Zinjo

Why 3 for second in command?

Not exclusively flagships, mostly on fighting ships of the fleet, it appears. We won't know what designation the Quarter was given until we get more detailed info I suspect.

The name itself isn't really the confusion. As a matter of fact it kinda distills what ship is what. I've also noticed that with the exception of the stealth frigate, that all previous military ships use the "hull type" (or equally correct "ship type") designators, while the civilian craft have none. So it is entirely possible and possibly likely that the colony class ships have no military designation as they are not combat capable vessels. None of the M7 civilian ships have any designations, yet I believe (Sketchley would be able to confirm better than I) they are all classified.

Actually I would not mind appendix pages or additional entries to accompany any future series'. That would be quite cool...

Yeah, that occured to me after the fact that I was confusing the Class with the hull designation with respect to the new colony class. However I am refering to the "hull designation" which is used in the US navy and seems to have been adopted into the Macross universe (SDF-x, SDFN-x, CV-xxx, ARMD-xxx, NMCV-xx, etc...) The source of confusion (for me at least) is the use of NMCV as the hull designation. Since the Uraga Class uses the CV designation and it is clearly a carrier. NMCV could represent New Macross Colony Vessel, however that would contradict CV representing Carrier Vessel. I would suspect, "Yes" would be the answer to that. Kawamori has already stated on record that he doesn't always remember the details of what has come before. The fleet numbers are certainly derived from the Battle Carriers, that has been consistent over the years. Until the next production...

So by that logic we could just as correctly surmise that that SDF in the Megaroads are only representative and NOT that of the Megaroad hull type designation? The fleet icon displays both the New Macross Aircraft Carrier label as well as the NMCV hull designation. If the hull designation is based on the US naval convention then the "V" stands for Vessel. In that CVN stands for Carrier-Vessel-Nuclear. The NMCV would represent New-Macross-Carrier-Vessel. That is certainly their full description, but it doesn't explain why Kawamori would approve a misrepresentation of the formal name of the ship, with New Macross Aircraft Carrier (when Island 1 is clearly a colony vessel, not an AC). At worst it's a mis-representation, at best a term of confusion for the audience. Additionally, why use the designation of NMCV when you've already established that the Frontier is an ICC type of colony ship? Looking for some better clarification here, since I am seeing a lot of defense of the chronicle books and not as much objective examination of the available information. There is a definite perception of contradiction here. Particularly with the Frontier fleet's hull designations, since we've seen two.

Stunning!

The only thing I'd suggest is that you add a sheild between the engine nacelles in fighter mode so it has better lift in the atmosphere and a few optional heads, otherwise I like the design very much!

Seito would know the details about that, since MII is his passion...

I suspect the confusion between official hull type designations and class names in the West is partly due to how RT referred to the ship as the SDF-1, while in Japan it was referred to as the Macross. It would be like a sailor referring to the Nimitz carrier as the CVN-68 and not the Nimitz. The Nimitz Class US Carrier is designated as a CVN hull type carrier. The Macross Class is an SDF(N) type warship and the New Macross Carrier is an NMC hull type carrier. We assume the SDF type designation includes the Megaroad Class colony ship (since we've heard nothing else so far), but we are not definitively sure. It is possible however, that the original SDF designation was adopted for the Megaroad Class because the hull type became 1600m (like the Megalord) and the SDFN hull type could mean Super Dimension Fortress "Nominal" denoting that the warship retained the nominal hull length of the original Macross warship which is 1200m. The ICC is the hull type designation for the Island Class Colony ship which includes an NMC carrier. This is the first time we've seen a specific hull type designation for a colony ship listed. Is it possible the City 7 could become a CCC (City Class Colony) hull type colony ship? We simply don't know thus far... It is certainly not an NMC carrier or a SDFN warship.

My impression of these fighters is they are either non-variable scouts or a Galaxy built variables that we may never get info on. There is still no definitive stats on the size of these bad boys. They are larger than the Macross, but I don't believe they are made up of gutted Zentreadi ships (eventhough they look like it) as there is no indication of an engine section on the arms. However, in the series there is an implication that they were built by the factory satellite and the satellite used existing Zentreadi designs to make the cannon arms. Whether they were built to existing scale or reduced remains largely unclear, since the animation really didn't give us any decent indicators of scale.

