sketchley

Huh? I'm just curious - did you read the link to the Macross Compendium? Even easier, the quotes I provided of the article? And I'm curious - what conditions? Does being an amalgamation of economies multiple times larger than the G8 with all the resources of the member countries available and focused towards projects somehow reduce productivity?

Technically, Japan has two seperate voltage standards. Kanto and the 'West' is 100 V at 50 Hz, whereas Kansai and 'East' Japan is 110 V at 60 Hz. All should be ok for Canada and the USA (Canada is 120 V at 60 Hz.) It should also be noted that the above numbers are nominal values, and that the equipment should be able to handle values outside of the nominal ones. I've had no trouble running stuff from Canada here in Japan - though charge times are increased noticeably. Going the opposite route, there generally isn't an increase in performance, but a big increase in heat. So take Halfan's advice, as well as checking the statistics on the unit (it may be in Japanese, but the statistical data is still in 0123456789 numbers followed by a V and/or Hz.) You may or may not need a transformer. Though keep in mind that the oil used on the moving parts is most likely not designed for the riguers of your environment, and you may experience performance loss due to oil degredation much faster.

If I understand it correctly, the official stance is: if it's not directly mentioned, it is open to possibility in the future, but it's currently non-existant. There's something about those games... one person takes on the entire enemy fleet, and defeats them, unlimited missiles, etc., etc., that I hope most everyone will agree are simply unrealistic or simply too far beyond what suspension of disbelief allows storytellers to get away with. I personally think that anything that is from a game has to be taken with a grain of salt and has to go through a kind of 'conversion' process to fit with the greater storyline. Single pilot is representative of an entire squad or batallion, etc..

What we know from the anime is that most, if not all, of the ASS-1 was giant sized. What we haven't seen, but is directly implied, is that there were remains of the crew on board. These remains could have been burnt corpses. Even something as small as a bone fragment would have given clues as to the size of the crew. Another thing is the size of the facilities (washroom, bed, uniforms, hand held equipment, etc.) that must be taken into consideration. Therefore, the anime says the VF-1 was built to be the same size as the aliens (Zentraedi), therefore they knew. That works for me. The VF-0 was NOT designed for the thermonuclear engines. The only reason the VF-0 exists is because it was a trial production model and testbed for advanced jet engines and Overtechnology designed for future variable fighters. The only reason it was deployed for actual combat and functional testing, was because delivery of the VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter's thermonuclear reaction engines were delayed - thus the production of the VF-1 was delayed (you could go so far as to say that the VF-1 was being manufactured at the time, units being finished, but they had no powerplant - no engines.) http://macross.anime.net//mecha/united_nat.../vf0/index.html The same page also states: "Two EGF-127 custom overtuned conventional turbofan jet engines, each rated at 91.08 kN and 148.9 kN with afterburning. (Future variable fighters will incorporate thermonuclear reaction engines that are under development.) Due to its less efficient engines, the VF-0 has considerably shorter range, more delicate handling, and longer airframe compared to the VF-1. (Engine nacelles are comparatively longer to accommodate the earlier engine design.) " The body was also enlarged to make more room for fuel. Thus: bigger body.

FAST packs mostly carry fuel for the rocket engines in the FAST packs - and that fuel reserve is extremely finite! Of course, the anime screws with our minds by showing VFs constantly at max throttle for periods of time well beyond what the official stats claim. Mind you, the gun pod of the VF-1 only has 200 r, and we don't see them running out of ammo very often... I'm not sure if the FAST packs carry reactant (good definition there, JBO) - haven't seen any cutaways with reactant fuel pod listed...

See my post above.

Doubtful. I think it may have something to do with Japanese media organizations asking YouTube to delete a huge volume of illegal files a couple of months ago, more than anything else. In addition there is the news of Production IG getting the rights to represent GitS in Hollywood; though I doubt GitS prompted this debate in the Diet.

