Gubaba

Um, yeah...we know. We've all seen Macross. That's why we're here. And it's generally "Battroid," not "Battloid."

What makes a good book doesn't necessarily make for a good movie. It's easy to sit back and say, "Oh, they should've done this like the book!" "Oh, the book was better here!" And nine times out of ten, I'll agree with you. I've avoided some movie versions BECAUSE the books is treasured by me ("Troy" being a good example). But screenwriting is a different discipline than novel writing, and changes WILL be made, no matter what. LotR was very different from the book, but it worked. To get cheesed off over when Saruman got killed is to miss the forest for the trees. If you don't want to see the book hacked up, don't see the movie. Simple as that. Lynch bitched about it? Where did you hear that? I've never heard him say anything about it, really, except that he took his name off of it (yes, it's an "Alan Smithee" film). And he wasn't in the director's chair when they edited it...they edited it years later, exclusively for television.

Macrossworld's own Boinger is ripping the DVDs. He uses Handbrake to do so, with the highest possible settings...it's as close to the DVD as it's possible to get, so they take up a lot of room...

Macek and HG never made it any big secret that the show came from Japan. Robotech Art 1 had a pretty good essay about the history of Macross, Mosepada, and Southern Cross (and yes, mentioned a lot of the creators. Well, the Macross ones, at least). Since that was presumably "Macek-approved," I don't think he was ever trying to hide anything.

You DO know that the long version of Dune is not Lynch's cut (and indeed, he dislikes it so much that he had his name removed from it), don't you? Let it go, man...let it go...

Let's be fair...Carl Macek has never said he created Macross. He just said he improved it. And made Minmay annoying. Here, I agree with you. But the problem (as I see it) is that, as Azrael said, a reboot is probably the only way they can really keep it going...but who really wants a reboot? Not the old fans, that's for sure. And people who could conceivably become RT fans have a lot more options now. In '85, when RT was airing, I already knew it was Macross, and that Southern Cross and Mospeada were unrelated. I really wanted to see the original shows, uncut, unchanged, and in Japanese. But I watched Robotech, because I had no choice (apart from a video tape filled with random anime that I copied from one of my friends...it had Episode 31 of Macross on it). There was no way to get Macross, in the US or in Japan, unless you had taped it off of Japanese TV. Plus, i couldn't understand any Japanese. So I watched Robotech. I watched Macron 1. Hell, I even watched Gladidores del Espacio, even though I knew very little Spanish. But now, DVDs of TONS of series are available, and if that's not enough for them, there's always the internet. Robotech is no longer the only game in town, and it hasn't been for long, long time. Most people who like it do so out of nostalgia, or because it was what they saw first, or because they liked the direction it took post-Macross. Maybe the DVDs sparked new interest. maybe Shadow Chronicles did as well...but I can't imagine it that it turned out to be many people. Although there are a number of different RT forums, it really does seem like the same five or six people frequent all of them, and just have the same conversations in different settings.

It's not really the voice acting that was the problem (although I'm not sure how you can defend Casey Kasem as Mark and whoever did that annoying "Brr-BLIP-BLIP" voice for Keyop)...it was the fact that that they hacked it up to set it in space, and cut out so much that they had to add 7-Zark-7 to fill in the rest of the time. For a while, Rhino was coming out with DVDs with BOTP, G-Force, and Gatchaman all together. G-Force was not a bad adaptation (pity about the characters' names, though), but BOTP was like a totally different show.

There's a problem with that, though... The original Star Trek can be summed up in a few key terms: Kirk/Spock/McCoy. Enterprise. Journey through space. Peaceful solutions. As long as any reboot has these elements, it is recognizably Star Trek. Nearly every person in the western world will know these characters and tropes. What does Robotech have that is familiar? SDF-1. Veritechs. Rick/Lisa/Minmei. Minmei's awful singing. Max/Miriya (and their annoying daughter). Cyclones. Maybe hovertanks. Protoculture. Bad guys who turn out not to be so bad. Most people who distantly remember RT will remember these things. If a reboot doesn't have most of those, what will it have to jog the memories of people who saw the show 25 years ago, and only vaguely remember it? Or people who have heard about it but never seen it? Without Macross, RT has no foundation. They can try to build a new foundation, but they risk losing the people who AREN'T die-hard fans, but saw the show as kids. And saddled with a name like "Robotech," which these days sounds almost like a parody, they won't be bringing in many new fans (unless the trailers look absolutely breathtaking). I tell ya, the people in charge at HG (and the Warners people attached to the film) really have their work cut out for them.

