Jolly Rogers

LOL, I thought "up and comers" is reserved for people with relatively few films to their credit and is new to the business. Someone like Darren Aronofsky. Robert Rodriquez already has 2 very successful franchises under his belt (Spy Kids and the Mariachi trilogy). He's not exactly a new kid on the block. Ditto Lynch and Waters.

Yes. But eventually, they would have to outsource overseas to stay competitive in the market, thereby making layoffs of their animator pool. And then the cycle starts over again. Here's what I don't get: all these major studios, including Disney, have closed their cel animation studios. Everyone's going CG. If the unemployed animators get together and create their own studio (a la Gainax and Dreamworks), they have a void in the market that they can fill. Where is the competition when everyone's CG and you are the only cel animation studio in town?

Is it possible for the unemployed animators to band together and create their own studio?

Michael Bay's first 2 movies - Bad Boys and The Rock - were perfect given what he had to work with in terms of budget. After these 2, he got on the A list and I think the blank checks started to spoil him. Since he was not involved in writing the script of his movies, I find it hard to blame bad writing on his account. If I want a good popcorn action flick, I'd still go see his movies, although I have to admit Bad Boys 2 was a rather disappointing follow-up to the original. He should have tracked down Mark Mancina to score the sequel at least, and find a way to get Tea Leoni back. She really made the first movie work, even though her role was very limited. Ridley Scott is one of those "high-low swingers" I mentioned. I love some of his movies but others just didn't do it for me. He did a great job with Hannibal, only to follow up with the rather boring and emotionally blank Gladiator. I do give him credit for being able to handle different genres with ease, though. Many directors are stuck in one genre and often fail if they try their hands at a different genre, but you can't say that about Ridley Scott. BTW... who are Goerge Lucas and Stephen Spielberg? Are they porn directors?

No ways. I thought Max has lots of fans. He sure does. Milia has more though. True that, although I prefer Misa over Millia.

And Hobby Search. Cheaper there. Don't know why. It's standard practice in Japan for stores to offer new kits/toys at a discount so they can be competitive. The cool thing about Hobby Search is they offer discount on older releases as well. HLJ has been charging everyone the full MSRP until recently, when competition forced them to offer "early bird" pre-order discounts.

The problem with your list is they all had their highs and lows. There isn't a single director in your list whose film I'll go and see regardless of review because their past films have been consistent and the new one is likely to meet the expectations. There are very few directors that meet this criteria, and for me they are both named David: - Fincher - Cronenberg For the record, Michael Bay used to not suck.

Woah if that's true, then Toynami's current president is a dick! I thought it was rather slimy that he sold out and jumped in bed with HG after the Macross Plus toys got screwed over. If that was true, then I am pretty sure Toycom has a very good cause of action to sue his ass off for breach of fiduciary duty.

I thought anime has been made in Korea for years (the only cels drawn by the Japanese staff are the key frames, thus their cel value), so I think you meant the Koreans have been doing it right for years.

I like how he referred to the NT-1 as "Alex Space"...

Judgment Day is a horrible show. I'd rather watch re-runs of Xplay than the new shows from G4.

In Japan, working in anime industry = leeching off your parents I ran a search and couldn't find the old thread, but a few months ago there was a discussion about this. Looks like the US is not the only country exporting jobs to a point of severely hurting its own people.

I'm afraid the mods won't be able to help you... I suggest getting medical attn. And soon! A brief moment of pleasure, an eternity of pain...

Last I heard Bandai said the game's coming over in "winter 2004", but E3 has come and gone and the only Gundam games Bandai touted were their craptacular Seed games. Looks like the new Gundam game for the GameCube is not getting an English release here based on what they've shown (and are not showing). How did Encounter in Space (PS2) do in the US? I never saw it at any major chain stores except for the ones that specialize in video games such as GameStop. Toys R Us, Target, etc. all carried earlier Gundam games but none of them seem to stock this one.

Not sure. Probably because these kits weren't selling all that well at that point so retailers aren't ordering as many as they used to, thus Hasegawara made a smaller production run. I got mine when they came out but I could never get the Max + Millia set of Hasegawa kits, although I did manage to find the Virgin Road kit.

At least it's cheaper than the $180 that site's charging for theirs. If eBay and PayPal doesn't charge all these ridiculous amount of fees I would have sold it for closer to how much I paid for it. Edit in: the only "diecast" parts I can tell were the screws and some of the parts for the joints... The toy was based on the original 1/100 DX Mk-II which was all plastic, so the closest thing you get are the gold-plated parts (electroplated, not coated like recent special edition model kits).

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!! don`t sell it, you`ll regret it later. Are there any reissues of DX MKII or Musha MKII ? Well, I've put off selling it for as long as I could but I guess the time has come to bid it farewell... My eBay auction for the DX Musha Gundam Mk-II Hopefully it'll find a good home and a loving owner.

Dude, did you just copy & paste this in the Toys section? Read my reply to your other thread in the Toys section.

No ways. I thought Max has lots of fans.

Hasegawa has discontinued production on the first 3 VF-1 kits (they didn't renew their license to make more after the last production run), grab them while they last.

Not unless there's already a pre-produced English sub for the Zeta movies. The only reason the R2 DVDs had English was because the English sub was already produced for the US home video releases, it didn't cost them extra to slap that on the DVD. The English production for Zeta is TV series only. Without an existing English sub for Zeta movies, I doubt we'll see it on the R2 DVD since it'd mean extra work for a feature that's virtually useless for their target market.

Didn't see anything from them regarding F91 either. Like Jinnai said, F91 was supposed to get a limited theatrical release like the Escaflowne movie did by the end of May 2004. It's the 31st already and still not a word from Bandai. Bandai has been showing subbed version of F91 at U.S. anime cons before Wing even took off. It's their oldest vaporware and I guess they intend to keep it that way.

I've seen Bandai America's licensing package for the calendar year and can tell you Zeta Gundam was definitely not in their offerings for 2004. As far as Gundam goes, they are only concerned about Seed and SD Gundam Force this year. Think about it. They showed off a bunch of Zeta Gundam toys at last year's Toy Show and none of them were on display at Bandai's booth this year. That should send off enough red flags to anyone paying attention.

I go the Max card. Wanna trade?

There ya go, break in their pads and help yourself.