VFTF1

Everything in Mav's statement is silly. Including the notion that "more people" prefer "western story telling" - whatever the hell that is. But...come on...seriously...how the hell can "more people" prefer "western story telling" when HALF THE FUUCKING PLANET'S POPULATION LIVES IN FUUCKING CHINA!?!? AND DOESN'T SPEAK FUUCKING ENGLISH!?!? AND BY DEFAULT HAS READ/WATCHED MORE "EASTERN" THAN "WESTERN" STORY TELLING!?!? I mean - I'm sorry. I am a big fan of western literary works and western arts in general - but on a purely quantative level... his statement is impossible just on the face of it. You can argue that western story telling is BETTER if you want - although such vague generalizations as "western" vs. "eastern" story telling are stupid to begin with. (Is Dostoyevski western or Eastern? - just as an example). And it's a massive overgeneralization to lump them all together by geography like that anyways... but whatever... Oh wait... I forgot!! "China" fuucking "announced" that Robotech is the most popular cartoon ever! D'oh! Ok! I take it back! Most people do prefer western story telling and as we all know, Robotech is the pinacle of the western cannon. Pete

So...aside from the fact that to call Robotech "Western story-telling" presumes to suggest that Shakespeare's plays were actually stories ripped off from some Japanese dude where Shakespeare just changed the names around and linked them together even though they had nothing in common previously... Did Maverick realize he was telling this to Gubaba, whose background happens to be "western story telling" combined with a fairly good knowledge of a certain eastern language and certain eastern story telling? I seriously think that Maverick needs to change his handle to The Living Goose. Why? Well - if you recall, in Top Gun, Goose died after smashing his head against the ejecting cockpit of his fighter. Maverick seems to have also smashed his head against something, albeit he apparently survived. And we're all the luckier for it. I'm now going back to watching Aliens eat space marines... :sigh: Pete

Oh Tarkin says the same thing in the movie. That's not the problem. The problem is that once they're done talking, Darth Vader walks up to him and gesticulates his hands wildly for about 3 seconds before cutting to the next scene. I think that originally, Lucas had the scene lasting longer. Notice also that when Tarkin says his line, his back is turned to us. I think both his and Vader's lines are dubbed. Initially, maybe Vader was more animated in his arguments or something - thus visually he's still waving his arms even though the dialogue doesn't fit Anyways... here's another one: "What is that?" "I don't know." "Proceed inside." I'm watching Aliens, as if you guys couldn't tell Pete

Hm...this promises to be interesting So what - according to RT RT2 inspired mecha anime as a whole? Pete

Wow "Newt...my name's Newt. Nobody calls me Rebecca except my brother..." Should be followed by: "That is, except my brother unless we're talking about the DVD edition with the full footage, because in that edition of the movie, my brother calls me Newt when I wake him up to say "they've been gone a long time" ... he tells me not to worry and calls me Newt...but...you didn't see that in the cinema..." Damn - I shouldn't watch things a thousand times.... Pete

Beat the Devil is another good one But I like his noir detective films the best... As for why no remakes? .... I think it's more than just none of todays male performers being able to pull it off. Mainly it's that the Bogart films were ironically better due to the moral and social censorship that Holywood exercised back then. The scene in To Have and Have not where he seduces the lady at the book store would have been a sex scene in a modern movie, but as it stood, everything was suggestive and classy - and the girls had to actually work a lot harder to be sexy. These days all an actress has to do is show her tits or just have sex. Back then they didn't have such an easy job of it. Remember when Bacal shakes her hips at the end of To Have and Have not? That was major sex appeal. Situations like those would be unnecessary in contemporary films precisely because there would just be sex scenes. The closest that a contemporary film has gotten to evoking those times was Pierce Brosnan in Married Life - when Pierce Brosnan takes the girl out on the town - I love it. He takes her to a diner, and then to a club where they dance. They have tons of fun, it's all very sexy - but there's a classyness to it and a lack of raunchiness. Courting a girl is more demure and more fun as it is presented therein. I think that spirit has made a return to every day life amongst people - insofar as I can tell - but movies seldom give thought to aesthetic and fashion because people are too busy undressing to think about what to dress up in. Oh...but I'm off on another of my Dirk Benedict type tirades here Sorry... Anyways... in that regard - I'd actually be up for a Boggie remake - if they recaptured that class and style from the 30s and 40s. Yep. I'd be up for it... Pete

