Radd

It's amazing how many people refuse to read the previous posts in a thread. Anyways, while I was never a huge fan of the original, except for the very first episodes that started it off (it got a lot cheesier very quickly), it seemed to me that they took everything that was original and imaginative about the old series and replaced it with sci-fi cliches and some boobs.

Short, but very interesting. Thanks Roycommi!

Well, I suppose it's an argument of what you define as 'merchandise'. Someone could argue that Harmony Gold could make their own 'original' Macross sequel and sell it straight to DVD, and call the DVD's "merchandise". I sincerely doubt that would fly, though. A comicbook/manga is the same thing. It's a brand new story set in the same universe, using the designs from SDF Macross (or MOSPEADA or Southern Cross, but nobody's arguing HG's rights to those). Sequential art is every bit a form of media as animation. I, personally, fail to see how one could be classified as a derivitave and the other not. As far as videogames, there's even less of a distinction. A videogame, like Battlecry, is a derviative story set in an all too similar world using the same design elements, and a few derivative design elements, new characters and old in an animated side story. The only thing that keeps this from being widely considered a derivative is that it's interactive. Take away that interactive element and what you have left is a poorly animated OVA. Also consider this, a good amount of anime in Japan is based originally off of a manga. If a sequel is to appear, it most likely appears first as a manga itself, and afterwards that sequel shows up animated. That is why I, quite correctly, classify videogames and comic books as derivatives and not merchandise. Though, again, you could consider either to be merchandise in the same way that a DVD of the show could be considered merchandise, but it's merchandise that contains derivative work from the franchise in the way that t-shirts and coffee mugs rarely do.

Technically, things like videogames, novelizations, and comics are derivatives not merchandise. Things like clothes, toys, lunchboxes, art books, backpacks, mugs, etcetera are merchandise. It's easy to see why Big West would overlook something like a comic book, especially given the thriving doujinshi community in Japan, and the way of thinking behind it. Also, A lot of people do consider comics and videogames to be merchandise, they're wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that they believe what they believe. Also, ewilen, I believe it was at AnimExpo that someone from Harmony Gold was making the trademark and customer confusion arguments. I'm certain there's quotes from it in this very thread, if not someone could certainly point you in the right direction.

Let's not forget Poke'mon, and I'm not kidding here, they're actually incredibly fun and addicting games, and perfectly portable as you can set them down at a moment's notice if you have to...unless you're low on battery power and need to get out of a battle to save. They're especially fun if you're a fan of really oldschool RPGs, like everything FF6 and earlier, as it's all about levelling up your characters. Metroid Fusion definitely lacks a lot of what made the Metroid franchise such a classic, replacing exploration and mood with really bad pesudo-philisophical monologues, and a computer and an alien parasite that goes entirely against the grain of the Metroid franchises naming scheme. Samus Aran, Ridley, Kraid, Adam....which doesn't fit here? Metroids, Zoomers, Shrike Bats...X Parasite? Samus in her bounty hunter armour, the space pirates, Ridley and Kraid....mysterious politician in a business suit. The game is also far too linear. But at it's core, it still has the classic Metroid gameplay, and that makes it forgivable. I do hope that Metroid Zero will be lacking these problems altogether, though. It's a remake of the original Metroid, so they'd really have to go out of their way to add crap like that. Still, I reccomend it. It is fun to play, even if it's not classic Metroid goodness. Suprisingly enough, Metroid Prime feels more like Super Metroid than Fusion does. I guess that's what comes from Metroid being a flop in Japan and a hit in America. The Mega Man Zero games are a whole lot of fun, with a great difficulty curve if you're tired of today's games being too easy. Of course, once you beef up Zero enough, the game becomes a whole lot easier, but it takes time to get there. There's also Mega Man & Bass (Rockman & Forte sounds so much better) which is a lot of fun, and also pretty high on the difficulty curve as far as later Rockman games go. The Advance Wars games need to be mentioned again, just because they're so great! My absolute favourite franchise for the GBA. If you like strategy games, they're a must have.

From a Giant Robo fan site about the Giant Robo DVDs, but I think it relates to this topic, too. I didn't realize Manga was having any sort of financial trouble (but I also haven't been paying attention to them very much, aside from their Macross and Giant Robo licenses), but if this is the case, it would explain all these 'indefinite holds'.

yes, 1/48 mac+ valks would be enormously huge. werd up to that! Huge, but certainly not as huge as some of the people in these forums seem to think. They're also not likely to be as expensive as some people seem to think they will be.

FFDShow = Teh Win! I've heard nasty things about Nimo, though. Heard it can do more damage than good. Heard this from fansub encoders, too.

Actually, the VF-1J with FAST packs costs pretty much the same as buying a 1/48th and FAST packs seperately. Go check the prices and Valk Exchange and see for yourself. The FAST packs are well worth the price, though. If you can afford a set, then by all means, get them!

