Gubaba

That's why she's my avatar!

Lazy former RT fan...can't even get your hands on a decent time machine, huh?

Well...this IS the "anime and science fiction" section, not the Macross section...

Episode 6 is up!

No one's mentioned Ataru Moroboshi yet...? C'mon, he's the biggest horndog EVER, in the entire history of storytelling.

This has little to do with the topic, but I've been waiting too long for opportunity to present it... PROMETHEUS ATTACK!!!

Which ones, Encore or D7? Or both? Encore is pretty forgettable, but D7 has some good animation, good mecha, and one of Yoko Kanno's loveliest songs, bar none. The fact that it's a duet with a space whale does not lessen its impact. As for FB2012, I first got it back in '87, and it became a good way to get a quick Macross fix when I needed it. I thought it was wonderful and essential. But then, about seven years ago or so, I finally got the "Special Edition" of DYRL, which of course incorporates a lot of FB2012 footage... I didn't like it. I think FB2012 should have remained kind of special...but I accept that if you've seen the DYRL Special Edition, FB becomes much less necessary to watch. But I still think it's brilliantly edited, and where else can you see the mysterious symbolism of a clown doll and handcuffs spinning on a record?

I'm tellin' ya, we need a real-life Richard Birla-style eccentric billionaire to buy all the rights for all the Macross series, and put them out in several boxsets, with timeline and production order clearly marked. That'd solve the confusion for all but the most imbecilic of consumers.

Are you sure...?

I watched the show in '85, before all the added material, and it wasn't confusing...well, not VERY confusing. I did wonder about the SDF-2, and why Zor Prime was wearing a Southern Cross uniform in flashbacks, but that was about it. Of course, I also knew going in that it was three unrelated shows crammed together. But yeah...one thing I've heard (well, read, actually) RT fans say is that they like it better than Macross because of the epic sweep and multi-generational storyline...which I find odd, because isn't Macross multi-generational, too?

Yeah, but in the show, she never got mad enough to walk out on them, whereas she said she did in DYRL, and that's what's shown in FB2012. And anyway, if it's supposed to be a scene from the show, she's wearing the wrong clothes. Wow, you really know how to cut through all the BS and get to the heart of the matter, don't you?

That's a little unfair to FB2012. It's more like a collection of music videos than a recap episodes. Some of them are awfully clever and fun, and the editing is perfect (I love Britai's eye opening during the slight pause in Zero-G Love).

Yes it does. And I assumed it was because he animated that scene, but I'm not sure. It's still not as good as the SEX Valk in Episode 15, though...

You're not making a very good case for it, and it's YOUR idea! Nah, I understand if you've moved on...and Gundam is quite good (some of it, anyway). But if you ever do get the RT/Macross II itchin' again, here's my suggestion: Watch Macross II. Hum the RT theme loudly during the opening credits. Every time someone in the show says "Valkyrie," you shout "Veritech." Every time someone says "Ship of the Alus," you shout "legendary Protoculture Matrix." Every time someone in the show says "Hibiki Kanzaki," you shout "Roy Hunter." Every time an African-American character shows up, you name 'em "Grant." And every time someone says Mardook, you shout "Robotech Über-Masters." It should give you the same efect as if they actually had dubbed it that way...

That makes perfect sense. Thanks!

All the bonus material on the DVDs. For a very long time, though, I hadn't finished Macross Dynamite 7, because the Japanese video rental store I used to go to never got episode 4. I think I finally watched that whole series in 2002.

These days? I watch a little bit almost every day. Also, I try to listen to the drama albums on my way to work, so that even if I'm not actively translating, I'm getting g ever more familiar with the contents. And I generally work on Macross books for at least half an hour a day, and a few hours on weekends.

