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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Just goes to show how much more responsible the Earth UN Government was. They built an irresponsibly gigantic gun instead. EDIT: It is in fact a completely different UN Government also in Macross that later built the irresponsibly gigantic bomb and then stuck like eight of them on one ship.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur?wprov=sfla1 Would you be horrified to know we tried to do this in real life? Because we did.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    On a basic level. They're meant for different purposes, so that's about as far as the descriptions actually go. It could be said that the weapons described are all more "exotic" options rather than the usual multipurpose missiles of various sizes. For instance, the AOM-8S is described as a two-stage air-launched anti-orbital interception missile. It's essentially an outlandishly huge rocket-propelled bullet with an inert (non-explosive) heavy metal kinetic warhead that's meant to be launched by a Valkyrie in a planetary atmosphere to strike enemies in orbit. The first stage is used to get it into space from the firing Valkyrie's present altitude, and the second is used for terminal acceleration to turn that large heavy chunk of metal into a lethally fast spear. The CHM-2 is a modified version of the SACHM-1 high-speed surface-to-air missile that has been reworked for use as an air-to-air missile. It's square because the SACHM-1 was designed for an armored box launcher platform. Its effectiveness is criticized because its initial acceleration after launch is slow. The AGM-118 and AGM-112 are, as their real world-inspired designations would suggest, primarily (but not exclusively) air-to-ground missile occasionally also used as an anti-warship missile. From its description, it's basically an aircraft launched cruise missile designed for stealth. The AGM-118 uses an explosive warhead, while the AGM-122 is a larger model following the same basic design that instead is more akin to the AOM-8S in that it carries a payload of inert armor-penetrating tungsten rods that it's designed to accelerate to ludicrous speeds. The RMS-5 needs no real explanation, it's a fighter-launched thermonuclear reaction warhead. The ALP-125 is similar in concept to the SPP-8 and LPP-12 in the VF-19 book... which is to say, it's a rocket-propelled gun. Where the SPP-8 was basically a missile built to chase enemies and spray them with coilgun-launched buckshot and the LPP-12 is the same in principle but uses a chemical laser, the ALP-125 is a more aggressive version that uses a miniaturized explosive based on reaction warhead technology to produce a single incredibly powerful laser blast that also results in the destruction of the missile in a substantial explosion. It could be thought of as a single-use missile-carried version of a strike pack's beam cannon in terms of firepower and is implied to be less than safe to use due to the literally explosive nature of its laser excitation. The ASM-91 is a stealth-focused anti-ship missile that's a relative of, and shares some parts with, the HMM-111CS high-maneuverability general-purpose missile. It's unusual as anti-ship missiles go in that it's designed to take a conventional explosive warhead instead of a thermonuclear reaction warhead, being intended for precision strikes against key systems like communications and air defenses rather than simply obliterating the enemy ship through thermonuclear brute force.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Tearmoon Empire has an interesting premise oddly reminiscent of the work of Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape series) and Tappei Nagatsuki (Re:Zero). In a nondescript medieval fantasy setting, the Tearmoon Empire is overthrown by a populist revolt similar to the French Revolution due to the corruption and excesses of its ruling noble class and 20 year old First Princess Mia Luna Tearmoon is publicly executed by guillotine after three years of imprisonment for her crimes. For reasons unknown, when she dies her consciousness travels back in time eight years to inhabit the body of her twelve year old self. With the knowledge from her future self's diary that somehow also traveled through time, she sets out to use her future knowledge to change her ways and prevent her future death by preventing the collapse of her nation. In that sense, it's very reminiscent of the first and third parts of the Uchikoshi's Zero Escape trilogy (999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Time Dilemma) wherein the protagonist(s) are stuck in a sort of demise-induced time loop in which their consciousness travels back in time to inhabit their past self as they struggle to manipulate events to prevent their demise and/or a larger-scale calamity.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Feeling a bit under the weather and binging the current season's offerings today... The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch is, thus far, a relatively harmless and cutesy slice-of-life comedy about a witch who adopts and raises a baby she finds abandoned in the woods one day. The show's comedy comes from a mixture of "the struggles of a single parent in a fantasy world" and the adopted daughter's overprotective streak when it comes to her mother. It's not great, but it's lighthearted and fun enough that I've had no trouble sticking with it through four episodes so far.