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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Ain't personal teleporters grand? (Once you get past that whole "having your atoms sucked through a soda straw that just happens to pass through actual Hell" part...) Still, half the fluff text and fieldable characters in Warhammer 40,000 get weirder things for free with their breakfast cereal than were in that clip... and for the ones in the Inquisition, it's just about mandatory. A shame Dan Abnett hasn't been able to finish the third trilogy in his Inquisition trilogy of trilogies, if he started as he meant to go on the Bequin trilogy had a couple canon immigrants on the way in from the Cthulhu mythos and the books that inspired it. (Much ado about The King in Yellow...) After so many years of plot stasis, I'm kind of flummoxed at the sudden reversal the Imperium's having in 8th Edition... Guilliman's finally decided to get off his duff and fix his family's mess, someone put a boot up the Mechanicum's arse and got them developing new tech again, Cadia's gone to the dogs, and Abaddon may have finally become as competent as he was in the 31st Millennium again... as long as my Dark Eldar don't end up back in "glass cannons that are more glass than cannon" territory again, I'll be satisfied.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Ugh... I had a bad feeling about Star Trek: Discovery when I heard it was going to be an exclusive for CBS's proprietary streaming service in the US. That trailer did nothing to diminish my premonition of Discovery discovering what it's like for a Star Trek series to get canceled after just one season. Both my parents are Trekkies and I was raised on Star Trek, and not even my profound affection for the franchise is going to compel me to get a CBS All Access membership to watch THAT shabby mess. (At least this trailer did one thing for me. I can finally put names to my sense of ill-fitting designs. The Klingons look like they mugged the Remans from Nemesis and stole their wardrobe and overall design aesthetic, and the Discovery herself looks downright Klingon from the outside and inside looks more like the USS Relativity from the 29th Century than a pre-Constitution-class ship.)
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Chapter 1: "Deep Space Warbird"... they don't show up much outside that chapter, being military models rather than customized air racers (or 5th Generation prototypes).
  4. Seto Kaiba
    The (New) UN Army does still exist... but they're kind of a rear-echelon security sort of affair, since VFs are the default currency in an era where the most common enemy faced are 10m tall giants. (They're the poor sods with the Beatrice tanks in Frontier, which do precisely bugger-all against the Vajra.) Macross Chronicle has some images of the New UN Army soldiers seen in Macross Frontier, like the mooks who were part of Sheryl's escort and who tried (and possibly failed) to gun down Grace O'Connor near the end of the series. There's some line art in a few of the art books too, particularly the ones for the movies. Barring the cutouts for cat ears, the troops on Voldor in the Macross Δ series are wearing the exact same uniform as the ones in Macross Frontier. sketchley has a partial pic at the bottom of this page that shows the standard New UN Army mook with their H&K G36 rifle knockoffs. (There may also be pics in the back of the Tenjin Hidetaka third Macross artbook.)
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, yeah... it was kind of a pain in the butt to find a copy. Based on my quick skims I've found that some of the Macross Chronicle revelations and stats are actually drawn from it, such as the meaning of "ARMD" and the spec for the QF-3000 and SF-3A. Master File copied a few problematic statements from it as well, like the assertion that the SDF-3 was Vrlitwhai's ship, which the coverage in Macross Chronicle contradicts by way of Frontier's first episode showing SDF-3 is Megaroad-02. I decided to take a whack at it because I've never done an entire book before, and the lure of a pre-sequels look at Macross's technical lore is just TOO good...