Hmmm... I can't share your enthusiasm for RT, and thus I can't see where any good could come out of adapting Macross II (or anything else) for RT. I wonder...do Voltron fans ever see, I dunno, Zambot 3 or something and think, "Man, I wish they would dub this into a new Voltron series"? I really don't know, but it seems like a strange impulse to me. Macross II exists. It's finished. There's a subtitled version and an (admittedly terrible) English dub. Why take it and screw around with it so that they'll talk about "Veritechs" fueled by "Protoculture"? What's the gain? There would still be no Rick Hunter (unless Hibiki is his grandson), no Dana Sterling (unless Sylvie becomes her daughter), and no Scott Bernard (unless...I dunno, let's say Mash is his nephew). For what purpose? Just to have another DVD that says "ROBOTECH" on the front? You've seen Macross II. You know the story, you know the ending. I suppose they could REALLY hack it up in order to generate a few surprises along the way, but why? What's wrong with Macross II as it is? Now, I admit that when I was a kid, I wished HG would pick up DYRL and release that, but that was just so I could get a legal VHS tape of it in a language I could understand ("Clash of the Bionoids" wasn't available in the U.S. yet). I knew they would slice it up, cut out a lot of scenes, and change everything to Robotech-isms, but I figured that was a necessary evil for getting it over to the Western world. That's no longer true. Macross II has been around in the States for more than fifteen years now, and unedited anime is the norm on DVD. And I think that's something to be applauded. As it stands, the story of RT is incomplete, which I guess is one of the things that keeps the fanbase going. Scott Bernard has to find Rick Hunter, right? But for a variety of reasons, it's probably never going to happen. You could re-edit and incorporate every robot anime in the history of Japan into Robotech, but it wouldn't do anything except create more loose ends, and make everything more confused and confusing. Personally, I think the time for RT has really passed...it was kind of a transitional work between the heavily edited and kiddified English anime series of the '70s and early '80s, and the unfiltered anime boom of the '90s. As such, it has its place in history, but as a living, breathing continuing story...? No disrespect, but I just don't see it. So I'll ask you...you called that idea a "wet dream" for RT fans. Why? Why is Robotech-ized Macross II a good companion piece to the actual Macross II? And why is continuing RT a good and noteworthy project? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I'm genuinely curious.

Dude, I'm in America, too. And you're making us look bad in front of the neighbors. Please let it go.

Thanks for assuming I don't know what a Valkyrie cockpit looks like! What I meant was that I didn't know what WORDS to use...lift the control lever? flip it up? Turn it upright? "Tilt it up" was about the best I could come up with.

They did a simlar thing in the U.S. (with some of the same shows, even) with Force Five.

:lol: You know, I'd been having a pretty crappy day overall, and then I read that. Now everything's better. Thanks!

Nothing "really" happened, it's all fiction. Here's what we know. They made SDFM. They made DYRL. They made FB2012, which had some footage from the show, but mostly seemed to center on DYRL (in both story and designs). (Yes, I said story. Minmay was shown getting mad at her parents and storming out. That was referenced in DYRL, not in SDFM.) No word on "canonicity" at that point. With no sequels forthcoming, what would have been the point? In '87 or '88, Kawamori said in Animag that neither one is the "real" story. It's like WWII...if you make a TV series, you'll tell the events one way, if you make a movie, you'll tell the same events in a different way. Then Macross II came along in '92, billed as a sequel to DYRL. Then in '94, in the short film "Macross: A Future Chronicle" that came with the first MacPlus LD, it was said that DYRL was a 2031 movie. So that's where it started, and that's the hard-line answer. However, as you say, they've drawn freely from DYRL designs for every Macross story since then. Some people try to rationalize it with "SDFM story, DYRL designs," but I think that's reading too much into it. They both "happened," in that they both were made. Forget trying to figure out why Milia's VF-1J in Mac7 looks like the SDFM version, but Exsedol looks like the DYRL version. There's no way to make it make sense. Don't overthink it, just enjoy it.

That would've been illegal.

ArtCenter's just a few miles from me, and I've known a lot of students there. It's a excellent school...they're VERY selective about who gets in, and they work you like a dog. Within a month, freshmen get that hollowed-out, dazed look that means too much time doing schoolwork instead of eating and sleeping. If he graduated from there, my respect for Tommy Yune just jumped up by quite a margin. It still doesn't make me like Shadow Chronicles, though...