Seto Kaiba

Totally, I just had another one of those moments earlier when I noticed the guy who voices Shibas Scotch in Sorcerer on the Rocks also voiced Watanabe in Excel Saga and a few characters in Saiyuki. Really? I've had to look long and hard to find Lupin III... for the longest time the only way to see it was to catch it on [adult swim] at like 3am. I'm really enjoying it, despite its age... I'm into episode 5 (of 155) from the second series, and while the animation quality isn't an enormous improvement, the writing relies a lot less on cliches and plays for a more funny angle instead of a semi-serious narrative about a thief. Pure weapons-grade unobtainium, just like every other giant robot and its giant robot dog. This shouldn't come as any real surprise, as just about anything that defies conventional technology in sci-fi or mecha shows is made of fictional supermetals. It's a convention nearly as old as sci-fi itself. Whatever the armor of the EVAs is made out of, it's VERY strong, able to withstand pummeling from other EVA units, and even a high-energy particle beam-like attack from one particular Angel. It's not a "field system", it's a biological/metaphysical function of the EVA units and their pilots, a physical manifestation of the figurative wall that separates a person's identify from other egos and external reality which permits the existence of individuals. Every living being has an AT field, though I'm not sure if it's ever clarified whether the pilot is tapping into the EVA's innate AT field, or the EVA's biology is being used to amplify the pilot's own AT field. Totally... ROFLMFAO!

Well, he did cover the Majestic Stand in Books XI and XII, so it's not like he stopped to cop out on telling important parts of the main story. Dunno, maybe he's just having a break after working on it since 1986.

Really, I think it's not that they don't understand what the term "Macross Purist" should mean, but rather that the people who bandy the term about like it's an insult are the ones who subscribe to the view that Macross fandom and Robotech fandom are, or at least ought to be, mutually exclusive. It should come as no surprise that it's the few fans who hold that narrow-minded, dogmatic, generally ignorant view that so often give Robotech a bad name worse name than its "creators" have already given it. Generally speaking, the Robotech fans who want to point fingers and accuse people of being "Macross Purists" are Robotech Purists, the fans who consider the "original 85" episodes of Robotech the be-all end-all of RT and anime in general, and the members of the lunatic fringe who want to banish anyone who doesn't share their views. On a Robotech board, the accusation that someone is a "Macross Purist" is a roundabout way of trying to invalidate what someone else has said without having to actually refute their arguments. For the accusing Robotech fan, calling someone a "Macross Purist" carries the following implicit ad hominem argument: No real fan of Robotech would disagree with my argument. You are disagreeing with my argument. Therefore, you are not a real Robotech fan. In this way, the accusation that someone is a "Macross Purist" is meant to imply that the logic of the accuser's argument really is sound, and that the only reason the accused is disagreeing is because he/she is a Macross fan who hates Robotech and just wants to cause trouble. Most people accept this sort of assertion as ridiculous on its face, but that doesn't stop idiots like Pizza the Hutt and Doug Bendo from trying to use it as though it were a "get out of argument free" card that excuses them from having to actually address the arguments of others and concede points when doing so would be inconvenient to what they want to believe.

