sketchley

Correct name: "Evil Series" See: http://macross.anime.net/story/chronology/...0000/index.html (Before anyone raises pitchforks and ilk, note the capitalization denoting a proper noun composed of two words.)

Good point Eugemon. I'd like to add: In VF-X2, the Factory Satellite has had a giant (for lack of better words) hole in it's side, allowing for asteroids to be brought inside and processed. IMHO, extra-solar asteroids would be the main building material used by the factory ships in colonization fleets. That said, how many years have the Zentraedi (and presumably Supervision Army) Forces been using Factory Satellites to build their massive fleets? It's highly probable that they have already strip-mined the (easily attainable) resources of the galaxy!

Ok... I'll bite. 1) of the few that actually make Macross art, they post some here. Though, in honesty, I don't know what you're saying when you say "favorite Macross artwork". Do you mean self made, or made by others? 2) In my case, it's finished pictures inclusive of backgrounds. 3) Drawing anything decent (or anywhere near what the original artists drew) takes practice, irrespective of the source. 4) I've never drawn Seed Destiny mecha, so I have no clue. I have found that Macross VFs are generally easier to draw than mecha from the original Gundam series. Mind you, I've spent years more time examining and studying VFs than I have Gundams. If, as I'm guessing from your questions and UserID, you plan to draw Macross VFs, keep in mind the design philosophies: Gundam = heavy and armoured, VFs = delicate and aerodynamic.

On that note, I'd like to add that the era that the VF-1 and the VF-19/21/22 were produced in are radically different. The VF-1 needed to be produced in sufficient numbers to fend off an alien invasion as soon as yesterday. The VF-19/21/22 were produced in an era where the authorities could spend the time/money/whatever to finesse the designs to get the most out of it. In other words, due to the situation, the UN Spacy can afford to wait on releasing the Project Supernova AVF. (In addition to the logisitics, training, difficult to pilot, etc. that's already been mentioned.)

The VF-X2 game, set in 2050, with the main opponent being people from the UN Spacy itself, has the majority of UN Spacy equipment using opponents in the VF-11. Only one or two had the VF-19, one had the VF-22, and the majority were the (Target) Drone and Ghost X-9 (both from Macross Plus.) I think it says volumes about the fate of piloted VFs in general in Macross post-2050, but that's an entirely different topic of discussion.

I don't think Kazutaka Miyatake did the AFOS design. He did do the Ginga Kujira, Protodevlin, and the Ghost Fighter from Macross Zero. Though, given the limited literature spawned by Macross Zero (the only art book per se appears in the back half of Tenjin Hidetaka's Valkyries), it is possible that he designed the AFOS as well.

Many good points, but this got me thinking the most: what is the gimmick that Macross has that makes it different from the rest in the genre? I read it as spiritia is here to stay.

Had a chance to check out the magazine - Gundam 00 is in full hype mode. Macross only appears as small adverts for the rereleases of Macross Plus and 7 (old news.) As for the future release of it - there was an article in the magazine about the benefits of Blu-ray/HD-DVD vs. DVD. Given the number of anime releases on Blu-ray (I didn't spot a single HD-DVD release!), there's a strong chance that the standard for anime will be Blu-Ray. That said - what Azrael said - let's wait until AFTER the show starts being broadcast before we contemplate a non-televised media release of "Macross 25".

Agreed, and that's only if the ships aren't being used to do something else. If I'm not mistaken, attachments to the colony ship were built to expand the available space for the residents (populations tend to grow and need more living space,) not to mention the general repair and replacement of parts in the ships and vehicles in the fleet.

Simple: Macross 7 and Macross Plus were running at the same time. If they had the M7 Fleet VFs composed of VF-19, it'd take (one part of) the mystery out of Macross Plus. In universe, I believe the explanations are: the VF-11 worked fine, and until they met the Varuta, there was no need to change all of the VFs in the fleet to the VF-19. I believe the M7 fleet was also launched before the year that Macross Plus takes place.

Isn't it implied (if not directly stated) that the AFOS (or a similar device) has been used in Earth's past to wipe out preceeding civilizations? I think that was shown in the last episode of Macross 0, if memory serves.

The latest issue of Newtype is out. There's nothing on the cover mentioning Macross 25. I'll try and pop into a store that allows tachiyomi to see if there is anything mentioned inside (doubtful.) Hobby Japan (I think that was the modeling magazine) didn't have anything on the new series either, though it does have a nice collection of photos about the new SV-51.

