Valkyrie

So I've been studying Japanese for a while now, and while I still suck at it, I'm starting to get to a point where I can tranaslate stuff. With a lot of help from online dictionaries I'm barely sure how I got started, but I just finished a quickie translation of Ike Ike Bokura no Gunbuster (Go, Go, Our Gunbuster). It's a bit rough, and I had to take a few liberties for the sake of readability, but the core meaning of it all is there. Hope you enjoy. And for those wanting to listen along, I don't have an MP3 link handy, but it's track 2 of OST1, and track 4 of disc 1 of Sound Collection of Gunbuster 銀河の果て　暗闇の彼方から From the darkness at the other end of the galaxy, せまる　せまる　宇宙怪獣軍団 They're coming! They're coming! The space monster forces! 夜空の星　けちらして襲い来る They're coming to attack us, from the stars of the night sky 守れ！！ Protect us! バスター　バスター　バスター Buster, buster, buster, バスターマシン Buster Machine いまだ　合体だ！ Now! Combine! ※青く輝く　ぼくらの星を Our blue, sparkling planet, 正義と愛とて守りぬけ Full of love and righteousness, it must be protected とだせ！　バスターホームラン！！ Hit them, Buster Homerun くだけ！　バスターコレダー！！ Smash them, Buster Collider いけいけ　ぼくらのガンバスター Go, go, our Gunbuster きらめく夢　うちくだく大怪獣 Our sparkling dreams, the giant monsters want to crush them たおせ　たおせ　戦う時が今来た Defeat them! Defeat them! The time to fight is now! 宇宙の果て　とびこえてどこまでも To the end of space, we will do whatever it takes 進め！！ Advance! バスター　バスター　バスター Buster, buster, buster, バスターマシン Buster Machine いくぞ　合体だ！ Let's go! Combine! ひとり　ひとりは　小さな火だが Alone, we are but small flames ふたりあわせて　炎になれ But together, we will become an inferno! はなて！　バスタービーム！！ Fire! Buster Beam! もえろ！　イナズマキック！！ Burn! Lightning Kick! いけいけ　ぼくらのガンバスター Go, Go, Our Gunbuster ※くりかえし (repeat) いけいけ　ぼくらのガンバスター Go, Go, Our Gunbuster

I should be there.　　I still need to figure out how I'm getting there and where I'll be sleeping, but I should be there

I'm just glad to see that Yamato is getting in on Macross model kits

True indeed! I believe I've just found proof http://hobbyworld.aoshima-bk.co.jp/j/HAS09041417/ The text reads: 1/48 スケールが登場; 1/48 series introduction マクロス シリーズ新展開!; Macross series new expansion! 完全新金型; Perfect new tooling (metal mold) 7月発売予定; July scheduled release Wow, that was a good kanji workout for me! Now, who wants to buy a 1/60 Yamato YF-19?

Well, in all fairness, I get a lot of my daily studying done in my free time at work. If you break it down into small chunks, it really isn't too bad. Becoming fluent is a lofty goal, to say the least, and I won't be surprised if I never make it. But then again, I said the same thing about the kanji. I never thought I'd learn 2000 kanji. It just seemed impossible. I fully expected to hit a wall at some point, and just give up. But it never happened, and 5 months later I knew them all, much to my amazement. So I'm taking the same approach to learning the rest of the language. All I can do is keep on running in the direction I'm headed, and see how far I can get. Bottom line is, if I can do it, anyone can. I'm not special (and those who say otherwise are just being smartasses ) All it takes is the right amount of effort and perseverance. Yea, reading is the bulk of my motivation. I want to be able to read what I want to read, without having to rely on others to translate it for me. And with the stuff I'm into, that usually isn't likely. Like the Yukikaze novels. I'm fairly confident they will never be translated, unless I do it. Yea, I can see that, actually. Kinda reminds me of people posting on the 'net with bad grammar, horrible spelling, etc. The all-text medium adds a lot of ambiguity, and I can't help but wonder "Is English not this guy's first language, or is he just an idiot?"

Bandai and Hasegawa make very different types of kits, but both are quite easy to build, for what they are. With Bandai kits, You can usually expect to simply snap the pre-colored parts together, and you've basicly built your own toy. Hasegawa kits, on the other hand, aren't snap-fit, so the parts need to be glued. They're usually molded in the color of the plane's base color, and decals are usually provided for most of the colored sections, like the tailfins. So you can build it the lazy way if you want to. But as always, it will look 100x better if you paint it

Wow, there it is, on HLJ's early bird list... http://www.hlj.com/earlybird.html This is actually sounding kinda plausible! And to think, I had just about abandoned hope of seeing any new Macross kits from Hasegawa! Honestly, I would have preferred a 1/72 VF-11. But at least it's not another VF-1!

