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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Mine arrived today.
  2. 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".
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.)
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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?
  10. 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.
  11. 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)
  12. 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.)
  13. 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.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The VF-4 Master File unfortunately offers nothing WRT the Battroid mode height. Sorry.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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?
  19. 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.
  20. 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
  21. 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.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, the problems we're seeing with Macross Delta just show that the series was poorly planned-out from the beginning.Macross 7 gives much the same feeling of the writers having realized partway into the show's production that they were going to have a lot of episode count leftover after the end of the plot, and resolved to pad it mercilessly. The difference is that Macross 7 did the padding on the front end, leading to 20 episodes of filler before the plot starts, while Macross Delta seems to be forgetting the actual plot in the name of trying to make us like these flat, boring characters the show is overpopulated by. You could jettison five or six of Delta's core cast and not affect the plot one bit: Messer, Makina, Reina, and the twins don't have any actual role in the plot, and combined they don't have enough actual character traits to fill a 3x5 card. Messer was just an arse, the twins might as well not be present for all the relevance they have, and Makina and Reina are just present to tick off a couple checkboxes on some kind of "Minimum H-Dojinshi Fetish Obligations" checklist. It's like they only planned the series up through the end of Mission 13, and have had to ad lib everything since. There's been no real furtherance of the plot... just a string of breather episodes (14, 16, 17) and exposition dumps (15, 18, 19, 20). It almost feels like this is supposed to be a 3-cour or 2-season series, pacing-wise.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Worse. The Mission 21 preview on the official website has made this episode out to be a retrospective of Tactical Sound Unit Walkure's formative years, one narrated by the group's three useless members: Makina "Masturbation Material" Nakajima, Reina "Discount Yuki Nagato" Prowler, and Kaname "Broken Bird" Buccaneer. As a special bonus for the fans who sat through the last two boring exposition dump episodes, they're recounting all this from the comfort of the ship's brig as a result of their brilliant infiltration plan having been foiled by a rent-a-cop and a single locked door at the end of Mission 20. Honestly, I've never felt more sympathy with Bogue than I do contemplating the summary of next episode. The second half of this series has been such a huge disappointment that I'm 200% on board if Bogue wants to liven things up a bit by vaporizing Walkure's deadweight so Freyja and Mikumo can get back to work.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    As noted earlier, that principle is a pretty common staple of Macross's stories in the wake of the original series from Macross 7 on.The (New) UN Spacy has been suffering the reverse of this since the Macross 7 series moved the focus away from the military. Fans come away with a bad impression of the VF-11 Thunderbolt or VF-171 Nightmare Plus despite them both having long and distinguished service records in-universe because most of what we're shown in animation is the one conflict where they were outclassed by the enemy and got their butts kicked. It's especially bad for western fance, since they miss out on a lot of the manga and serialized novels and so on where some of the damage is undone. They only get to see the VF-11 get love in that first minute or so of Macross Plus Ep1, and the Nightmare Plus as a bad guy's mecha in Macross 30. The Queadluun-Rau looks formidable because it appears so infrequently outside of the Macross II timeline, and every major main timeline appearance's action focuses almost exclusively on a super-ace pilot like Milia, Chlore, or Angers 672. Macross Delta hasn't been a kind mistress to the VF-31, considering it hasn't really let Xaos win a fight yet. The Aerial Knights have kicked Xaos's forces around every single time, and only left Xaos's forces alive because of shenanigans... like Heinz having a strictly enforced bedtime or Roid being an incredible sadist. It's actually done a bit to raise the VF-171's stock, as a result of Var'd VF-171 pilots posing a serious threat to Xaos's 5th Gen VF-31 despite the massive performance disparity because of their training and their Var-induced aggression. When we finally have a more complete picture of the total service history of the VF-31, that picture may change... as it slowly is for the VF-171.