VFTF1

I ain't even gonna argue with him. I might not have a masters, but my shlong is bigger, I can down more vodka than he can, and I have more moe dolls and Yammies than he does! That makes me inherently right. Pete

Virtu tentamine Guadet! Pete

Hey - he's right. I am too stupid to understand. What's a "hidden underlaying" ? Is that like people hiding under something while getting laid? If so - dag. I missed that part. Don't even ask me what "and subset that's hidden within the context of the plot" means. Normally, I'd point out that using the same adjective in one sentence is a bit crude, but then again it's a bit crude to use the same adjective in one sentence - particularly when it's a run on sentence that doesn't make sense, let alone is not at the very least a sarcastic sentence that makes fun of another run on sentence that crudely uses the same adjective twice while remaining non-descript, continuing to run on, and failing to even be funny let alone achieve the amazing feat which is using the same crude adjective crudely five times, albeit not in a manner that is a subset that's hidden within the context of the plot of the sentence which has run on so long that it's become Hard Sci-Fi, worthy of getting laid in your underpants while hidden. Pete Dumb Otaku Doesn't have a Masters Degree Didn't even graduate High School or finish college Proud Dumbass Otaku

But does KA also mean it's a Katoki design - and therefore it won't be anime accurate, but rather somehow..."real robot" ??? Pete

Hm... I am intrigued by these character archetypes... I have heard Asuka Langley described as a Tsundere.... she was also jealous - but she's so intense, while Kyon is very passive, it's kind of like they have the same view of reality - but one is mellow about it while the other is a psychological wreck... At the risk of making myself look like a total newbie - I'd like to get this straight. Can someone please give me a) The literal Japanese definition of the word b) The general anime definition in every day usage 1. Tsundare (really jealous person??) 2. Bishojou (beautiful hot babe?) 3. Yaoi (Male romantic love that is not necessarily purely erotic, but not philas either? [and no, I refuse to call it "platonic" - juxtaposing "platonic" love against erotic love is completely wrong IMO and has entered into general usage but the people who use it have never read Plato, don't understand Plato's concept of friendship, and don't understand that the proper juxtaposition to erotic love should just be philas IMO...umm...but...getting kind of beside myself...) 4. anything else?? Once again - thank you for that explanation. This makes sense now because I've generally noticed that young girls are into Yaoi - I guess it makes sense that men have lesbian fantasies so girls have gay or semi-gay fantasies - but still... I didn't know that's what Yaoi was. Would Roy and Hikaru be considered "Old School" Yaoi? Anime back then was not as "self-conscious" - or so it seems - and lots of these archetypes seem to be gleened off of earlier anime where they existed sub-consciously, whereas now they are consciously exploited. Again...I kind of disagree...although "disagree" is the wrong word. I find myself unable to get caught up in some of your broader generalizations - like this one... Here's why: For me, we learn the most important thing about Kyon in his opening lines in the first part of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (so episode 2), where he tells us that he always wanted things like aliens, super robots and secret organizations to exist, but then he matured and accepted the physical laws of the universe, although he also held on to his beliefs despite this maturing. In other words - he "knew" that these things didn't exist, but he still believed them - and he found himself doing this calmly - he even defined maturity as being able to hold this kind of view of reality - where on the one hand you accept the limits of the real world, but on the other you don't let go of your deepest beliefs. It's this comportment towards existence that, for instance, allows Kyon to maintain blase passivity and even boredom in the face of the various monsters and sub-space (or whatever it's called) dimmensions and Ritsuko trying to kill him or Yuki getting impaled in front of his eyes. It's the source of his sarcastic way of being. Not to say he wasn't scared when Ritsuko came at him with a knife - but as soon as she "converted" the room into a computer graphics center, Kyon started to JOKE instead of just being scared that another person was coming at him with a knife. And he was more in awe of Yuki's impalement (because she immediately spoke to calm him) than freaked. In any case - my point here is that I don't think Kyon actually likes Haruhi as a person. I think he simply regards her as a person, in contradistinction to Koizumi, for whom she is a dangerous fickle God. Kyon certainly finds Haruhi attractive - but for some reason (and I can't for the life of me figure out the reason) - Kyon has an EXCELLENT pathos of distance towards women. Kyon recognizes babes and is attracted to them - but he totally doesn't let girls know that their physical beauty casts a spell over him. See - the thing with women is that there are two contradictory things that drive them: A) The need for men to adore and worship their sexual beauty B) The need for men to be strong and independent. But when a man adores and worships a woman's sexual beauty - he is NOT strong. The more he adores and worships a woman's sexual beauty - the more he shows the woman that he is WEAK - that he can be easily influenced and bamboozled by tits and ass. This paradoxically drives the woman away - even though she wants and expects to be adored - she will also push the man away the more fawning he becomes because it is a sign of his weakness. Kyon displays NONE of this. Not even towards Mikuru - for whom he exhibits extreme self control, as he does with all other girls. The only girl with whom he allows himself to be weak is...Yuki! Yes - Yuki - because he lets slip "I never was a glasses man anyways" - he catches himself immedietly, and Yuki is too dense to understand - and therefore the "show of weakness" has no negative effect on her view of Kyon's manliness. This is, by the way, why Yuki is the best girl. She is beautiful, but hides it (therefore few men adore her), and the guy lucky enough to see her sexual beauty doesn't have to worry about her getting aggravated if he goes all weak and wobbly in the knees for her (mainly because she's not really a woman, but a Data Interface Being or whatever). Aaanyways... This is a long way of saying that Kyon isn't - in my opinion - in love with or even attracted to Haruhi. He calls her Bishojou - but so what? He never ACTS like it matters to him, and he's actually often approached by beautiful girls. Remember when he was walking up the hill to school and Ritsuko stopped him, twirled around, gave him a smile and told him she had to hurry ahead to do some chore? Ladies like Kyon because of his calm. He's not only physicall attractive - but he has a character which draws women towards him because he is passive about their sexual beauty. Haruhi simply notes that Kyon's a bit LESS passive about Mikuru's sexual beauty than he is about her - and this pisses her off all the more so, because given how demure Kyon is about sexual attraction - the fact that he lets go of himself a little bit more when Mikuru is around drives Haruhi insane... But this doesn't mean Kyon loves her - or likes her. He kisses her partially because of Mikuru's "Snow White" warning and because he realizes the situation they're in. Besides - he kept telling Haruhi to find a nice guy and go to the movies with him instead of searching for aliens in a high school. So - the kiss was kind of a natural follow up to that - it was a more romantic and less crude version of Al Pacino's words to Michelle Pfiefer in Scarface "What's your problem...you got a problem cause you got beautiful body...beautiful legs...beautiful tits...all these guys in love with you...only you got a look in your eye like you haven't been fcuked in a month!" That's basically what Kyon "said" to Haruhi in the kiss. Haruhi herself, in one episode, admited she had "needs" and tightened her legs just in case we didn't get the allusion - but her view of love is that it's a pure biological/chemical phenomena and that there's no reason to let it overcome your reason - or...HER reason...what Koizumi would call her "common sense"...which just happens to dictate that one needs to search for aliens, espers and hope for murders during summer vacation... I guess what it boils down to is this: Kyon is WAY too mature for his "age" - it's like...either he's got a really good father who has taught him a lot about women, or he's just a natural born manly man who can handle babes. But I know that it took me a loooong time to learn how to deal with beautiful women - and here Kyon's doing it like a pro as a JUNIOR in HIGH SCHOOL. Kyon's character is the most intriguing one out of them all for this reason. Pete

