Seto Kaiba

Hm... well, I'm not aware of a precise date for the repeal of the cybernetic implant ban on Macross Galaxy. Given evidence from the show and the contents of Pash! Animation File 02: Macross Frontier, I think it safe to say that it had to be sometime around 2047-2048. Grace O'Connor was already formulating her plan for her galaxy-wide implant zero-time fold network prior to the destruction of the SDFN-04 Global in 2048, and told Sheryl she'd had her deliberately infected with the v-type bacteria during the medical examination she received after Grace found her and took her in. As we see pictures of Sheryl in the Mao Nome's 2047 piece on the v-type infection, it seems reasonable enough to assume that Sheryl's mother was killed by the supporters of implant legalization at some point before November 2047. I don't recall precisely what the show's dialogue has to say about how recent the legalization is, since I don't have my Macross Frontier DVDs handy. I don't know what Kiss the Galaxy has to say about it either, so perhaps RedWolf could favor us with more from that.

Really... that was to be expected. After all, City-7 and Macross Frontier were democratic governments with elected leaders. It was established quite a while back that Macross Galaxy is not, it's a corporate operation. It's not at all unexpected that the fleet's corporation-style leadership would take pains to remove employees/citizens who are actively undermining its policies.

Eh... really, if your e-mails and paper letters are as full of the same misguided assumptions you've posted here and on your blog, they probably realized that you don't understand the situation at all and decided it would be best not to answer. No, they've met with Harmony Gold USA at least once since 2001 to discuss exporting the rest of Macross, and rejected Harmony Gold USA's terms. One can hardly blame them, since Harmony Gold USA's terms were almost extortion. Good grief, you really are clueless, aren't you? Carl Macek had nothing whatsoever to do with Robotech after the teaser trailer for Robotech 3000 was laughed out of the conventions it was shown at and he was replaced as Robotech's creative director by Tommy Yune. He basically had no say in anything Robotech related after the year 2000. Carl's death had almost no measureable effect on Robotech, except that he was no longer able to attend the disappointing and pathetic 25th anniversary convention tour. Have you ever stopped to consider that he isn't unsociable... that the problem is you and your complete failure to grasp the facts of this situation? Let me spell it out for you in very blunt terms: The company that is stopping the rest of Macross from being exported is Harmony Gold USA, not Big West. You are blaming the wrong company.

IIRC, that's not really new information... Pash! Animation File: Macross Frontier touches on that briefly, and says that Sheryl's mother was a casualty of the violence between supporters and opponents of implant technology.

Eh... really, OptimusX has it right, more or less. In practice, it seems that there have been three distinct entities bearing some permutation of the moniker "U.N. Government". Obviously, the first of these is the original U.N. Government that was drafted in 2000 and became reality in January 2001. It was this incarnation of the Earth U.N. Gov't that established the U.N. Forces and their space division... the U.N. Spacy. After the war ended, the old U.N. Government and its constituency were mostly dead, so the survivors established the little-n "new U.N. Government". One would assume, given the state that Earth's population was in and the what Kawamori had to say in the Otona Anime #9 interview, that it was more or less a re-establishment of the old U.N. Government system they'd had before... something roughly analogous to a strong central planetary (and later, interplanetary) government. In later years, humanity had spread out so far in the galaxy that it became impossible for the little-n "new U.N. Government" to unify its constituents, and it began to change into the big-n "New U.N. Government"... something more along the lines of the EU. Prior to that interview, it was generally assumed that the formation of the big-n New U.N. Government and the subsequent reorganization of the military stemmed from Wilbur Garland's 2051 coup attempt in Macross VF-X2. Now, it seems that's no longer the case... though it was probably a factor.

Um... while I don't recall precisely who it was who said that, I have a nagging feeling that it was Wanzerfan. Or, at the very least, she probably got that information from one of the more vocal Harmony Gold toadies... the only time I've ever seen a Harmony Gold employee actually directly talk about their negotiations with Big West was a brief discussion I had with Tommy Yune, and nothing was mentioned about Big West being intransigent regarding Macross licensing. That part seems to have been an additional interpretation injected onto Tommy's account by the likes of Maverick_LSC and MEMO1DOMINION, who wouldn't hesitate to embroider the story somewhat to absolve Harmony Gold of any blame and point the finger squarely at Big West. Eh... now that seems a bit farfetched. I have a hard time believing there could be a woman out there patient enough to deal with those two and not either bust out laughing at them or flee for the hills.