Wow, I didn't expect this thread to get this kind of response! But you see, that's why the AJATT system works. By studying from 'real' Japanese in TV shows, movies and such, you can learn how people really talk, in addition to textbook grammar and all that. Heh, actually, I have a similar goal. One day, I want to be able to translate the Yukikaze novels. But I know that goal is a long way off. There's a novel translation project going at http://www.baka-tsuki.org/, and I'm hoping to be able to contribute to it someday.

So for the past 8 months, I've been studying Japanese. Fairly seriously, too. I'm probably averaging at least 3 hours of study time per day. I first got started by reading the site All Japanese All The Time, by this guy Khatz, who taught himself Japanese to fluency in 18 months. In his method, you study the kanji first, then move on to studying tons of sentences, which you pull from anywhere. Books, TV, movies... anything. And the whole time, you expose yourself to as much spoken Japanese as possible, to sort of learn by immersion without actually being in Japan. This method somehow made all kinds of sense to me. Especially because it focused so heavily on reading. I've always wanted to know Japanese, but I rarely put any serious effort into learning it. The most I did was in the 2 months before I took a trip to Japan in '07. I studied my ass off, thinking the more of the language I knew, the more I'd get out of my time there. And I wasn't wrong. I still didn't know nearly as much as I would have liked, but what I did know was immensely useful. But when I got back home, I didn't keep studying. And I slowly forgot much of what I'd learned. So when I started back up, I did so as if I was starting from scratch. First, the kanji. I learned them using the Heisig method. Using his book, Remembering the Kanji, I was able to learn the standard set of ~2000 kanji in 5 months. However, it only teaches you how to write the kanji. Learning their readings comes later. Another key piece of the puzzle is an SRS (spaced repetition software) system. I chose a system called Anki. It’s basicly a flashcard program, which adjusts the frequency of repetitions based on how well you remember them. It’s immensely useful. And free, even So after the kanji, and for the last 3 months, I’ve been studying sentences, while still reviewing the kanji daily. It’s slow going, but still incredibly effective! With each new sentence you study, you get a few small pieces of the much larger puzzle that is Japanese. Each one has something to learn. Grammar, vocabulary, kanji readings, etc. And so by studying more and more sentences, you slowly grasp more and more of the language. Somehow, I never thought learning spoken Japanese would be impossible. Difficult, yes, but not impossible. But written Japanese was another story. The kanji always seemed like an enormous, impassible obstacle that I'd never be able to get around. But after I’d learned to write (but not read) the kanji, I found that learning Japanese was a whole new experience from my previous attempts. By learning the vocabulary written in full kanji, it really helps you see the ‘flow’ of the language. You start seeing common kanji in unrelated words, and noticing that it gets pronounced the same way. And little by little, stuff just starts to click. The next time you see that kanji in an unknown word, you can make an edjucated guess as to how it’s pronounced. Wow, that was pretty long-winded. And I still left a lot out. The point of all that was, I’m wondering how many others here are also studying Japanese, with any degree of seriousness. I’d be quite interested to hear others’ methods, share resources, etc. Wether you’re a beginner, or have learned to fluency, I’d love to hear from you!

Hmm, I might just have to scratchbuild some boosters with my lathe... I have the 1/72 Club-M boosters to use as reference, and they don't look they'd be too tough to machine. But I have a feeling that finding a good way of attaching them would be the hard part...

Man, between this and Macross Chronicle, this is a good time to be learning Japanese (I've got a long way to go before I can read at that level though...)

Heh, maybe I'll beat you to it then

Wow, I totally missed this thread the first time around! Thanks for the translations! Do you also know about the drama tracks on the Macross Festival '95 Tickemaga CD? It's a fun little crossover with characters from Macross Plus and 7. I'd love to translate it myself, but my Japanese isn't up to par just yet...

I just got issues 1-15 yesterday, and I set to work tearing them all apart and organizing them into the binder right away. It was kinda fun I just wish I had known to order a second binder. I had to leave out all the character sheets to get everything else to fit into the one.

There was a pretty funny comic that was in the manual for one of the PC-9801 Macross games... I'll have to see if I can find scans of it.

