Tochiro

Yes and no. That particular illegal rip from a readily legally available region A bluray ( ) is from the final performance of the Galaxy Frontier Tour in November 2008. I was at the seond last one in Yokohama a couple of weeks beforehand (http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=27911&p=672083). It was the first concert tour Megumi had ever done, although she had done a few minor performances prior to the tour. When it came to performing live though, May'n didnt have all that much more experience (and Megumi is actually a teeny bit older than her any ways...just a teeny bit though lol). Going by the backstage extras on the bluray, I'd say they were both pretty darn nervous - especially when it came to riding the little lift on stage, lol.

*cough*signature*cough*

Some images from issue 6:

That IS a decent price. The only way to get it any cheaper would be to look for a second hand copy.

Superdimensional Seminar Ep.7 - 'Let's Enjoy Macross 30!'

First up - Superdimentional Seminar Ep. 7 - 'Let's Enjoy macross 30!' (yes, LETS!) Hmmmm... 'Ending will change based on player actions'... sounds promising! Apart from that though, this ep is a total tease.. what IF SDFM Hikaru met M7 Max? What IF Ozuma met Basra? etc... BTW, some new pictures (previously see in Famitsu scan) have gone up on the official website. Scroll down to NEW: http://b.bngi-channel.jp/macross30/about/ Just conjecture here, but someone probably has to explain what happened to the earth to Shin, right? And thats not even taking into account the fact that players can't freely choose their pilot until theyve cleared the game once. Which means that the game wont truly start until the 2nd playthrough for some people. An interesting theory and while it would make sense, knowing the time it takes to develop a game, I'd say....no. If the handling of the 30th Anniversary made anything blatantly clear it was the fact that there's no-one at Big West or Bandai overseeing high level brand management for Macross. But its an interesting theory nonetheless. Actually, I might be misquoting myself. I couldve sworn I'd heard that the fold phenomenon was harmful to mecha but I cant find evidence of that now that i've gone through my old posts. I might have been thinking of the way the fold phenomenon adversely affects the supply chain, resulting in older valks needing to be used, parts needing to be recycled, etc (this much at least is known). Also, Basara's Fire valk seems pretty much in one piece...nay, it's positively shining! As for a new Plus anime - well, it's nice to want things, but given the extent to which Plus apparently bombed in Japan, Kawamori's dislike of direct sequels, as well as Yoko Kanno saying that she is done with Macross for now...yeah, i'd say that's highly highly unlikely, sorry. A couple of things from both the trailer and in general that have come to mind: -Voice samples: This is really really odd, but several of the voice clips used in the latest trailer seem to be placeholders. They have an audible drop in sound quality and almost sound like rehersal versions. Leon's call for assistance when he is attacked by an 'unknown enemy' is one example of this. Compare his voice in the latest trailer to his voice in the previous one and the difference is night and day (meaning the previous version was much much better). Some of Mylene's lines have a similar hollow ring to them. What can this mean? My best educated guest would be that theres something in the background of these scenes that we arent supposed to hear yet. For example, given that Sharon Apple is a known villain, it could be that her songs are being used in the background during the scene where Leon is shot down. I wonder if this is what happens to Aisha since there was footage played at Wonderfest that showed her being (temporarily?) mind controlled and attempting to kidnap Mina during some point of the game. That would also explain how she ended up firing a pistol at someone in what appears to be enemy territory. -Valk variety: I admit to being a bit concerned that valks will be limited to a few key varieties. Bandai has said that they will be unlockable/buildable in chronological order, yet the development chart shown in trailers and other footage to date shows progression from the 0 to the 19 with no visible sign of the 4. Having said this, theres a HUGE dead space in the middle of the valk development screen, so maybe certain branching mecha/variations have to be made in order to access particular dev lines. Which would make sense i suppose, so maybe I'm just worried about nothing here. (Or maybe they are saving something for potential sequels? hmmmm.....). -Animation: It definately looks like we are in for a bunch of new animated scenes (yay!) but while most of the new characters are fully animated, most of the legacy characters seem to be almost flash-animation - still shots with a few limited moving elements (ie, eyes, etc) and lots of special effects.

Someone prepares it for him once he winds up on Uroboros, but the trailer doesnt make it clear who. (ie, not necessarily the good guys). As for the YF-30, well it was designed on a planet with a fold effect that wears down/damages mecha over time, so Im presuming that Aisha designed the YF-30 to perform in harsh conditions regardless of super/fast packs.

