Keith

It contradicts nothing. As there has never been a firm explanation on exactly "what" state life on Earth was when the Protoculture came, there's no contradiction in a more direct timeframe set in Zero. All we knew before was that the Protculture altered the DNA of pre-existing life on Earth. Now we have a specific on what that life was. Hell, I'll do you one better, let's say the Mayan islanders "weren't" from the same form of life that the rest of humans on Earth were. Perhaps the Protoculture came & evolved primates on one part of the planet, while they evolved fish people on Mayan. This would explain just why their blood is special & different from everyone elses. Considering that the Protoculture could make marsupials into very human approximate life forms (Dynamite), who's to say they would evolve both fish & primates on Earth. No prob, see above . Perhaps not. The thing under the water is its head. My ass. Models are just as much toys as pre-assembled toys are. Difference is, my 1/48 tranforms flawlessly, while your hasagawa is stuck in one form. I'm a busy on the go kinda guy, I don't have to to sit around waiting for paint & glue to dry.

There can definately be a huge difference between regular & special editions. Take Time Bandits for instance. The regular edition was a bare bones grainy 2 channel stereo transfer. The special edition blow's it out of the water with a significantly improved picture, and great new dolby mix.

Ah. Probably because it needs its head to function? You never specified exactly what you were talking about when you mentioned "fudging," all I could assume was that you were speaking of how these events fit in with regards to knowledge about the Protoculture during the TV series, which I explained. Perhaps it had something to do with just about everyone in the top brass involved with the event having died during Bodolza's attack on Earth. Assuming it had some top level security put on it (which it likely would have), nobody would be left to know what to look for, let alone the time required to take whatever security encyption there was on existing files about it. For that matter, why would there be a need to let the public know about it, assuming Global would follow his pre-existing chain of command instructions in keeping secret info "secret." I'm just not seeing your problem with this issue. Looks to me like you answered your own question. No, I'm saying why waste "going stale," when they can create more genetic diversity in the universe.

I agree with ewilen, it just looks too american comicbooky, and not enough like Misa. Perhaps if you enlarged the eyes a bit, and made the nose smaller. Something more styled like this: or this

Too much armor, not enough ecchi!

Yeah, what ever happened to the days when star trek ripped of anime (such as star trek III ripping off the whole beginning portion of Yamato 2). If they really want to do a low tech series, why not just do what Tomino does, and blow everything to hell, setting it to take place a few years in the future, having to struggle to dig up remnants of the past. That'll give them a few seasons easy! Honestly, I gave up on star trek near the end of voyager's I think 4th season. I have never looked back since.

What are you talking about, Enterprise rocks! I loved that episode where Fry traveled back in time & became his own grandfather.

:::ahem::: BOMBA!

What are you talking about? The Birdman "is" the AFOS, one in the same. The reasoning behind the awakening is obviously linked with Sara, as her bloodline is the direct trigger for controlling it (as it would appear). U.N. & Anti U.N. take to fighting on Mayan, Sara see's it, Birdman wakes up & decides to tear ass. Again, what are you talking about? The U.N. Spacy "did" know about the Zentradi, you'll recall when Misa & Global thought they were bringing Earth shattering revelations to the top brass, and the aforementioned brass merely scoffed at them, having already known most of the things they reported. Hell, they already had the Grand Cannon way under construction, thinking it would be able to deal with any problems the aliens would pose. Unlike Vader & R2D2, the foreshadowing "was" already there from the start in Macross. Like I said, I highly doubt the birdman will have anything to do with Britia at all. It's not even necessary to add such a plot point in, though a scene with Britai being bord & looking for someone to fight, then asking Exedor to track down the damaged SA ship that folded out 10 years earlier would be fun. There's no reason to believe that the Birdman would need to send out a signal. Its purpose looks to be one of a falesafe mechanism. If life on Earth turns out to be warlike, take them out. Think of it this way. The Protoculture themselves were trapped in a cycle of war that they couldn't break out of. Why would they want to spread that aspect of themselves through the universe. It's the same reason why you don't marry inside your own family, adding diversety helps keep things alive & evolving. [qoute]So if the Zentraedi no longer follow the orders of the Republic, then what do they do after the wipe everyone else out? Wipe each other out? They start searching for uncomfirmed kills to wipe them out Pretty sure it's already been comfirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is in no way shape or form Protodevelin (or more accurately "EVIL."). And from Sara's dream, it quite clearly seemed to be blowing poo up, not sucking energy. There were only 7 Protodevelin, with no room for the AFOS. I'm pretty sure that he's supposed to be the first evolved human, not Protoculture. Doubt that too, pretty sure it's just a tool leftover from the Protoculture's visit. I think of it as more as a test left over, like the monolith in 2001. If humans pass its trials, perhaps they're deemed worthy of something....like survival.

