Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13136

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    Dunno about that... at the very least, Macross Chronicle uses the SDF Macross series as the "correct" version of Space War 1 for continuity (timeline sheet) purposes, which is why I'd be inclined to place it in the "Official Setting" category.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    I'd agree with most of what's in here... though really, Tenjin's Valkyries books aren't narrative material, so I'd be disinclined to put them in with official setting materials like the shows, the canon games, the manga side stories, etc. that actually contain narratives or official material relevant to them (art books). Japanese sources appear to be treating Macross the Ride as canon, so I'd tentatively put that under official setting too. Canon titles from officially-recognized alternate universes (Macross II: Lovers Again and its prequels) belong under "Official Setting" as well. I'd put the manga retellings of certain portions of Macross in here... while the ones that don't mess with their parent title's setting and story go under Official Setting. So, I'd place Macross Dynamite 7: Mylene Beat here, and probably Macross the First as well. Stuff that's just blatant contradiction, like Macross VOXP, belongs with non-canon stuff like fan-fiction, kitbashes, etc. Japanese fans consistently list the Master File books and their unique variants as non-canon, and the books themselves explicitly rule themselves out of the Macross setting, and thus I'd lump them in with "other". I'd put novelizations under "Expanded Universe" with the caveat that they're quasi-recognized alternate universes of the shows and relevant only to themselves for the most part. Macross Hobby Handbook and such are clear instances of kitbashing, so I'd lump them with "other", same with Design Works (barring the noted exceptions in Chronicle), Macross 3D, and the Ace/Ultimate/Triangle games. I would also lump unofficial side stories and sequels (esp. those produced outside of Japan) like Macross II: the Micron Conspiracy and Macross II: the Role-Playing Game as "other" and non-canon, for the obvious reasons. Well, Kawamori once said something to the effect of neither DYRL nor the series was an 100% authentic representation of Space War 1, and that the differences depended on the format in which the story was told... Macross Chronicle used the TV series as the basis for its timeline, so I'd be biased towards that, but figure that Macross the First might enjoy the same "Schrodinger's canon" status as DYRL and the TV series.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Okay, I like these books as much as the next guy... getting deep into the nitty-gritty of the history of all of these planes and how they've been used over the years goes a long way towards making them feel more real. All the same, if the books don't jive with the confirmed-for-canon information and the books themselves say they aren't even part of the official Macross setting, then there's no room for debate... the Master File books are not canon. Even the Japanese fan-sites and wikipedia entries acknowledge that, and keep info from the Master File books and Master File-exclusive variants separate from official Macross setting variants and information. Yes, we may think the books are awesomesauce (I sure as hell do), but we shouldn't confuse matters by trying to force the material in those books into the official setting where its own authors say it doesn't belong. Just because Kawamori-sensei agreed to let them put his name on it in the non-specific capacity of "supervisor" doesn't mean the book's contents are canon either. Almost as a rule, SF series tech manuals aren't. Just look at the Star Trek: the Next Generation tech manual... written by Mike Okuda and Rick Sternbach, and it's absolutely not canon. (Yes, late post was late) I'll jump into the VT-1/VE-1 thing in just a bit... I loaned my copy of Space Wing to a friend, and he hasn't returned it yet, so I'll go have a look at sketchley's translation of that section.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    2059: Memories says he's part-Zentradi, the novels make him out to be part-Zolan... it's still kinda unclear IIRC.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, I doubt they'd even try... Harmony Gold can't even make Robotech a competitive title in America, where its primary fan constituency is supposedly located, they wouldn't stand a chance in Japan. Especially not since the best they've shown they can do is a short movie with an awful script and animation that would've been sub-par over a decade ago.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Dude... you'd have to be blind not to pick up on the complete lack of enthusiasm in that audience. 'course, you'd also have to be blind not to notice that, despite the caption, NOBODY in that meager audience is queuing up excitedly for Tommy's autograph either.