  6. Seto Kaiba
    What I meant is I wasn't (until your most recent post) sure what precisely you were looking for... if you were just looking for confirmation of some story point or bit of technical trivia, or if you were looking for a full translation of the books. Yeah, unfortunately for Macross the Ride the few translators working the seemingly unending stream of Macross publications (myself included) focused almost entirely on the mecha since the story was serialized in Dengeki Hobby and accompanied by all those custom model kits representing the mecha of the story. The details of the story itself kinda got lost because there's only one or two who focus on translating actual stories, and they mostly go for the really old out-of-print stuff. Like most side stories, Macross the Ride's plot has very little in the way of impact on the story of the main (Macross Frontier) series. It's got some tenuous connections to the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series, some fairly strong connections to Macross 7 and Macross VF-X2, and a lone connection to the novelization of Macross Δ, but it doesn't really have a very noticeable impact on anything that came after (chronologically). Many of the Macross Frontier cast are present, but aren't really involved in the story. SMS's Skull Platoon (w/ Ozma, Michel, and Luca) is present, Alto puts in a brief appearance as a fresh transfer to from entertainment to pilot training at Mihoshi, Ranka's an unremarkable junior high student, Sheryl's mentioned every now and then as the #1 idol in the galaxy, Brera has a bit part as the test pilot of the YF-27-3 Shahar ♂, etc. The only one who's arguably involved in the goings-on of the plot is Col. Grace Godunowa (alias Grace O'Connor) of the Macross Galaxy Corporate Army intelligence service (because isn't she always?). I'll work up a detailed plot summary and PM it to you, but the short version is that the two volumes are almost two separate story arcs. The first six chapters concern themselves with the protagonist (Chelsea Scarlett) transitioning from a retiring idol singer to SMS pilot, and SMS pilot to air racer before taking on kind of a "enemy racer of the week" format where the story's only conflict is between elite air racers competing for a spot in the League's most elite race... the Seiten Cup. The second volume concerns itself with the Seiten Cup itself and the venue being attacked by the remnants of Latence, the Earth-supremacist organization who staged the coup attempt in 2051 in Macross VF-X2. Connections-wise, the strongest ones are to Macross 7. Both Chelsea and the main villain Naresuan used to live in the Varauta system, and were involved in the Protodeviln conflict. The Latence splinter group Naresuan leads even uses old and upgraded Varauta mecha, and the venue for the entire second half is a ship design introduced in Macross 7. One of the minor characters new to the story is a Zolan doctor. Naresuan himself sports some ties to SDF Macross, being one of Vrlitwhai's subordinate commanders during the First Space War, though what he pilots in the end is a nod to the Macross Plus video game (a manned version of the Neo Glaug drone, the Ghost X-9's rival program). His organization, FASCES, is a surviving splinter faction of Latence, the villains from Macross VF-X2. The only real ties that go FORWARD in the continuity are that Chelsea and her mentor Angers 672 made some substantial contributions to the completion of the YF-25 prototype that became the VF-25 used in Macross Frontier, and that Chelsea herself apparently went into government after she retired as a Vanquish League racer. The novelization of Macross Δ indicates she's a representative in the New UN Government parliament in 2067.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Was there something in particular you wanted to know from those? I've read them, though I haven't published a translation of same because they're in print still. No kidding. Have you ever looked into doing the old Sky Angels book? I'm taking a whack at it now that my day job workload has slackened, and was wondering if you've done anything with it (or would be interested in proofreading).
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, I know... the animation is never infallible, and the animation of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series was off-model almost as much as it was on because of how it was done so cheaply. The animation model sheets, official art materials, and published specs are much more reliable and consistent, which is why they're the resource the Macross Compendium and Macross Mecha Manual use as reference instead of the animation. The animation inconsistencies diminish as budget and production quality increase, but they still crop up in unexpected places (like Klan Klan's mysteriously variable height of anywhere from 10m to 16m in Macross Frontier). So the Master File writers were left with a choice between the official spec that says 12 per booster and 3 per arm, and the toys which have 20 per booster and 3 per arm, and decided to turn it into a fix fic to explain why both should be a thing... which is fine, since in '94 Macross's creators totally did the same thing for the TV and Movie VF-1's. (If you look at it from Kawamori's perspective, Max and Milia's impossible missile stunt from the series is dramatic license on the part of whatever schmuck was handling special effects for that Space War 1 docu-drama... like how Hellsing's Alucard tends to fire well upwards of a dozen rounds from the Jackal before reloading, even though the gun only holds six shots.)
