Keith

Only other box I have from them is the Eva box, which is thick & sturdy enough (cardboard, not the metal case).

It's not due until June 1st, but mine shipped out last week. And yeah, I got the edition with the box (you may notice the little description above), suffice it to say it's really freakin' thin! Almost VHS slipsleeve thin. In art & construction, the box is vastly inferior to the box that the HK set used.

Just got my copy with box yesturday. Despite the crapass dub trailer they've had out for download, it's actually an impressive release. The video is clearned up nicely, must have gotten the new R2 DVD masters. The Japanese stereo is also vastly superior to the HK set, though for obvious reasons I didn't check out the dub. Subtitle script is pretty free of trash, though I'm sure there's plenty in the dub. If they can keep up the video & audio quality for all 3 releases, I'll be happy, though the box art is vastly inferior to the HK set, barely any mikimoto art, just a couple images and then a large side dedicated to part III. The extra's are pretty slim. Just an art gallery, and commentary track. The commentary track is actually interesting. Most of the 10 minutes I listened to was shooting back & forth about anime in the 80's, OVA's, how hard it was to get tapes & LD's, etc. Then they go into talking about the show, and obvious comparison with Macross (which they pronunce "mu-cross.") Even funnier was in pronuncing a show they themselves released, "Moss-peada." I just can't help but laugh at how much "old school anime" cred is lost with such blatantly idiotic pronunciations. It also doesn't help that they demeened Macross for having a "music saves the day" theme, when in the very next part of Megazone 23, a very similar occurance happens.... suffice it to say I gave up on the commentary at that point. All things considered though, a nice release, and in my opinion at least, its worth upgrading from the HK set. Hell, I may track down a double jewel case, and switch the new box set with my HK set art & box since it looks that much better.

I had the same problem when I went to go pick up Gunbuster & 0079 TV, spontanoiusly out of production right when I wanted them....bastards! Anyway, like everyone said, best thing to do is hang out. I'd sell you mine, but I may end up using the box & insert's for my ADV set's depending on how theirs come out (almost definately will be inferior in art used).

No, Yamato is definately a special case. On one side it has the genius Leiji Matsumoto behind it, and on the other side it has the freakin' loon Nishizaki behind it. Yamato can't help but have mutliple story outcomes (such as Farewell Yamato & Yamato 2). In most cases it was Matsumoto saving the franchise from Nishizaki's whacked out idea's.

Actually, there were 2 Galaxy Express 999 sets (1-16, & 17-36). Rumor has it the 3rd set was about to go into production right before SARS broke out, and hasn't seen the light of day since....frakking bastards I NEED MORE GALAXY EXPRESS!!!! THEY WERE JUST ABOUT TO GET TO THE FREAKIN' MI EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL FOREVER HATE THEM FOR NOT FINISHING!!!!!!!!!!! ....I also heard an R2 rip Yamato movie set was in the pipeline, but that too seems to have faded away, leaving us no choice but to buy Voyager's VHS dump set.. The way I look at it, these older shows are still popular in HK, and Japan is pumping out more official sets each year. Sure the trend now is to churn out TV rip after TV rip, R1 rip after R1 rip, but within a year or so, the good stuff will return. Once Harlock TV gets its individual disc release in Japan, hopefully that will come out. Although I am shocked that there has been no new rip of V Gundam with the improved DVD masters. What pisses me off almost as much as the 999 thing though (and that pisses me off more than you can imagine), is the OOP Gunbuster disc. Right when i went to order it, it disapeared off the face of the planet. Same thing with the 0079 TV set. Hopeflly with Gunbuster 2 bringing back interest, either an R1 or HK company will do something about it.

This sounds more like an issue of pre-liminary pre-production info from a fanzine Vs officially sanctioned info than anything. Much in the same way the pre-production name "Phoenix" got out for the VF-0, despite not being a "final" decided on designation.

Considering all the Zor civiliians were abandoned by their own leaders due to falling levels of Protozor, Jeanne herself rejected the joining process, and again, Seifriet rammed the only existing source of Protozor with his dying action, I think it's pretty safe to say they didn't re-assimilate with the plants. If they had, then there would have been 3 of everyone in that last shot, 'nuff said. The whole point was to bring humanity back to the Zor.

Mospeada: Most likely the fleet was destroyed, but then considering they were about to Nuke Earth, do you honestly think Stik & gang would care about them? Southern Cross: The survivors were "not" going to turn into Zor. Seifriet destroyed all of the protozor by ramming the ship into it. The ending represented the surviving humans & surviving Zor on Glorie facing a future of having to rebuild together in a "human" society.

Nope, doesn't appear to be removing anything, he is indeed rubbing out eye holes. Considering the hands are built for manipulation, it stands to reason they'd have some grip to them.