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Statistically speaking there's gotta be something good coming out this season... There's Part II of Birdie Wing - Girls Golf Story, which was a drug trip and a half in a world where golf is such serious business that there's a massive underworld based largely if not entirely upon gambling on it. OVERTAKE! is also supposed to be pretty interesting, it's another unconventional sports anime about Formula One racing. Goblin Slayer II is a lost cause. I know, I've read the light novel far in advance of what's being adapted. As amusing as "Medieval Batman preptime meme" was, the story's got no real direction after Water Town and it loses a certain je ne sais quoi without the anime acknowledging the light novel's particular conceit that the world is literally a tabletop game and Goblin Slayer a particularly uncooperative character who occasionally manages to literally interfere with the game itself. Spy x Family II has a lot of promise... that one was solid gold last season. I've got hopes, however limited, for The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch and Tearmoon Empire. I've heard some mixed reviews of Rurouni Kenshin's remake series... apparently it's got much higher production values, but they've edited the story to grim it up quite a bit with the removal of a lot of its comedy.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Well, the new season's off to a meh start... Jujutsu Kaisen continues its headlong march into "Too Bleak, Stopped Caring" territory with a story arc that seems to exist for the sole purpose of having the villains massacre as many civilians as they can. It really feels like it's run out of things to show and is resorting to Gantz-style gore porn in an attempt to seem "edgy" and "mature". This series is a lot more fun when it's just Yuji and his classmates screwing around and loses a lot of what makes it fun and interesting when it gets into its action sequences. The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent got a second season this season, and it's pretty unremarkable just like the first one. It's not a bad series by any means, but it's clearly still taking the lion's share of its inspiration from Miya Kazuki's Ascendance of a Bookworm but without the sheer scale of that story's vision and worldbuilding. It follows many of the same plot beats, but because Sei seems to be the only character the story has any interest in developing she's left to trail an ever-increasing number of shallow stock prettyboys right out of any fantasy-themed otome game in her wake as she moves through her story. The story could be interesting if it made more of an effort to establish the other main characters a bit and get more into the stakes of her story, but it doesn't... so it's just Sei and like half a dozen palate swaps of the same generic bishounen love interest. I'm about to start I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness... which seems like it'll be pretty dull. It seems like the longer a title is these days, the more form-letter its plot becomes. EDIT: It's pretty tedious. A self-professed Demon Lord living in a house out in the woods tries to teach an extreme doormat girl who's been framed for treason by her fiance as an excuse to dump her some healthy comping mechanisms, through his extremely hammy methods.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Hey, someone rescued it... even odder, Netflix rescued it. The same Netflix that AGGRESSIVELY quit NuTrek because of Discovery. Will wonders never cease?
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Third book in the Dark Imperium series. Despite being an enormous Hope Spot for the Imperium as a whole, Guilliman spends a LOT of his post-resurrection time jobbing for Traitor Primarchs. He's actually died TWICE so far. The Lion, for his part, has gotten off comparatively lightly... introducing Angron to the Emperor's shield, face first, and generally having just woken up from an extraordinarily long powernap.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Pretty much my reaction as well... Gundam SEED was a breakout hit that pulled some of the highest viewership numbers and merchandise sales in the franchise's history, rivaling the likes of Zeta Gundam, and I've read about how the studio was hoping the Cosmic Era could become a second Universal Century and hastily greenlit a sequel to capitalize on it. That said, I'd thought the relative failure of Gundam SEED Destiny had sunk those ambitions and that what followed was just to tie off the bloody stump left by Destiny's failure to stick the landing. A movie on top of that uninspiring ending just feels like closing the barn door after the cow's already in someone's burger.