Macross in the weirdest places

[davidwhangchoi]

Very cool to see this.

[Jeff J]

I did a Google search for "Macross cufflinks" and I got this:

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/macross-ft-61-inquisitor-fans-toys?ID=19857891

[ScrambledValkyrie]

On 11/26/2024 at 5:00 AM, davidwhangchoi said:

Very cool to see this.

Yeah, I watched that recently, too. Makes me want to get a copy for the art book.

[Big s]

On 11/29/2024 at 9:37 AM, Jeff J said:

I did a Google search for "Macross cufflinks" and I got this:

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/macross-ft-61-inquisitor-fans-toys?ID=19857891

When you want something special from a show with transforming airplanes, Macy’s gives you Boaty McBoatface

[Jeff J]

Imagine going to a work holiday party, seeing someone's design portfolio, and featured is a Destroid Monster!

[Big s]

4 hours ago, Jeff J said:

Imagine going to a work holiday party, seeing someone's design portfolio, and featured is a Destroid Monster!

Well, that’s one entertaining designer.

[TehPW]

 Time Stamp 3:03 I hope the driver was not WATCHING an episode... but this is 'murica (..."It's our Damn Right to watch whatever the %$#^ we want to, whenever the *&^% we want to...") 😕

[Jeff J]

On 12/23/2024 at 2:29 PM, TehPW said:

 Time Stamp 3:03 I hope the driver was not WATCHING an episode... but this is 'murica (..."It's our Damn Right to watch whatever the %$#^ we want to, whenever the *&^% we want to...") 😕

LOL, and also in Florida.

Neat find!

[Shawn]

Not directly Macross, but in the same product-verse

Got this book for Christmas

https://www.amazon.com/FryeWerk-2-0-Concept-Vehicle-Illustrations/dp/1624650759

 

The book is incredible and I highly recommend it, but when I got to this picture below, my sub-conscious brain paused and went 'Woah...that is just another level of cool, wow. I was super-drawn to it, and was thinking this looks like a Takani picture'.

I then read the caption below it.  

 

[Shawn]

better pic

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Just released a couple of days ago for home consoles, apparently the SDF Macross arcade game has had massive British exposure.

[Bolt]

https://pin.it/1LzIFTdvN
 

[Jeff J]

This admittedly is a big stretch, but here goes.

I never met a "Basara" out in the wild. Figured it was mostly a made-up name for Macross 7. Anyway, read this crazy news story this morning, and I guess at least a Basara exists.

https://sports.yahoo.com/foul-mouthed-philadelphia-fan-banned-230919642.html

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Jeff J said:

This admittedly is a big stretch, but here goes.

I never met a "Basara" out in the wild. Figured it was mostly a made-up name for Macross 7. Anyway, read this crazy news story this morning, and I guess at least a Basara exists.

https://sports.yahoo.com/foul-mouthed-philadelphia-fan-banned-230919642.html

It's not really a made-up name so much as a meaningful name.

In Japanese, "Basara" (婆娑羅) is an adjective meaning "being self-indulgent", "acting without restraint", or "behaving in a flashy manner".  The term goes back to late 14th century Japanese imperial court politics.  Basara Nekki's name was chosen deliberately to reflect the character's tendency to be an unrestrained, self-indulgent free spirit.

It's also, for unrelated reasons, a surname in Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Bosnia, Slovakia, etc.) that as far as I can find is etymologically indicative of a person's family being from Bessarabia (a region in Moldova).

[sketchley]

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

In Japanese, "Basara" (婆娑羅) is an adjective meaning "being self-indulgent", "acting without restraint", or "behaving in a flashy manner".  The term goes back to late 14th century Japanese imperial court politics.  Basara Nekki's name was chosen deliberately to reflect the character's tendency to be an unrestrained, self-indulgent free spirit.

Huh.  I always understood it as coming from Basara Taishō*, one of the "12 Heavenly Generals" in East Asian/Japanese Buddhism.  As its significance would greatly deepen, perhaps it's both?