Good points. Another couple of observations I have had are: FAST packs serve as armour for the munitions stored within. Would you prefer to have your missiles exposed to micrometeorites, and stray enemy shots, or inside of a protective box? The trend from DYRL (possibly from the midpoint of SDF:M) onwards is to have all missiles stored internally. FAST packs appear to be used only when or if a mission requires the fuel increases and (usually) the additional firepower that FAST packs add. Going by Macross 7, it appears that FAST packs are de rigeur for the VF-11, but only used during the super heaviest combat by the VF-17, VF-19, and VF-22. My personal opinion is that visually, VFs are that much more bold and aggressive, when they have them. I don't mean the implied increase in weapons, but the 'yeah, other aircraft have to be sleek MFers, but I can carry big boxes, and still outfly them!' aggressiveness.

Macross = VFs (and love triangles, and music.) Not sure if an exclusive-to Destroid series would work, especially considering their lack of appearance in later series (which adds weight to the arguement of VFs having more marketing power than Destroids.) Also, the squad would have a very high mortality rate, given that Destroids are usually destroyed moments after they appear on screen, and the enemy attacks! Anyhow... something semi-related to Macross just popped up in the Diet: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070123a7.html I especially like the line about reexamining old contracts. That just screams Macross to me.

That's more due to the differences between Japanese phonics and the way sounds are written in Roman letters. Other possible results are: liber, river, ribel, livel, libel, rivel. Nevertheless, the name is ライãƒãƒ¼, which in standard romanization would be Raibaa (though is pronounced sometimes closer to Laibaa.)

Kensei got it. The development of the thermonuclear engines for the VF-1 was delayed somehow, and the existing VF-1 plans were made bigger to fit overtuned conventional engines, and the fuel needed for the engines to operate.

Just got the book/CD-ROM set yesterday. It's a great print - though I'm finding that it's easier to read a softcover manga collection than a hardcover one... Anyhow, aside for one or two incorrectly drawn characters (I have a faint feeling that Masamune Shirow was rushing through some of the art on this one... not sure why) it's great, and brings one right back to the original GiTS in feel and action. Though, I should add: some of what I thought were original ideas in the SAC and SAC II series are truly original Shirow ideas, as they crop up in this manga. Interesting. I can also see some of the characters that show up in GitS II appearing for the first time in 1.5. It's a bit expensive at ￥2500, and I'd probably prefer a softcover without the CD-ROM. Nevertheless, a good investment. At the same time I picked up another groovy Shirow art collection - http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%A3%AB%E9%83%8E...E/dp/4063646645 Check out the groovy pictures inside. The two "books" come as a set, with basically the same girls - the difference is that in one set, the girls are clothed, the other - well, good ol' Masamune Shirow goodness.

I saw this kit yesterday at Mandarake in Nanba: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models...r-327-54box.jpg It was ï¿¥800. Though there was a note on the kit that said the box was damaged. I'm not sure if an undamaged kit would retail higher or not, as the kit is more than 20 years old and there isn't much demand for it.

Oh! I first saw those some time in 2001 or early 2002. They came from a site that had great CG images of a fighter mode VF-11. For the longest time, I used a Flanker-esque image from the site as my background. I think this was the link to the site: http://web.interpuntonet.it/zpaolo/mw_vf11gallery.html But when I just checked now, it was gone. (Link from here: http://unsd.macrossroleplay.org/links.php Luckily the author hasn't updated this part of the site in ages. )

One of the making of documentary specifically states something about the real culture origins of the Rohan. If I remember correctly (been about a year) they are the original English or British culture, prior to the invasions and culture transformation by the Vikings.

Opps - that should have been "the Bandai 1/144 model kits"...

Well... as the wife (someone who could care less about anime in general and generally gets any anime related news from me) read about this on Mixi and told me - (within 24 hours of the news breaking here), the live action version is "big" news in Japan. That Kelly Hu image (black leather) definitely has a Major expression going on there.