  9. Seto Kaiba
    None that I recall, no... but Master File has been kind of cheating on that front ever since Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur. Master File's writers have been pretty vague on the subject of FAST Pack missile counts in all but the VF-1 Valkyrie books, really. The VF-1 books were the only ones to really get specific on that front, since the writers were using the book as a fix fic for the different missile counts in the line art and the various toys and model kits. Their take was that the missile count shown on the FAST Pack in official art (12 per booster, 3 per arm) is representative of the version used during the war, and the variant with twenty missiles per booster used in many kits and toys was developed after the war and uses a newer and slightly smaller micro-missile. The VF-4 and VF-22 books kind of ignore the subject altogether, while the VF-19 and VF-25 books dodged that question entirely by presenting a modular FAST Pack concept where the internal space of the booster had a bunch of partitions that could be used for either missiles or additional fuel tanks... allowing the propellant capacity and ordnance load to be dialed up or down according to the needs of the moment. The VF-25 book just cited a typical count, though the count didn't match a eyes-on count of the missiles in the art.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    ... huh, is anyone else flashing back to the old Aliens vs Predator 2 PC game from 2001?
  11. Seto Kaiba
    That's kind of a shame, really... I'd rather hoped that Ghost in the Shell would be the one to buck the trend of western live-action adaptations of anime being commercial disasters. Shōnen titles like Dragonball Z and Mach GoGoGo don't really lend themselves well to that kind of adaptation, but I thought Ghost in the Shell was mature and sophisticated enough that the source material's fundamental quality would shine through mainstream Hollywood's explosion-induced clinical inability to comprehend subtlety and the inevitable questionable judgment that casting would show by prioritizing ability to fill out a latex catsuit above everything else. More fool me, I guess, though what I gathered from the summaries of the box office take is that it actually did reasonably brisk business in Japan before falling flat in the West.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    ... so does this mean the reason Bishop and the later synthetics were fully Three Laws-compliant was because Weyland-Yutani switched to Intel/NVIDIA? "Caution: Always operate your David-8 or Walter series synthetics with adequate cooling! Overheating may lead to shutdown or failure of ethics coprocessors." (Gotta hand it to Michael Fassbender tho... he manages a certain distant look that's perfect for playing a robot. It almost borders on the uncanny valley and he's a certified human.)
  13. Seto Kaiba
    It'd make a certain amount of sense if they did, given that the Varauta Army got its start with the Nazi Germany-inspired transformable fighters with suspiciously Germanic-sounding names developed for the villain faction in Air Cavalry Chronicles (the ZaiBach Empire, who went on to be the baddies in The Vision of Escaflowne.) The designs even came with insignia that look suspiciously swastika-like. The fighters the Blue Rhinoceros Spec Ops unit use are even made by a company that's a reference to Messerschmitt.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Actually, while both of the model aircraft Hikaru is shown with are the same aircraft, neither of them is a VF-4G. They're both the VF-X-4 prototype... the design of the production VF-4 Lightning III wasn't finalized until about three years after Macross: Do You Remember Love?, and debuted in Macross: Flashback 2012 in 1987. The production VF-4 didn't exist in-universe at that point in time either, the design wasn't finalized and approved for mass production until after the First Space War ended. (The VF-4G came along even later, being a later variant of the VF-4 that first appeared in the video games of the late 90's and early 2000's.) Nobody really mentions that models in Hikaru's quarters in DYRL? because they're kind of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing, like the XB-70 Valkyrie model in the foreground.