Bri

I'm already happy that there is a summary. But if you were to consider translating it that would be fantastic. Macross canon comes partly from books and video games and this seems to be a cornerstone article. But maybe it will end up (in revised form) in the chronology in Macross Chronicles?

Ah well, Can't say I care either way if Sheryl or Ranka gets ALto, as I find Alto so unlikeable. But a resolution to the triangle would be nice... Come to think of it, if Basara were to show up and swoons the two singers with his "Listen to my song" an angry Mylene around, we'd see some action

Kawamori is first and foremost a Mecha designer, I'm sure his true love childeren are the Valkeries, not the original SDFM cast. Quite likely that Hikaru, Misa and Minmay mean more to Mikimoto then Kawamori.

I'm sure this disappearrance story was brought in to the world by angry RT fans who felt the Sentinels story line was better then the Macross continuity Lets face it. The story of these characters ends with FB2012. The disappearance story however is something else entirely and has become an urban legend. Posts will pop up from time to time when a new lore interested member joins the board. Much to Azraels regret I'm sure

Think this already happened. If I compare the G1 Transformers, GI Joe Mask, Zoids and Dinorider toys which I played with as a kid to the stuff you can buy now in Toys stores. I feel kids now got the worse end of the deal.

Very interesting article (Macross the Lost 2 years). On the survivors of the Spacewar I: Less then 1% survivors on the surface after Zentradi bombardement = less then 60 million humans. 8 million Zentradi fighting on the human side survive the space war. Limits the number of Zentradi ships the UN Spacy had before the aquisition of the factory satellite to a maximum of a few thousand. Unknown number of hostile Zentradi ships folded out after destruction of their command ships (from Exedore's battlestrategy from episode 26 SDFM) Ground war after landing of the macross costs another 2 million lives. This was before the uprising of Kamjin and co. Shortly after the war Hikaru is stationed on the moon for a while indicating the moon base survived with an unknown number of people. No mention of cloning of humans/Zentradi. Probably done after the capture of the factory sattelite.

Wow, thanks a lot. Really apreciate the effort

Wishfull thinking but Zentradi/Meltran mechs and captial ships would be great.

I'm sure the high command prevented Zentradi/Meltradi *interaction* with extreme punishment. Like any Zentradi grunt caught would have to serve on a Meltran cruiser during *that* week of the month...

Just finished Planetes. What a wonderful anime that was. A slowly build up story, realistic sci-fi and great characters. Tanabe's one of the cutest things to walk around in anime and Hachi being the first male lead I have been able to like since Basara ( I'm sure that says something about me too ). The story revolves around the daily lives of a bunch of low end corporate astronouts who make their living by hauling space debris. The writers are socially engaged and don't refrain on commenting on social problems like the salary-man culture, corporatism and the mismatch between the industrialised world and the developing countries. The series has been around for a few years and I saw some old threads about it. Still it deserves the attention and if a slow built up and heavy character development don't scare you, I'd recommend it fully.

Currently listening to a odd mix of NWA, Dropkick Murphies and Firebomber.

Information about the 2 year period just after the space war I ended is so vague. From what I can tell from the compendium is that they base their information on the 8 page article "The lost two years" by Kawamori from the Macross Perfect Memory book. Wonder if there is a translation, afaik the article is in Japanese.

It's not just Kamjin really. One of the best scenes imo is the resque of Misa, Hikaru, Max and Kakazaki in their captured battle pod. That scene (episode 12 at 22min55) shows 3 VF1s pushing it home. The VF-1s are roughly half the size of a Regult, Putting the Regult at roughly 25 meter tall. (Assuming a VF-1 batroid has a hight of 12-13 meter) Same in later episode 35. Where Zentradi are slightly smaller then the VF-1s they are fighting. Laplamiz and Kamjin are riding a Glaug and a Monster. Laplamizs body is just as tall as the cockpit of the Glaug which in turn is a bit taller then the Regults but slightly shorter then a Monster. Some can be explained by animators switching sizes a bit for dramatic purposes, but my impression is that the Zentradi mecha as portrayed in SDFM is larger then offical numbers suggest. Edited for spelling and clarity.

1 pound [lb] = 0.4536 kg using Density = Mass/Volume

I think your pretty safe with the 1:5 scale. Not sure if the variance in human sizes can be aplied to the Zentradi as a rule. Their variance in sizes may simply be larger. Command Zentradi seem to be genetically and or cybernetically enhanced. These enhancements might allow much larger body sizes then the average zentradi. Afaik no command Zentradi ever sets foot in a battle pod. Quamzin uses a Glaug which may have larger cockpits to accomodate command zentradi? Anyway just musing there. Interesting point, and it begs the question: would that system work in Macronized form? To expand on this: A macronized Zentradi would need a much higher body density then a human otherwise its body would simply collaps under its own weight under normal gravity. This could mean that the anatomy of a Zentradi would be completly different in Macronised form compared to their micronised shapes. An average zentradi would weigh around 9000kg if the density is the same. But suppose this is also increased with a factor 5 (would mean that Zetradi macronised bodies can't be made up of water). Then a Zentradi would weigh around 45000kg. The implications for mecha performance would be interesting.

