westfall

Thank you for your review. Along with others i've been collecting, they will be a precious help. And awesome job on your Messiah. Hope mine end up at least half as good. I already have Alto and Ozma's VF and have Luca and Michel's on pre-order. After getting Alto's and opened the box i was stunned. This is an awesome piece of engineering. I haven't assembled any of the 2 i already have because it's one of those assemblies that will require focus and time.

Agreed on the 1st count. Not so much on the 2nd. I liked the tweeks they did in GITS in terms of lighting and some effects but i hate that they replaced the Kusanagi in the first act with a 3D version. It ruins the whole scene for me. I am one of those that has yet to understand WHY they did the opening of GITS SAC in 3D and actually prefer the temporary opening they had in the first couple of broadcat episodes. They shoul have kept that. Why do a full 3D opening for a (mostly) hand drawn show? Its the same in that scene in GITS. A 3D scene mixed with hand drawn animation... it just doesn't work. And its not even good 3D animation like Appleseed or Vexille. The 3D Kusanagi in the diving scene is more subtle but they should have kept the hand drawn Kusanagi in both scenes, i would like 2.0 a lot more if they had. Don't get me wrong, i still think the original GITS is a masterpice. 2.0 is just another way of looking at it.

I just had a "Duh!" moment right now. I started downloading the Extras Disc yesterday and along with the DVD files it comes with scans from the booklet and covers. When i looked at the 2nd cover i realized where the confusion came from. To clear things, the Extras Disc is Disc 4, but the uploader must have read the cover like i had and thought it was 3 and uploaded it as such. The thing is, on the cover, it says: "DISC.3 SPECIAL DISC" This means "Disc 3 (and) Special Disc (Disc 4)" . I thought "Special Disc" was the description of Disc 3 and its not. I feel like and idiot and will retreat my self for a few hours of self loathing while i watch Discs 1, 2 and 3 in shame.

Wasn't this the first one you uploaded there? I hadn't even noticed you took it down, still have the original file and seeding.

That could be but i doubt it, for 2 reasons: 1 - If the triangle was resolved either way, be it with Sheryl or Ranka, there are themes that were used through out the show that would fit better than "Is This Love?", it really doesn't sound as a love theme, despite the title. It's more fitting for scenes like the ones in "Star Date" of Alto showing Sheryl around Frontier, you know, it just has a "Road Trip" feeling to it. Alto x Sheryl "love theme" is, in my opinion, "Prologue F" from OST 2, it plays in most of their "love" scenes, in particular episode 24's kiss. Alto x Ranka "love theme" is harder to pin-point, they use "Aimo" as BGM for them a lot, no vocal version, of course. For Ranka's goodbye scene at Grifith Park where Alto teaches her to fold a paper airplane, they used an unreleased track i call "Mother" that is actually a mix of "Alto's theme" and "Aimo", very smooth and calm. It fits to two very well. 2 - If there was such a scene it would have been cut before music was mixed, unless it was a last minute decision, made when the show was already completed. Of course the track may have been composed with that scene in mind but, as i refered in reason 1, it just doesn't feel like a track that would be used in such a moment. Something slower, calmer and a lot more epic would fit better. But hey, i'm not a music expert, i'm just a fan that has a taste for BGMs. And for those that are keeping track, i will post my run through the music of Macross Frontier but i have to collect my thoughts about it. As you can see from THIS post, i tend to get enthused with the subject matter and i start to ramble. I will write and trim it on a word processer and then i'll put it here. As a final thought, any of you guys know of a good way to remove the vocals from these tracks? A user at a Yoko Kanno/Gabriela Robin fan site did it with the unreleased tracks from GITS SAC and did a stellar job. Of course GITS SAC had 5.1 mix on the DVDs and, as far as i know, MF has been released in 2.0. I had some success with a couple of tracks but there's some bass loss. Quality wise, they sound good but FAR from CD quality. Most of the vocals are wiped but SFX are still there. That's why i hope they put these tracks out on CD. Well, i'll shut up for now. I hope i can get the post up soon.

HG and the likes of them are pure evil. Sure they took Macross to the U.S. but turned it into Robotech... i understand why they did it but i hate it when they mess with a show that way. And now, just because those greedy SOBs want to make butloads of money off someone elses creation they've been keeping the distribution rights tied up. Result: No Macross shows get to the U.S. I'm surprised Macross Plus got distributed, but after that... and now they want to stop fans from getting stuff overseas? Come on, HG, all you did was grab someone elses show, splice it together with 2 others, the real creators have the right to get their show anywhere without SOBs like you blocking them. If i was Mr. Kawamori, i would fight you to the end. Leave Macross alone and let the fans enjoy their stuff.

