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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Meh. In the unlikely event that the live-action movie does come out at sometime in the distant future, it'll likely be the same kind of low budget, direct-to-video atrocity as Starship Troopers 2. No idea. A few years ago, there was a rumor going around that Harmony Gold's contract with Maguire Ent. over the live action movie rights had a short fuse expiration date that already passed, but I don't know if there was ever anything to that.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    According to Macross II's creators, it's set in 2092. Macross Ace wasn't the first publication to get the date wrong for the Macross II: Lovers Again OVA either. In the early 90's, the American licensee distributing Macross II got it into their heads that the OVA was set in 2089, a number which was picked up by the authors of the Macross II role-playing game (Palladium Books) and the distributors of the Macross II manga (Viz Media). In Macross Chronicle's timeline sheet for Macross II, the date is also listed incorrectly as 2091... which might have been a joke at the OVA's relationship to Gundam, by placing it in the year 0079 on the New Era calendar.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Yep, that's the impression I've gotten from my talks with various people in the fandom and on the business end of things. They did pretty well for themselves with the Legacy set and the extras-free collected edition of same, "Robotech Remastered" wasn't selling worth a damn, the "Protoculture Collection" enjoyed lukewarm sales primarily because of the extra features from the old Legacy set that somehow got missed out of "Remastered", and now the A&E edition isn't selling worth a damn because almost anyone who would've ordinarily bought a copy already owns one of the previous remastered editions and isn't willing to spend another $80 to buy the same damn thing in a slightly different box with minimal new content. In my more recent interactions with active Robotech fans, the general opinion of the set seems to be "It's not worth it"... which tends to be motivated by the knowledge that even though it has more "features", it has less actual content. Ouch... yeah, that seems like a pretty damning indicator of "Not selling". Out this way, in Palladium's backyard, the few stores which carry anime haven't even bothered to stock the A&E edition. The few of them that carried Robotech DVDs have unsold copies of Robotech Remastered and the Protoculture Collection sitting on their shelves gathering dust. The same copies, I'm reliably informed, that have been there since those particular releases came from the distributor. Seven years? That's peanuts to a die-hard Robotech fan. After all, the true faithful waited almost two decades for Robotech to fart out a single, anemic direct-to-video "movie" to continue the disjointed collection of plot holes and spelling errors they all too often mistake for an actual story. Considering what happened in the intervening time, I'm not sure if that's patience or a lack of basic pattern recognition skills, but if they're still hanging on after almost thirty years with nothing to show for it, another couple years shouldn't dissuade them overmuch. More times than any sane person's brain can recall without shutting down in protest... it helps that the people doing all of that speculating are somewhere on the spectrum between "spectacularly dense" and "brainwashed and crazy". From the public announcement that the live-action movie rights had been picked up? Five years next February or thereabouts. On balance, it's really not all that surprising that they've developed a bad habit of posting uninformed speculation and trying to blur the line between their wild guesses and fact. It's the only way they can maintain interest in the project and the franchise in the absence of any actual progress. Yes, they lie and distort the facts... all in an effort to convince themselves that Robotech isn't a complete non-entity that the world forgot sometime around 1987, and that they haven't wasted years (decades) waiting patiently for a comeback that isn't coming.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, I don't doubt it... what I doubt is that the ones presently making a fuss over the "large Alpha" will ever be among them. The Robotech fans raising that particular stink are fairly dead-set against the OSM, to the point where some seem to find the idea of Robotech drawing on OSM stats and such deeply offensive... which is bloody stupid in my humble opinion.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Color me baffled, but it's taken this long for you to realize that Maverick_LSC is a complete and utter moron? I would've said you'd only need two or three of his posts to be completely convinced that he's a lead paint-drinking imbecile. That post of his on RobotechX was the first time I'd bothered paying any attention to that passel of idiots, and I have to say I'm almost disappointed. He's so far gone he actually thinks that parting shot was witty. As far as the content of his speculation is concerned, the desperation is so thick on his post that you could cut it into blocks. Like all avid Robotech fans these days, he has no real way to maintain interest in the franchise except by wildly speculating. Engaging him at all isn't worth the effort, it'd just be having a battle of wits against an unarmed man. There's just no sport in it. Even verbally abusing him for his stupidity seems like a waste of effort. That his increasingly unrealistic hopes will all ultimately be dashed feels like punishment enough for his jackass behavior. Other Robotech fans at least occupy themselves with behavior that's less idiotic, though no less futile. In the absence of any actual developments from Harmony Gold, the Robotech fans have once again turned on themselves in a desperate last-ditch effort to convince themselves the series is still viable. This time, the complaint du jour is that Harmony Gold has neglected all manner of viable "official" designs that could set Robotech apart from the original shows... basically meaning they just wanna canonize more animation errors. Right now, the error they're saying should be a real thing is the scene from the climax of the Genesis Climber MOSPEADA series where a Dark Legioss is accidentally drawn larger than it should be. It's kept them busy arguing that a whole new class of jumbo "Alpha fighters" needs to be added to Robotech's continuity. Just the story treatment, IIRC... they've never gotten beyond that or indicated that they'd even chosen a treatment out of the ones that they hired writers for.