Macross 25th Anniversary TV Special thread *READ THE 1ST POST*

[Mark Nguyen]

The ol' destroids didn't survive past the first series. No new designs have REALLY surfaced since then, chronolicially speaking. We don't see any in 2040, 2045, or the videogames following that era. I don't expect to see them here.

The upshot is, that if you need something for hand to hand against giant space monsters, get a Valkyrie. If you just need firepower, use a tank.

Mark

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Maybe the tanks WERE destroids and they transform into robots? Haha that'd be funny.

[mike_s_6]

I thought the civilians would be more knowledgeable and act more appropriately when there is a real alert going on, not wondering around like they're all half asleep.

They thought it was a drill. Like a fire drill, which a lot of people think is a waste of time.

[chrono]

So has anyone figured out what NUN stands for? Because it looks like New United Nations.

[VF-2SS-BloodPhoenix]

The ol' destroids didn't survive past the first series. No new designs have REALLY surfaced since then, chronolicially speaking. We don't see any in 2040, 2045, or the videogames following that era. I don't expect to see them here.

The upshot is, that if you need something for hand to hand against giant space monsters, get a Valkyrie. If you just need firepower, use a tank.

Mark

I thought this Macross universe was well prepared from past experiences. They're still living like they've no clue what's out there and how dangerous new enemies could be. Anyway, I don't really follow the Macross universe so I don't know all the timelines and history, but I know the bare minimums .

There's so much terminology and stuff being talked about at the beginning of this thread, it's way over my head . So we're up to the 25th generation VF now? Is that how it works ?

I'm looking forward to a SAP VF-25 toy from Yamato. I like super heavily armored Valkyries .

They thought it was a drill. Like a fire drill, which a lot of people think is a waste of time.

Usually a drill is planned ahead of time, unless I'm mistaken.

[imode]

So has anyone figured out what NUN stands for? Because it looks like New United Nations.

Yep.

The Shinsen sub says 'New Unified Army' but in Japanese, the word reads as 'shin-tougougun'. 'Shin' meaning new, and 'tougougun' essentially meaning, in the context of Macross, UN Spacy. If you look at the 171's that little panel actually says NUNS. So New UN Spacy.

[Zinjo]

There's so much terminology and stuff being talked about at the beginning of this thread, it's way over my head . So we're up to the 25th generation VF now? Is that how it works ?

I'm looking forward to a SAP VF-25 toy from Yamato. I like super heavily armored Valkyries .

Not quite. The VF-25 is the latest variable fighter to come out of development. Apparently it is so new, no one really knew it was being deployed yet. There is plenty of speculation whether it is the next front line fighter for New UN Spacy or just a new fighter designed for colonial defence (similar to the VF-5000).

It does seem to mark a slow down in fighter development since the last new fighter we know of was the VF-22 back in 2045 (in the Macross 7 series) and some have speculated that Spacy is "refitting" existing designs such as the VF-17 and turning them into VF-171s for example.

[akt_m]

Those bugs, couldn't they be the same ones from Macross M3????

[Gui]

Someone knows how the japanese audience liked this 1st ep. by the way? Was this a success?

[wolfx]

from the above article

A 27-minute early cut of Macross Frontier's first episode aired on Japanese television late last month to generally positive reviews.

I'd say it had a generally positive review.

[Axelay]

Oh, I have watched the first episode so many times now and it just makes me more excited for what's to come. I have a few new questions/observations.

1. Is it Ozma, or Asuma (Azuma)? I just wasn't sure if the translation I saw was accurate.

2. When Ozma gives chase to the "redbug," why does it even bother hiding in the asteroids? It seems annoyingly impervious to all fire thrown at it so far.

3. Speaking of the "redbug," I wonder what happened to the other one? I don't recall seeing it get shot down, but I think all of the "hammerheads" were.

4. Does anyone know when the soundtrack for Frontier will be released? There's an anime convention here in NC in late May, and although it's expensive, I'd go if I thought there was a chance I could buy the soundtrack (or other merchandise) there. I figure it should be out by that time, but finding anything Macross related here in NC is a supreme rarity.

5. Anyone got a good scan (or other art) of Ozma's skull logo?

[Kelsain]

Oh, I have watched the first episode so many times now and it just makes me more excited for what's to come. I have a few new questions/observations.

1. Is it Ozma, or Asuma (Azuma)? I just wasn't sure if the translation I saw was accurate.

2. When Ozma gives chase to the "redbug," why does it even bother hiding in the asteroids? It seems annoyingly impervious to all fire thrown at it so far.

3. Speaking of the "redbug," I wonder what happened to the other one? I don't recall seeing it get shot down, but I think all of the "hammerheads" were.