Uh... yeah, I'd say that's probably putting it mildly. Just given the content of the blog and website that yui1107 presented to us as part of her fan project, it would perhaps be more accurate to say that where the Macross licensing/rights issue is concerned... there's very little she does understand. Odds are, you're not half as lost as yui1107 is. She got some REAL bad information from somewhere.

Um... you do realize that almost nobody in Japan even knows what Robotech is, right? Because of the way that the rights to the original shows were drawn up, Harmony Gold can't legally distribute Robotech in Japan, except possibly Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles... though that presents unique problems since it draws heavily on the Genesis Climber Mospeada series. You won't find more than a handful of people in Japan who are even aware of Robotech, and the Robotech fans living in the rest of the world generally cannot speak or read Japanese. You've embarked on a fool's errand... even if you do get one of the maybe half-dozen Robotech fans who can speak or write fluently in Japanese, almost nobody in the Robotech fandom will be able to read what you produce. Yeah... really, you're not going to get anywhere with that. There are very few Robotech fans who can read and speak Japanese fluently, and there are even fewer Japanese Robotech fans. If you're really committed to doing this, then I suggest you start learning English and Spanish, since those are the languages of choice for most of the remaining Robotech fans. Either way, if you intend to motivate or force a settlement between Big West and Harmony Gold USA, then you're just wasting your time. If the "powers that be" at Big West haven't found sites like this one enough motivation to find a way to export the rest of Macross, the whining and protests of a very small group of Robotech fans is not even going to catch their attention. I don't think many Macross fans want to see Harmony Gold getting their hands on the any more Macross shows, and many Robotech fans are quite vocal about their desire to keep Robotech separate from the original Macross and its sequels.

Hmmmm... but where will I find a Charlton Heston mask at this time of year? No, as Robelwell202 said, there were some fairly significant and fundamental changes made to the story of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series in the process of adapting it into Robotech's "Macross Saga". All that nonsense about the ship being a one-of-a-kind personal ship of an alien super-scientist and being the only remaining source of magical flower fuel in the galaxy is a pretty significant departure from Macross, IMO, and to be blunt... that's just the tip of the iceberg. Eh... really, while there's no denying that destroying the Macross at the end of episode 36 is a reasonably large departure from the original Macross series, the tired line about it being back to back with a phantom SDF-2 in the lake is something Comico came up with for the comic books.

Nah... trademarks expire after a set period of time and have to be renewed, and you have to continue to actively use the trademark otherwise the protection'll lapse after a specific period (usually 5yr). IIRC, the usual period for trademark renewal is ten years, but an "Affidavit of Continuous Use" has to be filed about every five years too. (Bear ye in mind, this may work somewhat differently in other countries) If, for whatever reason, Harmony Gold were to simply stop actively using their Macross trademark for a period of about six years or more then the trademark protection would lapse. It's unlikely that this'll happen, as Harmony Gold seems to have fallen back on peddling Macross toys after the catastrophe of the Toynami MPC Alphas.

'kay Wanz... second piece of free advice from your ol' buddy: Just ignore it when they do stuff like that. Once you amend your posting practices to correct the issue I mentioned in my last piece of advice, they'll stop on their own and it'll be a non-issue. Rising to their bait just encourages them to keep doing it. On an unrelated note, a big thank you to Renato for taking the time to answer Yui's posts in a way that she can understand without the aid of mechanical translation. I'm sure that'll make things a lot easier on her as well. ^^ Oh, okay then... so, what you're saying here is that you feel the Robotech adaptation of Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (also known as "The Robotech Masters Saga") would be made more enjoyable for Robotech fans and more beneficial to the Robotech story as a whole if the "Robotech Masters Saga" was rewritten to make the setting for those 23 episodes a recently colonized planet rather than Earth? I do agree that making that change would make the Robotech "world" feel bigger. The problem is that it makes a lot of problems for the "New Generation Saga" story. If the war with the Robotech Masters didn't happen on the Earth and spread the Flowers of Life all over the planet, the Invid wouldn't find and invade Earth. It would make the "Robotech Masters Saga" slightly more coherent, but it would hurt the story of the "New Generation Saga" quite badly.