1/3rd new animation is all I needed to know. Love Zeta, love the thought of new Zeta animation, and it justifies the movie purchase after the TV box set comes out. Now if they could follow it up with a ZZ movie trilogy that repairs the first 20 episode story arc....

Anima Spiritia is not something indiginous to Basara. Hell, he even taught Sivil, Gigil, & Gepelenitch to generate it. By all indications, what type of spiritia a person generates seems to be determined by what kind of effort & temperment they put into whatever they're doing. City construction workers are catagorized as having "Build" spiritia, etc. It's stated nowhere that only specific people can create it, just that it was discovered by the Protoculture that certain people generating Anima Spiritia helped fight the Protodevelin. Think of it in terms of hot sauce. Regular spiritia a light & tasty salsa, while Anima Spiritia is a super hot extra spicy 3rd degree burns to your tongue style salsa (in regards to effects on Protodevelin).

Spiritia is most definately a quantifiable/measureable energy. Anima Spiritia again being a specific "pure" type of it. As for the posative & negative thing, its only been shown to have been generated by posative actions, otherwise (as said) the Protodevin would have been able to sustain themselves. Basara however wasn't the only member of Sound Force capable of generated it, he was just the most powerful member (and obviously as such, Sivil's target). It was pretty much stated though that anyone is capable of generated Anima Spiritia, it just requires a strong conviction to do so. The process again however was: -Person generates spiritia -Sound Energy Converter (vest aparatus) acts as a bridge to draw that energy out into a more focusable form. -Sound Boosters amplify that energy & allow direction of it. As for the whole culture shock thing, that's an entirely different matter. It literally was a confused emotion due to being exposed to something new. It however wasn't what won the war against the Zentradi. To put it more simply, the culture shock may have peaked their interst towards Earth culture, but it was experiencing the emotions attached which caused the unrest in the Britai Adoclas fleet. Had it just been a simple matter of culture shock (not the 3 spies going & experiencing human culture, then sharing it with their friends), it would have worn off, and they still would have killed everyone. But feeling those emotions, and wanting to feel more prompted them to turn against Bodolza.

The speakers build into the Valkyries are for atmospheric conditions (inside City 7, on a planet, etc), and are only used under those circumstances. The Sound Boosters however aren't speakers at all. The only reason they're called "Sound Boosters," is because Chiba dubbed the phenomenon as "Song Energy," when it doesn't have anything to do with singing whatsoever. Their full function is to further amplify the Spiritia of sound force, and as others have said, channel it towards a specific area. The Sound Booster works directly in conjunction with the energy amplifying vest thingy (don't recall the name) again to further amplify the power being created. As for Spiritia, it's just Kawamori's word for life force, soul energy, ki, etc. Anima Spiritia specifically being the type generated when someone is really passionate about what they're doing. As I've said before, Sound Force are Kawamori's equivilent of Newtypes. Consider the Sound Boosters to serve a similar purpose to the psycommu.

Sound doesn't travel in space in 7 either. The music is transmitted on comm channels, & or with the speaker pods. Most of it is centered around launching & VF-11's blowing up. As you said, what series doesn't?

I dissagree. LLA was worth paying $40 for the import, it's sure as hell worth picking up the HK set.

Considering that we do get to know all the main characters with a good amount of depth & backstory, and even many of the secondary characters have decent screen time & introduction, I just don't see where the whole schtick is coming from. Lack of character development means that characters are being used as wallpaper & are never really delt with. 7 has an almost exclusive assortment of episodes focusing either on specific character conflicts or main plot elements, very little filler. As opposed to say a show like Pokemon or Yu Gi Oh, where all episodes center around collecting, trading, battling, etc. As for the battles, while there were no epic OVA styled dogfights, there were some great battles. Death Match at Planet Lux, The fight where Physica died, Gigil's last fight, the assault on Varuta to name a few. Would you consider many of the battles in the original Macross to be epic? Hikaru flies loses an arm/gets shot down, etc? Not every episode of every show is going to be a show stopper, especially when the show's main focus isn't fighting in the first place. Basara wasn't flying a VF-11, & had a pinpoint barrier. He does get hit on occasion, just nothing detrimental. Standard hero character action. Hero characters live through just about anything, cannon fodder characters blow up when you sneeze at them, that's just the way it is. As for the getting killed, why kill targets when your objective is to steal spiritia from them? Later on in the series (around the time Sivil appears) you start to see more VF-11 pilots not surviving. Why don't you just go watch that old WWF cartoon & quit wasting everyones time?

