Worst Manager in Macross History

[Isamu Starkiller]

If you're gonna reach for the top og the Galactic charts and sell out concerts venues in Macross you need MEGA talent and......a special type of someone who knows the ins and outs of the industry, a manager that will stand by your side through the good times and the bad. Someone like these 5 managers. Which of them do you think deserves the gold medal for worst manager of all time in Macross?

[jenius]

Um, Grace tried to KILL Sheryl.

[Gubaba]

I was going to vote for Marj, but Grace has the higher body count...

[Isamu Starkiller]

Um, Grace tried to KILL Sheryl.

That qualifies her for the worst IMO....

[RedWolf]

Wait wasn't the woman who tried to rape Mylene is also her manager?

[Master Dex]

Kaifunn annoys me to no end. Marge was somewhat evil but I think even he wasn't quite sure of the implications of his actions. I haven't seen M7 so I can't comment on Akiko. I think Elmo was actually pretty damn good, he just got thrown out to the curb, and no even by Ranka who wanted to go back to him, it was Grace. And then there is Grace herself, she is a bitch. However she seems to do a decent job as a manager, horrible person as in she is a bitch, however she seemed to do good for Sheryl and Ranka's careers even though she just ended Sheryl's.

So all in all I voted for Kaifun, who I just can't stand. He is a bad person and manager. Grace is just a bad person, her managing skills seem to be well enough.

[Morpheus]

I vote Akiko for the best and hottest manager of all.

[Mr March]

Definitely Grace, because her evil goals are too successful (thus far). Akiko was good when she wasn't playing unwilling hand puppet to Sivil and Elmo got Ranka into the big leagues by her talent and his hard work. At least Kaifun became useless once he got hooked on the sauce and Marj had the good sense to dive off the SDF Cliff

Edited August 13, 2008 by Mr March

[ssfsx17]

Grace is the worst manager.

For all the crap that Kaifun ever did, he never tried to have Minmei killed.

[taksraven]

I voted for Marg for the simple fact that it is hard to vote for Grace yet since we don't yet know the full extent of her evil. This poll is a bit ridiculous really since it is not clear how we are supposed to judge who is the worst. Managers such as grace have certainly committed evil deeds but as a manager/promoter the can create true idols. In other words are we supposed to judge them on business sense or personal conduct?

Taksraven

[Duke Togo]

Stump Merrill

[dreamweaver13]

hey why you all hating on grace as a manager. if we go by "best manager", defined as someone who can make you the greatest star ever, then grace is among the best. after all, she turned a street kid into the biggest thing since sharon apple.

for WORST manager, it would have to be Kaifun. aside from the fact that i hate the guy, the best he could come up with were concerts where minmei was paid with canned goods and liquor. and besides, minmei was already popular even before he came in. in fact, i think her popularity may have taken a dive by the time he was the manager.

oh.. and where's Honey???

Edited August 13, 2008 by dreamweaver13

[DeeBot]

Actually... while Grace is a successful manager, I'd still say she's a pretty bad one, even ignoring all her evil scheming. A manager who kicks her talent to the curb isn't a good one.

[dreamweaver13]

Actually... while Grace is a successful manager, I'd still say she's a pretty bad one, even ignoring all her evil scheming. A manager who kicks her talent to the curb isn't a good one.

don't most good managers do that, once the talent has outlived his or her profitability?

i guess it all boils down to the definition of a "good" manager. a manager who stays by my side through bad or good, if he doesn't have the faintest clue of how to even get to the "good" part isn't that much of a manager to me. i'd just get a friend. hehe.

[Wes]

Yeah sure Grace is a Cylon, but Kaifun's a hippy - a dirty dirty hippy.

[Hiriyu]

I vote Grace. While Kaifun was indeed thoroughly despicable, Grace manages to be even more unlikable, despite being quite good at her job (whatever it actually is).

[Sumdumgai]

In terms of just being a manager, Elmo Kridanik didn't do much for Ranka. What got her fame and all that was pure luck.

Lynn Kaifun managed to keep getting Minmay contracts to do shows. Marge Guldoa did a damned good job of getting Sharon Apple set-up for shows. Akiko was meh, but she managed to get stuff done. Then we have Grace. Super Manager, though one you wouldn't want to cross...

