Bri

Unless your core business is political consulting, then it's your bread and butter

I was under the impression it was a platonic thing between teacher and student. I think they are both pretty attached to the other, prolly as you said Millia sees a younger Max in him who isn't burdened by command yet while Milia represents to Gamlin everything a pilot can hope to achieve. Micronised Zentran already have those ears in DYRL so it was pretty soon. In the reimaging of SDFM in Macross Fever they gave Milia those ears as well, depending off course how much value you place on those images:

Took me a while to catch up, so remarks on Episode 4: The character art improved again after the drop in quality of episodes 2 and 3. Visually this series is still very appealing. Sofar have not noticed much of repetition except each episode seems to involve a raid by the mysterious alien force to aquire spiritia. Focus in this episode is again on exploring Mylene and Basara's relationship and Mylene's background. All is not well in the state of Genius and Mylene gets to act like an angry teenager from a dysfuntional family. Basara does not seem to patronize her nor is he forcing her to do anything, probably a wise method of dealing with a frustrated teenager, and one that Millia hasn't figured out. He does act when he considers her safety in danger regardless if she agrees as seen in the situation with the vampires. I like the exchange between Michael and Basara in the sewers, Michael realizes that Mylenes wont accept him as a guardian and yields the responsebility to Basara, placing her well being in his hands. Mylene admits she ran away from home and feels she cant accept protection from Michael or Milia as she wants to stand on her own two feet. I think this is examplified in Basara walking her home, he says it's to protect Gubaba while to respect Mylene's desire for independance. Always felt Basara has a much healthier aproach to interacting with Mylene then Gamlin. Basara sees her as the kid she really is while I feel that Gamlin is projecting his adoration of Millia, who he can't have, on her daughter. I doubt he would respond the way he does to Mylene if she wasn't Millia's kid. Though I'm now jumping ahead of the episode. Was nice to seee Mylene in other clothes then the outlandish Firebomber outfit, never realised see has Meltran ears. Makes me wonder, is Firebombers looks based on the Visual Kei bands of the time? Don't know much about Japanese pop culture.

Think it's more to do with part of the fanbase prefering dark and gritty, and Robotech just being the first that many saw. Macross 7 and Frontier might be to frivolous for their taste. Over here Robotech as a TV series was never broadcasted and is pretty much unknown. Macross Plus on the contrary was one of the gateway anime of the 90s revival, for most younger mecha fans here Wing and Plus started it all and I hear the same complaints about Frontier being to soft/moe for their liking. As for irony, Harmony Gold productions were part of the reason why anime had to go underground over here for a few years. During a popular saturday morning cartoon block in the late eighties one of the networks had carelessly broadcasted the "RT Sentinels" and "Lensman" movies and it resulted in a media riot because of the violence (nudity and sex are no issue here, but explicit violence in a childs shows is still very controversial), iirc the handgrenade scene of Sentinels even made the news as an example of those morally corrupt "Japanese Manga". Anime was already under media scruteny back then because of the popularity of videotapes of movies/OVA like Akira, MD Geist, Urutsukidoji, Wicked City under young teen audiences and this did not help.

For Macross specific test models, I'd try the old Bandai 1/72 VF-1 transformable Macross kits and the 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1 Fighters and Battroids. Your looking at a price tag between 1000 and 2500 yen a kit. Prices can drop even further during sales.

I'm afraid I have to agree on Kämpfer . This show pretty much defines everything that is wrong with anime at the moment, it has absolutely no right to be so damned entertaining...

That's really what a simple ecchi/fanservice series like strike witches is about, panties and embarassing situations. I'd be worried if a classic like galaxy express999 wouldn't have a bit more to offer. Let me add a suggestion for your to watch list. Spice and Wolf, a rather unconventional anime about the travels of a merchant and a wolf god(who happens to look like, and is, a fox). Together they journey from town to town trying to make a profit, while musing about business and human nature. The girl, Holo, is one of the most sophisticated and well rounded characters I have seen in anime sofar.

The one thing I don't like about the Megaroad-01 story is the vague comment that the ship is missing and never heard from again. Would have been nice if any sequel had just simply mentioned that the ship was missing or lost or whatever. Personally I wish the ending of the original triangle was left at the FB2012 ending; take off and never mention them again.

Isn't it a typical element in western sci-fi and fantasy that we always end up seeing the rise of the main cast/character to a position of power? Anime is often different, I really love Gurren Lagan for the scene where we see Simon talking to the boy: "Who do you think I am...No, I guess nobody"

Cowboy Bepop is what Tarantino can only dreams of.

but but Alto ...You'd really have to hate one of the girls, for having her end up with him. I dunno... I guess I'm sort of hoping for a harem ending for Ozma. There's a distinct lack of real men in Frontier after Michels death

Hmm music, how about we drop the idol singers and try something else? I know, let's have 4 girls on a Macross colony fleet try to form a band in high school, but since girl bands are so 2059 they use soundforce valkyries instead! However our brave heroines are terrible at piloting so they sit around all day in their clubroom after school talking about nothing. Mylene, whose carreer took a nose dive after Basara left Firebomber to explore the galaxy, is a teacher at the same school and their club mentor. She slowly reaches out to them and instills confidence to become true gitar jamming pilots... We shall call it M-On!

just received Macross the First in the mail. Impressed with the way Mikimoto has played around with the roles of the characters yet keeping the essential story intact. Altough Minmay is quite different, seems more like a mix between Mylene and Sheryl.