Oh, there are still a few Robotech fans out there who are capable of forming a cogent counterargument and clearly expressing it in a forum post. The problem is that those few intelligent, well-informed people are a small and shrinking minority in the Robotech fanbase because they know enough to see that Robotech is going nowhere, and by their very nature they distrust the Harmony Gold hype machine. It's no surprise that it's next to impossible to get even an approximation of intelligent discussion from "mainstream" Robotech fans now that the fanbase is largely made up of Robotech purists like MEMO who can't even remember what saga "Dana Sterling" is from, and card-carrying lunatic fringe nutjobs like Doug Bendo who think that their opinion is law and desperately want someone to take them seriously. I guess it's no surprise that my own particular brand of well-reasoned, research-supported arguments would be unassailable to most of them... after all, the Robotech fanbase is in the hands of people who couldn't spell their own names if you handed them the pen and wrote half the letters for them. It's not JUST me... everyone who disagrees with ignorant, self-appointed "authorities" like MEMO and Doug Bendo is labeled a Macross Purist or Macross Groupie regardless of whether or not they've even SEEN Macross, which has led to many of the remaining intelligent Robotech fans being labeled Macross Purists by the idiot brigade and lately, being called my disciples, flunkies, yes-men, etc. Robotech is a franchise that survives primarily on the ignorance of its fans, so I guess it's no surprise that that ignorance extends to their knowledge of Robotech itself. Most of the threads on Robotech.com are WORSE than the newbie thread, because without the few well-informed fans most information request threads and debates have turned into excuses for wanna-be experts to try and bullshit their way into notoriety. It's not just that they keep having to rehash basic things, it's that they many of them aren't even aware of those basic things. That's certainly likely... just look at what Harmony Gold's doing for the 25th... NOTHING. It's MEMO asking, so the first logical assumption to make is that he wants to use it to claim he has clout over here on MacrossWorld so he can continue pretending people give a damn about his misinformed, misguided opinions, and so he can continue hoping that Harmony Gold will give him a job if he keeps working for them for free. Nope... though I can't shake the feeling that I've seen that guy somewhere before. He looks kinda like a professor I know. My ex's costume was Ishtar's emulator suit, which she made from a sheer body stocking and a black swimsuit. I've been trying to get her to let me scan and upload some photos of it, but she's always put the kibosh on it because she's camera-shy and the suit leaves NOTHING to the imagination.

Honestly, I think that Five Star Stories is, by design, a story that can never really be finished. The world Nagano created spans so many different settings and such a vast amount of time that it's really a vast stage on which an infinite number of different stories can potentially be played out. It's called the Five Star Stories for good reason, there is no one story that defines the entire series. I think that's also why the "main" story of Amaterasu is broken up in segments told in anachronic order and interspersed with other stories, so the author could explore multiple aspects of the varied worlds and eras of the Joker Galaxy without having to lock himself into one story at a time. It not only keeps the "main" story of Amaterasu fresh and reasonably interesting, it probably helps Nagano stay interested in the project and help him avoid writing the story into a corner. That he hasn't done much with it lately is a bit disappointing, but it doesn't really affect the integrity of the rest of the stories.

Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are by this whole turn of affairs. Some members of the Robotech lunatic fringe got it into their heads that I was the leader of some kind of cabal of Macross purists, and then they changed their mind and said Macross fandom was a cult and I'm its leader. Now they're accusing me of being the sinister force behind this new Robotech podcast called The Protoculture Times. Apparently my influence is such that I can lead the host around by the nose and make him say whatever I want, despite the fact that this guy's apparently on fairly good terms with some of the biggest non-idiot names in the Robotech fandom. I can only guess why, but the Robotech die-hards clearly think I have ridiculous amounts of clout. Well... in order for the RT boards to produce nonsense for us to laugh at they'd have to have active members, and those are in extremely short supply now that most Robotech fansite admins go ban-crazy at the first sign of anything that even remotely resembles a dissenting opinion. Now all that's really left of the online Robotech fanbase are the blind faithful who'll believe any damn thing Harmony Gold tells them and buy anything so long as the word "Robotech" is written on the box, the members of the lunatic fringe who genuinely believe Robotech is wildly popular and lash out at anything that threatens to taint their rose-tinted childhood memories of Robotech, and a few decent people with open minds and realistic views of the franchise and its creators who are being driven away from the fandom by the idiot behavior of the other two groups. Once a Robotech fansite has whittled its population down to just those people who all share the same views, they become very quiet because they have nothing to talk about... hence the lack of nonsense to laugh at. Something to tie it closed? Not bigger than 16mm... after all, that's the size of the film stock the show was recorded on.