I didn't know this. Also, I have heard of Yaoi, but I take it that it's gay then - or am I misunderstanding? In any event, Kyon seems to react to Koizumi's "breach of personal space" with the same degree of rage as Kamina reacted to Ron in Gurren Lagann - albeit Kyon doesn't have a katana handy... Here I kind of disagree - that is... I never got the impression that Haruhi is erotically interested in Koizumi - no matter what he does. The only rivalry here is one of affection in a non-erotic sense. Haruhi praises Koizumi and makes him vice-brigade chief, which seems to aggrivate Kyon - but I don't think it makes him jealous. I think Kyon was indignant that a non-thinking, dependent yes-man drone became vice-chief while Haruhi usually either ignored what Kyon had to say or would cut it to tell him to shut up and that he was generally wrong. That is to say - I think the rivalry between them is more for Haruhi's soul than for her body. Kyon doesn't think it's right for Haruhi to be surrounded by yes-men who hide the truth from her and prevent her from growing as a human being. Koizumi acts out of fear that "God" will destroy the world unless he's exceedingly nice to her, and always says yes to everything she proposes. Also, the rivalry between the two is one of normality vs supernaturalism in terms of how they view reality. Whenever Haruhi proposes something, Kyon looks at it from the point of view of whether or not the idea has merit on the face of it, while Koizumi seeks out some underlying supernatural dimmension (like when Haruhi decided to enter them into a baseball contest, which Kyon thought was dumb, but Koizumi said it beat looking for aliens)... I really don't get the feeling that there's much sexual competition between the two lead males. Koizumi seems like Haruhi wouldn't even be his type. He's probably got a girlfriend in the Organization - maybe the Maid? She is indeed a mystery, and that 1 scene in season 2 where she looks like she's pulling the strings that Mikuru is on makes me wonder... However - the TRUE reveal of Tsuruya-san's powers can be seen in the anime Haruhi-chan. Her powers are more like those of Koizumi/Esper/Witches than time travel. Pete

