Gubaba

Or...you just just go as Gaius and pretend that Six was next to you the whole time...

I wouldn't call it massive, nor would I call it an agenda...merely a product of its time.

Ditto all the "Macross Frontier is all flash and no substance" talk.

He doesn't quote Reagan...he said something like "An American president once observed that 'the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.'" Now...no American president ACTUALLY said that (although sometimes it's attributed to either Jefferson or Lincoln), but it seemed to be used in the context of Robotech as "We're free, they're not...so keep watching the skies." I may be reading too much into it, but RT seemed to me to be a lot more Reaganesque than Macross is.

Strangely, I just started watching BSG a week or two ago, and I finished watching the episode (in Season One) where Gaius ALMOST gets found out just a few minutes ago. (As such, no spoilers please. ) Anyway, my first thought on reading your post was: Man, that would make it even MORE fun. Stammering to guests, 'No, no, you see, I really am a famous scientist, you really haven't heard of me? Well, yes, I guess news must not travel fast in these parts, but...' All the while, your girlfriend could be stroking your ear and whispering, "They don't believe you, Gaius. What are you going to do now? Get another costume...? It's too late for that. Maybe just go to another party...?"

I bet, however, if they introduced "Whacking Day," people the world over would jump at the chance to participate...

Similar things in my neighborhood. All the neighborhood kids are finished by about 7:00 or so (most of the families on my block have very young children, like 4 or 5 years old, tops)...and then the area gets flooded by kids from other neighborhoods, mostly high school age or older. I don't get it. I think I stopped trick-or-treating when I was like, eleven or twelve. Although for a couple more years, I told my parents I was trick-or-treating when really I was doing...um...other things.

Technically, though, it DID happen...in Hikaru's fever dream...

It's hard for me to know what to say to this...yes, the Robotech plot is about an 80% accurate adaptation of the Macross plot. But it's the stuff like turning Roy into a Reagan-era philosopher, and making Minmay more annoying that really grate on me. So does bringing in the Hikaru/Misa love story MUCH too early. But really, if you forget about Robotech Masters and New Generation, and about II, Plus, 7, Zero, and Frontier, and just look at Macross Saga vs. Macross...it's not terrible. Certainly, Battle of the Planets and Warriors of the Wind were much worse. There are some minor details in RT that don't really work out (i.e. Minmay in episode 2 saying that she's going back for her diary, but in episode 5 saying that the audition letter was what she went back for), and there's a very "soap opera" feel to some of the dialogue, but overall...I think they did a pretty good job. I haven't watched the ADV dub past the first couple of episodes, so I don't know how it stacks up...but I definitely wasn't thrilled with what I did see. I prefer watching it in Japanese...the original cast was top-notch, and it's hard to imagine that any improvement could be made in that aspect of the show. I dunno. Having Roy dispense little bits of wisdom was an interesting idea...but that's not who he is to me anymore. The RT version of him seems flimsy and false to me now, but that may be more due to me and my perceptions than to the way the character was rewritten. Turning Minmay into a COMPLETELY indefensible brat, however, that was a bad move on Robotech's part.

In the Macross Chronicle page for it, it says "Awaiting Confirmation" or something like that.

My copies of the original edition of the Gundam novels (which had the detailed introduction) are packed away in storage, but in the omnibus reissue, he also covers the topic in an afterword....and I have that book handy, so here we go: First he talks about the problem of unorthodox Romanizations, done by both model kit box designers and by early English-speaking fans, and said that there was no real consensus on how these terms should be spelled. Then to the heart of the matter: "I therefore went back to the original Japanese and tried to come up with spelling which I felt (1) sounded like the original and reflected the author's intent, (2) enhanced rather than detracted from the mood of the story, and (3) would be acceptable to American readers unfamiliar with the animation. I thus spelled 'Jion' as 'Zeon,' because 'Z' has strong overtones (think of all the 'z's used in US muscle car names). 'Zion' was unacceptable because some readers might think Mr. Tomino is making a religious statement, when he is not." It makes the whole process much more difficult, because you have to have a good ear, and a good understanding of what sounds "mean" in English...but it's actually one of my favorite parts of translating, if I can make it work. If I can't, it's just frustrating. But the thing to remember is, these names are made-up. They're artistic. They're meant to convey an impression of what the mecha is, who the character is, what the alien race is like. And if you can convey that effectively while still staying true to the Japanese, then you've got the "official" name. (For My Fair Minmay, I went back and forth for a long time about whether to call the sleazy record producer "Rabonsky" or "Labonsky." The "R" sounds harder, and makes him sound more threatening, the "L" sounds more European, and perhaps decadent. I finally went with the latter. If he'd put up more of a fight when Focker and the others beat him up, I might have gone with the former.)

