Seto Kaiba

I heard about Robotech being made from three different shows before I even started watching... the friend who got me started on it gave me a heads-up before he lent me the tapes.

Wait, you mean that wasn't Hideo Kuze from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig?

The first and third images are from the Macross: Eternal Love Song game manual. The second image is from the Macross 2036: the Neld Fleet Incident game manual. They're the new models of power armor used by the Burado and Neld fleets respectively. There's precious little art in the game manuals... which is why I'm waiting to hear back from the developers on my request for production art from the games.

I don't know about that... prior to the release of Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles the Robotech fanbase was so starved for new ANYTHING that they were thrilled to have even a mediocre film like Shadow Chronicles, and often go to great lengths to defend it. It's not hard to live up to their standards, because their standards are as low as it gets. True, there are some fans who will never be happy with the direction Robotech is taking, but those are usually the fans who could fairly be called closet Macross fans, who are just sticking it out to see what happened to their favorite holdovers from Macross. While I agree that Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles is inferior in pretty much every way to even the worst of Macross, and that it did fail spectacularly to live up to the fan hype and Harmony Gold's excessively optimistic expectations, it was a new Robotech feature, and that's all most of the fans really wanted. The only people who were disappointed by the film were the Robotech fans who weren't so desperate for new material that they put aside their standards.

Well, most of those games did have character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto... so it's not surprising that they look similar. Haruhiko Mikimoto snuck a few Macross II-isms into Macross 7 Trash too... the "Historical District" of City-7 has a lot of the monuments from Culture Park, and the U.N. Spacy flightsuit is virtually identical to the version used in the alternate universe PC Engine games,just with the metal forearm and shin guards removed. I kinda think this tech-themed thread might be a little premature, since there's very little information available for the mecha of the alternate universe... a problem I'm working to solve... but since I appear to be the only one left who's working on this particular corner of the Macross universe, it's kind of slow going. T_T

Well, they'd been at it for at least a year when the project got the axe... it was supposed to come out in late 1987 or early 1988. When it got canceled, they'd already finished 3 episodes of its proposed 65 episode story.

Nope, not part of the alternate continuity... just one of the double handful of DYRL-based non-canon side stories.

Yeah, there is... there's a lot of corrections yet to be made. I've got the game manuals for Macross 2036 and Eternal Love Song on hand, they're being translated as part of my website project (a Compendium for the alternate universe).

No. It doesn't. The core of the Macross alternate universe timeline consists of... Macross: Do You Remember Love? Macross 2036: the Neld Fleet Incident (VG) Macross: Eternal Love Song (VG) Macross II: Lovers Again The various cinematics (particularly the opening) from the DYRL videogame is also applicable to the continuity, as are the five Macross II novels, and occasionally the manga adaptation, though not the unofficial side story "The Micron Conspiracy". RedWolf, just one naming correction for the moment... When the OVA first came out, the Metal Siren didn't have an official designation. The artbooks just refer to it as "Metal Siren" and the moon festival version as "Metal Siren Replica" (well, the engrish actually says "Metal Siren Leplica"). It was Palladium Books who came up with "VF-1MS" as a designation for it, and then proceeded to mix that up with a few various typos like "VF-MS" in their books. A while back, the official Macross website (Macross.co.jp) gave the Metal Siren a designation... "VA-1SS". That designation has since been repeatedly confirmed in the pages of Macross Chronicle.

I've been called many things by many people over the years... but a "yes man" is not one of them. My record speaks for itself... I'm about as far from being a yes man as it's possible to be. You, on the other hand... I'd also say that whining yourself inside-out because you don't like somebody else's sense of humor is about as low as it's possible to go, Sketchley. Unfortunately, you're probably right. With Roboblog out of the picture, the Robotech fanbase is left with a collection of blogs and podcasts which mainly follow the Harmony Gold company line, that Shadow Chronicles was god's gift to cinema, and that the franchise has never been better. RDF Underground's as close to neutral as it gets now, and it's really not much of a counterpoint to sell-outs like Space Station Liberty or Robotech Fan The Doug Bendo apeface Hour. Of course, most Robotech fans get their news directly from Robotech.com's news section and message boards anyway, so they probably don't really care. I doubt Tatsunoko will ever revoke Harmony Gold's licenses to Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada... the former is successful enough on its own, but it's a pretty safe bet that Southern Cross and Mospeada made more money as Robotech sagas than they ever did solo.

That'd probably be my doing... I got sick of waiting for the moderators to deal with him, so I e-mailed Steve Yun about it. Yeah, Akt_m got the axe pretty quickly, but only because the moderators were actually paying attention. These days, the only moderators on Robotech.com's boards are Seifrietti Weisse, Maverick_LSC, and MEMO1DOMINION, none of whom pay much attention the Series & Stories, Production, Robotechnology, Macross, or debate sections of the site.

Okay! Now that my copy of Macross Chronicle #21 has arrived, I've gotten cracking on the translation of the VF-2SS Valkyrie II mechanics sheet... I ought to have it done by this weekend.

Semi-autonomous seems the most likely... full AI control is just asking for trouble...

Isn't it obvious? If Harmony Gold brought in people with standards, professionals with excellent credentials, or other individuals with a good, strong grip on reality, they might notice the gaping holes in the company's claims that Robotech is going strong and is incredibly popular. In their minds, it's probably better to hire the more fanatical members of the Robotech fanbase, who won't hesitate to distort the facts to make Robotech seem more popular and successful than it really is. EDIT: They probably work for less too... privilege of working on their favorite show and all that. They're harping on you because you don't (or can't) differentiate between hyperbole for comedic effect and the sort of crap BoK spews on a daily basis. Now that is a damn shame... JLS was one of the few popular Robotech bloggers who wouldn't let himself be used as a mouthpiece for Harmony Gold, and he gave up on his project out of frustration with the franchise's lack of motion.

