Chronocidal

I wouldn't bet Shin had a biography so much as debriefing reports he and the other people probably filed during the course of Zero. Granted, he was a busy guy, but I'm sure after his initial rescue he would've been expected to give one massive report on what had happened on the island, and military regs probably would've dictated that he would have to give at least a brief rundown after every encounter. Of course, Mao obviously witnessed a good portion of what the movie was about as well. The whole movie could have been based on her notes about it. We only saw bits of the movie where Mao was involved anyway, so there's no telling what other large changes could have been made to the story. What I did find interesting were the changes to the final scene.. and not so much the lack of the VF-0 hitting the water (it actually made sense to remove that really, since it would've made a nasty break in the music at that point). Where was the carrier?? Mao and the villagers were singing from the deck, right after the Monster fired off the nukes. While it may have just been to simplify things, I still don't think they're telling the whole story. Without the carrier there, you can ignore Mao's transfusion (which may still be highly classified), the UN's plan for Op. Iconoclasm, plus any number of other things, and place the blame for the incident entirely on the Anti UN forces. We may never know for certain if the movie tells the truth or not. One other thing... about Mao suriviving SWI. I know the Zentraedi essentially leveled Earth... but what's never been clear to me is if they targeted all of humanity, or just the populated areas. It's probably unlikely, but one episode of SDFM with Kamjin had him fixing up a cruiser that crashed in a rather lively rain-forest-ish area. I don't think there's any way that could've grown up on it's own in as short a timeframe as we see in the show. So, likelyhood is that big areas with no major human civilization might not have been specifically targeted. That could leave any number of regions of Earth relatively intact, possibly including Mayan island. On the other hand, it does make sense that after Zero the entire population of the island would be moved for their own safety, or possibly study. Considering her family's background, I wouldn't be surprised if Mao and her father wound up advising the UN with what they knew about the Protoculture. Btw, one other thought.. if we do wind up seeing Frontier in the US in the coming years, do you think they'll see fit to release Zero here as well? I don't know if Bandai was involved in that at all, but with the connections this show is forming, I think it would only make good sense to make them both available.

rofl.. I just noticed the pineapple salad, missed the reference before (got too distracted by the rest of the shenanigans).

*nods* that one does pretty much blow the others out of the water.

Well.. wow. This series continues to surprise me, over and over again. I really did like the more tight timing of this, with the nonlinear stuff and flashbacks... made for great teasers of what was to come. Sooooo many little side plots that are all intertwining, and conspiracy theories all over the place.

WIN.

Whoa... well.. I wouldn't necessarily say that the AFOS looks like the vajra... But what I would say is that the head looks a bit like the VF-27's head in that particular pic. I don't remember if it did later, but the visor shape seems very similar just from that picture

Btw, that was the best eyecatch EVER. I musta watched it about 5 times Also.. after watching the preview, I'm not sure what "friendly fire" is supposed to mean...

Goofy thing that may have been asked before, but I don't remember.... Where did the red tail stripes come from?

Those models are still rough casts, I wouldn't worry too much. I would almost put them down as hand shaped, from the irregular surfaces. The parts are completely without shine, and completely unlike any kit I've ever seen bandai produce. Unless someone did a craptastic job painting the thing with a giant brush, that's still a rapid prototype version (looks almost like it's carved out of wood ), and not anything like what an injection molded kit will look like. The sheer amount of small details missing on the kit is kind of a giveaway.. for example, no upper intake vents, top leg details in fighter mode, or other fine details like rivets, scribed lines, etc, something I've never seen a bandai kit have any trouble with.

lol.. oh that's interesting.. looks like they forgot to flip the wing texture over on the VF-171.. the logos are backwards on one side. As for the backpack... I honestly don't know, but it kind of reminds me of one of the fighters we haven't seen in a series.. maybe the star mirage? Actually... now that I think about it, it looks like one of the advanced valkyrie designs... here we go, I would swear it's this one, right down to the engine mounted tails and jagged wing shapes. again for comparison

Ok, time for a bit of screencap editing... First, the wing logo. It's not so strange for aircraft to carry a logo on upper an lower surfaces of each wing... US military only does the top of the left wing, and bottom of right, but many others place an insignia on all 4 surfaces. The logo here is clearly the NUNS one, and the whiteout I used makes the diamond shape around it visible as well. The nose logo.. actually looks like another NUNS logo somewhat. It's got a wide blue diamond shaped patch, with a lighter blue circle-ish thing in the middle. I would say it's VERY close to the NUNS one, except the circle is bigger than the background patch. What I want to know is what these leg markings are. They look like letters, but nothing like English.. to be honest, they remind me of the computer screen text you sometimes see in Star Wars. Anyone have any ideas? I didn't see enough of the legs to know what this might be. Now, just for kicks, it was pure chance that I noticed this shot, but it's the exact same logo as on the wing. I guess the question now is where Ranka got her backpack from. Btw... I can't watch Bobby firing the macross cannon without thinking to myself "oh no, he crossed the streams..."

I had thought this earlier.. but after looking at it I'm not so sure... this might be a different logo than the one you're thinking of though.

There's a couple shots a few pages back that clearly show a NUNS logo under the wing, it's the same logo you see on Cathy's shoulder patch... it's the shot from under the VF-27 while it's in mid-fold. You can just make out the logo under the wing, at the very top of the screen.