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Duly noted... I looked at that name and went "Wha...?". Mauer, I figured, was a sane surname, but I wasn't getting any joy with Autol/Outoru on Wikipedia or Google. (At one point I considered it might be a bizarre effort at "Otto Mauer" or something like that, since Macross 7 did have a fair bit of "Engrish as she is spoke" kicking around the background, and would fit with Mauer being a Polish/German surname. The only other thing that kept coming to mind was "But he doesn't look like tuna meat...".)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Can't answer that, it's against the rules to link to (or ask for links to) pirated material. Please support the original creators whenever possible. Twice, that I can recall... both in the Macross 7 PLUS short "Spiritia Dreaming". The first enemy soldier captured in the main Macross 7 series, Irina Hayakawa, refers to him by name in the short. He's Captain [Autolmauer/Otorumawa]. I'm undecided how to actually spell that name, since it doesn't seem to conform to any known existing surname I can find. It's spelled オートルマウワー, which suggests the former at least.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Now that's putting it mildly... Prometheus set the bar so low it's a trip hazard in Hades' wine cellar. Huh. I was kind of watching Covenant's development out of the corner of my eye for fear that we'd get Prometheus Mk.II. This made me sit up and take notice more than any previous trailer or teaser for the film. If the movie fails to live up to the promise this shows, I'll be doubly upset. Garnishing a monster horror movie with a little existential dread? Please sir, can I have some more?
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Dunno why there's selective enforcement on that... but the mods seem to come down a lot harder on pirated media than pirated goods. Second verse, same as the first... at least with respect to price. The movies only run about $45, but even when you're looking at collected Blu-ray box sets like the ones for Macross 7 you can expect to pay almost exactly $63.50 per disc. Macross 7 was 8 discs, sold as two 4-disc sets for $254 apiece.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Erm... not that I'm aware of, at least in the short term. Mind you, the asking price for the Macross Δ "Special Edition" Blu-rays is only a few bucks more than the average asking price for any given single Blu-ray volume of about $63.50 (US). The movies average a bit cheaper at around $45 a pop, but all in all these are pretty typical media prices for Japan. This holds true for all of the Blu-rays, even the ones that are for decades-old shows like the original series or Macross 7, so I wouldn't expect the price to come down much (if at all). (Also, ixnay on the ootleg-bay... we don't talk about that kind of thing here.)
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Not anywhere that I'm aware of, no. It's never depicted using any that I recall, but I would assume it has at least four, maybe six (probably two inboard of the nacelle, one outboard). There isn't really a firm distinction between them, honestly... the New UN Spacy is what the UN Spacy became when it was reorganized (and decentralized) along with the other UN Forces branches of service. Any aircraft that were still in active service would've had their markings updated as a matter of course. Reserve or test aircraft held in storage would have been updated either at the time of the reorg or if/when they were pulled out of storage for use. The only ones that would/should have missed it would be aircraft that were already earmarked for decommissioning and destined for either materials recycling at a boneyard or disposal sale to civilian buyers. (The Macross Frontier fleet was still in the process of selling off its old VF-11 Thunderbolts in 2058 per Macross the Ride, and there were air racers who'd managed to get their hands on VF-17Ds, so I would assume that they were updated to New UN Forces markings during the time they were still in service prior to sell-off.)
