Gubaba

Josue noticed the cameras, actually. Bigger ones than the teeny-tiny ones they had at the Yoko Kanno concert last year. Now...possibly these were just used to project Megumi and May'n (and the actors) onto the screen...but it looks like there's a possibility they were filming it for a DVD release.

Sheryl and Ranka at Budokan or One Christmas in a Judo Arena Long story short: concert was AWESOME. Long story: I arrived at Budokan at 3:30 (doors opened at 5:30, concert started at 6:30), and already, TONS of merchandise was sold out. So I contented myself with a concert program, a coffee mug, and a ticket for "Sayounara no Tasubasa" (which came with a free Ranka "Magical Girl" poster). On display was the NEXT poster for the movie, which you will all love. It's very dark. There were some cosplayers hanging around, but not many. At one point, I wandered over to the smoking area to have a cigarette, and saw a MiniKlan puffing away. I caught her eye, and said, "Klan Tai! Nani o suru no!" We ended up chatting for a bit, and she was really nice. After a while, it was time to join the throngs of people heading in. Our seats were pretty good...top row (alas), and a little to the left of center, but we still ad a clear view of the stage. While we were waiting, they showed, again and again, an ad for Macross Triangle Frontier and a new trailer for the movie. After a while, the stage was lit up, and Ranka's voice said, "Wow...there are so many people..." Sheryl replied, "Of course. After all, I'm performing." Then the video presentation started, with Leon (sounding incredibly serious) saying a lot of stuff that went over my head. Then he explained that Macross Frontier would be making a "Christmas Fold," and we should all prepare ourselves. Then the fold occurred (with pink and blue lighting filling the hall, really making the fold on the screen seem like it was enveloping all of us), and then everything went black. IMPORTANT NOTE #1: everyone (except us, apparently) bought A LOT of glowsticks beforehand, making the audience as mesmerizing as the performers. Maybe this is a Frontier concert tradition, but everyone seemed well-rehearsed, pulling out the green and blue glowsticks when Megumi was singing, and the red, pink, and orange glowsticks when May'n was singing. It was lovely. IMPORTANT NOTE #2: Everyone in the concert was at the top of their game (except maybe Nakamura). Megumi and May'n both sounded splendid, and the voice actors were really inhabited their roles. As Tochiro said afterwards, Aya Endo has gotten SO good at the Sheryl voice that, just by speaking a few lines, she probably gave every man in that auditorium an erection. Yuichi Nakamura, however, didn't sound QUITE like Alto, but everyone else was spot-on perfect. IMPORTANT NOTE #3: The stage was built on four levels. The lowest (and closest) level was where May'n and Megumi spent most of their time. The second level had Kanno and her keyboard. The third level was where the the voice actors (mostly) stayed, as well as where the children's choir was. The fourth level was the "dramatic" level, where people would make their debut. The rock band was on the edge of the second level, the orchestra was on either side of the third level. IMPORTANT NOTE #4: Because it was a Christmas show, they avoided the "sad songs." No "Yousei," no "Northern Cross," no "Ao no Aether." The Set List 1. Protoculture (MC: Alto) 2. Merry Christmas without You (slightly shortened version, no voice actors) 3. Ranka's Stocking Song (with a "slight return" of "Christmas without You," sung by the children's choir) 4. MC: Sheryl / Klan 5. Universal Bunny 6. Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't Be Late 7. Intstrumental Break (featuring a bit of "Sleigh Ride") 8. Silent Nanka Irarenai 9. Funanori 10. MC: Alto / Ranka 11. the eyecatch fanfare ("pom-pom-pom POM POM POM pompitty-pom-pe-pom-pom-pommmm!") played REALLY slow 12. The "CM Ranka" medley: Anata no Oto / Starlight Natto / Ninjiin Loves you yeah! / Dainam Chogokin / Daruma Seminar / Nyan-Nyan / Family Mart Cosmos / Koi no Dogfight (FULL version: longer than Nyan Cli) 13. MC: Ranka 14. New song (I *think* the title is "Niji Roku Nakuma") 15. MC: Ranka / Klan 16. Tablet 17. Liebe ~ Maboroshi no Koi 18. Hougako Overflow 19. MC: Alto / Sheryl / Ranka / Klan / Michel (via recording) 20. Souda yo 21. Obelisk 22. Infinity 23. Tenchi ni Natchatta 24. MC: Ranka / Sheryl 25. Songbird 26. Eien 27. Lion (with some "Do You Remember Love" mixed in towards the end) 28. Merry Christmas WITH You (with a little bit of "Diamond Crevasse" mixed in at the end) ENCORE 1. Take Off 2. Gira Gira Summer 3. Seikan Hikou (long version) 4. Band introductions 5. Merry Christmas without You (full version) 6. Instrumental ("Diamond Crevasse" segueing into "Silent Night") HIGHLIGHTS (for me) 1. The Interplay among the actors: As I said, nearly everyone was in top form. When Aya Endo said, near the beginning, "We don't have this kind of Christmas very often," I applauded almost involuntarily, and I wasn't alone. And it was really strange hearing Klan's voice come out of Megumi Toyoguchii's body. There appeared to be a story with the Mike Chatter bits...but I couldn't really follow it. Everyone sounded like they were having a lot of fun, though. 2. The Children's Choir: They only sang on one song, but damn me if they weren't the cutest thing ever! 3. The New Songs: I'm not completely sold on "Niji Roku Nakuma" (if that's the title...), but "Hougoku Overflow" was tremendous. Both of them were Ranka songs, which makes me hope that Ranka will get a full mini-album for the second movie. 4. "Songbird" and "Obelisk": Megumi and May'n's finest moments, repsectively. 5. Yoko Kanno: Mostly she sat playing keyboards the whole time, but sometimes she'd get up and dance around, cute as a button. 6. The CM Ranka Medley: Megumi had a prop for each ad - a bean case for the natto, a giant carrot for "Ninjiin," and bunch of models for "Dainam" (she kept trying to stand them up, and they kept toppling over...which got knowing laughs from the audience, most of whom probably had the same problem), glasses for "Daruma," and a jacket emblazoned with "famima.com" for "Family Mart." After the songs, she picked up everything and ran around the stage trying to find a place to put them, until Kanno-san walked up and took them from her, giving her a mirror to check her make-up, and a towel to wipe off her sweat. 7. Universal Bunny: May'n doesn't look as good doing the dance moves as Sheryl does, but it was a great, energetic performance. How can ANYONE not love this song? 8. The Aforementioned Glowsticks: At one point I squinted while looking around the theater, and it looked like a beautiful night full of green and blue stars. Again, lovely. After the show, we went and hung out with the Tokyo Macross Fan Club at a pub. Too bad we had to catch the last train so soon after arriving... Oh well. There's always next time, I guess.