New nomination! I was in the store back on Feb 20th (according to my twitter logs....I apparently tweeted this but never wrote it here) and I saw - on DVD- being sold in Poland (which is a shock)...ZOMBIE STRIPPERS!! starring Robert England or Eggland or whatever his name is (Freddy Kruger or Kreuger or however that supermarket was called). Anyways - I know Zombies are horror, but these are ZOMBIE STRIPPERS - so that's sci-fi. Apparently this movie came out in 2008 and for some strange reason I wasn't aware of it! The picture on the cover is of a naked hot chick, so I immediately picked it up, but when I looked at the back it was just some old fart and monsters instead of hot T&A, so I put it back down. I didn't read the plot. I probably would have bought it, but I was broke and couldn't afford the hefty 10 dollars price tag However -I'm fairly sure it'll be there the next time I drop by that particular store, which is often. Pete

Amazon ships to "Europe" - but not to Poland I guess they must have had a bad eperience or something...although I'll grant it has been a while since I tried - so maybe they've changed that? ... Anyways - it's on the bottom of my list - well - maybe not the total bottom... but Suzumiya and Gurren Lagann...not to mention that one anime...umm...Ma...M-...Ma...something... the one that the Japanese did after watching Robotech when they wanted to mimic anime which was invented by that one Carl Macek dude... I wanna get those too... Yeah - I know... I saw the prices... we'll see.... If I come across Gurren Lagann (which apparently can be bought in Europe) first, then I'll get that instead. Pete

BANDIA MASTERGRADE GURREN LAGANN + FREE YOKO BLOW UP SEX DOLL!!!! YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://ngeekhiong.blogspot.com/2010/02/mg-...undam-from.html Pete

Hm. I don't know whether she acted out of empathy to help the ENOZ girls. It's a good question.... I was always so focused on her reaction to the ENOZ girls praising her afterwards and what Kyon said to her under the tree that I never really thought about WHY Haruhi did what she did..but...you're probably right. Certainly it wasn't out of some wierd ambition or ...actually...it wasn't out of any "wierd" reason (aka typical Haruhi thinking)... She didn't even do it to promote SOS, instead while on stage she was humble and she promoted ENOZ. Maybe you're right that the fight in Sighs taught her something about people .... As to Mikuru..weeeeeeeeelllllllll........... a) you forget Koizumi's warning about Mikuru. True, he MIGHT have been lying - but notice how Kyon has two "tempters" - Mikuru and Koizumi always vie for his favor. Mikuru uses sex appeal (albeit she seems to do it totally unwittingly) while Koizumi TRIES to use sex appeal ("Too close! Your face is too close!") which constantly fails to impress the not-gay Kyon, so Koizumi is "forced" to use reason - and keeps having discussions with Kyon. Koizumi's exposition on the true nature of Mikuru is pretty radical - but I wonder to what extent it's true? In Closed Circle Kyon says he trusts Koizumi least of all - but look at Kyon's actions? Kyon constantly trusts Koizumi in action....or...so it seems...in Sighs he certainly does. Yuki on the other hand...she's the toughest to call. I think part of the "problem" is that she takes her orders to be an observer VERY literally - and therefore has no "stake" in "what" Haruhi will do, and whether or not to do something about it. She ends up following Kyon's orders ...well...why? ... Because certainly Yuki DOES end up doing many pro-active things - kind of along the same lines as Ritsuko wanted to do - not as extreme, not "I'll murder Kyon and see what Haruhi does" - but blocking the Mikuru Beam, opening the Door in "Closed Circle" when Kyon recinds Haruhi's orders... is Yuki NOT thereby over-reaching - stepping outside the bounds of simple "observation" -- with the only difference being that she is following Kyon's will and not her own? Then again - the Uber Intelligence did note - or at least Yuki noted when talking to Kyon - that he (Kyon) was the unknown factor in Haruhi's entourage... In any case... I dunno...I dunno about Mikuru...first - I guess I haven't watched enough anime to see her character type being used only as wall paper. I mean..all the lolis I've seen in anime were also strong characters (Minmey, Nia...ok...my list is very small...) ... Mikuru is also a strong character... she's very determined to perform her role - which she shows numerous times. It's just her fear gets the better of her often... Pete THIS IS NOT AN ACCIDENTAL DOUBLE POST!! REALLY!! YOU JUST DRANK TOO MUCH AND ARE SEEING DOUBLE!! REALLY!! SERIOUSLY!! AND IF YOU ARE SAYING "BUT I HAVEN'T BEEN DRINKING" THEN THAT JUST MEANS YOU'RE A FCUKING ALCOHOLIC AND YOU NEED HELP MAN!! STEP ONE IS TO ADMIT IT!! PUT DOWN THE BOTTLE !! HELP IS OUT THERE!