Man, I wish I knew enough japanese to be able to help out. I'm definitely envious of your skills! I've been studying for about 6 months now, and even know 2000 or so kanji, but I'm still a long ways off from be being able to read real japanese. But when my skills get up to par, I've got a Macross translation project planned that should be of interest to many around here

I've got a Luxion build that's in the works, but on the back burner for now. I actually picked up a second Luxion on ebay a few months ago for a mere $10. But it was partially built (quite badly) and missing some parts. It took forever to strip the thick coats of spraypaint, and I've still gotta cast replacement parts from my complete kit.

I'm so incredibly pissed... But to explain why involves a bit of a backstory. Bear with me here. In the early 90's, Gainax's garage kit company, General Products made large scale resin kits of 3 Gunbuster ships, a 1/1000 Luxion, 1/20,000 Exelion, and 1/200,000 Extreum. They must have been made shortly before the company went under, because they're not in the last General Products catalog (1989-90). They're all rather rare, but Exelion and Eltreum seem to be exceptionally so. Years ago, I got lucky in finding the Luxion and Eltreum on Ebay and Yahoo Japan Auctions respectively, and at pretty good prices too. Ever since then, I've been in search of the Exelion kit. Almost to the point of obsession. To illustrate this, I have 5 yahoo japan auctions bookmarked that it MIGHT show up under. I search those at least every other day. About 5 years ago, I managed to find an Exelion on yahoo japan. But alas, I was unemployed and quite broke, and wasn't able to scrape up enough to cash to place even the opening bid. As much as it pained me, I had to watch it slip away. Flash forward to last tuesday. I finally found another on yahoo japan. And with a reasonable opening bid of Y6800, and 4 days left on it. I contemplated my bid, and placed one through Celga that would almost surely ensure my winning it. I sent it off, and went to bed. And when I woke up, I checked the auction. And to my horror, the auction had been ended early. With one bid, for Y6800. And it wasn't Celga. http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/114950956 I'm still trying to figure out what happened. My best guess is that the seller's only way of backing out of the auction was to place a minimum bid under a friend's account, and end it early. Maybe he accepted an outside offer, or maybe he just decided not to sell it. I'll probably never know. I just know that I can't have it. And so, the search continues...

I don't know what that is, but it's definitely not the same kit that I have. Here's the official page for the Wave kit: http://www.hobby-wave.com/LINE_UP/gennteis...rmor/index.html I finally got around to taking a few pics of my kit too Top fuselage, partially assembled Bottom fuselage, assembled a bit more Exploded view. The cockpit isn't detailed, but it's hollow, so you can add your own, if you're feeling up to the challenge Weapons. The little parts are the feed chain segments Legs. The vent parts look awesome, and fit perfectly Feet, hands, and thighs A few of the incredibly detailed parts

So I finally got my NES Cockpit Armor kit today. As it turned out, it was only available from the Rakuten website, and Super Modelers, in Akihabara. A friend of mine was out there on business, and I got him to pick one up for me. And wow. This kit is amazing. The sculpt is dead-on, the details are amazing, and the casting is top notch. And what isn't obvious looking at any of the websites, is that it's actually a full-action posable kit. It comes with 10 sets of Wave polycaps for the joints. And the ammo feed belt is flexible after assembling! All the segments get strung together on a vinyl cord, with no glue necessary. After some initial test fitting, it looks like assembly will be a breeze. All the attachment points either have pegs and holes, so they just fall into place, or they'll have holes on both sides for pins to be inserted. This thing's gonna fall together. They really went all-out with this kit. I'm most impressed. And it's a bit larger than I expected too. The fuselage is about 5.25" long. If you've got the money,and you can get your hands on one, I highly recommend it. But be warned, they're only being sold until 12/31 (I guess their license is up after then), so do what you've gotta do to get one

That's a recast of the vinyl kit made by Retppu. It's gotten horrible reviews from all that've owned it. MiM has a pretty bad reputation for customer service too. Consider yourself warned.

Wow, cool! I was working on one in 1/72 a couple years back, but yours is already further along than mine ever got!

Wow, totally awesome to see this happening. I'll be buying a bunch of em. Let me know if you need any help casting them. I've gotten good at casting small stuff

Carbon Fiber rods are the way to go. They're more resilient, and they'll bond with the resin better.

Kotobukiya (I think) made one of those in 1/100 already. Nice kit. Pretty big too.