Gubaba

Yes. A classic that is a collection of short stories. Which that span nearly 500 years. And have very little action, but lots of working out of thorny logic problems. And have no fleshed-out characters, just a lot of talking heads who debate endlessly. And after hundreds of pages (or a thousand or two, depending on if you include the '80s/'90s sequelss and prequels), STILL come to no definitive "conclusion." Yeah, that's a promising base on which to build a big-budget summer blockbuster.

The redone Maia Sterling Alpha has apparently started making the rounds...to less-than-stellar reviews: http://www.robotechx.com/forums/38-robotec...ling-alpha.html

Fuck.

Yeah. Sorry 'bout that.

Yes. And the war between the Zentradi and the SA is always given as the cause of the destruction of the Protoculture. So the logical assumption is that the Protodeviln created the SA. Thankfully, for those of us who want everything spelled out, the Macross Chronicle World Guide Sheet about the Zentradis spells it out quite clearly. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...mp;#entry680780

No, Az is right. The SA was made up of both Zentradi and miclones (which, when you think about it, makes it kind of odd that Britai and Exsedol would be so freaked out by Earth people...).

Okay...I figure that I must have survived somehow, which means I'm holed up in a shetler, or at one of the Grand Cannons, or on the Apollo Moon Base, or on board the Macross. Yet I appear to be delusonal, because I'm having the most life-like vision of being at home, on a somewhat overcast but otherwise normal afternoon. So yeah...either I'm hallucinating, or the afterlife is a lot less interesting than I'd hoped.

Did the Palin family get to the Grand Cannon in time...?

Generally, it appears like it just one will do the trick. Unless you're Hikaru in a VF-1D, then you need all 200 rounds just to knock the thing over.

Megaroad-13. (Why do I know shit like this off the top of my head?)

Sure...if that anime is Fist of the North Star or Saint Seiya... EDIT: Actually, in general I agree with you. I think it's cool that they put it up. I don't blame Hulu for uploading the dub, I blame ADV for doing such a crappy dub in the first place. But it does have its fans, I guess...

Really? How far is this show going to go? With the beginning of the Cylon War six years in the show's future, and its end happening 12 years after that, I figured they wouldn't touch on it at all. Unless, at the end of second two, they suddenly zoom in on Eric Stoltz's face, and then pull back with the caption "15 years later," of course... Something tells me that wouldn't work, though.

Damn, Az. You don't cut loose often...but when you do, it's a barnstormer!

Not so much these days...I "advertised" the translation of "My Fair Minmay" on 4chan, and, while there, I saw a Macross/Robotech thread with the Robotech fans fighting back pretty hard, saying things like, "There a lot of GLORIOUS NIPPON in this thread." Hell, one guy even said people who liked Macross more was anti-American...

Not at all...I'm just saying that the ANN podcasters lot a lot of credibility for that interview (with me, anyway...not that I'm part of their core fanbase, of course).

Not just Space Station Liberty, but even the recent ANN interview with Macek was rather fawning, as the hosts talked about how Streamline dubs are highly sought after (by who?) and chuckled slightly derisively about "anime purists" who want to have everything in Japanese with subtitles...it made me wonder: these guys are WORKING FOR ANIME NEWS NETWORK. If they're not dyed-in-the-wool anime purists, what the hell are they there for?

Gubaba asks: Mr. Macek, your creation of Robotech is a joy forever, and every single second of it is like an apple of gold, but some Lying Macross Purists like Pete say that Robotech is like a bootleg, and that, far from improving the story through the awesome, mind-blowing decision to mash it up with two inferior series, you mangled it almost beyond recognition. In fact, he even says he's sick of hearing you "rant" about how you "created" Robotech!!! How do you respond to Macross nazis like that? Carl Macek says: My comment about this is that it's too bad that people have to demonize concepts and personalities. There was no malice inherent in Harmony Gold's decision to make Robotech. Both of the concepts are viable. Macross is not Robotech and Robotech is not Macross. The way to look at the situation is to recognize Robotech as an original work. As such it has spawned books, role-playing games, school curriculums and a legion of fans. The original series are still intact. They exist on their own. They should not take away from the story of Robotech and Robotech should not take away for their story. You have to look at the big picture - The success of Robotech allowed Macross, Mospeada and Southern Cross a worldwide audience - Mospeada and Southern Cross were "failures" in Japan - they were truncated due to poor ratings. Robotech brought these works to a hugh audience - even the management at Tatsunoko recognizes the value of Robotech. That said, there is no need to take anything away from the original programs. Robotech should be seen as an original project which utilizes footage from various Tatsunoko programs - there was no intent to lessen the native programs. My theory about all this is that there is no reason why all these elements can not exist In harmony (no pun intended) - there is no need to create adversarial situations. Enjoy each for what it is. And there you have it, Pete! Take a chill pill, relax, and enjoy Robotech, which has no flaws and is not a failure!

