Seto Kaiba

Just got around to watching it myself, and I agree wholeheartedly... Gundam Unicorn is looking like some pretty good stuff already and we've only had the first episode. I'm hoping against hope that Banager (or however you spell it) is going to be less whiny than Camille, Judau, and Hathaway... but even if he is I suppose it works towards UC Gundam's big thing about "war is hell". This is definitely the same old-school UC feel that I've grown to miss... the last time I was this excited about a Gundam show I was waiting eagerly for the last couple episodes of MS Igloo.

Free hint... the behavior that's being commented on is tied directly into the alienation of fans caused by Harmony Gold's actions. If we commented on every little thing that these jackasses do, that's all this thread would be. But the few things that HAVE been mentioned ARE related to topics at hand (the UEG fiasco, the few interesting hints Sylvain White dropped unintentionally, etc).

Of course, that still doesn't do anybody any good, because when you get right down to it you're still trying to tell us to look the other way when MEMO starts in with his baiting and trolling routine. I must admit to being somewhat perplexed by your sudden desire to paint MEMO as a misunderstood nice guy, when you made a huge deal out of Pizza the Hutt's ill behavior even when he was over here trying to make amends, and as he himself said, a good portion of his belligerent behavior was something MEMO put him up to. Yes, to you. Let's sit back and recall that YOUR experience with MEMO is highly atypical, and that the number of people who've been backstabbed, manipulated, harassed, or otherwise wronged by MEMO is SIGNIFICANTLY greater than the number of people who've he "hasn't been bad" to. At least a few of them are people who routinely post in this thread. I will remind you again of the sheer hypocrisy of your attempts to defend MEMO, an unrepentant troll and frequent instigator of flame wars, while talking crap about Pizza the Hutt behind his back even after he came here, hat in hand, and tried to apologize for his past misdeeds. No, there is no reason to excuse MEMO's malicious behavior regardless of his motivations. Had the good people at UEG not spotted his attempts to frame me for Harmony Gold's misdeeds for the bullshit that it was, there's a very real chance they could have opted to pursue legal action against me for something I didn't do. That isn't boys-will-be-boys crap, that is GENUINE malice.

As far as this thread goes, you could make an excellent case for it being relevant solely on the grounds that their asinine behavior is about the only actual activity in the Robotech franchise. Well, there's just no account for taste. The vast majority of the people I know who've tried "talking" to MEMO usually end up quitting out of sheer frustration either because he's borderline unintelligible, or because he doesn't usually bother with little niceties like checking his facts before posting and thus spends a lot of time talking out of his ass. Which is incredibly ironic, since MEMO is frequently one of the major instigators trying to provoke fighting between the fans of Robotech and Macross. Just in the past few weeks he's tried several times to provoke hostility toward Macross fans by trying to blame me and several other people for the cease and desist order that got the Genesis project killed and the subsequent copyright claims against UEG's DeviantArt page. He was (and still is) supporting doug bendo's wonderfully hateful screeds too. You can lead by example all you like, but it won't really get you anywhere as long as there are people like MEMO who genuinely want to start fights for their own benefit. So, what you're saying is that we should excuse MEMO's trolling because you think it's all in fun? Sorry Gubaba, but that dog won't hunt. MEMO is one of the most malicious bellends in the Robotech fandom, and tolerating his jackass behavior is only going to encourage him to keep it up. Is that so? Now I'm the one finding mixed messages... you've spent several posts telling us that "MEMO's not a bad guy, honest!", and that we all need to overlook his trolling and other asinine behavior even though he's gleefully slandering several of us and trying rather hard to instigate fighting between Robotech and Macross fans. Sorry dude, but I'm going to have to call for a writ of "bullshit" on this.