Thanks for the heads up Sketchley, just ordered it via HMV.

but...but...isn't that exactly what Macross does? Different stories set in the same universe slowly unfolding the tale of humanity in a space faring age? It's far less repetative then Gundam that rehashes the earth spacenoid conflict of the UC era in most of it's sequels.

It's not needed. What I wouldn't mind would be like a single OVA with the animation from the Pachinko game together with some newly interpreted scenes and music videos as an anniversary release at some point.

Rewatched ep 1 a bit earlier today. Not much time to write a long piece on it so I'll just restrict myself to a few observations. The character animation was excellent for a TV show of it's day. What struck me was the level of detail added to Basara and Mylene, where ever they are they stand out due more detailed coloring and shading compared to the rest of the cast. Backgrounds are also very nice, especially in the city. The mecha action looks okay, the diamond valks kind of date the show to the time of the First Gulf war when the F117 was the new spectacular plane. The design hasn't aged well from my perspective and the VF11C's just steal the show till the VF-19 pops up. Now that I think of it, IIRC this is also the first time we see hostile transformable mecha in Macross. Clever use of the way Mylene is put forward as the viewers guide, she reguarly adds some dry remarks and observations to what happens around them. Basara already acts like the aloof but caring big brother to Mylene. Maybe that is where the intended age group can be derived from as Mylene seems to be positioned as an equal to the viewer instead of Basara. Which would put it around 15.

The trailer looks a bit like a mix of the Battle of Endor and Aliens. Definitely going to give it a chance.

In fairness, VAT is not the issue. It's a more sophisticated form of sales tax and both are always paid in full by the consumer. Main difference it's at least 10 percent higher in Europe than in the States. What kill any attempt to import large quantities of anime related merchandise is the import duties as it's produced outside of the union. Those protectionist measures are far worse. (Though I can't stand shops that don't include VAT, sales tax or tips in their price and I'm left guessing at the final amount until checkout.) True except in Europe there is also a language issue. Certain licenses are bought for Europe as a whole but only used in one language area leaving other areas without the content as the licensee only cares about their home market. Also happened with Robotech, worldwide license for HG but not a single RT item to buy in the stores (should one want too). I think anime as a niche market is really a blessing in disguise for the small entrepreneurs. Over here during the anime boom in the late nineties, fueled by pokemon, digimon etc, the large retailers discovered anime merchandise and DVDs. They bought up the available stock, saturated the market and locked out the specialist stores, ruining the market in a few months. What took the specialist years to built was destroyed in no time. The small firms only recovered when the hype was long over and anime returned to its niche status. Ha ha, yea, I'll never forget my first visit to the States, the eerie politeness of people really freaked me in the beginning. It's one thing Hollywood doesn't prepare you for Also I noticed quite a regional difference, a lot of my colleagues are from either Michigan or upstate New york, mostly cold as ice, the rest is from California and Texas and are way more relaxed and easy going, coincidence or cultural difference?

I just spilled my coffee laughing, thanks, that made my evening . Insults to make Blackadder proud, speaking of which, Robotech always reminds me of this sketch. Just replace Percy in your mind with Carl Macek: Blackadder: This place smells worse than a pair of armored trousers after the Hundred Year War. Baldrick! Have you been eating dung again? Percy: My Lord! I have waited on your return! Blackadder: And thank God you did, Percy, for I was just thinking to myself, "My God, I die in 12 hours, what I really need now is a hug from a complete prat." Percy: After literally an hour's ceaseless searching, I have succeeded in creating gold, pure gold. Blackadder: Are you sure? Percy: Yes, my lord. Behold. Blackadder: Percy... it's green. Percy: That's right, my lord. Blackadder: Yes, Percy, I don't want to be pedantic or anything, but the colour of gold is gold. That's why it's called gold. What you have discovered, if it has a name, is "green". Percy: Oh, Edmund, can it be true, that I hold here in my mortal hand a nugget of purest green? Blackadder: Indeed you do, Percy, except, of course, it's not really a nugget, it's more of a splat. Percy: Well, yes, a splat today... but tomorrow - who knows, or dares to dream? Blackadder: So we three alone in all the world can produce the finest green at will? Percy: Just so. [leans in] Not sure about counting in Baldrick, actually. Blackadder: Of course, you know what your great discovery means, don't you? Percy: Perhaps, my Lord! Blackadder: That you, Percy, Lord Percy, are an utter berk.

Thanks a lot, was able to find an online bookstore with that info that ships it to europe for a decent price (2000 yen total) HMV The ISBN is 9784047153196

Has there been any info sofar on the release of a collected volume of Macross the First?

The VF-11 that Milia flies in the training mission in Gamlin's memory sequence, is that a B or a C? The paint scheme looks very nice.

Fair enough, I don't find the accents bothersome. To me their just different North American dialects (except Glovals fake Russian ofc), as I'm not a native speaker I can't pinpoint them nor do they annoy me. RT's VA's mostly have pleasant voices altough, as you said, at times unempathic/indifferent. Adv's dub on the other hand has some poor actors who can't propperly articulate a line or overact horribly. Also both ADV's Misa and Hikaru really have really grating voices and these two things really kill the ADV dub. Not that I particularly care, as I watch pretty all anime subbed or raw, but curiosity got the better of me. As Gubaba said, the original cast is superb. Seiyuus are profesionals and it shows.

I'm sorry to say the Robotech voice acting is vastly superior (in quality not accuracy) to the ADV dub of Macross. If you for example compare the ADV dub versus Gubaba, Boinger and co's The Galaxy Network subbed version the difference is shocking.