Seto Kaiba

Eh... given the "testimony" of an infinitely more reliable and straightforward Harmony Gold employee from around that same time, I don't think there's any room for doubt over the actual meaning behind Tommy's typically awkward and misleading choice of words. Tommy has always fallen back on awkwardly worded answers whenever he's put on the spot. He's a lousy public speaker and a worse liar, and that makes it pretty easy to find the truth buried in the waffling cr*p if you know not to trust him. I think Jason had it right when he said:

No... but coincidentally that is on the list of titles I was looking at watching in the near future. Hulu won't stop pestering me about it whenever I go there. Certainly a vehement denunciation of the second series...

Eh... sorry to say this, but that's just plain incorrect. In point of fact, it wasn't until after their legal scare tactics started that series of copyright confirmation lawsuits between Big West and Tatsunoko Pro. that Harmony Gold contacted Tatsunoko and discovered Tatsunoko was sitting on DYRL's merchandising rights, which they then licensed. The source of this anecdote was Tommy Yune himself, in one of the convention panel videos on YouTube. The reason they went back and got the rights to do merchandise for DYRL is obvious... they wanted to keep other companies from doing an end-run around all their bullsh*t by distributing DYRL VF-1 toys instead.

I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not... But yeah, it's like they say... "variety is the spice of life". It's not the first time I've overdosed on mecha shows either... back around January a few friends and I tried to marathon through the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise's Universal Century timeline. 'round about the time we got to Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, we were ready to quit because of the recurring themes of grimdark and whiny teenage boys. This time it was just being overcome by stock cliches common to almost every mecha show... Seitokai Yakuindomo (lit. "Student Council Staff Members") turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. It's kind of lewd, as comedies go, but it doesn't do it to excess and it's mainly a play on how hormonal high school kids generally have filthy minds than anything else.

Eh... really? I think that might be pushing it a bit, as I rather enjoyed The Big O II. Right now, I'm feeling kind of burned out on mecha shows. I'd only just finished re-watching Genesis Climber MOSPEADA when the first batch of decent-quality subs for Macross Frontier: the False Songstress came out, and after going through that five or six times at the behest of various people I'm kind of in the mood for a change. For now, I'm setting off in search of some lighthearted comedy. Kinda struck out with Fate/stay night - Unlimited Blade Works... anyone who wants to complain about the way they handled the pacing of the story in Macross Frontier: the False Songstress really ought to give the Unlimited Blade Works movie a try so they can see what it's like when you REALLY screw up a compilation movie. Unlimited Blade Works is a compilation movie so poorly put together that any viewer who hasn't played the game and/or seen the anime series has pretty much zero chance of understand what's going on. The story flows as smoothly and naturally as a river of bricks. Its unnerving habit of leaping from one major event to the next with no intermediate context leaves the whole affair feeling like you're watching a YouTube collection of video game cutscenes than a coherent movie. The shifts between scenes occur with an almost audible "clunk", and compressing seven days of events into two hours has the sun rising and setting so often in the void between scenes that you'd swear the days are at most fifteen minutes long. Great animation and action sequences, but about the only way to understand the film is to already know what's supposed to be going on. Right now, I'm finishing up a comedy called Seitokai Yakuindomo.

QFT Nah... it still has its uses... even if it is just repeating the same answers to the same questions every couple of months. Eh... if you take Harmony Gold's account into consideration, that's exactly what they say happened... that all the Macross licensing in the mid-90's slipped right by them uncontested because nobody was minding the store. I'm personally more inclined to think that they never honestly thought that their license to the original Macross show granted them rights to all subsequent productions... I've always suspected that it's a claim they made up on the fly to facilitate the legal scare tactics they later used on importers of Macross goods, and that they didn't expect anyone woul ever actually challenge it.

Yes, you do remember correctly... I didn't think we were counting ancillary stuff like that though. I'm not going to comment on them at length, because the ensuing rant will be worthy of a small novel, but I will say that in terms of their content it would be a stretch to call any of the five volumes an actual Macross II release.

Last time I checked, those two shows didn't even belong to the same Macross continuity... which isn't really the point I was making anyway. The point was that it was the creators of Macross II: Lovers Again (and its prequel games) that introduced those design innovations to Macross anywhere from 2-16 years before Kawamori used them in his designs. No... this is the pose from the TDK t-shirt, albeit recycled with the addition of an awkwardly-drawn Minmay so it could be reused as promotional art for their convention tour. No clue where Xx-SKULL-ONE-xX got his avatar from... I really wish we had official art for this one... I know someone out there (I think it was a MW member) did his own design for the VF-5 based on the Convair F2Y Sea Dart a while back. If we actually had anything on the VF-5, I might cast my vote for it too...