Some of the comics I like have had movies based on them, and all the movies have sucked. Therefore, I'd rather they DIDN'T make any more.

Phrased that way, it sounds perfectly reasonable...I'll guess I'll just chalk the P.T. Barnum quotation (and the implication that people who like 7, Zero, and Frontier are not as smart as people who like II) up to your "colorful way of expressing yourself." I find that strange, too...and if you look at the interview with him on his website, he makes it clear that he DELIBERATELY made Minmay annoying and unlikable. He also says that he changed Macross for the better, and, well...let me let the man speak for himself: From the "Robotech Interviews" at www.carlmacek.com: and I've never been part of the "death to Macek" crowd...he had to bring all this over, with lots of restrictions and limitations placed on him. I don't think he did a great job, but it was better than, say, "Battle of the Planets." But after reading that...Man! What an ego! And what Macross series is he talking about where music wasn't used as a weapon? I can't think of a single one. Well, except Macross Generation. But that doesn't really count.

Ah. So most of the people at Macrossworld aren't Macross fans, and the guy who created Macross has his head up his ass. Gotcha. What is this, Revenge of the RT.com Refugees...?

I think Noriko meant the FRIEND'S sexuality, not Arnold's...

I think you're still missing my point. Putting an X-Wing fighter and someone in a Jedi robe together with the Enterprise and someone in a Starfleet uniform doesn't make them automatically harmonize. HG can authorize al the high-level fanfics they want, it won't make the Robotech "generations" fit together. There. THAT'S my point!

I think you're missing my point.

To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with it, either at first...it looked really washed out. And then I noticed how much more detail there was. I think both the AnimEigo and Emotion remasters compliment each other...AnimEigo is brighter and more colorful, but you can SEE more in the Emotion version.

Ah. THAT, I agree with! And other people have mentioned the Death: The High Cost of Living movie...I think that one will work, because Neil Gaiman suggested the idea to the studios, saying he kn ew how to make it work, and he'd be writing and directing it. So, at the very least, it's in much better hands.

And I was saying that there's no need to go that deep into RT to find a reason why HG should lose the license to RT. The "original" series was bad enough. Oh, and it's "canon," not "cannon," btw. Ah. I haven't seen New Generation since '86 or '87, but I did get around to watching Mospeada last year, so remember him (and yeah, now that i think about it, his name was Jonathan...the "Wolff" threw me off). Why would they have him saying Minmay's name, though? That's weird. Anyway, I think my underlying point is that I don't really understand why it matters whether he was supposedly on the SDF-1 or at New Albuquerque, which that's just a story made up in order to fit two series together that were never meant to be put together. He's a Mospeada character. The SDF-1 is from Macross. Was Spock on Endor when the second Death Star blew up, or was he still hanging out in the back of the Falcon? Do they explain why the technology is completely different...?

We've now reached Episode 5...

Is it so hard to enjoy more than one thing at a time? No one ever said you had to be monogamous with anime...

Now THAT sounds like the world's most awesomest movie!

Well...if you're talking about poor movie art... I have no idea if this is a science-fiction film or not, but it certainly looks terrible, doesn't it? What's up with that horse's eyes?

HA! That's me with the drama albums...listening to each line again and again, trying to look up the words it sounds like they're saying... Misa and Minmay are okay, but Hikaru mumbles. A lot. And the Bridge Bunnies talk too fast. It's actually not bad...I've got the massive NTC Kanji dictionary, which has a pretty easy system. The only bad thing about it is that's it's big and heavy, and thus not as portable as I'd like.

Wait wait wait..."no substance"...? Are we talking about the same Sandman? One of the few comics it's not only okay but ENCOURAGED to write a doctoral thesis about, and you say it has no subtance...?

Really, I'm not good with the technical stuff. I had to revise the VF-25S page again and again, it took forever to translate, and I was constantly pestering Azrael for help. I feel much more in my element doing stuff like "My Fair Minmay." No action, no mecha, barely even science fiction...just the story of a high-school girl on the verge of stardom. Even then, I'm not terribly speedy. My kanji is shockingly bad, so it feels like I have to look up every other word. But that's okay. I'd rather get it right than do it fast.

Enh, I think Star Crash is a lot of fun. Totally lame, utterly luidcrous fun, but fun nonetheless.