Different pilot suits for different branches of the UN Spacy, and the different roles the pilots have in their branches. Case in point, the Macross 7 and Macross 5 (the Zentraedi fleet that gets possessed by the protodevlyn about halfway through the series) have disimilar uniforms. Diamond Force (I guess due to their elite nature) have different uniforms. So too do the heroes, etc. The reason - ease of recognition. The uniform discussed in this thread is the new canon fodder brown from SDF:M.

It's only after the opening credits, shown in the first handful of episodes. Basically, it shows the destruction of Earth, meeting and peace treaty signing with the Zentraedi, cloning, and the creation of emmigration fleets to explore the galaxy.

It's officially stated by the creators of Macross in the timeline printed in the Macross Perfect Memory book. See http://macross.anime.net//story/chronology/2010/index.html and http://macross.anime.net//story/chronology/2013/index.html for an English translation (search for cloning.)

Cast and crew are important, but the most important are: editor writer director A good director can't really save a badly written movie, but a great editor can hide what a movie is lacking. Anyhow, seeing a live-action DYRL or Macross is not something that I ever want to see. Call it the stylistic properties inherent in animation, or the easier suspension of disbelief...

Excellent. Simply excellence.

Personally, I'm reserving comment until further information is released on the series. That said, I have some critical questions about the latest wind blowing up the fan-boys' skirts: How closely tied is the source text to the powers-that-be whom control the Macross property?* How accurate is the translation?** * I see TAF (Tokyo Anime Fair,) but no Big West, Studio Nue, or even Bandai (not that they have much to do with Macross aside from sponsoring it and releasing licensed products based off of it.) ** As has already been proven in this thread (the 1/4 of a century thingy,) translating is a very delicate process, often rife with errors if one doesn't have a deep familiarity with the source language and topic.

I think it's more a case of not having the means or ability to take care of the (comparatively small) market for their products in the US, than it is about them "not caring about it". Customers purchasing their products is profit, after all. Though, I have heard of manufacturers not wanting to enter the US market due to the high number of litigations there - in other words, insurance is higher, and not many insurers are willing to cover the US market. Also, in addition to the Japanese purchasers being able to fully read the instructions (and Chinese speakers being able to (mostly) accurately guess the meaning of them), it should be pointed out that Japanese fans are also too busy to transform their purchases more than a couple of times. Too busy in the sense of: a) working too much (Japanese does have a word meaning "working to death" afterall) and b) attention focused on the hordes and reams of new products being released almost daily. So yeah... the products are probably just as likely to break, but then again, they are prized collector items, and not toys that you'd trust to a 5 year old kid. Right?

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, nor how accurate it is... that said, it does provide a good rough guide: http://unsd.macrossroleplay.org/uncrewcomplements.php

Kamjin had my ear in his first post. He lost my ear in the consecutive ones when he stepped down to the level of the hecklers. (Psst: Kamjin, as a writer, you have to release a work to the public, and walk away from it; not everyone is George Lucas and has the means and balls to make changes after the initial publication. This was one of those walk-away times.) And yes, some posters in MW have very poor manners to each other. That doesn't mean that all posters must behave badly. No, bad manners are bad manners. And if this community wants to grow, people have to fix their manners. As it is, there is a growing number of posters that I ignore and/or don't bother with anything more than a cursory glance... very sad. Conversly, there is a short list of members that I admire and respect, because they don't exhibit bad manners.

If memory serves... that was with DYRL, not Macross Plus. By the mid-90's there was a lot more native-speaker English teachers in Japan than there was in the mid-80's. Therefore, there was no need to use Macross Plus as a teaching tool, as more than enough ALT and Eikaiwa existed to fill it. Lucrative profit or more likely not. It's a business gamble. In the case of the Macross properties 7 and Zero, the gamble did not pay off, as no company purchased a license to release them in English. Now that we've moved into the digital age, and especially with the High Vision recordings available on formats like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, it's possible to cram both Japanese and English tracks onto releases (unlike the VHS age, were we'd be lucky if someone included an extra audio track, if anything at all.) That said, many Japanese companies have historically ignored the international market with the majority of their products (I don't mean this in the sense of including English labels, I mean it in the sense of actively promoting it and more specifically, litegating rivals that produce copy products,) so without a major rethink in business strategies, we may not be seeing an increase of English tracks or subtitles on the latest releases...