's just an occupational hazard of dealing with well-meaning Macross bookworms like me and sketchley... don't worry about it. Eh... I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. There's no denying that Macross II: Lovers Again and Macross 7 are both somewhat polarizing Macross titles and the subject of no small amount of contention, but most of the fans here on MacrossWorld don't raise a fuss about either when they're being talked about. No sense in letting the griping of a few rude folks ruin your enjoyment of any Macross title you like. Still, as something of a Macross II expert myself, I have to say a good deal of the complaints about the OVA I've run into tend to have their roots in misconceptions about the setting... and understandably so, since the pair of prequel games and most of the published materials explaining the setting never made it outside Japan. It also didn't help that the well-meaning licensees in the US (US Renditions, Palladium) resorted to wild guesses when the tiny fraction of the official information they had access to didn't tell them what they needed to know. Nah... no need, you've covered all the major ones from the main Macross continuity. That's plenty to work with right there. You had a reason for leaving the Macross II ones out, so I'll cast my vote for the Stonewell/Bellcom VF-4 Lightning III on the grounds of its unconventional airframe design, being the first to implement beam guns instead of a gunpod, having those semi-recessed missiles, and having three separate main engine systems, all of different types... (which isn't quite as messed up as noting that it's the only VF in all of Macross that has two completely different canon names, battroid modes, and transformations designed by two different people)

Hey... what gives? Where are the Macross II Valkyries? Some of the design innovations that show up in the main continuity's VFs first appeared on the fighters created for Macross II: Lovers Again and its videogame prequels... like a support armature in the cockpit to help pilots function better under high g-force loads, the ability to control multiple drone fighters from a single VF, mounting two gunpods on one VF (and using them both at the same time), using a beam rifle as a gunpod, making railguns standard equipment on VFs as gunpods and heavy cannons, mounting a second pair of reaction engines on a VF for improved performance, application of Zentradi overtechnology in a human-built VF, etc.. At the very least, the VF-2SS Valkyrie II and VA-1SS Metal Siren ought to have made the list, since they did almost all of those things first... (kudos for first beam rifle and first use of remote weapons on a VF goes to their predecessor, the VF-4ST Siren). (If they can't be added due to topic constraints, I'll cast my vote for the VF-4 as the first VF to mount beam weaponry in lieu of a gunpod, the first to have hull-conformal missiles, and the first to use more than one type of engine system... reaction engines, rockets, and ramjets.)

Not really... at least not as far as I can recall. Transformers was kind of scattered affair anyway, which made it rather hard to credit any one person or group of people for it entirely. It's not quite like Macross or Gundam or even Star Trek and Star Wars, where there was one person or one specific group of people who could be easily picked out as a very prominent figure in the creative process... (Kawamori, Tomino, Roddenberry, and Lucas respectively). I try very hard to forget him... You've known me for seven years and you can't spell my screen name right? Also, no... my avatar is EFGF Colonel Corematta from Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front.

Dude... if you're gonna drop acid before you post, at least give us a little warning. That's one bad trip you're on.

United States of America Super Dimension Fortress Macross - Japanese Audio / Subtitled (AnimEigo, 9 DVDs) - Dual Audio Ver. / Subtitled (ADV Films, 7 DVDs) - Aborted English Dub (Harmony Gold, VHS) - Aborted English Sub (Streamline, VHS) Macross II: Lovers Again - Dual Audio Ver. / Subtitled (Manga Ent., 1 DVD or VHS) - Translated Official Manga (Viz Media, 10 issues) - "Micron Conspiracy" Spinoff (Viz Media, 5 issues) Macross Plus - Dual Audio Ver. / Subtitled (Manga Ent., 2 DVD?) - Japanese Audio / Subtitled (Manga Ent, 1 DVD)

Yes, I do... ever since Tommy let slip that senior management put the brakes on Robotech: Shadow Rising while they wait for Warner to make a move, they've been under pressure to get something out there to convince the fans that their fears of a backslide into the release doldrums of the 90s are baseless. This fly-by-night attempt to put together a side story on the cheap is exactly the sort of thing I would expect them to do to produce the illusion of progress. Remember what they did back when Shadow Chronicles was delayed for the third or fourth time? They tried to distract the fans by trotting out a badly animated (and hilariously ill-timed) PSA supporting the United Nations. Even people who are ordinarily reliable can be wrong... or spreading misinformation, which Harmony Gold puts rather too much enthusiasm into.