While I was sorting out my big pile of translations for my Macross II project, I remembered something. There was at least one article in the old Mecha Press magazine that gave some fairly explicit tech specs on select Mortar Headds and the weapons they use, and not just the ones in the movie either. I've got some kinda crummy partial scans from one of those old issues that show stats for the original Knight of Gold and the Siren-based Rainbow Boowrays the Fillmore Empire used while disguised as mercenaries for Hagooda during the Colus-Hagooda War in Books II and III. Dunno if they cover anything else, but it might be worth looking into if you're desperate for info.

The episode "Evolutionary War", where Mentok messes with the guy carving the Ten Commandments in front of the courthouse. Par for the course in screwing the fanbase over. In amusing news... it looks like Bendo registered here about half an hour ago.

Yeah, she had my full attention when she was wearing it too... no matter how much I tried to bargain she'd never let me post pics of her wearing it on MW or even my own site. She's camera-shy. You can try nagging her yourself, but I don't know if it'll accomplish anything. Are they still stringin' his partner Seifrietti Weisse along with promises that they'll approve it eventually? Well, just about nobody worth a damn wastes their time on RT.com anymore, and RTX is quickly going the same way now that MEMO1DOMINION has banned a bunch of people, announced his intention to unban Doug Bendo once he gets over this perceived podcast war with JT, and appointed Maverick_LSC a moderator on RobotechX. The last bastion of sensible Robotech fans is effectively dead, it's all in the hands of the trolls, the purists, and the Harmony Gold bootlickers now. A fair few of the other contributors there have voluntarily left the site after seeing MEMO's latest efforts to turn it into Diet RT.com.

Well, to be frank the complacency of the U.N. Spacy in Macross II was more tactical than technological. As I pointed out in that other Macross II thread, the perception that there was little-to-no technological advancement over the 80 years between Space War 1 and the Mardook invasion is entirely the result of shoddy or nonexistent translation of official publications, and the enormous amount of misinformation in the Macross II RPG by Palladium Books. Given what we see of the Metal Siren's anti-ship capabilities, I'd be inclined to guess that it was intended to be a heavy fighter aimed at taking out enemy battleships, to reduce the need for the U.N. Spacy's battleships to enter the fray directly... which makes sense after the loss of most of the U.N. Spacy fleet during the 2054 Zentradi invasion.

Oh, yeah... it sounds like he meant Jet Alone, which was developed by a private corporation for the Japanese gov't as a competitor/replacement for incredibly expensive-to-maintain EVA units which made its first and only appearance in the 7th episode of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series. I think there was actually a second Jet Alone unit that showed up during one of the visual novels or games. I've got no idea how Wanzerfan came to believe it belonged to the US military. Really? I thought she sounded familiar, though I never had the presence of mind to actually sit through the credits to see who was singing. I was always skipping them to get to the next episode. I'm almost done watching the original 1971 Lupin III TV series. I was kind of leery about the idea of watching a show so old, but it's surprisingly well executed, despite the kind of campy theme music and the atrocious animation in the OP, and is still quite an enjoyable show. The episode titles aren't quite as pun-laden as the second series, but I'm getting to that one next.

Why does this remind me of the Ten Commandments scene in that one episode of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law? Definitely... Beltane70 got it right away: I'd also promise pictures of my ex in her Ishtar costume, if only she'd stop being so damn uptight about it.