Carl Macek couldn't have pitched that idea to the networks. That would contradict the truth that Robotech came to him in a divinely inspired dream that just happened to fit the animation from three different poorly ploted Japanse anime This is the problem I'm talking about. You can still respect Robotech and HG if you read the McKinney books and Robotech Art I and III and (was there a 2?) ... But the stuff they say nowadays or recently... it's like...huh? Pete

The Maltese Falcon is my all time favorite movie, and I agree that Raymond Chandler is a great writer. One of the few writers whose books I still read today. I'm also an uber Bogart fan and am in love with Lauren Bacal of course Another great Bogart movie, beyond the Big Sleep and Casablanca is To Have and Have Not. But I do hope NOBODY ever tries to remake a Boggie film. It CAN'T be done and should never be tried. Pete

But there were no streets back then Still ... ok I get your point...however - I think it SHOULD be Conan smash - albeit...that's actually a bit of a stereotype...barbarism means living by instinct and not so much weighing options, but just doing what your instinct tells you. So...not thinking about means and ends or method - but just charging in. Generally speaking that might not be a good idea - but in the context of a movie named Conan the Barbarian...you'd think they'd...you know...want to explore Barbarism rather than water it down I think she's hot! Pete

There's nothing to get. He's lying. I read in Robotech Art III that it was explicitly the result of the US based syndication guidelines that Macross had to be longer - and since there were no more Macross episodes, they decided to acquire and attach Southern Cross and Mospedia to Macross to make Robotech - and after making this decision, they sat down to thinking about how to make one TV show out of them all and did it. There was never any grand vision or grand plan beyond that - and the fact that he now claims there was is testimony to the fact that HG has realized that a group of brainless semi literate people exist on Earth who think Robotech is the greatest story ever told, and unless you lie to them and tell them that indeed it was planned this way all along rather than being a result of chance, unless you tell them that even the Japanese in continuing Macross are trying to emulate Robotech - then you loose the glue that apparently holds this motley crew together: namely the notion that what they watched as kids WASN'T a bootleg hack job, but was actually some grand epic akin to Star Wars. I may be cynical - but I think it's just a spin job. Nothing more. Pete

t-WHAT? Pete doesn't have a TV. As for "corporate transparency" and licensing issues for anime in Europe - in my opinion the fault lies with Europe's ridiculous tax laws, import laws and a host of other issues that all boil down to "The EU is not a free trade zone." I highly doubt that corporations engage in creating several sister, cousin, brother, step father companies in because they get their jollies that way. Instead, I am pretty sure it's done due to the maze of regulations that any company that wants to do business in Europe has to jump through - particularly VAT tax laws. See - even though technically we have free trade - importers from within the EU still have to file numerous forms. Like if my company imports from the UK, where the VAT tax is 15% on hobby goods - into Poland where it's 22%, then while filing QUARTERLY tax returns (although some companies can opt to have the fun of filing monthly returns), then they have to file special forms to calculate their returns since they paid 15% VAT in the UK but charged 22% VAT to customers in Poland (according to the law). This creates a sick situation - so it's much easier for corporations to just create dumby companies in various European countries in order to reduce the accounting costs, the red tape and all the headache that would go into simply fuctioning as - say - Bandai Visual throughout Europe. This is my third year in Business in Europe and it is unbelievably horribly grotesquely insanely stupidly complex. Maybe I feel this way because I'm a true blue American in many ways, and for all the flaws of the US tax system, it's no where near as complex and incomrehensibly asanine as what Europe features - and so I am going through "tax culture shock" ... But I think this is one of the reasons why niche markets, like the anime market, are so...well...disorganized in Europe. There's just no way that something so small can take advantage of even the basics of economies of scale At the very least they could harmonize the stupid tax codes instead of having 27 of them. I mean - it's not so bad for a small business like mine since I function ONLY in one European country. But damn - if I was a medium sized company that wanted to execute a pan-European business strategy...my God would that be craptastically complicated. I know that Hasbro imports all their products to Germany, from which they are distributed throughout the continent - I THINK this is because logistically it comes out cheapest for them.. but still it's just amazingly stupendously difficult to wrap a small human brain around. At least my brain is too small to fathom it... This is what came to mind as I mulled over Bri's post about Anime Visual winding its' way back to Bandai... And yeah -it's impossible to watch things "legally" on the internet because of licensing issues. I ALWAYS get the stupid "this product has not been licensed in Poland" message on crunchy so I just gave up. Now. Consider that 99% of the globe looks like this. And it's just not in the interest of corporations to lobby for this situation to be changed because why should they spend resources to capture extremely small markets in remote locations anyways? But from Europe's point of view...they're just hurting themselves...although - on the other hand - given European elites disdain for popular culture (unless it's being used as a means for pointing fingers and laughing at the "bourgious classes" or "stupid Americans" ... I doubt they actually realize this.... I dunno... it's certainly a mess... But whatever. Oh well. Chances are it'll clean itself up sooner or later... Pete