Uh... yeah, let's put no faith in hearsay and "friend of a friend" tales. I'll admit it sounds very plausible, but until they actually announce it as such or it becomes obvious by other means (e.g. screen captures or trailers) then I think I'll hang onto my skepticism over the whole Love Live Alive dub hypothesis. It just doesn't jive with what's shown in the only piece of promotional material we've seen for it. If they were advertising Love Live Alive as an idiotic side story for Robotech, why advertise it with a picture of Sera carrying Invid weaponry? Just knowing who's left active in the online Robotech fanbase, there's going to be one hell of a fight over how that'd fit with the revamped continuity. Rhade would probably poo out a kidney trying to make a case for how they could fit it in. Name me one attempt to revive Robotech that HASN'T come off as at least a little bit desperate.

Likely... but since cost was apparently a significant factor in the decision to drop the VF-19 as the future main VF in favor of the VF-171, one has to wonder if it was only the more affluent colonies that bothered trying to equip their defense forces with VF-19s in large numbers. About the only time we see VF-19s operating in large numbers is around Earth in 2051. Why not? Well... there were the changes in tactical policy that occurred during the 2040s that put a greater emphasis on the use of unmanned fighters, and the emergence of a cheaper new main VF that was easier for pilots to handle, versatile, and cheaper to boot that showed up around the same time the VF-19 was starting to be adopted by various fleets. (The VF-171)

In keeping with your request, I will say that while I generally feel that subtitles are a better way to watch... I do not hate all dubbed anime, I respect the necessity of it in making shows accessible to a much wider audience. That said, I still felt that the ADV Films dub of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross show was one of the worst dub jobs I've ever seen. It's that kind of all-bad all-the-time that gets rather worrying after you see a few episodes. The bad casting decisions, lousy script, mispronunciations, and stilted performances leave the whole thing feeling almost like they were trying to do a bad job. I'm not gonna say any more about it now, because I prefer to pretend those discs don't have an English audio track.

If you're not getting your maximum daily value of dakka from that smaller capture, it comes in XL size too. Just looking at it, it looks like the new arm guns mounted on that remodeled König Monster are just a reuse of the rotary cannons off the existing Cheyenne CG model. We'll have to wait and see if they actually meant this new model of König Monster to have been modified with Cheyenne II parts, or if they were just borrowing the art to save time and didn't think anyone would notice. Clearly done up in Basara colors too... but as far as I'm aware there's been nothing to suggest we'll actually be getting an appearance from him. I'd say it's more likely that we've caught a glimpse of some crazy Fire Bomber fan's hobby machine... probably Ozma's. It's like that Hobby HiZack done up in the color scheme of the original Gundam in Char's Counterattack... only potentially more disturbing.

Now, I gotta ask... has it actually been confirmed that the so-called "side story" Tommy's working on is a dub of Genesis Climber MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive, or is that just your assumption? I'll admit that Harmony Gold doing a dub of Love Live Alive to make a quick buck and maintain the illusion of progress sounds plausible enough, but it isn't the only possible explanation... and it certainly doesn't explain that bizarre and anatomically improbable bit of promo art Tommy was showing around. Despite all the noise we've heard from the spin doctors at Harmony Gold about how this so-called side story is the final part of Carl Macek's vision for Robotech, I doubt he actually had much to do with it. Harmony Gold has been downright shameless in using the man's death to promote projects he had no involvement in, and I can't shake the feeling this was, at best, something he only mentioned in passing. It was announced that he'd only returned to Robotech in an advisory capacity, so I doubt Tommy's rampant ego would make way for doing what someone else wanted. Even if this side story project turns out to be a pathetic failure by the standards of the rest of the industry, you can bet they'll still laud it as a massive success. Harmony Gold sets the budgets and sales targets of Robotech projects absurdly low... that was they can call it a success even if the only people who buy it are the fans. If it really came down to an honest-to-goodness failure even the fans wouldn't buy into, they'd probably throw the blame on Carl's shoulders since he's not on payroll anymore and he's not exactly in a position to refute them. Okay... let's not fall into the trap of pretending that Carl Macek had some kind of preconceived creative vision when he made Robotech. It's simply a matter of record that the creative decisions that shat the Robotech TV series into being were generally made far above Macek's head and forced on the project by simple business necessity. The decision to combine Macross with other shows to get it long enough for networks to take an interest in it as a syndicated series was forced on them by Revell, and the choice of shows to add was made from only those shows that Harmony Gold had already licensed. The "creative process" of Robotech is really more the story of a man who just wanted to dub Super Dimension Fortress Macross and trying to make the best of a bad and rapidly deteriorating situation in the hopes of cashing in on a popular trend than any the story of someone struggling to carry out an original creative vision.