I think a healthy assesment of what has happened and what will happen as a result, instead of speculation and dismissiveness towards what has happened, is in order. Fact: An individual brought concealed items into the convention, and succeeded in making a premeditated attack against a specific target. Immediate effects: the attacked VIP comes out looking extremely good the attacker comes out looking extremely bad the attacked VIP has a cleaning bill. Pending on what was used in the attack and what clothes were being worn, the cleaning bill could be in the thousands of dollars.* the convention organizers look bad as their security was breached and a VIP guest of theirs is a victim of a premeditated attack. Long-term effects: With some thought, I came to the conclusion that the convention that the attack occured in will see the most drastic changes, whilst most every other similar convention will see lesser changes. Nevertheless, ALL similar conventions will be changed by this event. the amount of items not permitted will be increased baggage and body checks (or at least the scope of the checks) will be increased security will be increased the ticket price to attend the convention will go up to offset the costs of increased security fans will have a tougher time to get close to the VIPs who attend conventions (or may have to pass through additional checks and security) VIPs may become unwilling to attend such conventions, as we all know that fans don't specifically target the convention, but the VIPs in attendance. In conclusion: costs will go up, security will increase, the hassle people must go through to get close to the VIPs will increase, and there will be less VIPs in attendence, or less of the "better" or more "demanded" VIPs in attendance. So yes, I agree that the weapon used isn't that lethal, however the fact that such an action took place means that a motivated individual could bring much more harmful items into similar conventions. Not to mention that the attack resulted in damage (monetary.) * Famous people tend to wear expensive designer goods. Some of them cost more than the average worker in a first world country makes in a year. This is not claiming that the VIP was wearing such items. However, given that the VIP would want to look his best, he'd probably be in something expensive. In other words, something that most likely doesn't react well to the substance used in the attack.

Having subtitles or even an entire soundtrack on English doesn't get around any countries copyright laws. However, it allows the manufacturer and original property holders to create a master, or control release of their proprty in English, in addition to allowing non-Japanese speaking, non-Japan residing purchasers to aquire a legal copy of the property, without having to resort to fan-subbers, or worse, pirates, and allow some of that money to head into the pockets of the original property holders. I have one additional movie to add to the list of domestically released DVDs with an English track or subtitles: Ghost in the Shell (movie, 1st one.) Sadly, the 2nd one doesn't have English subtitles... Re: Macross Plus - it's entirely probable that Manga video paid for the translation, voice actors and studio time, and due to a clause in the licensing agreement, Big West acquired the recording(s), and then proceeded to release the Macross Plus: International Version before Manga Video did. Why the difference? Manga Video had to embark on an advertising compaign to raise awareness. The Japanese market was already well aware of Macross Plus, in addition to Macross in general, as Macross 7 was airing on TV on a weekly basis. There may also be something to do with lead times with the manufacturers and distributors in the English (UK, USA, etc.) market. The lead time for comics and other magazines is about 3 months. No telling if bottlenecks at the manufacturer increased the delay or not.

And this is good, how? I mean, seriously, that kind of behaviour isn't good for the community, and drives away the very people that could provide a lot of answers to the hard questions being asked by the community (ie: can someone translate the article about the new Macross series? etc..) Let me put it in different terms: I belong to another forum about a video game. The website has a civil atmosphere, and any mention of pirating the game is immediately cencored. Yes, spammers occasionally crop up. Yes, people make the occasionaly rant. The next generation of the game is currently being developed. The producers of the game actually frequent that forum, and have asked both directly and indirectly about the direction of the game and what the fans of it want out of it. Compare that to here, where we have "fans" of Macross, who whine and moan and complain about the next, long awaited production in the series, sight unseen. Is it any wonder why the producers don't bother asking MW for what they would like to see in the next production? Is the behaviour exhibited herein that of true fans of Macross? I fully understand that this post will fall on deaf ears, and that it may very well garner negative, anger and hate filled responses. Which again makes me question: are you guys fans of Macross? Let's stop with the negativity. Who knows, maybe a positive, enthusiastic response, and especially some money coming from people actually buying the next Macross production (as opposed to illegal theft of it) will get the attention of those that own Macross, and they will take steps to clarify the legal status of Macross in North America, and actually release anime tailored more for the North American market. Wishful thinking? Possibly. But you must understand that the Japanese mind is one of positive energy, and cheers for those that make an effort to accomplish something, whether succeeding or not.