Does he even care? I mean...I dunno... I'm still honest to gosh flaberghasted by those comments Seto quoted. Seriously. I mean - ok...fine...if you take into account sales figures, then LEGAL global sales of Robotech PROBABLY are HIGHER than LEGAL global sales of Macross. But isn't it OBVIOUS why? Because Macross is in global legal limbo due to HG. So ok...sales figures might indicate that "the originals" are "unpalpatable." But those sales figures would be majorly skewed because a) you can't count torrenting and generally downloading the originals and b) they only take into account legal sales, meaning sale in Japan vs. sales all over the world for Robotech. That said - as a matter of merit... I...uhh...I dunno...I'm trying to get my head around the contention that maybe there are actually people who honest to gosh believe that Macross is a total niche product and that Robotech is the more marketable, globaly palpatable version... But... you know... That would mean that Macross is the WORST ANIME OF ALL TIME. Because come on - how many OTHER anime needed to be combined with two other shows, have their stories totally changed and retitled in order to succeed? I mean? How many? ZERO!! So - Carl Macek wants us to believe that ALL OTHER ANIME besides Macross (and eventually Southern Cross and Mospedia) ARE globally palpatable and at worse they get dubbed over - but never changed radically.... Meanwhile - Macross sucks so much balls that in order to make it globally marketable --- it needs to be turned into Robotech? But IF that's true...then WHY did Harmony Gold even BOTHER with such a sucky anime? Why invest in the WORSE ANIME in the universe? Answer: because by SHEER coincidence - SHEER BLIND LUCK - the GENIUS idea for Robotech that popped into Carl Macek's haead could ONLY correspond to the animation in the three WORST Japanese anime of all time - Macross, Mospedia and Southern Cross... and so HG HAD TO acquire them so Carl Macek's genius vision could be fulfilled. Oh - and of course Megazone 23 - because that anime SUCKS too and clearly no one outside of Japan, which as we know is full of wierd people who can animate brilliantly but can't write good stories and actually do worse animation than Koreans nowadays - would ever want to watch it...UNLESS it was made into Robotech II and shown in TEXAS - which as we know is the GATEWAY to a global audience. OR Carl Macek is full of SHYT! Pete

Yeah -there's loads of spin going on there. The Japanese who created Macross are "exploiting" the franchise while desperately trying to copy Robotech, which is the only version that can actually appeal to people around the world who otherwise would not be "predisposed to the original material." The thing he says about Minmei I can swallow. I don't agree with it - but it's just an opinion. It kind of seems like he just doesn't like Mari Ijma's music and never liked the whole premise. In fact, given that in the 80s it was hoped that Robotech would compete with Transformers and GI Joe, I'm sure they FEARED the music aspect in Macross because it was basically NOT something geared towards your stereotypical "boys" cartoon. It was something for "girls." But to make Robotech competitive on the "boys' cartoon market - they needed to water down the music - make it motivational war music. But...really...he basicaly also take a big shIIt on ALL anime there - because he basically suggests that without people like him, this crazy wierdo Japanese stuff is going to remain unpalpatable to a GLOBAL - not even a western audience but a GLOBAL audience. Clearly these guys let themselves be deluded in the 80s and early 90s into thinking that SINCE their stuff achieved a modicum of success - then this MUST have been due to THEIR genius story telling - not to people just being interested in the original. Like - I remember buying horrible dubs of Transformers DVDs in Poland or watching really bad dubs of General Daimos on TV here --- why? Because I wanted to see TRANSFORMERS and GENERAL DAIMOS... not because I thought the dubs were brillinat in their own right. Pete