That particular one appears in 4 episodes, 12,14,16 and finaly 22 in wich the Quarter is hijacked by the SMS. I've been calling it "VF-25 Messiah" but after watching that scene i thought of actualy calling it "Macross Quarter", but there is another BGM in that same episode when the SMS crew receives Cathy's... sms (text message). That one appears in 6,12,15,22 and 23 and has the temporary title "Sunken Battleship" but could also be the Quarter's music. Let me know what you think.

As i said, i would love if the SDF-1 was bigger but i was actually very pleased when i got it, so i don't complain. I agree they shoulddo all the Macross class ships but not only them, the escort ships would also be nice. But as an idea, if they don't want to do the actual models of those, put smaller in-scale figures in the Macross Class kits as an extra.

Lets stay on topic, people... But before we do... After i got my 1/5000 SDF-1 i have to say that if the Quarter or Frontier are the same size but have the same level of detail, i won't mind. The SDF-1 is one awesome beast and really, REALLY nice. Don't get me wrong, i would love to have bigger ships but the SDF-1 is truly an excellent example that size isn't an issue. I for one would love that Bandai would do a kit like the VF-25's for the Quarter, Frontier and Galaxy. And if they could have prepainted parts like their "STAR TREK" snap fit modelS, that would be awesome. Of course that the scales will have to be different, They can't make a 20 cm long Quarter and 80 cm Frontier and Galaxy (although it would be awesome if they did) but a 20 cm Quarter and 35 to 40 cm Frontier and Galaxy would be a nice compromise. (How much bigger are these 3 in relation to the SDF-1 in the anime, anyway?) I hope they throw us a bone and get a release date out, soon. And what about Brera's VF-27 and the Red Vajra models? Any word on that? OK, NOW WE CAN GET BACK ON TOPIC.

i just hope that the people behind Macross give us the joy of releasing these BGMs.

As for the unreleased material: I finished running through the 25 episodes of the show and tonight i'll go through the Deculture and Yack-Deculture Editions of episode 1. As soon as i have the time to do it, i'll sift through all my data and post my findings here. One thing i can tell you right now, a full BGM edition is totally possible. Ive got roughly 2,5 to 3 hours of music (discarding repeats and smaller cues that are part of the bigger ones). So even if there are some cues that are slightly bigger than what we ear in the show they can put it in 2 CDs, 3 tops. Another thing that surprised me is that the unreleased tracks make for the bulk of the music used in the show. I was surprised that some of the most known and beloved BGM tracks from OSTs 1 and 2, like Tally HO! or Reminiscence Trumpet (I'm talking about my personal taste here,) are almost unused. I had the feeling they were used A LOT more than they actually are. And as i had posted before, "Is this love?" is nowhere to be seen. Well, i'll leave my ramblings for the actual post wich i'll put up as soon as possible.

People, 1/72 VF-25F Messiah Valkyrie Michel Custom is now available for pre-order at HLJ, priced at 4.500. Early Bird discount in effect till February 8th, price 4.275. To be released in April. http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN958497 Now, if they would just release Brera's VF-27 and that sweet Vajra model that appears in the Expo display's...

You're a lucky man. I wish there were girls like that in my city. But it's like looking for a drop in the ocean. Back on topic... sort of..., i expect my SDF-1 to arrive in the next couple of days. It will keep me occupied until the Quarter comes out.

When i said they should do a remake of SDFM i was talking in terms of a TV series. I NEVER said DYRL wasn't good, it's a great film. What i said was the TV series was really poor and that a remake with with Frontiers animation quality would be awesome. Yeah, they should keep the original designs. Just update the animation. The only things i would maybe change would be update the story a bit and the music. SDFM's music is not bad but as i said, put a Yoko Kanno soundtrack on it and i'll be in heaven.

I wouldn't call Frontier a remake. As a 25th anniversary celebration project it has A LOT of references to SDFM as well as to Plus, 7 and Zero. But its not a remake. RoE, now that IS a remake. And you're right, it's awesome. If only all remakes were done as RoE...

Personally, if forced to choose one, i would choose DYRL. But what would be really awesome? A TV series with the animation quality of the movie. I know most people are against remakes but after seeing Macross Frontier and all that VF-25 eye candy, who wouldn't like a remake of the original Macross with state of the art animation? The original, with all its strengths is seriously lacking, going from standard 80's quality (for the most part) to flat out mediocre quality. I mean, i like it but sometimes... argh! it hurts your eyes. Same story (with just a few tweaks) + quality animation = awesome. Have Kanno do the soundtrack and i'll be in Macross heaven. It's part of my anime wish trifecta: SDF Macross remake + GITS SAC Season 3 + Akira TV Series (or OVA).

The 1st DVD included the 3 versions of episode 1. I've been getting the QYQ release, great quality and the booklet pics are a very nice extra. On a separate matter, how can i turn those mkv's into files for DVDLab Pro? Any hints would be nice.

could you upload the 4th disc, please? For die-hard fans, its a must. Also, kudos for your work in More Macross Love, it's a nice "non-director's cut" and a good way for people to see some rare stuff like the game clips.