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Personally, what I love about that picture is how it's captioned "Fans line up for autographs..." when the photo in question not only doesn't show anyone in that mostly-empty room queuing up for Tommy's autograph, it also shows an audience completely bereft of interest or excitement about what that two-bit hack has to say. Looks to me like another wonderful guest appearance by Tommy where most of the audience is just hoping to hold a good seat for the panel that has that room after him. Probably still in hiding, because that's clearly a picture of Speed Racer... this picture, to be precise.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    ... and nobody in the galaxy cares.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, yes... and that would make answering this a job for me. 's a question that, unfortunately, doesn't have a precise answer. It's worth noting that the VF-1 Valkyrie has a somewhat different development history in Macross II's continuity than it does in the main timeline. The variant seen in the TV series with the rounder hands and traditional HUD simply never existed, and the DYRL version is the way it always was. There's also some interesting shenanigans regarding the existence of the VF-1D and a reason for why the VF-1J was the only one to equip armored packs that's since been parroted by Master File's VF-1 Vol.2. It's also worth noting that the VF-1 variants you saw art for from Macross 2036 aren't just variants of the VF-1, but rather a major upgrade/modernization of the VF-1 platform kinda like the main continuity's VF-1X. Depending on whether you want to count the VF-1R/VF-1改 in with the original VF-1 or count it as a separate craft, the answer to your question's different. By all accounts, the VF-1R/VF-1改 entered service in the 2030s, and then presumably remained in service (along with a similarly-enhanced version of the VF-4 Siren) until the 2060s and the introduction of the VF-XX Zentradi Valkyrie. Yes and no... there's a "VF History" piece in B-Club magazine (Vol.79) that serves as an overview of the M2 parallel world continuity, and there was an inaccurate timeline sheet printed for Macross II in Chronicle, but I'm not really aware of any one source that completely chronicles the events between DYRL and Macross II in much detail. As you probably guessed, I've translated it myself, but my plans to get my Macross II site finished were derailed slightly by my day job and the influx of the new material in Chronicle and a few other rare sources I've since turned up.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Excellent question... we don't really have an answer.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Essentially, what Mari-ja posted is an appeal for signatures/support for a fan petition to have a direct sequel to Macross 7 made. Mari-ja has posted this exactly thing several times before, and gets pretty much the same "Say what?" and "meh" reaction every time.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Dunno... though if Milia's behavior in Macross 7 is anything to go by, she's probably already married off her other daughters and Mylene and Emilia slipped through the cracks. I'd be surprised if every member of Max and Milia's family's led the kind of exciting life that would throw them onto center stage in a Macross show. Maybe they just lead peaceful, giant robot-free lives on Earth or a colonized planet somewhere in the galaxy. On that note, their eldest daughter Komilia did get a starring role in one of the canon video games that belongs to the Macross II: Lovers Again parallel world continuity. She's the main (player) character in Macross 2036, and she also briefly appears in Macross: Eternal Love Song. Due to events playing out somewhat differently in DYRL, Komilia's date of birth in Macross II's timeline lands in 2019, making her 17 for her debut as a main character in Macross 2036. Here's her character design from the game (design by Haruhiko Mikimoto):
  13. Seto Kaiba
    This'll get merged into the newbie thread... but I'll have a go at it first. Uh... actually, the VF-4 does have a -S variant, it's just not an "elite" model. The main continuity's VF-4S was a Navy model, simplified for use as a dedicated atmospheric fighter and treated to prevent salt damage while it's operating as a carrier-based fighter. Now, on the other hand, Macross II's parallel world continuity has its own version of the VF-4 (the VF-4 Siren), and its own VF-4S. In that case, the VF-4S was a major upgrade from the VF-4, sporting an S-type head turret and optional gear including a massive beam rifle and honest-to-goodness funnels. As to why the main continuity's VF-4 Lightning III and the VF-11 Thunderbolt don't have a -S variant specialized as a command model, I don't think there's ever been an official reason. From a realistic standpoint, having such a "leader custom" is right out... it would create an extra burden on the maintenance teams, and it would make identifying officers easier for the enemy. If I had to guess, I'd say that it was probably for the sake of simplicity, since the VF-4 and VF-11 were both deployed to colony fleets, where having a bunch of different variants like that would likely be an unnecessary strain on the fleet's limited resources. You are, of course, right