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Is new user registration disabled? There are some people on a Macross facebook group I'm on who are saying they can't register because it's saying new user registration is closed on MW.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Reasonably so, yes... and it looks like you spotted the detail that put me on to the correct order. The order in which the SYF prototypes seem to have been commissioned for customization and use by 3rd Fighter Wing, Delta Flight seem to correspond to the order in which they joined the outfit... not their callsign numbers. Chuck Mustang may be Delta-3, but he's been there longer than Messer. There are a few numbers in the middle that may not have ended up with Delta Flight, possibly being assigned to one of the other Flights aboard the Aether or Hemera or used as test aircraft. No kidding. It didn't make any sense that the VF-31's military spec, with its larger wing area, would have less pylon capacity than the custom forward-swept wing model. Granted, the VF-31A has the ordnance bays in the engine nacelles free to use for larger munitions instead of being filled by a rack for Cygnus multi-drone plates, but because they're on top of the wing that makes them only really useful for air-to-air ordnance rather than air-to-ground. Yep... though, admittedly, it is kind of a slippery slope since the same outfits (GAGraphic and SoftBank) have also done tech manuals for other properties like Mobile Suit Gundam, Galactic Drifter Vifam, etc.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Depends what you mean by "quality"... All of the books are loaded with with plenty of lovely pictures, though I think the VF-25 or VF-31 book might've got the best of that. For the broadest generally-informative coverage, I'd say the VF-25 book probably wins there. It doesn't delve too deeply into any one topic, but it covers a broad spectrum of the VF-25's feature content and the explanations are succinct and generally helpful. It's also the one where the non-canon variants are largely not Master File originals, which makes them a bit less ridiculous on average (a lot of them are nicked from the Macross Mechatronix series in Macross Ace). The VF-19 book probably has second place for being most broadly informative, though its original variants list gets a bit weird in places. For deepest, most technical coverage you'd probably want to get the two volumes of the VF-1 book, which go so deep into the spec as to give a full breakdown of all production blocks and even start talking about things like fuel consumption and the influence of overtechnology on material science in even mundane things like threaded fasteners. (It certainly explains why the sortie range for VFs being "unlimited"... a fighter with a power plant endurance measured in months!) The VF-0 book is arguably second-place for informative-ness, being the only book I know of to actually give separate stats for beautiful but almost-never-seen VF-0C. The worst books in the series are probably the VF-4 and VF-22 books, which all but ignore the official material and completely lose the plot about 30 pages in.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    As Master File would have it, the Shinsei Industry project teams have an obsession with evaluating technologies by building impractical one-off prototype aircraft specifically for that purpose. (This one was profoundly unnecessary and potentially confusing, given that Shinsei Industry had already built not one but two prototypes as a means to evaluate the ordinance container system that are covered in this book... the official/canon YF-30 and Master File-original YF-30B. It also shares a name with the VF-19ADVANCE, a one-off production aircraft that was not a technology demonstrator.)
  25. Seto Kaiba
    With respect to the subject of new weaponry... the missiles and bombs and what have you in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried are newer versions and variants of the same munitions listed in the VF-25 book. The only noteworthy additions are the obvious ones, such as its heavy quantum beam gunpod, the rapid-fire railgun pods on the arms, and the modular container system. For the most part, the weapons on the VF-31 are derivatives of the VF-25's... even the micro-missile launchers in the legs are a newer variant of the same launcher in the VF-25's Super Pack. The only truly new weapons in Master File are a few new variants of the container system that include a YF-30-style micro-missile container (albeit apparently not double-sided like the YF-30's), an ECM pod, and a pod that unfolds into a beam cannon turret. They curiously neglect covering the standard container that the VF-31A uses, which is mostly identical to the Xaos Custom's version except it has sensors and an assortment of micro-missiles instead of a multidrone charger. There's also a VF-2JA-esque under-wing missile pod that holds half a dozen or so medium-range multipurpose missiles. They say almost nothing about the railgun mounts... nothing about ammo, feed system, nada. There's like one picture of the gun itself, and it isn't even a cutaway. I suppose if you don't say anything the nothing you say can't technically not make sense... so I guess they're in the clear there, right? The Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah book is, in my opinion, one of the very best books in the series for both completeness and for technical content. For me, it's tied for first place with the second volume of Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie (and only then because the latter got into the nitty-gritty of fuel system endurance and the tank capacities of both the "naked" VF-1 and all the versions of FAST pack). Even its goofiest original variants are miles better than the ones in the other books, and it diverges from official material much less than the majority of the other books while also offering a bunch of fairly stealthy nods and in-jokes to half-forgotten projects like VF-Experiment.
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