The MW rewatches M7 together Thread

[David Hingtgen]

There were a few lines in Frontier about the loss of air from the vajra attacks---so it's certainly a large concern of colony fleets.

[Master Dex]

There were a few lines in Frontier about the loss of air from the vajra attacks---so it's certainly a large concern of colony fleets.

No doubt, a lot of air was sucked out when the dome rupture. I'm talking about from the start, not counting for accidental losses. Scrubbers can't make up for several thousands cubic meters of lost air overnight, and would probably need a resupply to do so.

[Marzan]

Its going to be friday soon. Is the MW watching M7 together effort continuing, or what?

[VFTF1]

Of course it is!! We'll be watching episode 5 tomorrow! The silence was the result of everyone thinking real hard about all of the interesting points we've raised!

I'd be happy to have YOU write the "official" thread Episode 5 review to start out discussion of episode 5 with!!

BOMBA!!

Pete

[Master Dex]

I've noticed several people here have taken to doing specific things related to their portion of the discussing of episodes. Looking back on all my posts I've decided as well as reviewing the episode and what I liked and such, I'll be the official skeptic/science critique for the show discussion. Already every episode I have spoken about I've thrown in a bit of science explanation or curiosity. So far it has been a criticizing of misused science but that doesn't mean it will always be bad.

To offer a free one, here is a science lesson true for the entire series. It is fact there is no sound in space, but for dramatic effect many sci-fi shows and movies still display sound. While in Macross we do here the woosh of valkyries flying by, hear gun pods and missile fire and all the spectacular explosions, it is clear this is only for dramatic effect. The show writers are aware there is no sound in space, as are the characters. This is why Basara must fire speaker pods into the enemy mecha in order for them to hear his song. Later on in the show he has the sound boosters which transmit song energy via an energy wave, but all the while it is noted he can't just crank up a big speaker in space, because that would result in nothing (even though the sound boosters look like speakers, they are not).

This has been your free science quibble from Master Dex, tune in tomorrow to hear what I have to say both scientifically and otherwise about Macross 7 Episode 5.

[Renato]

This is a good point, and a common misconception which leads to complaints like "duh, speakers in space?? Stooopid!" Well, the complainers aren't really paying much attention.

Then again, how does that explain the VF-19P? (Actually, I think I remember reading something about the speaker system in the 19P in the Mac-Chronicle a while back, I will re-check...

[Master Dex]

This is a good point, and a common misconception which leads to complaints like "duh, speakers in space?? Stooopid!" Well, the complainers aren't really paying much attention.

Then again, how does that explain the VF-19P? (Actually, I think I remember reading something about the speaker system in the 19P in the Mac-Chronicle a while back, I will re-check...

Lawrence actually said his 'speaker' system was inspired by Dr. Chiba's work. I always assumed this meant his speakers were really miniaturized sound boosters. That or the speakers could somehow transmit music to other craft and to the whales... somehow. Yeah I haven't quite figured it out myself.

Although tomorrow is the date for it, I actually watched ep. 5 tonight. I'll wait until the first person gives their review to talk about it though.

[shiroth]

Been pretty busy this week, though i should get episode 4 and 5 done this weekend. I blame my Basquash marathon..

[VFTF1]

I have no excuse for missing out on Friday's episode 5 viewing I was busy ranting and raving in the EVA thread....

Will get to episode 5 tonight! Just got back from the gym! I'm hungry!

Pete

[Marzan]

Of course it is!! We'll be watching episode 5 tomorrow! The silence was the result of everyone thinking real hard about all of the interesting points we've raised!

I'd be happy to have YOU write the "official" thread Episode 5 review to start out discussion of episode 5 with!!

BOMBA!!

Pete

Embarrasingly enough after being the the one calling for episode 5 to be watched, I seem to be having problems with my quicktime player...

Hope to get it fixed asap...

[VFTF1]

I'm turning it on literally RIGHT NOW.

Sorry everyone for the delay!

Pete

[VFTF1]

Episode 5

Pfff!!

