Gubaba

I want to know who set up the recording sessions...I can just see Ranka saying to Elmo, "Mr. Kridanik, my hairstylist/make-up artist has ALWAYS wanted to be a singer just like Judy Garland and Bette Midler. Why don't we have a recording session?" And Elmo's there thinking, "I already have Ranka and Sheryl...there's a THIRD girl out there like them? Man, is this my lucky day or WHAT?"

Hmm...if that's the case, then "Kusuri o nomu" ("drink medicine" as opposed to "take medicine") would be idiomatic, too...in both languages, because neither means what you actually DO with the medicine (ingest it). Oh, and VFTF1...I'll PM you about the philosophy stuff because I don't want to derail the thread. Suffice to say here that Xenophon and Aristophanes tell us a lot about Socrates, but nothing about Plato. Aristotle's tricky to use as a source as well, because you can't really tell where Plato's influence ends and Aristotle's own brilliance begins.

HA! My Macross Fanboyism is bigger that yours!

And yet...you go all silly on those two shining beacons of classic world cinema, Cheerleader Camp and Revenge of the Cheerleaders. Do you not know art when you see it, sir?

I should've made myself clearer...I know it's not Bobby saying it (is it May'n? I'm not sure), but just the idea of Bobby singing a song about how his carrot loves you, and having it being played all sexy-like... Brrrrrr.

I dunno. I liked the Mylene, Canary Minmay, and Enika versons, too. This one seems fine, but it's a little startling to hear that "Space Age Bachelor Pad" sound with the song.

Sounds good. We can all get together at the Sharon Apple concert there, and miss all the drama on earth.

How can something that's been around for more than a thousand years be primarily a Hollywood fad? If you said you liked anime, that doesn't necessarily mean you like Yu-Gi-Oh, does it? Or if you like music, it doesn't mean your favorite band is the Archies.

And let's all have a big party someplace far, far away from Macross City in February 2040...

PM'd you.

Maybe he's big Chibi Maruko-chan buff... (They really do exist; I met one once. He was...odd.)

You're weird.

It doesn't really matter. The reworked eps. 21-24 do more to lay the groundwork for "The End of Evangelion" (easy for the creators to do, since the movie had already been made), but the plot hasn't been altered at all. There are also a few new red herrings thrown in. Basically, a couple of flashback scenes have been added to episode 21; 22 has a lot of Asuka going nutzo; the Angel has been redesigned in episode 23; and there are few new scenes with Kaworu in episode 24. Most of the changes are purely cosmetic (for example, in the long, long elevator scene, Asuka stifles a sneeze, adding a few frames of motion into the otherwise static scene). Anyway, after you watch all of that, be sure to download Evangelion 1.01. It's awesome.

Better than "What's Up, Tiger Lily"...? I find that hard to believe.

Don't worry, I don't think you're delusional (for the record, I don't think the Sheryl fans are delusional, either). But there is a vast gulf between saying "It seems to me that the ending must have been rewritten" and saying "the ending was rewritten." Personally, I doubt they ever intended to kill Sheryl. Giving her a seemingly insolvable problem and then solving it...well, that's drama, right? Onogi made her more central than she otherwise would have been, but until I read something specifically stating that the ending was changed, I'll view that claim with skepticism.

Yeah, I've heard variously that it was done for educational purposes, or to show on a Japanese airline's international flights. Whichever, the same people (I think...) also did a similarly terrible rendition of "Megazone 23 Part II."

