sketchley

1 and 3 look the most accurate. 2 is from Macross II, if I'm not mistaken.

Agreed. Though it may be only the original visual interpretation by the creators of Macross, as vectored thrust is retroactively added to the VF-1 with the release of the DYRL? game for PS1 and SS in the mid-90's. Also, if I remember correctly, the VF-0 in Macross Zero is seen with the vector plates together in gerwalk and battroid while flying/hovering (eps. 2 & 3). EDIT: though, if they act as heat diffusers, it does make sense. It kindof supports the 'afterburner' setting in the throttle - heat is pumped into those things (when it normally isn't) to add just a little more heat expansion/thrust at the back end of the engine, in addition to providing a little more finely tuned vectoring to the thrust. Or something like that. Anime isn't reality afterall.

I'll attempt to answer some of the questions: First off (...) Macross is made in Japan, by Japanese, for Japanese. For all we know, they are following Japanese nomenclature, or being confusing just to be confusing (as has been known when it comes to the incorrectly romanized English versions of the names of Zentraedi people and equipment.) 1. Hypothesis sounds good. However, reading the development of the VF-1 will clarify things. VF-X (non-transformable) -> VF-X-1 -> VF-1. In reading just the 'Early 2003' statement, it implies that there were both a VF-X-1, and a VF-X-2. The VF-X-2 being designed to compete against the F-203 fighter, in, what I presume was, a fighter flyoff or competition, a la the F-21 vs. F-23, JSF F-35, Macross Plus, etc., etc.. This is supported by the existance of the VF-X-3, which competed with the VF-X-4; the VF-X-4 becoming the VF-4. http://macross.anime.net//mecha/united_nat...vfx3/index.html 2. The VF-0 only came into existance after the VF-1 had completed the designing process, and manufacturing had begun.* The reason it exists is because the thermonuclear engines of the VF-1 were delayed (design? manufacturing?). The VF-0 carries conventional, albiet overtuned, jet engines - which explains the larger body size: engines require more space, and the fuel they drink needs more space as well. * The reason for this overlap is that the VF-0 was rewritten into the Macross timeline some 20+ years after it was originally written.

Who knows. OTEC armor, OTEC weapons... the arms race continues well into the space age. It may not be that the bullets are *heavier* than current bullets of the same calibre. They may be firing faster (OTEC in the gunpowder? rail gun type magnetic accelerator in the barrels to assist the chemical propellant?) The bullets themselves are probably coated with the OTEC version of teflon, with some type of micro-HEAT or HESH warhead. Though the limitation of SW-AG tech does make sense. The molecular bonds are strengthened so that the material as a whole can perform feats above and beyond what it normally can, however, SW-AG energy conversion has no effect against 'pin pricks' by bullets and energy weapons. That, or all the mecha in Macross have their propellant or reactant stored just under (or even inside of!) the armour, so any AP round that penetrates sets of a catastrophic explosion...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6230925.stm BBC reports that they will both be there. Agreed that HD-TV is here to stay. Almost every TV channel here in Japan is broadcasting in High Vision (the local name of HDTV) and the only TV sets one can by new are HDTV types.

The silhouet of the F-14 would work fairly easily. The Harrier image, though cool, would require a lot of work to make a good image - the problem is the clouds. But that's just my take on it.

Wasn't this originally released on CD-ROM? The copy that I've seen had sound effects, and rudementary animation. I wonder how Dark Horse/Studio Proteus worked a manga out of that...

Not necessarily. How long has the war between Zentraedi and the Supervision army been? It's possible that the Supervision Army did attempt to revive them, possibly wiping out the remaining Protocultures in the process. However, sooner or later the Zentraedi would've erradicated any Supervision Army forces nearby, as the revival of the Protodevlin was too much of a loss of military power on their side. This was either hinted at, or directly stated in DYRL?, that they either attempt to take new war technology, or destroy it, so that none of their rivals can. There also wasn't that many of the Supervision Army left - a huge amount of their forces would have had to be acting defensively to protect the Protodevlyn, and getting destroyed in the process. It's very possible that the Protoculture forces that attacked the Supervision Army fleet could have been composed entirely of Protoculture ships. After defeating the Supervision Army defensive fleet(s), and imprisoning the Protodevlyn, it's very possible that the Zentraedi swept through the system, and destroyed everyone and anything - scortched earth tactics that they seem to love, et al.