Your argument here hinges on a number of faulty and/or unwise assumptions... namely, that the Metal Siren was built for the same combat role as previous models, that the Metal Siren was intended as a successor to the Valkyrie II, and that it has a strictly linear design evolution. I'm afraid the latter two were explicitly ruled out by "word of god" from the show's creators, and there is no pressing evidence for the former. Prior to Big West quietly posting an official designation for the Metal Siren on Macross.co.jp at some point around 2004, the Metal Siren had no official designation. The few official publications in which it appears all refer to it simply as "Metal Siren", and the two-seater demo aircraft from the Moon Festival as "Metal Siren Replica". The first people to take a stab at giving it an official designation in print were the writers at Palladium Books, who either didn't bother proofreading the finished product or couldn't make up their minds, as the books alternately refer to it as the "VF-1MS" and "VF-MS", the former making no sense at all, and the latter just looking goofy. In the late 90s, the "Anti-Kevs" tried to fix a lot of what ailed the RPG, and in the offing gave the Metal Siren a number of new designations, most of which made no sense and one of which was ALREADY in use in that continuity. The Anti-Kevs called it a variety of things, including the VF-3, VF-5, and a number of variations on "VF-4" including VF-X-4 and VF-4SS, neither of which should ever have been used as the VF-4 does exist in the Macross II continuity and figures rather prominently in one of its two canon prequel games under the designations of "VF-X-4 Siren" and "VF-4 Siren", the former being used only in the manual, and the latter used in the game itself. The official designation Big West came up with actually makes a reasonable deal of sense. The destruction of an entire fleet command battleship at the hands of a single Metal Siren was likely what prompted it to be classified as a Variable Attacker rather than a Variable Fighter. It would, then, be the first model of Variable Attacker in that continuity, which would logically make it the VA-1. The rest just tells us which variant it is and which regime it was designed for. Ours is not to reason why, ours is simply to sit down, scratch our heads, and wonder what the hell the powers that be were thinking. As I explained above, the VA-1 designation makes a good deal more sense than any of the other proposals, and it does make a fair deal more sense than oddly non-sequential designations of the main variable fighters... which includes one fighter with no number at all, though some of that could be explained in terms of which fighter is nominally succeeding the current main VF. Nah, if they wanted to go with the 2 motif which Macross II plays on almost as heavily as Macross 7 and 7 or Macross Frontier and 25, they would've gone with VA-2SS.

Yeah, GearsOnline is a good resource, though in some cases it's maddeningly incomplete. Once I've finished my work on Macross II and the whole alternate universe continuity, I'm seriously considering making a similar comprehensive reference guide for Five Star Stories. If you want to catch the rest of the series, I know the English translations of Books I through X (Vol.1-26 I think) are available online thru torrent and RapidShare... I don't think anyone has ever finished translating Books XI and XII, but I know there's a translation of Prima Classe Hugtrang that was done a while back.

I'm inclined to agree, but remember that I'm just reiterating what the few Southern Cross fans I've encountered have said about their reasons for loving the series. I've never understood that either... the more vocal Robotech fans have this crazy desire to make the show out to be some kind of serious space opera. I guess it's another one of those things they've convinced themselves are true in order to prop up the belief that Robotech is a wildly popular epic story instead of a forgotten, anachronistic, highly disorganized patchwork of unrelated shows that has post-facto pretensions to epicness. Would someone please remind Pete that we're not a real cult... also, shouldn't it be more like "down with HG" and "out with Sheryl's boobs"? You have no idea... half of what was causing Pizza the Hutt to act out like he did was what we were saying about him and MEMO here. I actually got accused of trolling once by a user called "sanman" on RT.com after I pointed out that Macross is usually listed as a "must-watch" title when people ask for recommendations on mecha anime, and Robotech is generally reviled by those same crowds... he told me I was a liar and that I was clearly just there to harsh his buzz. I don't think they want to know they truth, they just want to continue deluding themselves. Okay, so /b/ isn't my personal army, but MacrossWorld is? Trust me, you have no idea the havoc a "nobody" can cause in what's left of the Robotech fandom. I'm a nobody too, at least according to Doug Bendo, and yet while doing nothing more than telling the simple truth about the legal situation surrounding Macross and the current standing of Robotech, I've caused a veritable panic and sent Tommy Yune, Steve Yun, Kevin McKeever, MEMO1DOMINION, Maverick_LSC, Pizza the Hutt, Doug Bendo, and a half dozen others scrambling to put a stop to my "dangerous ideas" by any means necessary. To Robotech fans, I'm practically a one-man army waging war against their little fantasy world... and I didn't even need a mask and a goofy alias to do it! Though with all the Robotech fans talking about me being the leader of a sinister cult, the sovereign of some guild of calamitous intent (and I'm not even David Bowie!), and the dark lord of an unspeakable army of malicious beings that feed on human suffering, going back to school to get my PhD seems almost like a step backwards. Maybe I should get a nice tailored suit of ominous-looking armor and start building my conquering army for the Ragnarok.