Another BORING PREDICTABLE FILLER CRAP EPISODE!! Bassara just goes la la la and flies into battle and all the enemies can't hit him and he never gets injured and they all run away and people cheer his J-pop. Just like last episode and next episode. And then Bassara shakes his gay hips and puts on lip stick and tries to kiss a little boy. Just like LAST TIME.

---

And now seriously! IKEE!!

This episode has a lot of great elements going for it - the motorcycle gang challenge can be summed up in Rex's question "can you put your life on the line for singing?" The motorcycle gang thinks people who like music are all cowards because it's easy to ENJOY entertainment - easier than living on the edge.

So this is kind of a challenge to the legitimacy of music as something WORTHY of human beings to do. By framing it as just a mere form of effortless entertainment - Rex is basically saying "this is not important to the good life."

Now - one can of course ask to what extent riding a motorbike in space at high speed STRAIGHT INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC is the important - and also to what extent it's courageous? As Ray says "they might think they're honing their skills, but they're going to get themselves killed one day."

But Bassara proves to Rex and the gang that music is courageous because he confronts the attacking Protodevilin who - for once - attack without ANY stated purpose.

This is the one weakness of this episode - we don't even have 10 seconds of Gigil talking to Lord Gepelsnitch. There's no motive given for their attack - they just show up and star busting up the civilian sector of the Manufacturing ship....

That said - Bassara once again fails to have any effect on the enemy.

He also fails to move Rex's heart. When he saks her "did my music move your heart?"

Rex says "No. But I now know you take your music seriously." So - she gains respect for him. She no longer things singing is something effortless and easy - or at the very least she realizes that Bassara and Fire Bomber are not all about entertainment (easy/not challenging).

But still - Bassara fails to move Rex's heart and the enemies heart. And the accusation from Rex here is that Fire Bomber's fans are whimps who are just into a popular fad that demands no effort from them - they're just shallow head banging hippies who show their true yellow collors at the first "bang" of a gun.

That said...while I undertsand the point - I DO think that Rex's gang is actually quite rude. I mean - you don't need to harass other people to be cool on your motorbike - and most motorcycle gangs don't harrass other people to teach them that there's no honor in what they're doing.

Besides - Bassara clearly showed them that he can ride motorbikes better than they can. Is there anything Bassara can't do?

Well - this episode shows that while Bassara is a great motorcycle rider - he sucks at singing (how ironic). His songs don't get through to anyone Not the enemies, not Rex.

He does react to Rex's kiss like it's not the first time a beautiful girl has kissed him. He's like- yeah, nice, whatever - a kiss from a beautiful girl. Cool - now how about you listen to my song?

So - this suggests there's something to Mylene's suspicion re: the lemonade in his fridge and the women he's seeing.

And finally - on that note: Mylene.

SUPER MATURE REACTION!!

Seriously - she sees Bassara kissing Rex, and her reaction is super cool; namely she jumps into his laps, pilots his Valkyrie, starts singing a love song AND tells him to piss off when he questions why she's singing.

I thought that was very mature and cool reaction - very lady like. Certainly NOT bratty or infantile.

And Mylene looks hot when the wind blows her hair back.

And Rey won't let her drink beer because she's under age

Rey is really cool, mind you. I love it

Bassara: "WHY WERE THESE MISSILES PUT INTO MY VALKYRIE!?"

Rey: "Because they fit." (and then he quickly changes the subject).

And also - beyond failing to move anybody's heart, Bassara has to fire his missiles - twice in a row at that.

In this episode - he's a total failure. He busts up his arm, his airplane gets shot up, Fire Bomber doesn't make any money because they have to pay for the repairs of the Transport Shuttle... The only good thing that happens to him is Rex kisses him and Mylene sits on his lap.

Poor guy.

Being Bassara is hard!

Pete

[Master Dex]

Nice Review. I can't add too much to that. It was clear Basara had a rough day.

It is amazing to see how strong a pacifist he is. I wouldn't think twice about shooting or firing a missile to defend people like that probably. He hates that his song isn't working and he has to resort to violence. Just a bad day it seems. At least he got through to people last episode, but this time Rex is giving him a challenge. He seems to like that though, it shows him how far he has to go to get people to understand his music and such.