A Japanese fansite for Robotech. Now i've seen it all. The irony

Thanks, really enjoyed the podcast on SC

Always liked Southern Cross a lot. Great character designs and the main cast just worked for me. Even in RT I prefered it over Mospeada. As the other posters mentioned there are no toys except the RT stuff. I have seen a few ARII kits of the diverse body armors and the Source book: This is Anime nr10 (I think). The human mecha looked pretty bad except for the fixed wing fighter. The enemy mechs were great. As mentioned they are Zaku inspired. Heck the bioroids designs could have been great Nu-type mecha.

Caught up with episode 13 and the threads. Looks like Saji and Louise are rushing towards their doom. Still the series has shown to be able to surpass Gundam stereotypes so maybe... Bit of a shame they got involved with the A-law/CB fight, seems a tad forced imo. I liked them better as plain kids that commented and experienced the results of the CB interventions on normal people. This and the merging of the known world into the Federation made the show a bit more abstract and further away from reality. But that could be intentional of the writers to show that the world is changing.

Received my first 1/48 Valk (the Millia: yes, I am one of those cheapskates that picked this bargain) this week. Grahams instruction video on how to transform them was a godsent. I'm sure others would apreciate it too. I had a hard time finding it with the search option, in the end I found it with a google search. Would the mods mind making (or allowing) a sticky with links to transform guides or videos for the diverse yamato (and/or) DX valks?

1. They look ok but not great. 2. I'll definitly get the Alto. It just looks alround the better buy then the Ozma. Was planning to get more but Ill think Ill stick to the kits for the Ozma, Luca and Micheal. This save me some cash some other models I want a bit more like the Yamato VF-11 (whenever it comes) and VF-0 Shin. 3 Ass, it's the better ride.

Watching Gundam 00 season 1 and 2 atm. Love the concept and story sofar. Hate to say it but 00 is almost as good as Frontier for me.

What caught my eye even more is the announcement that Haruhiko Mikimoto will do a manga for Macross Ace featuring Minmay. I must have missed that earlier but damn that's good news

Some interesting comments have been made. In the first place I don't think we should focus on the sub/dub argument as it's been debated to death in the past. Most if not all participants in this dicussion sofar prefer subs. But what makes it interesting is the way subs convey information. If I may be so free to condense VTF1s argument to a position that holds that he wants a translation that is as close as possible to the original words spoken by the Japanse and if this results in some distortions and/or weird sounding english then that is acceptable. Footnotes can and should be used to make sure the context of the message comes across. This can be done by an accompanying text with the DVD. The other position states imo that deviatation in subs of the original text is less important than staying close to the meaning. The story or understanding of the anime takes precedence over the actual words used. Especially in stories where the original text is ambigious or even testing for native speakers. There would be good reasons for either posistion depending on your point of view. If you have a lingual or cultural interest that exceeds the scope of the anime and you want to know how it fits in then position one looks more atractive. But if you want to have the same viewing experience as (or as close as possible to that) a native speaker, when first seeing the anime - then position two is your bet. To be fair, we often start in positions two: "What the heck did just happen to character A" and after seeign a show or movie more then once we may drift towards position one: "So this and that happened, but why did the character A act like he or she did" I would agree that the number of translations out there is a good thing. In fairness I do think that anime that have had serious influence on anime history could benifit from a more literaly translated version. A bit like the criterion editions of movies that have been important for film history. The medium is not really suited for complex explanations (excluding audio commentaries maybe) so we end up with accompanying reference works. This would quickly place such DVDs in a niche for people with a broader interest in Japan and or it's language and scholars. Hence my earlier comment on academics. As a final point I think anime should be considered an art-form, or at least a regional expression of the art-form animation. I feel it's as distinct from real-life action television/film as painting is from photography. Anime and a interest in Japan go hand in hand but I think people who see anime as a hobby are no different from those who are interested in a single period or style in art history.

A clever find by the translator indeed. As the thread kind of ties in with the one about NGE: This anime must have been a nightmare to translate with it's heavy focus on symbolism and psychological development. The relations between the childeren and the adults is another problem as it is shown from a Japanse perspective assuming knowledge on what is normal in that society. The people who translated the show (regardless of dub or sub) could not have escaped making choices about interpretation, even if they had wanted to. Literal translations make sense in technical or simple text but not here.