Bri

hmm, from ANN, ( and this is just a quick comparison) Victor has done the music production for Gundam projects like Seed and 00 and also on ./hack and Planetes Not sure if that says anything but they have worked together before.

But are the music rights relevant in Frontiers case? Normally in an anime production the rights are owned by the production committee. If Bandai (Visual) got the distribution rights for Japan, why not the international ones? It's not like the 90s where a western firm had to buy a license, now the Japanese companies can keep pretty much everything in house. As a comparison: K-On has 2 top 10 hits now (I'm assuming the Oricon singles charts are mainstream not anime?) if this series get licensed, can we then make assumptions about Macross?

Other then interfering with a possible DVD release I don't think the impact of HG on Macross is that big anyway. Merchandise? Most anime merchandise is purchased via the internet straight out of Japan anyway, this even goes for more popular franchises like Gundam and Evangelion. I would imagine that companies like HLJ and Overdrive are quite happy with HG hurting US importers. Regarding the DVD release: I keep hearing this story of the Macross licenses being so expensive due to music licensing. But isn't that only relevant for Macross 7 which used an existing rock band? How far would this affect Zero and Frontier? Bandai visual released Frontier, would it not be likely that they would handle the western releases via one of their subsidiaries? On that note, it will be interesting to see when the UK Macross trademark of HG runs out in July 2009. I'm sort of hoping for a European release of Frontier DVDs after that date, possebly by Beez (Bandai).

Anyone who wants to wants to be seens as an owner of a Porsche and doesn't care about it's actual looks. It's a business statement. Think this sort of car can be a hit now SUVs are out of grace. A bit sporty and somewhere between a real 4-door sedan and a stationwagon.

Hmm, the Panamera Turbo is pretty ugly, but compared to the competition: the Merc CLS, Audi A7 and the AM Rapide it's not the worst of the bunch. A car for the 50+ year old who needs a executive car but deep down wants a sports car.

I use mainly Vallejo and sometimes Citadel paints. Started on games workshop miniatures but stayed with my paints when I started to build Gundam and Macross kits.

Doubt it has anything to do with cultural differences and more with World War 2 sensitivities. I doubt many networks would have been overjoyed with a show that was named after an enemy warship that was destroyed while performing a suicide mission. The ship as a heroic character is not uncommon in the West look at Star Trek or Star Wars, the Enterprise and Millenium Falcon being household names.

The division between east and west in terms of robots in popular media seems rather artificial to me. Artificial life and the fear of being replaced or controlled by your own creation are themes that are popular since the dawn of the industrial revolution. These themes can be found in the whole industrialised world. So evil robots from Japan or America draw from the same source. As for piloted mecha: As mentioned before in this thread sentient robots in Japan were similar in the 50s and 60s to superheros in America. A kids power fantasy, the superhero or robot would take on the bad guys and the child was the side kick. The ultimate rolemodel/big brother fantasy. I guess the visual variation is mainly due to local influences to what people can accept in terms of realism. At some point during the 60s/70s the focus shifted from role models to the child themselves becoming the hero. In Japan the lead became the pilot of a non sentient mecha, in the US the kid became Spiderman and co. Same concepts, different visualisation.

How did they react to hearing about MW? Curious to see if they have an interest in the international fanbase of Macross.

K-ON!'s Don't say lazy(ED) and Cagayake! GIRLS (OP) have reached first and second place in the Oricon singles chart.

Yea, the Tsukkomi classifaction is a better description, given their duo acts with the "rebel" of the show. However it requires even more background info. I did not know about the terms till I did some reading up on non mecha anime genres a while back. Tsundere, moe etc all those terms seem to be facing some major dillution in anime discussions. I guess any female character (and some males) gets called Tsundere when they are antagonistic but have a kind side even when they are not "real" tsunderes. Air and Clannad are next on my list of shows to watch, Kyoani still has a 100% succes score with me.

Think about Monaco. A micro state in Europe. 2 square miles and over 50,000 people live there during the summer. Monaco is also very luxurious/spacious, so the 3/4 square mile ( or more) inside the Macross isn't that weird.

Still Buck Rogers had Erin Gray, which is totally off topic, but makes up for all flaws in the series.