If you mean biggest @s$hole evil manager in the Macross series. Grace.

[Gubaba]

hey why you all hating on grace as a manager. if we go by "best manager", defined as someone who can make you the greatest star ever, then grace is among the best. after all, she turned a street kid into the biggest thing since sharon apple.

for WORST manager, it would have to be Kaifun. aside from the fact that i hate the guy, the best he could come up with were concerts where minmei was paid with canned goods and liquor. and besides, minmei was already popular even before he came in. in fact, i think her popularity may have taken a dive by the time he was the manager.

oh.. and where's Honey???

By your definition then, Marj was a pretty good manager, too...and hey, no one can doubt that he was just in it for the money...he truly BELIEVED in Sharon! (Too bad he also seemed to believe that Sharon could catch his fall...)

And...correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Honey a producer...?

[RedWolf]

Honay was manager of the Jamming Birds.

[JB0]

for WORST manager, it would have to be Kaifun. aside from the fact that i hate the guy, the best he could come up with were concerts where minmei was paid with canned goods and liquor. and besides, minmei was already popular even before he came in. in fact, i think her popularity may have taken a dive by the time he was the manager.

To be fair to Kaifun(not that he's a great guy), there WEREN'T a lot of big high-profile venues. The Earth had been almost totally annihilated, and pop concerts weren't exactly high on the priority list next to repopulating the species and not choking to death on dust and noxious fumes.

The entire human race had a count roughly equivalent to the city of San Jose. Just finding a place with enough population to justify a concert that wasn't ALSO totally sick of Minmay concerts was a heck of an accomplishment by itself. Hene why she wound up doing charity gigs at Stone City and such. You can only do so many shows in Macross City.

Though Kaifun refused to set foot in Macross City, sooooo... her manager insisted on not visiting the single biggest venue on the planet. That can't be good. Vote for Kaifun!

Edited August 13, 2008 by JB0

[Keith]

I voted Kaifun. Why?

FIREBOMBER AMERICAN!

That easily skyrockets him as more evil than Grace.

[DeeBot]

In terms of just being a manager, Elmo Kridanik didn't do much for Ranka. What got her fame and all that was pure luck.

I think that's debatable. While Elmo may not be a marketing genius, he really believes in Ranka and did everything he could to promote her. It just happened that someone kept sabotaging all his efforts to try and promote her through more traditional means, like the Macross universe's equivalent of the Internet.

In the end, what gave her her big break is when she was passing out those promotional items on the street, and the director of the Bird-Human movie picked it up. (It's quick and hard to catch, but it's definitely the same guy, and we're told later that's why he was interested in having her as an extra in the film in the first place, I believe.)

So you could definitely trace Ranka's big break to Elmo's persistence. Good luck isn't just a matter of chance, but being ready to exploit those fleeting opportunities that present themselves. (And I fully expect Elmo to finally get a chance to show his stuff before the series ends.)

don't most good managers do that, once the talent has outlived his or her profitability?

i guess it all boils down to the definition of a "good" manager. a manager who stays by my side through bad or good, if he doesn't have the faintest clue of how to even get to the "good" part isn't that much of a manager to me. i'd just get a friend. hehe.

If you try and look it from the perspective of maximizing short term profits, then yes, logically you'd want to move through talent as quickly as possible. Take one big sensation, grab it, then move on to the next as quickly as possible.

That's just a strategy for maximizing the manager's gains, though. If we assume the manager is working for her clients, she certainly isn't providing them good value by dumping them as soon as she can. If we ignore it entirely, she's still not showing much skill if she can't successfully manage the career of her client over the entire life cycle.

A great manager should be able to take a star at the beginning, peak, and end of their career, and make the most of it. A great manager shouldn't be working to further herself, but get the most out of her star. If she's not, then almost by definition, she's not doing her job as a manager.

Of course, Grace has absolutely no interest in the success of the people she manages, so of course she doesn't have their best interest at heart. They're all just pawns in her game, and she could care less about their welfare.