to assume that the VF-4 and VF-11 were mass-produced main VFs at one point or another, though the VF-4 shared that distinction with the VF-5000 for a time. Well... the Nightmare, Excalibur, and Messiah haven't really seen widespread deployment. The Nightmare was the special forces fighter of choice, and thus was only ever available in limited numbers anyway (718 built, IIRC). The brakes got put on the widespread adoption of the VF-19 for various reasons, and the VF-25's still in OPEVAL, so the -S variant might not make it through to the NUNS model... though at least in the VF-25S's case the -S variant offered some kind of advantage specific to its role as a command unit. All of the big, post-VF-1 mass production models to date in both of the Macross timelines have done without a "leader" variant... the Macross main continuity's VF-4, VF-11, and VF-171... and the M2 parallel world continuity's VF-4 and VF-2 families.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... to be honest, I doubt they seriously expect anyone outside of the Robotech fanbase to believe them when they talk about how popular and successful Robotech is. The only thing they'll accomplish by telling a thoroughly obvious lie like that is to reassure the die-hard fanatics in the Robotech fanbase who want to believe they aren't wasting their time on a franchise that shat itself and died in the late 80's. They'll cheerfully run off at the mouth about how popular and successful Robotech is if you give them the chance, but ask them to quantify the alleged success of the franchise and they clam right up. It's just part of their usual marketing strategy... being able to claim that their latest DVD re-release or toy was wildly successful sounds great on the convention tour, but only when it's bereft of context. Once you know the reason they can claim success is because the bar was set so low that it's a trip hazard in Satan's wine cellar, it loses a bit of its oomph as "proof" that Robotech still matters. Right now, Macross is wildly successful in Japan... and it enjoys a fairly sizable "underground" following as the result of Harmony Gold's attempts to keep it out of the states. Unfortunately, because the Macross fandom is forced to rely on fansubs, it's hard to get an accurate measure of precisely how big the fandom is. There is at least some indication that Macross probably has the bigger fandom in that Robotech isn't exactly regarded well in most mecha circles, and that Macross Frontier was one of the biggest torrent titles of '08-'09. If you go by online activity, then Macross is a worldwide thing, while the Robotech phenomenon is more-or-less confined to small-ish groups of fans in North and Central America.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Hm... let's see: My Zune HD A Thousand Sons (by Graham McNeill) Prospero Burns (by Dan Abnett) Last month's issue of White Dwarf (Skaven battle report & Dark Eldar tactics) My girlfriend's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a battered old alarm clock
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that Kevin is going to continue telling Robotech fans that things are going great for the franchise right up to the point where Tommy gets sick of his toadying and has him fired, or the franchise finally collapses under the weight of all the bullshit and broken promises it's accumulated over the years. Mind you, McKeever's just doing what comes naturally... being disingenuous and/or outright deceitful isn't just in his job description, it's an integral part of the Robotech creative process. In the end, Robotech.com is going to just fall apart when the community shrinks below the handful of people that currently visit the site. Their draconian Terms of Use and asinine moderator behavior have just accelerated the process, it was always going to happen.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, granted... but on most official fan community sites, the management has at least enough common sense to realize that telling the fans to their faces that you only care about their money and that you'll never do anything for them unless it directly results in you making a profit is probably a really bad idea. Now, I've never worked in a marketing department, but I'm pretty sure telling your customer base you think of them as entranced magpies with wallets isn't going to go over well no matter how you spin it. If you maintain a good relationship with your customer base and throw them the occasional bone at your own expense, they'll be a lot less likely to desert you for someone else when you finally do screw up royally... and this is something most franchise owners get, but Harmony Gold has never really understood. Even though the stuff that isn't directly related to "Buy our sh*t!" on a franchise's official website isn't going to generate revenue in and of itself, it keeps the fans active and happy. It gives them something to talk about in the forums, and it makes the fans feel like the company actually cares and isn't just trying to shake them down for a quick buck. That happy-go-lucky feeling makes the fans that much more likely to pony up when the store rolls out a new product. Keeping the fans happy is a long-term investment in your entertainment franchise... though I suppose since Harmony Gold has more or less eliminated everyone who wasn't a fanatic, they probably don't think it's necessary anymore.