Zinjo

True, however it is unfortunate that Basara really doesn't change his demeanor throughout the entire 49 episodes...

That has become the question, were the fighters adapted / converted or built from scratch...?

Hmm, interesting how the Earth mfgr is mentioned in the title along with the Varuata mfgr in the compendium... If it were solely a Varuata fighter wouldn't the title only reference Messer-Varuata? The basis of the design could just as easily reference General Galaxy's fighter. So that makes me wonder why it was listed in that way?

Did they base them on the VF's or were the existing aircraft adapted?

Well the SDF-2 Megaroad had one, but when it was converted to a colony vessel there is no mention of it. When you examine the Megaroad colony ship designs there doesn't appear to be any buster cannon, however it launched with a fleet of escort ships that had the combined firepower of several buster cannons. There is no official documentation about a buster cannon on the colony ship as far as I know.

Are the "Fz" series of fighter shown in SK design works and featured in Mac 7 Zentreadi specific variable fighters? I was curious as to their origins, since we know that the fighters were deployed with the Megaroad 13 fleet, however the "VF" series of fighters went down a different development path. I understand that a Fz fighter was featured in VF-X (IIRC) but no where else in the universe...

Well put. There are racial overtones in Macross, just not a specific story line is devoted to it. Both the Megaroad 13 and Macross 5 missions were both predominately Zentreadi in population, not human. Which tends to imply that there is a racial issue between the two, but not something the producers are interested in exploring.

In the case of the Macross franchise that is caught in a legal dispute over international rights, it makes more sense for BigWest to invest in the subtitles on the Blu-ray format in order to bypass US copyright laws on imports. If Manga Ent. were to partner with BigWest in this endeavour, they would have marketable Macross anime with little effort on their part.

Mylene was Otaku eye candy or (lolicon depending on your bend), Basara was the distant unatainable rock star of every schoolgirl's dreams and Gamlin was more like the "school everyboy" that was the devoted friend, but never taken seriously as a love interest. The show was the most marketing driven show of the franchise, so such cliche'd character types should be expected. Very cleaverly done, if you look at it from a purely marketing point of view. Yoshiki Fukuyama's music was the main focus of the show (I suspect the record company contributed the most to the show's budget to carry that kind of clout) so Basara got the most screentime and thus so did his music. With an unknown voice, BigWest will be able to control that aspect of the show better this time around. much like SDFM. Makes one wonder how much of the show is actually SK's vision and outline and how much was driven by the sponsors' demands for "more music"?

I've noticed that as well. Though in Western cultures we'd want to explore that dynamic, I doubt it is a high priority in Japan. The principal difference is that the SDFM & DRYL ones are explained as "coincidence" as opposed to the Deliberate Mac 7 ones. What was intended and what was produced are two very different things. If they stayed to the notion it was a parody, they wouldn't have explained why the Macross transformed, it just would. Now if one considers Mac 7 a parody of the Macross universe itself, then the "Man 7" makes complete sense and has supreme cheese factors working for it.

Maybe it's a RT thing... No one is disputing that the SDF-1 wasn't designed to look humanoid once transformed, however they addressed this with the explanation that it was more coincidence as opposed to purposed as in Mac 7. Did they embrace the whole humanoid transformation fully in Mac 7? Absolutely, but they did it without any plausible explanation for it. If they had said they discovered that the SA had transfoming ships or anything that would justify the time needed to design a fully functional transforming capital ship as well as the time and expense to build them, we wouldn't really be having this discussion. As it was, it ultimately ended up being "something cool" for the kids to look at during the show. It didn't even merit a toy or model kit!!! ~ which is unfortunate as I would have bought the Mac 7 capital ship kits over the SDFM ones...

Actually the gun "pod" on the Battle 7 is actually called the "Gun Ship" according to the Miyatake designs. However, I agree that it didn't need to be "hand held" for it to work. It would have been just as effective if it was on a pivot mount underneath the carrier, attached yet independant at the same time. The SDF-1 was discovered to be "modular" in design and thus capable of transforming. Most likely an unexplained alien design feature. Considering they were in the middle of the solar system without any more parts than they currenly carried with them, the fastest and most logical step would have been to transform the ship to fire the cannon as opposed to taking weeks or months to fabricate the necessary parts to replace the ones lost by the fold. The only recorded "official" explanation to Battle 7's transformation was that the producers felt it wasn't a Macross show without a transforming Macross ship, as far as I am aware of.

The Battle 5 & 7 were gorgeous warships until they transformed for no apparent reason other than the producer's notion that it wasn't Macross without a transforming capital ship... Though the idea of more Miyatake capital ship designs is very appealing...

I suspect the series is probably already underway, at the very least all the designs and scripts are finished and Satelite is already building models and doing preliminary renders of sequences. There is no reason for Bigwest to publish any finalized designs so early on. They can release more and more in the many publications as the months progress toward the October premier. Thus building momentum for the show. Mac Zero pretty much put all it's cards on the table and the interest may have peaked early for the project. It is also conceivable that many of the fully rendered shots are well underway if SK wants to maintain the same production quality of Macross Zero, Satelite will require suffifcient lead time to complete the shots to be edited into the weekly episodes. One thing is a real possiblity, that the series won't run to a 49 episodes like Mac 7 did...

I liked the Phantom Edit version better....

Encouraging, means a Basara character will not be returning. The show seems to be going back to it's roots with a Minmay type character. Not necessarily a bad thing. If done right it could be quite good. No one complains about the teenage cast from Evangelion, so we'll have to see. If they dumb it down like Mac7, then I'd have to agree, but if they go back to their roots and target adolescents this could be a fun series....

How hot does a fusion reactor get anway?

I don't see an issue with it considering they are nuclear engines after all. It has been debated whether intakes are even needed in VFs...

Actually I liked that fact. It allows Studio Nue and BigWest to alter the appearance of the VF-1 if they ever wanted to re-animate SDFM and distinguish it from the partly owned Tatsunoko version. I've always liked the idea that the "actual" VF-1 resembled the SWXA-1 which is more in line with the design elements of the variable fighters of subsequent series'. Though it would be nice if we finally get to see actual Supervision Army forces in this series.

Umm WOW! Nice work...

Yeah, Central Anime did a great job with the show.

The preliminary designs look like a mesh between the VF-22, SWA-1 and the SV-51 (possibly with the engine verniers doubling as the feet like the SV-51). Though with the cockpit further back on the fuselage I can see how some see the Kissdum fighter in there too. The Battroid is very reminiscent of his work on Eureka 7 and the Nissan mecha, which seems to be his new direction for robots these days. Actually I may be wrong about the feet, it appears that the engines may end up on its back like the VF-22, if the sketches in the top right hand corner are any indicator... Thanks for the scans Graham...

Wow first time I've ever heard a comparison like THAT...

Cool, pics too if you are able...

Well considering how much "luv"( ) M7 has been getting in this thread, someone had to take a shot at Mac II eventually...