Gee, dont they teach you kids anything these days? The first few rounds will be a lottery. Meaning both your seat AND whether you get a ticket or not are totally up to chance. Even when remaining tickets go on sale to the public on a first come first served basis (in April, from memory) there is no way to choose your seat. Even those who 'win' the lottery often wont be told their seat placement until after they have paid for and received their ticket. Also, you will need a Japanese address to have the ticket sent to, and keep in mind that tickets do not get sent out immediately upon payment. They are normally sent out in bulk much closer to the actual event (in an attempt to minimize auctions/scalpers). Furthermore, the amount of tickets you can apply for is probably limited (2 per person from memory). I believe the fanclub is only open to ppl in Japan but then again even the fanclub is just a draw and most FC members I know dont think they will be able to secure tics. The only way to guarantee a ticket is via auction/scalper closer to the event. This is why I originally said you probably shouldn't even look into plane tickets until after youve managed to secure a concert ticket! You cant just normally buy them you know! lol My recommendation would be to have your friend focus on Joysound and public sales, but keep an eye on auctions at the same time. Keep in mind that your friend will probably have to do the bidding, since many sellers don't accept overseas bids. There will be two major spikes in the number of tickets being auctioned - immediately after winning notifications have been sent out and again once the tickets themselves get sent out. Price-wise if, in a worst case scenario, your only option is auctions, I'd estimate that you should expect to pay 20,000yen ~ 30,000 for an average seat. Basically, expect to pay 2x or 3x the original ticket price (which sounds steep but isnt all that much when theres a plane ticket involved as well! At Yoko Kannos Tanabata Sonic concert in 2009, scalpers on the day were getting close to 100,000 for tics that originally cost 7777yen! But that was a once in a lifetime gig, whereas I'm sure there will be other Macross concerts in the future). And if you do manage to land a ticket somehow, be sure to pick up a thank you gift for your friend - they will have probably earned it ^^; Given that there's only 100 available, chances of this happening are pretty slim but hey if someone is that lucky, why not offer it to someone here on the forums? Given that purchasers will get a code, my guess would be that there will be a website you can enter it into for (yet another) lottery.

I think you are thinking of Aisha and Mina, the main heroines of the game. We were talking about a reference to what appears to be Rods dead..lover? Sister? Childhood friend? .... Ie, someone different.And yes, the only issue of Famitsu on new stands is the current one. Keep in mind that a Famitsu 'review' is a column that is a quarter of a page which is then split between 4 ppl.

Open a path to the future with your song. Its being played up as Minmays key phrase in the game (have heard some fans quoting it from the last trailer already) and is supposed to be passing the torch to Mina (Sheryl leads her to the stage, Minmay hands her the mic - pretty easy to become a legendary songstress these days when the old ones do everything for ya!). Incidentally, thats the shot of Minmay the sketch I got last weekend was based on ;-) Sounded like Mira to me but hard to make out. No doubt its a reference to the 'incident' in his and Leons past that the original plot description referred to (I swear they just put Plus and Musiculture in a blender to get this plot ^^ If I had to guess I'd say Joji Nakata. Which is a shame because I'm really enjoying his take on Volf Flagen in Yamato 2199 at the moment. Staff names. The biggest block of text in the middle of the screen? ALL voice actors. Hell yes. Similar to the PSP games, theres a feature to use your own music thats stored locally on the PS3 in the game. Who is up for flying around the world map with 'Nekokoshan' on repeat? Keep in mind that the points are surmised from 4 different reviewers. Hence theres some overlap. Basically they are trying to say it may be a little tricky at first for beginners. This is probably why the auto-battle option is there. Yes and no. Famitsu rule the game PR landscape with an iron fist (you do NOT want to cross them when it comes to exclusive coverage) but reviews are often more of a 'scratch my back and Ill scratch yours' affair - but even this is only to a point. Truly bad games will still get low scores and their mid-range scores are still fairly accurate imo.

New story trailer for Macross 30: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2013-02-21/macross-30-game-anime-promo-crosses-generations http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Wvl9lf6VHfQ

Lets see if we can start building some hype ;-) http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2013-02-21/macross-30-game-anime-promo-crosses-generations http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Wvl9lf6VHfQ

Hence the 'approx'. As a medium, given different play styles, this should naturally be taken wih a grain of salt. It is, however, something a lot of people want a basic estimate of when deciding whether or not to buy a game and, as such, is standard for all Famitsu reviews. Personally, I find my own experiences tend to be close to famitsu estimates but then again i like to take my time when I game. Stop to smell the textures as it were. On the other hand, i have friends who plough through Borderlands 2 or gears of War 3 while skipping any and all cutscenes and text as quickly as possible. They finish games in half the time I do but thats not my definition of fun.