Um... actually, if you go back and read the Otona Anime interview you'll find that the ban on implant technology had only recently been lifted as of the events of Macross Frontier, so it's extremely unlikely that use of implant technology is widespread outside of the corporate entity that is Macross Galaxy. Similarly, there is no guarantee that the population of Macross Galaxy is even aware of the conspiracy, since the colony block was left out of the battle. True, the military force stationed with the Macross Galaxy fleet appears to have bought into it, though it's also entirely possible that most or all of their fighters are unmanned and are being operated remotely... But there's no evidence to suggest that any other people had such a system installed... Brera is the ONLY example. So this theory of yours is baseless speculation. Um... try again, the Otona Anime interview would suggest otherwise, that the ban on implants extended well beyond the Macross Frontier colony fleet. If you're going to compose a theory, at least try to come up with one that is supported by the available facts... don't just speculate wildly.

Ooookay... you've officially stumped me. How the hell did you manage to come away with mixed signals after reading a post where I compared the experience of watching the fanatical Robotech fanboys at work to that of watching some monkeys out of their heads on psychoactive stimulants from behind the safety of a plexiglass partition? I'm seriously at a loss here dude... Despite some minor nostalgia I have with regard to the series, I have NO desire whatsoever to save Robotech... it's beyond saving. Similarly, I have no interest in attempting to give the franchise some small measure of dignity, since it has proven time and time again that it simply doesn't deserve any. I see it as a historical and legal curiosity, but nothing more. The show demonstrably has no future potential, and the show's "creative team" and fans are patently uninterested in doing anything original with it... therefore it has no value. You misspelled "our".

Nor do I... the Otona Anime interview mentions that Macross Galaxy is a corporate entity, and that cybernetics are legal there, but there's nothing about most of the population being cyborgs. As is typical for him, RedWolf is taking something within the series to mean something other than what is literally being said. Specifically, Sheryl's response to Also asking "isn't that [implant technology] illegal?", which was "It's common on Galaxy". While that does point to at least a decent percentage of the population having cybernetic implants, it doesn't mean the majority does. "Common" is not the same thing as "ubiquitous".

Oh yeah, someone did bring that particular episode to my attention not too long ago. It came up in a chat over on LU, and we all had a good long laugh at dougbendo's latest attempt to legitimize his entirely baseless claims of being the voice of the Robotech fandom and curry favor with MEMO and Harmony Gold by demonizing me like a Saturday morning cartoon show villain in the faint hope that it might somehow undermine my credibility. Personally, I find the whole thing HILARIOUS... they can't match me in a battle of wits, so the best they can do is try to tell all five of their listeners that I'm an evil man with all sorts of sinister connections who does horrible things to innocent people for the sheer joy of causing pain and suffering. It's like being one of the villains on Captain Planet, except I don't have to get my hands dirty doing any actual work, and I don't get beaten up by a little blue man in red underpants. In theory, a good suggestion... in practice it doesn't actually work very well. dougbendo's long since proved that he'll keep spreading hate and lies even if nobody listens. When you ignore him, he just escalates his behavior until he gets banned from wherever he was raging and storming, and then he goes somewhere else to rage about that. You're hoping in vain, my friend... our good pal doug has already done AN ENTIRE EPISODE about it. So, all the usual suspects... the mooks who're sucking Tommy's dick so hard in hopes of getting a job at Harmony Gold, insider info on the next "big thing", or more empty status promotions that Tommy's probably afraid it'll fall off. Charming. I'm sure Nenad'll be quite upset with it once he finds out, though unlike me there's a chance he might contact TalkShoe's administration and try to have the podcast removed for actionable defamation. Because, like it or not, these people are basically the cancer that is killing what's left of the Robotech franchise... an excellent example of what's wrong with the whole goddamn fandom... fanaticism, and not about the series or story, but a fanatical loyalty to the COMPANY that's been abusing it in hopes of being rewarded for all their witch-hunting and insane theories. It's like watching a bunch of deranged monkeys out of their minds on meth from the other side of a piece of bulletproof two-way glass. Oh, he did it long before it was pointed out. I think that was last week's show...

