Seto Kaiba

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.

Oh yes... our wannabe film industry insider and expert, who thinks the very height of wit is a film about his drunk-ass friends breaking car windows in a junkyard. It is worth noting that he tried to ignore the fact that it was an early draft being shown around, not a completed script or anything close to it. Odds are it was the completed Lawrence Kasdan script from about two years ago, not something by Gough, Millar, and Smith. Either way, it's par for the course with more of Maverick and MEMO talking out of their asses in hopes of stirring up some enthusiasm. So far, the people who've responded seem to all be either the ones who're praying for ANYTHING new, and the ones who've been sucking up for aeons in hopes of getting a mod post. Sounds like a perfect fit for Robotech... he can handle the incredibly stupid dialogue, bad writing, and hackneyed premises because he's already used to that sort of thing. Exactly right... Robotech has been a dead property for so long, and fans have gotten so desperate for any news that will convince them the franchise hasn't finally up and died that any news is good news. For any rational reader, that Sylvain White was approached to direct speaks volumes about the low regard in which Warner holds Robotech. If they were serious about the movie and thought it would be a blockbuster, they would've approached candidates who've headed up highly profitable properties like James Cameron or Michael Bay. There's no doubt in my mind these people would be hailing Plan 9 from Outer Space as a misunderstood cinematic gem if Ed Wood had been approached to direct Robotech.

Oh, definitely... but let's remember that this mook hasn't signed on with the good ship Titanic Robotech, so he might not be joining the rest of the idiot brigade in their march to shame and oblivion. Hopefully accompanied by the rest of her... though in this age of implants, who can tell?

Another talentless hack potentially joins the Robotech live-action movie debacle... For those too lazy to look up his IMDB profile, Mr. Sylvain White's directorial credits include (or to be precise, consist entirely of) The Losers, Stomp the Yard, I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, Trois 3: the Escort, and Quiet. The highest rating any movie of his has received is a 5.3 out of a possible 10.

I'm not sure what scares me more... Exsedol's "woah, awesome!" face, or Kamjin's unnaturally wide grin.

Okay, last time I'll weigh in on this particular subject so I don't derail this thread too badly... Firstly, Macross is not Yamato, and Yamato is not Macross, so one holds true for one does not necessarily hold true for the other. Second, the description does, as you said, call it a "super dimension energy cannon". At no point are particles mentioned. The clear implication is that it is exactly what the description says... a cannon that fires super dimension energy. The Zentradi (and Meltrandi) equivalents are also specifically flagged as being energy beam cannons rather than particle beam cannons. On the occasions when particle beam cannons do crop up, they're usually identified with distinct terminology that separates them from other flavors of beam weapon, often up to identifying the particle involved (electrically-charged, electron, MDE, etc.). This would be a well-reasoned assertion were it not for the faulty basis... the VF-27's beam rifle is, under anti-Vajra spec, a heavy quantum reaction beam cannon, not a super dimension energy cannon. Different technology.

Not really, no... most of us here on MacrossWorld had committed to not release any scans from Macross Chronicle until the magazine is out of print. If you want, I can point you to where I get mine, and you can order your own copies. If you're just after previews, there are slightly larger preview images of select articles on the publisher's website: http://books.shopro.co.jp/macross/

Rather more than that, actually... virtually all of the background music on the radio in City-7 is all taken from the second volume of the Macross II OST. Just about anytime anyone turns on a radio and it isn't Fire Bomber, it's something from Macross II. One day, I'll have to watch my way through the series and identify when and what songs they're using in each episode. Still gotta watch the ep myself for this, so I'll probably catch up when we do the next ep. Okay... in the interest of keeping this short and sweet, this theory can be summed up succinctly in four words: "Did not do research". It's pretty much a given that the U.N. Spacy DOES know how to construct them properly, since they're the most ubiquitous beam weapons in the entire Macross universe. Even the Macross itself had eight scaled-down versions of its main gun mounted as anti-starship turrets, and the ARMDs each had five. By 2040 they could scale them down far enough to start mounting them on fighters... the YF-19 had a pair, and the VF-22S had three, two in the forearms and one in the head. If there is a reason for it beyond "rule of cool", that's DEFINITELY not it. Odds are it was simply a modularity thing... in the event the macross cannon was damaged or destroyed, repairing it or replacing it outright wouldn't involve a major overhaul on the rest of the ship too.