Regarding my science bit about sound in space, check it out, the Fire Valkyrie has speakers in its shoulders! More evidence Kawamori is more than aware of the lack of sound in space, as are the characters. Basara didn't did to fire speaker pods because they were inside a ship and he could just use giant speakers. One has to wonder though why enemy mecha aren't soundproof though....

The big thing in this episode for me is that we get to see more of the Milky Road in this episode, and how it appears to work. I am at a loss for trying to explain the milky road. Frontier fleet replaces the system with interlocked colony ships, so Kawamori made a conscious effort to diverge from that. I don't know how it works, but the Milky Road seems to be some type of energy beam or strand that connects the various ships either rigidly or loosely (more likely the latter). The entire purpose being seems to be to allow civilians to get from ship to ship without utilizing a smaller spacecraft like a shuttle and they can use their own vehicles. What's more is that they can practically drive on this energy based road. My best guess in cars and such can be magnetically propelled but the bikes and such here clearly showed some time of propulsion to move. They must be airtight then to do that in space, cars today are far from airtight, as that would be really expensive (and unnecessary today). Same goes for driving on top of the dome, I wonder how Michael's car got back after they did that flip by running into that bump.... Guess the artificial gravity of the city expands to the dome. I was wondering if those motorcycles were using internal combustion engines, sounded like it but that should be far passe. Perhaps it just mimics the sound, as such an engine wouldn't work in space for sure.

If you ask me, I'd be more than happy to fly a spacecraft between ships that driving two dimensionally on a generated road, but not everyone is up for that I guess. I think Frontier had a better idea, but that is why it came later I suppose.

Pete raised a good point, why did the Protodeviln attack this time? They didn't even drain spiritia. Matter of fact all they did was rough house a bit. Very coincidental they only attacked the ship that Fire Bomber happened to be singing on. Do they know something we don't? Also it seems the attack wasn't important enough for the military to get involved, seeing as Basara did all the work, whether he enjoyed it or not. A weak premise for this episode, but it worked itself out I suppose.

I guess piloting skill is genetic too seeing Mylene, heheh, cool. Also I am constantly trying to decipher how Basara's control interface works. It seems moving the guitar acts like the yoke, and various buttons control various things from there. I thought the slider was the throttle but it seems to do other things as well.

Well that is all I have for this episode, till the next one!

Edited December 5, 2009 by Master Dex

[VFTF1]

They didn't even drain spiritia

Actually - they did drain spiritia. There is a scene where a VF-11C gets caught and the pilot gets his spiritia drained. Strangely enough - the green bem hits him in the neck and drains his spiritia. Now - I posited earlier, based on what we saw in episode 4, that spiritia can only be drained if the beam hits your head, since Bassara was hit by the beam in his shoulder while defending Mylene last episode - and clearly it just hurt, but he didn't loose spiritia.

So...is it that spiritia is drained through the head AND neck, but not the shoulder? Or is it that where-ever the beam hits you - it drains - but Bassara is for some reason immune to that as well...?

If you ask me, I'd be more than happy to fly a spacecraft between ships that driving two dimensionally on a generated road, but not everyone is up for that I guess. I think Frontier had a better idea, but that is why it came later I suppose.

The technical points you bring up are - as always -very interesting.

However, I would not go the route of presuming the innovataions like the Milky Road as being accidents - perhaps they are not scientifically perfectly accurate - but they do serve a sociological function - or so I believe.

A big part of Macross 7 is the notion that civilians pilot customize valkyrie, and that the entire ship is primarily geared towards serving civilian needs. I'm not surprised civilians want to drive their personal space-cars instead of taking a shuttle.

Taking the metro or the bus is sometimes fun, but cme on - there's nothing cooler than having your own car and going where you please, when you please. Macross 7 reflects that.

I'm sure that the technology is there to do it.

In any event - this isn't the SDF-1 where everything is rationed by the military. The Macross colony ships were built to preserve human life - not to be Zendradi war ships where there are no civilians and no individual lives.

So it's clear as day to me that spac-cars would exist, and something like the Milky Road would exist.

Pete

[Master Dex]

The technical points you bring up are - as always -very interesting.

However, I would not go the route of presuming the innovations like the Milky Road as being accidents - perhaps they are not scientifically perfectly accurate - but they do serve a sociological function - or so I believe.