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, I'm sure there are more customers than just the Macross 5 fleet. It's just not particularly likely that those other emigrant governments, central NUNS fleets, and possibly private military companies had a large enough Zentradi population among their numbers for the preferences of the Zentradi to be relevant in selecting their equipment is another matter entirely... We've never even seen a VA-14, for that matter. Only the original "Spiritia Dreaming" VF-14 and the Macross M3 version... with many fans mistaking the former for a VA-14. An issue not helped by the Spiritia Dreaming VF-14 being an enhanced armament type. Probably not very... it's a highly specialized design, and each version of it is basically a one-appearance wonder. The original Variable Glaug and its (New) UN Forces miclone-suitable version only appear in Macross M3, the unmanned Neo Glaug only shows up in Macross Plus: Game Edition, and the manned Neo Glaug bis has a whopping two appearances: Macross the Ride and the novelization of the Macross Frontier TV series. Basically the one confirmed operator outside of the Special Forces are the Zentradi Marines, who are also a smaller group. It's possible the D-type is a locally-developed variant. We know those are a thing as early as the 2040s.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    There is some commentary here and there in publications like Great Mechanics G and the series artbooks. I'd assume a definitive discussion probably exists in the liner notes and extra features for the Macross Delta TV series and movies. Yeah... it's trying, though admittedly I'm not sure that part of the story really needed elaboration. It was unpleasant enough as it is. To be honest, I wonder to what extent they're actually favored by the Zentradi since a fair number of them are simply inferring they're favored by the Zentradi based on their only known users being the Macross 5 fleet. The VBP-1/VA-110 Variable Glaug is the only one that's really designed for Zentradi operation, because it was developed and built for a rebel Zentradi group and then independently reproduced by the New UN Government after capture. It's possible the VA designation is simply what they felt was the closest fit based on its gun-heavy armament, or it may have been intended to deceive since the designation's a clear nod to Project Constant Peg (which also used 110 numbers for flight tests of captured Soviet aircraft). I wonder how much of it is that the Zentradi actually favor these designs, how much of it is them simply gravitating towards designs optimized for deep space operations where they'd feel most at home, and how much is simply "solidarity" buying from a Zentradi-run company like General Galaxy.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Hrm... from JOYTOY, and right now, sure. In the future, I'd wager we'll be seeing a few more Primarchs coming out of the woodwork in the not-too-distant future and TBH I do kind of suspect they're headed toward a quiet End Times sort of event and the setting is actually getting somewhat less grimdark.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The Lion? Yup. He's pretty much guaranteed to sell well. Not just because the Dark Angels chapter are one of the most popular either, The Lion is a lot more likeable and heroic in the 41st millennium than he ever was in the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. He also didn't do nearly as much jobbing as Guilliman did on his return. Kinda makes me wonder if we're going to get corresponding figures for the currently-active-in-the-story Daemon Primarchs like Angron, Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion. (Probably won't be too long before Russ, Vulkan, Corax, Dorn, Jaghatai, Lorgar, and Perturabo get off the dime either. They won't ruin a good meme by confirming if Alpharius and Omegon are dead or not... even though the Heresy books kinda already did.)
  15. Seto Kaiba
    It's also worth remembering that Yoko Kanno is not always credited under her real name too. As a composer, she's credited under her real name. She's usually credited under a pseudonym ("Gabriela Robin") when she's working as a lyricist and mixing English and Japanese or performing her own compositions.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    While enjoyment of the music is subjective, this is pretty much an objectively incorrect statement. Especially considering that Frontier's music is some of the franchise's most popular and that both of its singers have had subsequent appearances and releases a solid decade after their series ended. Singles from both Frontier and Delta topped charts in Japan too. Not to mention the fact that the Yoko Kanno was both a composer and lyricist for almost every song from Frontier
  17. Seto Kaiba
    It's pretty firmly in the "sci-fi magic" category. Gravity control technology in Macross uses a form of exotic matter called heavy quantum that exists partly in three dimensional space and partly in fold space. Most of its mass is stored in fold space, and they control how much of that mass protrudes into three-dimensional space using fold waves. By doing so, they can control how much gravity the heavy quantum produces in three dimensional space and manipulate it to produce very localized artificial gravity. The same effect is also used inside thermonuclear reactors in Macross to compress fuel until fusion begins and contain the resulting plasma, and it's also used in thermonuclear warheads and super dimension energy cannons as well. It's not anti-gravity in the sense that it is not canceling out the planet's gravity. It's more like the ship is introducing a second, very localized gravitational field in order to make itself fall up at the same rate that it is falling down. A separate gravity field inside the ship prevents the crew from falling up. In the Macross the First manga, the malfunctioning gravity control system causes some of the ship's surroundings to fall up towards it while it is taking off. It's very different to the Gundam franchise's Minovsky Craft system, which uses the exotic Minovsky particles to produce an effect that is essentially a very localized and powerful form of magnetic levitation.