Zinjo

Oooh, I remember those...BRUTAL!

SWEET! Thanks Did you scan the Macross Plus graphic with the halves of the YF-19 & YF-21?

I wouldn't be too sure about that. DYRL is so FUBAR with respect to international rights, no one really knows who owns what and where. If HG actually owned such rights outright, they'd have released the movie a long time ago, since it would be more of a cash-cow than their SDFM animation.

True, however Hollywood is infamous for bandwagon jumping. Look at all the crap that came out after Star Wars in 1977! Anything set in space was greenlit until about 1984 when they started to get a bit more selective. LOTR propagated how many fantasy films in the last few years? The iron is hot for giant robot movies, and Hollywood will strike as much and as often as they can before it cools. WB could combine the events of Macross with Mospeada and have the aliens be the Invid from the start. This way they can use the Mospeada designs and get the mecha on mecha combat they'll want. If you notice they are not specific as to what the "aliens" are. The idea of getting technology from a crashed space ship is so generic that it can't really be attributed to the Macross story directly. There is no reason to believe they'll have to use the SDF-1 since subsequent "chapters" of RT show it as being a heap of wreckage, unlike the Macross franchise. A quick dialogue bite about how they stripped the ship down to barebones, could explain it's absence in the movie.

Well unless it is critical to the story, no studio is going to spend money fighting for an element they could create themselves, especially when it is common practice to redesign and change everything when adapting a property for the big screen. They will put together the most visually exciting script they can, and it may well not resemble any of the animation or have any of the characters from the original animations at all! This is common practice. They have bought the right to use the RT name, the concept of transforming planes and any elements they want from the shows, or none of the elements. They could opt to do a film about transforming fighters and blatantly rip off Macross Plus, like Stealth did. Whatever gives them the "wow" factor and fills the seats, is all they'll care about, if it resembles the original stories, well that's just a happy coincidence....

I think that what most are forgetting is that WB may not be willing to deal with the legal issues surrounding Macross and opt to base it on Mospdeada. Joe Sixpack, won't care what the first transforming fighters looked like, he's in it to see giant robots kick the hell out of each other like in Transformers and Macross doesn't have that. Macross has transforming fighters that kick the hell out of giant chicken legged pods! Then there is the reality that the movie may not resemble the original animation of any of the RT series'. This will be an "adaptation" and with that Hollywood has no obligations to use anything beyond the name Robotech! They could abandon all the stories and characters and do an expensive crap job with the property, essentially turning the RT franchise name into mud in the minds of the general public. They will no doubt re-design most if not all the equipment and wardrobe for the movie, whether it is based on an REF story, Mospeada, Shadow Chronicles or Macross (which I find doubtful). How many crap scifi films followed Star Wars in the 70's and 80's? So long as they stay away from Macross, I don't care what they put up on the screen. The film's FX budget is going to be a fortune as it is, I can't see WB being willing to spend even more on securing the intellectual rights from Studio Nue and Big West as well... HG only owns their share of the animation of SDFM and the trademark for the the name "Macross" (as of 2003), that's it. That is also the reason why they can't release DYRL in any way shape or form... Proof of this is that in the new HG production, all references and graphics from Macross are absent, yet the latest production from Studio Nue and BigWest has everything Macross in it.

You are aware that "Watchmen" is being filmed as we type, right?

Nah, Clancy Brown as Vritai! Much better choice and he has the voice for it too!

Gorgeous resolutions and very nice scans. Too often the book's spine warps the pictures, Thanks! Since yoiu have the Zeros up, maybe a few SV-51 scans, like the Nora on the VF-0D's six, the Ivanov in formation, etc...? How about the Macross Plus Sharon Apple graphic of he VF-fighters? Very nice!

Nooooooooooooooooo, not a VF-11MAXL!!!!!!!

The part that kills me is that Mospeada would translate better to what the masses want now anyway. Tranforming planes fighting gigantic legged pods with antenna guns? Not cinematic magic in Joe Sixpack's mind. Flying Robots fighting alien robots, now that 's transformers! Then you have the transforming motorcycles, which amps up the coolness factor. Macross is the better story, but even DYRL didn't attempt to try to re-tell the series in a 2 hour film... With BigWest owning the intellectual property that Macross was based on, it could become problematic for WB to bring to the big screen... All they have to do is pull out the judgement they won in Japanese court and the cost of a Macross based film jumps considerably.

Voice acting is typically one of the last aspects of animation production in Japan if I remember correctly. Unlike here where it's done first.

Anime in general isn't a mainstream product in Japan, comparatively speaking, live action shows are immensely more popular. However Evangelion is becoming the Star Wars of Japan if the theater numbers are any indication Gundam is a toy show and the rest is generally perceived as children's entertainment, if we want to get real... yes within the anime industry the show is small and I think we can all agree that getting a new production once every 5 - 10 years is probably the greatest reason why. Bandai Visual (aka the distribution partner of BigWest), who is essentially going to be subbing their catalog titles and marketing them here under the Honnêamise brand name. Nothing more. Whether BW has given up on trying to distribute Macross internationally is debatable these days.