A big part of Macross 7 is the notion that civilians pilot customize valkyrie, and that the entire ship is primarily geared towards serving civilian needs. I'm not surprised civilians want to drive their personal space-cars instead of taking a shuttle.

Taking the metro or the bus is sometimes fun, but come on - there's nothing cooler than having your own car and going where you please, when you please. Macross 7 reflects that.

I'm sure that the technology is there to do it.

In any event - this isn't the SDF-1 where everything is rationed by the military. The Macross colony ships were built to preserve human life - not to be Zentradi war ships where there are no civilians and no individual lives.

So it's clear as day to me that space-cars would exist, and something like the Milky Road would exist.

Pete

I never said the milky road was an accident. Nor do I believe that having you own 'space car' wouldn't be cool. I did mention I would want to fly the spacecraft to the other ship, not sit on a shuttle. While such public systems should exist, I think personal vehicles are far more fun. However I would want to have the space car that could fly in space like any craft and not need the generated road and have to stick to that. Granted you need some sort of traffic control in the short range all the ships exist in. All the ships there of course and spacecraft sensors could make a neat little grid for monitoring where everyone is so you don't have collisions though.

Now of course having a car can that drive on a road in the ship and then do the space craft thing is a little unlikely. I would imagine a civilian would have a car for use in ship, and a private spacecraft for transit, in which they could bring the car with them most likely. It might seem easier with the milky road, but I can't see how it is more efficient.

As for the spiritia draining bit. I thought Basara was immune because he was anima spiritia? Don't they have a spiritia that can't be fed on?

Edited December 5, 2009 by Master Dex

[Marzan]

Finally fixed my problem...

Good episode and great review as always... Yeah, it was a bad day at the office for Basara but getting kissed by the hottest biker girl in the galaxy is not a bad thing. And then have a happy Mylene pilot you home is not bad either.

Just a couple of things about this episode..

We start seeing Gamlin's softer side after his conversation with Miriya regarding seeing Mylene. Its funny to see him blush a little when confronted by his superior on the matter...

We hear maybe for the first time that the ships they are fighting could be heavily modified UN spacy. And did you guys catch that Earth had been contacted about the difficulties faced by the M7 convoy and decided not to help? Typical top brass respone in Macross.

Just a bit of trivia perhaps bu we hear a lot of music from Macross Plus in this episode. At the beggining of the episode Mylene and Basara are listening to After in the Dark in the car. Later when Gamlin is talking to Miria in the bar, More than 3 cm is playing in the background.

[sketchley]

One has to wonder though why enemy mecha aren't soundproof though....

There are a couple of logical reasons why: the prime one being that metal/harden composite materials conduct sound. Another reason is that the mecha are continuously listening to what's going on outside of their mecha; either to hear the cries of vicitims, orders from commanders or to use more of the pilot's senses in combat.

Nevertheless, the reason is: because the story dictates it must be so!

[VFTF1]

As for the spiritia draining bit. I thought Basara was immune because he was anima spiritia? Don't they have a spiritia that can't be fed on?

I will second that question. So far we've seen beam hit head-drain, beem hit neck-drain, beam hit Bassara-shoulder: no drain.

In a later episode we will also see that the drainage of the beam can be adjusted.

Its funny to see him blush a little when confronted by his superior on the matter...

I dunno if that's his soft side as much as his "I have no experience with women" side. Kynriu is right to goad him into seeing the girl.

There are a couple of logical reasons why: the prime one being that metal/harden composite materials conduct sound. Another reason is that the mecha are continuously listening to what's going on outside of their mecha; either to hear the cries of vicitims, orders from commanders or to use more of the pilot's senses in combat.

You know - with this whole debate going I suddenly appreciate Dr. Chiba's innovations more....because clearly having to fire Speaker Pods into every enemy mecha to get your sound across was actually a daunting task.

Maybe one of the reasons Bassara's music doesn't touch anybody's hearts is because it doesn't really have the same power if you hear it from a speaker pod that busted into your craft? Maybe there's a lot of noise.

If you think about it - there's a lot of complication with this scheme of shooting speakers into other peoples' mecha and singing through them...Some of the speakers could be damaged, some of them would be garbled...

