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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Unless they intend to try to surprise us with a Season 2 announcement at the end of the final episode the way Iron-Blooded Orphans tried to, they're going to have to jettison a LOT of the build-up they've done to get this series wrapped up in an orderly fashion. The fast, almost frenetic pace of the first half practically screamed "2 cour series"... but the glacially slow, padded-like-a-menstruating-firehose pace of the second half feels more like it belongs in a 3 or 4 cour series. Damn near worked on the audience instead, so I can only imagine how bad it was for the guards... I'll just sit and wait for Pink, Neon Green, and Red to be the new Green and let them all get Kakizaki'd.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Yep, it's using the Saab 210's name... which was the predecessor/prototype for the Saab J 35 Draken. Not the first time General Galaxy has been caught doing that either... Macross Galaxy's in-house development group was the Guld Works, apparently named in honor of deceased General Galaxy contractor Guld Goa Bowman. There are a couple problems with what you just said... The General Galaxy SV Works were set up at the behest of Alexi Kurakin, once of the Anti-Unification Alliance... but they were not sold to Epsilon. All indications are that the Epsilon Foundation has been used as the go-between through which the Windermere Kingdom has been purchasing Draken III's from General Galaxy. Per Great Mechanics G, Windermere IV is an underdeveloped planet due to the difficulty of getting there through the fold faults surrounding the planet, so it seems a safe bet they don't have the technical infrastructure to produce the Draken III's locally under license. With the Windermere Kingdom effectively an independent power after its secession from the New UN Government in 2060, their interstellar trade is probably subject to much tighter restrictions and greater scrutiny than trade between NUNG member worlds... and thus they'd have to buy weapons under the table using sympathetic (unscrupulous) intermediaries like the Epsilon Foundation. Also, General Galaxy had no role in the development of the VF-4 Lightning III. The company didn't even exist when the fighter was developed, and it was developed by the companies that merged to become the chief rival to General Galaxy: Stonewell, Bellcom, and Shinnakasu... the forerunners of Shinsei Industry. At present, it's not clear how new the Windermere Kingdom's space fleet actually is. Windermere IV was colonized in 2027 and didn't secede from the New UN Government until 2060, so they had a lot of time to build up their fleet through entirely legitimate channels. Considering what kalvasflam noted about being able to see visible gun turrets on the Windermere ships but not the Macross Galaxy ones, it's possible Windermere is using older versions of some of the General Galaxy ship designs that were updated for Macross Galaxy's use. It would be far from uncommon for a warship class to remain in production with updates for that span of time in Macross. It may be that the Macross Galaxy versions are using high-angle beam cannons instead of turrets... that type of beam cannon uses a pin-point barrier-like deflection field to bend a beam coming out of a fixed gun port. The Mardook ships in Macross II: Lovers Again and Varauta ships in Macross 7 used these a lot. That isn't exactly surprising. A fold system is a big, unwieldy thing that isn't about to fit gracefully into a VF... even the compact fold boosters for fighters are still about the size of a Ghost or Lilldraken. The only time we see the Aerial Knights arrive by fold and witness the fold effect close up behind them, a ship comes out... so it seems a safe bet they're riding inside the fold effect of a warship as is fairly common practice in the Macross universe. Not so much for Epsilon, who are intermediaries reselling the fighters to Windermere... but General Galaxy could probably be pretty smug about how their latest under-the-table toy is kicking a Shinsei-derived next main VF around like it's no big deal. One has to wonder if they'll slap some EX-Gear in that sucker and try to remarket it to the New UN Forces later on, like what happened with the captured Variable Glaug being produced as VA-110. In a word: "Yes". Strictly speaking, it's not a structural integrity system in the Star Trek sense where they're running a force field through the structural frame to increase its