Tochiro

Its an art COLLECTION. The link never claimed that it was an entire book of new art. And if you look at the massive amount of stuff he has done in the last 6 years - Macross Chronicles, model box art, Game box art - theres easily enough to fill this book I'd say. And if a piece of art was made for a weekly deadline, then I daresay some touchups would be required for a glossy stand alone publication like this. Add to this the fact that he is most likely busy with the 2nd movie at the moment and - well Im sorry man but your comment really came off sounding like a dick.

Pic from the Mac F event website. Sheryl is looking manlier than Alto here...

Details for the upcoming Macross F Fan Club event have finally been announced! Macross F Fan Club Event: Wings of Farewell Appreciation and Completion Celebration at Nihon-Seinenkan Date: March 19 (Sat). Time: Two sessions will be held, one from 13:00 and the other from 17:00. Both will go for approx, 2 hrs and have the same basic content although guests will vary. Session 1 Guests Yuichi Nakamura (Alto) Katsuyuki Konishi (Ozma Lee) Aya Endo (Sheryl) Megumi Nakajima (Ranka) Session 2 Guests Katsuyuki Konishi (Ozma Lee) Aya Endo (Sheryl) Megumi Nakajima (Ranka) Kikuko Inoue (Grace Oconner) Megumi Toyoguchi (Klan) All that is known about the event itself is that there will be some sort of talkshow. There will be some discussion of Wings of Farewell so the Fan Club recommends seeing the movie first if you want to attend the event. Ticket pricing will be split between Regular (3900yen) and Thank You Ticket (5500yen) which includes a special as-of-yet-unannounced souvineer/goods. Tickets will be chosen by lottery. Applications open at 18:00 this Wed (26). Applications are only open to Fan Club members and are limited to one tic per event per person. Im getting a sort of mini-Girasama Festival sort of vibe so-far. Anyone who is a fan Cub member log onto the Mac F homepage for further details.

And if this has taught us anything its that we should never let Renato play with the SDF1. ..... or a video camera.

Some bits and pieces. Firstly, theres going to be a Macross Frontier virtual 'concert' held on Playstation Home. Details are scant although Aya Endo and Megumi Nakajima are confirmed to be involved. Similar events have been held for Hatsune Miku in the past but Im not entirely sure how it will work. Looks like Ill have to dust off my old Home account. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGH2SZJPRZc Secondly, was poking around my local Animate recently (which moved to a new building and is now utterly HUGE) when I came across some new additions to the Macross F corner: Pendants?!?! Phone straps based on the Ranka TV commercials And lots and LOTS of official costumes!

Was 15th person in line but all the cheap stuff wen faaaaaaast! Having said that, I got the following haul for a grand total of 16000yen. Yes thats right, less than the standard RRP of a single valk!

And here is the interview in its entirety: Enterprise Video Communications To hear my twitter question selected (and my name utterly mangled), see the 42min mark, lol.

Okay its over. Chie was on for 50 mins of the 90 min talk show. She talked about both her upcoming events (concerts in Feb and May) as well as her history with Macross, how Tomo Sakurai is a bit of a princess, and what its like having a kid who is now in (yr1) of elementary school. Then they answered a bunch of Twitter questions - mine was the last one they asked her! :-) Anyways, Im sure they will have a replay saved in the above links ustream channel soon. Anyone know of a way to capture/record it?

90min interview special streamed live from a bet cafe in akihabara tonite. Lead Generation Software

Meant it more as a general thing, not just learning a language for a single manga. I mean, if I dated a girl from France I guarantee you I'd be speaking French as quickly as possible! ahhhh... French girls...... Sorry, what were we talking about again?

I dont know you and am not trying to judge you or anything but I gotta go with Gubaba on this one. You have something that most people learning a second language never ever have - someone to learn and practice with! That speeds up the learning process immeasurably, not to mention it can create better understanding of and respect for your partner. Then again, Im probably biased - as someone who once worked as a counsellor, I've seen far too many international couples split up because one partner simply couldnt make the effort to learn the others language and culture (it was usually the English speakee). Once again - not trying to be judgemental. Just my 2 yen.

Heck no, I buy CDs constantly. Having said that, anything I dont need new I can get (anime/game CDs etc) 2nd hand pretty easily, often for 50% off or more. But having lost several harddrives and not being a fan of itunes I just dont feel that I 'own' digital only music. Plus, I like supporting artists/anime that I like and having that nice shelf full of CD spines. Not to mention the fact that I often forget what I have when it comes to MP3s. I also tend to skip songs I dont think Ill like without giving them a fair try. But with a CD Ill usually play the disc beginning to end...

Probably wishful thinking. Given the timing of the event Im sure that SOMETHING will be announced - but it could be a PS3 game (finally?) or a new CD or heck even a new album. Personally Id like to see Kawamori strike while the irons hot and announce whatever series/OVA will come after Macross F but given that its a MACROSS F fanclub, I doubt that thats likely. Overall the event IS a bit of a mystery though. The one thing I CAN say with certainty is that, with Fukuyamas 20th anniversary tour, TWO Kajiura concerts, a fanclub event, concerts by both Mayn and Megumi and most likely some sort of concert tba by Mari Iijima, its looking like the Macross boom isnt ending anytime soon though.