The general consensus on these boards is not to scan and post pics from active publications. 1.) Out of respect to the publishers and authors and their respective profit margins. 2.) To keep the publication alive as long as possible 3.) To promote more Macross productions through merchandizing. Once the publication has made it's run, then the only ones who'll profit from it are re-sellers and auction sites. Neither of those contribute to new productions, so there's no harm at that point. This is mostly for the new people, everyone fights no one quits....'er sorry got carried away there...

I always thought the Q-Rau was the inspiration for the BDI system in Plus. The suit seems very intuitive and there has to be a reason why it was the most effective power armor, outside of the pilot's skills...

I'd agree that it is a form of limited control, matter/anti-matter reaction. However it is most likely that the initial reaction weapons (SDFM) were Hydrogen bombs (aka Thermonuclear), considering their capability to destroy Zentreadi sized capital ships. Fission (Atomic) bombs would not produce sufficient destructive capability outside of an atmosphere.

I stand corrected regarding Zero. Thanks for the info... I did like the one episode Kawamori wrote for Bebop. It wasn't related to the overall story at all, but I enjoyed it nonetheless...

I liked what Ohnogi did with Sheryl. The show's character development was fairly bland until Sheryl began to go through her transformation. I'd only wished Alto and Ranka were able to get similar treatment. Both characters came across as somewhat two dimensional anime fare. A writer understands that what engages an audience is evolution of a show's characters. Kawamori is a great at envisioning a story's outline, but is not the best at the details. With the exception of Plus (which he had the time to really develop over time) M7 and M0 were both a series of events with characters thrown in. The love story in Zero was not developed enough to be believable and M7 seemed to have gotten away from him, due to that show's directorial vision. Regardless of how some might regard Ohnogi's writing ability, he does understand how to develop characters better than the staff writers on the show did. Unfortunately he was brought in so late that Ranka and Alto didn't benefit from the same character development that Sheryl had. That is the principle reason why I like Sheryl the best, mainly due to her evolution from a self absorbed diva to a humble musician. How she was shown to be an insecure child, desperate for genuine affection from another, who wasn't some drooling fanboy. I was so hoping Ranka would develop more but Ohnogi hit in on the head, when he described that her character was so sheltered that she was not able to fully develop as a person during the course of the series. Alto had hints of greater development but nothing really materialized. Michael and Klan were the greatest casualties of a lack of development. Yet again, the potential was there, but never really developed, possibly due the several throw away episodes Vegeta described. In retrospect, IMHO it is unfortunate the Ohnogi was not brought in to the writing team from the beginning. I suspect the story would have been much more in the spirit of SDFM as a character drama with transforming aircraft as opposed to transforming aircraft with characters.

This should answer most of your questions regarding the Zentreadi. http://macross.anime.net//story/chronology/index.html

Yeah of "Ai Oboete Imasu ka"!!

I wouldn't bet on it, but who knows.

Mmmm, I don't recall damage to the engines, but anything's possible...

Well that is probably a good indicator.... I noticed the engines and bridge right off. I wasn't aware one was capable of atmospheric flight. However, I tend to expect all Macross capital ships are capable of atmospheric landing (typically in water), based on what we've seen in Mac Plus, 7 and Frontier. The only exception seems to be ARMD class carriers and first generation capital ships which appear to be space only.

Why do you say that? The design aesthetics are definitely similar. Even the drop down bay on the underside and gatling cannon under the bow. It strikes me as a derivative of the Stealth Carrier design, albeit not necessarily a stealth carrier itself. I like the design of the stealth carrier, however the way they launched the fighters from it seemed pretty stupid to me...

One gets the impression that so much time and effort is devoted to the VF-1 so that we as fans have a solid foundation upon which to base subsequent models of variable fighters...

Wouldn't the refit need to be done in space? Zero gravity, the location of the ARMDs, etc... Now there is some advantages to keeping it in Attacker Mode. The ARMDs could continue to serve as aircraft launching points, the cannon is already semi-deployed and it is sitting much like a rocket ready for launch if necessary. In cruiser mode, it takes up over a km and doesn't have the same defensive advantages as the Attacker mode would provide. Then the most important reason....it looks DAMN COOL on screen as a 1km high robot!

Ahhh, Suncoast... I miss that store!