Shouldn't this be in the newbie thread...? Anyway, it's ISBN978-4-04-854405-4.

I disagree with both you AND Renato. (First off, let me say that it's nice that the discussion here is among people who understand the thorny issue of Romanization, as opposed to having someone come in and say "It's 'Focker,' because 'Fokker' is a Robotech name" or something.) I do agree more with Renato. While I think the idea of using direct, no-nonsense Romanizations takes a lot of (well, really all) the guesswork out of naming conventions, as Renato said, most English-speaking Macross fans would have a tough time puzzling out Rapuramizu, Nujaderu Gaa, or Guraaji. Clearly, a lot of the official spellings (like Zjentohlaudey and Vrlitwhai) are entirely impractical and worse than useless. There's also the fact that they are incomplete: we have no correspondingly odd spellings for many of the Zentradi characters and mecha. But I think that for the average English speaker, one who doesn't know even rudimentary Japanese phonics, saying "Ekisedoru" and "Kuadoran Roo" is just as off-putting and difficult to pronounce, and it will also come out of their mouths sounding little if anything like the Japanese voice actors say it. The solution, I think, is to come up with a Romanziation that A) sounds effective in English and B) does no violence to the Japanese pronunciation. Take for example "Buritai." You know as well as I do that the "u" sound in "Bu" gets elided, but an English-speaking, just reading the name, would no doubt put stress on that first syllable. Thus, I think "Britai" is the best way to convey the sound of the name in English. "Macross" is likewise better than "Makurosu" because the "u" in "ku" gets elided everywhere except in the opening song, and the final "u" sound always gets elided. "Macross" reads effectively and evocatively. It's accurate and it "works" artistically. Now there will always be some Romanizations that some people are particularly attached to, and sometimes they're not the best. In those cases, I'll generally discard them in favor of something more accurate. Have you read the translation of Tomino's Gundam novels, done by Frederick R. Schodt? He gives his parameters for Romanization, and I think they're best for a work of this kind, where the names often have little connection to any "real" words in any language.

Thanks...I think...

Nah, it's just the new designs for Vanessa, Shammy, and Misa.

Hmm...I missed the note on the inside front cover, and was trying to figure out how the two sheets went together, so thanks! I'm kind of sorry they're giving up the earlier format, though...I liked it.

Here ya go: The most cerebral love song you'll ever hear. And possibly the most stunning guitar solo ever recorded.

He wasn't banned. He just had his "posting privileges" revoked.

Does anyone here really care enough about the RLAM? The only answers that I personally can think of are facetious.

Hayato Aoki writes the script for the comic, as well as does the art. That said, a lot of his script comes verbatim from the script of the show (all the episodes were written by Hiroyuki Yoshino). I assume it's probably his editor's job to approve it, but it may not be anyone's job to check it against the show. The comic (like the novels) tells a VERY different version of the story. Macross 7th Chord (or Code...nobody's really sure yet) is a comic in Macross Ace magazine. It's hard to tell yet if it's any good or not. And I *think* it happens in 2052...I'm not sure yet. All they've said is "Seven years after Macross 7," so it could be anywhere from 2052-2054.

I have all four volumes of the Frontier comic in front of me right now (just bought Volume 4 today!), and Kawamori's name ain't on them. It just says "Manga: Hayato Aoki." Besides, Kawamori didn't write a single episode of Frontier, so why would he write the comic? He wrote episode 36 of SDFM and I believe that's it as far as official Macross scripting duties ever went.

Nah, he linked to the Frontier manga...but I also think Kawamori had almost nothing to do with that, as well. Both the Frontier comics and novels throw in a TON of homages and references...far more than the show did. But I don't get the feeling the Kawamori is proofreading the texts to make sure everything lines up with some kind of grand vision.

I picked up the Frontier Manga Vol. 4 this evening. It's still not great, but I think it's an improvement over the early chapters. Volume 5 should be the final book.

I know I've said this many, many times before, but I really think the "less-produced" sound of the new album is the real reason it sounds so good. They also use the synthesizers in a more interesting way than on the early albums. And, as you say, the duets are great. Yet another unreleased Fire Bomber song...

BOMBAA!! Yes...I've been listening to Re.FIRE daily since it's come out, and I think it's impossible to deny that Fire Bomber now is better than they ever were before (except maybe the Dynamite 7 stuff...but that's a big maybe.)