Actually, Kawamori and company were planning to flesh out the VFX idea with it's own series. Fortunately, it got scrapped. Why fortunately? It was going to be entirely CG, including the characters, and it looked like really bad CG. Aside from the CG they took straight from the games, it looked terrible. I wouldn't be opposed to Kawamori going back to thise idea, but not entirely in CG, at least make the characters and backgrounds 2D like Macross Zero.

Check out 'Captain Herlock Outside Legend: The Endless Odyssey', a brand new Herlock OVA that's coming out on DVD soon, for some great 80's style animation.

You make good points, and I agree...I mean Eva's specific brand of pseudo-psychological/philisophical angst. There's different flavours of angst. Amuro Ray was definitely an angsty little monkey, but he was angsty in a different way than Shinji. And it's not just Shinjii or his personality, it's the entire theme of the show. The overall feeling of oppressive futility that will eventually lead every character to have their own sort of breakdown. There was angst in Gundam and early super robot shows, but not in quite the same way. You see the same sort of psychobabble in everything from lots of newer anime, to videogames like Metal Gear Solid and Metroid Fusion. Eva is like the Super Robot equivilent to the comic book super hero genre's 'Watchmen'. A lot of what you find in Watchmen appears in the super hero genre in general, but not to the same extent, and not quite in the same way.

There may have been some anime influence to 5th Element, but if there was it was nothing overt. The spaceship, costume, city, and alien designs all struck me as very much in the same vein as old euro-comics like Judge Dredd and whatnot combined with 80's sci-fi movies like Max Headroom and Ice Pirates and sparkled with modern special effects. In fact, I can't really think of anything that really stuck out as an obvious anime reference. I had a whole post written up on my view of the topic of this thread, then realized that it seemed the original poster was using someone else's account, so no point in debating something made to intentionally rile things up.

Too bad, I would love a set of clear armour parts for display. On the topic of the helmets, absolutely gorgeous, I would love to have a set with the shoulderpads and whatnot. Best Halloween/Convention costume ever! Unfortunately, Yamato just wants far too much for the damned things. I understand they probably went all out and made them very high quality, but you can pick up decent Star Wars helmets for like 40 bucks, while they might not be as high a quality as these, they're prefect for what a fan would want them for. Unless I come into a lot of money, I just can't justify buying those. If, however, Yamato makes a different set, lower quality plastics all lightly and hollow, basically the Macross equivilent of those Star Wars helmets...then they'd have a huge market ready to snatch them up. For 40 bucks a pop for the helmet and 40 for the shoulders/backpack, heck, even $100-200 for the set(with rising quality depending on how big the price tag is), I know a bunch of people that would pick up a set instantly.

While new mecha would always be welcome, I'm crossing my fingers for a series that takes place between Flashback and M+, featuring the VF-4 Lightning III. Anything to improve our chances of seeing a Lightning III toy from Yamato!

Reports indicate that Square decided to make this movie to put all arguments to rest and prove that I was right all along about what happened at the end of FFVII. I applaud Square's noble effort to provide indisputable proof that I rock so damned much.

Quick answer, the 1/48ths (aside from the upcoming tv style Hikaru 1J, which comes with the light blue-grey tv style FAST packs) do not come with the FAST packs, you have to buy them seperately. The 'DYRL?' style FAST packs are a really dark blue. They look really nice, in some pictures you might find online they look like a bright, saturated blue, this is not the case. They're dark, pretty much how they look in the movie.

Personally, I like it, but I just don't like the direction they're taking with this new series. They would have been better off making something completely original, instead they took an already existing franchise, attempted to weed out all of the 80's cheese, and wound up removing everything that made the show original to begin with and replaced it with a bunch of overused sci-fi cliches, while at the same time telling us these cliches were original.The only merit I see in this show, in fact, is the new Viper design. "Taking the 'opera' out of 'space opera'" makes about as much sense as "Taking the 'science' out of 'science fiction'" or "Taking the 'mystery' our of 'murder mystery'".

Well, Nintendo isn't in dire financial straights. They've just had their first losses since 1962. That's not half bad. Many other companies report losses more often then that. Sure, any losses is a bad thing, but overall Nintendo is not in terrible shape. My reasoning has little to do with how deep Bandai's pockets may be, however, and more to do with the business practices of the two companies. Nintendo is a very unique company. They could be a lot more successful than they are, but their approach to the market is geared more towards the dedicated gamer. Quality over quantity and all that. They tend to take their time making a new product, waiting until it's done before they release it. They also tend to give a lot of influence to their creative minds, to the point of putting effort into a franchise like, let's say 'Metroid', that have consistantly flopped for them. Bandai doesn't tend to put much effort into franchises that aren't a sure fire hit and I just don't think Nintendo would continue doing things that way if a company like Bandai ever bought them out. Do you?