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, no... Macross II: Lovers Again and its related titles (incl. 2 PC Engine games, Macross 2036 and Macross: Eternal Love Song) are their own alternate universe from the main Macross chronology. In the Macross II timeline, technological advancement charts a different and somewhat less bombastic course.To the Macross II timeline, the Meltrandi Queadluun-Rau was simply no more intimidating than a Zentradi Nousjadeul-Ger. Only the exceptional skill that an ace pilot had could make one a serious threat on its own, as was the case with aces Milia 639 and Misty Klaus. In the hands of a grunt, they were shot down in great numbers by the UN Spacy's equally-grunt-operated VF-1 Valkyries, VF-1改 Refined Valkyries, VF-4 Sirens, etc. This same principle of "pilot skills counts at least as much as specs" works for Macross Delta as well. Like how we see that, despite having what's effectively the latest VF on the block, Mirage can have trouble with VF-171's flown by Var-afflicted troops because she's an indifferent pilot. Great googly moogly! Google Translate made a mess of that. Just a brief correction... the Macross II chronology, for reasons never concretely explained, pushed the Megaroad-01's launch date back to 2014. So Macross: Flashback 2012's events "happen", but they happen two years later. This is covered in a bewildering little entry in Bandai Entertainment Bible 51. To be fair, the Takachihof Corporation and Shinsei Industry have rather a lot in common... both being mergers of Stonewell, Bellcom, and Shinnakasu. Though Takachihof also absorbed some personnel from the destroid manufacturers. They hold the same kind of pseudo-monopoly on VF design that Shinsei had for much of main timeline Macross history. Happened a good deal earlier than that, honestly... the Queadluun-Rau was not any kind of uber-powerful mecha, and the stock VF-1's did well enough against them in the First Space War. The VF-4 Siren and VF-1改 Refined Valkyrie which were introduced in the late 2010's kind of sealed the deal.Exactly when the UN Spacy in the main Macross chronology considers the Q-Rau to officially be "at parity" with their fighters isn't clear, but there could be an excellent case made for somewhere in the 3rd or 4th fighter generation. In short, it's not the mecha that's badass... it's the PILOT. Milia's team is the best of the best. She was the fleetwide ace in both timelines, so she was taking a mecha that was better than the average Zentradi unit but not by much and using it to achieve incredible feats of destruction.It's like in Macross VF-X2, when Mariafokina Barnrose beats a VF-19 in her VF-1X through superior piloting skill. Actually, there's a straightforward official answer to that one... which is one of the very first things said about the Queadluun-Rhea in Macross Chronicle.Y'see... the UN Forces kept a bunch of Queadluun-Rau units in service after the First Space War ended. The reason the Queadluun-Rhea came to be was that, after two decades of beating on their limited supply of Queadluun-Rau units, they had essentially run out of repair parts to keep the fleet in service. They captured and restored the factory satellite as best they could, and General Galaxy was awarded a contract to develop a derivative of the Queadluun-Rau more in line with the UN Forces' design ethos on survivability and defensive ability. One way they dealt with Zentradi who weren't comfortable integrating fully into human civilization was to offer them military service with the NUNS Marines, so they needed to keep the Marines supplied with gear they'd feel comfortable using. From Delta, they've clearly made similar improvements to the Regult and Glaug series battle pods as well. Actually, the VF-XX is also a Family 2 design. It was initially the prototype for the integration of advancements recovered from the Flemenmik factory satellite, but was approved for service on its own merits during testing.(I hesitate to use the word "Generation" to describe the odd development pace in Macross II's timeline. It comes in fits and starts, rather than in smooth progression.) That's not even all of them.In Macross II's timeline it's strongly indicated that the Zentradi and Meltrandi forces have a LOT of equipment that didn't appear in the original TV show and DYRL movie. In some cases, it appears to be that some fleets just use somewhat different mecha from each other or that some fleets have lost the ability to manufacture certain types of mecha. In the notable case of the Migg Pitt, that's something Quamzin's people developed on their own, independent of a factory satellite.
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