More event news! Chie Kajiura (Mylene) will be holding ANOTHER gig in Tokyo on May 21 (Sat). This will be a Kajiura gig and will most likely be a mix of her Macross and solo stuff. As usual, fan club members will have first dibs on tics. they will then be made available for sale via her website and any final left over tics (if any) will go one sale at the door. Here is a little Xmas pic that Chie sent out :-)

In breaking Macross F news - there will be a fanclub-only event held at the Nippon Seinen-kan on March 19. No details yet as to what the event is or who the special guests will be. Will post details as they are announced. The timing is somewhat odd - the 2nd movie will have been out for a couple of weeks by then. I wonder if the event has something to do with announcing a sequel?

Whoa there. Blown the Gundam games out of the water? Afraid not, over time the Gundam ones always outsell the Macross ones. The fanbase sizes are just too different. The Macross games do well, sure, but I can count the number of times I see the Macross games being played in public on one hand whereas I can still get on a train today and Gundam vs Gundam is, after MHP3, still THE game that people play.

Especially since, if its chibi-klan (and it would have to be for her to fit into the church) she is actually standing at normal height in that shot. lol. Also, pamphlets for the new movie have just been released to cinemas nationwide: http://yfrog.com/f/h0sw6pj/

It may well have been, but whatever it takes to get more sales for Bandai. Especially after the way Gundam Assault Survive totally bombed (absolutely terrible marketing and PR).

Well, the trailer only goes so far as saying that the relationships/actions you take in the Academy Mode will influence your wingmen/partner pilots in Battle Mode and vice versa. Having said that, I actually hope the Academy Mode IS complex because it looks like a heck of a lot of fun. Having said that, knowing what anime games tend to be like, the Academy Mode will probably just be a shallow dating sim. Still, since a lot of the Battle Mode is rehashed stuff from the previous games, most of my hopes are on the Academy Mode for this one. I'll second what a lot of others on this thread have been saying - that I REALLY wanted a PS3 iteration. I also DO think it will happen, but it will take time. The gametypes and timing of Triangle Frontier make it obvious that the game is basically a marketing ploy to build up hype in the leadup to the 2nd movie. I mean, think about it, most of the action elements are reusing asset wholesale from the previous games while the Academy Mode is based on a dating sim - one of the cheapest game types to make since it just involves lots of static 2D art and fancy menus (and voice where budget allows - Im under no illusion that the game will be fully voiced or anything like that). Add to that the fact that it comes out within a few weeks of the movie and Triangle Frontiers status as a placeholder game is in no doubt imo. The full HD iteration needs time to make (despite what others have noted about the valkyrie modelling, a LOT of assets in Trial Frontier were really obviously early in development. I'd barely even say that the game was midway out of Alpha state yet) and can be timed and hyped to keep Frontier's popularity going as long as possible after the 2nd movie, which makes sense. And personally Id prefer that enough time was spent polishing the game so that we dont get another A.C.E R - a game that had some solid building blocks but that ended up being ported down to the PSP. Where it will no doubt sell better by the way. Which brings me to the real issue which is that, no matter how good Trial Frontier ends up being whenever it eventually gets released, these games will always sell better on the PSP. This is a shame, but is the reality of the Japanese gaming market. Your average gamer/Macross fan is more likely to have a PSP than a PS3. I think that the only reason we WILL get a PS3 game is that, since Frontier was a pioneer title for early bluray adopters, Bandai figures that Macross fans are more likely to be PS3 owners than fans of other anime series.

Half price! Nice! Was down to 2500yen at a local electronics shop here but only for 2 days or so - if I hadve known I mightve grabbed a couple of copies as Xmas gifts for ppl. Watching Raw takes some getting used to, but after a few times youll know the plot backwards and it will just flow. Take it from someone who originally watched all of Evangelion raw back when noone thought it would get licensed outside of Japan ;-)

The films are only part of it. With the PSP games, as well as the VF25 getting heavy promotion in the most recent installments of both Super Robot Wars and Another Century's Episode R, concerts (budokan), events (Girasama Matsuri in Yokohama), a constant drip of new blurays (Budokan live, Nyan Cli, etc), figures prominent in UFO catchers at arcades across the country, regular new merchandise at animate and a soundtrack that keeps selling well with each new installment, Satellite has done a great job at keeping Macross in the public eye pretty constantly for the last 2-3 years. I've said it before and Ill say it again, NOW is the best time to be a Macross fan since the 80s. Theres a huge following and a terrific fan community here. I mean, when an anime get plastered all over the Yamanote Line trains and concert tickets get auctioned off for $400-$500 each, its pretty safe to say we are in the middle of a Macross boom of sorts. Its far more than just the movies.

Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing ;-)

The question you have to ask yourself is......would you actually eat these? http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/2028405.html

Way more relaxed atmosphere pre-concert. Huge hall selling goods and fans doing karaoke. I'll give the Osaka fans this- they can sing pretty damn well!

Have arrived in Kobe and am catching up on some odds and ends at an internet cafe. Will head out to the concert just before it starts (its colder here than in Tokyo and I dont want to stand around outside for hours). Will keep everyone posted if anything is different to the Tokyo gig.