resilience. It's a g-force displacement system that prevents the g-load on the airframe from exceeding the biological tolerances of the pilot and the design tolerances of the aircraft by converting the g-forces into dimensional shift energy and temporarily buffering it to clip the peaks and fill the valleys in the graph of experienced g-forces. The pilot and airframe experience a nice, gentle, survivable change in g-forces instead of sharp jumps during intense maneuvering. For humans, this is helped by the EX-Gear, which functions as a vital point stimulation seat that changes angle and position inside the aircraft's cockpit to optimize the pilot's blood flow and g-force stresses on the pilot's body, which helps prevent g-forces from reaching incapacitating levels. Windermereans are just made of sterner stuff, so they forego the EX-Gear. Exactly how the Draken III's 30.8G ISC rating compares to the VF-31's is unclear, since the VF-31J spec didn't give us an ISC value for that fighter. Curiously, the Draken III seems to be using an improved/enhanced variant of the same Inertia Store Converter employed in the VF-25 Messiah (ISC/TO21). The original TO21 was rated for 27.5G, and the TO21G used by the Draken III apparently offers a 12% improvement over the original model in terms of buffered g-forces. That puts it in the same league as the YF-29's ISC/TO22, which was rated for 30G.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    The funny part is that one actually makes more sense than the Super Pack they put elsewhere in the book that completely covers the engine nacelles... that would inhibit transformation, while the conventional FAST packs wouldn't. Pretty much, yes. The VF-4 is basically a VF-1 that internalized its FAST packs and, in so doing, achieved a 40% improvement in combat performance in space.I suppose that, since engine efficiency and fuel storage didn't increase by an incredible amount due to the similar airframe size, they'd still need some drop tanks or something. Some, yeah. The VF-0 and two main VF-1 books didn't really do anything wild, but there were some oddities like the configuration with the four NP-BP-01 boosters in the VF-1 Squadrons book. The VF-19 book had a few kooky variants, mostly in the special purpose roles like the dedicated attacker variant, AEW variants, and non-transforming transport model. The VF-25 book didn't really come up with new ones, it inherited most of its wacky ones from existing magazine custom jobs in Macross Ace and Figure Oh, IIRC.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Back when I (like many others) was assuming the Draken III was an Epsilon product, I equated them to Gundam's Anaheim Electronics... selling weapons to both sides to ensure there would be ongoing conflicts to drive demand for those weapons and future developments. I'd be inclined to say that, with a good chunk of the galaxy still dependent on General Galaxy's VF designs and GG-built starships, they're probably "too big to prosecute" just like Anaheim is for much of the Universal Century.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Mine arrived today.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Well, you didn't hear it from me...REJOICE, BROTHERS! Macross Delta Vol.2 BD liner notes have specs for the Sv-262 Draken III! In M3 form: Equipment Type: Variable Fighter Government: Windermere Kingdom Manufacturer: General Galaxy Corporation SV Works Accommodation: Pilot only Dimensions: Length: 17.54m (Sv-262Hs) Wingspan: 13.00m (Sv-262Hs) Height: 5.74m (Fighter), 15.78m (Battroid) Mass: 9,810kgISC Max G-Load: 30.8G Power Plant: Two P&W/RR/LAI FF-2999/FC2 Stage IIG thermonuclear reaction turbine engine Propulsion: 2x 1,955kN (Hs type can increase output nearly 30% using reheat system) Thrust-to-weight ratio: 40.642 (unboosted) Performance: Mach 5.8+ at 10,000m (capable of independent flight to satellite orbit) Design Features: 3-mode variable transformation, ISC/T021G inertia store converter, SWGA energy conversion armor, pinpoint barrier system, active stealth system, chaff/flare/smoke discharger, bulletproof shield. Armament: 2x Ramington LM-27C 27mm railgun pod (right forearm) 1x General Galaxy GBP-35A beam gun pod 4x Micro-Missile Pod (detachable) 2x Lilldraken (armament options available) 2x Laser machine gun (Hs type only) Armament: (Lilldraken)1x 30mm beam cannon 4x Micro-Missile Launcher Armament: (Lilldraken, Alternate)1x Jamming SystemIn this day in age, Sv apparently doesn't stand for Sukhoi Variable anymore... it's "Slayer Valkyrie".