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Well, the whole "DYRL is a movie within Macross" thing comes, in part, from the Macross 7 television series... the cast party for that "Lynn Minmay Story" docu-drama they're filming in-series makes reference to it (visually), and there's a mix of designs from DYRL and the original series present as well (DYRL Britai next to series Kamjin, etc.). Macross 7: the Galaxy is Calling Me! had posters for the movie show up in Emilia's "house" as well. A couple of print sources also talk about it, giving details of when the movie was filmed in-universe and, to a certain extent, how it was filmed... a West Point-class training ship standing in for DYRL Boddole Zer's mothership, etc. As far as the mixing of DYRL and original series design aesthetics, I don't think "the powers that be" have ever really given any kind of comprehensive answer. I'm not sure if Macross 7 was the main source of it, but there are several official answers as to why certain DYRL visuals were adopted... such as Exsedol's DYRL appearance being used in the series, or the series version VF-1 being an early production block and the DYRL version being a later block. I don't think we really need a statement direct from the hory froating head for this one... it happens too often and in too many titles on the official timeline for there to be any doubt as to whether that's the case. (After all, we started seeing designs from the original series and DYRL used side-by-side back when we saw DYRL Nousjadeul-Gers holding series VF-1Js "hostage" on the target range in the Macross Plus OVA, and the tendency to mix and match designs only got more blatant and prolific as time went on.)
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, they have... 8km x 3km, IIRC.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Uh... what? As Talos pointed out a few posts back, there is no VF-19C in this movie. Isamu's VF-19 from his brief cameo in Sayonara no Tsubasa is never referred to as a "VF-19C". It's never referred to any more specifically than "VF-19" in the movie's Official Complete Book, and the blurb about it in Great Mechanics DX.17 refers to it as a "VF-19 S.M.S. Isamu [Version/Spec]". The novelization refers to it as the VF-19ADVANCE Excalibur Advance. To date, the only VF-19C's we've seen are the one in Master File (not official setting) and the Macross Galaxy fleet-specific model in Macross the Ride.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    The VF-24? The YF-24's the one all the information's about... which comes from a variety of sources, incl. Great Mechanics DX, Chronicle, and some magazine articles. I don't think there's been any hard data on a production model of same except what's in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah. Master File mentions up thru a VF-24A, but that's not canon. In part... it's mostly to do with the New UN Gov't not wanting to let the best toys fall into the hands of the colonies. That's why they were given a partial YF-24 Evolution spec and told to run with it, resulting in the VF-25 and VF-27. IIRC, that info comes from Great Mechanics DX.9 and/or Otona Anime #9.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... it's actually a lot clearer than folks here are making it out to be. Kawamori's notoriously evasive on the subject of the whole Series vs DYRL thing, but the official publications do a lot to offset his reluctance. In the past, his general position has been that the "truth" of Space War 1 is somewhere between the two versions we see... tho the timeline published in Macross Chronicle indicates, for the most part, that the series version is "correct" at least for continuity purposes. There are explanations in-universe for why some of the DYRL designs supplanted their TV series versions, such as the Macross w/ ARMDs being the result of a repair/retrofit operation (and later, the mass production type), or the VF-1s from the series and movie being the early and late production block versions of the same aircraft. When it comes to the design aesthetics, both versions are typically "correct" and can even be seen side-by-side in the animation in Macross 7 and Macross Frontier. Macross as a whole takes a fairly flexible approach to continuity and canon, but there's usually a good deal of overlap or some kind of explanation when there are multiple versions of a particular story. (As a side note, Macross II: Lovers Again and the other titles of its "parallel world" continuity are the exception to the rule. Theirs is, appropriately enough, a more Gundam-like approach to defining continuity with no ambiguity as to which version of the Space War 1 events is the right one.)
  11. Seto Kaiba
    That's a very important point, because HG has really been taking advantage of this and people generally don't care about the differences. Yeah, that's an ongoing problem with Robotech... and it's a misconception that Harmony Gold has put a fair amount of time and effort into cultivating, partly because it gets them kudos they don't deserve and partly because it discourages the people who're unaware of the truth from exploring real Macross. It just goes to show that ignorance is about the only thing that kept Robotech limping along since 1987 or so...