4. Does anyone know when the soundtrack for Frontier will be released? There's an anime convention here in NC in late May, and although it's expensive, I'd go if I thought there was a chance I could buy the soundtrack (or other merchandise) there. I figure it should be out by that time, but finding anything Macross related here in NC is a supreme rarity.

5. Anyone got a good scan (or other art) of Ozma's skull logo?

3. From the tactical display, it looked like SRM#2 also made it to the Frontier, just further back, possibly on Island 2.

4. I bet we'll have to wait for a few more songs to go on there.

5. Someone redrew it in Illustrator, Graham put it on the Frontier images page.

[Saotome]

Not quite. The VF-25 is the latest variable fighter to come out of development. Apparently it is so new, no one really knew it was being deployed yet. There is plenty of speculation whether it is the next front line fighter for New UN Spacy or just a new fighter designed for colonial defence (similar to the VF-5000).

It does seem to mark a slow down in fighter development since the last new fighter we know of was the VF-22 back in 2045 (in the Macross 7 series) and some have speculated that Spacy is "refitting" existing designs such as the VF-17 and turning them into VF-171s for example.

You mean every colony is in contact and they share development informations? Who developed the VF-25 (in case someone knows)?

[azrael]

You mean every colony is in contact and they share development informations? Who developed the VF-25 (in case someone knows)?

Every colony can contact another colony. The UN does have a vast communications network in space. We don't have any specs on the VF-25 so we don't know yet.

[wolfx]

You mean every colony is in contact and they share development informations? Who developed the VF-25 (in case someone knows)?

Yeah...they are in contact by the Galaxy Network, which i presume is some kinda fold-communications relay network.

And it seems to be real time information.

[Zinjo]

Yeah...they are in contact by the Galaxy Network, which i presume is some kinda fold-communications relay network.

And it seems to be real time information.

Most likely fold communication like we've heard about in earlier series' .

Any military info would be encrypted and on a secure frequency.

Edited January 11, 2008 by Zinjo

[Reaper 9000]

Not quite. The VF-25 is the latest variable fighter to come out of development. Apparently it is so new, no one really knew it was being deployed yet. There is plenty of speculation whether it is the next front line fighter for New UN Spacy or just a new fighter designed for colonial defence (similar to the VF-5000).

It does seem to mark a slow down in fighter development since the last new fighter we know of was the VF-22 back in 2045 (in the Macross 7 series) and some have speculated that Spacy is "refitting" existing designs such as the VF-17 and turning them into VF-171s for example.

Am I the only person around here that noticed this? I'd say its a VF-25 as in 25 for the 25th anniversary. I highly doubt the number has anything to do with the what series of valkyrie this is.

[Mr March]

No, the relevance has not been lost on us and many members have already mentioned the link between VF-25 and the 25th Anniversary.

2. When Ozma gives chase to the "redbug," why does it even bother hiding in the asteroids? It seems annoyingly impervious to all fire thrown at it so far.

Tactics. There's a difference between having a workable defense and just sitting while the enemy pounds you. Mister red baddy has joints and exposed sections like engines that cannot be fully armored for maximum protection, just like any other machine. The more enemy fire one takes, the more likely it is that a chink in the armor will lead to serious trouble.

We're also not sure exactly how invulnerable mister red is as yet or if mister red's supposed invulnerability is really that at all. It's a universal law in nearly all visual fiction that armor thickness varies according to the requirements of the plot

[wolfx]

Well there's a saying in battle tech. Cover is the best armour.

[hevangel2]

Wow. I just watched Macross 7 Ep 1. The graphics is on par with Macross Zero. It pays lots of tributes to Macross TV, Macross Plus and Macross 7. The flying stunt team practicing their moves reminds me Izimu in Macross Plus. The concert of Sheryl features Minmay costume. The new female leading character is working in a Chinese restaurant like the one Minmay worked in. The ed song is our beloved DYRL song remix. The new series is seems care about the old fans a lot.

The EM interference get rid of Ghost drones easily, so the fighting is back on the shoulder of ace pilots.

I have a few questions, what is the SMS skull team? What's the difference between the SMS team and the military force.

Looks like they get rid of the escape pod in the Valkyries, instead, they have some kind of mesopedia like flying backpack.

Close to the ending, how the blue hair kid got a VF-25 reminds me Gundam.

[Vince]

Close to the ending, how the blue hair kid got a VF-25 reminds me Gundam.

that's M0

[Gui]

from the above article

I'd say it had a generally positive review.

Yup, I saw this one but I assumed it was professional opinions from the anime specialists and journalists: my question was about the eleven people themselves actually...

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

The EM interference get rid of Ghost drones easily, so the fighting is back on the shoulder of ace pilots.