Incidentally, Basara Taishō's name in Sanskrit is Vajra.

 

* https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-generals.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Heavenly_Generals

[Seto Kaiba]

46 minutes ago, sketchley said:

Huh.  I always understood it as coming from Basara Taishō*, one of the "12 Heavenly Generals" in East Asian/Japanese Buddhism.  As its significance would greatly deepen, perhaps it's both?

If memory serves, Sukehiro Tomita cited the adjective 婆娑羅 as the origin of his name In an interview conducted for Animage's Feb 1995 issue.

My frankly ancient print dictionary does not get into the etymology of the term properly, but the Wikipedia article I cross referenced for it does attempt to connect the two terms as an etymological origin.

[sketchley]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

If memory serves, Sukehiro Tomita cited the adjective 婆娑羅 as the origin of his name In an interview conducted for Animage's Feb 1995 issue.

My frankly ancient print dictionary does not get into the etymology of the term properly, but the Wikipedia article I cross referenced for it does attempt to connect the two terms as an etymological origin.

That's cool.

Up until now, I've envisioned it as Kawamori-san incorporating religious elements into Macross, when it most likely is producer Tomita chose an adjective that summed up the character.  That adjective may or may not having later influenced Kawamori-san when he was choosing the names for things in Macross Frontier.

For example, the Vajra tool*—the more likely source of the alien Vajra name—symbolizes indestructibility and irresistible force (a fitting summary of the race), and is arguably only coincidentally linked to the Basara name.  Their subsequent choice of Messiah and Lucifer as the VF names probably wasn't specifically to align with a naming theme (a la the famous pilot names in Delta), but ended up creating a de facto one.

 

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajra

[Devil 505]

On 1/17/2025 at 3:03 AM, sketchley said:

That's cool.

Up until now, I've envisioned it as Kawamori-san incorporating religious elements into Macross, when it most likely is producer Tomita chose an adjective that summed up the character.  That adjective may or may not having later influenced Kawamori-san when he was choosing the names for things in Macross Frontier.

For example, the Vajra tool*—the more likely source of the alien Vajra name—symbolizes indestructibility and irresistible force (a fitting summary of the race), and is arguably only coincidentally linked to the Basara name.  Their subsequent choice of Messiah and Lucifer as the VF names probably wasn't specifically to align with a naming theme (a la the famous pilot names in Delta), but ended up creating a de facto one.

 

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajra

And then there are the various Norse references in Delta.

[Seto Kaiba]

40 minutes ago, Devil 505 said:

And then there are the various Norse references in Delta.

That's the continuation of a trend that started back in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy.

Spoiler

Most of the placenames on Uroboros, the remote world where the game (and its novelization) is set, have names drawn from Norse mythology.  The Protoculture ruins are named with various epithets/titles of the god Odin, the cave systems dotting the landscape are named for various figures from Norse myth like heroes and monsters and magical beings, and at least a few of the cities are named for minor gods like the Norns.  The names of the frigate that is home base to the player character (Gefion), the rogue special forces unit that are the antagonists (Havamal), their base (Thrudheim) and the Protoculture ruins that are their objective (Gladsheim) are also named with Norse mythology references.  There's even a world tree (Yggdrasil) on the first area map.

The main exceptions are Vrlitwhai City (a landed Macross-class), the New UN Forces bases having predominantly Greek names, and the names of the two new Valkyries in the game being named for the Greek god of time and a knight from Arthurian legend.

 

[Devil 505]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That's the continuation of a trend that started back in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy.

  Reveal hidden contents

Most of the placenames on Uroboros, the remote world where the game (and its novelization) is set, have names drawn from Norse mythology.  The Protoculture ruins are named with various epithets/titles of the god Odin, the cave systems dotting the landscape are named for various figures from Norse myth like heroes and monsters and magical beings, and at least a few of the cities are named for minor gods like the Norns.  The names of the frigate that is home base to the player character (Gefion), the rogue special forces unit that are the antagonists (Havamal), their base (Thrudheim) and the Protoculture ruins that are their objective (Gladsheim) are also named with Norse mythology references.  There's even a world tree (Yggdrasil) on the first area map.