Hmmm...I wouldn't have watched it like that, but oh well. The last two TV episodes may seem pretty anticlimactic to you now. Just sayin'. You raise a very complicated question that is very difficult to answer in a short-but-comprehensible way. First, there was the TV series (26 episodes; 1995-1996). The series began to be released on LD and VHS, but they only got up to Volume 10 (up to episode 20) before taking a long hiatus. Then they announced two movies (a double feature): "Death" and "Rebirth." Death would be a recap of the series; Rebirth would be a new version of episodes 25 and 26. However, when the time rolled around for the movies to debut (May 1997), Rebirth wasn't finished. So they released the first half-hour or so of Rebirth (up to the point where Seele releases the Eva Series) with Death. A month or so later, the finished Rebirth was released, under the new title "The End of Evangelion." Audiences, however, had found Death to be far too strange and puzzling, and not a satisfactory recap. So on January 1, 1998, a Japanese pay-per-view station showed "Death and Rebirth," with a newly edited version of Death entitled "Death (True)." Early in 1998, Volume 11 of the LD/VHS release of the TV series came out. Both of the episodes on it (21 and 22) had been vastly reworked, using some animation that had been in the first version Death (but cut from "Death (True)"), and other new animation. Volume 12 (episodes 23 and 24) was similarly reworked. In summer 1998, Volume 13 came out, featuring TV episode 25 (unchanged) and "Air" (the first half of "The End of Evangelion"). Air had a new Next Episode Preview attached to it, and a couple of very small changes from the theatrical version. Later that summer, Volume 14 came out, featuring TV episode 26 and "My Pure Heart for You." There were also some small changes introduced into "My Pure Heart for You." Also that summer, "Death" and "The End of Evangelion" were re-released in theaters as "Revival of Evangelion." "Death" was re-edited yet again for this, and the new version is called "Death (True²)." That Christmas, they released an Eva movie box set, featuring "Death (True²) and Rebirth" and "The End of Evangelion." For the Renewal of Evangelion DVDs (AKA the "Platinum Edition") they put the TV series (including both the Broadcast and reworked versions of episodes 21-24) with "Revival of Evangelion" (i.e. "Death (True²)" and "The End of Evangelion") together. Do you have a headache yet...? So simply put, there's the TV series, episodes 1-20. Then there are two versions each of episodes 21-24 (and yes, they are quite different). There's TV 25-26, and "The End of Evangelion," with is the theatrical version of episodes 25-26. There are three different versions of the recap movie "Death," but only the third version is readily available. The first two have never been released (legally) on video. The TV Volumes 13 and 14 LD/VHS version of "The End of Evangelion," with the slight changes, has never been released on DVD. "Rebirth" is likewise not part of the Renewal/Platinum Edition. There's lots of other minutiae, a lot of it involving what ADV and Manga released or didn't release, but that's the basic story. Unfortunately, it seems to be continuing with the new Evangelion movies...The first one, released last year as "Evangelion 1.0: You are (not) alone" was slightly reworked for DVD release, now being titled Evangelion 1.01: You are (not) alone." I just pray we'll never see "1.02," "1.03," etc.

Any view of Plato that we have is conditioned by Neo-Platonism...we don't know how Plato's works were initially received. I haven't read Heidegger yet, though. Maybe that'll be next on my list... I'm confused...are we talking about subs or are we talking about dubs? The translation is different for both, since dubs have to match the lip flaps (which thus restricts the amount of freedom the English voice actor to read the line however they see fit), but a sub script can focus purely on the meaning, without having to take things like lip flaps and timing into account...which is what I thought we were talking about. Likewise, a translation of Shakespeare into another language could easily have two versions: one for reading and one for performing. (Reminds me of Harrison Ford saying to George Lucas, "You can WRITE these words but no one can SAY them!" about the Star Wars script...)

No...but Touji didn't have tremendous synchro ratio with Eva-03 that Asuka had with the 02. But yeah, the split arm initially I took as being a representation of what Asuka was feeling, not reality...but when the audio commentary for the movie pointed out the blood pouring out of her eye socket...well, that changed my mind (and of course, it explains the Rei-like bandages she has at the end). So yeah, considering that she really did lose an eye, it's a small leap to believe that her arm really did split down the middle. And then...well, I think she died. What do you think Maya was trying to say when she was screaming "Asuka is...! Asuka is...!" It could be "Asuka is gravely injured," but I don't think that would cause Maya to lose it completely. So yeah, it's left open...but I think not very open.

But Rei was shown with Misato just BEFORE the explosion, and just before she died. But, more to the point, there IS an example of someone dying and coming back: Asuka. I think it's pretty clear that she was killed when the Eva series ate Eva-02 (when the Lance of Longinus hits Eva-02's eye, blood starts pouring out of Asuka's eye, when the Eva's arm is split, her arm is split...what would the Eva being ripped to shreds do to her...?), and yet...she's there at the end. I do think Misato and Ritsuko coming back would be something of a cheat, but I have to say that the movie seems to leave it open as a possibility.

Well...why was Rei with Misato at that point at all? Instrumentality hadn't started yet, and the army of Little Naked Reis was not yet on the march. But yet, just before Misato dies...there's a soul-harvester Rei next to her. I'm not really attached to the idea of Misato coming back, but I think it's a possibility. And...um...I don't remember anyone saying the dead people were part of Instrmentality, let alone the first Homo Sapiens. Where did you get that information?

Actually, what really made me grimace was that "Ohhhh Bay-bee!" voice right as "Ninjiin Loves you yeah" begins. Brrrrr....

Um...in official Macross Mecha Books...?

Wow, one of the Sheryl fanatics here said before that Alto was originally going to pick Sheryl, but it was rewritten at the last minute to placate angry Ranka fans. Now you're saying that it was supposed to be Ranka before it was hastily rewritten... Gosh, who's a boy to believe? And who does eveybody KNOW this information when, as far as I know, no Macrossworld members were present in the Big West studio for the writing of the series...

I think I disagree. Since there was a Rei next to Misato when she blew up, and a Rei next to dorwned Ritsuko, it think that their souls got harvested, and they might be able to get a new lease on life. Maybe.