I don't think it necessarily has to be about the future, even. Look at the steampunk or alternate history genres. Nor does technology have to be the lynchpin (there are many examples, but The Lathe of Heaven is the one that just sprang to mind, so that's one I'll cite). But other than that...yeah, I agree. I wouldn't call it the BEST, but A Clockwork Orange is certainly up there.

What...that Zoe's going to have a big Tae Kwon Do fight / lesbian scene with Buffy the Vampire Slayer...? (In other words, if there was a spoiler there, I must've missed it.)

I dunno, but here's what he said: http://robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=17 Ein asks: Mr. Macek, First I would like to thank you for providing my first exposure to anime via the robotech series, and thank you for giving such widespread exposure to Macross, one of the greatest anime of all time. My question is, why did you make the decision to change the storylines of the original series to fit them together, rather than just provide a literal translation and keep the storylines seperate, but under the robotech brand? Such a decision would obviously be unfeasible today, with the greater cross-pollenization of Japanese and American franchises; many anime fans would spot such changes immediately. Even at the time, Voltron took a similar idea,(combining 2 series under 1 title) but kept the 2 storylines completely seperate between the 2 shows. Much confusion is created now, with the continuing poularity (and many sequels!) of Macross conflicting with the Robotech license. What caused you to decide to change the series as you did, and would you do the same today? Carl Macek says: First the storyline of Macross has major flaws, primarily the concept of "music" as a weapon to be used against the alien invaders - these flaws have been addressed in the subsequent exploitation of the Macross franchise in Japan - in fact it seems that these new variations on Macross seem to be influenced more by Robotech than by an outgrowth of the Macross plot. That said, the goal of Robotech was to create an original program that could be sold to a worldwide audience. It was done to expose the animation and the property to a viewership that is not pre-disposed to the original material. More people were exposed to the animation as Robotech that could every have been exposed to it through the individual series.

In college, my then-girlfriend and I threw a party where we watched "The Charleton Heston Science-Fiction Trilogy": Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, and The Omega Man. We didn't make it all the way through Omega Man, alas (and yeah, I know we should've thrown in Beneath the Planet of the Apes as well). But the guy who wrote the short story that Soylent Green was based on (I *think* it was Harry Harrison, but I'm too lazy to make sure right now. I know the sotry was called "Make Room! Make Room!" though) pointed out how silly the concept of the movie was...after all, when he put "soylent" into the story, the idea was that it was made from soy and lentils, which are cheaper and easier to process into food than people would be.

You raise a good point about Vanilla Sky. Personally, I tend to think of Alien as a horror movie and Aliens as an action movie, rather than really being SF. I've always bought into the John Campbell hype that SF is always about IDEAS, but you're right: a broader definition of SF is probably a better one to use. Anyway, my point was that there's a lot of overlap between action/adventure movies and SF (for which, I believe, we have Star Wars to thank...witness the TONS of SF critics at the time who slammed it for being simplistic, too adventure-oriented, and kid-friendly), with Blade Runner being perhaps the best example of an action movie that chews on some ideas as well. But maybe I'm asking too much...all the classics of SF literature are resolutely un-cinematic, from the Foundation Trilogy (which is almost all dialogue and very little action) to Dune (tons of explanatory notes and detail necessary for comprehension) to The Left Hand of Darkness (where reports on ethnology and native myths and legends of the planet Gethen are crucial to the story) to Neuromancer (which is an excellent book almost solely because of its invented language). And I doubt whether any movie even CAN have that kind of depth. As such, I think the best SF movies are the ones that either have a lot of inventive action or use the SF setting to create good human drama (or, possibly, just use the SF stuff to freak the viewer out in the same way a surrealist film would). And, when push comes to shove, I'll pick human drama over inventive action. I'd LIKE to see SF cinema catch up with where SF lit is at, but I don't think it'll ever happen, unless audiences start demanding more sophisticated movies.

Not just that, he also said (in 2001) that further Macross sequels took their lead from Robotech rather than the original Macross.

Mmm...yeah, but let's be fair; there's less spoon-feeding in Robotech than there is in, say, He-Man or GI Joe. That said, I *still* can't figure out where Macek's head is at. Half the time, he acts like he wanted to bring Macross over, and Robotech resulted from all the conditions placed on him in the process; and half the time, he acts like it was all his idea, and Macross existed solely to become the first generation of his science-fiction adventure saga.

That's what I thought as well.