Some details from Famitsu today: Game clear time (main quest only): approx. 40hrs Game clear time (incl. all sub quests): approx. 80 hrs Positive points: -Story is a major plus, especially for Macross fans. -Building and customizing Valkyries is sure to make fans happy -Newly recorded voicework from original cast is good. -Quality & volume of newly animated scenes is impressive. -Easy/Auto-battle modes are great for newcomers/light users. -Custom soundtrack support. Negative points: -In battle, sometimes hard to know what’s going on. -Controls can be difficult due to switching between 3 modes. -The many possible actions (ie, attacks, etc) for each mode can make gameplay a little complicated. Todays issue also has a 9-page Macross 30 special. Most of it is valks/characters/info that has already been revealed. The main new content is a 2-page interview with Miss Macross 30 singer Haruka Chisuga. Still a week to go yet, lol.

Since its only a prize figure, there will be plenty of them available once it's 'released' I'm sure.

Not likely given what was said at the event. Firstly, the project has been in production since 2010, so there was plenty of time to get the VAs lined up (besides the fact that, with the exception of changing Aramaki's VA for SAC, the same cast has never changed, not even for the PS1, PS2 or PSP games). A few people in the audience were laughing outright at a couple of the casting choices which is never a good sign (not to mention unusual here). Secondly, Ishikawa kept stressing during the presentation that GitS was considered Production IG's 'ultimate weapon' and that this would be the fourth iteration of the IP: (1)manga/Shirow, (2)Movies/Oshii, (3)TV/Kamiyama, (4)ARISE. As such, he wanted it to be something new and said therefore the characters were recast. As I said previously, Maaya makes sense in the context of her previous work, but the recasting of everyone else was basically done because of the direction IG wants to take the OVA in. Granted, he could just be talking out of his ass, but given the time lead involved and the fact that there hasnt been a single GitS product that the original cast havent voiced to date, this seems like a calculated decision rather than a scheduling issue. Regarding the Majors character design, it was mentioned that they went back to the movie designs and then worked out the younger version from there. But more importantly - THERMOPTIC CAMOUFLAGE! Also, press kits! :-)

Nothing of any importance. he was just spouting off about how songs become better because there are people to listen to them and that with no audience a song would die. In other words, same sort of stuff as usual. I hope he isnt actually giving Sharon any ideas here though... What do you mean by 'categories'? Famitsu does (and has always only ever done) cross-reviews with 4 reviewers. They dont break their reviews down by category.

To put the leaked Famitsu review in context: Macross Ace Frontier: 8/9/9/7 (33/40) Macross Ultimate Frontier: 8/9/8/9 (34/40) Macross Triangle Frontier: 9/9/9/9 (36/40) Macross 30: 8/8/8/8 (32/40) IMO that score puts it in the good but not great range. It's also probably worth mentioning that the game is probably going to appeal to Macross fans in ways a standard game review doesnt pick up on. (True for any licensed IP title really). As usual, the sort of sites that leak review scores never give any details. Am looking forward to checking out the actual magazine tomorrow.

Some pics of upcoming Banpresto figures included in the gallery at the bottom of this post: http://www.macrossworld.com/4352/oshare-macross-vd-shinjuku-marui-one-0260221-2013/#more-4352

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to meet the character designer for Macross 30: http://www.macrossworld.com/4352/oshare-macross-vd-shinjuku-marui-one-0260221-2013/#more-4352

Oshare Macross VD Report is UP! http://www.macrossworld.com/4352/oshare-macross-vd-shinjuku-marui-one-0260221-2013/#more-4352

Wait... Doug Bendo ripping off others work? Why am I not surprised? I think someone needs to get Gubaba on the case!

Latest Superdimensional Seminar is up! (No.6 - only 2 more to go!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XmfWJNwZIas

Latest Superdimensional Seminar is up! (No.6 - only 2 more to go!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XmfWJNwZIas

Sorry but you obviously have no idea about the makeup of Frontier fandom in Japan! Just last Saturday I was at signing event - over half girls and most were split 50-50 between Sheryl and Alto fans. (Which is why there are still Sheryl branded fashion and jewelry collaborations even now, years after Frontier finished). Frontier has introduced a huge segment of female fans to the franchise. If anything, creepy otaku guys would be after more Ranka figures, not Sheryl.