Ghosts aren't all that you know.

Remember guys they also had ghosts in SDF:M too. pic showing them in ep1 of SDF:M:

We just didn't see them much. It was just one character in the macross plus anime that thought ghosts were a good idea and that was because he didn't believe pilots should endanger themselves unecessarily. Choosing them was not necessaily because of a belief that pilots are inferiour to unmanned drones. (the black guy mentions this in the elevator scene - it's mainly "safety to humans" reasons that the choice was made, there was never going to be a chance for humans to officially prove themselves against the ghost drone in a fair competition because the old geezer already made up his mind ahead of time, not even caring whether humans would perform better. It might be that he does not like pilots so he is biased towards drones. Thankfully dyson kicked sharon's ass and the mad scientist gave a bad rep for putting too much faith in computers doing all the work automagically)

So many people seem to think the drones outperform real humans just because they can move at a high speed. So unfair. After all Max beat the crap out of miria in his plain ole vf-1 against an ace pilot an a superior Qrau which seems to have more power and speed than the stock standard cannon fodder mecha. Part of it is brains and tactics (like how max used the qrau's greatest strength (speed) as a weakness, by taking the fight to a small enclosed space with little room to manuever rendering miria's speed useless. (Qrau looks to be designed for space more where there is a lot of open room to dodge) This is part of the humans' strength: "experience", thinking creatively, coming up with an innovative solution to problems on the fly. Where we can adapt to changing circumstances better than a programmed drone and actually learn with each fight. This makes humans superior to a robot drone which is just "search and destroy" ie taking the most obvious path and being easy to trick and fool and set traps for it to run into. I hope in future they illustrate the weaknesses of robot drones in macross the same way they do in star wars (paint them dumb and stupid) so that people don't get the wrong idea that drones are a silver bullet for winning.

I have a few questions, what is the SMS skull team? What's the difference between the SMS team and the military force.

Looks like they get rid of the escape pod in the Valkyries, instead, they have some kind of mesopedia like flying backpack.

I think these are the same as the guys in macross 7 whose job was to defend the city while the stock standard soldiers are in control of enemies away from the city zone. Perhaps they need these elite soldiers because they have less chance of accidentally blowing up innocent people while fighting? Just a guess. If you watch macross 7 again you'll note that the diamond and emerald force were sometimes butting heads fighting over who has control over what space. So the civilians are the high priority and get the aces protecting them (guarding important targets) while the other ones can focus on blowing bad guys away and chasing them away from the city so nobody gets hurt.

Close to the ending, how the blue hair kid got a VF-25 reminds me Gundam.

And the red bug is char the red comet. Holy poo I think you're on to something here. Heh all red mecha never die. That's the rule. The pilot inside the red bug is probably macross' version of char. All they need to show is the vf-25 being specially equiped to take a beating from the red bug because the red bug's poorer guns have trouble penetrating the special armor of the gundam/new valk due to the secret materials it is made out of. Macross is going to be about newtypes. (the mayan islanders descendants will be the psychic pilots who can beat the bugs because of their intuition. Remember too that certain people on earth may have a blood type that may match those PC people that visited earth once..perhaps this could explain why max is so good a pilot? He's a PC "newtype", and the spatial awareness is his psychic intuition?)

Communication with the alien bugs might be through some psychic connection, like the alien girl in mospeada who always got headaches whenever there were inbit around and she acted as an early warning to everyone to be careful?

Edited January 12, 2008 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Valkyrie addict]

they [Ghosts] weren't seen much on SDFM, but were mentioned a few times, like in the episode of Miss Macross, when Hikaru launches on the Armored VF-1J, Misa yells at him for lanching alone and not sending Ghosts with him

[TehPW]

I recall seeing a picture from the original series in dark colors that included the SDF-1 in Cruiser Mode with several VF-1's & Ghosts in tandem. I don't remember if the fighter had the SAP gear or not but the impression i got from it was that it was early production art. the fat that we saw both VF-1's & Ghosts in volume implied that maybe the Ghosts would have been more used (in the relationship that the Zentraudi Bits compliment the VF-2SS fighters from the begining of macross II)

I believe the pic is somewhere on this site...

[Mr March]

I don't recall that shot, but I know there is another shot of the original QF-3000E Ghost fighters in SDF Macross. One episode in space clearly shows several Ghost fighters from the rear flying around the SDF-1, probably doing routine patrols. The official statistics tells us the SDF-1 Macross had 120 GHost fighter stationed aboard and the scene I mentioned above pretty much tells us they were used both at the beginning and during Space War I.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

If they were painted *red like the ghost X-9 maybe they would have survived longer (and be shown more) I reckon.