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Kind of... that's how it was back in the 90's, back before there was anything like official information on Robotech. Lots of fans (mistakenly) treated the Robotech RPG as a sort of encyclopedia and technical manual for the series, mainly because back in those days it was pretty much the only publication providing any level of detail about the Robotech setting, characters, mecha, etc. It wasn't until the Robotech fandom went online that they started to get alternatives... the uRRG and, later, the Infopedia. Nowadays, the "mainstream" fandom doesn't see the Palladium RPG as a valid source of information at all... even though the new books have supposedly been vetted for accuracy by Tommy. Most fans adhere to the popular position that the only stuff that counts in the rebooted Robotech continuity are the "original" series, the Shadow Chronicles movie (and related material), and the Wildstorm comics. They've cottoned onto the uRRG's stance that the RPG is nice, but completely unreliable when it comes to what's what because of all the liberties taken with the material in the name of game balance... if not because of the contradictions that crop up between even the new, vetted version and the official materials published around the same time.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    But they already have Palladium Books. Ugh... no, the problem with Palladium Books isn't as simple or straightforward as being a creatively and/or ethically bankrupt outfit trying to keep a decades-old bad idea limping along on life support in an industry they don't understand. Based on my experiences with them, Palladium Books isn't a bad company by any means. IMO, their main problem is a mixture of laziness, overestimating their capabilities, and phenomenally bad luck. QFT. Odd coincidence, I was actually having a discussion about exactly this with Talos just the other day. I've never been a fan of Battletech and/or Mechwarrior, mostly because the fecking awful mechanical designs put me off the prospect. The designs I remember were uniformly awful. Like the kind of thing a middle school kid with a surfeit of graph paper might draw if he were really bored and short of artistic merit.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Hm... I think you've got the right idea, but rather the wrong culprit. As miles316 pointed out, the old man was a geneticist who studied the people of Mayan. The defector with all the VF know-how was Roy's mentor, D.D. Ivanov. Totally... esp. since Macross Chronicle teased us a little by throwing several of the Advanced Valkyrie designs into the Variable Fighter "genealogy" chart, incl. the VF-X-7. I'd prefer it to be in a canon source, but I'll cheerfully take something like Master File if they do it first.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    IIRC, it only talks about the specific development, capabilities, and service history of the SV-51 itself... Which is all well and good, but doesn't address the actual point of contention... namely, the circumstances under which the UN acquired the variable system. Nora isn't saying that they developed a working VF before the UN did. She's saying that the UN "obtained" the technology that makes the transformation possible and/or the design concept from some company or group with ties to the AUN. Nothing you've quoted there renders that assertion impossible.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I don't think we can definitively say that Nora was lying or twisting the truth here. Granted, OTEC was the agency responsible for researching the alien technology from the Macross... they just weren't the only ones developing practical applications of their discoveries. It's entirely possible that she's telling the truth, and that the variable system was developed by a company either in her homeland or one of the companies involved in the development of the AUN's mecha, and was legitimately appropriated by the UN for its weapons development programme. As a national separatist, Nora'd definitely be inclined to see it as theft because she's opposed to the UN and thus any technology-sharing initiatives it may have initiated.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Well, duh... drop a bombshell like that in a place like this, and it's pretty much inevitable someone'll call you a madman. Still, in all seriousness, the plot outline for Shadow Rising and the eventual conclusion of what we'll call "the Shadow saga" isn't a particularly enlightening read. A lot of what's in it is just facepalm-worthy, in all the worst ways. (I particularly love how the freshly reincarnated Zor's solution to the whole plot is "I'll build a big damn gun!".)