Oh... well, that goes a long way toward explaining why what Yui was saying didn't make a lick of sense. It was the lack of context from that discussion on RDF-HQ, plus an apparent language barrier, that rendered what Yui was trying to say almost unintelligible. Just given what I've read on the blog link she posted, it looks like she's one of those people who suffers from the common Robotech fan ailment of "Did-not-do-research-itis" and leapt quite energetically to a series of entirely incorrect conclusions regarding Big West's reasons for not distributing the rest of Macross outside Japan and, apparently, their complete lack of interest in remaking or finishing Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. Y'know... every now and again I hear that most Robotech fans out there are actually decent people who're just overly nostalgic. I would really like to believe that that's actually true... but almost all the Robotech fans I meet seem to be ignorant, crazy, or both. Of late, usually both. Huh... y'know, I wonder how Japanese law defines concepts like "torture" and "cruel and unusual punishment". It wouldn't be a stretch to classify having someone sing Reba West-as-Minmei's songs at you for hours at a go as either.

Okay... well, I guess that answers my question as to whether or not you were the clueless berk who posted all those unintelligible threads and broken links all over robotech.com in an effort to get attention. I honestly can't decide whether to label this as spam or trolling. Maybe both. In point of fact, you are completely wrong to accuse Big West of being negligent in attempting to export other Macross series. The truth of the matter is that Harmony Gold USA is preventing them from doing so by using a trademark they applied for after they accidentally started the series of lawsuits between Big West Advertising and Tatsunoko Productions. Harmony Gold USA is actively preventing companies in America from importing the other Macross series. Okay, yeah... you're implying that they're negligent for not remaking Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, a show so awful it even failed in Japan and was canceled before it could be finished. That's troll talk right there. You're saying they're negligent for not wasting their money remaking a show that the audiences hated back when it was new. Even Robotech fans hate the Robotech adaptation of Southern Cross. That they haven't tried remaking it is a sign of good business sense. No, that their attitude is like sakoku-style bigotry is based on a fundamentally false assumption. Harmony Gold USA is stopping Macross from being exported, not Big West Advertising. Harmony Gold USA wanted to establish a business relationship with Big West that was nothing less than extortion. Big West was right to say no. Okay, this makes it sound like you think you can intimidate Big West Advertising into doing what you want by fraudulently pretending to be associated with Harmony Gold USA. That crosses the line from just being a crazy fan to possibly getting you in trouble with the law.

Eh... as far as I'm aware, at no point has an official logo for Shinsei Industry or General Galaxy appeared in any unambiguously canon source or publication. That said, there is a small graphic of what a Shinsei Industry logo found on page 119 of the Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur. Considering the source, there's no real guarantee that it's official or in any way accurate, but at least it's something. The only other source of unofficial logos for fictional Macross companies I'm aware of is a model kit water-slide decal sheet for the unambiguously non-canon VF-19ES "Mystery Ship II"... an unofficial customization of the VF-19 dreamed up for an old issue of Model Graphix magazine.

Eh... really, deceit is about the only way the Robotech franchise can hang on to what little it has left in the way of a fan/consumer base. It's not like they're going to do themselves and, more importantly, the Robotech franchise's bottom line any favors by admitting that Robotech has nothing going on now or in the foreseeable future. That is, after all, NOT what the fans want to hear. It seems like a reasonably safe bet that Steve Yun, Tommy Yune, and Kevin McKeever want to keep their phony-baloney jobs; and a straightforward admission that Robotech is f*cked and they have no clue how to save it is a one-way ticket to humiliation and unemployment. For them to continue drawing a salary, they need to keep the loyal Robotech fans convinced that exciting new things are in the works and will be "coming soon". It certainly doesn't hurt their cause that those feeble reassurances are precisely the sort of thing the majority of the remaining Robotech fans want to hear. What they DON'T want to hear is Tommy confessing that they've spent the three years since Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles came out on DVD endlessly congratulating each other on a job well done, tossing cards into a hat, and debating which Robotech fan project to kill with a cease and desist notice next. Really... saying that Tommy's VF-13 Gamma fighter is "in keeping with" the original Mospeada designs might be a little too kind. Calling it "extremely derivative" might be a bit more accurate. Now, whether or not that's actually a point in its favor depends largely on whether or not you think Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles should have at least tried to do something new and original with the story instead of wallowing in the original Mospeada like an unusually malodorous quadriplegic pig in a mud puddle. Being firmly in the former camp, I'm quite fine with it not being animated... after all, there's precious little originality in what is basically a transformation capable, minimal redesign of Mospeada's AF-03 Combat.