Good point on the AFOS. However, I must ask the question: why would the protoculture design and artificially build the galactic whales, when it has been shown that they are (more?) interested in humanoid creations (Zentraedi, humans, Zolans, Protodevlin, etc.)? What if the original planet of the protocultures had something similar to the galactic whales coming every year, and they prompted and allowed the protocultures to develop space fold technology? If this later rhetorical question is true, then the Zolans, or at least the space poachers, are following in the footsteps of the protocultures. Not only that, it puts a new light on Dynamite, as it starts showing a conflict between (technological) progress at the expense of nature vs. conservation of nature at the cost of (technological) progress. IMHO, that conflict is closer to the theme(s) of Macross Zero... perhaps even that of SDF:M & DYRL?, with it's complete destruction of nature due to technological progress.

Protodevlin accident. It's only when the Protodevlin are accidentally released by a human exploration/science team on the planet Varuta, that they establish the Varuta war machine. Otherwise, excellent post SpacyAce2012. Many good points that I agree with. Macross is not "Space: 2001" with it's black monoliths to prompt technological advancement/test humanities level of technological advancement. Yes, AFOS/birdman was a test. But everything else? Leftovers from a fallen empire. I just rechecked Zola on the compendium, and it only appears in the timeline (when Dynamite happens) and in some of the VFs - which are custom/lesser able versions. (For example, in the legs/engine nacelles of the VF-19 the Zolan version only has built in micro-missiles, whereas the UN Spacy version has variable weapon pallet bays covered by micro-missile equipped FAST packs!) I don't see Macross Zero as much of a rewrite. If anything, it follows Kawamori's mentioning that Macross sequels (and prequels) don't necessarily follow continuity 100%...

I was thinking that the light reflected off of the carrier deck would account for that. Though... perhaps it is a tad 'too' bright and should be a tad bit 'gray' to account for the material being reflected off of.

Can I suggest graffitti on the ordinance? 'Die alien-scum' etc.. I think that's fairly common in real life.

Oo! Much, much better. The only thing I can really mention now is the same that I want to say to those who make movies: the resolution of the CG is much higher than that of the background image. I'm not really sure how to overcome it myself, and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort either.

I don't think it was 'done' in any sense of the word other than pasting together images of the retractable roof over the beach opening. Follow the link on the first post (and mind the pop-ups) and you'll see what the ceiling really looks like. Trees? What's that? Seriously, I came from a temperate rainforest. Let me recommend Cathedral Grove to you: http://images.google.ca/images?hl=ja&q...sa=N&tab=wi I've actually had too much of trees, and too much of rain. Cut 'em down, I say. Flatten the mountains, too, and make it level for that tree museum. Seriously, I'm more interested in going back to see Sanjusangendou, Kiyomizudera, Todaiji, Kinkakuji, and Himejijou. Much more interesting, and historically significant, then disposable chopsticks...erm, trees, and indoor swimming pools, if you ask me.

ãƒãƒ¼ãƒ‡ã‚£ã‚¢ãƒ³ = Haadian (Hah-diane). Excite isn't very accurate either. My wife (Japanese) recommends this: http://www.alc.co.jp/ Though, one has to have at least a working grasp of Japanese in able to use it. One must also remember that Japanese does not have articles, so when translating, articles have to be added. Eg: The strange looking life(form) "Haadian" appeared in front of the ever prospering human race in 2031 AD.

Not so crazy when you take into consideration things like winter cold, summer heat (climate controlled beach, anyone?), and the Japanese penchante to NOT want to worship the sun, and get skin cancer as a byproduct of getting a tan. There's also pollution in the ocean. Japan is a relatively clean country (especially over the past 30 to 40 years.) However, they have some nasty habits - like throwing garbage away in some of the most mind boggling places (I've seen some guy tossing rubbish into a river before. @.@ ) Not to mention potentially annoying (jellyfish) to potentially fatal (shark) sea animals... It makes quite a bit of sense to me. Of course it's down there with the indoor skihill on my list of places to visit in Japan.

The fin folds up into the cockpit (into the pilot's butt???) The upper part of the leg compose the underside of the wings between the cockpit and the engine nacelles. When it transforms, the knees move from the midpoint of the nacelles to their front/top. The rear-view of the battroid shows the louvres(???) that fill in the space behind the knee joint as it moves up the leg.

Agreed with JsARCLIGHT. I remember watching Battle of the Planets (G-Force) and the odd episode of Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom), while listening to recommendations to watch Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato) (it was on at a disgustingly early hour of the day, never really saw it.) All of this was pre-Robotech. Anyhow, I read somewhere, about a decade ago (!) about the 3 'firsts' in the golden age of mecha anime: 1) Realistic looking spaceships - Space Cruiser Yamato 2) Realistic 3-dimensional combat in space - Mobile Suit Gundam* 3) Realistic mass-production and realistic looking vehicle mode of transformers - Super Dimension Fortress Macross** * By this, I don't mean 3D-CG, but a move beyond 2D, naval type battles, to truly 3 dimensional battles, with opponents coming from any direction, and not everyone has the same 'up' and 'down' as you. Sadly, the naval tradition of space combat in science fiction shows still shows up far more than it should in science fiction and sci-fi productions. T.T ** Yes, Gundam started the trend towards mass-production anime mecha, but it still has the hero in a one-of-a-kind prototype (the title mecha.) Macross is mass-production all the way. From the heroes VFs, to the enemy's battlepods, to even the spaceships fielded by both sides. In fact, it's not until 1994's Macross Plus that Macross gets it's first heroes-piloting-prototypes; a decade or so after the original series was first broadcast.