  7. Seto Kaiba
    I've not seen anything to indicate they were treated as anything less than completely independent individuals. Presumably, given the extreme situation they were "born" into, they probably saw the necessity of doing what they were good at rather than chasing their dreams... and were probably made using volunteers.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Great Mechanics G hints at it in places, mentioning that technical advancements like EX-Gear have been left out of the design because the Windermereans have no need of the increased g-force resistance. Without cheats like running the energy conversion armor in fighter mode or using the pin-point barrier, ~Mach 5 is pretty much the lower atmosphere speed limit for VFs due to atmospheric friction-heating of the fuselage. The few fighters noted to be able to exceed that don't seem to carry ordinance out on the wings (e.g. VF-27, YF-29). The (New) UN Forces have ways of making high-speed reentry with missiles and bombs mounted out on the wings though... the reentry sleds from Macross 7 being one way of letting them make a ballistic reentry without exposing themselves to the intense heat such a course normally generates. That's pretty much my running gag... made funnier by the reveal that Dr. Chiba is apparently one of her students. Mikumo's origins really shouldn't be all that remarkable, since Humanity was making extensive use of cloning not even 40 years ago from Macross Delta's perspective and a decent-sized chunk of their population must be clones or the descendants thereof. Cloning is used casually by Zentradi troops too (that's how a micloning machine works), so you'd think "You're a clone?" would be delivered with the same surprise as finding out there's tapioca on the lunchroom menu today.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    I could buy that... though I'd be disappointed it didn't have a Battroid mode. They could have done the paintjob to look like a tuxedo, like how they did the Angel Birds up to look like sailor fuku or the Sister Valkyrie from Macross R was done up to look like a nun's habit. (The beam cannons are like cufflinks... deadly deadly cufflinks.)
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Aye... it was also in that picture I linked earlier, dated November 1987. That... isn't super clear from the text, or maybe I'm missing something. They talk a little about a similar VF-4A-based variant (VF-4AS "Special") and an unarmed YF-4 (YF-4 Nak.) and something about the service ceiling being over 100km, but exactly what makes it smart... either I'm missing it or it's not said. The original (official) version VF-4SL was, essentially, the VF-4 Sea Lightning, Light Equipment-type.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Actually, the Super Packs are a very old design Kawamori did back in 1987... we have some pics of line art prints of it that were included with an old VF-4 model kit over on M3's VF-4 page. The annoying part is that, but for the VF-4A and VF-4G, the authors basically ignored the existing (official) VF-4 variants entirely. Those official variants were: VF-4A: Initial all-regime mass production type. VF-4B: Two-seat enhanced attack type, sometimes used as a training aircraft VF-4C: Atmosphere-service retrofit #1 VF-4D: UN Navy version 1 (mostly used at Naval Air Stations) VF-4S: UN Navy version 2 with improved salt damage resistance VF-4G: Final space-use enhanced type Instead we got: VF-4A: Initial all-regime mass production type VF-4B: Two-seat standard version VF-4C: Improved VF-4A VF-4D: Two-seat VF-4C VF-4E: Improved VF-4C VF-4G: Improved VF-4E VF-4S: Command variant VF-4G complete with VF-1 style head lasers ... and the later-mentioned Smart Lightning is actually the VF-4SL type from Macross the Ride.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    It looks like a lot of the squadrons in this book are ones that have also appeared in previous books... The SVF-168 Death Adders are new, but we've seen the following squadrons before: SVF-1 Skulls (VF-1 Vol.1) SVF-137 Metal Robins (VF-19) SVF-26 Royal Cavaliers (VF-1 Vol.2) SVF-50 Spirits of the Sword (VF-1 Vol.2 and Squadrons) SVF-152 Star Streaks (VF-25) SVF-166 Tiger Waves (VF-19) SVF-73 Sidewinders (VF-19) Ah, yeah... that happens occasionally when they don't get enough copies in their initial shipment to fill all the preorders. I'm not sure if they dole them out to private warehouse accounts "first come first served" or in order of who files their shipping request first when it shows as available, but it's usually best just to sit tight unless you're really impatient for it to arrive.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    ... that brings a new and uncomfortable context to the slang "brain boner". There's usually some kind of evolutionary reason for the odd traits a sub-Protoculture species displays... but one has to wonder what the Windermereans evolved from that they have a big glowing tentacle jammed into their heads. Maybe they're space anglerfish?