Huh... while the NUNS logo looks clear as day on the underside of the wing in that shot... the nose logo reminds me of something else. Back in previous episodes, wasn't there some sort of blue logo that looks roughly like a planet with rings, or something like that? I'll search for it, but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere... Edit: Meh, found the original pic I had, but after seeing it, it's not quite like the logo on the nose after all. Besides, it's a Frontier logo, so it doesn't fit. It's the one with a small yellow ufo shaped center, surrounded by blue and green swirls. Now, whether the other colonization fleets had similar logos is anyone's guess. I do think that there's some sort of conspiracy brewing though.. as vague as everything is, the ship certainly does have a NUNS logo on the wing. They behave extremely alien (way the ships fly and all)... but unless the logo is a pure animation snafu, there has to be a connection. I wonder if someone behind the scenes is pulling strings to set up a confrontation between NUNS and SMS... or between humans and the vajra, or trying to find links to the protoculture, etc. We just need more info at this point.

Let's hope so, I've been itching for some Mac+ style VF vs VF action for a long while.

Thoughts about Ozma.. he can't die yet, he hasn't been around Cathy long enough to cause any tension between her and foo-foo head. He can't eat the pineapple until they actually reveal more about their past. They only hinted at it in the car ride, and killing him off now would ruin that setup. My guess is that their being on the same ship in the next episode or two is going to bring back old ghosts, and when they come back, Cathy's going to be bounced between Ozma and foo-foo like a pinball. And personally, I'm all for it. We've got a two-girl triangle already, it'd be interesting to balance that with a two-guy version as well... sort of an SDF/Mac+ plot hybrid. Edit: Actually, on second thought, something serious may indeed happen to Ozma on this trip. Still don't think he can die yet, but lets say he's seriously wounded/captured in battle.. So Cathy suddenly goes to pieces, straining her current relationship, and setting it up for a confrontation when Ozma recovers/returns. And on top of that, his disappearance would pull double duty in the emotion department, since it would also throw Ranka into a tizzy, making Alto feel like he should watch over her, to the point of putting Sheryl on the back burner.. leaving Ranka to think that he wants her over Sheryl, when he really might just be worried for her safety, while Sheryl gets ticked that he's ignoring her.... oooh, the circles within circles... My brain hurts now.

"MECHA-SHIVA!! MECHA-SHIVA!!" One of my friends bought the first boxed set, but I haven't seen this show in quite a while now. I forget how it got arranged, but I know we randomly caught the episode with the "Mars the Bringer of War" bit while the henchmen got dressed, and almost died laughing on the spot. The rest of the episode was good as well, especially the parts where Brock killed a guy with a caulking gun, and Dr. Venture's eye pops out of it's socket and starts waggling around, and you actually get to see his perspective on it.

Lol... Ranka wearing

Don't think so... grrrrrrrr. and the waiting begins.. on the bright side, maybe I'll be able to finish my homework before it finishes

*monty python bit plays in head* at least they didn't call it the jehovah *waits to be stoned*

I honestly can't even see enough of her head in that video to tell one way or another, but just looking at the feet, she seems to swap directions on her own regularly, without me even thinking about it. I think it has to do with the perspective... With the natural focal point of the picture in the middle, the feet seem like they should be above you. So, whichever foot is higher looks closer. The problem is, there's not always one foot higher than the other.. and sometimes, the same foot stays above the other. Eh.. I always screw these kinds of left brain/right brain tests up anyway.. I can write any combination of forwards or backwards simultaneously with both hands to begin with. Used to creep my friends out.

My jaw just hit the floor and did a double take at the same time... so it hit the floor twice. O_O I don't want to get too optimistic about this, but this could mean very good things for MacF in the US with Bandai's involvement.. The fact that Toynami has been using the DYRL label for some things recently could mean they decided to go straight to the original source. Now, my big question... I wonder how much this could be related to the idea of a robotech movie that's been bouncing around.. Toynami toys haven't been so mainstream that you can find them at the average walmart (at least I haven't seen any, if someone can correct me, please do).. I remember seeing robotech toys in the past, but outside of collectors shops, I've seen nothing since the 80s. On the other hand, you go anywhere near the Transformers in toy stores today, and you might get bowled over by the amounts of Gundam stuff. So... is it possible that Toynami is looking to Bandai since it doesn't think it could keep up with the production requirements that would go hand in hand with successful merchandizing of a movie? I don't know about anyone else, but if I saw classic chunkies sitting on a shelf in walmart next to a stack of Optimus Primes, I'd probably need new pants. As for them remaining unchanged... well, I don't know how big Toynami is as a company, but I'm gonna bet Bandai could buy them out ten times over and not break a sweat. Any changes by Toynami to the 1/55 would be like a direct slap in the face to Bandai. I don't know what that might cause in the business world, but it couldn't be good for Toynami.

Thank you, that makes much more sense now.

Wow. That was good even without the dialogue, but I can't wait for the subs... stupid old keyboard.. *looks around for a spare F5 key* Btw, someone mentioned something about the plane above the high school not looking quite like a VF-1.. In most shots it's a little distorted, but you can definitely make out the shape and even some markings in the opening.

As far as the speech around the bridge goes, this even spills over into the episode 1 Deculture edition. The entire comm transmission to the ship with Sheryl aboard starts out in English, then moves to Japanese as the conversation becomes more informal. That's natural though, especially in terms of air/space traffic control. Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, the official spoken language of air traffic control is English, no matter which country you're in. I think it has to do with making sure everyone is on the same page for safety reasons, and other things like that. At the very least, the English alphabet is still sometimes used in communications using the old "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" etc. speech.