Hm. I don't know whether she acted out of empathy to help the ENOZ girls. It's a good question.... I was always so focused on her reaction to the ENOZ girls praising her afterwards and what Kyon said to her under the tree that I never really thought about WHY Haruhi did what she did..but...you're probably right. Certainly it wasn't out of some wierd ambition or ...actually...it wasn't out of any "wierd" reason (aka typical Haruhi thinking)... She didn't even do it to promote SOS, instead while on stage she was humble and she promoted ENOZ. Maybe you're right that the fight in Sighs taught her something about people .... As to Mikuru..weeeeeeeeelllllllll........... a) you forget Koizumi's warning about Mikuru. True, he MIGHT have been lying - but notice how Kyon has two "tempters" - Mikuru and Koizumi always vie for his favor. Mikuru uses sex appeal (albeit she seems to do it totally unwittingly) while Koizumi TRIES to use sex appeal ("Too close! Your face is too close!") which constantly fails to impress the not-gay Kyon, so Koizumi is "forced" to use reason - and keeps having discussions with Kyon. Koizumi's exposition on the true nature of Mikuru is pretty radical - but I wonder to what extent it's true? In Closed Circle Kyon says he trusts Koizumi least of all - but look at Kyon's actions? Kyon constantly trusts Koizumi in action....or...so it seems...in Sighs he certainly does. Yuki on the other hand...she's the toughest to call. I think part of the "problem" is that she takes her orders to be an observer VERY literally - and therefore has no "stake" in "what" Haruhi will do, and whether or not to do something about it. She ends up following Kyon's orders ...well...why? ... Because certainly Yuki DOES end up doing many pro-active things - kind of along the same lines as Ritsuko wanted to do - not as extreme, not "I'll murder Kyon and see what Haruhi does" - but blocking the Mikuru Beam, opening the Door in "Closed Circle" when Kyon recinds Haruhi's orders... is Yuki NOT thereby over-reaching - stepping outside the bounds of simple "observation" -- with the only difference being that she is following Kyon's will and not her own? Then again - the Uber Intelligence did note - or at least Yuki noted when talking to Kyon - that he (Kyon) was the unknown factor in Haruhi's entourage... In any case... I dunno...I dunno about Mikuru...first - I guess I haven't watched enough anime to see her character type being used only as wall paper. I mean..all the lolis I've seen in anime were also strong characters (Minmey, Nia...ok...my list is very small...) ... Mikuru is also a strong character... she's very determined to perform her role - which she shows numerous times. It's just her fear gets the better of her often... Pete