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Just offscreen, there is a very bored security guard they're telling all this to... and no doubt he's wishing they'd skip ahead to something more exciting like the group bonding over a lingerie pillow fight. Because Roid has a great big boner for the idea of Windermere's manifest destiny to rule the galaxy as the heirs to the Protoculture... never mind that it's complete malarkey, and that the Protoculture were such massive dicks that the best they could do was leave warnings behind saying "We totally screwed up the known universe. Sorry 'bout that. We hope you won't repeat our mistake." Gramia only wanted to establish the Starwind Sector by liberating the Brisingr cluster from the New UN Government and end it there. Smart money says Roid whacked him because he's obsessed with his belief that Windermere is destined to rule the universe because of their imagined manifest destiny as the Protoculture's appointed heirs. Nah, Macross 7 did all of its time-wasting up front with its glacially slow, 20+ episode run-up to the actual plot. Once it got going, it was narratively fairly tight and flowed well. Macross Delta got to episode 13, then slowed to a crawl and completely forgot there was a war on. ... I saw this, and all I can think of is Arad (or perhaps Messer) waxing poetic about the bro code... which would've been a lot more amusing.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    It's never fully explained, but Zentradi cloning technology does possess the capability of integrating recorded or duplicated memories into clones. It seems likely that their basic training is done via memory implant and further specialized or job-specific training is conducted after the clone emerges from the clone synthesis system. The UN Forces used this technology in the aftermath of the First Space War to provide sufficient crew and skilled laborers to support emigrant fleet operations. That's different. Sharon Apple was, prior to Marj's tampering, operated using a sophisticated computer model of a human brain supplemented in realtime by emotional data sampled from the mind of Myung Fang Lone and external feedback supplied by biometric monitoring of the concert audience. She was not, strictly speaking, a copy of Myung's mind. She was a simulation crudely controlled by, and later imitating, Myung's emotions. Likewise, Grace wasn't jumping from body to body... she was, by all accounts, remotely operating artificial bodies from afar Ghost in the Shell-style. IIRC, that art is taken from Macross Chronicle mechanic sheet Movie Frontier NUNS 04A "Special Forces EX-Gear". The mechanic sheet doesn't mention any kind of active camo capability. It asserts that the camouflage pattern on the NUNS Special Forces EX-Gear isn't even paint... it's self-adhesive stickers that can be easily applied, removed, and changed to equip the suit with camo appropriate for any environment. No, it is not. (See above)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    My copy rolled in the other day, just in time to render true my joke about it being SoftBank's birthday present to me... Fairly satisfied with the book, despite it reiterating the somewhat nonsensical claim that the VF-4 wasn't capable of transforming until around the VF-4G. I did get a chuckle out of the few nods to Macross II: Lovers Again on pages 26-27 and 64. Nice to see we're not forgotten by the licensees. Also, did anyone else notice the subtle in-universe plug for Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried on page 117? They've got a VF-31A Kairos with markings from NUNS SVF-168 Death Adders, captioned with a mention of the VF-31 Master File. Like the others, the VF-4 book is written as a later date retrospective on the fighter's service history, in this case conveniently a retrospective published with an in-universe date of July 2067. I'll hold out for Volume 2, and the inevitable Greased Lightning.(They missed a golden opportunity to make that the name of the VF-4A-HSA "Hypersonic Agileness" test airframe.)