Uh, no. Just no. Do I really need to point out why that would be bad?

Personally, I'd really like to see a 'DYRL?' style big budget movie version/remake of Macross 7. Don't get me wrong, I like the series, but there's a some things about it that I think could be improved upon, mainly (almost entirely, actually) stylistically. Still, I'm content with Dynamite 7, which basically imrpoves upon a lot of what I wasn't entirely happy with in M7 (such as the costume designs, villain designs, and we got a bunch of great new mecha and some excellent new songs).

I liked the show. On my first viewing of the tv series it became my favourite anime for a short time. Even though I don't particularly care for the organic mecha designs (but I can appreciate them, and Eva just wouldn't be Eva without those designs), the character developement is excellent (though the use of such angsty, introspective characters has since become overdone, and in completely the wrong way) and I love stories that make the viewer think. Of course, to me, this makes the final episode of the Eva series one of the best endings in all of anime (and the movies were just mindless action flicks for those who didn't want to attempt to figure it out). However, once I got past the intial shock of "No! They did NOT just do THAT!" that happens in most of the Eva series, and after all the puzzles where figured out and all of the mysteries solved, I just really have not had the urge to run out and watch the show again. The movies only served to hammer this in, as they added nothing new to the story, and just seemed to repeat, in an easier to understand way, what was told in the series.

Interesting little debate you kids got going here. What do you consider Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore, eh? How about the Upcoming Crystal Chronicles? Anyways, Games for the Cube? Right off the bat, Metroid Prime. This is seriously the must-have title for the system. Beatuiful graphics, nearly flawless gameplay, and if you liked the old 2D Metroid games then this will be an even bigger treat for you because it plays exactly like the old games, just with a third dimension added and some different moves to take advantage of it. The game also lacks the annoyance factor every single other 3D platformer has suffered from. I'm pretty certain the game cheats in your favour whenever you need to do any platform style jumping, because it never becomes an annoying chore. You never find yourself trying again and again and again to make a single, simple jump. It just works. Legend of Zelda:Wind Waker is a fun time, Mario Sunshine is allright, but rather weak for a Mario game. If you like the Zelda/Mana/Evermore style of gameplay, regardless of what you would call it, the Starfox Adventures game is a game to look for. My roommate loves it. If you like to have friends over to play games with, then the Cube is definitely your system of choice. Mario Party is always fun when you've got a crowd over. The new Pac-Man game sound incredible! Three people control the ghosts, and one person, using a GBA controls Pac-Man. Pac-Man is the only person who can see the entire screen, and the ghosts have to track him down, and when they catch him, someone else gets the GBA and the game starts again with a different board. Again, Crystal Chronicles looks to be a shining example of group gaming, 4 people at once, all with GBAs to handle their menu options and attack menues, so the onscreen action never stops. Not into the group thing? Well, Nintendo's 3rd party support steps in to offer some good news. Viewtiful Joe from Capcom is an interesting and innovative twist to the old sidescrolling brawler genre. Very stylish, very unique, very viewtiful! If you liked the Resident Evil series, well the Cube has them all, and some new titles in the franchise. At the very least, the remake of Resident Evil is worth checking out. The graphics alone are some of the best on any system. Liked Devil May Cry? While that particular series isn't on the Cube, P.N.03 might be just the thing. The same sort of action, but in a sci-fi environment. Prince of Persia is getting a lot of praise, definitely a title to keep your eye out for. RPG's are, unfortunately, a big shortcoming for the Cube, but that's probably going to change. Crystal Chronicles, while an action/RPG and not a straight up turn based traditional VGRPG, is on it's way from Square-Enix, the and seeing as how Nintendo is working with Square again, the Cube might see more games from them in the near future. If you're big into RPGs and have a GBA, then chances are you've picked up one of the new Pokemon games. If this is the case you'll probably want to pick up Colosseum when it comes out in like March next year. Aside from the main idea of having Pokemon battles with 3D Gamecube graphics and effects, it apparently has an entire story mode in itself, and if it's anything like the N64 Pokemon Stadium games, it'll be packed with a ton of Mario Party-style minigames. There's a couple more RPGs in the works for the Cube right now, but we won't know how they are until they're out. The Star Wars games have pretty much been covered, though if you have a decently powerful PC you'll probably want to pick up Jedi Outcast and Academy for that, instead. The Rogue Squadron games are fun, and definitely very pretty. Probably the best Star Wars flight games we're gonna get unless another X-Wing game ever comes out for the PC. Bounty Hunter seems to be universally reviled. Apparently a great idea gone horribly, horribly wrong. Rent first to see what you think, before you buy it. Haven't heard much on Clone Wars, mostly that it was ok but nothing special. I'd reccomend renting it to see what it's like. The big thing with the Gamecube right now, if you couldn't tell already, is it's connectivity with the Gameboy Advance. Especially recently, companies are starting to take advantage of that more and more. Don't get me wrong if you have not intentions of ever picking up a GBA, the Cube is still a great little system on it's own, but the GBA connectivity is really making for some fun games that just cannot be done any other way. If you've already picked up a GBA for it's RPG or action lineup, then keep an eye out for upcoming games that take advantage of that.