Don't worry, I'm drafting an updated, more detailed version that I'll post here on MacrossWorld over the Christmas break. lol, don't worry. I've got official publications to back up everything that's in there (with the exception of the aforementioned corrections, which are due to ambiguous remarks by Kenichi Yatagai). Between that and the tiny bit of new info published in Macross Chronicle, we've got possibly the clearest view of the VF-2SS's capabilities that we've ever had... I think it may be the only VF other than the VF-1 for which a canon reactor output is actually given in addition to its engine thrust... 'course those thrust figures only cover the fighter's main engines... Unfortunately, I have no in-universe explanation for why the Macross was fitted with two pairs of additional booms for the main gun. According to Kenichi Yatagai, the U.N. Spacy was refitting the Macross with the intention of returning to ship to service, and that work on the ship (which included fitting it with a new main cannon) was terminated at the start of one of the later conflicts with the Zentradi, after which the still-functional ship was retired and made into a monument. Kenichi Yatagai doesn't get any more specific than that, unfortunately... and doesn't specify which conflict caused the U.N. Spacy to abort their restoration work on the ship.

Yeah, Renato's review was rather a lot of unexpected vitriol directed at a movie that has thus far been getting favorable, though not exactly glowing, reviews from most viewers. Haven't seen it myself, but a few friends of mine overseas have, and they said it wasn't mind-blowing, but that it was at least pretty good... mind you they're not big Macross fans, so they're viewing it as more-or-less objective outsiders. Wishing no offense to Renato, when I see a pronouncement like this: followed by a pronouncement like this: coming from a Macross 7 fan with a Fire Bomber avatar, I know what I'm about to read is coming from someone whose tastes are completely alien to me, and that I can probably expect it to be heavily biased. I'm reserving judgment on the movie until I see it for myself (it'll be a while, unless the business trip fairy leaves another all-expenses-paid trip under my pillow next year), but I'm cautiously optimistic given what I've seen of the designs for the movie and what I've heard from friends over in Japan who've gone to see it. This one vehemently negative review doesn't so much make me question the other reviewers as much as it leaves me wondering if he had a really bad day before he went to the theater, or if he went in there determined to find something wrong with it. I agree wholeheartedly... when I watched Macross 7 for the first time it very nearly killed Macross for me. I would disagree with Renato's assertion that the show's all about characters and their interactions. My assessment was that it was much more about the lack of normal social interaction between Basara and the other characters as they try, largely in vain, to hammer simple concepts through his malformed three-inch-thick skull. I felt the vast majority of the Macross 7 characters had less depth than a common tablespoon, so naturally I found the main cast of Macross Frontier (except Ranka) to be a vast improvement on their predecessors. Alto broke a lot of the common tropes for teenage boy robot pilots when he actually decided to man up instead of having a breakdown and whining for half of the show. In a more-or-less complete reversal from Macross 7, there was only one character I DIDN'T have a use for, and that was Ranka... who I felt was only in the show so the much better written and much more likable Sheryl would have a rival and they could inject a bit of additional moe into the series. The more the movie marginalizes Ranka, the happier I'll be. It sounds (at least from the reviews I've read so far) like they tried to do an almost entirely character-driven movie and largely leave out the giant fighting robots but found that they had too much material and not enough time to work with, and that's kind of disappointing. I know they had pacing issues near the end of Frontier, but I had hoped they'd manage their time a bit more effectively with the movie.

Bravo... very nice. I'm particularly liking that A-toll.