'kay... I don't know if he's still alive or active in the Macross franchise, but is there a chance that "Dr. Chiba" might be Masahiro Chiba? Considering the source you mentioned was Great Mechanics DX, I'm assuming this revelation you've uncovered pertains to the mechanical designs and/or continuity of Macross, and mechanical design spec is his particular contribution to Macross. (Other than that, the only Dr. Chiba I can think of is the holder of a few patents on network server management software)

Dunno... my guess would be that you, like everyone else, know that any news of actual import is will show up in this thread long before it actually makes it to the front page news section on Robotech.com or RobotechX. Y'know, when I first saw it and realized it was the classic Spider-Man theme... I actually tried. There are a couple of lines in there that don't really scan, but on the whole it works pretty well. Shame it has to be devoted to bashing another MacrossWorld member.

*sigh* Fine... fine... I'll be his keeper for a while to give you a break, 'kay? 'kay dude... let's be serious here for a minute. What the f*ck? I have no idea how you even do this... how can a man be wrong this consistently? Now, we've known each other for a good long time, so let me offer you a piece of friendly advice: Rigorous fact-checking, like Sam Adams, is always a good decision. Before you click the "Add Reply" button, take a moment to make sure that what you're about to say is factually sound. I recommend you add Wikipedia, the Macross Compendium, and a few other resources to your browser's search bar to facilitate this. If you had checked beforehand, you might have noted that the Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles movie was animated by DR Movie, not Gonzo. Likewise, if you had taken the time to look up their Wikipedia or IMDB pages, you would have noted that the only hispanic member of the comedy act Cheech & Chong is Cheech Marin, his partner Tommy Chong is Canadian-American and of mixed Chinese and Scot-Irish heritage. Must've been a slow news day? Either way, it does feel a bit messed up for him to be there talking about it all as though he actually had any kind of involvement in its creation or editing.

Fantastic! Eh, they're about on the same level in terms of the quality of the writing... it's just that the SyFy originals almost certainly have a far bigger budget per made-for-TV movie than Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles did.

Okay... I have a question. Has anyone out there (apart from Saraphys) been following a series called Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari? I'm told it goes by the name of Saint Knight's Tale, and that it's supposed to be a spinoff of the Tenchi Muyo! OVA series in the same vein as Tenchi Muyo! GXP. Is this show actually worth a look?

We did... or at least, I thought we were just holding off until Macross Chronicle finished its print run. Either way, yeah...

Granted, that's a reasonably brief context-free summary of where Robotech was in the 90's. You can't, however, assume that Robotech fans are going to look at that period and what it produced logically and impartially. In the eyes of the majority, the only part of Robotech that actually matters is the animated series. Putting aside all the myriad criticisms of the quality and content of the novelizations and comic books, what the fans wanted most of all back then is more or less the same thing they want today: a continuation of the Robotech animated series. It should come as no surprise then, that their preoccupation with the animated series would lead them to think of the new animation-less 90's as a release drought. It should go without saying that Harmony Gold's decision to axe literally everything created in that period because its licensees did whatever they wanted hasn't helped the way the fans see that period with the benefit of hindsight. Naturally, the devoted Robotech fans could care less that Harmony Gold let Macross II: Lovers Again and Macross Plus slip past... after all, they're not Robotech. Just from my interactions with the old-timers and some of the more recent Robotech fans, I've gotten the distinct impression they see the 90's as a waste... where Harmony Gold wasn't doing anything, and the licensees were busy making Robotech titles that were nothing like "real Robotech" (meaning the animated series). Of course, we would be predisposed to see that period as something good... a time when Harmony Gold wasn't pretending they had a goddamn clue, and before they started using questionable legal tactics to cockblock the legitimate importation of Macross goods. Y'know... the "purist" Robotech fans who see the animation as the only part of Robotech worth paying attention to would probably take that statement in a wholly unironic sense and mean every word. For them, the 00's are giving them what they wanted... an animated direct continuation (however abortive) of the Robotech TV series, with the promise of more Robotech animation in the (vague) future and a possible live action movie. They ought to be over the moon about it all... and many of them are.