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Blew your mind, did I? D.D. and Nora say otherwise in Macross Zero... in one of their conversations in the OVA, they say something to the effect that the UN didn't develop the variable system on its own, but rather acquired it from its original creators. I'd have to dig out my M0 Blu-Rays to be sure of the exact line, but that's probably what Kurisama is talking about. No problem.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... really, calling that leaked document a "script" for Shadow Rising is obscenely generous. It's actually nothing but an outline of the story for "Shadow Chronicles Part II" that covers and conveys the salient bits of the story. The leaked document also had some brainstormed plot points for the conclusion of the OVA (Part III and/or IV), which gives the impression that they were trying damn hard to imitate Macross. The whole affair is only like five and a quarter pages long. Buddy, that alone makes you certifiable.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, both Macross 2036 and Macross: Eternal Love Song take place only in the Macross II "parallel world" continuity. Yes. Yeah, there's a fair amount of activity in the periods between the various titles of Macross II's universe. It's mostly outlined in a series of articles that were run in Newtype, Animage, and B-Club to promote the series. The Zentradi and Meltrandi remain the big threat on the horizon, with a lot of minor skirmishes in the aftermath of Space War 1 and a fair few large-scale attacks which occurred in 2036, 2037, 2054, and 2082. The war in 2054 was a real big mess, which pulverized a lot of the UN Spacy's forces during a massive sustained engagement at Pluto's orbit, but the aftermath of the war led to major advancements in technology that eventually manifested in all of the new ships and mecha seen in Macross II. The 2082 invasion, which Sylvie alludes to in the OVA, was an overwhelming victory for the UN Spacy thanks to their new toys and a refined Minmay Defense... and also is kind of a thinly-veiled reference to Macross II being the 10th Anniversary show. Among the other points of interest are having dedicated civilian Valkyries appear in 2051, the use of both Macross- and Megaroad-class ships for space colonization, etc. EDIT: Typo'd the date of civilian VF introduction, the first model came out in 2051.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    You missed one... the advancements in overtechnology that made the VF-2SS, etc. possible in Macross II: Lovers Again came from reverse engineering (copying) the overtechnology from captured Zentradi factory satellites.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    No, why would there be? Harmony Gold's Robotech "creative team" is more or less just a collection of ethically and intellectually bankrupt fanboys who, like their idol Carl Macek, haven't a clue that the industry has moved on in the past 25+ years and looks back at shows like Robotech as examples of bad, obsolete business practices. As >EXO< noted, if the people in charge of the Robotech franchise acknowledged how dire things are, it'd be tantamount to telling their bosses that there's no reason to keep any of them on payroll anymore. Really, who would? I mean, why would any sane investor want to sink his or her money into a project run by people who have going on thirty years of nothing but abject failure to their names? Robotech has virtually zero name recognition and a frankly lousy reputation, so making a surprise comeback isn't exactly a likely prospect. Just on that basis, it's already not exactly the most tempting prospect for a prospective investor... and the mother of all red flags goes up once you've noted that even the Robotech franchise's owners are unwilling put more than the bare minimum amount of money behind it. Who would want it? It'd be a nice change of pace, but that's assuming he actually cares. He's kept a non-performing asset like Robotech around for decades now... I'd call that a pretty serious case of "couldn't be arsed". Robotech's owners seem to be content with the current status quo and the feeble trickle of revenue that Robotech generates by preying on the nostalgia-blinded. Agrama is probably rather more interested in his properties that actually make decent bank, which pretty well means that Robotech isn't even on the fiscal radar. Very likely... either him or Maverick_LSC. Near as I can tell, Steve doesn't actually give a damn about the day-to-day running of Robotech.com. He only gets involved when someone (usually a mod) forcibly redirects his attention to the ever-increasingly dismal activities on the boards. MEMO and Maverick are both keen to suck up to their respective heroes (Tommy and Kevin respectively) in the hopes of getting insider status, so they're the most likely candidates... seeking favor by eliminating fans in the community who have misgivings about the way things are run. I think every sane Robotech fan reaches that point eventually... being a fan just isn't worth the frustration, since the Harmony Gold company line dictates everything and admits no realistic viewpoints, and the absence of actual releases means that the fanbase has nothing to do but bicker and turn on itself. Lies! We all know that you learned everything you ever needed to know about sex in the 80's was taught to you by the Waltrip Sentinels series and the Swimsuit Spectacular!
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Unlikely... the management at Harmony Gold is unwilling to invest more than a pittance in a title that has guaranteed sales to the gullible fanboys, and by their own admission outside investors in Robotech are hard to come by. Rebooting the series sounds like a good idea right up to the point where you realize that they'd end up doing it on an even smaller budget than what they're already working with, there being essentially no reason to expect a return on investment from people who can and frequently do screw up what ought to be a sure thing.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Further to my last, I checked... this is in fact the case. As far as Robotech's swiss cheese-canon is concerned, "Lunk" is only his nickname. His real name is listed as "Jim Austin" on his Infopedia page.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Huh... score one for me, I predicted they'd eventually do something like this way back in '07. Over the years since Shadow Chronicles, it's been getting progressively more obvious that "the powers that be" at Harmony Gold are determined to avoid anything that might provide Macross's owners with even a flimsy reason to take them to court. It almost feels like they're afraid Big West is keeping an eye on them and just waiting for them to slip-up, though it's a safe bet they're worried that a legal battle over Macross could destroy the Robotech franchise... either by costing so much that the higher-ups pull the plug on Robotech, or by further limiting their rights to the most only profitable segment of Robotech. Their avoidance of anything which might invite unwanted attention from Macross's owners has been pretty blatant ever since Prelude, when Tommy took every Macross holdover who wasn't critical to the plot and either killed them or put them on a bus.
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