The main exceptions are Vrlitwhai City (a landed Macross-class), the New UN Forces bases having predominantly Greek names, and the names of the two new Valkyries in the game being named for the Greek god of time and a knight from Arthurian legend.

 

That makes sense, especially considering that the YF-30 is the predecessor of the VF-31 Siegfried.

[SDBun]

I'm just going to post this here. Is there some kind of promotion I don't know about?

 

[sketchley]

7 hours ago, SDBun said:

I'm just going to post this here. Is there some kind of promotion I don't know about?

It looks like it is so bleeding new, that the product hasn't been released yet.

I'm going to go with my initial response: Kawamori-san is involved in Osaka Expo '25, and this is most likely a tie-in to that.  He has his own "Signature Pavilion" at the expo:  Live Earth Journey - https://shojikawamori.jp/en/expo2025/ ).  And speaking of Macross in the weirdest places, check out the description of one of the exhibits:

Quote

 

ANIMA!

Synchronized images, music and vibrations
A musical about life that you can feel with your whole body

A chain of life that transcends time and space.

 

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

 

 

Incidentally, searching for "Macross" and "toilet" results in a bunch of "Macros" brand toilet cleaning products.  No relation to the anime, but it uses the same name in Katakana. 🙄　　https://macros.ne.jp/product/easy_silicone_toilet_brush/

Edited February 13 by sketchley

[Jeff J]

Wasn't expecting to hear "Get Free" in a YouTube video about the 32X, but I'll take it.

https://youtu.be/NwHZla18P2Y?si=5RN6z5mXaPiA_3oW&t=4433

[Cheese3]

I dunno if this counts? But I found macross on my arms? Ha 

[Big s]

On 1/19/2025 at 11:19 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

That's the continuation of a trend that started back in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy.

Or just from way back in the beginning. Valkyrie is rather og.

but then again the og has had things from several cultures and religions in their naming, like Daedalus and Prometheus. Pretty much every release that I can think of has a bit of something in it from one religion or culture to another, also me far more than others

(just catching up on some threads I neglected, so forgive the awkwardly late comments here)

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Cheese3 said:

I dunno if this counts? But I found macross on my arms? Ha 

This could be an awkward moment when you show them of by saying this arm’s for my lil Focker and this one’s for the big Focker 

[Seto Kaiba]

3 hours ago, Big s said:

Or just from way back in the beginning. Valkyrie is rather og.

Not quite?  Many models of Variable Fighter including the VF-1 Valkyrie inherited their names from older models of fighter, bomber, etc. used by real world militaries.

The VF-1 is named for the North American XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bomber.  (Hikaru even has a model of one in his quarters in DYRL?.)  Other examples include:

Spoiler

VF-4 Lightning III (Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II)

VF-3000 Crusader (Vought F-8 Crusader)

VF-5000 Star Mirage (Dassault Mirage)

VF-9 Cutlass (Vought F7U Cutlass)

VF-11 Thunderbolt (Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt, Mitsubishi J2M "Raiden")

VF-14 Vampire (de Haviland Vampire)

VF-17 Nightmare (a riff on the F-117 Nighthawk)

VF-22 Sturmvogel II (Messerschmitt Me 262 A-2a Sturmvogel) / VF-22HG Schwalbe Zwei (Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a Schwalbe)

VA-3 Invader (Douglas A-26 Invader, North American A-36)

VF-0 Custom "Zeke" (Mitsubishi A6M Zero's Allied codename "Zeke")

Sv-262 Draken III (Saab 35 Draken)

There are a few cases of VFs with explicitly mythological names, but those are all much rarer and most are fairly recent.  Some were chosen by fans as part of a contest, while others were riffing on the names of previous models with inherited military names.