Nor did I... particularly since his supposed magnum opus, Robotech, failed to produce a viable sequel and was all but forgotten in the span of only a few short years. I guess he has a lasting influence as one of the most reviled figures in the industry, if nothing else. They named "Macekre" for him... and he even won the dubious moniker of "The Antichrist of Anime". Well, yes... the announcements for Shadow Chronicles, Shadow Rising, and the live action movie were about as close to formal announcements as Harmony Gold usually gets with its Robotech projects: Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles was announced at AnimeExpo 2004, Robotech: Shadow Rising was announced at the 2007 New York Comic-Con, and the announcement that Shadow Rising was on hold because of the live action movie was made during their panel at AnimeExpo 2009. The obvious answer to the question of why their announcements don't get well publicized is that Robotech is still a virtual nonentity in the anime industry. It's such a small, forgotten title that most people haven't heard of it, and most of those that have don't care. The announcements are so vague because they announce them VERY early in production... that way they can milk the project for several years worth of minor news pieces and leaks to stir up hype about it and keep the fanbase from thinking they might be slipping into another release drought. Because... as I've said... the goal isn't so much to announce that there's something on the way so much as it is to prove that they're actually doing something. One of the worst, if not the worst fear of any Robotech fan is the return of the decade long release drought in the 90's where bugger all was coming out except piss-weak comic books and novels. By trotting out these vague announcements, they can assure the loyal fans that they're still making progress... even if they're not. It's all about appearances.

Yeah... it looks like some very badly titled FAQs on Microsoft's Windows 7 website are hinting that as well... that so long as you have valid install media and a license key for that version of Windows (Home/Pro/Ultimate) you're allowed to go back and forth between 32bit and 64bit installations as you see fit... and the upgrade utility even includes tools to go from 32bit to 64bit as a no-activation upgrade instead of a clean install. Not a bad idea, but I'm not liking the upgrade process from Vista to 7... that could definitely have been designed better. Still, I'll ask the manufacturer if they sell their systems with a dual 32/64bit anytime upgrade DVD, since that'll sort any other issues I might have with the process. 7's a slick OS... shame about the install process tho.

Oh yeah, that's a tactful thing to say to someone you're asking for information... no way in hell I could possibly take offense over that. In all seriousness, I don't remember. Do you remember the brand of bread that was in the sandwich you had for lunch three months ago today? Probably not. Still, not being able to provide you with the answer you seek isn't sitting right with me, so I'm undertaking to dig through my chat logs, e-mails, and forum private messages looking for an answer for you. Eh... my guess would be around the time some public relations person at Harmony Gold decided that calling him that made him sound more impressive... as a more accurate description of his achievements and standing in the industry would make him sound singularly unimpressive and robbed the piece of much of the intended impact. It certainly wasn't the first time they stretched the truth past the point of absurdity in the name of promoting their hackneyed mess. Actually... to be fair, that isn't an original claim by any means. In fact, it looks like MEMO was paraphrasing some statements Carl Macek had made to similar effect (chiefly concerning the story) in a "fan interview" published on May 21st, 2001. You can find the pertinent quotations in part 2 of the 3-part piece... about two-thirds of the way down the page in response to a question by Robotech.com user Ein. For your convenience, here is the section MEMO was probably drawing on: Utter poppycock, of course... considering that this interview was conducted just a few years after the release of Macross Dynamite 7... and that the interim titles had been Macross II: Lovers Again, Macross Plus, and Macross 7... most of which place at least as much importance on music as the original series, and most substantially more so. ... as has been pointed out many a time before now, the vehement debates were a large part of what kept the online fandom chugging along in the period between the first major fansites popping up in the late 90's and the lukewarm reception of Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles in '06-'07. The animosity is practically a fundamental part of Robotech fandom... they kept themselves entertained for a decade or more squabbling over whether the series or the irreverent novelizations was the superior version. Unless things have really turned around since I was banned from Robotech.com, it was practically an article of faith among active Robotech fans that the novels were rubbish and the people who cited them in discussion were treading a thin line between "contributor" and "troll". Lamentably, some Robotech fans (like MEMO) see such conflicts as avenues for personal advancement and do what they can to ensure they continue unabated. Until those individuals are singled out and removed, or at least lose the ability to enforce their position by abuse of moderator power, the Robotech fanbase will never get the chance to straighten out its priorities. Which is, I think, at least part of why they react to discussion of Macross with such hostility. True, they've spent the last decade or so being told that Macross is inferior garbage fit only for "correction" and inclusion in Robotech. Still, it's no stretch to picture them as finding discussions of new and exciting things happening in Macross to be irritating... to the point of seeing it as implicit bragging... because of their frustration with the lack of similar movement from Harmony Gold. (The only analogy I can really think of for this is the irration you see in guys who've just broken up with their girlfriends and have to endure a friend waxing poetic about his new girlfriend. )