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Harmony Gold's staff is full of excuses for why the franchise's official website is never updated... and they shed some light on how the Robotech franchise is run. On a couple of occasions, the staff has been surprisingly (and unintentionally, no doubt) straightforward about why they never do anything with the franchise's website. The reason given by Kevin McKeever when he was asked why they've never bothered to update the actual content of the franchise's official website was that the "powers that be" only care about the store. Since robotech.com doesn't bring in any money via its community section or the Infopedia, they don't see those parts of the site as having any importance. On robotech.com, the store isn't there for the sake of the community section, it's that the community section is there solely for the sake of the store. As to why there's no news, they claim that the front page of the site can only be updated after news pieces go through a time-consuming and unnecessarily laborious approvals process. The lack of news is a mixture of the company's own bureaucratic intransigence and having nothing that's actually newsworthy. WB has apparently forbidden them from saying what little they know about the live action movie, and because Shadow Rising is on hold and they have no other prospects, there's just no news to talk about. McKeever even claims they got the Twitter feed so they could sidestep the approvals process to get things on the front page of robotech.com. XD As for the absence of "Rick Hunter"... they're not letting an inability to use the original character and mechanical designs stop them from trying to continue the ongoing story of Rick Hunter... it's just that they gave him a new face so the fans just have to take their word for it that it's the same guy:
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... it wasn't always thus. It's just that so many of the remaining Robotech fans have spent their whole lives trying to justify their continued faith in the Robotech franchise, and latched onto Harmony Gold's claims that the Robotech TV series was a genre-defying masterpiece that created the anime industry in North America because it's easier than admitting they've wasted twenty-five years obsessing over a franchise that flopped back in the 80's. Harmony Gold encourages that behavior, because it's good for business in the short term. Those fanatic fans are blind to Robotech's problems and are eager to prove to themselves that the franchise is still alive and viable, so they'll buy ANYTHING with the Robotech name on it. Admittedly, since I was a Johnny-come-lately to the Robotech franchise when I first joined Robotech.com in '03, that's the only Robotech fandom I've ever known. I think I was probably one of the last rationally-minded fans purged from the fandom in the name of protecting Tommy's fragile feelings. Nowadays, if you visit a RT fansite and you aren't one of the nutjobs who thinks Robotech is the best thing EVER, you're the enemy. Oh, of course... and since '06, the fanatics have been doing their best to purge anyone who spots Robotech for the long-dead mess it is from the fandom so they won't bother "the real fans". The minute anyone starts to ask uncomfortable questions like "Can we see some proof you're working on Shadow Rising?" or "Is there any actual news about the live action movie?" then they're marked for a ban on robotech.com and robotechx.com and then told they're a "Macross purist troll" and kicked out. But so long as certain individuals think they have something to gain from supporting Tommy, any criticism of him will get a Robotech fan labeled persona non grata... Hehe... I find this almost painfully ironic. The "true savior" of Robotech was the one man who'd had even less success than Tommy at inflicting new material on the fandom. Talk about the blind leading the blind... Because expanding their interests outwards would entail admitting that Robotech isn't the be-all end-all of the anime industry, and the uncomfortable realization that nobody outside the fandom gives a damn about it. Just think of it as Warner Bros proactively protecting audiences nationwide from Robotech... though the lack of any potential for rebooting Robotech can't be blamed entirely on Tommy. In order to get a series out there, the idiots at Harmony Gold would need to get a network to give them an episode commitment first, and the morons that've been tasked with running Robotech (Carl and Tommy) have so thoroughly destroyed its reputation that no self-respecting network will touch it, and even Canada's SPACE channel stuffed it into a timeslot that would have been dismal even for an infomercial. Since no network will touch Robotech, and even Tommy admits they have trouble getting investors in Robotech projects, the chances of a reboot are zero. You can probably credit Carl for this more than Tommy...