I guess I'm lucky. I never read the books - never even knew they existed. I'd seen pictures of Haruhi before, but just dismissed her as another anime loli that I never heard of and that was probably not very interesting. The only reason I decided to watch the series was because of the title. "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" just sounded intriguingly different from SUPER SPACE BUSTER BOMBER FIGHTER BOOM! or GOD PLASMO NUCLEAR ATOMIC MAN ZAMJIKDOW! or MARS STRIKE BLADE GUNDAM! or GUNDAM 5035T4389 or GUNDAM 00094243.5 or Neon Ultra Omega Deity Beam Saber ... You get the idea... It's not that I was burned out on mecha anime - but I did want to try out a non combat anime, as I'd kind of realized that there were some. But I wanted to avoid something that was just pure hentai - not because I don't like hentai (although I actually don't really like porn at all - at least not in the "I want to watch something" sense - mainly because it's boring)... But a lot of stuff seemed to also have elements of witchcraft, vampires or fantasy in it...and I'm not really into that... In any event - as soon as I started watching Mikuru Asahina No Detsu (or however you spell it) - I just felt this wave of "Oh my god! I'm watching something extremely awesome!" come over me... something I felt previously with Gurren Lagann, and something which, before Gurren Lagann, I had only felt as a little kid watching Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the like... I'm not bitter about Endless 8. It's theatrical. It's experimental. It's meant to fail - or at least not be a total success, but draw some controversy and discussion - even about execution. So - I'm fine with it. Especially since I just skipped all 7 of the loop episodes and was only mad at having to wait so long fr the resolution episode. Sighs was a bit annoying - I'll grant that. But this is mainly due to Suzumiya's very...uncharacteristically satanic bent. In the Closed Circle saga from season 1, there is a murder, but Kyon believes all along that Suzumiya would never actually WISH for the murder of an innocent person. In the end, his hunch is confirmed since it all turns out to be a joke. The only ominous part of Closed Circle is that Shadow Murderer --- that was scary. But as Koizumi explains - he was created "just in case" - because Haruhi wished to protect Kyon from being guilt of the killing - so she created a killer...who ended up being "unnecessary." But...I guess this proves that she is willing to do bad things to protect what she values - in this case Kyon. In the case of Sighs - it was her whimsical fun using Mikuru as a sex toy.... Anyways - Kyon being ready to hit her and that whole scene in general were kind of bothering... and Tsuyara's willingness to be a giggling part of it.. Although - I think Tsuyara was authentically ashamed of her self when she apologized to Kyon after wards... And Haruhi.. well... In the end - she forgave him... and all went back to normal.. but it was pretty scary nonetheless because I think the only reason she forgave him was because she loved him ... not because she learned that it was wrong to date rape Mikuru and kill people. Pete

I would like to comment on the picture of the ARMD-1 bastardization for Robotech "Source" book that Anime52K put up for us: My main gripe with it is the "bridge/building" - here's the problem: The original ARMD-1 has the bridge/control center in the front - it all fits in that bulging protrusion. Now - given that said buldging protrusion is probably the size of a very large building...then the vertical "building/bridge" they put up in the "aircraft carrier" spirit has got to be HUGE. I mean - unless this version of the ARM is proportionally scaled down...but then that would limit the space on the landing platform... I dunno... In any case - what size is the SDF-1? Because I think that without the answer to this question, there's no way Warner can get the LAM off the ground. Pete

Well... where can I buy the DVD? Lately I've been on an anti-download kick; mainly for utilitarian reasons - namely - I periodically get computer viruses which require me to reboot via partitions or whatever it's called and erase everything but the basics... and I guess I could have burned some DVDs...but I think someone made me realize that would take lots of them... In any event, right now I'm going to focus on getting the second season of Haruhi Suzumiya - Japanese DVDs which apparently have english subtitles. Nope. No Hulu, no Crunchyroll. Pete

Well I'd love to see Zeta - but for some inexplicable reason it's unavailable to me on DVD...and I also can't find anywhere where it can be downloaded! Why is Zeto so hard to get a look see of? Pete

Actually, the most tyrannical oppressive inhumane rule on this forum is Rule 5, point 6. Just point 6. I once fell afowl of that rule and had my thread closed because of it... As for Dragonar.... HEY BOYS - why don't YOU get him and tell us all about him? I was kind of thinking about getting him too Pete

Is that the newest Dragonar? Or am I confused... in any case - I haven't seen anyone around here showing their off - but I'm sure someone MUST have it As for working out and eating the same things at the same time each day... I really admire you guys with your diet plans - but I just can't do it. I do work out, and I feel great - but I can't change my eating habits. I like to eat. I do try to just also drink more fresh orange juice and grape fruit juice, have generally tried cutting down on fast food ... but... I dunno...I just like eating... I don't want to give that up... kind of like smoking...I already had to basically give up drinking because I can't drink and drive - so now I only drink when I KNOW I won't be getting into the car until the next day (and not early in the morning either) ... I dunno... I'm trying to be conscious of what I eat... trying not to over do it... but ... dag...going cold turkey ...I dunno... I need to find the time to read up on it... it's just I really really love eating... Pete

Everybody knows Macross is just a Yamato rip off anyways, and the SDF-1 is 1500 feet long. So why is this thread 36 pages? Beats me. Pete