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    So... that's not quite accurate. Development of the Evil-series started in 2865 PC (c. 497,135 BCE), but because they were unable to resolve the problem of the incredible energy demands that the biotechnology used in the designs called for they were never able to complete them. Three years later, the Protoculture developed the first prototype super dimension energy converter and they began considering the technology's potential to address the excessive energy requirements of the Evil series. Three years after that, in 2871 PC, the Protoculture completed their first seven Evil-series prototypes (one of each type/class) using the new biotechnological super dimension energy converters and the first practical tests resulted in disaster with the seven prototypes being possessed by energy beings from super dimension space that ultimately became known as the Protodeviln. The seven Protodeviln seen in Macross 7 are the seven original Evil-series prototypes and, as far as we know, there were no others constructed.* I have no idea why this fan theory comes back SO MUCH. This happened with Frontier too. For some reason, there's this part of the fandom that assumes that any remotely unconventional-looking character who isn't explicitly identified as a Zentradi or whatever is a Protodeviln. When Frontier was airing, people were assuming that Macross Quarter bridge operator Mina Roshan was a Protodeviln because her design had dark skin, dark eyes, and a red mark on her forehead. The actual explanation... she's just Indian. But they were CONVINCED she was a Protodeviln. It's like fans can't remember that there were only ever seven Evil-series, that four of them died in Macross 7, and the other three ****ed off to parts unknown at the end of the series. * Not by the Protoculture, anyway. The non-canon manga Macross Dynamite 7: Mylene Beat has a faction within the Macross 7 fleet's New UN Forces attempt to clone an Evil-series with an eye towards mass producing an Evil-series weapon for Humanity's defense. The prototype predictably goes out of control and becomes a battleship-sized space dragon, but thanks to Mylene's intervention its rampage proves to be short-lived and after gaining the ability to generate its own spiritia is promptly disappears into the deepest reaches of space the same way the Protodeviln did. The Fold Evil in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy and the Birdhuman in Macross Zero are some kind of related development, but with a perfected version of the super dimension energy converter technology that doesn't result in a living weapon possessed by a starving energy vampire.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    They were basically useless on the ground, since the Zentradi didn't do ground warfare, but they found some utility as a long-ranged anti-capital ship turret able to deliver low yield thermonuclear reaction warheads.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Only for the HWR-00 Monster, as it's the only one of the original Destroids that's truly configured for long-ranged engagements (excl. the non-canonical LDR-04 Maverick from the FamilySoft Macross games). The Monster's 40cm cannons are able to bombard targets up to 160km away in indirect fire under gravity. Its ground-to-ground missile launchers have a 300km+ range. For the most part, Valkyries are also set up for visual-ranged combat or very close to it because the Zentradi come in numbers far too great to rely mainly on beyond-visual-range engagement and a combination of passive and active stealth measures has reduced the effectiveness of long-ranged missiles.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    One thing that keeps me from rewatching Patlabor is how little effort went into the writing... there are whole plots that get recycled four or five times over in quick succession, the most blatant case being the "there's a manmade kaiju preying on Labors" that culminated in WXIII.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Funimation Crunchyroll's dropped its lineup for next season. It's a pretty weak lineup so far, that's pretty heavy on isekai shovelware. The only standouts I can see are Jujutsu Kaisen's continuing 2nd season, Dr. Stone's second cour, Goblin Slayer II, and OVERTAKE!. There are still seven shows to be announced, though. I've caught up on a few titles... The Undead Girl Murder Farce still seems to be this season's standout for me, with one episode left to go and the promise of a season two on the horizon. The Misfit of Demon King Academy S2, Classroom for Heroes, Yuri is My Job!, and My Tiny Senpai have all limped to fairly sub-par finishes. I also finished Buddy Daddies, which was an absolute mess to the very end.