I thought it went without saying that an armoured VF would be pretty much limited to ground based action, until it jettisoned the armour. Maybe a VF-1 could pull off limited flight, but definitely not a VF-0 with conventional engines. I can imagine some wicked ground fighting that eventually takes to the air, though.

Fact is they aren't relevant to the story. If the story takes place around earth there's no need to mention a colony fleet. The Macross Compendium's Official timeline doesn't say when the VF-0 was created. Does that meen it doesn't exist? Ofcourse not. Just that they haven't told us. If that's what he really thinks, then there's no reasoning with him. Maybe I was giving him too much credit. He got the fanfic speculation right. For himself. Though i think the VF-0 stuff belongs in another topic. You're missing my point though. I agree with you, lack of evidence isn't evidence in itself...but I'm not talking about whether or not the Marduk were the Supervision Army, or whether or not there were colony missions. I'm talking about the quality of the storytelling. In this case, lack of an explanation on the Marduk is an example of bad storytelling. There are set forces in the Macross Universe, and yes the Supervision Army and the Protodevlin are both presented with enough to know that they exist, what their role in the universe is/was, even what their military ships looked like. In the written but unanimated chronology (much of which was present at the time of Macross II's release), even more information about the war between the Protoculture and the Supervision Army is provided. No backstory for the Marduk, other that they're a race of miclones that control the Zentradi, possibly the creators of the Zentradi, and having some relation to the Macross which some of them believe is religiously significant, is fine if Macross II is all you've seen or ever will see of Macross. Just for a moment, though, try to imagine a couple teenagers, in the early to mid 90's, who just watched the first episode of Macross II and are scouring the internet for more information. Imagine these two young Macross fans trying to figure out what's going on from their knowledge of Robotech (knowing it was a chopped up version of a Japanese show and that all 3 parts were originally unrelated), what they know of Macross II, and what the Macross Chronology tells them. Even with Robotech's differences shunted aside, and going soley by the chronology, things don't add up. Now, add to this their first viewing of 'DYRL?', which only makes things even more confusing. Going by 'DYRL?' alone, which has no mention of the Supervision Army (I think, at least), you're still told that the Protoculture are the ones who created Zentradi as thier personal army. I believe you're also told that the Protoculture were wiped out in the civil war between the Zentran and Meltran...so just WHO are these Marduk?! If they were related to the Zentradi in some way, being the Protoculture or the Supervision Army, then the U.N. Spacey (which has integrated the Zentradi forces which survived SWI) would have recognized them. I don't believe I have to explain why this is important to the storytelling, but I will attempt to do so just in case. Imagine there are two powers at war. When the war ends, the victors integrate the survivors from the other side into their power structure. Now imagine the losers in this war had another enemy, one they had been fighting for a long time and where very significant to their recent history, right up to when they encountered the power they just lost to. Now time passes and this other enemy shows up. You'd think they'd remember their old enemy right? The same goes if it wasn't an enemy, but their previous rulers. Anyways, these factors will affect how they react to these forces appearing in their space. They will affect how they attempt to fight these people, should it come to that. Thgis will effect what they tell the population, a big portion of which is Zentradi, some from fairly recent Zentradi encounters recently brought into Human society, most likely with some degree of knowledge of both the Protoculture and the Supervision Army. Hell, even disregarding the ideas of the Protoculture and the Supervision Army (which in itself is a huge storyteller's no-no), if the Marduk were to replace one or both of those parties as far as MII is concerned, the Zentradi would still recognize who they had been taking orders from. Even if they didn't hang out at Denny's on the weekends and go to Lord Ingus' bachelor party last weekend, they'd still have some idea of what ships not to attack when encountered in deep space. To correct this glaring oversite in Macross II's plot, the writers didn't have to delve deep into the Marduk's past or anything. A few simple phrases or comments here and there would have sufficed. Neither the Protoculture nor the Supervision Army were gone into with great detail, but enough information was given to solidify their place in the Macross Universe. We knew who they were, even if we didn't know their entire story. The Marduk were physically present in Macross II, right up to their God/Leader, Ingus, and yet we not only got less information on them than we did the Zentradi in either SDF Macross or 'DYRL?', but we got even less information on them than we did about either the Supervision Army or the Protoculture. Now see this is us, and over here is Zim. See the difference? Any questions? Hmm? Anyone?