LOL, read this after I made my post. Keith, get out from under that damn rock Graham .....I was actually waiting for Bandai to release it, then the HK disc went out of production.......

More likely, it's going to be the opposite of the song Sara has sung thus far. The song she was singing helped nuture nature & life. The song the Bird Man sings may do the exact opposite, especially since it's apparently going to be tearing all ass. From the implication of Shin having to save Sara, it would be pretty safe to assume that she somehow meld's with the Bird Man. It's doubtful that it has anything to do with accidentally contacting the Zentradi, but you never know. That was already explained in the TV series (for the most part). It wasn't that he got lost after 10 years, it was just a simple clean up mission considering the number of Supervision Army fleet's around the galaxy were greatly dissapearing. Without anyone to fight, what choice was there left but to try & track down an old downed ship, that hopefully had survivors to knock around. AFOS is the Bird Man. The Anti-U.N., just like the U.N. want it so badly because it's a hot piece of alien technology to be backwards engineered. How are the details vastly different? The Protoculture (bird people) come to Earth, evolve the fish people into land walking creatures, and take off. This is the same history we've had all along. As for the islander's gene's, the implication would seem to be that Mayan was the hotbed for evolved life. The timeframe that the Protoculture would have visited would have had a vastly different geographical structure on earth (continents in different places, one large continent, or any given pangea theory). Or it could just be that with Mayan being so seperate for so long, its people never lost stories of the Protoculture's visit (as oppose to anywhere else they might have seeded on Earth). Or for that matter, a perfect transformation 1/48 Yamato! [qoute]All Macross Zero has done for me was leave me with a bunch of questions... Someone mentioned it might have been the "Bird-man" that drew Britai to Earth. If that was the case wouldn't he have known that had something to do with race he served? I don't subscribe to that theory myself. Besides which, why would the Birdman call to the Protoculture, when it would be serving the purpose that it was assumedly left for. Overall implication has been that the Zentradi took out any remaining Protoculture colony worlds (i.e. any others that they seeded), only Earth & Zola have been found to have life. According to Macross TV & 7, after the Protoculture/Protodevelin war, the Zentradi no longer had their directive to not harm Protoculture life (it was removed so that they could fight the Supervision army, who were comprised of captured Protoculture citizens). The surviving Protoculture tried to de-militarize the Zentradi, which they immediately saw as a threat. In essense, the Protoculture too became the Zentradi's enemy. Any worlds that the Zentradi came across they "took out," as the saw them as a threat. Bodolza makes references to coming across "culture" before as you'll recall. Looking at Dynamite, the Zolan's share some common traits with the Mayan islanders, so who know's, they may have a "Birdman" there too. [qoute]What was the purpose for altering the native life? Did they want a race to subjegate when the decided to return? Was it a little insurance so if some catastrophy happend the Protoculture wouldn't be completly extinct? This one I answered earlier. Once the Protoculture went to space, they found no one else around. So they decided to seed other worlds to spread out life. These other worlds were most likely part of the Stellar Republic that was taken out during the Civil war & Protodevelin war. So far, only Earth & Zola are shown to have survived. Unless Zero reveals something otherwise. it would seem to be one of those big cosmic coincidences that the Macross crashed on Earth. It was classified before SWI, as the Zentradi hadn't arrived yet, and they didn't want mass panic about giant alien's getting out. It's the same reason that Earth was told that all the citizens of South Atalia died during a strike by the anti-U.N., when in actuality they folded into space during an attack by the Zentradi. The only big question I see that "should" get an answer, is just exactly "why" the Bird Man is set to destroy life on Earth should it prove aggressive. Almost everythin else posed here has been answered by other Macross series.

