Gubaba

Well that's...bleak. Especially considering that everyone else in the series probably died two years later in Bodolzaa's attack. C'mon! In Macross, isn't love supposed to conquer all? Even a busted-up VF-0?

Yes, I was. I also uploaded a new avatar...no problems there. But uploading to a post seems to be impossible (unless it takes more than six minutes to upload 96kb...which seems unlikely).

Well...to be COMPLETELY geeky about it...if there's no Basara, there's no Anima Spiritia, and the Macross 7 Fleet becomes the Spirita Farm. THE END. Now THAT would've been a crappy show! On the other hand, it would've been a lot shorter.

He's a bit shrimpy and over-enthusiastic, but gay? I don't see it. But if he is, maybe he can hook up with the SMS 'fro guy...happy endings for everyone!

Well, it's better than the extras ADV saw fit to put on the Eva Platinum Edition...

No, I hadn't... Thanks. (*walks away feeling like an idiot...*)

I've been trying to upload a pic for days now (a 96kb jpg), and the "uploading file" wheel just keeps spinning and spinning...the longest I've let it go before giving up is six minutes... Is it a problem on my end? Or is there something wrong?

I used to have a Gaiking toy when I was about six or seven...I'd like to see the show, too. (As for Eva...well, it's one of my all-time favorites, but I can understand why others wouldn't like it. It's something I love, but not something I feel like defending all that much, so it's just as well we drop it.) One thing that kind of saddens me about fansubbers is, while you'll have ten groups all doing something like "Spice and Wolf" or "Rental Magica" (i.e. new series that have a good chance of being licensed), there are only a few who are willing to do older stuff that will never be brought over. I'm still hoping for someone to do Daitarn 3, Xabungle, Gachamans II and F, and the J9 Trilogy... Oh well, if you want something done right...

Here ya go: http://a.scarywater.net/shin-getter/

Re: "You chauvinist! You disobey my orders!?" You know, that's actually not a bad translation of the line. The Japanese translates literally to "Men or women, who do you think gives the orders?" which is REALLY HARD to twist into a natural sounding English sentence. Hurin's sub has "Who do you think gives the orders?" which is fine, except that, thematically, conflict between men and women is important in DYRL, and I think the line is a bit of foreshadowing...something lost in Hurin's subs. Kiseki's sub had, "Does he think that men are superior to women?" Also fine, but not exact. Suddenly, the Bionoids line sounds almost elegant in capturing the meaning of what Misa said...

Shin and Sara simple CANNOT be Basara's parents, because Shin and Sara, in deep space, were fused, 2001-style, into a single, perfect hermaphroditic being, that decided to name itself "Sheryl Nome." (This was previously only my theory, but now I am stating it as fact. Internet rumor fame, here I come!)

I always just figured that it had been so long that they COULDN'T give them back. Gunther's body had been used for many months and finally was turned into a spiritia black hole with innumerable massive vines growing out of it...if Geperunitchi gave it back, it'd probably just melt into a big puddle flesh-colored jelly. Or maybe Gunther LIKED being host to a Protodeviln?

My favorite line from the series, and one of my favorite lines of ALL TIME: 山よ！　銀河よ！　オレの歌を聴け！！

I heartily agree with putting Getter Robo on the list (not sure about Gaiking and King Gainer, only because I haven't seen them...until I do, I'll take your word for it), and I felt a little iffy about putting Mighty Atom on there in the first place, so your reasoning makes sense to me. But I do think Eva needs to be on the list...it really was a revolution at the time, putting otaku culture on the map, and opening a lot of anime floodgates. If a lot of what followed was crap...well, that's what floodgates are there for in the first place. (I also think it isn't an intellectual fraud, but that's neither here nor there, really.) It takes all the tropes of a super robot show (monster-of-the-week, a robot that's created by the young pilot's father, the high-tech base with people sitting in front of monitors, shouting "DAME DA!") and really turned them into something fresh. I also became one of the THE most talked about animes ever, a sitauation which continues to this day. For better or for worse, it is one of the truly quintessential animes of the '90s, and one of the mot important robot shows ever. *scurries off to look for proof*

You've meantioned what I think is one of the biggest strengths of Macross as a franchise...that it doesn't feel like a franchise. Kawamori takes the same basic ingredients and uses them in astonishingly varied ways in each show.

Watching Ideon actually RAISED my level of respect for Eva...it started off as the ultimate rip-off of/homage to every super robot show in existence, and ended as a rip off of/homage to the single most nihilistic ending in all of anime history. Gainax definitely knows who to steal from, and how to steal it well. But you raise an interesting question...I've been trying to put together a list of What Every Mecha Fan NEEDS to See, the robot anime that have had the biggest influence on what's come after. Not necessairly the best, not necessarily one's favorites, but the ones that changed what came after. So far, it looks like this (in chronological order): 1. Mighty Atom (first robot show) 2. Iron Man 28 (first giant robot) 3. Mazinger Z (first drivable robot) 4. Zambot 3 (as the ultimate combining robot show, and the first that wasn't completely forumulaic) 5. Gundam (first "real robot" show) 6. Ideon (last great combining robot show) 7. Macross (first realistic transforming robots) 8. Patlabor (takes "real robots" to a new level) 9. Evangelion (everything after was either incredibly influenced by Eva or had to work hard not to be) 10. ...? (too early to tell) Is there anything I'm missing?