Still, you can see some of Grace's skill in scenes like where she takes Ranka out for a photo opportunity in the ruins of one of the damaged Islands. That's classic promotion right there. But considering she doesn't really care if Ranka succeeds in the long run, I'd have to say she's still a terrible manager.

EDIT: Oh, by the way. Anyone else making a distinction between the SDF:M Kaifun and the DYRL Kaifun? He was pretty awful in SDF:M, but I thought he wasn't too bad in DYRL. Still kinda a jerk, but a tolerable one.

Edited August 13, 2008 by DeeBot

[Gubaba]

I voted Kaifun. Why?

FIREBOMBER AMERICAN!

That easily skyrockets him as more evil than Grace.

Damn. I forgot about that crime against humanity.

I wanna change my vote.

[JB0]

EDIT: Oh, by the way. Anyone else making a distinction between the SDF:M Kaifun and the DYRL Kaifun? He was pretty awful in SDF:M, but I thought he wasn't too bad in DYRL. Still kinda a jerk, but a tolerable one.

I think that has more to do with screen time than anything else.

DYRL Kaifun, like most characters, doesn't have enough time to get established as anything with any depth.

[Morpheus]

Damn. I forgot about that crime against humanity.

I wanna change my vote.

FireBomber American? Anyone care giving me a short history lesson about this matter? All I know they came from Macross 11 colony fleet. And whats Kaifun got to do with all of this?

[Morpheus]

-gah, browser lag-

nothing to see here, keep on reading

Edited August 13, 2008 by Morpheus

[SkullLeaderVF-X]

I was going to vote Kaifun, but he was more of an annoying ass then anything.Then I was going to go for Marge, but he was just a obsessed Sharon fan, and only wanted to be one with her, in a weird sorta way. Well all the while Grace just destroyed half a planet to further her goals....so yeah Grace.

Edited August 13, 2008 by SkullLeaderVF-X

[RedWolf]

I voted Kaifun. Why?

FIREBOMBER AMERICAN!

That easily skyrockets him as more evil than Grace.

Wait Kaifun is Fire Bomber American's manager?

[Radd]

Just how are we defining a "bad manager" in this poll? For that matter, how are we defining "manager"? Marge wasn't Sharon's manager, Reymond Marley was. Marge was an assistant producer.

[SkullLeaderVF-X]

I voted Kaifun. Why?

FIREBOMBER AMERICAN!

That easily skyrockets him as more evil than Grace.

You know...Fire Bomber American, doesn't really bother me that much.....But Kaifun is still the biggest ass out of all of them.

[Gubaba]

FireBomber American? Anyone care giving me a short history lesson about this matter? All I know they came from Macross 11 colony fleet. And whats Kaifun got to do with all of this?

Apparently, according to the comic that came with English Fire, Kaifun ended up on the Macross 11 Fleet and became Fire Bomber American's manager.

[VFTF1]

I went with the majority and voted Grace.

VFTF1

[Gubaba]

*looks at the poll*

Who would vote for Akiko? She cared about Fire Bomber, got them some good connections, and did a lot of work on their behalf. Sure, some of her ideas didn't pan out (Basara and Alice Holiday duet...?), but she didn't get drunk all the time, she didn't try to enslave humanity, she didn't release and Dimension Eater, and she didn't try to kill Basara. So what's so bad about Akiko?

[whispo]

I wanted to vote Grace, but then I remembered that as a manager she's kind of awsome (despite the entire "kill my client" thingie) .... Also even her evil side seems to win all the time so she's actually kind of good at everything.

Then I saw Kaifun's name and my blood started to boil and I went into incontrolable rage. That guy was such a retarded jerk ... he deserves my vote just because he was concieved into the macross universe -.-

[Batou]

Um, Grace tried to KILL Sheryl.

(Bangs gavel).

Case closed.

Kaifun was a drunk, and you can say what you will about the others: Grace is the only one who poisoned her client, covered up the evidence, tried to blow her (and the entire planet she was on) into atoms with her "remanition eater" , and conspired to infest a human colony fleet with evolving killer bugs to harvest their flavor crystals (presumably).

The worst Kaifun ever did was cock block Hikaru for years and saw to it that Zentradi had access to a micronization chamber. Oh, and he liked to kick bottles after getting smashed.