It's certainly different from most other anime. Sofar it feels familiar, a bit like some of the younger manga influenced Frenco-Belgian artists. Probably Romains infuence. It also reminds me somewhat of Les Eaux de Mortelune by Adamov/Cothias. (Hopefully no influence on the script as that story is more grim and dark then Tomino on a bad day)

It looks a bit un evangelion like, but sofar the new version has not disappointed so I'll give it the benifit of the doubt until I see the movie.

Mio's a fun character, she's like Kagami without the tsundere. Tbh the whole group gives the Lucky Star vibe. Fun, cute and quircky personalities. Just finished Kanon. Ouch, I so underestimated that series. The intro-episodes were a bit misleading. The story starts off in a lighthearted manner with Mokoto and Ayu having rather simple personalities. Until the character origins become clear... The Shiori/Kaori arc was very powerful. Let's just say I've been in that position and the way the writers handeled it was frighteningly realistic while taking some liberties it still avoids becoming overly dramatic. The plot pattern makes things a bit predictable. Still it annoys me that it took me ages to figure out Ayu, while the hints were in plain view... The ending was very clever aswell. The animation is very good and the lighting, music and directing create a surreal atmosphere. In some ways it reminds me of Groundhog Day. Can't help but like these Moe characters.... Dammit

Same, I'll end up ordering a case. With Vermillion, Roy and 2x VF1J CF would make a nice display squadron at 12 pieces of 4 x 3 man groups. Wonder how large Skull squad is canon-wise.

oh sorry, seems I forgot a sentence. I meant that given the discussion of Ohnogi changing sheryl mid production seems a bit unlikely given the pace of which an anime production is run. Cour is a word used for the anime seasons which run parallel to the weather seasons (as in winter, spring, summer, autumn). One cour is 13 episodes, 2 cour is 26. etc TV series are 50 or 26 episodes so can be called a 4 or 2 cour series, most OVAs are 12-14 so are a one cour series. Numbers can vary one or two due to holiday weeks.

Just saw the first episode. Interesting off beat show. Btw... Did Sheryl Nome err I mean Spanky (what's in a name) just eat the Pickachu? Cute non plot theme creatures are untargetable! One less safe anime trope...

Nice to see a new Gundam project in the works. I have only seen unicorn modelkits. Where is the background story from?

I would agree with Gubaba and Mr March that Macross (Frontier or otherwise) cannot really withstand deep analysis. Honestly, I feel that is true for all visual media. All cinema is essentially constrained by a 3 hour time frame. Character development and themes can only be worked out, as far as this time limit allows. You can only interpret so much and quite often the reviewer sees things and concepts the creators did not intend or even realise. This topic probably among them. What interests me in this topic is the assumptions made about the time frame for anime productions. The preparation time to start on a new project is very short. Examples of anime projects starting preparations one cour or less before they air are not uncommon, certaintly not given the limited finance. I have no data on Frontier but Escaflowne ran on a budget of 276,000USD per episode(source: Canned Dogs), of which less then 25% on actual animation production. I doubt that in this kind of tightly scheduled and financed projects much room is allowed for altering already produced material.

yes, depends on the primer. I use citadel skull white as my main primer and used it over all kinds of bandai colored plastics. I'm sure any decent white primer would give the same results.

I would think there is a demand for a Focker and M&M color scheme for every valk type.

I'm enjoying this series sofar. Never played the game, though last episode really felt like a mission in an RTS game. Not very original but good fun. Tank designs are very nicely done.

Don't be silly, the majority of Verhoeven's work is good to very good. The only weak movie he made was Hollow Man. "Soldaat van Oranje" and "Turks Fruit" are amazing. As for being true to the book: Verhoeven hated Heinleins book, he thought it was Nazi propaganda and just used the visual elements described in the book to make his own story. Starship Troopers is just about Verhoevens fear of fascism coming back in the future. It's a cruel joke on Heinlein. Most of his movies are about his main obsessions: fascism or christianity or both. For example Robocop is about the resurrection of Christ. Murphy is Jesus and Robocop the ressurection, I'm still amazed he got away with that one. The man is a bit crazy, but makes visually interesting movies.