*cough* J-rock *cough* SDF:M/DYRL?/Flashback 2012 are the J-pop. Macross Zero is the opera.

One thing to keep strongly in mind is that Macross is not reality. I mean it in the sense that the situation in the Macross universe, especially after SWI, and the almost complete eradication of humanity, it is fundamentally different from the world that we know. Add to it that Macross is made in Japan, by Japanese, for Japanese, and you get cultural elements that may be unique to Japan being thrown in. For starters, there's the whole age of concent/marriable age difference. Macross 7 isn't suggesting anything against the law. However, it does go semi-against the modern (Japanese) culture, which has most people getting married later in life, and having less children than in preceeding generations. In addition there are more and more people who are not getting married at all (either by choice, circumstance, or the failings of the modern culture paradigm being imported from North America - but that's another topic entirely.) The Macross universe, especially that of the late 2040s, is one where almost everybody is a decendant of a clone. Not to mention that there are probably incentives to get married and have more children sooner in life - survival of the species, et al. The other angle is that Miria was played as an overbearing mother. Her behaviour may not be an accurate barometer of the *actual* culture in Macross. In a way, her role was to help justify Mylene's actions, and to get the audience (especially the young female demographic) to relate to Mylene. The Max/Miria relationship is for us old timers who have gotten old, and grown up, and gotten married ourselves. Max essentially married the prom-queen. Look how their marriage turned out. Makes us happy, eh. That, or would they be interesting if they were always disappearing off camera to make more children? Drama, and especially conflict/arguements make for a much more interesting story than two people living happily ever after (isn't that the usual end to a love story?)

Buried in this topic somewhere either on this page or the following: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...0552&st=120 You may want to read the topic up to that point. Not sure if the posts will make sense out of context.

Correction: Kissdum. One word. I do not know what the title of the HTML used in the homepage has it broken into two words. But the title logo is written as "Engage Planet Kissdum." Too late. Can't stop it. Foreign languages (basically only English for the past decade or two) not only sound cool, but ARE cool to Japanese - especially trendy Japanese. In fact, the only Japanese who don't find English cool, are the ones who attend my classes. Though, they do go and make their own butchered English words which they perceive as cool.* So... yeah, it'll be easier to understand the mindstate of Shibuya garlz and random obatallion, then why more and more English is cropping up in more and more bad, and incorrect ways. The latest that I bothered to remember is what some economist wanted to call a series of micro-bubble in the economy: froth. Is that just not right? Frothy economy. I remember it entirely because of disgust. So, lets hope that the kiss in キスダムdoesn't mean kiss (as that's the standard kana-ization of the word,) and cross our fingers that an explanation isn't forthcoming. Just bring on the transforming VF-esque jets! * It should also be noted that Japanese tend to truncate words (nothing new, happens in English all the time. television = TV, etc..) But the Japanese do it in a different way. television becomes terebi. ice cream is aisu. Kansai International airport (関西国際空港) is kankuu (関空). United Nations (国際連åˆ) is Kokuren　(国連). Maybe it's becoming clear how difficult it is to translate Macross text from Japanese, yes no? Not to mention that the producers have stressed non-standard translations and romanizations... @.@

GSI Kureosi is not a romanization of Gunze (or Gunze Sangyo). On their website it is GSI Creos. http://www.gsi.co.jp/ It does look like Gunze (Sangyo) is an affiliate or sub-company (along with Mr. Hobby, etc..) Nevertheless, I agree that the colours as per the model instructions are the same as the GSI Creos/Gunze/Gunze Sangyo colours. Good luck on the search for the lacquer chart. Now that we know where to look, it should be significantly less difficult.

Black box numbers are GSI Kureosi and Mr. Karaa (Colour). White box numbers are water Hobby Colour. I do not know if Gunze is the same or not, but the Black and White box numbers correspond to the paints by the above 3 companies/brands.

Colours (in English) can be found at the bottom left of: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models...tructions-2.jpg Then it's all paint-by-numbers via: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models...tructions-7.jpg and http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models...tructions-8.jpg (with the occasional small detail of paint mentioned in various building steps. Cockpit interior, etc..)