There are even WOMEN who would make a better Conan the Barbarian than the guy they picked... Pete

Pete

Watching more Star Wars...I'm starting to realize why Sir Alec couldn't stand uttering his lines...although...he was smart asking for 2% of the profits from the franchise...forever ... Anyways... I nominate this - from New Hope: Tarkin: Terminate her immediately!! ...Silence... Darth Vader: Waves hand around. I swear to the juju gods - the dubbing of Vader's voice over is so poor, that apparently they missed this part. Clearly Vader (aka the Scottish guy in the suit) was STILL talking when they cut the scene -but the dub just places the voice elsewhere. That scene was majorly rushed. In fact - they have a tendency to dub over everything and everyone...Stormtroopers...red shirts...Lucas just seemed to love the dub function when making this movie But the scene above looks really funny because it ends with Vader making what is clearly a pointless out of context gesticulation towards Tarkin. I'm not sure that counts as a "line" ... but... it's not something I want to see in sci fi shows ...unless they come from the 70s! Pete

He makes it hard to forget... But... remind me...or enlighten me please...what was his reasoning behind this? I'm really curious to see him explain it. Pete

I also have Bandai Poland who clearly have about as much of a clue about promoting their products as Hasrbo Poland - which is to say ZERO.... But thanks for the tip! That makes sense now. Pete

With all due respect... but in Conan's day and age...him not being able to read, or barely being able to read, didn't exactly make him a social outcast. I mean...hardly anybody could read... I also disagree with the sentiment. What need is there for cunning? In a world where all you want is to eat, drink and sleep with wenches, and other dudes want to kill you, then all you need to do is kill them, take their wenches and eat some good meat. That's why I liked the Arnold movie. I don't want a deep Conan. I don't want Conan the Philosopher or Conan the Psychotherapist. And it certainly isn't Conan the Sensitive Metrosexual or EVEN Conan the Tall, Dark and Handsome Suave guy with the Cool Dreads and Dark Romantic Eyes That the Ladies Love. It's Conan the Barbarian. And it's all about a big dirty sweaty guy who starts out as a slave becoming a man who gets to eat well and has hot girls (which slaves generally don't get). It's fun that way Pete

Hmm... to each his own of course - but as I've mentioned in the Gurren Lagann thread - I am on the side of the "No" faction with regard to this figure. I understand the premise...it's kind of like the 3D EVA girls (who I also don't like) ... I guess I just have no desire for anime characters to look more "real." I prefer it when "real" girls do everything possible to look more anime Pete

They also have all of Gundam SEED (the series) and the two Gundam Movies Gubaba has recomennded I get. I already sent an email to my girlfriend asking her to get me the Gundam movies for my birthday. Since both of them together cost 20 bucks shipped - I hope she'll do it...although...knowing her...she won't!! But it's what she gets for sending me a "take me to this ridiculously ugly yet expensive hotel for Valentines day because somebody famous told me it was trendy and my girlfriends all agreed" email... So ... I guess I got back at her by making (from her point of view) an equally assinine request of "get me these two obscure anime movies via the internet which you have no clue how to shop on" No Evangelion though...and no Macross....no older anime. Lots of Ikee Tousen, Black Lagoon and lots of moe stuff... I too am intrigued by the Polish subtitles, but judging from the content discriptions - they should be spot on. The description of the story is excellent - so hopefully the translations will be too. Pete