Granted, that's been a problem in the past... but for the last year or two we've had a bigger problem with crazy Robotech fans coming here just for this thread. Usually, the crazies from the Robotech fanbase who show up on MacrossWorld just for this thread fall into one of two basic flavors: drama queens looking for anything they can take offense to, and zealots who think criticizing the show or its "creators" is the very height of villainy. They're mercifully rare... but in some cases even a date with the banhammer can't keep them from coming here to "spy" on this thread. Hell, at least two of those padded-room tenants are still coming here on a fairly regular basis, even after being banned, just to see what I'm saying about Robotech. Between all the various nutjobs "spying" on me, there've probably been more Robotech podcasts about me and what I have to say than there are about Carl Macek and Tommy Yune put together. That's 90% of Harmony Gold's marketing strategy right there...

Eh... to be honest, we came to the correct conclusion ages ago. For the most part, the actual progress that's been made on that front is the discovery of additional evidence that supports our conclusion. It might not be entirely necessary, but it's nice to make sure everything is well-documented. To be honest... it's because some of the people here are still crazy or optimistic enough to hope that Harmony Gold might one day make an original Robotech title that doesn't completely suck. For the rest, the value in this thread is as a venue to vent about, or get a cheap laugh out of, the increasingly ridiculous antics of Robotech's more vocal proponents and supporters. Nah... they haven't fallen back on another round of witch hunting as a source of amusement just yet. I think they might have finally realized that they've run out of convenient targets for their hostility now that they've scourged the fans of the novels, comics, failed projects, and Japanese originals from their midst. Has that actually happened recently? I think the last one was Pizza the Hutt coming back under a thoroughly transparent alias to ask questions about the Macross licensing issue to settle a debate with another Robotech fan. Other than that, the last major visit was when Doug Bendo, Maverick_LSC, and MEMO1DOMINION all crashed this thread and received various punishments for acting like complete bellends.

Gubaba's gonna get caught on the technicality that Macross Generation is a radio show rather than a television show. It ran for ten episodes back in Spring 1997, and was set on Macross-9 in the year 2047.

Granted, it's be a nice theory of the animation or story supported it in any way... or at least if the animation of the OVA/movie didn't completely rule it out by showing us that the events of that flashback happened in quick succession. There's no real ambiguity there... not even the tiniest implication that there was any intention of sexual assault, let alone the actual act. No problem...

Huh... maybe that's what we should start calling them. It's certainly justified by their track record of truly epic failures. Presumably, because they're really only marketing their stuff to people who are already Robotech fans, and they have a VERY low opinion of the average Robotech fan's intelligence. Not without reason, mind you... No, he's not alone in that... I haven't seen Gurren Lagann yet either. I did toy with the idea of watching it when it showed up on Hulu, but it was the dubbed version and the dub was awful.

I know I'm a bit late in weighing in on this one, but better late than never... right? Personally, I don't think there's a single piece of evidence that could possibly support the conclusion that Guld raped, or was trying to rape, Myung. It's pretty much beyond dispute that Guld had one hell of a temper, and that at least part of his anger management problems had their roots in his hybrid physiology. The "complete" flashback we see when Guld fires on Isamu and Myung leaves no room for the rape hypothesis. Unless you're suggesting that Myung took the time to obligingly put her torn top and her pants back on after Guld finished and Isamu just sat there and watched after being punched once, then rape is right out. That it might be attempted rape is equally silly, for the same reasons. Isamu was right there and clearly still had has wits about him since he was able to rush to her aid immediately. The actual substance of Guld's final memory sequence there shows him seeing Isamu with Myung, completely losing his sh*t (out of jealousy, presumably), attacking Isamu first, then going after Myung, then seeing himself in the mirror, having an "oh sh*t" moment, then legging it. Hey, you're the one who posted about it first, referring to it as "the rape scene" as though there was no question that was what it was... I think you've long since forfeited the right to complain. To address your actual question, no... that we only ever see Guld's incomplete recollections of the event until he thinks he's killed Isamu would seem to indicate that he doesn't really remember what happened. It appeared to be a source of intense psychological trauma for him (enough that it consistently caused him problems), and that would seem to argue in favor of him blocking out significant portions of the memory as a coping mechanism. He seemed to genuinely think Isamu was the one responsible, which does seem to point towards him repressing all memory of his involvement in it. Given their behavior when discussing Myung later in life, I'd wager the motivation for Guld going ape sh*t and attacking Isamu and Myung was probably something along the lines of "You're my best friend, how could you screw around with the girl you know I like behind my back?!". After the fact, Guld did explicitly treat it like the two of them were competing over her (even referring to it as such at one point), and like he had "won".