[blockquote]You don't have any data, and neither do I... The difference is, I am a marketing professional (I get paid $$$$$ to make assessments like this), and you are just crying about some show that you emotionally feel compelled to defend.[/blockquote] And consideing no one is paying you here, it can be just as easily assumed we're getting our moneys worth.... Macross 7 was no more a kids show than the original series. You wanna bitch about multi-colored Valkyries? What the hell did you think Hikaru's custom scheme, Max's custom scheme, Milia's custom scheme, as well as a huge red white & blue ship were about? As for death's, 7 had more than its share, no less dramatic than anything which came before. Character developement was mountains over Plus, any claim otherwise is pure delusion. Mecha battles, what the hell do you expect on a TV budget when compared with an OVA budget. No worse than any of its contemporary TV anime counterparts. Animation: Character animation stands out as very constant in quality. Popularity? Take a look at the crowd shots for any of the concert omake. The majority of the people there aren't "kids." The series suceeded in a 52 episode run (counting the encore episodes) a feat which no Gundam series has even achieved. A less popular show would have had its run cut short to 26-30 episodes. Hell, look at Gundam X which again is related to a much bigger franchise, it was a less popular show, and was trimmed down in episode count. Macross 7 has been released on VHS, LD, & DVD by Bandai. Again, not every Gundam Franchise (including X) has made it to DVD. Half hour movie special & 4 episode OVA, countless albums (yes JPOP, but what series at the time, let alone now DOESN'T use JPOP?). "NUFF SAID!

Nope, it's definately 9 disc's. http://www.animeniacs.com/index.php?act=ca...em&item=DVD0475

The deal is after Nishizaki got out of jail, he claimed exclusive ownership to Yamato. After a long drawn out court battle, he conceded (realizing Matsumoto wouldn't give up the fight), and agreed to share ownership. Both are now working on independent sequels. From the looks of it Nishizaki is claiming rights over the original scenario continuity, while Matsumoto gets characters & most design aspects. What that leaves us with is Nishizaki's Yamato Rebirth, which will feature a new story in the original continuity, but new character designs. & Matsumoto's Great Galaxy Yamato, a new retelling of the Iscandar story, but new character names, & an altered Yamato (as you've shown). Sure it looks like the Yamato crashed into the Arcadia & Enterprise, but it's still livable for a new Matsumoto Yamato story. BTW, has anyone ever released Yamato 2520 on DVD? I've seen Odin, but not how Nishizaki's full Yamato outing by himself went.

Not even going to begin trying to read through all this... My simple reply based on the title of the topic though: The Protodevilin were biological representations of the Protocultures technology. A melding of their bio & mechanical know-how. Doesn' t require that much of a leap when you consider that they already mastered altering & creating life, as well as intersteller space travel. The powers of the EVIL (i.e. non-Protodevilin possessed) were the same as any of their own ships. Fold, barrier fields, & beam cannons. The Protodevilin (energy being) brought with them their additional powers of posession & spiritia draining. Spiritia in itself being the energy generated by all living things, as opposed to the energy generated by a reaction furnace. There's no out & out magic, just an application of technological science to biological science.

I've now watched through The New Voyage (Be Forever Yamato is up next). So far the bad news: -Arrivederci has a nasty video encode error about 8:50 into the film. A bit of break-up that last for a second or 2, nothing player stopping, just an annoyance. I've checked around, and it seems to be a problem with all of the Arrivederci disc's, not just an individual error. -New Voyage has a source material error, what looks like what happens when your tracking goes off & the picture flips for a second. I forget the timestamp, but it's in the scene where Kodai leads the new Cosmo Tigers out on a training mission in an asteroid belt. Both problems are annoying, both problems are being ignored by Voyager, and as such, it's not likely we'll ever have a fix for them (unless someone eventually snags away the Yamato license...). All things considered, I'd still say it's worth the purchase, though some may want to hold out for an online discount or sale. One thing I can't help but notice during the viewing of these films, is that Nishizaki is a freakin' loon. Arrivederci Yamato is vastly inferior to Yamato 2 (Matsumoto's version). I can't wait to see what happens when Great Galaxy & Yamato Rebirth come out. Hopefully Nishizaki will finally acknowledge that the heart of Yamato came from Matsumoto.

Actually, OVA just means its a direct to video release. Nothing else is specifically implied to it, no does it specify that it's new animation. I have to agree with the others here, there's absolutely no way in hell we'd have missed a r-animated version of the TV series. Hell, its all we freakn' talk about every 2 months, and a good share of us regularly import.

Wait a minute, isn't that the forearm of the Heavy Arms?!

Check back tomorrow, I'm watching it later. Nope, and there most likely won't be. Considering that we've been waiting over a year for more Galaxy Express TV (stopped at episode 36), and 3 months for the Harlock TV set (what's taking them so damned long!), the chance of an R2 rip Yamato movie set isn't looking very good considering the disc's have been out for a while. The HK TV sets are great. Video quality is ripped from the R2 DVD sets, and the subtitles are very good (though not perfect). For the most part the dialogue is right on, though the names do tend to be slightly off. Usually they're at least phonetically correct though, far abve the usual HK standard. Though I think there are only 9 disc's (3 per series). Highly reccomended, especially since Nishizaki cut all of the fanservice when he did the first movie (he truly is nuts!).