It's an R2 release intended for the Japanese market. The R2 series releases are also for the Japanese market. What may be convenient for you, is not necessarily convenient for everyone else. I'm trying to look at it objectively. The people who spent a fortune on the series R2 releases have to spend even more to get something that could have been easily just spread over all the releases. That's just stupid. And guess what? R2 versions of SDF Mac series are apparently no longer in production anyway. Yay! Now the only way to get the original show is through Harmony Gold! Yippee! Macross just gets better all the time!!!! Considering the bare bones nature of R2 releases in general, I'm sure they were quite happy to get the extra's disc. Besides, in a country where OVA's are released 1 episode at a time at full retail price, an extra's only disc hardly seems out of the question.

Best thing about that article is it still implies Zeta to be released thsi year..... Honestly, I could care less about theatrical releases at this point, I just want the damn DVD, as F-91 is about the only thing (aside from the original SD OVA's & G Savior) that I haven't seen.

Except that it gives us an interesting look into the origin's of Roy's skill. What new questions? For the most part, Kawamori has been pretty good at fleshing out the reasoning behind the Protoculture's "visit." Because they (the Protoculture) were the only sentient beings in the universe when they became a space traveling race & started exploring. The purpose behind their "altering" life on other worlds was to populate the universe. This was explained a bit in Macross TV, more in DYRL, and extensively in Macross 7. That's directly tied into the mysteries of the bird man, which "should" be solved by the end of the next episode. Stop being so skeptical, complain after you've seen it

Look at it this way. If it had been included spread amongst R2 series DVD releases, it would have been a hell of a lot more expensive to get all the extra's. This way they're neatly bundled into one easy to obtain DVD that goes nicely along with an R1 collection which lacks such extra's.

Actually, not all that much needs to be covered. -We know about the Protoculture already -We know about their intervention on Earth -We know what will become of all this new technology -We know that Mayan is toasted -We know Sara's singing has a spiritia power to it, effecting all nature around her & also somehow letting her interface with the birdman. All that really need's wrapping up is the fight between Roy & DD, the true purpose of the Birdman to be revealed, & how the whole mess is going to be covered up (possibly an epilogue on the new characters introduced). This can easily be wrapped up in the remaining time. To find out what happens next, all you have to do is watch Macross.

This is a VF-11 That thing you have there is not even remotely (design wise) the same.

I wonder which will make it out first, Zero Volume 5, or Yukikaze volume 5....

Depends on what you already have. There isn't any story content, just a lot of extra features. Mind you they're really good extra features, but only extra features none the less. Personally, I find it worth it to get the SD intro, DYRL animated scenes, and VFX-2 intro alone.

a bit too "american" of a take on the character for my tastes, but interesting none the less.

Has it only been 2 years? Wow.

Could definately stand to be more ecchi. Nice, but there's also a bit too much "pudge" in Mao's crotch. Might want to trim the muffin' down a bit.

I keep telling you guys, next time Kawamori comes to a con, "tell him" we need subtitles! Last year was a perfect opportunity when he was on the Macross Panel, and I can't believe no one thought to mention it. Wasn't there even a Bandai rep with him???

They're the remastered animeigo dvd's, i.e. the only true version of Macross available over here.

If my memory serves me, it wasn't until the second or third season that the Rolling Stone's Fade to Black was used for the opening credits. The music used for the end credits was used for the opening credits of the first season. After reading that the video wasn't cleaned up/remastered, I'm not sure if I'll get Tour of Duty on DVD... Ahem, "PAINT IT BLACK" !!!