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, that's kind of the kicker... the difference between a passive sensor system and an active one. Active sensors like RADAR, LIDAR, LADAR, and fictional equivalents like fold wave RADAR work by shooting a beam of radiation into the surrounding area in the expectation that it'll bounce off of nearby objects and then looking for the reflected energy. They can examine the amount of reflected energy and the amount of time it takes for the energy to return to the receiver to estimate size and distance, and by tracking the object between sweeps of the radiation beam they can determine directionality and velocity. These systems can be defeated in a few different ways: Jamming: Essentially, barraging the receiver looking for reflected energy with energy of the same type and frequency so that the system and its operators can't differentiate reflected energy from maliciously transmitted energy. This blinds the sensor, but it also lets everyone know they're there just not specifically where you are. It's also rather unsafe to do if the enemy has anti-radiation missiles with track-on-jam capability, which will simply pursue the largest local source of radiation in the relevant spectrum and destroy it. Destructive interference: As described above, broadcasting a targeted antiphase wave to cancel out the reflected energy's amplitude. Still the realm of fiction as far as we know. Passive absorption and deflection: What modern stealth aircraft use. The airframe is shaped in such a way that it minimizes the amount of the radiation beam's energy that's reflected back towards the sender, and also coated in a material that absorbs that particular type of radiation and converts it into another form. Radar absorbant material (RAM) is a paint that is a suspension of fine metallic particles that absorb radar waves and convert them into heat. Another approach to deflection is chaff, an explosive-driven cloud of reflective fragments that interfere with the path of the radiation beam and may temporarily obscure objects on the other side of the chaff. Anti-radiation munitions: Blow it up using missiles that home in on radiation sources. Also lets the enemy know you're there, and very hard to pull off if the enemy has anti-aircraft defenses. Passive sensors, like optical cameras, infrared cameras, gravity wave detectors, and fictional equivalents don't send out any kind of radiation. They're just waiting to soak up any radiation they encounter in the target spectrum. Their ranges are generally more limited because the range of the sensor is generally directly related to its physical size and the sensitivity may be tied to size and other conditions like how cool the sensor can be kept (as on some high-end infrared setups). There are really only two ways around them: Emission mitigation: Don't get caught emitting the type of radiation they're looking for. Whether this means keeping radars off, having a low vis paintjob, or finding ways to avoid letting off a lot of waste heat, the goal is to avoid tripping the sensor for as long as possible. Distraction: Flood the area with so many emission sources that the system can't discern the legitimate/threatening detections from the distractions. This isn't often done with optical or infrared, except in the form of flares as a way of evading infrared-guided missiles. The infrared sensor in the seeker head is simply looking for the hottest object around, so flares serve to distract it by offering a moving object that's emitting more infrared radiation than the engines of the target aircraft in the hopes that the seeker will pursue the flare instead.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Not an entirely unreasonable thought, since most sci-fi takes a more futuristic/less realistic approach to stealth. When most of us think "active stealth" we're thinking something like the thermoptic camo of Ghost in the Shell or the Predator movies if not something even more impressive like the eponymous "cloaking device" from Star Trek and so many other sci-fi titles that renders ships invisible to all forms of detection (and occasionally intangible in the bargain) through a variety of exotic means like gravitational lensing, dimension shifting, etc. Infrared can, to an extent, be manipulated the same way as the visible spectrum... but bending light waves out of the way of a fighter would require some pretty intense applications of gravitational force, which would probably run counter to the idea of remaining stealthy since ships are routinely scanning for dimensional faults and gravitational anomalies both because they can be damaging and because they can be precursors to a ship arriving by space fold, so it wouldn't be particularly useful for stealth purposes.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Which was based on the depiction in the Robotech series by Comico Comics that depicted two Macross-class SDFs standing back-to-back in the lake. The Comico Comics series did that as a way to rationalize/explain away some particularly problematic dialog in the Robotech TV series. Robotech mentions the SDF-2 at the same point the original Macross does, but proceeds to conflate the command center built inside the SDF-1 with the bridge of the SDF-2 thereafter including when the Macross it hit and is listing, and is referred to as if it were the SDF-2 in the final episode. It's one of the all-time Robotech plot holes, so much so that it had its own section in the robotech.com FAQ back in the day.
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