  20. Seto Kaiba
    It shows up twice in the 2nd Macross the Ride piece Graham posted in this thread (February issue), on half of the title spread (behind the VF-19ACTIVE) and on p143 right below the diagram of the race track. It's labeled VF-19A, and it's clearly got the pre-redesign body.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, the Shadow Chronicles movie had dialogue... it's just that they put a lot of effort into hiding it behind copious and completely tasteless fanservice so nobody would notice it's mostly a mad lib made up of Star Trek cliches. In the end, I guess they were crossing their fingers and hoping their target audience of long-time Robotech fanboys and hormonal teenage anime hobbyists would be too concussed by all the cleavage on display to notice that the bulk of the dialogue and all of the character interactions are stilted, lifeless, and completely unnatural. Yup... you just have to remember that Robotech's Minmei had the attention span of a gnat hopped up on Red Bull and an IQ to match... at least until the Sentinels comics, when they made her into the ship's bicycle instead.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Not quite... if I'm reading this right, he started riding in the back seat of his father's VT-1 at age 3, but he didn't start learning to fly it until he was 8, which is still crazy early. It does appear, from what's written about him on Dengeki Hobby's website, that he has a cybernetically-reinforced body.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, I agree wholeheartedly... but that won't stop some Robotech fans from getting bent out of shape over this interview because Richard Epcar didn't act as though voicing a couple of minor supporting characters in a series most anime fans don't even remember was the greatest achievement of his career. To be honest, I can kind of see why he'd want to escape association with it. Robotech's track record of embarrassing failure is just part of the problem, there's also the fact that they reportedly contracted him for 3 movies and then suspended it all in medias res and told him "Don't call us, we'll call you". Yeah, I've noticed that too. On the one hand, you've got Robotech fans acting as though Robotech is the single most celebrated anime series of all time, and on the other those same fans are hailing it as the single greatest achievement of American/Korean animated SF. It's bad enough they've obviously lost their grip on reality, but the crazier ones put the cherry on it by arguing that all anime is inferior trash, that the originals have no value whatsoever outside of their use in Robotech, and that Macross's creators are breathlessly in awe of Robotech's success and desperately trying to imitate it wherever they can. They've spent so long lavishing the stagnant Robotech franchise with affection (via cash) and trying to convince themselves that Robotech is still worthwhile that they can't get by without the wall of delusions they've built around the fandom to protect it. Robotech isn't what these people are really defending with their asinine behavior... what they're trying so hard to protect is their rose-tinted childhood memories of the show. Now that everyone knows what Robotech really is, and the franchise is a stagnant, failed mess, they work themselves into a fury defending their rosy memories of the show to avoid having to acknowledge that the show they loved back in the day really isn't all that good or memorable. Eech... so it's the JAG of anime.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Heh... nice. I just got done reading a funny little thread over on Robotech.com, where the populace is venting its outrage that Ricard Epcar's recent interview failed to mention his roles in Robotech in favor of Daisuke Jigen (Lupin III), Batou (Ghost in the Shell), and his roles in Digimon. They won't even post a link to the interview for fear that it will "corrupt" Robotech fans. The OP was positively beside himself that they said nothing about "his most-well-known roles" as Ben Dixon and Lunk.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    True... and if Macross 7 is anything to go by, there are already quite a few hobbyists and the families of Space War 1 veterans out there with vintage VF-1's that they've somehow kept in good working order. There's also one example in Macross VF-X2, where the head of the Critical Path corporation (Manfred Brando) was somehow able to buy his own VF-17S Nightmare. Thing is, the bit on Dengeki Hobby's website seems to imply that there weren't that many SV-51/52 airframes that survived the war, so it's probably unlikely that their numbers went up by much... maybe a custom job for serious hobbyists or something? Yeah, but like Manfred Brando, Richard Bilra had ownership of a interplanetary megacorporation fattening up his wallet.
×
×
  • Create New...