It makes sense now why misa mentioned supporting ghosts is for when you use GBP. No human would want to miss the miss macross contest. Thats where drones are handy. No sleepiness, complaining, or grief to family members when one dies. Still wouldn't be practical to have them be like skynet in terminator controlling everything. All someone has to do is hack them and then they go rogue attacking the wrong people. The only people who would gain were the geeks who program the things behaviour, eventually asking for more money in a "y2k scenario" when all the robots go crazy and they have to fix them.

In star wars they showed the weakness of robots in that all anakin had to do was blow up a single droid control ship. But humans can think for themselves, sense something suspicious, react to a new situations when the standard rules wouldn't work, and innovate. A robot might not sense anything wrong (like being led and lured into a trap) that a human might pick up from experience fighting and thinking like a human who can adapt to changing patterns.

*anime mecha rule: red means you a special and take longer to die(not in the retarded sense).

Miria, Basara, Char, Nora, ghost experimental 9, the "Red bug" all flew in bright red schemes. Only a creative genius can beat red painted pilots.

Edited January 13, 2008 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[big F]

Simple answer then would be. Buy a big load of red paint and spray all the CF Valks that colour, no more exploding noobs and CF's and war over inside a weekend.

[odr78]

Ouch...

I've watch the first Ep this week !!

Do you know when is the next Ep ?

I must change my pants now....

Damn Macross.. !!!! I've only 4 pants..... !!

Edited January 13, 2008 by odr78

[Macross007]

Ouch...

I've watch the first Ep this week !!

Do you know when is the next Ep ?

I must change my pants now....

Damn Macross.. !!!! I've only 4 pants..... !!

April 2008. So you have enough time to buy you new pants.

Edited January 14, 2008 by Macross007

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

You know I just got this idea that maybe the red bug does get killed, but they cut it out to make us want to believe the humans are doomed to get us interested like a cliffhanger.

If the red bug was destroyed without us taking a heavy casualty they just wouldn't be interesting as an enemy. It would be like a plain old rogue zentradi attack like you see in macros plus OVA who gets his ass kicked because he is outnumbered and really by himself isn't a huge threat. But an army of bugs with stronger weapons and bit better speed is going to be harder. I don't think anything can top the protodevlin from macross 7 though. If we still had them around as friends to help us control all the threats from space by letting us study them and borrow their insane powers, we would have nothing to fear. That furry monster with the cannon on its arm would probably be able to kill the red bug. You just need to clone enough zentradi meat to feed it. Maybe round up some depressed suicidal citizens and pay them to be batteries for the monster as a brave sacrifice to help us live on.

The money could go to their poor starving children and bring peace to the galaxy. It's for a good cause.

Edited January 14, 2008 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[mike_s_6]

Oh, I have watched the first episode so many times now and it just makes me more excited for what's to come. I have a few new questions/observations.

1. Is it Ozma, or Asuma (Azuma)? I just wasn't sure if the translation I saw was accurate.

In Japanese text, it's literally spelled as O-zu-ma. But the "u" in this name is breathed only, so you get "Ozma". The best thing to do is to wait for an official publication on whether the staff spells it in Roman letters as "Ozuma" or "Ozma". Regardless of that, it's pronounced "Ozma".

[Isamu test pilot]

April 2008. So you have enough time to buy you new pants.

Yeah, actually a lot of us will have enough time to buy new pants

[odr78]

If the next episodes are the same quality than the 1st.....

We will need lot of news pants....loooot of news......... I know... !! I'll buy potatoes bags..... It's more confortable to watch a big series....

Now I'm very entrusting for the future of our favorites series

[Zinjo]

I recall seeing a picture from the original series in dark colors that included the SDF-1 in Cruiser Mode with several VF-1's & Ghosts in tandem. I don't remember if the fighter had the SAP gear or not but the impression i got from it was that it was early production art. the fat that we saw both VF-1's & Ghosts in volume implied that maybe the Ghosts would have been more used (in the relationship that the Zentraudi Bits compliment the VF-2SS fighters from the begining of macross II)

I believe the pic is somewhere on this site...

SAP is Mac II, they are still called FAST pack in the Macross universe.

If I remember correctly the Squire Automated Attack Bits were part of the SAP pack, just not well featured in the Mac II anime...

The Ghosts appear to be akin to leashed dogs of war. The "Great Experiment" in Mac Plus with an independent AI running the unit didn't turn out quite so well

**Side Note: Walked into one of my frequent asian shops this weekend and to my delighted surprise the owner was running Episode 1 on his LCD TV behind the counter. we chatted about the new series as more and more patrons would find themselves caught up in the show... It looks amazing in 36" widescreen...

Edited January 14, 2008 by Zinjo