Ah, I'd totally forgotten about that... interesting find... that seems a LOT bigger than the standard issue QF-3000E though. That thing'd have to be almost as big as an ES-11D Cat's Eye. There is precedent for the TV ARMD and DYRL ARMD both being in service after Space War 1 though, so that's no surprise... Neat.

I found some more side-on and top-down VF-25 images for you in an issue of Model Graphix, I'll send you what I got when I catch you on MSN.

Unless they've changed their respective positions since last I "spoke" with them, their positions can best be described as varying degrees of self-delusion. I don't think they've ever stuck to one specific assertion... though they do both believe that Harmony Gold can use anything and everything in the original Macross series in any way they want. Maverick tended towards trying to twist whatever anyone was saying to him to fit his views, pointing to Sentinels as "proof" Harmony Gold can use the original Macross designs (even going so far as to deny that Carl Macek's Robocon 10 interview says what it literally says, that Harmony Gold had to make new designs because they couldn't use the original ones). MEMO is much more fixed in his ways... his favorite tactic is to cite badly-edited videos of Tommy dodging the question at conventions as proof positive that Harmony Gold can use Macross any way they want, and in a pinch he essentially asserts that Big West/Studio Nue's copyrights have no force outside of Japan (essentially, that international copyright law doesn't exist), that the court rulings say the opposite of what they do, and/or that Harmony Gold went back to Tatusnoko in 2001 and "expanded their rights" to Macross to include the original designs.

Oh, no... it's not considered a flash animation, but the way it's animated (particularly pan shots, single character focuses) comes off as being highly reminiscent of a high-end flash animation... it's kind of hard to describe.

Eh... not quite, no. Labeling the Sound Boosters as "drone craft much like Ghosts" carries the implication they they were designed for operation independent of the VFs to which they were attached. As you know full well, this simply isn't correct, since the Sound Boosters existed for one and only one purpose... expanding the capabilities of the sound energy system built into the VFs. They're no more a bunch of drones than the VF-25F's self-reattaching super parts are. Really? Got a volume and page number for that? I don't recall seeing anything like that, though it has been a long time since I read Macross 7 Trash.

I dunno, I think the "flash animation" remark and the fact that most of the others are live-action narrows the field a fair bit in my favor. I'm well aware of that... 's why the first thing I did was qualify my following remarks as being specific to the most recent and familiar modern anime title with the name "Saiyuki". At the moment, I just finished rewatching the original Fullmetal Alchemist series with my gf, and I'm mulling over what to watch next... it's either gonna be You're Under Arrest, which Talos has been on my case to watch, or Turn-A Gundam, since that's like the only Gundam show I've never seen before...

Well, there exists the slight chance that Chronicle will cover it in a future issue... right now I'm current up thru #44, and I haven't spotted any mention of it, even on the New Macross-class mechanic sheet.

Okay, I'm writing this assuming you're talking about Kazuya Minekura's Gensomaden Saiyuki, so if you're talking about a different one feel free to ignore me and go about your loathing uninterrupted. Really, this isn't an uncommon reaction to the first couple episodes of Saiyuki... there's no denying that they're just BAD. The animators went a little TOO far in pointing out that the youkai living in Shangri-La/Togenkyo are going berzerk and turning into murdering sociopaths, and missed the mark entirely, stopping somewhere in the general vicinity of "just plain nuts". It certainly doesn't help that the first couple episodes just had some staggeringly quality issues. The first disc definitely doesn't contain anything to impress (eps 1-5)... but it gets better as the show goes on. Gensomaden Saiyuki is very much a character-driven show, so if what you were hoping for was a series that sells itself primarily on fights you'll probably leave disappointed. The original author has always made a point of reminding the viewer/reader via the Merciful Goddess (usually) that the point of the story is the journey, not the destination, and that the growth of the characters is what really matters. She's got a fair point, since the series doesn't really get moving until they start digging into the pasts of the four principal characters and dragging out the past traumas that made them who they are. They start with Sanzo in ep6-7, and then break up the grimness with some comedy briefly before segueing to the rest on disks 3 and 4. The plot is a wee bit fractured since they ran out of manga around episode 26 and had to fill the second half with an original story arc... Homura's Rebellion... which is ironically where the series really shines. Beyond the original series, there's also the Gensomaden Saiyuki: Requiem movie, and two follow-up shows: Saiyuki Reload (an adaptation of the second half of the original Saiyuki manga, picking up right where ep25 of the original series left off) and Saiyuki Reload: Gunlock (which covers the Hazel arc of the Saiyuki Reload manga). (Since you asked, the original Gensomaden Saiyuki series ran from 2000 to 2001)