I kind of wish they added those extra complications - the battle scenes would have been enhanced, as would have the plot...

Pete

[Master Dex]

There are a couple of logical reasons why: the prime one being that metal/harden composite materials conduct sound. Another reason is that the mecha are continuously listening to what's going on outside of their mecha; either to hear the cries of vicitims, orders from commanders or to use more of the pilot's senses in combat.

Nevertheless, the reason is: because the story dictates it must be so!

I would think it more logical that they would get their orders via a radio link rather than listening through the metal. Especially when they are in space... with no sound. Granted the mecha doesn't need to be sound proof, I just think it would be by design. I don't know how much ambient sound could get through in an atmosphere.

Actually that makes me think, I was only thinking of relation to pilot anyway, as in the cockpit being soundproof rather than the entire craft. Like I said though it only seems like it would be by design, not that I think it should be.

Pete makes some good points about speaker pods there... indeed.

[Marzan]

Nevertheless, the reason is: because the story dictates it must be so!

And that's all there is to it! Musn't break our heads with the physics of outer space when it comes to M7!

[Master Dex]

And that's all there is to it! Musn't break our heads with the physics of outer space when it comes to M7!

But... it's fun to do that.

[Jasonc]

I'm playing catchup since I was at Disneyland Friday, and had to work saturday and sunday. I work late today, so I'm getting all caught up.

[Marzan]

But... it's fun to do that.

Well I suppose you are well versed in physics, or chemistry, or similar..

Me, I'm astonishingly ignorant in these matters. Hence my reluctance.

[Arrowyn]

Just a bit of trivia perhaps bu we hear a lot of music from Macross Plus in this episode. At the beggining of the episode Mylene and Basara are listening to After in the Dark in the car. Later when Gamlin is talking to Miria in the bar, More than 3 cm is playing in the background.

Chalk that up as a "dammit, we payed Ms. Kanno and the israeli phil GOBS of money to do this shite, we're gonna squeeze it as best as we can!"

along with an "anime costs money!!" et cetera!

[Renato]

Sorry, Saturday might be the only time I get to watch episodes 5 and 6, while I'm on the train. Will give my opinions later. I do remember ep 5 being interesting with the biker stuff, although I don't recall why Basara went out into space with his scooter for a bit, and then disappeared. I thought he was going to challenge the girls, but nothing came out of that.

[Chronocidal]

Sheesh.. here I am trying to convince myself to sit down and watch MF again on bluray, and you have me wanting to watch 7 again

I might have to catch up and join in at some point.. been a while since I've seen M7, and forgotten most of it by now.

[VF5SS]

I missed the Milky Road in Frontier. Space cars (and the space vespa) seemed much more fun. Also aren't the speaker pods supposed to be transmitters in addition to speakers? And that fight between the Fire Valkyrie and the Elgerzorene was pretty cool. ELGA-KICK!

I wonder if the Sv-51 kick was meant to be an homage to that particular scene.

Edited December 8, 2009 by VF5SS

[Uxi]

I will second that question. So far we've seen beam hit head-drain, beem hit neck-drain, beam hit Bassara-shoulder: no drain.

IIRC it's specifically mentioned somewhere that Anima Spirita are not "digestible" by the Protodevlin.

[VFTF1]

I don't recall why Basara went out into space with his scooter for a bit, and then disappeared. I thought he was going to challenge the girls, but nothing came out of that.

Something did come out of it. Rex said "yatsu bla bla concerto" --"we're going to that guys concert."

I think Basara went out on that scooter to show them that he had enough respect for their gang ethos to get on a motobike and ride into oncoming traffic - just like them.

The unspoken question was: "Look, I respect you and can ride a bike just as good as you. Do YOU have the courage to come to my concert and see what I do?"

And it worked - because Rex reacted by taking the unspoken invitation.

I missed the Milky Road in Frontier. Space cars (and the space vespa) seemed much more fun.

Agreed. Space cars and bridges over space were one of my favorite parts about M7....not used very much - but certainly a great thing to imagine.

IIRC it's specifically mentioned somewhere that Anima Spirita are not "digestible" by the Protodevlin.