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, and it sucks to have to say it... so many of the characters in this series are shallow stock characters that it quickly becomes impossible to care what happens to most of them. It was easy to care about the characters in Frontier because they were involved and they were very well-developed over the course of the series. Much of Delta's cast could be summed up in so few words you could print their bio on a fortune cookie slip and still have room leftover for lucky numbers. It's really hard to take their personal drama seriously as the only thing separating them from being "Background Girl A" is possession of a name. Macross Delta really is weak tea for a Macross show when it comes to the aerial combat... Frontier didn't skimp on the aerial acrobatics in dogfightig, and it sure as hell didn't skimp on the use of the transformation system. In a lot of ways, it was like the Macross Plus OVA.Most of Delta's dogfights could be mistaken for a far-future sequel to Yukikaze or Area 88. With a few judicious cuts, you could pass the VF-31 off as an ordinary aerospace fighter.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    The VF-4 Master File unfortunately offers nothing WRT the Battroid mode height. Sorry.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Captain Ernest Johnson would be a senior citizen if he'd served in the First Space War... but given his age, it seems a safe bet he's a part of the peace children generation born in the aftermath of the war, like Elmo was. I'd say that'd explain him having a model of the SDF-1 on his desk, given that peace children wouldn't be a thing if not for the Macross's effect on the Zentradi. At this point, I think most of us consider the show to be a disappointment on the mecha front. The mecha action's been thin on the ground, and the dogfight choreography has been flat, boring, and utterly lacking in Macross's distinctive high-mobility high-variability combat style. It's like we're only being allowed to watch episode previews for a mecha series between long dull slogs through a badly written Escaflowne slashfic.Of course, after the last few episodes I'd be hard pressed to deny that this show hasn't started to turn into an all-fronts disappointment. It says a lot that I was much more excited for a single picture of a VF-31A Kairos in NUNS livery for the SVF-168 Death Adders in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-4 Lightning III than I was for Macross Delta Ep21. (Said picture mentions the existence of a Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried in its caption... possibly an in-book in-universe tease like the one for the VF-4 book years ago.) I suppose I could sum up my feelings on the second half of the series with a paraphrased quote from Gioachino Rossini... (originally directed at Wagner.) Mister Nemoto has good moments, but awful halves of an hour.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Strictly speaking, we don't know enough of Johnson's background to say with any certainty that he never served in the New UN Forces. His backstory only goes as far back as 2059-2060, when he was a hired trainer for the Windermere kingdom's local defense forces. He had to learn space warfare tactics somewhere, and he's probably 40-50 years old, so he may have done a stint in the (N)UNS somewhere in the 2030's or 2040's.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    In Macross, that's often the way to bet if you intend to lose the bet. The writers love an underdog, and because Earth is almost invariably at a disadvantage in any new Macross story you'll seldom find a dog as under as that one. Of late, it's been the Windermereans benefitting from the underdog status, with their less-advanced variable fighters spanking the hell out of the NUNS and Xaos's finest through the sheer quality of their pilots.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Honestly? I don't think there's one single character who is a concentrated cauldron of wretchedness like Jar-Jar. It's spread out across a bunch of the superfluous cast who are all teaspoon-shallow one-dimensional cardboard standees... Makina, Reina, Kaname, Messer, Keith, Gramia... The Ragnan girl was cute too. Can we trade Makina and Reina for those two?
  23. Seto Kaiba
    That's called bad storytelling, when you leave key aspects of the story out of the actual goddamn series in the hopes of making your audience go out and buy supplemental publications just to know what's going on.This series has gone sharply downhill since Ep13.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    All right... sitting down to watch this one now, with every expectation of being disappointed. If it weren't for the VF-31A's in this episode, it'd be a complete waste of 22 minutes. Negative vote
  25. Seto Kaiba
    My copy will be here tomorrow, at which point I will dig in and try to find you an answer. I don't recall any publications giving the VF-4 an official battroid mode height off the top of my head.
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