Granted, the most devoted of Tommy Yune's toadies are never going to accept the simple fact that Harmony Gold simply can't use the Macross characters, mecha, story, etc. in future Robotech works. No doubt they'll go on trying to convince everyone that Harmony Gold voluntarily opted not to use the familiar designs and mecha from the only part of Robotech that the fans care about. The real objective of interrupting their bizarre moon logic with nice big doses of truth and hard facts isn't to convince them that their views are wrong... it's to protect the average fan and casual reader from mistaking those idiots for credible sources of information.

Correction is necessarily if and only if you want to split hairs about the exact definition of intellectual property rights. In order to keep the summation of the situation as accessible to the average reader as humanly possible, I'm included to say that the present wording is more than adequate. Your badly-worded summary of the situation just makes things worse, since the copyrights involved vary in scope, with Tatsunoko's being EXTREMELY limited, and unless something has changed recently Tatsunoko doesn't have partial ownership of Harmony Gold's trademark on the "Macross" name and logo in the US. The summary that we have is correct in the parts that actually matter... ie, the rights that would allow usage of the copyrighted designs, concepts, characters, etc. are held by Big West/Studio Nue, not Tatsunoko or Harmony Gold. Unnecessary hair-splitting is only going to make things harder for those looking to get a straight answer as to whether or not Harmony Gold and/or Warner can use the story, characters, and mechanical designs of Macross in their pending projects.

As far as openly acknowledging it, they haven't recently said anything... the closest they've ever come to just flat out saying it was Carl Macek's Robocon 10 interview where he said straight up that the reason the Macross Saga characters had to be given new designs in Sentinels was because they couldn't use the original Mikimoto designs. It does sound like editorializing, but whoever's doing it is obviously smart enough to do some digging before reporting their findings.

Not that I'm aware of, sorry... I'm not aware of any line art or anything that covers it. Even the Macross Dynamite 7 portions of Macross Chronicle don't mention it. You'd think something like that would at least merit an extra report on the VT-1C page, but no such luck.

Talos just brought a very interesting article to my attention with regards to this whole Sylvain White business: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25574 Let me highlight the important part for you... it seems like not all of the folks out there are quite as dense as Harmony Gold would like them to be: Someone needs to send this to Maverick and MEMO, and make sure it gets posted in that wonderful "information" thread on RobotechX. They'll poo bricks. ;-)

Okay, what I want you to do is keep a video camera handy just in case they announce a director. I'll wager that the guys who run CollegeHumor would want a video like that. Quite... tho the knowledge that Harmony Gold has been working long and hard to cultivate that attitude by waxing poetic about how the visionary director Carl Macek "improved" the "flawed" original with his rewrites does go a long way toward eroding the ironic amusement value. Did you actually hear back from him? I haven't yet... and it's doing nothing for his credibility.