Granted, it is phenomenally stupid of the fans to hang on Harmony Gold's every word to convince themselves the franchise isn't dead, but you'll find that the fans who are still trying to pretend the franchise isn't dead are, as a rule, phenomenally stupid people. For the most vocal fans, levels of literacy seem to be inversely proportional to their faith in Harmony Gold's creative team. On the one end of the spectrum you've got JT, the reasonably intelligent and well-spoken everyman who knows only too well that Harmony Gold's creative team is marginally less competent than a troop of ten-thumbed howler monkeys suffering from paranoid dementia. On the other side, you've got your MEMOs, your Mavericks, and your dougbendos... people whose functional illiteracy and total inability to recognize simple patterns or comprehend basic logic leaves their posts unintelligible, and who genuinely think that Carl Macek and Tommy Yune are the greatest cinematic geniuses of the modern age. One day, in a brighter future than we have now, believing that the Robotech franchise is capable of producing quality products will be grounds for getting sectioned. Pretty much my take on things too... By any realistic standard, Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles was Harmony Gold's last real chance to breathe some life back into the Robotech franchise... and it failed miserably. It failed to even briefly capture the attention of the stated target audience, and only succeeded in irritating many of the more discerning fans with another low-quality false-start. Now that they've pinned all their hopes on the live-action movie, the odds of ever seeing Tommy continue his little fanwank called Shadow Chronicles are pretty slim. Honestly, I have to agree with HP on this note. That ship sailed a looooooooong time ago. In the two years since the announcement that Maguire Entertainment had acquired the rights to make a live-action Robotech movie, nothing has happened. Writers have come and gone, producers have come and then moved on to projects that actually stand a chance, and all without so much as a working draft of the script. I feel fairly safe in saying that it's a 99.9% chance that we won't see any kind of live-action Robotech movie unless it's a fan production. In the extremely unlikely event that Warner does decide to move forward with it, it will probably end up as a direct-to-DVD release... albeit one so bad as to make G-Saviour look good by comparison.

Yeah, you've got me there... thinking is definitely not the strong suit of your average Robotech fan. If it was, they wouldn't be Robotech fans. They'd have jumped ship to another franchise ages ago.

Um... with the possible exception of the Konig Monster, there aren't any combat mecha even close to being 40 meters tall. Also, as seen in Macross Plus, VFs are perfectly capable of "hitting the deck" in a firefight if the situation calls for it. I don't think it usually does, since the use of VFs in shootouts against non-flying targets doesn't seem t happen all that often, since the bulk of combat takes place in space, where the deck that one would normally hit is conspicuously absent. The whole argument that VFs would be horribly inefficient against human-scale infantry and armored vehicles is generally a valid one*, but we must remember that with very few exceptions (Cheyenne I) these robots weren't developed to fight humans, and any use against human targets was when circumstances made it unavoidable. The targets they were designed to fight were ten meter tall giants packed inside even larger bipedal walkers. They were designed to cope with an extraordinarily unconventional enemy... and the enemies they faced since then have been similarly unconventional... In terms of whether or not overtechnology could've improved existing conventional weapons platforms to a level where they'd be superior to a VF... there are some problems with the logic here from an in-universe standpoint. Jamming a set of reaction engines and energy converting armor onto a conventional fighter jet might not work out so well, since, as we have in the stats, energy demands of flight leave the energy converting armor running either at a very low level or not at all... thus eroding the potential benefits of its usage. Some of the equipment may simply be too bulky or suffer from other mechanical complications that would make it difficult to integrate into a tank or normal jet fighter... unless I've missed something MAJOR in Chronicle, we aren't exactly dealing with an alien version of Plug & Play. * For a show that plays this completely straight, see Full Metal Panic!, and particularly episodes 0 and 1 of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, wherein the existence of robots for combat use is justified by them being able to go into combat with the versatility of infantry, the firepower of a main battle tank, and the ability to operate effectively in circumstances and environments were doing the same job with a main battle tank would be anywhere from "hideously difficult" to "virtually impossible".