I'm an avowed atheist and yet somehow I've been multiply branded as a cult leader... what the hell? I reckon that's a large part of it, especially after JT let the cat out of the bag and announced that he's got an interview with Michael Bradley lined up for his 12th episode. It also probably has a lot to do with JT failing to exhibit the desired responses of admiration for Doug's so-called achievements in podcasting and fear when Doug tries to intimidate him. It seems being ignored doesn't sit well with Bendo, particularly when he's trying to be intimidating (and failing extravagantly). Well, we know Michael Bradley and his manager do... and word has it Tom Bateman does as well. Maverick_LSC also seems to visit JT's podcast site alarmingly often... I wonder if he's spying on him for Steve and Tommy, or if he's just obsessing over a podcaster who doesn't think the sun shines out of the collective apefaces of Warner Bros and Harmony Gold? Yeah, I noticed that too... kinda lulzy really, since JT openly admits the only Macross show he's ever seen is DYRL, though we're making arrangements to hook him up with some Macross Frontier-y goodness. I don't think you could really lump people like Tom Bateman and Michael Bradley in with "Macross Groupies" either... unless they've been part of the mysterious cult I didn't know I had for a while. Eh... not anymore really. Now it's just a venue for MEMO to preach his pro-Harmony Gold delusions like they're fact and lock threads so people can't correct him. Ah... good times. Speakin' as someone who was actually friends with most of the participants, I have to say that this hardly lines up with what SIGHUP did... at the very least Saraphys, Doug Bendo, and Hibiki EARNED their bans there by being equally foul to each other, whereas the people arguing with Bendo on RTX did nothing nastier than responding to accusations of child molestation with some amusing image macros of the Robotech Masters in drag.

Just a minor correction to these two statements posted earlier this evening... as it turns out, MEMO actually had nothing to do with this latest ThinkPol-style purge in the fanbase. The bannings on RobotechX were actually the work of SIGHUP, the site's other administrator. It seems he's gone off the deep end in response to all of Doug Bendo's antics. It seems he was ignoring a fairly sizable number of complaints and requests for admin intervention when Bendo first started getting out of hand, and apparently decided to ban not only Bendo, but the people Bendo was threatening, harassing, and slandering. I think what Einherjar said about RobotechX now being just as bad as Robotech.com might be a bit of an understatement.

To be brutally frank, that RobotechX would one day become just as big of a shithole as Robotech.com was never in any doubt. After all, the site's owner is none other than Captain Capslock himself, MEMO1DOMINION. Having the day-to-day operation of the site handled by SIGHUP, a reasonable but incredibly apathetic administrator, did little to slow the site's gradual decay into an Orwellian mess where dissenting opinions about Robotech and the Harmony Gold company line are punishable by termination. The only real difference is that instead of being run by an oppressive "Big Brother", RobotechX is run by a habitual bootlicker. I can think of a fair few people who'd be sold on the idea of a Macross OVA about destroid pilots. Even when I was watching Robotech for the first time I had very little use for the show's adaptation of Southern Cross. I eventually bought ADV's 2-for-1 box set containing Southern Cross and Mospeada out of simple curiously (and because it was on sale at the time) and gave the show a try. It did absolutely nothing for me. I found it a bit less obnoxious than Robotech's Masters Saga, though that's largely a function of watching it subtitled instead of having to listen to Harmony Gold's atrocious voice acting. All the same, I couldn't really be arsed to give a damn about any of the characters apart from wanting Jeanne to die in the most horrible fashion imaginable, and I found virtually all of the show's mechanical designs ugly and uninspired. After watching Southern Cross all the way through, I found myself completely in agreement with the network's decision to cancel the show. After I got my hands on This is Animation #10: Southern Cross, I had to revise my opinion somewhat... it's a show that had promise back in the early phases of development, and had they stopped about halfway through the revision process and worked with what they had, the show would've been a LOT better.