That's going a little too far, I think. It's their website, and they can run it however they see fit. If people don't like it, they're free to leave. I may think it's a poor way to run the site, but it's not totalitarianism.

Damn, already? I'll probably be there in the early afternoon. Anyone have any plans for after the show?

Cagliostro, I've seen many times. Babylon, on the other hand...man, that takes me back. I had a VHS copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy (raw, of course) back in the mid-80's...I watched it once, and liked it, but ended up taping over it with a bunch of Saint Seiya episodes or something equally silly...

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Shirow abandoning Appleseed (which he announced in, IIRC, Ballistics) STILL pisses me off. Book 2 ends on a cliffhanger, which remains suspended throughout Books 3 and 4...and then, when it's supposed to get back to the main plot, he stops it? His other works are okay...but no substitute for Appleseed. His current career making pictures of naked girls in robots seems lazy and half-assed to me. Anyway, fave manga...I have a preference for massive, epic storylines, so I agree with others that Five Star Stories is spectacular. (Too bad it'll never get finished either.) My sentimental favorite, though, is Area 88, which was the first Japanese comic I ever bought in English, and the first comic that I ever read completely in Japanese. It seems a hell of a lot less gripping and vital to me now than it did when I was 13, but I still adore it to pieces. And in no particular order: Gundam the Origin I'm a Living Gundam! Macross the First Lone Wolf and Cub The Tale of Genji: Asaki Yume Mishi Peach Girl Phoenix Akira Barefoot Gen There are many others, but these are the first that sprang to mind.

I think they should leave it as Mospeada. It doesn't fit with New Generation, anyway. Scott flew off to search for Admiral Hunter; he didn't hang around going to Yellow Dancer concerts. I do support an official HG release for Robotech III: Not Necessarily the Sentinels, however. Even The Scentinels would be a welcome addition.

DAMMIT! I got my 70's-supergroups-who-I-never-listened-to-but-vaguely-kinda-know-one-or-two-songs-from mixed up...

Ah, that's been going on since 1982.

Oooh...nice Cheap Trick vinyl!

Trashy? I thought it was fun. And some of it was quite lovely.

Nope. Going from Tokyo to Osaka is about the same distance as London to Leeds, or Los Angeles to San Francisco. Even if I could get the time off work, I couldn't afford to go.

Ahem.

Funnily enough, I'm currently working in a "featured area" in Megazone Part II. The building on the far right side of the pic, with the red and white sign on the top? I work in the building right next to it. The covered promenade that Shogo slams down, the "Sunroad," is where I have lunch or dinner nearly every day. And yes, the music from that scene runs through my head CONSTANTLY when I'm walking around there. It's rather annoying, actually.

I'm still highly pissed off that Shirow never finished the comic...

I like how he has both "classic" Minmay and "The First" Minmay. Very cool!

He also claimed there was an interview where Kawamori said he wasn't interested in the western market. And that Kawamori had flatly stated before that there was only one SDF-1 type ship. None of this is true. Nor is it even rumored. I may be wrong, but I believe Rhade is simply making it up.

Keith said "epic," not "ridiculous."

And by "merry," you mean "expensive."

Yes. On Christmas Day.

Oh, I wasn't making fun of you or anything like that. The (what did they call it...? "Yariuei"?) spear IS a "love stick," and it does indeed represent exactly what it sounds like it does. (As such, I think it's a mistake to try to extend its metaphor into the realm of the Bird-Human / Fish-Human Protoculture stuff...but I dunno, maybe there's some kind of connection...)

Oh, I think the stick is a metaphor, all right ...but not for DNA...

Hmmm...unfortunately, most of my Macross references are packed up in storage back in the States, so I can't check, but IIRC, the Macross F Official Fan Book cites Michael as part-Zolan, and the Chronicle calls him part-Zentradi, with some Zolan blood somewhere in his family.

Alternatively, one could argue that being driven to extinction by their own creations taught them that being nice with their other genetic manipulation experiments probably wasn't the best way to go. Likewise, it could also be argued that they were STILL too nice, since the AFOS decided to leave humanity alone, even after they tried to blow it up, simply because Shin and Sara loved each other. That's pretty optimistic, wouldn't you say?

No. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=34231&view=findpost&p=883288 (It's from the "Koi no Dogfight" video.)