Top and side of jet mode can be found in the This is Animation: Macross Plus book. Check with the model kits for the front and side views of battroid mode. Specifically the 1/144 scale kits.

I saw the Macross Plus Movie laser disc a few weeks ago in Book-off for something like ï¿¥1,000. I should clarify - the video disc (whatever the name of it) was first seen in Korea. LGì˜êµ­.

Thanks! Trustage is earneding. Hmmm... the impression I am getting is that the LG player is a player of HD-DVD in only the loosest sense of the verb. Anyhow, marketing score for them for being the first. The XBox 360 is still kicking around in Japan... somewhere. Not a big seller, but the CMs are still showing from time to time on the boob-tube. The PS3, too, doesn't crop up often either, though it's games are. What I do notice a lot of is the Wii - mind you, that could be because of the Wii-mote's unique gameplay interface. Looking at who is supporting what: "Blu-ray is used in products of Sony, Samsung Electronics, Hitachi and JVC; HD DVD is supported by Toshiba, Microsoft, Intel and NEC." My interpretation is that the two camps are composed of majority AV product vs. majority computer product manufacturing companies. Hmmm... maybe that's why the porn industry went with the majority computer camp's option? I'm also getting an itching feeling that North America will go HD DVD and Asia will go Blu-Ray. It won't be surprising, as it's happened before. Beta had a much, much longer product life in Japan than North America, the MD player never took off in North America but is still alive and well in Japan, and I occasionally come across a format called 'video disc' in used shops here... I don't ever remember seeing or hearing of that when I was in North America.

Throws up arms. Thanks for completely ignoring my request for citing ones sources. Dated those articles may be, they are the ones that came up FIRST in a google search. Many things could be read into that, but as google's spiderbots aren't always up to the second, I put a request in for additional articles on the subject - articles that could prove that posters in this thread know what they are talking about. Not providing articles nor citing ones sources amounts to internet hearsay. Trust is earned, not given freely, my friend. As for HD DVD being dead here - it doesn't appear to have even arrived. I've seen Blu-Ray releases in retailers, but no HD DVD. Though that could be due to poor marketing and/or in store product placement as much as anything else at this time.

Let's be realistic - there aren't many actresses who who want to wear the skimpy outfits that the manga and anime major tends to wear. Of those actresses who won't mind wearing those fashions... do we want to see them in it? And will they do a good major? Doubtful. I for one hope that there are some modifications to the base franchise when it goes live action. Of course what I want the most is a good director. Is Ridly Scott available?

I think we're arguing the same point. Yes, vague as in Orcs don't specifically represent anything, but they could be interpreted to represent anything (well, anyone).

Did some research (much needed in internet discussions...): http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/07/lg...ils_multi-blue/ http://ja.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=947700 http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/lg-kill...s-combo-player/ http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/09/toshiba...t-sharing-deal/ By the content of the above articles, LG has full access to the technology of HD-DVD, and the player being offered doesn't have HD-DVDs online interactivity features. Now, if I have to go online to access things like subtitles, and alternate language tracks, I don't want HD-DVD - as it reaks of the industry attempt to get DVDs marketed as pay-per-view a few years back! I'd like my fellow posters in this thread to provide articles (and not internet hearsay) about the lack of ability of the HD-DVD player aspects of the LG multi-player.

It all depends on what experiences one has up until the point of reading/viewing/digesting a story, that colours their interpretation of it. The other angle to look at, in the case of LotR, is the era and for which market that it was written. It wasn't written for a globalized economy era, and it was written for the British, and possibly only the other English speaking countries. Looking at it from the current geo-political-economic situation, the fault of Tolkeen, which at the same time is the greatest strength of the work, is it's vagueness. We can read whatever we want to into the mythos that he created. Which goes to my point: the interpretation and opinion of the reader/viewer are coloured by the reader/viewer's experiences up to that point.