Can't say I've had much in the way of interaction with him, barring a few brief chats back when I used to use AIM, but on those occasions when Robotech fans start complaining about the incomplete state of the Infopedia, they always bring up my name for the Macross Saga, BRL for the Masters Saga, and Cyclone for the New Generation as the experts Harmony Gold should tap for the project. So far, despite actually seeking out and watching the original Southern Cross for myself, I've only encountered three, maybe four actual Southern Cross fans. Whether or not Doug Bendover counts is dubious, since he only cares about the Robotech adaptation. I've never managed to discern BRL's reasons for loving the series so much, except that he might really like the mechanical designs. The other major proponents of the series were the duo of Hover Tanker and Ryoko. I know HT had a deep-seated loathing of the officer class, so having the show with a largely NCO cast which all too often depicted senior officers as ignorant desk-jockeys and opportunists probably appealed to him... as did the fact that the show concerned the adventures of a pack of ground-pounders rather than pilots. I think Ryoko just had a preference for ground mecha. You could make a case for Robotech actually improving Southern Cross, if only by tying it into much better shows like Macross, Mospeada, and Megazone 23.

On a few separate occasions Bendo has ranted about he has a lot of respect for Khyron_Prime and how Khyron_Prime did the right thing by pieing Tommy Yune at that convention. Just goes to show the sort of unbalanced folks he looks up to.

Nah, what started this whole brouhaha was Bendo's absurd proclamation that Ranka is 12 and thus Macross Frontier is child pornography. When NOBODY took him seriously, and most of the site's membership told him to shut his ignorant ass up, he took it personally and tried to take the fight to his podcast. When that didn't work (and earned him more than one show with a 100% hostile live audience) he fell back on threatening retribution against JT for things other people say about him, and trying unsuccessfully to intimidate JT into renouncing everyone who doesn't agree that Ranka is 12 and Macross Frontier fans are all pedophiles. After that, pretty much every thread where he continued to argue degenerated into people trolling him just to wind him up. Ain't it great? Hell, we could easily and safely wish them a happy FIFTH year of waiting for anything new. I dunno, but his latest kick before he got banned (apparently by MEMO) from RobotechX is that Macross fandom is some kind of cult, and I'm apparently the cult leader... I keep tossing out jokes how since I apparently have all these disciples that I should've been oppressing lobster people and building giant battlefortresses instead of wasting my time watching Bendo caper for my amusement. That's about the letter of it... the Robotech lunatic fringe, and a substantial portion of the mainstream fandom, has always had a "you're either with us or against us" mentality... that's what led to all the fan wars between the purists and whoever their victim of the week is. It's safe to say that unless you're one of the VERY few people who listen to MEMO, Bendo, and/or PTH, they consider you the enemy, and apparently because I'm outspoken and still a fairly prominent figure in the Robotech fandom, I've become the designated Big Bad. I forget what his handle is here, he used to also go by "Rabid Southern Cross Fan", but Brooklyn Red Leg is/was the designated Masters Saga/Southern Cross expert on RT.com and pretty much its only vocal defender after Bendo got banned and HoverTanker said FGSFDS and left RT.com. Protoculture is another RT.com member, don't know if he has the same handle here or is even on this site... but he's another one of those "expert fans" from RT.com.

Well, I think with an introduction like this it should go without saying that I absolutely LOVE Five Star Stories. I have all twelve books, that're out thus far, plus the movie and a bunch of the artbooks. I've only ever attempted the model kits with help from my now-ex-girlfriend BlackRose, since I'm better with assembly than I am painting, and painting FSS kits requires a reasonably skilled painter. I was first introduced to Five Star Stories by one of my coworkers at one of my summer jobs back in college. I was working as a tour guide at a museum, and ended up swapping anime titles with one of the tech support guys who worked there. He was big into Blame! and Five Star Stories, and was even building a model Mortar Headd (I think it might've been the Jagd Mirage) in his cubicle. Ended up borrowing a couple volumes of the Toypress translation from him to read on my breaks and between groups of tourists and obnoxious VIPs, and later the first few volumes of Blame! as well... though I didn't thrill to that nearly as much as I did FSS. I love the mecha designs, though the giant robot high heels do get on my nerves a bit... it's the characters that really sell it for me... especially Kaien. My favorite MHs from the series are definitely the original Knight of Gold (not Upandla Raymu's Knight of Gold II), the Kaien's Schpeltor, and the Jagd Mirage (if only because Schaft and Parthenon are good value).