I don't remember it - but then again, truth be told I don't even remember what the exact definition of Anime Spiritia is. So... I guess we'll watch and learn

Pete

[Jasonc]

After watching episode 5, I remembered this is the first episode where Mylene shows a bit of jealousy over Basara and Rex. I was having a discussion awhile back ago about how and why some girls are overly jealous. And it made me think of the end of this episode. I don't believe Mylene's jealousy was over the fact that she actually likes Basara in that way, but more of a jealousy over the situation. I was having a discussion with this episode with a friend, and we were trying to figure out what she'd be jealous of, and based on Mylene's age, it is feasible that as she's at the age of wanting a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, she could've been more jealous that she doesn't have that. I dunno, what do you guys think?

[VFTF1]

I think you've hit the spot. My (ex?) girlfriend's daughter was/is constantly jealous of her mom for having a boyfriend (me, I hope). It's certainly a female thing. Women are possesive. In fact, I just finished a 2 hour conversation with my (ex?) girlfriend during which, amongst other things, she went off about how duplicious guys are, and how they lie and cheat etc etc. I asked her if I was a space alien, or whether I fit into the category she defined as "guys" to which she said that I was in "a different category" namely the "I don't care, take me as I am or leave me alone" category and insisted I get a hair cut and do my laundry this Saturday when we're supposed to go out together.... Like I wasn't gonna do my laundry! Jeez! I could frickin' jump into a washing machine and she'd still say I wasn't clean. My (ex?) girlfriend is like the chick from that movie...Phobia?...about the girl who wore a mask, and feared that even the smallest little itty-bitty piece of dust was the beginning of the bubonic plague.

But...as for whether Mylene is exhibiting the possesive "I hate when other girls get stuff that I don't get" jealousy, or whether she really is jealous of Basara...ooo...tough call. From the standpoint of episodes 1-5, it's too early to tell. Certainly she is close to Basara because they are in a band. Their discussion in episode 4, in the sewers (romantic place, eh?), where Mylene opened up to him about her reasons for running away and wanting to rely on herself kind of show that she's lonely and - despite her words about self-reliance...the fact that she had to TELL him about it means that she does need someone, and he's a good candidate. She clearly trusts him.

But I think she doesn't trust her own feelings yet at this point - and seeing Rex make that snap decision of kissing Bassara in return for rescuing her - Mylene sees in Rex a woman who isn't afraid to go with her feelings. I think this is what sets her off. Because she does have feelings - but she's still at the age of "what should I do!??!!?"

Rex is the type of woman who doesn't really ask these kind of questions - because she's pretty well settled in terms of knowing who she is, what she wants..

So... I think it's a bit of both. Possibly the inherently womanly tendency to be possessive-jealous of other women prompted her or encouraged her - gave Mylene the little inner-push she needed to take positive action with a view to her budding feelings for Basara.

Pete

[Marzan]

After watching episode 5, I remembered this is the first episode where Mylene shows a bit of jealousy over Basara and Rex. I was having a discussion awhile back ago about how and why some girls are overly jealous. And it made me think of the end of this episode. I don't believe Mylene's jealousy was over the fact that she actually likes Basara in that way, but more of a jealousy over the situation. I was having a discussion with this episode with a friend, and we were trying to figure out what she'd be jealous of, and based on Mylene's age, it is feasible that as she's at the age of wanting a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, she could've been more jealous that she doesn't have that. I dunno, what do you guys think?

Good point. Mylene is at this point mature for her age but she's still only 14 right?

On the other hand her reaction is quite positive I think. She show's Basara she cares while at the same time enjoying some alone time with him...

[VFTF1]

her reaction is quite positive I think

Oh yeah - that's for sure. I wrote this is my review of the episode too, and totally agree.

Even if she is motivated by jealousy - and it is a very interesting question Jasonc brings up - I still think the way she did what she did was cool and mature. She basically just showed Bassara - as you say - that she cared, and was assertive - but didn't go so far as Rex...but also showed Basara she was going to be by him through and through. Really nice touch.