Well, just got done with the second film and am going to watch the third - but first some impressions: 1. I'm so thankful this has english subs. The Haruhi DVDs ONLY have Polish subs, and my Polish is not good enough to be able to read the subs fast enough to also then actually WATCH the anime... so actually, most of the time I don't really read the Polish subs in Haruhi - I just go by memory of what they were saying from my old downloads. Since I watched the episodes like a million times, I pretty much remember...quick glances at the Polish subs give me the gist and that's enough... Thankfully with Gundam this isn't necessary since the english subs are there. 2. Oh..boy... this "movie" sure had a LOT to compile...I mean...Ramb Ralh, Kai's spy girlfriend, Amuro's EMO-trip, the love/death of Matilda, the battle and Jamblow... thus, this movie felt REALLY like it was all over the place, and sometimes rushed. I guess there was no other way to do it...but... That said - I'm PISSED that they left out the SALT. The reason why the White Base diverted in the desert was because the cook told Bright that they ran out of salt and everyone would die in a few days from salt deprivation. I always thought that was some great writing and for me - that was an important scene. They could have put it in... Also - by this point the civilians-on-White-Base arc has totally been abandoned. I mean... they could have showed them going somewhere...or something... Well... Whatever... it's ok. It's hard to cram 41 plot thick episodes into compilation movies - but these do all right! Pete

In that case I have both. The DVDs give me the option of selecting "Japanese" and "Japanese 5.1" I selected Japanese...I think...or maybe 5.1 ? Hell.. .I dunno... but in any event I have both versions.... Pete

I think the best I could do would be to ask my girlfriend to dress up in a sexy police officer uniform and put ony my Danchou badge... But not now. In March, it's both Women's Day AND her birthday - so out of the question for me to make such requests.... If business goes ok, and I manage to treat her to something special, then she MIGHT just be inclined to do it Pete

I am happily watching the Gundam compilation movies. I'm 2/3 of the way through the first one. Gonna make India Curry and watch the remainder up through the third one tonight. I am loving it. It's the series with a few short-cuts. I kind of miss the scenes the cut - mainly the death of the original Captain of the White Base. Seeing him just wheeled off on Luna 2 diluted from the tragic nature of the narrative. But they did a great job picking the trully important parts. The epic shots are still there - foremost Amuro's wheeping mother as the White Base takes off - wheeping for what her son had become... This is really a masterpiece show. Seriously. Ideon compares well, but all the future Gundam series have just fallen so flat on me. I'll get them, of course... but... this is the best. Poland is pretty good in terms of what Gundam anime is available here. F91, the entire SEED series (10 DVDs I think), 0083 (or something like that)... But I'm not expecting much of those. I watched the CGI rendered Igloo 2, I suffered 20 episodes of Turn A Gundam, and I made it through Gundam SEED Destiny the movie just because it was so god-aweful...well...ok - only the first movie... I didn't have the heart for the rest.... And - Char's Counter Attack - I slept through that; though the mecha animation is amazing - I'll grant that. But this Mobile Suit Gundam is simply the best - because it's so basic and raw. Scenes like Frau Bau's mother and Grandfather dying. The drunken soldiers in Amuro's mom's home. The despair of Amuro's mother. Char's honor-killing/dupping of Garma. The grief of Garma's fiance and her father's stoic resolve that the "situation" has handled itelf to his desire. The intramural competition between the Zabi family.... It's all so very very basic - no super crap. Just WWII with space ships and giant robots. Speaking of which - I love the sound effects. When jets get hit, we hear the metal sheered open by the blasts. It's far more haunting than the sanitized battle sound effects of Star Wars where it's just zip zip zip! lasers and wweee booom!! Here you can feel the armor giving way and the dread of the pilots as they die. I think that the sound effects are actually the BEST that have ever existed in ANY anime - because so much care was taken to make them realistic, which enhances the viewing experience. And the animation itself is also simple and down to earth - only Gurren Lagann, with its' retro-animation style, comes close to matching this. A brilliant brilliant achievement. And Macross does a great job picking up and enhancing the themes in Gundam - albeit more operetically... Anyways - I'm a happy duckling. Pete

I'm going to be the proud owner of all three Gundam Compilation movies within a few hours - and will watch them and rave about them shortly. Pete

Lots of promises and nothing to show for except some designs and ugly stills? No wonder HG came down hard on these guys! They were stealing the HG business model hook, line and sinker! Pete

Oh My Goodness! You're right!! I TOTALLY forgot about the pamphlets! I need to make those!! Good call ! But does anybody have a full translation of the pamphlet? Is it in the episode? Pete