Funny thing is that track ISN'T even on the show. I just rewatched the whole series and will start rewatching again to make a "Track by episode" list, and i didn't ear it anywhere. I thought it was from the episodes that take place at Miyoshi Academy (Star Date and High School Queen) but not a sniff. Does anyone know where this is from?

Yoko kanno soundtracks suffer from the fact that only some main themes are reused and each episode gets either new music or rearranged cues. This causes the amount of music unreleased to be huge. GITS SAC had 6 or 7 CDs out and still there's a wealth of unreleased material. Even the effort of fans that ripped unreleased cues directly from the DVDs and shared it i still managed to find stuff missing. I wish they would start giving BGMs the respect they deserve. Almost all song of Macross F have been released. Hey, i like the songs but give us the BGMs. If they don't want to risk putting money on a CD that might not sell (although i think it would), then released them for download, either on the official site or on iTunes, or something, in exchange for a DL fee. That way they still get money with only the expense of putting the music on the net, and we get all the BGMs we love. Think about it, people in charge. For now i'm stuck listening to unreleased tracks with either bad quality sound due to voice removal or with voices over them, it's still better than nothing, at least until someone comes up with a better alternative.

Playing with them? Who would? I transformed my VF-0S once, just because if you buy a transforming toy you just have to do i, but other than that, it sits there on its shelf, looking awesome, 24/7/365. I do ocasionally hold it and fly it around - admit it, you do to. Even the model VF-25's won't be transformed often once they're assembled but since i plan on getting the whole Skull Squadron, i'll probably display a fighter in each mode. Alto and Michel's beg to be displayed in Battroid form (Michel sniping a tearget and Alto with Super Packs in Kabuki pose). Luca's in fighter mode with his Ghost (does anyone know if it brings the 3 or just 1?) and finally Ozma's in Gerwalk with Armored Pack - ever since i saw it in episode 2 in that mode, i fell in love with it. As for the SDF-1 and Macross Quarter, i'll probably display them in each mode for a couple of months and then, very carefully, transform them and display them like that. What would be REALLY nice would be for everyone to ha enough budget to buy 2 or 3 (depending on how many modes it has) of each. Hey, a guy can dream, right?

You are so right. And what's worse, if a woman ever made me choose between my "toys" and her, do i even have to ask who would win? My only hope is to find one that is as nuts about this stuff as i am. (I'm gonna die a very lonely man). Back on topic, i'm waiting for the SDF-1, and i hope what most of you guys say is true and i eventually forget about the expense. Even if i don't, i'm getting the Quarter as soon as it comes out. As a side note, does anyone know how big a Zentradi mother ship ("Nupetiet Vernigtz" or whatever they're actually called) would be at 1/5000 scale?

With me, that makes 3. And i'm sure thare are more out there who want a full BGM CD(s). The amount of unreleased material in Macross F is staggering and what's worse, some of the best tracks are amongst them. The Vajra's attack, the BGM meddley in the pursuit sequence in episode 2, and many, many more. Publish them already, enough with vocal compilations with the nth version of Aimo. GIVE US YOKO KANNO'S BGMs NOW!!

that mistery set is the HGIF set 2 wich comes with Michel in school uniform, Alto in school uniform (WHY?) sitting down, "Ranka and Sheryl as in the cover of the Lion Single" + "Ranka and Sheryl as in the cover of the Lion Single color variant". Quite frankly, if i only get Michel and "Ranka and Sheryl as in the cover of the Lion Single" i'll be happy, the color variant is just pointless (as in the 1st set BTW) as is another figure of Alto in school uniform. Rather they had Luca, Nanase, micron Klan, OZMA, Kathy, Grace, Leon, BOBBY,Canaria, Captain William, the Quarter controlers, etc. etc. There are so many great characters they could put out instead of wasting our time and money with silly color variants and the same character in new position... come on. If they wanted to put another Alto out why not in his flight suit, in EX-Gear or, just for the fun of it, in his Kabuki costume? Step up and give us more characters instead of repainted ones.

The Bandai set (8pcs) has just been shipped to me by HLJ. Hope i'm as lucky as with HGIF set 1 in wich i only got 1 repeat Sheryl and missed Brera. In this one the stats are better, each set has 8 packs wich means you will get at least 2 repeats but since you have 8 chances to get 6 figs instead of 6 to 6 as in the HGIF, the odds of getting the full set are better. Alto in SMS uniform and Klan are the ones i want most, next are one of the sheryl's and ranka, and i won't mind that much if i miss the 2nd Sheryl and the Nyan-Nyan mascot. Of course i get the full set i'll be a very happy fella.