Pete

[MEMO1DOMINION]

VFTF1,

THANKS FOR THE INVITE. ACTUALLY, I CAN'T PARTICIPATE.... I AM A ROBOTECH PURIST

HEHEHE

OK, REALLY NOW THAT I GOT YOUR ATTENTION, I CAN'T MAKE A GOOD DISCUSSION OR ADD TO THE STORY SINCE I DON'T WATCH THE SHOW. IT REALLY KILLS IT FOR ME TO WATCH. SO INSTEAD OVER TIME I HAVE ALREADY READ UP ON IT FROM WHAT YOU GUYS DISCUSS AND ADD HERE IN THE FORUMS.

TO ME YOUR GUYS WRITING ARE LIKE BOOKS THAT DIVE MORE INTO WHAT I CANT SEE. WEIRD? I GUESS. BUT YOU GUYS HAVE A WAY OF EXPLAINING AND DEBATING AND CREATING SUCH A STORY THAT IT'S ACTUALLY QUITE ENJOYABLE TO IMAGINE. SCREEN CAPS HERE AND THERE WITH SIMPLE GOOGLE AND PRETTY MUCH I GET THE IDEA.

AND PLUS THE CAPS KILL YOU GUYS. SO HOPE YOU DON'T MIND THAT I WILL BE READING YOU GUYS... LIKE ALWAYS. JUST KNOW THAT I AM READING AND VFTF1 JUST MAKES IT FUN.

[mickyg]

OK, I'm hooked! I've just spent the last week or so catching up on all that's been written so far and I've decided to join in. I'm hoping to actually contribute to the discussion of the series very soon, but haven't actually watched anything but episode 1 yet.

Which brings me to an interesting point - I've never seen M7. I think it might be fun to share my views of the series, since I'm approaching it completely green. I've read some synopses of the series here and there, but as for the minutia of the show, I've got no clue! So this should be interesting.

Just a touch of background about me first - I'm 32, I spent my early childhood (until I was 10) in Northern California, moved to Oklahoma, graduated college from Missouri, then moved to Australia when I was 25. Been here ever since. I discovered Macross, like a lot of others, when I as maybe 6, and that was through Robotech. I think I only got to see maybe 10 episodes (I'm re-watching the series and there are episodes that I don't remember seeing at all). But what I saw I loved. So I actually never saw more than those first few eps and didn't get any more Robotech till I was a teenager, in the form of the McKinney novels. I loved them!

Before anyone switches off, I was a typical person that had no idea anything other than Robotech existed. So in the last 2 or 3 years, I started looking into this series and discovered Macross. From that point on, I've embraced it! I appreciate RT for the vehicle it was in getting me to Macross. And the books were very good reading when I was a teen. But Macross is fantastic!

For me, 7 is the last uncharted territory of Macross, I've watched everything else except the movie version of Plus. I'd considered leaving all the 7 stuff out of my experience but you guys have sold me on it!

Anyway, enough rambling!

I mentioned I saw episode 1 so I'll briefly comment on what I thought.

Firstly, I think I'd just finished watching Frontier when I watched this. So I had expectations that it'd be something between SDFM and Frontier. I don't think I'd yet seen Zero or Plus at this point. I remember thinking it all looked very kid like and that I just couldn't get into the story if it was all going to be like this. There didn't seem to be much character intro, the animation seemed boring, it was all just a bit too "out there" for me to want to give it much of a second chance.

But, I also realise now that I had a lot of things against me really appreciating the show. For one thing, I was watching this off Veoh and the subs (I now realise after reading the remastered M7 thread) were probably not very accurate. Then the song lyrics were going right over the subs! That's got to be one of the most annoying attributes of western sub projects - I need to see the dialog before I want to worry about the song lyrics! There are exceptions of course. ...Anyway, the qaulity wasn't fantastic either. Just lots of distractions for me. But the biggest issue is that I was in a hurry. I wanted a quick Macross fix and I don't think that's the right attitude to really appreciate this series. Add that to all the little projects I've got going on and I just didn't have time to really do this any justice.

So, I'm now armed with some decent versions, with good subs (The remastered VIP ones) and with only one ep a week, I think I'm ready to experience this ride!

Hope you all will excuse my occasional ramblings and possible newb questions, but I'm looking forward to seeing it and discussing it with everyone!