Mostly, I agree. And I am mostly talking about cononicity. To take Gundam as the handiest example, I really love 0080 and 0083. But, when I wrote the post that you quote, I was thinking of an article in a very early issue of Animerica, when 0083 came out, that essentially said how great it was that Tomino wasn't involved with the new Gundam series, because he is better known for putting his characters "through misery than adventure." It also said that it was hard to know what to think about him, since "without him, there would have been no Mobile Suit Gundam, but there also would have been no Gundam F91." (I'm quoting from memory, so that may be a little bit off.) To me, that sentence should've stopped before the "but." It's his baby. If he makes to make it massively depressing, a la Zeta, that's his business. If he wants to make it slapstick comedy, a la the first half of Double Zeta, that's likewise his business. I may not like it, but I can't ignore it (unlike the 08th MS team, which I can and do ignore...I know it's popular, but for whatever reason, I dislike it). And to have Bandai come in and say, "Well, Gaiagear is no longer canonical, because we've made G-Saviour"...well, that plain doesn't work for me. Although, if G-Saviour had actually been good, I would've enjoyed it on its own merits, as an alternate take on far-future Gundam. So if Tomino and, say, Shinichiro Watanabe (to name a Gundam-involved director who I admire), each come out with competing Gundam animes that contradict each other, I'll watch and probably enjoy both of them. But if I then try to make a definitve Gundam timeline...then I'll take preference to the Tomino version. So yeah, I'll watch anything that's good, but I'll always side with the creator when it comes to questions of canonicity and authority.

Well, it's funny. When I was about twelve, and getting into anime, I liked it because it seemed to me that it wasn't aimed at children. Later, I realized that most of it was indeed aimed at children, it's just that Japanese TV producers had a different idea of what kids could handle than American ones did. As for why...well, your theory sounds as good as any. I'm sure that the Bomb is a part of it...certainly WWII haunts almost all anime drama (and some comedy) throughout the seventies and eighties. In Zambot, I see the specter of the War very clearly in the aftermath of of the destruction rather in the actual attacks. Interestingly, they seem to be becoming more "American" in that way more recently...considering that at least one "Concerned Parent's Group" protested episodes 18 and 19 of Evangelion (which, to be fair, are riduculously intense...I have yet to see anyone watch them and NOT be horrified), which AFAIK, didn't happen with Zambot, or Zeta Gundam, or Ideon, or any other extraordinarily violent or negative series. And the flak over Eva did led to some self-censorship on the part of TV anime producers for a while (which, perhaps, is why most anime is shown past midnight these days...?).

They have some interviews with Mari, as well as a commentary track with her and the (English) V.A. for Misa, which is half-interesting, and half-them talking about how cute each other's outfits are, and how they should go shopping together sometime. The dub itself...isn't great. The consensus is that lot of the voices don't seem to fit the characters, and Mari's accent is a little strong (stronger than when she speaks normally or sings, weirdly enough). She's the only person in the cast who can pronounce "Macross" and "Hikaru" correctly, however.

Because it belongs in the Episode 1 discussion... Short answer: The Broadcast version cuts a lot of the battle scenes, but adds some pre-concert stuff with Mikhail, as well as extending the concert scene (which is referenced in ep. 2). The overall concensus here is that the Deculture version is better. Me, I liked both fine, and the DVD version should heal all wounds.

But you also strike a blow against Animeigo and the huge chunk of change they spent restoring the footage... It's a paradox! A PARADOX, I tell you!

"Kyun, kyun! Kyun, Kyu-" *SQUEEZE*

I would also pay good money for those. Especially since I'm a Five Star Stories fan...L-Gaim is absolutely essential.

Yeah, I've seen Ideon...BEST. ENDING. EVER! I can believe he thinks humankind is wonderful...even Zambot showed that (Spoiler bar added for VFTF1's sake.) Tomino actually wrote a book called "The Turn-A Cure" about how working on that show lifted him out of his depression. Which is fine, although I'm a little unsure about his recent revisions of Zeta (in the movie version) and Char's Counterattack (in Gundam Evolve) to give them happier endings. Oh well, at least he's not messing with the originals. I'd like to have a big six-month Tomino marathon, but I still need to get Brain Powerd and King Gainer, and someone really needs to sub Daitarn (I hope Shinsen tackles it), Xabungle, L-Gaim (Shin-Getter's doing it, but they're only up to episode 6), and the Dunbine sequels...

Point taken. Yes. If you want to spend gobs of money, do a lot of extra work, and you have something that can play Region 2 DVDs, there's always that option.