Well it won't resemble Macross AT ALL. The intellectual property of the character, Mecha designs and probably the story belong to BigWest. WB bought rights to the "animation" and Macek's RT story, that is all! This production could very well end up in a legal quagmire over usage of property and designs owned by Studio Nue & BW. WB will want to have international control over that and it won't have it using original designs. Granted, Hollywood more often than not ends up creating it's own designs for all it's productions anyway. However, there very well may be no Minmay, since that character is owned by Studio Nue and Bigwest, not HG. All the other character names were changed, but that one. The Kite will have to be changed, UN Spacy cannot appear on anything, the SDF-1 and Valkeries have to be redesigned. Unfortunately HG trademarked the name Macross (why BW allowed it is anyone's guess) so that will be able to stay assuming they even want to keep it). I expect this to be another "Transformers", in that the VF-1 will probably resemble the JSF or Raptor, as opposed to the F-14. Getting the film rights to a franchise doesn't mean a greenlight for production, so I think we have a some time yet. What surprises me is that there isn't a big budget Gundam project in the works!

Actually you are mistaken, they are currently working on the HDDVD codes. - read these: http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/26/hd-dvd-...na-only-format/ http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060526-6927.html Bluray Disc Regions: Region code Area A/1 North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. B/2 Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. C/3 India, Nepal, Mainland China, Pakistan, Russia, Central and South Asia. However, it appears both camps are reluctant to encode the regions until the formats become widely adopted in the market. DYRL was a theatrical film released in 35mm, it was indeed widescreen.

This may be true, but with the drop in home video sales in Japan recently, if a company can release a product that will be bought by the international market as well as domestically, why wouldn't it? Bluray offers a prime opportunity for BV & BW to sidestep HG's claims in the US while still profiting from the sale of their Macross releases. Importing of these titles is not considered infringement because they are not produced here and the legal property owners or their agents are selling them directly. To make them more attractive, for Western export, why wouldn't a company invest a small amount in purchasing existing audio and / or subtitle streams from former license holders (Mac Plus and Mac II from Manga Entertainment.) or creating a translated subtitle stream by a US subsidiary (Bandai Visual US) and incorporating it into a release. The costs are negligable compared to the potential additional revenue from exporting it to the West. Revenue they wouldn't see if they remained domestically focused and closed to the idea of international export. Hell they could explore the idea of distribution from Canada which has different copyright laws from the US.

If every member here and all interested parties were to request it from Bandai Visual US, I'm sure they'd pass the message along to the Japanese parent. Like any business, if there is a market for a product, it will be provided. Here's the contact page for Bandai Visual US: http://www.bandaivisual.co.jp/usa/

Well if enough Western fans ask Bandai Visual to do it, I'm sure they'd consider it. The only issue is that we'd have to buy it from Japan or another offshore source, because to distribute it domestically could have some legal snags. If BW has the stones to actually defend their hard won intellectual property rights internationally, they could release it here and throw down the gauntlet to HG, so to speak.

"Out of Hand" in terms of believing this release to be an actual HD release, by all means everyone should own a copy, since it will be the best possible standard DVD release of the film that will exist! According to a friend of mine in the film industry 35mm film has resolutions that are far in excess of what a digital HD transfer can carry at the moment. I do not recall the actual megapixel comparisons between the two, but it is significant. The HD cameras Lucas used on the prequels is a higher resolution than standard HD, but not as high as film.

Before it gets out of hand, they are "remastered" from HD, not in HD itself... However, mastering them in HD is most likely a harbinger for the real deal, prolly in 2008 after the series has run and the franchise is fresh in the minds of the consumers.

OMFG!!!! A HD remaster of DYRL!!! I thought the R2 Bandai release I had was sweet... OH WOW!! Gimme The series I'll pass on, since the 16mm film stock won't give them any better a master than what Animeigo did, not to mention the nearly $400.00 price tag!

Well I can't wait for the Revoltech VF-1J Hikaru that's coming out. I don't intend to play with the damn thing, just give it some funky poses for display...

The "Moon Party" concert was a custom Haseqawa kit. The "One Night In Paris" custom comes from a Model Graphix custom decal set made for Hasegawa kits. The color scheme and decals were featured in the October 2002 edition of the Magazine.

Eyes? What is this thing you speak of, eyes?

If it was remastered off the original film prints, then it will be of a higher resolution that HD, therefore assuming they cleaned up the scratches and pocks usually found on film prints, it will be from a true HD image. The only reason why they would go to such lengths is if they were indeed intending to release the shows on Bluray eventually.