Well I always considered Janice's singing sequence to be an excellent summation of the way that Harmony Gold's creative team has always viewed song, and Minmey in Macross: namely - singing is pointless. all that was missing from Shadow Chronicles was someone to shout "Protoculture!" when Stick and RedHead kissed (if they did kiss...I'm just assuming...somebody must have kissed...did anybody kiss?) Pete

Good morning. There are times in the course of human history, when events transpire that leave us in awe of our own stupidity. Times like when the caveman who spent 20 years building a square wheel and trying to make it roll notices that his competitor has made a circular wheel which roles. Times like when you put tomatos into your sandwitch, which you have with hard boiled eggs, and then later eat a bag of doritos and wash it down with coffee, to only realize once you are confined to the toiet and in pain that you have made a major blunder. I have just had such a moment...I think. After spending the better part of the last year whining that I couldn't get anime on DVD - I found that ...well...it seems I can get the entire first season of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on DVD here in Poland. The subs are in Polish...which I am actually kind of dreading... because I remember long ago buying Transformers with a voice over in Polish and...well... the less said about that the better... But it says that these are subs - so whatever crap the subbers write - it won't interfere with the lovely Japanese of the original. About 70 bucks for the set... but...as I order now...it should be at my door in a couple of days... Amazing. No season 2 though... Some company called Anime Virtual got the license. Even though there is a Bandai Poland.... Oh well... It reminds me of how a company in Poland called Demel had the license for distributing Transformers for like 20 years - even though there is a Hasbro Poland... I dunno... this place is wierd. No - wait. I do know. Somebody at Hasbro PL decided to sell the license for cheap to their cousin who then made money off of it.. Whatever... I dunno. I just hope these DVDs are the real deal. They're sold in a legitamite store - not on the Polish equivalent of Ebay - where all the anime DVDs are pirated... Pete

Re: Singing sequence: You call that a singing sequence?... Re: UC/MF: Yes, well - I'm also a UC fan - but we're definitely just talking about different people. I have just encountered folks on my end of the pond who are ostensibly big UC fans, and Gundam fans in general, but who hate Macross Frontier - not necessarily for the benefit of Robotech, but certainly using the same arguments that we here often hear from RT.com folks about why it sucks. Personally, I of course think it's a delusional comparisson and agree that Gundam should have nothing to do with the discussion - I just mentioned it since it seems Mav mentioned it. Re: Reasons For the Misunderstanding regarding "copying Macross" in MF: I think part of the problem is that people have really bad memories and don't think. The character dynamics were totally different on all fronts when you get down to it. There was no clear Minmey character - Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee had traits of Minmey, Mao, Sarah, Myung... and really all of the characters and situations were mixed hues of things that had come before with a twist. I've written tons of pages going into specific detail comparing Macross Frontier characters to SDFM characters going up against detractors whose line of argumentation was just that - a LINE - and usually no more sophisticated than "Alto and Hikaru both had red lines on their Valkyrie" or "Michael and Max both wore glasses" (so did Michael from M7...who was also blond...but I'll stop 'cuase I don't wanna repeat myself)... Anyways - one of the things that gets me plane tired of arguing with people about stuff like this is that it's often just like arguments Seto has had with Memo or the ones that have been conducted on this board with Doug Bendo: on the one hand a wall of well reasoned arguments - on the other hand something remotely reminiscent of the ramblings of a 15 year old who uses a vaccum cleaner to give himself blow jobs, eats pencil graphite for breakfast and drinks it down with a hearty dose of printer ink while sniffing glue. I have come to the point where I admit to just not understanding the "thought process" of Robotech fans or of people who critique Macross Frontier on the grounds of it being just a boring carbon copy of the original. I freely admit that either I am 100% right and they are nuts, or I'm just ignorant and too stupid to see the light of their brilliant views. Pete

The thing with Kotobukiya Mari is that I'd need to get Asuka and Rei as well...although...maybe not... hmm... Maybe I'll also pick up Mari. I'm already getting Asuka 1/6... Mari is in 1/6 scale here...they'll fit anyways That just leaves me needing a Rei...having seen any that I like yet...well...except for a couple older ones... Pete