some planet isolated by fold faults.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Kawamori-san has repeatedly said he's not interested in doing a direct sequel to Super Dimension Fortress Macross. There's no point in petitioning him to do something he's adamant about refusing to do.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, give our best to Gargamel. Well... we don't actually have the option not to. We're at the mercy of Crunchyroll's catalog of licensed titles, the only version of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny they licensed was the high-definition remastered version. At nine episodes into Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, I can definitely see why this show has such a bad reputation. Shinn Asuka's supposed to be the main character, at least on paper, and he's so thoroughly unlikeable that the show seems to want to focus on literally anyone who isn't Shinn Asuka. Mostly Athrun Zala, the man with the Earth sphere's worst paper-thin alias. What with Kira having become a hermit or something and a new secret Earth Forces unit faffing about doing shady stuff, this show is really feeling like the bargain bin version of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. I'm kind of amazed that, after all that happens, nobody has yet remarked "didn't we do this exact thing just last year?" when OMNI forces under the direction of Blue Cosmos uses a paper-thin excuse to launch a nuclear attack on the PLANTs and it doesn't work because the PLANTs have a new superweapon. Not!Azrael has much worse dress sense than Azrael did though, what with the silver-trimmed yellow suit with the mandarin collar and the purple lipstick. I have a feeling I might hate the obvious Lacus impersonator more than I hate the genuine article...
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Less Walkure, more Valkyrie. Kinda pissing into the wind there... the only competent factions in Macross Delta are the New UN Forces and Epsilon Foundation, they're both background factions and they're the only ones in this bloody story who have a clue what's actually going on. Macross Delta's like a mecha version of The Mouse that Roared adapted for screen by Uwe Boll.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, this fanart is several decades too old to have any kind of connection to the VF-1G Valkyrie from Variable Fighter Master File. It's not clear why the writers who worked on Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1 felt compelled to come up with a new variant to replace the official VEFR-1 Valkyrie from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, but that's what they did. That variant was a new (non-canon) introduction for the first Master File book in 2009, and didn't exist prior to that point. Based on the references made in this fanart, it seems to be from some point in the mid-to-late eighties, very probably from before the release of Macross: Flash Back 2012. It seems to describe an improved space-use version of the VF-1A. (And a VF-4A based on the VF-X-4 rather than the final VF-4 design.) That's something else entirely, an unofficial/fanmade variant.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    I'm kind of surprised you let the "Ramba Rommel" comment slide... @BlackRose and I just moments ago finished the final (48th) episode of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED's HD Remastered edition. I have to say, this being my first time actually getting past the 12th episode of the series, it wasn't actually that bad. Not my cup of tea, Gundam-wise, but actually not nearly as bad as I remember from my attempts to get through its broadcast cut on Toonami back in the day. That said, it feels like the Cosmic Era setting is an even bigger craphole than than the Universal Century. There is absolutely nobody on either main side outside the main cast who is in any way admirable, honorable, or not a frothingly insane genocidal bigot. These people are 5x10^f'ed up. I'd probably have rated Gundam SEED a lot higher if there'd been any sign on the OMNI and ZAFT sides that there were people who hadn't totally lost the plot. Even the Zabis had more class and restraint than Patrick Zala, and Azrael's so obviously axe-crazy and suspicious that the absence of any reasonable authority figure is the only reason he didn't spend pretty much the entire series in a padded room somewhere. You're right, I absolutely did not notice any musical cues that seemed jarring our out of place. Tomorrow, when we're not watching my younger brother go mano-a-mano with an unruly kitten, baby ball python, and a large and ornery monitor lizard, @BlackRose and I will be starting Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny to continue our holiday march through the new offerings on Crunchyroll.
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