Um... the word you're looking for here is "rationale", which means something rather different from "rational". Unfortunately, no source I'm aware of provides a canon size for either... not even Macross Chronicle. All the same, assuming the art provided for the QF-2200D on Macross Zero UNS mechanic sheet 04A is accurate, then we can say with some certainty that the QF-2000D (and likely its cousin, the QF-2001) are in the 12-14 meter range size-wise. Not a great deal larger than the Ghost X-9 and its descendants, the QF-4000/AIF-7S and AIF-9V. Given what little we know, the QF-2001 and QF-2200 probably owe their larger size to the use of conventional turbofan jet engines and the resulting fuel storage requirements. Definitely a misguided view, since the Sound Booster systems are only useful when docked to a variable fighter with a sound energy system. Aside from the obvious element of drama, they only seem to be kept in reserve and deployed in mid-combat to keep them out of harm's way until the sound energy levels reach usable levels. They're not independent craft by any means... just a set of overblown FAST packs.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought he was about to offer me a choice between a red pill and a blue pill... All joking aside, being vague and secretive is not the way to get anyone here to take you seriously... least of all me. If a rumor comes from a credible source I'll point it out as being an item of interest, but vague conspiracy theories involving ill-defined shadowy machinations either for or against Robotech crop up so frequently in the Robotech fanbase that you'd swear they were giving them out as swag at every Harmony Gold convention panel. Now, I know this might be a novel idea, but if you have something private to tell me you could always use the e-mail and private message systems built right into the MacrossWorld forums... both of which are available in the "Contact Info" part of my profile, and the "send message" button in the drop-down menu attached to my screen name. Totally... this sounds hokey even compared to the crazy stuff that was coming out of the whole UEG fiasco... and I've long since become inured to the insanity that seems to be an intrinsic feature of the Robotech fanbase. Totally... Macross fandom comes with a LOT less drama, and a lot more actual substance.

An important distinction that Maverick_LSC and MEMO1DOMINION resolutely refuse to acknowledge in their many fruitless attempts to stir up something resembling enthusiasm for the lurching cinematic atrocity that is Robotech's live action movie project. Oh, there's no doubt about that... after all, these are the people who banned everyone intelligent enough to find fault with Shadow Chronicles because they thought Warner was going to take umbrage over it, and that those doing so were just out to cause "pain and suffering". Crazy rationales and crazier theories are their bread and butter. Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if that were true... Oh, I'll still rain on their parade, but I'll do it the way Maverick, MEMO, DougBendo, and WDKaiserV1 say I do everything... through my legions of brainwashed Macross purist minions who, like me, feed on the suffering of the innocent and the simple! No offense, but I find that EXTRAORDINARILY hard to believe... MEMO's been kissing Tommy's ass in hopes of getting a job at Harmony Gold for ages, but there's no indication that he's ever actually ACQUIRED a position there. If he had, he would never be able to keep quiet about it, just like McKeever wasn't when he first got hired in. He'd be shouting it from the rooftops like a six foot tall, tuna-wearing rooster. Now, as far as I can tell, THIS part is actually true... I've heard plenty of accounts from fans who've witnessed MEMO attempting to convince other fans that he's a Robotech.com administrator rather than just a simple moderator, making promises he can't keep in exchange for aid from gullible fans. I've heard from some folks that Alois Fisher is one such stooge, to whom MEMO reportedly promised a moderator position at Robotech.com in exchange for his help. Both Mav and MEMO have always tried to paint themselves as Harmony Gold insiders, and as near as anyone can tell, entirely without the actual connections to back it up. They just do it to intimidate fans who give a toss about that sort of thing, and to make their balls feel big (assuming Maverick's wife has returned his). Eh? You've lost me... Yeah, I would wonder that myself... it just doesn't sound in any way credible, even after all the seemingly outlandish claims about MEMO trying to blame me for the death of Robotech Genesis and the subsequent DeviantArt fiasco turned out to be true... Translation: "I can't back up what I said earlier". Dude, it's not exactly HARD to get in touch with these voice actors and whatnot... many of them will JUMP at the chance to be interviewed, because it means someone will actually notice them for once, when their very jobs as dub voice actors makes them entirely uninteresting to the American anime industry's core demographic. And, of course, Carl Macek and Tommy Yune both have such rampant egos that they'll talk to anybody so long as it means a chance to inflate their own sense of self-importance. Robotech is a nonentity, and those responsible for it desperately want to be acknowledged for what they fondly imagine is their genius.