Ah, there's certainly an interesting history to many of them... I've invested a lot of time (and a fair bit of money) digging up each and every little scrap of information I can find about the alternate universe timeline. I'm building a website that, when completed, will do for the alternate universe what the Macross Compendium and Macross Mecha Manual did for the main continuity. I've also contributed a lot of information to the Macross Mecha Manual's Macross II section. Actually... your progression's a bit off... the VF-1R is actually the "VF-1 Kai", the VF-4 isn't an ancestor of the VF-XX, the VF-2JA isn't a direct descendant of the VF-XX, and the Metal Siren's an attack plane, not a fighter, and is essentially not linked to the VF-2SS at all... it's complicated, and there's actually a really good (and kind of blatantly obvious) reason there were essentially no new designs between 2014 and 2054. Well, the reasons for that are twofold... first, the Neld and Burado fleets were using a more diverse selection of mecha than the Boddole Zer fleet, and second, Quamzin apparently designed at least two new types of mecha for them based on his experiences on Earth.

Exactly what the labels say they are... "Rogren-Rau" and "Shigunomiyu" respectively. The game manuals call the "Shigunomiyu" the "Shigunomiyuuru". The Rogren-Rau is a boss mecha from stage 3 of Macross 2036, the Shigunomyuuru is a boss mecha from stage 5.

Problem is, B-Club can't seem to make up its mind whether the gunpods are railguns or beam rifles, and the official artbooks remain mysteriously mute on the subject, leaving the four (technically five) models of gunpod identified only as "gunpod". It doesn't help that the animation makes most of the gunpods out to be beam rifles, and the SAP pack's big cannon as a converging beam cannon rather than the railgun most sources say it is. I'll spare you guys the breakdown of what all the sources say, since it's too long for me to comfortably retype in the time available to me. (Fortunately, this sort of confusion is limited solely to the gunpods, the SAP pack's big cannon, and the main mounts on the Defender EX, everything else is well accounted for and consistent across all sources) EDIT: My copy of Macross Chronicle #21 should've arrived today, so I'll leap right in and sort this out right away.

I've actually talked to Palladium at length about their sources for the RPG, and they DID actually do their homework fairly thoroughly... though they did take quite a few liberties in the name of gameplay balance... I haven't had a chance to look through issue 21 yet, but I'd wait labeling the gunpods as anything... they've never been conclusively identified in any previous sources, and the preview for the page didn't have any valuable description next to them either... just the same unhelpful "this is a gunpod" sort of label they had in EB51. As far as the good doctor's name, I've seen it spelled タチカホフ and タカチホフ in different sources. Admittedly, I think that Gubaba probably has a point that the Dr H. Takachihoff/Tachikahoff was probably a homage to Haruka Takachiho, esp. in light of the technological achievements the character is credited with.

Nicely done, I'll review the Macross II sections to see if there've been any omissions or errors... I've got a bunch of new information, and should have that lineart you asked for ready soon too.

My copy hasn't arrived yet, but Sketchley's incomplete translation provided some invaluable information for me that has made me seriously reevaluate my opinion of Chronicle. It looks like Chronicle's writers aren't nearly as ignorant of the Macross II source materials as previous sheets had led me to believe... the fact that the Tachikahoff/Takachihoff (I've seen it spelled both ways) corporation is even mentioned means they HAVE to be using more than just TIAS #5 and EB51... as neither book mentions the company. It was also an interesting turn to see a piece of data only mentioned in Super Robot Chronicles confirmed. I'll have to wait and see when my copy gets here, but it looks like the "Warren RG-022 Railgun" is the big cannon on the SAP pack, not the gunpod. That indicates that they're following the TIAS/EB line on the mecha armaments, rather than what's indicated in B-Club interviews and the animation itself. An interesting conundrum. It looks to me like Sketchley's partial translation is missing information on the standard equipment though, or there were omissions on the part of Chronicle's writers...

You have my gratitude for at least starting a translation of this one... I was guessing that it was going to get skipped over entirely. I'll be adding this one to my queue of stuff awaiting translation... along with the other Macross II mecha sheets. You guys already have the main timeline stuff covered. You provided two tidbits of very useful information... one which flat-out floored me. I'll explain more in the About thread. I'll be getting cracking on the VF-2SS sheet as soon as my copy of Macross Chronicle #21 arrives.

It's something Hermann2 and a couple other guys on Robotech.com came up with... I don't think there's a Macross equivalent to the group, though several members of it are avid Macross fans.

Actually, just by identifying the VF-2SS's standard gunpod as a railgun, the page has already exceeded my expectations... unfortunately my copy won't be here for at least another day. Some kind of foulup happened at HMV, and it didn't ship on time. Funny story... I remember being told by my parents that they named me Mike because they thought the kid in the Life cereal commercials was cute.

It's not your translation, or how the sentence is written... it's the content.

The jury's still out on that one... at least until my copy arrives in a day or so... Okay... they get points for the most obtuse and useless sentence I've read this year... well, maybe not the most useless, I've read some internal memos from Ford... Still, Macross II isn't set in 2091... so I'm hoping these continual references to 2091 are either errors or "before the war" style introductions. Since Chronicle is really spreading out its work on Macross II, I haven't started working on anything since the Macross Cannon... I've been more focused on Animage Vol.161 No.11 and other publications released back when Macross II first came out. Okay, that's not at all unexpected... if they identified Nex's gunpod as a beam rifle, and the big cannon on the backpack as a beam cannon, I may be forced to concede that Chronicle's writers aren't completely half-assing the Macross II pages.